I’m a 2.5hr drive to the border of Michigan and Sarnia (Ontario). I would like to string together 3 days of riding (mostly gravel), where I stay in a motel/B&B and come back same day (doesn’t matter if it’s the same place each if the two nights). I can drive (up to an hour or so) to a starting point and do a loop from there, to get variety of roads, but the less driving I do the better. I would like to stay on the East end of the state, closer to Sarnia.
I see there are a lot of gravel events in the state, am I better to check out their routes for ideas, just use gravelmap.com and make up my own, or does anyone here have ideas?
Timing: October or November (before the snow). I don’t mind cold temps and will have lights if needed.
Well, the east side of the state near Port Huron is generally very flat. I ride on gravel in the "thumb" of Michigan all the time and can suggest good routes but to get really good variety you need to go west and especially north. There are several good rides coming up this fall. Lowell 50 and MMM Gravel Grinder in October and Iceman in Nov. There is also the Barry Roubaix fall ride in Oct and their routes are marked with sign year round. These areas have very good gravel, very good hills and in Oct. the fall color with be outstanding.
IF you are still stuck with an east side location then I might suggest going a tad bit west on I=69 to Imlay City or Lapeer areas. There are really good gravel roads with decent hills in northern Oakland, western Macomb and adjoining areas.
Did you find something? The easiest solution would be to just ride the C2C route as far west as you wanted to. Alternatively, there are some great rolling hills around Detroit (Northern Oakland County), and that is where I usually ride. The MI side of Sarnia is mostly flat farmland and fairly exposed to wind. When you get west of M-53 it gets nice and hilly and tree covered. Beautiful area in the fall (or any time of year).
I would take a short drive to Richmond, pick up the rail trail there and explore northern Oakland county and Lapeer county.
