A Bike Ride From Holland To Grand Haven

For as long as I've known Katie, she's had this crazy goal of riding her bike from her place in Holland all the way up to Grand Haven. Well fast-forward to the end of this summer and she still hadn't accomplished that goal yet. We had it on our radar all summer, but either the weather wouldn't cooperate or we just got too busy. Eventually we ran out of time and needed to move. Luckily our now former landlord is awesome, and he let us keep our bikes in the garage since we thought we might have a free day or two between when we moved out and when we were leaving on our fall trip. Well that day ended up being this week Monday (September 14th). 

The day was pretty ideal to start. We got a pretty decent night sleep. We woke up pretty motivated. The temperature was cool but not too cold. It was way better than the 90+ humid days we were having the week before, that's for sure. So we wandered over to our old stomping grounds to embark on a bike ride.

I was not joining Katie on the first leg of the trip. I have my proper excuses for not doing the full trip, but no matter what I say I'm sure you all think it's just because I'm lazy. So I won't even try to convince you otherwise. All of that to just say that when we got there we first loaded my bike onto our sketchy bike rack and then Katie took off. (We forgot to take a picture, but it happened)

We decided it'd be best for me to meet Katie at Kirk Park, a spot just over half way between Holland and Grand Haven with easy access to the bike path. We estimated it'd take about an hour for her to get there. So I ran some errands while Katie peddled her way north for 14 miles. She said that once she got out of the crazy busyness of the Holland city proper, the trail was quite enjoyable and beautiful. 

After almost exactly one hour later I drove by her just about half a mile from the park. The timing was just about perfect. It would have been better had I got there 10 minutes earlier so that I was ready to ride. But the break wasn't too bad for Katie.

Katie pulling up to meet me at Kirk Park. 

From that point we had about 8 more miles to go to reach Grand Haven. It was a lovely ride. Katie was still full of energy so we were able to also have a nice chat while we rode. And before we knew it we pulled into Grand Haven.

Katie and I after arriving in Grand Haven

We had packed a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and some other snacks in a backpack, so we found a nice picnic table by the water and ate a quick lunch. We stopped in at a place to get gelato but were unsuccessful given that their selection was not very good. That was probably for the best cuz I'm not sure how well gelato would have sat for our bike ride back.

The bike ride back was tough. Our muscles were a little tight after taking a break for lunch, but the real problem was the wind. We had a pretty consistent 15 mph or so wind in our face the whole way back. It basically made it feel that it was uphill the whole way, even for the downhill sections. 

We eventually arrived again at Kirk Park, quite a bit more tired then we had expected. Katie had originally planned to continue on from there back to Holland. But given the wind and the consideration that we didn't want her getting so worn out she was beyond function, she decided it wasn't worth it to continue. Her goal of riding to Grand Haven was accomplished.

Before hopping in the car we took a small walk down to the beach at Kirk Park. Given all our previous beach visits this summer we were curious about the temperature of the water. As we had kind of guessed, it was cold. We then turned around and realized we had walked down a small sand dune to get to the water. That meant walking back up it to return to the car. Given the state of our legs, it took a bit longer than normal. But we eventually made it.

Katie and I at the beach at Kirk Park post bike ride.

And that was our bike ride adventure. Overall a pretty fun experience.