2025-06-22 – On to Roger’s City, WI
This seems like a great area to visit or vacation and Roger’s City might be the epicenter. There are no big cities or high rise hotels. The beaches are free. There are restaurants to be sure and the gift shops have tees and sweats. Besides campgrounds, lakeside rental cabins, old-style cottage motels seem to be the rule. There is, to be sure, the occasional large inn. But the vibe is very low key, just a quiet, relaxed kind of area.
Our drive north from Bay City paralled the shoreline and passed through multiple small towns. Each town has a lakeside park and many had protected marinas filled with a range of boats.
The sandy beaches extend all along the Huron lakeshore and there are numerous parking areas along the road where you can simply park your car and walk twenty yards or less across the beach to the water. There’s even a paved bike path that runs much of the way between the highway and the beach so you don’t even need your car.
It was a Hot Time in Roger’s City! No, not the social scene, we’re talking about the weather! The hot spell that hammered the northeast got here first. Three days in a row of 90+ temperatures was not on our wish list but, like everyone else, we endured. We camped in P.H. Hoeft State Park, about five miles north of the city. Fortunately the campsites had electricity so we were able to run our air conditioner.
2025-06-23 – Roger’s City, WI
That morning we dosed up with insect repellant and sunscreen, jumped on our bikes and headed out to the bike path to ride back in to Roger’s City. The path was recently paved and wound through some woods before paralleling the beach.
It wasn’t the 90+ degree temperatures that got us and it wasn’t the headwinds that we encountered. We turned back at the three mile mark because of the black flies. Turns out the sun and heat bring them out and they do not, repeat, DO NOT respect insect repellant! They seemed especially fond of Bill’s calves and ankles and Sandy had to wash all the blood off his legs when we got back to the campsite.
Enough of the heat and great outdoors! It was a good day to do some laundry. A nice laundry in town served the purpose.
Then we jumped into our air conditioned car and set out to explore more of the town. The town’s main industry is its limestone quarry and the gravel it produces. We drove to the south end of town and it turns out the Port Calcite Collaborative operation is difficult to miss. Huge piles of gravel dominate the skyline. A road winds through some of that gravel and leads to a parking area and tower where you can watch ships being loaded. The James R. Barker was loading gravel while we were there.
We had chicken fajita wraps for dinner as the rain began. Beginning with a heavy thunderstorm, it rained steadily all night long.