More Photos Below!Gallery
One of the big influences on my life was the summer I worked on Mackinac Island, MI. (1981…then lingering for years.) Cars aren’t allowed there. Bikes rule. And horses. (How nice it is to wake up to the clop-clop of horses down a street. After a rain, say.)
The Island is a complex place of many layers. It’s not just a tourist place. It’s a real touch-point for history. The French, Indians and British all met here in a big way. The Straits are a big deal and the Island is the focal point. So there’s history, youth, hard work, glamor, fun—the works!
Here I discovered the Kings of the Island—the dock porters. These guys made big tips hauling luggage from the ferries to the hotels. I never was an official porter but I filled in quite often.
The porters had an end-of-summer relay bike race between teams from the various hotels and other businesses. I joined the Schwinn shop team and experienced my first bike race. What a thrill!
I made some good friends in so doing, and I learned a lot. This was in the early 80’s when women’s outdoor sports were really taking off—and it seemed to me that the most beautiful women took up hard riding—so it was inspiring in many ways.
My roommate introduced me to the writings of Hunter S. Thompson…
A bunch of us used to dive off the deck-houses of the ferries at night, high above the sailboat masts, down into the harbor waters. There was a lot of skinnydipping. It was quite a summer.
There was also a dock porter ball at the end of each summer. Can you picture what I’m saying?
Dock porters are workers but not interstitial like bike messengers. They’re front and center. They haul their 250-lb loads dozens of times a day right down the middle of main street. And they are socially and financially rewarded for their panache. I bet they’re the hardest-working bike-workers in America! And the best-paid! And most popular! (In their town.)
But those dock porter bikes… Google them, if you like. You’ll come up empty, or nearly so. Yet the dock porters and their bikes are an important, magnificent part of work-bike lore. So here are some pics and info tidbits. My contribution to work-bike scholarship, eh? (I have hi-rez versions of these pics—just ask.)
I note that the dock porter scene has evolved in waves over the years. When I was on the Island the porters were at their peak. After I left it might be said that they got a bit carried away. The loads got bigger and bigger. Porters used “launchers”—guys who would hold them up and give them a push when their load was ready. Some riders overdid it and couldn’t see beyond their loads. Front-runners who cleared the road ahead were occasionally used by porters who felt they didn’t have enough karma in their favor. Even so, a few tourists were hit. Restrictions were enforced: no more bar-extensions, etc. But the loads crept up again. And again. A load used to net me $20 in the early 80’s. You could do them in 10-20 minutes, say. Ferries arrive on the hour and even sometimes the half-hour. Loads have to be brought to them and from them. One stays busy. Busy cashing in, that is. And working at your max.
Now, it’s not only about dock porter bikes around there. The “Island Bike” is basically any well-used bike with a nice big strong front basket. There’s a style on the Island. When I went back to college after that summer I would sometimes see Island bikes down on the MSU campus. They stood out. One evening back in East Lansing I ran into one of my porter pals while he was riding a pretty co-ed along in his basket. Ah yes!
Actually, the dock porter isn’t forgotten, not even on Google. You just have to dig. A couple years ago I discovered that a couple guys who portered after I had left the Island had become Hollywood moviemakers. Dave and Scott McVeigh of Incue Productions have made a bunch of HBO “behind the scenes” specials. They have a script and a trailer for “The Dock Porter”—a romance in a simpler (no special effects) style, in the spirit of Breaking Away. Featuring, you guessed it. These guys know what a Mackinac summer is about. Check it out! Maybe become an investor! Wow and cool! Here are a few links:
www.wardance.biz/dock_porter.html
www.wardance.biz/dockporter_trailer.html
So, here we go…
[I’d like to acknowledge some of the Island folks who inspired and still inspire me: the Armour family, Mark Chambers, Steve Sweet, Chip Coward, Lee Finkel, Mike Cook, Robbie Gillespie, Matt Myers, Mike Byers, Laura Eiseler, Ann Sinclair, Mary Morley, Addison, Al Arbib, Steve Moskwa, Dave Halley and my brother Tim…and the new generation of their kids who are now the same age we were when we started…]
PS: The island and the straits are spelled Mackinac but the onshore city is spelled Mackinaw. They’re both pronounced the same! Whew!
Here’s how I arrived. I went on a seakayaking tour for several days. I paddled about 12 miles from St. Ignace to the south side of Bois Blanc Island where I attended a primitive skills gathering for a few days. On my paddle back I stopped in at Mackinaw Island and took these photos and bumped into a few sweet old pals and their kids. How inspiring to see those kids! They’re now the age I was when I first came to the Island. What a thrill to see their energy and openness. I can’t hardly express it. When I left the Island the breeze had freshened to over 20mph for the final 4-mile upwind-with-whitecaps crossing to the mainland. That was a thrill of a different order! But a max thrill nonetheless. Oh my!
Lee Finkel. The man. He manages the hardware store. He used to run the Schwinn shop and organize the bike race. You can count on Lee! Here he’s modeling a stellar example of The Dock Porter Bike. Back in the day Lee crafted 2 series of porter bikes: the 250 and the 500. For, you guessed it, 250-pound loads…and…FIVE HUNDRED POUND LOADS. Think about it. These loads are/were carried on the FRONT of these bikes. Check out the handlebars—extended and filled with rebar. This bike is a 2-speed kickback. Onward…
Typical street scene. Tourists riding rental bikes—often for around-the-island tours of 8.3 miles. And a line of classic Island bikes lining the curb. Check out the carpet-covered plywood base in the basket of the first bike.
A classic porter bike. Note the mt-bike type bar-ends used to give a more restful hand position for when riding in the saddle.
A porter doing his thing. I recall getting $20 tips in the early 80’s for delivering loads like this.
OK, here we’re getting to a bigger load…
…Bigger yet. Note the luggage hanging from the basket sides. Looking good!
Now we’re verging on a classic “big” load. He’s only missing the side-hanging luggage. This is a proud load. And clearly a proud porter.
Note the extra-high saddle for max power in short-distance work. Tippy-toes is what you want. He can just barely see over this lovely load. These rides are at most a half mile.
The big trailer is new since my day. But, oh, what a nice load.
Dock porters aren’t the only folks who ride. There are work and city bikes of all description. OK, there are sport bikes, too—there’s EVERY kind of bike on this Island! This fellow rides a bike that’s as old as he is—both circa 1958. The front basket is pretty much a rule on city and work bikes up here.
Trailers of all sorts are now in play. None back in my day, though. They’re a great development. Here’s a line-up of a bunch of Island bikes. Baskets everywhere!
A street-sweeper’s trike.
A nice trailer rig. I saw another full of a hard-working artist’s supplies. These bikes get USED!
An elderly gent rides this treadle-type trike. (Island bikes everywhere…)
The kids enjoy their fixies…
Folders of all types abound. Jessie’s is where you’ll find the porters and dray drivers in the very early morning, getting fueled up. Smoke filling the air. Sometimes in their wet slickers. I wonder if she’s still behind the counter… Man, she was fast.
Packing the boat to leave. Photojournalism assignment complete! Well, I could do better, but the wind was piping up. To the max of the da. Ha ha on me. As I paddled out I ran into a couple kids of old friends coming back in a sailboat. What a lovely encounter. I must say.
This isn’t really part of the Island Bikes report, is it? Well, without the boat the bikes wouldn’t have gotten covered. It all fits together. I’m back in St. Ignace in this pic. Glory be! It was the hardest 2-hour paddle of my life. I loaded up, rolled the windows down, cranked the radio, and went and got a steak, then drove home.
You could barely see where I started paddling early that morning from Bois Blanc Island. From there I hopped over to and cruised along Round Island then hopped over to Mackinaw Island which you can see at the left. Then I made the 4 mile hop upwind to safety. A big day in all. So nice in so many ways. I’m glad I made it. (I had safety/rescue gear and had practiced rolling in the big waves, to both sides, and also verified that I could make headway against the seas before leaving the Island. I’m not in the best paddle-shape but I gauged that if I paced myself, that I could do it. I took dozens of solid whitecap breakers right in the chest. I interspersed heavy efforts with recovery spells. Every now and then the confused seas would present 50 yards of no big swells—and I would hit it hard. I found myself chanting Indian-style loudly, and singing loudly, and whistling. It was something! It was such a lovely blue-sky day, but it was hard to even move my upper body against that wind. You just had to shout to beat it. The boat ate it up. Leaping, plunging. It took me 2 hours to cross in the calm a few days earlier. How did I come back in only 2 hours? I didn’t have a watch. I thought it would end up 3 hours, easy. Maybe it was the intensity? Desperation? Joy?)
