Quote Originally Posted by laura* View Post
I grew up in small town Michigan, and then spent several more years in Ann Arbor. If you don't like the climate in North Carolina, then you probably won't like Michigan either. Summers will be hot and humid - 90 degrees and 90% humidity - and lots of bugs - probably not dissimilar to NC. Winters will be cold and snowy - much more miserable than NC.

The terrain will be mostly flat with some small rolling hills. There will be lots of shortish trees - except on land cleared for farming.

In terms of cycling: Michigan is covered by a grid of roads. Back when the state was originally surveyed, it was divided up into 1 square mile squares. There are almost always roads at those boundaries. Sometimes the grid is divided further, and of course there are also roads that follow geographic features. This means that outside of towns, you can zig-zag around on "back" streets making whatever length cycling route you want.

I think zoom-zoom could give a more up to date details...
That sounds about right! I don't know the Midland area real well, aside from having ridden my bike out that way as part of the One Day Ride Across MI. I'm doing it again, this year (I'm one of the organizers, too).

The Southern portion of MI is fairly flat, though there are more hills as you head north and west (it's been years since I was in the UP, but I recall that area having some pretty big hills, too). We are just at the southern edge of where some good hilly counties start on the western side of the state. The Midland area seems pretty flat, from what I saw of it.

The League of Michigan Bicyclists site has some good info. on various tours and events around the state, too.