When traveling the best advice you can get about great places to visit or eat usually comes from the local people. Online reviews can steer you in a good direction, but just between you, me, and our smartphones I take online reviews with 3 grains of salt because, well they are online and Lord knows the interweb is chock full of smoke and mirrors.
The gold standard of advice from a local was demonstrated big time recently. My week-ends are Sunday and Monday. I like to get all my chores at home done Sunday so I can go play on Monday when most folks are back at work. Last Monday I hopped on my trusty Zero motorcycle for a trip I really enjoy – to see Lake Michigan. I decided to head to the Douglas area since I know they have charging stations right downtown about two blocks from a great little coffee shop, Respite Cappuccino Court, that has never let me down in past visits. Had a blast riding the back roads, rode through the crowded streets of Saugatuck and out to Oval Beach thinking I might take a swim. It was chilly in the shade as I sat on my bike looking over the beach, so I scooted over to Douglas, plugged the bike in and enjoyed a toasted bagel with a Popeye smoothie from the aforementioned coffee shop.
Once that was done, I stopped in to see if Rich LaBombard, the City Manager in Douglas, was in his office. Those of you who pay attention to such things might remember Rich worked in Lowell as the DPW Director and Assistant City Manager before Douglas stole him from us.
As we were chatting about pretty much everything, I mentioned something about “checking out the beach” and thinking it was maybe being a little too windy and cold for me to take my first swim of the year. If you know anything about me at all, then you know that Lake Michigan is my happy place. The Big Lake makes me smile just looking at it, but nothing beats a swim.
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Nothing beats laying on a beach after a swim in Lake Michigan.
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“Oh, did you go out to Douglas Beach?” Rich asked.
“What did you say?” I replied. “There is a Douglas Beach?”
Dang, I thought I had been to pretty much every public beach from St. Joseph to Traverse City. How could I have circled the sun sixty four times and never once found myself at Douglas Beach?
“Oh yes,” Rich continued. “It is a little hidden gem. We are on Center Street right now, just head West until….”
“You mean toward the Root Beer Barrel?” I interrupted.
“Yes, go past the stop sign at the Barrel to the T in the road and take a right.” Rich advised. “You will see a little parking lot. There are 165 steps to get down to the beach, but you will love it. Check it out.”
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The Root Beer Barrel in Douglas, Michigan.
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I just worked in another Douglas gem – the Root Beer Barrel. Older readers might remember when the first version of the Barrel showed up in the early 1950’s. The 17 foot tall replica of a root beer barrel has quite a history. From my research it seems that it spent about 40 years just sitting empty. The fun started happening in 2017/18 when a group of Douglas residents came up with the bright idea to restore the barrel to its former glory.
The City actually owns the barrel. There is a great back story how members of the community joined forces with the Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society to fix it up. They embarked on a fundraising effort and then used the money to take the barrel apart and refurbish and/or replace the wood staves and the metal pieces. (“Staves” are the curved wood pieces that make up a barrel.) They sold t-shirts and Stave Sponsorships and marched in parades to publicize the Barrel and get people involved. They had the help of a local contractor and even some high school students. Once it was ready, the Barrel was positioned on a piece of City owned property at 455 West Center - at the corner of Center and Ferry. FYI – Ferry Street is the one you turn North on to get to Oval Beach.
Douglas resident Michael “Mick” White took on the challenge of selling root beer and great hot dogs at the Barrel in 2019. I say challenge for a number of reasons. First, it is a compact kitchen space in there – just 150 square feet. Secondly, there is no plumbing or air conditioning. Somehow he has managed to get licensed for food in spite of no running water and let me tell you the hot dogs are delicious. Mick makes work of keeping his prices very reasonable because he respects the effort the community made to restore and re-open the Barrel. My personal favorite dog to go with my Sprecher’s root beer float is the Chicago Dog that has mustard, pickle spear, tomato, cucumber, relish, peppers and “a dash of celery salt” on a poppy seed bun. There are another ten dogs, including a veggie dog, along with some side dishes and a variety of potato chips. I believe the priciest dog on the menu was $4.95 and a large float is the same price. (I paid $4.00 extra for the spiffy mug.)
What was I writing about? Oh yeah – Douglas Beach. I left Rich’s office and by the time I got to the T in the road I forgot if he said turn left or right, so of course I went the wrong way. Whoops. I turned around after eyeballing some spectacular “cottages” with fantastic views of my favorite Big Lake. (You might want to follow my route for the treat of seeing these homes.)
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Beautiful look out over Lake Michigan at Douglas Beach.
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Douglas Beach is beautiful. There are about a dozen parking spots and the top of the park is well shaded with a couple of picnic tables. The City built a beautiful deck with bench seating that has a great view. The steps down to the beach are in excellent condition and it is well worth the effort if you can handle 165 steps. There is even a spot to catch your breath on the way back up. I jumped in the water twice even though it was breezy and the waves were smacking me around. Then I made the long ride of .8 miles back to consume a frosty float.
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Root Beer Float Goodness.
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There is no better way to celebrate Lake Michigan than with a root beer float from the Barrel. (Do people even drink root beer without ice cream in it?) Thanks for the great tip, Rich.
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| Stairway to a little slice of heaven - Douglas Beach on Lake Michigan. |
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