Leslie and David's Wanderings: 4 September 2023 World Famous Mighty Mack Walk

When we checked in to the RV Park, they asked if we were here for the bridge walk. We had heard of the Mackinac Bridge Walk from our previous visit to the area in 2018 but had not thought about it when arranging our itinerary for this year. By pure chance, we are here for the walk. They started the bridge walk in 1959. In 2018 they changed the format and no longer offered transportation back from the other end of the bridge for free. We checked into options for walking the entire bridge then getting a ferry back, but it was an expensive option. We got up early and took a shuttle ($5 per person each way) from the RV Park to downtown Mackinaw City. The shuttle dropped us off a half mile from the start of the bridge walk. It is a beautiful morning, cool and sunny with just a light breeze. We arrived just before 8am. They were just starting to allow walkers on to the bridge (after the runners had cleared the west side of the bridge) when we arrived at the starting area. There were a lot of folks doing this walk. There were generational families that had done the walk for decades as a family, babies in strollers, elderly folks with walkers or wheel chairs, kids in wagons, dogs, etc. It was an interesting mix. They kept trying to keep the crowd in one lane, but it kept pushing into the second lane. As we got onto the section of the bridge that was suspended, we could feel the bridge swaying under our feet from the thousands of people walking in sync. By the time we got toward the center of the suspension bridge, the swaying was much more pronounced. Our walking became almost a staggering from the swaying. Folks were stumbling and falling. The engineer in David was getting a bit worried by the amount of sway. We definitely did not feel any swaying when driving across it. We turned around at the halfway point and staggered back toward land. We decided this was good practice for the cruise next year! We finished up about 10am, crossing the finish line and collecting our certificates. We really started to feel it as we walked the half mile back to the shuttle. We walked almost 6 miles in two hours and 15 minutes and burned 1186 calories. We can now say we have walked the Mighty Mack!