The Glen Arbor Sun, a local newspaper in Michigan, published a feature on 24-year-old Yasmina Ahlmaris, detailing her journey from Mackinaw City to Grand Rapids. Along the way, she passed through Petoskey, Traverse City, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Frankfort and Manistee.
The trip was Ahlmaris’ first time outside Morocco and her first experience camping. She had initially planned to cycle from Mackinaw City to Detroit, but changed her route after a friend suggested following the Lake Michigan shoreline instead.
Her connection to Michigan began in Morocco. Ahlmaris had served as a local guide for a wellness retreat organized by Northern Michigan residents Bethany Betzler and Julie Schwalm. The two women later encouraged her to visit Michigan and helped her prepare for the trip, including finding a bicycle and camping equipment.
“I was their guide there, and here, they were mine,” Ahlmaris told the newspaper.
The journey brought a series of unexpected challenges, including rain, wildfire smoke and difficulties finding places to stay. In Petoskey, the campground where she had planned to stay was full and did not accept tent campers.
After considering whether to knock on a stranger’s door, Ahlmaris eventually decided to try. Following two unsuccessful attempts, she found help at a third house, where an older man allowed her to pitch her tent in his yard, use his bathroom and stay connected to the house’s electricity. The following morning, he also offered her breakfast.
The experience prompted Ahlmaris to reconsider her initial assumption that the kind of hospitality she associated with Morocco might be less common in the United States.
“I thought, there’s good people everywhere,” she said.
Other encounters followed during the trip. A woman allowed her to wait out the rain in her van, while another host found through Warmshowers, a platform connecting bicycle travelers with hosts, offered her a place to stay.
One of her hosts, a 70-year-old woman, even cycled with her for about 10 miles the following morning.
Although Ahlmaris traveled alone, she told the newspaper that she never really felt alone.
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The experience also reinforced her view that travel can reveal similarities between people from different backgrounds. Reflecting on her first international trip, she said the kindness she encountered in Michigan reminded her of what she had experienced in Morocco.
“People are the same,” she said.
Ahlmaris has documented her travels and is now working on a documentary about her Michigan journey. She had previously produced an hour-long film about her first bikepacking adventure in Morocco, a 517-mile journey from Asilah to Marrakech.
She now hopes to return to the United States for another cycling trip, this time crossing the country along a northern route from the West Coast to New York.
“I want to go cross country on my bike,” she said, adding that her experience in Michigan had made her more confident about undertaking the journey.
Ahlmaris also plans to return to Morocco next March with Betzler and Schwalm, this time as their guide. The Michigan travelers are preparing another trip to the kingdom, according to the newspaper.
“My family thinks I’m a crazy nomad,” she said. “All I want to do is travel and document.”
For Ahlmaris, however, cycling and travel have become more than a way to see new places. She told the newspaper that she wants to continue traveling and documenting her experiences rather than follow a traditional 9-to-5 career.
