Moroccan cycles solo through Northern Michigan, finds kindness along the way – Glen Arbor Sun

By Cameryn Cass

Sun contributor

At the end of July, a 24-year-old woman solo bike packed from Mackinaw City to Grand Rapids, tracing the Lake Michigan shoreline in what she remembers as “an amazing 11 days.”

Not only was it Yasmina Ahlmaris’s first time outside her home country of Morocco, it was also her first time camping.

“My last name means people from Mars,” she laughed. “That’s probably why I’m so crazy.”

On her journey, Ahlmaris pedaled through Petoskey, Traverse City, the Sleeping Bear Dunes, Manistee and other towns, developing the itinerary with a little help from her friends.

“My original plan was to go from Mackinaw City to Detroit, through the middle of the state,” she said. “But a friend stopped me and said I should cycle around Lake Michigan instead.”

Last April, two women from Northern Michigan named Bethany Betzler and Julie Schwalm spearheaded a weeklong wellness retreat in Morocco, where they befriended their local guide, Ahlmaris.

“They kept saying how beautiful Michigan is, so I booked a flight for myself on the 31st of May, my 24th birthday,” said Ahlmaris. “I’m so glad I met them back in Morocco. I was their guide there, and here, they were mine.”

“I’ve run trips like this the past 10 years,” said Betzler, the founder of Hinoki Travels, a sustainable travel company who offered that fateful trip to Morocco.

“I always meet wonderful people and tell them that I’ll host them if they ever get to America, but it’s never happened until now, with Yasmina,” she said.

Schwalm, a yoga instructor and owner of Thai Yoga Bodywork, LLC in Leland, helped source gear locally to make Ahlmaris’s packing a bit lighter.

“She found me a bike, a tent,” she said. “I didn’t have to bring any gear.”

Though Ahlmaris had eight days in Traverse City before the cycling began to “scout out some roads” and familiarize herself with the area, she couldn’t prepare herself for the wildfire smoke that clouded the once blue skies.

“The first day combined all the challenges I faced,” she said. “I had a mask on while I cycled, I was chased by bugs and I had to find a place to stay that night.”

Though she was too shy to put out a thumb and hitch a ride, a woman driving by circled back and offered to take Ahlmaris to the next town.

“I accepted, then cycled all the way to Petoskey. She said I was crazy to do this in these conditions,” she laughed.

When she arrived in Petoskey, the campground Ahlmaris originally planned to stay at was fully booked and for RVs only.

“I was walking around a neighborhood, thinking how in Morocco, you could knock on the door and people will take you in—but not here,” she started. “Then, I thought, there’s good people everywhere.”

So, she decided to try.

The first knock went unanswered. At the second door, an angry dog scared her off. In true Brothers Grimm fashion, at the third house, “the sweetest old man answered the door.”

He let Ahlmaris pitch a tent in the yard. He brought out an extension cord for electricity, offered his bathroom and checked in on her, making sure all was well.

“The next morning he asked, ‘Do you want breakfast?’”

“I said yes.”

Betzler underscored how, in other parts of the world—namely Morocco—this sort of interdependence is the norm.

“As Americans, we’re so independent. We see it as a burden to go somewhere and need help,” she said. “But in her culture, it’s normal to ask for help.”

On the second day, “here comes the rain,” said Ahlmaris. “Plus, the smoke.”

After waiting out the rain in a hospitable woman’s van and “exchanging life stories” with her, Alhmaris felt glad to get back on the road.

That night, she camped at a farm in Torch Lake and hardly slept, the thin nylon walls of her tent acting as scant separation from the thunder, lightning and rain roaring outside.

“It was scary, alone in the tent,” she said. “But in the morning, another day comes and all I want to do is cycle again.”

That third day, she biked a whopping 50 miles, the longest trek of all the days.

“I was excited to get to Traverse City and sleep inside, no smoke or mask,” she said.

The next was a layover day, spent resting and with friends.

When she got back on the bike, Ahlmaris headed to Frankfort and then Manistee.

“People say Michigan is so flat,” she said. “Not here!”

Michelle Karadsheh, another friend from the wellness retreat last April, joined Ahlmaris in Manistee and camped with her for a few nights.

“She brought her big tent with plenty of room for both of us, food, fire,” she said. “I wasn’t alone!”

Though, after the trip, Ahlmaris acknowledged how, “Even though I was solo cycling, I was never alone.”

Perhaps the most memorable encounter she had was with an older couple she met on an app called Warm Shower, which is a platform for bike packers like herself to host or be hosted.

“It was like a museum, their house,” she said. “She (the host) was an artist, and so was her mom.”

There were paintings all over, decorating the walls of the room Ahlmaris stayed in.

“Oh, and the stories—she grew up in the house, and she was married there.”

“The house was owned by her father,” she went on. “We looked through the wedding album and I realized the young couple smiling back at me was in front of me now.”

Alhmaris was sort of stricken by the realization, and paused to read from her journal.

“Time waits for no one,” she read. “We have to live while we are here, and we better live to the fullest. I spent the night thinking of what I want to do with life and the dreams inside of me.”

The next morning, her 70-year-old host cycled with her 10 miles before they parted ways.

Her final stop in Grand Rapids was yet another Warm Shower host, who kindly drove her to the bus station where she got a ride to Chicago, where her brother lives.

“Otherwise, I would have suffered. It’s like, you have to get a bus to a bus,” she laughed. “People are all walking in Morocco; I saw all cars when I got here. I thought, ‘Where are all the people?’”

When it was all said and done, Ahlmaris reflected on the experience with gratitude, and spoke excitedly of her very first international adventure, challenges and all.

“I had never left Morocco before, but I wasn’t scared or shy. Probably because I was doing the thing I love the most,” she said. “Growing up, I always felt trapped. I always wanted to go beyond the ocean because the world has so much to offer.”

And now that she has been beyond the ocean, she realized that “People are the same. The same kindness I experience in Morocco, I felt in America.”

As far as people go, Ahlmaris said that “In all of my trips, the highlight is always the people: Telling stories, learning, reflecting on your own life.”

Schwalm shared that sentiment and said she has realized a lot of those same truths in her own travels, and talked about “interconnectedness” as humans.

Like on the trip to Morocco last spring, when they visited local people in Imlil, a town nestled in the High Atlas Mountains, North Africa’s highest range.

“We had tea with locals in their homes,” said Schwalm.

Even though they had a translator with them, a significant language barrier remained. Yet, they still met with families and asked the kids what they had learned in school that day.

“We shared smiles and communicated through our eyes, our energy,” she said. “Everybody was so warm. They embraced us, they overfed us.”

“I just… I wish there was no borders,” said Ahlmaris. “We learn so much when we cross borders. We are all the same, just beautiful differences. We have more in common than not.”

Ahlmaris documented her trip through Northern Michigan and is working on a documentary now. She’s already made an hour-long film, which is available to watch on YouTube, that tells the story of her very first bike pack adventure, the 517-mile journey from Asilah to Marrakech.

“All I know is I want to come back to America,” she said. “I want to go cross country on my bike and take the Northern route. To start in Seattle or California and end up in New York. Now I’m more confident to do that. People are kind.”

“This is especially beautiful because of the community effort,” said Betzler. “I’m really happy to see the Northern Michigan community step up and help her.”

Next March, “We’ll be going back to Morocco with Yasmina as our guide,” said Betzler. They’re still ironing out all the details, but if you’re interested, check out HinokiTravels.com in the coming months for more information.

“Travel gets us out of our own social constructs, our loops that we’ve established for ourselves,” Schwalm said. “It’s a chance to see broader perspectives, a broader potential: We can do or be anything we like.”

“My family thinks I’m a crazy nomad,” said Ahlmaris. “All I want to do is travel and document. I don’t want a traditional 9 to 5; I’m most me when I do these things. It keeps me dreaming and gives me faith in the world and myself.”

“Even though sometimes I feel like a fool, I just keep doing it,” she said.