Wilderness Wanderings: Mackinac Bridge Labor Day Walk 2025

Monday, September 1, 2025

Mackinac Bridge Labor Day Walk 2025

This is a true Pure Michigan Classic. After having lived in Michigan for 19 years we decided it was time for us to join the tradition and take part in the Mackinac Bridge Walk. It's one of those things that's such a big deal, in particular for the bridge to be shut to traffic for 5 1/2 hours, that you see road signs reminding residents about it for months on end in all corners of the state, even hundreds of miles away.

For us this became a matter of fortuitous timing. My son Seth and I were already planning to travel up to Marquette in the U.P. to run a marathon on Saturday of Labor Day weekend, and it became obvious that while up north on Labor Day one needs to hit the bridge and so we did. The walk itself is free and open to all and we saw on our day people of all ages from young to old, and of all abilities. There were babies in wagons and elderly in wheelchairs. There was a strong sense of community and American spirit and all of that made for a wonderful event.

The main challenge to participation is figuring out transportation. One can start at either Mackinaw City or St. Ignace and you can walk as far as you wish. Some people may only walk a mile out and then come straight back. Others will do a double crossing and finish where they started. For those that do a full single crossing like ourselves you're left with figuring out a vehicle shuttle or pickup or the like.

We ultimately chose to walk St. Ignace back to Mackinaw City. We worked it out for my wife (who wasn't walking) to drop us at St. Ignace and for her to drive back to Mackinaw City before the bridge closed at 6:30am. Three of us, my father, my son Seth, and myself would do the walk. The St. Ignace walkers started at Bridge View Park which is conveniently right next to the bridge and toll booths. We planned to be dropped at 6am to give my wife time to get back over the bridge before it closed. One of our last minute plans was for her to drop us at Highway 2 just after the exit from I-75. We were concerned if she drove the mile long road down into Bridge View Park, with traffic, she may not have time to get out. This left us with a mile walk but that was no issue for us and gave us something to do.

As we walked the road (Boulevard Dr.) it was full of cars and we were glad for our last minute planning. We think most of those cars were people heading into the park to park and walk from there. The number of cars coming back out, having presumably dropped off, were very few.

Bridge View Park was quite large and able to handle the excess of cars parked as well as the excess of people. There were port-a-potties a plenty and also a few small stands where nice folk were selling water and Gatorade. There was an emcee with a D.J. setup who was playing music and occasionally making announcements. He would ask how many first-timers there were and wait for people to cheer. There were some walkers who had done this 40+ times. He jokes and asked about 70-timers and then said if you were here in 1955 you would have been swimming.

At around 650 there was a large group of runners, mostly in purple shirts, that were sent off. This was a formal race, though a non-competitive one. You can find it on runsignup.com under "Labor Day Mackinac Bridge Run". Its $65. You have to average a 15:00 pace. After the runners departed they played the National Anthem and then began to release all the walkers right at 7am. We were pretty deep in the crowd and didn't start til 7:08am.

The weather for the day turned out to be perfect. Temps were in the 50s but with almost no breeze at the start. As the sun came up things warmed and the breeze continued to stay very light. I was quickly taking off the jacket and wearing short sleeves for the walk went splendidly. It was delightful up on the bridge. It made us wonder what the walk would be like on a bad weather year with cold, wind, rain!

For us south-bound walkers we walked in the north-bound driving lanes. We weren't quite sure how they came to form this way but it worked. They generally encouraged us to walk in the outer lane to keep the inner lane available for emergency vehicles. There were police officers and volunteers every 100 yards or so giving continued encouragement to stay in that outside lane but there was little firm enforcement of it.

There were a few official turnaround points, some with fixed times where late and slow walkers would be cut-off. These turnarounds also had aids for wheelchairs to get up and over the divider hump between the lanes. Generally, though, one could turn around and switch directions pretty much whenever and wherever they would have liked.

In the center section of the bridge, between the two main towers, there was quite a bit of swaying today. You could genuinely feel the movement. It made one feel like they were walking drunk with a fair bit of side-to-side movement with the steps. You could look ahead at the crowd and see this same movement in the majority of people, it was quite fascinating. One really need their "sea legs" to keep balanced. We talked to a gentleman who had done he walk 47 times and he said this was about as much movement as he's ever experienced.

We ended up finishing our walk from St. Ignace to Mackinaw City in 1:44. We were moving at a reasonable, roughly 2.5mph, pace the whole way. With the crowds it was generally hard to move much faster without doing a lot of weaving in and out of people or making sure you started near the front of the crowd. We had a real good time with it today and would totally do it again, especially if we had similar weather. It was fun to be a part of this tradition and share that great community side of it with so many others.