So, Alex calls me and tells me he's riding out from NYC on his GS to ride around Michigan, since he never has. I says, "Cool, let's do it!"
He arrived in Ann Arbor, and we got together to look over maps and such. We planned out our trip, and would leave in a couple days.
Alex is all geeked up on the Adventure Touring tip, and wanted to ride some trails in Michigan. The CCC maintains about 750 miles of trail here, and there are other trails too. We had planned to ride the CCC trail from White Cloud to Traverse City. It was a great idea at the time.
Alex talked me into taking the interstate from A2 to White Cloud, and so we got there right quick. It was a blazing hot day, about 93 degrees (F), with super high humidity. We got to the trailhead and stopped to take a few pix. There were some nice fellas from England or something, out riding some bikes that they borrowed from friends. One of these bikes was an old KLR, so I was stoked on that. These dudes were intrigued by Alex's beemer, and hardly noticed that my bike was there at all. Punx.
Anyway, we blazed onto the trail, and started working. I say we started working, because that crap was SANDY! The trails in Michigan are always sandy, but this summer has been the driest I can remember. The trails were deep, soft sand.
Now, keep in mind we had all our gear on our bikes. Me and the KLR were holding our own, but still getting a workout. I have ridden trails before, so wasn't all THAT surprised at the conditions. Alex, on the other hand, was getting frustrated. Most of his frustration came from the fact that he didn't have even close to knobbies on his bike. He was slippin' and slidin' and having a helluva time out there. The heat didn't make things much better either.
We got about three miles of trails in that day before we decided that Alex would need better tires if we were to continue on the trails. So, we hit the pavement and rode North to get some miles in before finding a campsite. At camp we talked about the next day's plans. Alex wanted to see if we could find some beefier tires for his bike, so we decided to go in search of them the next day.
GPS check |
nice older klr |
what about the klr? |
michigan sand |
whodaman? |
break time |
mmm... saaaand. |
'bout 93 degrees |
catching breath, and a smoke! |
posers |
swamp thang |
tuesday is laundry day |
big dune back there |
pakt |
halfway there |
rancho rudolph |
We rode around Northeastern (lower) Michigan looking for a dealership. We visited four, but no knobbies. I got crabby and told Alex that we were not going to any more dealerships. He reluctantly agreed, and we went to find a camp. We pitched our tents at camp Arbutus. Don't ask. Got some beer at the Rancho Rudolph, and chilled out for the night.
gettin wood ;-) |
nice site, cept for the diapers |
mmm.... beeeer |
geeked to ride |
Next day we found some sweet trails, just SE of Traverse City. And then the rain came. It rained HARD for a couple hours. It was fun, even though my crabbiness was lingering from the day before. Alex aired down the pressure in his tires a bit. That, combined with the sand being wet allowed him to get a bit better traction. He still got stuck pretty good on one hill though. I helped him out and regretted it ;-)
not fun |
stuk |
still stukt |
unstuck... rat bastard |
lead dog |
breakfast |
i'm dead sexy |
mmm... toilet seat cake |
Side Bar:
I like camping. I like riding to camp, setting up camp. Riding and camping. On this trip though, I found out that I don't like camping one night, then moving to another campsite the next night, night after night. I guess it's the breaking down and setting up of the campsite that I'm not fond of. I'd much rather stay 2+ nights in one spot and relax.
Now back to our originally scheduled trip report.