This is a 6 day bicycle tour across the state, on the last week of June. This year it started in New Buffalo on June 22, and ended in Monroe on June 27.
Saturday We drove down to Sterling State Park just outside of Monroe. Here we loaded our bikes onto box trucks, and hopped on a bus bound for the other side of the state. A few hours (and a lunch stop) later, and we were in New Buffalo. We went through the registration bit, set up our tents, and headed out for a short ride to the lake to dip our tires in the water.
The last of the bikes get loaded
Dipping the wheel
Brad, Brandy, and Rocky on the shore of Lake Michigan
Sunday After a nice railroad alarm clock, we set out bound for Dowagiac. The first half of the ride gave us nice weather, until we hit the town of Buchanen. Shortly after, the skys opened up on us for quite some time. Thankfully we had decided to don our raingear prior to this. The rain let up just in time for us to stop at the "fruit stop" at Love Creek park. Here we took a deserved break, and snacked on a few things. We got rolling again, and the rain started back up. We had rain until about a half hour before Dowagiac, and then things started to clear. This was a nice thing, since it meant that we could dry out a bit and weren't setting up camp in the rain. After setting up camp, we showered (ice cold gang shower for the men), had dinner, and then walked into town. We stopped in at Zeke's Bar for some drinks to soothe the muscles. If you're ever in Dowagiac and looking for a good beer, Zeke's is the place to go. Something like 25 beers on tap, and about a bazillion other varieties in bottles.
Dinosaur Bones - must've been part whitetail
Three Oaks - the movie Prancer was filmed on location here
Thankfully we checked the discussion forums on Friday morning. Word was that wind and lightning and rain of biblical proportions had socked the Manistee/Wellston area. A quick call to our hotel in Manistee confirmed they were without power, and a flurry of phone calls later had home base moved to Cadillac. We hit the road just after noon, and met up with my teammates Jay and Todd at the venue to pick up our packets. After checking into our hotel, we went out to a nice dinner (steaks for the guys), got our things ready, and headed to bed early.
Jay, Todd and I left the hotel around 5:15am and headed over to Big M. Our wives did the sane thing and stayed in bed, intending to be there when we came through after our second lap. We arrived at the venue, unloaded, put our jerseys and number plates on, and listened in to the rider's meeting. There was to be a ~2 mile roll-out on the paved road before we hit the trail, the storm left a few downed trees, only a couple you had to dismount for, and there were a couple of foot deep sections of water.
We rode up to the start down the road, and Todd and I staged about mid-pack. I think Jay was a few rows behind us. A sound of a horn, and we were rolling! Todd and I rode in at a nice easy pace, hit the singletrack, and very shortly after hit the opening climb. Off our bikes for the first of many times, we hiked up the hill with the rest of the pack. At the top, we settled into a brisk pace. The "inner loop" of the course was hilly, but other than the opening hill everything was rideable. Of course what goes up must come down, and come down we did in a fun flowing fashion. Eight miles later, the "inner loop" ended and the "outer loop" began. This was near the parking/finish/pit area, so there was a group of spectators cheering on the riders. A nice thing to keep the motivation up. The outer loop started with a flat section for a couple miles, with some tight turns and a few open stretches. Gentle hills picked up, and at ~ the 12 mile mark we passed the neutral aid station. Neither Todd or I stopped on lap one, keeping a brisk pace. We rode together (or within sight of each other) for the entire first lap, riding with a pack, gradually passing the riders in the pack, and then catching the next pack. A couple miles past the aid station, we hit another major climb, which was followed by a screaming fun downhill. This downhill put us into some lowlands, which led into the "couple spots of 12 inch deep water". Well, those couple spots were a series of ~200 foot long stretches of swamp! Todd and I rode through most of them, walking the last one due to traffic. The last 7 or so miles had a series of big uphills and downhills, culminating with a huge uphill about 2 miles from the finish. For riding/walking this climb, we were rewarded with a blazing 30mph downhill! Another flat-ish section of flowing trail brought us through to the pit area to end lap one.
Coming through the pit area.
We pitted, and I filled my camelpack, picked up a fresh bottle of Hammer Sustained Energy and HEED mixture, and promptly hit the trail for lap 2. Todd was still in the pits, in fact that would be the last time I'd see him until we were finished. Lap 2 was basically a continuation of lap 1, but with me riding mostly solo and catching up with a couple packs of riders (and getting caught by a few riders also). The only SNAFU I had was at about 4 miles left in the lap, I sucked my Camelpack dry. I was also starting to get a touch of a headache. So, I took a couple of Advil, and decided to take my Hammer Endurolytes a bit more frequently. When I pitted after lap 2, our wives had arrived. There was no staying to chat, as I refilled my pack, grabbed a fresh bottle, and was gone.
Lap 3 began rather uneventful, with my 3rd hike of the day up that hill. I was basically solo by this time, the 250 riders now being spread out along the course. Towards the end of the "inner loop", I caught up with Wayne (an experienced endurance racer, who I've ridden with before). We rode together until the aid station, where we both stopped to top off water supplies (me having learned from running out late lap 2). Since he was using bottles, he was gone before I was. About the time I had caught up with Wayne, the cramps were starting to rear their ugly head. Thankfully minor at this time, I continued taking my Endurolytes and was ever mindful of my hydration to keep them from getting worse. Thankfully I could also stave off the cramps a bit by altering my posture while climbing.
Once again in the pit area.
When I pitted after lap 3, I was saddened to find that Jay had thrown in the towel. He said that he had mis-judged his hydration and caloric intake, and was starting to hallucinate. Scary stuff indeed! They also informed me that Todd was behind me, but did go out for lap 3. I let Brandy know that I was already hurting and cramping up, but intended to give lap 4 a go. She handed me a banana, which I wisely ate. Lap 4 started with a slow walk up the hill, and one last trip through the fun flowing stretches of the inner loop. I'll freely admit that I gave a quick glance over to the parking lot at the transition to the outer loop, when I realized that I still had 17 miles to go. The beginning of the outer loop, being flat, went uneventful. At the aid station, I topped off my water again. The nice lady working the station asked "anything else?", to which I pointed at my bike and replied "how about a motor for this thing." She laughed, and then said, "but then you'd be disqualified". I rode off from the aid station, hiked the big hill a short while later, bombed the (now brake bump filled) downhill for one last time, and waded through the swamp. In fact after lap one I stopped even trying to ride through the swamp. I think that if there is a Hell, it very much resembles the last 7 miles of the Lumberjack 100. The downhills seemed to get shorter, the flats seemed to go up, and I swear someone added in a couple climbs after I completed the first couple laps. So it was no small relief when I saw those 3 black downward arrows on a yellow background with the word "Caution" that signalled the last 30mph screaming downhill. I knew I was home free.
Brandy told me that my time was right around the 9:19 mark, which was well under my 10 hour goal time. Best of all, I HAD FINISHED.
We made a team decision to forego the awards ceremony, instead going to a local bar/grill in Cadillac for dinner. We were too tired to do much of anything else.
Two days later, the results were posted: In the Mens Singlespeed class, 56 riders started, 31 finished, and I placed 11th! My official time was 9 hours 18 minutes and 54 seconds. This was also good enough for 36th overall amongst all the male finishers. My teammate Todd also finished, with a time of just over 10 hours.
Yesterday was the first of my key focus races this year, the Lumberjack 100. My goals were: to finish, and if I did finish, to do so in under 10 hours. Nothing about winning, or podium finishes (the winner would be around the 7 hour mark), but none-the-less, a good goal for me (ambitious but acheivable). Three of us from Team Sandbag, Todd, Jay and myself headed up on Friday, after a flurry of last minute lodging changes. We got an early start in the morning and headed over to the race venue. We started with a roll-out on the pavement leading up to the trail system, and ~2 miles later we were on the dirt. Shortly after, and it was hike-a-bike up the opening hill (the first of many hills I'd hoof it up). Lap one was ridden for the most part with my teammate Todd. We kept up a brisk pace. I started lap 2 without Todd (he was still in the pits), and rode with various packs of riders. Laps 1 and 2 had me feeling great. Laps 3 and 4 were spent solo for large chunks. I did ride with Wayne from the mysinglespeed.com team for a portion of lap 3, but he pulled away from me at the neutral aid station mid-lap. Lap 4 was pretty much survival mode for me, walking up a large number of the hills, and the sheer agony of the last 7 miles. Both goals were met for this race, with me finishing the entire 100 miles in right around 9:20. None of us (Todd, Jay, myself, or our wives) were up to heading to the awards ceremony, electing for a dinner out and an early bedtime.
On Friday I made a trek out to Grand Rapids. While out there, I paid a visit to Cannonsburg to get in a little riding.
First up was Cannonsburg State Game Area. This trail was very open and fast, similar in character to Yankee Springs. There were some moderate climbs, blazing fast downhills, and some great turns to carve.
Cannonsburg SGA trailhead
A very bad self portrait
Cannonsburg SGA trail
After a lap of the SGA, I ducked out onto the roads, and rode over to the Cannonsburg Ski Area. Another rider at the trailhead clued me in to a spot about 1 1/2 miles in where I could duck out, and that it was only about a 3 mile ride to the ski area. Here I did one lap of the roughly 5 1/2 mile trail. The ski area had a lot in common with Bloomer and Ruby. Much tighter, more technical, lots of climbing packed into it's short length.
Cannonsburg Ski Area
The ski hill
Looking forward along the trail
Sign reads "No Parking Any Time" (overexposed). Note the sharp right just past the sign.
Looking back towards the chute-like section. This was a series of high banked turns downhill.
On my way home, I jumped off the expressway and drove the short distance north to Ionia Rec Area for a lap. Ionia is different in character from the Cannonsburg trails: tight, narrow, bumpy, rocks, roots, lots of more technical corners, not much climbing. There wasn't a lot of natural elevation change here, but the trail builders made good use of what there was. I also took more photos here than at Cannonsburg, partly because of the slower nature of the trail, and partly because I was getting tired.
One of the many open fields the trail passed through
I thought this was cool
Another self portrait - this one overlooking the Grand River
Typical of the Ionia Rec Area trail
The trail snakes through another open area - part of what looked to be a small gravel pit at one time
In case you ever wondered what the Ionia County Sheriff's Posse Clubhouse looks like
One day, three different trails, each with a vastly different character. Good times for sure!
This one came down to a "near day-of" decision for me. I had it on my schedule, but it was a low priority race. Although I love the trail, especially as a race course, it's a 2 1/2 hour drive to get there. So, my original decision was to not do this race. The day before, I started to re-consider my decision, and eventually decided that I would do the race. The next morning, I almost reconsidered. However, we did load up the car and hit the road.
We arrived at Fort Custer an hour and a half before start time, leaving me plenty of time to register, get ready, and get in about a 25 minute warm-up.
Just before 12:30, I made my way over to the start line, and lined up with the rest of the Sport/Beginner singlespeeds. The Expert/Elite singlespeeds were starting about a minute and a half before us. At this race last year, the singlespeed class was combined, meaning that I was racing against riders of all levels, from Elite down to Beginner. With the class being split this year, I would not be racing directly against the very fast guys.
GO!!! I tried to get the jump off the start, however a missed clip-in left me 5th wheel going into the singletrack (thankfully fairly open, but about a hundred yards from the start). The eventual class winner motored away right off the start, and another guy pulled away (a bit more slowly). The other 2 in front of me were not as fast, and 1/3 mile into the race I made a pass. Shaun from the Mysinglespeed.com team was shortly behind me, as evidenced by his rather loud rear freehub (Hope Pro hub).
The first couple miles were mostly open/flowing singletrack (the BLUE trail if you're looking at the trail map), with a tighter connecter (complete with logpiles) leading across an old road to the RED trail). Here we hit 2 of the major climbs at Custer, named Cardiac Hill and CPR. Cardiac is a longer climb, CPR is short steep and loose, and there is maybee 1/4 mile between them to recover. The top of CPR dumps you straight into a section named "Granny's Garden", the most technical section at Custer. Logpiles, drops, tight turns, logpiles, rocks, steep grunt hills. Through Cardiac, CPR, and Granny's I was able to hold off Shaun (in fact he would spend about 3/4 of the race very close behind me). After Granny's, there was a short hill, with a Boy Scout troop passing out water. I didn't take any water, as I use a hydration pack, but thanked them for their work anyways. This led to a stretch of open "2-track" where I was able to pull ahead of Shaun. In fact this would be the M.O. for the day. I'd pull away on the open and flowing sections, and he'd catch up in the tight stuff.
We rode through a short tight singletrack, then onto an open downhill singletrack, complete with a couple of whoop-de-doos. At high speed, this dumped us across another old roadbed into a section called the Amusement Park. This is a sweet flowing section of singletrack, with a couple of logpiles, a few short hills, and many fun turns. The Amusement Park, another section named the Crazy Beaver Loop, past the normal trailhead, and into a section called "The Trenches". This is probably my favorite section at Custer. This is a series of trenches that remain from when the park was still part of the military training base, and can be best described as riding in a halfpipe.
We rode through more tight singletrack, and over a section that could almost be described as "dirt jumps". In fact there were people there watching, I guess to see people catch air. I didn't, preferring to keep the rubber down. This spit us out over another old roadbed, and back onto the BLUE loop. There was a water crossing, a minor hill, and a very fast stretch of singletrack leading us back through the start/finish area. I finished lap one with Shaun hot on my tail.
Lap 2 basically continued where lap 1 left off, with Shaun on my tail and me trying to hold him off and pull away. Just before Granny's Garden, we ended up catching the 2nd place guy. I made a pass near Cardiac hill, and held them off through the singletrack. We passed a couple of the slower riders in the Expert/Elite class, and headed back into the Amusement Park. Here I could feel myself finally putting distance on Shaun and the other guy in my class. My legs were feeling strong at this point, so I put the hammer down. In the Crazy Beaver loop, I caught another 2 riders from the Expert/Elite wave, and passed them on the 2-track which followed. They stayed on my wheel back to the BLUE loop, and we traded passes.
I rolled across the finish after 1 hour 20 minutes and 9 seconds, in 2nd place! The 3rd place finisher came in a half minute later, and Shaun took 4th, about a minute and a half behind me (I guess my focus on endurance paid off with a good finishing kick). The winner was 4 1/2 minutes ahead of me: I would've needed a motorcycle to keep up.
A beautiful day, a great course, and a strong performance. You can't ask for a better race day!
This past weekend, I did my first race of the season. It was held at Bloomer Park in Rochester Hills, and was a Cross Country format. This meant that I would be doing 3 laps of roughly 6 miles apiece.
The forecast for rain in the days leading up to the race meant that I was a fence-sitter. Also, I had swapped out my usual Ignitor/Smallblock 8 tire combination for some slower, but grippier in the mud, Kenda Klaws. The rain didn't quite materialize (some showers), but the tires stayed on. There were a few muddy spots that I noted on my pre-ride earlier in the week, and I decided that I would appreciate the extra grip.
I arrived a couple hours prior to my start time, registered, and met up with the team. Some time was spent just hanging out, and then we headed out to do our respective warm-ups. My start time approached, and I found my way to the starting line. I took my spot in the 2nd row (Expert/Elite guys were on the front row), and briefly took note of who was racing that day.
A blast of a whistle, and we were off. I found myself 3rd wheel in my class, behind Mark from the Mysinglespeed.com racing team, and Tim from Macomb Bike, while the Expert riders gradually pulled ahead. We stayed this way through the first half lap, running fast and hard through the early singletrack, down the switchbacks, and along the ridge trail. This dumped us (via a 180 degree turn) onto a long straight section. I was feeling good and strong, and decided to pass Tim. Over the next mile, I put some distance between Tim and myself.
After 5 miles, on a rough downhill, I got on the brakes way too hard. In hindsight I think this is because I remembered there was a slight reroute at the bottom due to mud. My bike started bucking, and after a brief fight, I hit the ground hard. In a haze I pulled my bike off the trail, and sat for a minute and a half, as I watched numerous riders pass by (Tim, Mark from Cycletherapy, and a couple others in my class).
After realizing that I wasn't busted up badly (no bike damage, some trail rash, and most of the cobwebs significantly cleared from my head), I got back on the bike and vowed to continue. I was able to get back up to speed rather quickly, and a quick glance at the clock on my way through the start/finish line made me realize I wasn't in horrible shape. My second lap proceeded very fast, as I attempted to reel in the other riders who had passed. Although I didn't catch anyone that lap, I did turn a fast lap and made up ground. Early in my third lap, I caught one of the other riders in my class (SWEET... I won't be DFL). A short while later I caught (in order) Tim, Mark, and Cary (who was racing Expert/Elite). I continued to ride hard attempting to put distance between them and myself. It worked, as they never caught back up.
After I rolled across the finish line, my teammate Todd informed me that only a handful of singlespeeders crossed the line before me. A good sign. About a half hour later, the preliminary results were posted, and I found out that I finished 3rd in my class!
