Dual Sport IV (2001)

Posted on by July 21, 2012

Steve Dual Sport FlachHere’s some nostalgia for our long-time members and a bit of history for the rest. This was Steve Flach’s fourth “dual sport” article that was published in the CCC’s Great Lakes Trail Rider magazine back in 2001. It’s interesting to watch the “tone” change from year to year in the subsequent articles as things progress. Those of us with direct involvement can also look back on the history of our organization/sport and see things coming together (in hindsight, of course).

DUAL SPORT IV

BY STEVE ‘DUAL SPORT’ FLACH (’46-’07)

My fellow dual sport riders. The 2000 riding season has been over for a while and it is my sad duty to inform you that this past season was the first since dual sport was first offered at the weekend trail events that we suffered a downturn in participation coupled with other event problems that came up.

In my dual sport iii article last winter, i made predictions that dual sport participation would continue to expand in 2000, 75-125 riders would attend most TTs, and 40% of the total signups at the trail tours would be dual sport riders. This did not happen. Total dual sport ridership at all weekend events in 1999 was 506 riders. This decreased to 397 in 2000, a 21.6% Drop!!

Dual sport did not set a single record this past season. And we had to suffer thru having half of one dual sport course cancelled and another dropped altogether, due to permit and other problems with the state D.N.R. Only one event, capitol chapter’s rites of spring ride at whiskey creek, saw an increase in dual sport riders. And this was only from 97 in 1999 to 99 in 2000. Three events, tomahawk’s phillip bean event at vanderbilt, tri-county’s brevort ride, and bulldog’s atlanta t.T., Had the same dual sport participation from a year ago. The orv safety patrol’s event at south branch saw a three rider decrease, then came big decreases for the capitol-tri-county vintage ride, 62 in 1999 to 37 for 2000, pathfinders-west michigan carrieville t.T., 38 In 1999 to 0 in 2000, and bentwheels’ color tour, which attracted 71 dual sport riders, compared to tri-county’s 1999 color tour, which drew a record 118 dual sporters.

You may all be asking, ‘what happened???’. Believe the main culpert was the price of gas this past year, which attained record highs, eventually reaching as much as $2.20 A gallon in some areas. A second reason may have been the state d.N.R., Which gave some chapters problems with obtaining the necessary permits and caused the partial or full cancellation of two dual sport courses. The d.N.R. wants a finished dual sport course to approve as much as six months in advance, which is impossible for me to make up for a TT, due to the winter weather. My chief helper, jim karl, suggested i could get around this by submitting last year’s dual sport courses for the spring and early summer events in 2001 while working on courses for 2002 this coming season. So next year will see us dual sporters riding some of the same routes you rode in 2000. The 2001 rites of spring dual sport course will be all new as i was able to complete it this past fall after the color tour. But the next two events, orv safety patrol and tomahawk rides, will be the same dual sport courses as in 2000. I will reverse the direction of these courses so it will seem like a new ride. The trail tours in august, september, and october will not be a problem.

I kept records of the total rider signups at the weekend t.T.’S this past season that offered dual sport. This total for the 8 events was more than 100 signups less than for the 8 events in 1999. The 2000 season started out with a bang with almost 700 riders at the rites of spring. Dual sport participation contributed about 15% of this total. The next event, the orv safety patrol’s t.T., Saw a large decrease in signups, going from 191 in 1999 to 156 for 2000, with dual sport accounting for 26% of this total. Capitol-tri-county’s vintage ride decreased for the first time with 181 signups in 2000 compared with 214 in 1999. Dual sport had about 20% of this total. Next up, tri-county’s brevort ride continued its success story for a fourth straight year with another increase in signups, going from 165 to 175 riders. Dual sport participation continued to be a major bright spot at this event with more than 29% of the total signups. Bulldog chapter’s early september event in atlanta saw a small decrease in signups, although dual sport totals remained about the same. Pathfinders-west michigan’s late september t.T. had a big increase from 1999, going from 134 to 171 signups in 2000. Better weather this year was the main factor in this increase. Dual sport was zilch at this event because permit problems forced its cancellation. Bentwheels’ black lake color tour produced about 100 less total signups than tr-county’s 1999 color tour at vanderbilt, but this was expected due to the further distance everyone had to travel. Dual sport accounted for more than 21% of riders at this event.

Well, dual sporters, these are the facts from this past season. What about the future for dual sport? Will this decrease in ridership be just a one time thing or will dual sport continue to go downhill? Only your continued participation can keep it going. This past season has made me think about not construction dual sport courses for the c.C.C. In the future if the comming season produces another large decrease in dual sport totals. As has been suggested by some of you dual sporters, may go to making up dual sport routes for just myself and a few friends to enjoy.

I would like to thank the following people for thier time and effort in helping me with dual sport in 2000. At the top of the list again was jim karl. Jim was my most available weekend helper and sweep rider. Again equal thanks go to his wife, susan, for allowing him this time. Much thanks again to tom wall for useing his home computer system to make up the fine dual sport maps you riders were given for the events. However, i lose this service for the future as tom does not want to continue this due to the time it takes. He did inform me he would help me more with work rides in 2001, so i lose a map maker but gain a helper. It would be nice for someone to step foward and take over this service or some of us will have to go back to hand drawing the maps. And this is very time consumming.

Thanks to gary purdy in roscommon for the ‘roughing in’ work he did for the vintage ride in 2000. Gary said he would do this again for the 2001 vintage ride and help me with the orv safety patrol event at south branch. These two events are right in his backyard, so this saves me time and money not having to travel to these areas as much. Dave brock was again dual sport’s pre-rider. Dave was usually the first signup saturday and first dual sport rider on the course. He made sure to replace any missing marking ribbons. Others who contributed to dual sport in 2000 as helpers were shannon ruthrauff, bern bidinger, don gentz, dan gentz, tim gentz, brianmiller, pete jantschak, john wardell, lee rodgers, steve carmer, tom myers, and jim mcvicar. If i forgot to mention any other c.C.C. Members who helped with dual sport in 2000, your assistance was appreciated. As always, can always use more volunteers to help me out. If interested, call me at 616-731-4779 anytime.

There will some changes for the comming 2001 dual sport events. I am going to scale back what i have been putting out for routes for you dual sporters. Next year, i will offer either one 100+ mile two loop course and a shorter 50 mile third loop or three separate 50 mile loops at the events. Pete jantschak has agreed to contribute an 80-90 mile easy igirle-mani course made up of mostly county dirt and gravel roads. This will be for those riders that want an extremly easy ride or have cycle with tires not suited to a lot of two track riding. Am hopeing this may contribute to 25 more dual sport riders showing up at the t.T./ S . So any of you c.C.C. Members that have wanted to try dual sport but don/t like a lot of sandy two track, you have a different option for dual sport at the events. Sweep riding will continue on sunday only (i can always use volunteers for this, and there will be few or no marking ribbons on the routes.

I will again offer route sheet holders for sale at signup, two sets of millage will again be offered on the route sheets, and the larger type will continue. After reviewing the events schedule for 2001, i see it will be a little slimmer than in 2000. There will be just 7 weekend trail tours with dual sport offered instead of 8 as in the past. I will be handleing 6 of these for dual sport.

Again i appeal to those of you that are getting older, tired of the same old iwhooped out 1 single track trail, want a different riding option at the events, and you c.C.C. Members who do not come to the t.T. S. Dual sport just may be the thing you are looking for. This part of the article is always the most important. For anyone who wants to try this type of riding at the trail events, make sure both you and your cycle are road legal. For your bike, this means you must have a horn, at least one mirror, working head, tail, and brake lights, united states forestry approved muffler/spark arristor with a 94db or lower sound rateing, d.O.T. Approved tires, license plate, and an orv sticker (for the posted trail sections,. You must have a cycle endorsement on your drivers license, cycle registration, and cycle insurance.

If you have an un-licensed cycle, quad or three wheeler, and normally ride just the posted single track trail or orv trails, then do not go out with a dual sporter and try to sneak thru. If caught, this can result in dual sport and the c.C.C. Getting in more trouble with law enforcement authorities and we do not need this.

I hope dual sport makes a recovery from the down year we just finished. Know there must be many road legal riders in our organization who have never tried dual sport at the t.T.’S. Please come out next year and help us out with your participation. With two different types of dual sport riding now offered, there should be something for everyone to enjoy. Hope that my prediction of 75-125 dual sport riders at most t.T.’S made in the dual sport iii article for the 2000 season comes true in 2001. Participation at the first two or three events next year will give me an idea as to what to expect.

The final part of my article is an appeal to someone or a couple younger than myself (i am 54, in the c.C.C. Who would be interested in gradually takeing over the dual sport work i have been engaged in for the past 9 years. If interested, you should be a good off-road rider, have a reliable road legal off-road cycle, have a good sense of direction, have most or all weekends free and like to spend them in northern michigan riding, and preferably have an ico electronic odometer on your cycle. You should be someone who would enjoy, as i have had, doing the necessary riding and paperwork to make up a dual sport course.

The last two or three years, find i have less energy each year to continue this work at the pace i keep. If someone does come foward who wants to take over this work in the future, i will be happy to advise you on what you need to know and would continue to work with you if you need help or advice. Finally, come out in 2001 and swell our dual sport ranks to make the comming season a sucess.

Dual Sport III (2000)

Posted on by July 21, 2012

Steve Dual Sport FlachHere’s some nolstalgia for our long-time members and a bit of history for the rest.
This was Steve Flach’s third “dual sport” article that was published in the CCC’s Great Lakes Trail Rider magazine back in 2000. It’s interesting to watch the “tone” change from year to year in the subsequent articles as things progress (see article 1 and 2). Those of us with direct involvement can also look back on the history of our organization/sport and see things coming together (in hindsight, of course).

Dual Sport III

BY STEVE ‘Dual Sport’ FLACH (’46-’07)

Fellow Dual Sport riders. 1999 Is now history and Dual Sport riding attained new highs in participation. 506 Riders rode the weekend Dual Sport courses this past season, compared with 374 in 1998. A 25% increase. Many new ridership records were set, but do not expect these to last long with the 2000 riding season coming up. 6 Of the 8 trail tours in 1999 had increases in Dual Sport riders with 5 of these having 25-30% of the total signups.

The record for Dual Sport signups was shattered twice in 1999 with the rites of spring t.T. By the capitol chapter at whiskey creek setting the tone early. The ‘old’ record was established at the 1998 color tour, which set two marks. 68 Riders rode Dual Sport that weekend and 55 on saturday alone. These totals were both roundly shattered at the first 1999 event. 84 Riders were on the Dual Sport routes on saturday and 97 overall for the weekend. This amounted to only 17% of the total signups, but this event had another huge turnout with 550 riders. The next t.T. Was the mid-may ORV Safety Patrol event held at meadows campground near Luzerne. This produced an event record 43 Dual Sport riders out of 191 signups, a 22+% figure. Next up was the pathfinders- west michigan chapters t.T. At carrieville in early june. Rainy weather kept turnout low, 134 riders, but 38 were on the Dual Sport loops, a 28+% figure. The next event was the Tomahawk chapter’s Phillip Bean memorial ride in late june near wolverine, back after a one year absence. This attracted a record 48 Dual Sport riders out of 190+ signups, a 25% participation rate. Tri-county’s late august trail tour at Brevort in the u.P. Was next on the schedule. This was the third year of this event and it saw another ridership increase to 165 with an event record 50 Dual Sport riders participating, a 30% figure. Bulldog’s early september ride north of atlanta attracted 241 riders and another 50 Dual Sporters. A 21% figure. Capitol chapter’s ‘vintage’ ride in late september saw the biggest jump in weekend trail tour participation. Signups more than doubled to 214 and Dual Sport ridership increased from 38 in 1998 to an event record 62 riders, a 29% figure. This brings us to the final event of 1999, Tricounty’s color tour near Vanderbilt in early october. Had made up 100 copies of Dual Sport paperwork for this event, expecting about 75-80 riders. But a new one day record of 108 showed up for Dual Sport on saturday and 10 more signed on sunday for a new weekend mark of 118 riders. This amounted to about 27% of the total signups.

The growth in Dual Sport participation was most welcome and I see no letup in the coming 2000 season. I expect a record Dual Sport turnout of 125-150 riders at the first 2000 event at Whiskey Creek. I also expect Dual Sport participation to reach 40% of the total signups at some events next year. A few years down the road, Dual Sporters may very well constitute the majority of signups at our weekend trail events. A major reason for this increase in Dual Sport ridership every year may be that many riders have told me they are tired of the same old ‘whooped’ out single track trail being used every year at many TTs. They try the Dual Sport course and find out it is not the road ride they thought it was. They have an enjoyable time and come back for more in the future.

In last year’s Dual Sport II article, I issued a call for more people to help me make Dual Sport ‘happen’ in 1999 and more than two dozen of you responded. Three individuals really stood out and need some recognition here. Much personal thanks go to Jim Carl, Tom Wall, and Gary Purdy. These three were invaluable to me for their help this past season. Jim karl spent a lot of weekends with me on work rides, did some Dual Sport paperwork, and performed a lot of sweep riding at the TTs. Equal thanks should also go to his wife for allowing him the time to help as much as he did. Tom Wall was right up there with Jim Carl. He also did a lot of work weekends and sweep riding and equal thanks also to his family for allowing him to do this. But his biggest contribution to Dual Sport was the cheap way he found to make colored Dual Sport maps on his computer system. This saved myself and others a lot of time and cost hand drawing them. Gary Purdy was my third major helper in 1999. He contributed to paperwork, sweep riding, and some work rides. His behest help was that he did most of the ‘roughing’ in of the ‘vintage’ ride at Geels in late september, saving me a few weekends of work. Gary lives just a few miles up the road in Roscommon so this was right in his backyard. For you Dual Sport riders who enjoyed this course, you can thank Gary for the major part of it. I only made two minor alterations to two of the four loops. Major contributors to Dual Sport sweep riding this past season were Brian Miller and the Gentz family; brothers Don and Arne, and their sons Dan, Brian, and Keith. (If I failed to mention any Gentz family member I forgot helped, I apoligize. Dave Brock was my main pre-rider. He was almost always the first Dual Sport signup on saturday. He made sure to replace any marking ribbons that were missing. Others who contributed to Dual Sport in 1999 were John Lang, Rick Cote, Pete Hartung, Pete Jantschak, Dave Butcher, Laurel Cook, Dave Karl, Jim Ferguson, Ron Heath, Sue Heath, John Hodap, Lee Rodgers, Bern Bidinger, Norm Beyer, And John Wardell. If I forgot to mention any other CCC members who helped on Dual Sport, your assistance was appreciated.

For the coming 2000 riding season, I now have sufficient help on the paperwork, can use some more volunteers for sweep riding, and can really use more help on the weekends I spend making up and finalizing these Dual Sport routes. Anyone interested, call me at 616-731-4779 evenings. The changes I implemented in 1999 went over real good. The larger type print on the route sheets helped many riders who had trouble seeing the smaller print used before. The 4 loop 40-50 mile concept also was very popular and will continue for the 2000 season. Route sheet holders will again be offered for sale at signup to any that want them. New changes for 2000 will be sweep riding will be done only on sunday. Dual Sport riders will sign a sheet saturday before going out and sign back in upon return. Bill Chapin, our ex. Director, has requested that there be fewer marking ribbons at the turns, so you Dual Sporters will have to pay a little more attention to your navigating as you ride along. Another change will be the standard cycle odometer millage that was offered just below the ICO electronic millage on your route sheets. I found out this past season that most cycle odometers read higher than the true millage. This amounts to about two tenths of a mile higher after 10 miles ridden. The millage offered on the 2000 route sheets will reflect this change. Choose which ever one most closely matches your odometer. The 2000 season has another 8 planned weekend events offering Dual Sport. So we Dual Sporters are again appealing to those of you that are; 1, getting ancient, 2, unable to ride single track anymore because of injuries, physical problems, or getting-ancient, 3, anyone that wants a different riding option or easier ride at the events, 4, anyone and/or their cycle who is tired of hurting for 1-2 weeks after riding single track, and, 5, you CCC members who do not come to the trail tours.

This part of the article is most important. For anyone new to this type of riding, make sure you have a road legal off-road cycle: horn, mirrors, working head, tail, and brake lights, united states forestry approved muffler/spark arrestor with a 94db or lower sound rating, d.O.T. Approved tires, license plate, and ORV sticker (for the posted trail sections). Make sure you are also road legal with a cycle endorsement, registration, and insurance. Do not get Dual Sport and the ccc in trouble by riding Dual Sport unless you meet the above requirements.

Dual Sport has come a long way since 1992 when fewer than 5 riders participated at some TTs. In some cases, Dual Sport ridership has increased over 1000%. I predict many weekend events in 2000 will have 75-125 riders on the Dual Sport course. I will continue to put together the Dual Sport routes you riders enjoy as long as my health and energy hold up. I do not have to do all the paperwork now, enough riders usually come forward to take over the sweep riding, and I usually have help on work weekends.

Finally, I would like to see many more riders join our Dual Sport ranks and make the 2000 season the biggest and best Dual Sport year yet.

Dual Sport Riding II (’98)

Posted on by July 21, 2012

Steve Dual Sport FlachHere’s some nolstalgia for our long-time members and a bit of history for the rest.
This was Steve Flach’s second “dual sport” article that was published in the CCC’s Great Lakes Trail Rider magazine back in 1998 (link to first article). It’s interesting to watch the “tone” change from year to year in the subsequent articles as things progress. Those of us with direct involvement can also look back on the history of our organization/sport and see things coming together (in hindsight, of course).

Dual Sport Riding II

by Steve Flach (’46-’07)

Last february, I submitted an article for publication in the Trailrider magazine about Dual Sport riding. In it, I explained what it is, how it works, what type of bike one needs, and appealed to you ccc members that just might want a different type of riding instead of the same ‘whooped’ single track trail that is used when chapters hold their trail tours at the same sites each year. I had hoped the article would increase Dual Sport ridership from 10-15% of the total event signups it has been the last few years to 20% or more. Well, quite a few of you responded and tried this easier form of riding. Of the 8 weekend trail tours that offered Dual Sport riding, 6 had participation ranging from 18 to 32+% of the total riders. The following is a summary of Dual Sport ridership at the 1998 trail tours.

The old record for Dual Sport riders at a weekend trail event had been 58, set at the 1996 color tour near Grayling. This was surpassed by the Capitol Chapter’s Rites of Spring ride at Whiskey Creek in early May when 61 riders toured the Dual Sport course) including a record 47 on Saturday alone. The percentage to total signups was only 12% but this was due to the fact we had the highest participation at a trail tour in almost 20 years with 545 riders. The mid-may event put on by the ORV Safety Patrol south of Luzerne had 38 Dual Sport riders, a record for that event. This also amounted to about 20% of the signups, but Genessee Valley’s mid-june event north of Mio produced a downer when only 27 of the 245 signups tried the Dual Sport route (an 11% figure, at this point}. Thought that the high numbers of Dual Sporters at the first two events were just a one time thing, but ridership did a big turn around after that. The July event at Geels by the Capitol Chapter was held on a hot, very dry and dusty weekend, the low turnout of riders: 108, did not surprise me, but the relatively high number of Dual Sport signups (30) did, this figure of 28% of the signups set a record at a weekend TT, the next event was held in the U.P. near Brevort by Tri-County, a low turnout of riders was expected for this August event, but it produced an increase in signups compared to the same event held here in 1997. Dual Sport ridership showed the largest increase when 33 riders rode the course. This was double from the year before and a new record 29% of the signups. The Bulldog trail tour in early September continued Dual Sport popularity when more than 25% of the signups, about 55, went around the course, and things got better yet at the final two events. The late September Bentwheels event at rose city attracted 191 riders and set two more Dual Sport records. The first was the 62 riders who rode the course, the second was the 32+% of total signups. But records are made to be broken. The Pathfinders-West Michigan color tour two weeks later produced two new marks when 68 Dual Sporters showed up to ride the route, including 55 on saturday alone, this amounted to 18% of the signups.

This large increase in Dual Sport participation last year was better than I had hoped for, but with this increase came problems. The first one concerned how to complete the increases in paperwork required for each event. I had enjoyed doing this by myself as it gave me something to occupy my time after work. But by july, it became imperative I find others to help me so the paperwork would be completed in a reasonable length of time. I would like to thank the following people for their help with Dual Sport preparation: Gary Purdy pitched in not only with the paperwork, but rode along with me on some of the work weekends I spend making up Dual Sport routes. Dave Karl, who rides along with me on sweep riding after signup is over, also volunteered his help with paperwork. Dave told me his secretary at the business he runs did not not have enough to keep busy, so he had her fill out her work day drawing Dual Sport maps and making a contribution to the CCC. Also thanks go to Brian Miller and Dan Gentz. They offered to become Dual Sport helpers in mid-summer, so I had them do some of the sweep riding. I was getting kind of tired of this, especially on sunday.

Because I see Dual Sport riding becoming even more popular in 1999, we will need more help this coming riding season to make Dual Sport ‘happen’ at the trail tours. There are three areas anyone can volunteer to help with, first and foremost is the paperwork. More riders will mean an increase in this. The second will be sweep riding of the routes each day after signup is over. 3 to 4 more riders will be needed to help with this, the reason being many Dual Sport courses being contemplated for 1999 will have 4 separate 40-50 mile loops, Dual Sporters will have the option of riding any of these loops they want to either day of the event. 1 or 2 ‘sweeps’ will be needed to cover each loop starting in the early afternoon about 3 hours before the prize drawing. The riders will be more spread out each day and this should cut down on the complaints received last year about congestion and the dust raised to ride thru. A third area I really need help with is to have one or more riders accompany me on the work weekends I spend between the trail tours making up these Dual Sport routes. This involves a lot of stop and go riding as the turns and millage are recorded for the route sheet and riding down dead ends to eliminate them from the final course. If any of you Dual Sporters can spend one weekend or even one day helping me every 4-6 weeks, it will be very appreciated. I can be contacted at 616-731-4779 anytime this winter and evenings only after mid-march. Just let me know a few days in advance during warm weather and I can tell you where to meet me for that weekend’s work.

Improvements for 1999 will be route sheets with much larger print for you riders who have trouble reading small print. I will also have route sheet holders available for purchase at signup. I started this in mid-summer last year and sold every one I brought to the events. They will be offered for sale for what I purchased them for. 1999 Looks like another heavy trail tour schedule with 8 weekend events offering Dual Sport riding. So again I appeal to those of you that are: 1) getting older~ 2) unable to ride single track anymore~ 3) tired of riding just single track~ 4) anyone in the CCC that wants an easier ride~ 5) those of you that can’t ride single track anymore due to injuries~ 6) anyone who is getting tired of hurting for a week and a half after a 50-75 mile tour on a single track course~ and 7) you CCC members that do not come to the trail tours. For anyone thinking of trying this~ make sure you have a -road legal-off-road bike: horn, mirrors, tail light, head light, brake light, U.S. Forestry service approved muffler/spark arrester that can pass the sound limit of 94 decibels, dot approved knobby tires~ license plate) and orv sticker (for the posted trail sections). You must also be road legal: drivers license cycle endorsement, registration< and insurance. Last year I was told by our executive director, Bill Chapin, and some chapter presidents that some riders were going out on the Dual Sport routes that did not meet the above legal requirements. Here I must emphasize this: do not ride the Dual Sport routes at the trail tours unless both you and your bike are road legal. Violating this could cause serious trouble for the CC. In closeing I would like to continue seeing more of you become ‘hooked’ on this type of riding in 1999 like I did in 1992, so come out and make it an even better year for Dual Sport participation that 1998 was.

Dual Sport Riding I (’97)

Posted on by July 21, 2012


Steve Dual Sport Flach

Here’s some nolstalgia for our long-time members and a bit of history for the rest. 
This was Steve Flach’s first “dual sport” article that was published in the CCC’s Great Lakes Trail Rider magazine back in 97. It’s interesting to watch the “tone” change from year to year in the subsequent articles as things progress. Those of us with direct involvement can also look back on the history of our organization/sport and see things coming together (in hindsight, of course).

Dual
Sport
Riding
By: Steve Flach (’46-’07)

Is Dual sport riding for you? Are you looking for a different type of riding at the CCC trail tours? If you answered yes to these questions, then dual sport riding may be the enjoyment you have been looking for. This article will seem like old hat to the core group of about 35 riders that have enjoyed the dual sport courses at the trail tours since 1992. Indeed, this article is aimed at those of you that are: 1)Getting older, 2)Unable to handle the single track, 3) Tired of just riding single track, 4) Any members ofthe CCC who want an easier ride, 5) People like myself who have had injuries years before which makes single track a real pain or impossible, 6) Those of you who hurt for a week after riding a 50 – 70 mile single track and 7) Those CCC members who do not come to trail tours.

What is dual sport riding? Dual sport riding is using a road legal off-road cycle (head light, taillight, brake light, horn, mirrors and DOT approved tires), in conjunction with the rider being road legal, with a cycle endorsement, insurance, registration, plate and ORV sticker (for the trail sections), to ride a mix of paved, gravel and dirt roads, ORV and snowmobile trails, forest two-tracks and even a little single track. A rider follows the course from one point to another by using a route sheet given to them at sign-up which has mileage which corresponds to their odometer readings. A map of the course is also included. It comes in handy if you become lost, are injured, have a mechanical problem or just want to come back to camp early.

Advantages of dual sport riding are: Both you and your bike usually come back in good shape and clean, you do not hurt all over, except from sitting on the seat for over I00 miles, the dual sport courses are usually changed from year to year so you get to see a different part of northern Michigan and you ride at your own pace, you are able to enjoy the countryside going by and can stop anytime to rest.

Now at the trail tours, the route sheets and the route maps are easy to read and understand and are uniform from event to event. Many of the dual sport route sheets now have two sets of mileage, ICO electronic and standard bike odometer to satisfy those riders who have either one or the other. The courses are now kept to around 100 miles or less which means a ride of 5 – 6 hours or less and gives one time to finish well before the daily prize drawings.
A good percentage, (30% or more) of the route is two-track which seems to be what the riders prefer. The courses have one or more gas/food stops so a rider has no worry about running low on fuel or getting thirsty. There are at at least one or more cleanup riders on the dual sport route who go out after sign-up is over and help any riders along the way who might need it. I discovered this type of riding in 1992 at the KOM Chapter TT and the ORV Safety Patrol ride just after. Prior to this, I was ready to hang it up and sell my bike after 29 years of nding because the single track was too tough on my knees and left shoulder. I so enjoyed this format that the following two years, I became involved with helping put on the dual sport rides at many of the TTs. By helping with these routes, joining 5 CCC Chapters and helping with the ORV Safety Patrol Fundraiser, I feel this is something I can do to
contribute back to the CCC organization.

There has been a slow, steady increase of riders dual sporting at the trail tours since this type of riding was first offered in 1992. Many times that first year, there were less than 5 riders at each ride. Now two trail tours in the last two years have had over 50 riders with a high of 58 at the 1996 tour in Grayling. Dual sport riders now constitute from 10% to to 15% or more of the sign-ups at the trail tours. An increase to 25% or more would be very welcome. So, come out this year and try this type of riding.

You may become hooked on it such as I did and have something to look forward to at each TT like the three dozen or so riders who attend dual sporting events now. We have plenty of dual sport routes planned this year at several trail tours, so how about coming along for the ride in 1998!

Then There’s This Thing Called “Dual Sport”

Posted on by July 21, 2012

Then There’s This Thing Called “Dual Sport”

By Hank Adkins, May 2004
Even though a CCC member for several years I had only used the membership to obtain the Michigan ORV Trail system map book (well worth the $25 membership fee) to plan an occasional ride with some out of state riding friends.

Believing fifty something was too old to ride anymore I sold my scoot.  After three years of regretting it I bought another one.

Reluctant to ride alone yet determined to “get back out there” I attended the 2004 Rites Of Spring event at Whiskey Creek.  Figuring out of 600 plus riders I could find someone to tag along with that was within my skill level.

WHATTA BLAST!!!

Dual Sport riding is a whole new world! No pressure, no race, no trophy, no red flare and 500 bikes take off, no officials, no checker flag at the finish and not as easy as it looks!

Basically, it’s like an enduro with no checkpoints and no time keepers.  Riders are given a map to tape to their tank or a roll sheet similar to an enduro one that has mileage and arrows pointing which way to turn and a description of what type of terrain it is two track, dirt, paved road, gravel, etc.  If you have a GPS the whole ride can be downloaded into that!  Some of the experienced guys had a home made dashboard mounted to their crossbar that had a roll chart on the left, speedometer/mileage counter/trip meter in the center, and a GPS on the right: ultra cool!

So there you are, cooking down a two track, winding the roll chart, checking the GPS, and looking for the correct direction every time you come to fork, crossroad, etc. All this at speed mind you.

During sign up, a member of Great Lakes Dual Sporters offered to take me out on the loop and I’m very glad I took him up on it.  Turns out Jim is a very experienced dual sporter and has laid out many a course and written many a roll chart.  After another member, Keith, helped me install my “very first” roll chart, we met up with yet another member, John, under the “Big Tree”, set our odometers to zero and rode off.  Jim on a KTM 400 and John on his KTM 450.   I tried hard to read the roll chart and with Jim’s coaching, did learn a lot, but was no match for these guys experience.

My new Honda XR400 performed brilliantly!  My last bike was a 1981 XR 500.  I cannot believe what 20 years of technology has accomplished with these machines.   The modern suspension and frame geometry make for a much easier (and safer) ride.   My skills are rusty and confidence level is not up there because I had no idea what the machine would do.  I was using stock suspension settings and 14 pounds of air in each tire.  Have not got the sandy hairpin turns figured out and was somewhat timid.  At one of the gas stops I dropped two pounds out of the front tire and that gave me more confidence to stuff it into the turn and gas it.

I held my own with these guys, mostly because all I had to do was ignore the roll chart and follow.  Although a “newbie” to dual sport I do have trail riding experience.  Man, what a thrill!  I’m talking 5th gear on the gas, pine trees whicking by on both sides,  just gittin’ it down these two tracks!  Every time they stopped to look for me I was parked right behind them with a big grin on my face!  It was like I had been riding with these guys for years.  They were much more comfortable with their equipment and have lots more recent saddle time with the new technology but soon as I get this Honda figured out and learn how to read a roll chart and GPS while on the gas in 5th gear, I’ll be the guy out front leading the way!   There I go getting competitive again but it’s not that kind of ride.

The cool thing about this sort of riding is that there are so many different types of terrain to traverse.  Just about the time you think “man I’ve had enough of this” the course will switch to a wide hard packed sand road or a couple miles of pavement, so you have time to relax, look for deer, eagles, turkey and other wildlife before diving back into the woods again.

The riders are a great bunch of people.  We stopped several times and talked to others on the side of the trail.  Picked up one guy and his buddy from Illinois who had driven 400 miles to the event.  One rode a Yamaha and the other a Husaberg.  They were practicing to ride the 1200 mile Upper Peninsula Dual Sport Safari later this summer.  They rode with us for a while and we even had lunch together but eventually they went their own way.  Met some Ohio riders with Suzuki’s, a guy on a big Kawasaki 650, and other people too, some even riding two up!  It’s so cool just start talking about their bikes or equipment or any ole thing, it ain’t no race so there ain’t no pace!  The maps indicate lots of cut offs and ways to bypass the rough terrain if that’s your style.  We waved to people we passed in cars on tight roads and to people picking mushrooms or working in their yard at the occasional cabin located near a lake or something.  We would go past quietly and respectfully then throttle up when the coast was clear.

We called it quits before completing the 150 mile first day loop.  About every ten miles you RESET TO ZERO as instructed on the roll sheet and we completed 11 resets for a total of 122 miles!

And guess what? These dudes are in their 50’s and 60’s!!!  That’s a really cool thing about this sport because maturity has its merits when it comes to knowing how to treat people, being respectful of the land and others on the trail.

Everyone rides at their own pace.  Without experienced guides to follow I would have been forced to ride much slower (which is just fine) but even though I finished the day with a bit of pine branch hanging from under my number plate I didn’t fall down.  It’s still there and I might just leave it there as my “Red Badge of Courage” and souvenir of a truly awesome riding experience.

Sadly, I did not ride the 110 mile loop the next day.  Truth is, I was too pooped and too sore to push myself any further.  But now I have the motivation to put aside the cookies and TV and get myself back into shape!

Bottom line: you gotta try this Dual Sport thing! I can honestly say it’s everything I have been looking for.  If nothing else I will discover some great trails to ride and collect maps and route sheets along the way.  But a bonus for riding the events are the great prizes given away at the end of each days riding, plus you get to see a bazillion different set ups on these machines.  I like to go “old school” wearing bibs and a sweatshirt, but no way am I going to give up this XR400 until they make one with an electric start!

See ya at the next one!
Hank

Time Traveler

Posted on by July 21, 2012

Time Traveler

By Tim Hoffman, July 2004

Have you ever “Time Traveled” on your dirt bike?
Riding along, and all of a sudden it hits you; “I’ve been here before”. Like déjà vu all over again.
How about a 25 year Time Travel?

At Tomahawk’s Phil Bean Memorial Trail Tour last June 26th and 27th, some of the Dual Sport Route that Jeramey, Shannon and the rest of the G. L. Dual Sporters laid out started to look very familiar. Not like, “I rode it last season” familiar, but, “a long time ago, like a lifetime ago” familiar.

We were running old two-tracks, forest roads, wide trails and with so much private land in the area, the inevitable road sections. Popping in and out of the woods, occasionally getting magnificent views of the surrounding hills, valleys and highlands, “Michigan Mountains” I like to call them. Any downside to popping out on the road sections in that area, to get around private property was greatly out-weighed by the fantastic views.

Guilty of “Daydreaming While Riding”? Maybe I was, but it’s tough to concentrate on riding while checking out the sights!
We came off a two-track, turned on to this desolate, little-used piece of dirt road, then it hit me; this is old relocated MCCCT that we had been following! Part of the original Pere Marquette Cycle Trail that Phil Bean, Ed Graham and Mel Lill originally scouted and led crews through, hanging ribbon and triangles with nothing better than county maps and compasses. Now, 30 years later, we are back enjoying it again.

This is the same Trail Safari/MCCCT stuff my brother and I rode in 1980 when we were just puppies on 175 DT Yamaha and 250 CR Honda two-strokes.

When we popped out from that certain two-track onto that dirt road and got that great view, it all came back like it was yesterday. In June of 1980, my brother and I were dropped off at White Cloud with our tents and sleeping bags bungied to our rear fenders. I had a trick tank bag with a clear map holder for the 16 page CCC mapbook and a crescent wrench hose-clamped to the swing arm, with it’s jaws cinched down on the axle nut.

Riding gear? Yah right. $60 mail-order “enduro” boots and the coolest lamb skin Hi-Point red, white, and blue gloves (try to find some of those today, and for $22!) were the highlight of my wardrobe. A $10 open-faced helmet for my $10 head, Scott goggles (with the clip-on facemask of course), and our high-tech-trick riding outfits supplied from Levi Straus. Jeans (yes, they were bell-bottoms) and jean jackets, the standard 1970’s enduro pants and jacket combo. We got lucky in 1980, the rain held off all week, (rain gear? see: “Levi” above), we didn’t ever crash hard (first-aid kits? Are you kidding? Six Band-Aids!), no break-downs, (we didn’t have very many tools to fix anything with anyway!) and for the life of me, how we ever found our way through those woods with very few triangles and no GPS, I will never know.

We were two days into our 1980 Trail Safari adventure when we rode into these “Michigan Mountains”, riding some of these very same trails we rode this past June.

That’s when I went on my little “Time Travel”. The G.L. Dual Sporter’s Route took me on it. Riding through those hills brought back that Trail Safari I rode with my brother in 1980. Here I was, 24 years later, riding behind my brother again, on some of those very same trails. I was in a Zone. A Trippy, Time-Travel Twilight Zone.

I want to thank Jeramey Valley, Shannon Ruthrauff and the rest of the Great Lakes Dual Sporters for taking me on my little time-travel trip. You brought back a lot of good memories and inspired us into breaking out that old 16-page mapbook. We’re going to try to follow what’s still legal of our 1980 route next year and try to re-create that twenty-five year old Safari ride.

Except, twenty-five years later, we’ll have GPS, Goretex, money for motels, bunsavers and 600cc four strokes. Hey, I said we wanted to re-create the RIDE, not the SUFFERING!!!

The Trail Back to Friendship, Fun and Excitement

Posted on by July 21, 2012

The trail back to fun, friendship and excitement.
By Steve Rauscher

Ten years without riding, never again! I almost forgot how much fun riding is. Years ago, I rode single track with guys who were much faster then I, so I learned to eat dust and enjoy it. Then I made a stupid move and sold my brand new KDX250 for reasons ah well..ah.ah.. ya know… So last year (spring 2003) I got a wild hair and purchased two used bikes. An old 550 Maxim and a ’99 KLR250 both of which were in great shape. I still do not know why I purchased the street bike, because my philosophy is, I would rather hit a tree then a car. I put maybe 300 miles on the old Maxim and then gave it free rent in my garage for the next few months. However, I had bigger plans for the little KLR; I wanted to return to northern Michigan with my new digital SLR camera to take pictures of nature while riding the forest roads and two tracks. Well, guess what, has not happened yet!
One thing led to anther and I got involved in a hug landscaping project at home and the little KLR sat all summer in the garage (also rent free) and was ridden once down a short lane in the neighborhood. This short ride quickly made me realize the KLR250 did not have enough horses under the tank to haul my fat butt around the sands of Michigan. So once the landscaping was complete and a trip to Texas was in the planning stages I traded both the used bikes on a new ’04 KLR650.

I then firmly set my sights on Big Bend National Park in Texas for some desert riding during Christmas vacation. Talk about a different world down there, rocks, rocks, rocks and more rocks.. I even ran across five illegal donkeys in the park which had crossed the Rio Grand River to feed on the US side. On my first day I was to ride a 25 mile truck trail which had many washouts, short climbs and even a few drop offs which my folks suggest would be a good adventure. I quickly learned I had not ridden in a loooooong time. The trail was rough, no wait, lets try very rough, and the new KLR was bone stock, trials tires and all. After only about two miles of dodging rocks and cactus my hands, legs, arms and back were already starting to feel the pressure of holding on for dear life. I almost turned around at this point telling myself “there has to be a better way”. But the little boy in me said, “I think I can, I think I can” so I continued on. Even though it was mid December it was hot in the desert, so I am glad I had attached my old blue water bottle to the cross bars. After ten miles or so, I stopped, watered myself and then the rocks and enjoyed the view, the whole time thinking about taking the easy way out and back tracking, but once again the little boy in me kicked in and I moved forward. A short time later the KLR developed a clang clang clang noise which I thought was the Speedo unit bouncing around due to the rough trail and the way the bike was being rattled around (not sure Texas knows what dirt is, just ROCKS). The clang clang clang continued to get worse, but the bike seem to be running fine so I continued on. About 20 miles in, I ran across an Orange bike which was parked on the edge of a look out with its rider sitting on the ledge with his legs dangling over taking in the beautiful valley and mountain beyond. Now I am afraid of heights so I beeped and went on not wanting to get too close to the edge. After almost three hours I finally finished the 25 mile trail. Now came decision time, I had to decide rather to turn around and ride the trail back or loop around on the gravel and pavement which was 55 miles. Needless to say, I looped and ended up with major monkey butt. This was the most miles I had ridden in one day. I was extremely tired and proud of myself.

The next day I decided to ride a truck trail which was more my style. The trail was more like a rough gravel road with many washouts rather then large square rocks stacked on each other for miles after miles. I was able to maintain a fairly good pace, but the clang, clang, clang from the previous day continued. After a couple hours the bike started to handle like a Ford Pinto with no rubber on the wheels. I stopped again to check the noise and finally discovered what the clang clang clang was. The steering stem nut had vibrated loose. Not prepared to have a large loose nut I did what every red blooded American boy would do and attempted to tighten the nut with my fingers, but I just could not get the nut tight enough. After only a few hundred yards the nut would spin off again. There was no way I could tighten the nut with what I had and I was not about to walk out of the desert, so I ended up holding the nut with my index finger of my left hand to keep it in place while I rode out of the desert back to the main road and camp. I was schedule to depart the next day so I just loaded the bike and called it a day.

I did not get to ride as much as I wanted but it was enough to know I had made the right decision to purchase a bike and start riding again. Once I return home to Michigan I started really reading the CCC Trailrider magazine and decided to attend the Rites of Spring event. I had only attended one CCC event in the past which was a winter ride back in 1990, which was a complete failure on my part. Who knew about studs? Not me!!! Anyway, after reading the ads and write ups about Rites of Spring I just had to see what 900 bikers looked like. I took the Friday before the event off and arrived early to setup camp. I really did not know what I was doing or what to expect so I pretty much kept to myself and watch it rain and the propane level diminished throughout the afternoon and evening. Then came sign up and sound check. No, no wait that is sound check and sign up.. Like I said, I did not know what I was doing. The rain was coming down pretty good so it was a relief when I finally found the sound check area and the guys just looked at the stock KLR, smiled and gave me the paper work required and told me to head off to the sign up area. I must have looked like I had not ridden for ten years, remember, I still have the stock trials tires on the bike, it was muddy and I was timid to say the least. Off to sign-up I went soaked and all.

One of the things I remember most about this weekend was the age of the riders. When I was riding single track I very seldom ran into 40+ riders, but at this even it seems most folks were, mature you might say. The other thing which stood out, I was not the only chunky guy there. I was somewhat self conscious about being a large man wanting to play in the dirt on a motorcycle, until that day. I even met another large fellow on the trail who asked me where I was able to find motorcycle clothing for portly fellows. I though that portly was a pretty nice way of putting it, but I will admit it, I AM FAT. Anyhooooo, I finally get though sign-up and head back to the camper.

I spend the rest of the night watching it rain and the temperature drop. I was thinking, I really do not want to ride in the rain and it will be too cold to ride in the morning so this was going to be a wasted trip. However the next morning the rain had stopped and the temperature had jumped up a few degrees. Not a heat wave by any means but warmer.

Since I had never ridden a Dual Sport event, I had lots to learn. I had purchased a GPS some time earlier but really did not know how to use it. Then there was the roll chart, which reminded me of cave paintings, I knew I was going to be lost for sure before the day was over. I decide to wait until late morning to venture out, hoping there would be tracks to follow. Sure enough there were tracks and plenty of them. I quickly learned how the roll chart and GPS work together to guide me. After about 25 miles I ran into two fellows from the AMA who were riding the DS, taking picture and writing an article about the event. I ended up riding with them for the remainder of the day. I hate to admit it but I cannot remember their names but they rode at a pace which I enjoyed. We did not complete the entire A-loop due to the temperature dropping and time was running short. I ended up riding 85 miles which was once again the most miles I had ever ridden in one day. I was very tired and ready for a good nights sleep. Matter of fact I sleep so hard and so long, I did not have time to ride on Sunday so I packed up and headed for home.

When I was riding single tracks way back when I always liked the wider sections where I could open it up a bit and now I know why. As a kid growing up in farm country of Illinois basically the only place there was to ride was the country gravel roads or in open fields at wide open speeds. This has to be why I like the Dual Sport riding so much. For the most part the pace is much faster then single track but there is still time to look around and enjoy the country side.

At this point I must thank Jeramey Valley for taking time out of his busy schedule to talk to me on the phone and again at sign-up lending words of advice and friendship. After talking with Jeramey and explaining how much I enjoyed Rites of Spring and the type of riding I want to do he invited me to join the Great Lakes Dual Sport Motorcycle Club (GLDSMC) and preride the Safety Patrol DS loops. Two days later I was at South Branch eating the dust of wheel king Jeramey. Jeramey is much faster then I but graciously waited for me at each reset and at many turn so I would not get lost. I do not recall how long it took to ride the loop but I once again eclipsed my most miles in a single day. Again I was tired and sore but this time I was hurt. Still running the darn trials tires I got crossed up in the deep sand on the power lines and jammed my foot into an embankment twisting my knee. That was Saturday and everyone else had other plans for Sunday and left, so I was on my own for Sunday. I wanted to ride but my knee was bothering pretty bad so I decided to just take it easy and ride over to Oscoda on the roads to see the lake. I figured after 15 years of living in Michigan it was about time I seen one of the Great Lakes.

From that point I have only missed two weekends of riding due to work. I am now a full fledged member of GLDSMC, no wait I still need my GLDSMC hat before it is official (Jeramey???). I have meet and ridden with many different Dual Sport riders and have enjoyed them all. My schedule is booked with events and prerides and I have even taken a week and ridden most the 1200 miles of the DS UP Safari which I plan on completing in September. I have started to plan another Christmas trek to Texas which I hope will be more successful, and have been considering talking to some of the guys about heading to Colorado next year for a couple of weeks to investigate some of the passes. Needless to say I am hooked. Now I just need an Orange bike!

As they say keep it on the trail
Steve Rauscher

Da Yoopers Weekend

Posted on by July 21, 2012

Da Yooper’s Weekend

By John Bunker, December 2005

As most stories start at the beginning, this one starts about 1969, when my brother and I got our first motorcycles. We were 14 years old and thought of nothing but them. Well, maybe a girl or two, but mostly bikes. Mine was a SL90 and bro’s was a CT90, and for those who are too young to know they were Hondas. The thrill of riding them through deep sand, down cow trails, or up and down the hills around home in mid Michigan was enough to keep a couple of young boys out of their parents’ hair and started us on an adventure to last a lifetime. We are now nearing 52 years old and still ride motorcycles, and the most fun still for me is just for the two of us to go out riding.

We both went to MTU back in the 70’s and brought our Huskys to school with us to ride the ski trails. We told our folks it will help us with our studies (Ha). We even tried a few events at the South Range MX track, but with only dirt bikes all of those back roads up there were off limits to us. We tried not to get into to much trouble with the law so far from home. But all of this fun only lasted a short time before they threw us out of their fine institution, go figure.

About two years ago my brother Jerry and I rode a CCC Adventure Trek near L’Anse in the western UP and had a very good and fun time. Then last year my wife and I rode another CCC Adventure Trek in the Keweenaw Peninsula and this about killed me because Jerry couldn’t make it, when no one was looking I did a small wheelie on top of Brockway Mountain Drive just for him. Anyway since then we both been planning a return trip to the UP but we didn’t really want to ride the CCC U.P. Safari, we wanted to add a little more adventure to it so we decided to try our hand at riding around the Marquette and Huron Mountains area with a compass, a GPS and our own home made routes. This is some of the most isolated land in the State of Michigan, with what seems like endless dirt roads and snowmobile trails, just a great place for dual sport riding. So what follows is a short journal of our weekend ride. For those who use Garmin’s “MapSource” (most do), the tracks that we laid down and the pictures might tell a better story. [File will work with most GPS programs – ED]

Thursday
We arrived in Marquette about 6:00pm Wednesday night the 24th of August, and set up camp in the Tourist Park Campground. Thursday morning we rode up Forestville Rd. to Harlow Lake. This was near our old cross country ski trails, and a very nice road. (Note: this part is not on Thursday tracks, like a dummy I forgot to turn on tracking). From there we tried to ride north up to Big Bay staying just east of CR550 when possible on back roads but found a lot of private land with gated closed roads, I do not recommend you try this portion of the route. We did make it up to the Light House at Big Bay Point, beautiful weather, sunny and 80 degrees.

 

Then we rode down CR510 (a wide two lane dirt road) and found the old lookout tower near the hairpin corner. It was more like we stumbled upon it, we were looking for a tower but the only thing left is it’s foundation.

We then made a little loop around the Yellow Dog River and back to the 510. Got turned around (lost) a few times doing this, Jerry says, “My GPS says this is a road” and he kept riding forward, but they were more like an enduro trail at times. Finally after riding across the river, (DNR don’t read that), we found some dual sport roads and went back to the village of Big Bay for lunch and gas. After lunch we found the Northwestern Rd. a nice twisty, rocky, but fast road off of the Triple A and rode it west through Dodge City then to Big Erick’s Bridge to look at the falls on the Huron River. At the falls we met an older gentleman riding alone on a 1970 something BMW.

He was from Grand Rapids; his bike didn’t have a windshield or saddlebags, just a roll on the back of his seat, a true “Then Came Bronson”. He said he’s been coming to the U.P. doing this for years. After some pictures of the falls we left and looked for and found Bald Mountain and climbed it to the top, on foot of course.

At the top it has a very nice view of the western end of the Huron Mountains and Lake Superior.

From here we rode back to 510 by way of Triple A, then 510 back to Marquette. Our first day of riding and we’re like kids again, I think we rode the most miles of the weekend today.

Friday
From Marquette we again rode up Forestville Rd. to 550 and then to Wilson Creek Truck Trail (another nice road) then to 510. We rode the Triple A to its end then found some nice back roads around the Mt. Arvon area and to the Slate River. The road was posted Private to the falls so we rode around it to the Huron Trading Post for some gas and lunch.

Afterwards we rode up to the village of Skanee then to the mouth of the Huron River where we were attacked by biting flies. We stripped down to our riding shorts and jumped into Lake Superior, cold but at least no bugs.

After putting up with the flies while getting dressed we rode the Northwestern (this one is not to be missed!) at race speed back to Triple A, then snowmobile trails to Big Bay where we checked out another campground (Perkins) for a future stay. At this point we were getting tired so we rode all the way back down CR550, a paved road to Harlow Lake then Forestville Rd to Marquette. Another long but fun day in da UP.

Saturday
It rained Friday night and was cooler on Saturday Morning. We rode up and met another rider near Big Bay and then rode with him around Silver Lake and the Dead River Basin to see the damage from the floods caused by a broken dam a few years ago.

 

Sure was scary to see all the power and destruction that water can do. We got turned around a little in this area but hey, that is part of the fun. We then jumped onto a snowmobile trail, which turned out to be loads of fun, and found ourselves back in Big Bay for grub and gas. We then rode upBlind 35 to its end, this is the road that Ford, (Henry) is said to have the state of Michigan stopped building so he could be accepted into the Huron Mountain Club. (A little bit of history)

Sunday
Rain again on Saturday night with temps right around 50 on Sunday Morning. We starting the day by riding US41 west up to CR510 then north to Red Rd. then headed west again. We again got turned around by Aao and Aah Roads but found our way to Dishno Rd. which I really wanted to check out. Dishno Rd. runs east and west near the village of Champion and one of my favorite author Cully Gage, (Dr. Charles Van Riper) wrote a lot about this area in his many short stories in “The Northwoods Reader”. This is also another road that I highly recommend you don’t miss, as Jeramey would say, “Fun Fun Fun”.

Dishno Rd. ends at Peshekee Rd. which we rode north up to Celotex Rd. but found it was gated closed less with a mile from it’s intersection with Peshekee.

From here we rode Peshekee back south to a two track just south of Lake Arfelin in hopes of finding some back roads around Craig and Crooked Lakes. No such luck, one old logging road ended in the woods and another was gated closed, damn those rich people. Gas was getting low on Jerry’s bike so we headed back north to L’Anse by back roads.

After gas and grub in town, Jerry gets the bright idea of re-riding our path back to 510 and Marquette but leaving out all the u-turns and dead ends so we can have a clean track to keep, this worked out great following his GPS tracks, it was just like riding one of those GLDS events. Also on our way back to Marquette we followed two wolves running down a two track, I can’t think of a better way to top off our weekend vacation.

Jerry and I have wanted to do this trip for almost two years, and finally found the time to get away, but after 650 miles of back roads and two sore butts we had enough, so by 10:30 Monday morning we were leaving town and heading home. I’ll have to say this was the most fun I’ve ever had riding my dual sport bike. Doing GLDS events, when I can find time to ride them are loads of fun, but riding in the UP and doing it some what like blind fools that Bro and I did seems much more of an adventure. Though we rode for four days, from 9:00 to 7:30 every day, I know we only tapped into a small portion of the available two tracks and snowmobile trails in the area, all the more reason to come back. Marquette is also very special to us, our mother was bore and raised here, and we spent a lot of time in and around Marquette on vacations as kids so it was just like going home again.

In closing I have to give a lot of credit to Jeramey and crew for setting up all of the dual sport events they put on. I tried to map out this trip on my computer at home before we left, but it seemed like a lot of my routes could not be followed once we were up there, it’s not as easy as it looks. Thanks again Jeramey for all the hard work that you do.

See you on the trail,

John Bunker

UP Dual Sport Safari 2005

Posted on by July 21, 2012

1236 miles, 4 days – The Michigan U.P. Safari
By Chad Berger

Earlier this spring at the Wabeno Dual Sport ride I met Bryan, who was there by himself, just like me. We rode together there and also rode together at the Enduraid rally last month. Bryan tells me that he just joined the CCC, Cycle Conservation Club of Michigan and found an ad stating this…..
Upper Penninsula Dual Sport Safari.
1200 Miles of two-tracks, winding forest roads,rairoad grades. ORV routes and a little bit of pavement.
You will ride through every county in the U.P. The history and splendor of the U.P. at the twist of your wrist.
This is a true adventure. Your own adventure.
No markers, No ribbon, no paper arrows and no route sheets. Only your map,compass,GPS,motorcycle and that trail savvy and gut instinct you first found on your first trail ride.
Sound interesting says Bryan.
Yep, Lets do it!
Here is my ride report.

Here is a preview of whats coming up!

1236 miles, 4 days – The Michigan U.P. Safari
By Chad Berger

Day 0

I arrive at Bryans uncles cabin in Wabeno around 10 p.m. on Wednesday night. I pull in the driveway and first thing I hear is that Bryan dumped his DRZ while unloading it. Broken taillight, mirror, and blinker. This didn’t sound like a good start for the trip. We fixed the bikes, got some stuff sorted out then went to bed.

Day 1
We got the bikes all loaded up and hit the road for Iron River Michigan, the starting point of the trail for us. On this ride, they give you a passbook that you have to get filled out at different stops along the way to prove that you were actually there.
We got our passbooks stamped, topped off with gas and headed out on the trail. the Iron river trail is an ORV trail and is super whooped out. Straight as an arrow, but too bumpy to go too fast. This was actually a good shakedown ( literaly ) for our luggage. Unfortunately we didn’t have any saddle bags or panniers so we resorted to the old school bungie method. I think everyone should take at least one trip on a motorcycle fully loaded with everything bungied down. That way, you’ll truely appreciate it when you get some panniers. Bryan had a hell of a time keeping his shit from falling off, which led to many unplanned stops the first day.
Here is Bryan near the start, at the Beginning of the Watersmeet trails.

The bikes taking a rest along a marsh

At one point along the rail grade trail, there was three long and tall old trail bridges, each bridge was seperated by a couple hundred feet, pretty neet section. Its amazing what they used to do by hand to build the railroad the haul out all the lumber and Copper from the U.P.
Here is a view from one of the bridges.

After pounding the ORV trails, and many miles of old railroad grade,
we get our first glimpse of the Keweenaw penninsula at the towns of Houghton and Hancock.

Cool drawbridge between Houghton and Hancock, a couple pretty nice little towns.

After pigging out in Houghton, we decided we were going to try to make it all the way out to the tip of the Keweenaw penninsula, a fairly lofty goal considering the time.
Near the town of Ahmeek, we were riding along through an old mining site when Bryan hits some bumps and jetisons his one gallon spare tank. I honk like a mad man but he is too far ahead and doesn’t hear me. I stop and pick the thing up, being the nice guy I am.
Well, just a little ways down the trail it goes in three different directions. I have no Idea which way bryan went..damnit. I saw a waypoint on the GPS to the left, so I took it. Well, it was the wrong way and I went all the way into a town and drove around a bit, expecting to find him waiting..he wasn’t.
I figured out my mistake after looking at the GPS and headed off the the next waypoint that crossed the highway I was on, a few miles up the road. along the way I stopped and talked to a couple atv’ers at a gas station, they hadn’t seen anyone go by..shit. Well, I find a visitors center with a picknic table and get out all my maps, to try to figure out what to do. I turned on the cel phone and there was a message from Bryan. I gave him my location, and we meet up 10-15 minutes later. Well that cost us about half an hour and it was getting close to dark. We found out about a campground nearby and headed out Seven mile point to the campground.
$17 for a tent site, $22 for a cabin with two beds..SCORE!

Not a bad place to camp eh??

Well, a trip like this is a good learning experience. One thing I learned alot about was loading a bike. I read on a popular motorcycle travel site that when loading a drybag, put your air mattress in first then let it spread out to the perimiter of the bag and put all your other stuff in the middle. Well, thats all fine and dandy..unless the goddamn tips of the hooks on the bungie straps rubs a series of holes through the drybag and air mattress. Luckily we had a cabin the first night, but 6 holes in a $70 thermarest..son of a bitch. Lesson learned.

Day 1 ended up being 260 miles, Not too bad.

Day 2

We cruise up to the tourist town of Copper Harbor for breakfast but make a little side trip first up the Brockway Mtn parkway, a pretty fun little ride.
Here is a cool old bridge in Eagle River 

Here is what you see from the bridge.

Here is Bryan checking out the view of Lake Superior from Brockway

Here is a shot of the lake from a ways down of Brockway. Notice the freighter out in the lake. The shipping channels are fairly close to shore and there are tons of shipwrecks all along the coast. 

Our goal after breakfast was to take a side trip out to the very tip of Keweenaw point, to visit an old NASA rocket range. This was one rough as hell section of trail, but very fun. Lots of rocks, ledges, mud, etc. 

Lifes a beach. 

Bryan showing some nice form through one of the many mud holes.

Once we got done goofing off out there it was already getting close to noon, and we hadn’t made any progress in the direction we were heading for the day. The route calls for back tracking the same stuff we rode yesterday for quite a while. Well, those trails were nothing to brag about, and they run right next to the highway anyways so we put in some road miles. We had to stop in Hancock to find a Motorcycle dealer to see if they had a couple mirrors and a speedo cable for the DRZ. We each neaded one mirror from low speed dump yesterday. Well, no luck on the bike parts but we did find a camping store that had a patch kit for my thermarest.

More day 2
The ride from Twin Lakes to L’Anse and on to republic was the best part of the ride I think. Pretty remote feel to the area.
Lots of little side trips today. Here is the Victoria Spillway

Not sure what Bryan is up to here but it looks like no good.

We tried to find the exact spot of the top of Mt. Arvon ( The highest point in Michigan ), but exteme logging in the area made it quite difficult. We actually rode through an area with some loggers working, I’m sure they were wondering what we were doing.
Here is me riding down Mt Arvon Then we had to put the hammer down to get some miles in. Awesome Forest roads that make 50-60 mph pretty easy to do

Sometimes you have to stop and take a look at the scenery though

11hrs28min and 280 miles later arrive in at Little Lake campground.

We actually did go southeast out of Twin Lakes to Alston then about half way to Sidnaw we went east on FR2276 to the Sturgeon River Gorge. We didn’t hike all the way in to the falls though, It was frikin’ hot and at that point we just wanted to keep moving. We also stopped at silver mtn and talked to a guy but decided to skip the 300 step hike up to where there used to be a lookout tower. This is about the only things we skipped on becuase we felt we had been doing too much goofing of and not enough riding.

If we woulda known it was going to be so nice I coulda left alot of crap at home…but at least I didn’t bring the laptop this time
Actually a little rain woulda been nice, It was dustier than hell.

Day 3

We headed out of Little Lake and into Gwinn for Breakfast. We had to make a detour from the route to avoid some road construction. We got back on track and and headed up to Munising to get gas and some camping supplies. After Munising is the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. We stopped by Twelve mile beach then headed up to Hurricane River on some really sandy roads.
Twelvemile beach 

Hurricane River 

Wheres the scantily clad ladies..what kinda beach is this anyways?

This area has an excellent backpacking trail near the beach, something like 38 miles long I think. Bryan has done it a couple times and said it was great.
Next stop, the Grand Sable Sand dunes. Bryan said they would be impressive and it certainly was.

In the above pic there is the Au Sable lighthouse.
There is a spot on the Dunes where in the hayday of logging they had a chute down the dunes that they would send the logs flying down the 300 foot dunes to the lake, where they would be floated out to ships.
Here is the area the chute used to be. 

Bryan checking out the chute. You can go down this but its harder than hell to get back up.

Heading out towards the Crisp Point lighthouse.

We gassed up near the mouth of the Little Two hearted river and had to either take a shortcut on the ORV trail or backtrack a ways to the gravel forest roads.
In this 3 mile section of ORV trail I dumped my bike 2 or 3 times. The sand was super deep and I had major issues. In the above picture I was busy screaming a series of expletives that woulda impressed anybody…it wouldn’t be the last time I did it either.

We finally make it to the Crisp Point lighthouse.

and off we go again on some better ORV trails and forest roads.

The next little side trip was Raco Field. Raco field is an abandomed military airstrip, built around WWII to protect the locks at Sault St. Marie. There are 3 runways each around 5000 ft long and built in the shape of a triangle.

Bryan scooting down the runway.

We pull into a camprgound near St. Ignace early and head out to a buffet then go grab some beer and head to camp. I spend the rest of the night trying to fix my thermarest and drinking some cold ones.
aahh

The whole time on the ride I was wishing I had a KTM 450 dual sported.
Bryans DRZ worked great, but so did my XR, well except for the sand. I’m sure the sand thing was mostly my fault but Bryan hopped on my bike and was suprised with the geometry. On the XR, you sit right on the tank, even when you slide back, you end up sliding forward because of the seat angle. The DRZ’s geometry is much more like a dirt bike. When you sit naturally on the bike, your arms are pretty straight, and your hips are probably 2 feet from the center of the steering tube.
I know the DRZ isn’t the greatest dirt bike either but its better than the XR. Heck, I think you could ride a GS or a V-Strom on most of the route, its pretty easy for the most part, but there are some sucker sections.

Its a pretty cool area. Its really hard to belive that something like this is possible anymore. Its staggering the amount of land up there. There was one section that I’m pretty sure I didn’t see a house for more than 30 miles! Everything was pretty laid back, the people and the weather were great, and it felt like we could do whatever the hell we wanted.
The Cycle Conservation club of Michigan ( http://www.cycleconservationclub.org/index.htm) actually has three things like this. The U.P. safari, the L.P. Safari ( which is also 1200 miles ) and the M.C.C.C.T. trail safari which is 500-800 miles depending on how you do it and is the longest permanently marked motorcycle trail on earth!

Day 4

By Sunday, we were getting pretty good at breaking camp and getting the bikes loaded. I think we were on the road by 7:30 and head into St. ignace for breakfast and to check out the big bridge.

Thats the Mackinac bridge, pretty impressive. 5 miles long, the tops of the towers are 522 feet tall and the roadway is 199 feet above the water.
Headed out on the trail and rode some pretty fun sections. At one point we took a wrong turn and rode about 5 miles of great trail that led to this.

Then we got to the Highwater truck trail 

Bryan goofing off 

After this area, the trail gained elevation and got real sandy. Remember what I said before about sand..yeah, I hated it. If I did this again I’d skip this whole section.

 It got to the point where I was just basicly pushing the bike, lugging it in first gear just barely moving. I really didn’t want to dump it on this section. It was quite hot and I was getting pissed.
I ended up surviving that section of trail and we pressed on.

But the sand wasn’t completely gone…

This was a hard drop. We were stopped trying to figure out where to go and found it was the other day than where we were pointing. I turned the bars, gave it some gas and tire washes out..BAM, down she goes. We got the bike back up and I hopped back on it but something was wrong. The bars were bent..Shit. I hopped off of it to take a better look and noticed that the fender wasn’t pointing the same direction as the tire either. What the hell..We reefed on the bars a bit and got them a little better but its still messed up.
portrait time.

Time for some rest and a snack 

And here we are, back at the start.

We head out of Iron River and stop in Laona and pick up some beer at the bar and head to the cabins near Wabeno, to celebrate our ride.
Day four ended up being 399 miles and we got to the cabin 15 hours and 15 min after leaving the campground in the morning!

Miscellaneous

Bryan was pretty quick with the camera whenever I did something stupid. Here, my kickstand didn’t go all the way down and tipped over when I got off it, landing on my foot

Notice where this happened..luckily I didn’t get tossed in the river.

Don’t think I was the only one to do something stupid

I just have an uncany knack to be caught doing stupid shit

Parting Thoughts

Chad ->

It was pretty cheap actually. You have to be a CCC member, which is $30 and you need to buy the Safari packet, which is $25 and includes your passbook and a CD with all the GPS info, Maps and other info. Then, you need a Michigan ORV stickers which is $16.75 I think.
There really isn’t alot of info out there about this trip, thats why I wanted to post some pics. Its a great trip with some awesome scenery, get out and ride it!

I fall down alot, I have a bit of a problem with deep sand. I do OK if the sand is only 2-3 inches deep, but when it gets real deep and tracked up, I have a tendency to wipe out. I’ve tryed about every technique out there, and they all end up the same way.

Bryan ->

Chad rides pretty well. I think it has more to do with the bike. I sat on it and it seemed like you were sitting on the front wheel. Maybe he should go with the DRZ after all . . .
And hey, some of that deep sand was really tough. The only redeeming factor was that sometimes there would be a small piece of good trail in between patches to let you get the bike trimmed back into coordinated flight before plowing into the next section of “turbulence”. Once you lost speed, it was a real struggle to recover.

Background – Even though we did it in four days, it was not a death march. We ate a leisurely breakfast sometime during the morning (restaurant – we didn’t cook), made side trips, and took a lot of breaks and photos. For dinner, we would pick up a sub and a couple of beers to enjoy at the campsite. If you keep moving at a reasonable pace you really rack up the miles. It probably should have been a five day ride for us but we got a little crazy the last day and rode out the finish just as it got dark. Take those side trips. If something interests you, go for it.

Consider this: if you stretch the trip out too long, it has the potential to turn into something boring or even become a chore. We stayed active and eliminated dead time by filling our days with a good mix of riding and tourist stops. The bottom line for us was that we like to ride and we came to ride, so we rode until we ran out of time, light, or ambition.

My DRZ-400S was stock except for the fresh set of DOT knobbies – and don’t those tires boost your confidence when your bike is swimming around under you in that soft sand or spongy gravel. Oh yeah, I also “upgraded” to a gel seat. This didn’t work out for me as the upgrade seems like I went from sitting on a concrete block to sitting on a railroad tie. When the beaded seat cover I ordered didn’t come in, I went to a discount store and bought the auto version for about seven bucks. I folded it into the shape of the seat using zip ties (you can’t cut the beads) and rode it the whole way. This thing kept me cool and dry – no monkey butt! Try it – you will like it. If not, the wooden beads would make a nice campfire along the route.

Clothing – I left my riding clothes at home and instead wore light backpacking trousers, a long sleeved shirt and desert boots. The theme was to keep cool and dry and it worked. I wore a sleeveless travel vest because I liked the easily accessible pockets. If it would have rained or if we would have had wet trail, I had a gore-tex rain suit and almost had gore-tex socks for my boots.
I wore a fleece lined jacket in the early morning and later evening when the temperature was between 50-70 degrees. If you don’t wear a jacket, you might want to wear a mock turtle neck tee shirt of a dust rag around your neck to keep those crunchy bugs you run into from going down the front of your shirt. Dark sunglasses won’t serve you well. You end up going from bright sunlight into a “forest tunnel” of dark shadows and it is hard to see the trail.

Camping/Packing – We took light sleeping bags and small tents. My air mattress, pillow, sleeping bag, tent, and extra clothes all rolled up into a compression stuff stack that I strapped to my luggage rack. I strapped a small lumbar pack around that for miscellaneous items. It took a day to learn how to pack everything securely. The lesson learned is that everything needs to be inside a bag. The whoops on the ORV trails cause you to jettison some things from your bike (like a can of chain lube, a water bottle, and assorted soft drinks in various stages of consumption). Put it all in a cheap stuff sack under some elastic cargo webbing. By the way, if you find one of my soft drinks, better wait until spring before you open it. It is probably still pretty fizzy from the paint shaker treatment it got on the whoops. I had a one gallon gas can for a while, but gave it up when I found out I didn’t need it at all. I also had a tow rope wrapped around my front fender – speaks for itself.

I ran 18/24 lbs in the tires. The couple extra pounds in the back was for the extra load. The bike rode well, even with the extra load, but was harder to handle standing still as it was more top heavy. Also, you can’t swing your leg over the back making getting on and off a chore. I had 5 or 6 good rock strikes. Sometimes you just can’t see them in the shadows or when just and edge juts up from the trail. Look out for wooden bridges too as the edges are sometimes exposed. I had heavy tubes and tire slime in both wheels. Chad and I had no flats.

Navigation – I had a Magellan Sport Track GPS mounted on the handlebar loaded with topo maps for the UP. I also loaded the waypoints from the CD but for some reason ended up with some big sections missing. Although I cobbed in a 12 plug for the GPS, I decided to go with a fresh set of AA batteries everyday instead. Saves on a lot of external power lost messages on the screen. I printed out the maps from the CD and put them in a waterproof 9X12 map case that I clipped to the crossbar with cheap key ring carabiners. I liked this because I could clip and flip the map over on the fly. I could display two full sheets at a time – one on each side. I also carried a DeLorme Gazetteer with the route highlighted on it. I put this in a jumbo waterproof map case and carabiner clipped it to my read cargo net. The Gazetteer is also great for map recons. The definition and detail is good and it shows a lot of area information regarding state and federal camp grounds and other items of interest. In an emergency it might be good for alternate routes and has lat/lon info in the margins. Road names vary from publication to publication and I attribute some of this to the “same road” having segments that have different names. The GPS pops up a window with road names (in addition to the names on the map) as you approach them – including the name of the road you are on. This is very handy. You have to be good enough with the GPS to operate it on the fly. You will have to zoom in and out a lot to get detail and look ahead for confirming waypoints. We had the waypoints starting out so they were great in confirming that we were following the route correctly. Later when we lost them, we were still OK because by that time we figured out distance, scale, and what each of the roads and trails might look like.

All that doesn’t mean you won’t still miss a few turns. Sometimes you are daydreaming and lose track of time/distance and mess up. If the trail you are on is more and more looking like less and less you are usually in the wrong place. Don’t get frustrated if you miss a few and have to back track. It happens to everyone. Instead, congratulate yourself on taking a scenic side trip in addition to the standard course and move on. These “exploratory moments” are actually kind of fun. You usually get an interesting ride.

The roads and trails vary. You can easily do 30-50 mph on much of the gravel and ORV trails. Some places slow you down to putt-putt speed (whoops, rocks, washouts, potholes). Roads that are also snowmobile trails are great because they have fabulous signage. Those that aren’t give you those adrenaline moments – you know, like when you are in the groove heading into a blind corner on a forest road when you suddenly realize that the road is turning much sharper than you are. Conveyor belts nailed to some bridge surfaces can be slippery. Echelon formations work good on most gravel roads to keep from powder coating the #2 rider. In narrow areas, a l-o-n-g trail formation will keep #2 out of the worst of the dust.

We didn’t run into a lot of traffic on the off pavement sections – even on Saturday. Deer seemed to be more present on the trails in the evenings although we saw a lot of them. I had no close calls but slowed down early when I saw one ahead.

Gas was not a problem. The longest stretch we had was 96 miles and I made that without going on reserve with my 2.4 gallon tank. Chad had a custom large tank and we had a siphon hose along just in case. That 96 miles would have been more like 80 but for a few “exploratory moments” on our part. We did have a problem with “intermittent” gas stops. One place had a note in the window proclaiming “no gas”. Others were closed. I usually gassed up when I got down a gallon or when I saw a very long stretch ahead. On one long run, the marked stations were closed. When I got close to a big town I already had about 90 miles on my tank and scoffed at an available station thinking I was packing sufficient cool to make it. Five miles out I hit reserve. I’m glad I did because now I can say that I had to go on reserve. We needed to be able to do that just to add drama to this story. We were short on harrowing tales of adventure because everything was going too well. Both Chad and I were often getting 50 mpg – except where the trail was tough.

Here is a basic route map.

uff da, that 4th day was a tough one!

Kentucky DS Ride

Posted on by July 21, 2012

Kentucky DS Ride
by Terry Nestrick

I have composed a ride report for a Williamsburg, KY DS ride completed 28 to 30DEC06 by Terry Nestrick

[Toxic], Dan Djokovic [Indy] and Neal O’Brien [2big4akdx] … we basically rode a variety of roads, 2 trackers, trails, streams, mud holes, hills and valleys in the Daniel Boone National Forest west of Williamsburg, KY which is located at KY exit 11 of I-75, approximately 11 miles north of the KY / TN border. The link given below provides an interactive map of the area which can be expanded to illustrate the variety of roads and trails available in the forest area to the west of Williamsburg, KY … basically we mapped out an area of interest for each of three days riding on Indy’s Garmin 60CSx so as to provide an 85 to 110 mile ride, then we took off exploring … as is common with such rides, many routes proved to be dead ends, others started well and became impassable, some simply were not there any more, others were totally new and very exciting … but in the end, our goal of seeking a winter reprieve in the form of adventure riding was completely fulfilled. The weather was outstanding all three days … sunny, temperatures ranging from low the 40s to almost 60 … we needed cooler weather gear for an early morning start and could delayer throughout the day … even pavement sections were quite comfortable in the early AM with a decent pair of thermal gloves … we carried a reasonable assortment of gear to include tire repair implements, common tools and an extra air filter to cover the potential of swamping a bike in one of the many water crossings encountered in this area. Even though this is the low water time of year for KY, we still found streams that were much too deep to safely cross. Tire repair gear is a must as glass and metal fragments are quite common in the forest areas and also in many of the residential areas one must pass through on the way into or out of the forest … in fact, in our last trip to KY over Thanksgiving, Indy got a rear flat by something that produced a very clean cut through the center of his tire and tube [Teraflex tire with Bridgestone Ultra Heavy Duty tube] … we had better luck this time though, no flats! Each of our bikes is capable of at least 100 miles on a full tank of fuel for the expected type of riding … in some cases, depending on where our ride took us, gas stations were not available so appropriate planning was necessary … only the KDX-200 [2.9 gallon tank] came close to exhausting its fuel supply after a 96 mile ride on day two of the adventure … under these riding conditions, it appears that the 3.5 gallon tanks on both the WR-450 and the KTM 300 XC-W could easily provide greater than 125 miles range.

For those who might be interested, we opted to get a room at the local Super 8 Motel just off the freeway in Williamsburg … at a total cost of $50 per night split between the three of us it offered a perfect base from which to ride each day and provided a hot shower and clean bed each night with a complimentary Continental Breakfast each morning to boot! Amazingly, Williamsburg has virtually every brand of fast food known to man available in walking distance from the Motel … however, only one “sit down” type restaurant, of the Mexican persuasion … luckily, it is quite good and reasonably priced … located right next door to the Super 8 as well! One other point, there is a nice Quarter Wash [actually Dollar-and-a-Quarter Wash is more accurate] just over the freeway to the west on 92 … right on the way home each day … because of the negative characteristics of multiple coatings of dried-on clay, we stopped each evening and lightened up the bikes by several pounds with a quick spray wash followed by a good chain lubrication with Digilube … definitely raises the spirits to see your faithful steed emerge from the mud each evening and greet you each morning with a twinkle in her fenders; but now I’m waxing a bit too poetic for many I’m sure …

Indy [Dan Djokovic] is an expert at planning and conducting such adventure rides by combining his innate sense of direction with an ability to assess aerial photos available on line as further delineated by overlaying roadways and trails which are also available on line. Combining these items with some GPS tracks and ride descriptions posted on the Adventure Rider site he managed to keep us moving regardless of what the terrain had to offer. In fact, if one did not know him, you would swear he lives down there or has ridden down there many times before … not likely though since he is actually a Canadian whose ancestral lineage in my scientific opinion can be traced back to an extinct breed of homing pigeons! Indy preserved the details of our actual tracks and kept notes on his Garmin regarding many of our planned routes … if anyone is interested in such information, you can contact him at: <mailto:d2eng@comcast.net>d2eng@comcast.net. We are devoting a series of several 3 to 4 day rides over the next couple of winters to attempt the compilation of a series of GPS routes in the Daniel Boone National Forest which will provide reasonably exciting DS rides without having to suffer some of the complications associated with tough terrain and dead ends encountered when basically riding blind as we did in this particular case.

Basic Area Map of Williamsburg, KY:
Live Search Maps

Bikes:
Indy: [2004?] WR-450
Neal: 1996 KDX-200
Toxic: 2006 KTM 300 XC-W

Photo 1 … This is our first day’s ride … Neal won’t arrive until tomorrow so Indy and I are out testing the waters [+ clay = mud] to the west and south of Williamsburg, KY … that’s him going up the hill, not incredibly steep but far worse than this photo makes it look. We headed into the forest and began following roads and trails which pointed us in a southerly direction as we were planning lunch in Jellico, TN. Naturally, Indy who is an expert rider has a knack for picking the muddiest, steepest, slimiest trails he can find … here we are climbing up a mountain side on what is labeled a KY road … just before this shot I barely made it up a deep mud infested switchback only to become entangled in a 3″ plastic hose draped across the roadway over the top of a muddy section … all to the absolute amazement of Indy who always offers such sage advice as: “Why did you take the hardest line?” … or: “Never stop before clearing an obstacle!” … all the while I am struggling to get free of whatever situation I have managed to cause by my less than optimum riding skills. We ran into three hunters at this point, it is about 1100 hrs … they were riding a large utility ATV up to the top of the mountain to go bow hunting for deer.

Photo 2 … The smile shown here on Indy’s face usually appears just before the trail goes totally into the crapper … we have already been climbing several hundred feet to this point on a road that went from quite muddy to nice gravel … then, in the distance, you can see the rather interesting route to the top. We explored a short trail off to the left before this hill … it was a grassy 2T that led directly into a swamp after a few hundred yards … all just part of the adventure! We left our new hunter friends behind at this point … their ATV would have had problems climbing this hill.

Photo 3 … Trail at the top of our first mountain climb … sort of a cross between a single track ATV trail and a dirt 2T … although it’s difficult to see in this picture, the trail drops off of this mountain, goes through several switchbacks, then climbs up the next mountain centered in the frame. As long as we were at higher elevations the trails were quite dry … usually hard clay with large rocks present in the surface … the rocks occasionally formed the entire surface of the trail and gave me plenty of practice climbing and descending rocky stair steps and rock-filled erosion ruts. This area was relatively easy riding and quite fun … the greatest hazard was spending too much time looking at the scenery … more than once I nearly ran off the trail after becoming a bit too enamored with the real estate. This trail actually turned out to be a viable route as we later emerged on one of the many National Forest roadways and therefore didn’t have to backtrack through the particularly muddy climb previously described. Although not particularly evident in this shot, just off the side of the trail is an extremely steep incline … perhaps greater than 60 degrees slope most of the time and quite often, a sheer cliff … therefore staying on the trail is imperative to maintain one’s health!

 

Photo 4 … Here’s Indy blasting down one of the National Forest roadways … they are often a combination of pure gravel surface intermixed with sections of asphalt … we typically rode such areas at 25 to 30 mph … a nice comfortable speed to permit assessment of the scenery while still enjoying a bit of mechanical mayhem with the machinery.

Photo 5 … We ate lunch in Jellico, TN which is just over the TN border south of Williamsburg, KY. Jellico is actually outside the National Forest … here we are proceeding west out of Jellico and came across this ancient Jail … compared to some of the homes in the area, this old Jail is actually in pretty good shape.

Photo 6 … One of the typical National Forest roadways … this one is exceedingly well maintained despite being on a very steep, multiple switchback … the reason is quite simple, Indy is pointing at it … we are just inside the TN border and the adjacent KY county to the north is “dry” … yup, you guessed it … that’s the Rooster Scratch Bar and Grill just up ahead!

Photo 7 … It’s 1430 in the afternoon and the temperature is beginning to drop, especially in the valleys where you are in the shade. We are circling back to Williamsburg and are crossing one of the many streams in this area of the forest … luckily for me, Indy couldn’t find a trail that necessitated fording this creek, otherwise this photo might well have depicted something quite different … whenever entering water I usually picture two perfect rubber arcs protruding from the surface of still waters, perhaps the worst time one could imagine to have the rubber side up … only in the mind of a novice rider, eh?

Photo 8 … Many of the side roads leading into and out of the National Forest are asphalt similar to what is shown here. Actually I had a blast riding these smooth, lightly traveled, very curvy paved sections as I had not ridden on the road much prior to beginning DSing late this past summer. Per the suggestion of Indy, I equipped my KTM 300 XC-W with a Michelin Desert Front and a Michelin Baja Rear tire … aside from being nearly impossible to obtain this time of year, these tires appear to be working very well*** … they hook up nicely in virtually every situation I have encountered thus far [pavement, gravel, mud, rocks and sand] … and after approximately 750 miles the front is near virgin condition while the rear is just beginning to show a distinct, flat, center wear pattern on the knobs … they do not show any chunking or hair-line cracking of the knobs of either tire even though they have been subjected to high speed pavement running and considerable forays through rocky terrain. We stopped here for Indy to check our route back to the Motel on his Garmin.

[*** It is probably important to mention that because of my rather limited riding skills any assessment of tire performance mentioned herein should be taken with a large dose of salt or perhaps, alcohol … anytime I discover a brand that remains down more than up with respect to the rubber side, I tend to like and promote it.]

Photo 9 … Neal appears and the fearsome threesome is off for Day Two’s ride … Indy on the left, Neal in the center, Toxic on the right. It is 0930 hrs in the morning, there’s still a bit of nip in the air … and most importantly, the bikes are nice and clean … but not for long! Today we plan on riding due west across the breadth of the National Forest toward Stearns, KY to check out this relatively uninhabited area.

Photo 10 … That’s Indy … blasting through the first steam crossing of the day … this one is typical of the cement bottomed road crossings encountered throughout the National Forest … they are usually posted: “Do Not Enter Under High Water Conditions” … here the water level is about as low as it gets, only about a foot deep in the center. Turns out the biggest hazard on many of these cement crossings are places where the concrete has broken away leaving behind a web-work of rebar where sometimes the ends are protruding upward … the hole in the lower left of the photo is just such a spot.

Photo 11 … Many of the trails tend to follow ridges in higher elevations and, as shown here, streams and creeks in the valleys. I got a bit over zealous in photographing Mother Nature and almost didn’t show you any of the trail we were about to investigate … it is peaking out in the upper right hand corner of the frame … but wait, there’s more coming!

Photo 12 … Yup, you guessed it … Indy has succeeded again … first ‘adventure’ of the day … the wash job on the bike is trashed as we proceed down this rather messy looking trail that follows a small creek down the valley. We rode for quite some distance before the going became too arduous to consider fun any more[largely my opinion in this particular case] … then we backtracked through the whole mess a second time! From my novice perspective, what makes riding such trails as this one a form of gambling involves the high degree of variability associated with submerged surface composition … just when you begin to relax as most of the puddles are reasonably hard bottomed, you hit one that is pure, unadulterated, clay-based, slimy snot. Well, as you folks already know … and Indy is always reminding me: “Momentum’s your friend, unless you’re out of control” … perhaps, much like there is a very fine line between genius and madness?

Photo 13 … It is never too long before encountering another stream crossing … here we witness Indy demonstrating perfect riding technique for the foot deep water … good part is that you get rid of much of the mud you’re carrying after one of these! Most of the crossings are rock bottomed and therefore relatively easy to traverse … only the occasional larger stone causes any excitement. As mentioned previously, carrying an extra air filter and spark plug is prudent for such environs.

Photo 14 … Some trails were absolutely brutal! We opted out on trying this one … while it is difficult to assess the steepness of the incline in this photograph, take my word for it, this baby had all the makings of disaster written all over it! The erosion gully in the center was over 5 feet deep about half way up the off camber hillside … the erosion gully was sloped at greater than 60 degrees … the center was muddy clay mixed with rocks and then covered with leaves … yea, I can picture many of you folks right now … your tongue is hanging out, your palms are sweating, you’d give it a try … but patience my friends, we have a whole day ahead of us … its not nice to break your ride too early in the day!

Photo 15 … Indy [left] and Neal beneath a huge outcropping of sedimentary rock. Although all the leaves are now gone from the trees and the countryside is a bit washed out with regard to color, it does have one advantage … you can actually see more of the terrain. Indy has been down here in the summer and he tells me that when the trees are in full bloom, you can barely see any of the terrain such as this.

Photo 16 … Mile after mile of near perfect riding conditions … this is a T in the trail about half way up a mountainside that is actively being forested … the trail leading up to this point looked exceedingly fresh, was very rough, soft and muddy in spots … at one point we passed a foresting machine. As you can see, when it rains, it gets muddy very quickly … the conditions go from reasonably good traction to quite slippery because of the clay soil composition common to this area. The trail straight up the mountain in the foreground is my one failure … it is a series of switchbacks, each flight becoming steeper and more rocky until it finally emerges on the top where the road becomes ‘reasonable’ again … or so I am told by Indy and Neal, both of whom easily made the climb and profusely described it as: “GREAT FUN!” I simply ran out of momentum [and courage] about 80% up the hill … where I came to stop the hillside was so steep I couldn’t stand up … so, I slid off the back of the seat and held on to the bike for support … together we slid downward, first sideways, then finally in the forward direction … after three flights of bulldogging I managed to find a spot I could remount and restart my bike and ride the rest of the way back to this exact point.

Photo 17 … A great purview of the valley below … we are actually perched on the edge of a huge rock cliff and to my left, the trail runs directly up to, and if you’re not paying attention, off the edge … it was at least a 300 foot fall straight down!

Photo 18 … Early in the morning of Day 3 … today we head to the north and with intentions of following the Cumberland River west into the forest … we take a side adventure on a small single track leading off the main trail … it heads down a steep, rocky hillside and emerges in a hidden valley occluded by this gargantuan outcropping that Indy and Neal are posing beneath … but there are more secrets to unfold!

Photo 19 … The valley beyond the preceding outcropping is a box canyon serving up this delightful waterfall pouring into a perfectly formed, natural, reflection pool. All of this scenery is completely hidden from the main trail which skirts the valley on the ridge above the waterfall to the left. The temperature was at least 15 degrees cooler down in this natural depression which likely explains the many campsite remains in the area.

Photo 20 … Neal heading up another of the countless ATV trails … the pines add a great deal of color to the otherwise bland decor of the winter forest scene. As you might guess, there really isn’t much flat territory in the Daniel Boone National Forest. Many of these trails are dead ends but they still present a great deal of riding pleasure when you remember what MI can be like this time of year.

Photo 21 … I am posing within a giant cave leading into a rocky ledge alongside the trail. If you examine the upped edge of this ledge you can see that the soil layer is really quite thin … the vegetation and trees have developed a complex strategy of entanglement that enables them to cling to the mountainsides.

Photo 22 … Hey, a sandy road … feels a bit like Michigan! This is a KY road that follows the Cumberland River and appears quite well traveled … many spots folks can fish from along the bank.

Photo 23 … Oops! Another side trail turns ugly … here we see Neal assessing my chances of surviving an attempted ride down this gully … again, photography tends to forego depth as these rocky steps are really quite steep and lead to something even worse … check out the next photo!

Photo 24 … Here is the bottom portion of the trail before it climbs the other side of the gully … Indy and Neal are explaining the complex line I will need to take in order to arrive at the bottom while still alive and in control of most of my appendages. As indicated by the photography … my closest approach to this trail was via the telephoto viewfinder on my camera … that’s why I am still here reporting this ride to you!

Photo 25 … The three amigos nearing the end of another perfect riding adventure. In the background is the mighty Cumberland River … the sound of several nearby rapids can be heard above the resounding silence of the surrounding National Forest … definitely calling us to return in the near future. We hope that these photos and accompanying dialog have provided you a “taste” of our adventure and together we now share some of these experiences that only DS riders can truly enjoy!