Anyone Ridden Old State House Trail Lately?

[WildBill]

Hey guys,

All these trail reports from the holiday weekend are getting me pumped to ride this coming weekend. :yeehaw: Adding to that is my buds desire to plan our ride in advance instead of over breakfast saturday morning. This is totally out of character for us so we're having a bit of a time with it. If it weren't for cell phones and email, it would never happen.

Anyways, has anyone ridden the "Old state House" trail lately? I re-read Smit-Dog's post from 09/02 but it didn't look like he got to explore the single track completely while riding with Zach. We're staying in the Mio/Rose City area, so it would be a little bit of a trek over to the trailhead and I'd hate to waste the trip over there for nothing. :ugg: Any reports would be greatly appreciated.

Is anyone else heading up that way to this weekend? :ride:

Thanks,

 

[Smit-Dog]

Hey WildBill,

Although we didn't ride the single track at OSH trail, considering that it's only a 17 mile loop, I don't know if I'd drive a ways just to ride it. But there's also part of the Huron trail right there too. Let us know how the trails are if you do go. They're within 10-15 minutes of the YMCA camp we go to.

 

[WildBill]

Yeah, that's why I'm hesitant. If it was really good singletrack, we could almost pit at the trailhead and run laps as we want, kinda H/S without the MX portion. If we ride it, I will post.

 

[70 marlin]

I've rode it many times. It's a great trail for teaching young ones trail riding. As it has it all but in a small way. "Sand hills, ORV trails, ORV routes" The Trail can be kind of sandy if the weather hot. One of the reasons I use this trail to teach younger riders is that the ORV route parallels the ORV trail and you can jump on it and get back to the trail head if they get tried of the ride. As for the Huron trail ORV Route, Don't bother with it! It has mountain high whoops. And there's a DNR officer that is a total nazi that patrols it like he owns it! There's a nice modern Camp ground right across the road from trail. "Old Orchard" its an Oscoda county park. They won't let you start or ride from your site to the trail. But I have pushed my bike across the street from the campsite and there OK with that. The campground is right on the cook dam Au Sable River impoundment.

 

[WildBill]

Marlin,

We'll be three guys that have ridden 6-12 years each and my little guy ain't even two yet, so it will be an adults ride. Do you think it'd be worth it? I'm really leaning towards Geels for Saturday based on the commenst by Smit-Dog and yourself. If it was really good singletrack, (i.e. Evart, from what I've heard), I'd give it a try definately. Do you think it'd be worth it for us?

 

[70 marlin]

Geels is a lot more fun! Evart, I'm still waiting on a good trail report. Rumor has it that they clear cut a large portion of the trail? Normal it's like my # 3 trail to ride for the fun factor and skill level. Old state is only fun if your very close and want a "very" short ride! When I go there I have kids & a high performance jet boat and I'm meeting a group of other high performance jetboaters. MI jetboat has a meet on the impoundment every year. And we camp @ old orchard campground as it lakefront! Dirt bikes are always second place on that weekend. It's just hard not to bring the bikes north. There’s always a little time for riding!

 

[WildBill]

Sounds like a great time, as they say, "Boats are Cool". It also pains me to go north w/o my bike. I've been fortunate the last 3 yrs. that my wife has agreed to have our 1 week vacation at my buddy's cabin. My riding buds would come up for a weekend so I could ride and then we have the rest of the week as a family. It doesn't look good for this year as my boy is almost two and the cabin is not exactly child proof and she's looking for a change of pace. Hopefully in a couple of years it will be a father & son ride and we can run the OSH trail then! Thanks again for the information, I think I'm going to push them towards Geels. We ran it once last year and it was a good ride.

Anyone else heading up this weekend?

 

[70 marlin]

That's why I bought a camper. My wife informed me that her babies weren't sleeping on the ground! These MI Hot boat meets are very cool. These boats shoot like 1000' rooster tails and are capable of speeds in excess of 75+. So enforcement is never more than a cove away waiting to nail you. You think the DNR is tough on bikes. Fast boats are definitely held to a high standard (and should be)

 

[team-green32]

I didnt like "Old State Trail" because there was nothing challenging about the trail. The geels is alot better.

 

[WildBill]

TG-32,

Thanks for your thoughts. As such, it looks like we're going to ride Geels on Saturday. Rode it once last year and thought it was a real nice pair of loops. That and there were only 2-3 other people there then. Only bad thing is that one bud is not riding this weekend so there will only be two of us unless we can convince him to still ride. He says he had a stressful week and wants to relax and maybe fish! I can't think of anything better than getting out on the bike and smoking some trail. Oh well, to each his own, huh?