- Jan 30, 2005
- 644
- 0
Drummond Island, MI ( aka."The Rock")...1st timer Ride report.**NOW WITH PICS!**
Well, memorial weekend came and went and Yzman recruited his latest victims for the annual pilgrimage to the rock. It's a small Island at the eastern most point of Michigan's upper peninsula. It's only accessible by ferry and most of the island is nothing but ORV, Single track, and Jeep trails. the Terrain is rocks, mud, rocks, logs, rocks, water, rocks, ledges, roots, ruts... and did I mention the rocks? the routes are an odd mix tight nasty single track that is sometimes obscured to the point of losing the trail, and then you drop into open 2 tracks the vary in difficulty from looking like a road to 3' trenches filled with water and clay filled mud drop in some bowling ball and beach ball sized boulders and the occasional root or log under the surface for good measure, and what you get are some pretty hairy 2 tracks.
I was warned NOT to use a new tire since it would get chewed to **** out there. But since my rear tire was hammered I bought a Kenda Carlsbad for cheap. I must say, I'm pretty impressed with this tire. IMHO it's everything the Millville (which I think sucks) isn't. It hooked up everywhere and tracked really well. For Drummond, I'd say it's a very good tire, and it hardly took any wear at all.
Day one started off at 7am with me finishing my unpacking from my 1am arrival, and being assaulted with walls of mosquitoes. Holy **** I've NEVER seen skeeters like this before. not even at home in FL. It was truly unbelievable. after getting everything unloaded and ready to go for myself and Bonnie and the boys, the guys and I headed out. We covered alot of ground ad alot of varied terrain. It's all still just a blur for me, and with out my pics, (which are still floating around on a couple of the guys computers) it's difficult for me to do a time line of the days ride. The only thing I know for sure is I'm so glad I put the yellow plastic back on my bike. the headlight is junk now and I need to replace the mounting bolts for my bar mounts. the GPS mount I built worked flawlessly and The DiRZ in general did much better than I think anyone expected. The most memorable moments for me came in quick succession. Bob dropped his XR600 on a rut full of slimy clay as I was in the same rut, I convinced him to "not move" as I used the wheels of his bike for traction and rode it out. I felt kinda bad the he was pretty well screwed so I went back to help him get it out before he had a heart attack from struggling. As we were getting underway I bonzai'd another waterhole and upon my emergence on the other side, My front wheel hit a couple rocks that sent me to the ground hard. I slid head first into a tree...HARD. I pretty sure my AGV lid is trashed after that. So now covered head to toe in mud, I continue on to the next intersection were we are treated to some comic relief by someone other than me for a change. QUADTARDS! you can only imagine what they were up to. The most memorable quote of the day was delivered by Bob after we retrieved his XR6.
Joe: "Bob, what happened?"
Bob: "I don't ****ing know, and I don't ****ing care!"
Day 2 stared with rain. the general consensus was the MOST of us didn't want any part of riding it in the rain with the temps in the 50s. but it suddenly cleared up and got HOT, so we were off. YZman brought torture to a new level by "warming us up" on a trail the I swear he had just made up. there was no trail. just downed trees everywhere and openings between the underbrush. this didn't even qualify as a goat path. and it was in this crap that the DiRZ let me down for the first time. show where it's true limitaions were. it's big and heavy and goes through terrain like this with all the finesse of a bulldozer. Not even a mile in and I was ready to head back and call it quits. After everyone had gone on ahead, I looked at my GPS plotted a route back, then changed my mind and continued forward. I met up with the guys at the next intersection and told Don what I REALLY thought of him, then we proceeded on. the rest of the day was great..fast, slow, technical, open, road sections, mud, water, rocks... we had it all. this was the closest thing to heaven I could imagine. then YZman dove back into the woods and found another log pile. I got pissed, I was tired, and about 3/4 of the way though I said screw it, I'm done. I looked at my track log and planned my escape. at the next intersection, I wave goodbye ad didn't even stop. my bike was overheating and I was worn out from the logs. I hit 5th and burned it back to camp. I needed a drink. it wasn't 10 minutes later everyone else came in behind me. Kinda funny. here I was all pissed off and taking Don's abuse personal, and they were all done.
The kids and Bonnie did some 2 tracking all weekend and had a blast, and Bonnie really started getting a feel for her bike. Keith and family went out on a group ride with then on Sunday morning and everyone had the time of their lives. sadly I never DID get to ride with then over the weekend, by the time they got back Saturday, they were spent, and on Sunday, I was spent, so it just want meant to be.
I've discovered somethings about myself on this trip. one of then is: Every time I do something really cool, it's immediately followed by me landing on my head. example:
"hey did you see how he went through that mud hole"
"yeah, but did you see him crash after he came out the other side?"
"Hey, did you see him trying to roost us?"
"Yeah, then his tire hooked up and slammed him into the ground"
I think sometimes I truly am my own worst enemy... but what ever, it was great, I had a blast, and cant wait to do it again. (*note to self: work on log crossings)
Pics will be forth coming I hope. I had to upload my pics to Tim and Joe's laptops to free up space on my card, and I haven't received them back yet. The helmet cam video is another story. the cam failed me again and I was so discussed with it after day 1, I left it behind for day 2. oh well.
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/wolfchild13/Drummond Island 06/?start=all
Well, memorial weekend came and went and Yzman recruited his latest victims for the annual pilgrimage to the rock. It's a small Island at the eastern most point of Michigan's upper peninsula. It's only accessible by ferry and most of the island is nothing but ORV, Single track, and Jeep trails. the Terrain is rocks, mud, rocks, logs, rocks, water, rocks, ledges, roots, ruts... and did I mention the rocks? the routes are an odd mix tight nasty single track that is sometimes obscured to the point of losing the trail, and then you drop into open 2 tracks the vary in difficulty from looking like a road to 3' trenches filled with water and clay filled mud drop in some bowling ball and beach ball sized boulders and the occasional root or log under the surface for good measure, and what you get are some pretty hairy 2 tracks.
I was warned NOT to use a new tire since it would get chewed to **** out there. But since my rear tire was hammered I bought a Kenda Carlsbad for cheap. I must say, I'm pretty impressed with this tire. IMHO it's everything the Millville (which I think sucks) isn't. It hooked up everywhere and tracked really well. For Drummond, I'd say it's a very good tire, and it hardly took any wear at all.
Day one started off at 7am with me finishing my unpacking from my 1am arrival, and being assaulted with walls of mosquitoes. Holy **** I've NEVER seen skeeters like this before. not even at home in FL. It was truly unbelievable. after getting everything unloaded and ready to go for myself and Bonnie and the boys, the guys and I headed out. We covered alot of ground ad alot of varied terrain. It's all still just a blur for me, and with out my pics, (which are still floating around on a couple of the guys computers) it's difficult for me to do a time line of the days ride. The only thing I know for sure is I'm so glad I put the yellow plastic back on my bike. the headlight is junk now and I need to replace the mounting bolts for my bar mounts. the GPS mount I built worked flawlessly and The DiRZ in general did much better than I think anyone expected. The most memorable moments for me came in quick succession. Bob dropped his XR600 on a rut full of slimy clay as I was in the same rut, I convinced him to "not move" as I used the wheels of his bike for traction and rode it out. I felt kinda bad the he was pretty well screwed so I went back to help him get it out before he had a heart attack from struggling. As we were getting underway I bonzai'd another waterhole and upon my emergence on the other side, My front wheel hit a couple rocks that sent me to the ground hard. I slid head first into a tree...HARD. I pretty sure my AGV lid is trashed after that. So now covered head to toe in mud, I continue on to the next intersection were we are treated to some comic relief by someone other than me for a change. QUADTARDS! you can only imagine what they were up to. The most memorable quote of the day was delivered by Bob after we retrieved his XR6.
Joe: "Bob, what happened?"
Bob: "I don't ****ing know, and I don't ****ing care!"
Day 2 stared with rain. the general consensus was the MOST of us didn't want any part of riding it in the rain with the temps in the 50s. but it suddenly cleared up and got HOT, so we were off. YZman brought torture to a new level by "warming us up" on a trail the I swear he had just made up. there was no trail. just downed trees everywhere and openings between the underbrush. this didn't even qualify as a goat path. and it was in this crap that the DiRZ let me down for the first time. show where it's true limitaions were. it's big and heavy and goes through terrain like this with all the finesse of a bulldozer. Not even a mile in and I was ready to head back and call it quits. After everyone had gone on ahead, I looked at my GPS plotted a route back, then changed my mind and continued forward. I met up with the guys at the next intersection and told Don what I REALLY thought of him, then we proceeded on. the rest of the day was great..fast, slow, technical, open, road sections, mud, water, rocks... we had it all. this was the closest thing to heaven I could imagine. then YZman dove back into the woods and found another log pile. I got pissed, I was tired, and about 3/4 of the way though I said screw it, I'm done. I looked at my track log and planned my escape. at the next intersection, I wave goodbye ad didn't even stop. my bike was overheating and I was worn out from the logs. I hit 5th and burned it back to camp. I needed a drink. it wasn't 10 minutes later everyone else came in behind me. Kinda funny. here I was all pissed off and taking Don's abuse personal, and they were all done.
The kids and Bonnie did some 2 tracking all weekend and had a blast, and Bonnie really started getting a feel for her bike. Keith and family went out on a group ride with then on Sunday morning and everyone had the time of their lives. sadly I never DID get to ride with then over the weekend, by the time they got back Saturday, they were spent, and on Sunday, I was spent, so it just want meant to be.
I've discovered somethings about myself on this trip. one of then is: Every time I do something really cool, it's immediately followed by me landing on my head. example:
"hey did you see how he went through that mud hole"
"yeah, but did you see him crash after he came out the other side?"
"Hey, did you see him trying to roost us?"
"Yeah, then his tire hooked up and slammed him into the ground"
I think sometimes I truly am my own worst enemy... but what ever, it was great, I had a blast, and cant wait to do it again. (*note to self: work on log crossings)
Pics will be forth coming I hope. I had to upload my pics to Tim and Joe's laptops to free up space on my card, and I haven't received them back yet. The helmet cam video is another story. the cam failed me again and I was so discussed with it after day 1, I left it behind for day 2. oh well.
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/wolfchild13/Drummond Island 06/?start=all
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