Frederic Trail ride / hill slide … 24JUL04

[Nestrick]

Today emerged with such beauty … sunny, cool, a slight breeze … that I simply couldn’t stay home. So, after a bit of perusing my GLTR guide, I decided to ride the Frederic Trail which is a venue I had not yet experienced. In my mind, I expected it to be much like the C Loop of the Kalkaska system upon which I recently reported as they are located in the same vicinity … west of I-75 near Grayling … boy, was I ever wrong!

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On arrival at the trail head parking facility located south of County Road 612 a few miles west of Frederic I found it to be typical of my weekday rides … devoid of occupants. It is a clean, well graded facility equipped with a restroom. I unloaded and geared up quickly as my arrival time was about three in the afternoon … didn’t want to “pull a Woodsy” and get stuck in the woods overnight … the radio said it was going down to 40 degrees … a temperature at which it is often difficult to find summer squirrels!

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Frederic is basically 50 inch, ATV accessible trail throughout its entire 30 mile course. It does not offer much diversity with regard to surface composition … take your pick, either deep, soft sand with occasional roots, rocks and rubble … or, hard pack with occasional roots, rock and rubble. There seems to be more sandy sections than hard pack and nearly all the steep slopes are soft and sandy … by the way, there are untold number of steep slopes … many are amazingly long and decorated with a variety of twists and turns to keep you interested. This photo gives you an idea of the trail width as it passes through one of the conifer stands on the north loop … the photo cannot display sufficient depth to permit assessment of slope … but , take my word for it, there are very few flat spots on the Frederic.

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One passes through many clear cut areas … here we are climbing a long sandy hill to the top of the next ridge which supports and intact conifer stand.

 

[Nestrick]

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After a long climb, I emerged on one of the highest hill tops … the view was incredible today … valleys, trees, clouds and blue sky as far as the eye could see.

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Atop the next hill my view became even more incredible … if you look carefully, you can spot the trail snaking its way across the valley until it drops off the far side of another hill at a distance of almost half a mile. While the trail appears to be reasonably smooth in these photos … nothing could be further from the truth! The steep down slopes were generously carved by erosion leaving behind some serious ruts, roots and rocks to be encountered. For me, this meant a lot of time standing on the pegs, gritting my teeth and holding on for dear life!

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Here I am trying to give you some perspective on the steepness of some of the climbs … I am only about 20 feet down the trail from where my CRF is parked … get the picture?

 

[Nestrick]

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Another one of the long, steep, sandy climbs through the forest on the South Loop … by the time I arrived at this location, about 20 miles into the ride, my arms were beginning to ache from holding onto the bars so tight!

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After looking at a map and deciding I had no idea where I was despite being at an intersection with a forest road … I opted to try one of my new “trail snack bars” that I recently ordered from a dirt biker franchise located on the west side of the state. I think my facial expression tells the story … man, that sucker was really bad! Ingredients: dehydrated burnt squirrel, anhydrous pond scum, mosquito mash, green dye KDX, hydrogenated two stroke oil with extra trans-fatty acids … no wonder it tasted so bad, they left out the salt! While I was standing there capturing this shot I figured I was all alone … funny how that is … when I got done fooling around, some guy sitting in his car just through the woods behind me yells: “Are you OK … who are you talking to?” Once you get to know me, understanding my response is not a problem … I turned very slowly and put my fingers to my lips and made a “BE be BE be BE be BE be” sound … that was all it took … the gentleman rolled up his window and drove off without further discussion. Finally, I was all alone in the woods … just as it should be … never fool with a man who is in the process of getting lost!

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A final, departing shot of the product from a recent clear cut on the south loop. I could smell the fresh cut pine for well over a mile before arriving at this point … it was all neatly stacked just off the trail in such a manner so as to not disturb our path. The foresters did a nice job of fixing damages to our trail wherever they crossed with their machinery … and the CCC folks policed up the rubble so the trail was good as new despite all the activity … many thanks to all for their efforts in our behalf.

Frederic is a wide trail but not one that I would describe as easy when it is as dry as I found it today. The dry sand is soft and deep in many spots making it difficult to steer and when combined with a long, steep slope … the product is one that catches your breath at times. After the thirty mile ride which took me almost three hours to accomplish, I was tired and very happy. If you like sand, and you like hills … then the Frederic is for you!

terry nestrick :cool: