SORRY NO PICS!!
This ride report is about Monday the 5th of April but it has roots in the ride on the day before. Let me explain. On Sunday I rode Mwessein’s “post sx ride” and found out during that ride that it was Ted del Solar’s 76th birthday. After the group sang happy birthday to him at the Trailhead I asked Ted “what about Connie – his wife? And what the heck he was doing in Michigan on this – his special day? And “why in the world he didn’t tell someone that it was his B-day”.
As Ted answered all these questions it became very clear to me how ESSENTIAL riding is to him. His answers deplicted an essence of soul for riding that each one of us dirt riders possess to a certain level – maybe not Ted’s level but we do all have it. His wife, bless her for understanding of Ted, is aware of the fact that riding to Ted (and others) is more then just a challenge of riding in the woods. To Ted it is LIFE – it is a heart thing!! To ride is to LIVE!!
Here is a 76 year young man, on his Birthday, driven all the way from Chicago to ride his bike with us. Consider that on top of the fact that Mweissen, the producer of that ride, is headed for Mayo Clinic to continue his battle with cancer and he CHOOSES to ride instead of MANY other things that he could be doing..
I say all this because it is important to me for all of you to know that I, Woodsy, truly ENJOY and cherish each ride experience that I have. I went into this Monday ride with a mind already reeling from the previous day…
The 8 a.m. meeting at Wesco found 4 of us ready to head North. In attendance was YZMAN400 (Don), Young Ted (Ted), my regular Monday ride buddy - Larry Pennington and myself. We exchanged greetings and headed for Wolf Lake to have breakfast. We sat down at the breakfast table and YZMAN announced that 2 other riders would be joining us for the ride – one of them turned out to be young a man (I would guess 12) on a YZ85 (Jimmy) and the other his Father (Rudy). While we were discussing riding, the waitress came out and said “WHAT DO YOU WANT?”. The attitude that this “Waitress from Hadies” demonstrated lit me right up.. Her and I went back and forth in a display of verbal “jabs and punches” not seen since Roseanne and Goodman were removed from viewing..
I expected some help from my so called buddies but received NONE. As a matter of fact, as we were leaving she looked at Ted and said – “Thank you for coming in Ted” to him. At that point, I got that same look on my face as Young Ted had on his face when I introduced him to my best friend Dan Smith on another ride.. Ted laughed so hard I thought I was going to lose him – no such luck… If you ever get up the way of Wolf Lake Michigan, you have to stop at Mothers Cupboards for a meal and be sure and tell Renie that “Scottie” sent you!!
We met up with Dons friends in the Resturant lot and headed north to the 7 mile Trailhead. Once there, we unloaded, made intro’s and headed North toward Boon.
The South east corner of the Lincoln Hills loop is in very nice shape. There are sections of it all the way to the Bridge where the MCCCT crosses the Pine River that are nothing short of awesome, tight piney switchbacks with plenty of freshly fallen trees to make your heart go into your throat if you are going at speed!! Trail maintenance needs aside – it is an AWESOME ride!!
We rode my favorite little section of tight stuff just before the bridge and then stopped for break. I noticed at this time that Larry had come prepared for the next section of the journey. He and YZMAN have both ridden this area with me before and they both know of my excellent spirit of adventure (can you say LOST). Larry had a compass on his chest and another in his pocket :) . I was surprised that YZMAN didn’t have something to point him to safety but then was informed that he invited Rudy along because Rudy has a GPS!! Of course, what these guys both failed to realize is my abilty to confuse even the most advanced navagational devices!!
They all agreed (I was shocked at this because little Jimmy didn’t look like the type who would enjoy a night in the woods living on burnt squirrel) that it was safe to go into the great North country and away we went..
Ted and I spent a little time looking for our original meeting place about 2 miles in. Never found it. I spent some time looking for a rad cover that one of my friends (Larry) had lost off Kadie on a different ride. Never found it. Judging from those two “trying to find something” tests I had an odd feeling in my stomach that I was going to have a REAL adventure trying to find my way back with these guys!! Gave me goose bumps just thinking about all the fun ahead of us.
We stopped at the next rest stop a few miles from m-55. That was when Rudy discovered that Jimmy’s YZ had very loose spokes. Young Ted tightened Jimmy’s spokes while YZMAN took a dump (I HAD to put that in there Don), Larry attacked my medicine bag (headache?), Rudy played with his GPS and I slept. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL in the sun!!
We got near the M-55 crossing and started getting snow on the trail. By the time we got to M-55 we had ridden through some pretty deep stuff – 8 inches in spots!! It was already getting late in the day and we had decided that we would 2 track back (you cant get lost on the MCCCT but you can on the 2 tracks hahahaha) after we made Boon. I told Don to lead the troops up and I would check the 2 tracks for snow and ice.. He should have caught that trick right away and not let me go off by myself.. Actually, I did find them again but not as quickly as I thought I would..
We made Boon with only 3 “get losts”, ate a sandwich or 2 and found out that we were indeed the Boon Stores first bike customers for the year!! We headed out for home after this. We started out on the right foot with the guys totally trusting me to get them back before the temps dropped below livable level. I did GREAT until we crossed M-55 – due in part to the fact that we rode the marked trail for most of that! Jimmy managed to get gas on his riding pants so his legs were burning. We stopped in the hills of Boon to wash him off and pack snow around his leg. All this being done while the sun was starting to disappear behind the hills.. I could feel the panic setting in like a fog on a swamp hahahahahaha.
Once we crossed M-55 we hit the 2 tracks and headed atta way. Problem is, I really had no idea what atta way was – I just followed the trail markers for snowmobile trail 37 which I knew headed atta way. Pretty soon the markers stopped and we were lost – the adventure began!
About 30 minutes after this, we came to some guys in a truck. I stopped to ask if they had any idea of where we were. They said they were looking for a White Toyota and didn’t even know where they were. They said they thought they saw the bike trail back that way – so we went that way.. OH THE THRILL OF THE RIDE!!
Don pulls up by me and I said, “what an AWESOME ride ey” he said something like – “NEVER a dull moment when riding with you!”. We finally came to a identifiable corner and Rudy’s GPS pretty much ruined our fun – of course everyone was happy cause it was FREEZING out!!
We picked our way back to the Bridge and I made the guys wait while I rode my favorite tight woods section one last time, then we headed for the rigs..
Later at the restaurant we were all talking about the ride. Young Ted was in his GLORY – tired, but he had had an AWESOME birthday!! Jimmy was gobbling down a whole pizza like he really thought I was serious about living on burnt squirrel.. Rudy, Larry, and Don all told me that I needed to get a GPS, a Cell Phone and a Compass for my ride needs. I told them all that I didn’t need ANY of the above cause they would take to much away from the ADVENTURE – Rudy was the only one who seemed to agree with me – of course he has only ridden with me once!!!
This ride report is about Monday the 5th of April but it has roots in the ride on the day before. Let me explain. On Sunday I rode Mwessein’s “post sx ride” and found out during that ride that it was Ted del Solar’s 76th birthday. After the group sang happy birthday to him at the Trailhead I asked Ted “what about Connie – his wife? And what the heck he was doing in Michigan on this – his special day? And “why in the world he didn’t tell someone that it was his B-day”.
As Ted answered all these questions it became very clear to me how ESSENTIAL riding is to him. His answers deplicted an essence of soul for riding that each one of us dirt riders possess to a certain level – maybe not Ted’s level but we do all have it. His wife, bless her for understanding of Ted, is aware of the fact that riding to Ted (and others) is more then just a challenge of riding in the woods. To Ted it is LIFE – it is a heart thing!! To ride is to LIVE!!
Here is a 76 year young man, on his Birthday, driven all the way from Chicago to ride his bike with us. Consider that on top of the fact that Mweissen, the producer of that ride, is headed for Mayo Clinic to continue his battle with cancer and he CHOOSES to ride instead of MANY other things that he could be doing..
I say all this because it is important to me for all of you to know that I, Woodsy, truly ENJOY and cherish each ride experience that I have. I went into this Monday ride with a mind already reeling from the previous day…
The 8 a.m. meeting at Wesco found 4 of us ready to head North. In attendance was YZMAN400 (Don), Young Ted (Ted), my regular Monday ride buddy - Larry Pennington and myself. We exchanged greetings and headed for Wolf Lake to have breakfast. We sat down at the breakfast table and YZMAN announced that 2 other riders would be joining us for the ride – one of them turned out to be young a man (I would guess 12) on a YZ85 (Jimmy) and the other his Father (Rudy). While we were discussing riding, the waitress came out and said “WHAT DO YOU WANT?”. The attitude that this “Waitress from Hadies” demonstrated lit me right up.. Her and I went back and forth in a display of verbal “jabs and punches” not seen since Roseanne and Goodman were removed from viewing..
I expected some help from my so called buddies but received NONE. As a matter of fact, as we were leaving she looked at Ted and said – “Thank you for coming in Ted” to him. At that point, I got that same look on my face as Young Ted had on his face when I introduced him to my best friend Dan Smith on another ride.. Ted laughed so hard I thought I was going to lose him – no such luck… If you ever get up the way of Wolf Lake Michigan, you have to stop at Mothers Cupboards for a meal and be sure and tell Renie that “Scottie” sent you!!
We met up with Dons friends in the Resturant lot and headed north to the 7 mile Trailhead. Once there, we unloaded, made intro’s and headed North toward Boon.
The South east corner of the Lincoln Hills loop is in very nice shape. There are sections of it all the way to the Bridge where the MCCCT crosses the Pine River that are nothing short of awesome, tight piney switchbacks with plenty of freshly fallen trees to make your heart go into your throat if you are going at speed!! Trail maintenance needs aside – it is an AWESOME ride!!
We rode my favorite little section of tight stuff just before the bridge and then stopped for break. I noticed at this time that Larry had come prepared for the next section of the journey. He and YZMAN have both ridden this area with me before and they both know of my excellent spirit of adventure (can you say LOST). Larry had a compass on his chest and another in his pocket :) . I was surprised that YZMAN didn’t have something to point him to safety but then was informed that he invited Rudy along because Rudy has a GPS!! Of course, what these guys both failed to realize is my abilty to confuse even the most advanced navagational devices!!
They all agreed (I was shocked at this because little Jimmy didn’t look like the type who would enjoy a night in the woods living on burnt squirrel) that it was safe to go into the great North country and away we went..
Ted and I spent a little time looking for our original meeting place about 2 miles in. Never found it. I spent some time looking for a rad cover that one of my friends (Larry) had lost off Kadie on a different ride. Never found it. Judging from those two “trying to find something” tests I had an odd feeling in my stomach that I was going to have a REAL adventure trying to find my way back with these guys!! Gave me goose bumps just thinking about all the fun ahead of us.
We stopped at the next rest stop a few miles from m-55. That was when Rudy discovered that Jimmy’s YZ had very loose spokes. Young Ted tightened Jimmy’s spokes while YZMAN took a dump (I HAD to put that in there Don), Larry attacked my medicine bag (headache?), Rudy played with his GPS and I slept. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL in the sun!!
We got near the M-55 crossing and started getting snow on the trail. By the time we got to M-55 we had ridden through some pretty deep stuff – 8 inches in spots!! It was already getting late in the day and we had decided that we would 2 track back (you cant get lost on the MCCCT but you can on the 2 tracks hahahaha) after we made Boon. I told Don to lead the troops up and I would check the 2 tracks for snow and ice.. He should have caught that trick right away and not let me go off by myself.. Actually, I did find them again but not as quickly as I thought I would..
We made Boon with only 3 “get losts”, ate a sandwich or 2 and found out that we were indeed the Boon Stores first bike customers for the year!! We headed out for home after this. We started out on the right foot with the guys totally trusting me to get them back before the temps dropped below livable level. I did GREAT until we crossed M-55 – due in part to the fact that we rode the marked trail for most of that! Jimmy managed to get gas on his riding pants so his legs were burning. We stopped in the hills of Boon to wash him off and pack snow around his leg. All this being done while the sun was starting to disappear behind the hills.. I could feel the panic setting in like a fog on a swamp hahahahahaha.
Once we crossed M-55 we hit the 2 tracks and headed atta way. Problem is, I really had no idea what atta way was – I just followed the trail markers for snowmobile trail 37 which I knew headed atta way. Pretty soon the markers stopped and we were lost – the adventure began!
About 30 minutes after this, we came to some guys in a truck. I stopped to ask if they had any idea of where we were. They said they were looking for a White Toyota and didn’t even know where they were. They said they thought they saw the bike trail back that way – so we went that way.. OH THE THRILL OF THE RIDE!!
Don pulls up by me and I said, “what an AWESOME ride ey” he said something like – “NEVER a dull moment when riding with you!”. We finally came to a identifiable corner and Rudy’s GPS pretty much ruined our fun – of course everyone was happy cause it was FREEZING out!!
We picked our way back to the Bridge and I made the guys wait while I rode my favorite tight woods section one last time, then we headed for the rigs..
Later at the restaurant we were all talking about the ride. Young Ted was in his GLORY – tired, but he had had an AWESOME birthday!! Jimmy was gobbling down a whole pizza like he really thought I was serious about living on burnt squirrel.. Rudy, Larry, and Don all told me that I needed to get a GPS, a Cell Phone and a Compass for my ride needs. I told them all that I didn’t need ANY of the above cause they would take to much away from the ADVENTURE – Rudy was the only one who seemed to agree with me – of course he has only ridden with me once!!!
