Home
Basic Dirt Bike How-To's - Video
Dirt Bike How-To's - Video
Living The Moto Life - Video
Bike Tests | Shoot-Outs - Video
Forums
What's new
Latest activity
Log-In
Join
What's new
Menu
Log-In
Join
Navigation
Install the app
Install
More options
Close Menu
Forums
Other Dirt Bike Discussions
Who to Ride With, Where to Ride
By Region
Northern USA
The 5, 40 and 80 MCCCT Ride
Reply to thread
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Message
[QUOTE="KTM Mike, post: 1289565, member: 22658"] [b]Day 5: Willie takes over, Everybody knows Ted, and by the glow of a 6 volt light[/b] Day 5: Willie takes over, Everybody knows Ted, and finally, by the glow of a 6 volt candle light, THE END: Another good night of sleep, and off to breakfast at the local Big Boy restaurant. Mark and Mitch chow down on the breakfast bar (I was worried they might kick us out after so many trips back). Not long before we are about to leave, a different waitress walks up to Ted saying “Ted what are you doing here? Gives him a big hug and sits down to chat (the restaurant wasn’t to busy yet). Turns out she knows Ted from when her son was into Harescrambles! Is there any place where someone does not know this man? I highly doubt it! And without exception, everyone who knows him, likes him. So, we are once again off to our typical late start. All the bikes seem to be running fine, but it is clear the 4 of us are getting tired – but still doing surprisingly well. I know my hind end was not liking the new seat I put on the Penton. If you think a stock KTM seat is hard, you have not seen anything – this seat is the grand daddy of hard KTM seats! By this point in the ride I really expected we would be all but dreading getting back on the bikes. It was not the case at all. I have read a variety of ride reports from other MCCCT riders prior to this ride. It seems 5 days is the most common plan, the same as ours, yet from reading their accounts, they all seemed much more beat up and tired by this point than we seemed. I attribute that to 1) a moderate pace. Our Fearless Leader sets a consistent but moderate pace – not much sit and gab time when we take breaks, and breaks other than gas stops are infrequent. It is a bit of the hare and tortoise sort of thing. Other riders likely ride a faster pace, tire themselves out earlier, then regret it later. 2) the very presence of Young Ted – it is rather hard to get yourself into a negative frame of mind when you ride with him – he never complains, never whines, never seems to get cranky tired. Having that role model before you each day keeps you more positive. I must admit, late into day 4, I was starting to get there – but all I had to do was look ahead to see Ted rolling along like he always does. His Energizer Bunny name seems rather applicable! 3) Not having to ride into town to gas up is a huge help, eliminating some time there, though trailering to and from our start, stop points each day did chew up some time. 4) Staying in motels is so much easier. Camping along the way might be a fun way to go, but that must suck up a huge amount of time each day, setting up and tearing down camp. To camp with a MCCCT ride, I would really want to allow for 6 days. Of course if your purpose is to test just how fast and far you can ride – go for it in 3 days! It just depends on what you are looking for out of your MCCCT experience. The weather for this day is forecast to be the warmest by far. Prior days had highs in the mid 60s to mid 70s, sunny and nice. Today was forecast to be pushing 80, with a chance of showers (which never happened). Mark and Mitch opted for vented riding gear. I decided to stick with my stinky non vented gear. These decisions would be more significant later in the ride! Under slightly overcast skies, we headed down the trail, pretty pumped up knowing it was the last day, and we all were feeling pretty good and quite confident of our finish. In less than 5 minutes we see a familiar bike and rider coming towards us – 2big4aKDX had called and left a message the night before that he was going to park at the St. Helen parking lot and meet up with us, ride as far as West Higgins lake, then back road it back to St. Helen. 2big falls in line taking up the sweep spot – so while I would still be eating the dust of the 3 others in front of me, at least someone else would be behind me! We roll on through the St. Helen system, 2big breaks off to run into town to top off his gas tank. As we rode through there, I realized that the last time I was in this area riding I was on a 1977 Suzuki RM125 and that things sure did look different than they did some 29 years ago! 2big joined back in rather quickly, with he and I stopping to chat for a few seconds at some road crossings etc. As a result, I fell a bit farther behind Mark and Mitch than I usually do – and they had fallen a bit farther behind Ted when they slowed their pace to allow me to catch back up. Eventually the trail crossed a set of rail road tracks. Across the tracks was a trail running to our left and right, another trail up a steep hill – and cleaverly hidden behind a big tree was where the MCCCT trail headed off slightly to the right of the big hill. I paused there, not seeing the MCCCT marker, looking up the hill, seeing what appeared to be some recent tracks. 2big rolls up, and having just been through there, points out the MCCCT marker that Willie had hidden behind the big tree. We head on down the trail, moving along at a good clip trying to get caught back up to the others. It wasn’t until we paused at a mud hole that Mark and Mitch showed up, coming up from behind us! How did we get ahead of them? They explained that when they came to that intersection they could not see Ted, but thought they saw a fresh appearing track up the big hill so followed it, as they could not see a MCCCT marker. They rode for quite some time, did not find Ted, or any MCCCT trail markers, turned around and blitzed up to where they caught us. Ok this was not good – we had no clue if Ted had stayed on course, or had gotten twisted around like the rest of us did. We decide to assume Ted was on course, and likely not to far ahead, patiently waiting for us. We continue down the trail, pushing the Penton suspension way farther than I likely should of (both ends bottoming on whoops along the way). Still no Ted…a bit farther…still no Ted. Now we are in a recently clear cut area with some rolling hills. Time to re-group and decide how to approach this. Our decision is to leave Mark there, in case Ted came along and keep Ted in one place. The rest of us would back track and split up on to the various other trail options and look for Ted. Mitch is out ahead of Neal and I, and has the good timing to come across a different trail intersection just as Ted rolls up to it! Had their timing been only a few seconds different they would not of seen each other – and depending on which way Ted might of turned, he may of not even seen Neal and I a few seconds further down the trail. What a relief. Back to re-group with Mark. As Ted describes what happened, I can see it exactly – same thing that would of happened to me, had Neal not been there to point out the marker that Willie had hidden behind the tree. All is well that ends well, but by this point we lost a minimum of 30 minutes, likely more. Off through more sandy ORV trail, onto some sandy Route we can make some better time on, and eventually into the Geels trail system. Another fairly well maintained bit of trail. We stop for some pictures at one point, and keep rolling. Getting up to our next gas took much longer that it seemed it should of – but we finally got there. Sheila said it took us almost 2 hours longer than we had planned it out to through that point. Time for some food, gas and a bit of looking over the bikes. I had noticed an odd vibration on the Penton – thought it might be a wheel bearing. I did have some slop in the rear bearing, but the noise “felt” different… it did continue the rest of the ride, and at this point I have not determined what it is. We would next have a long road section, then into the Beaver Creek trail just south of Grayling. This was familiar trail for me as my in-laws live just a few miles from there. This was actually in pretty good shape and fun to ride. It had widened out dramatically since the last time I rode it though (2002). We met up with a group of 5 or 6 bikes and a quad, and kept rolling. There was one spot in a recent hardwood thinning cut (still plenty of nice mature trees standing), where the trail snakes along the ridge of some hills, overlooking where the trail continues on below into this small valley,. I sure wish I had a helmet cam on to capture moments like this (there were many). I see ahead of me Ted, Mitch, the Mark riding along – all riding well and in great form. The open understory, with the filtered lighting through the trees adding another nice element to the scene. It really hit me then how neat this trip was turning out to be. What a great thing to be able to do with both of your son’s, having both of them do so well with such long days on the bikes, and best yet to be doing this with Ted on his Penton, and me being able to tag along on my Penton for a good part of it. I am an old softy I guess, but it brought tears to my eyes as I surveyed the scene below me. What a ride indeed! The timing and spacing of our stops had gotten a bit goofed up with the pick ups and drop offs of Mark, so we would soon be to our normally scheduled gas stop at Military road. By this point it was much later in the day than we had hoped to see, and would only have one more stop (M-66) before the end. We tried to make this a quick stop, and got rolling quickly, heading towards the West Higgins Lake trails. These trails were in great shape, clearly well maintained, though dusty. Neal would break off to the south at an intersection, so he could dual sport it back to his truck in St. Helen (I am sure it made for a long day for him). Neal it was great being able to ride with you for the day! Getting through where the MCCCT runs along the north edge of the West Higgins trails, onto the North Missakee trails and continuing west to M-66 seemed to take forever. The sun was getting rather low in the sky, and some clouds were rolling in making it seem a bit darker. Again, trails in decent enough shape, some whoops, not bad at all, plenty of sand. One Willie moment at an intersection otherwise staying on track. At some point during a brief stop somewhere north of the Lansing Motorcycle Club grounds, Mark and Mitch commented it seemed odd to be riding these particular trails when not being part of an Family Enduro Series Event, or part of a Trail Fest ride (the only times they had ridden in this area). We approached and rolled on through “Husky Corners”, that spot 2.9 miles out from LMC where the boys and I had sat and waited to get back on time during the Pinecone multiple times. We kept going..and going…and going….and going. I was really beginning to think this last leg of our trip would never end! I could see we were all getting somewhat tired, I sure knew I was. Finally, around 7:00 PM we saw old M-66 ahead of us, with Sheila and Connie waiting. They were getting concerned given how late it had become, I think at one point even suggesting it was to late for us to finish the ride to the end. I knew that would go no where with Ted, and I knew there was no way I would throw in the towel this close to the end! I could see Mark and Mitch were clearly tired, but I could also see, they had no intention of not finishing either. Ted broke out his GPS (ie…a good old fashioned MAP!) – we figured that somehow through out the day, we had added around 18 miles more than what we had planned on to this point. It seemed all of our planned on time frames where way off, as was our mileage. None of that really mattered though – what mattered was the 30 miles between us and the end. Was it really going to be just 30 miles? Or would that be off as well? The daylight was fading fast, and a chill was in the air now. Some quick gas, some power bars and other food, top off the camel backs and back to the trail. The last 30 miles seemed to drag forever. We were thankful for the occasional bit of ORV route here and there, particularly at the very end. The sun was low in the sky, making visibility poor as we rode through the dust, staring into the setting sun. Fortunately, the wind had picked up such it would for the most part, blow the dust clear helping visibility. The light did make for another one of those photo moments I wish I could of captured. Mark was ahead of me. A gust of wind had cleared out Ted’s and Mitch’s dust. The trail was pointing straight into the sun, then turning to the left. Mark was in perfect form in the middle of the left hand corner, on the gas with a roost flying from his rear tire, and a big cloud of dust, light up with a deep orange glow from the sun, and the sun itself kinda glowing from the middle to the dust cloud. It would of made for a great magazine cover shot if you could of captured it as I was seeing it! The temperature was continuing to drop, and I was now darn right cold! Then I realized, Mark and Mitch were in their vented riding gear. When we were on some of the final bits of ORV route and a short chunk of road at higher speeds, I could see them tucking down trying to get out of the wind. Ted had been smart enough to bring a wind shell on this last leg – to bad the rest of us had not! When he stopped to put it on, I commented he was keeping up a nice pace – his reply was to the effect of “Of course I am, I am afraid of the dark!” Soon it was definitely getting dark. I could see the faint glow of the 6 volt head light on the Penton barely reaching the mid point of the front fender, likewise on Ted’s bike. Mark and Mitch had decent headlights at least – it was dark enough at the very end, you could see their lights shining on the trees ahead of us. Nearing the very end, with each upcoming corner, I was looking ahead “is that the end? No….is that it…no… several false alarms…then one big one. On our way through on Day #2, we had ridden past the intersection where the Cross State Connector joins the MCCCT on the west side – actually stopped and looked it over and discussed it for a quick second. We all ride along, come to what appears to be the intersection, climb off the bikes in the midst of congratulations to everyone, go as far as setting up Marks bike to prop a camera on for a self timer picture of the 4 of us at our official end…to then realize – we were at the wrong spot! This was not the end! Back on the bikes for another mile or so down the trail – yep there it is, the REAL end of the ride! We repeat the congratulations with hugs all the way around, set up Mark’s bike as our camera stand again (his had the most stable kick stand in the sand) and get our official end of ride picture. Then….climb back on the bikes to ride about 1 mile further to where Sheila and Connie are patiently waiting. [/QUOTE]
Verification
Which ocean is California closest to?
Post reply
Forums
Other Dirt Bike Discussions
Who to Ride With, Where to Ride
By Region
Northern USA
The 5, 40 and 80 MCCCT Ride
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
Accept
Learn more…
Top
Bottom