Having proceeded to the southernmost portion of the loop, near the area indicated on the MI DNR map as #12, the terrain begins to change dramatically. You exit the dense hardwood stands and pass through a swampy area that is mostly forested with conifer. There are several large ponds [small lakes] evident to the side of the trail … some within feet of your passage … on this day the singing of frogs was so loud it was nearly impossible to hear anything else in the vicinity! In addition, the trail composition begins to change from a sandy loam to pure sand … the transition is subtle … it begins as a shallow, sandy base that is relatively hard, and rapidly becomes deep, fine, soft, loose sand with many large whoops. One section of whoops is more than a half mile in length … the good news is that the trail is reasonably open with few trees or obstacles to contend with other than the deep sand whoops … so, hard on the throttle, up on the pegs and back on the seat … then for me, pull over and rest! Following the sandy section one begins to climb back into ridge country … interestingly, the trail meanders along the sides of large ridges for a considerable distance … while not difficult to ride, the views are spectacular and I had a hard time keeping my eyes on the trail. [See photo below, left]
Soon the trail begins to switchback … down one side of a ridge and up the next. Surface composition remains mostly sand, sometimes a bit harder but mostly, soft and loose. At one sharp turn immediately following a steep incline I ran into an obstacle composed of three trees lying parallel across the trail … they were spaced about one wheel diameter apart and were approximately 10 inches OD and elevated off the ground about 6 inches. Now I know you guys wouldn’t even have slowed down for this … or even worse, would have gone out of your way to ride over it … but not me. First I tried to move them … too heavy … then I looked for a way around, found one and took the easy way out! [See photo below, right]