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Message: [QUOTE="Nestrick, post: 787598, member: 45162"] Before reaching the M-72 crossing on the east side of the loop going in a northerly direction one begins cresting some very large hills. The scenery is amazing … you can see several miles in the distance and there is no evidence of civilization in the picture … just continuous, deeply wooded territory. [See photo below, left] I picked one of these areas for my rest break … broke out the water and snack bars, found a stump and absorbed the environs … good for the soul! Watched an eagle circling high above … seemed to never flap his wings … just rode the steady breeze almost defiant of gravity. Continued riding north eventually brings one to MI DNR map point #2. This portion of the ride begins what I feel is the whole reason for coming here … the really steep hills. None of the trail is flat from here back to the trailhead parking facility. Some of the hills are pure sand-based, others are sandy in some areas and hard pack in others … most are not short in duration and some are amazingly long and complex. Try as I could, I failed to photographically capture the steepness of any of these ascents and descents … often the twists in the trail hide portions from ones sight at either the top or bottom … most of these I did not feel comfortable stopping in the middle as momentum was definitely a plus due to the steepness of the inclines. By the time one reaches the portion of the trail that repeatedly intersects the ORV Route passing through the area, the trail has returned to a gummy loam passing through dense hardwood stands. The hills in this area are, in my opinion, considerably challenging … especially when relatively wet as I found them to be. Erosion has produced a profusion of roots across the trail … on steep inclines the soil has been washed away completely leaving a large obstacle in the form of a root that must be traversed while under strong throttle in order to make the grade … the problem I found was that these roots were often in series and seldom crossed the trail perpendicular to my route … trying to keep the front end down while under strong throttle and not let it tuck when jounced off a root not hit squarely was an entirely new experience for me … I learned fast! The more I practiced, the better my control. Believe me, there are some long, twisty hills in this area … that when slippery, will challenge your riding skills as well as your front tube. In some places the trail rode as though it were considerably narrower than its actual dimension due to the line one was forced to follow in order to stay away from the worst of the obstacles. The undergrowth in this section of the Loop is also filling in nicely as indicated in the last picture which was taken at one of the ORV trail and route intersections. [See photo below, right] This ride required 2.9 hours of motor time and approximately 1.5 gallons of fuel for my CRF-450. I was tired on its completion despite a 15 to 20 minute break in the middle of the run. The hilly section coming across the northernmost portion of the loop returning to the trail head was the most physically demanding part of the ride excepting the half mile section of deep sand whoops. This was a great ride … my legs are sore today [day after the ride] … a sign that I spent a great deal more time on the pegs than in the seat. If that’s your forte, then the Kalkaska C Loop is for you! terry nestrick :cool: [/QUOTE]

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