West Higgins Trail Report: 05APR05

Hey Folks

Got out for my first ride of the 2005 season yesterday … thought you might be interested in some trail conditions for the central and east side of Michigan … with sunny conditions and temperatures near 72F I opted to give West Higgins a shot … I know this is a tad early for the Houghton Lake trails for those of us who don’t ride in the snow and who do not have screws in their tires … but, if you got to ride in the snow, might as well be in the 70s with the sun out!

On the ride up to Higgins Lake [US-10 out of Midland to US-127 north to Higgins Lake] I observed several lakes and ponds along the roadway when nearing the junction with 55 that retained considerable ice coverage … all of the flowing rivers were completely thawed. Only saw one area with snow still on the ground … a north-side hill situation that is a functioning Ski Resort [Snow Snake?] … really didn’t see any snow in the woods along 127, even in the conifer stands.

Arriving at the West Higgins Trailhead I was greeted by a huge snow pile in the corner of the parking lot … otherwise the area was clean, dry and recently graded. The restroom had been cleaned, painted and equipped with a fresh load of paper … I took advantage … however I’ll leave that “moving experience” out of this description.

Got unloaded and changed into my riding gear … left the parking lot at about 1430 hrs … bright sunshine, low 70s and quite breezy, enough so that the wind gusts were picking up dirt off the roadways and creating quite a dust storm at times … I was glad to get moving and into the trails where conditions were near perfect for riding …

[See picture below left]
I intended to ride just the outside portion of the trail system in the counterclockwise direction … the southern leg of the east side all the way up to the second, intra-trail connector, was much like this photo. As you can see, the trail is for the most part dry in the open spaces … there is considerable mud in some sections in the forested areas and one can see some patchy snow and ice in these areas as well. The snow and ice was irregularly spaced, often punctuated with mud due to rapid melting, but was relatively easy to avoid. However, as is usual with early spring rides … despite obvious dedicated work by our CCC trail keepers, there were many situations such as this one involving trees across the trail. None of these were problematic … most could be ridden over or around without problems.

[See picture below right]
Having ridden through a clear cut area just short of the second, intra-trail connector I stopped and took this shot looking back. This foresting operation is considerably larger than last fall … in fact, the whole side of the large hill area is now completely denuded of trees … it’s almost eerie … the trail is relatively easy to follow through the clear cut and except for a couple of tree skidder tracks perpendicular to the direction of travel, easy to ride. Most of the debris has been pushed off the trail and the only major directional change is clearly annotated with a trail marker sign.

[See picture below left]
Once north of the second intra-trail connector the conditions begin to change dramatically … this shot gives you an idea of what I mean. The snow and ice appear with a vengeance … things got a bit dicey for me at this point … some of the snow was over a foot deep, albeit for relatively short distances along the path … none of it was located on an incline where traction might have become a problem … with a tad of momentum and my feet out to sides ‘paddling’ I easily got through these sections. Although I didn’t get a good picture of the areas where there was more ice than snow … their primary characteristic is ice present in the ATV wheel prints and surrounded on both sides by snow … sometimes punctuated with mud and puddles. There were many ice covered puddles which for the most part supported the weight of my bike with me on it riding very slowly … these would not have been sufficiently deep to have caused any problems had I broken through and generally, they were all rather small in diameter not exceeding ten to twelve feet.

[See picture below right]
This shot is somewhere near the northeast corner of the outer trail perimeter … I had just come out of the longest section of snow and ice covered trail … when I stopped, my CRF-450 puked out a bunch of water due to overheating … kind of scared me … haven’t had this happen since my first season of riding when I was really “slow” ... I parked and cooled off the radiators with some snow … on checking the coolant level found out I had lost only about an ounce … replenished that from my Camelbak. If you look at the radiator protectors carefully it can be discerned that I have replaced my stock guards with a new set of Flatland Racing units … these are much stronger and have considerable side protection for those of us who spend a significant fraction of their riding experience in this position due to falls … perhaps these guards do not pass sufficient air to keep my bike cool? … that factor remained in the forefront of my mind throughout the rest of the ride. I was now somewhat more determined to maintain a pace quicker than the “herd of turtles” with which I had been riding in the snowy sections up to that point.

[See picture below left]
Having crossed over the northernmost section of the trail perimeter and started down the west leg, the trail returned to conditions such as depicted here. I got this shot primarily because this darn ‘branch’ caused me to fall in that nice pile of soft leaves where the bike is currently standing. I wasn’t paying attention … didn’t have enough momentum … hit it in the middle of the trail instead of on the side … the branch exhibited ‘considerable’ bounce … suddenly I found myself in a familiar position … on the ground looking up at the sky … have to be a bit more careful now though … since installing that Steahly 15oz flywheel weight on the 450, she doesn’t always quit running when I tip over!

The remainder of the west leg heading back to the trail head continues to bear less and less snow and ice patches … such areas are replaced by mud and water puddles which for me are considerably more fun to ride through. Nowhere along the entire trail perimeter did I encounter any sections that were impassable … so for essentially all of you reading this … that means you should forget about having screws and leave immediately for West Higgins … it’s ready for business. Only one road crossing on the northernmost section of the perimeter was problematic in that you exited the trail from a short downhill directly onto a roadway that was solid ice almost a foot thick and the trail exit on the other side was a continuation of a rather steep downhill segment that had both snow and ice covering a majority of the ground … this all happened so quickly that I was through it before I could breath … besides, this particular spot may have ice until July!

[See picture below right]
Here’s a plug for Jay Burke’s product: DigiLube Performance Ultra-Film Chain Lubricant. I switched to this stuff at the start of last season … got tired of the “won’t fling off” stuff that basically never comes off the chain and builds up on the chain and sprockets until it mixes with granular soil to become a resident grinding agent on these components. This ride left my bike a muddy mess … so bad I used a nylon brush to clean it off before loading it on my trailer … however, here is a shot of my chain in the exact condition it was in upon completion of this muddy ride … I really recommend Ultra-Film to everyone, it is a scientifically proven product that represents state of the art for lubrication of your chain. I use it for my pegs, my clutch and front brake bearings as well. Jay is a DRN member … that’s how I discovered this product.

Hope this gives you folks an idea of what the trails around Houghton Lake are like … I expect them to be even better this coming weekend if we don’t get too much rain this week. By the way, I did not suffer any further loss of coolant throughout the rest of my ride … albeit I tried to keep my pace a bit swifter … hope these new radiator guards work out as they may well save my radiators from becoming completely crushed?

terry nestrick :cool:

Hey Guys ... thanks for the advice ...

[bbarrel]

As you mentioned, I had run quite a distance on ice and snow ... very slow most of that time ... guess this condition caught up with the motor just as I stopped to rest? Anyway ... the system ran fine for the first 15 and final 20 miles or so of trail where riding speeds were 'normal' for me ... so for the time being, I will keep my fingers crossed that these new guards will be OK under my usual riding regimen. If not, thanks for the suggestion ... I had begun thinking about trimming several rows of the spacer bars from the center of the unit, drilling out the inside mounting hole on the brace of the Flatland guard which should then allow me to reinstall the original louver guard behind the 'basically' open Flatland guard ... this thing is so over built, that even stripped of the center rows of air holes it should retain a majority of its physical strength characteristics thereby keeping me from further crushing my radiators when I [regularly] tip over.

[Woodsy]

As for Don & I exhibiting different 'motivators' regarding the instigation of that proverbial "moving experience" phenomenon ... keep in mind that an extremely distant Russian relative of mine, Ivan Pavlov, made the astounding discovery that living organisms [dogs in his case, dirt bikers in ours] can learn "conditional reflexes" ... these are different than "innate reflexes" such as withdrawing a sensitive body part from an open flame when roasting squirrel. Continuing this deconvolution of serious science, it is therefore understandable that exposure to certain external stimuli yield similar results for Don & I whenever we become attuned to that delicate "call of nature" which ultimately produces a gratifying "moving experience" typically followed by some very serious paper work. For Don who is considerably younger than I, it is the smell of the trail ... for me, perhaps it is the sight of a "trail head" ??? Regardless ... notice that in both cases we are responding to a "trail" characteristic?

As for that comment about my chain ... hmmm ... I too recognize that my chain appears to be "tighter" than other models with the possible exception of the newer Hondas. However, I have always kept mine at the Honda specification ... with the bike on a stand and the rear wheel at full droop, the slack in the center of the upper span should be 30 mm ... that's where this one was set at the start of the ride, and yesterday after I cleaned the bike and lubed the chain, it still measured 30 mm. This is a Sidewinder Ti-Moly O-ring Monster chain which has visibly larger side rails and pins on the links [compared to my previous Regina ORN] ... perhaps this characteristic changes the visual perspective for droop? I put this chain on last season, set its tension to the Honda spec and have ridden it almost 600 miles so far and have only needed to tighten it once ... that adjustment came after the first ride, since then its length has remained stable.

Are you saying that the chain should be set looser than the Honda spec ... or are you just "pulling my chain" to get a rise out of me?

Hope to see all you guys on the trail this year ...

terry nestrick :aj:

Hey thanks for the suggestion morgan ...

I like the Turkey baster approach ... looks like something I might be able to cobble together ... I really want to keep my new radiator braces because of the strength factor they add for side impacts ... this simple reservoir should solve my minor boil over problems and keep me "cooking" along the trail!

terry nestrick :cool: