I had Friday off so I thought I would venture out to the granddaddy of all trails in the metropolitan Detroit area, the Potawatomi Trail within Pinckney State Recreation Area. The trail is 17.5 miles and you feel every one of them. The first 10 miles are pretty much the worse. The trail map even makes a reference to the grind when it notes "serious hills" in one section of the trail. To make the ride even more interesting, the horse flies decided to make an appearance after the rain that came through the area Thursday night. They were nasty!! If you stopped for a second to collect your thoughts, you had about a dozen of them all around you. Ahhhh!!!! They got my back pretty well. I was so bogue (is that a word?) after the ride I walked into the lake with all my riding gear, including my boots. Very refreshing.
I remember the first time a bunch of us came out here about 15 or so years ago. We were still early into the serious mountain bike scene but thought we could conquer anything. We weren't prepared and the trail kicked us in the rear end. Gordie M. was riding with us back then and was cramping up something fierce in his legs. He was doing squats on the trail while we were all crying for water because we didn't bring enough. I lesson learned I guess.
Talk to you later.
Trail Head
