New trails, bad dogs, and the search for famous chicken fingers

The bike tour left southeast Michigan this week for some new trails in this great state of ours; and met a bad dog along the way.    

The trip started out Wednesday morning for a visit to the Benzonia/Beulah area where Tommy M. and his family reside. His house resides in the "car an hour" area which I haven't witnessed since my last Keweenau Peninsula visit; you pretty much will only see one car an hour. With that, it made for a nice pavement pedal around the area until....a hungry (and quite pissed off) pit bull came running out of a house for us and was not stopping to see if we had any treats. Our leisurely pedal became a Tour de France pace as this dog was not slowing down. Thankfully there were no hospital visits as the dog didn't get to rip any flesh but the heart rate went from about 60 to a couple hundred pretty fast there.

The destination Thursday morning was Harbor Springs, specifically Boyne Highlands; a new trail for me. I got there about 8:30 AM and asked the help desk where the trails started. I was advised that the trails all take place at the top of the ski runs (large forest up there) and that the chair lift doesn't take riders up the hill until 2:00 PM. Another option was to pedal up; and pedal up I did. It was about a mile up but 'zigged' and 'zagged' so it wasn't that bad of a ball breaker but got the blood moving. The rain held off until I got done and a fun loop it was. 

The trip then headed south along the Lake Michigan side with a destination of South Haven, a place last visited with a friend back in the late 80's. I even stayed at the same dive motel from the 80's but couldn't locate the bar that had the best chicken fingers EVER. I wouldn't give such a shout out for chicken fingers as most places have the cookie-cutter/average kind but these were different. I was sure the one establishment I went to was it but was told otherwise and most of the wait staff wasn't even alive when I last came through. Oh well, the shrimp were delicious.

Friday morning's ride took me to Fort Custer Recreation Area in Augusta, just on the outskirts of Battle Creek; also a new trail for me. Blue skies, a nice firm trail, no dogs running for my giblets and my music player adding to the utopia, I had it all.

Thank you Michigan.

Trail Head

top of a about a mile climb - Boyne Highlands

trail head - Fort Custer

30 Year Reunion - Thirty fu**ing years!!

this was my only pose for the cameras 

Yep, 30 years ago around this time a bunch of north Oakland county-ers were done with high school and trying to figure out what the heck to do with the rest of their lives. And here we were, almost 50 and besides a few gray hairs, all the same, good people having some fun. The Milford and Lakeland combination reunion was a fun one as I went to junior high with half of the Lakeland class. I got to rub it in to Gary M. of how I robbed him of a homer back in '84 when we played each other in baseball. And I would be remiss if I didn't give a shout out to Redskin Dan M. for supplying some funny (and quite wild) stories from the day.

My favorite story of the night came from a former Redskin (who shall be nameless) who was at a gentlemen's club and ran into a former classmate who was working at said club. He was called out by name from her. 

Good memories. Ha.

Trail Head

can't remember what her call out was

New Trail, New Lake

Some new experiences on the tour this week. The first newbie was the addition to the Brighton Recreation Area trail system, the Appleton Trail. If my count is correct, that is five trails at the park; Torn Shirt (should be called 'The Bitch'), Murray Lake, Lost Trail, Found Trail (intermediate trails) and now the Appleton. The Appleton is a perfect trail for either the beginner who isn't sure if mountain biking is for them but doesn't want to break their neck trying to find out or a  nice warm-up ride for those getting ready to do the other loops. It maybe covers two miles and has no ball breaking hills or fork breaking rocks. Nice work trail coordinators.

The new lake (Indian Lake) isn't actually new. I heard about it from friends Jim and Raj (lake isn't too far from him) who indicated it would be an ideal lake for a small boat or kayak. What a jewel it was. It's about the size of Pettibone Lake in Highland and has only three homes on it with farm land surrounding; has an up north feel to it. No trophy fish to report but enough brought aboard to keep me busy yesterday morning.

Three cheers for new!

Trail Head