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LOBSTER IN MICHIGAN
By Brett (Lobster) Lobajeski
The weather the night before was mid 30's and "Wintery
Mix", and forecast high 40's with light rain for Saturday.
I packed rain pants and my riding jacket just in case. It
was an uneventful ride up, about 6 hours with detours and
potty stops. Doc Matt was navigating and did very well until
we got to the "shortcut". As we turned north out
of McMillin, we crossed a river and at the edge of the bridge,
the Pavement Ends sign caught my attention. Matt looked over
and said we could turn around and just take the highway if
we wanted to. Nope darn it, it's getting close to 11 AM and
I wanted to start riding! The road was fairly decent, just
a bit puddly, that is until we came to the sign that said
"Seasonal Road, not maintained during the winter months"
Uh huh. As I accelerated (so we wouldn't sink in) Matt said
he always wanted to run a rally course.......just not in a
20 foot long 2 wheel drive truck. I pointed out he was doing
a fine co-driver imitation. Well, we hit pavement again without
incident and found some more of the rally inspired roads that
led to the Holland Lake state campground. I was pleasantly
surprised at the campground. Well maintained with a good old
fashioned hand pump for water and 2 sets of out house toilets
that worked perfectly. Heck they even had TP in em!
Al and Kevin weren't there, but being the only campers it
was easy to find their site. We proceeded to unload and get
dressed for the misty drizzle coming down and Al and Kevin
rolled in (they got bored waiting so they ran a little trail).
Once everything was in order, we set out on the Pine Ridge
trail. I have to say, I ran some of the MI sandy trail system
a couple years ago on my DR and sank up to my axles in deep
sand. I didn't like it one bit. However! This stuff was wet,
and sticky! It was great riding, great traction, easy to get
speed up in short distances to loft whoops and other trail
obstacles. Speakin of, I think we may have been some of the
first riders on this trail this year, it hadn't been groomed
in a while and there were LOTS of logs and trees laying across
the trail. That didn't bother me at all though. The trail
itself is made for vehicles 50" wide or less. It wasn't
the tight single track that we rode previously, but it was
tight enough to make you work for it. The weather took a turn
for the better and the sun poked out a little as we made our
way north. We took a little detour on the northern end of
the loop to take a walk on the Lake Superior shoreline and
as we were heading back to the bikes it started to rain. And
then the rain started to hurt as it was slightly frozen! We
decided to take the shorter center cut back instead of the
longer southern loop cuz the rain was coming down pretty good
off and on. We were a few miles into the trail when I heard
an odd sound not usually associated with my bike. I was bringing
up the rear on this leg (We kept taking turns leading) I stopped
to inspect and noticed the bearing carrier on the sprocket
side was gone, the bearing was gone, and the hub split in
the center! I got back on and rode slowly until I caught up
to the guys and tried to formulate a plan of attack. We were
a couple miles from any road so they went on ahead to the
nearest crossing while I pushed/rode the KX along the trail.
You think those whoops suck riding em? You should try pushing
a bike through them! Matt came back a short time later and
we decided to tow the KX to the crossing which was still another
1/2 mile away thinking that just rolling would be better than
applying the torque to the sprocket from riding it. After
we got to the road, Matt went and got my truck and we loaded
it up. I had some time to inspect it while waiting for em
to show up again (I kept looking around for a fat guy in overalls
with a shotgun or something) and it looked like the bearing
broke/let go and the parts went to the inside of the hub shattering
it. We loaded up and headed home around 5 or so.
All told, I had a blast even though my bike broke. I think
the worst thing is, I replaced those bearings last spring
before the motard season and with all the flopping I did on
the ground last year, I didn't get much motard time!
Brett Lobajeski
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