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Great Lakes Dirtfest 2006
By Brett (aka Lobster)
Our trip to MI started with us watching em pull a few people
off the SS Badger car fairy and straight into an ambulance.
Listening to the others about how rough it was and crap flying
all over. I usually don't succumb to sea-sickness, but downed
a couple Dramamine anyway. We boarded, found a nice spot on
the back at a bench with a table and I made a bee-line to
the bar in order to down a Guinness and a Creamy Dark (most
of the beer was in buckets cuz the cooler spilled open and
launched its contents!). The surf was launching up and over
the breakwater in Manitowoc easily passing the lighthouse
there in height. I got a couple pictures of that show. I would
guess 10-12 foot rollers, I didn't think a 4000 ton boat would
heave and roll so much, the rear was up n down at least 6
feet. Lots a chucks blowin around. None from our group of
4 hearty travelers though!
We gathered our wits and loaded up for our road trek across
MI to Ambrose lake. We stopped at Meijers in Ludington (none
of us had been there before) and deemed it like a dirt Wal-Mart
supercenter with only 1/2 the employees. The road trip was
uneventful, a few beers during set up and time to call it
a night around 2 or so. Up at 8 with a great breakfast of
bacon and pancakes prepared by yours truly! Then all gear
on, figure out where the heck we are and where we want to
go and set off. The 4 of us from WI and Jnugent, we went about
5 miles and lost Doc Matt somewhere. It was a small loop so
Steve went ahead to see if he could find Doc. He went a little
ways and came across a rather attractive blond lying in the
trail, he was just about to hop off his bike and check for,
er, um "broken ribs" when her husband came back
to see what was taking so long. She was alright, and Doc Matt
came up to them as they were riding off. Steve came back and
described it thus "You see this great looking chick laying
on the trail like she's ready to hump" "when you
go to check on her, some one cracks you across the back of
the melon with a blackjack or something and next thing you
know Big Jim and his 12 uncles are stabbin you in the buttocks"
"kinda freaky" . Doc Matt took a little tumble while
try to cross a log in the trail, but no real damage or injury.
We put about 25 miles on and the 125's are running low on
fuel, Steve needs to rejet, and I need a snack.
We got back and had lunch when Al and (sorry, I forget his
name) met up with us. We got our groove on and disappeared
into the north along the MCCCT trail to the northern loop.
We found the loop and started riding, a real nice mix of sand,
rocks, roots, woods, sandy hill climbs and a 45 degree downhill
trail filled with round rocks the size of cantaloupe! All
my pictures came out blurry on that one. We ended up behind
a group of riders, had to be 25 bikes strong ranging from
a CRF150 to a Husky 480 2-smoke with a little of everything
in between. They got stuck going up a 40 yard long sandy hill,
so we took our time there, waited 15 minutes after they departed
and caught up to em within a mile or so! They parted and let
us pass an we didn't see em on the trail again. . We took
the middle route back as Howies 125 is running real rich and
his range was right around 35 miles or so.
I'd like to interject something here. I used to use Map Source
Roads and Recreation in my Garmin Extrex Legend, but I lost
the 1st disk. This means I couldn't load the mapset for the
area. I bought TOPO to replace R&R as R&R isn't available
anymore. I can tell you from personal experience that TOPO
is absolute crap! It shows some of the roads, and no names!
I had the MI DNR maps with me and I could kind of decipher
what was where by the waterways and major roads. I was very
unhappy with that software! which leads me to...
We got off the trail somehow (I wasn't leading) and got disoriented,
Howie was getting worried he wouldn't make it. We found the
roads back (not via GPS, we had to use the paper maps) and
that's where my throttle stuck. Fairly deep sand road and
I couldn't back off. It was getting real squirrelly so I hopped
off the bike. Steve said it was quite amusing to watch. The
KX went quite a ways on it's own, finally resting against
the berm on the side of the road. Nothing broken, but the
bars were tweaked pretty bad. Let me tell you, whoops and
crooked bars are not fun! We got back to camp safely, Howie
had plenty of gas. but Steve had to tap into the Exxon Valdez
(I have a 3.5 gallon tank on the KX) to make it back.
When we got back to camp it was time to change from Dirtfest
to Porkfest! We had 10 pounds of brats and about 10 pounds
of pork loin chops and a bag of chips. Good eatin! We got
everything eaten and then put away and the skies opened up!
Steve G. had running water in his tent and Jim was sleeping
in a big timpani drum.
Got up Sunday and continued Porkfest with cakes and a couple
pounds of sausage patties. We took the southern route to the
St. Helen Motorsports area and the trails were muddy, sandy,
rocky, rooty and full of puddles. What great riding! We went
about 16 miles and found some climbing hills where Doc Matt
got his XR400 stuck/buried about 1/2 way up. Everybody pitched
in to pull it up (after Steve rode around him to add insult
to injury!) except for me as I was taking plenty of pictures.
We started riding again and Howie started fouling plugs. He
fouled 6 of em on the way back to camp. We were riding a more
brisk pace on the way back and Steve and Howie missed a turn.
They finally figured out their error and caught back up to
the rest of us. Me, Doc Matt and Howie had to stop to wait
for Howie to change yet another plug. Steve rode back to see
what was up. For the quality of riding he does, the absolutely
funniest crash occurred! He came to almost a complete stop
and fell over! I couldn't get the camera out fast enough to
get a pic though, and he blamed it on the smooth flat trail
for some reason. We all made it back to camp and got out of
our soggy, wet, muddy, slimy gear. Jim had to pack up and
go, and we finished off as many pork products as possible.
We had to get up early to pack and make the ferry, so we
all went to bed at 11:30 or so. Got up at 4, packed up the
entire camp and strapped the bikes down and we were rolling
in 23 minutes. I found that pretty impressive! we were on
the way back and seemingly running late so Howie kept the
throttle down (Chev 2500 HD and a 30 foot fun mover trailer,
average mpg around 6). We had to stop for gas about 70 mile
out and the old fella sweepin up said we ain't gonna make
no ferry. Well we made it with a 1/2 hour to spare. the crossing
back was uneventful as was the ride home.
All in all a great trip. The weather was a bit damp, but
it only made for a much better ride. Nice thing about this
group of riders is nobody was out to impress anyone else.
We weren't racing. Nobody rides beyond their abilities to
keep up with the faster guys either. And the faster guys sometimes
brought up the rear and enjoyed the scenery. We seem to take
quite a few breaks, but nobody gets worn out.
Can't wait till next year!
Brett
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