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Great Lakes Dirtfest 2007
By Brett (aka Lobster)
GLDF Dirtfest 07 has come and gone and as usual we had some
fun and exciting moments, and you can read about them shortly!!
I'll be using names of the people who showed, so you may or
may not know them. Just bear with me MmmK?
Started out with Howie picking up Craig and then heading
to my house where Steve had his crap and we'd just load up
here. Howie got a new tow truck this year, I wasn’t aware
that they even made a 1 ton diesel Ford Excursion! Anyway,
we get our stuff loaded into the toy hauler, Mike called from
Manitowoc around 6:30 wondering where we were, the ferry leaves
in 6.5 hours!!!! Swiss Joe calls and says he'll be a little
late starting out because of a local tornado and some flooding,
but once the y clear the highway he'll be rolling. Well, we
got going as it's about an hour drive to Cleveland (WI, not
OH) and we had to stop at one of those BK/gas station morphs
to get ice, money, and supper. After dinking around we got
over to Mikes house around 8:30. The ferry landing is about
20 minutes away, so we decided it would be in our best interests
to have a few before boarding. I guess all the bars in Manitowoc
close at 9:00 and we had to walk quite a ways ( the Excursion/toy
hauler isn't the easiest to park in town! From now on called
The Rig.) before we came upon a genuine Harley Davidson drinking
establishment, and Craig had changed out of his wife beater
and into a fresh white GSXR1000 t-shirt with some silly GSXR1000
rider saying on it. Funniest thing that happened there was
they had some drifting show on Speed on the TV's. After 4
or 5 pitchers of Leinie's Creamy Dark, we walked back to the
rig (Howie doesn't drink usually and only had 1/2 a glass).
As we were walking back, Steve, Howie and I were reliving
the harrowing ride from last years ferry ride, the pitching,
rolling, ambulances and waves. Steve and Craig got their beer
confiscated by the ferry cops, and after getting Mike and
Craig all worked up and nervous, the trip was very uneventful.
Tried to sleep on the way across, but that's pretty much a
poor idea no matter what. We were a little groggy when the
ferry landed and we stopped at Mejiers for the ORV stickers.
I think the nice fellow helping was hitting on Craig, but
he would have nothing to do with that. Craig was way too tired.
Carrierville state forest campground was about a 40 minute
drive and really easy to find. It's well set up and nice and
clean. We picked our spot, transformed the rig from hauler
to sleeper and went to sleep for a bit. That bit turned into
45 minutes when there was a knock on the door and Bill showed
up. I think he may have been taken aback at our mumbling and
door slamming. I fell asleep again. Shortly thereafter (another
45 minutes) I felt a draft and was aware of a shaft of light
and a small draft, and as I opened my eyes, Swiss Joe was
standing there smiling. I suppose I got a good solid hour
of sleep, might as well get up and make some coffee. Mike
got up shortly after I did. Howie got up, looked like a bag
of poo, so he went back to bed. Swiss Joe started to set up
camp, coffee was done, and I went to see if we scared Bill
off (thankfully no!) and apologize for the rude welcome. I
got back to Joe's camp and he and Mike were looking at the
frame work for a 10x20 foot canopy that was about 6 feet too
short. Funny as heck watching 3 guys on no sleep trying to
piece that thing together! They finally go tit figured out
when I was making sure my coffee was ready. Just as I poured
my cup, it started to sprinkle, Mike wanted to change gearing
as he still had supermoto gearing in his KTM. The heavens
opened on us as I was chatting with Joe and giving Mike crap
about his lack of spatial reasoning, sprocket diameters, and
chain length (you can't go from a 45 to a 53 without adding
a couple of links!) He got his junk together and the skies
started letting up and getting less dark , Howie woke up,
Craig got up, and Steve took some prodding.
We got our crap together got Bill moving and we headed out
to run the northern loop of Little Manistee trail. We stayed
on the ORV trail, which is primarily single track. The ORV
route is open to everything from motorcycles to 6x6 school
busses, so we stay off that stuff. We ran into (both literally
and figuratively) a bunch of fallen trees. Made for some exciting
moments. Steve suffered a flat rear tire shortly into the
trip and went back to camp for repairs (and a nap I think).
It was good riding with damp sand and lots of puddles to splash
in. There were some whoops, but it wasn't bad at all. Nothing
notable happened the first 25 or so miles that I recall. We
stopped a couple times so Bill could run ahead and get some
action shots in a couple places. We took the center cut out
because the lack of sleep and the exertion were both causing
too many blown corners and whacked trees. When we got back
to the camp Jim (Jnugent)and Travis were there trying (and
failing!) to set up Travis's tent. I put my superior technical
problem solving skills to work and helped get the tent set
up without further injury. The I showered and started on supper.
I can let others tell about the meals (I think Bill took some
pictures), but Friday was chicken and sausage gumbo with jalapeno
cheese cornbread. I was upset that we couldn't have a fire
(fire ban due to dry conditions) so I had to cook on the camp
stove. After eating, we pretty much settled into drinking
mode. Swiss Joe went back to his camp to get a beer, a bottle
of Coke and a bottle of whiskey, and the rest of us tried
to hydrate ourselves with 5 gallons of Mike's home brewed
Hika Porter. We sat around under the bug light (fire ban remember?)
and somewhere around dark thirty, Al and Kevin (XR6598 and
Agent 89) showed up, and set up camp. We were beat and pretty
much retired for the evening. It started to rain a bit at
bedtime, but I was too tired to care and after the farting
and the last few insults of the day being hurled I went to
sleep amidst a cacophony of snoring. From what I understand,
I added to that racket. I didn't care I was sleeping!
Saturday, I got up and noticed that we got around 2-2.5 inches
of rain overnight! All the glasses and pans were mostly full
of water. All our gear that was hanging up to dry was now
soaked (but better smelling!), and Denny was wandering around
waiting for us to get moving. I got crackin on breakfast (pancakes
and bacon with Bill supplying some MI maple syrup). After
the usual dinkin around we hit the trail. I had planned on
heading north to run Lincoln Hills and loop back down, but
we went south instead. And that was fine because the southern
route was a real nice trail in it's own right. I got a new
toy for this particular GLDF...a helmet camera. I decided
to stay at the back of the pack and ride behind everyone to
get some video of them going through the trails. I followed
Bill, then Craig, then Kevin. Got past them to catch Howie,
but came across Mike picking up his bike, he looked ok, so
I kept going. I came up to Steve that went straight when he
should have turned right, I followed him for a bit, but his
pace is too fast for me to keep up for any length of time.
I went on and came across Howie picking up his bike. He got
up n started before I could get around him though, so I settled
in behind him until the next rest stop. There Bill showed
up (he was running last!)Kevin, Craig and Mike all suffered
some sort of mishap. Kevin said he actually looped his bike
and went butt over teakettle. I admonished him for not doing
it in front of me, it would have made great video! Mike finally
showed up 10 minutes later, something about hard starting
bike. We came up the west side of the loop and took the center
cut out back again so we could break for lunch. We got supper
going so it could bubble and boil while we were gone. We got
loaded up and headed out, but we barely got down the trail
when Bill stopped and found his cush drive bearing had grenaded.
He had to go back as there wasn’t any trail fix for that.
I continued on and caught up to the others to follow and take
some video. At one rest stop Jim played on Steve’s inane
hate for all things crawly by tickling his melon with a piece
of grass. We all pretty much wet our selves watching that.
Luckily, I had the camera rolling at the time so I can share
with everyone! A couple of events on this loop, Swiss Joe
launched off a root obstacle, caught some air and hit a tree
bending his radiator tube ad causing a leak. After a trail
repair, we continued on, and I had a tree that refused to
get out of my way.....so I hit it......with the camera rolling.
Makes for a piece of video that is fun to watch again and
again! Further on down the trail I moved up to the front so
I could run the fats pace instead of the slower pace and to
get video of the faster guys in the group. At the rest stop,
we waited and heard the weirdest sound. Like an engine revving,
and bunch of cracking, and a huge crash. We all thought the
same thing “Craig must have hit (another) tree”.
We waited for a while and the rest of the pack showed up.
Apparently, a tree by the side of the trail fell over on the
trail, narrowly missing Kevin and Howie managed to stop before
he go to it. They spent a little time trying to clear the
trail and then caught up. We finished the ride to camp and
I decided to hit the shower right away and help get supper
going. I get out of the shower in my skivvies (no room to
change in the bathroom) to get my clothes. As I pass the open
door, there are 2 fairly attractive women standing there!
What the Hell? Women at GLDF?? We’ll at least they were
attractive….and drinking, and after listening to them
as I was changing were already lit up. They wandered off and
things settled back down. Supper was all the extra noodle
salads and chips that the wives packed and Manske style bratwurst.
The WI contingent know this feast, s I’ll let the non-WI
attendants describe those. We collectively decided that the
previous evenings 3 inch rainfall would make things damp enough
that the woods wouldn’t burst into flame, so we started
a small fire and made a drinking ring. I think Bill retired
first, then the women came back, and not just lit but had
a full flame burning! The younger of them (if anything that
spewed forth from her mouth could be believed) had the mouth
of a truck driving drunken sailor and was funny as hell to
get riled up. I think she told Craig to SHUT THE **** UP at
least 6 times. Craig (the schmoozer), Steve (recently single)
and Travis (I’m LEGAL!!!) all paid rapt attention to
Carrie’s description of certain sexual acts and Kim’s
lack of them. They did a little country style high kickin
to Cotton Eyed Joe (I have pics) and settled in to a male
style BS session. They left around 1 AM, and everyone else
retired around 2.
Sunday we woke up to a chill in the air and bright sunshine.
I got started on breakfast right away. Mountain man breakfast
which was a casserole of eggs, hash browns, onions, peppers,
cheese and sausage cooked over last nights coals in the dutch
oven (handy things, those dutch ovens!). It was well received,
and Swiss Joe made me another cappuccino on his machine. Sunday’s
planned ride was supposed to ride the west side of little
Manistee, run Lincoln Hills, and back down the same side.
What happened was, Craig got a flat 4 miles in, and Steve’s
throttle stuck. Steve described it as full throttle 4th gear
coming off a series of whoops and heading for some dense trees
and bush. He decided discretion was the better part of valor
and jumped off the back. Unfortunately, he didn’t jump
off, but merely let go and got sucked into the rear tire.
I’m sure the wife will add the pics to the GLDF webpage
once it’s up. He wasn’t severely injured, so all
is well. Steve, Craig and Mike all went back. Why Mike too?
He was suffering from a case of tiredfatguyitis. I continued
on to catch up to the rest who turned around to come back
as well, to hot, dusty, and tired. All kinds of excuses. So
our 40 mile trip turned into a 12 mile trip. We got back,
cleaned up, packed up, and headed back into Ludington for
the ferry trip back. We had some time to kill so we stopped
at the Jamestown brewery and had a Reuben and a pint of Kolsch.
The rest of the trip was uneventful and we all made it back
safe and sound.
All in all another great Dirtfest. We met some new people,
caught up with some of the regulars and had a great time.
And now for the disclaimer. It’s not a race. It’s
not just about the riding. It’s about a bunch of people
getting together, doing some BS’ing a little riding,
some drinking, some eating and having a good time. If your
looking to ride a gagillion miles as fast as you can, well,
you’ll hate this ride. If your looking to hang out with
a bunch of really great people and do a little trail riding,
then welcome to Dirtfest 08.
Lobster : ) |
