Riding the Pine

Alas, I was not a Detroit Tigers ballplayer this weekend, even if it would've meant sitting on the bench as we got swept by the division rivals.  Instead I rode a different type of pine, rolling along the White Pine Trail on my bicycle with Amanda and my parents.

My dad and I have long been planning to do a 50-mile ride on this trail, and Saturday was finally the day.  Initially I was hoping to ride the entire 92-mile trail to achieve one of my "wouldn't it be cool?" goals for 2007; however, complications involving car repairs altered my plans and I opted for the logistically simpler plan of just riding 50.  Not that riding 50 miles is ever simple...

In fact it was only 49 miles, but my dad and I aren't ones to nitpick. :)  Mom and Dad drove to our house, loaded up my bike, and the three of us drove to the trailhead in Big Rapids where Dad and I began our journey.  Since it had rained all morning we brought along our raincoats but seeing clear skies in the north, we chanced leaving them in the car.  I was well stocked with 4 liters of water (planning to give my bottle to Dad, since he brought just one) and tons of munchies. 

Three of those liters were in my Salomon Raid Race 200 (bought two years ago for my first adventure race) that I converted into a hydration pack.  In contrast my dad went old school, wearing a vintage REI knapsack with felt-lined leather shoulder straps, a wedding gift from 1974!  Aside from the handy waist-belt pouches, my pack didn't seem any superior to his - both were lightweight, comfortable, breathable, and durable.  Impressive!

The first mile was easy pedaling - all paved.  That soon gave way to a dirt two-track for the next, oh, 30+ miles that had been softened by the morning's rain.  While some sections were harder-packed than others, the soft dirt just sucked the kinetic energy right out of our tires, much the way EMAS slows down aircraft that overrun a runway.  Both of our rides were hybrid bikes with relatively narrow tires that the soft ground swallowed up.  We kept wishing for some good old 2" mountain bike tires and I finally tried to emulate those fat knobbies by lowering my tire pressure from 70 to 45 psi.  It helped quite a bit, but we'd already ridden 20 miles at the higher pressure so the benefit was minimal.

The weather held up for us terrifically.  Temps hovered in the 60s while the sky remained overcast yet without rain - very comfortable!  Every 45 minutes or so we'd stop and have a snack.  By the end of our ride we'd consumed four energy bars, one bag of dried fruit trail mix, and half a bag of Combos - I later calculated our pit stops to have totaled about 1000 calories for each of us!  I swear we burned it all, too.

We were amazed at how far down the trail we could see in some places.  The trail is a former train track - straight and flat - and at times we could see two miles ahead of us!  It was weird to see a road intersection way in the distance, ride for five minutes and look up to feel as though we didn't get any closer!  33 miles along the trail we spot this pink thing in the distance - minutes passed before we were able to confirm our guess that it was Amanda, who had ridden up to meet us from Grand Rapids.  She had to pedal 16 miles to reach us!

Now our group was 50% larger as the three of us slogged through some loose gravel on the two-track.  All of this soft terrain was wearing on Amanda's legs and she had one goal in mind: pavement!  Half an hour later we finally hit Russell Road, which marks the point where the rest of the trail south is paved.  Ahhh!  Our average speed jumped a few MPH as cruised along the blacktop.  Another 30 minutes and we reached the town of Rockford, our temporary finish line.

In Rockford we met my mom, who had ridden the four miles up from Grand Rapids to meet us all for lunch.  We found a pizza restaurant situated in a 100-year-old house that was cramped, but the food was served quickly and it really hit the spot.  That pizza joint has the world's smallest bathroom - imagine fitting a toilet, sink, and towel dispenser in a space the size of an outhouse! 

Loaded up on food, we walked around the Rockford dam for 15 minutes to digest a bit before hopping back on our bikes for the 4-mile ride to our awaiting parked cars.  A mile into the ride it began to rain and quite honestly I welcomed it - after 4 hours of cranking the pedals and getting sprayed with sand and pebbles, the rain felt refreshing!  At the very end Dad and I sprinted ahead to see how high of a max speed we could hit on his bicycle computer - he reached 24 mph while I was still gaining on him.  It felt fast but then again, Olympic sprinters can run that speed! 

We got so carried away we almost missed the parking lot!  Dad and I racked up 49 miles, which was his longest ride since a 100-miler in his youth on Belle Isle.  This matched my longest - last June I rode the same section of trail but in reverse, going solo from Grand Rapids to Big Rapids (entry from my old blog with a more detailed trail description).  Amanda notched an impressive 32 miles, topping her longest lifetime ride of 28 miles that she did last year, also on this trail.  Mom finished at 8 miles, which isn't bad considering that her longest ride in ages was 9 miles a couple months ago.  Who wants to go again? :)

White Pine Riders

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