Just got back from a week-long camping trip to the Great Smokey Mountains.  Camped at the national park at Cades Cove.   One day drove to North Carolina to visit the Biltmore Estate which was very cool.  On the way down we stopped in Lebanon, IN to visit Jason, Amy and Drew who flew in from Denver.  Biked as often as we could, did some hiking as well including up to the Abhram’s waterfall.  We were also inundated with cicadas (large grasshopper like bugs) which as it turned out only emerge once every 17 years, lucky us!  Actually they were not really bad, they don’t bother people at all, unless you count occasionally landing on your head.

Running between Hamburg and Stockbridge is the Lakelands Trail State Park. Sarah and I decided to take a bike ride out there so we drove out to Hamburg where the most convenient trailhead for us is located. The total length is reported as 26 miles, however it appears only about 7 miles is paved - the section connected to Hamburg. The closest parking from US23 is at Manly Park at M36 and Merril Rd. The paved section is very nice, about 10ft wide and very smooth. It would be perfect for some rollerblading as well, however the amount of twigs and other debris on the pavement might make that a bit dicey.

We didn’t go far on the unpaved section, its very rideable on fat tire for at least 2 miles, although reports are that it gets quite narrow and sandy further out. I’ll have to go the rest of the way some other time. To the east it ends at the Hamburg Pub which I hear is a nice bar. There are plenty of places to stop along the way, couple ice cream shops, one large strip mall connected by a very nice raised wood bridge, and the Zukey Lake area which seemed to have a nice bar and grill which advertised a lot of food specials.

Obviously to go the distace on the trail probably requires a bike with fat tires, the paved section itself is a bit short for serious riding on a road bike. Although combined with the many back country roads out there it could make for a nice ride - the area is reasonably hilly (for lower Michigan anyway) so its worth checking out.

There’s a lot of wildlife activity in the pond outside our place:

Just got back from the Ft Custer race. I hate to sound like a broken record, but what a great day for a race. The weather was absolutely perfect, clear blue skies, high around 65, and light winds. Considering how crappy the Michigan weather has been so far this year, we’ve been pretty lucky with the weather at our two races.

As you can see, I was lined up to compete (click on pic for full gallery):

Sarah also took a video of our start, good sized file, be patient.

Official results were just posted:

BEGINNER MEN 30-34
Place No. Name Age City Sponsor Time Tm Dif Tot Dif
1 266 Andy Bix 32 Kentwood 43:05
2 262 Andrew Beecham 34 Portage Breakaway Bikes 44:35 1:30 1:30
3 267 Chris Vanderwaal 35 Battle Creek 45:20 0:45 2:15
4 274 Mathies Metzger 34 Grand Rapids 45:59 0:39 2:54
5 265 Douglas Santos 32 Ypsilanti 47:17 1:18 4:12
6 261 Jake Pangle 33 Jackson Revolution Bikes/midstate Cy 47:22 0:05 4:17
7 272 Sabinel Deacu 33 Royal Oak 48:56 1:34 5:51
8 268 Jeff Vandenabeele 33 Royal Oak 49:52 0:56 6:47
9 264 Ben Bunce 30 Kalamazoo 50:12 0:20 7:07
10 263 Eric Sanko 33 Madison Heig 50:30 0:18 7:25
11 270 John Martin Lake Orion Flying Rhinos 54:23 3:53 11:18
12 273 Dennis Benjamin Jr. 29 Dimondale 1:00:43 6:20 17:38
13 269 Sean Shantry 33 Warren Cycleworks 1:01:19 0:36 18:14

I stayed with the leaders most of the way. I seemed to lose them after I came up on this tough drop off that I wasn’t really expecting. Some people said it wasn’t so bad, but I’ve never ridden this course before and when I see a near vertical drop of pure rock I wuss out and take the bypass. Overall the Fort is a great system of trails, lots of fun to ride. If it was a bit closer to home I’d ride it every chance I got.

Sarah joined me once again which was great. We cooked dogs afterward and lounged under the quick-shade. It turned out little Ethan joined Eric today and ran his first race, I hear he did pretty well too:

Our old Canon Powershot A70 is on it’s last legs, so we’ve been shopping around for a new camera. We finally settled on the Casio Exilim EX-V8. It’s super compact and light, with it’s chief virtue being a 7X fully internal zoom. We’ve been snapping a few shots to assess it’s capabilities, so far the results are quite promising: