Over the winter I was talked in to racing another 100 mile mtb race. I had heard a lot of good things about Lumberjack and figured why not. The drive is on the longer side, but with most of the race being on trail it seemed worth it. If you read the Mohican write up you will know that I am not in the shape that I really wanted to be or even should be. I am also not sure I fully recovered from that race but I can't add days to the calendar. The week leading up to the race was pretty typical for the rest of the year and they had some rain. The weather looked like it might clear up and not be too bad a couple days before and race day looked like it had a chance to be fair.
With the long drive ahead of us, we headed out Thursday and went part of the way. Actually we went quite a bit of the way and made a stop in Holland. We got checked in to the hotel and went out for a bite to eat. When we saw Big Lake Brewing just down the road we knew right away where we were going. The beer was really good, the food was not bad and they had some live music too. Can't ask for much more than that. After some food and a couple beers, we headed out toward the lake looking for a light house. We found a nice place to park and took a little walk to get there, but the trip was worth it. The light house was pretty cool and we were able to walk out on some concrete walk way and took in a better view. The waves were pretty big at times and I ended up getting my shoes and pants pretty wet. I was just glad I didn't get washed off the side or it would have been very cold.
Being close to sun set we hung out just long enough to take in some really nice views before heading back to the hotel. Got settled in for the night and didn't stay up too late that we would sleep in all day. The next morning we got up fairly early and got moving. It didn't take us too long to eat and hit the road. We were wanting to get there early enough to ride a little before the chance of rain was increased. The morning weather was much colder than home and I found myself wearing a couple layers. I was really hoping I brought enough warm clothes to wear.
The drive was not bad at all and it seemed like we got there easy enough. But, as we got closer we found ourselves on what we found out was a typical dirt road. I was really glad we were driving a vehicle that I was not too worried about getting hung up in. We made it to the M parking lot, got ourselves ready and headed out for a ride.
The trail was in good shape, but it was colder than I wanted it to be. I didn't need a lot of layers, but it was close to needing more. I was a little concerned at how my legs were responding to the climbs. I was hoping they were just stiff from the drive and would be better for the race. The trail was a bit of a spaghetti pile, but there were lots of signs and maps to show you where you were. We did seem to be a little lost for a little bit, but it didn't take too much to figure out where we wanted to go to head back to the car. The route took a little different path than what both of us were thinking it would.
It turned out that registration was a little later than we thought it was. We were done riding too early to sit around and wait so we headed to our house for the weekend. We got our stuff ready for the race and just killed the rest of the time waiting for either someone else to show up or time to go sign in. The house didn't have any tv and cell signal was not the greatest so there was not as much things to help pass the time as usual. Eventually it was time to go sign in. It as raining for most of the time we were waiting and that made the dirt roads a little more tricky to drive. I'm just glad we made it.
After we signed in we were still a little early for the rest of the group. We then headed in to town to get something to eat. On the way we figured out that we both bought the same sock hat at registration. I guess good minds think alike. As we were eating, I noticed that there was a brewery pretty close. We had to walk over there and check it out. It was a pretty cool place and the beer was not bad either. Just as we were getting ready to leave there was a big down pour of rain. Since we walked there, we figured it would be best to wait it out a little.
Eventually it let up enough that we headed toward the car and went looking for another light house. There was one not too far away. It was pretty cool, but we were not able to walk out as close to it as the one from the day before. There was a walkway near by, but the way was pretty flooded and we decided not to mess with it. We then headed back to the house to join the rest of the group who had shown up right before we got there. The rest of the night was hanging out having a good time and making sure things were ready for the race. With the early wake up call, we didn't stay up too late, but later than I should have.
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