Pontiac Lake Recreation Area Mountain Bike Trail Ride

Official Mountain Bike Ride Report for Pontiac Lake Recreation Area Mountain Bike Trail Ride

Joe “Lojack” Rosenhauer, Peter Hill, Alex Zawinsky, Matt Bradley and I rode the Pontiac Lake Recreation Area trail ride last Saturday. Joe and I got to the parking lot at 8:05 AM and while there were a number of riders there, none of “our” riders were there yet. “They” wanted to ride at 9 AM but “we” wanted to ride at 8 AM, so we compromised on 8:30 AM but Joe and I were early. Peter showed up on time but Alex and Matt were late with Alex providing a (lame) excuse about not being able to find one or both of his mountain bike shoes! Having never ridden with Matt and since he was carpooling with Alex, I can’t lay any blame on him because he was there ready to ride, unlike some of our other intrepid riders who were, yet again, AWOL!

Upon test riding his bike in the parking lot, Alex noticed he had some mechanical problems (further fallout from the Potawatomi ride in the downpour!) and needed to borrow a allen wrench because he didn’t have any tools, spare tire, patch kit, or pump—nor did Matt. I attribute that as a attempt to reduce weight on their part and therefore ride faster than me since I carry all of that plus a cell phone to call 911 and a “Road ID” ankle bracelet with my emergency information on it, just in case! Alex adjusted his rear brake cable (something that is really critical to keep from “endoing” on a steep downhill!!!) and his loose handle bar stem (something that is really critical to keep from face planting into a tree in a hard turn!!!) That Potawatomi ride really took a toll on everyone!!! Craig Drozd’s, Doug Jones’, and Daniela Bredemeier’s bikes are all still down for repairs, Joe Rosenhauer had to replace his front brake pads, chain and rear cassette, Alex Zawinsky had to replace his rear quick release skewer and adjust/tighten his rear brake and handle bar stem, and Steve Burgin lost all his brakes and hasn’t been out riding since Potawatomi! Knock on wood, my bike seems to have been unaffected so far (maybe it’s because I ride slower and more gently than the rest of the riders?)!!

Before we started the ride I lowered my seat post a little so I could dismount more quickly since this was the first time I have ridden Pontiac Lake since my infamous June 17, 2003 spectacular crash and I was very apprehensive, especially since we didn’t have a paramedic on this ride like we did that day!!! Big mistake, I couldn’t pedal efficiently and was immediately dropped by the guys!!! Then I was passed by two more riders and I knew I was going to have to stop to adjust the seat. While I was adjusting the seat five more riders went by but they did ask if I was okay (I couldn’t believe that I looked that exhausted less than 10 minutes into the ride—but I am old so maybe that threw them off as well!).

I eventually caught up to Matt Bradley, of course I’m not sure if you can call it catching up if he is standing there waiting for me while being eaten alive by mosquitoes but it was nice of him to wait for me. Matt and I rode together for awhile, him flying downhill but struggling uphill because he was still recovering from bronchitis and couldn’t breathe well, me cautiously going downhill (memories of my crash!) and struggling uphill but not as much as Matt because I downshifted more! I think that Joe, Alex and Peter waited up for Matt and me several times as well but when we started riding again they quickly dropped us. When I told Alex that I had lowered my seat he scolded me and told me to never do that because it saps all of your strength because you use your muscles differently. Now I know better because the longer we rode the better I was feeling compared to the start. FYI, Alex says that your seat height (center of the crank bolt to the top of the seat) should be .73 inches times your inseam, which at that point Peter began to compare the height of his seat to the rest of our bikes as he appears to be the tallest of all “our” riders. It appeared that my seat was even higher than his though, so go figure? We’ll have to do some real measuring, and weighing, of the bikes on a future ride to do some comparing and evaluating, and of course—bragging rights for the lightest bike!!

When we got to a paved road, Matt decided to ride back to the parking lot as the heat and humidity had combined with his bronchitis to wear him out. I was actually feeling better but the energy sapping from my seat adjustment mistake kept me from being able to keep up with Joe, Peter and Alex all of the time (that’s my story and I’m sticking with it—it couldn’t have anything to do with me being older, heavier, and more out of shape than those guys!!). However, we were going faster than before, at least I was going faster than I was before, for all I know they were going slower than they were before!

When we got back to the parking lot we found that the 11-12 mile trail that we used to ride in 2000-2003 was only a little over 9 miles now. So that means that they cut out some of the more treacherous sections, especially the 300 yard long, 60% downhill grade, multiple ski jump like monster of a downhill that I spectacularly crashed on in 2003!!! Probably in my honor, no less!! But hey, I finished without crashing, keeping my promise to my wife who wasn’t home at the time, just like in 2003, to “not do anything stupid”!!! I did have to dismount on one downhill section with two drop offs and on a couple of “rock gardens” and I had to walk up a number of hills as well, but I did finish which was a huge emotional hurdle for me. I think I might even go back again because I really do want to find that downhill I crashed on and reflect on my good fortune of having a paramedic along on the ride to take care of me, and good riding buddies to help me out as well, even if one of them took pictures and distributed them to everyone at work, and is still holding my famous Timex hostage!!!

Still looking for some of our other intrepid riders who were AWOL though!

Sincerely,

Dan “Krash” Kiplinger

“Embedded” in-the-field Correspondent and Editor-in-chief for the “Official Mountain Bike Ride Report”.