The Official 2006 MCCCT Trail Ride Thread....

[kzoo]

Nuff said....

I'm in.

Who's goin' -

kzoo

yzman400

CrashTestDummyTraveler

625SXC

wr-ryder?

sndmn2?

[wolf_child]

The Official 2006 MCCCT Trail Ride Thread....

Actually it SHOULD read : The Official 2006 MCCCT Ride Thread.... having the word "Trail" in there is just redundant.

[kzoo]

[PumpkinHumper]

Well I started making an excel spreadsheet yesterday to try and plan on what stuff I want to bring / still need to get. How its going to get packed / where / how. Its not a big list but it aint a cheep one either. Lightweight camping gear aint cheep.

Im even trying to figure out how much stuff will weigh and where on the bike/me the weight is going to be.

Yea I am kind of anal sometimes about this stuf. Its the engineer in me. Cant help myself.

[Godzuki]

i think you guys should pack all your stuff just like you are planning on doing it, and make a short pretrip to try out how your stuff is packed and such, maybe even ride a few loops a few weekends in a row and stay out on the trail over night, and ride back the next day, to make sure you have every thing packed right and that you have every thing.

[PumpkinHumper]

You laugh but that is exactly what I was thinking. At least the riding fully loaded part. Im waaay ahead of ya there buddy.

[wolf_child]

been there done that, I already KNOW I can pack for a solid 4 day trip on my DRZ. I dunno about trying to ride those fargin whoops fully loades though. The ONF is alot different type of riding than this MI stuff.

I still think your best bet is to try to consolidate gear. rather than everyone having there own tents, cooking stuff, ect. get the group set up, then distribute the load equally. it will make the loads lighter, smaller, and more even.

[Godzuki]

ill carry the beer

[PumpkinHumper]

Well I was doing some trail research today. I just got the Garmin mapsource cd. I also have the trail safari cd. So I combined them both and wala there is the trail on my computer.

Well the main trail that runs all the way up and around is 522.2 miles. The connector is another 113.7 miles.

What is everyones plan for which way to do this?? Just do the 522.2 miles or do all 635.9miles?

Another thought is if we just do the 522 miles. How are we gonna get from one side of the state back to the other?? Dual sport? Thats a lot of road miles. It would be nice to have someone either meet us at the end or have stashed a truck/trailer at the end so we can get back to the begining.

Which way we riding this. From East to west or from west to east?

I am guessing that we wont be getting more than 100 miles per day. Maybe a few more on some days depending on how much roads we hit. If we do just the 500 miles that is like a 5 day ride. 4 if we push a little.

On another note I just got my Eureke solitare tent tonight. Man that thing is cool. super small and light weight. Packed its 17" long and 4" dia. Weighs 2.5lbs. Sweet.

[PumpkinHumper]

You know another thought. If we start at the west side and ride up and around to the cross state connector on the east side and take the connector back across to the west side. then we wouldn't be that far away from were we started. We would only be missing out on like 50 miles of trail on the east side. Just a thought. And I could probably get someone to meet us there and take us back to the begining. I have a friend that lives in Manistee. Not to far away from there at all.

[CrashTestDummyTraveler]

That is what I've been trying to tell you all along.

I live about 20 miles south of where the cross state connector hits the west side of the MCCCT. It's about 15 miles due west of my house to where the MCCCT crosses M115.

If we started from here, went up, around, down, and back across it would meet the requirements of the CCC trail safari. We wouldn't be riding the SW tail (sorry, much of the Baldwin area is sucky sand whoops as far as I'm concerned) or the SE tail (much of which is "temporarily" closed.... as it has been for the last how many years?). This is around 500 miles.

And remember, the milages you got from Ted are somewhat suspect.

[kzoo]

You know another thought. If we start at the west side and ride up and around to the cross state connector on the east side and take the connector back across to the west side. then we wouldn't be that far away from were we started. We would only be missing out on like 50 miles of trail on the east side. Just a thought. And I could probably get someone to meet us there and take us back to the begining. I have a friend that lives in Manistee. Not to far away from there at all.

Sounds good, that should be about 650 miles?

[rokklym]

Splitting gear is a great idea until someone has to bail or some other unforseen situation. You really shouldn't need too much gear for a trip like this, I mean its what, 3 day trip? thats only two nights so you should be able to plan out the weather situation and not bring too much extra clothes & such.

Yeah, the lightweight backpacking stuff costs alot of money but stores like REI and Cabelas have cheaper alternatives to the big name brands. I got an REI tent and sleeping back that pack super small and are pretty light.

[PumpkinHumper]

Sounds good, that should be about 650 miles?

Figures out to 584 miles.

[2TrakR]

Add 100 miles for creative exploration.

When we ran the MCCCT in 01, we did it in chunks. We'd park somewhere and ride a section of the Safari and then make a loop back to the rig or have somebody meet us (this one was pretty rare). Seems like it took 4-6 runs, usually we'd stay after a Trail Tour weekend and ride that Monday. We did the entire course, including the cross state connector.

Anyway, in this manner we ran our normal gear. I actually carry more stuff with me now on a standard ride then we had back then. No suitcases or stuff on the bike..

It would be more fun if you could have your eatin/sleepin gear meet you along the way.

The longest run we did back then was Atlanta up and around through the Tomahawk system down to Elmira (or other itty bitty town) and finally back across to Atlanta.

That's a standard length run for us now - for example one of the Six Days DS rides we did does almost that same loop.

Fun stuff, no matter which way you run it.

[PumpkinHumper]

Add 100 miles for creative exploration..

Or would that 100 miles be for getting lost???

Yzman...No really guys I know the way!

Crew...Yz are you sure we are supposed to be crossing the macinaw bridge?

Yzman...Ohhh yea sure we are....See its right here on the map..

Crew....eyes yz suspiciousely

----- hour or so latter-----

Crew.... Yz are you sure we are supposed to be going on a ferry ride??

Yzman....Oh yea sure we are...Its right here on the map. Follow me guys I know the way....

----latter that day----

Crew....Yz I really dont remember there beeing so many rocks/ roots/ mud bogs on the MCCCT trail. You sure we are in the right place???

Yzman... ?

[cmore]

SWEET

[wolf_child]

Check THIS out Don.

Told ya I'd done this before. ?

[sndmn2]

More info on the bags, please and thank you.

[wolf_child]

More info on the bags, please and thank you.

The saddle bags are Bike Master from Tucker Rocky. I believe they were around $100. they come with shoulder straps and rain covers. are made of heavy Cordura and are expandable (expanded they are rediculously huge).

The rear bage is actually a fox tank bag (non magnetic)

Both of these are several years old and were originally purchased for use on my VFRs. but I kept them when i sold the bikes and have since adapted them to the DRZ when the need arrises. I've camped off my bike several times with this set up and it works perfectly.