[Rhodes22-list] Mountain Biking @ Crystal Mountain Resort

[Roger Pihlaja]

Hi Everybody,

My younger son, Gary, is a state officer in a national organization called Skills USA, VICA thru the Bay Arenac County Career Center.  As a state officer, he just went thru a week of intensive leadership training at the Crystal Mountain Resort in Thomsonville, MI, about 90 miles NW of our home in Sanford, MI.  The Crystal Mountain Resort is a very impressive facility with almost every possible amenity.  I understand the VICA organization dropped about $K 20 on this training seminar.  Our only cost was transportation to & from the seminar.  It was a pretty neat experience for Gary.

When my wife, Deb, & I dropped Gary off at the resort on Sunday, the 18th, I noticed the resort had a "Mountain Adventure Center" with a bunch of mountain bikes for rent.  While waiting for Gary to get checked in, I inquired at the Mountain Adventure Center.  Yes, it turned out the resort had about 20 miles of XC ski trails, downhill ski runs, & connecting service roads to ride on.  There was also a connector trail to the MDNR Betsie River Pathway.  If you had your own equipment, it was all free!

So, yesterday, July 24th, my older son, Daniel, & I loaded up all 3 of our mountain bikes + riding gear & went to collect Gary after the training seminar.  The 1st attached picture shows the 3 of us in front of the resort condo, where Gary stayed for the week.  We're all ready to go mountain bike riding.  The 2nd picture shows Daniel & Gary sitting (resting!) on one of the chairs at the top of the Crystal Clipper Ski Lift at the highest point in the resort.  You can see the ski lodge in the background at the bottom of the hill.  The attached Crystal Mountain map shows the layout of the resort.  On this map, we struggled up the front side of the mountain, climbing the Main Street ski run to reach the top of the ski lift.  We rode down the Ridge, on the west facing slopes over on the inset in the right portion of the map.  We rode down a snowmoble service trail that sort of cut diagonally from left to right across the Drop In, Wally's Way, & Kay Blue ski runs & thru the woods in-between.  On the way down, we almost ran into 4 whitetail deer in the woods in-between Wally's Way & Kay Blue.  The downhill run was exciting & a lot of fun; but, climbing the mountain once was enough for us!  We decided to try out the XC ski trails & the MDNR Betsie River Pathway.  The 3rd picture shows Daniel & Gary riding together on a XC ski trail called Aspen in the resort.  The 4th picture shows Daniel & Gary studying the trailmap at waypoint 3 on the Betsie River Pathway.
  
All together, we were out about 4 hours & covered about 12 miles of trail & connecting roads.  It was a lot of fun.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium    
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