Back in March, I signed up for a campsite in Young State Park just outside Boyne City for this last weekend. The Michigan Mountain Mayhem gravel race was on Saturday and we were hoping to take the boys on their first real camping trip. The weather turned out not so nice, so I ended up camping solo.

Originally, I had reserved a two night stay and was planning to take the big tent, but with sub 40 degree temps and chance of rain, Susan didn’t want to drive the boys up to stay Saturday night. I ended up taking the backpacking tent and tried to pack enough cycling gear to give me options for the race.

I left just before the kids’ bedtime and got into the campground around 10:00 pm. The drive was rain free until I turned off I-75 just north of Gaylord. When I pulled up to the ranger station near the park entrance, there were no park rangers around to get me checked in. There was a yellow phone I had to use to confirm my stay and site number.

The rain had let up a little, but it was still coming down at a steady rate as I was driving around trying to find site number 108. There were no posts with numbers at the front of each site, instead the numbers were painted on the ground. I had to make two loops and pull the map up on my phone before I was able to figure out which site was mine.

After watching the triple doppler radar, I waited for the rain to let up a little before setting up camp. I somehow managed to get the footprint, tent, and rainfly all orientated the correct way and the tent went up quickly without getting much water inside. As I was unloading the truck and putting stuff in the tent, somehow the pillow I brought had gotten wet. It was in the back next to the hatch and I think when I opened the hatch, a pool of water trickled in and got it wet.

I changed into my long underwear, used my sweatshirt as a pillow, cinched the sleeping bag around my face and managed to get a decent nights rest. Around 6:00 am, I really had to pee, but the desire to stay in the nice, warm, comfy sleeping bag outweighed that need. Eventually, I got out of bed 30 minutes later and was running to the bathroom.

I slipped back into my sleeping bag and fell asleep for another hour. It was another fight to start getting ready, but I put on the bike gear I thought I would need – socks, tights, bibs, jersey, wind-shell jacket, skull cap, buff, and my full finger gloves. I really should have brought my shoe covers and would have appreciated my winter gloves… my feet were numb for quite awhile after the race.

I drove to packet pick-up, got my number and headed back to the campsite. It was only a few miles away and there was a nice bike path for part of the trip I could use. I filled my water bottles (2) up with Tailwind Nutrition, ate the rest of my granola bars and headed back to the start line.

As soon as I started going, my hands were a little cold and I knew my feet were going to be miserable. I got to the start with plenty of time and had a nice little warm-up. Soon my wave was called up and we were off… I think I was the only one riding a road-type bike with road caliper brakes. I didn’t have any problems with the narrow tires (Hutchinson Sector 32s) except the sketchy/sloppy grass at the start/finish line.

The first few miles were pavement and I was pushing a good pace. Jumping behind and drafting where possible and trying to catch the next few riders. At one point, I passed another rider wearing a bright pink Flintstones jersey. He eventually caught up to me during one of the climbs, we chatted and saw each other a few times before the finish line. I was pretty happy to finish a few minutes ahead of him! 🙂

I’m not sure which race has more overall elevation gain, this one or Barry Roubaix, but there were some pretty long climbs during this race. The first big climb was almost a mile up a gravel road, then we hit Diablo’s mountain. I didn’t realize this was a paved climb, but it was still close to a 2 mile climb at a decent incline. After some fun descents down the “mountain”, we looped around and climbed the backside of the first climb (it was a lot more fun going down than up).

Overall the race went pretty smoothly, I was able to clear all the climbs, my nutrition held up, and I finished within 5 minutes of my goal time of 3 hours.

We were given a meal ticket for lunch, but there was a line, I was cold and figured I could find somewhere else to eat. I biked back to the campsite, grabbed my shower gear and took the best hot shower ever. I found a brewery I wanted to try, outside smelt amazing, but there was a Harvest Festival going on downtown and the place was packed. I took a quick cruise through the vendors to see if there were any food truck type places, nothing jumped out at met. I did see a stand selling hot chocolate and figured I would grab a cup after lunch.

I settled on subway, got a big sub, and watched the ongoings of the festival while I ate. Kids probably would have had fun, there were quite a few activities going on. After lunch, I went to get a hot chocolate, but they had run out… 🙁

Back at the campsite, I was undecided if I was going to stay the night. After a nice long nap (rudely awoken by a guy and his metal detector), I decided to head home and sleep in a nice warm bed. I had a great time and would love to do this race again (not sure I would tent camp it though 😉 ).