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ALL-FOUR MICHIGAN™ FALL COLOR RIDE 2009!
pg. 2
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After John and I signed the 90 mile route Friday I was up at 4am that Saturday morning.
The first thing I noticed were the stars shinning bright in the crisp pre dawn air.
It had been rainy all week and now it looked like 8 hours of dry air before a
cold front was expected to bring in a rain snow mix. Although it was a chilly morning
the dust was non existent. I had concerns about visibility with dry conditions.
Bright sunshine filled the horizon as Cooperation Park
started to come to life. The Girls, Alison, Katie and Neila
had checked in all the riders very quickly at the Brown Trout.
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We checked in and lined up 5 groups of 35 machines or so and had the
blue group out of the gate at 8:35am led by Mike. Green leader Kevin
took off 10 minutes after the last blue machine cleared the park. Things went very orderly
that morning. Right after Ty took the orange group out at 9:00am I left the park
taking a short cut. I wanted to run ahead of the groups and check the conditions
while I shot a few video clips. As I pulled into the Wild Road area, just north of the
Pigeon River Forest, I noticed many tracks ahead of me. The blue group had been through
already making good time.
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The stretch of two track just north of Webb Road has a few miles with many mud holes.
The last one is the largest and the first place I stopped to shoot. Pulled off the side
of the tracks I had a good view from the camera mount on the back of my Can Am. I soon heard
Kevin report in as he entered the area from Afton Road. The helmet radios where a big help in keeping track
of the group positions. John, bringing up the rear, and I also carried GPS radios that
transmitted location to each unit. This way I always knew where the last rider was
on my GPS screen.
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I settled in as the sound of the green group floated through
the morning mist and grew into a mild roar. The group and I watched
as Kevin slid in and out without much fuss.
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