DALMAC 2005
Five Day West
August 31-September 04, 2005
Ride Report




I started from home and met the route about 15 miles out. Instead of fighting traffic getting out of Lansing/East Lansing during rush hour, I had lightly travelled rural roads like Alward Road shown here, between Laingsburg and Dewitt.
Once on the route again, we immediately ran into lots of other 5DW riders. A group like this wasn't uncommon: one or more recumbents in a mixed group with uprights. Day 1 is relatively flat, as you can see here. What you can't see is the headwind, which was unrelenting for the entire ride.



There were lots of recumbents parked around camp at Central Michigan University, too. Like this RANS  Force 5, which was parked against an upright of unknown parentage. Overall, I'd estimate that this route had about 20% recumbent representation.
Somebody always has to be a wiseguy. Here is a pair of flamingos for this guy's front yard. In this case, they're inflatable.



How to pack your duffle for DALMAC. Everything is in sealable plastic bags. That way, your evening clothes don't soak up water when they're stacked in the baggage truck right underneath someone's wet tent.

 Some artwork outside the Rose Center.  A giant replica of a lawn darts game.



Day 2 was from Mt Pleasant to McBain. It had some hills and forest, but was still mostly open farmland. Here is a hayfield that was recently cut.
Lunch at Lake George Campground. This place has been an institution for almost 20 years of DALMAC rides. Service was a little bit slow, due to only one cash register. But the food was good and the prices were right.



At McBain we camped at a school playground. Here is one of the playground fixtures: a pirate ship. Stacked against the side you see two tandems, a recumbent and an upright. In fact, the white upright on the left side is my old upright, which I sold after getting my first recumbent.
On the stern end of the ship was a very short, kid-sized door - er, port. There was only two bikes that could fit, so we had exclusive indoor parking. After this pic was taken, I moved the bike up toward the bow so the kids could use the ladder easier.



Loading the baggage trucks in the morning. Riders are responsible for getting their own baggage on a truck before they leave. It's getting late in the morning and the first truck is already full.
Day two travelled from McBain to Elk Rapids. DALMAC only supplies one cookie stop per route. Ours was today, about 15 miles into the day's ride.


Today had more trees and more rolling hills. This view is pretty typical: an easy downhill followed by an easy climb.
Lunch at Fife Lake. TCBA President Arnie Johnson talks with DALMAC Director Darryl Burris.


We went around the south of Traverse City and up Williamsburg Road to Elk Rapids. There are quite a few orchards in the area. Yes, this was a climb and I got the camera crooked. The telephone pole is supposed to be vertical.
At Elk Lake we killed some time at the beach. No, that didn't include taking a dip! It was a bit on the cool side this afternoon. The wind is still pretty stiff, and the waves rolling in have plenty of whitecaps.



View of the sunset across the football field at Elk Rapids.
Day 4 from Elk Rapids to Petosky went through Alden, so a trip to The Muffin Tin was mandatory. They have moved from their old storefront and now have a dining room.


We went through Bellaire and past the airport. The road along the airport was flat enough, but the hills you see in the background closed in on all sides.
I hit my trip's two highest speeds between Bellaire and Jordan Lake. Jordan Lake is where we meet up with The Wall. Any named hill is bound to be Bad News(tm) and this one is no exception. Here is one of the last curves before the final climb. I've been climbing for almost a mile and a half at this point, and most riders are in their low gears by here.
The sign says, "Steep Hill."



Here's my view up final ascent of The Wall. No I didn't ride one-handed, I walked back down to take the shot! But I did ride all the way up, which is doing pretty well on a recumbent. Estimated grade is something over 20% at its maximum.
Showing how it's done. This guy only had a double chainring set, too. Typical climbing speeds are in the 1.5 to 3 mph range.



Saturday evening in Petosky was the prizes ceremony. There were a few prize drawings, but most of them went to the oldest man/woman, kids, travelled furthest, etc.
After starting in fog we rode through Harbor Springs, down The Chute, and into the Tunnel of Trees. Here is a view of Devil's Elbow, a short but sharp downhill/uphill with a switchback in the middle.



At the 'lunch' stop in Good Hart I saw this homebuilt recumbent. It sported a RANS seat, a Zzipper fairing, and an interesting spatter paint job.


The Tunnel continues after Good Hart. Here comes a quick downhill around a curve. Hills here are generally short enough to power over in a big gear.

A little blurry, but here's a nice action shot of a paceline, still in the Tunnel of Trees.
Eventually I got to Mackinaw City and lined up for the Bridge Crossing. I was 12th in line for the first of the three crossings, probably because I waited until 7:40 am to take off. As far as I know, there weren't any century riders in this crossing, not even ones with private SAGs to advance them to Petosky to start their day.



This was my view of Lake Huron during the Bridge Crossing. At its apex, the road surface is 190 feet above the water. The 11 mph pace is pretty easy for most, but it can be tough if you're a beginner and don't have the training miles in.
At St Ignace, I helped load bikes in the trucks for the return trip. Being a recumbent rider, I became the long bikes 'expert,' and my truck got all the long recumbents and tandems.  The method of zip-tying the wheels to the side slats was amazingly sturdy and wiggle-free, resulting in lots of happy bike owners at the other end of the trip.

At least half of all the cyclists got picked up at either Mackinaw City of St Ignace. Those with bus tickets got their bikes loaded on trucks which were no longer baggage trucks. Then they took showers and waited to load the busses. Somewhere during the confusion, we all got box lunches. The bus ride home was quick and restful compared to my past method of my wife picking me up and having me drive back. Arrival at East Lansing was around 11:00 pm, and all the bike trucks but one had been unloaded by the time we got there.

Our arrival home was bittersweet, because it meant that we'd have to wait another year before doing it again. I haven't decided yet which route I'll to next year. Some people like to do the same route every year, but I like to mix it up, rarely repeating a route in a consecutive year. In final summary, the weather was pretty good overall. We had one cool morning and 5 days of headwind, but no rain. Daytime temps rain in the 70s to mid-80s. I will say, it was a good year to be LOW! Even  13 inches off the pavement, my lowracer caught a lot of headwind, and I'm sure the taller bikes had porportionally more wind to deal with every day. But I'm not complaining, considering the source of the wind was Hurricane/Tropical Storm Katrina, which completely devastated New Orleans when it made landfall.
Back