Friday after work I pilled into to a car with Dan and Chris from Half Acre, a ton of camping gear and 5 bikes headed for Fort Custer near Kalamazoo Michigan.  The guys have been talking up the trails there for weeks, so when a camping trip was planned on the way home from Levis / Trow last month, I signed up.

Well, we got there, set up camp and talked loudly well into "quite" hours.  So, when the tree cop walked into our campsite, we were already on the out with her and the dozen or so empty containers didn't help matters much.  Chris was the only one actually drinking at that moment, so only one ticket was issued.  We poured out another dozen adult beverages in the name of Michael Jackson and went to bed shortly after, kind of a buzz kill.

The weather was perfect for camping and I slept really well, woke up before everyone, read a little Miller while I cooked breakfast and generally took in the woods.  A few other guys from Team Beer'd were showing up in the late morning, so we all went for a quick ride instead of waiting around making "that's what she said jokes."  Back to camp after a quick loop, the other boys had shown up and we were quickly back out on another ride.

The trails there are really fun.  There are more trail features there than anywhere else I have ever ridden.  Log piles, creek crossings, a latter bridge over a fallen tree, the trail even goes through an old trench warfare training area.  Banked burms that you can whip your back end around on, jumps.  I really had a good time and only fell once.  After completely wearing ourselves out we went in search of somewhere in the shade, near the lake to drink beer-mosas.  We found this cool inlet in the lake where we could sit with our feet in the water and after a minute of worrying about whether the water was clean, I went swimming.  Back at camp, we had dinner, talked a bunch and then got ready for a night ride.  I have only ridden at night once, and this time was a freaking blast.  Going fast in the daytime is fun, going fast at night is even cooler.  A little scarier, a little cooler, the trail is a little more tacky and all the while I feel like I am on the set of the blair witch project.

Again a cool evening meant I slept pretty well and woke up way later than I had hoped to get in my road ride.  Pretty stiff from the trail riding I almost didn't get on the bike at all.  But after a group of guys rolled out for the trail, without breakfast, I forced myself onto the saddle and pedaled out of the park.  It was windy and the first half of my ride was into the wind.  Rolling hills and plenty of sunshine made for a nice effort.  Made a stop on the side of the road for some fresh berries before turning to fly with the wind.  Really it was uneventful until about 3 miles from the campground, where my google maps route put me at a 12 foot fence blocking the road.  Side note: The state park is boardered on one side by a military base.  I pulled out my phone and it said I was where I thought I was and this road led back to the campground.  I just figured that it was blocked to keep traffic from entering at this side of the park.  There were not any "no trespassing" signs posted, and instead of backtracking 6 miles, sidis and spandex were scrambling up and over the fence with my bike.  I rode about a mile of decrepit road before I started seeing the backside of these yellow Federal No Trespassing signs.  Oh crap, we had seen military vehicles driving around the day before and I really didn't want to have to try to explain why I was riding my bike on federal property.  And, oh; THAT'S what tank tracks look like!  Luckily, there was a small creek that was flowing under a fence, out of the base and onto the park side of things with just enough room for my bars to fit under in the water.  Got on some single track and blindly found my way back to the camp ground.  One of the more interesting ends to a training ride lately.

It was a great weekend with some solid riding.  I had a great time hanging out with the guys and having a weekend outside the city.  Monday morning feels like it should after a big riding weekend and I am already looking forward to this coming long weekend!

Side note, have you seen the set of pictures on Flickr from the Library of Congress, as pictured above, that is a entire collection of COLOR photos from the 30's and 40's.  They are almost all large format and incredible!