2017: DALMAC Day 1 It's Great To Be Back

The first day of my sixth DALMAC (Dick Allen Lansing Mackinac) ride this summer. 

My alarm goes off at 5:30 after a good night's sleep. Steve and I are working registration again, so I decide to wear street clothes to start, and pack a go bag with my riding kit for today.  After a quick breakfast, we load Steve's bike and all our bags for the drive over to MSU.  It's a very foggy morning, with a local fog advisory until 10:00am; I am okay that we will be starting a little later.

This morning I am working packet pickup, and have some fun welcoming rookie riders with a shout-out, or mentioning a connection to their home town.  There is a steady flow of riders to each table and route starting today, though my box seems slow to empty. With the mid-week start, many riders will wait until the last minute, or have bags dropped off and then pick up their packets at the first overnight.

Me and Steve, ready to roll again.

We end up working a couple of hours, and by 8:30, with the initial rush over, we hand off our work,  and Steve checks in with the ride director on a few last minute details (something he will be doing the entire ride by phone). We both grab our bags and finish changing into our riding gear.

The fog is clearing as we walk to my van to for our bikes and bags. Steve has two large roller duffle compared to my jumbo roller duffle. There are pros and cons to either approach. In my bag, all my gear dived between multiple 5-gallon Ziplock bags, to keep things dry and isolated from my camping gear,  which is sure to packed damp in the days ahead. My bag is close to 50 lbs., and can be a challenge to lift. But after 10 years and 2-3 trips a year, it is holding up well, so I am in no hurry to replace it.

Lunch time!

In the end, when I am done loading my bike and shifting my gear between bike and baggage, I end up putting a luggage tag on my overnight duffle for a few last-minute packing decisions, and tossing it on the baggage truck. With all up our gear finally on the truck, and after a final double check that I locked my car, I take a launch picture, and we are ready to roll

I am riding my Trek Domane 2.3. Rather than a touring bike, it’s a sport endurance bike. I am riding with an Arkel Tailrider rack trunk on their Randoneur seat post rack.  It is the first time I have ever done a multi-day tour without a handlebar bag for a camera. Now that I am using my iPhone for about half my photos, the need for a camera in the bag is not as imperative.  I am still carrying my pocket sized Nikon CoolPix for a "real" camera, and have along a a GoPro for some video later in the ride. I think I will have enough pictures.

Riding the Fred Meijer Heartland Trail

I am also touring on a bike without fenders, a decision was that was actually harder to make, especially considering my history on my second DALMAC.  All during August I went back and forth about riding the Domane or my Trek 920 adventure bike (new this year), with plush tires, full fenders and a full rear rack.  With the outlook for the week looking dry, I opted for the lighter, faster ride on the Domane. (My Trek 920 will get the nod the next DALMAC, when I plan to ride to the start.)

We first head north toward the Michigan State campus.  The very first thing we pass is the commuter parking that used to be called Y-Lot.  In the 70's, Y-Lot was the south edge of campus, and it was the starting point for many of TCBA's regular evening and weekend rides, and for many DALMACs.  It was at one of those Y-Lot weeknight rides that I met my wife.  As we continue across campus, crossing the Red Cedar, the new buildings are obvious, but some of the old landmarks where I visited and partied with friends are still visible.

Leaving campus, we ride through a half dozen miles of neighborhoods on the north east side of Lansing,  before heading out of the city on a quiet highway.  We soon enter the suburb of Dewitt, and come to our first sag stop for bagels and fruit.  We have only been on the road an hour, the sunny day has burned off the fog, and vest and arm-are put away for the day has we continue on.

Crossing the Pine River

Just a few miles beyond the sag I notice the first “Rural Internet Service” sign; a sure indication you are riding out in the country.   The miles are easy, under the bright sun with little wind.   Despite our late start, we still have plenty of company on the road. We are riding through fields of corn, beans hay, along with some large dairy operations.  Summer green is just starting to give way to harvest-time gold and browns, a reminder that this is almost September.  The terrain is easy and rolling, occasionally crossing small creeks and streams.  Bikes make up the majority of the traffic unless we are close to a town.

The next couple of hours of riding go by quickly, and we arrive Maple Rapids, a small 4 corner town, ready for lunch.  A little community park in the center of town has tables and chairs under a large open tent, put there for the riders passing through today and tomorrow.  The town is filled with riders, and we have to hunt to for a vacant wall near the tent to lean our bikes.  Steve then leads me across the street to an Amish run general store.  They are serving up deli sandwiches on fresh baked rolls and incredible baked goods, and I opt for a beef brisket sandwich, some chips, a raspberry cream cheese roll, along with some Gatorade.  It's a nice break, and good start to the routine for the days ahead. The bikes have thinned out as we leave town for the afternoon miles.

Another hour and half down the road Alma is the last town out for the day.  Alma is Dick Allen's home town, and DALMAC has had a sag stop here at a community park for many for years.  At the park, I come across a piece of playground equipment that my son Justin had climbed into on our DALMAC together in 2009.  He was 14 at the time, and almost 6 foot tall, but still climbed into a toddlers monkey bars.  I snap a picture on my phone and text it to him.  He soon replies back that he remembers the place, and we both share a smile across the years.

A picture perfect central Michigan farm vista.

From Alma, the route takes to the Fred Meijer Heartland rail trail for last 10 miles of the day.  After a short stretch leaving town, we are soon riding through rolling farmland in a tree shaded corridor overlooking acres of crops, with only an occasional glimpse of distant farms and homes.  We finally cross a slow moving river on an old railroad bridge, and then come back to the main road into Vestaberg.  A ¼ mile down the main road we roll into the school grounds for our first overnight.

We are arriving late in the afternoon, and it is already a colorful tent city for almost 500 riders, the combined totals of the 5-West and 5-UP (mine) routes. After parking our bikes along a fence on the school grounds, Steve and I find our bags, and look for a spot for our tents.  I now look carefully to be sure I am not under a floodlight, and even with no rain the forecast, that I am not in a telltale low-spot.

My tent goes up quickly, and my camping habits come back like old friends; straps in stuff sacks, staff sacks combined, gear and bags settling in the customary locations in the corner of the tent to be found easily during the night, or the next morning.  It may appear to be OCD, but it just works.  I am finally ready to grab a shower, and that is when my first packing error becomes apparent; my after ride T-shirt is now back in my in van in East Lansing.  So I go through my outfits and find a t-shirt base layer, which will have to work for the rest of the week.

Dinner at Vestaberg High School

After my shower, Steve and I head to the cafeteria for dinner.  On the way we drop-off our tech gear for recharging.   To keep my phone handy, I charge it off a back-up battery, and then charge the battery later.  And I now have a single charger, with 5 USB outlets to charge everything in one shot.  With a headlight, 2 taillights, a GPS and the back up-battery, it saves a lot of time  (A lesson I learned, the hard way, a few years before on a multi-state tour.)

The dinner is Mexican food, served cafeteria style and it’s filling.  During dinner I get to chat with some other riders,  connecting by their ride jerseys or T-shirts.  Besides Michigan, there are a lot of jerseys from Ohio and Indiana, and some from even farther.   I even connect with some riders from Jackson, Michigan, near my small home town of Brooklyn, who Linda and I had ridden with on an LMB tour in June.

After dinner I head back to my tent, to finish some sorting and prepping for the next day.  I call home and send a few emails, and then catch the weather.  Tomorrow will be dry, but with a cooling trend in the forecast.  There is chance to rain over the weekend, but nothing like an all day rain.  I make a final tour of the campground to pick up the last of my gear from the charging station, confirm our starting plans with Steve, and then bed down for night.

It’s great to be back.

DALMAC 2017 Day 1 by the numbers:
Start: East Lansing
Finish: Vestaberg
Mileage:  74.3
Riding Time: 5 hours, 8 Minutes
Lunch:  Maple Rapids
Elevation: + 1896 / - 1827 ft

It's great to be back!

Continues in 2017 DALMAC Day 2 - Sleep, Eat, Ride, Repeat



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