I’m trying to lose some weight and hit the trainer hard this winter - goal is to hit the spring running and ride the Dragon trail - 45 mile single track loop.
https://www.thedragon.us/the-dragon-trail/trail-map/
How hilly is that? Could be flat or brutal - I know nothing about middle Michigan.
I rode 5 miles out then back a couple of years ago in one section and it was hilly enough - lots of gorges in that section to drop down and climb back up.
I can find an elevation profile for a 38 mile section of it, it's mostly 100 foot climbs over and over again.
It's been about a decade since I last rode 25 miles of single track in a day. We'll see how the trainer goes, I might end up dropping a car at a camp site and making it 2 days... but I'm hoping to feel up to the whole thing in a day.
Hey Tick, did you ever ride the full Dragon? Me and some guys I ride with just booked a place near there to ride it in August.
Okay, I'm feeling ready to ride it. I should have yesterday, but wasn't confident yet. I did a trial run of 3 laps on a great local trail, rode 33 miles and my water/calories/gear combo seemed to work well. My toes froze, that was the only real issue. I was slowing down over time, but averaged 10.8 mph overall, which makes me think 4 hours on the bike (probably 4:30 with stops) is viable for the Dragon route.
Also, wife is excited about renting a little cabin there sometime and taking the dog on some walks/kayak rides.
How was your ride?
Sorry, been meaning to post an update but work has been very busy.
A group of us went up two weeks ago and had a great time. We rented a place on School Section Lake in Canadian Lakes area and made a weekend of it. We decided to break up the rides into around 15 miles per day over Fri/Sat/Sun to cover the full Dragon and have time to also hang out on the lake.
First day on Friday was a fun and pretty easy ride after driving up 3 hours. We started at Hardy Dam and rode the east side of the trail to Brower Park. That section was pretty fast and flowy with some decent elevation gain in parts but nothing intense. We saved what is considered the hardest part for Saturday where we rode the west side of the trail from Baseline Rd to Hardy Dam. It was still flowy and fast in parts but it also had some intense climbing. On Sunday I ended up having to leave in the morning to get home for a family thing, so I did not ride the final 15 miles which was the north end of the lake (didn't seem much to that area).
Overall, I really liked the trail and would like to go back. It was really fun and had some beautiful views to stop and rest/take in. The bi-direction thing was strange, but we did not encounter any problems when someone was coming from the other direction. However, there were some areas where I was flying around a corner and I got a bit concerned about someone coming from the other direction. They really should make it directional by the day of the week like DTE does.