The 5, 40 and 80 MCCCT Ride (Michigan Cross Country Cycle Trail)
I will be posting this in multiple installments so hang in there for the rest of the story as time allows....Pictures will follow in a few days as well.
>>>>>>>>The Plan>>>>>>>>>
The 5, 40 and 80 MCCCT Ride.
Over Memorial Day weekend, Young Ted, myself and my two son’s did a bit of riding – 650 ish miles worth – doing the MCCT in 5 days.
All of the credit for planning this ride goes to Ted - that man has every single detail of every ride he has ever done memorized – I swear he does! Plus – he had detailed notes from when he rode the MCCT about 5 years ago. This ride was a combined celebration of 3 events. The 5th anniversary year of Ted’s first MCCCT ride, the 40 anniversary of Penton Motorcycles, and Young Ted’s 80th year.
From comments from Ted early on, it was clear he intended to ride his 1977 Penton GS6 250. I assumed I would ride my 2005 KTM. Then I realized this was the perfect chance for an epic Penton ride – so my plans changed to riding my 1976 Penton Cross Country 250 (which Ted was the prior owner of for the previous 30 years!), my son Mitch on his 2003 KTM 200 MXC, and son Mark on his 1999 Kawasaki KDX 200. My 2005 KTM 250 EXC would be on the trailer as a back up bike in case one of our bikes broke down. All our bikes were plated and “road legal” to the typical extent such bikes are made legal.
Initially, it was to be just Ted and myself. Then the idea for my son’s Mark and Mitch to join us came up. We eventually concluded that Ted, myself and my older son Mitch would ride the entire thing, while my younger son Mark, would have to miss out on some of it as he would not have his drivers license in time. Ted’s wife Connie, and my wife Sheila, would run gas to various locations along the way. We would on occasion have to load up Mark’s bike on the trailer to allow him to bypass road sections. We were staying in motels near each day’s end, trailering from the trail to the motel, and back to where we left off for our start the next morning.
Our itinerary was as follows:
Day 1 Thursday: MCCT Parking lot west of White Cloud on M-20 to M-55 crossing west of Cadillac. 142 Miles
Day 2 Friday: M-55 Crossing West of Cadillac to Boyne Falls area (corner of Baker Road and Camp 10 road just outside of town). 142 Miles
Day 3 Saturday: Boyne Falls area to just south west of Atlanta (it was rather nice having one night of our trip ending at my own home!) 118 miles
Day 4 Sunday: Atlanta to West Branch area (southernmost MCCT crossing of Fairview Road). 108 miles
Day 5 Monday: Cross State Connector - West Branch area to Fife Lake area (where the Cross state Connector re-joins the west side of the MCCT just west of Highway M-113) 130 miles is what we had planned for – somehow our actual came in at 144 miles.
I will be posting this in multiple installments so hang in there for the rest of the story as time allows....Pictures will follow in a few days as well.
>>>>>>>>The Plan>>>>>>>>>
The 5, 40 and 80 MCCCT Ride.
Over Memorial Day weekend, Young Ted, myself and my two son’s did a bit of riding – 650 ish miles worth – doing the MCCT in 5 days.
All of the credit for planning this ride goes to Ted - that man has every single detail of every ride he has ever done memorized – I swear he does! Plus – he had detailed notes from when he rode the MCCT about 5 years ago. This ride was a combined celebration of 3 events. The 5th anniversary year of Ted’s first MCCCT ride, the 40 anniversary of Penton Motorcycles, and Young Ted’s 80th year.
From comments from Ted early on, it was clear he intended to ride his 1977 Penton GS6 250. I assumed I would ride my 2005 KTM. Then I realized this was the perfect chance for an epic Penton ride – so my plans changed to riding my 1976 Penton Cross Country 250 (which Ted was the prior owner of for the previous 30 years!), my son Mitch on his 2003 KTM 200 MXC, and son Mark on his 1999 Kawasaki KDX 200. My 2005 KTM 250 EXC would be on the trailer as a back up bike in case one of our bikes broke down. All our bikes were plated and “road legal” to the typical extent such bikes are made legal.
Initially, it was to be just Ted and myself. Then the idea for my son’s Mark and Mitch to join us came up. We eventually concluded that Ted, myself and my older son Mitch would ride the entire thing, while my younger son Mark, would have to miss out on some of it as he would not have his drivers license in time. Ted’s wife Connie, and my wife Sheila, would run gas to various locations along the way. We would on occasion have to load up Mark’s bike on the trailer to allow him to bypass road sections. We were staying in motels near each day’s end, trailering from the trail to the motel, and back to where we left off for our start the next morning.
Our itinerary was as follows:
Day 1 Thursday: MCCT Parking lot west of White Cloud on M-20 to M-55 crossing west of Cadillac. 142 Miles
Day 2 Friday: M-55 Crossing West of Cadillac to Boyne Falls area (corner of Baker Road and Camp 10 road just outside of town). 142 Miles
Day 3 Saturday: Boyne Falls area to just south west of Atlanta (it was rather nice having one night of our trip ending at my own home!) 118 miles
Day 4 Sunday: Atlanta to West Branch area (southernmost MCCT crossing of Fairview Road). 108 miles
Day 5 Monday: Cross State Connector - West Branch area to Fife Lake area (where the Cross state Connector re-joins the west side of the MCCT just west of Highway M-113) 130 miles is what we had planned for – somehow our actual came in at 144 miles.
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