I love Highland. The Highland Recreation Area has some of the best mountain biking trails in Lower Michigan. In fact, Ali placed it in her top five in her blog post, “Loaded.” It is four loops of technical, climbing hell. I love technical. I love that I can climb fast when I am in shape, which is most certainly not the case at this point in time. I don’t love climbing.

Ali, Glen and I met at Highland with the plan of doing all of the loops on Monday. In the past, it would take me three hours to ride all four loops. Not only were Ali and Glen a little fatigued from Saturday’s Barry Roubaix, but I was simply out of shape and felt my engine sputtering with every climb. That isn’t the worst part, though.

The Clipless Pedal Debacle

When I arrived at the trailhead, I went to take my bike out of the Pathfinder only to realize that I still did not put on my clipless pedals. (I forgot to put my clipless pedals on my bike for the Barry Roubaix and had to borrow some from one of my “Jon” friends – there are a lot of Jons.) I went through a quick moment of despair because I was an hour from home, but then I realized that I had platform pedals in my bike box. I put those on, but I knew it was going to be a difficult ride.

I searched through my vehicle for my hiking boots, because they would be great with the platform pedals, but couldn’t find them. I was stuck wearing my cycling shoes with platform pedals. That was not easy. I occasionally lost my pedals and I could not pull up on the climbs. I had to really anchor my feet to keep from losing the pedals on the downhills. My calves and hamstrings tightened from having to hammer down throughout the ride. Going without made me realize just how useful my clipless pedals were.

A Lofty Goal for a Springtime Mountain Bike Ride

We wanted to ride all of the loops. You have to ride Loop A to get anywhere. Intermediate Loop B is the hardest, most grueling loop out there. Loop C is listed as advanced, but I think it’s easier than B, and many people agree with me. Loop D is the most technical. We all wanted to do Loop D because it is a bunch of awesome fun…

We opted to bypass loop D because all of us were tired by the time we got there. We wanted food, beer, and conversation. That and our entire ride lasted two hours and fifty minutes. That’s a long ride. We had fun, though.

Glen gave me a boost of confidence by remarking how well I rode the technical stuff, especially with the pedal situation. I did have to think about the pedal situation a little more. After all, clipless pedals allow a moutain biker to fly over crazy stuff without losing the pedals. For a girl who likes technical and fast, this was a challenging situation. I have to admit, it was also frustrating for me.

I told Ali that I normally don’t ride many of the log jumps because they’re not something I’m used to. You don’t see very many of them in the Keweenaw. In fact, there is only one small log jump that is consistently there on the Tech Trails, that I can think of. I continued to tell Ali that my willingness to plow over those jumps and any other feature without getting off of the bike – reckless abandon – is a sign that I’m truly dead and the ride needs to end. Of course, I reached that point before we even got to Loop C, but that’s how much I love Highland. I will endure pain for a good ride.

The Post-Ride Beer

You know how a cigarette after sex is all the rage for smokers? Well, beer after a mountain bike ride is incredible. We shared a few different beers immediately after the ride and got to that happy place.

Glen was also kind enough to buy us dinner at a wonderful, little, Mexican restaurant in Milford. I was pretty shocked to see downtown Milford and to learn what great Mexican food can be found there.

We had such a great time that Glen and Ali stayed at my place for the night and we chatted and drank some more beer. We decided that we were going to ride another trail before they headed home.

Highland + Beer + Mexican Food + Friends = The Perfect Day