Having arrived in Houghton on Tuesday, I had to take the mountain bike out for a spin. After two hours of packing my belongings and loading them into the U-Haul, I decided to leave my downtown-Houghton hotel to ride up the hill to Michigan Tech’s Student Development Complex (SDC) where I could pop into Outer Loop at the Michigan Tech Trails.

Michigan Tech’s Outer Limits is one of my favorite singletrack trails in the entire state.

I love Outer Loop, but I only did a short stretch of it as I made my way to the trailhead where I took a quick look around to see if I recognized anyone. Nope. Move along.

I opted for the Time Trial loop. It’s a fun, intermediate and technical trail that has a few stunts for the brave. I sometimes do a couple of stunts, but that’s it. Another trail, Hairy Toad, branches off of Time Trial. Hairy Toad, together with the trail to which it leads – Barking Frog, are more advanced technical trails full of rock gardens and skinny bridges. I love these trails.

Hairy Toad and Barking Frog are full of rocks and will test your technical skills.

I managed to do them in a good time. I had a good ride and cleaned different parts of the trails as expected. It felt good simply to be there riding the trails that I called home for four years.

I made my way back to the trailhead and started downhill along the old Outer Loop. Several trails have been added to the Tech Trails, and a new stretch of Outer Loop has been created while an old stretch has been renamed as something else. I started down the “old” Outer Loop and found myself bombing around the corners and over the various trail features. It was FUN.

I made my way up the other side of Outer Loop, near the cemetery, and popped back out onto the road by the SDC. I rode to the hotel, changed my clothes, and headed out for a beer – just like old times.