Michigan Cross Country Cycle Trail, (MCCCT)

I just got back from running the MCCCT. There were 5 of us and we had a blast. While it was a physical drain on me due to 3 months of work related travel due to work it was definitely a fufilling trip!

Backround:
Michigan has ~3000 miles of marked and groomed ORV trails. Everything from 60" wide ORV route to <50" single track motorcycle only trails. Michigan offers 3 organized routes, the Upper Penninsula Dual Sport Safari, the Lower Penninsula Dual Sport Safari and the Michigan Cross Country Cycle Trail. The MCCCT is billed as the longest continuous ORV route in the country totalling around 800 miles. The trail is a mix of mostly single track trail with some connector routes that consist of ORV Trail/Routes and roads so you need a street legal bike. Now, I can't validate the longest continuous trail claim I do know it's a long route.

We rode for 5 days and I personally logged 733.5 miles on my '03 FE400. We camped along the way so we had ourselves and our bike loaded down with gear which made things even better...

I'll have pictures and more to write later!

Here's a writeup from another guy who did the ride earlier in the year. I bet you've seen it but just in case.

Short Link

Day 1:
The start of the ride should have been a sign of things to come. Another guy and I camped a few miles from the trail head the night before since we were driving quite a way and needed a place to put our vehicles while we were gone. We woke up early Monday morning got our stuff together and hopped onto the bikes.

Like I said, I had been travelling for 3 months prior to this so I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked to been. When we started down the road I realized that my gear was a bit heavier than I had thought, so we turned around and I unloaded a few things and made my pack quite a bit more managable.

So now we're heading down the road and suddenly we realize that we don't know where the heck we are! Mind you, I'm riding with a guy who had a GPS!!! :roll: So we stop and ask for directions and end up finding our way to the trail head, 1 hour late. B.T.W. For those of you not in Michigan, it's really easy to get a plate for a bike here.

So there we are getting ready to ride, there was me with my trusty 'berg, a WR400, WR250 and CRF250X. We me the 5th, riding a DRZ400 about 150 miles up the trail.

Bikes

We headed down the trail.... Everything was going well, I was feeling out the bike with the 15lbs of gear on it, not to mention the 15 or so that was in my back pack when I decided that I could pick up the pace. Well, I was wrong.... That's what the tree told me anyway. I had rolled on the throttle to get up a decent sandy uphill when I realized that the bike wasn't going to handle quite like I'm used to so I caught part of a downed tree with my fron wheel. The result was a broken front fender, light shrowd and slightly bent front rim. Oh yeah, the HI/LOW switch on my bars is really good at bruising my right thigh... :? Well, my leg was ok, my plastic was managable and I figured the rim would make it the rest of the way, so I hopped back on and we headed down the trail.

We made it another few miles when the WR250 suffered a broken throttle cable. This day wasn't going all that well but we remedied the cable and headed down the trail to the nearest Yamaha dealer where hopefully we could find a spare throttle cable.

After fixing the throttle cable we rode the rest of the way with out any major events, met up with the 5th rider who was waiting at the campground. We set up camp, drank a few beers and hit the sack.


All in all, day one was a shakedown. None of us had ever ridden with that much loaded up. We had thought ahead and had one of the guys park his truck up the road from the first campground incase we needed to unload/load anything... Good thing!

It rained 4 out of the 5 days which didn't bother us at all. Michigan has a TON of sand and the rain helped keep us cool and kept the dust down. We did ride through quite a bit of mud/water etc...
Day 5 mud hole It took 5 of us 45 minutes to get the WR250 out of that mud hole.

Day 5, out of the mud


In retrospect, I would have worn waterproof socks.

More to come later....

Oh yeah, if anyone has a nice from rim that'll fit my '03...

I've started putting pictures in my Gallery I'm still waiting for pictures from the other guys so there are quite a few that will be added but it's a good start.

Here is a map of our route. We cut the lower rightmost portion around Gladwin, MI. I've ridden it before and it's not at all thrilling....

MCCCT Route


The night before we embarked on our trip a couple of us camped out near the trail head. Here I am

getting ready to go.

Four of us started from the beginning and we picked up the 5th rider up the trail at the first campsite.

Trail start


Loaded down Husaberg


Our first day was pretty ambitious. We planned about 150 miles before our first camp. Along the way we ran into these guys. The heard we were doing this ride and decided to head out and find us and wish us good luck! The guy on the left of the picture with the KTM used to ride a '96 berg. He was suprised to see a Husaberg on the trail. We figured that I was the 1st Husaberg to ride the MCCCT all the way around!

Good luck search party!


This guy is "Young Ted" Ted is 78 years young. 4 years ago he rode the MCCCT solo on a Penton.

Young Ted

Here we are stopping to put our rain gear away. The first day was tough, the rain helped keep me cool but it made the trails nice and slick. Getting used to all the extra weight took longer than I thought.

Hangin' around

Here is an example of the trail we rode the first two days.
Trail

The trail is marked with these little signs.
Trail marker

On the single track only portions of the trail you will see these signs from time to time.
No Quads

After a long day we finally made it to the first campsite. Of course it was wet from the constant rain all day.

Campsite #1