Rose Lake

[jonw9]

My legs are slashed up from all the thorn bushes out there, seems the growth is already starting to take place. Got lost a few time which led to an added total of miles (which isn't a bad thing). It was harder riding out there as it was one of the first hotter days.

Fixed some of the sketchy logs now they are all pretty smooth.

Oh man, last summer at Boyne there ware Raspberry bush face slappers, now those sucked!

[pfox90]

Rose lake is the best MTb trail in mid state, even with no work done

[pfox90]

And dan had a thorn stuck in his arm and went Macgyver on it.

[dauber76]

My legs are slashed up from all the thorn bushes out there, seems the growth is already starting to take place. Got lost a few time which led to an added total of miles (which isn't a bad thing). It was harder riding out there as it was one of the first hotter days.

Fixed some of the sketchy logs now they are all pretty smooth.

Oh man, last summer at Boyne there ware Raspberry bush face slappers, now those sucked!

What do you mean? If you are good, you can open your mouth for some quick natural energy boosters.

[TenSpeed]

And dan had a thorn stuck in his arm and went Macgyver on it.

I thought that I could just blaze through that mud, but I failed to see the thorny branches hanging over it. Just had to power through it, and deal with the aftermath. I was only bleeding in 3 places.

[TenSpeed]

Rose lake is the best MTb trail in mid state, even with no work done

I disagree with this statement. Burchfield and now Anderson are much better than Rose Lake. I feel like I am trespassing when I am at RL vs either Burchfield or Anderson. I also like that there is a bathroom at Burchfield at the back lot.

[owosso bob]

One thing all of you will learn riding Rose Lake is to always wear a long sleeve shirt no matter if it is a 100 degrees out , it will save a lot of skin . It is to bad the island is not rideable ,that was a nice single track out there .

[alec]

Rose lake is the best MTb trail in mid state, even with no work done

I disagree with this statement. Burchfield and now Anderson are much better than Rose Lake. I feel like I am trespassing when I am at RL vs either Burchfield or Anderson. I also like that there is a bathroom at Burchfield at the back lot.

Overall, I agree that Burchfield is the best trail in Mid-state but it does have two big problems. 1. It is always really late to open because it is always so wet. 2. It doesn't have any challenging climbs. Anderson is really coming along and I really enjoy it, but again, it has no real climbs.

The ridge trail at Rose Lake is the best section of trail in the area. If only we were really allowed to build and maintain trails out there, it could be the best place overall.

[pfox90]

One thing all of you will learn riding Rose Lake is to always wear a long sleeve shirt no matter if it is a 100 degrees out , it will save a lot of skin . It is to bad the island is not rideable ,that was a nice single track out there .

And pants. You should see my legs.

[reidabel]

Yeah, it would be nice to have a bathroom out there, even if it's just a port-a-potty. Too bad they're so ugly, but I wonder what it would cost to have one sit by the parking lot? Maybe it could be backed into the trees a few feet to cut down on the ugly factor? If only we could get the horses trained to use it - one of the kids had some on their tire when I put them on the rack and it was nasty.

I rode there yesterday with short sleeves and short pants and didn't get cut except for the one time I went off the trail on foot, to do you-know-what. But when things grow more, I'm sure it will be worse, and I'm sure I wasn't going as fast as pfox90. We should all take clippers on each ride and stop for a few minutes here and there to cut them back. I'm going to do that for sure, I already do it at Burchfield.

Yes, the ridge trail is better than anything at Burchfield or Anderson, though not by all that much. I would say that overall Rose Lake isn't as good for a few reasons, particularly the facilities, stunts, and dedicated singletrack. All three have some nice water views.

[TenSpeed]

I love that ridge trail. Add in the factor of me not really knowing how to ride, and it gets a little exciting riding along the ridge.

[reidabel]

Just got back from a ride, a beautiful day for it. Forgot the clippers, but really only one trail we did had any amount of thorn branches on it. I'll attack that one next time, maybe Sunday.

For those of you debating whether or not to ride there, it's really nice right now, not many thorn branches, only saw a couple of piles of horse poo and no actual horses 2 of the three times I've ridden there in the past week. A nice place to ride ...

[pfox90]

The horses were out yesterday when we rode. Almos ran into their $hit but I quickly dodged it.

[AllMountin']

Disappointed...

There are several issues that came up during today's ride on the ridge trail. My log pile was partially destroyed. A bypass trail has been cut in above said log pile and the entire downed tree. Roots have been cut out of the climbs in, I believe, a couple of different spots.

Re: Log pile. Should not be an issue for bikers or hikers/runners. The only issue I could see is for equestrians. A few of the logs were thrown to the side and/or moved to make the downed tree impassable again. Not enough was changed to allow horse passage, if indeed horse passage was any kind of problem before. The only effect I can see is to make it harder for bikes to pass. I'm at a loss as to why this was done.

Re: Cut-in trail. I don't personally take issue with this and it may be related to the log pile issue. So long as other trail users don't raise a stink with the DNR- it should be fine.

Re: The cutting of roots. Please, please, please, PLEASE do not cut out roots from the ridge trail. This is one of the ONLY technically difficult trails we have in this entire area, and as such, it is an endangered species. By removing the aforementioned roots, you have decreased the technical difficulty significantly. Now, I realize that Grandma can't get her walker over those nasty roots and ditto with Grandpa's Hoveround. Gram and Gramps got plenty of other trails to hone their skillz on before they earn their stripes and conquer the beast.

I assure you that everything on that trail can in fact be ridden now- and could be before. Do they cut the roots out of Poto? Do they pull the rocks out of Pontiac Lake? Of course not. These are what provide the challenge. These are what set those trails apart. The diversity of our local trails has been damaged and cannot be fixed. I implore the responsible parties to stop this carnage. Please and thank you.

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Water level has fallen drastically out there. There is much less water encroaching on the trail at this point.

[pfox90]

Idk why your sad about your log pile you can't build out there.