Mid-State: Burchfield

[mikesathome2]

Thanks for the detailed write up!
I will post here once I know what time I will be there Friday or Saturday and see if any locals want to show me around, if not I will do some exploring.

[mwilson7]

I ended up at the trail on Saturday morning and I guess I parked in the Burchfield Parking lot.

Here are my thoughts:

- overall the trail is relatively easy to follow except there were a few intersections in the first 2 miles where you could have gone any of the 3 ways. I would end up having to stop and look down the trail each way to see if I could see an arrow further down the trail.

- There was one interesection(wish I remembered where it was) that is almost a Y that you could have really gone either way. I ended up going left just because I figured right would take my back towards the beginning.

- It is important to point out that there are two types of green arrows: one is a florenscent green/yellow arrow in a small 4"X4"ish block of brown wood. These are pretty easy to spot. There are also what looks like to be printed darker green arrows on a glossy black piece of plastic. In the low light conditions that I was in it was difficult to see these.

- There were a couple places where you were supposed to turn left or right even though the trail goes straight and the arrow was probably 20' from the turn. Problem is if you aren't looking for the arrow you miss it as there isn't one at the actual turn. It probably sounds petty but because it wasn't consistant I missed a few of them and had to stop and back up until I found an arrow.

- Manmade features were pretty cool and it's obvious that you guys really like them.

- Trail was very well maintained.

Overall I wouldn't be concerned with finding your way around the advanced course but I didn't think it was more than an intermediate. If you had to run all of the man made features then it might be considered advanced. There's also very few climbs. Bring the bug spray as well as there were LOTS of deer flies, LOTS OF THEM!

[MajesticTJ]

There's a tree down after the riverbend crossing right before the rock pile in the new section. It will probably need a chain saw to take care of it. Also that whole section up to the field section is starting to get over grown again.

[reidabel]

It appears to be a slow news week at Burchfield - so here's a tidbit about something I spotted last night:

Big skid mark up to the entry of the Hellboy stunt The Highway ... somebody changed their mind at the last moment

Probably the same person then went past the stunts and missed the turn at the top of the ridge on Remember Me, big skid mark all the way down the little hill at that intersection

Ah, to be young and foolish again!

Trail conditions? Trails are in great shape, still smelling the oil stench near the McNamara Eagle Scout project, though.

[utabintarbo]

Trail conditions? Trails are in great shape, still smelling the oil stench near the McNamara Eagle Scout project, though.

I wondered what that was....

It seems there's a lot of deadfall on the trail. Oh, and dust (but every trail is like that these days).

[geardaddy37]

Uta, did you ride burchfield? what did you think?

[utabintarbo]

Uta, did you ride burchfield? what did you think?

Yesterday. It was a bit more challenging than most indicated, and had a nice mix of flowy parts, irritatingly un-flowy stuff, and man-made features. I didn't hit many of the latter, as I am old and brittle, but they looked pretty cool.

[rvd]

Uta, did you ride burchfield? what did you think?

Yesterday. It was a bit more challenging than most indicated, and had a nice mix of flowy parts, irritatingly un-flowy stuff…

The roots on Randy's Maze and Annie's playhouse? Probably my favorite sections of the trail

[geardaddy37]

Uta, did you ride burchfield? what did you think?

Yesterday. It was a bit more challenging than most indicated, and had a nice mix of flowy parts, irritatingly un-flowy stuff, and man-made features. I didn't hit many of the latter, as I am old and brittle, but they looked pretty cool.

well, next time you're in the area I will be honored to meet up with you and ride with you, and might even bring a beer for afterwards. I live about 10 minutes away... We can discuss the future of our planet...

[geardaddy37]

Uta, did you ride burchfield? what did you think?

Yesterday. It was a bit more challenging than most indicated, and had a nice mix of flowy parts, irritatingly un-flowy stuff…

The roots on Randy's Maze and Annie's playhouse? Probably my favorite sections of the trail

I am actually starting to enjoy glorious poupards...much more interesting than the old route, and with the new build-stuff and the pump track thing it makes for a nice change. Hellboy is fun, and I really like the different options one can take, hooking up different sections of the various trails provides some variety. Kudo's to the many folks who help to maintain and build this mid michigan diamond in the rough...!

[utabintarbo]

Uta, did you ride burchfield? what did you think?

Yesterday. It was a bit more challenging than most indicated, and had a nice mix of flowy parts, irritatingly un-flowy stuff, and man-made features. I didn't hit many of the latter, as I am old and brittle, but they looked pretty cool.

well, next time you're in the area I will be honored to meet up with you and ride with you, and might even bring a beer for afterwards. I live about 10 minutes away... We can discuss the future of our planet...

I will keep that in mind.

[geardaddy37]

Went out this morning at 8 and had the place pretty much to myself. 4 cars parked outside of McNamara, no cars parked at Burchfield p-lot. 68 degrees, sunny, and the trail was firm. I have it in mind to do Burch time trial this year and so pushed myself a little and managed to do the 10+ mile run and stunts without stopping (first tie this year!) Wish time trial had a 50 and over category... Probably gonna be out there again in the morning especially when it's so nice out. If anyone is heading out it would be great to ride with someone. I'm looking at 7:30-8ish again. McNamara p-lot
Cheers,
Bill

[geardaddy37]

meant to give a shout out to "ten Speed" aka Dan, we 'ran into each other' (me going backwards on swamp thing, lol...) and had a nice chat. Also met up with Reid in the McNamara parking lot...it was good to see a few more people out on the trail on Sunday. glorious poupards is kinda cool backwards...I ate it in the rock pile (what I get for running 40# in my front tire) and managed to hit all of the stunts for the first time...just really enjoying Burchfield lately. gonna head to Anderson for the first time this year on thursday night (:

[reidabel]

managed to hit all of the stunts for the first time

ALL of them?

I'm still waiting for somebody to say they did all five lines of Hellboy without touching a foot down ... starting with Pitchfork from the corner, loop through the reincarnation return loop to do the lowest line, loop to The Highway, loop to the off-ramp extension of The Highway, and finally loop to do Twisted. For those that don't know the names, that's in order from nearest to the corner to furthest away from the corner. I have not done this myself, but I bet some reading this could.

[TenSpeed]

Good to see Bill and Reid out there. Had a pretty good ride myself, till I see some whacko who is blazing down Swamp Thing backwards. LOL.