The AllTrails routes for Day 1-4 can be accessed here. Day 1 is Purple, Day 2 is Blue, Day 3 is Red, Day 4 is Yellow, and Day 5 is Green. The photos for the trip can be accessed at SmugMug here. This trip occurred June 6 -10, 2019.
Jim Jones, Kyle Thede, and I left Jim’s Aunts Residence via ORV vehicles South of Higgens Lake. We used paved and county roads and worked our way to I-75 where we creatively crossed from West to East.
As we worked our way to the trail systems, I ran over a tree limb that severed my right rear brake line. With no fluid retained in the brake system, Kyle Thede pulled the disabled quad via Old M-76 to St. Helen. There, we obtained a few small tools, brake fluid, and some odds and ends and managed to patch the brakes up for the remainder of the trip.
We left St. Helen and entered the St. Helen trail system. We drove on the trails for awhile and ended up at Beaver Trail Campground where we spent the night.
The next day, we turned left out of Beaver Trail Campground and after awhile, entered into a few trail systems. We backtracked to the campground and after driving a short distance on paved roads, entered the trail system.
It was dry and the dust was substantial. Any followers had to hang back to avoid the unpleasantness. Even with large spacing, those that followed others struggled to stay clean. The initial trail systems were wide and high speeds of 30 mph could easily be maintained. As we entered the Ambrose Lake Trail system, the paths became narrower and fun with ramps and turns. Plenty of room for the side-by-side to pass through without hitting trees on the roll cage.
We navigated through the trail systems and worked our way to Mio where we stayed at the Mio Motel. Before cleaning ourselves up, we washed the vehicles at the car wash. Then we returned to the motel and cleaned up. Jim and Scott celebrated the trip thus far with a few beers.
The next morning, Kyle and I had breakfast at McDonalds while Jim ate the leftover pizza from the night before. We sorted out the coolers putting dry goods in Jim’s while using the Polaris insulated cooler for items needing refrigeration. We then headed back to the trails and for the Bull Gap Hill Climb. The hill was big, but both Polaris Sportsman had no problem climbing it. Of course Kyle’s 850 had enough reserve to do more while the 570 did a good job. The 570 even climbed it after stopping halfway up. Anything steeper may be a challenge. Jim’s Honda Pioneer was in its break in maiden run and could not be used aggressively.
From Bull Gap, we worked our way to South Branch, re-fueled, and then headed for Oscoda. Shortly after crossing M-65, we finished up our refrigerated supplies by having sandwiches and macaroni salad on the trail. We continued our journey to Oscoda and arrived around 5pm. We checked into the AmericInn. We had dinner at the Hilltop Bar and ice cream at Ausable Ice Cream Shop.
Oscoda was our toughest town relative to riding legally. There were certain roads that could not be driven along with M and US roads. It added a bit of stress, but we managed not to get stopped/ticketed. The next day, we all ate the hotel’s continental breakfast to start the the new day.
Day four, we made our way from Oscoda Huron Trail East to the Old State House Trail East. After we traveled a few county roads, we entered the Alcona ORV Trail East via South Stout Road. These were some of the nicest 50″ trails with plenty of room to accommodate Jim’s roll cage on his Honda Pioneer. We found our way to McKinley and had lunch at the McKinley Bar. The gas station in McKinley looked to be out of business. We hit the trails with fuel not being topped off and limped into Luzerne on fumes. When we left McKinley, it started to rain lightly. By the time we got to Luzerne, the rain was full on.
We thought about staying in Luzerne overnight but the lodging accommodations were not working out. We elected to hit the trails again. A little while later, wet and miserable, we thought we better backtrack and a room with three single beds in Rose City at the Scenic Motel. This turned out to be a good night of fun. We got pizza and beer and had a great time talking about the ride so far. Though we were wet, we did our best to hang the clothes to dry and hoped for the best the next day.
We went to breakfast the next day at the Rose City Cafe making sure we were fortified for the ride to come. Also, it was raining still and though the weather called for it to stop by 10am, the forecast kept changing eventually calling for an end by noon. The rain gear was needed not because it was raining, but everything on the trails was wet and with trees and bushes shedding water at every turn. We traveled on F28 West out of Rose City until we intercepted the Rose City Trail South. We entered the Ambrose Lake Trail and worked our way to St. Helen. Some of these trails were the most challenging at 50″ wide and close proximity to trees. It was difficult for Jim to pass his Honda Pioneer’s roll cage past some of the trees with the changing angles. The scenery was great and Jim kept a great positive attitude as he ran his brand new Honda through these obstacles.
As we entered the Ogemaw Hills Trail System, we found some wider roads and worked our way to St. Helen. After some interesting deep water and getting stuck once, we managed to find our way to St. Helen and topping off our fuel. We grabbed a late lunch at The Firehouse.
After lunch, we left St. Helen via Old 76 until we hooked into the Geel Trail West. We spent some time around Murray Hill and ended up in a swamp. After that, we worked our way back North until we could cross US-75 via M-18. From there, we worked our way back to the South of Higgen’s Lake and ended the trip.
