The LONG way around the lake

Saturday Dad, Jim, Sean, Joel, and I rode for the first time together this summer in a nice long loop around Crystal Lake. Plenty of big northern Michigan hills and smooth flats to hammer down on. Headed out M-22 around 9am and quickly reached our first hill, Sutter Road. It has a long lead up of steady incline that takes you to the base of this small giant. Then as you get closer to the top, the hill takes a punishing vertical turn and really tests your legs. Once over the hill there was a nice long downhill that put us back onto M-22. We continued all the way to Fowler Rd. and on from there to Indian Hills Rd. Once we crossed US 31 we hit the monster hill of the day, Marshall Hill. A two stage hill that makes you work for every inch of ground. Sean proved again and again that he was the King of the Hills on this ride. He flew up that hill with an evil grin on his face. From the top we headed down into Beulah towards our final obstacle, Benzie St. Hill, aka Benzie Boulevard. Possibly the steepest hill in all of Benzie County. I was just happy to make it to the top without falling off my bike. It was smooth sailing back to the house from there. All in all we did just about 40 miles with a solid 17mph pace. That put the week total for me at about 100 miles. But really, I'm only goin to the top of the hill.