Poker Run

The kids and I participated in the MMBA Mid-Michigan Chapter Poker Run on Saturday. The event is the chapter's primary fundraiser each year. I don't think there could have been more than 30 attendees. I hope they raised at least a little money.

The Poker Run took place at Bennett Park, about 30 miles to our southwest. We dropped Mom off at work, left the dog at home, and drove down to Charlotte, MI.

I didn't plan very well for this one, but I wasn't sure what to expect. We'd had about an inch of rain on Friday and it was raining on us while I was loading the bikes. I was afraid the trails were going to be too muddy to ride, so I didn't think too much about packing us up for hours on trail. I should have.

We got to the park and pedaled some paved path and a little trail beside a rushing creek to get to the MMBA tent. There we registered for the ride, bought ourselves an MMBA membership, and picked up our bags of swag. Perhaps I should have know this, but there we learned that the Poker Run involved riding the Bennett Woods trails and stopping at five locations to pick up numbers that would eventually become our poker hand. The best hand got to pick first from the prizes that had been donated by various vendors of cycling goods.

What we should have done next is pick through the bags of swag for the Cliff bars and energy gels they contained, and packed those into our Camelbaks before we left. Then we should have pedaled back to the car, dropped off some of our extra clothing, and grabbed the camera. Also, I should have picked up a map and I should have brought my GPS receiver. Instead, at 10:30 in the morning we left the bags of what would soon be much-needed sustenance and pedaled off for 7.5 miles of muddy twisty single-track without a map and compass, GPS receiver, or a snack. At least we had plenty of water and bike repair supplies.

The trails of Bennett Park were fun and challenging, and not too muddy, although in places were had to cross small pools and flowing streams of dark muddy water that were not hub deep, but were deep enough that deraileurs, pedals, and feet were wet (in some places, with each of Quinn's pedal strokes his toes would dip into the water). I hate doing that to my bikes! As is typical for MMBA-built trails, miles of winding trail are packed into a small area like DNA in a chromosome, or the villi and microvilli in a small intestine. The trail was generally well-marked; in a few locations there were intersections and we were a little uncertain which trail to choose. A map or GPS would not have helped, but might have given a general picture of where we were relative to our starting point.

Some portions of the trail were lined by thick, wet vegetation, much taller than Quinn, and nearly as tall as me, even perched atop my towering RZ. In other areas the vegetation was less dense, but was often dominated by poison ivy. Some sections of trail were wavy: 10 feet up, 10 feet down, 10 feet up, 10 feet down, over and over. In the absence of roots, the kids navigated the waves; add slippery roots, and they did not. Most of the time, due the intestinal-lining nature of the trails and our collective limited experience with this sort of thing, our pace was slow. Even if I'd been alone, and going as hard as I could, the pace would generally have been slow. There were few places where one could really open up and fly.

By noon we were all quite hungry and I began hearing the familiar phrase, "How much longer? Are we almost there?" An hour later, the same questions. Abbey began to reach her limit before we reached the end of the trail. Her perseverance gave way to hunger and frustration humidity and sweat, bugs and spiderwebs, pain and itching. Quinn held up a little better than Abbey this time, which isn't necessarily typical, but perhaps he had started with a better surplus of calories.

We finished sometime around 1:45; reaching the MMBA tent hungry and muddy. We ate real hot dogs (made of what?) and I ate a hamburger made of real beef. There was only a small group hanging around the tent, and as usual I wasn't especially successful at introductions and socializing. Our Poker hands were quite good, Abbey and I each with two pair -- hers queens over tens, mine queens over sixes. Quinn, I think, had a pair of tens. I felt actually quite guilty coming away with the prizes we chose. Abbey picked a Louis Garneau women's set: a light jacket, shorts, gloves, and socks! I selected a Crumpler backpack, and Quinn... well, Quinn didn't find much that was oriented towards a 7-year-old boy, so he was a little disappointed, but ended up getting me a new set of Schwalbe tires. Other prizes we didn't snag included a couple set of nice Smith sunglasses, some other Crumpler goods, a White Industries hub set (nobody got those - they were only available for a royal flush), grips, shorts, t-shirts, a saddle, a chain, gift certificates for free Thompson components, and a bunch of t-shirts. It was fun but I felt guilty, like somehow we were outsiders coming in snagging prizes.

The day was quite an adventure. I'm sure the kids won't forget that one any time soon. Next time I'll bring snacks. Next time I hope we'll bring Cindy.