Mike Connolly: Zoo-de-Mack

Wow Ive spent so much time writing about this past weekend on FB and other mtb forums that I totally forgot I never wrote a blog entry for it. Well now that 5 days have passed since the weekend came to a close, I will keep it brief (or not).

This was my first Zoo de Mack, and in fact I didnt actually finally decide to do it until Friday morning. After packing up in the morning, I hitched a ride up with Joe and Alden. We left Alden's around 3pm Friday and arrived in Mackinaw City about 8pm. We met up with the rest of the gang at the hotel as they were heading out for dinner (we got up there a little late) so we got our stuff into the room and headed out for dinner and drinks ourselves. After dinner and libations we settled in for the night and I went to sleep hoping the forecast for Saturday was wrong.

Nope. It was as predicted, cold, rainy and windy, with a high temp of approximately 50 degrees. The rain lasted till about 11am Saturday, which coincidentally is right after we started. So for the most part we dodged a bullet there, but it was still cold and windy. Fortunately our leisurely pace enabled us to miss the rain that most of the riders encountered later in the afternooon.

The 50 mile ride took us (the 13 of us in our group) till about 5pm to finish due to the leisurely pace, extended lunch break and few other stops to regroup, but all in all it was an enjoyable ride.

After the ride we all cleaned up and then went out for dinner before heading over to Mackinac Island, which is where the party happens.

I should note that I actually got stopped by a police officer for drinking and walking as we were walking to the ferry terminal around 9:30 pm, but fortunately the officer was (in his words) "feeling generous" and let me off with a warning. Cant imagine what I would have told the other prisoners in jail had I gotten arrested. Prisoner: "Hey, what're in for?" Me: "uhhh, walking." LOL. Fortunately that never happened and we headed to the island.

After a night of hanging out at the bars on Mackinac Island, about 10 of us were in line to get on the 2:00 am ferry back to the mainland and our hotel, when something terrible happened. Our mountain biking club mascot, BRICK, was likely lost forever at the hands of some cruel stranger who decided to see if it could swim and hurled BRICK into Lake Huron. BRICK is (was) a duplicate of the commemorative brick that Team Tree Farm purchased and had placed at the Detroit Riverwalk, and who had been accompanying us to bike rides, races and parties for the past year or more. In that time, BRICK had his picture taken at many places where bricks shouldn't be, as well as with countless musicians, local celebrities, bike racers, and hundreds of other men, women and children who more often than not were simply handed BRICK and had their picture taken before they realized what was happening. Needless to say, BRICK will be missed, and as for that young lady who tossed him into the water.... well, she's lucky to have escaped without being thrown into Lake Huron herself that night.

In lieu of the BRICK tragedy, all in all it was an awesome weekend and I can honestly say is that next year the weather should cooperate better and Im really looking forward to doing this again!