The other week I ventured to NW Ohio and the Toledo area for some retailer visits. The days prior had been dry, but the weather outlook for this day was 80% chance of rain so I thought I would be relegated to my hotel room and paperwork rather than an evening trail ride. As I finished up my last sales visit, I noticed the sun was trying to break through the clouds as I looked north toward that state up north (Michigan, for those of you that don't live in Ohio).
I decided to drive north to a former favorite trail of mine while chancing a major downpour, ending up just 20 miles NW of Ann Arbor, the Potawatomi Trail. In the mid '90's, I would do this trip to the Pot-to each month during the summer months. At this time, my home state of Ohio had terrible trail access and if you wanted any good trails to ride you headed north to (the state just north of Toledo), Pennsylvania, or West Virginia.
Actually, the Potawatomi Trail was ranked at one point the 3rd best trail in the United States by Bicycling Magazine (I believe it was Bicycling). It featured a 17 mile loop with plenty of roots, sand and twisty singletrack. It was a multi use trail as well, so this teamed with the magazine pub, Ohio traffic along with all the locals made the Pot-to a top destination.
As I drove north and past Ann Arbor the trip all was coming back to me like a scene from "Groundhog Day". It had been since 1996 that I last rode the Pot-to, and the excited of riding this ole trail was building up inside me. Still, no rain and now more blue sky was present that gray clouds. Awesome!! I pulled into the parking lot and stopped at the Ranger Station and paid my $8 for a single day out of state riding pass. It was now about 5pm and the parking lot had about 8 cars (most belonging to fellow riders) as I quickly changed into my riding clothes and prepped my Fuel EX 9.8.