The Journey to Yankee Springs

Photo Credit:  Yankee Springs FB event

Way back in October, MM decided that we should put a trail race on our calendar for December/January as an incentive for her to start running again after her bike accident and to keep me motivated through the cold temps we knew we were coming.  We had originally decided on the 1 loop at the Huff Trail Run but a conflict with dates had us searching for another option.  We found and tentatively agreed to the Yankee Springs Winter Challenge in Middleville, Michigan.  But no actually money was put down.

I knew next to nothing about the race other than I had once been on the Yankee Springs mountain bike trails a few years back on a bike in the summer.  That was a pleasant experience so when a FB notification alerted me at the end of November that  price increase was coming and there was only 1-2 cabins left for the event, I texted MM and within minutes we were registered and had secured a cabin.  My coach, AG was notified and training continued.  Please note, we still hadn't had any snow at this point and it was still something like 40-degrees out.

I had finally managed to string together a solid block of run training and was excited getting excited for the run.  That is until we had a constant string of days where temps didn't get above 20-degrees and we had several inches of snow on the ground.  Temps were predicted to be in the single digits with possible snow.  I was convinced all week that MM was going to cancel on me and the boy refused to go with me.  Thankfully, my worries were all for nothing and MM and I left for our 3-hour drive to MI on Friday afternoon.

The drive deserves its own post but I will condense it for your reading pleasure.  It was long.  It was dark.  It had 70+ miles of lake effect snow through IN and MI with several areas of near white out conditions.  There were few plows.  But MM is an an amazing driver and we made it to the Kalamazoo area safely.  Once we knew were out of the lake effect snow band, we decided to stop for dinner.  We chose my favorite road food - Cracker Barrel.  Before going inside, we decided to check the information on the cabin to see if we had to be there by a specific time.  It was noted that packet pickup was open till 9pm but nothing on the cabins.  If we didn't stop to eat, we could potentially get there just after 9pm but we decided that it as it was a park of some sort there must be a ranger on duty and we would be fine.  So to dinner we went, sort of.  We ordered and then was told, there would be a 45 minute wait for our food (note it was 8:15 pm) so we packed up and headed off to Chipotle which also looked closed (but thankfully wasn't).

Post Chipotle, we completed our drive and found our way to the very dark and very abandoned Long Lake Outdoor Center.  It was just after 10pm when we arrived to find the lodge doors locked.  No ranger.  No apparent way to check-in.  Thankfully, there was one lone volunteer in the building.  He was not the RD or even on the race committee but he sprung into action for us.  He asked if we knew what cabin we were in and we did.  He then ran around the outside of the entire lodge, in negative temperatures and 5-8 inches of snow, looking for the sign that would indicate what direction the lake cabins would be in while I stood inside.  Once located, he then volunteered to help us carry our stuff to the cabin as the roads weren't plowed so there was no way to drive.  We then follow this random man down a path and into the woods trudging through snow while he carried my suitcase (more on this later) and MM's sleeping bag.  I found nothing wrong with this situation.  MM was convinced he may try to kill us.  I pointed out that murders don't usually carry someone else's luggage but I don't think I was convincing.

View of cabin from trail (in daylight)

After what felt like forever (later measured to be 0.3 mile), we arrived at a cluster of cabins.  Our new found friend (and not murder) set the stuff he was carrying down on the porch of a cabin and sprinted around to locate #14 for us.  Like in any situation like this, it was the next to the last one he checked but at least we finally arrived.  To a very cold cabin.

Prior to deciding to stay at Long Lake, we confirmed the cabins would be heated.  But what we didn't count on was arriving so late and having the heat be off.  It took a few tries but we finally got the heat on, set it 80-degrees and began unpacking.  And then the fire alarm goes off.  It was LOUD.  I am sure our neighbors were impressed with us,  There didn't appear to be any significant smoke in the cabin so we didn't panic.  It took a few minutes to get it to go off and we just decided that the heat in the cold cabin must have produced some smoke that the detector sensed and we went on preparing for bed.   Eventually it was warm enough to turn the temperature down and bit and bundle up in our sleeping bags.

One thing that always comes easy for me is sleep, even before a race.  I never have nerves that keep me awakes and I can always get great rest the night before a race.  This was true until I tried to sleep in a cabin in the middle of MI in January.  The mattresses were plastic so every time one of us moved it was loud.  And then let's talk about the heater.  It had a point in its cycle where it would loudly "click" and with each click, we would be jolted awake.  The night was a constant cycle of  sleep, click, be cold, get warm, fall asleep, click, be cold, get warm, fall asleep.  I have no long how long each sleep cycle was but it felt like minutes.  Finally it was morning and there was a race to be ran.

Stay tuned for part 2.

I joked repeatedly through all this that the boy would have just turned around and drove home when we arrived at dark and abandoned Long Lake.   I am not entirely convinced that this wouldn't have been the appropriate response.