Epic-Extreme Brown County Camping Trip

We mountain bikers are guilty of over-using words like "epic" and "extreme" to describe our regular jaunts on the trails, to the point of devaluing the definition. However, I promise you, our week at Brown County State Park was worthy of "extreme" (exceeding the bounds of moderation) and "epic" (heroic, majestic, impressively great!). 


What made it so extreme? The HEAT wave. The days leading to our vacation we nervously watched the weather outlook temperature steadily rise, 90-93-95 . . . 99. And then it happened. We were in Brown County, no turning back, and the thermometer rose even further—to 105 degrees for the majority of the days of our vacation. I love Lake Michigan and I miss my Big Lake every time we venture away from home. But I have never missed her as much as I did last week. I obsessively fantasized about flopping onto the lakeshore and letting the beautiful waves crash over me. Remember this picture from not very long ago?

This memory taunted me in my dreams.

It was so hot that even the guys chose to go shopping over mountain biking. 

And our trip was epic because of The Ride. It was the last ride Michelle and I achieved before the super-extreme heat set in (it was a mere 95 degrees that fateful day). We awoke early to set out on an easy 90 minute ride: Limekiln, Walnut and then down Hesitation Point. Michelle packed one water bottle. I get anxious when I don't have food in my immediate vicinity so I had a hydration pack and water bottle AND a peanut butter ball. 

The ride started out well enough.

Riding Walnut

Michelle on Walnut Trail

And then somewhere at the bottom of Hesitation Point, things went south. The trails kept looping together, round and round we went. Our water bottles quickly depleting, the peanut butter ball was long ago consumed, the heat continued to intensify and there was no trail-head in site.

Here I am retelling the Scary Story around the campfire of the two girls who went mountain biking
on the trails in Brown County and nearly never returned . . . 

The "little" mountain bikers attentively listening to the cautionary tale.

Finally we came to a cross-roads. We decided to wait there for someone to come along that might have a map or could point us to the nearest exit. We had been riding for over three hours. We didn't have to wait long for two guys that stopped and offered to "escort" us to the nearest road. They would wait for us at the intersections to make sure we went in the right direction.

Wait for us? Apparently that sounded like a challenge to Michelle because she stayed right on the rear wheel of the guys. And then passed one of them. And then someone latched themselves onto my wheel. That's when our 3+ hour exploration ride turned into a flat out race.

Four miles later (believe me, in that heat and with no water it felt more like 20 miles!) we finally emerged from the endlessly looping trails and into a parking lot. Near the pool. If you've been to Brown County you know that the parking lot near the pool is at THE BOTTOM of the park. We had some long, steep hills to climb back to the campground.

But, we were out. And there was water. We would live to ride again.