DALMAC 2006 Roundup
By Wally Kiehler, MHPVA President
wkiehler@comcast.net

Twenty years ago I got back into bike riding after reading in a Sunday newspaper about a bicycle tour. The story was about the annual DALMAC ride.  This tour happens every Labor Day weekend.  (This year's was the 36th annual.) There are usually four- and five-day routes that start in Lansing and end at the Mackinac Bridge.  One or more of the routes usually includes an optional ride over the bridge. 

This is a biking/camping adventure, which means the organizers (the Tri-County Bicycle Association) carry your luggage in trucks for you and they also feed you breakfast and dinner.  Overnight camping is  usually on the grounds of a high shool or college.  Some riders are picked up at the end of the tour by friends or family members.  Others choose to ride the bus back to Lansing, where their motor vehicles are parked.  Their bikes come back safely in a truck.

This year was my 11th DALMAC.  My first four tours were on an upright.  The last seven were on my five recumbents.  This year I got to ride with some MHPVA members.  There were six in our group.  Twenty-year DALMAC veteran John Foltz rode his yellow Baron low racer. DALMAC veterans Chris Evans rode his Velokraft VK2 low racer and Don Smith rode his new Velokraft NoCom extra low racer.  Newbies Bill Hannon and Curtis Valey from Ohio rode their VK 2s. 

The first night we camped on the grounds at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant.  Those were probably our best facilities.  The second night was at the high school in Lake City.  I remember that the showers were not hot enough for me there.  The third day I stopped at Bill Frey's cottage on Torch Lake for a swim and beverages. (Thanks, Bill!).  Bill rode the rest of the way with me to Central Lake High School. Day 4 is always the most scenic.  We rode through Petoskey, Harbor Springs, along M-119 and through the "tunnel of trees," through Cross Village (where I stopped to meet another friend at his beachfront property), rode along the sand dunes, and then on to Mackinaw City, where we camped again. 

The first four days were all century rides for me and my F40.  Day 5 was a very short ride for us on the "Bridge Route".  We rode only 9 miles -- but this included 2.5 miles up the Mackinaw Bridge and 2.5 miles coasting down.  Crossing this bridge is something everyone should try to experience at least once.

Our tour ended just past the bridge in St. Ignace.  Once there, those of us who were taking the bus back to Lansing had to prepare our bikes for transport.  I, of course, had the most work to do because I had to remove all of my fairing except for the nose cone.  But I knew my bike was in good hands because I knew the truck driver (John Foltz).   See John's Dalmac Ride Reports for this and previous years on his website: http://www.biketcba.org/TRICORR/reports.html

This year we had perfect weather.  Some years we do not.  I highly recommend the DALMAC for those of you who enjoy bicycle touring/camping.  They do a very good job organizing this event every year.

Author Wally Kiehler mixes retro and futuristic among all this carbon with his classic Lightning F40

The low gang keeps out of the wind as they ride onto Mackinaw Bridge