Every so often, a handful of us are able to trek North to Gaylord, MI, where one of our college fraternity brothers and roommates works at the Otsego Club, a private golf and winter-sports resort. This past Friday, car troubles almost stalled our plans, but we decided to make a late arrival and head up there anyways. For this particular trip, only David Z and Chris D were in attendance.
We arrived shortly after 10pm, kicked back a few beers and had a pizza at the Logmark bar, and then chatted a while with Mark before turning in for the night. Saturday morning we met a scrumptulescent buffet, before suiting up and heading out to the slopes.
The Otsego Club is surprisingly large, and probably appears larger by virtue of the sheer lack of people. The chairlift lines are empty, the slopes are wide open. But they’ve got a nice arrangement of terrain of varying difficulties, as well as freestyle features scattered throughout. Most resorts limit the freestylers to a small chunk of real estate, with a handful of jumps and rails. By my count, Otsego hosted 18 rails of varying lengths and difficulties, as well as a few small “kicker” type jumps, a beginner size half-pipe and an expert half-pipe with 18ft walls. There were at least two 15ft jumps, and two more 30ft jumps. And unless you’re competing in the X-games, a 30ft jump is enormous. [Note: x-gamers routinely hit 50, 65, or even 80ft gaps. I have seen 50ft gaps in person, and they're terrifying.]
This trip was a rare appearance by Chris D, and only his fourth time ever on a snowboard. By the end of the day, though, he was nailing frontside boardslides and 50-50s on the beginner rails. You’ll see a slow, but successful boardslide towards the end of the video.
Chris D’s alleges that David Z is “better than [he thinks he is].” Discussing progression, we decided that half of the recipe is speed, and the other half is simply “balls.” You have to try it before you can bite it, and you usually have to bite it before you can slay it. On the 30-footer, for example, by my estimation, I was only going about 60% top-speed, and it was among the largest gaps I’ve ever hit. I feel confident that I could’ve hit it much faster, but at the end of the day, on tired legs, I didn’t want to press my luck.
The trip’s highlights, however, did not come without hardship. About an hour into the drive home on Sunday morning, David Z rounded a bend on southbound I-75, right into a speed-trap. At 87 miles per hour. Just a tad too fast. Ogemaw County’s finest quickly pulled out of her hiding spot, and issued a citation for speeding. It could have been worse, however, the ticket was issued for 5mph over the limit — no points in Michigan on a freeway, and a small fine.
After this disheartening experience, we comforted ourselves with breakfast at the Cracker Barrel restaurant outside of Bay City.
