DennisEvans
12-20-2009, 02:43 PM
So...As anyone interested in the midwest meet probably knows that Bec and I went up to Mt Bohemia this past weekend. Well, here's the thing, if you plan on going to the midwest meet and plan on riding with me or brian or anyone else that will be dropping "cliffs" I would highly highly highly recomend a helmet.
The drive:
Brian (Bec) drove over to me from New York and picked me up on our quest to get to the holy grail of midwest riding. We started our journey at about 10:30 our time and just went, no breaks until we ran out of gas. In Ohio there were few cops but in comparison to what we were going to see later those few cops that we saw were an army. Seriously, once we left Detroit, I don't think we saw another one for about 100 miles and after that we didn't see one for over 300 miles and at that point we were in the clear for the rest of the ride. So, if you are driving on a 50 mph road and think that you would be safe going 80, you are actually probably fine going 95 or so, not that I recommend it. In UP Michigan they have those noise strips that most major highways on the white lines, but they also have them on the center lines as well. The idea is good in theory but when you are diving for 12 hours and it becomes safe to just kind of need to change something on the radio or check your phone and you drift close to the center and you haven't seen anyone for over 50 miles, then the noise starts it gets kind of annoying. The roads will probably be pretty clear for you over 90% or the way, once you get on the road that you will follow the rest of the way to bohemia it starts to get a little drifted but at no point was it bad. Oh yeah, and definately have a way to listen to music from an ipod or other mp3 player because all they have up there is one rather cheesey "rock" station, a ton of country stations, and a couple christian churchy things.
The Parking and Lodge:
The parking is parking, not really much to say about it. But it is a small area although there is no chance what so ever that there will be any issues getting a spot. It's a tiny hike to the lodge from the lot but no longer than any other resort. Quite simply put you will feel a bit dissapointed when you first get there and see that the lodge is merely 3 yurts connected together and the bathroom is a yert, same with ski patrol lodge, and rental shop. But...you aren't there for the lodge and if you are you won't enjoy your trip. In all honesty, I liked the setup of the lodge, just those three yurts with a ton of picnic tables in them, nothing special but it did it's job.
The Mountain:
Amazing...being completely sincere here guys, I could leave it at that but since this is a comprehensive review I will go on. First thing you have to know is that the first day we only rode about a quarter of the mountain and on the second day we got another half added to that. Like the say on their website the resort is not a beginner reosrt. I would definately take a run down their one blue run that is available from the first lift you will ride. After you warm up with that take a mellow tree run and after that try some rock drops. The mountain has 2 lifts that both take you back up to about the same place so you can go get some fresh pow somewhere else pretty easily without losing your bearings. The hill is about 900 vertical feet if I remember corectly and yet if you do it right the runs take about 10 minutes or longer if you are really doing what you should be doing. Ah but I hear you whining, "but what about the pow?" well fret no more I am here to tell you everything I can about the mountain. The pow was rediculous, there were places where the pow was knee deep on opening day so I can only imagine how deep it will be by the midwest meet. And the pow was really sticky so wax your boards accordingly.
The Aftermath:
Brian and I became somewhat "infamous" since we were the only ones riding skiboards and we saw very few other people dropping anything anywhere. The lift op seemed pretty amazed that we were even trying to do the drops that we were doing on what he called our "short skis". I scratched up the bases of my boards and I'm pretty sure I broke a side wall on one too but that's nothing close to what happened to Brian, but I'll let him talk about that.
What I would recommend is to add the cost of P-Tex into the total of the trip because if you drop anything, you will need it. If you have them take your longest and fattest sticks, but I would not say that you need them for this trip, you will just be working harder. If this all seems a bit daunting, don't worry, you'll do fine just trust yourself and if you don't feel comfortable doing something the others are doing don't do it but do push yourself, you won't regret it.
So on a scale from 1 to 10 1 being the worst and 10 being the best I would give this resort a 10 for the midwest and an 8.5 or 9 for anywhere else. It is totally worth whatever time you have to drive to get here, so just do it.
The drive:
Brian (Bec) drove over to me from New York and picked me up on our quest to get to the holy grail of midwest riding. We started our journey at about 10:30 our time and just went, no breaks until we ran out of gas. In Ohio there were few cops but in comparison to what we were going to see later those few cops that we saw were an army. Seriously, once we left Detroit, I don't think we saw another one for about 100 miles and after that we didn't see one for over 300 miles and at that point we were in the clear for the rest of the ride. So, if you are driving on a 50 mph road and think that you would be safe going 80, you are actually probably fine going 95 or so, not that I recommend it. In UP Michigan they have those noise strips that most major highways on the white lines, but they also have them on the center lines as well. The idea is good in theory but when you are diving for 12 hours and it becomes safe to just kind of need to change something on the radio or check your phone and you drift close to the center and you haven't seen anyone for over 50 miles, then the noise starts it gets kind of annoying. The roads will probably be pretty clear for you over 90% or the way, once you get on the road that you will follow the rest of the way to bohemia it starts to get a little drifted but at no point was it bad. Oh yeah, and definately have a way to listen to music from an ipod or other mp3 player because all they have up there is one rather cheesey "rock" station, a ton of country stations, and a couple christian churchy things.
The Parking and Lodge:
The parking is parking, not really much to say about it. But it is a small area although there is no chance what so ever that there will be any issues getting a spot. It's a tiny hike to the lodge from the lot but no longer than any other resort. Quite simply put you will feel a bit dissapointed when you first get there and see that the lodge is merely 3 yurts connected together and the bathroom is a yert, same with ski patrol lodge, and rental shop. But...you aren't there for the lodge and if you are you won't enjoy your trip. In all honesty, I liked the setup of the lodge, just those three yurts with a ton of picnic tables in them, nothing special but it did it's job.
The Mountain:
Amazing...being completely sincere here guys, I could leave it at that but since this is a comprehensive review I will go on. First thing you have to know is that the first day we only rode about a quarter of the mountain and on the second day we got another half added to that. Like the say on their website the resort is not a beginner reosrt. I would definately take a run down their one blue run that is available from the first lift you will ride. After you warm up with that take a mellow tree run and after that try some rock drops. The mountain has 2 lifts that both take you back up to about the same place so you can go get some fresh pow somewhere else pretty easily without losing your bearings. The hill is about 900 vertical feet if I remember corectly and yet if you do it right the runs take about 10 minutes or longer if you are really doing what you should be doing. Ah but I hear you whining, "but what about the pow?" well fret no more I am here to tell you everything I can about the mountain. The pow was rediculous, there were places where the pow was knee deep on opening day so I can only imagine how deep it will be by the midwest meet. And the pow was really sticky so wax your boards accordingly.
The Aftermath:
Brian and I became somewhat "infamous" since we were the only ones riding skiboards and we saw very few other people dropping anything anywhere. The lift op seemed pretty amazed that we were even trying to do the drops that we were doing on what he called our "short skis". I scratched up the bases of my boards and I'm pretty sure I broke a side wall on one too but that's nothing close to what happened to Brian, but I'll let him talk about that.
What I would recommend is to add the cost of P-Tex into the total of the trip because if you drop anything, you will need it. If you have them take your longest and fattest sticks, but I would not say that you need them for this trip, you will just be working harder. If this all seems a bit daunting, don't worry, you'll do fine just trust yourself and if you don't feel comfortable doing something the others are doing don't do it but do push yourself, you won't regret it.
So on a scale from 1 to 10 1 being the worst and 10 being the best I would give this resort a 10 for the midwest and an 8.5 or 9 for anywhere else. It is totally worth whatever time you have to drive to get here, so just do it.