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Short of riding down your driveway and back, this is about the easiest gravel ride I could come up with! Time to let a little air out of those fatter tires you just "upgraded" to, and join me on a NO DROP introduction to northern Michigan gravel riding!

This one is roughly 17 miles long, with relatively little elevation change - YES, there are a couple of hills along the way, but nothing very steep (max climb grade is only 3.6%). I can't promise no sandy spots, but these are well traveled paths so we should be good (especially after a little bit of rain this week).

Meet up at the Sand Lakes trailhead, ready to roll at 9:30am. We'll head west on Sand Lakes, connect to southbound Strombolis & Muncie Lakes Roads, and catch the NCT down to Brown Bridge. We'll return east until northbound Broomhead, which will take us back to the start. The NCT is a little bit of singletrack, and crossing over to Broomhead will see us briefly riding the shoulder of Supply Road - the rest of the route ought to be nice and wide with little/no traffic...

This is an easy one folks, but bring your gravel, mountain or fat bike and leave the skinny tires at home.

8/12 UPDATE: As a couple of you can attest, I am occasionally prone to under-selling offroad routes - so I wanted to confirm the accuracy of my description by pre-riding the route this morning (yes, I did get a little wet). The gravel road segments are truly straightforward, with the most difficult attribute being some washboard sections of Broomhead Road. I passed a grader leveling these areas, so perhaps things will be a little cleaner by Friday?

The 3 mile segment of the NCT is well-cleared singletrack - kinda like the Vasa 10k loop in terrain and difficulty. Piece of cake on a mountain bike. A little more challenging on a gravel bike - as a few sandy spots favor picking a good line. I ran 50mm wide tires, and suggest 42 or wider simply for the sandy spots. But the whole route was fast and FUN!