Hike #1: Attempt to follow Red Loop on Boyne Mt. (10/7/13)
Distance: 8.10 mi.
Elevation Gain: 1280 ft.
Time: 2:09:12
Hike #2: Biking/Walking the Gold Loop with Sarah on Boyne Mt. (10/8/13)
Distance: 7.38 mi.
Elevation Gain: 1014 ft.
Time: 2:15:29
Hike #3: Trail-run a loop along the red/blue/green trails on Boyne Mt. (10/9/13)
Distance: 3.10 mi.
Elevation Gain: 498 ft.
Time: 37:49
TRIP REPORT:
Hike #1: Attempt to follow Red Loop on Boyne Mt. (10/7/13)
My initial plan to explore Boyne this year was to tackle the Red Loop which is rated at 9 miles. I was hopeful with a 2 1/2 hour window I could get it in by running a chunk of it. I had studied the primitive map off Boyne's website to some extent hoping it would be fairly easy to follow. Well, as you'll see from the rest of my report that hope would not exactly come true.
As in 2011, I didn't stay on the pavement long and I decided to bushwhack south up the sloop to the high point and did. At first there were actually some wooden steps put into the slope and I wondered if this meant a trail past them, but there was nothing. On top the slope I followed the sandy slope to the west that is a part of the frisbee golf course and this put me at the retreat center once more. The map showed several red, blue and green loop trails all nearby so I ended up following the wide trail to the northwest that I had done in 2011.



At this point my time was beginning to run out. I had told Sarah we'd meet up at 5pm and I knew I needed to be making headways. I bailed on the trail and instead tracked through the grass a few hundred feet out to the highway. I ran along the highway for a half mile til the meadows ended at a line of trees. I could tell from the map I could follow the tree line and rejoin the red loop inside the woods. This worked. I followed the red again heading east for awhile to an opening. It was here finally I grew tired of never knowing if I was on trail and I headed to the MP Road. I ran this the rest of the way back to the resort parking lot.
Hike #2: Biking/Walking the Gold Loop with Sarah on Boyne Mt. (10/8/13)
For Tuesday's break time Sarah and I wanted to be able to do something together. Since our biking plans had been rained out on Sunday we decided this afternoon, with its perfectly sunny skies was the time to go. When break time arrived at the conference Sarah and I headed to the parking lot and grabbed the bikes out of the car. Neither of us were dressed for the occasion unfortunately. I had brought a workout top but forgot shorts, so I was stuck with my dress pants. We headed out of the parking lot and started onto the Mountain Pass Road hoping to do the entire gold bike loop which was about 8 miles. The MP Road proved to have several small hills on it and these quickly tested Sarah on her bike. Much to our dismay we found our her handlebar was loose, and much to our greater dismay, I found that my hex tool set was not in my light backpack as I had hoped. We used fingers and keys to try and tighten the hex nut tight as we could to keep the handlebar steady but were unsuccessful. Sarah was able to manage it down the hill off the MP Road to the clubhouse area of the golf course.At the clubhouse we ran into a young man working and asked him if they had a hex tool for us to borrow for repairs. He looked around but was unsuccessful. So we opted to trudge on. We biked down a road from the clubhouse and then turned on a path that was either for bikes or golf carts, or maybe both. We followed another path at a junction thinking it was the bike path cutting off but it dead ended. So we trailed back to the junction and continued on ahead. I will say, for the first time at Boyne, from this point onward it was fairly clear following the rest of the gold loop.
We had some beautiful views of the golf course and the meadows as the bike trail worked between the fairways. We pretty much ended up walking all of this as the uphills and the loose handlebar make biking difficult for Sarah. As the trail steadily gained elevation up the hill we ran into a couple of Pastor friends of ours enjoying their break time with a round of golf. At the top of the hill the trail we found still wound through another two sections of forest along the upper part of the hill and then popped out at the retreat center.
Hike #3: Trail-run a loop along the red/blue/green trails on Boyne Mt. (10/9/13)
This third hike was a bit of a spur of the moment idea. I figured if we got to Boyne early enough this morning I would have an hour to get another run in. I wasn't sure exactly which track I wanted. Running the whole gold loop was tempting but I didn't really want to be on pavement the whole time. So I opted to start up the Red again and descend the north side on the usual blue/green section which I usually was on and then see what time it was.I held a running/jogging pace the entire time on the mountain today whereas on Monday I had gone to a hiking pace at several points. I followed the red loop up from the south side of the mountain again and this time I followed it perfectly to the top of the mountain and along its crest. And again as I passed the chairlifts and the top of the golf course I then hopped onto the blue/green section that cuts off to the southwest. In here I had contemplated hitting the bottom of the hill and then retracing my loop back up and over the mountain. But time was just late enough I felt I would continue to the bottom and head back.
As this trail passed through a beautiful section of evergreens, and then a meadow near the MP Road I must have lost it again. I crossed over the road and ended up finding some open "trail" and headed east on it past a maintenance area where I picked up the red/green/blue loops as they ended up near some tennis courts as the edge of the resort. I was back by about 8:40am and had time to clean up and head into our last conference session by 9am.
TRACKS:
The tracks for these hikes were recorded by the BackCountry Navigator app on my Android phone. Did a fantastic job. Here is the KML from the hikes:My Track

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