Ranger Review: INNO INH120 Tire Hold Bike Rack at Blind Lake Campground, MI
Campground Review:
Blind Lake rustic campground is located off of the very popular Potawatomi Trail, making this campground accessible only by hiking or biking in. Blind Lake campground is part of the Pinckney Recreation area which is located just about 30 minutes outside of Ann Arbor, MI.
Most hikers and bikers start their trek at the Silver Lake day use area where the main hiking and biking trailhead is located. From this trailhead the Blind Lake campground is about 7 miles in on the 17.5 mile Potawatomi Trail. A vehicle permit ($6) or annual Michigan State Parks permit ($10) is required to enter. The Area Headquarters (734-426-4913) is located at the Silver Lake day use area where campers must purchase their campsite before heading out on the trail ($17). The headquarters is also where you can purchase a vehicle permit or annual Michigan State Parks permit. The park is open all year, making the Blind Lake campground a popular stop for hikers in the winter.
Blind Lake campground has a total of 10 sites, all very close to the water. There is one vault toilet and a trash bin. There is a hand pump well in the campground for clean drinking water. Each site has a large picnic table and a modern fire ring. Firewood can be scarce as the nearby woods have been picked pretty clean and carrying firewood into the campground is a lot of extra weight!
All of the sites at Blind Lake campground have lots of shade and are large enough for a couple of tents on each site. During the nice summer days there will be lots of hiking and biking traffic through the campground as the Potawatomi Trail runs directly through it. Many stop to take a break at the campground and have a look at the beautiful lake.
Serious hikers can connect the Potawatomi Trail to the Waterloo-Pinckney Hiking trail to bring their total trip to over 35 miles of back country hiking. The Potawatomi Trail features numerous loops for any skill level. The shortest loop is the Silver Lake Trail at 1.9 miles. Next, the Crooked Lake Trail at 5.1 miles. Or the full Potawatomi Trail at 17.5 miles.
Overall, I enjoyed my stay here at Blind Lake campground and I would return. I was only one of two campers there and it was quiet at night. During the day you do hear the hikers and bikers going by on the trail so it isn’t completely isolated from the “real world”. The Dyrt campground review is available on YouTube at the following LINK.
Click HERE for a printable trail map of the area. For further details check out the following link HERE, which includes amenities, trail guides, hours & fees, directions and more.
Product Review:
As a Ranger for the Dyrt, I sometimes get to test and evaluate new products. At Blind Lake campground I tested the INNO INH120 Tire Hold Bike Rack. This bike rack holds up to two bikes and plugs into your vehicle’s receiver hitch.
The INNO INH120 is a tray style bike rack, making it ideal for expensive carbon bikes. The rack uses arms to hold down the wheels and not the frame of the bike, keeping your paint from getting scratched up. The bike rack works with either a 1-¼” or 2” receiver. My truck is a heavy-duty and comes with the 2-½: receiver. I used an adapter and the bike rack worked just fine.
The INH120 bike rack can hold two bikes with a maximum total weight of 120 lbs. The bike rack fits bikes with wheel bases from 34” to 48”, so it works with kids and adult sized bikes. The bike needs to have a minimum of 20” wheels to a maximum of 29” wheels to be held down properly. Tires sizes from 18c to 3” wide fit in the trays. This covers almost all bikes and makes it very handy to use with the family.
The rack comes neatly packed and requires some assembly. The assembly is straightforward and only took about 30 minutes, even while trying to film the process for a video. Spare parts are available from INNO if something were to break. The rack felt very sturdy and well built and felt comparable to other racks I’ve used from Thule and Yakima.
Once put together I tested out the INH120 bike rack with my fatbike that is running 29+ sized tires. The 29” wheels are 3” wide and fit nicely into the tray of the rack. I did remove the plastic adjustable wheel clamps on the arm of the rack. This allowed me to have the arms more vertical and provided a better hold on my large tires. These plastic wheel clamps are what you move inside the arms to adjust for different size bike wheels. It only takes a second to unclip the clamps are adjust for different bikes.
What is also nice is the bike rack has 4 different positions it can tilt, allowing easy access into the back of your vehicle. One of the positions is vertical so you can keep it on the vehicle while not in use, but not have it hanging off the back and making your vehicle longer.
The INH120 bike rack also included a cable to lock the rack to your vehicle. This cable can be used to loop through the frame of your bike to lock it to the rack as well. I require this feature on a bike rack because all too often bikes are stolen when you make a quick stop for food or to run into a store.
An unboxing and assembly video for the INH120 bike rack is available to view HERE.
A quick video demonstrating how easy it is to load and unload your bikes from the INH120 bike rack is available to view HERE.
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