Get Phat with Pat

This past Saturday marked the conclusion of a two race series on the Minnesota River bottoms. This was also the second year for the running of this race. It also happens to be an event put on by my awesome sponsor of 17 years, Penn Cycle and the owner Pat Sorensen (the namesake of the event, and a top notch friend).  Both events went well in the bitter cold we have been enduring this year. The numbers weren't as high as we all would have liked, but both events were competing with other races held on the same day. Last Saturday there were two other events in the Twin Cities and this past weekend we competed against one. As usual Penn Cycle had a ton of swag to hand out including a 9-0-7 fat-bike frame! Minnesota Off Road Cyclists (MORC) was on hand giving out hot dogs,brats and hot beverages both weekends....Thanks Morc.

Big D was out with me the first weekend. He had fun building snow forts, eating hot dogs and drinking hot chocolate while I was out racing.

The start line for race # 1

 The first weekend we were fortunate enough to have CJ come out and groom the course the night before. A few guys, and myself, had been trying to keep up with the snow and the packing of the course to no avail. The river bottoms trail is a two way and we needed to maintain a complete one way loop by bush whacking an alternate route. If not for the grooming, the racers would have been doing a bunch of walking. The second race was much easier to set up, I know because I was responsible for putting up ribbon and marking the turns with florescent paint early Saturday morning. It hadn't snowed much all week and the course was really firm and well defined. Having done my duty early in the morning I had planned on riding out with the pack on the first lap of the race and then backing off on the second and pulling all the ribbon for the "clean up". I knew I was wussing out but I had already been there four hours before the start of the race and I kept telling myself "you either put on the race or you race the race....not both". In truth I have done both on many occasions, but that little voice in my head was telling me otherwise.

It was peaceful but cold morning for race #2 when I was out setting up

The only two beginners to show up at race #2. I had just finished up with the course when they came through to start their lap on the bottoms

  Not wanting to let my team down, I took the start line and did my best. I was still planning on a slow second lap, cleaning up. It wasn't until about a quarter of the way into the race and about 12-15th place that I started feeling good. I wanted to go fast now, I felt great. The trail is too narrow to pass except for a couple places so I would either ask to get by or give a couple tire rubs to let them know it's time. By the time I got through the first lap (8 miles) I was sitting in 6th or 7th place and had abandoned the idea of cleaning up. Somehow on the last lap with only a mile and half to go I managed to drag my nearly 200 pound carcass up to third place. I was really happy with this and was determined to hold on to it. Right behind me was Mr Wolf Tooth Mike Pfeiffer, I knew he could beat me and has done so in the past. So as soon as the two of us got around the 3rd and 4th place riders I went as hard and as smooth as I could in the remaining mile of single track. I had a good lead on him when I hit the road for the final approach. I put my head down and pedaled until a felt like I would black out, too scared to look back. I held on to 3rd place and could not have been happier.

The winners circle, B Moore, Pat Sorensen, B Tungseth, and yours truly... D Rider

 At dinner tonight, while I was giving a recap to my boys, my middle son Super Y, commenting on my fatness, asked if the finish was on a downhill ? Then they all laughed and said that's why you went so fast. Thanks kids :-)      

Bike, Boat, Rope

The scenery is going to get a lot better

 Last Friday I got head-start on the weekend by getting out of work at noon and meeting ArcFlash for an adventure. I wasn't planning on leaving early or even going with AF but I had all the gear with me at work ready to go, it turns out he had all the gear too. When I knew it would be a short day,I got a hold of AF and informed him of my plan for the afternoon. By 12:30pm we were eating fish tacos at Sea Salt near Minnehaha Falls poised to start our adventure.

On our way

Had to use the full suspension bike since my back is all jacked up for some reason

This creek appears to be in the wild, cars can be heard from any spot along the waterway, but it's still one of my favorite annual paddles.  

  My plan for the day was to ride from work in Mahogany Town, 7-8 miles to Minnehaha Falls for lunch. From there we would follow the bike path up river along Minnehaha Creek to the south end of Lake Harriet. Inflating the packrafts and lashing down the bikes for a 90 minute paddle back towards the falls would be the first challenge of the day. There is a little park with a put-in just south of the lake I have used many times. It's a good place to start for an exciting ride down river to the falls, with  lots of twists and turns, small rapids, and low bridges.

The creek was low so the little rapids weren't as much fun as they could be

AF informed me a clove hitch is a monitored knot just before I got on it ,   Huh ? The one that looks tight is the one I'm hanging off of, the other is just a short whip attached to a small diameter cord. The webbing and the quick-link are the cost of the rap, meaning they are left behind . About  6 $

AF is about to lower his bike. It's approximately 50' to the bottom based on the slack left in my 60 ' pull cord

  Part two of the adventure had us packing up the boats near the falls and riding about five miles to a pit/drainage and a rappel. Keep in mind none of this is necessary but lots of fun just the same and requires a little imagination on why we are doing it. A road or trail can get you just about anywhere in the city with ease.  I don't really like doing things that are easy or safe. I like doing difficult and dangerous things safely.So we just have to pretend there are no roads where we are going and make our own routes.

We're trying to keep his nice new Krampus .... New!

 

AF  taking a shower so I can get a good pic, Thanks Man 

 The rappel was super fun. There was water flowing into the pit which made it a little more exciting. I was also trying out some new gear and techniques. First, I had a mini, four-bar rack for the rappel on a single line. These are familiar to vertical cavers but not to climbers so I had some difficulty figuring out how to use it properly. The people at REI and Midwest Mountaineering had no idea what it even was. I bought it used so it had no instruction manual and no one on the internet posted any good pics of how to lace the rope through it, attach it to the harness, and use it properly. I practiced in my basement the night before and was confident it would work the next day. Second, I wanted to use a single line with a pull cord, this saves on weight and allows one to rap the full length of the rope. Again this is something no one at REI or Midwest knows how to set up. I was quite disgusted at their bullshit answers and lack of knowledge. This is a common technique for canyoneers but there are no good pics of how to do it just right. I practiced that in the basement the night before as well. It boils down to a clove hitch fastened to the spine of a carabiner and  positioned so it cannot be pulled through a quick-link attached to webbing anchors at the top of the drop. It sounds simple, and it is, but when you are going to trust your life on the end of it, it has to work.      The rack and the single rope/pull cord worked awesome !

All Wet 

Exit

Recognize this bridge ?

 After wrapping up the ropes and getting them back on the bike it was time for another short ride and one more quick trip in the raft. We put-in on the Mississippi, crossed a channel on the upstream side of Pike Island to the Minnesota River and took out near the Sibley House. AF and I bid farewell as I headed toward Eagan to join my family for a "last day of school" party and he toward St Paul for another round of packrafting with a mutual friend.

The sun makes it's first appearance in weeks and we are in the shade near the Sibley House

P.S. This is the second installment of "Minnesota Canyoneering". I have named this one "Lor's Pit" for the close proximity to the mythical creature's lair that I invented last fall. This is a popular area for ice climbers and they have their own name for it but mine is a summer, non-ice route so I'm giving it my own name. And just in case you might recognize this spot in a recent post from another local blogger, I have known about it for years and am no way a copycat. In fact I rapped it last fall but didn't find a need to post anything about it.  

Rain Date

If your anything like me, a person who doesn't like spending all their time indoors you are probably getting really sick of all the rain we've had around here lately. Yesterday it was nice all day right up until it was time to leave work. More Rain ? I think this is just a complete waste of day and it always pisses me off, so after a little procrastination, I moved ahead with my plans for a bike ride and some pack-rafting. I didn't bother to check the weather, if it was going to rain I would just suck it up and be miserable. I didn't bring any rain gear, water or food either, I just wanted to get moving. On the other hand I sort-of like the misery so I knew I would have fun anyway.

Normally I would be on a fat-bike but since the Krampus is my new toy I ride it all the time . It's been working great , a couple hundred yards of this stuff was ride-able

The stinging nettle is getting big, I don't ride through this stuff with anything

With the itch weed taking over and the large amount of water present in the creek I decided to get in the boat and paddle to the river

The Minnesota, not visible is the fast moving current

  I left my house around 5:30 on my way to the river bottoms. I had a loop in mind in which I would follow a small creek to the Minnesota, cross it, and then pick up the river bottom trail. From there I rode the bulk of the trail to the old Cedar Bridge and crossed it. I wanted one more chance to get in the boat so I crossed  Dack Blog Lake to another trail and then finished up the ride home in the dark. To my surprise the rain held off all night and I ended up having a good time on the bike and in the boat.

I heard this is getting fixed sometime in the near future. Looks fine to me :)

Not visible( 100 yards away) in this pic is the 10-15 piles of toilet paper and small mounds of shit left behind by fishermen. I just don't understand why so many of them leave behind their trash and feces. That must be the sign of a true outdoors man. This is also where I launched the boat for the second time.

Forbidden waters 

rode about a half mile of this, surprised the bike stayed on top of it and just kept going

The very little used trail at the other side

 

Pre- Weekend

View from the top

It always makes me feel good to sneak in an extra adventure now and then. One that doesn't warrant an entire day away from the family but also one that has elements of high adventure and maybe a little danger. .

I sent the bike down first, into the pool of water below

The water was running, and coming over the lip was a little tricky. It was an over hang and the crumbling rock was sharp!

I got a little  free hang off of this and soaked my camera case that was hanging on the chest strap of my backpack, something I was not expecting but exciting just the same  

 These are often short outings I've put lower down on the priority list and knock them out when I have a few hours. They are not necessarily without detail. The little adventure I did just before the Memorial Day weekend required ropes, harness and misc gear, a bike and a packraft.

This is about mid-way down.  Taking into account  my set-up at the top, the rap was about 65', my rope is 150 and had almost nothing dangling in the water.  

It's nice to have a beater bike for stuff like this

Although very short, I felt like I was in the slots back in Utah

  I had my sights set on rappelling a gully somewhere along the Minnesota River Valley, complete with a natural bridge. For whatever reason this has been eluding me for the last year. Every time I get ready to do this something else comes up and I have to cancel...... well not this time. It actually worked out better now that I have a packraft  making it a fun multi-sport loop.

The water was just under waist deep :)

Ready to paddle

 The rappel was first, from there I would cut across the dry section of a swamp to the open water and get in the packraft.  After about 30-40 minutes of paddling I reach a short walking section overland to the Minnesota River. Back on the water I paddle down stream to my take-out at Pike Island. From Pike Island I pack all my stuff and have a nice ride back to the van, mission complete and home by 5pm

Some folks might recognize this

Almost there

Pike Island, time to head back to the van

P.S. This is one of only a hand full of raps to be done in the twin cities, I've done/recon-ed others and will revisit them for similar adventures in the future. I'm pretty sure no one raps them or even gives a shit but I'm going to do it anyway and give them all names. It's my way of getting in a little canyoneering/rope work, miles away from the bigger stuff I've done in Utah.    This one shall be known as "The Catwalk" for the mid-way bridge that spans the gap.

Thanks for reading      DR 

Zebulon Pike

The confluence, AKA the center of the earth by Native Americans in the area 

 Zebulon Pike sounds like a strange name from a Star Trek episode, when in fact it's the namesake for a small island at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers.  Although Christoper Pike was the first captain of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701, he has nothing to do with the island. Pike Island is located within Ft Snelling State Park and is accessible by ski or foot, but not bikes.    :) he he

HWY 55, I know it's man-made, but it's impressive !

 I've made several X-C ski trips to the island this year solo, and with my boys. It's completely flat, so it's not super exciting for them, but it's close to home and I like it down there. The first trip was with Super "Y" and Big "D" almost a month ago when we had snow the first time. That all melted and it wasn't until this  past week that I was able to get back down there with "G" Man.

There is a large beaver (w/ four legs and a flat tail) under the bridge .

There are deer running across the river behind "G" Man. We thought it would be sad if they fell in but funny none the less. We even made sound effects as we imagined what they would say crashing through the ice.   :)

 While Super"Y" and Big"D" 's trip seemed to be more about snacks on the trail, "G" Man and I saw a lot of wildlife. To start, we saw a couple dozen turkeys, then a beaver, later a coyote, randomly mix in 26 deer and it was like a zoo down there.

That's a real fall, not one of the hundred or so they did on purpose  in the first kilometer 

 I was impressed to see how well the ski lessons last year stuck with them. "G" Man is quite fast, as I actually had to try to get ahead of him. The other two were pretty good but were having a competition to see who could fall the most. They paid the price for this on our way back when they were so tired of falling on purpose that when they actually fell, it was becoming difficult to get up.

Big "D"  looking good 

Can we have snacks now?    It's been like a mile :)

 None of them have made it all the way to the end of the island to see the confluence first hand. It's a goal of mine to get them all the way down and back, about 6-7 k. For now we'll just go as far as we can and keep it fun.

Super "Y"   no problem