December 2017.........Random

Global Fat-Bike Day

 Looking back, December was kind of a strange month as far as the weather goes. It started somewhat warm , with Global Fat-Bike day. A couple of guys from the Penn Cycle Team (Vandy and Best in Schow) and myself led a river bottoms ride with some free food provided by Pat (owner) at the mid-way point.

off route....most people know where this is 

Way off route....what fat-bikes are made for 

Of course there was at least 1 camp-fire cook-out

Cannon River first weekend in December with Thor and my Bro 

  The next day was even warmer, a few of us did a short kayak ride down the Cannon and had the usual half-way lunch stop with a fire. The warmth of the day combined with the low angle of the sun felt odd...like it should be cold and snowy.

cliffs in the prairie of southern mn 

obligatory camp-fire lunch stop  

 1870....interesting 

many rides in the dark in Dec since the light fades by 4:30 pm

The Mayor crossing treacherous waters on our way to a cook-out 

Best in Schow....sandbar 

Swamp rides are good too when there is a lack of snow 

best creek ride ever...based on riding conditions...north shore rivers have better scenery but not as consistently ride-able 

   The snow never really came, but the bitter cold did. In the winter months I prefer to ride fat-bikes on hard packed snow and do some x-c skiing, but I've had too settle for some ice riding. Riding ice with a very small amount of snow is magical, one such day turned out to be the best creek ride I've ever had. Three of us ended up with about 16 miles on the creek but could have done 3 to 4 times that if we had an earlier start and a more ambitious plan. I'll be headed back to this one soon if conditions hold out.

ArcFlash

Thor

Fire was really nice on this cold day 

bye bye 

 I'm not going to mention the name of the creek but if you do a little digging and some exploring you should be able to find it or possibly better. Exploring is the best part, I don't want to ruin that for you.

D Rider.........................out

Osier Figure 8

This has become a bit of a back woods icon for me 

 Just before fall started settling in, Labor day weekend specifically, I put together a sub-24 bike-packing route on the north shore. I had hoped for a small group to join in, but apparently most people like to hang out with their families, grill food or get things ready for school the following week.

Typical northshore gravel... serene 

Also typical MMR...lots of puddles to keep things interesting and the the tires clean 

 ArcFlash , being my best adventuring friend, would be my companion for the outing. The ride was typical northern Minnesota,consisting of seldom visited gravel and minimum maintenance roads. The section I was most intrigued by when scouting weeks before was the railroad grade, this is also where we camped.

Early morning...don't like to get up at this time but I had to piss 

not your average campsite

Being surrounded mostly by swamp and trapped by ditches on each side full of deep water, finding fire wood was tough. water was questionable too...the non-moving water had an iridescent sheen on it's surface. Not as much a concern, it was dark as coffee due to tannin....it tasted fine and we didn't get sick 

   I called it the Osier 8 because of the route's likeness to a figure 8, made possible by the rail section. The ride went without a hitch, AF and I settled into a moderate pace and chatted the miles away, stopping for scenery, food, and piss breaks. Our route finished with 80 miles, 15 of which were pavement that could have been eliminated had we called our wives for a shuttle.

smoooooth 

back on the roads

 This was a little hefty for a loaded Moon Lander and stock Krampus but made it a bit more of an accomplishment and didn't burden our wives. I'd like to expand on the route some and utilize more of the tracks but will plan for a different weekend next time.

scouting in July...much more comfortable on a full sus fat-bike

 D Rider ....................................out
 

Man Trip 2017

The Man Trip usually marks the end of winter fun for me, by now I'm pretty much done with it but want one final hurrah. For this year I wanted everything we did to be new. While our modes of travel remain the same ,fat bikes, skis and snowshoes, I wanted to hit up some new places we haven't been...on the north shore there are many.

Robinson Quarry

random swamp crossing

AF going over

Vandy

 A couple weeks before the trip ArcFlash suggested we go ice climbing the first day...perfect...that was a new one for the man trip. On Thursday, on our way north the two of us stopped off in Sandstone at Robinson Quarry. Although the temps have been quite warm there was plenty of ice for us to climb. We set up only one top rope and ascended it three times trying to vary the route by moving either side of center. It was a lot of fun and three passes were plenty,for having only climbed that one day all winter. The second half of the day was spent finishing the drive and then a little snowmobiling on the two old sleds I purchased earlier this winter. I haven't had any chance to ride them, so I was just itching to get out even if it was only a brief jaunt up and down the local trails. With the purchase of a house on the north shore the Man Trip has been changed drastically, try as we may, we did not camp-out once. Instead we played really freakin hard all day and then came back to lounge around, eat, and watch movies.

Thor

trying out Altai Skis....would have been better with deep snow

.On day two there were four of us, ArcFlash, Thor, and Vandy. I laid out a route the would utilize the Northwoods ski trail,  Palisade Valley ski trail, cross Bean and Bear Lake, with two rappels thrown in to make it interesting, as well as a mid-way camp fire cook-out. It was a beautiful sunny day for our 6 hour jaunt, with the only really cold spot being at the top if the first rap. Vandy, AF, and myself dropped off the ledge quickly and comfortably, not giving it much more concern than walking down a side walk. Thor on the other hand did an awesome job pushing his own personal envelope and dropping over the edge with greater caution. Once off rope came the dangerous part of descending the boulder field below the cliff. From there we cut across the two lakes and then cooked our lunch. Next came the second rap followed by another boulder field, and finished with nearly an hour of skiing to reach the vehicles.

man down

After fueling up we headed out in the late afternoon for a creek ride on the fat-bikes. After visiting this creek for the first time this past summer, I was hoping for mostly hard ice with little flow. No luck...the creek was flowing well as we made our way precariously upstream on the rotted ice. I suppose it was better this way, we were all giggling and smiling as we took turns navigating the bad spots, trying to stay dry. We took the road back and ended up finishing in the dark. On day three Thor had to leave us on account of family duty. That morning Vandy and I went out on the sleds for a quick ride, mostly so I could convince him to buy one for next year. We got back mid morning and got ready for another fat-bike ride and cook-out.

AF wringing out socks after going in up past his knees

 The ride went better than I had hoped and was my highlight of the weekend. The route, an out and back with a loop on the end, (lollipop) finished at approximately 20 miles,  crossing five lakes, utilizing snowmobile trails and portages. It was not in the boundary waters, but pretty damn close...shoot me a message if you need info. As with most winter outings,it involved a camp fire and cooking something on a stick. The riding was phenomenal, the trails were hard packed snow and the lakes were windswept or crusty and made for fast easy riding.  We wrapped up in the late afternoon and headed back to the warmth of a couch. Since it was our last night of Man Trip we watched two movies and ate ice cream.

let the fun begin

hand grill packaging added for dramatic effect  

 Although we took the easy way out, and spent our nights inside sleeping on beds it was a physically demanding and fantastic weekend.

D Rider.....................................out