The Spring Invitational (caves)

This is our newest hobby,something I've always had an intrest in, Caves. We joined the Minnesota Spelogical Survey (MSS) this past winter and went on our first outing this spring. It was really fun, especially since the kids could participate as well. The 5 of us got a tour of the Spring Valley Cavern 1 (SVC 1) for about an hour, which was about all we could handle together. When we got out another group was just heading back in for a more advanced trip. Gunnar and I were ready for more. We spent the next 2 hours slithering, crawling and climbing through the 1+ miles of passages with our group. Returning to the surface above was nice, as we were met with a hot lunch and a comfy camper to relax in for the rest of the day. I can't remember ever seeing Gunnar that tired. We made some new friends whether they liked it or not. We were the only family w/young kids and the boys are very friendly. We hung out at the group campfire Saturday night and amused everyone w/our XXL marshmallows and general family antics. The next day was pretty laid back w/Lynn and I doing separate trips into SVC 3 and SVC 4 respectively. We are looking forward to our next trip.

Rag 105 2010

This was a tough weekend. Mark and I (mostly I )thought it would be cool to ride down to Redwing w/loaded bikes camp out and do the race the next day. Since we are both signed up to do the Trans Wisconsin we wanted to see how our gear would travel and work. Well it worked us over, the bike was heavy as fuck and we had a horrible head wind the whole way down. To add to the misery we arrived in Redwing after dark hungry and looking for a place to stealth camp. Dinner was at the grocery store and camping was at Barn Bluff. It was the most horse shit night of sleep I've had in a while. I could have sworn some one was breaking sticks half the night and smashing rocks the other half. Oh well The next morning was nice and sunny, we headed for the start and dropped all of our gear w/Pramann. There was no way in hell I would be carrying all that crap for 100 miles. The race went as expected, I was tired from the day before and was riding a heavy bike. Thats allright I enjoy a hard effort and a new experience. I would not have changed a thing.