A Collection

Missing are 2005 and 2007, I've entered all 8 races but these years proved to be too much for me

Some people collect baseball cards or comic books. I have a nice collection of Arrowhead 135 trophies. This past week I received the plate with my name and time for this past years Arrowhead. The time on it is not much to brag about but I did get a trophy none the less. I don't like to brag, but these trophies are all I have been able to earn in recent years to prove that I still ride my bike and compete. I am now merely an over weight shell of the racer I used to be,still clinging to the astronomical hope of one day donning a DBD jersey. Hope..............

On a lighter note, I made this wonderful, completely burned hot dog for my kid who was so mad at me he threw it in the fire,that I cooked it on in the back yard. 

All Hail the Burley Trailer

This past weekend Super "Y" , two of his friends, Charlie(Jr) and Evan, and their dad's, Charlie (Sr.) and Adam, and myself embarked on our first bike tour. This was a first for all the kids, I'm not sure about the dads. The three of us had bike trailers for our gear, two Burley D'lights and a Fisher Price. We left our cars behind in Fairibault at the trail head for Sakatah Singing Hills Trail at 2:15pm. Our destination was Sakatah Lake State Park, thirteen miles West of Fairibault. The trail surface is paved and for the most part very flat, perfect for three, six year old's on their first camping trip by bike. The weather on Saturday was beautiful, sun, 70 deg, and a light tail wind. I am still amazed it's only march, last year was really cold and we had lots of snow at this time of year. In less than two hours of departing the trail head, we were all set up and chowing down a post ride, late afternoon snack. After lunch we gathered some fire wood for later, and set out on a hike to explore on foot. Later on we tore into dinner, hot dogs, canned beans and chili, cookies, pop, hot chocolate, chips, and s'mores. With the large volume of the trailers we were able to go plush, I even brought my full sized pillow. To our surprise we were not the only ones with the bike camping idea this weekend. Arriving at camp right after us was a dad(Dave) pulling a tag-a-long, pulling a Burley. One kid was on the half-bike and another in the trailer packed tight with gear. Dave spent a couple hours with us shooting the breeze by our fire after all  the the kids went to bed  

Getting ready

  

Adam and Evan

The big "dare" of the weekend

Dinner

After dinner snacks. s'mores

My set-up

Grand Finale'

      The next morning was quite a bit cooler than the ride down the day before, around 45 deg. Breakfast was a quick bowl of oatmeal, a cinnamon roll, a Monster for me, and a root beer for "Y". The ride back went pretty well, except that the excitement of going somewhere is gone for the kids and they were cold. Two snack breaks and 13 miles later we were rolling into the parking lot with the sun on our faces planning the next bike-camping trip.

309 $

No tax and free delivery. Bikesdirect.com .I just got this on Thursday! It's not as nice as Pedro's Sledge Hammer, but its a decent bike. I have not taken it off of any sweet jumps yet, but I did manage to get about 45 miles in on Friday, commuting to and from work with the long ride home option thrown in because it was so nice out.

Slick 50

Mr Jansen, saying hello

In case you can't see it, "sweet cheeks"

The Legendary, Mr. Skogen

Lemmy, from "Motor Head" says hello  

Somewhere out near Victoria, regroup break

Hurl

My ride,Salsa Fargo

I'm not talkin' about that super mystery motor oil from the 90's that claimed you could put in your car engine, run it, and then drain it, and it would run just fine without anything but the coating of the "polymers" only found in Slick 50. I am talking about the ride put together by the infamous Hurl of "Cars R Coffins". After speaking with the man himself, he said the ride has been going on for around ten years, with friends at first, and now topping out at, at least 80. We started out at none other than One on One Bike Studio just before 11am. Every type of bike was there, from all carbon road bikes to something your grandma was riding just a few minutes ago, as this was a ride for anyone. The initial pace was easy, giving way to an all out hammer fest an hour or so into the ride. The riding surface went from bike path, to pavement, to gravel,and finally back to bike path. Some of the group stopped at Pizza Luce' for refreshment and food near the end of the ride. I stopped briefly but was snubbed by the dickhead at the front counter that said I would have to order pizza after I sat down, rather than just pay for a slice and sit down. The waitress was only serving beer so I left. I had a great time on the ride, chatting with lots of friends, getting my ass kicked on the hills, running out of food, bonking, and enjoying the 70 deg + temps on an unseasonably excellent day in March.

When the Cat's Away..................

.............The mice will play.
     Lynn (aka mom, aka my wife) went to Ray's indoor MTB for the free women's weekend. There were a bunch of pro's giving advice and lots of free swag and food. She learned a bunch of new skills and mastered the intermediate jump line. Yeah Lynn!

This was our first ride of the year 

We are always looking for cool rocks, Super Y  found this nice agate

Suday we went down to Falls Creek in Fairibault

bottom of an old silo

My Bro and "Big D"

Super Y builds effigy to himself

      What this means for us (me and the boys) is staying up late, eating every meal out, cake for breakfast, pop with every meal, wearing the same clothes for two days, not washing our hands, and riding our bikes or exploring the rest of the time. We even caught a movie at a theater. I also taught them the fine art of gas station dinning, you can find everything you need for a wholesome meal at Kwik Trip.  All in all it was an excellent weekend, no one got hurt or sick and the house was all cleaned up by the time Lynn got home.

Owwch !

      I just got theses babies ripped out of my skull today, now I'm ready for Ragnarok!

 I wish I had the WISDOM to get them removed when the other two were removed back in my early twenties! Nasty 

Man Trip 2012 The End

We were all pretty tired on Sunday, and didn't have much planned for the day except to get home. The night before it was quite cold, so only Steve and I built a fire to sit by, while Dale and Mark retreated to a hotel. Wussies. When I got up Sunday in the back of my van, (wussie) I went to check on Steve in his tent, and wake him up. I wanted to show him Kadunce Creek, so we did a short hike from HWY 61 up river, past all the little waterfalls until it flattened out. From there we jumped on the Superior Hiking Trail and headed back to the car. It took less than an hour to do the huke and get back to Grand Marais and call Dale and Mark. Our plan now was to meet them and ride to the top of  Tofte Peak. We left from a snowmobile parking lot and began the uphill slog to the top. The views are excellent and the ride down is even better.

Mark and Steve have their versions of the trip along with some good pics

Episode 3

It was nice to wake up in the cabin on Saturday morning and have Dale get the fire going before I actually got out of my sleeping bag. As I was opening my eyes I was blasted in the face with the sound of a duck call. This was one of the "items" left behind by someone before us, thanks Dale. The cabin was nice and warm when we were getting our breakfast made and packing our gear for the hike out. Now, I was wondering if the four hour jaunt into the woods the night before was worth it, we would have to do it all over again. Once we got going it wasn't bad and we made good time getting back, knocking quite a bit of time off our previous record.

Dale on my reinforced bridge

This pic was taken on Colorado, we don't have cool shit like this here in Minnesota

That's my lucky climbing helmet

This made us all check our pants, Steve and I watched in horror as this chunk broke. This was just seconds after he made it across, it soon dropped into the river and left a big hole

The Bail-out bridge

Bye-Bye

It looks a lot taller from the top

       The main mission for the day was to ski the Devil Track River. I've been skiing or snowshoeing it at least once a year (sometimes 2 or 3) since 2000, and always look forward to it. It is different every time. This year was the most dangerous I have seen it ! Mark threw-in the towel after the first 150 yards. He was the first one out of the van and onto the river, breaking through the thin crust of ice, covered in two feet of snow three times in his short venture. I'm not sure if he was uneasy about it or just did not want to bother with all the extra work. Dale, Steve and I pushed on without him. Mark took my van back to the mouth of the river on HWY 61. We were really bummed that he wasn't going. I was nervous when I saw the huge holes he broke through in areas that I would have thought to be safe to ski on, and the large amount of water flowing underneath. Dale either did not know any better, or just didn't give a shit about falling in and drowning, but he was off like a shot. I didn't mind, he's a fast skier and I knew I would have to take my turn risking falling in for the good of the pack, sooner or later. It went pretty smooth for the first 45 min, then we came to first waterfall, it drops down about 100 feet over several shorter falls and changes direction, making a big "S"shape, I have not roped-up here, ever. I asked aloud why I was going first, I have young kids at home, Dale is "old", Steve has no kids and is older than me (by 4-5 years? ). No one answered, and I was lowering myself down into an open plunge pool that led to a long succession of other pools covered in ice with water raging beneath. I was nervous! I was able to side step the pool with no problems. I untied the rope and wandered down to the next pool to check it out while Dale and Steve waited at the top of the rope just in case I needed to be pulled up. At the bottom of the second pool was a bridge that formed over the river, which we WOULD have to take, I wanted to ski over it to disperse my weight. I didn't do this because I figured if it broke, and I had my ski's on, I would surely drown before I ever got them off. Instead I found a log and laid it down over the crossing, I would work two ways, it would reinforce the bridge and if the ice broke I could grab onto it. That was my logic anyway. It worked and we all made it across safely, for now. Once over the bridge we had one more section of the falls to complete. Instead of going over the falls we normally exit to the right side and skid down a VERY steep scree field. Usually it's scary fun and we just jump, tumble and slide down it. This year it was covered in a sheet of ice with a little bit of snow over the top to make it treacherous. The numerous rocks sticking out were telling us to rope-up again. After making it past that sketchy section the next hour + was great, we just had to watch out for thin ice and enjoy the ride. The canyon is now well over 100 feet deep and narrow. There is only one good bail-out, a bridge that crosses the river as part of the Superior Hiking Trail, about half way between the first water fall and the last waterfall known as the high falls. After the bail-out, I was crossing my fingers for the ridge of ice in the plunge pool at the base of the high falls to be sufficient enough for us to do the last rappel. It has very deep water in it and sheer walls all the way around it. With all the flowing water it was possible that there would be no ice at the bottom to stand on. When we got to the last rap I was relieved to see ski tracks just below us.We definitely would complete the mission now. Thanks Mark. Steve had the honor of going first, I was last. We hauled ass the rest of the way and finished up at dark. Mark met us at the end and we all headed back to Grand Marais for Pizza.