Weekend Rides

I got out for a couple rides this weekend with Mark and my wife Lynn. Mark and I rode Saturday on the river bottoms; the three hour ride time took about four and a half hours to complete. Mark got a new camera so we were both messing around taking photos. We also stopped a lot to talk with all the other fat bikers out on the trail. One group was 25 strong nearly all fat bikes, with a few trailing off the back of the group on skinnies.  I was quite happy to ride with Lynn on Sunday since we don't normally ride together; someone has to watch the kids.  It was really warm out (32 deg +) and my dad had the kids for a sleep over so she had no excuse to say no.I was also excited for her to ride the fat-bike I just finished for her last weekend. I built up an awesome extra small,bright red, 907 that was supposed to be kind of thrown together. It ended up getting really nice parts and really expensive;oh well. She really doesn't like the cold, but I built her a fat-bike any way. Today would be the first real ride on trails. Last week she went to the winter bike expo and raced but that wasn't the same as just riding a trail. We had a really good time, the trail was in great shape and it was warm enough that she didn't get cold. I'm hoping she will get out and ride more often. PS Thanks for the lunch Mark

Fatties on the River

1 of only 3 to ride across

 OW F#%K!

The ring leader

 Wasting time on the confuser one day I saw a post  on the MORC forums announcing a fat bike ride on the river bottoms. I decided to check it out. I got there late and had to bust ass to catch them, a few miles down trail were 7or 8 fatties cruising along. I joined in and had a good time. We went about ten miles out, took a break and headed back. The real fun started when the snow began to fall, it changed the dull gray sky and cold brown dirt to a winter wonderland. If you ride or do anything out side this time of year (transition) you know what I mean.

Group from the first ride at the turnaround 

Skinny tires made it too!

Snow starting to stick

A couple weeks later I was back down for another installment. This time we had real snow; around four inches of fluff. Although we did not have "first tracks" the trail and woods were awesome. The group got quite a bit larger almost doubling at 15 riders. We made our way to the turn around in a little under two hours, stopping a couple times to piss and  watch each other navigate a tricky creek crossing . I decided to bid farewell and ride on a little farther. A little farther turned out to be about three more hours. I ran across a few other friends on the ride and a group on cross bikes messing up the trail and making smart ass comments. I put the screws to them as they tried to hang on my wheel but could not, as they fish tailed back and forth further messing up a well groomed trail.                                                                                            

Safe journeys space fans: where ever you are out there.

Winter Bike Expo 2011

The great folks at Freewheel Bike put on an excellent show this weekend. They had some great sales and a huge amount of bikes for sale. I even got to meet a Moon Lander in person. I'm really hoping I will get the one I ordered. Mark and I rolled down to the show early (on Fat Bikes) to catch our beloved friend Mr Pramann (aka the Legend) doing a presentation on winter racing. He covered the history and evolution of the snow bike as well as his experiences racing in Alaska and The Arrowhead 135. I thought it was very well done and enjoyed it thoroughly. Well done Dave. Several others gave presentations but we were not able to stay for those as we had a trip to Chipotle in our future. It took well over an hour to get on our way as we had to check out the back room which was a Fat Bike heaven. The room was  filled with bikes, tires, frames and other winter goodies, as well as lots of friends and acquaintances.

"The Legend"

That's a real fire

Post race hyration

Behold

Later in the evening the best part of the show would commence at 6pm. The Fat-Bike Trench Crit. Not sure where the trench part comes from but it makes it sound really cool. Lynn and I rolled in from the the Light Rail to the east. It was snowing and made for a really cool, but short,  ride. The entry fee into the race was supposed to be a six pack of beer or some hot dogs. I forgot about it until the last minute: the SA we stopped at had no hot dogs so I brought a box of Popsicles instead. The course was sweet, they had some twisty turns, a jump, some board walk thingys, a skinny and some steep off camber climbs under several bridges and Santa was there too! I think about 12 of us started, with around 50 onlookers cheering as we made our way around the course. It was fun as hell and hurt just as much. When I do any race I go all out, and this would be no exception. The new snow was quite slick as I found myself eating shit in one of the first fast corners about 30 seconds into the race. I picked myself up and motored on without any other incidents to third place. After the race Lynn and I hung out a talked with friends for a couple hours before riding back to the train. If you missed this, you definitely missed a great time. PS. I heard a rumor the crit will be back in Feb.  

Black Friday

I cleared this three times, w/Lynn trying to get a shot mid air. No luck

Underground?

Fearless!

Two thumbs up for Milltown Cycles

 During my many  hours wasted in front of the computer writing and reading blogs, a daily check on my blogroll revealed a group ride taking place at a shop I really wanted to check out for a while now. Milltown Cycles in Fairibault MN. They had everything a person could want or need for a Fat-Bike as well as a bunch of other cool stuff  that you just want. The ride was awesome, since my dad was taking the kids overnight, I actually got to ride with my wife. The terrain was sweet, a mix of two track, renegade trail, and stuff that Native Americans might have walked a hundred years ago. It reminded me of what mountain biking was like when I first started riding a real bike 20 years ago. I don't feel old. The guys on the ride were really cool too, I'm going to try and do some ice climbing with Mike, I also hear he's a famous frame builder. To top off a great ride, Ben  had ham sandwiches, beans and some other food for our delight. The ham was way better than the dried out turkey I had the day before. Thanks Ben and thanks Curtis for a fun ride.

I was on a good roll for the long weekend since Wednesday and it continued after the ride when Lynn and I went to the new Vertical Endeavors in Mpls. We lasted about two hours and headed home but not before we chowed down on our favorite after climbing meal, pad thai.    

Thanksgiving Ride(s)

This thing was really slippery 

This was a little deeper than expected for Brett

Where the heck was this taken ?

These dudes rip ! They scare me too.

Big "D" and Mom 

It was a beautiful, unseasonably warm day for a ride in late November; nearly 60 deg. and lots of sun. I'm pretty sure every fat bike rider in the cities joined the LCR ride, there were 22 of them to our group of 5. That's cool though, their a great group and most of them are my friends anyway. I also found one of their team jackets which I'm holding ransom. Our ride went a little farther and hit some alternative areas that most people don't ride. In the house was Brett, Steve 1 and Steve 2, Chris, and yours truly. We had a little trouble from Steve 1 on a tricky river crossing but tongue-lashed him into submission. He was a good sport and ended up completing the "mission" and having a good time. I had a great time, I hope the others did as well, the smaller group allowed us to cover more ground a lot faster and I got talk with everyone this time. I even convinced Steve 2 to join Lynn and me, on caving trip on Sat.(details and photos soon). After the ride I did the typical Thanksgiving meal stuff. I also packed the van with the whole family's bikes so we could hit the local trail near the in-laws house after our meal. It was a great day with family and friends, and mostly our bikes.      

Kayak/Fat-Bike Ride

I found myself with a day off due to a miss communication at work, bummer. Now I will have a five day Thanksgiving weekend. My plan was to kayak and then ride a section of trail back to my van. But first I had to get the house clean for some guests that would be having dinner at our house in the evening. So I went down stairs and worked on Lynn's new snow bike. I got all my stuff packed and headed for Chaska. I locked the bike there and drove to the put-in in Jordan. The sun was shining it was about 40+ deg and I had a nice tail wind, but the water was very cold. The last thing I wanted was to fall in. About an hour in I came to what I now know as Carver rapids.I had heard about it from looking over some maps but never thought about it much until I saw a line of exposed rock stretching nearly across the river. I slowed down took some pics and moved on. The next set presented themselves around a sharp bend and were not as easy. I could see the river drop from a distance and also the white capped waves. I got out and scoped out a route. Back in the boat, I headed for the center of the river where the rock formation was sticking out of the water. When I got out to portage over the rock it was covered in slime and was really slippery,the water was very cold and was rushing through a channel right next to me. I was really nervous at this point, when I dragged the boat over the rock it sort of tipped over and I nearly lost the paddle. I ended up sitting right in the slime and lowered my self in the boat while I tried to keep it next to the rock as the current was trying to pull it down river. I was really glad to be through that, and it took a while to calm my nerves.
I paddled for another hour before I got to my next challenge. It was a Train trestle that had collapsed into the river. I had seen it earlier this fall and knew it would be trouble, but at least I was ready for it. Fortunately a lot of the debris and the logjam had been removed by the heavy equipment still working on the area. There was still a narrow fast moving channel to navigate but lacked the logs, timbers, and concrete that I was expecting. I decided to paddle it rather than lug the boat over a bunch of rocks and logs. The narrow section went fine, its the whirlpools and eddys directly after that move the boat unpredictably which really gets the heart rate up. The rest of the way went nice and smooth but I was running out of time so I had to hustle.

Lots of sand bars along the way prime for fat bikes

First section of carver rapids. All one piece of rock !

This doesn't look that bad. But I'm in the middle of the river, rocks covered in slime, 40 +- deg water, drop off on other side , and I'm by myself.  

This also looks a lot safer from the top

I don't think they use these tracks anymore

Me and my pals for the day

Next was the bike part. I had my trusty Pugsley and a cold Mtn Dew that I would save until I reached the van  as a reward. The trail was in excellent shape, it was well worn and mowed to get it ready for the snowmobile season. I've ridden the trail many times in the winter and also in the summer before the grass is down but this was the best I have seen it. I was making good time and even had time to check some stuff out and take a few pics. The trail took a turn for the worse (more interesting) at a washed out bridge. I ended up stumbling on a different trail, single track heading for who knows where when I started hearing gun shots. I had seen the game wardens out and one hunter on a bike but figured he was hunting ducks. This was not the case, I ran into a hunter on the trail that told me the area was open for deer hunting. They were using slugs, to me that seemed a whole lot worse than possibly getting sprayed with BBs. Also ducks are normally taken in the morning and a great time for deer was around dusk. It was around dusk NOW! I like hunting, I like guns too, I just don't want to be the one hunted or mistaken for something else. I had no blaze orange on, was dressed in black and prayed that my hat-less, brown hair covered head would not be mistaken for the kill zone on a nasty deer. I asked the hunter which way was the fastest way out on that trail. He pointed the way but I decided to try and get back to the real trail and finish my mission. Guess what ? I made it back and also made it home in time for dinner.

Camp Out

 I managed to get five others to join me on Friday night for a camp out on the river bottoms. I wanted to do this last spring, but with the flooding lasting into June it would not happen until November. That was fine considering my only prerequisite was that all the mosquitoes were dead. The river bottoms are absolute hell when the mosquitoes are in full force. So three of us left my house around 7pm for a grueling 10.3 mile ride. Waiting ahead of us was none other than the "Legend",who we saw from the other side of the river on our way to the super top secret meeting place.

 Once at camp the others went to gather fire wood as I went to grab my hidden camping chair I had left there on Wednesday. I unfolded it and got the fire lit. Corky showed up soon after we got the fire rollin' and Otey made his appearance around 10:30. We all busted out the well deserved snacks and told stories until 11;30ish. I froze my balls off all night on account of an old crappy sleeping bag and had to piss since three in the morning but was too lazy and cold to get up.

View from inside my tent

Corky, Otey, GP, Vandy, The Legend, Death Rider 

Sweet Salvation

We broke camp around 8am and headed home. Vandy, GP and myself were so hungry and broken down from our incredibly long trek we stopped for breakfast on the fringes of civilization at Juniors for a good home cooked style breakfast, we just couldn't make the .04 miles to my house without refueling.