Bad Decision Bicyclist

Easily one my top 10 days ever.

2012-02-06T16:41:19Z

Just finished what is easily in the running for my best day of skiing ever.

I've literally been planning this thing for years. We lucked out in that an access road is plowed this winter, cutting several miles off the trip. It was possible to complete this in about 9 hours instead of requiring an overnight.

And it was even better than I expected, despite spring-like conditions.

What? No, Utah is next week.

And as much as that costs it better be completely mindblowing when I've got this in my backyard:

Oh yeah, we also had another fatbike race on Saturday. This one was on some trails I'm very familiar with at MTU. That, combined with the big ring on my Pugs (something a lot of fatbikes don't have) let me beat quite a few people who normally finish far ahead of me. Sadly though, this was just an all out hammerfest, completely redlined the entire duration of the race, which kind of gets away from what I like about fatbiking. But the organizers agree that throwing in some singletrack next year sounds like a good idea, so this race has some potential.

I'm The 47th Fastest Fat Bike Racer In the Entire World!!!1!

2012-01-31T19:20:03Z

That's what it means when I come in 47th at the Noquemanon Snowbike World Championships, right?

So yeah, it's a good thing my folks came into town to say hi, otherwise I never would have made it past L'Anse. Apparently they got pounded with nearly 18" of snow the night before.

What? No, I would not have skipped a bike race to go skiing!

I, um.... don't like to drive in the snow. Yeah, that's it.

But hey, it was cool to say hi to all the Marquette peeps and check out all the snowbikes. Lots of stock Mukluks and Pugsleys, but also a lot of cool, customized rides. Even amongst the horribly uncool folks like like me without a totally custom setup, it's nearly impossible to find two bikes alike (check out my red cables, yo!)

But hey, it's race start time- everybody line up!

Now ok, I'll admit it. I'm not really very good at this snowbiking thing. I'm totally squirrelly. I spin out a lot. I go shooting across the trail in weird directions without warning. I like to crash a lot. And I'm slow. Real slow.

So I took a nice conservative spot towards the back and didn't dive into the melee at the start. Which is a good thing. Because we immediately started making sharp right turns before getting to a stretch of ungroomed soft snow. Where we all had to jump off our bikes and start running....

...and running...

...and running...

...I guess it's a bike race in that, yes- I am pushing my bicycle. Nobody ever said anything about riding it.

There was one stretch that wasn't so bad, but man- nearly the entire first half of the course was basically unrideable. But hey, it was beautiful day, and we got to hikeabike past some stuff that looked like it might be good fun to come back and ski.

But then, finally- the course went from unrideable to perfectly groomed, nearly entirely downhill racetrack, packed in even more by the 50-odd people in front of me.

Holy man. It's a good thing those ski trails are wide, I was going faster than I'd go on my mountain bike in the summer. I went flying past maybe 6 people in the last 7k and finished just behind a 7th for 47th out of 67 people. And I thought I'd never use the big ring on my Pugs...

Hung out at the finish hoping to score a new set of tires in the raffle, but no dice. Had a couple hours of daylight to kill on the way back home, so stopped off to check out a potential route into some new ski terrain we've been eyeing up and get my favorite kind of fatbiking in- exploring new territory while taking in the natural beauty of the UP.

Making sense of the essential futility of life.

2012-01-24T16:37:17Z

First fatbike race, coming up this weekend!

And that's pretty much how I feel about.

The concept of a contest of speed without irony on a fatbike is, well, rather comical. But they sure are fun to ride in groups and it beats sitting inside. So that's why I do it.

But it does not beat good skiing though. Introduced a few friends to the secret Twin Lakes stash. They made it look easy.

But I think I crossed some kind of skiing threshold this weekend. This whole "season" I've been amped up like some kind of crack addict looking for a fix.

Dawn Patrol!
Scrape every last inch of powder off the local hill!
Backcountry tours!
XC skiing like it's a methadone hit!
SKI SKI SKI!
Ski 'til you DIE!

Saturday night, I barely had the energy left to drink a beer before hitting the sack at 9pm. And then getting up and skiing all day Sunday.

Well, the monkey has apparently been fed.

4-8" of heavy fresh snow last night and I went home and shoveled my roof like a motherfucking adult (well, OK- I forgot my kneepads).

Another 4-8" of lighter powder overnight and I wasn't racing out the door at 5am to dodge trees in the dark.

I raced out the door at 6am instead to get to work early so I can leave early (lifts don't start until 3pm anyway...).

Progress, not perfection.

Tele 'til yer smelly!

2012-01-13T11:09:13Z

So last weekend, after avalanche training we went out to check out our secret backcountry stash.

Turned out to be in pretty good shape with several inches of fluff on top of a very solid base.

Hills were climbed.

Turns were had.

Refreshments were served.

One of the nice things about the aforementioned secret backcountry stash is it's proximity to the Parkview Inn in Twin Lakes. So we stopped off just in case the previous refreshments didn't take.

So we're hanging out, doing the bar thing, talking about how awesome it would be to have one's own personal Tucker Sno Cat. Some waitress looks over at us, and immediately starts heading our direction, talking about how boring the day has been and she should maybe just sit at the bar and have a beer. She gets within a couple feet of us, ready to saddle up at the bar and then just turns around and leaves. Tele 'til yer smelly.

At least the bartender said we were "civilized".

Area Skier

2012-01-10T14:29:49Z

I'M THE MOST PHOTOGRAPHED SKIER ON THE COVER OF THE DAILY MINING GAZETTE!(*)

(*)How many G.N.A.R. points do I get for this, anyway? I hope enough to cover my awesome yard sale moments after that first picture.

Getting Fatter!

2012-01-05T14:44:07Z

Hola, amigos. What's up? I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya, but things have been pretty crazy around Rancho BDB.

See, after my crash, the combination of lack of daylight and shitty weather was keeping me from getting out and doing much at all. The cabin fever set in bad. Worst case I've ever had in years. On a trip downstate just before thanksgiving, I actually paid $80 for a new cassette for the Hoss just so I didn't miss an opportunity to ride Hanson Hills. I was positively climbing the walls. I even booked a trip out to Utah for Feb. just so I had an opportunity to get out of the house to look forward to.

Late November and early December continued the trend of crappy weather conditions. Never really made a complete transition from fall to winter. I was able to feed the monkey a bit by getting out on skate skis for some XC action, but honestly- I'm just not that excited about skate skiing anymore. Not really a whole lot of new things to explore or adventures to be had. It's always the same trails, all the time. But damn, it's a hell of a workout. And the hills on the tech trails can be pretty fun when trying to tele-turn a pair of skate skis.

But without any crazy weekend adventures, the cabin fever continued unabated....

Until a lot of my friends started buying fat bikes. I've always wanted a fat bike. Stuff like this and this and this do absolutely nothing to discourage me. But the $1600 price tag always did.

Well, after it became readily apparent we wouldn't have any good backcountry skiing until the end of December at best, I just decided to hell with it. I would get a fatbike, no matter the cost.

Conveniently, a friend was upgrading to an even fatter bike and had a barely used one for sale. Still the most expensive bike I've ever purchased, but much less than $1600.

And let me tell you, if you ride bikes off pavement at all and have any taste for adventure riding- go buy one NOW. Don't make excuses, rationalizations, or what have you. It's a real game changer for winter exploration. Stuff that has been out of reach during the winter is now accessible. And plus they're just silly fun to ride no matter what.

In the past few weeks we've been riding the bandit snowmobile trails around Calumet, the XC skiing and snowmobile trails of the Porcupine Mountains, doing 30 mile treks along the edges of the Huron Mountains and even riding up (mostly) frozen rivers in Duluth.

Crazy, crazy fun. I almost don't even care that the backcountry skiing has been almost non existent as of late.

How I Added Four Inches To My Waistline In Just Two Days!

2011-10-31T15:35:40Z

With LSPR behind me, I was finally getting back into my fitness groove. Backcountry skiing is tough, in that it requires good lungs and the ability to bounce off things well, so going into the season in good shape is really important.

Anyway, I had last week all planned out, hit the gym every morning, get some mountain biking in, maybe even ride into work, and generally get some quality rest and eat well. So Tuesday night, I head out to get a quick little mountain bike ride in- nothing major, just enough to spin the legs up.

Anyway, I'm ripping down the Villi Maki trail out at Churning Rapids when I think to myself, "You know self, you could lose traction real easy on all these leaves on the ground."

"Good point!", I respond as I apply the brakes.

"Kkkkkksssshhhhh......", goes the front tire as it locks up on the slippery leaves, just before tucking in and sending me flying over the bars.

I think this crash is deserving of extra points as I managed to maintain enough velocity to continue sliding *uphill* for several feet. Sadly though, my joyride eventually finished and my bike saw fit to attack me from behind, just in case I hadn't had enough. After the leaves settled, I was in one of those moments when the pain starts to build up and you quietly wish you could maybe just black out for a little while.

Sadly, such was not the case. Although I only took minor abrasions, I knew things were Not Good At All and limped my way out of the woods. As a volunteer fire fighter with training in first aid, I knew what the next steps I had to take were. I immediately loaded me and my bike in my car and rushed off to Karvakko's for a sixer of Bell's "Two Hearted Ale". You know, for medicinal purposes....

Things are kind of fuzzy after that, but I was confronted with a new problem the next day. None of my pants fit. At all. My left love handle had swelled up to 4 times it's usual size, adding 4 inches to my waistline. I also couldn't really walk very quickly, and any transition between sitting, standing, or lying down made me want to pass out. So I stayed at home, and avoided having to deal with that whole pants thing.

The next day, I managed to squeeze my increasingly black and blue torso into some ski pants, but the elastic waistband was proving rather uncomfortable. Friday though, I had my true epiphany....

OVERALLS!

So I purchased a pair on my way into work, and it's become one of those life altering moments. I may never wear pants with a waistband again! So comfortable! So free! It's like bib shorts, but a million times better.

Eventually, through a careful regimen of Bell's products, I've been able to nurse myself along and finally get back out on the bike this weekend for 25 miles of two-tracking and bushwhacking. Of course, now my entire left torso is black and blue and my waist is still 4" larger than usual. But with my trusty new overalls and continued consumption of Bell's "Best Brown Ale", I should be back to normal soon. Or at least get the other love handle up to a similar size.

LSPR 2011

2011-10-18T09:54:02Z

This year was tough.

A couple of key organizers decided to take a long deserved break and the rest of us had to step up to take up the slack. This had me doing a lot more organizer type things in addition to my regular rallymaster duties. Mostly this involved calling people on the phone and asking them for things. I hate sales. But what are you gonna do?

Not ride your bike much and get incredibly stressed out it seems.

Plus, I've kind of had a bad attitude about the sport of rally as of late. It seems I hear no end of bitching every time I try to include a cool two track stage or we don't finish in time for people to get to the bar. Add in the spiraling cost of competition that's driven away many of my friends and I was convinced that the sport was largely being overtaken by a bunch of dandies.

Usually, my duties start to wind down a bit the week before the rally, and if I've done my job right, I can start to enjoy the event. Not so this year. I immediately had to switch into the Chief of Communications hat and recruit about 25 qualified radio operators, set up a net control station, and figure out how to run a net for a rally. My buddy Dave saved my ass in countless ways on this one- getting me the local ham contacts, setting us up in the CCRAA radio shack for net control and generally bringing a lot of expertise and equipment that I am sorely lacking in.

So there I am, Friday morning of the rally, already way behind on sleep and I just want to get through it as quickly as possible so I can go up to Copper Harbor, ride my bike, and get my new kayak. And then never ever organize another rally again.

We kind of got tossed into the fire on net control, but we were figuring it out. Casual comments from previous net control operators got us moving in the correct direction and horrendous weather conditions out on the stages were keeping spectator and civilian problems at bay.

And then, finally- on the last stage of the night, we had or first "problem". Car zero came back and said we should just skip it. It sounded like the stage was passable, but very very muddy. Unable to come up with a suitable plan to navigate the cars back to service, I agreed to transit the stage. Car zero came back and said if I'm going to send them down it, I might as well let them compete. There may have been some egging on by a long time competitor working the finish control too. Go ahead and run it...

I think I can safely use the word "epic" here. 6 cars off, nearly a quarter of the remaining field. Stories of one particular driver who was giving a full on, 11/10ths driving performance when his co-driver looked over and told him he was doing upwards of 25mph. And comments like "Sorry, no car count- our log sheets have disintegrated in the rain." It took a while, but we got everybody out of the woods safely. I was back at the hotel and in bed by 4am, but couldn't sleep. I was stoked! Finally, rally was cool again. It was an epic battle of will against the elements! Forget winning, just getting through those conditions was an accomplishment worth celebrating. Here was rally's chance to prove it's mettle to me...

We certainly had our challenges the next day, including a stuck transmitter that forced us to transit a stage and do an emergency frequency change, but we had mastered the basic routine of getting a stage up and running. We even made it down to the banquet to catch the last few scraps of food on the buffet (not that we need it, Dave's wife was feeding us pretty well that whole weekend).

During the awards ceremony, rally made me proud. Everybody agreed it was a horrendous, difficult night. But the attitude was, "that's what makes this cool". I didn't hear a single complaint about running that last stage. Spent the night drinking beer, shaking hands, thanking the people on the ground that made net control so much easier for us, and talking about "next year!".

Kind of an exciting weekend for staring at this for nearly 40 hours straight:

Imagine the smell of dead mice and dCon to fully appreciate it. :)

What everybody else got to see:
http://www.comicozzie.com/gallery2/v/2011/LSPR/
http://worldrallysport.com/node/8335

Now about the AMC Eagle SX/4 rally project I've been thinking of....

I got a brand new used thing!

2011-10-17T21:02:10Z

Half price kayak rentals all through september at the Keweenaw Adventure Company!

Well you know me.

It's a deal!

I'm saving money!

And what's this? A list of used rental kayaks your selling?

I can take a lesson and demo a couple of boats!

The weekend plans really started to come together when a fellow riding buddy put notice out about an abbreviated version of his "Peaks Tour", hitting the summits of several Keweenaw mountains.

So on a beautiful september weekend I met up with Bill and we got a solid 40 miles in of Keweenaw two tracks in and around the mandan loop. Found plenty of cool new trails and hit a couple of places I'd never been to like Lost Lake and Keystone Bay (Holy shit! There's a sandy beach out by the tip of the Keweenaw!)

Bill had to bail early, but that gave me time to bike into my favorite camping spot on Fish Cove and go for a swim. Superior is warmer than I ever remember. Had a great night sleeping out under the stars.

Next morning I got up and made my way in to Copper Harbor for a Basic Water Safety course with Keweenaw Adventure. Maybe learn all those things I should have learned before say, paddling out to the Huron Islands.

Anyway, I was the only one in the class and the instructor was pretty good, so we made a fair amount of progress in the harbor. Maybe I was doing a pretty good job of not sucking, or maybe the instructor figured he had half a shot at keeping just one idiot from drowning- but we decided to go out on Superior and tackle the "big water". There was a fair amount of wind generating some nice 3-4 foot rollers out in open water. This seemed kind of cool, but the rocky shore they were crashing against made me a but nervous...

Things turned toward adventuresome when I managed to break my paddle trying a T-rescue out there. I'm pretty happy I managed to keep my swamped boat upright without a paddle while the instructor ran off chasing the remnants of my paddle.

Honestly, it was bit overwhelming and had me moderately freaked out. I know enough to know what I don't know now, and I know how tiny mistakes can quickly become big ones. We were just offshore, had proper gear, and at least one pretty experienced person, so were in no real danger of anything bad happening, but you could just catch a fleeting glimpse of how something could...

So obviously, I was completed hooked. Gave the instructor a good tip and then went and put a downpayment on the boat he was using- a 2010 Boreal Designs Fjell. It was obviously way better than the Inukshuk I was paddling because it didn't seem to flip over as much. ;)

So yeah, couldn't pick it up until the rental season was fully over, which is OK because given the awesome weather we had in september and early october, I never would have gotten all my rally chores done with a new boat to play with.

I paid the final deposit and took it home yesterday. I should be positively unbearable by next spring staring at this all winter without any chance to use it:

Unless of course I maybe pick up a dry suit or really heavy wet suit.....

My Own Personal Heck (of the North)

2011-10-05T01:32:14Z

I won't delve too deep into it, but man... the rally is just killing me this year.

So I was really, really looking forward to a weekend off to head over to Duluth to race 100 miles of the Minnesota Arrowhead's finest gravel in this year's Heck of the North.

This summer though, I finally dialed in the perfect rack setup on the ol' Jake and I'm reluctant to strip it down for 'cross season and gravel road racing again. I've got a Salsa Fargo frame waiting to get built up, but funding has not been approved as of yet. So I did the rational thing and threw some drop bars on my single speed mountain bike. Sure, I have all of two 'cross races under my belt with this setup, but all my fellow alt/hipster, beer swilling, beard sporting, single speed riders agree, it's a pretty sweet setup. So it must be perfect for a gravel road race. Did I mention I left the 32x17 gearing on it? And the 29x2.55 tires? This not unlike entering a rally in a one ton diesel truck on 44" super swampers. And then leaving the transfer case in low range....

The start went well, if you call "well" getting completely and utterly dropped. Hard. Seems 32x17 ain't much good for anything above 15mph. But who cares? It's a beautiful day on the north shore of Superior in prime color season. Why rush through it?

I was having a grand old time, kibitzing with my fellow riders, enjoying the day, and then we hit the first snowmobile trail section. The Heck is unique amongst gravel road races in that it throws in these 1 mile sections that are damn near impossible to ride through completely. But my monstercross setup could ride a lot more than most people, and faster too! So I found myself passing a lot of people. Hoo boy, looks like I'm racing.

After that first snowmobile section, I made my big bad decision. I found myself riding with a couple of guys, pushing 16-17mph. Definitely on the high end of my cadence abilities, but manageable. Or so it seemed.

So I came screaming into the halfway checkpoint with them and suddenly realized what I had done. My legs felt like lead. No other way to describe it. I've never had my legs feel like this. I could still mash, but just couldn't get them to spin at any decent cadence.

So for the next 35 miles or so, I was kind of riding my own ride. Doing the recovery thing. Singing to myself. Have you seen the new Powderwhores trailer? As per usual, I like the song. In this case, "Bugs" by O'Death. Which means I watched their video.

Which is kind of creepy. And seems to be shot someplace along the Heck of the North course. I was always half expecting one of these weird woods people to be standing back in the trees as I rode past.

But the next person I saw was my teammate, Bruce at about mile 90. I sort of dropped him for a little bit, but realized I had nothing to really try and prove in this race. Singlespeed with a low gear had kicked my ass hard and merely finishing was something to be happy about. So I rode (and walked up Pleasant View Road- man, that road was not named by a bicyclist!) the last few miles in with him to the finish.

Oddly enough, I finished 15 minutes earlier than last year.

The Heck continues to be my favorite gravel road race ever. Just can't beat the setting and some of the unique challenges of it. It's a tough time of year for me fitness wise with work and rally responsibilities, so it's a real challenge too. But now I'm intrigued by this single speed thing. I wonder what I could do with a bigger gear?

Bad Decision... Kayaker?!

2011-08-30T15:41:47Z

Hola, amigos. What's up? I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya, but... Oh, oops. Wrong blog.

But yeah, it's not that things have been exactly quiet since the Royal, just not very noteworthy. I did and awesome tour with some friends around rural Wisconsin back in June. I've been getting a lot of really great two track exploring in this summer and have actually found some growing interest amongst my riding buddies for more of that sort of stuff.

But really, the stories are a lot of the same ol'-same ol'. No new tale to tell.

Until last weekend.

I was all set to go out and mileage some LSPR roads, spent all morning getting the paperwork together, even got supplies together for a night of camping. Hopped in my car to head out, and....

Shit.

The odometer stayed stuck at 10.273 miles.

Seems I lost the magnets on the odo pickup.

Well, now what?

It's a beautiful weekend. I can figure something out.

Swung by the The Bike Shop to pick up some parts to get the Hoss ready for Fat Tire. And then, without good reason. I swung by Downwind Sports. See, I've been going on and on about sea kayaks all summer. It's my new "thing". Except I'm determined to go about this in a slightly more mature way than I've gotten into bicycles, skis, motorcycles, cars, ham radio, backpacking, computers, and well- the list goes on. Usually, I just waltz into the store impulse buy something really nice and go from there. But now that I'm older and wiser, I'm determined to buy the right thing right at the start. And get it on sale. So you know, I figured I'd just waltz in and "see if they had any end of season" specials.

My checkbook is happy to report that their selection was pretty much down to a couple of sit on tops and a few boats sized for anorexic teenage girls, so my checkbook was mostly safe. Didn't stop my from walking out with a rental kayak strapped to the roof of my car for the weekend though.

So yeah, I got it home that night. Paddled around Otter Lake getting used to the boat. Nice calm paddle, everything went great. The Tsunami 140 proved to be rock stable and tracked pretty well even though it was maybe a little slow.

Next day had me up early planning a longer expedition. In my head, I was telling myself I'd go paddle around Huron Bay. You know, nothing major.

But Huron Bay is right out by my favorite Lake Superior beach. So I figured I'd maybe see how the water was out there. Maybe play in the waves if there were some. Maybe paddle up and down the shore.

But you see, there are these islands 4 miles offshore from my favorite beach. They've been taunting me for years. I'd sit there on the beach, downing some liquid courage (beer) before braving the chilly waters of Lake Superior wondering exactly what it was like out there.

So, of course I found myself paddling straight out into Lake Superior. I figured, worse case scenario- I could swim 2 miles in either direction to dry ground. (Did I mention they wouldn't give me a spray skirt with the boat because they thought I might do something stupid and drown? :) )

But hey, 2 miles out and things were going pretty great. The weather was about as perfect as perfect can be and I completed the 4 mile crossing in just over an hour.

Holy shit. I made it.

I did some quick exploration on Lighthouse Island. There's really not a whole lot to explore. Between the rocky, rough terrain and thick brush- you're pretty much limited to the path between the landing, the lighthouse, and the lifesaving station on the far end of the island.

But frankly, I was ill-prepared to deal with even the slightest of bad weather so I didn't waste much time before jumping in the boat and heading back. While preparing to shove off, a pontoon boat full of old guys drinking beer advised me to "be careful". Funny, coming from a bunch of guys who were one old outboard motor away from being completely screwed.

I took the opportunity to paddle around the island closest to lighthouse island. It's enough to hook anybody on the sport. Paddling next to 20-30 foot cliffs that drop straight down into the lake, with water so clear you can see the rock formations another 20 feet below you. Spectacular would be a good word to use. Even if I had a camera, pictures would in no way do it justice.

With a slight tailwind, I made it back to the beach in less than an hour. I was greeted by some little girl on the beach yelling "Hey mom, the crazy kayaker made it!"

I spent the rest of the afternoon applying what I've learned watching youtube videos, practicing self rescues and attempting rolls. Maybe I should have done that before I tried that trip, but it probably would have all worked out. Maybe. :)

Anyway, I'm hooked now. Anybody want to buy a motorcycle and fund my next stupid hobby?

Royal 162

2011-05-16T14:56:02Z

162 (actually, 157) miles of southeast Minnesota gravel roads.

90 people thought it was a good idea this winter to sign up for this.

Given the forecast for rain and cold on race day, only 57 folks showed up at registration.

Only 25 managed to cross the finish line.

I was the last to do so before the "official" cut-off time of 15 hours.

Now, I'm sure there was a great reason I signed up for this. Probably something about fitness, health and personal accomplishment fit for the cheery pages of "Bicycling" magazine or somesuch.

Those folks of the same mindset probably did the sensible thing and stayed at home and rode their trainers.

Only those with darker, ulterior motives found themselves in the parking lot of the Spring Valley high school parking lot at 7am on a cold rainy morning. The usual, lighthearted, startline banter was kept to a minimum. These men and women were here to commit unspeakable acts against man, machine and soul in hopes of finding just where their breaking point was.

And many did.

I love when success or failure in a race is decided not by how many hours I trained, or how crisp and clean my new whiz-bang gruppo shifts, but by things like keeping my route instructions from disintegrating in the rain and how many pieces of pizza I can shove in my mouth at once.

Thankfully, I've actually endured worse conditions on the back of a motorcycle of all things, so I was able to stay pretty positive through the whole event. As long as I kept moving, I stayed warm. Quitting actually became too complicated of an option after the last major city at mile 60. It would mean having to find shelter, making contact with my teammate who hopefully finished his 100 mile ride, and organizing transportation back to the start. No, it was just easier to keep the pedals turning over and plodding down the course.

This race became especially tough as I essentially had to do the entire thing solo. There was no drafting to help me through the cold winds. Everybody near the back of the pack was dropping out of the race. I saw all of two riders during the last 100 miles.

I finished out the last 10 miles in the dark, 17 minutes shy of the official cut off time of 15 hours.

Of course, the problem I face now is this- I still haven't found my limit. I've still never DNFed a race. What do I do next?

(Photo courtesy of Craig Linder)

2010 Bike Season Wrap Up

2011-04-23T12:03:32Z

My legion of fanS (Yes, it's plural now!) have been demanding an update. With less writing and more pictures.

So yes, I did finish out the tour. Riding through the Traverse City area reminded me of all the reasons I stayed in the UP. I cut the trip back up through WI a bit short as it was pretty hot, and this being my 3rd time on the same route, I was getting a little bored of it. All in all, another great tour though. I could do this for the rest of my life if I had too. More pictures here.

But then it was back to racing...

The 2010 UP State Singlespeed Championships went pretty well. I had a sprint to the finish to come in just behind last year's UP State singlespeed champion. I still really like the Deer Chase. It's probably the only MTB race I really do anymore for the racing.

Somewhere in there, I started organizing a team for the upcoming Gentlemen's Ride in MN the next month. One of my teammates came over to the UP to do some riding with me and we rode from my house down to Eagle River, WI for the Central ADV Rally. We stuck with mostly gravel roads on the way down and it turned into quite the adventure- what with the moose encounter, and finishing out the last 20 miles in the dark on a sandy two track with minimal lighting. We took surprisingly little crap for showing up at a motorcycle rally in spandex trousers on bicycles. As always, a hell of a party. The hangover was mostly gone by the time I finished the 100 mile grind back north. At least I fared better than the two guys who woke up at the campground literally days after the rally ended concluding an epic bender.

After that it was off to Fat Tire up in copper harbor. Weather was a little crappy this year, so I neglected to ride up and also skipped out on the Super D the day before leaving the title of Central Upper Northern Midwest But Not Wisconsin Touring/XC/Downhill title up for grabs. Sadly, there were no contenders so my title is still safe. I showed up with my 29er, did the long race and felt I did pretty good, but I was just kind of reminded that the better I get at XC MTB racing, the more I seem to dislike it. I love riding single track, but racing on it just seems to suck the fun out of it. You're either going too fast trying to make time, or too slow because some doofus is in front of you. Then you're stuck racing like a total tool just to maintain your position when you can. It's quickly becoming not worth it anymore. Thankfully, Fat Tire has a great party afterwards and that's always fun....

I think cyclocross started shortly thereafter. And, well... I still love CX, but with my move to "Eh" class, things didn't go as well. A bunch of other guys made the jump as well, but the racing just wasn't the same. Our little pack was totally broken up and a lot of the fun of CX was missing. I did run one race in the "Bees", gave it my all and still came in fourth with some great racing. I hate any semblance of sandbagging, but it's not like I'm waltzing up to the podium if I move back in 2011. We'll see....

The we had the Gentemen's Ride, a rendition of the Almanzo 100 that must be completed as a team of four riders. I recruited one of my imaginary internet motorcycle friends and a couple of my teammates and had a pretty good time on this. The slightly slower pace allowed me to enjoy the course more and I think I made a few converts to gravel road racing as well.

Shortly thereafter was the Heck of the North, another gravel road race in Duluth, MN. Absolutely, stunningly, beautiful course right in peak color season on the North Shore of MN. Too bad my fitness level wasn't up to the challenge. The start was a little rough and it took me a while to find my rhythm. I eventually pulled through with a respectable finish, but I'm looking forward to getting back in 2011 for revenge. Gotta get a plug in here for the cool folks that run the Gardenwood resort just north of Duluth. Great hosts for the weekend!

And that kind of finished us out... Honestly, I was getting pretty anxious for ski season.

The Big 2010 Tour: Day 3

2010-12-01T14:43:14Z

Day 3: Seney to St. Igance, 100 miles

Well, the day started out well enough. I stopped at some bar in Seney that was advertising breakfast and found it was pretty much me and the owner/bratender/cook. Although they didn't have pancakes, she did an awesome job of filling me up with french toast and then charged me some exorbitant price. I think it was $3.50 for what basically amounted to an all you can eat deal.

Just before McMillan I ran into some French-Canadian dude on a cross country tour. His English was about as good as my French, but from what I could gather he was about 3 weeks in so far and was planning to end up someplace on the west coast.

After that... well. Not much to report. It was a ride. My schedule for this trip required that I really push hard and make St. Ignace today. Unfortunately, my route was pretty boring and pretty much anything really interesting was a solid 20 mile plus detour.

I did have to stop and check out why the Post Office in McMillan was for sale though.

Made it into St. Ignace with no problems and checked into a Motel. Kind of nice to get my first shower in a couple of days.

The Big 2010 Tour: Day 2

2010-11-28T14:11:13Z

Day 2: Nestoria almost all the way to Seney: 120 miles

I awoke well rested and still rather full of fish and Old Milwaukee from the night before, so hit the road and belted out a quick 30 miles before stopping for breakfast in Champion at "François' Cafe" where I was immediately greeted by a wide open door. In fact, it wasn't so much wide open as falling of the hinges. This did give me an opportunity to learn the local pronunciation of "François" when a waitress told another "Hey, give Frankie a call and let him know the door fell off the restaurant".

"Super Dave" was already on the case and fully removing the faulty door from the closing mechanism and setting it aside. Dave is one of those people that you really only get an opportunity to meet when you're riding a bicycle. His Trek was parked next to the restaurant as well and he's the type of person you can only refer to as "a character". He asked about my trip and told several stories of his own about some serious long distance tours and his racing exploits. Very cool guy, I see his Trek parked in front of Frankie's from time to time and should check in.

Besides, and I'll just go ahead and ruin the build up of one of the central themes of this trip when I say that Frankie's has some of the best blueberry pancakes ever. They managed to walk the fine line between a slightly crispy without being greasy outside with a light and fluffy inside. Well done and perfectly executed. Even if I wasn't carrying my usual reserve of pure maple syrup.

I used several chunks of the Iron Ore Heritage Trail to navigate the Ishpeming/Negaunee/Marquette area. Cool trail through some really interesting old town and mining ruins. And certainly beat trying to navigate the highways in this area.

I picked up M-94 south of Marquette and came across another sight that you really only notice when on a bike. I've probably driven by the sign 50 times and never given it a second thought. Turns out to be an interesting historical anecdote.

In Chatham, I stumbled across the annual Chatham Country Fair which was going full tilt when I arrived. I immediately took advantage of the opportunity to fill up on healthful foodstuffs such as Funnel Cakes, Elephant Ears, and Walking Tacos. I spent a while hanging out by the tractor pull, but honestly- this old Farmall had everybody pretty much beat on the slick turf from last night's rain.

Lots of other cool stuff to check out too:

I pressed on with the intention of camping or maybe grabbing a hotel room in Munising, but just outside of Munising something odd was happening.

See, usually when you cyclotour in rural areas people just think you're weird and sometimes go so far as to question your upbringing, employment status, and even sexual orientation while using colorful metaphors yelled from swiftly moving pickups. Outside of Munising though, people were giving me a wide berth on the road, and even waving at me. The familiar buzz of oversize BFG Mud Terrains preceding the cloud of diesel exhaust was conspicuously absent.

It was seriously weirding me out.

Once I got to Munising, I found the town was booked- 100%. Not even a tent space at the overpriced KOA nor a manger was to be had. It was then that I figured things out when I started noticing all the "26.2" stickers. I was amongst my peoples: retarded endurance sports junkies. Marathoners, in this instance.

With no options for stopping in Munising, I pushed on towards the Seney Stretch. For those unfamiliar with it, it's a long, straight, flat section of M-28. 25 miles. Perfectly flat. And perfectly straight.

Traffic was light, so I amused myself with my camera.

Just shy of the rest area, I found a large, open field and set up camp for the night. With setting sun and wildflowers in bloom, it made for one of my best camping nights on a bike tour yet.