Maplelag Skillz Clinic

Anderson and I had a very successful skills clinic up at the Maplelag this past Saturday.  Many riders improved in the short hour that we had.  Track Stands, moving over obstacles,  climbing and descending.  Sometime I wonder if I make sense while explaining things but it must have worked because everyone got better at everything.

A rider learning how to un-weight the front and rear tire over a log.

Riders over accentuate their climbing as we were working on steep short climbs where rear tire traction is necessary while also keeping their front tire down.  The goal was to get everyone prepared for the Lake Side Drop's.  Several riders were able to clean the section and some just watched.

After lunch we rode a lap of the course with these guy's, helping them with a few techincal things.  The goal was to take it easy since most of them were riding the STXC later in the day but it seemed like we moved along pretty well.  Those Jr's have a lot of energy...

The Richards pulled off another grate race weekend for the MNMBS racers, Thanks again!  We always have a good time hanging out with the MN bike community.

The South Wind's of Late August

All last week we were planning on a 2 day bike tour.  We had a few ideas but once we saw the weather report with 15 to 20 mph South Winds we knew we needed to head North.  Our good friend Sheila was up at her cabin near Grand Rapids, MN and was coming back today so it quickly became an easy decision.

We mapped out the route and made copies of the map and away we went.  We found some brand new pavement along the way, here we are hauling into Pierz, MN!

Once we hit Mille Lacs Lake (A BIG LAKE IN MN) we had to skirt along hwy 169 for a few miles and that was probably the worst part of the 2 day trip, as holiday traffic was thick going both ways.  We stopped in Garrison and loaded up on ice and liquids and then we chose to follow the shoreline of the lake for a while (getting off the busy 169) heading east to Wealthwood where we then jumped on some really nice gravel roads heading North.

From here we crissed cross hwy 169 a couple of times and then finally a straight shot into Aitkin, MN for the night.  100 miles to be exact as we looped around town a little to find lodging, etc.  I felt really good with the day on the bike.  The gravel had me wiggling around a little bit to keep upright but all in all the back felt good.

Monday a.m. we were talking with the proprietor of the motel about our route and he brought to our attention some other roads but in the end we did a mix of what we had planned and a little of the Great River Road along the Mississippi River.

After some smoked salmon bagel sandwiches and some mega cappuccino's we headed straight North out of Aitkin on CR 1, it was smooth sailing over the Mississippi and then it quickly turned to gravel.  It wasn't bad for the 10 miles we rode this section, we only had a few cars that buzzed us nicely leaving us covered in dirt as it was 90 degree's and humid!  Once off of CR 1 we took CR 3 and rode East (I know, headwind) into Palisade, MN where we jumped on the GRR on CR 10.

We didn't have the map section printed out so it seemed like it took forever as we followed the meandering Mississippi river to get to hwy 200, and then it was 20 miles to Grand Rapids!  The 44 miles of swirling winds and little to no water in 90 plus temps on this bit of road had us kind of cooked.  We finally saw some ladies 4 miles to go to Grand Rapids who were outside of their home and asked them for some water.  They gave us the best well water ever, nice and cold...you know what I mean!

We jumped on the Mesabi Trail and finished off the ride to Sheilas cabin.  It was great as we rode right into her driveway, down the hill past her cabin and jumped off our bikes, took off our shoes, socks, and jersey's and jumped right into the lake!  That was the best lake water ever...you know what I mean!  80 miles on the day.

I was a bit in the hurt box on Monday night as I was chomping at the bit a little too much and pulling more than I needed to.  My lower back and leg was killing me all night long and the potato sausage Sheila took out of the freezer to chill my back didn't help too much either.

All and all it was a blast and I am so happy that I was able to cover 180 miles and get in some of the northern countryside of MN.  This is why I pulled the plug earlier this spring on my racing so Anderson and I could do these things and it goes to show that if I push it things are still are not good but if I take it easy I can still do what I love, ride my bike with Anderson, except he's going to have to do the majority of the hefty pulling (he's drafted me for 15 years)...you know what I mean!

Wanna Ride?

Wouldn't yah know!

Sheila and I got in a nice road ride this a.m..  We had a lot of laughs (not too hard with either of us) and saw a lot of fun stuff.

Pretty healthy horses....

and a farm field growing giant sized marshmallows!  We saw these at hour two so I don't think I was cross eyed yet...

So where was I?

Oh, sharing the pics from the awesome singletrack tour over the last week.

The Amo's after the Soft Rock!  Sheila has been training really hard under Anderson and my tutelage.   She had a great race on Saturday coming in well under her desired time.  She did the race a few years ago on a single speed and her time on Sat. beat her old time by 40 mins.  The weird thing was how  stacked the short race was, had she had the same time last year she would have placed 4th overall but she finished this year around the mid teens.  Unleash the Beast!

I volunteered to lead out the kid's race Saturday afternoon, what a ball!  The winner came out of no where once we hit the road section as he had the advantage of the big wheels of a hybrid bike where the others were on mtb's.  Funny!

Max got in a lot of swimming while we were up in the Marquette area.  The ducks were luring him out into the deeper waters and when we call him back they would turn around and chase him all while quacking!

Sunday we hit up some other trails in the South Marquette Network.  We had a good group with Super G, Anderson, Myself, Jenna, Justin and some more locals Amy and Lyle.

I hoped to get to this spot the whole trip and we finally did.  The 11 min downhill.  No fooling, it's awesome!  It's more of a Super D course as it flows really fast, has a few power climbs (which I was sitting and spinning of course) and seem's endless!  Thanks for all the tours Super G!  Unfortunately we lost Amy as I was so pumped to rip this section....oooops. 

We even saw some roller skiers out training.

Checking out the views of the Carp River from the newly cut Gorgeous trail, AWESOME.  After our ride with Super G we packed up and drove over to Ironwood and stayed at Wolverine Village.  Monday we rode some more of the single track at the Wolverine Nordic Trails.  We found some more single track and kept ourselves entertained for a good hour and a half.  Luna (Jenna and Justin's dog) and Max had a blast running along with us.  After the single track there we drove on down to Hayward with the plan for a bigger ride on the CAMBA trail cluster.  I was starting to feel all the off road riding so I only got in a portion of the Hatchery Creek Trail on Tuesday while Anderson, Jenna and Justin rode all the way up to Hwy OO and back!

Back home now in Cloud Town (well actually I'm sipping and Orangina at Angry Catfish this a.m. as I have a few sales calls down in the Mpls area today).  It was hard to get back to the reality of life yesterday especially since my back was feeling all the singele track.  Yes, I probably overdid it but I had so much fun hitting all the trails I wouldn't re do it any other way.

Yooper Land

Well this blog has gone no where pretty fast.  I guess that is what happens when you leave behind your camera cord and your busy riding single track.  This past week I put in a lot of hours on the mtb, many days in a row, and it finally caught up with me today while riding the Hatchery Creek trail near Hayward.  O'well, it was a good run!

Where does one begin.  Moving Couch, Rode sections of the O2S course with Anderson and Sheila, Group ride with the Ishpeming A group, South Marquette Mtn single track ride with Amo, Charlie, Super G and Anderson, then we watched the O2S roll down the main street in Negaunee, MI and hit up various other parts of the race.

Jenna had a great race taking home the win!  SKJ was close (by 4 sec) at Deer Lake Rd so we thought for sure the next time we saw the ladies it would be neck and neck.  Not sure what happened as we didn't see SKJ after the race but I'm sure she gave it her all and then some.

The things you actually see when your not racing across Deer Lake road.

Rebecca Sauber always with big smiles!  Nice job out there!

Danielle Musto rolled the big 29'r wheels to a 7th place finish!

More to come...I'm getting sleepy and need to go to bed!

Marquette, MI

Started our trip towards Maquette, MI on Tuesday afternoon.  Made it to Ironwood just before some rain and rode the Wolverine Nordic Trials and Singletrack.  We stayed at the Wolverine Village and if you ever need a place to stay you should call up Robert and stay here.  He's done it all by hand and has created quite the relaxing compound. Beautiful log cabins right across the Street from Wolverine Nordic. 

Wed a.m. it was all about getting to Marquette to get on the trails and get Sheila familiarized with the short race course.  She has now ridden the section from the iron bridge down to the finish line 3 times and feeling very comfortable with the descent.  One tumble with the fluffy sand and now her right shifter isn't working so now we need to attend to that but I think she is good to go!

I've been getting in some good riding.  Two downhill runs along the race course (iron bridge to finish) and I rode with Super G on the group ride from Ishpeming last night.  What a blast!!  The B group had to be over 50 riders and the A group was a good 15 riders.  We rode most of the "Bluff Ride" getting in some great views of the hills around here.  The single track is some of the finest riding I've ever done.  I'm serious about this, but don't try and go it alone because the trails split here and there, I bet there is over 100 miles of top secret single track!

The lake is warmer than I ever remember as well so the "soak in da' lake" wasn't as bone chilling as we expected.  It's hot here and there isn't much breeze so hopfully it cools off with the storm rolling in Friday night for all the racers.