Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloween Ride

 It's Halloween.  I went out for a ride dressed as a cyclist this afternoon.  Around here, I know of some people that would consider that a costume.  I have heard my share of the leotard, spandex and clown clothes comments.  It concerns me when I hear them...not!!  Not many cyclist in my neck of the woods, so to give those people some validity, I am in the process of building up a fat bike.  Tomorrow I make the trek to see Brian at Penn Cycle in Blaine, MN. I will pick up some of the key parts to start the build. He has been very helpful in answering my questions and helping me out. It will be a 9:ZERO:7 in orange.  Pictures of parts will be on shortly. I am still holding on to hope to get the EP cycles frame. 
    
I found this on the road.  A trappers trap.  I recognized the name on it, so I made the ride a little longer and dropped it off at his house.  All in all a good ride.

Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Autumn on the North Country Trail

Autumn Hike On The North Country Trail

 Yesterday I hiked a portion of the North Country Trail (NCT).  The trail when completed will stretch 4600 miles from North Dakota to New York.  We are fortunate enough to live within a couple of miles of this gem. I started here at the Gordon Dam.  

 I started a little late in the afternoon because at the stage I am at in my life, I sometimes like talking to people.  I can't explain it because in the past, and still today at times, I avoided conversation.  But I digress.  I bumped into a guy at the parking lot at the Gordon Dam, never met the guy before, but that took 45 minutes.   hehe   I enjoyed every minute of it!

 The hike yesterday had me carrying my REI Double Shot belt with two water bottles, a bottle of Gatorade, 2 of CADs secret recipe energy balls, a container of peaches, light jacket, hat, camera, my multitool and bear spray.  

 A lot of the leaves are now gone in our area.

 It is time for the Tamarack tree to shine.  It's funny because I hate to see fall come, but it seems the Tamarack makes it worth it.  If we are lucky, CAD will tell his Tamarack story in the comment section.  Say, maybe one of these beauties will work for "TARATS"

 The above picture is one of the many board walks on the section I hiked.  They put the boardwalks in to avoid damage to the wetlands.  The longest boardwalk on this hike was about 270 feet, although I probably crossed a couple dozen of them.  The section of trail called the Brule Bog has 3500 ft of boardwalk on a 2.3 mile section of trail.  Pretty cool stuff.
  
 Here they have hauled in material to build more boardwalk.

 A bridge on the trail crosses very near this beaver dam.  This picture was not zoomed on my $100 cheapo camera.

 I wasn't going to include this picture as it didn't show what I intended very well, but I added it anyhow.  The path it shows is not the NCT, but a beaver trail leading to the waterway just above the dam.  They have been busy!

 The trail is marked periodically with these blue rectangles.

 A few posts back, I mentioned the Bird Sanctuary.  The trail runs through this area also.

 The above picture is as I was coming up to Rovers Lake.

 The trail has camping areas along the way.  This is the Rovers Lake camp area located within the Bird Sanctuary. This lake was loaded with waterfall on this day.

 At each of the camping areas/rest stops there is an ammo box mounted on a post with a log, trail maps and etc. I stopped and logged in with the date, weather conditions, trail conditions, unique sightings  and how far my journey was taking me this day.

The hike had me covering 8 miles on this great fall afternoon.  Although, I ended up trail running the last .75 mile because getting back to the beginning of the post, I spent time making a new acquaintance rather than hiking.  This was a one way hike with a ride waiting on the final, so I didn't want to miss that...although she would have not complained if I were a little late.

Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!

Thanks for visiting!

PS...for those that do not know, highlighted areas are links and click pics for big.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Look Ma...No Cars

 The leaves are starting to fall in our area.  Giving it up and giving back, they are...mulch, one might say.

 I decided to ride some back trails and roads today.  It was a good choice.

This is, or was, a whitetail deer hunting stand.  One sits behind a pile of sticks and brush hoping to harvest a whitetail.  It was a good spot back in the day, but is getting grown up around there now.  

 I noticed a bear hunter had driven some of the roads this morning looking for tracks.  I also rode by a couple of their bait stations.

 I suffered through some sand and loose gravel.  If one keeps their speed up and slides their butt off the back of the seat, you can ride a lot of it.  This is where the big fat tire bike would come in handy.  When I do score the fat bike, I plan on riding it year around, not just winter.  I am in what one would call a quandary when it comes to that fat bike.

 Some sand   and   some gravel

 Some hard pack.

 I stopped to grab a picture of this tree for the smackdown (linky)...but it's not worthy of such an honor.

  We had a widespread wind storm on July 1, 2011.  This trail had some of the damage. Now I will readily admit I m not the best at bunny hopping...but.  

 I had probably close to a 1/2 mile of downed trees to get around. 

 These bigger trees where the easy ones to get over and around.  Some of the others were really a pain.  A lot of brush and briers. It stung pretty good when I got in the shower after.
   
 A newly dozed road to explore.  They are always fun!!

The ride today had me riding 26.5 miles of town roads, rut roads and some trails. Oh, and a little on a county highway.  In that 26.5 miles, 2 hours 39 minutes of ride time, I saw a total ZERO cars, trucks. atv's or whatever.  It was just me and the bike.  Now granted I was in some remote area...at one point over 6 miles to the nearest house...but still.  That is pretty amazing I think.  It was good to get out while the weather is still nice. The above picture was the lunch spot today...another peanut butter and honey on multi-grain. hhhmmm.

Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!

Thanks for reading,
RL