Biking and Bacon

The weather as of late has had me riding the fixed gear rather than the fatty.  The trails are getting soft with the daytime temps now reaching near 40°F.  The back roads are getting sandy/muddy so the bike and I come home a mess after riding those.  It isn't me getting dirty that bothers me, but the constant wet sand sticking and grinding away at the bicycle...well that does. So Saturday, Monday and Tuesday had me on the fixed gear.   I will be ditching the studs shortly...I hope.  Maybe todays ride will be on the cross bike.  One thing about that fixed gear, going against the wind that we have had lately on our rolling terrain makes it a bit more interesting.  You can hear the studded tires in the above video.  The sound of frying bacon in a nice hot pan.  What can be bad about that.  Biking and Bacon!!

 

Isn't it a beauty?  No shifting of gears.  No ability to coast.  Just get on and pedal.  And, if you do not pedal, it will let you know.  So much fun to ride!

 

And speaking of beauty, I have been blessed to be able to ride during some fabulous snow falls this year.  These big fat flurries fell during Tuesdays ride.

 

As I pedaled by I see that the sun had melted from the southern exposure bank of the one of the rivers.  I picked that spot for lunch.

 

This above video shows the spot of Tuesdays lunch break.

Lets get outdoors and have some Fun!!

Trail Riding

 The temperature was around the 20°F and I figured the local snowmobile trails would be ideal for the Fat-bike.  

 I was right!!  The riding today was excellent.

 This is by one of the trees cleaned up from a windstorm. That is a mighty big tree to snapped off.  This was from the July 1, 2011 storm.

 They call this road Twin Bridges road...now.   For years and years this road was known as Carlson Creek road and it had make-shift like bridges.  They built the bridges and now its Twin Bridges road.  Imagine that.

 T was out for 3 hours on almost all snowmobile trail like pictured above.  The riding was great with no snowmobile traffic while I was out.  It is the middle of the week though.  Just past the 1:00 mark it started to get a little soft, but still ride-able.

 Lunch spot today...a southern faced little bank on the north side of the trail.

The confluence of the St.Croix and the Eau Claire Rivers in Gordon WI.  Eau Claire on the right.  From here on down to the Mississippi, it is the St.Croix River.

Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!

Snowshoe Lunch Date

I started this post last week and am just now getting around to finishing it.  That tells you where my blogging priorities are.  I have put thought to putting this blog behind me. I have another post that I have readied, but not finished yet, so we will see.

  

 I went for a snowshoe during what was suppose to be a terrible storm.  Turned out not so terrible.  hehe

These are trees cut from the path of the North Country Trail that fell during a past wind storm.  

 I was very near this spot the day of that storm in a kayak.  I saw the clouds building and beat it for the landing.  I was home less than an hour when all hell broke loose.  It was the worst wind storm that I can remember.

 It was great to be out with the snow falling and walking very close to the flowing river.

 The trail goes by the Gibson Cabin.  I have blogged a while back on some of the history of this place.  In short it is part of the The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System was created by Congress in 1968...linked.

Today, for me the best to use this cabin was to have lunch.  So, lunch I had.

 It was a break from the usual pb/honey as I packed the stove and cooked up some Wild Rice soup.  That hit the spot.

The picnic table had a little too much snow for my liking.

This was the view from the porch of the cabin and my lunch spot this day. The North Country Trail (linked here) I have blogged about before, but I will say it again.  It is a gem!!

Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!

Enjoying Nature

 I recently made another trip to our neighboring township of Barnes to ski their Tomahawk Lake Ski Trail at the town park...linked here.  The last time I was here they hadn't finished grooming.  I wanted to get out here again and this was the day.  The skiing was great.  I now have skied and hiked them.  I think I may have to try bicycling them this summer.

   

 These are the groomers they use for the ski trails. These are pulled by a heavy duty snowmobile, 

 They first pull the the black roller on the right and then go over that with the blue/yellow unit to put the  track down.

 The above is the end result...a nice smooth area with two tracks laid down for classical skiing.  

 Along the trail are resting areas with benches supplied by the Eau Claire Lakes Conservation Club...linked here

 This is a nice little shelter along the trail. I decided to have my lunch here today...another PB/Honey on  multi grain.

 The birds look to be using it as shelter also.  I am guessing during the summer.

 I was the first track across since the drag.  Although I could see where people had skied before because of the indentations in the snow from taking a tumble.  There was more than one tumble that took place on this hill.

I must have worked pretty hard at it because the strap came loose on one of the poles...False, didn't work hard.  Just out enjoying nature on a great day.

Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!