Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Some Good Riding

Todays ride had me riding with two new riding partners.  I can not tell you how much fun it is to have someone to ride with.  For me, it is not about how fast we are riding, but the great company....and, these guys are great company!!  We put on a few ticks over 31 miles this morning.  I am looking forward to some more of this great fun plus possibly adding a few more riders.  One of them has been talking of getting riding club together, so if you are reading this and are in the area...let me know.

 Yesterdays ride had me stopping for a FTF in the caching world and getting in some miles as an added bonus.  I knew by the forecast that the wind would be a factor on this days ride  One of those where I fought a mild wind for 25 miles then had a very enjoyable 16 miles with a nice wind at the back before turning back 16 miles into a stronger wind that was switching to a full on head wind.  It's all part of the ride and when you know its coming, it does make it easier.  

 It's 5 o'clock here...must mean it's beer time. 

 After I had snapped the 5 oclock pic, this fox came running down the road with dinner hanging from its jaws.  It got really close, but I was too slow with the camera back out to get a good picture.  This is the second time I have saw this fox here

 I have loaded some of these pictures because I have have a friend whom I think reads this drivel every now and then.  

 The Red Lake Resort.

 Totagatic River
 Along side the beautiful bicycle is Hydrant for refilling fire trucks.  There are a lot of these in our rural area.  

 The hydrant into the river.

 Another river picture.
This is the old Chittamo School.  If anyone is interested, here is a link for Chittamo.

As always, Thanks for reading!
and
Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!

Monday, June 17, 2013

Creature


This past weekend I loaded up the backpack with some geocache goods and a lunch.  I set out to get some exercise, empty some of the contents, have a good time and I succeeded all.  I had a friend comment on the orange bike and the camo clothing not making a lot of sense.  hehehe   Clashing one might say.  The bugs, mosquitoes and wood-ticks are very thick now...especially where I was at today.  The clothes I am wearing here are light weight Russell Outdoor brand camo from Gander Mountain treated with Permetrin.  I also put a little bug dope on my exposed skin. I rode down some grassy trails along with walking through a few miles of bug/tick infested territory.  At the end of the day...NO ticks and as an added bonus, the bugs didn't bother me either.  This is a great set up for exploring the bush!  I only saw one vehicle all day, although I did see where one other had left tracks while was off the bike walking the woods.  


A sliver truck pulled up just as I was getting back on the bike.  The passenger snapped this picture.  They had tracked me from where I got on the dirt road about 9 miles back wondering what the heck was making the track in the road...now they knew.  Tracks were easy to see from the previous days rain.  I think they were looking for bear and other creatures, but they came upon me.  hehehe  It was very nice to visit with them and she later made contact with me to see if I wanted the picture.  Yep, I do.  So, Thanks to Cindy for the great photo!! 

Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!

Friday, June 14, 2013

Great Riding Weather

 Just dropping in a few photos from the riding so far this week.  I knew I would be fighting a slight head wind, but I headed to Superior Wednesday.  I stopped by one of Wisconsin's gems,  Pattison State Park. (linked)

Twin Little Manitou Falls

 Big Manitou Falls...165 foot drop this one is.  

 I ride mostly country roads, but on this day the ride was to Superior.  I found that just cruising the city streets can add up miles fast.  I ended the day with a little over 66 miles.

Another ride this week took me out through the burn area of the Germann Road forest fire that started on May 14th and burned about 8000 acres.  Although it is hard to put a measure to this, it burned about 9 miles long and 1.5 miles wide.  It took 47 structures with 17 of them being homes. I will put a couple links (here)  and  (here...this one is the DNR report). I rode Douglas County Y to get out to this area...22.5 miles of Bad bad road and but the 16 miles on County A back...Good road!

I met my son's neighbor and did this ride with him.  It was great to have company and we plan to do some more riding together.  This week has been great riding weather.  


Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Been Awhile

Yep...still riding!  Earlier this month, we traveled to the Minneapolis, MN to ride a charity ride. This one was the Tour de Cure. It is a ride to help fight diabetes. I enjoy this ride not only because it is for a good cause but also because of the route.  It rides the trails and bike paths of the St. Paul/Minneapolis area and because of that, it is like nothing I usually ride.  My rides are mostly in the sticks of up north WI...quiet roads, dirt roads and mountain bike trails.  I am amazed at the trail system they have there.  It is fantastic.  It seems as though there are trails everywhere. It's all that and also a great group of friends I do this ride with.


 Today had me riding carbon.  When I reset the computer on it, I noticed I haven't rode this bike for two years.  I know I had good intentions last summer, because I remember getting it ready to ride...must not have though. The trip computer had the last ride at 146 miles and I remember that ride and it was almost two years ago.  So today, it was three of my sisters delicious cookies and hit the road.  Felt like a rocket ship, although I know better.  Must have been the fuel the cookies provided.  Oh, and only 31 miles today.

 I have always though this area looked like a nice area to throw a canoe or kayak in and fish.

 If a person does fish here, might want to be careful.  These plants are Poison Ivy...more info linked here.  We have a lot of that around here and I think a lot of people do not identify it correctly. Or, confuse it with other plants.  But either way, you do want to avoid it.

Up stream from the Poison Ivy is the remnants of where the road used to go.

I also have had the Fat-bike out a couple times.  In the photo above I was riding some of the CAMBA single track near Hayward, WI.  The Fat-bike is fun on the single track, but it will not replace the Anthem mountain bike.  Next time single tracking will be on the Anthem.

I now tell myself..."see, that didn't take so long to load a blog post."  I don't know why, but I sometimes get to where when I do spend time on the computer, I just do not find it in me to do the whole blog thing.  I don't think it's a bad thing, but I do enjoy it.  Now off to catch up on others...Thanks for reading!!

Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!