Freshly Graded

We had 5 people for the Wednesday after work ride this week.  That was good considering it was a whopping 37 degrees in Duluth when we left on the ride.  Five hardy people made a 33+ mile ride and it was great.

Thursday night had me riding the gravel roads near home on the cross bike.  I knew they had just been graded and figured that it would just enhance the ride...it did.  The temp was around the 70 mark and it was a 20 mile loop...mostly freshly graded gravel and sand.

I ain't a tellin no lie when I tells ya "It was rough".  The review on the cross bike wheels were not good, but I trued them when I got them and beat the hell out of them tonight...and verdict is...still true.  They can't be all bad.

About 5 miles of tonights route had only one track down the road, and you could not even see that track most of the time.  This section of road was a bit soft.  As I said though, I knew what I was getting into when I left the house...and I will add...it was still fun.

Happy Birthday Daddy's Girl

I want to wish my daughter a very Happy Birthday today.  She is very special and I  LOVE  her dearly.  This is her and some paintings she has made.

Very Nice

She has natural mountain biking ability.  I really think she will be spending more time on the bike this year.

Small print...I did not have her permission for any of this.  I hope she will forgive me. :-)

Long Way Home

I took a long ride home from the cabin and it was a work out to say the least.

For the most part, this route had a lot of nice country roads to ride.  My parents honeymooned near here at my Great Aunt's place on Long Lake.

Nice golf course. 

This is a cemetary where some of my ancestors are buried.  Among them are my Great and Great Great Grandparents.  Notice the flag...It was 63 miles of fighting the wind most of the ride.  Still, another metric century in is good.  Should get extra credit considering the wind.

This is a marker on Great Great Grandpa Love's grave.  He was injured during the civil war.  I remember visiting here with my grandparents. 

Cabin Riding

We headed to our family cabin for the weekend.  A good time was had and as an added bonus, bicycling was an activity we enjoyed.  I rode down Friday after work with a wind working with me for a majority of the time.  There were a few times I fought the wind, but for the most part it was good.  I made the near 31 miles in 1 hour 35 minutes, which is good time for me.
  

Saturday had Janice, myself and Sarah doing a training ride for this years MS150 ride.

This will be Sarah's first year riding the MS150 and really, her first year doing some serious riding.  We are looking forward to getting in some quality ride time with her.

When we lined up for the picture, my mother and sister came from the cabin with a sign for us to hold.  They are our biggest supporters of just about anything we get ourselves into...including jumping into Lake Superior in February.  If there is anybody out there that would like to join us on this years MS ride, please feel free to become a member of our team....Gitchigumi Gear Mashers...or donate if you so choose.

Our daughter Lisa found and moved this little critter to a safer spot.  The loons were making noise...some mallards were around...Turkeys came through the yard...Too many geese were around...Frogs were making a lot of noise...All of this, plus being with family, equals a quality weekend.

Riding the Gravel

After 65 miles the day before with Janice on the tandem, I was on my own the next day.  With the temp around 70 and clear blue sky above, I decided a gravel ride was called for.  It was 29 miles and the conditions could not have been much better for riding on the roads I was on.

I was on some roads west of Gordon WI.  This particular road, The Crottie Brook Trail, is maintained by, and goes through sections of three townships. Gordon, Wascott and Dairyland.

About a mile in on the Crottie, is the last sign of civilization...a nice cabin.

I think a lot of logging took place back in here this last winter.

I stopped once by one of the old logging jobs and snacked.

They close some of these roads in the spring to prevent damage from the wet conditions.

I had a few miles of riding in the ruts.  The ruts in the road make it interesting.  You try to find the driest, best rut and then try to stay upright...hasn't been a problem yet.  You wouldn't want trouble out here because you are on your own.  It is miles to the nearest resident, and no cell phone service...and as an added bonus, I saw no cars on the gravel today.

This the other end of the road with the road closed sign...doesn't do much good to close one end and not the other:-)

One of the bridges I crossed.

As I said before, 29 miles of just excellent gravel riding.

Metric Tandem

Janice and I had some errands to do today, so we got up early and got those things done so we could ride this afternoon.  We left the house shortly after noon on the mountain tandem and rode the YMT ride for a total of slightly over 65 miles.  We had rode about 4 miles before the first layer came off at the St. Croix River.

I have always liked riding on Highway M.  It is straight, very little traffic, but today the wind was straight at us...10 miles of it.

Tamarack river on the Sweedish Highway

We ate chocolate chip cookies here on the St Croix river that our future daughter had made and delivered to us this weekend.  I do like chocolate..probably too much.

Another shot of the Tamarack

As I said before, we got our Metric Century in easily, even with this bike that with gear today weighed in at 75 pounds.  One good thing about this ride today...Very little traffic.  We had one stretch of more than 12 miles with no vehicles.  Janice was a good sport...she wants to do another tomorrow...OK, maybe not.

Wind Down Ride

Janice and I went for an end of the work week wind down ride this evening.  We rode the small circle of 11 miles with a temp around the +60 mark, which was nice for this time of year. 

I commented on Old Fool about his post with the gardening he does...looks to me he has a green thumb.  We have a lot of this in our region...SAND.  This works great for gardening Red Pine, Jack Pine and the like, but vegetables are a little more difficult. 

A little pond we rode by.

Janice and I a standin' in the sand.

After Work Ride

Well, another after work ride in the books.  There were only four of us tonight and three of them were hammers whom beat up on the old guy...me.  We got in 33 miles with the temp just around +40F.  We hope to have more people next week and again, just as last week, it was a lot of fun.  Janice and I hope to get some riding in this weekend.  She won't be mean to the old guy...lol:-)

Wednesday Ride

Anyone interested???  We are doing another Wednesday ride beginning at 3:15 from the corner of Central and Raleigh in West Duluth. 

Just a good time.

Windy Tandem

Temperature in our neck of the woods reached near 60 today, but the wind was present and accounted for.  Very strong wind from the WSW didn't stop us from getting out on the tandem.  We rode a 21 mile loop with little traffic.  I told Janice when we left the house that the wind would play a factor in the last 4 miles and it did not disappoint...have I mentioned the wind yet?  Yeah, I thought so.  It is good fun to get out and ride as a couple. 

One more sure sign of spring...first Black Bear of the season in the yard tonight, a sow and a 1 year old cub.  I think they are looking to trash the bird feeders.

Wednesday Fun

We had the biggest crew yet for the weekly after work ride...8 people, plus 2 fellow bloggers were there in spirit.   I will add, we were missing two hammers...one was busy with his one day old baby girl and the other was auf Kinder aufpassen.  Saying it was fun would be an understatement.  It was great.  The group we had riding tonight are all in good shape, so the jovial "catch the rabbit" game was played out now and then.  It was an out and back ride with 1100 feet of gain, 25 total miles and a headwind on the way out.  That made for some fast times on the way back. 

I didn't take any pictures, but trust me on this one...It was fun.

Windy

I had not been on the bicycle since last Wednesday, bad bad bad, so I rode the Black Bear ride this afternoon after work.  It was a strong south wind, so the direction I rode tonight meant the first 12 miles were into the wind...then 4 miles quartering into and then it was spread the wings and fly towards home.  If it is windy, I like riding into it at the start and taking advantage of the wind on the way home,  although my average speed seems to suffer riding this way.  I think when I start with the wind at the back and the average starts out high, I may push a little harder to keep the average up when the ride turns to the wind.  Probably shouldn't watch that crap.

On another note, if any of the bloggers or readers want to join us for a Wednesday afternoon ride up the Munger Trail, we will be leaving the corner of Raleigh and Central at 3:15...pasing through the Munger trail parking lot behind the Munger Inn shortly there after.  Meeting us at the corner would be best though.  Please feel free to join in.  We have 6 or 7 lined up so far.

Trying Again

It is starting again.  We are trying to get our one night a week after work ride going.  It has been on Wednesdays, but we can be flexible.  Last night was the second ride of the year.  The first night we had two of us and last night three.  It is an increase...not bad...now, if we could gather a few more.  We rode up the Munger Trail from our work place in Duluth to Carlton MN and back...33 miles.  A very strong headwind greeted us making the slight climb out of Duluth...but the same wind was our good friend on the way back. 

On another note...My check cleared the bank ! ! !

Excellent Weekend

After cutting firewood Saturday and again Sunday, I thought this afternoon would be good for a recovery ride.  I rode the Black Bear Ride at about 60 degrees and a medium southwest wind.  Just nice to out.

This is a start to replenish the wood we burned this last winter.

We just make piles along the trails and then sneak our plow/wood truck through the trails later to haul it in.

When I went by the Black Bear Golf and Tennis Club late this afternoon, there were still golfers out.  Back in the day, I would have been one of the first out there, but now I don't hurry it.  I still play the pasture pool, just not as intensly.

I went by some wood cutting of a little bigger scale than what we did this weekend on todays ride, so I stopped and shot a couple pictures.  This is a young, about 30 to 40 years old, Red Pine planting that is getting it's first thinning.  It is what they call an every 3rd row cutting.  They will cut one row and leave two, cut one, leave two.  They will get about two or three 100" long sticks per tree on a first thin.

This would be what they call a woods road.  They pile the wood alongside the woods road, or what they refer to as a landing, and then truck it out to either a railroad spur to be hauled by rail car, or truck it directly to the mill.

They cut the wood these days with what is called a processor...didn't see the processor...and bring it to the landing with this unit called a forwarder.  If there is any interest, I will do a more indepth post on a logging site a little later. 

This was the ride a friend and I did tonight. It was very good company.

Beauty of a Ride

After work had me making a stop at the bike shop, and then it was straight home to spend some time on the road bike.  It was 69 degrees, wind from the NNE I would guess at about 10 to 15 MPH, and very little traffic tonight.  I put in a good strong ride to which I would say, and you can quote me on this..."It just doesn't get much better than this" 

The Tandem Spoke

The temperatures in our area reached new heights for this year...+63.8 F.  Janice and I had gotten the road tandem ready Saturday, so with today's nice temps, it was calling our name.  We packed stuff for a picnic and set off on a 30 mile ride.

After spending the winter riding alone on the fixed gear, the tandem felt ultra fast.

At about a mile and a half into the ride, we heard a ping.  I asked Janice if she had heard it and she had.  There is still a lot of sand on the roads and she suggested maybe a rock, to which I replied, that or a broken spoke.  It wasn't making any noise, so we contined on for another 3 miles before we stopped.  This is one time I wish I was wrong, but it turned out it was a broken spoke.

We were not going to be cheated out of our little picnic, so we sat down right there and had a snack in the warmth of the sun.

It turned out that because of the broken spoke, we had only got in 10.5 miles on the tandem, so I headed out alone for another 20+ miles. 

Hoping for FAT

Entries into the Chequamegon Fat Tire lottery need to be postmarked no later than Monday.  It is a very good time, so get em in.  I am 2 for 3 so far...3 for 4 sounds better, doesn't it.  Wish me LUCK ! !

Wash Day

Studded tires came off yesterday and I know...too early, but I am hoping when we get more snow, it doesn't last long.

One of these got a wash last night.  Can you guess which one?

X-Cellent Weekend

We spent the weekend at our family cabin, and it had been a while since we had spent an entire weekend there.  It seems there is always something going on that keeps us from spending the time there that we should be spending.  If I told you it was a great weekend...I would not be lying.  Saturday morning early had me skiing around the perimeter of the lake while the snow was still fast.  It warmed up nice, so it was a 15 mile fixed gear ride in the afternoon.

Just a standin there.

This is a creek that leads into the lake that our cabin sits on.

And...This is the same creek leading out of the lake.

This is the city hall of Casey...OK; they call it the Town Hall.  Not many residents in the town of Casey, although my grandfather was born there in 1902 and lived his entire life in the Town of Casey.

The snowmobile trails have been taking a hit as of late...Goooood!!!

I rode the bike home from the cabin Sunday afternoon.  There are many options to vary the distance but it was the 33 mile route I chose to ride.  It was a good thing I chose that shorter route, as riding the fixed gear with the studded tires made it about all I wanted to ride.    

One last thing...Daylight Savings Time...Next weekend.