Spring Ride

On Friday with the temperature around the 70F mark, it was much too nice not to get out for a ride. 

The Moose River at the Mail Rd bridge

I think one of the great things about riding this time of the year is that without the foilage you can see far into the woods.  Makes the woods look inviting.  Down side is that you can see just how much people litter.

Another photo of the Moose.  Back in the day we use to canoe this river during the spring run off.  It is a wild ride this time of year between picking which way to go and ducking trees.  I have gotten wet during these crazy excursions.

One of the local trout streams

This is a photo the water crossing over County Highway M.  It is not bad this year as this was the only place the water crossed the road in the ten miles I rode on M today.  We have had years where water crosses several places in that 10 miles.  There is only one resident that lives at about the half way point which makes this one of my favorite highways to ride.

A lot of water on this ride.  No spring peepers here yet...soon though.

This is one of the roads I ride often in the summer.  They close it during the wet season to prevent shitting it up.

Obivously the signs do not apply to everyone.  There are some very soft spots further back in on these roads.  Soft enough to get a vehicle good and stuck. 

36 mile ride, stopping and visiting neighbors on the way equalled a very good time.

Get outdoors and have some fun ! ! !

Spring Fever

On a recent bicycle ride I stopped and ate my lunch here by the river.  I was thinking then that it would be nice to spend some time here in a canoe or kayak again, as I had when I was younger.  Today was the day.  I put the kayak in here on St Croix River near Gordon and paddled up river about 4.5 to 5 miles.

Nice day to spend not working.  The place I work at has cut hours to 32 hours a week due to a downturn in business.  Today is the day I am off this week...so far.  For those that don't know, soon I will be off full time.

I also paddled up the Eau Claire River from the St. Croix as far as I could go and not make too much work of it.  Beyond the downed trees is one of the local swimming holes called Finstads Bridge.  Local kids come here to swim when parents won't take them to one of the many lakes surrounding this area.  I spent some time there in my youth.

This is still the Eau Claire...but I think you can see where it dumps into the St. Corix from here.

We used to duck hunt this area when we youngsters .  Guess what we called this...The Big Rock...creative huh

Stopped here for a little break and a snack.  The river is a little wider here, so that is what made it good for the ducks.  A nice flyway.

An Eagle nest.  We are fortunate to have many Eagles in our area.  I saw some today, but the pictures didn't turn out well because I was too far away...that and I have a cheapo camera.  Good enough for me though. 

It was nice to be out today.  Spring fever one might say.

Get outdoors and have some fun ! ! !

Soup's On

With my new found freedom close at hand, not only am I hoping to get some bicycle trips in this summer, but also spending some time in the bush.  Multi day kayak trips and such.  One of the ideas we had was to vacuum pack some soup mix to cook up.  I experimented today with how it would work and it is a go.  A bag of Mrs Grass soup will make a half gallon so I decided to divide it to make 2 cup servings.  This brand comes in many different flavors and is mighty tasty. 

This will be year 3 with this stove.  It has gotten a lot of use and works very well for us.  It is not the smallest out there, but I like it because it is very easy to control the heat.  I looked around for a can of pop to give an idea of the size but we didn't have one in the house, so this bottle will have to do. 

It is a MSR DragonFly model.  It weights in at 1.2 lbs and will burn several different types of fuel  We choose to use white gas.  The burn time with this stove running full bore high with the 33oz  fuel tank filled with white gas is 208 minutes.  Running it with kerosene would extend the run time to 253 minutes, but with that comes a loss of the rate at which it heats.  With white gas this stove will boil 1 liter of water in 3.5 minutes, where as kerosene is 3.9 minutes.  Diesel heats at the same rate of white gas, burns longer at 225 minutes for 33oz, but I think the gas is all around cleaner to deal with.

They make 3 different size fuel bottles for the MSR.  The largest is 33 ounces, another at 22oz and yet another at 11oz.  We use the 33 because there are usually two of us.  I may consider getting a smaller one now.

With only two cups of water used to make this soup, it was boiling very quick.

As I said before, it is very easy to control the heat so simmering the soup was easy.  However, I am curious how much fuel this stove burns with it turned down.  I know it is much less, but what I don't know is how much less. 

To me soup taste especially good on cool rainy days, but it never rains when a person spends time in the backwoods...does it?

We took the bag of soup, which we got on sale for $2.49 at a Farm and Fleet store, divided it into 4, wrapped it in a coffee filter and vacuum packed it.

Ready for the pack.

Riding with an old friend...Mr. Derailluer

With the temperature around +50F on Wednesday, I figured it was a good day to get out on the bike.

A sure sign of spring in our area is when the local townships post wieght limits on the town roads.  They do this because when the frost comes out of the ground, the road base gets soft and they are vulnerable to damage.  The limits this year went in to effect March 14 at noon and usually come off about May 1st.

There is still some snow on the ATV/Snowmobile/Multiple use trails.

Nice quiet roads to ride...

And this is why.  I would guess that 80% of the driveways are not plowed meaning they are not being used.  I rode in the vincinity of 15 lakes yesterday.  A lot of these lakes have cabin/houses that belong to snowbirds and then there are others that just don't use them in the winter.  That is good for me.  I like that.  It doesn't bother me that they're not around.

It is election time for the townships around our area.  If any of you out there think national, or state elections for that matter, are down and dirty, you should witness the small town politics.  The national and state scene doesn't hold a candle to this town.  It is not always that way, but has been for the last few years.  This township covers 133sq miles and has an overall population of about 754.  The nearest building to these signs is probably over a mile away, but there are 5 campaign signs here.  Bill Moyers says “Intelligence has nothing to do with politics,” and I believe him.

Another quiet road

Stopped by the river and birds are plenty this time of year.  The Trumpeter Swans are year around residents, as are the Eagles because this section of the St. Croix River very seldom freezes completely over.

I sat here, ate my banana and watched the birds.

I chased up two Mallards when I walked down here and the geese are plentiful.

It was a great afternoon with about 25 miles of riding.  Just one of the good things was my steed had a derailluer.  I ride the fixed gear in the winter, but it was nice enough yesterday to get a road bike out and it was nice to be able to coast.

Get out and have some Fun ! ! 

Short Timer?

I have been riding almost every night after work, although they have been short rides of about 15 miles.  Ummm, maybe that's why they are calling me short timer at work.  I don't think I'm short.

Oh Goodie!!!

Was it a nice ride tonight or what?   At about 15 miles, the temp around 45F with the wind from the northerly direction and best of all, no cars.  I did see one, but he turned on another road before we met.

I think it happens almost every year, the weather starts getting more like spring and then Whammmmy...calling for blizzard conditions with 8 to 16 inches of snow.  Great.  I hear they are already revising the forecast though, that and depending on which channel one listens to, who knows?  The Shadow knoooows. 

Look Ma...No studs

I haven't updated this in a while, but you haven't missed much either.  The weather here has been well received by everyone I know of, except for maybe Eric who wants more ride time on the big tire prototype.  It was over 50F today with the sun shining bright so it was time to get outside.

The blacktop roads are clearing up nicely so I changed out the studded tires on the fixie last night.

The fixie sporting the summer cross rubber.  Don't get me wrong, the studs are nice on snow and ice covered roads, but the first ride of spring with the studded tires hanging in the garage sure is sweet.  The tree in the background most likely will not be around much longer as it was food for the Porcupine this winter.

For you Jeff...They have plowed the driveway to our local golf course.  Now if we can just get rid of some snow.

Great roads with rolling hills and not one auto did I see, made for a very nice afternoon for the fixie and me.

This is one of the multiple use trails in the area.  I think the snowmobiles are done using it this season.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. ~Lao Tzu

Smile Ride

Guess who's turn it is with the EP Cycles prototype...if you guessed me, you guessed right.  This thing is amazing and I had loads of fun riding it this evening.

It was a 12.3 mile smile ride. 

With the 2 x 9 gearing, I didn't have to hike-a-bike any hills and never once got near the top gear.  The Sram XO shifters were smooth and crisp.

I rode some of everything tonight.  I had about a mile of this 2" of fluff snow on top of our now very hard crusty base...handled it well. 

This section of the ride was my favorite...the single track snowmobile trail.

Here I was riding on one of our snowmobile highways.  I didn't see anybody out on the trails tonight.   

The above photo is of my son and their dog Nitro.  Even though it is a little blurry because photography isn't my strong suit, it is good enough to see the smile on his face.  I am of the opinion that anybody that gets on this will have a smile.