Cuyuna Weekend

This past weekend we headed to the cabin for some riding at Cuyuna.  Fall is a great time to ride up there, when the leaves are at peak color it is beautiful.  We had hopes of riding Saturday but we woke up to rain and the forecast was not looking good for the whole day.  So we decided to head into Brainerd to look at some travel trailers.  We have been thinking of getting one and the rainy day was a good excuse to spend some time looking.

The weather on Sunday was great; we woke up to full sun and highs in the 50’s, perfect for fall riding.  Trail conditions were great!   I’m always surprised with how well Cuyuna can handle the wet weather, there were very few puddles on the trails.

Kyleen taking a break!

The view from the Hopper Hill overlook

Just before the fun downhill on Easy Street

I decided to take my fat bike up for the weekend.  It was a lot of fun to ride, I was really surprised how well it climbed and handled the rougher stuff.  I really liked how the bike made me feel the trail and the tires gave me just enough suspension to soften the ride.  I’m starting to really enjoy the fat bike ride.

The Fatty in it's natural environment 

Monday on the way home we stopped a rode the Yawkey side.  We only got a couple of laps around Bobsled and the rain started, so we headed back to the car before we got too wet.  It was a great weekend despite the rain.

This summer we bought a Yakima Hold Up 2 rack, it has been a great for us.  I was hoping that the fat bike would fit on it with out too much trouble, as you can see it works great.  I did have to let some air out of the front tire but it squeezed in just fine.  I have 4" On-One Floaters on the bike.  I did have to use a longer strap on the rear tire, the Yakima strap is too short.

All loaded up with some new red dirt on the tires

2013 Heck of the North

Since I was unable to ride Almanzo this year the Heck was my first 100 miler for the year.  I had heard that this ride was not a “normal” gravel grinder, the use of the snowmobile trails made it interesting.

Kyleen and I made it up to Two Harbors Friday around 5:30, we were using my parents travel trailer for the weekend, with the raining the forecast I was happy to have the trailer.

The rig for the weekend

Bright and early Saturday morning we got up and got going.  I was checking over things and I noticed that my front tire was flat, I had somehow cut my side wall, this was not how I want the morning to go!  Troy and I worked on the tire and I was back in business. 

Troy, Brett and I just before we lined up to start

We headed off to get checked in and to do a few last minute things.  The forecast called for rain and wind all day, but much to our liking it was not raining yet, at least we would get some dry miles in.  At about 8:30 we lined up and after a few words the field was off.  We headed off down a double track trail that was littered with rocks.  I have never seen so many flats in the starting miles of a race. At about mile 17 we turned off the dry gravel road and started down the snowmobile trail.  It was kind of fun to pass a bunch of people on the trail, I was riding my Tallboy with 2.1 inch tires, that was a good choice for this ride, the people with cyclocross bikes where having a hard time in the bog.  After a steep hill we were back on a dry trail for a bit then on to the road.  Things were going well for me, nothing exciting happened until the rain came at about mile 45 or so.  The next 4 or 5 hours I would be riding the rain.

Riders making their way up the hill out of the bog

I made my way to the halfway check point and at some food and drank a red bull.  Before the check point was tired, hungry and ready to call it.  I did know that I would feel better after I ate something, so I know that I was not really going to quit.  When I was leaving the check point I saw Kyleen sitting there in the truck, it was great to see her.  That always lifts my spirits during these races.   I rode for about 10 miles and I needed some more food, so I stopped and ate some more.

At about mile 80 I noticed a few cars parked on the side of there were I need to make the turn towards the finish.  There were a bunch of people hanging out with a fire, food, coke and beer.  This was also a little pick me up, I slammed a coke and headed off.  The wind was finally at my back and I was making some good time up until mile 90, when we turned back on to the snowmobile trail and it was muddy!  The last 15 miles felt like they took forever.   When I made it to the road I saw Kyleen standing waiting for me, it was nice to be done!  I finished the 104 miles in 10:05, which for a muddy rainy ride was not too bad for me.

Glad to be done, but I was feeling good.

My poor drivetrain!

All cleaned and ready to roll.