Heck of the North 2014

Last Saturday was the 2014 Heck of the North.  Kyleen and I left work a bit early to get loaded up and on the road.  We pulled the camper up to Two Harbors and stayed at the Burlington Bay campground.  I was really happy to have the camper, the wind was blowing and the lows were in the 30's.  Once we got setup we headed over to the Castle Danger Brewery tap room to pick up or racer packets.  It's a great place with some good beer.

 

The course was kept under wraps until Friday night and all we really knew was that the race would be 110 miles and the check point was at mile 67 in Lester Park.  So that meant extra food and water for the first half.

Saturday we woke up to a cold windy day, I was really not excited about the ride, it was going to be a tough day.  Troy and I loaded our stuff on the bikes and headed to the starting line.  It was about a mile from the campers so we just rode there, that was a good warm up.

At 8am we rolled out at a "controlled" speed, it was at about 17 mph, at bit fast for a roll out.  Larry and I were going to ride together since his computer failed on the way up to Two Harbors.  We were towards the back riding our pace.  The climb out of Two Harbors felt really long, but soon enough we were on the gravel.  The first 12 miles were pretty calm, but then we had a water crossing.  I was not ready to have wet feet yet so I pulled off my socks and shoes and crossed the stream.  No one was really excited about this crossing!

 

We rode another 23 miles and then headed on to the North Shore State Trail, which was a bog.  There was no avoiding the water this time, my feet were soaked.  It was slow going, but soon enough we were back on the gravel.  My wet feet were getting really cold and by mile 45 I lost feeling in them.  It seemed like a lot more work to keep a good pace.  I was not sure if it was the 15-25 mph wind or the fact that I could not feel my feet.

Larry looking really excited for the snowmobile trail.

The ride was going well except for my feet, I was hoping to get to the check point and put my dry sock on.  At about mile 50 I looked at my watch and noticed it was 1:30, we had until 3 to get to Lester Park.  So I texted Kyleen and told her that we would more than likely not make by 3.  Larry and I were planning to pull the plug once we got to Lester.  I rolled in at 2:53 and I had thoughts of trying to continue, but then I saw Brett, Curt and Jose standing there.  They called it as well, Troy was the only one to make it to the end.  Nice Job Troy!  Nice job everyone, just getting to Lester was a challenge.

So in all the day was about 7 hours and 67 miles.  I rode my cross bike and the bike was good for the most part, my rear hub was not doing well in the mud and cold.  I picked up some new Kenda Kwicks off of eBay.  Saturday was my first ride on them, they did great, mud or gravel the hooked up very well.  I went with 700x35, anything smaller would not have been good in my opinion.  If I ever do this ride again, it will be on a HT MTB.

The aftermath.  I was so glad that I put my rear fender on, I was not a muddy mess!

WI Sandy Gravel Ride

A couple of weeks ago Troy and I headed out on a bit of an adventure/ Heck of the North training ride.  We started at the Never’s Dam boat launch on the Wisconsin side of the river.  Troy planned a route using some of the route for the Mammoth 100 miler that Cyclova XC puts on in the spring.

From the boat launch we headed north to the Governor Knowles campground.   It seemed like a nice campground.  From there we headed east into Grantsburg and then south back to the launch.  In total it was about a 62 mile ride and a great day.

We knew that the gravel in this area was really sandy, so we headed out on our mountain bikes.  We both had 2.4” Racing Ralphs on and they seemed to do the trick, but it was still slow going.  If I were to ride the route again I think that I would ride my fat bike. 

Two Harbors Weekend

We have been busy this summer, very busy.  Between Kyleen’s Triathlons and my gravel/ MTB rides we have not had much time to just enjoy our camper that we bought last fall.  We have used it, but it has always been for a race.  So we had a free weekend and we thought we would head up to Two Harbors for a nice get away.

We headed up Friday night after work and we stayed at the Burlington Bay Campground.  This is the city of Two Harbors campground, but it is very nice and they just opened up a new section.

Home Sweet Home for the weekend.

Our view of the lake at Sunrise.

Saturday morning we headed up to Gooseberry State Park for some hiking, but it was packed with people.  So we headed north a bit more and went to Split Rock State Park.  I have toured the lighthouse and grounds when I was younger but I have never hiked on the trails.  We headed out on Little Two Harbor trail.  The trail had great views of the lake and light house.  We even found an access to the beach that was quite nice.  After we wore Kinley out we headed back to the camper for some lunch.

The stairs on the trail, there were a lot of stairs!

After lunch we decided to head back to Gooseberry.  We parked at the park and then headed out on our bikes.  There is a great trail that runs along hwy 61.  The trail currently goes from Gooseberry to Beaver Bay.  It’s a great ride.

After the ride we made some dinner and enjoyed a couple slices of pie that we picked up at Betty’s Pies.  Wow that was a nice treat!  

We headed home Sunday morning, nothing exciting on the way home, just the way that I like it!

Chequamegon Metric 100 recap

No real pictures for this post, I was to busy riding to take any.

The weekend of June 20th we loaded up the camper and headed up to Cable, WI for the Chequamegon metric 100.  I signed up for the metric version of the race, 62 miles of prime CAMBA singletrack. I have been riding quite offen, but with all the rain singletrack miles were limited.

Kyleen and I were staying a the KOA on Hayward, it is a nice campground, but we prefer the quite nature of a state park campground.  We had taken Friday off of work so we headed up Thursday night after work.  The plan was to get a ride in right away in the AM and then meet up with the guys in the afternoon for another.  When we woke up it was raining so our plans changed.  We headed into Hayward to bum around.

At about noon I heard from Brett and we decide to meet up and ride at the Namakogan trail.  I was not sure how the trails would be, but they were great!   We did a quick 10 mile ride and called it quits.  It was just enough to get the legs and the mind ready for the race.

It worked out pretty well as far as lodging.  Brett, Larry, Jose and Frank ended up getting a cabin at the KOA and Troy and Kerry ended up getting the campsite next to us.  It was nice to have a bonfire to wind down a bit before we went to bed.

Race day started at 6 as we needed to head out by 7:00 or so to get up to Lakewoods.  It was a bit of a cluster at the start.  I quickly got ready and headed to the starting line across the road, I didn't even stop and the race was on.  The first 4 miles or so where on Rock Lake Rd so that was a nice warm up.  Then a quick left on to Rock Lake Trail.  Rock lake is a rocky challenging trail so, naturally everyone bunches up.  I was pretty happy with how things were going by the time we reached the town hall.  Kyleen was waiting there to cheer me on.  I filled up my bottle and headed off again.  I picked my way through the rocks and I was happy that I was able to ride most everything on the Rock Lake and Hildebrand Loop, I'm not the best with technical features, but I think that you learn quickly on the CAMBA trails.

After the Hildebrand loop it was down a couple of fire roads to the check point when Tim's wife was sitting, she offered me a freezey pop and I gladly took it, it hit the spot!  I made it to the check point in about 4.5 hours and I was thinking I was going to finish in 7.5 or 8 hours.  Well that did not happen.  Everything was going well until I noticed my water was running really low at about mile 50.  I conserved my water until I got to about the middle of the Ojibwa trail.  Then it was slow going.  I ended up getting a bottle of water from a guy on the trails, man that helped a lot.  I drank that and I was good to go.  Ojibiwa took what felt like forever to get off of.  The gravel road into cable was a great site, only about 2 miles left.

I rolled into Three Rivers Eatery at about 5:10.  I had finished in 9 hours 12 minutes, I was thinking that it would take me 9 so I was not too far off even with running out of water.  It was a great day on the trails, no crashes, no machanicals just a great ride.

Thank Tim and crew for the great race, I will be back again.

Almanzo 100

Friday started out with the truck in the shop, we had to get some unexpected  work done and it took much longer than they thought it would, but at 6:30 pm we were hooked up and on the road.  Home for the weekend was the Forestville State Park campground.  We really like this park, it is a great place to stay.

Home for the weekend.

Saturday I woke up and started coffee and gathered up my food for the day.  I was happy that we had the camper, it was a cool morning.  At about 7:30 we headed to Spring Valley, I still had to check in and go over my bike.   I quickly ran over to check in; on the way out I saw Larry, Jose and Curt.  Brett was already riding as he was doing the Royal 162. 

At about 8:45 Troy and I picked a couple of spots in the middle of the group.  I know that over 1500 people had signed up this year so it was quite the crowd.  The weather was great this year, light wind and blue sky.

Ready to roll!

 Every year we sing happy birthday to Chris Skogen’s son and then we rollout.  The rollout is controlled until we hit the first gravel road.  Then the leaders take off and the rest of us find our own pace. The first climb on Nature RD is always a killer and the downhill this year was a challenge, they had fresh gravel on it for us.

We had hoped to roll into Preston at about the 3 hour mark.  Kyleen and Kerry were waiting for us on top of the hill, which is a great spot to sit and watch.  Troy and I both filled our water and restocked or food and we were off again.  The next stop was Forestville.

Heading out of Preston

When we rolled into Forestville at the 6 hour mark and there were a lot of people sitting around taking breaks.  I needed some real food at that point.  I ate my peanut butter bagels and cheese stick, downed a coke and we were off again.

The climb out of the park is a grind and then when you turn of on the Maple there are more climbs on that.  The next miles to the river crossing were pretty uneventful.  In Cherry Grove, Banjo Brothers had a tent set up with some Hamm’s beer and other goodies.  I grabbed a beer for the road and ate a few Oreos.  

This year’s river crossing was much calmer than last years.  I decided to cross the water in my socks, I did not want to risk cutting up my feet and I planned ahead and I had new pair of socks in my jersey pocket.

After the river crossing we were in the home stretch with about 20 miles left.  It was about this time that I realized that I did not have any real knee pain, I have been fighting IT band pain for a couple of years and I think that I have finally figured that out.  At about mile 88 I noticed the new gravel was a little looser than it should be.  I had a low rear tire and I had to stop.  While airing up the tire Brett rode up to us, he was almost done with the 162.  It was nice to chat with him and ride with him for a bit after I aired up the tire.  I rode for a bit and tire was still no good, I had to put a new tube in.  Brett continued on and I changed the tube.

At this point I was starting to be ready to be done and I knew the last 2 climbs are a lot of fun.  The downhill before Oriole is fun, but what goes down must go up.  I started to ride up the hill and then decided to walk.  Troy however, rode the whole thing and he waited for me at the top.  

The last climb is CTY 38, another fun one.  I rode up the climb and then started to cramp.  So I got off and walked for a bit.  I hopped back on the bike and finished out the climb on the bike.  Troy was again waiting on the top and this time we cracked open the Hamm’s, that beer tasted great! 

10 miles left, the rest of the course is just a few rollers into town.  Troy and I rode it together and finished.  Chris was standing there, as he shakes everyone on of the finisher hands, he is a class act.

I finished the 101.5 miles in 10:01, according to my Garmin.  I was hoping to finish in fewer than 10 but the flat changed that.  My 2012 time was 11:45, so I was happy with the improvement.  It was a great day on the bike and I’m looking forward to next year!  Our whole group Brett, Jose, Curt, Larry, Troy and I all finished without any major issues.

Thanks Chris and Crew for putting on this great race, you have created something that is really awesome!

Dickie Scramble Weekend

Last weekend we headed down to Elgin, MN for the Dickie Scramble.  We did the ride last year and we thought that we would give it a go again this year.  The ride also gave us a good excuse to get out and use or camper that we got last fall.

So Friday after work we loaded up and headed out.  This was our first trip with the camper so I was not sure how everything would go.  The trip down was good with no issues, we were all set up and had dinner going by 8.

Saturday morning was a bit cool but, the sun was out and the wind was not too bad, it was a great day for the ride.  We parked the truck and headed over to sign in.  It was looking like there would be about 100 on the ride, not a bad turn out, I think that they were expecting more like 150.  After signing in and getting the last few things dialed in we all gathered on the street for the start at 9:30.

After a little talk from Drew we were off.  The start was to be a "rollout" at a 15 MPH pace, but I looked down a couple of times and there were pushing 20 MPH.  Most of the road were in great condition, the dirt was dry and fast.  The Dickie has some good climbs on it, I think that there were 4 rated climbs on the course.

At mile 41 Drew had set up a check point.  I think that this idea of a potluck at the check point is great. There was some great food!

Kyleen met us at the check point, it was nice to see her as Troy, Larry, Curt and I fueled up.  After we refueled we were back on the bikes.  There was a big slow climb that our cold legs were not really ready for, we all make it but it was a hard climb.

It doesn't look so steep, but it was long!

At about mile 50 we noticed that on Drew's Strava he had listed a segment called "technical descent on gravel bike" and "Where's my MTB".  I was not sure what to expect.  The descent was great, very rocky and steep.  At the end of the descent there was a water crossing with a bridge.  The climb out of the valley was tough, long and steep.  I did not want to burn out my legs so we walked it.

The rest of the ride was pretty normal.  We ended with 81.8 miles and 4,017 feet of climbing, Troy, Larry and I finished in 7:10 total time.  Just a bit faster than last year.  We had a quick beer at JJ Tailgator's and headed back the campers for some grilling.  Thanks Drew for the great free ride!

Sunday we woke up to thunder and rain.  I was happy to be in a camper, before this we only had tents.  We made some breakfast and started to pack up.  I have been around RVs most of my life but this is my first rig so everything is new to me again.  We are very happy with the rig so far and we are looking forward to Almanzo when we can use it again.

All loaded up and ready to head home.

Troy and Kerry also bought a trailer this last fall, here Troy is learning the best part of RVing, dumping the sewer!