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!

North Shore Weekend

A few weeks ago Kyleen and I took a couple days off of work and headed north.  We headed up to Two Harbors.  We had nothing planned and that was great.  On the way up we stopped at Canal Brewing in Duluth, sampled some beer and had a couple of appetizers.  They have a big selection of beer and it a nice place right in Canal Park.  We both liked the Brown Ale that they had on tap.

After wondering around the Canal Park area for a bit we headed up to Two Harbors, we stayed at Larsmont Cottages.  This place was great.  We always mentioned staying here, but it never seemed to work out.  We had the upstairs of one of the units.  It was a very relaxing stay.  We had breakfast at the restaurant and it was great, so great we headed back for dinner.

Our room was on the upper left.

The view from the room was great!

Friday morning we headed up to Gooseberry Falls.  I have been there many times, but not in the spring.  The water was really flowing.

San Diego Work Trip

So, it has been a while since I posted so it's time to play catch up.

January 26^th-30^th I was in San Diego for Solidworks World 2014.  Solidworks is the CAD software that I use at work.  The convention is large, about 6,000 people from all over the world show up.  Most of the convention is training sessions that last all day.  The weather was great and it was a nice break from the cold Minnesota winter that we have been having. 

I did get to see a few cool things while out at the show.

I think that I need this as a new tow vehicle. 

I'm not sure what the point of this was, but it was kind of cool.  Someone would sit in the middle of it and the machine would walk like a spider.

They had the USA bobsled, Night Train 2 on display and they spoke about the design of it. 

We also played hooky one afternoon and headed over to the USS Midway to take in a tour. If you are ever in San Diego, make the time to spend an afternoon on the ship.  There is a lot of cool things to see and you can just wonder and take it all in.  The cool part is that most of the "tour guides" were on the ship at some point in their career.

The sunset was great!

Upgrades and Good Times.

I built my fat bike with a Salsa steel fork and it worked great, but I had a 907 aluminum fork that I picked up for a project that is not going to happen for a while and I thought that I should put the fork to good use.  So swapped out the Salsa for the 907.  Not a huge ride difference between the two but it is a bit lighter and it looks great on the bike.

While I was in the mood to do some upgrades I mounted my Hydroflask and Topeak Java Cage on the bike.  The 907 has a smaller triangle so I had to make a bracket to offset the bottle cage holes by 3.5"  I think that it turned out pretty well and it seems to work great.

We have gotten outside for some fun rides even with the colder temps.  Troy, Todd, Mike and myself took a ride around the Bald Eagle and Otter lakes on some great hidden single track.  I turned out to be a great day for a ride.

I received a pair of Bar Mitts for Christmas, they are awesome, nice and warm in really cold temps.

While we were on the ride a local reporter stopped Todd and I and snapped a picture for the paper, it ended up on the front page!  I think that this is the first time I have ever been in the paper!

Kyleen got some new pair of Volkl Kenjas  over Christmas and she was very excited to get out on them so, we joined up with Troy and Kerry and headed down to Welsh Village for a ski day.  It was a great day the weather was warm and the snow was great!  I have never skied at Welsh so this was a new experience for me. I only took a couple of pictures, we were having too much fun skiing!

Her new boards are so much wider than mine.

Troy and Kerry are ahead of us a couple of chairs.

We had so much fun at Welsh that the next weekend we headed up to Spirit Mountain.  I really like Spirit, the runs are a bit longer than some of the other local ski hills.  There are also some great views of Duluth Harbor.  We lucked out on another great day of skiing!

Mexico and Early Winter Fun

I realized the other day that I haven't post anything in a while.  It’s been very busy fall and start of winter for us.  We headed down to Mexico for a much needed break, we did nothing but relax.  We been going to the Barcelo Maya Palace for the last 4 years, but this was our first trip alone.  It was a great get away.  Think that our next trip will be to a new location, we love this place, but it would be nice to see something new.

The view from our room on to the pool.

The wonderful beach.

For Thanksgiving we headed to Kyleen's family and the following Sunday we head to mine.  My family has had a tradition of shooting before dinner, I'm sure that's a normal tradition right??  It worked out great that both of us hit the clay in the pictures below!

Then we came back to winter.  It seems like this year we just jumped right in!  Work has been busy for both of us but we have been able to get out for some fun.  Kyleen and I met up with Kat and Paul for some XC skiing at Wild River State Park.  It is a great place to ski and the trails were perfect.  We got in about 8 or 9 miles of great skiing, the trails were awesome.

Troy and I decided to head over to St. Croix Falls for a pre-ride of the Solstice Chase fat bike course.  It was about -8 degrees for the whole ride.  I did not take any pictures on the course but it was beautiful.  We did snap a picture at the end.

We headed to the cabin Thursday after Christmas for some snowmobiling, snowshoeing and relaxing.  It was a great time.  There is a ton of snow up there, riding was good and we’re hoping to get up there again soon.

After a great ride and a nice snowshoe around the lake it was time for a good beer!  It was a great sunset as well!