The excitement is building...

I only put my money down on Friday but I am getting awfully excited about receiving my Mukluk.

I have been without a mountain bike now since April and I really miss riding on single track and just places I can't really get with the CrossCheck. Don't get me wrong, I have taken the CrossCheck to some places that most road bikes would have folded up and cried like the light weight pieces of plastic they are, but I would also like to do these routes with a little more control and a little more confidence on a bike that is more made for those sort of conditions. Hence: fat bike.

I had a lot of fun doing the one race I actually participated in last year, the freewheel bike frozen frolic ice race on Lake Minnetonka. It was a blast and I completely plan on doing that again as well as a few others. There was also a 3 part single track series that I missed out on due to lack of a fat bike that I will take part in again if they decide to have it. I also have my eye on the Fat-bike Frozen Forty, which last year was held at Elm Creek park in Maple Grove, a single track spot I am familiar with. I just want to put some miles in on the new fat bike.

Also, definatly not this year, but I am shooting for next year... I want to try the Arrowhead 135. Just to do it. It sounds insane and I was just looking at a topographic map of the route and it looks like it will certainly be a challenge, but I think with the proper training I can do it. We will see when the time comes next year. Of course next year for the Arrowhead 135 is in 2014. We will see what happens however.

I have all sorts of fun rides planned for when I get the Mukluk, I just need the damn thing to show up!

Worth the wait.

Things are finally coming up Millhouse.

I got my hands on a pretty nice compact digital camera so I can snap some cool pictures on my many adventures. I ended up picking up a Canon SX260HS. It has a lot of fun little features and the zoom is just killer. 12 something megapixels which is more than enough. I am really excited to get out there and test it out.

School has been kind of kicking my butt. Physics while interesting is quite hard for me, especially since our professor just kind of yells a lot and uses Harry Potter as an example of how to calculate acceleration, not very legit for those of us who don't give a crap about HP. Oh well, one semester is all I have to take, no biggie.

Oh, I also purchased a 2013 Salsa Mukluk 2 today! They did not have any at work but the first small Mukluk that comes in is mine! I decided to go with the small for the extra stand over clearance, the medium was more comfortable but the top tube and I were pretty close together, and if I ever had to get off the saddle and sank into a snow bank my boys would not be happy with me. So I will just get a little longer stem and a Thomson set back seat post. I am really excited to pick this bad boy up. When it comes in I will certainly snap some pics of it for the homecoming.

Here is what they look like this year...

 I borrowed this photo from www.fat-bike.com

Laboring the right way on labor day.

Wow! What a ride!

I drove from home and met Brian at his home in South Minneapolis and we departed around 5:30 PM on Sunday evening. We headed up to the Greenway and headed East to the river road. From there we headed over to the Mendota bridge and crossed that and basically followed the river to St. Paul Park. We did get lost but found our way. We knew we were getting closer because the hills were killer. Finally around midnight we arrived at the park which was littered with descents and climbs of all sorts. We got to the trail head, the camp sight was the kind where you had to hike in, we read the map and rode off on our way. We went about half a mile when we came to a climb that was too loose and steep to bike. Little did we know we were about to go straight up for about a half mile. Pushing a couple of fully loaded steel bikes up a grade that was steep enough that while I was pushing my bike I was only about a foot off the ground was intense, but we finally made it and set up camp. The reward was a couple lukewarm Surly Furious. I think I drank like 6 water bottles after we set up. I was dry.

The next day we ate a Cliff Bar each and headed out. Our destination was Perkins. We took off on the bike trail and ended up doing some weird super gnarly single track with our bikes. I was surprised at how well the  CrossCheck handled. This is until I rolled over some super mossy rock and nearly slid into a ravine. Oops. Then there was a hill on a hiking path that we had to push our bikes up, not a good way to start the morning. About half way up the hill the caffeine withdrawals started to kick in and so did the head ache. I became pretty irritable pretty quickly. There was one last hill leading out of the park that was so steep that when I came out of the seat to pedal my rear wheel spun like crazy. We made it out of Afton State park. There was still another 10 miles of really sucky hills ahead of us. We made it to Perkins. We sat down and ordered some coffee and water. The water was sat down and before she finished pouring the coffee the water was drunk. Then we downed the first cup of coffee. The wave of caffeine rushed over me and the world was right again. After slamming a bowl of fruit, a ham and cheese omelette, hash browns, and toast, we got back on our steeds and headed out. On the ride back we found the route we initially meant to take and it was a beauty. My everything was hurting at this point and it became pretty hot. I slowed us down considerably but I never quit or complained too much, even though at the time I felt like I did. 

Finally we made it back and I was a sweaty mess. We said our goodbyes and parted ways. On the way home all I could think about was dinner. I went out to the Olive Garden with my girlfriend, went home got drunk and passed out. All in all it was a great experience, something I want to do again soon before it gets too cold out. I learned a lot and there are definitely things I will do differently next time, but it was a great learning experience. I am looking to go south the next time, less hills.

New Developments

I went on a great ride yesterday. I am planning to go camping on Sunday and I am going to bike to my destination. Yesterday I packed up the tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, clothes, etc, etc, in my panniers and went out and killed some miles. It was a great day for a ride, the end was a little hot but it was perfect otherwise. I have a spot reserved at Afton state park, all told from my place it will be a 45 mile ride. One of the guys from work is going so we may end up leaving from Minneapolis from his place, if that is the case it will be more like a 32 mile ride. That is okay, I am just excited to do something of this nature. I have been wanting to go camping via bike for a while now and I finally have the opportunity because the girlfriend is leaving Friday for her family's cabin and won't be back till Tuesday but I have to work Friday and Saturday.

Also it looks like the new Mukluks will be available very soon so that means I will have mine pretty quick. I have decided to go with the 16" even though it is a tad small. I can throw a different stem on it and get that bend back seat post. I would rather it be a tad small than super big so if I have to bail off the seat I don't rip my boys in half. So I am super excited because I have been craving a big dirt sandwich and some stinky river rides.

I am pumped for this weekend. I will certainly have a post on that after the weekend. For now, here is a picture from yesterday.

Same shirt, different day.

Long weeks at work and long commutes have made for less actions in the last couple of weeks. Just kind of waiting for school to kick in. Once that happens I will have a little more free time to do things like ride for pleasure, so that will be nice. I'm still having dreams of fat bikes, so much so I have decided to add more rubber to my CrossCheck. I am going to go from the Continental contact tire which is a 700x32 to the Continental Touring Plus tire which is a 700x45. So that should be a kick.

I attended the Salsa bike demo at Carver Park in Woodbury, where it's all good in the hood-berry. It was pretty fun. I got to speak with John, Eric, and Justin of Salsa bikes and they were all good people. I had a nice talk with Justin about the new line of bikes they are bringing out and where everything is headed. I also, of course, got to test ride some bikes. I rode the Horsetheif, Mukluk 2, Warbird, and Colossus. If I was into full suspension mountain bikes the Horsetheif would be a bike I would look into for sure. It was light, it climbed like a traditional 26 inch wheeled mountain bike and it was nimble in cornering. The Mukluk was a riot of course, that will be the fat bike I end up getting. It has been retooled so that the bottom bracket is a little higher and thus shortening the chain stays, that in combination with the new head tube geometry make the new Mukluk a very fun bike. The Warbird, which is aluminum, borrows from some of Cannondale's success with the Synapse road bike. They took the chain stays and made them really long and then they flattened them. So even though the bike is aluminum, with the fat bottom bracket and the frame design it rides really comfortably. It handles well in really rough stuff but not so good in like hairpin turns and such. If you are looking for a comfortable road bike for long distance biking and such, this would be a good option. Finally I rode the Colossus, which Justin called "The road bike for mountain bikers." It is steel but until I was told so I was under the impression that it was aluminum because of how light it was. I took a few hot laps around the parking lot, and I was really pleased with how well it handled and how fast and responsive it was. It had a fair amount of gitty-up but really shined in how much speed you could keep going through corners and coming out of corners.

All in all it was a great experience. I will most likely be getting my Mukluk here in September. I'm excited.