Lake Itasca (Day 2)

I awoke Sunday morning to the sounds of birds and leaves rustling. I had an important decision to make before the end of the day.

I got up and started the coffee. Everyone started crawling out of their tents and we started making breakfast. We had the largest blucy's I've ever seen. I ate the whole damn thing like a pig and I regret nothing. We sat around and chatted about what we were going to do with the rest of the day before we headed back to the cities. I was sad at the prospect of leaving this place. After the rain and the cold that came with it the leaves had started dramatically changing color. Everyone started to pack up, it was then that I decided I was going to stay another night.

Everyone packed up except me and we all headed to the visitor center. We parked and hit some of the hiking trails to go around one of the lakes. Leaves were starting to fall at this point. The red and white pine trees were standing tall and proud. We hiked around Lake Maria, taking in the sights and sounds and capturing the memories with pictures. The colors were super vibrant and the pines across the lake were all in patches, it looks marvelous. Eventually we ended up back at the visitor center where we parted ways. I was in a hurry the day before to get back to the park and forgot some things I had meant to grab so I had to go back to town.

I got back to the campsite and it was early evening. I had a little snack and then outfitted myself for a little sunset hike. I was walking down one of the interpretive trails and it was amazing. I saw a mushroom that looked like a giant chalice, it was about 2 feet tall. I saw a wolf as well, it was way out in the distance and it looked at me. It was alone and I got a little bit too paranoid from all the stupid television and movies I've seen in my lifetime so I started heading back towards camp because it was getting dark and I didn't want to know where the rest of his pack was.

I got settled in for the evening and got the fire going and cooked some dinner. After I had fixed up some food I just sat by the fire relaxing with my eyes closed. The animals were all talking to each other in concert and it was fabulous. I heard owls, red squirrels (which were everywhere), and wolves way off in the distance. As I was relaxing I heard some rustling maybe five feet away from me at the end of the picnic table. I turned on my headlamp and there was a raccoon slowly creeping toward my cooler.

The raccoon looked right at me and it could see that I had seen it. What did it do? It started walking toward my cooler a little slower. I talked to it. "Get out of there." I said. The raccoon just looked at me and slowed down a little more. This time I raised my voice a little "Hey! Get out of there." I commanded. The raccoon maintained its course. This time I yelled at it "GET OUT!" it ran to the cooler and put a hand on it. I stood up with the fire poker and waved it at it and it finally left. It did not run away, no. It waddled away as casual as your please as if to say "I didn't want your stupid food anyway, dick.". The raccoon didn't have any genitalia that was determinable to me, but it had balls never the less. A few moments later I heard more rustling directly behind me, I leapt out of my chair and turned my light on, knife in hand. I couldn't see anything. I thought I was getting paranoid so I laughed at myself and then turned the light off and sat back down. A few moments after I sat down I heard it again, right behind me! I got up and turned the light on high and started looking around. I still couldn't see anything. Then as I was looking back and forth something shiny caught my attention on the ground. It was a Salamander! I scooped him up and he just chilled in my hand for a bit. He was not slimy though he looked it. I named him Rufus, then put him in the woods and sent him off in the direction of a large puddle I remember seeing in the woods.

With that I tossed the cooler in my car, washed my hands, and retired for the night.

Moldy age rings.

Wow.

Fall, for sure.

Lake Maria.

Lake Maria.

I see the pad but no frogs.

Erosion control.

'Merica.

My buddy Rufus.

Giant shroom cup.

My non-bike adventure at Lake Itasca State Park. ("Day" 1)

At the end of September I went up north to Lake Itasca. My friends, I have to say it was amazing!

Originally the plan was to go up to the headwaters for the Headwaters 100 ride and to camp for two nights with a bunch of people. As the time came close for the ride the forecast did not look favorable, everyone bailed except the initiators of the plan and myself. I was looking forward to camping regardless of the weather. So I went up there Friday afternoon and little did I know that I was about to have the experience of a lifetime.

First of all, the drive up to Itasca State Park was absolutely amazing. The further north I got the more colors were present. The leaves were still all intact, but the changes had begun. I arrived at the actual camp site about 6 pm and got my tent set up and a fire going and cooked myself some dinner. The others still had not arrived and didn't until about 10:30 or so. We hung out for a while and got told to be quiet by one of the park rangers, some people have no volume control.

I awoke Saturday to the sound of rain and it made me have to pee really bad. So I got up and went out into the woods to water the trees. It was raining pretty good and I was groggy and tired and didn't feel like messing around with the camp stove and what not, so I hopped in my car and drove to town. I picked up a cup of coffee and headed to the local bike shop, Northern Cycle. I met the owner and chit chatted with him a bit about this and that. It is a very nice shop and if you ever get up that way I recommend you stop in! After the bike shop I hit up the grocery store to pick up a couple supplies I forgot and headed back to camp. On the way back to the park I saw a bald eagle fighting off some crows for a spot to perch. I got to the park and it was still pouring out so I stopped in at the visitor center and chatted with the park's naturalist. My main question was "What do I gotta' do to see a bear?" at which point she advised me that I would most likely not see one because they are getting ready for the big sleep. Fine. I hung around the visitor center and chatted up some of the cyclists who were braving the rain and doing the ride anyway. I started to chat with a couple from Bismark, North Dakota. They attend many rides in Minnesota and have even been to our shop before. After a fun conversation they took off to finish the ride... because it finally stopped raining.

I got back to the campsite and everyone was up and moving about. They had a fire going and everything. I got my stove up and made a pot of coffee. We sat and chatted about what we were going to do and we decided to go on a hike. We made some delicious lunch and then headed out. We marched from our campsite all the way up to the headwaters. It was a strange feeling to see the beginning of the Mississippi river and reading the marker that states that it's 2552 mile journey starts there. By the time we reached the end of the trail that loops around the headwaters, the clouds had parted and the sun shone. It was as though we were being welcomed, it was truly beautiful. We headed back to camp and cooked up some dinner and had some drinks. The first full day was a success, it would have been nice to do the ride but I like the way it turned out anyway.

Shamlock Holmes

Headwaters

Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the depression.

This is where the Mississippi starts.

The path to the headwaters.

Time keeps on crawling, crawling, crawling... into the future.

Life has slowed down considerably. School is back in and my time at the shop is done for the year, minus the winter bike expo which I am really looking forward to. My schedule for the semester is really tame and I am excited to have all the extra time to ride and rediscover some of the things I like to do that have fallen by the wayside. It will also give me the needed time to start looking for jobs and a place to live as I will be graduating at the end of this semester. It will be good to be back in Minneapolis, I miss it terribly.

So what is coming up? Well at the end of September the Headwaters 100 is on my calendar, this is up near Itasca. I will be camping out there with some friends for about three days. I may bring the fat bike and do some exploring out in the woods, but if someone car pools with me that won't happen. As the name implies the Headwaters 100 is a century ride. This will be my first century in a couple years. I'm pretty excited, I've got plenty of 60 and 80 mile rides under my belt so I am confident that I will be able to handle it without much issue. I'm probably more excited about camping, I love camping a lot. Something about sleeping outside and just being away from everything really recharges my batteries.

Then in October I've got the Filthy 50. I don't actually know why I signed up for this, gravel does not interest me that much. It seemed like fun at the time. It will be fun though, I'm not too worried. Apparently the course is in the same county as Almanzo, so I am assuming that the route is probably a piece of that ride.

With school back in my thoughts turn to fall, with fall always comes dirt fever. I've been bouncing around the woods out here in Maple Grove with my fat bike. I've got my eye on a new bike however, the El Mariachi Ti. After riding one at the Salsa demo, I think it could easily accommodate everything I want to do on a mountain bike, but weighing in at half what my fat bike weighs. I am still up in the air whether I will pull the trigger on it or not, time will tell. It is a slick looking bike though, that much is for sure.

This photo came from Bike Rumor.

Other than smaller rides that's all that has been going on recently. In the next week or two I am planning to take the DSLR down to the river bottoms on the fat bike and spend the day down there exploring and goofing around. So I should have some fun pictures from that. Stay tuned.

Salsa Demo

Salsa Cycles was holding their annual demo at Carver Lake Park in Woodbury, where it's all good in the Hoodbury. I have to admit, I never really thought of Salsa as a relevant mountain bike company, that has changed.

I showed up to the Salsa Demo and recognized the East coast sales guy, E-Fred from the last demo. We chatted a bit, I met the new Midwest Sales guy, Freewheel's new Q rep, and the global sales manager for Salsa. They were all really nice guys, as they all were last time as well.

Chips?

I was really excited to take out their new Horsetheif, it is a full suspension 29er with 130mm of travel in the front and 120mm in the rear. I was pleasantly surprised by it last year but it was still lacking something that I just couldn't put my finger on. I was really ready to try the new model with the split pivot, which is essentially the same thing that Trek has on their bikes that I love. To put it in simple to understand terms, your rear suspension still works while breaking. On most bikes when you use the rear break, it takes up some of the travel of your rear shock, so if you hit bumps while braking you can easily bottom out. Alternatively if you are speeding along and hit the rear brake you can get quite a bit of lurch. Split pivot fixes this issue.

E-Fred helped me get the suspension set up and off I went. I liked it. A lot. It rolled over rocks like they were not even there. It was great in the loose corners even with the wide knobbed tires. It was just smooth and buttery. This years model has a really improved geometry as well. They shortened the chain stays on most of their bikes which is evident while riding. For a 29er it has a lot of giddyup and the center of gravity was perfect for me. The split pivot was the icing on the cake. I was able to fly around the singletrack with no issues at all. I liked it so much I ended up doing two laps on it.

After my second lap Thad and Ben from Freewheel showed up. Thad and I both went out on the Spearfish next. Other than the tires being a bit low, it was phenomenal. The bike was pretty much perfect for single track, at least the kind we have around here. If I lived in an area with a little more terrain, I would opt for the Horsetheif.

Spearfish and me.

The next bike I had in my sights as I am looking at purchasing one, was the El Mariachi Ti. I know the advantages of full suspension, they are real, it is just that I would never ever utilize a full suspension bike to its full potential. I want a bike that is in between the fat bike and the cross check. I have done some crazy stuff on the cross check and the fat bike but I recognize there is a time and place where those bikes are either not quite enough or conversely too damn much bike to handle what I want to do. Enter the mountain bike.

I picked the damn thing up and it was so light I could hardly believe it. The frames are triple butted this year, it has saved them a lot of weight believe it or not. I threw a leg over the beast and just started bombing off and up curbs and the first thing I noticed was they had shortened the chain stays on this one as well. It just took off. Add to that the set back of the seat post and the center of gravity was dead on. I was pretty much instantly sure that I was going to be making the right decision. Even with the triple butted tubing the ride was still really stiff where you wanted it to be but super comfortable. I'm pretty excited for that!

The carbon Beargrease is pretty cool as well. A lot of people were coming specifically to ride that. For those of you that don't know, I'll let you in on the secret. It is nothing like the Muluk, it is a totally different bike. If you want to race winter stuff, you want a Beargrease. If you want to just go out and have a good time and possibly do any kind of "touring" in the winter, the Mukluk should be your weapon of choice. The geometries are toootally different.

The Colossal is still the Colossal, a steel road bike with disc brakes. Pretty cool.

Ben took out the Warbird and was really impressed with it. It sounds like he may be getting one of them. If you have not ridden a Salsa lately, I recommend you go check one out for yourself. They are a lot of fun.

All in all it was a good day, talking to some good dudes, and riding some good bikes. What more do you need?

Labor Day Weekend.

Last year for the laboring weekend I did my first little tour with my buddy Brian. This year was a little different but still lots of fun.

Friday night I hung out with my buddy Thad and we rolled around by the falls and Hidden Falls park. We had a couples beers before the ride, which ended up being a mistake, not a big one but it was pretty hot and I had never been down to Hidden Falls before, the hill going back up was super gnar. The view from the river bank was quite awesome however.

View from the river bank.

We left Hidden Falls and bombed back through Minehaha Falls park and much to our pleasure Surly Brewing was there serving beer. Huzzah!



Beers and bikes.

We headed back to the mother ship and fired up the grill, not before picking up some bacon for the burgers. Thad fired up some beef and I got the fire pit raging. We had ourselves a couple of heart attacks on a bun and then just hung out and drank for a bit.

Burgerssss!

One of Thad's buddies and his wife stopped by and brought some wine from their recent wedding that was left over. We sat and chatted and drank and after about an hour or two they took off and Thad and I decided to go on another ride. We packed up the rest of our beers and headed for Lake Nokomis. We went to the secret ninja spot of drinking concealment, though it was about 2 am at this point so I doubt anyone would have bothered us any way. We hung out and took in the scene. The lake was really still and everything in the sky was reflecting on it. We talked about everything under the sun and when the last beer had been drunk (don't worry we brought our trash home with us), we headed back. We finished the night out with some smores and a visit from Thad's new neighbor who was just getting home from work. Then we attempted to watch Super Troopers but 4:30 am was just too much for both of us.

I rode a few more times over the weekend but mostly solo and mostly to work off all the beer and those burgers. It was a far cry from last year but it was still a lot of fun. I got a lot good time in with some friends I had not seen in a while and even made some new friends. I wonder what next year will be like.