Just another day at the dog track Well I took the Poprad out for its maiden voyage today. It was a cool day hovering around 32 degrees F. I loaded up with a PB&J, GORP, Elete in the camelback, a bottle of Accelerade, and a Red Bull. I headed out on Demers Ave towards the Buffalo ranch, and continued on the gravel westward. The road was surprisingly dry with a couple of hard spots down the middle. There were a few washboard sections, but the Lemond steel soaked them up nicely. I guess steel is real. I continued on to metropolis that is Emerado. After leaving Emerado, a couple of miles down the road, I heard a couple of dogs barking. I looked to my left to see a ginormous German Shepard and an equally sizable Black Lab sprinting down their driveway. The adrenaline kicked in and I kicked it down as fast as I could pedal. I had a good lead on them, but they were gaining on me quick. Luckily they tired out and gave up about a half mile later. I need to get a tazer or a cattle prod for crazy country dogs like that. Well after I recovered from the dog interval I made a right for Turtle River State Park. I was hoping that the single track out there had thawed and was as dry as the gravel roads. They weren't so I headed back the way I came. Only this time I bypassed the section were I had been chased. It was a slow ride home. I stopped a few times to snack and have that Red Bull. It was a good first ride. I like the way the Poprad feels on the dirt. It's not too squirrly. As long as you stay out of the really mushy stuff. Thankfully it accelerates pretty fast as well. I think it will be a great bike for Trans Iowa. I took a few pictures of the ride. Enjoy.

Here is one of the buffalo ranch. Do buffalo moo?

The long road ahead.

The beautiful town of Emerado, ND.

"I know you like em sloppy".

Anyone up for a Whitey Hillclimb Challenge?

It gives you wings!

That's all of them. Time to go rest up for the big Sioux hockey game tonight.

I wonder how Mr. Kerkove is doing?

Hello Hello all in Bloggerworld. Just a quick post to update the progress of the "Trans-Iowa Slayer". After a little delay it's finally all built up. I'm just waiting for the pedals to come in. Thanks Pat for all your help. Here are a few snapshots of the beast. I'll get it muddy tomorrow and post some more. Enjoy : )

It's like an excited puppy in a new home. Even jumping up on the couch.

Sweet Bontrager 46/38 cranks.

The ohhh sooo comfy Selle Italia SLR XC saddle.

Superlight Salsa bottle cages.

For some reason Lemond gave me an upgrade to Ultegra levers. Thanks Brian : )

That's all for now. Time to go watch the Sioux men's hockey team go against Michgan. Holy Cross just upset the Gophers in overtime! Hopefully the Sioux can win tonight and face them tomorrow night.

Also good luck to Jeff Kerkove at his first race of the year.

Simmons out.

Working for the weekend Well I worked at the bike shop all weekend. It was fun to get back in there and feel like I'm contributing to the cause. Even if it meant hanging out with Sears and Malissa all day long : ) I watched the Sioux hockey team almost blow their chance at a playoff spot in the Final Four tournament. It took them three games to advance to the Final Five in Minneapolis. Why does Mankato always seem to give them problems? Brian? Jen and I also whooped up on her Mom and Dad in pinocle on Saturday night. I'm finishing up my "rest even harder" phase of training this week : ) Time to start getting ready for TI V.2 Sounds like the Poprad was shipped out on Friday. So, I should have it ready for the weekend. Anyone up for a gravel grinder? Chequamegon 40 lottery drawing is on Wednesday. Good luck to everyone who entered. Looks like there's still one madman trying to go the distance in the Alaska Ultrasport race. Great job Pierre on getting to McGrath. There are some good stories and pictures in the Alaska MTBR thread here. That's all bloggers. Good night.

Trans-Iowa Slayer Well I ordered up the newest edition to the fleet. It's a fiesty, cannibal orange, Lemond Poprad. After weeks of going back and forth. I finally decided to go with the Poprad over the Surly Cross-Check. The price difference was just too good to pass up. Plus, that is one tasty color. I'll be swapping out saddles for a Selle Italia SLR XC. It's the same saddle I have on my mountain bike, and I love it. I still need to decide on pedals though. I think It'll be one fast machine for Trans-Iowa. I can't wait. Hopefully it'll be here Wednesday or Thursday, and I'll be able to rough it up next weekend. I'll post some pictures of the build-up and maiden voyage next week.

Blah, blah, blah I'm stuck at work. Bored out of my mind. I should really be out biking right now. Trans-Iowa V.2 is right around the corner. Speaking of which, another spot just opened up. Check it out on the MTBR endurance forum. There's also a bunch of other good reads on there as well. Went to the Sioux men's hockey game last night. Thanks for the tickets Murphy. It finally looks like they are getting it together for the post-season. Hopefully the gophers have peaked too early and the Sioux can take the national title. What do ya think Brian? More snow in the forecast for this weekend. I'm really looking forward to it all melting so I can break out the road rocket that is the 2200 : ) Hopefully I have a pair of Kysrium SL's or a set of these to mount on it by then. Both of these wheels seem like overkill for my middle of the pack road bike. Check out Pierre in the Alaska Ultrasport race. Looks like he is doing quite well. 350 miles into an 1100 mile race across Alaska on a single speed pugs! Go Pierre Go! Anyone want to go to Alaska next year? Not much else to report here. Blahg ya later : )

Random Not much new here. Got lots of snow lately with more on the way this weekend. I went snowshoeing in it last night. Lots of fun. Where were you Austin? I'm going to order up my Cross-check soon. I got the okay today. I'll post my parts selection soon. Brian, any news on a warm locale for some road training? Are you coming to town soon? Gotta go. Later.

Cold Ride Went on a long cold ride tonight. About 40 miles worth. The "around the town" loop lives on. I almost did a winter "minnesota loop" but thought better of that on my way out of town. It was way to cold and windy to be caught out in the middle of nowhere with no cold weather gear. Anyway I'm spent. I need to sleep now. Good night.

Random Blog Well it's been a while. Not too much happening lately. I went on a short two hour ride tonight. I tried out some new snowmobile trails south of town. They were pretty soft in spots, so I got to work on my bike pushing technique for a few stretches of trail. This was my first ride in a couple of weeks. It felt good to get out and do something again. I'm 99% sure I'm going to start building up a Surly Cross-Check as my weapon of choice for the dirt fest known as Trans-Iowa. Anyone want to try and talk me into something different? 29er, recumbent or a unicycle perhaps? It'll have to be fast in order to out run THIS! It should be a fun race. I can't wait to see what everyone shows up with. Rick, the Budgetbiker, finally posted something on his blog. It took him long enough. I have to cut him some slack, after all he is computer illiterate. Hopefully he will keep posting some of the good ideas he has about how to swindle his wife out of some bike money. Good luck Rick! Hi Sarah : ) Guitar Ted has some nice posts going about endurance racing over on his blog. I've added a few others as well in the links section. Patrick Hummeny, a crazy canadian in Winnepeg. As well as Endurosnob down in Lincoln, Nebraska. I wonder if he won the big $365 million jackpot. The winning ticket was sold in Lincoln. If so, I wonder what kind of swag he would give away at The EnduroSnob Epic in November? Well that's enough for tonight. Have a good one.

Here's a good picture of Charlie Farrow and me riding together. There are some more on the Arrowhead site as well. Congratulations Charlie on a fourth place finish! He was on a Specialized S-Works. Proof that you don't need a winter specific bike to do well. Whose coming with me next year? I think the eyelashes on my left eye were frozen shut when this picture was taken.

Arrowhead 135 Report Well I made it back from the great white north. It's cold up there! Where to start? Sunday I left for International Falls at 4:00am. Four hours later I was there, and headed into the local Holiday Inn for the gear check. I was the first one there to get checked by the gear nazi, Donny. Who made sure everyone had their emergency pound of butter. Mmmmm! Everything was good to go so I hung around to see what everyone else had for equipment. Some looked like they had the bare essentials, and others brought everything but the kitchen sink. Lots of different setups. Stock mountain bikes, custom Evingson Cycles, and my personal favorite the Pugsley. As impressive as all the bikes were, the most impressive thing was the runners. 135 miles on foot? No thank you. After everyone got checked in there was a meeting on all of the rules. At the end of the meeting they drew names for six pairs of Ice Bike gloves from Vulpine Adaptive. Very nice gloves, and luckily I was one of the six names drawn. I put them to good use late Monday night. I met a fellow biker named Matt Maxwell who needed somewhere to sleep for the night. So, I offered up some carpet space in my room. I guess he is going to do Trans-Iowa V.2 this year as well. I can't wait until April. We went and had supper at the hotel restaurant and watched some of the Super Bowl. Checked and rechecked our equipment. Then off to bed. Here is a few pictures of our bikes and one of Matt with his 1x1. Nice.

Notice the nicely crafted custom frame bag. Thanks again Cheryl. It was a lifesaver.

Matt packed a lot lighter than I did.

The Race 5:00am came way to fast. I had my cell phone, watch, alarm clock and a wake up call to make sure I didn't oversleep. Wouldn't want another PR state games. I forgive you Brian : ) Anyway, we headed out to the shuttle vans. Loaded up the bikes, and we were on our way to the start line. Getting out of the van was painful. -18 degrees F. With a slight wind to kick it up a notch. 32 racers in all. 4 runners, 2 skiers and 26 bikers. At 7:00am we were off. The first section of the trail was a 8 mile out and back stretch. I wish the rest of the trail was as flat as this section was. It was also nice and firm because it was so cold. By the time we got to the turn around point Matt's beard had frozen solid. Ho ho ho. Later in the day he would eat the ice out of it for water. He said that the ice was clanging together like a wind chime. Unfortunately this would be the first and last picture during the race. It seems that digital cameras don't like extreme cold, and neither do I.

By the time we got back to the start of the out and back section, there were already three race ending mechanicals. Two blown out hubs and a broken derailer hanger. This made me glad I choose a single speed, but too bad I choose the wrong gearing.

I was riding behind last years winner, Matt Evingson, when his chain broke. It was a nasty break. The chain wrapped up into the derailer cage and was wedged pretty good in there. There was nothing I could do to help so I rode on. I heard he eventually got it fixed, but would drop out around mile 38 with knee problems.

I rode with Charlie Farrow to the Gateway Store at mile 38. They had some good beef stew and hot chocolate to warm us up. Charlie was in and out. I decided to stay a while and warm up. It was around noon at this point, so the sun was starting to soften up the trail a little. Up until this point we were averaging around 7.5 mph. Which was fast for my overgeared 62 lb behemoth of a bike. But I slowed down quite a bit after the store. This is also where the hills got a lot steeper.

Josh Peterson and I rode/walked this next section of the trail together. Pushing a bike up a hill is no fun, but there was always a nice downhill on the other side. I would say I hit 30mph or better on a few of them. Scary, but fun. We plugged away at the hills, and finally made it to the check point, Melgeorge Resort, at mile 70 on Elephant Lake. It was around 6:30pm at that point. Donny, the gear nazi, and Bonnie, the soup nazi, were there with soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. That hit the spot. At that point my back was pretty sore from all the pushing up the hills. We decided to sleep until around 4:00am and then get going again. I got my drop bag, changed clothes and laid down for a rest.

Well, around 10:30pm Stephen Reginold talked me into going out with him. Only 65 miles to go with the middle 20 of that supposed to be the hilliest section of the trail. Followed by the last 20. Which was supposed to be the fastest part. We headed out in 7th and 8th place. My back was feeling better and we were going relatively fast. It had cooled down considerably and the trail was hard as a rock. After a good three hours we were feeling pretty good about how far we had ridden.

That's when the fun started. We came to a fork in the trail. One way was a logging road, the other way was a trail the went north. We are supposed to be headed south to Tower, MN. Something wasn't right. We pulled out the maps, and couldn't figure out where we were at. We figured we had rode at least 15-20 miles, but none of the trails on the map matched up to this one. After 20 minutes of standing around trying to figure it out, I was getting extremely COLD. I broke out my down jacket, newly acquired Vulpine Adaptive gloves and the ultra stylish Mad Bomber Hat. That warmed me up and we decided to go back the way we came.

A short distance later and we find a sign that says "Melgeorge Resort 5 miles". Somehow we had taken a wrong turn and made a big loop all the way back by the resort. We were not very happy at that point. All those hard miles for nothing. We followed the trail back to the resort. It was 2:45am when we got back. After another warm cup of soup we found where we had gone wrong on the map. We made a left when we should have made a right. The trails aren't marked the best, but we should have realized it sooner. We got our sleeping bags out and went to sleep until morning.

Around 7:00am there were a few bikers heading out, including Stephen, and remarkably one runner was there as well. He came in around 5:00am, and now he was heading out again! At this point my knees were stiff as a board and mentally I was done. I did not want anything to do with those hills. I went and got breakfast at the resort, came back and scratched out of the race.

By the time I drove to the finish to pick up my finish line drop bag: Charlie had finished the entire route. Matt Maxwell, Josh and Stephen where all somewhere between Melgeorge and the finish line. I hope they all made it safely. By the way the winning biker finished the entire route in 16 hours! That is IMPRESSIVE!

70 miles of the Arrowhead trail, some of it twice, and a bonus loop in between. Not bad for a flatlander from ND. I learned more about winter biking in that little bit of trail than I ever knew before. I'm looking forward to next year! I'll have to put the Pugsley on a diet, and work on my gear ratio selection.

A big thanks to everyone who helped me get to race in the first place! Terry, Monty, Pat, Sears, and Austin at The Ski and Bike Shop. Rick "Budget" Mangan. (write a post for your blog already : ) And another big thanks to Pierre Ostor and all the volunteers at the Arrowhead 135 for putting on one challenging and fun event. Good luck to Pierre up in Alaska. He's going to bike the 1100 mile Iditarod Trail Invitational route coming up in two weeks.

Now I have some clothes and gear to dry out. Good night : )

Shakedown Ride Went for a shake down ride tonight. 4 degrees F with a 23 MPH wind. That adds up to -29 on the windchill scale. Ouch. It wasn't too bad. I went to the bike shop first to switch out my chain ring again. I'm down to a 32x20. Much better with such a heavy load. I got some sweet XC ski boot covers. The old yellow Salomon ones that have been hanging around the store forever. They worked surprisingly well over my Lake shoes. Thanks Pat. I think I am set for the Arrowhead 135 on Monday. I took some pictures of the Pugs all loaded up. All that is missing is a frame bag that my future Mother In-law is going to make tomorrow. Thanks Cheryl. Congratulations goes out to Brian and Heather on their recent engagement. You're a lucky girl Heathrow! Here are the pics (action shots courtesy of the one and only Austin : )

All loaded up with nowhere to go.

Me doing my best crazy model pose with the stylish solomon pilot boot covers.

Here I come.

There I go.

Last one. I've lost my stealth mode with those boot covers.

I'll try and get a few more up before I head to International Falls on Sunday. Until then...

Random Blogging Well it's been a while since I blogged, so here it goes in "Random Blogging Mode" Spending a lot of time lately getting everything ready for the Arrowhead 135 race that starts next Monday. I think I finally have all of my gear where I want it. I hope I don't forget anything. The pugs weighs in at a svelt 56 lbs so far with no water or food. Ouch! I'll try and get some pictures up on Thursday. The weather forecast looks pretty good for next week. Highs in the low to mid 20's, and lows around 0 degees F. Hopefuly the trail will be solid. I can't wait for it to get here. I went to the Sioux hockey game on Saturday. They lost again. What's going on with that team Brian? Too much talent? Bad coaching? I did my taxes tonight. Looks like I can start looking for some new toys : ) Cyclocross bike? Trans-Iowa 29er? New road wheels? Hmmmm. Any other suggestions? Finally. Congratulations to Mr. Bill Mastre on a new baby boy! Way to go man! Until next time. Good night.

Winter Camping Austin and me went camping at Turtle River State Park last night. Winter camping is cold! It got down to 5 degrees F. It was pretty windy out, but we found a campsite in the trees so it wasn't too bad. I need a down jacket and some down booties for sure. I also need a four season tent. The bivy sack felt like a death trap. It's bad enough in a mummy bag, but then to put another restrictive bag around that is too much. It was warm, but I got little if any sleep. Overall it was a fun experience, and I can't wait to do it again using what I learned from this outing. Here are the pics:

Home for the night. Easy to set up, but to small for me. Good for an emergency when you don't plan on having to camp out.

I need one of these, minus the feet sticking out.

After we set up camp we started to make supper. These MSR stoves are amazing!

Spaghetti, it's what's for dinner. Mmmmm.

After a good hour, lots of matches and half a roll of toilet paper we got a fire started. Need to work on my fire building skills.

Put another log on the fire Austin.

Midnight snack of Pop Tarts. Brown sugar cinnamon flavor is the best.

Austin obviously ate too much. "He's gonna be a soccer player, he is, he is"-Billy Madison.

Off to bed. It's gonna be a cold night.

Snowshoeing Went snowshoeing with Austin tonight. It was my first time. "Go easy on me please" : ) It was fun. Here's some pictures. Here's Austin at the shop before we headed to Lincoln Park. I think Pat is reprimanding Josh in the background : ) For what, I don't know. Any guesses? Austin is an animal. He loaded up his pack with a sandbag that most people put in their vehicles for traction. Crazy! I could barely lift it. Austin trying to stay upright with all that weight. He had to prop himself up with a pole : ) I'm on fire!

Gratuitous photo op. Me with the MSR Lightning Ascents. They are super lightweight with a ton of traction. I was very impressed.

That's all folks. This post was brought to you by the letter M and the number 7.

Went on a fun ride tonight. Two hours on the river bank trails. Beautiful night. 12 degrees F, no wind. I brought along the camera to try and capture what its like to ride in the snow along the banks of the Red River. Here is my photo blog:

Here is the Pugsley relieving itself on a tree.

Here's the footprint of the Endomorph tires.

Another bathroom break on a fallen tree.

This is the funnest part of the trail. It winds through the trees with some hairy off camber sections.

Watch out for open water and skunks. I saw a one around this area a few weeks ago.

End of the trail at Riverside Dam. You can barely make it out in the background.

Well that's it for tonight. I hope you enjoyed them. I'll try and get some action shots this weekend. Goodnight.

Here's some pictures of the Pugsley. Enjoy : ) Here's a pic of the front rack loaded with sleeping bag. Here's one of the rear rack with bivy tent, thermarest, cookware and stove. After being set up for expedition mode. Like the fuel bottle mount? In "beater bike" mode. There's still some work to be done before it'll be ready for the Arrowhead. Thanks to Pat White for being my chief fabricator and rack loaner. I'd also like to thank Dave Sears for a borrowed frame bag (not shown), and "Budget Biker" ,Rick Mangan, for a lot of great ideas. Stay tuned, I think I have this picture thing figured out finally!