Slick 50: NO KOOKS

Cars*R*Coffins annual spring classic is the Slick 50. As you can see it was last Saturday and you also know the weather was quite poor. It's called the Slick 50 because of the ice and cold but nobody wants a broken wrist and on top of that, nobody wants it in spring. This is the second year for me. You can see last years ride if you missed it.

My wife runs a one way shuttle for my buddy Blake and I to the start with the van but we plan to ride home. Fifty miles is not very hard and driving is actually more of a pain in the ass then many people realize. Don't get me wrong, I need a car but I don't enjoy using it for recreation unless I'm camping out of it or hauling a mountain of gear. In the metro cars suck. You have to find a place to leave it.You have to go back and get it or you need to get it from the impound lot or evidence lot depending on luck. You need to stay on roads and if you want to stop and get on the train, they welcome bikes but draw the line at 2500 pound sedans.

I load up on breakfast because if it's like last year we are going to rail on it for close to three and a half hours so I'm going to need the fuel. Pack some snacks and mix up 64oz of sports drink (rhymes with RaterGaid). I pack a backup wool jersey and a few other items to manage a cold weather mechanical and we are off to the start.

Last year we saw maybe 100 riders and it was 80 degrees. This year we got 60 or so and it was 20 degrees with a forecast high of 35. All of these people ride year round so although it's cool, it's nothing new.

 Above: This is the alley behind One-on-One Cycle in Minneapolis and that guy is stretching.

 We launch and it's easy with speeds below 15mph. A few traffic lights and we are on the first trail.

 Above: That's Blake (front right) and the best of trail conditions. Most of these riders are not using studs.

 We lead out west to Tonka on the Cedar Lake Trail. Patches of ice take some riders down and slow everyone to a crawl. As far as I know nobody gets hurt in a crash but I think a few fenders got banged up.

Above: Ice comes often and this is an average challenge  I'm running studs so it's not hard for me but I don't get too gutsy and grim up every time I have to pass a large patch.  Below: The usually hard limestone is mush and we are just making ruts that will damage the trail of others when it dries so we move to roads. 

Out on to the roads I flash the camera in several directions to get some extra material to work with and get this rider giving me some entertainment. Right on rider, see you at Bandit Cross!

About this time the pace goes from happy chatting with the rider next to you to crushing hill attacks and flat sprints to the next hill. Speeds move from the easy 14mph range  to 19 or more in the flats and hard 16/17 on the hills. I'm panting like a dog at the top and drafting to catch my breath but I'm happy and loving the pain as we crush, hill after hill. I like the hard sprints and going peddle to peddle with anyone willing to give it their all. About this time we shatter the peloton (french for 'little ball') into at least 2 main groups and many shards.

I fall back to find out if Blake is still hanging with the group because he doesn't ride much in winter and at a disadvantage to the main peloton that clearly does. He's not there so I break off and fall back a few minutes and let the second peloton catch me.  After some riding with them and finding out what drama happened in the back and when we split I do some counts and realize half of the starting group is gone along with Blake. 

After a few texts and calls, Blake and I reconnect at The Depot for a snack. I have to ride on some busy roads with too much ice but with the studs I manage and in 20 minutes we are back together for a 20 mile ride home for him and about 9 more for me. About this time I'm also happy to not have to ride miles back to the city to retrieve my van.

The washroom is interesting. I kind of like the giant face.

 After about 4:10.22 and 61 miles I arrive back at home.

This bike is about to pass 2000 miles and I've only had it for a year.

 I now need to clean my chain with all this ice and snow I need to use a wet chain lube that works well in the water but leaves a mess. 

The spring classic is over and with the cold temps it wasn't the same as last year but it was still a good time to get out on the road and go peddle to peddle with others so early in the season.

And with that, it's time to relax.

All-Temperacheer

I am fortunate enough to have MLK day off so after I considered world peace and abandon the idea, I grabbed the studded bike and went out on the river where I would find some peace or at least no people which is the same as far as I can tell. The weather guessers told me it was suppose to be cold and get colder so I was happy to test some gear configurations but they got it wrong and it warmed up to about -1. I was hoping for the reported -14. Anyway, I overheated some and had to walk and cool down at times.

When its really cold out the rivers are almost safe to ride but you need to use every bit of spider sense to assess the ice. With it so warm I had to turn and run twice. Well maybe not run but I wasn't wasting any time getting the hell away for the scary stuff. I'm a real tough guy in my fancy drysuit but put me in civilian cloths and I could pinch a hole in my pants running away from it. I retreat twice withing 15 minute of getting on the ice but get my sea legs and start cutting in and out of the weakest of ice.

The temps are low but I can't tell in all my gear. I'm dressing in thin windproof layers that I roast in if I  really start railing on it for speed. I unzip to cool down or stop and lay down on the ice. That works well but scares the hell out of people on shore. I have no idea how long these rides go but 4 hours is the low end. I just ride and plan things to do in summer. If you want to find places to kayak, winter is the ticket.

Below: The thin ice is maybe 3 inches so it's fine but can't be trusted at anything but slow speeds. I figure I can hug shore and if I do break through it will be so shallow I can carry it to shore or better ice and only get a wet foot.

Not true. Shore is getting ground water flow. I think these are springs or breaks in the ground water that release into the river. It makes sense and when I did some cave diving in Florida the ground water would find all kinds of cracks and Minnesota has the same sandstone/limestone (aka Karst)

This is wild. It made me skid to a stop. It's the foot print of an oak tree. 

I had to climb a hill of dirt and sticks and ride about a mile of road to get past a lot of scary ice. The cliff or palisade of the lower river means shore is also deep water with the springs. I have to head out to mid channel and that's faster moving water and thinner ice. When I return it's awesome.

I find a Tiki!
Compared to the graffiti I've found in drains this sucks but it will do.

In summer this strainer would be a portage but now I thread the needle and pass with only a few sticks in the face.

I have to get off the backwater and find this road. It's a dead end on both ends.

The road leads me to a large fence with a strong odor and signs telling me I'm being watched so I go to the otherway and get dumped out on this sandbar.

I leave the bike and walk out to get a better photo of the 34 degree steam.

To get off the sandbar and back to mainland and the security of the shelf ice of shore I have to cross a channel and it's popping and cracking. Part of it is from the cold. When I scuba on very cold days the ice cracks and pops all day, some very loudly so I know not to worry about the powerful cracking I hear. The minor cracks make me watch every move. I take this photo mid crossing. You can see the ice is over 4 inches so I know that's plenty (when I'm in my drysuit)

This is the distance I need to close. I'm mid channel and the ice gets thinner. I walk the bike so I can feel the cracking if I need to retreat.

The crossing complete I find the hobo camp from last springs, Songlines but this time I get up close. Back then I think it was occupied. The trash is ugly. I see too much trash these days. Every place I go is covered in trash. Scuba... trash, Hike... trash... Ride...trash....trash,trash,trash.

I wanted to find a date to tell me how active this camp is.

I'll probably go back and pick this crap up so I don't find it when I packraft this summer. The spring floods will move it and I'll find it later on. I'll leave a sign about how their mom doesn't work here and they need to pick up after themselves but if their mother cared, they would not be hobo's.

Leaving hobo camp the shore gets steep and the ice follows. 

Is there water under that shelf or more ice? 

The shore usually continues under water so we could be in deep water if I get it wrong.

I just cut my way out to better ice and find some speed. 

I've been on a lot of ice but this is the best surface hoar frost. 

Hoar frost is radiation frost when ice forms spicules. When air get very cold and molecular water is forced out of the air and it grows on other ice forming these ferns.

Getting close to the end my ride the ice is getting reliable and the trash on shore is every few feet.

The water in the background is the end of my shore without a dry land portage but this tree was interesting. It's entombed in hoar frost.

I didn't make it to the source of the warm water but I did inch out onto the ice until it cracked and started to sink before taking this photo. The wind is blowing hard to the south making the scalloped rim of ice you see. I look over the edge and guess it's maybe 3 feet deep.

This is the end of the line for me. I turn it and return home via ice but jump off to road to avoid the crossing at hobo camp and the bad shore line a few miles south.

In total I'm out about 4 hours, cover about 20 miles and my digital thermometer reports -6.

The weatherman got it wrong but I still cheered for the colder temps. Winter is only as bad as your gear and a little bit about believing you can be comfortable in the cold. Like chores, once you start it's not so bad and you can get lots of stuff done.The bark of cold is worse then the bite or should I say bike.

Isle Be Ready

I have the Arrowhead next week and the warm weather and poor snow hasn't helped me train the way I'd like. What I'd like is, bitter oppressive cold. Cold so bad your boogers freeze when you inhale. That is correct, booger just made a one and only cameo on this blog, now pull it together. I can do cold and I can ride a bike but can I ride fast in the deepest cold. I've had problems with cold feet so I upped the boots and added Sorrel brand liners but the issue may be my eating. In a short yet savage ride I bonk, blow up, hit the wall! I've had a blood sugar crash (bonk) many times but this last one was controlled and I saw it coming but in the cold I felt it first in cold feet! Wahoo! If I eat better my feet stay warm. 

I've put 600 miles down in the last 2 months, maybe more. I got a 7 hour snow ride in powder. I got 10 hours of snow machine trails and a lot of road. I've worn-out everything but the handlebars on my bike, upgraded the wheels and added a rear rack. I'd like to throw a big thanks to Jay over at Hollywood Cycles for keeping my rigs rolling. I destroy gear, limp in over lunch and he fixes me up. If you're tired of being a stranger in your bike shop, go see Hollywood.

That's enough of the small talk about how I trained or didn't. My father stopped by today and I showed him my gear. After, he said, "And you have fun doing this?" to which I say, "No, but it's fun to be done!" It doesn't answer why I start but I don't have that answer. I trained mentally because you can gear for everything but a weak mind so let's go ride on the ice.

I stud up and roll under the Grays Bay Bridge just skirting the water on my way to Big Island. I've wanted to look around it for a long time. Ever since I started diving the ferries that shepherded the tourists long ago.

Below, the ice is at least 12 inches thick but clear. I took this to show those that think my ice dives are dark. The white ice you see most of the time is compressed snow but this winter it's all lake ice, not snow, so it's clear.

It's in the singles and with hard ice and studs I can go quite fast but a hard headwind holds me back. People are always asking about windchill but as you can see I don't allow any skin so the chill is minimal.

It's reported to be thin and it probably was last week when it was in the 40's but last night it was below zero and I can now see cracks that report over a foot of ice. I had to stop and repair the sign so I took the photo of my work. 

Below is a pressure ridge. We all learned in school that water expands 1/9th it's volume when it freezes so the larger body if water overtook the bay I'm leaving and created the ridge to make room for the larger sheet of ice. They are hard to cross because the ice is very unstable and can be a foot thick yet not frozen in places. 

The smooth pond you see was probably open water last week. The pressure opened it and the wind kept it open until maybe yesterday.

The same goes for this. The pressure ridge is behind me. Today this ice is maybe 10 inches or more.

This is a tributary crack to show how much pressure is in the ice. This is old ice over a foot and split 5 inches wide for 100's of feet maybe 1,000. It can and did make a floating burg but has since frozen.

This person was not thinking clearly and tried to cross the major pressure ridge and tributary cracks. It looks like everyone got out but left everything behind. I didn't touch anything because it's still private property so I get about as close as I would in a parking lot and take some pictures for your entertainment.

I'm disappointed, I park my bike to take a picture of the landing at Big Island when I see this old beam and lose my mind. I forget to take the photo and take off into the woods to find more. Big Island was an amusement park from 1906 to about 1911 and I was excited to find what was left.

This piece of steel has been laying here since the island was dismantled in 1917! I want to restate that, it's been in this very spot for 95 years. I've passed it a few dozen times in a boat but today my personal history crosses with its history. I'm sure it's just me but when I touched the rivets I wondered about the steel workers that bucked it into place in 1891 if I assume it's part of the hotel.

I didn't expect to find underground plumbing. That is a stick but this island had power from shore to run the rides and lights. I didn't have time for a detailed search but very little was exposed in the thin layer of snow so most is lost in time. If you get a dive computer and jump the lakes wrecks you'll find more. 

 The historical map shows this was likely a shop or service building.

I find no less than 6 of these. They look like well pipes. Threads on well pipe look different and that is well pipe threads. Clearly it was drilled in so it must be well pipe but I couldn't see a reason to explain so many.

I was surprised to see trails on the island. It also has posts that look like campsites but a sign later on clearly says no camping. How do they expect people to obey rules if they set up campsites.

The rules are long but the only one that matters is the last, NO FUN ALLOWED.

This gets me to the best part of the island. This is the main gate that greeted the tourists in large hats and formal attire. Remember the Titanic sank a year after this Island closed its doors. The photos are the same.

This is an early time for Big Island because the tower is not complete. I could see the foundations for the two guard towers that flank the stairs. If I could "see dead people" this place would be awesome.

The day can't last forever and I have to ride back but first I have to sit on the ice and have a snack, remember the warm feet. I stop right in the middle of the lake because it's the strangest place to be. It was kind of funny how I can be totally happy eating a pop tart in the middle of the lake when it's maybe 5 degrees out.

A quick read over at this site will fill in all the parts I skipped. History of Big Island

On that my training for the Arrowhead is done. The cold I've had available is easy to control and the mind is as strong as it's ever been to just stay head down and peddle.

We'll See.