Mountain Biking in the Fall

Tossed to the ground, yeah! Weaving through the trees and caught a root with the front tire. Smacked the helmet on the trail and received a sweet bruise on the thigh. Laid on the trail and wondered what the hell just happened...?

A view from the saddle.

Jr. enjoying the mountain bike.

Mountain biking in the fall on twisty single track is great reflex training for the western mountain snowmobiling and backcountry snowboarding. Also the endurance aspect is huge. Just need to keep up with the upper body strength from the landscape jobs.

Gets dark in the woods early in the fall.

Chequamegon Fat Tire 40 Race

The 3 Amigos of the early 90s'. Jeff Hall was winning the Short and Fat, Scott Hebel was placing 2nd behind Greg LeMond in the 40 and I was chasing these 2 jokers with top 50 finishes in the 40 miler. We all raced for the Diamond Back Team, Scott was one of their national riders and Jeff and I were DB regional riders. We had good times all over the Midwest and raced with Scott out in Colorado.

The Man of the hour, Gary Crandall, the man in the middle with the beard. The head Chequamegon honcho. He and his crew have put together the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival every September for the past 27 years. I heard about it back in 1984 and raced it for the first time in 1985.

Starting, staging area.

The front pack of 1900 riders after 3 miles of pavement, reaching speeds of 35 MPH.

After this corner they ride into an open field (Rosie's Field) and it is all off-road and dirt trails for a total of 41 miles(1 mile longer this year I heard).

This at about mile 11 into the race, still a very large group of riders. Jeff is just popping over the little rise and I will hand up a water bottle to him. I will see the leaders 7 times in the race.

Yours truly at OO trail crossing, about 17 or 18 miles into the race.

The lead group has whittled down to a select fast group. Jeff is in this group.

Jeff at the finish, 9th place on the day. time of 2:04. Last year he finished 2nd at 2:08, the riders and the course were very fast this year. The old course record was 2:07.

Gotta like the dust on this day, 41 miles in 2:04, 19.7 MPH average.

Finishing area.

My old race teammates Dru, Tim and Tim's son Joe. Tim and Joe still flying the Finish Line Finder jersey. Back in the 80's and 90's this was the jersey that sent shivers down the spines of lesser mountain bike teams...ha,ha. Jeff was even a Finder back in his early days. GOOD TIMES!!

1:22AM Chequamegon Morning

Just got done preping Jeffs bike and finished packing everything back in the truck. It is like a ritual of the Chequamegon to prep Jeff Halls bike the night before the big 40 mile race on Saturday. I finish working on the bike, have a beer and hit the bed for 3.5 hours of sleep cause the alarm is set for 5:15 AM. The race starts at 10:00 AM this morning. Jeff finished 2nd last year, there are 1800 riders in this race and this is the 27th year of the race. It's a true classic.

The year of 1995 when Jeff won this race, I had to rebuild his rear derailer and it took until 4:00AM the morning of the race. I never told him cause I didn't want to distract him. Well it worked, with him winning by 4 seconds over Eric Ringsrud.

Got to finish the 16 oz. Silver Bullet and get some sleep, GOOD TIMES!!

Riders of the Fall

Youngest grandson running around.

Sunday ride in the country.

My son, Chad and oldest grandson, Tyler finishing up a 1.5 hour bike ride. Heading back to Chad's house for a great grilled steak dinner, prepared by Ellen, Chad's wife. GOOD TIMES!!

Biking With My New Computer / Test Riding the New Computer

Trying out the photo capabilities of the new photo shop on my computer. Jr. is the test pilot.

Rack of bikes. Spent an afternoon up north, cleaning, lubing and adjusting the mountain bike, single speed cross bike and road bike.

Nothing like a tailgate to spread out the gear.

First post with the new computer, It took a bit, but one step at a time. I've had my other laptop for 41/2 years. It is an hp. The new one is up-to date, another hp, with wireless (wow) and Verizon enabled. A little more compact. It's a bit of a pain to get it set up as familiar as my old one, it will be worth it. It will come in handy with my travels, that's the plan.

Minnesota River Trail

Grandson and yours truly going for the energy drink. Got'ta fuel the motor! GOOD TIMES!!

Fred Flintstone Month <> I Get'ta Play with Rocks From the Quarry

This is a job we are on right now. 10,000 pounds of flagstone for the garden border.

This is where the truck earns it's keep in the summer. It is on the job 4-5 days a week hauling whatever needs hauling, plants, trees, yard waste and mulch. The trailer follows me 80% of the time for the jobs, load after load.

It took a couple loads, this load was about 4000 pounds total in the truck and trailer.

We did about 10 yards of black dirt fill before the stone.

The wall making it's way to the new Maple Tree.

Then along comes the River Rock. I've done 3.5 yards, 3 trailers in the last 2 days. It takes 1.75 hours to unload a trailer load of River Rock. Everything has to be wheelbarrowed into the backyard. The flagstone, dirt, River Rock and plants.

Don't need no health club. This will get us in shape for the snowboarding, snowshoeing and mountain snowmobile season. Just add some good mountain biking this fall for endurance and reflexes for riding through the trees.

The stone wall was complete as it circled the tree.

Everything is coming together and put into place.

Back for 2 more loads of rock tomorrow, and some more next week to finish the garden. Then the plan is to seed the black dirt and start the watering and let the yard start to grow.

It isn't as exciting as surviving a deer <> motorcycle collision. The dang deer never try to take on the 3/4 ton pick-up. I'm working outdoors so it is all, GOOD TIMES!!

I feel very lucky and I want to extend a my good wishes and good luck toward a friend of mine, MIKE KELLY who I worked with for 30 years and is going through a very tough time right now after falling off a ladder last week and fracturing his skull. Mike is a tough guy and I am willing him to pull through this. He has a great family to support him. Don't take life for granted because sh!t happens so damn fast and we don't get a redo. BE READY!