Northern Blue Hills Ice Age Trail Segment

I had an excellent time hiking some of the Northern Blue Hills segment of the Ice Age Trail yesterday afternoon with Ben, Sarah and Ellie. We only had enough time to complete the section from Stout Rd to Bucks Lake Rd, but this really is a beautiful section of trail. It consists of several beaver dam crossings, a lot of mixed hardwood forest and many, many rolling hills. It joins an old narrow logging road as it follows and crosses a creek several times. I would like to hike it again in just a few months when it's a little greener.

Afterward, we also made an attempt to hike back to the Blue Hills "Felsenmeer" west of Hwy. W, but were unsuccessful in finding it...I need to do a little more research on which logging road gets you close. Finishing up just in time for happy hour, clearly we had to stop in Birchwood for some dirt cheap pints of Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale!

Up until yesterday, I hadn't really done much hiking this winter/spring...just a few runs here and there. After a typical 3-4 week session of grinding the legs down to nothing on the bike, this week has been nice and relaxing...I'm trying to allow my legs to rebuild and prepare for the last session of hard work before tapering down in May. The Almanzo 100 will be here in no time, and the prospects for the Chequamegon 100's waiting list (including myself) are looking good! Whether or not I'll be truly prepared for these back-to-back events only time will tell...

St. Patrick's Day

I must say it was one of the nicest St. Patty's days I have seen in years. The tremendous bout of snow biking this past winter was a lot of fun and it certainly kept me in pretty good shape, but with spring rides and warm sunsets like these I can't say that I miss it! We are fortunate to have warmer than average weather this March that is contributing to some excellent early season road riding. The day's fixie ride is recapped in The Log .

This is why - Part 2

“Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

...and it most certainly did. Crouching down in the drops, diligently pushing through the NE headwind for most of the afternoon turned in to 85 miles on the fixie...a painfully excellent cap on several hard rides this week. We had a record high for March 14th! The sunset was simply icing on the cake...

This is why

When I go biking, I repeat a mantra of the day's sensations: bright sun, blue sky, warm breeze, blue jay's call, ice melting and so on. This helps me transcend the traffic, ignore the clamorings of work, leave all the mind theaters behind and focus on nature instead. I still must abide by the rules of the road, of biking, of gravity. But I am mentally far away from civilization. ~Diane Ackerman

He's a lumberjack and he's OK!

I had the afternoon off and the weather was gorgeous, so I had no excuse to not push myself through a grueling ride on the fixie. What a painful day...but holy smokes I feel fantastic! Check The Log for details...

On the road again!

First road ride of the year today! After a 40 mile MTB ride with 3000+ feet of climbing yesterday, it felt really great to ride some flats and loosen up on the fixie. The sun was shining, the roads I chose were clear as can be, and since I had forgotten the simplicity of riding pavement I had the largest grin on my face in months. Ahhh, we're almost there!