Memorial Day with Hoofers!

Bottom of Scrounge Canyon - one of the Class IIs on the Pike

Horseshoe Falls on the Pike

Fishing First Drop of the Pesh

Third Drop Hole

Third Drop (Hole on left, Sneak on right)

Sticky little guy below Third Drop

5 Foot Falls

Entrance/First two parts to Horserace Rapids

Johnny Kayak Styling Horcerace

Peshtigo (Roaring Rapids) and Wolf III - Start of the boating season

Wolf III

Plenty of these around

Boulder Garden

First Drop

Surfing in Second Drop

Downstream of Third Drop

5 Foot Falls

The hole on the right hides the "Dragon's Teeth" rocks in Horserace

Just below S-turn 

80 miles on the "Freedom Train"

Our local Bike Touring Club is nice enough to post some of their cue sheets online (http://bombaybicycle.org/maps/), and this past weekend, we finally decided to try them out.  After the successful 55-miler, Ali was hankering for a non-metric century.  Since I was not pumped about doubling our distance, we settled on a tweaked version of the Freedom Train route that went up to Devil's Lake State Park, along the state highways to Sauk City (and Prairie du Sac - where Hoofers do their "whitewater" training), then back on the route to Madison.

The first half of the ride was spectacular; we had the first shorts-and-t-shirt weather of the year, and we may have had a bit of a tailwind pushing us along.  Traffic was really, really sparse, but the blue skies, birds, and farmers were out in force.  As usual, we were biking past a ton of dairies (Eau de Emory-in-the-Spring), and all the adjacent fields were being tilled/plowed in preparation for planting.  The first half of the ride took us along the Pheasant Branch Conservatory and past both Crystal Lake and Lake Wisconsin.  Of course, you can't go past Lake Wisconsin without taking the ferry across.

Obligate Merrimac Ferry Shot

We took our first Cheez-it break on the far side of the Lake, and there was a second break as soon as we finished the climb into Devil's Lake.  The Bombay Club's directions took us on the best backroad up to the park we've tried yet.  In the past, we've either taken some really hilly, crumbling roads or the busy state/county highways.  This time, we had a bit of climbing, but nothing was too steep or in too bad shape.  Also, the backroad met the main highway about 300m from the park entrance.

Devil's Lake State Park

Devil's Lake was a popular spot on Saturday; it looked like 80% of the visitors were picnicking grad students.  The wind seemed to pick up while we were in Devil's Lake, and as soon as we had climbed back out of the park, the wind socks and flags were providing ample discouragement.  The 10 miles into Sauk City were straight into the headwind, and unfortunately, the combination of wind + hill led to Ali's first clipless-pedal tumble.  She was relatively unscathed, but it was nice having a lunch stop in Sauk City.

From there, we had ~30 more miles into Madison with a few twists and turns getting out of Sauk City (the wrong way at first) and up out of the Wisconsin River basin.  The wind was still active and had blown in some clouds, but once we were into some hilly terrain, we were much more sheltered from any headwinds.  The ride between mile 60-70 was mentally tough; I was rather enjoying the rolling backroads, but the earlier spill and wind sapped a lot of energy.  There was little enough traffic, so we struck up a nice, distracting conversation and were feeling refreshed in no time (no thanks to a Green Bay Packers fan in a bright blue pickup).

Anyhow, we cruised into Madison pretty shortly after that stupid jerk decided to share his opinions about cyclists, and we rewarded ourselves with ice cream and surprisingly delicious vegan tacos.  We may start slowing down on our mileage increases, but hopefully, we'll get some more adventure in this weekend.

Spring!!!

Madison has had an unfortunately clingy winter this year (not that warm-ish xc skiing is so bad), and since ski-able snow has disappeared, we've had a cold, rainy month of "spring."  As you can imagine, Ali and I are jumping at the sunny weekend days for bike rides.  We've managed a few shorter (~20 mile) routes on flat bike routes, and we recently returned from a fantastic trip out to Vancouver (biking + snowshoeing + great food + wonderful company in one weekend is tough to beat).

This weekend, we decided to have a "slow" weekend and go for a 55 mile bike ride.  Ali found a great route here, and though we missed a one or two of the poorly-signed roads,  we managed a fair distance anyway.  The roads were infrequently trafficked, and the vistas were great.  We even saw our first flowers of the year (in WI)!

Ali's managing to break in her bike pretty well; the (relatively) custom fit is great, and hills/high speeds are much easier now.  We managed our 55 miles with one lunch stop at 30 miles (Belleville Cafe's hot chocolate was just what we wanted halfway through a chilly ride) and a second break on the last bit into Madison.  Winds were mild, and so long as the sun was out of the puffy clouds, the temperature was lovely.  I imagine this loop might become a favorite as we gear up for the Dairyland Dare.  (I'm aiming for the 200k; we'll see how the hills treat us.)

Porkies Nordic Skiing - day 2

The second day of our ski vacation, we woke up even earlier than the first day, checked out of the motel, and were the seventh car in the parking lot at the porkies (the other six were probably there for the downhill).  We were headed for a loop of the ski-able park, just a few kilometers shorter than Saturday, and we had to be done in time to drive home before it got too late.

Climbing gradually

Once again, we started the day with a climb (or several climbs, as the case may be).  The air temps were a little warmer, but the snow was a little cooler and better packed early on.  We once more had a spectacular tour of flora and forest composition.  In addition to the bunny tracks from Saturday, we found traces of deer and possibly wolves (or some other wild canine).  When we got near the top of the downhill mountain, we turned onto an untouched trail with ginormous sparkly trees (and a hefty final climb).  I was munching on snow from mouth-height trees just to feel slightly more refreshed, but the climb was well worth the trouble.  We had decided to go with a more intermediate-temperature kick wax, the untouched snow was once again super-sticky.

Trudging upwards

We popped out of the woods right next to the operational chair lift (there are several lifts built to service the downhill slopes, but there aren't enough people to warrant operating more than the one closest to the chalet), and spent a kilometer skiing along the (quite well groomed/maintained by a community college course) alpine slopes.  We were treated to some lovely views of Lake Superior but were routed back into the woods in no time.

First time on a downhill run!

Superior from the Ski Hill

The next kilometer (to the West Vista) seemed to take forever.  The hill was tougher than expected, and though we were past our halfway point for the day, we hadn't eaten.  One of the friendly guys down at the chalet claimed that the West Vista could fool you into thinking you were in the Rockies.  While the view wasn't quite western, it was lovely.  There were a few of the mountains the Porkies are named for in the distance, with beautiful slopes covered in snow-etched trees.  It was a great place for a large brownie and a few cups of tea (even if I had just slid into a snow bank trying to make it to the bench).

West Vista Outlook

Laying Track

After a 5-10 minute break, we were feeling reinvigorated, and we took off down the hill.  On the way back down the West Vista Trail, we met the first of two people we saw on the trail the entire day.  He was headed off through the woods to backcountry ski his way down the hill, and our chance encounter explained why there were only perfectly parallel tracks going up (even though xc skiers like us had to snowplow like mad to stay at a reasonable speed going downhill on the trail).

Pristine and untracked

Lovely woods

As soon as we made it to the Big Hemlock Trail, we realized no one had touched it since at least Friday.  There was no sign of any ski tracks, and Ali (bless her) ended up breaking at least 5km of trail (probably closer to 12km for the day), sticky snow and all.  Worth the trouble?  Absolutely!!  For one, this batch of forest might have been even more glorious than the bits we had seen before.  (I'm probably just biased by the fact that no one had touched  it recently.) The likely wolf tracks that we found were in this segment, and the rolling terrain was a pretty pleasant change.  There were a couple times that we would turn a corner and just stand in the middle of the trail for a bit, admiring the scenery.

Found at one of the trail intersections

Unfortunately, this didn't last for too long.  Once the trail turns back toward the chalet, it shares a fair portion of its route with the (closed to cars) main park road.  While the road may be closed to cars so far into the park, it isn't closed to snowmobiles.  There were many more snowmobilers out Saturday (making a racket), but there's nothing quite as unpleasant as being on the far side of a snow-berm from a pack of snowmobiles.  The northwoods area has plenty of snowmobile trails between towns, and I'm not a huge fan of lingering gas fumes in a park.  Oh well.

I dragged a bit on our way in.  One brief break helped.  One faceplant into a snow bank did not (nothing horrible - just toppled by rutted, icy snowshoe tracks from the lantern ski).  We made it back to the parking lot and were on our way home by 2:30 or so.  All in all, a lovely trip.  I can't wait to go back.

Porkies XC Skiing - Birkie Weekend Edition - Day 1

Well, Ali and I may not have done the American Birkebeiner this year (54k classic/50k skate nordic ski race), but we certainly used the weekend to get some high mileage skiing up north!

Snow started mid-afternoon and lasted through the evening

Just into the UP, nestled against Lake Superior, is my favorite (state) park in the Midwest - Michigan's Porcupine Mountains (aka the Porkies).  Complete with 42k of "groomed" Nordic ski trails and 12 well-groomed alpine runs, the park has some beautiful woods, plentiful wildlife, and surprisingly few visitors.  We've been up to the Porkies for backpacking in the spring (and will hopefully get up there again this year), and I'm not sure why we always run into so few people.  The park is huge (for the Midwest), and the region (up nort') is sparsely populated, but this park is well worth the 5.5hr drive from Madison.

A bit of pre-broken trail

We followed a winter storm up from southern Wisconsin, and the roads were still in rough shape.  As such, our 5.5 hour drive turned into a 7 hour trek.  Thankfully, we never ended up in giant snow banks off the side of the road (in part due to all those other poor cars that gave us warning and in part due to the brilliantly excessive use of rumble strips).  We made it in extra late to our hotel since the UP is on eastern time; our wonderful hosts left our door open and the lights on.

One of the few open meadows we ran into

Early Saturday, we got up, checked in, and ate (grocery store muffins + yogurt + bananas = breakfast of champions).  A half hour later, we found ourselves at the ski chalet in the Porkies.  As Nordic skiers, we didn't have to pay for a car tag or a trail pass (though we could have paid $5 for a lift ticket instead of skiing up the big hill).  Luckily, they do have a donation box at the trailhead, so our guilt was assuaged.  We planned our route and waxed our skis in no time, so we were on the trail just before some light snow began.  Have I mentioned that the forest in the Porkies is glorious?  Because snow-laden, the different types of terrain are possibly even more stunning.  We skied through some giant hemlocks (with branches covered in fresh, sparkly, dry powder), open birch forests, and some really cool mixed, young woods where thin trees weighed down from all the lake-effect precipitation arched over the trail.

Stunning, eh?

My favorite spots looked like this

We warmed up pretty quickly; I was shedding layers and asking for water before we even hit the first trail intersection (2k in).  There was a fair amount of climbing during the beginning of our day, but the scenery and the unfortunately sticky snow helped.  Though the trails had been "groomed" recently, it didn't feel like the paths had seen any of the packing-and-tracking that I'm used to.  The fresh snow and paucity of visitors exacerbated the lack of grooming.  There were some points that it felt like I was walking on those "toning" shoes with the rounded bottoms because I had upwards of 2" of snow caked to the bottom of my skis.  For those of you less familiar with xc skiing, the idea is to be able to glide along instead of going step-by-step.  Having snow caked on your skis makes it feel like you're trying to walk with giant planks covered in bubblegum strapped to your feet.

Some of the mixed woods

By lunchtime, our legs were a bit fatigued by the snow-sticking problem and by the way we had been cutting tracks instead of coasting inside preexisting ones.  Alas, there was no fire in the warming hut, and we didn't dedicate enough time to get one going.  We had some stellar ham-cheese-bagel sandwiches, brownies, tomatoes, and lukewarm tea, but by the end of our quick break, we were chilly.  We came out of the hut and ran into a ranger-guided snowshoe group.  They paused to let us get a head start, but we had some wax experimenting to do.  Though the air temps really weren't bad this weekend (20s up to freezing), we put on the coldest-rated kick wax, and it solved many of our sticky-snow woes.  We caught the snowshoe pack in no time and beat them up to the east vista.  Further down the giant white tunnel of trail, we ran into some UW Hoofers out on a trip.  They were aiming for the Big Hemlock Trail, but I'm rather certain that they didn't make it that far.  After a brief chat, we headed back down to the chalet for big cups of lemonade/poweraid (we had been working hard!) and a warming fire.

East Vista View

For the end of the afternoon we headed to the Deer Yard trail and found Ali's favorite (birch) forest and my favorite (dark, well-spaced, evergreen) woods.  We grabbed some dinner back in Ontanogon and returned for the evening lantern ski.  Though we were too weary to stop by the halfway bonfire and hot cocoa station, the lanterns + fresh snow + trail combination was pretty magical.  After a half-marathon of skiing, we took our rental car (heated seats!!!!!) and headed back to the hotel.

Lanterns out before the official Night Ski

Happy Adventurers!