This past week I was subjected to a vacation to the In-Laws just outside Minneapolis Minnesota. Prior to the trip I was given permission and encouraged to find a way to do some riding while I was there.
I did a bunch of searching and eventually found some trail systems fairly close ( one 5 MINUTES, another 15 min, and a third about 20 min) from their house thanks to the MTB Project APP (I'm gonna use this anytime I'm traveling now). More searching and I found shop in the city that rented Fat Bikes (I would have rather had a fast rolling 29er, more later), then further searching I found that there is a HUGE, well organized IMBA sponsored organization MORC (Minnesota of Road Cyclists) that develop, maintain and oversee many of the trails.
We arrived on Sunday, but I wasn't due to pick up the bike until Wednesday afternoon, so I would spend my time researching more. I found that there was supposed to be a cross country race Wednesday evening at the park on 5 minutes away, but there was a 98% chance of rain (More on this rain thing later) So in an attempt to be overly optimistic I went on Amazon and ordered up 2 lights! The exact same lights I have a couple sets of at home and love and had originally debated bringing. Both arrived on time and started charging.
On Wednesday morning the race was cancelled due to the pending rain, that slowly approached starting Mid Day. At 3pm, not a second after getting the bike stuffed into the trunk the rain and lightning came and continued until sometime in the morning, dropping 2 inches on the trails.
Well it turns out the previously mentioned MORC, while great are building and maintaining the trails is also apparently quite overly protective of their trails and keep them closed (with gates and fences) until they are almost 100% dry. Despite our local feelings about fences and gates, I must respect those gates/fences and rules setup and established by riders building and developing approved trails. OH and these trails are OFF LIMITS to HIKERS and HORSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So left to twiddling my thumbs on Thursday I began looking for options as I now had a $200 rental bike sitting in the garage. I found a river trail that I could not find any "Closure" info about and another paved trail system I would use if the River trail was closed.
So Friday morning off I go to ride the river trail, pull into the parking lot and find a Surly canopy and a couple racks of bikes. Now I'm cursing myself that I could have picked up a free loaner, but it turned out to be a Test Day for the Surly Customer Service reps who's office is only a few miles away. I took a few minutes to talk with the mechanic, who helped tighten the headset.
Off I went to ride what turned out to be a very fun, fast flowy single track running along the Minnesota river. They have off shoots with log rollers, some rock crawls, nicely built bridges, etc. Hell even out at 4.7 miles is a river/creek that is about 20 feet wide, probably about 6 feet deep, they have a giant tree bridge (I wussed out) and a rope FERRY (yes a rope ferry). While the ferry appeared in minor disrepair, I decided 4.7 was a good spot to turn around anyway.
Upon returning to the car, I chatted with the now 3 Surly mechanics for a bit about what trails I should ride on Saturday, fat bikes, etc and how San Diego is their worst market because everyone here needs fancy carbon and BLING!
Later that same day I decided that since I now had lights I would head back over and do the river trail in the dark, which is always a fun time! Thankfully the only critters I saw in the woods were squirrels and a couple other riders.
After dinner I was checking trial status and found that the trail complex 5 minutes away was now open and from a earlier drive by found the official open time was 5 am, due to other schedules, I decided a 6:30am ride would get me on track for the many things I had planned.
So off I went at 6:20 to hit the trail at 6:30am, it was the first time I used lights in the morning. I was reminded with frost and ice why I love my shoes, they are very well ventilated, so are nice and cool (for summer riding in San Diego) BUT G DAMN were my feet cold!!
Anyway, off I went to explore this maze of swithback trails, with tech features, log rolls, rock climbs, a 40+ foot long 8" wide, chest high balance ride, numerous bridges, etc. OH and all of it ONE WAY! (Really nice considering the trail is very much single track 12 inches wide almost everywhere.
This step drop was about 40 feet long ridden towards the camera.
YOU ARE HERE trail maps!!! With Distance markers
After finishing this ride and returning to the house by 8:45, I had to bring Krista to the northern part of town to visit a friend. Well...... Lucky for me, there was another trail system not 20 minutes from there that was on the list of places to try!!!!!!!!!!
So I head over there and getting ready for ride number 2 of the day. Compared to the first ride where I was the only one on the trail, this location was PACKED! So I made nice with a couple guys next to me getting ready so I'd have someone to ride with. One guy was on a single speed "Narrow Fat Bike, 3" vs the 4.6" I was riding and his Newb Brother on a borrowed Fat bike, perfect as I was now starting to feel the ride from earlier and the previous day.
Again this trail system turned out to be well groomed and maintained One Way single track. All of these Bike Parks except the river trail, are laid out in a way that there is a couple mile "Beginner" loop that leads into an Intermediate loop, that leads into an "Expert" loop. Now as far as these different levels, it's really just a matter of how many more "Climbs" and features there are. But even a Newb can ride everything as every feature has a go around, with some of the more fun features having return loops to repeat!
At the intersection to the "Expert" section the guys I was riding with decided it was a great place to stop and MAKE, yes MAKE coffee.
After this break I had to take off ahead as it was getting later than I wanted and had other plans, which I will get to after the rest of the bike pictures!!
Got it good an dirty!
So NOW, after having rode 20 miles over the 2 rides, I headed back to the house to clean up so I could head out to check out a place called Brickmania, which is a company that makes independent LEGO Kits, pictures will do the explaining. Then return the bike..
And the returning of the bike! The guys at the shop were happy to see it dirty, because they knew I got some good miles in.
