Sweden Day 2

Went out for a ride after work. The singletrack is literally 60 seconds from the office by bike.
Jumped a doe Roe deer at the start. When I completed the loop, the buck was there. Tried to move in close to get a picture, but he bolted from behind a tree. Moved like a streak of greased lightening. Couldn't get a picture so settled for this picture from the net. Also, some info on Roe deer.

The most common deer in Sweden is the Roe deer, a very small deer that is common in many other parts in Europe as well. Normal weight is seldom over 35 kilos, and the total population is around one million. The Roe deer is frequent in the south and the middle but rare far north. Other deer such as the Red deer and Fallow deer have spread populations but not nearly as much as the moose or the Roe deer.

Got off the trail for about 50 yards to look at an ledge overview and saw where someone might be living in a tent. Seems strange from a country that prides on it's self on social progressiveness. Guess there will always be a few that choose a different option.

In Sweden for work. Brought the GF 29er. Biked about 10 miles north of Stockholm in a town called Kista, where my Company's main office is.
Rode about 12 miles, decent single track. It was a multiple use area so lots of horse (didn't see any, though) and hiker trail crossing, along with some woods road.




































Have no idea what is says, but it looks important!













Not much of a landing area, I went around it.

The "kid" and friends up in the BWCA

Lower Dells, WI River

Lowering the canoe to the river. 7.5 river trip miles from the damn at The Dells by canoe.












Cooler of some beverages and the bike, to get back to the Jeep












The Ducks in action.



























What was once a small creek is now a huge gash, caused when Lake Delton dam broke this spring. Sand was pushed up on the opposite side of the WI River from the force of 600 million gallons of Lake Delton draining in 4 hours, taking houses with it.






















Sandstone islands

Blue Mounds video

Blue Mound mtn. bike race. Put on by the local mtn. bike club.

Mtn. Biking, the Start

I started riding a bike as an adult about 8-10 years ago using my oldest son's bike that he left laying in the garage when he went off to college. I was xc-skiing in the winter and wanted to start doing something in the summer so biking it was.
As I travel a lot for work in the midwest, it was only natural I took it on the road with me. I didn't like the idea of road biking, and the bike was a mtn. bike so I struck out on xc-ski trails as I knew where many were. Had no idea what singletrack was.
I also have taken my bike to Sweden when going there for work a number of times.
My oldest son ( in picture during 24-9 at Wausau) then got me interested in real mtn. biking. He talked about us doing a race series in WI called WEMS. This sounded fun and it allowed for us to spend a lot of time together and share an interest.
For racing I updated my bike and ended up with a Gary Fisher X-caliber 29er, a hardtail (no rear suspension) and a GF Cake (front and read suspension). I bought both used from a local bike shop.
Both of these bikes have been replaced as one got stolen and one met it's maker in an car crash when it was on the bike rack. Stayed with GF but now have a x-caliber 29er and a HiFi Deluxe.

This is the 4th year of WEMS racing although I've been winding down on the racing some and got more into destination riding to MT, CO, AZ, NM, NV, PA, MO and a number of more places.
I get to IN, IL, MI and MN for work.