Thumbing my nose at injuries!

Went to meet a few local guys for a ride. Temps around freezing. Rode a mile or so on the paved bike path then took a hard left onto the unpaved section. I didn't make it as I went down hard sliding on the ice.

Broken in 3 places and into the knuckle.....went to Dr. the next morning and they splinted it.

After a week went back in to see Dr. He said go for it as to biking. Said if I crashed again and broke another bone shouldn't be any that are in the cast.

Flipped the shifter to the left side.

 Can gripe fairly well.

Fits in the pogie....that's good as no glove will fit over the cast.

Rafting Kettle River, MN

From last August. Lynn won a raffle at one of the "Among The Wild" showing last winter.
Kettle River, MN. North of The Cities.
Good time.

Slight rain at the start....The Fun Bus

Escape Plan.....The Shack....2015....and some fall activities

Spent the fall relocating the Shack to The River.
Did a couple local races, kinda took it easy....except for the one face plant.

On the same trail near the same spot where I launched off the rock on the left and landed in the tree on the right.

And the results.

Added a storage shed. Moved it from my BIL land....120 miles at 25 mph through all the back roads I could find on a Sunday afternoon.
The canoe crew helped load it.

Putting in the new road...Uncle Rudy at his best, doing his thing.

 The Goal.

Jason exploring.

With Uncle Tom.

Deer Camp.

Steps to the river, thanks to Tom.

From the deer stand.

A visitor that is looking for a place to take a long nap.

Last night at Deer Camp....a little party action.

Heck Epic 2015

Heck Epic.
Northern Minnesota 2 day stage race.
Day 1. 100 miles through the woods from Two Harbors, MN to Ely, MN.
Had to carry own camping gear.
Day 2. 106 miles through the woods on a much tougher route from Ely back to Two Harbors.

Results:
20th place Day 1
10th place Day 2
13th Overall Combined Men, no age groups

Day 1 nice sunshine, Day 2 rain most of the day. Slimy trail at times, trees down, huge mud puddles.
Enough pavement/nice dirt to give the cross bikes a good time, likewise enough rough stuff to give the mtn. bikes a good time.
Jeremy Kershaw put together a great race. Logistics were excellent, the route was fantastic, the cue cards were right on, camping area was superb with plenty of room, a lake to wash/swim in. Town was only a 1/2 a mile away to go get a snack or a brew and dinner at Stony Ridge was literally yards away. With 50, yes 50, different hamburger combinations it was a dining experience.
Nice touches were the $15 dinner voucher for dinner and the catered breakfast that were "free" as part of the entry fee.


There was even a shelter (see pic below at breakfast) to dive into during the night when the massive thunderstorm/lightning hit and scared many in-doors or they "cheated" on the camping equipment and couldn't handle the downpour and needed to run for dry cover.

In any case, if you're looking for a weekend of riding fun in northern MN I'd highly suggested looking into this event. Great ride/race and social event to get to know your fellow racers. Met some new friends and got to know some folks better.

Breakfast, Day 2. Me in the yellow.

All pics credited to Jeremy Kershaw.

My sandal setup. Finish line Day 2.

Women's winner, Beth Wagner. Beth and I know each other from a few WI races. We teamed up at mile 50 on the 2nd day and by and large pulled a small group of riders through a headwind and set the pace. At the 90 mile mark it was just us 2 and we crossed together. We had a great time riding together, pushing each other.

Camping area.

Some tried a fire but the rains made short work of it.

My spot. Green bivy tent.

Got my tight shoulders taken care of.

Finish Day2. Top 15 for the combined race