Winter Riding

A Pugsley, a Mukluk, a Fatback, a snow bike, a bike.....call it what you will but it doesn't change the death march we did on Sunday.  An ambitious bunch of us gathered at Al Quaal Sunday morning to start/continue a tradition that I hope sticks for a long time to come.  Glen, Tyler, Tim, Even, and I ventured out at 11:00 am from Al Quaal Sunday morning with a finishing point of Marquette.  We all had our layers on, our water bottled, and our food packed, especially Evan who came equipped to feed an army, so we thought.  I think we all planned for about a 4-5 hour ride which to most of us isn't a big deal.  Not a big deal when it's 60 degrees or above.  But when it's 12 degrees everything changes and minutes become hours.

The first half was awesome, we rode fast, we rode slow, we crashed, we ate, we drank, we chatted, best of all we were riding.  We all knew that the first of half of the Noque was hard but on a bike it became extremely difficult.  Even at our leisurely pace calories drained out of us like a dripping faucet.  Muscles was being eaten like a wolf feasting on a dead carcass. This was evident when we reached the highest peak of Granite Point and Tim's already pale face was blending in with the white snow.  He tapped into Evan's carry on refrigerator and tried to replenish.  I think this was the point we all thought, damn that could be us really soon if we don't continue to eat.  Problem was we were all running short on food.  By 510, 3 hours into the ride, we all entered calorie deficits and food conservation mode.  The little hope we had was, as Danny would say, "It's all down hill from here!"  We figured on bikes and down hill an 1 1/2 hour journey to the dome was in the bag.  What we didn't figure for was us completely running out of food, our core temperatures dropping 3 degrees, Evens leaking rear tire, and diminishing sunlight.  We were finally reaching civilization approaching the Forestville trail head and we were starting to smile.  The smiles turned into gut wrenching laughter when Tim's bid for an out was an all out speed daemon approach down the hill finished with a Superman dive face first into the waist high snow.  The view was priceless!

Out of water, out of food, and out of energy we had 5k to go but all that didn't matter as a single track trail through Tourist park revitalized us like a shot of caffeine into the bloodstream.  All was worth it as we played like kids in a McDonald's play pit.   Our 1 1/2 hour estimate turned into 2 hours but we made it.  We pulled up to Tyler's house at 5 hours and 7 minutes of ride time.  Total out in the wilderness time was 6 1/2 hours.    As bad as this may all sound we all cannot wait to do it again next year.

This day would not have been complete with out Vitamin G so we all ate our favorite recover food, Culvers.

Ride Time: 5:07
Miles: 31.8
Elevation Gain: 1,893
Elapsed Time: 6:26
Avg Speed: 6.5 mph
Calories: >4000

Side Note: Today Danny Hill is doing the Arrowhead 135.  That's 135 miles on the same bike we just did 31 miles on.  The consensus from all of us after that ride is.....................DANNY YOU'RE FRICKEN CRAZY!!!!!!!