Loop Out of Orangeville

The Hills are taller than Silos

Fence Post Decorations

I was surprised to see an atv trail as part of the route.

Mountains in Illinois

Crush it

http://www.strava.com/routes/3255625

WEMS race at Southern Kettles

WEMS race at the Southern Unit of the Kettle Moraine was Saturday.  I typically do the long/solo division, but decided to help out with registration and scoring during the day and race the short/solo version. I had a great time hanging out with Jamison and Jason all day, we took it super serious and had no fun at all (read that sarcastically).  I put nearly all the 6 hour folks into the computer, so if something went wrong with your time I apologize.  If nothing went wrong then it was probably due to beginners luck!

I saw some pretty impressive performances out there.  I haven’t looked at the official results yet, once I do I will add some comments and story to the report.

If you see yourself or a friend in a photo, feel free to take copy or share it.

Sunday Service

 This Sundays Service was held at The Church for the Community of United Treadheads.  Presiding Pastor Baggio directed the service while Archbishop Butch was out sacrificing his time and energy into maintaining the service grounds.  TJ and I were privileged to be in attendance.

Treadhead Rock Garden

Photos from the Chequamegon Trip

Here are a few more photos from our trip up north last weekend for the Chequamegon 100(Race report HERE).  We had a great weekend, Evan said a couple times “daddy I wanna live here.”  I don’t think he realizes that summer begins in June and ends in July up there, but we all enjoyed our time away.

Chequamegon 100 report

The Chequamegon 100 – 100 mile single track mountain bike race, in Northern Wisconsin in the Chequamegon National Forest.  The course does not use the same trail twice, it is one giant 100 mile loop starting in Cable going east to Lake Namekagon , then south to Hayward and back north to Cable.  All the money from the registration goes back to the trails.

I showed up early to the pre-race meeting on Friday and went for a ride.  I had never ridden the area before and wanted to see what it was like.  I was running a 32:17 on the single speed, which is what I always run, but I heard a few people were running much lower.  After much thought I decided to switch to 32:18, and was very thankful that I did.

The trails on Friday were perfect, but rain was in the forecast overnight and when I woke up in the morning I was pretty pumped to see that it hadn’t rained.  We were staying about an hour away from the race, so Christina and I had to get up pretty early to get the kids up and moving. About 15 minutes before the start it started raining.  The rain would continue until 6 hours into the race. 

The start of the race is a roughly 3 mile gravel road to the single track.  This is great for guys on single speeds (sarcasm… as in “real fucking great”).  The trails were actually in really good shape at this point, muddy but “rideable.” The grime was quickly eating away brake pads and wearing out chains all over.

The forest roads that we used to connect sections of trail were awful, like quicksand. The roads were so soft you could count the number of riders ahead of you with the ruts they left behind. Getting back on the single track was so nice.

Photo by Marty Larson

About 40 miles in, I made it to the HWY OO trail head where I planned to meet up with Christina in case I needed anything. I quickly filled my camel pack and grabbed an extra chain, some brake pads, and tools out of the tool box. At this point the trails had standing water and I knew it was going to be a “take care of the bike” kind of day. I wasn’t worried about the weight from the tools and chain; I just wanted to make sure I could keep the bike running.

20 more miles of single track and we were in the Hayward area, where the drop bags were placed. This seemed to be the deciding point for most people. Many had already dropped and I saw others loading up bikes in cars here. Which is a bummer because the trails only got better from here, I feel like if you made it to the Hayward checkpoint @ 62 miles, you could have finished.  I distinctly remember the rain stopping and the sun peeking out at 5 hours and 56 minutes on the timer, and from that point the trails started to dry and get good.

I left the checkpoint with another rider and we rode the forest roads together for a while.  He was about 20 yards ahead of me when he slammed on his brakes and hollered “I just saw a bear cross the road!” “Do you think it’s safe to ride through?” I said “well, you have gears so he will eat me first!” and we rode on.  From this point I kinda don’t remember much of the race, I was hurting and riding alone so I just rode.

About 5 miles from the finish line Rick Blackford and Mike Curtes caught me.  They were also on single speeds, so we hop out of the woods for the last few miles of black top back to town.  We were spinning our brains out doing 19 mph, I couldn’t stop thinking “man I wish I would have left the 17 tooth on there!” We each took turns leading, but Rick wanted it the most and inched away from Mike and I.

Single Speed Sprint by Chris Schotz

I ended up 14^th overall in 9 hours and 52 minutes, with half the field dropping out.  I went through three sets of brake pads, but the rest of the bike had no issues. A tough race in an awesome area, I really hope to get picked again in the lottery for next year.

Clean up

Frame up restoration

New Camera Mount

When I went up to Almanzo last week, Kurt showed me his camera mount.  It makes it so I can take my regular camera and mount it to the handle bar.  Its pretty sweet, works as advertised, and wasn't very expensive. It leaves the camera pretty exposed to damage in the event of a crash though.

Almanzo 100 2015

                Friday night I left straight from work to meet up with Mike and Kurt, they were kind enough to let me borrow a spot on their hotel room floor for the night.  Once I arrived we just hung out, discussed plans, life, and watched some goofy movies Kurt had.

                We woke up Saturday, got some breakfast and watched the weather. It rained a bit before the start, which made for some gravel splatter everywhere.

                I got in a large group of strong riders and we were hitting it pretty hard. All different genres of bikers were represented in the group. The roadies were trying to get everyone to rotate and work together, but the group was too large to get everyone on the same page. The cross and mountain bike riders attacked the down hills, making the roadies shake their heads in discomfort. We made it to Preston in just over two hours. I hung onto the group till mile 60, when a few of the guys started to turn it up.

 

                I had zero interest in bonking that day so I backed off and held a steady pace for a while. I stopped at the 3^rd checkpoint for a banana and a beer, and then cruised on to mile 90. This is where I got bored of the steady pace and decided to push really hard for the finish.

                I passed a bunch of guys in that last ten miles, but I didn’t stick around to see the results.  I didn’t plan on staying the night again so I wanted to get on my way.

                I stopped at A+W for a burger and Root Beer float which tasted like heaven and vanished quickly, and I hit the road.

                Another great trip to Minnesota – David S

Update 5/19/15 - results are in, 55th of 543 finishers @ 6 hours 12 minutes.