Fatbikin' through the Cities...

Last weekend I only had a single day off due to picking up some overtime at work, so I wanted to take advantage of my Saturday and get out on the Mukluk.  Angry Catfish Bicycle + Coffee Bar, a locale bike and coffee shop was having a celebration day of sorts as they were kicking off their 3rd season in business.  I rode over and met some good friends of mine there for coffee and pastry's before heading out of more riding throughout Minneapolis and St Paul.  I have to say I really like this bike shop, and plan to spend more time over there.  They've been a little out of the way for me as I don't get into MPLS very often other than the airport, but now that we live in Highland Park the Catfish is much closer to us.  They have fantastic coffee, a very knowledgable staff, and deal in nothing sweet bicycles and gear.  I think a well spec'd Surly is the lowliest bike I saw in the place.  

After social time at the Catfish, my friend Jonathan and I pedaled over to the Lake Calhoun area, as his coworkers were doing a Polar Plunge (jumping into the lake through a hole in the ice- a questionable northern tradition).  He stayed there for a bit while I grabbed some lunch, and then we met up again for a ride through the many rail to trail corridors in MPLS, which took us under Target Field downtown, and eventually road the east side of the Mississippi back down to my area of STP.  

The ride conditions earlier in the day were fantastic, with snow falling and cold surfaces to ride- a light layer of packed snow in most places.  Quick riding on the big tires.  However, as the day passed, it warmed up just enough that most paths and streets turned wetter, kicking up a constant light spray onto my bike that ended up freezing on contact.  I picked up more ice than I've seen on a bike in quite a while.  There was so much that the weight difference was very noticeable.  It was like carrying a bunch of extra water bottles.  

All and all a good ride and a good day.  I've picked up my third cold of the year this week, and if I can deal with it I hope to have another good ride day this weekend... 

Em and Svea enjoying hangin' at the Catfish..Svea was loving Em's sunglasses, and got to touch all the bikes.  :)

A few shots of all the ice I picked up on the Mukluk riding home...

I became pretty committed to the middle ring halfway through my ride as the front detailer was dealing with this... 

There's a bottom bracket in there somewhere...

Maui 3

After we watched the sunrise over the Haleakala Crater, it was time for a good hike down into it.  We didn’t have our backpacking stuff along, and I was pretty amped to get my bike put together later in the day for some riding, or it would have been pretty hard to get me away from packing out and spending a night or two down in the crater.  There are backpacking sites, as well as cabins that the NPS stocks with wood. 

Despite our hike needing to be limited to a day trip, it was pretty fantastic.  We took off from the summit visitor center down the Sliding Sands Trail, and hiked to Ka Lu’u o ka ‘O’o, which is one of the many cinder cones down in the crater. 

We started out pretty cold, as the wind chill values were down in the upper 20’s, which the park service workers commented was pretty rough even for up there- it was a particularly windy morning.  But the wind eventually died out as we traveled lower, the sun warmed us, and layer after layer ended up transferring to our packs. 

I thought it was great to be hiking above the cloud layers hanging over the ocean.  It’s a surreal place to be, up in a volcanic crater, surrounded by super dry conditions, all the while looking down at rainforest and ocean.  I’d love to someday make the backpack trip from the summit all the way down to the ocean near Kipahulu.  I’d have to get my knees ready for that one. 

I don’t feel like I’m done with the hiking in Haleakala by any means; I feel we only got a taste, but I’m not sure when we’ll have a chance to return.  There are so many places in the world to visit.  I’m glad we got out and took of few pictures to try to keep the experience with us. 

When we got back to the visitor center at the summit, I let my Long Haul Trucker out of it’s box and put it together.  All in all, it traveled well, but I did need to do a bit of minor wheel truing, as the hubs take a lot of pressure from the sides of the case.  It’s a huge bike to be in an airline size case.  But it works!  I got a lot of looks and comments from tourists that were passing by on how much fun the coupler bike looked.  Everyone wants to see the bike that splits in half. 

To finish off the day, Alison took the rental car back down to the campground, and I followed on the Trucker.  She had decided not to rent a bike for the trip, as she was fighting a cold pretty bad by the end of our hike.  

We weren’t excited about our camp food that night, and buckled under the temptation of dropping down to Pai’a on the coast for a dinner of seafood burritos.  I have no regrets about the decision, despite it not really being that short of drive.  We drove back up the mountain and slept well. 

Heading down into the crater...

Hiking around the rim of Ka Lu’u o ka ‘O’o...

Trucker getting out of it's box...

Yup.

Hiking route can be seen HERE.

Maui 2

For the second Maui post, I'll just leave you with a couple pictures, and a link to a video of the sunrise we took in at the summit of Haleakala.  

Zoomed in over the crater...

Looking off to the west just after sunrise and seeing the shadow of Haleakala over the West Maui Mountains and the ocean...

A rough video of the sunrise can be viewed HERE.

Maui 1

This post was written a couple weeks ago, but just added now due to computer issues...

It’s taken me over two weeks to get back to some sort of rhythm at home since returning from Hawaii.  Between home projects while settling into our new place, bike projects (to be announced), and flying trips for work, I’ve barely had time to sit down and get everything blogged about our trip, which was a great winter escape.   Rather than attempt to squeeze every detail that I’d like to about Maui trip into one stretched out post, I’m going to break it up into sections.  I’ll begin with, well, the start of the trip.

We’ve tried to fly standby to Hawaii a few times, with some success and some failure.  More failure in recent years, so we decided to try a trick that another pilot clued us into.  We searched for flights on the west coast that didn’t connect from anywhere before heading to Maui.  I guess they tend to be more open.  We found a great early morning option out of L.A., so we flew out there the night before and got a well, economy is what we’ll call it, hotel room to spend the night.  Not much sleeping- just listening to a very loud and half hysterical (in a humorous way) Asian couple through the wall.  I don’t know what was so funny because I only speak English and a bit of Spanish, but they had a better night than us.  We managed to sleep a couple hours, and then headed back to LAX and caught our flight to Kahului.  Five hours later, we were flying by Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on the Big Island and descending past Haleakala on Maui to land.  I like volcanoes.  Riding Haleakala, which is a Maui favorite, was on my list, and flying over it’s huge slopes got me pretty excited for the trip.  Until then, I’d been so wrapped up in working and the house that it hadn’t really settled in that we were going to get to spend a week on a beautiful island in the Pacific. 

We claimed all our bags (to include my coupled Long Haul Trucker which made it just fine), got our rental car and some groceries, and headed out down the Hana Highway, which skirts around some beautiful scenery along the northeast to east side of the island, and leads to some of “old Hawaii”.  Hana and the areas around it are the places to see if you’re looking for laid back agricultural Hawaii where people are selling fruit out of their pickups and basically just hanging out all day.  It’s pretty relaxing.  I think that fruit was the best food I ate the whole trip, including the expensive Luau we went to at the end. 

We camped at the Kipahulu end of Haleakala National Park that first night, which is a free campground just above the ocean down the road past Hana.  I was pretty bummed out to find it full of loud party crowds since I’m all for solitude while camping, but everyone quieted down and slept at nightfall.  Our site wasn’t really a site but a grass patch next to our car, but it was a free place to sleep.  All in all, I can’t say I was impressed with our beach camping experiences on the trip, as it seems to be where all the inebriated and baked people pile together, and a lot of the beach campgrounds we saw seemed to be half gypsy camp than tourists.  If your play your cards right and learn the convoluted permit system in Hawaii, you can plan better than we did and find some peace on permit required beaches.  We’re going to try for those places next time.  I think the Kipahulu camp may be a good place, but we hit it on a Saturday night, which was probably the reason for the crowd. 

Anyhow, the next morning, our first full day in Maui, we hiked the ‘Ohe’o Gulch on the Pipiwai Trail, which is some of the only hiking in Haleakala National Park down on the rainy side of the Island.  It’s a hike full of rainforest, bamboo stands, wild fruit (we enjoyed ripe passion fruit this time of year), and beautiful swimming holes (watch for flash floods signs though- people get flushed here), and Waimoku Falls. 

We spent the rest of the day retracing the Hana Highway, where we met a guy selling banana bread who was a transplant from Uptown here in the Cities.  He bakes a great traditional macadamia nut banana bread for being a non-native.  He gave us some camping tips for future trips too.  

After getting back from Hana, we headed up Haleakala Hwy, with Hosmer Grove Campground as our destination for the night.  We came prepared not only for beach camping, but for camping at 7,000 feet, which is where Hosmer is at.  It’s the second Haleakala National Park campground, and I liked it much better than the people pile down in the warmth, but it was chilly at night.  Much like MN in the spring and fall.  Not what people think of when they think of Hawaii.   

The next couple days brought some great experiences on the volcano, both via boot and bike, but that’ll be my next post…

Flying in past the Big Island and Haleakala...

Passion fruit all over the trail...

Bamboo forest...

Waimoku Falls...

Not sure what kind of tree this is, but it seemed to be the king of the area...

Along the Hana Highway...

Kipahulu Campground of Haleakala National Park...

Seven Pools area just prior to the ocean as the O'heo' Gulch spills out...

Great camp food...

Hosmer Grove...

Looking out from Hosmer Grove up the slopes of Haleakala...

Winter?

I still haven't gotten my computer in to be looked at, so the Maui posts are still coming. For now, I thought I'd update from my phone again with a wireless keyboard to at least write about some recent cycling.
The weather outside is now at least attempting to be winter. Our forecast was originally calling for a foot of snow to finally fall here in the Cities, but as the week progressed, it ended up being moderate rain, followed by ice, followed by snow, now back to rain. A mess, in other words. I of course went riding anyway last night, and it was an hour of solid moderate rain, some freezing on contact, at 32 degrees (plus it was windy). A nice night for the Karate Monkey with studs. I stayed warm, but not dry I was wearing a full suit of "waterproof/breathable" outerwear, which no matter how much money you spend, nevers keeps you completely dry. The important part is keeping warm even when wet.
I rode my standard locale loop around the Mississippi River, and did not see a single other cyclist. I'm sure there were other out, I just didn't happen to run into anyone. If I had ridden the Greenway I'm sure I'd have seen folks. We're known in the Cities for riding in anything. I'd have posted a picture of the ride from my phone, but it was simply too wet to take it out of it's layers of plastic bags that were keeping it safe.
I may head out tonight on the Mukluk and ride now that there is a few inches of snow laying around.
Speaking of the Mukluk, I inadvertently raced on it last weekend. :) Why I saw inadvertently is that I signed up for an fatbike event advertised as a "ride, not a race", but everyone got pretty excited, and the pace ended up as very race-like for me. I had a great time pushing myself on the big tires.
The event was the inaugural Frozen Fatbike Forty, or FFF, held at Elm Creek Park Reserve in the Champlin, MN area. About 50 fatbikers showed up and took in several laps of a ten mile single track course through the woods, as well as coffee, food, and beer around a couple good campfires. I'm sure the event will be held again next year and end up seeing even more riders, as everyone was pretty stoked about how much fun this year was, so I'd recommend keeping an eye out for it. Much fun.
I'll try to get my computer running soon and post about Maui and all the fun we had there, but for now, stay tuned...

Computer down...

So my computer isn't cooperating lately...I'm updating from my iPhone. It might be a bit longer until I can post the Maui entries. Thanks for your patience as I may need to take my computer in to get looked at...

Maui

Short post...I have 3G for a bit so I thought I'd chime in from afar-Alison and I left winter behind for a few days to hang out in HI. I'll have more- hopefully to include Long Haul Trucker pix from riding Haleakala later. We're not touring- I brought the bike for some day-riding, but I think it's gonna be good. Yup.
Last night we camped on the beach past Hana, tonight we're up at Hosmer Grove in Haleakala Natl Park. We hiked Ohe'o Gulch (sp?) today, we'll hike tomorrow up high in the park, and probably bike the next day.

Trailer

Well, I guess this will be picture-less since I forgot to take one, but I just enjoyed using my BOB trailer that I purchased last year, but haven't used yet due to the impracticality of living in a second floor apartment for so long.  Alison and I just did a car free errand trip around our neighborhood, stopping by the hardware and grocery stores, and the trailer hauled quite a lot.  I wasn't sure what to expect as I've never pulled a bicycle trailer, and the streets were ice covered (I was riding the Karate Monkey with studded cross tires), but things went fine.  I can't give any sort of review at this point since I haven't used it long enough, but all I can say is the trailer feels way different than panniers.  I'll have to see how I like it over time.
I haven't had the Mukluk out this weekend, as we've been settling into the new place; I hope to get out and ride soon.  It'll be a busy week with a very full teaching load, as well as starting the ball rolling on finishing my garage and getting a shop space set up out there.  It'll be so nice to have bicycle wrenching territory.  That's all for now...

So warm..

I rode my first bike commute to work from the new house today. Jan 9th, and it was super balmy. I can't remember commuting to work in January without a face mask, and today I barely needed a jacket. In fact, on the way home I rode in a long sleeve light weight merino wool base layer, and a super light windbreaker. Not normal. I'll take it though. And after all the Mukluk riding, my Karate Monkey, which always feels piggish after road biking, felt quick and nimble. I thoroughly enjoyed being out and always. No pics; I was too busy riding I guess.

In other bike news I picked up a frame bag from Revelate Designs for my Mukluk. Salsa and Revelate have teamed up to make custom bags for their fat bikes, and I got a pretty good deal on one with some Christmas money. It's a start on outfitting the Mukluk for bigger adventure rides. If we do ever have winter I'm heading up North with it to ride some forest service and snowmobile routes in the woods. I think our warm stretch may be over as of Thursday, so we'll see what happens.

Settling in...

Well, we moved into our new house over the weekend. We couldn't have asked for better weather. Our warm winter continues, at least until later this week, and we enjoyed temps near 50 degrees as we hauled all our stuff from the apartment and my in-laws place. We had both sets of parents helping us, and it actually all went very quick.

The new place in Highland Park...

Now we just have to get situated. And take breaks to get outside now that I'm feeling better. I've been getting pretty stir crazy having not been enjoying the outdoors anywhere near enough lately. I did get out for a "I'm sick but I'm going anyway" ride last week, and it was pretty brutal. It was the one bad weather stretch we've had for quite some time; pretty much just a day and a half, but it was very, very windy. Steady over 30mph, with gusts close to 50mph. That combined with snow and ice from the night before (which is pretty much gone now) made for a slog. And if you know me, there is something wrong with me, cuz I love a good slog, but this one was particularly challenging due to the sickness. I came home pretty wrecked, but satisfied that I got out and rode after so much time in the recliner.

Shoreline of the Mississippi...

Somewhere in Crosby Farm Regional Park...

So tired...

I may try to break away from unpacking today to try my first run since my most recent surgery. I was just getting ready to start easing back into running and climbing last month when I caught the crud, so that's gotten moved to now. I'm a bit nervous to see how my chest feels since it's back to clicking a bit, which my doc wants to wait a few more months to see where it goes before doing any more cutting. He tells me to get out and build some muscle though, getting back to all activities as this supposedly helps with bone/cartilage health. I simply have to get back in better shape though. This surgery business that was supposed to improve my health has taken a toll on it so far.

Keeping us busy, we also have a vacation block coming up at the end of the month, which we need to decide on where to go. Someplace warm is the current plan, but we haven't officially nailed down a location (which doesn't seem to happen until a couple days before since we travel standby).

I'm sure we'll find something fun to do. I'd really like to bring the Long Haul Trucker wherever we go. And there may just be a plan in place to get Alison a coupler bike too. The only problem is she has a short torso and long legs, and there aren't any non-custom steel touring bikes made specifically for women out there, so most cockpits are long for her. We'll see what we end up doing. Perhaps a LHT with a mountain'sh ergo-bar in lieu of a traditional road bar. I haven't decided if that's a reasonable route or not. I'd rather have a top tube that's right, but it doesn't seem to be out there without spending all our money going custom.

Anyhow, I have unpacking. More to come...