U.P. Weekend, eh!

What a fun trip to the UP this past weekend!  Lots of riding, lots of gabbing, and maybe too much beer??  So we started out by picking Mark up from work and driving straight north for 4 hrs where we met the McFadden's in Houghton Friday night.  We hung out there and started with the Tech trails on Saturday morning. After some Bontrager tire issues:

Some skills work:

Funny thing is that I made this one but could not make the rainbow??  Mark tried to get video of my failed attempt, but he did not get the camera out in time to catch me taking a dirt nap:)  They couldn't tease me too much though cause I was the only one trying all the attractions! 

So after the tech trails, Todd moved onto dad duty and Mark and I decided to ride over to the Churning Rapids Trails.  We rode over there for the rest of the afternoon and finished it off with a tostado pizza, beer, and fishbowls at Ambassador.  What a great training day! 

After Ambassador we continued North to Copper Harbor.  After a night of more beer at the Mariner and lots of stupid talk, we woke up the next morning to rain!  Yuck!  the rain finally let up around 11 and then it was out the door to enjoy all the great trails around Copper Harbor.  By the end of the day I think I went up Brockway something like 8 times and probably four or five trips up to the Mountain Lodge to make up some 6000 ft of climbing on the day!   My last trip up included a trip down the red trail and my body was so smoked from the tech nature of the trails that I could barely hang on anymore.  In the end it was another fun day of riding. 

All the riding was topped off with the celebration of the Copper Harbor Trails getting IMBA Ride Center status.  Congrats to them, I know all the work that goes into these trails and it shows!  If you have not made the trip north you are missing out! 

Stacey Kukkonen/Daily Mining Gazette

So the party was a lot of fun and yes it included more of the same, beer and stupid talk.  Mark and I really started talking stupid about bikes.  Thinking this needs to be my next bike???

We returned home on Monday to some bike cleaning and the start of prep for this coming weekend, the Mohican 100.  Looks like it going to be cooler than it should be for Ohio this time of year.  Either way I am hoping that it goes better than last and Ryan does something with the trail markings! 

For the rest of the team, Ryan, Mark, and Scott will be at the Mohican with me and Michelle, Sarah, Lisa, Darrin, Mikey, and Myles will be at Wausau.