My friend Kevin signed up for a 390 mile bike ride last spring. The course is nearly 20,000ft of climbing, mostly gravel. I was unaware he’d planned to attempt this beast of a ride, and when I asked his local riding buddies if he’d been training one responded, “I mean, we rode to get wings the other night.” Kevin finished the ride in an exhausted, hallucinated haze in the middle of the night with no spectators, but he did it, the whole 390 mile monstrosity. Naturally, this inspired a few of us to sign up this year. And since we are doing it, Kevin said he might as well do it again.

Unlike Kevin last year, I have been trying to train for the ride. I even bought a trainer and have spent countless hours on the stupid thing. Not enough to sufficiently prepare, of course, but enough to wonder why I’m plugging my trainer into the wall to power resistance and bluetooth rather than using that resistance to generate usable power.

In the midst of all these early morning sessions, a few outdoor rides have given me a change of scenery from the sweat covered garage floor. By far the biggest was a 190 miler starting at our house in Duluth, taking the Willard Munger Trail to Hinckley, then connecting to the Gandy Dancer limestone trail in Danbury via some gravel and trail through St. Croix State Park. I started out at 4am, and saw dawn against the basalt walls climbing away from the lake toward Carlton.

source: traillink.com

After that, it was mostly counting mile markers on the straight, flat trail until Hinckley.

The St. Croix State Park section is where things got interesting. I entered through the The Northeast gate and was immediately greeted by doubletrack fire road. This eventually led to a narrow gravel road that meandered across the park from West to East for about 15 miles before my route took me on a trail for another 5ish miles. Just when I thought I had surely taken a wrong turn, the trail popped me out onto a gravel road near Danbury. This section reminded me what I like about long distance rides - exploring new places off the grid that have more interesting terrain. It’s fun to see what’s around the next turn, and there’s a bit of excitement in not quite knowing where you’re going.

I eventually caught up to the grader laying down this wave of sand (middle) and things started moving much faster.

After a few miles of back roads I connected into the Gandy Dancer. Conditions were wheel sucking spongy, but thankfully the trail dried the further South I rode until I eventually met up with my dad who rode the last 30 miles with me back to their house in Somerset before dusk.

The way my body felt waking up the morning after, it was hard to imagine getting back on the bike for another 200 miles as I’ll have to do next week.

My next big ride was only around 90 miles. We were heading to the cities for the weekend. I rode from Duluth and the fam picked me up around Hinckley. It had rained a lot leading up to the ride and more rain was forecasted in the morning, but I guess it was a good chance to see how my gear held up to moisture. While it was a bit annoying taking the time to plan a route, I did not want to spend any more time on rail trails, so I found some back roads to get me to Hinckley mixing in as much gravel as I could find. I left around 4:30 in the pouring rain. While initially cozy in my Lake MXZ 304 winter boots, my toes started to feel a bit wet by the time I was crossing downtown Duluth, and after a deep puddle in West Duluth, my feet were dead. ass. wet. I was a bit nervous starting off with wet feet and temps in the low 40s, but I was feeling just warm enough to make it work. Out of the saddle on the climbs I was wringing water out of the insoles with each downstroke. My goretex active shell eventually leaked, mostly through the zipper, but dried out quickly once it finally stopped raining. My rain pants kept the water out for the most part, but also kept sweat in.

I used a pair of bar mitts to keep my hands warm and dry. In less than a mile I knew the single hand position required with the bar mitts was not going to be ideal if there is extended cold rain in the Heywood, but at least my hands were warm. I couldn’t tell if they were getting a bit damp from rain or sweat until my stop at the Duquette General Store where I wrung out all the rain, so I guess the bar mitts are not very waterproof either. Even my Swift Zeitgeist handlebar bag, which has otherwise been flawless, eventually found its repellency limits in the rain.

If you ever find yourself in bublefuque Duquette, MN, stop at the General Store for a killer breakfast sandwich.

Despite all the moisture, it was a nice ride with some interesting sights. It seemed like the dirt roads still hadn’t come out of the freeze/thaw cycle, and combined with all the recent rain, grabbed the wheels as you tried to pedal through. Even with some makeshift fenders, I brought a castle’s worth of sand home from this one.

General Observations from the trail: The balance between staying hydrated and needing to stop to pee 3 times/hour is not easily achieved

I had always thought of beavers as single dwelling builders, but I guess they do condominiums too

You nutty people are open to better options, but these are were my protein bars ranked worst to best

My sufficient sampling indicates Busch Latte continues to be the most littered beer can in the upper Midwest, though Michelob Golden Light appears to be gaining popularity among litterers.

Saw some cool birds:

- red bellied woodpecker
- great blue heron
- sand crane
- ruffed grouse
- biggest raven I've seen this side of the Rockies
- couple different eagles up close
- two different sets of osprey nesting on telephone poles
- shitload of turkeys

To wrap up this snooze fest: I’ve experienced a long ride, I got a taste of riding in worst case weather, and I’ve spent an exorbitant number of hours pedaling. Do I feel ready for the Heywood 390? No, but what the hell. It’s a one time thing, and I hope it will be a great experience with friends that I remember forever.. and not in a death adventure kind of way. If you’ve read all the way to this point you too may have enough patience for a future in gravel biking.