Crazy talk

So we're thinking about some bike camping in the mountains of Montana, and I'm thinking about putting racks on the Instigator. "Wait what," you say. "that has no braze ons for racks" you say.

yes. The Instigator has no handy braze ons for racks or fenders (yes there is an eyelet where nothing can reach, for all the good it is).

The instigator may not be the first bike a person thinks of when it comes to camping. But it takes everything in stride when it comes to rocks and bumps. Last summer I took it camping successfully in Wisconsin. So there.

So now I need to figure out a way to pack my half of the gear on a bike without any way to bolt in.

I'm riding rigid, and have the beasty Instigator fork. Today I happened to be perusing the Salsa website, and noticed that the Enabler fork is less than an inch taller and only 2mm more rake. And so I says to myself: "AHA!"

I'll use the conduit clamps to attach a rear rack, but now I'll be able to switch the bike to disc brakes, carry my portion and maybe not go broke...

Yooper Weekend

So Friday we drove up north.

Not to Brainerd or Fargo or Ely, but to Upper Michigan.  My Grandma's cabin is over on Lake Gogebic and we enjoyed a nice quiet weekend of Saunas, hiking, and biking.  

On our way to Duluth we drove through the campgrounds in Banning State park to scope out choice camp sites there.  If we aren't going to hike into the woods, I like to have sites on the inside of curves so that as people drive around we don't have to look at their headlights.  Then we stopped at Fitgers and refilled our growler.  The Blueberry Wheat lacks the gentle subtlety of the Apricot and the rich mouth feel of the stout.  Though we haven't tried everything, I think the Apricot Wheat is the best followed by the stout.

Orchard's in Iron River sold us lunch of burgers and pie.  The wild blueberry pie is very good, and the cherry pie is also very good.

We stopped quite a bit driving up.  More than usual and it took nearly 6 hours becasue of that.  But it was nice easy driving, compared to trips that have been in snow or rain especially.  

The Porcupine Mountain State Park is one of my favorite state parks.  One of the more easily accessible trails, the Escarpment Trail, seems to have seen more traffic since I frequented the park and for a ways has lots of fencing to keep people onto the trail.  But my favorite trail, The Little Carp River Trail, is just as I remembered it.

One awesome thing about the LCRT is its annoying distance from civilization.  From Wakefield or Ontonogon it is roughly a million miles driving on a two lane road.  And then a ways down an old dirt road.  But unlike the Escarpment Trail's rocky path, the LCRT is all soft pine needles.  Excellent for hiking and tenting. Here's a nice map.  

I'm saving some significant stories for the next post about the wildlife.

there is something terribly broken about that last sentence.  lets take a moment.

whew.

Where are the rest of your pants?

It's Frenchie and Sir Walter relaxing by the Wisconsin boarder!

















Shannon put the fire wood on her bike and we rode around the park laden thus.




God dammit.

It has been a while since I updated.

The last time I posted the van was running perfectly. Since then we went to St Croix State Park. Which was awesome! We went fishing. We went biking. We went hiking. We played Frisbee.

here are some pictures

The tent worked perfectly. The old Boy Scout favorite proved easier to break down than I even remembered. Which made the nieghbors jealous—with their raspberry shaped dome tent and a dozen different sizes of poles.

What we aren’t prepared to go without is esspresso. If I haven’t mentioned how awesome the 9 cup Bialetti mocca pot is, here I am saying an aluminum espresso pot that works on a camp stove or the kitchen burner has infinte utility. Every camping trip we’ve been on has had espresso. Which boggles other’s.

Frenchie didn’t like the washboard of the gravel roads in the park. My teeth didn’t fall out but my steel waterbottle did cartwheels. In fact, the water bottle worked pretty badly.

maybe...just maybe...old french road bikes are not mountain bikes. I know, it’s hard to believe but perhaps there is a difference.

So, as the weekend wrapped up it also got toasty out. We tried some of the Munger trail on our way out of Hinkley but Shannon’s tire started to seriously bulge. The three year old tires started to come apart in the middle of the tread. By the time we got back to the van the rubber was rubbing on the fender.

We were able to dodge a lot of traffic by taking 35w to the Cleveland exit and sneaking into St Paul through the U of M campus. We did stop at Fleet Farm in Blaine and finally picked up an axe. So we'll be able to chop our own tinder, which is awesome.

On our way back, the van was running a little hot, but, I figured that 90 degree heat would explain that away. It had been running a bit rough but I just figured that I was needing a bottle of seafoam.


Shannon had me pick up a kettle for canning. It sorta fit on the rack...



This past Saturday the engin temperature skyrocketed. So Shannon took it into the shop only to get bad news. antifreeze in the oil from the headgaskets. Crap.

what did the van get us at Upull?

300 bucks.

Monday I test rode a Crosscheck. On smooth surface it felt sorta like Frenchie, but without low speed squirrliness. On bumps it was a dream. Tonight I test rode a Big Dummy on my way home from work, which was also smooth on bumps, but the Crosscheck had more electricity.

Did I mention we are looking at buying a car?





The question they asked at work was :

"John, where are the rest of your pants???"