Father's Day Ride - Horseshoe Lake

For my Father's Day ride Jenny and I saddled up for what turned out to be a three-hour ride on the Forest Roads in the Chequmegon-Nicolet National Forest.  Although technically my bike is a 29+ it is close enough that, to me, it is a fat bike.  Jenny has a Surly Wednesday so this was a fat bike ride.

When people talk about fat bikes quite often it is about their amazing float.  You can ride them on terrain where a regular mountain bike would sink into snow/sand/mud - they can truly go where other bikes just can't.  And, yes of course, this is amazing.  But one thing about fat bikes that doesn't get much press is just how comfy they are.  Sure you can ride a regular mountain bike down a gravel road...and it'll bounce you around quite a bit.  Enter the low-pressure, high-volume tires of a fat bike and things smooth out.  The bumps get swallowed by the huge tire.  When it really comes down to it I am a lazy, comfort loving animal.  Fatbikes for me!

Tracks of a mama and fawn (and, of course, bikes)

Mama and fawn ran together down the road in front of us and around the corner.   We couldn't see exactly what happened next but they got separated - and went a little frantic trying to get back to each other.

We came around a corner and there was a bear in front of us.  The wind was at our backs going directly towards it.  It not only didn't run but sauntered first away and then turned back towards us.  It was a ways off and never acted even slightly aggressive and Jenny and I weren't nervous (we've both had enough experience around black bears to know that they're almost always weenies and/or bluffers) but I must say I was happy to see it turn off the road - like I said, it was a ways off (the picture below is as far zoomed in as my camera would go) but if it had kept coming much I would have started to get a bit antsy.  We waited a bit, mainly in case it was a mom with cubs who were trailing behind, and then continued.

I guess if I was a mama deer I'd be frantic too knowing that there are bears around to eat my fawn.   

As I was riding along I glanced down and saw a curvy green stick that was evenly tapered on one end.  As it was about a foot or two off to my right side I didn't run it over but didn't notice it until it was about even with my bottom bracket.  It couldn't see what it was but I knew immediately that it was worthy of a turn around.  They saw to embrace your inner child and it might have been a really good stick.  I'm not totally sure but I think it's a Smooth Green Snake (I'm not being smartass that really is what they're called - Google told me so so it must be right)

In the three hours of riding we covered just shy of 21 miles.  Not all that fast - but since we care more about enjoying the ride that doesn't matter.  We saw so many interesting things that we may have just either blown by or had oxygen-debt induced tunnel-vision and missed.  (I've done both of those things far too often back in my racing days)