Hot Cocoa Rides - January

I have thing for hot cocoa and I've come to the conclusion that I drink too much.   So to slow myself down a bit I've been following the following limitations: I get to indulge in hot cocoa only when I'm outside, on a bike ride, heated with my wood stove (no cheating and heating it over the stove at home and then putting it in a vacuum bottle for a ride).

To that end I've decided that a post documenting hot cocoa rides is in order. 

You see, bike rides can just be grab-your-bike-and-go, and usually I'm entirely happy with that. But lately I've been getting back from rides wishing I'd done this or that little extra thing to really make the ride into something a bit more.  I love to bum around in the woods (with bike or without), play with fire and just do woodsy stuff.  I just need a kick in the pants, sometimes, to get me out the door.  Hot cocoa is the dangling carrot that gets me out the door if I need a little extra motivation.

If I plan it right I can just have everything within reach of my chair so I can sit there and have everything I need  

A few scoops of snow made enough water for a small mug of cocoa.

It didn't take long to go from snow to boil.

Just for fun this is what the stove looks like with the pot off (with the windscreen still on)

This was right at sunset and, though most of the forest where I was was in shadow the tallest trees still had the golden-last-light on the tops

Going out for bike rides with Jenny make me happy, and it worked out for us to go out at night, when the moon was full enough that, though it wasn't yet up when we left, we were able to turn our headlamps of and  ride for about half of the  distance.  I also love riding at night with my headlamp off so this was a REALLY good ride.

Rode out, made hot cocoa near a babbling stream, chatted, and rode home.

We had about a solid week of above freezing weather.  It was up in the 40s one day.  In northern Wisconsin in January.  That doesn't happen every year.  Anyway it's back below freezing now and when I went out for a ride this afternoon the trails were frozen hard but, surprisingly, not very icy.  Usually on a weekend with weather in the 20s and sunny the snowmobiles would be out in legion.  I only saw two today.  I suppose riding an ungroomed, rutted, nearly rock-hard trail would be no fun on a snowmobile.  But it was fine on a bike.  I rode to  a spot nearby that has a big daddy white pine and set up to have hot cocoa under it.  Like when Jenny and I went out a couple of weeks ago it was right near a creek and I was hearing the creek talk the whole time. 

Right here there are quite a few springs on the sides of the creek.  Because of this the banks are unstable and trees fall over a bunch.  They're kinda blocking the view of the water here.

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My trusty steed leaning against a white pine that was probably too small to hold the interest of the loggers who clearcut this area back in the 1800s

Hot cocoa heated over wood, next to a babbling creek, under a huge pine, no bugs, with my bike next to me.  I suppose things could be better but not a whole lot

Packing up the stove: dump out the ashes, let it cool down a bit, put the potstand back in upside down. 

Packing up the stove part 2: put the stove in it's stuff sack and the whole works goes inside the pot.

Packing the stove part 3: put the pot (with stove inside) in it's stuff sack and I've found it rides well on a Salsa Anything Cage.

My seat/backrest rolled up and ready to head home.  In the plastic bag is wood fuel for the stove. 

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Snowbiking In The Backyard

I love to step out my front door and go for a bike ride.  Where I live there are a couple parcels of DNR land about a 10 minute ride away one in this direction one in that, and the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest is maybe 20 minutes ride away the other way.  There's a nice trout stream that flows through the DNR land and many times I have thrown my waders and fly rod into my bike trailer and ridden there.  I love living where I do. But unless I'm missing something obvious (which happens with fair regularity) if I have limited time and want to get outside quickly we are lucky enough to have about two acres of woods for me to bum around in.  

Two acres isn't big enough for all that many bike trails but I can grab my bike, step out the front door and be riding on snow trails in the woods in the time it takes me to walk the few hundred feet to the edge of the woods.

But since I don't own a snowmobile (and wouldn't want one if someone gave it to me) or any other, as Gene Logsdon puts it, "piston ringed roarer" suitable for trail grooming, I had to make the trails myself using an engine powered by grits, cheese curds, carrots, chicken noodle soup.  It takes a bit of doing but you can make a perfectly fine snowbike/fatbike trail with snowshoes. 

Starting out I just took short, shuffling steps to start to pack things down

Then I turned around and made a second set of tracks next to the first.

And after the first couple of passes to give the general direction of the trail I went over it a bunch more and stomped it down.  We don't have all that much snow but it's too much to ride through and needs to have a good base for biking.

Since we only have a couple of acres of woods I have to make the most of the space I've got.  So trails criss-cross.

They not only criss cross but intertwine: in this picture you can go from bottom to top (and, of course, top to bottom), left to right, top to right.  This way I won't just be riding the same loop over and over.  Someone better at math (and, more importantly, with time and inclination for such silliness) could figure out how many options there are....

It became apparent rather quick that the trails hadn't quite set.  I'll ride 'em some more when they're hard.  

It's been pretty windy here the last several days.

Later in January...

Last week we had a January thaw.  We didn't have that much snow before then - may 8 inches or so - but it got into the 30s and 40s during the day and most nights didn't fall below freezing.  The trails I had stomped turned to mush.  Now it's back below freezing and things are frozen and icy.  I hope it snows again soon  (and I can start the whole process again and hopefully have time and energy to ride them).

 
    

Water and Milkweed

     A while ago I signed up with the Bad River Watershed Association to do some water testing.  They assigned me to a stream about an hour bike ride away that's near some agricultural land.  I know, I know, a lot of farmers see people sampling water downstream of them as a threat, as anti-farmer.  They would say the reality of farming is having runoff of nutrients.  I see it differently: nutrients/manure are valuable and if the nutrients are in the stream they are being lost.  If I was a farmer I'd want to know if my money was flowing down the stream.  And even if nutrients weren't worth much I'd like to know if I was having a hand polluting.

     Anyway, instead of adding to our environmental pollutants by driving to the sample site I rode my bike there.

Loaded up for water sampling

     Before I left home I had packed a peanut butter sandwich and though I was a bit hungry when I got done at the sampling site, I rode to some DNR land near home - the sampling site is near a highway and this place is just off a lightly traveled gravel road.  Here most of the sound is the stream talking as it flows over rocks and not so much cars whooshing by.

A car or two drove by on the gravel road near here as I ate my sandwich.  

     As long as I can remember I've been into the outdoors.  I enjoy just hanging around outside but I also enjoy utilizing natural materials.  After I got home from sampling I switched to the Krampug (the love child of a Surly Pugsley and a Krampus) and went out to collect some milkweed.  I located a stalk of milkweed, spread the seeds that were left, cut the stalk down, smashed it with the flat of my knife (milkweed has a hollow stem and crushes easily) and busted up the stiff part of the stalk to bend it into loops as seen below.  There was a bit of moisture in it so now it is drying inside and I'll start processing it soon.

Berries

You'd think that after over 20 years of avid bike riding I would have learned a few things.  A rule that should be so second-nature that I don't even have to think about it: Don't leave to go on a bike ride without plenty of fuel in the tank.  And I usually don't (so I guess I have learned something) but recently I hadn't been for a ride for a while and just wanted to GO and so I did.  Five minutes into the ride an empty feeling in my stomach reminded me that it had been a while since I last ate.  But, dang it, I was already riding and I didn't want to turn around.  Well by the end of the ride I was getting a bit punchy and so was looking around in the trees to try and find an unlucky squirrel or bird to eat when I saw these:

Aha!  Serviceberries can't run away.  And while I haven't ever actually tasted raw squirrel and can't make a direct comparison I'm guessing these taste better. 

So I noted that there were still a lot of berries yet to ripen, made a mental note of their position, and rode back again last night.    

Maybe not the mother lode but enough to give us something sweet to munch on for a couple days.  And they're free!

On another ride I noted that there were plenty of blackberries on the way but weren't yet ripe.  I checked them this time and they were:

Magical taste (especially on ice cream) and they're free, locally sourced, good for you.

Cheap Beer

What kind of desperate madman carries nearly 30 lbs of cheap beer with pedal power?  Answer: (assuming no DUI run-ins with the police) one who's having slugs ravage his peas.   

I've been trying to ride my bike more just to run errands in town.  Which is sometimes not the most convenient thing to do as town is 10 miles away.  Luckily we have an old railroad grade that is now a rail trail.  Unluckily I find riding a rail trail a snoozefest and, after a hour or so, kinda uncomfortable (isn't it amazing how often boredom and discomfort go together?).  I suppose I could (and sometimes I do) ride on the road but I hate riding in car traffic.  So most of the time my hatred of riding with big, fast metal things that could kill me gets the best of me and end up riding the boring ol' trail.

In truth the rail-trail pretty great and I really shouldn't complain.  It really is beautiful (especially when the leaves are changing) it's just that it can get a bit monotonous and I forget to look around.  

I went to the grocery store to get a few small things and saw this little guy/gal when I was locking my bike.

The errand I was running was getting beer to make beer traps for the slugs in the garden.  It made for  rather unlikely cargo in the bike trailer.

Between the weight of the trailer and the cargo in it the total weight I was pulling was around 40 lbs  - and even though the grade is pretty slight on the way home I was hauling uphill (a very slight grade but it get rather grindy after a few miles) most of the way.  Character was built.

Two track, flowers, firetowers

There are rides that you take just for fun.  I've talked/typed a fair amount about biking for utility and I think that using a bike to get stuff done is great - but, pardon me, I just like to ride, and make no apology for that.

Yesterday I went out for a short ride and, as usual, didn't know exactly where I was going when I started - I just knew I wanted to go.

Years ago, when I first moved to the area, I went for a ride with my then girlfriend's (now wife) dad.  We went looking for a fire tower not too far from here up in the national forest.  We didn't find it (it's been decommissioned, I'm pretty sure) but did find a little sandy two track that I've always been wanting to go back and ride but never have.

It's been a long time coming riding out on this sandy lane.

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On the way home I found some ripe blackberries.

I Appreciate My Bike - My Bike Appreciates Me

What biker (or most any silent sport enthusiast) hasn't been asked about the price of their bike (or skis or what have you)?  And as often as not the reaction is something like, "I didn't even know they made bikes that cost that much," or "I could never spend that much for a bike when I could get one at Wal-Mart for under $100," or some other response along this line?

Meanwhile nary an eyelash bats when someone from downstate mentions they're heading up north to do a little 'wheelin' this weekend.  And they either have their own ATV (in which case there's not only the cost of the ATV but a trailer to haul it and a vehicle big enough to pull it, registration, trail passes, insurance, etc.  And of course there is costly fuel and/or maintenance on everything) or they're not going to haul anything but the plan is to rent one up here (not cheap).  An ATV (or pretty much any motorsport) enthusiast likely has 10's of thousands of dollars tied up in their recreation but the dude with the $1,500 bike is insane.

And on top of that the more you ride an ATV and don't exercise the more your body depreciates.  Riding a bike helps your body appreciate.  In addition to the many thousands that motorsports cost they do next to nothing to improve your health (not to mention the negative health effects of things like smog, climate changing carbon dioxide, etc.).

Contrast that with biking.  I love my bike, riding my bike makes me healthy.  I appreciate my bike, my bike appreciates me.

give credit where credit is due. I poached this picture off of the internet.