I had the GPS on capturing our ride tracks for the Saturday afternoon MDH ride, and all of the Sunday Buffalo Gap trail ride. You can install Google Earth here and then check out our ride. Unfortunatly, no tracks for the Saturday a.m. ride on the MDH II. Photos are on flickr.
Category: Cycling
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Ride Report
Well the first trip to the Maah Daah Hey trail is over and we’re on our way home. This years ride was dry and sunny all weekend long as opposed to last years mud fest. Our hosts at the Buffalo Gap Ranch we’re awesome and treated us to some excellent steak meals. We consumed quite a bit of prime beef
On Saturday we arrived at the south end of the original MDH trail and parked at the very beautiful Bully Pit Golf course to catck a little sleep and wait for the sun to come up. Eric was out early riding the new bike around the parking lot while the rest of us waited for the temperature to warm up. Later Scott “stole” a golf cart and took it for a joy ride.
Eventually we braved the cool temperatures and changed into the gear. Just befoer we left we were visited by the local sheriff who informed us that the golf course was open and that perhaps we should park somewhere else. I think it has something to do with the gold cart incident. He was pretty soft about it and later we checked with the course people and got the OK.
Our warm-up was a quarter mile steep climb up followed by a lot more steep climbing on the trail. At this point we’re on the MDH II trail a newly opened extension of the original and the gravel on the trail is quite soft and loose as it hasn’t been packed down by too many riders. The scenery is gorgeous and the trail is challenging. One we turn around the ride back seems quick as there more down than up and the howling wind is at our back.
A short drive back to Medora and some of the guys are looking for a place to eat but tourist season hasn’t started yet and nothing is open. We share the food some of us brought and then head out on some familiar trails behind town starting at about MDH mile 5. Right away we cross 3 streams and got our feet soaked and then a killer long climb to the top of the plateau. We came close to the scene of my 2005 crash but managed to take a different trail to explore some new trail.
Back at the ranch some guys had some lunch and then while some napped Doug, Eric and I went out for another short ride. After that it was bring on the beef for a big steak dinner. That pretty much did everbody in and we called it a night.
Day 2 in the next post.
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MDH 2010
We’re getting ready to head out tonight to Medora, North Dakota to ride the Maah Daah Hey trail. I think all the riders are really pumped about the trip as we’ll be riding the new MDH II section of the trail and the conditions are reported to be dry and fast!
I know somebody who has a brand new bike and is itching to give it a good workout on some twisty downhills at some kind of crazy speeds.
Cell phone coverage on the trail is non-existant but there will be some twitter activity (#MDH2010) and some Blog post on the way down and at the end of day.
The only down side is the drive through the night to get there. Breakfast at Perkins in Dickenson at 3am is always a highlight!
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MDH trip getting closer
In a little over a week, we’ll be going to the Maah Daah Hey trail and most likely riding on the new MDH II section for the 1st time. What does the trail look like? Watch the video.
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On the Trainer
In my mind there is nothing more boring that riding a trainer indoors, alone. The time just drags on and on and on. Each tick of the clock seems like an eternity. I’ve tried watching TV, no help. I’m usually listening to a podcast which helps somewhat for the first 30-40 minutes and then I just want it all to be over.
I have one training DVD that I’ve used once a week since Christmas. It’s a one hour killer workout and the time seems to fly by, but you still want it to be over, but for another reason say like so you won’t throw up, or collapse in a heap on the floor. But there is this guy pushing you on. “hurry”, “don’t be last”, “earn you rest day”, it’s sort of a love hate relationship.
BTW, does anybody know someone who speaks Italian? I’m looking for somebody to help me pronounce “Vado troppo veloce per te?“.
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Indoor training on the bike
Back around Christmas time I purchased my first ever Spin workout DVD. I picked the Spinnervals 19.0 Bending Crank Arms. I really didn’t know what I was getting into and the first workout was a killer and I really couldn’t keep up with my on-screen riding companions. The thing I really didn’t know in advance, was the off bike work. In between spin interval sets on the bike there are squat sets off the bike. You’re commanded to do as many squats as possible in 30 seconds and then hold an iso-squat for another 30 seconds, a 30 second rest and then do it again, and again. Then the sets get longer, 45 seconds and then a minute!
Well after 4 weeks of doing this workout, I’m noticing an improvement. I can almost keep up with the crew all the way to the end, no throwing up involved, but it gets close some times. I began to wonder exactly how many squats are involved in a session. Well the pace is about 1 per second and today I managed just over 455 squats. Now some of the keeners on the DVD are holding 5-10lb. dumbbells and I’m not at that level – yet.
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Cycle Log – 01/03
Not exactly a New Years resolution, but this year I’m planning on being in good riding shape when spring rolls around which means some sort of winter training program. So, I’ve got the bike on the trainer, complete with a special rear training tire, and purchased my first ever cycle training DVD. A friend at work recommended Spinervals and I picked up Bending Crank Arms as my 1st pick. What I didn’t notice at the time of purchase was the difficulty rating, a 9.5 out of 10, a great pick for my very 1st training DVD.
I attempted the program three days ago and I’m still feeling it today. Turns out it was more that just cycling and they mix it up with off the bike squat sets. I think it will be several months before I can complete the routine in it’s entirety.
Today was a 42 minute medium intensity spin while listening to John C. Maxwell teaching session, and a 2:50 cool down to Johhny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues. I’m looking for my cycling computer wired sensor for the rear wheel so I can start logging some mileage. I know it’s around here somewhere. Gli ultimi due chilometri sono micidiali
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On the Long X Trail
We’re about 1 1/2 hours into an almost 8 hour “character building” ordeal when we stopped for a photo op after a long muddy climb of about 500 vertical feet. It’s rained Friday night and we’re out on a spur trail off the Maah Daah Hey trail in North Dakota called the Long X Trail. We knew the trail would be difficult if not impossible when wet, but some how we just kept on thinking it would dry up and get better. It didn’t.
After we rode on far enough to start thinking things would never get better, we were too far gone to bother turning back, so we kept on ridding and it kept on getting muddier, slipperier, and then it started to rain. Parts of the trail were so rough that not only did you have to walk the trail, you needed to carry your bike. If you didn’t the tires just picked up so much mud that they refused to turn. Everyone spent a significant amount of time just scraping the clay muck off your bike so you could resume riding for what ever distance was possible before the bike was once again coated in mud. At one point we even resorted to washing the bikes in a cattle watering trough to get free from the mud.
Everyone made the full days ride of approximately 20km which I’m sure was actually longer because the cycling computer didn’t register the mileage while I was carrying the bike, and there was a lot of carrying going on. Once back at the CCC campground everyone washed up and changed before driving down to the Buffalo Gap Guest Ranch where we washed the bikes and enjoyed a BBQ pork & beans dinner.
The Sunday ride was much better. More on that later.
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Return to Maah Daah Hey
In just under a week I’ll be heading off to ride the MDH trail in North Dakota with the boys. For many years we made an annual trip to ride this outstanding single track trail, but this will be the first time since 2005.
I’ve been taking with some of the guys and everybody is getting pretty excited about the trip. Its quite the action packed weekend with a 9 hour drive thru the night, breakfast at 4am, a brief nap in the vehicles until the sun comes up and then all day riding!
I think we’ll be riding the northern section and taking in some near by trails on Saturday. Sunday we’ll ride for half a day in the Buffalo Gap area. As some would say, it should be GTs. I’m looking forward to it. -
Second Centrury
Two years ago I rode my 1st Century, and last year I missed this event but last Sunday I took part in the 16th Annual Muddy Waters 100.
This year the Muddy Waters ride hooked up with Habitat for Humanity and has over 500 cyclists take part in the event riding 25, 60 or 100 km, or the big one, 100 miles. In cycling speak a “Century” is a 100 mile ride and most serious road cyclists eventually get around to adding it to their list of accomplishments.
The ride was quite a bit different this year with a start from the Forks and a police escort all the way to the Perimeter Highway with rolling street closures all the way. So, for about 1/2 hour we had all of the north bound lanes of Main Street tied up. This made for a very leisurely start at about 10-15km/h, actually painfully slow and them up to about 30km, and then full speed ahead after the cruiser car pulled off at the Perimeter.
I stayed with the main group until after the “Big Bridge” past Selkirk which was great. Coming down from the bridge I thought I was getting a flat and as I slowed to check out what was going on, a gap opened up between me and the lead group. Turns out I’d just hit a tar strip with made the bike feel funny for a few seconds but it didn’t take much and I found my self in the second group. We worked hard for quite a while, almost to Hwy 44 to re-join, but for me, it was not to be. Stayed with the second group well onto Hwy 212, but got dropped again for some solo riding and eventually joining up with four other guys for some on again off again riding into the Birds Hill town site. From here the other four guys took a rest stop and I soloed on to Henderson Hwy. At this point another rider picked me up from behind and we rode a steady 34-36km/h to the finish. All in all a very good day. The weather was great and the ride a lot of fun.
However, I’m sure there are lots of stories of some pretty interesting events, like the crash at the front of the peloton just entering Selkirk. I was pretty close to this one and just missed going down in the pile up. To me it looked like a rider bumped an on coming car and there were 6-8 riders abreast at the time and that triggered quite the pileup. It looked like nobody was seriously injured and the organizers were right there to respond. Later, I hear a very loud “pop” and the rider next to me pulls off with a flat. I wonder how many flats occured that day. I heard of one rider getting 3! Then there was the rider with shoes off and walking at Garvin and 59. When I asked he said he’d be OK, and just needed to walk it off for a bit. Hope that turned out all right.
I followed the perscribed course to the letter, but my odometer came up a little short of the 162km required for the Century, but I’m chalking that up to the new bike computer not being set up quite right. Compared to two years ago, I put in a significantly faster ride over all and the “Trip Time” is actually just time on the bike not total elapsed time and I know I took way fewer and shorter rest stops this year. For the record, max speed was 54.77km/h
