Thursday, February 7, 2013

Gravel Conspiracy 2013: Laurential Divide

It's Back.
September 13th-15th, 2013
Price: Free
75 Co-Conspirators will depart from Grand Marais, MN for 3 days of gravel and dirt road bike riding through the beautiful Superior National Forest, skirting the southern edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Each night will be spent at a resort, campground or public house.

There is no sag, there is no support, no one will come to get you if you get a flat. At times you will be 40 miles from the nearest gas station.
You could get eaten. Bugs. Bears. Cougars (not the sassy, middle-aged kind either).
We would be sad, but its a reality that you have to face. This endeavor is not to be taken lightly.

The Route
Each Stage will be between 60 and 100 miles, and will consist of predominantly Forest Service and logging roads. Note: We will not have the wide open Gravel "superhighways" like "the Grade" last year. Think a healthy dose of double track.
  • The First Stage will end The Grand Portage Casino
  • The 2nd Stage will end in Grand Marais, MN
  • The Final Stage will bring riders back into Grand Marais.
Note: This years course is going to be especially rugged, poorly marked,  and will cover some very mountainous terrain.  You MUST Have a GPS that allows you to follow a GPX or a TCX course. Cue sheets are only a tool of last resort.
Why?
My experience has been that too often in one day events, you get to ride with and meet a lot of really interesting people, but as soon as the race is over everybody climbs into their cars and goes home. I wanted to put on a low key, challenging event, that gave riders a chance to hangout in a beautiful locale, after a full day of riding.
Yay bikes!


Sound Great? Good!

Registration will open May 1st. All the details are here.

Got Questions? There is a good chance that they will be answered here

5 comments:

  1. I'm in! Does following Eddie's tracks count as having a GPS?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Then is would be a Karrow Positioning System.......but yes that will work.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great news, i look forward to the suffering . Looks like I'm buying a GPS :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Im in and looks to be an awesome ride!!


    Kevin

    ReplyDelete