Recon

That will be the least of your worries

I mean, you have rollers to contend with

And moose that run like a camel

 

And aquatic moose

So last weekend I went up to finalize some of the routing that I had initially planned on paper.  Throught the MN State bookstore I had purchased the county Highway maps to use as a base. and make sure that google maps was not totally full of crap.  Most of the "roads" that google lists in this part of the state are usually private drives.   Well, I can attest to one thing. If a road is listed as unimproved, it means that someone might have skidded some logs out of the general vicinity about 25 years ago.  I spent several hours chasing roads that just did not exist.

This also forced me to make the decision that we will not have any "unimproved" course sections.  Unless I required everyone to use a GPS with mapping capability I just would not feel comfortable.  The roads are just too poorly marked, and most of these sections are also better suited for a MTB as opposed to a CX bike.

I was on the Lima Grade and South Brule by 0630 on Sunday morning and over the next hour I saw 2 moose (above), a black bear, and a wolf.  Just about soiled my chamois.  I think that yall are gonna like this.

When I hit Devil Track on the traverse to Ely, I could have sworn I was in Alaska.  As soon as you see it in September you will know exactly what I am talking about. The traverse route finding will be relatively simple and straightforward. I foresee less than 20 turns on the day.

However, I did run into a major snag.  Hwy 1 at New Tomahawk Rd. is currently non-existent.  According to MNDOT construction will be completed in Mid August, but it is currently closed to automobiles.  The detour is all the way around Birch Lake through Babbitt (and its lame on a bike). It adds about 15 miles to the day.  I am going to keep pretty close tabs on this, and keep you up to date.

I also managed to shred a new truck tire when I was on Tomahawk (expletive).

Registration Closes on the 15th.  We still have 25 spots open.  Once registration closes, the name plates are going to print.  Please let me know ASAP if you are backing out.
I will also have some demo gpx and tcx files for you all to play with if you are using a GPS to navigate.  In addition I should have the cue sheets finalized around the same time so that yall can do some route creepin.