2017 MS Ride

Day before

Walked with Wendy to the Radio Brewing Company to have dinner. Got a little lost on the way but got to see a friend that works at the brewery. The beer and dinner were good and I got a growler of a Huckleberry Ale to bring home.

Day one – 145 miles – 8:27 hours riding

Sun coming up on the way to Mullan.

My plan was to get up early enough to do the almost 40 miles from Kellogg to Mullan and back before the start 100+ mile MS Ride. Things didn’t go to plan since we got an email that said that the 100+ mile portion was not going to be held due to the amount of smoke in the air. I went ahead and got up but it was a little later than the plan and I got out on the trail to head to Mullan. The air was crisp with a very noticeable chill. I did not check the temperature before leaving but found out later that it was 30 degrees when I started out. As I got closer to Mullan the sun finally peeked over the walls of the valley. This was a welcome sight since it meant that it would actually get warmer on the way back down to Kellogg. I stopped in Mullan to consume one of the baby food in a pouch things that I had brought along for the ride. I don’t remember what it was but it did taste pretty good. Got hooked on these when the grandson was here at the end of August.

Sunny but cold ride to Mullan.

On the way back out of Mullan there was a coyote on the trail. Of course I had to bark at it instead of yelling.

Stopped back at the resort in Kellogg to get warmed up a bit in the lobby and eat a little something. Wendy came by and we went back to the room so that I could get another pair of socks on and use the hair dryer to warm up my shoes.

The pirate rest stop at Cataldo.

Went back down to the start and headed out with another group of riders on the main part of the ride. During the ride I saw the usual herons, chipmunks, and squirrels along and on the trail. I did get to see one moose that was bedded down in the brush along the trail. Wouldn’t have seen it except there were two people looking at it as I approached.

Nice view of the lake from the trail.

Chatcolet Bridge.

The nice thing about riding the long ride is that there are rest stops every 15 miles. This is a nice way to get extra food into your body without having to carry very much. I really needed the extra food for the longer ride that I was wanting to do. I also didn't know if I was going to be able to go to Plummer from Harrison until I got to Harrison. In Harrison there was a couple of the volunteers for the MS Society that had a table setup that we could turn in our bib numbers in order to ride the 30 miles to Plummer and back. After turning in the number I made my way towards Plummer and at about the 90th mile for the day I had to stop and eat since I was starting to bonk a little. After that little rest I made it to Plummer and turned around and headed back to Harrison to get lunch and pick up my bib number.

The ride back to Kellogg was very nice and I was glad when I got there after being on the bike for that long of a time.

After dinner and the evening MS rally we soaked in one of the hot tubs. That sure felt nice after all of the miles on the bike.

The view on the way to Burke.

Day two – 51 miles – 3:07 hours riding

I like the second day of the ride since we have the option to ride up Burke Canyon to the old mining town of Burke. After the long day the day before the tops of my thighs were just a little sore but I figured that 50 miles wouldn’t be too bad to ride with them hurting. I did not rest very much on this ride since I wanted to just keep the legs moving as much as possible.

Almost everything you need to know about Burke.

Thanks

I want to really thank all of the people that donated to the MS Society. Your donations will go a long way in helping those affected by MS.

Finally

Well, I guess I had better update this blog again before the MS Ride happens for 2017. Here we are in July and I have covered over 3,000 miles so far. My longest ride so far has been about 70 miles in one day. The winter really knocked down my riding time since I pretty much just rode back and forth to work with not very much extra miles put in.

Philip and I took a trip to see Monica in April and I was able to bike from Morgan, UT to Echo, UT. It was interesting to find out that the route I rode had been used in the Tour of Utah several years ago. I rode quite a bit in Fort Collins over the week that we were there and then I got to ride from Green River, WY to Little America, WY on the way home. It was a pretty straight stretch of road with a pretty neat history to it.

Philip and I got to ride the Route of the Hiawatha Trail in June with a group of other people. I rode down and back up and it was especially fun to ride through the tunnels. The trestles were pretty neat but I did not like the heights.

I did a little bit of riding in McCall near the end of June and most of the rest of my riding has been on roads and trails around home. I can say that a lot of gravel has been ridden the past few weeks around here.

The ride that I am most looking forward to other than the MS Ride is the first ride pulling the bike trailer with grandson Erik in it. He and Monica will be in town in August and this will be such a cool experience. I remember pulling her and Rachel in a bike trailer when they were wee little ones.

I will go ahead and post the link for my page at the MS Society to round out this post. http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/WASBikeEvents?px=4939697&pg=personal&fr_id=28274

Thanks so much for checking in to my blog.