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Full Spectrum Cycling
Chewey’s Salon Chair #40 – Mayday Mayhem – Mason City, Osage, Decorah Corridor, DHPT Update, Iowa NICA – SSUSA Salida
Jun 10, 2024
Chewey’s Salon Chair #40 – Mayday Mayhem – Mason City, Osage, Decorah Corridor, DHPT Update, Iowa NICA – SSUSA Salida
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1:24:24
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Transcript
0:00
[laughs] I was not, but I will be. [laughs] I, hey, I'm gonna play music stop now. I'll get there. [laughs] [rock music] Not even in intro.
0:12
[laughs] This is wrote by a buddy of mine. [laughs] All right. It's pretty good. It is good.
0:32
We would stop it normally now, but Derek is jamming so much we're gonna let him keep going. [laughs] Doing air guitar. Yeah. We should've done this live. Do you have a guitar here? Can you do that on a ukulele?
0:42
[laughs] He, he doesn't play ukulele. He- You'll have to do a ukulele- I'm gonna play the whole thing now just so Derek can finish it up... [laughs] and do a ukulele, uh, intro.
0:52
Yeah, that, yes, that'll be the next thing we have to do. For the Sunday coffee show- Yeah... ukulele intro. Mm. It's like The Hangover half hour. [laughs] This is the part Derek's like... [laughs] Told you he'd like it.
1:08
[laughs] All right. As the drummer, I have to do the end. Ba-da-do, ts. Is that what you were? Were you the drum- Oh, you... Yeah. You were the drummer. Okay.
1:15
He always wanted to be just the lead singer and just dance around the stage. Oh, wait. Uh- [laughs]...
1:18
Chewy's Lawn Chair Number 40, uh, the, this is a, the coffee version, where like we got too drunk last night and we couldn't do a podcast, so we did it this morning instead.
1:28
Um- I'm proud of us for recognizing that for once. [laughs] Instead of just... [laughs] Well, well, we could've done it anyway and just not re- not let... Sven wouldn't have posted it like he does- Well...
1:37
with 90% of them. [laughs] Um, with me this morning... God, this morning, this sounds so stupid. Uh, Derek Malzer from Osage- [laughs]... Spinners with me. Uh, we have to come up with a nickname.
1:46
He can't have a real name. Well, it's, you know. [laughs] I played with Derek and the Dominoes. Oh, there we go. Okay. We'll just- Derek and the Dominoes... something will hit us. Um, today, uh, we just finished
2:00
yesterday, uh, we just had the, the revival of the Decorah Time Trials was yesterday. Uh, a couple weeks ago we did, uh, we went over to Osage, Osage doing the, um- Mayday MAM...
2:13
Mayday MAM, um, which is a, a clunker race and a, and a fucking ton of fun. Um, I think, I think these two guys have put fun back into bike racing, if you ask me. We had an okay turnout yesterday.
2:25
Um, we drank a shitload of beer. We rode really hard trails. I shouldn't say really hard trails. It's the normal stuff we have down here in Decorah. Yeah. But it, but it's, it's,
2:36
it's not f- it wasn't flowy, for lack of better terms, it wasn't flowy. It was fucking fun though. Yeah.
2:41
Well, there's nothing you can do, so with the way that our trails are and our parks are, you're gonna have to climb to get up to stuff and, uh- Gotta get up to get down. Gotta get up to get down and, and that was the...
2:53
We rode everything in Van Pierson Park I think, except for Dust Bowl, which is kinda not getting rode that much, but six miles of trails that didn't cross over at all, and that's, that's definitely gonna be done again.
3:04
I thought it was great. Yeah? I thought it was really good. It was, uh- It's good... I didn't think it was too bad. Yeah, there was parts that were tough, of course, but, uh- Yeah... yeah. I thought it was great.
3:13
Did you ride everything? Did you have to walk at all? I had, I do it, I did have to get off the bike twice on two climbs. Okay. Okay. It's probably on Tombstone, on Little Bighorn, and then, uh- Yeah... Julia. Yeah.
3:23
Julia's got a hard- I was just gassed and needed some, some hydration- Mm... and we stopped and did that. Well, that, that one spot on Julia is just, it's always been tough. Mm-hmm. It's never been...
3:33
You, you come- Is that the long climb, the really- No, that's the one- That's Tombstone. Yeah, that's Tombstone. Yeah. Yeah, Tombstone sucks. That was tough. Yeah. That one's... Everybody rides at the...
3:43
M- Generally, when people go out and ride they ride it the other way around, so they go down Tombstone instead of up it. Yeah. Okay. Um, and we- Yeah... when we built it, we built it to go up.
3:51
That's because Deke is like, "Hey, let's go climb that." That's all he ever wanted to do is climb shit. [laughs] Yeah. It w- I didn't think it was too bad at all. Yeah.
4:00
That had a short course marked out, uh, but nobody rode that, so like- I was thinking I, I, that I should go ride that this morning before I take off because I think that would be, uh, that would be a fun, quick go.
4:11
Just go... If you need to do a quick loop, that would be a fun loop to do quickly I think. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, there's a cheater in Little Bighorn that takes out that Tombstone climb.
4:18
Maybe take out Julia completely, and North 40. So I mean, that's probably like a three-mile course. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's...
4:27
It was fun to do because, I mean, I didn't r- race the course, but I, when I, when we went out and rode it, it was, it did bring back, like, old time trial stuff to me. Like, time trials is...
4:37
Well, if we'd have kept it going, it'd probably be 30 years now. Uh, yeah. Probably. Or- Be on 34 maybe. Maybe. Yeah. Wouldn't that started in '90, '91? Uh, I have trophies from '90 still, yeah. Okay. So yeah.
4:51
I, I was- Did you, I was supposed to give those away yesterday. [laughs] I have a trophy from '93 I was supposed to give away. [laughs] God, and just named I have one, I have one in the closet still. You're an oldie.
4:59
[laughs] I, I, I can't remember what event we did that. Like, I found a stack of old trophies from, that we'd, you know, 'cause we would build... I mean, it was, it, it was a, um, it was...
5:10
I'd come down for three days and we would, we would cut the wood, and then we had somebody laser the, the plaques, and then we would cut it and, and, and, um, route the edges and sand them and then varnish them and then make our own plaques, right?
5:23
But we made them for every- Every two years. Yeah. Was it every two year- Yeah, so it was like, it was like basically a running race. It was every two years of your birth, of your age.
5:31
So- Sounds like way too much work to me... uh, it was- It was a lot... it w- Well, [laughs] go to Menards and buy some really crappy lumber, cut it up. [laughs] It wasn't that big a deal. I mean, we got lazy sometimes.
5:40
We didn't even bother to route the edges. We'd just literally cut off a slab of wood- [laughs]... threw a little varnish on it and the plaque and called it a day. I mean- Yeah...
5:46
but, we, well, it, I mean, if you go look in the, in the kitchen, there's, there's, we gave away mugs for a while that Gunner built- Mm. Okay... that made. Gunny is, uh, uh, I don't know what their technical name is.
5:57
He throws pots. He- Yeah... throws clay. Pottery. Ceramic. He- Yeah, and he made, he made-... a bunch of stuff for us. And, and he was making them for Volga too, and he did Volga, so he gave away those mugs back then.
6:08
For May Day Mayhem, I always go on, uh, just go online and buy the gag trophies. You know, and just do first, second, and third, just some- some- something really stupid. Um- What was this? Was there a toilet?
6:18
[laughs] Is that what that was? I have that. Yeah, there was last place toilet. I have that. And it said you- I got the first year... you pretty mu- Did you get the toilet? Yeah.
6:24
[laughs] Yeah, the toilet trophy said, "You p- yeah, you pretty much suck." [laughs] And then, uh, first place was, is the actual goat, goat trophy. It's, it's a pretty good size.
6:34
Got a, a goat, a female goat with, with the teats and everything. And it- Because of Mitchell County Mountain Goats. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, so the goat, greatest of all time.
6:43
And then second place was the Starburst from the More You Know commercial. Da, da, da, da, da. Oh, yeah. Yeah. [laughs] And I put on there, "The more you don't know."
6:53
[laughs] Because I think then you fuck around and find out, so that's important, right? Yeah. No, it was, uh... [laughs] There you go. And you didn't, we didn't have any trophies yesterday. We just gave cash.
7:04
That went right back in the bin. Yeah. I do, well, I have a huge, like, three-foot tall motocross trophy that Gunner donated.
7:12
[laughs] And also, like, a little ballerina statue that he got from the depot that I was supposed to bring, but I didn't have time. I was, I got there, we started at 2:00, and I think I got there at 1:57.
7:22
[laughs] Well, it took long to set up that course, and i- i- i- it's amazing, even after this many years of doing that, it still amazes me how we underestimate how long it's gonna take us to mark the course. Oh, yeah.
7:35
When I rode yesterday, I, what I was thinking about, besides gasping for air on a couple of those climbs, was, "Took a long time to lay that course out." 'Cause I've done it for May Day Mayhem in the past. Mm-hmm.
7:46
It's a lot. Yeah. So thank you. It's a lot of work. Yeah. So if you have a short... Like, May Day Mayhem this year we just did, or the last two years, we just did loops at Junkyard Goat, which is about a mile and a half.
7:56
And actually, I like that, because people can re-go. Like, well, that's what we did this year. Yeah. Yeah. We, we, "Hey, I can go again." Yeah, that turned into a time trial. Yeah. Yeah. It turned into a time trial.
8:06
Yeah. Because of, you know, we didn't have a ton of people there, which we were gonna talk about this morning as well. But, um, yeah, I kinda like that situation if you, if you don't have...
8:16
Plus, on single track there's not a lot of s- spaces to pass and things like that anyway, so- Right... the time trial I think is really the way to go. And, and then, yeah, so that's, that's fine.
8:26
I think with the time trial, it gives you, it gives you more time to just mingle and hang out with people. Exactly. Yeah. You know? It's, it's...
8:35
I mean, while you, everybody's out racing, you go out and you go balls to the walls for hour- Yeah... let's say. And then, but in the meantime, before you race, you're talking.
8:45
After you race, everybody's having a beer or seven, and you're talking some more. Right, right. But, but, but if you just go do a race, and, and you see this at Wars races and the Minnesota Series.
8:54
In fact, Wars is, they've all gotten so big that, um, they're almost a road race to me, uh, in how they're done.
9:01
So, like, your class goes and you race, and when you're done racing, they give you your trophies and you go home. Well, guess what? There's the next class is racing while you guys have gone home. Mm.
9:11
So there's not, I don't think there's the camaraderie- No, that doesn't sound, no... that, that used to, that used to be there.
9:15
Like, when I first started mountain bike racing, when Deacon and those guys got me into it, um, I met them in Winona for that. That was the first race I'd ever did. And, um- Winona. Uh- The Holzinger? Yeah.
9:27
Holzinger Hot Lap? Yeah. Well, that, that was the course they used, yeah. Okay. Actually, actually, it was called the Cherry Bomb. They actually started it on the other side, but the bridge went out.
9:34
Now they, they- they've gotten back to using that property, but you can only access it from the Winona side now. Oh, okay. So, but, um, back then, racing was, um, it might've been 25, 30 people at a race, right?
9:46
And it was Ziegels and, uh, people like that that are all in the industry for the most part. But you got there and you raced, and then you did a big awards ceremony afterwards.
9:56
And then somebody would either bring their own homemade beer, or from wherever they were at, you had beer.
10:02
And it was, so it was more of a group, and then as it got bigger and bigger, now you're looking at 1,000 riders at a race, and there's not time to do that anymore. So the- Mm-hmm...
10:11
the camaraderie of the bike people, I don't think is, is, is what it was.
10:16
I mean, the reason that mountain biking got started, which might fall into what we're gonna talk about more either today or tomorrow about the flow and building of trails and how the trails are built actually now. Yeah.
10:27
Well, I'm going up next month to that Lutsen 99er. Do you know anything about that? It's hard as hell. Yeah. I'm doing the 45 mile option. And they get a ton of people to that. Yeah. So how does that...
10:39
You know, we ask ourselves here if our race rides, group rides are kind of, you know, we don't have quite as many as we used to.
10:48
When I go up there, I'm gonna kinda see what they're doing differently or, or what, if I can learn anything from that. Oh, they also have hundreds of miles of trail, where we don't- Right... have the land- Yeah...
10:59
for that here, right? Maybe that's [clears throat] what it is. Well, is that at a resort? Like, you c- are you stay- Yeah, it's at the lodge... you're staying up there? Yeah. Yeah.
11:06
You're staying in your van, or you're getting a- Yeah, I'm taking my van up, but I did get a... There wasn't really a place to park the van, per se, like out in the nature. Oh, okay. So I, I- I am staying...
11:15
I mean, there is probably, but with- Your van is nicer than most hotels. [laughs] That's true. [laughs] The Sprinter. The Sprinter van. Yeah, it's great.
11:24
I, I, I, I do expect you to come home someday and me go, "Oh, Derek's here. The van's gonna be parked in my spot in the driveway." [laughs] I can see it coming now.
11:29
I'm just gonna build a pad next to it for you to park on. Awesome. You should do that. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks, man. [laughs] Let me know when it's ready. Um, but, but I... So there's a little bit different about...
11:39
Part of the reason that Lutsen is such a big thing, I think, and I don't, I've never done it. I know guys that have gone up and done it. Um, it, to me, it's...
11:48
One of the big things is it's kind of an epic race, so those seem to draw more people. Being- So by epic you mean, like- Distance-wise. Yeah. Yeah. So it brings the people that have really...
11:59
They're like, yeah, they're hooked. Plus it's not, plus here's the other thing. It's not a bad drive from the cities. Right, right. And, and that's... Having... We get a little bit of it down here, but-
12:11
For whatever reason, Minneapolis has a huge bike scene and a huge mountain bike scene. Like, m- the majority of the cyclocross races in Minnesota are in, in the, in the Twin Cities area. Okay.
12:21
And, and mountain biking is somewhat the same.
12:24
I mean, we go up north, they go down to Rochester, but th- generally they're in the area around The Cities because that's the, that's the bigger population of where you're gonna get hundreds of riders from.
12:34
Like, if you... Like, where we down here maybe get 20 or 30, if you're up by The Cities, 400 is common. So you've got the, the clout of the area, you know, Lutsen. You've got the population. You've got an epic
12:48
amount of trails, so you can have a big ride that draws people that really wanna, you know- Yeah. Yeah... have, have that, have that, uh, competition and success because they've trained hard and- And it's- I mean, yeah.
13:03
Yeah, it, it's in the category, I would say, like, Shawano 40. Um- Yeah... the Fat Bike Birkey, um, what's some other ones that are just big? I know Whiskey Off Road, but that's kinda out.
13:12
But I guess for the Midwest, it's just one of those huge ones, and there, there, there are those big races in the... Like El Monzo, whatever that- The gravel... event that, yeah.
13:20
Yeah, gravel, gravel, well- Th- those big events... I- But the Haywood was yesterday, and is that Skogen's new thing? The Haywood, is that his? Um, I don't know if it's his. Okay. He...
13:32
I, I know, I, I, I don't know what he's doing now. I- Okay... you know, he moved up to The Cities, and then... Was, was that in, was that in Nor- in Northfield? Uh, might've been in... I think it was in Northfield.
13:42
Yeah, then that's, that's one. I don't know if he's running it anymore, but he did start that one, I think. Okay. I think Marty Larson might be running it now.
13:48
But that was another one that just brought, w- was it thousands- Yeah... of people? Yeah. Well, you know, that's, that's going in a different direction. That's the gravel road racing. Yeah.
13:56
And, and when Skogen and those guys started that, John, um, what's his name, from Omaha, those guys got that stuff going, um, their, the draw was it's free, you know? And, and- Yeah...
14:09
and the course markings is, "Here's your cue cards, and go, and we don't care what your time is. We're, we're, we'll see you at the finish line," you know? Yeah. And, um- Was there even places? Did anybody...
14:23
Did they ever- Oh, no, yeah, they gave away... Like, um, and then- Okay...
14:26
and then, um, um, then there w- the new one was, well, the one that we, uh, that's kinda bouncing around again now is, um, there's the Filthy Fifty, which is in October. Okay. Which is,
14:34
uh, kinda the same course as El Monzo, but not exactly the same. Yeah. Um, it, it, like, touches in and out of the El Monzo original course. Um, Spring Valley still runs it.
14:43
Spring Valley had a gravel road race this weekend. Okay. I mean, they just, the town kept it going even though Chris left and, and I can't remember who took it over. They...
14:50
I mean, it's, it's, it's a thing, and, and they keep it free, and they get thousands of riders. Like, it's, it's a, it is a steady stream of bicycles forever.
15:00
And, and the promoters that do it, from what I r- You know, Chris was one of 'em and, and, and, um, uh, what's the kid's name? Tyler, um, that does the Filthy Fifty.
15:11
Um, they are there, and they shake your hand when you finish, every person. Okay. I mean, they... It's, it's very personal to those guys. They really, they really like doing it, and they like
15:22
showing off their area, their, you know. Yeah. See, that's different from Mayday Mayhem, 'cause I slap everybody in the ass as they come through.
15:29
[laughs] So maybe that's part of- Which is what, which is why- There's a lot of attendance problems... which, which is why he- Harassment into the gravel road...
15:34
oh, that's why Spinner, that's why Spinner does, like, 10 laps. [laughs] Well, and I don't wanna, you know, make it sound like we don't have anybody come, but, like, yeah, we had what? It was- 15 people hanging out.
15:45
Yeah. Yeah. That's... I mean, we're relatively new to the game in Osage, so. Well, you guys also had, I think,
15:52
the way things have changed since we first start, like, say from when we first started doing the time trials, people look at the weather and go, "Oh, they're not gonna run it," because we have canceled because of weather.
16:02
I mean- Yeah... 30 years ago, we didn't cancel for shit. Yeah, you rode in the rain. We rode in the rain. You rode in the snow. I can remember, I...
16:09
The only time I ever did the time trials, I stood there and started everybody in a fucking snowstorm on a Palisades gravel road, and then I went and rode it myself afterwards.
16:19
Like, I'm already froze, and then [laughs]- Had to get moving... the dumbest thing I ever did. But yeah, um- Well, 'cause it was always last weekend in April, no matter what. Right. Yeah. So that was gonna be...
16:28
We were the first race of the year, or first race of the mountain bike season every year. Okay. Yeah. And it was, uh- And the weather was so unpredictable. It might snow. It might rain. Yeah. I mean, I think- Well, I-...
16:36
we had maybe two years of nice weather, but... And I think that's exciting for... Like, for me, I'm like, if I know you're having it no matter what, that's exciting to me. Yeah. Yeah. But some people,
16:47
sane, most sane people are, are fair- [laughs]... fair weather and don't wanna- Yeah. Well, I'm not even gonna, I'm not even gonna blame... I'm gonna blame it on society. I don't know what to fucking say.
16:58
[laughs] Um, you- Here we go. Yeah, here we go. Snap one on. Here it comes. [laughs] Yeah, yeah. Don't, don't talk to me when I'm, talk to me when I'm drinking coffee, not when I'm drunk, and look what happens.
17:06
[laughs] Yeah. [laughs] Um, but, but- Well, there, there's other events like ours that, that used to be big, like, uh, Platteville used to have the Block House Roll. That used to be a big race. It was huge, yeah.
17:15
That's dead. Uh- Yep... they haven't had that in years. Uh, Viroqua has the Pertnear 40. That's still going, isn't it? Or no, no, Pertnear 20. Yeah, Pertnear 20. Yeah. I think it's Pertnear 20.
17:22
May- That's probably still going on. I think they got a, a good bike shop and a good group of guys over there. But I don't know. Did, uh, Dubuque ever have, did La Crosse have a time trial?
17:31
La Crosse used to have two races. Okay. So back when we- And they don't have that anymore either? Back when we first put on the series that Deak and I ran, La Crosse had the first one and the last one.
17:38
They had Memorial Weekend and Labor Day Weekend. They ran two races out of Bluebird Springs Campgrounds out there. Okay. And it was, and it was... And then, and then we sprinkled races in amongst that.
17:47
And, and, you know, and probably just dawned on me, part, part of the reason that we don't, our event doesn't get as much, um... People that do Wars races- Yeah... there's 11 races in that series.
17:59
You don't have time to go do anything else, because I'll guarantee you there was a Wars race yesterday. Oh, I know there was, 'cause D- uh, Garrett was gonna go. Yeah. So you lose that. Minnesota has their series.
18:09
So that... It used to be Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, we ran one series. Now there's each, they each have their own. Iowa has a series. Minnesota has a series.
18:17
And the Wa- the Wars series is without a doubt the biggest, and it's the, it's the granddaddy of all of them. I mean, it's-
18:24
But that also hurts other events because you, [metal clangs] if you're doing well in the World Series, you don't dare miss a race, or you can only miss o- I think you can only miss two.
18:34
I think you have to have nine races. Something like that. Yeah. But- So we have a series between Decorah, Osage, and Mason City. That's what, that's what we were gonna maybe mention, right? Yep.
18:44
I think we're gonna do it. We're just... Should we just roll it? We just do one and just roll into the other? Sure. 'Cause we've, we started doing it already. Um, um- We can...
18:51
yeah, so- The d- How much, how much time do we got in this one do you think? We're s- we're at 19 minutes. Oh, okay. We can just talk a little bit more about w- what our events are. I mean- Yeah. Yes. Good idea...
19:02
uh, just, I mean, I had a good time yesterday. I don't care if 1,000 people didn't have a good time or- Yeah [laughs]... you know, whoever showed up, we had the right crowd. Right. I mean- Well-...
19:11
we've had, we've had those events where we have a race and somebody gets upset and like, "You ran your race wrong," or, "You shouldn't have had that in the course," or whatever, and it's like, "Hey man, don't ride it then."
19:21
I mean- Yeah... if this wasn't for you, it's not your thing. But the people who showed up, I mean, we all had a good time, and yeah, I... We don't need to poll everybody from everywhere.
19:30
I don't know if numbers are necessarily the biggest thing that we need, but we had enough to have g- a good day, and we started the format a little bit different where we said, "We'll start you any time between 2:00 and 4:00, so you don't need to be there right at 2:00."
19:42
You sh- some, some guy showed up at 2:30 and, you know, just jump in. We'll start... If it's a time trial, just start 'em whenever you get there, so- Yeah... um, I don't know, what time do we get out of there?
19:50
Probably say- Little bit. It was-... 5:30, 6:00? Oh, is it that late? Maybe not even that late. 5:00 probably. Yeah. Or maybe 5:00. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It was the one more that kept getting us. It's always one more.
20:00
[laughs] I had a blast coming over. I expected it to be... Well, you know, I knew what it was gonna be. It was gonna be about six miles. Mm-hmm. Um, this is Decorah, so I knew that there was gonna be... Some up. Yeah.
20:13
Mm-hmm. So I, and I also liked the a- yeah, that I knew I was running a little late, but it was... I knew, "Hey, it's gonna be fine." And I gave you the wrong address. [laughs] Or, uh, Facebook put the wrong address.
20:24
Facebook gave you the wrong address. I just said Van Piunen Park and it Google Map the parking lot at the top for that. I suppose that makes sense. No, I got to see some pretty country driving around. Yeah. It was nice.
20:34
Yeah. It is nice up there. And well, and you got to see the... A lot of people do go up to that part of Van Piunen Park and then go ride from there too. Mm-hmm. Okay. Start the ride from there.
20:41
If you don't ride from in town, there's a... You'll, you'll... I'll bet any d- time you go up there, there's at least two, three cars up there always. Oh, yeah. Whether they're hikers or bikers, it doesn't really matter.
20:49
I mean, it's- Yeah. And we found a new spot to start. Um, we did a couple buckthorn blitz projects this winter where we just tore out all the buckthorn and piled it up, and, uh, we uncovered a spring, kind of a,
21:02
a cool little spring there. Um, so we have like a new, I don't know, party spot. We'll put a fire pit out there and we have a new... Uh, it's not really a trail head, but just we have a couple spots like that to explore.
21:12
So that's where we wrapped up when we ran through the, at the bottom. Yep. That's, that's where... That's all kinda new-ish then. Yeah.
21:19
So like where my truck was parked, that wa- that's, that's Death Valley, and that, that used to be where we started and finished prior to cleaning- Okay... up this spot. Mm-hmm, okay. And this...
21:29
W- the, the, the area you rode through that we were hanging out in has been there forever. Um, and then- It's j- it's, yeah... it's... But, but
21:38
after the group cleaned out that buckthorn and, and honeysuckle, you saw what a nice little area it is and that the, the, the spring coming out of the, out of the side of the hill is cool. Mm.
21:47
Yeah, it's a, it's an awesome spot. Well, and I also... It was a nice touch riding through the, the water at the, through the finish. Yeah. I thought that was really neat. [laughs] Riding through the little stream there.
21:56
It's, it- Yeah. I had super- Super shallow, but yeah... well, Jim Trips, I, I coaxed his kid into riding it and he just kept riding up and down, up and down. [laughs] He, he, like, he made me look bad.
22:04
That's a good time. I thought, "He's gonna ride through it and get wet," and get all worried about. No, he just kept riding up and down the, the stream there. It was funny. Yeah. Yeah. It felt good.
22:10
It was warm yesterday. Got, got hot and, and, uh- Yeah... it was refreshing at the end. Nice cool water. Uh, it wasn't, uh... My time wasn't refreshing, but the- [laughs] But hey, you know what? I made it. Did it.
22:23
You made it. Didn't crash. That's the important part. Didn't have a heart attack and die later on last night, so. Yeah. No, we used to... They used to keep the course secret, um, because we had guys- Oh...
22:33
in town that would always- Yeah... like wanna go out and train it and make sure that they were, you know, got their best time.
22:39
But yeah, it was- Well, it was, it was to try to make it fair for those that- Oh, from out of town? From out of town, yeah. That's right. 'Cause we used to get a lot of, like, quite a few people from Rochester.
22:47
Um, the City's people, going back to City's people, always used to piss me off because they would get up in the morning and then open their eyes, and if it was raining in Minneapolis, they wouldn't come down. Oh.
22:57
Even if it hadn't rained down here for two fucking months, yet if it rained in Minneapolis, it wasn't raining down here. Hey, hey, hey. It was a- Let's watch the language. [laughs] Oh, yeah.
23:04
It is sunny Have you never listened to this show? [laughs] Let's, let's watch it fly out of your mouth. [laughs] But, um, yeah, so, uh, that was, that was always a concern that we...
23:13
And actually, it was fun to keep it hidden from people. Yeah. Like, people would- It was kinda hard because we'd have to mark it like the night before- Yeah... or the day of.
23:21
We would- Like, we did it the day of this year, but- We'd like barely get it marked just before dark so nobody could go ride it until the next morning if they wanted to. Oh, okay.
23:27
And, and then, and then even the, even the funner part was is like we would like go throw tape and arrows out where that's not even the course. We'd just put them on the roadway.
23:34
[laughs] Put 'em out there and screw with people. Oh my gosh.
23:38
Well, I said, like, uh, when I was out mowing, um, Tuesday, uh, I saw Doug out there, and I thought he was training for it 'cause he was, he was riding the course. I mean, he was on...
23:47
He come down Friz and went loop through Death Valley and right back up, up, uh, Rocky Road again, and I'm like, "That son of a bitch is training [laughs] for the race." He, he had a wedding. He didn't even come. Yeah.
23:57
He wasn't even there. But- But a- a- any time you're gonna be local, you're gonna have advantages. Like- Sure...
24:02
when, you know, when you come into Tombstone Climb, you carry as much speed as you can on that downhill so you can carry it up the other half. Um, in Julia Too you know the moves.
24:09
Like Junkyard Dog, there's that one corner, you come around a corner and then there's like a steep little climb, and I, I miss it every time the first time, but then when I come around the second time I r- I remember that it's there and you just gotta- Right...
24:21
like put your pedal stroke right- Right, right... and you gotta get your speed and just hop that thing. So locals are always gonna have advantages. I did that, I did that- Right... on, uh, Dust Bowl the other day
24:29
I hadn't rid- I haven't ridden Dust Bowl in forever, and it's, it's not a very good single speed spot to ride either. But I got down to the bottom, it's like, "Oh no, there's a root up ahead of me."
24:37
It's like five feet up, there's a root. If you go with speed, you can do it, and I didn't, so I was like, "Argh." Yeah. Gotta get off and walk. I almost went back and did it again, 'cause it's like, I got...
24:46
I think the, my proudest moment was I think I cleared it, like, three or four times in a row. [laughs] It was like, "Yes, I know how to ride a bike now." [laughs] Mm-hmm. Yeah. If I could, uh,
24:56
if I had a death wish, I'd die trying to beat Nick's time there. That was [laughs] 34 minutes. Yeah. The, yeah, w- 34 was the fast time. I think Gunnar was 36. Garett was 38. And then Garett was 38, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, 37.
25:09
Yeah, that's right in there. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Well, that's, that's...
25:13
I mean, uh, the funny part is that time trial has gone from the original course, which we did, Captain did it a couple years ago just for fun, which was over in Twin Springs. It was a mile.
25:24
Like, you rode up the hill, up around the top of, of, uh- At Twin Springs Park, yeah... Twin Springs, and then back down.
25:29
And then, and then to make it more competition, you w- so if- [laughs] You had to ride it backwards... then you rode it backwards. Yeah. Yeah, you get your time forwards and your time backwards.
25:37
[laughs] Then they, they add them together and that's how they won. And then- Oh, sure...
25:40
and then we started building all these other trails, and then it moved out and, and, and this was almost like how it used to be, like, we would build a new section of trail and a new trailhead, and that's where we'd start the race from this year.
25:50
So basically did the same thing. We cleared out a new area- Yeah... and we started the race- Right... there. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 'Cause we started it up on, up on, up by The Pines, the fire pit up there. Yeah.
26:00
And well, and ours has always been, like, race, race focused, when your event's more of, like, an event. Like, bring your clunker, take a picture of your clunker, meet at the bar, ride to the trail, you know? Right.
26:11
It's more of a whole day event. The first year we did it, it was a... We marked out the whole course all the way to Junkyard Goat and back, like you guys did. You know, had flag taped stuff off- Yep, yep...
26:21
put arrows everywhere. And it was a lot of work, and there was still confusion. And of course, of course, we have to cross Highway 9 to get to our s- our county trails. Yeah.
26:31
So there was, people had to be there to make sure. And then I think it was Joe Kisly that had the idea, or somebody, I think it was Joe, that said,
26:41
"Let's just do a casual ride out to Goat and, uh, do a mile and a half loop out there race." And then this year it morphed into time trials- Mm-hmm... which was your idea. Mm-hmm. That's the way to do it. Yeah.
26:52
That's how we're gonna do it, 'cause it's easy-peasy. Junkyard Goat's just a nice mile and a half loop, easy to follow. We only need to put a couple, couple markers up- Yeah... and we're done.
27:01
Even, even- And everybody can hang out at the Billy Bar and have a good time and... Well, and, and, and it went by the crowd. I mean, last year when you did three laps of the, of Goat- That was fun too...
27:09
that was a blast. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. If there's a bunch of people show up- Except for s-... we can do that, and we can morph it into... If we only had, what, seven racers this year or something- Yeah...
27:17
we decided to do time trials instead. And you just, it's just stays organic, right? Yeah. So. Well, and I like how you were like, "What was his time? I'm going again." [laughs] Yeah. Yeah, I beat him by two seconds.
27:28
Yeah, [laughs] by two seconds. I was watching the clock really closely on that one too. Tre- uh, Trevor? Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah, Trevor had something going on this weekend too.
27:35
He had s- He was- Trevor had me by two seconds, and then I went again. And then you got him back. [laughs] And I got him back. That was fun. And then he didn't wanna go again. I love that guy.
27:46
And, and you know, it was k- He's a great guy... it was kind of funny, 'cause when we left, uh, Ben Shockey was bar tending at your place last night. Oh, Ben was? Okay. Yeah.
27:53
So it was fun talking to him, because Ben's, Ben was, for lack of better terms, a gigantic fucking thorn in our side for a long time down here. [laughs] So g- great, he was, he was so...
28:07
I don't know if he, I don't know if he ever achieved where he wanted to be as a bike rider or racer, but he worked really hard at it. And he was- Yeah...
28:13
he was building bandit trails out there that were fun as fuck, but they were getting us in trouble. Yeah. You know, and it was... I understood why he was doing it, but we couldn't do that. Right.
28:22
But, uh, he would be one of the guys that when he would get done racing would piss and moan about something all the time. [laughs] Oh, man. Just constantly. Well, yeah, you gotta have that guy. Oh, yeah.
28:29
I mean, and, and, and, uh, as we've been sitting here talking it's like w- maybe this will go back in our... Well, fuck it, we're at 28 minutes, we just go on to the next one and just screw it, we'll just do one.
28:39
Well, we can finish the Ben story. I mean, he's done Tour Divide, and he used to be sponsored by Vassago. Yeah, yeah. Um- Which, which is a- I don't know what that means, if he just got free bikes, I don't know.
28:48
But, uh, he was a pretty serious rider for a long time. Yeah.
28:51
And, and, and then he, and then he kinda morphed, like a lotta guys have, when, when the gravel road and the long distance epic rides started, he really got into that, and that's where he...
29:01
And he got pretty sick that one time he was doing Tour Divide, he got sick. He got heatstroke a lot. Yeah. He's gingery. Yeah, he is. So. Yeah. But it was, uh... But, but, you know, those are the guys that
29:13
you haven't developed yet, and we've lost down in Decorah. Okay. Sure. We don't, we're, we're just starting to get some new blood in there. There's, you know, there's, there's, there's...
29:23
Well, Deke and I are the oldest two, Captain, but then there's, you know, then there's some guys in their 40s and 50s that still go out and ride all the time. None of them wanna race anymore. Yeah. You know?
29:32
So the time trials is actually the perfect segment, 'cause they can actually go participate race, and maybe w- maybe that's how that we need to start selling this when we talk about the three cities getting together and doing things or, um, that maybe that's how we start selling it and getting more kids racing.
29:48
I, I still say high school mountain bike racing is going to fucking destroy everything. Yeah. But look at the- Because it's not making long-term people. It's not making long-term riders, I don't think. What's the...
30:00
I mean, back in the day, you heard about a race and you knew about a race 'cause your friends. Now there's social media. You see pictures of, you know, Lutsen probably looks really cool. And what's the
30:09
entry point for a decent bike these days? Is it 1,000 bucks? Is that the cheap end? 1,800. 18, so- I'd say 1,800... closer to 2,000 for- Yeah. I mean, 'cause it's gonna have to have front suspension.
30:18
And, and, and I still- There's no single speeds, right? Add single speeds are- You're not allow- Well, I think they screw up.
30:23
They don't let single speeds in there, but I, 'cause I think they were thinking that when they were starting it, kids were gonna race on BMX bikes. Mm. So they, so they said no single speeds.
30:30
Because I was gonna loan my bike to a kid, my Pugsi, and they said, "Well, I can't ride that." I go, "What fits you?" He goes, "No, I can't ride a single speed."
30:38
That's where you- In, in, in the, whatever Minnesota series is for high school, um, single speeds aren't allowed. Okay. So it's... But, uh, but I, you know, and I, I think I've bitched about it on here before.
30:49
You know, Santa Cruz came up a couple years ago and did a, a demo day for the high school kids. 3,400 bucks was the cheapest bike they brought with them. Well, we just started the
30:59
Osage team to keep, to get the youth involved. One of the kids went to Wayne's in Mason City and bought a Trek. Is it a Marlin? It's a- Yeah, they make Marlins...
31:11
front suspension hard tail, and I think they're un- just around 800 bucks. Oh. That's not bad. So they have a bunch of them over there, so we're sending the kids over there that wanna buy a bike- Sure... to do that.
31:23
And- Well, 800- So that's not a bad price point. I mean- No. That's easy... it's a decent bike. I looked at it. He brought it to practice last week. It's a decent bike for... You know, he's
31:36
a sixth grader, I believe- Okay... this kid. Yeah. That's, yeah, that's not bad at all. No, I, I- I just didn't know what, I didn't know what the re- Is it a requirement? Do you have to have a certain level of bike?
31:47
Well- No... no, no, 'cause we've got kids, well, you know, again, we're just trying to get the youth involved, so we've got bring whatever you've got.
31:54
Uh, there's a couple kids that have some older mountain bikes, department store style. Wal-Mart- M- yeah... Mongoose, whatever? Yeah. Yeah. They're, they're rough. It's tough, you know? That's what I started on.
32:06
I had a fucking, I had a Mongoose like... Well, Mongoose at the time I bought it from the Swi- Schwinn shop, but that's, now it's a department store bike- Yeah... and that's what I- And-... my first races were on...
32:15
parents are talking ab- you know, if they stick with it, they'll probably get them something better. But yeah, you know, it's- As long as it doesn't break, I mean- Right... uh, those bikes used to just bust.
32:24
Like, the pedals broke off, the forks broke, the wheels bent. Yeah. Is it still like that? Yeah, the one, uh, one of our kids riding, he's, you know, he's got a, it's, it, it doesn't shift well, uh, well when he's...
32:34
We did some climbing drills, and it's, yeah, it's tough. But, um, he'll have to get something better if he sticks with it. But, uh, but yeah, he's doing it. That's all that matters. Yeah. Are you coming over to this one?
32:44
When's, uh, is it two weeks, June 8th? This is our- June 8th... NICA race? Yeah. I don't know if we're gonna be... I don't, I th- I don't know. Okay. I'd, I'd have to talk to Max, uh, Gisselson. He's spearheading it.
32:55
He's the head coach. We're gonna try to at least hit a couple- Okay... you know, this year, but it's just, we've just started, so we're not gonna hit them all.
33:04
Uh, but a couple kids really wanna race, so we may be over here. Yeah. Okay. Who's running that? I don't even know who's running it. Uh, Geert's mom. Oh, okay. I mean, we're all, the club's helping. We're all...
33:17
They'll do a course or- Yeah... something like today, but. Well, uh, well actually they want us to, they want us to help the course this year. Oh. I think Ferman did it last year. Now that I think about it. Okay.
33:24
But it's, uh, I think we're gonna do the exact same course just because it, a- again, high school racing, you're limit, you're limited as to what you can actually do. Okay.
33:31
Like, the, you, they would never let you take the kids down Fred. Oh, really? Yeah. That's, I mean, it's... I, I think the courses are dumbed down far too much.
33:40
But again, they're, they've dropped it all the way down to what? Sixth grade now?
33:43
We have, uh, we said fifth grade, and we have, uh, I think one that wants to join that's in fourth grade that we might let him in 'cause he's going into fifth grade. We made an exception. So yeah, it's- Hmm. Close.
33:56
[laughs]... we just, "Hey, if you wanna do it, let's go," right? Do you drill when to get off the bike at all? I'm just curious. Uh, I don't, I haven't been to the whole practice- Okay... both practices.
34:07
I just have checked in, like, halfway through, I, and seen what they're doing. I don't think they've gotten to that yet. I don't know for sure, though. Okay. They went through, like, attack position.
34:18
In mountain biking there's attack? I didn't even know that. [laughs] Right. Right. Can Jesse come over and load some videos? [laughs] Yeah, yeah, come on. Yeah. Uh- Some moves...
34:26
when I, I, when I went to the practice last week, I got there and Max said, uh, "Derek, can you show the kids the attack position?" And I'm like... So I- Let me Google really quick. [laughs]... widened, widened...
34:36
I kinda hunched over the bike and stuck my ass out and widened my shoulders, and he goes, "That's it." And I'm like, "Oh, I got lucky." There you go. That's it. That's what they call that?
34:45
Yeah, there's an attack, but I mean, you're, we're kinda do- we're kinda doing it anyway. We just didn't have an- Oh... closure. Well, that's like to go over a log or something, right? It's just the... Yeah.
34:54
You're going over- I mean, we just call it rowing...
34:56
uneven, uneven- 'Cause it's like you, you're, you, you, you're, like, rowing your, a boat, but you're on your bicycle and you're lifting your front wheel up over an object- Okay... rather than just bashing into it.
35:05
Yeah, they're gonna work, start working on that stuff next week. You know, kind of popping the front end up to get over stuff. Yeah. There's a whole...
35:13
You know, I, I didn't realize with the, uh, Iowa Scholastic, you know, there's a whole... They're, they're just following that. Hmm. Oh, sure. Okay. Yeah. So Iowa...
35:22
But there's n- so we're, we were, w- are we the ninth team now, I think, in Iowa? Okay. In Osage? I think there's, there was eight. There's probably, like, a Des Moines, a Dubuque here. Yep. Yeah. Yep.
35:32
Who else would it be? Council Bluffs maybe. Mason City. Mason City's got one? Okay. Uh, C- Cedar Rapids. Cedar, Cedar Rapids has- Cedar Rapids has one... has a really good, uh- Yeah... group.
35:40
Is that, is that the, the really fast kid that beat Garrett I think is from there? Yeah. So we got one of the fastest kids in the state. Okay. And well, he might be the fastest other than this Iowa City kid.
35:50
They go back and forth, it seems like. Iowa City. That's what it was. Yeah. So you don't like the... Or what was your comment about it doesn't sustain riding- I-... for life? I don't know. I don't think it does. I think,
36:02
I think the industry grabs something that they can make a fucking shitload of money off of, and they've promoted it to that point. Um, d- Minnesota's insane. Minnesota, uh, you- But that's how everything is now. Yeah.
36:16
I mean, but, but- With sports... th- the fastest kid- It's sports... rides to Santa Cruz. He rides a $5,000 bike, the fastest kid in Rochester. So every kid wants that bike now 'cause it's gonna make them faster, right?
36:26
Right. And you don't need a full suspension bike to race Minnesota. Uh, front suspension's okay. Totally not needed because it's, it, because the courses aren't that difficult. They just- Right...
36:36
and, and for a ton of different reasons they probably should be that way. Um, they, they do make them a little more difficult for, a little more single track and a little more-...
36:46
features to ride over, um, for the varsity group. Um, so they do have different courses for that. But, but it's, I, I don't see, I don't see this creating...
36:58
Kids that are racing mountain bikes today, I don't see them riding or racing when they're in their 30s and 40s. So, how do we, what do we do to get them to do that? I think you, I think you guys have got the right idea.
37:07
I think it has to be somewhat competitive, so we do time trials. Yeah. And, but it also has to be fun. So Mom and, so Mom and Dad can go watch the kid race and race themself and have a beer
37:22
while they're watching their kid race, rather than go to a high school race and everybody has to have a team tent and, and, and stationary bikes to warm up on, and jerseys and everything that matches.
37:34
Like- Is that happening? Oh, fuck yeah. Oh. We should go, we should... You, next year we'll go up. Oh, we can't, 'cause it'll be the same way. But Rochester's was yesterday. Uh, it's actually today, I take that back.
37:45
Okay. Um, you, in Minnesota, you apply. There's so many teams in Minnesota, you apply to go to the race. Oh, wow. And, and- You have, you have to have the team...
37:54
and there's a, and there's a, and there's an organization that runs all the races. And, and they, um, they lay out the course. You, you, your club mans it. I mean, course marshals and stuff.
38:04
But all the teams have tents, they have coaches that are on course with the riders. Wow. There's, they're, like, it's like it, it's like when we go to 24-hour races,
38:15
you know how we've got like a tent and we got food and all that stuff? That's, that's their day. Okay. So it's just...
38:21
I, I walked behind two dads from, um, White Bear Lake, and the one dad goes, "This is more expensive than hockey." [laughs] And I'm like, "God, that's horrible." 'Cause hockey's ridiculously expensive.
38:32
Yeah, and I just think that's what happens with everything now.
38:34
But, but my point is, is like going back, I, I, yes, it gets kids riding bikes, but it's n- I don't, I honestly don't think it's doing anything to sustain those guys riding bikes for a lifetime. The culture of it. Yes.
38:46
I, I, you know, like, like I still play hockey at my age, uh, because hockey is just something we do in Minnesota, and everybody plays it, and everybody goes out and does it. And bicycling is kind of the same way.
38:56
I'm still riding a bicycle just like I did 45 years ago, whatever. Or, [smacks lips] see, I, I've had two bike accidents in my life, and one was when I was 11 and one the other was when I was 45.
39:06
[laughs] But you're not counting that one on Santa Rampage? That doesn't count, 'cause that- [laughs] I was in a Grinch costume. Grinch had an accident, I did not.
39:14
[laughs] Also- I don't know, there's gotta be an entry point. I mean- Well, yeah... I mean, it, it, it can evolve into something different, but, you know, the s- the high school league- Well, I-...
39:23
isn't responsible for making them lifetime, but it's just a start, you know? Well, no, but I think you're right. And I think what we have to do, and you guys are on the right track by having
39:32
somewhat casual, somewhat- Casual competition... yeah, yeah. So there's co- Right. Yeah... 'cause you, you still need competition. I, that- Yeah...
39:39
that part of it has to be in there in some way, shape, or form, otherwise then nobody does it anymore. Right.
39:45
And if you- And time trials is a good way to do it, because it's a personal, it's a competition with others and it's a personal, uh...
39:51
Like, when I came yesterday, I'm like, "I wanna see where I fit in with some of these younger, more fit people, and I also want to personally see what I can do for myself." Mm-hmm.
40:02
And- Well, and, and Deke's point of, of doing the time trials and doing it when we did, and doing it how he did, rather than doing mountain bike classifications, you know, sport, expert, comp that would, like you used to do.
40:13
He did it by ages because it was the first thing of the year, and that's how you could go out and race against the experts, the sport guys. And you could decide
40:22
for that season then how you, which classification you should be racing in. Sure. That by your time versus those guys. So it was, you were just going out and racing by yourself to get your time.
40:31
I mean, he gave away trophies to everybody, but it w- the bigger thing was is that you knew where you ranked yourself in the mountain biking world. Right. Or up here anyway. So yeah.
40:40
But do they do that in Loo- is Lutsen, do you guys know, is there, will there be an age bracket? I- Like-... think so. I don't know... or is it just everybody's in the same? No.
40:50
I think the, I think theirs is an age bracket one too. I think it might be too. Yeah. Which makes sense. Yeah. I'd do that. Sometimes there's a single speed class. Um, it- Yeah, 'cause at 52 I'm not...
41:00
Like yesterday I could- There's a Clydesdale class. Oh, Clydesdale, which- Which sucks... that's only, you're over 200 pounds? Yeah. Is that what that is? It, it is, yeah. It used to be.
41:08
Well, yeah, and it sucks though, because- Oh, I've never heard of that before. That's not even that heavy, I don't think. [laughs] Oh, no.
41:12
Um, I think, I think Lee S- well, 'cause Lee Spencer and I are looking at each other, it's like, "We're fat and fucking lazy. We can't, we'll never be able to..." We would race sport class.
41:20
We're, we're okay in our age group in the sport class, but we can never race comp or, or pro because we're s- we're, we just don't, we can't train that much. So then I don't know where it started.
41:29
I don't know if he started it or if somebody else did. [clears throat] They started this Clydesdale class. Oh. Well, the problem with that was all of a sudden, [clears throat]
41:38
one of your fucking wrestling buddies who's fit as shit and 6'4"- Yeah... is now racing in the Clydesdale class. Well- Right... he's beating us by like 15 minutes. [laughs] So that didn't work.
41:48
We, we're still not getting a trophy. [laughs] Oh, yeah. And, and well, there's also, we didn't do it, but the DFL, dead fucking last trophy. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That, that unfortunately, I, I- Turns into a bad deal...
42:02
I, I maybe have s- can take the blame for a lot of that, 'cause I was winning it a lot. [laughs] Um, but it became a thing. Like, like- I'd prefer single speed. Yeah...
42:10
and they, and they were giving away really good prizes for it. So like I, I remember in New Zealand, I fucking hid in the woods. There was another guy and I, we were like hiding from each other to, to get DFL.
42:22
[laughs] That's the problem. Yeah. [laughs] That is- So then the race director goes like, "Will you guys hurry up?" [laughs] Yeah. We were, we're... Well, when Carrie and I and Pat, we were in Italy, we, we were,
42:31
they were mad at us because we were still out on the course, and they were like texting people to tell us to get in there. And we're almost there, and they all can see us in the, in the opposite field.
42:38
They can see you hiding? [laughs] They, no, they can see us riding toward there. And all of a sudden Carrie sees that there's a wine shop.
42:43
So we pulled in and grabbed three glasses and a bottle of wine, and we rode in like we're Tour de France with a glass of wine. [laughs] Oh, God, they were mad at us. [laughs] What did you win? Nothing[laughs]
42:52
I thought the, you said the prize was so great. Well, there's DFL, but, well, that one they didn't... No, they weren't giving us anything. They wanted us out of the country.
42:59
[laughs] No, but, but, um- But there's things like that... but they, like, uh, when it was- You can have little awards for, to keep it kinda interesting and keep it fun.
43:06
Yeah, like, like May Day Mayhem, you got the toilet. Yeah. Yeah. Well- Yeah... uh, Ben Organ had a really cool chainsaw, uh, log art thing that they did. Oh, fancy.
43:16
That mean, so yeah, so, so, and that, we're not even gonna go over that one. That, that got ugly really fast. But yeah, I mean, it's, it's be- kind of become its own thing.
43:25
Um, we, I think we finally set a time limit on it just to, uh, just to be, you know, and telling people to, just to be fair to your volunteers. Yeah. You know? Right, right.
43:33
They don't need to be out there for six hours while you guys are dicking around in the woods. [laughs] Wait, exactly, right, yeah. It was, it was, um- [laughs] We're gonna pack up and get out of here... was it Wisconsin?
43:43
We're gonna go to the bar. Where was it though? Where, was it Wisconsin?
43:44
Was it where we did, we were all in a group and we, we, we created a new class because we were behind the guy that was sweeping the course, and we said, "Well, we're, we're now mopping- Yeah...
43:53
because we're behind the sweeper." [laughs] We're the, we're the mop. Was that... Yeah, I think that was Wisconsin. I think it was, yeah. That was great. Was it up at Copper Harbor? Um, oh, that was Copper Harbor. Yeah.
44:04
That's right, yeah. Yeah. Okay. That was fun. There's Single Speed Wisconsin again this year n- with Gnomefest. Yeah. So. That'll be fun. Oh, yeah, I'm looking forward to that. What, is that September? Yeah, I think so.
44:15
I should find that out. And we're all, and we're all going to- I got the date right here. And we're all going to, uh, we're all going to Colorado for Single Speed USA, right? Salida, Colorado.
44:23
I'm gonna go in anyway just to piss those guys off. And this is in October. Yeah. La, you're talking Levis Mound Single Speed? Yep. Yeah. It's September 21st. Okay. Yep, I'm going. Yeah. Joe and I will be there,
44:34
uh, and s- maybe some other goats. And then you're talking about Colorado now too. Yep. Yeah, that's, we're going. October 12th to the 13th. Are we gonna caravan out there? October 12, 13th. I think we're gonna. Okay.
44:44
We decided last, I think there was, at some point last night- [laughs]... we had a conversation about drive, both taking two caravans out there, but I, I don't remember all of the conversation. Yeah.
44:59
We were debating- I'll take my camper out there for sure. Yeah. I think, yeah. Oh- So what I think-... we're debate, what, the debate was is what, um, how long we were gonna take to get out there.
45:07
Well, I think we need to stop. You guys were, you guys were gonna make a tour out of it.
45:10
Well, I don't wanna drive for 18 hours straight, so I thought we'd stop halfway, ride somewhere, find a cool place to ride where we normally wouldn't ride. Yeah. And do that on the way back too potentially. We could,
45:23
we could stop in, um... Is there any in Nebraska? [laughs] No, but, um, we stopped in, um- Ah, that's a tough, that's a tough one... we went to, we went to Downeyville. We stopped and rode for a little bit in Laredo.
45:34
Okay. That was fun. That was, that was, like, super... I don't remember exactly where it was at. It was just off the highway. Hollywood found it, but it was, like, the coolest place to take single speeds. Yeah.
45:44
Like, we had a group of about 10, 11 guys I think, and the course just, the ro- it just rolling, and so you just had this snake of bicycles going- Mm... at the same speed. It was really fun. That was a good time.
45:56
So yeah, there's, there, there's probably more now 'cause that's been quite a while ago. Yeah, I, well, think that's a good plan. Yeah. Okay. All right. But let's, yeah.
46:04
So w- I'll, I'll have Greg throw some dates up there then for those, those things too. Let's get that going since they finally posted Single Speed USA.
46:13
All right, since I'm not, we're at 45 minutes, I'm just gonna keep rolling here. Let's go, let's go to our next subject. We'll just do one hour one and do one. Sure. Um, so b- I think, I think we started at your race.
46:24
We started discussing this, about doing a series between Minnesota, or excuse me, between Decorah, Osage, and Mason City. Uh, time trials are something, um, I think
46:37
we'll carry this conversation on more when we get someone from Mason City in, in on, on it also. Right, right. But, but the idea is
46:44
doing a time trials in each one of the cities be- um, and this is gonna carry into the part of this conversation which might go longer than I think we, we were going to, but, um, discussing trails and building trails and what we have.
46:55
So Decorah has, we're in a valley, river. We've got big climbs. You guys don't have that. Um, I'm not sure exactly what Mason City has, but
47:06
as we were talking about trails being built and how they're being built and why they're being built, I think we all agree that it's become an industry, like too much of every other thing in our sport. It's
47:22
good for our friends that make money doing it, but at the same time, how much is it costing our clubs to do this stuff? Yeah. You know? And, and again, and the other part to me is it's awesome you can pay somebody
47:32
60, $80,000 to come in and build you a trail, then you have to take care of it. So the building part of it's cool. Everybody likes to build, but nobody wants to go maintain. Oh, 68 to 80 would be cheap. Well, it is.
47:44
No, yeah, which is ridiculous. I mean, the- I think the bid out here was, I think they're bidding 260. Yeah. 260,000. Yep. What did Mason City just get? They got, like, millions of dollars donated, right?
47:55
Their project is, I mean, I don't know all the specifics and I don't wanna speak for totally, but it's, I thought it was around 13 million. Wow. They did the Destina- Destination Iowa grant part of that,
48:07
but that's not all towards single track. They've got, you know, they're doing a paved trail and- Yeah... I, I think there's a lot of other stu- well, they're doing a bike park as well. That'll be a good chunk of it.
48:19
That's what it was. An actual bike park with, with, uh, they're doing a building out there for place to hang out, have maybe, you know, a bunch of kids are out there doing, uh, doing the pump track stuff.
48:30
You could have a, a birthday party in the, in the facility there, and there'll be- Okay... bathrooms and a place to have pizza, and they're gonna have a rock climbing wall and a bunch of other stuff.
48:40
So it's c- it's not just single track. So s- okay. That makes more sense, 'cause I was like, how? I mean, of course there's parking lots, bathrooms, you know- Paved trail... plumbing, stuff like that, electricity. Yeah.
48:48
I, uh- That makes it- Yeah. Yeah. So okay. Okay. And that's kinda what your guy, uh, your guys'... a little bit looks like here. There's some other- There's a- There's some park stuff they're doing. Uh- There's some-...
48:59
big fire pit with a paved trail around it, right- Yeah... or something. Yeah, there's a fire pit out there. Pretty- Uh, a lookout tower I saw on it. Oh, is there? Yeah.
49:06
Well, there's a windmill up there that's a really old windmill.
49:08
I'm not even sure how much land they're gonna have, but, um, yeah, there's different phases, and the first phase is gonna be to get the, the trails built, and then phase two I think is more parking lot and bathrooms and stuff like that.
49:22
Right. So. So what we did in Osage is I said, "Okay." I looked at the Destination Iowa grant, and... Let me back up a little bit. We're- we're tired, uh, we're exhausted. We've built everything on our own.
49:33
It's, it's been fun. It's been a labor of love. It's awesome. Everything's great, but, you know, we're, we're running out... I used to have work days, I'd get 20 people show up. Now it's two, three. Mm-hmm.
49:44
Or sometimes it's just me, and it's not... There's no blame going around. Everybody's worked really hard. It's just we're back to being busy. People are busy. So when Mason...
49:54
You know, I heard about you guys doing some stuff here, and then with Mason City I said, "We need a little more- Mm-hmm... so that we can stay relevant." So that was w- how this came up.
50:03
And I, we can't, I can't bench cut. You know, we're working up the Cedar River. We're gonna have some more ele- elevation. It just takes somebody with the right equipment and time. Yeah. So
50:13
I called Ken Barker because I thought he'd be a good fit. He's not gonna do a huge project. Right. He's kind of a, a small-medium project guy. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And he, and he and I have the same...
50:28
We're kinda like the same person a little bit. We, you know, he came to my house, we're wearing the same shoes and- [laughs]...
50:33
I said, "All's I got is Miller High Life in the bottle," and he goes, "Oh my God- That's his beer... that's my favorite beer." Yeah. [laughs] All right. So we're... He gets it.
50:40
So then, um, then the next part of it was what can Osage afford? A town of- Yeah... 3,800 people. We, I don't wanna build too much that we can't maintain. Right. Yep.
50:51
Uh, but we have to have enough so that people coming from Decorah to Mason City back and forth, they'll stop again, over and over. Not just once, right?
51:01
What we have now, people will come, they'll ride it, and they'll say, "That was cute." Yeah. And they might not come back is my, this is my opinion. Oh, yeah. So I, we need a little more in my opinion.
51:11
So we're doing all, all the bells and whistles, the whole Christmas list I have with trail, you know, and some wooden features and things, is around 100,000 that I'm trying, that we're trying to raise locally.
51:25
We're slowly building funds.
51:27
It's gonna take probably a couple years to complete it, and then my hope is we're relevant in with Decorah and Mason City, and since we're kind of in that middle, we work to promote together to get people to, to convert, uh...
51:43
Not converge. What are they, they're doing? They're going back and forth in this- Hmm... corridor- Yeah... and riding. And, and then part of that is events. But- Yeah...
51:51
and I'm getting, I'm starting to get, uh, you know, lengthy here. But the- [laughs]... the point is- No, you're making a lot of sense... we're, we're making a ga- Well- I'm taking a gamble here.
52:00
The gamble is- You sound much better than you did last night. [laughs] This is good coffee, by the way. [laughs] Maybe you should have a co- uh, open a coffee shop. Yeah. God. Coffee bar. I said, "I need us another job."
52:12
Yeah. Do you have, um- Are you a 501[c][3]? We are. Yeah. Okay. I think that was about six, eight months ago we finally got that, and that was- What's the name of the group? Or what's the- Mitchell County Mountain Goats.
52:21
Oh, so that is 501[c][3]. 501[c][3] Mitchell County Mountain Goats. Some people in the group were a little bit nervous about the 501[c][3], but I think, you know, we had to get some new board members because of that.
52:31
Some people did not wanna be associated with a 501[c][3]. Oh, really? Yeah, they just got a little nervous about it, and I said, "Okay." So we appointed new, uh- I, I thought you said-...
52:40
treasurer and secretary, and we've got, uh, Nora. Nora Wall is, is, uh, she's writing the grants. Okay. Um, so we've got it organized. We're, we've got a, a good thing going. It's just, um, hopefully...
52:57
Like I said, the gamble is that people come over and over to ride the stuff. That's the- Right... that's... Because we talked about this last night. You know, some of the stuff's gonna be a little harder- Mm-hmm...
53:08
than our group and people in our area are used to. Not all of it, but, but we're pushing the envelope a little bit here. Yeah.
53:15
Because when I ride over here and I ride, you know, other places, our trails are a little, they're a little safe, you know? Mm. I mean, not that's... They're just a little tame, okay?
53:25
So I, we need a little more for those more- Sure... experienced riders. But, but you're also doing- Yeah...
53:31
you're also doing, and this is probably the bigger part of this conversation that I wanna have, is that you do with what you have. I mean, you can't go build a mountain in Osage. No. Right?
53:41
So you, you just make the best that you can. And you- So, and it's different than here, and that's- Yes... uh, that's what we want. Right. And it's different than Mason City. It's gotta be different, a different feel.
53:50
The group is different, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. All three groups need to be different but yet, and separate and independent, but, you know, working together to try to get people moving through the corridor- Mm. -and riding.
54:04
Right. I, and, and I, the more we've talked about this I, I'm... My only little bit of a concern is, is that are people willing to drive to go ride bikes anymore? That's- I know I am, and I know- I-...
54:17
I've got a handful of people in Osage that do. Do. They're going to, they're going to, uh, Cuyuna. They're driving up there. I got friends that are just- Cuyuna... very casual riders.
54:27
[laughs] They're riding, they're going up there once a year, twice a year to ride their bikes. Sure. No, th- and that would be...
54:32
And, a- and I think what you're trying to get at is that we're not gonna be Cuyuna down here. No, no, no, no, no. But we do wanna make Decorah, Osage, and Mason City, uh, somewhat of a destination.
54:43
Go down there once a year- Yeah... for a weekend and go ride- Yeah... all three places. But in the meantime, why can't we have something at Mason City that Decorah and Osage people attend?
54:55
Have something in Osage that Mason City and Decorah people attend. Right. Have something in Decorah that Mason City and Osage people attend. Commit to it. Have better turnouts for our events.
55:05
Doesn't have to be every weekend. [laughs] Right. Well, you're only talking three weekends that way. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, and, and you know, you, between that and the high school races and, and, uh, Iowa has a
55:15
mountain bike race series. Iowa does? That's what Garrett was talking about, yeah. High school probably. Maybe just, they was just talking about the high school.
55:22
And I don't know what it would be or what it would look like, but let's say just thinking out loud right now, 'cause we haven't talked about this, it's a time trials race and a casual ride event for people that don't...
55:34
You know, like m- two or three choices of things you can do within a day possible. Stay over, try to get people to camp. Just a, you know, whatever it is.
55:43
That's a conversation we need to have when we get Mason City to the table. I mean, the, you're, you're, you are talking basically old school mountain bike racing. It was always a weekend event. Yeah. Yeah.
55:51
It was always a- I lo- and I love that. Yeah. I feel we've lost... I mean, I'm a noob, so I don't know, but I feel like
55:56
that probably used to be a thing, and it's, it's, it's tougher to get people to come in and, and camp. Yeah. And that's what I love about it. I love the, I love the community of it later on. Mm-hmm.
56:09
And you want people to stay. Yes. You want people to come and spend money. Yes. Right. Yeah. Stay overnight. Buy a coffee. Exactly. Yeah. Go to the shops. Go to the breweries. Yeah.
56:15
Like I, I told, I'm on the chamber, I'm on rotary, I'm rejoining all that stuff in Osage, and I'm s- You're in the cult? I am. [laughs] So I'm standing up in front of these people,
56:24
and alls I hear is, "Well, we need more retail. We need more retail." And I'm like... And I'm not saying that Osage is flailing. It's always gonna be relevant. It's always gonna be a strong community.
56:32
We have good farmland. It, it's fine. But that doesn't mean you just be like, "No, it, it's, it's doing good, so..." I mean, we need more retail. We, we need more retail. It needs- No you don't need more retail. Yeah.
56:45
You need to bring people into the communities doing something that then creates... They're, they're there, and they're standing on the street, and they turn around and they, there's something they wanna buy- Mm-hmm...
56:54
or there's something they wanna eat, or they need gasoline or a coffee. They're there doing an event or something, and that's where I think the mountain biking is a good piece of that puzzle.
57:04
But- Yeah, I, I think people wanna do... I mean,
57:07
now that I live down here full time, I'm, I'm actually rather shocked at every day down here, weekdays, weekends, doesn't matter, there are cars from outside of the city, like people come down here for the day to go bicycling.
57:20
Yeah. Whether they're riding the mountain bike trails or they're riding the Trot Run Trail, doesn't matter. I- Well, and you guys have had that a long time. Well- Probably, yeah. Yeah. I think so.
57:28
I mean, but- Well, you're probably just seeing it now. Well, I'm, I'm, I'm not used to seeing it during the week like I'm seeing it. Oh. Like, during a weekday, like I'll ride up to the bank or something and, and I'll...
57:36
or go up to D's shop and there's like a van with three bikes- with three mountain bikes on the back of it. They, they're just here for the day to ride. Yeah. And you know, and it was...
57:44
And I, it was kinda funny 'cause we were just having this conversation the other day, like I always do, 'cause of Ralphy, the victory lap.
57:50
Whenever you're done riding the trails, you always have to come down Water Street. Oh, really?
57:54
Because, because when we, I first started mountain biking down here with D and Ralphy and all those guys, D used to get so mad at them because Ralphy's like, "We have to do a victory lap.
58:02
This town needs to know that we are on bicycles and we own we, we are gonna be a big part of this town."
58:07
And he would make us ride all the way down Water Street back to his shop, which, whichever shop it was at at the time, where it was at, um, to let people know that we're fucking riding bikes in this town.
58:19
And look where it's at now. I mean, he's not the only reason behind it, but it's just grown because of D- Mm-hmm... and all the other people down here that ride bikes all the time.
58:27
And it's a fantastic place to ride bikes, don't get me wrong. Oh. But, um, um, that, that mentality... So I still do it. I, I get done riding, I always do, I always do a victory lap. Ride right down Water Street.
58:37
I feel like we did a victory lap last night. Um- We did. [laughs] On our single speeds going from bar to bar. Yeah. I think other people didn't realize it was a victory lap. [laughs] In our own mind it was.
58:47
[laughs] The fact that we're upright was the victory part of it. [laughs] Well, like, yeah.
58:52
The, well a couple of the bars now have, they took away a parking spot on Water Street and put in the bike rack, which is pretty neat too. Yeah. Yeah. So that's- That's- Yeah...
58:59
getting people to know that bike riding- Yeah. Hey, there's a bike presence here. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's, it's, it's, it's definitely a thing in this town. And, and I think- Oh, definitely. Yeah... and I think,
59:08
I'll bet Mason City's probably got something going. You know, here's the other thing, talking about guys going from different places. Um, Mason City guys used to come over here during the week and ride.
59:16
We'd bump into them out on the trails all the time. The, uh, and I can't think of who, what their names were. I remember the guy's face. Yeah. And they would, they would bring like two, three guys over.
59:24
They'd come over- Mm-hmm... and just to, to ride. And I'm, I would guess probably they're probably involved with all the trails that are going on over there now too. Yeah. So it's- Yeah...
59:32
the, if that's the case, you've already got like-minded people doing things, because we all think about- Right... the trails about on the same level. Like, again, going back to where we held the race yesterday on
59:45
old hand-built trails, which are way more fun to ride to me than the flowy stuff. I, I- Yeah... I'm older than anybody else out there, and I'm not going, I'm not giving into fucking- That's true... E-bike.
59:58
[laughs] And I, yeah. [laughs] And I'm not gonna give into riding on easy trails. I- This is the get off my lawn part. [laughs] Here we go. Oh, we're gonna do, we're gonna do that.
1:00:05
I'm, that's, because that's fun is sitting in my front yard. Y- [laughs] Don't, and don't like act like you've never come and done it either. No, I, uh, I know.
1:00:11
[laughs] You, if we, if we walked outside and sat down right now, there'd be 20 people here within a half hour. And we wouldn't have to tell anybody that we're sitting in the front yard, they'd just fucking show up.
1:00:18
They'd just see us. Yeah. There's like, there's like a, there's like an aura that comes out of w- us sitting in the front yard heckling people as they walk by. Right.
1:00:24
Yeah, but to your point, I, I prefer to dirt ribbons, you know? And, you know, the climbs in the woods and where it's, um, as opposed to like a dirt sidewalk or like a gravel sidewalk- Right. Yeah...
1:00:34
where a lot of stuff is- That's a good way to put it. Yeah... concrete and, and just- Yeah. And we're gonna have some of that pr- a little bit. I mean, Ken, I don't think Ken is gonna make it,
1:00:44
you know, completely that way. But it's gonna be, you know- Have you rode-... it's an engineered trail... have you rode Dubuque IPP? I have not. Uh, Iowa Power Preserve? I have not. Okay. 'Cause that's Ken's.
1:00:54
Ken built a lot of that. Oh, did he? Or m- if not all of it. Yeah. Uh-oh. So, um- And you like that? It's, yeah. It, it's, they- Maybe it's not. Maybe Rock Solid did some.
1:01:07
Um, but there's a climb down there that you don't realize you're climbing. I mean- Right... um, there's a hill that went up- Wow... you know, really cool. And then, but Ken put in some...
1:01:16
He incorporated some rock features that it's really neat to ride. Um, yeah, that, I don't know- I think Ken's a perfect fit for what we're doing. Um- Yeah, I agree. I, I think, I think Ken gets it from both angles. Mm.
1:01:28
I mean, he- He does... yeah, I, he's- And he listens. I told him before, I said, "The reason I haven't called you yet is I, this is, you know, this has been my baby and I don't, I don't wanna..."
1:01:37
He goes, "He- I understand. You don't wanna... You want control of all this and, and you don't wanna let that go." He goes, "But you're not letting it go with me. You're, you'll have input." Right. "We'll work together."
1:01:50
Right. And I, and we did. We already have. We laid out the, the design for the new, new section and, and, uh, it worked out great. He's, he's a really awesome guy. [coughs] Yeah, he's perfect for what we're doing.
1:02:01
And I just wanna reiterate with Osage, I understand that we're new to the game, and I, I do feel a little selfish because, you know, I'm promoting Osage
1:02:12
by using, in my mind, by using Decorah and Mason City a little bit because we are in the middle, and we're new, and- No, I- So I, I understand that you gu- you know, you guys, this has always been a bike destination, um, for a long time and we haven't.
1:02:27
So I... we're very thankful and appreciative for being able to be at the table and- No, I, I, I think it's, I think it's a perfect fit, like, the, the fact that we're within two hours of each other.
1:02:43
I mean, the, y- y- it's tough for you to be any closer than- Yeah. Well, Osage is an hour. Mason would be two. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. But I mean, for everybody to go from the farthest one to the other one. Yeah.
1:02:49
Otherwise, you're, otherwise you're just an hour away. You get... It's an hour either way from you. Yeah. Yeah, it's- I, I feel bad that I don't come over more during the week and ride in Osage.
1:02:56
Just, like, jump in the car and run over there and ride for... I mean, I, when I lived in Rochester, I did the cities all the time. Right. You know, d- that's basically the same drive. It's a, it's an hour drive.
1:03:05
Just go up there- Well, and that's the idea of getting, getting u- used to maybe doing that for- You have a Thursday ride, don't you? Yeah. Oh.
1:03:12
So right now during the summer months, we do first and third Thursday of the month. Okay. From the brewery at 5:30. During the winter, for daylight, we change it to the first and third Saturday of the month- Okay...
1:03:25
at 2:00 PM. And those rides are whatever. Sometimes there's two people, sometimes there's 10. Mm-hmm. Depends on the weather and what people are doing, but we do that consistently,
1:03:38
leave from the brewery, return to the brewery. Works really good. We do- Right... we're starting to do that on Tuesdays here with- Yeah... Pulpit Rock Brewery. Yep. Same, same sort of thing. Okay.
1:03:46
And I, and I like the idea that it's, you're leaving from a brew- brewery rather than a bike shop. Well, we don't have a bike shop. No, but- [laughs]... but we do, we do and actually Deke was- Well, we do.
1:03:55
We have Lil Wayne's. Even before there was two bike shops in town, Deke was always... We're not... Well, we would start there because that's where we would go drink beer while he was working, but, um, m-
1:04:04
the sh- he didn't want the rides to be out of his shop. He did not want... He didn't wanna make it look like those rides were to benefit his bike shop. Okay. So, so he always like, "Don't put my name on anything.
1:04:17
Um, we'll just go for a bike ride." Just the fact that he's riding with us and we started there is not the point. The point is, is that we're going for a bike ride on whatever day it was- Mm-hmm... I could come down.
1:04:26
And we'd change it up, too. I mean, I'd, whatever day I could come down and go riding, we would go, whether, you know?
1:04:31
The, um, for a while there, do you remember, you probably don't remember this, um, Wednesday was, like, ride to Bluffton day on the paved trails on the, on the roads.
1:04:39
Like, to the point where they publicized it so that everybody in town knew that on Wednesday the road to Bluffton from here is gonna be full of bicyclists. It's gonna be bikes, yeah.
1:04:49
People are gonna go riding all day, so- Right... just a little, a little heads up for everybody. That was... And I think it was fairly busy. I mean, we'd get groups of 10, 15 people to go do that.
1:04:57
You know, guys and girls go. Well, and the nice thing doing the brewery for, I mean, besides the beer and, and stuff, is people are at the brewery that don't ride, and they're like, "What are you guys doing?
1:05:07
Where are you going?" And, uh, you know, "Well, we're going to ride out in the woods." "Oh, are, are those those fat tire bikes you guys have?"
1:05:14
[laughs] And then so what I'm doing this, this year finally is I know there's a lot of people that kinda maybe wanna go, but they're a little bit, um, intimidated, you know, by just jumping, obviously jumping in with people that ride.
1:05:26
Yeah. So, so this year I'm doing the second Thursday rides of each month are gonna have a beginner ride option where we just, it's just feel free.
1:05:36
We'll have helmets, we'll have bikes available if you want, and we're just gonna go slow and look at a few things. And nobody has to be intimidated. The- Get 'em out there.
1:05:46
Well, you and I were talking last night, Rochester... So we did a Tuesday night ride up there, which was, it started out as a training ride when Trevor and I could get out and ride.
1:05:55
So it was like we'd start, we'd meet at Brothers at 8 o'clock at night, a bar up in Rochester, and we'd start the ride at 8 o'clock at night.
1:06:01
And the dead of winter we'd go do fucking, 'cause Trevor doesn't know how to, to figure out mileage, we'd do a 30-mile ride in 20 below. [laughs] And, and this- Sounds awesome... oh, God, it was crazy. Oh. But it grew.
1:06:12
We did, we had a couple guys, um, me with coaching I, I wasn't able to do it, but we had a couple guys that did every Tuesday, rain or shine or snow, for five years. Never missed a Tuesday. Wow.
1:06:25
And now that one's kinda falling apart now because everybody's busy on Tuesdays. They, they kinda switched it to a Thursday now.
1:06:29
But, um, in the meantime, a group of people up in Rochester are doing kinda what you're saying.
1:06:35
They do an easy ride every Tuesday, and it starts at one of the microbreweries, and they do nothing but the paved trails in Rochester. Sure. A 10-ish, a 10-ish mile ride. Mm-hmm.
1:06:44
And they, and their numbers are getting huge. They're getting, like, 30, 40 people to come out and ride with them. That's a, that's great. Yeah, because people- It's really interesting. Yeah...
1:06:54
you go out and ride single track, people are, that don't do it or... I mean, I forgot- Yeah... I forgot what it's like, you know? You see somebody out there, you're like, "Oh, yeah, this..."
1:07:02
You know, like, my girlfriend's starting to ride a little bit and, and, uh- Yeah, I mean, you- it's like, yeah, this, I rem- I was there once. Mm-hmm. You know, I've... You forget. Yeah.
1:07:11
Well- It's not, it's not an easy thing to do- No... for everybody.
1:07:13
Yesterday was fun too because there were people that didn't know th- that we were racing, and they just came out there and we would heckle them as they came through, and a couple guys [laughs] just joined in and we're, "Oh, wait, you're doing a time trial?"
1:07:22
Yeah, they were riding by and- Right. Yeah... and we talked them into it. They were riding by and we talked them into joining. It was fun. Yeah.
1:07:26
But you, I, and I think maybe it's because we've got so many more miles of trails here now, you, there are way more people out there riding those trails all the time. You don't see as many as you used to. No.
1:07:37
There's more- So- I see a lot of hikers and stuff. Yeah. How many miles of trail? I w- I was... I didn't know you had as much as you do. Yeah. It's- How many miles of single track do you have here? Is it- Is it 30 now?
1:07:47
Is it, is that what it is? If you count Palisades, River Trail- Maybe... uh, if you count the Twin Springs stuff, Van Peenen, Ice Cave- Oh, yeah... and the Hangs. I think, I think just over there is 18. Okay.
1:07:59
But it could be more than that now 'cause I can't remember how long ago somebody- No... deep, it was 18. It's prob- it's probably- After Mother's Day got built- Yeah...
1:08:06
'cause there's three Mother's Days now, upper, middle, and lower- Yeah... Mother's Day, and then Snail Trail. Yeah, I don't remember. I don't know if it's 30, but it's, but it's more than 18 now. Yeah.
1:08:14
We will not have an Osage, and I, I keep saying this, you know, I think a good stopping point for us is, gonna be, like, 10 miles, uh, at lea- under 15 for sure. And that's in the woods, so you're not counting- Yes...
1:08:31
like, the paved path or- Right... yeah. And you- And be done, so that we can maintain it. I rode a place, I can't remember where it was, and if I did, I wouldn't say it anyway. It was in Wisconsin with my buddy Mark.
1:08:40
We rode two, two... We traveled to two different trails sec- areas. Mm-hmm. One was less miles and perfectly maintained. The other was more miles, and they were in over their head. No.
1:08:53
And I'll never go back to ride the second trail. Oh, really? It was a mess. Except- Other trail was less miles, but it was, you can tell that they're out there, and they, they have the ability to maintain it. Mm.
1:09:05
And I don't wanna be, I would, I don't wanna be that. Yeah. Yeah. No, uh, uh, you know, we've, we- We don't need, we don't need a ton of trail. We just need enough to make, to make the trip back and forth- Y-...
1:09:17
traveling between Decorah and Mason City. The cool thing here is is that
1:09:22
because we don't ha- uh, because it's not necessarily d- I m- they're built directional because that's how we just build them, but, but they're not necessa- so you could go out there and ride this stuff and never do the same course in a month.
1:09:34
Yeah. You know, just go out, y- if you set up a, a 10-mile ride, you could do 40 different ways out there, which is kinda cool, I think. I a- Do you guys have maps? Yes. Okay. Kinda.
1:09:45
And then there's Strava stuff on- Yeah... Mountain Bike Project, MTB Project. But, uh, back to your maintenance part, we realized that a few years ago that we
1:09:53
were spending too much time maintaining, so we actually hire a guy now. Uh, we hire... We used to have, like, three. Yeah. So Park and Rec has their employees- Sure... but then we actually paid for, um...
1:10:04
There was a trail maintenance guy and then a trail betterment guy that was go- like, going out there and fixing the berms and stuff like that. Yep. Um- Awesome...
1:10:11
it just got to be, you know, you realize you get to a point when you have that many miles that you don't get to ride- No, no... because you gotta go work on it. Yeah.
1:10:18
You gotta go, uh, nip stuff back, and then we'd be working and somebody go riding by, and you're just like- "Man, I wish I was riding." [laughs] Yeah. [laughs] It's like- Yeah.
1:10:25
I think we pay somebody, like, a kid, like, 17 bucks an hour. I think we- Yeah... raised it, maybe 19 bucks an hour now. It was, it was, I think it was a summer job, was like...
1:10:33
At one time it was, like, three grand for the summer. Yeah. It wasn't, it wasn't a full-time job, but- Sure, it was month to month. Yeah... uh, we had that one wrestler that went over and built that whole berm- Yeah...
1:10:40
just 'cause he wanted to. Sure. You know, it was like, it was like, "Dude, you, you, you, you blowing through your hours in a week already." Yeah. But he just loved doing it. He just, his head...
1:10:49
Uh, he went ba- he's from Michigan, I think, and he went back, back home and after a couple years of wrestling here. But it was, uh- Well, for the right guy, that's a perfect job. Yeah. Like, otherwi- Yeah.
1:10:58
Where you gonna make 17 at Kwik Trip or McDonald's- Yeah... or Culver's? Right. And for somebody that wants to be outside and doing- Yeah... physical activity. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And there's, and there's,
1:11:06
you know, there's, there's something to look at when you're done, whether you just mowed it or built something new, there's, you have a finished product there to look at, which is really cool- Right... I think. Right.
1:11:16
Uh-oh, we got Turners. Oh, no. [laughs] Oh, God. Here we go. You want me to keep... Well, was this long enough? Do you want me to wrap it up? Come on out. Yeah, we're... We, can we get Turner on now?
1:11:26
[laughs] Hey, put your helmet, put it- I'm just here for a second. Jesus. Hang on a sec. Wanted to see what a podcast was. [laughs] Oh, is that right? [laughs] You wanna be on? No. What do you mean no?
1:11:35
God, you sound like your dad now. [laughs] See, we're not even sitting outside- Yeah... people are stopping over. [laughs] See? D- did I tell you?
1:11:43
Front door's open, then all of a sudden people think they can just fucking walk in the house. [laughs] It's ridiculous. [laughs] I'll be back. All right. See you guys in a little bit. Yep, yep. We'll see ya. All right.
1:11:52
Um, I, I think we're good. Mm-hmm. We're, we're, we're at, we're at an hour and a half. Yeah, I think that was a good discussion. We're at an hour 15.
1:11:58
Do you need to do all our plugs here, like DHBT and Missoula County Mountain Goats- Yeah... and whatever the hell Chewie does? [laughs] Yeah, so- Are you gonna be our maintenance guy maybe? Well, did we talk about that?
1:12:09
Well, I, uh, well, well, you keep, you keep telling me I'm gonna get paid for it and nobody else seems to agree with you. I got 20 bucks on me. [laughs] I got the 20 bucks you gave me yesterday. Well, I, so... Yeah.
1:12:18
[laughs] Jesus.
1:12:19
I, I, um, I, uh, I did m- when I moved down here, well, even before I moved down here, I actually, um, was given b- well, because, uh, the kids can't run, so that, going back to your trail maintenance guys, we have high school kids that are doing it now, not college kids, and the high school kids can't run the power equipment.
1:12:36
Right. So- Park and Rec won't allow it. Yeah, so I- Yeah... so I do, so Gary Timmerman and myself, Perch, um, a few other guys grab, like, the DR mower and, like, we have, like, our own little areas to take care of.
1:12:48
Mm-hmm. Like, all the stuff that you rode by yesterday- Right... I mowed that on Tuesday. And nice job. It's fun. Yeah. Hank likes it. He likes to go out there and hang out, and so yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's...
1:12:57
But that's how you gotta do it, 'cause it, because we can't do a trail, I... Maybe this is the way it needs to be done there too. You can't really do... Trail days work for a year or so.
1:13:08
And then, and then it gets to the point where everybody's, like, going, "Ugh." Yeah. "This is like I do every fucking Monday." So we break it up- Yeah... into small groups and- We were doing weekly.
1:13:15
Yeah That was too much. Yeah, and, like, now you go, like, you're gonna get out and do... Take care of one hunk. Like, Garrett and I were talking yesterday about we gotta get the, um...
1:13:23
Out to the river trail and get that, 'cause it's so overgrown. Just tomorrow night. Tomorrow, um, T- Monday at 6:00 o'clock- Yeah... I'm meeting to work, rework that river trail piece. Yeah, yeah. So that's once a month.
1:13:33
Yeah. Yeah. So that's not bad. I mean, but, but it's, it's... Breaking it up and just taking care of little bits and pieces makes it tolerable for everybody, I think. Right, right.
1:13:41
Um, I'm not sure what's gonna happen with the Carlson property. I... When that, when those trails are built. Uh, I was a little worried when we were talking to Pert yesterday that that is gonna be ours to take care of.
1:13:52
I heard that too, and I didn't wanna get into it, but- I... Yeah, I didn't either, but, 'cause I'm like, "Mm, I have enough to do over here. I don't really..." And I'm not, I'm not a big features guy. Yeah.
1:14:02
Well, and it just gets down to, okay, we have our equipment, and we have our... The trails that we built that, you know, we, we said, "We'll build it. We'll maintain it." When...
1:14:10
'Cause we were underneath Park and Rec as part of this thing. Right. And that was part of the how we got permission to do what we did. We said, "We'll build it. We'll maintain it. You don't have to worry about it."
1:14:18
And we bought all of our equipment, our DR trimmers, our... You know, we got weed whips, and shovels, and rogue hoes, and all that stuff through Park and Rec, but we just got 501[c][3], too. Right.
1:14:27
Um, but with the, with that property, I mean, we built this with volunteer hours, and raised money, and time trial race fees.
1:14:36
This is getting built with grants, and there's hundreds of thousands of dollars going into that. Right. Now we're gonna be responsible, our little volunteer organization, you know, to maintain, uh, that. Yeah.
1:14:47
[laughs] Which I, I- I'm a little nervous about that... I am nervous about that, too. I, I, I think, with luck I think,
1:14:54
because of the people that would be using that, there will be a different group that joins our club and will maintain that for... 'Cause that's where they wanna ride and where they wanna play. Which is fine.
1:15:04
I, I, I, I hope that's what happens. Maybe we get to... I don't wanna do park passes, but, uh, it would...
1:15:11
I mean, we're, we have to do DHPT fees now, 'cause with our 501[c][3], and we have the board, we have insurance now, we have to pay for that stuff. We have bills, yeah. Right. And we have bills to pay.
1:15:20
Um, but yeah, if, if we're gonna stick that much money into something, how do we start recouping that money? Uh, we're not business owners. Like, uh- Right...
1:15:28
I get what you're saying, bring people, make it a destination, but where's the money for the, the time to do it, and, you know, the gas, and the tools, and, you know- Right...
1:15:37
we gotta take the chainsaws and the weed whips in, like, every year to get them, you know, tuned up. Where's that money gonna come from? Because that's gonna be a lot. It's gonna be a big load on us- Yeah... I think.
1:15:45
Well, I mean- So we gotta figure that piece out. Brian's been, Brian's been out there working just to try to get... I haven't been out, I haven't been up there for a while.
1:15:51
From here it's really fun, 'cause I take my clunker up there and ride. I ride from here up to it. Okay. And do a, and then do a lap up there and then come back home.
1:15:57
And, and, and actually, actually I do kind of like hanging out and drinking in the grain bin, though. Uh, that's gonna be a big spot. There's gonna be a lot of people up there hanging. [laughs] I know. Yeah.
1:16:05
I, I was walking around either... And it was, it was a... That was a project that at first I'm thinking, "Where do, where was I supposed to go? Was it..." You guys might've had a ride that day.
1:16:15
And I'm like, "Uh, I better stick around and help." So I stuck around and helped put that, that grain bin up, the... What do they call them? Uh- Oh, I know what it was. Yeah. It wasn't El... It wasn't your...
1:16:27
It was something else. Well, it was, there was something, yeah. And then we, I didn't go. But, uh, but it was, it was really fun to put it up, and to see it sitting over there is kind of cool. It's, it's...
1:16:35
I thought it'd been cooler if it was a used one, so it was all beat up looking, but at the same time, um, that was a fun community event to get everybody out there to put it together. So it's a grain bin bar type thing?
1:16:44
Yeah, so it's just- Like you see in people's yards? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a, it's a binzebo. Yeah, a binzebo. That's it. Oh. Yeah. Fine. [laughs] And they're gonna... It, it's gonna be like a s- How fun is that?
1:16:52
It's gonna be kind of a trailhead. Right. Um- Can I put a Mitchell County Mountain Goat sticker on the side of it? Ooh.
1:16:58
Well, I, well, I was almost gonna sticker it the other day when I was up there, 'cause I, I, I was... A- as I was moving things down here, I found a... I have a folder with millions of stickers on it.
1:17:07
And I was, and I was looking at the wall in my shop up in Rochester, debating, "I may have to take this wall off and bring it down here," because it's all places I've gone for bike rides and stuff. You know what?
1:17:18
We should do, uh, a binzebo in that spot yesterday. We should try to get an old rusty one and put it up in there. Fuck yeah, that'd be awesome. That'd be a great... That'd be a good spot for one. Wouldn't it? Yeah. Yeah.
1:17:28
And if you build it like that, it's... And if it does flood, it's not gonna wreck it. You just- Right... you don't put a bottom on it, you just have the top. It's like- 'Cause that floods down there now and then?
1:17:37
Uh, spring. Well, right down the rocky road, so, you know, when you're going up to the left there? Yeah. That's like a big ravine where mo- to- Yeah... the prairie drains through that. Okay.
1:17:44
By the way, as we were marking the course yesterday, a tree came down on top of that wall. Yeah. [laughs] It's like we rode up and- I'm glad I missed saw it...
1:17:50
[laughs] we rode up and we were coming back and all of a sudden he just finished stopping. I'm like, "What... Where the fuck did that come from?"
1:17:56
Like, it came from the other side of the ravine and landed across Rocky Road. Oh, man. Yeah. Yeah. It's constant. Yeah. That's funny.
1:18:03
You're just gonna have that here with the terrain that we have, and everything's, trees growing off of vertical. [laughs] Well, it's...
1:18:09
And it makes me laugh because we've had a bit of an argument down here about building trails, and Rochester's horrible right now. Um, I went to a meeting up there.
1:18:19
This, the club up there has put $11,000 into building, to looking into building a trail a mile and a half long, and they're fighting with the people in the neighborhood up there.
1:18:29
And they're like, "Well, you're gonna wreck the trees. The trees are gonna die."
1:18:32
The, the best comment out of the whole thing that day, from the guy from the state that came down to talk to them, was he w- they were talking about the wildlife. "It's gonna disturb the wildlife." I'm like, "Really?
1:18:42
Come out here and ride with the coyotes sometime, because the coyotes like running in front of you when you're riding your bikes out here."
1:18:46
[laughs] See, see Ken Barker in his design plan for us put in there, he addresses that in there, and talks about how it benefits the... You know, there's verbiage in there that- Yeah...
1:18:56
that addresses that for people's concern. Well, the guy from the state was really funny, 'cause he goes, "So..." It's like, it's like there's horseshoe h- houses around this spot, right? And so he goes, "So..."
1:19:07
This guy was being kind of a dick, so the... He kind of got on him. He just stood right up and said, "I'm not gonna find the thing."
1:19:11
He goes, "If you want me to, I will find you the slide and show it to you, but here's what it's going to tell you. He's gonna say that you- So concerned about affecting wildlife.
1:19:22
He goes, "Where that trail is sitting is within 1,000 feet of your house, so you sitting on your deck," he goes, [laughs] "sitting on your deck, cooking your brats, listening to Van Halen, drinking beer, has more of effect on those deer than that bicycle trail will."
1:19:38
Right. Yeah. And that bicycle trail is within that 1,000. So if you're on your deck, that, that affects 1,000 feet behind you. And have you seen the squirrel study that they've done? No.
1:19:47
So there's a study they've done with squirrels that they're- [laughs] How do s-... actually their- Do they have to ask the squirrels-... their BMI-... if they would volunteer? [laughs]...
1:19:54
their weight has come down because they're running from bikes, uh, on single track- So it's healthy for the squirrels... trails. It is. It makes them work out.
1:20:01
[laughs] It's the cardiovascular system in squirrels has benefited- Has-... in areas specific, specifically- Yeah... you know, where there's single track. And the- and the best part is- There's a study...
1:20:12
as we're sitting here talking this, um, the new fawn just walked across many of his drive over there. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Yeah, there's a bunch there. Yeah.
1:20:18
But- But that's a good point, what kinda what we're talking about is, you know, we're, we're thinking about planning trails and what Ken's doing. Um, but they have to answer questions for, um, the people.
1:20:28
Yeah, I'm sure you're gonna get a lot of that stuff, like, "What's g- gonna go on with the wildlife? What's- Yeah... the erosion gonna be like?" Yeah, and, and- Right...
1:20:34
and Ken's probably one of the, the same thing as this, this guy that's from the State of Minnesota Transportation.
1:20:38
He was, he was, he was kinda bragging about something he wrote, and I'm like, "You didn't fucking write that. I remember helping Dorian Grill write that, like, 35 years ago."
1:20:48
[laughs] But they've just expanded on it, and it's, and it's one of... He was on his way to Indiana to... Indiana's gonna start doing the same thing Minnesota's doing with, with trails and, like, it's, it...
1:20:59
Like, what Ken and those guys do, everything is laid out perfectly. So if there is an argument from a weird old neighbor that doesn't want something done, he's got 18 pages of, "Fuck you, this is why we can do it." Geez.
1:21:09
And, and, and coming back to what we're talking about with the trees falling down,
1:21:13
when we were having that bitch session with o- one of our friends in town here about the pine tree section and bitching about the trees coming down, there wasn't a fucking tree that ever fell down in all those 40 trees we had to cut out up there because of the trail.
1:21:25
It's just natural. Trees are gonna fucking fall over when they get old and die. Yeah. That's all there is to it. And, and he was trying to blame the erosion from the mountain bike trail for it. Oh, really?
1:21:35
Yes, and I'm like, "There's not one trail, there's not one tree that came down that it was even on the trail." And I'm just like, I don't know wh- I, I, I don't know he, he... He's calmed down anyway, whatever.
1:21:45
There's, there's a lot of myths- Yeah... to that. Um, but for Ken, did you just hire Ken? So it's Backyard Trails is his company, right? Yes. And so you don't have to put anything out for bid.
1:21:54
You can just say, "Design it and build it." Yeah, because of we're raising money locally. Okay. So you don't- So once you get into state and federal- That's another problem... then that's when your regulations come in.
1:22:04
Mm. So I decided let's, for several reasons, we're doing a smaller project, less money that we can hopefully raise the money locally. Yeah, yeah. And then we can basically, "Here's your check,"
1:22:17
and I give that to Ken, and we build our trail. There's no... It's just simple. I like it. I didn't wanna get into the federal state stuff. Yeah. If you need more money, you have to.
1:22:27
That explains- But I, I- That ex- that explains why where- Yeah... we're at with the Carlson project because that is, um, we wrote two grants for that. Yeah.
1:22:33
Well, nice thing about this is so, um, Rock Solid's designer is John Schube, and, um, he just went on his own. So he- Wow... he split from Rock Solid, I mean, in a good terms, but now the guy...
1:22:47
'Cause we, the p- the person who plans it cannot build it, uh, you know, with the way that our money works. Yeah. So- That, that's like an Iowa thing, I guess. Well, that's obviously not, well, maybe state. Yeah.
1:22:59
We g- we got- Th- th- y- yes, yes... different money, so we have to do it that way. Yeah, yeah. But now because they're separate entities- Good luck... now John can still plan it, and now Rock Solid can build it. So.
1:23:08
Perfect. Yeah. All right. Um, I think we've about killed ourselves. That's plenty. You're... Why don't you go home and take a nap now? Uh, yeah. No. [laughs] I'm gonna drive back to Osage, uh- You're going back home?...
1:23:18
m- mow my lawn and then go for a ride on our- Nice... awesome trails. I'm, I, I actually have to go up to Rochester and fix my brother and sister-in-law's bikes, and, and one other friend of mine.
1:23:29
Um, th- there's a gal up there that I just love her to death, but she's, she's got this old Raleigh, and she rides the hell out of it, and she got a bungee cord caught in it. Ooh. [laughs] Yeah.
1:23:39
So I, I'm not, I'm afraid of what it's gonna look like 'cause she always tries to fix it herself. That'll slow you down. Yeah. Yeah. All right. We're out of here. Thanks, guys. Let's, uh, close this thing down. Maybe.
1:23:49
No. You lost the music again. I... Fucking no, I didn't. [upbeat music] See? [laughs] Told ya. [laughs] Well, you just cranked it up. You're supposed to ease into it. What happened to the country music one that you had?
1:24:01
What's that? The country music one that you had. Um, wait. Is that this one? [upbeat music] I like that one better. [laughs] Oh, that's nice. [laughs] Our, our podcast just ran another half hour just listening to music.
1:24:13
[laughs] It was a dream. It's called The Trail. [laughs] Gotta cut it off today. [laughs] All right. [laughs] Ooh.
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