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Full Spectrum Cycling
Full Spectrum Cycling #149 – Seeley Dave – New CAMBA Trail – Trail Grooming Drags
Jan 28, 2022
Full Spectrum Cycling #149 – Seeley Dave – New CAMBA Trail – Trail Grooming Drags
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0:00
[upbeat music] Hello, everyone.
0:20
Welcome to Full Spectrum Radio Productions. This is the Full Spectrum Cycling Podcast. Show number 149 we're doing tonight here at the, uh- 409... Coming Along podcastmke.org studio.
0:36
Slow but sure, things get done every week. It's nice. It was- S- slow and steady wins the race... which it was super cold in here this week. Uh-huh, uh-huh. So that did tend to slow the progress down.
0:49
Once we get the electricity and we got the baseboard heaters, we're gonna be super toasty. Oh. [laughs] Uh, joining- No, no needing for-- no need for the layering. [clears throat] No, right?
0:59
I've got my Kitzbuhel shirt on. It's super nice and toasty. Yeah, I'm kinda baking potatoes in my, [laughs] in my getup here. [laughs] Uh, it's, it's JK over there to my right today. Hello there.
1:11
Uh, we got no Tony this week. Eh? Yeah. Ain't no Tony over there right now. That guy is... No Tony, no Tony in that seat right there. That seat's empty, is what's happening in that seat. He may be coming through the-
1:24
Yeah... fiber- fiber optics- Yeah, let's see... on the covers... let's see. Let's see what happens with that. Perhaps. Perhaps. Let's watch. Let's listen. He's been texting about the Jeopardy!- Yes... trauma today.
1:35
Uh, well, no more clutching of the pearls. [laughs] Which I read a story because it's like, why does she wear pearls? It's, "Oh, it was a gift from my girlfriend," dun, dun, dun, dun. Cute, sweet, but okay. And?
1:48
Now she can be the next permanent host or semi-permanent host. The one with the pearls? Yeah, yeah. The winner gets to be a host? Well- Ah, okay. That- But they don't, they haven't named a permanent host yet...
2:00
that's gonna be interesting. Yeah. Well- I'm just, I'm just throwing it- Hey, you did really- A lot of conspiracy theories going on... right, you did really well for a month, so. Hell yeah.
2:07
She ended up at, I don't know, like a million and a half. Oh. She could buy her way into the host job. Oh, I see what you did there. [laughs] Uh, yeah, yeah, yep, yep. Little, little, uh, little nippy outside this week.
2:24
I know. I, I, I always ride my bike in to work. Always. This was the first time in at least y- I was doing the math, at least in a decade that I took the bus to come- Oh, wow... to work. Well, there you go.
2:40
That's quite commendable- Yeah, yeah, yeah... on your part... I just, I, I felt, I felt, uh, you know. Uh-huh. But it was, it was active snow, and colder than hell, and I'd no sense of being a hero. [laughs] Yeah.
2:52
Plus we haven't set your fat bike up with studs yet. Yeah, yeah, but I mean, I'll, I'll grudge ride and, "No, you do it," and then I end up walking the bike. But so I, you know, end up walking part of it, but yeah.
3:04
All the same, I gave it a, you know, noble effort one way or the other, but this one I was like, "Screw this." [laughs] There's a fucking bus stop two, a block and a half total of outdoor time. I can do that.
3:15
Yeah, for sure. But I walked home from it, so yeah. That's a nice afternoon- Reward and-... jaunt. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, and had a wonderful burger today at Harry's, which- Oh, right on Oakland.
3:29
[laughs] I haven't been in there forever. Well, it was to go. I just, they had a truffle burger, so it just sounded really good and it was on the way. Consequently, it was really good? Yeah. [laughs] Yeah, yeah.
3:43
So I, you know, there's a, there's a lot of, uh, lot of fat bike events coming up. I had been trying to keep a little running list on the fat, on the, uh,
3:53
show notes, but it kinda, it's getting a little overwhelming, so there's actually events all the way into April now.
3:58
[laughs] And they got that dang old, uh, fatbike.com calendar over there, so that's probably your best bet for checking it out on the fatbike.com website.
4:09
I kept seeing the, uh, the Frosty Hogan approach, which is local for- Right, yeah... for us here. And it- Yeah, that's, that-... it's always a good time for heckling. Right.
4:18
What I like about that one is it's a really short course usually. It's maybe a mile or a little more, so the spectators, you know, you do a bunch of laps and it's kinda like, "Yeah, there they go.
4:28
Oh, there they go again." Yep, yep, yep. "And there they go." "Oh, wait, you can see 'em at the top of the bend over there," and da, da, da, da. Right.
4:33
It's like when I go up to the Fat Bike Birkie or some longer race like that and it's, I'm doing s- you know, photographs for something, I can see like the start, jam over there, get one, jam over there, get one, and maybe get back for the finish.
4:45
But- Mm-hmm... it's really hard to, you know, get all over a course. Yeah. And I, I learned- Well-... that also this year on the, uh, on the NICA race courses.
4:53
You really have to know all the shortcuts through the woods and stuff- Yeah... to get to s- spots where you can see your riders coming through, like, at, you know, three or four spots or something, but.
5:02
Well, wasn't it at Shell Track that there was [laughs] it was like equal numbers of spectators and/or photographer-type things out on the course? Yeah, that could- Which became like moving obstacles for some- Yeah...
5:15
of the riders. [laughs] Yeah, yeah. No, you can't- Like when somebody like cut to like Chuck going into a gully there. [laughs] Yeah, you definitely, I, I- It's like, shit...
5:22
as a photographer of, of action sports-oriented events, it's pretty much incumbent upon you to be smart- Get the-... about and get the- Yeah... fuck out of the way.
5:30
[laughs] And that was- Because- Yeah, 'cause that w- I remember that course being one where, you know, you know, can't, you, you had to hunt out to watch different parts of the thing. Right. Yeah, for sure.
5:40
Which, you know, normal. I mean, I did have, uh, not a scare, but a, a dummy moment this, at one of the NICA races this past year. I was going down the trail and I didn't reali- I thought they'd be coming at me
5:52
bec- and then I can see 'em coming through the trees and stuff, get out of the way, get a good spot.
5:56
But they were actually coming from behind me, and I just heard one as it came around the corner, one of the riders, and I'm like- Behind marker?... "Zoop, get out," and like. No, they didn't even have to say anything.
6:03
No, no. That would've just- But yeah, that would've made me-... that would've drove you insane... go like, "Oh, what a dumbass. Those guys are coming from behind me?" Yeah.
6:08
I did, yeah, I guess I didn't figure that trail out very well. [laughs] Yeah, those are...
6:12
So, uh, that whole NICA thing has gotten so big that this year they're going to I think restrict the teams to four out of the six races. You're gonna have to pick the ones you wanna go to as a team because- Huh...
6:25
all these event sites can't handle the, o- you know, over 1,000 racers that are- Yeah... coming to these events. There's just not enough infrastructure for all those people. It, it's amazing how much it's grown.
6:36
Um- For being a fat event, you know? [laughs] Yeah. [laughs] It's like, wow. [laughs] Yeah. No, for sure. I just... A, a guy came in this week that had some...
6:46
needed some truing on his fat bike wheels, and turns out his son is, uh, a j- junior hi- uh, yeah, junior high on the same team as my son. I'm like, "Oh, cool." Oh, nice. "I recognized your hat, dude."
6:58
[laughs] If I may be so bold. Yeah. And- Um [laughs]... yeah, yeah. And then he took me in his garage and showed me all of his stuff. Oh. And I'm like, "Oh, look at all this stuff." If he may be so bold.
7:08
[laughs] Yeah, no. He says, "Yeah, I'm Tony's-" Well, I just, I said, "I'm, I'm gonna be going right past your house anyway. I'll just drop the wheels off instead of making you come down."
7:14
But, uh, yeah, that was pretty interesting seeing... He has this collection of, like, stuff going back to, like, '95, and I, I don't think he ever threw anything away- Nice... or sold anything.
7:24
[laughs] And it's all nice stuff, so... But it's all 26 inch. And you're like, "Oh, what am I gonna do with a 26-inch mountain bike? That's not even cool anymore." But functional. Oh, boy.
7:32
Fu- well, as a, especially as a city bike. Yes, yes. Hey- Other parts... welcome to the program, caller. Who do we have on the line? Hey, it's Seely Dave. Seely Dave. Seely Dave.
7:43
That's such a surprise you're calling in today. [laughs] Like, we, uh, we, we lost Tony this week, so I, I s- I thought we could catch back up with Dave. It's been...
7:54
I dunno, it's been f- four weeks or something since we talked to you. Though I think the last show, my kids, we were sitting in the dining room 'cause we had gotten...
8:01
Santa brought us COVID, so we were sitting in the dining room doing the show with the family. [laughs] Yeah. But, but we're all past that now, except some people aren't past it yet.
8:11
How's that affec- how's that affecting Seely? Is that running rampant up there? Is everybody pretty much, 'cause you're so far- No... away from everyone, it's no big deal? No, it's, it's not.
8:19
Yeah, our, our county actually isn't, isn't that bad. And, um, the latest variant never really got real bad up here. I mean, it, it did definitely tax the healthcare up, up here, but it, it wasn't like...
8:38
I guess they were, they... For a while they were briefly... There were some days where they were turning away people from the emergency room because it was full of COVID people.
8:49
Um, so, like, they were di- diverting ambulances or whatever from the Hayward Hospital. But it only lasted a couple of, three days, I think- Okay... things like that. Well, that's good news... and it, it... So yeah.
9:02
Okay. It wasn't good, but it wasn't...
9:05
You know, I mean, everything was kind of almost back to normal for a while, and then the Omicron thing happened and, you know, we kinda quit doing stuff again, you know, um, going out to the sawmill and stuff like that.
9:17
Um, but I'm feeling like it's kind of around the corner, that we'll be back- Did you, uh-... back at that again... did you have to stay in 'cause you fell off the ladder for a while too, so it was kinda...
9:27
[laughs] Well, yeah. That didn't, that didn't help. So [laughs] I'm doing pretty good now. It's been, I think, five weeks as of this Friday.
9:35
And, you know, bones generally they say six to eight weeks for them to fully knit back together, so- Oh, that would be-... I'm feeling pretty good. It's... As I, I was doing short, easy bike rides. I haven't been...
9:48
I'm not that great of a skier or ice skater, so I, I'm gonna fall if I do that up here, so I'm, I haven't done that yet. But I've been going for some shorter, easier, smooth, fat bike rides.
10:00
You know, 10 or 12 miles or something like that. And, uh, and I've been... So I mentioned to you, I've been, uh, like, my new, my new, um, volunteer thing that I've been doing for the neighbor is I, I, um...
10:12
A different neighborhood got a new Scandic super wide track utility snowmobile to groom their trails. So they were getting rid of their very old 1996 Scandic wide track.
10:26
And, uh, and they knew I was, our neighborhood was looking for one, 'cause ours broke, our even older one broke last year. [laughs] Um, so, uh, so I, I scooped that up for, like, 1,500 bucks and
10:39
fixed the f- handful of things on it that they were, said were wrong with it, and I fixed those, most of those things. And it's...
10:47
So I've been out, uh, and borrowed a couple of old groomers that nobody's using at the Seely Ski Club. So I've been... Our neighborhood penmen trails are now groomed again as of this week. Nice. Yeah.
10:59
You know, most days. Are those, uh, are those drags, like, how wide are they? Like, six feet for the, the big one? So I, I s- it... You'll... I sent you some pictures of the two drags that I've got.
11:12
There's a company called Tidd Tech, T-I-D-D Tech, um, that is originally from Wisconsin, moved out of state, and now is back in Spooner. They make, um, pretty good drags. I've got an older one of those. It's called a...
11:28
They have two models, a G2 and then a Tenderizer. The Tenderizer was the first one. I've got an older four-foot wide Tenderizer.
11:35
It does not have, like, a classic track setter on it, but, um, it's a pretty good drag, and it's not so heavy that it, if I get stuck, I can't unhitch it and, you know, move it a little bit off, back onto the trail, and, and re-hook it back up.
11:48
And then, uh, and then I've got, uh, uh... Our trails are pretty narrow, so I started with the four-foot one. I was a little hesitant my first time grooming to start with a wider drag.
11:59
And then, um, Kurt Proctor, who's sort of the head groomer at the Birkie, a long time ago he built a very simple pan drag.
12:08
It's kinda like a metal pan, um, with a small comb, a, a, a fine comb at the end to sort of give the corduroys, um, on it. And so I took that out today, that six-foot drag.
12:19
It, it just barely fits between some of the stuff. And in fact, I We have a, a stone bridge that I was trying to go across, and it got stuck on that.
12:27
[laughs] So I had to stop the snowmobile, unhook it, move the snowmobile, and then that thing isn't real heavy either, so I, I'm able to sort of muscle it around and get it back off the bridge and hook it back up and keep going.
12:39
But yeah, it's pretty... It's... A- and the neighborhood is already super stoked that, I mean, people... There are already people out.
12:47
It, it's only been a couple days that I've, I've had the, the groomers and the snowmobile, and already people are out, our neighbors are out skiing and fat biking and stuff like that. So, so they're really appreciative.
12:59
And that, when we moved in last year, our trails were being groomed, but, uh, with an extra snowmobile from the Seeley Ski Club. But, uh, that broke, as did one of their groomers. Our trails are pretty rough and tumble.
13:11
They're really steep and narrow and stuff, so they're kinda rough on equipment. So they weren't being groomed this year, and so I sorta made it a mission to try to turn that around and, and it's worked out pretty well.
13:23
Yeah. Cool. And it hasn't been a big investment, you know, 1,500 bucks for a old snowmobile. It's loud and smelly. It's not- [laughs]... you know, like a, uh- It's got character. [laughs]... you know, it's a two-stroke.
13:35
It's... But it, it, it's... Uh, the thing with grooming is, like for those that don't know, is, um, most snowmobiles are, are designed to, uh, you know, run at real high RPMs, and they have only a...
13:50
They don't have a, a low, uh, a low gear. Um, the Scandics are designed as utility snowmobiles, and they have a, a low-end gearbox. So they have a, you know, a, a low and a high, and then a re- reverse as well.
14:05
So, um, and then you also need a fan-cooled one 'cause the, uh, water-cooled ones, you're running at such slow speeds that those tend to overheat, and the fan-cooled ones don't.
14:15
So it's kind of a niche-y little snowmobile market that to try to find these things are kinda hard to find. Like- Yeah. Yeah. For sure... like everything else is, during this pandemic, it, it got worse.
14:25
Um, so- You know what would be cool for a, for a- But I found one...
14:29
you know, I think something that would be cool for a tra- trail grooming, uh, power plant would be something with an electric motor now, that if they can- Oh, yeah... you know, get the capacity.
14:39
So our, our- There's such torque down there and cool stuff going on... uh, we have another couple of neighbors that are part-timers here, but they're here a lot because, um, the woman is, like, you know, a, a nurse.
14:49
Um, so, you know, she gets... She works, you know, multiple 16-hour days and then gets five days off or something, and her husband can work from home, and their kid is, uh, not going to school yet, so he's very young.
15:01
So they come here all the ti- They're here a lot, and um, they put an order in for a Taiga electric snowmobile. It's a Canadian, new Canadian company. Um, and they're, they're not in production yet.
15:15
They're supposed to be in production in, uh, uh, the end of... Uh, by winter '22. You know, we'll see. Um, but that's what they're... That's a... So they put a deposit down on one of those. And yeah, that...
15:26
'Cause yeah, you're right. Electric motors, you got torque from the get-go, you know.
15:31
Um, and for grooming our trails, range isn't even an issue, although I guess the Taiga's got a pretty good range, but range isn't even an issue, you know, 'cause you're...
15:39
You know, we're doing five loops of five miles of trails. You know, it's not like I'm going that far. So, so they put that in. And I d- So I was hesitant to...
15:50
I didn't wanna go out and spend a lot of money on it, something if we're gonna get that next year. Um, but this was cheap, and it'll get us through until this year.
15:59
And if that doesn't show up next year and we have to wait one more year, you know, this one'll,'ll last us. Yeah. Right on. Um, and the other... Yeah.
16:07
The other nice thing, um, about grooming this year, uh, our neighborhood trails, is there's a new connector trail that CAMBA has. That was one of the main reasons I wanted to call in. Um,
16:18
so, uh, w- one of the owners of Rome Adventure Basecamp has been grooming, started last year sorta brushing out this trail.
16:27
It's an old trail that kinda used to exist and kinda used to connect everything, and, um, and he just sorta made sure that it linked everything up.
16:36
So there's this new trail they call Gordy's View that CAMBA has on their Seeley, um, map. Uh, any of the viewers can look at that. If, if you link to my news post, that blog post on my Life Above 8 website, I rode, uh,
16:52
and did a video riding the trail with Cowboy, and, uh, and then I wrote up a little history about Gordy Penman and, and talked a little bit more about the trail, and I include the trail map and stuff.
17:01
So if you link that in your show notes- Oh, yeah... uh, listeners can find it. Yeah. I, I read it before the show. It's, it's definitely...
17:07
I like to hear the history up there and, and you've got a lotta, uh, points on there that are- Yeah. The history's-... pretty-... really interesting.
17:12
The trail itself, though, is, is a great new addition to, uh, to the Seeley CAMBA winter trail network bec- also to the ski trails, um, for skiers.
17:23
So, um, the, the trail, the, the new trail connects the Seeley Pass Trail, which is groomed, with, um, our neighborhood Penman trails, which are now, now groomed, with the Seeley Ski Club trails and the CAMBA Seeley Hills, uh, winter groomed trails.
17:42
So you can now, um... And it connects to the Birkie Trail 'cause it goes to Rome, and Rome has a connector to the Birkie Trail.
17:48
So now you can ride your bike out of any of these neighborhoods here, Nordic Ridge, the Seeley Highlands, uh, the, our, our trails here, or, and, or you can start anywhere on the system and connect all these trails now, um, very easily.
18:05
It also gives you the opportunity... Um, one of my favorite loops riding around Seeley is the Big Fat Loop, but it's kind of a, a bear. It's, it's a lotta riding.
18:15
So this offers you kind of like a, a slightly shortened version of the Big Fat Loop, and allows you...
18:21
Or it, actually you could even make an even bigger fat loop if you wanted [laughs] to do it that way and extend the Big Fat Loop with this.
18:29
So it's a really nice, really nice connector And, and, uh, uh, I, I highly encourage people to-- And it's wide. Um, it's groomed six feet wide.
18:39
So it's also nice for, um, sort of riders that are a little nervous about fat biking on single track. Yeah, 'cause not all the trails up there are six feet wide, right?
18:50
A lot of the groomed trails are, are two feet or so? No, mo- [clears throat] most of the CAMBA trails, most of the CAMBA trails are groomed to two feet wide, you know, and are single track basically.
18:59
You know, so they're, they're narrow and, um, you know, and you can... The, the tread is compacted, and then if you fall off that tread, you know, you sink down in the soft, fluffy snow- [laughs]...
19:08
and just laughs at you. Been there and done that. You know? Yeah. It's, uh-- It can be like four feet deep. You get in, you, uh, [laughs] it's nice to have somebody- Right... to pull you out of there. Yeah.
19:15
Otherwise, you're, you're f- flopping around like a fish. Right. Yeah. [laughs] Yeah. But, so it's a really- So yeah, I, I did, I did take a look at that video. It, uh, it-- I like it. It's, it's cool.
19:25
It's, uh, it shows the, it shows the trail. You-- It looks like the conditions in the video are really good, 'cause you're moving along at a pretty good clip. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
19:34
Um, we actually have very good conditions up here right now. The, um... It's supposed to warm up in the next couple of days.
19:40
It's been cold, but, um, but it's supposed to be in like the 20s and then the teens, um, after that, and maybe get a little bit more snow. So we have very good conditions. Everything's really well-groomed.
19:53
Um, the surfaces are all, you know, the tread on all the single track winter fat bike trails is groomed pretty, pretty, it's pretty firm, so you don't have to do that, you know, two PSI sort of thing.
20:04
You can run four or five PSI and a- and feel like you're at-- can actually coast your bike. Um, you don't have to pedal downhill. Um, so it's... Yeah, so it's-- The conditions are great on the CAMBA trails.
20:15
The ski trails are pretty good right now too. So, um, I, I-- anybody that's up for coming up, um, I cer- certainly encourage it.
20:23
Uh, of course, that sort of brings up, uh, next weekend, um, we have, uh, over in, uh, close to Hudson, in New Richmond, we have, uh, uh, the Fat Bike World Championships have moved to Wisconsin.
20:37
We had the US Fat Bike Open, the first US Fat Bike Open, that, uh, Broken Spoke put on last weekend as part of the Snow Crown series. Yep, yep.
20:43
And next weekend is the, the Fat Bike World Championships, which have moved here from Colorado. So, so I'm heading over to, to that, to photograph that. So, um, so- So is, is that a permanent move? I'm super stoked.
20:56
I did not- Or is that just like a, is that just like a one-time thing that they're doing it there? Or is this like the new home? It's not a one-time thing. It's for sure, it's for sure two or three years.
21:06
You know, I, I think their, their idea was to move it around a little bit, but it's been in Colorado for a long time, so maybe it'll sit here.
21:14
You know, a part of any of these things, like cyclocross races, the big cyclocross races, the World Cups, and US Nationals, and stuff were always like that, where like, you know, uh, like when Verona had the, the US National Championship, Cyclocross Championships, um, they had 'em, you know, for multiple years.
21:33
Because the effort of organizing a big, you know, World Cup race like that, and securing a venue, and, you know, TV coverage, and all that stuff, it's just not worth it for many event organizers to do it for just one year.
21:48
So they often give 'em a, you know, a two or three-year contract. That is kind of, I think, the same deal with this.
21:54
It's a little-- It's not quite as, you know, as high level as a World Cup race, but it's, it's still, um...
22:01
I think the deal is they, they get it for a- at least, uh, two or three years, and, and we'll just see what happens after that.
22:08
Yeah, that's really cool, because with both the, uh, the US Open and then the, the Fat Bike Worlds in Wisconsin, it pretty much stamps a big, you know, seal of approval on, on Wisconsin pretty much being the fat bike capital of the world, at least this year.
22:23
Yeah. It, it sure feels that way. Um, you know, it's that whole M- Midwest thing too, where like, you know... I, I don't know... I, I know fat biking is big out west, but I don't think it's as big, because they...
22:41
You know what I mean? The, the... I think a lot of people's tipping point for fat bike is like, well, it, it... You know, skiing down south is almost, you know, um, a seasonally inappropriate activity, right?
22:54
[laughs] 'Cause there's, there's... You have to g- get manmade snow out at Lapham. It's... You can't consistently count on like skiing at Brown Deer or- Oh, yeah, not anymore... or, you know, every year.
23:04
I mean, in the old days you certainly could. Whit- Skiing- Whitnall Park was awesome- Right... in the old days... the issue. Yeah. Right. Whitnall and Brown Deer, you just knew you could always go there.
23:12
Now snow is not consistent.
23:14
Um, so that, you know, that's the whole thing that fat biking does, I think, is it, in the Midwest, uh, where you don't have consistent snow, that it offers you that, that good winter, you know, aerobic fun activity like skiing.
23:29
However, you know, out in Colorado, they always have snow in the mountains.
23:34
So, so I think people s- there are a lot of mountain bikers out there that just hang up their mountain bikes and go switch to skiing or snowboarding come wintertime. Sure, yeah. I, I get that.
23:44
They, they skip the whole fat bike thing. I could, I could see that's a part of it. You know, where like here in the Midwest... Yeah.
23:48
But here in the Midwest, I think not only do we have, you know, questionable snow in a lot of our state to make skiing not a guaranteed activity for everybody that wants to do it, uh, we also have the beach riding on, you know, the Great Lakes and stuff like that.
24:04
So you al- you have that. I, I think those two things have sort of made Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, you know, um, real, you know, hardcore fat bike areas. Yeah.
24:16
I'm curious to see what happens this summer with the lake level. It's been going down, so we may, we may finally have some beach back.
24:22
And, uh, before that, it's, it's been cold enough where there's a pretty nice little ice shelf out there, and that's where we like to play around. You've been? Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
24:32
Yeah, I went, I went up to Door County last weekend to, um-... Newport State Park and putzed around out there pretty, pretty long, but I didn't have studs on and it w- there was a lot of glare ice on the flat parts.
24:43
But once you got on the kinda mountainous terrain, it had enough, like, thrown up sand from the lake on it that it had some really decent traction. But that, that's what- Right...
24:53
and I switched to studs when I got back the, [laughs] the next day 'cause- [laughs]... uh, it, even if you don't need them, it's nice to have them, so. Right, yeah.
25:03
So anyway, um, yeah, the, uh, people should come up and check out this Gordy's View. Uh, read my blog post.
25:09
It's, it's named after Gary, AKA Gordy Penman, who, uh, built the, a, a lot of the trails that, uh, he built all our neighborhood trails. He built the Sawmill Saloon.
25:20
He, he's really was a huge mover and shaker, very important in the skiing, silent sports arena up here.
25:27
I give a little history of, of his wacky, um, short, uh, life, but he accomplished more in that short life than most of us do in twice as amount of time.
25:38
So, um, I got a history about, about Gordy in, in, uh, the news post, as well as that video- Yeah, yeah... the map of the trail, Gordy's View... it was a, it was a good read and the, and the video is...
25:47
Um, I w- before I let you go, number one, I think it's top of the hill time. [bell ringing] Ding. Just because- Oh... Jake- JK's been waiting over there patiently for the- [laughs]... for the top of the hill to show up.
25:57
I, I, I just got here. He's been up there for like 12 minutes already. [laughs] Um, so- [laughs]... I don't know, I w- we, here at the f- uh, Full Spectrum Recycling Studio have, um, Three Floyds
26:11
Br- uh, Brod- is it Broo? It must be Brew Doo, B-R-O-O-D-O-O, Brew Doo. Brew Doo. It's a harvest ale. It's very, very good. Oh. I think it's, I think it's... I don't know how, when harvest time was.
26:24
If it, it must be kind of getting towards the end of its useful life as far as these type of beers go, but, uh, it's, it's like a s- Is it like an Oktoberfest? No, it's- Is it like an Oktoberfest type thing?...
26:33
it's more of a hoppy thing. They use, uh, a portion of- Oh... unkilned or wet hops fresh off the vine. Apricot in color. They'll have a- Apricot?
26:41
[laughs] It has a dominant orange pine sap and floral notes balanced by a glazed nut and toffee malt body. I don't know what all those words mean. What I can tell you is it's really good.
26:51
[laughs] And so a lot of other people- Yeah... must think it's really good too 'cause it's got a 94 at Beer Advocate, which is- It does have that kind of p-... ouch, pounding...
26:58
piney, piney like- Yeah, but not over the edge like- No... that spruce stuff from down the street at Black Husky. Right. Holy cow, that thing'll just... You're like drinking a Christmas tree with that stuff.
27:07
[laughs] Are you, are you, uh- There are notes on this one... I, I do like, I do like spruce. I, I am drinking kind of like one of my two go-to beers up here.
27:17
Um, I'm drinking a Castle Danger Ode, which is, uh, you know, their, their IPA. It's got a little Citra sort of, you know, fruity flavor to it, but, um, not, not real heavy, not like a hazy or anything like that.
27:32
So, um, Castle Danger. Yeah, that, that or River Pig, um, from Angry Minnow are kinda like my two go-to beers up here. Where is it, where's Castle Danger from? Uh, Duluth. There's a bunch of...
27:45
Boy, there's a bunch of good breweries up in, craft brewers up in, in Duluth and Superior. Yeah, and then Angry Minnow's like what- Thirst Riders... 15 miles from you or something? Thirst Riders is another one.
27:55
Angry Minnow's in Hayward. Yeah, right down the road. Angry Minnow's just down in Hayward. And River Pig is, uh, that's the log ride on the CAMBA Trail, you know, over by the, over by the, um, the Gravity Cavity.
28:07
There's that one real long log ride that's called River Pig. Oh, gotcha. So that's what that beer is named after. Nice. Well, that's cool. So yeah. Uh, yeah.
28:19
Well, I will, uh, I will take off, but I will check in with you guys after, uh, after the, uh, Fat Bike World Championships. You guy- are you guys going to that at all or? I, n- no, I don't think so.
28:30
We're, there's a lot of stuff going on down here right now with family and whatnot, so I don't think I'm gonna escape this time. But, uh- And what about, what about Fat Bike Ber- what about Fat Bike Turkey?
28:40
That's more likely because, uh, I, we- we're just trying to get through a bunch of- So, well, if you wanna con- we had our, our, our rental cancel, and I blocked it 'cause somebody asked me, one of my friends, I can't remember- Oh, well, that makes that a lot-...
28:53
A is your, is your rental open? [laughs]... Dave, that makes that a lot easier choice. [laughs] So- If you, if you've got room in there-... figure out when to call me... I got a sleeping bag. I don't care.
28:59
That'd be fine. Um, but yeah. Let me, let me know 'cause I've got it blocked off right now, but I'm gonna...
29:05
If I don't hear back from whoever asked, I'm, I'm gonna open it back up, and I'm sure it'll rent real quick, so. Yeah, no, I'll- If you wanna come up with anybody... I think I'll, I'll come up.
29:14
I mean, right now I'm saying for... I, I'll just, uh, verify it tomorrow, but even if I have to s- I've got a really- Okay... I've got a really nice, um, uh, Big Agnes tent and my, I got my whole sleeping system.
29:25
If I have to sleep outside, it's not a big deal either, so. Well, [laughs] well, I- [laughs]... I mean, I got, you know, it's a two-bedroom rental.
29:32
It's, you know, [laughs] it's- Yeah, no, I've, like you know I've stayed in it before. It's one of my favorite... I didn't wanna- Right, yeah...
29:37
I didn't, I, I didn't wanna tell my wife, "I'm not coming back home from here [laughs] ever." [laughs] I'm gonna squat in this place 'cause it's so nice. As long as the heat's working, we're good to go.
29:44
All right, yeah, well, yeah, well, let me know. And you know, it sleeps like, you know, four to six comfortably, so if you got friends that wanna come up with you. Yeah, I think we could drag some folks up there.
29:57
Celie will never be the same, but we can do it anyway. [laughs] Yeah. [laughs] All right. All right, Dave. Hey, thanks very much for calling in. Adios, guys. You're always a great guest, and, uh, we'll talk to you soon.
30:08
You bet. Good to, good to chat with you guys again. Later. All right. Bye bye. All right, talk to you soon. Yep. Celie Dave, everybody.
30:15
He's got that website, lifeaboveheight, E-I-G-H-T-8,.com, and really is an advocate obviously [laughs] for the area up there in northern Wisconsin, basically between Hayward and Cable.
30:28
But it's a really big area up there with not very many people, and there are s- so many trails and so much to do that if you wanna get away from places that have peoples, that's your place to go.
30:39
What ti- Five and a half mi- or miles. Five and a half hours Of? No, from... Oh, I'm just- Oh, yeah, yeah... I'm doing math Oh, yeah. Oh. I'm doing math. Oh, driving from here to up there. Yeah, yeah.
30:50
It takes me usually six, 'cause I'll stop in somewhere like Park Falls or somewhere on the way up there and have lunch, and that wastes a half hour or 40 minutes.
30:58
But, uh- I like it, I like that a- as I put it in Seeley, it, you know, does its little zoomy in thing, and it just drops the pin right next door to the Sawmill Saloon. Which of...
31:09
And y- [laughs] You know, I mean, Dave, Dave does- 'Cause I believe I did stop in that place. It is an awesome place. So Dave has his Airbnb, which by the way is just super awesome. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. But if you...
31:22
Right across the little river from the Sawmill Saloon is a really cool place to stay called the Lenroot Lodge. It's like a, a... Inside the, the room, it's got a loft with a bedroom and stuff, and it's fire, a fire...
31:35
It's just fireplace and stuff. It's just beautiful. And, uh, that would be a good place to take, uh, you know, some special person at some point in your life that also likes to ride a fat bike and/or- [laughs]...
31:45
a mountain bike, because you're not gonna be in that room that much when you're up there. There's so much to do. Hey, here's one for Tony. Brompton, you know the folding bikes with the little 20-inch wheels on?
31:56
Tony- Oh... Tony loves so very much. You know those? Yeah, yeah. They've got a titanium version. Is that the one that, the one with the, uh, seat post that is like... Well, they're pretty long. They got pretty long.
32:06
They're, yeah. They're long. Yeah. Yeah, long seat post on there. So they've, they've made one...
32:10
Or they, I, I don't know if they did one run already or if they're, uh, kinda filling up their queue, but they make, made one that's 7.45 kilograms, which, what is that? Like- Oh... it's under 20 pounds.
32:22
It's 2.2 times 7, 14, plus the other part of it. I'm gonna go with like 17 pounds or some stupid number like that. But anyway, it's really cool. It's $5,000, so you better really like a Brompton.
32:34
But Tony, I know that's what you like, so- Oh, Lord... there you go. Now I'm looking at it now. Isn't it s- Yeah... it's kinda, kinda cool. They made a whole bunch of custom titanium parts for it. You get a kickass...
32:44
Well, yeah, you get a kickass bag with purchase. Nice. It's almost buy the bike for the bag. Yeah. [laughs] I only paid 100 bucks for the bike. How much did you pay for the bag?
32:54
Well, like 4,900, but that's- No, I, I mean, like- You know, that's a... But I really wanted that bag a lot. Yeah. I'll b- yeah, exactly. And that's what I would... I'd lead with the bag and be like- [laughs]...
33:02
"Ooh," you know, "What, what about the bag?" Come get me, baby. [laughs] All right. Well, heckine, uh, thanks for listening. Thanks to- Oh, man. You're gonna drive me nuts. I'm looking at this now.
33:13
Thanks for Seeley Dave, uh, calling in- [laughs]... and helping us out with some really good stuff about, uh, Seeley up that way. Yeah, yeah. And, uh, we'll be back next week. I think Tony will be back next week too.
33:24
We should be good to go with that. And by the way, it'll also be show number 150. 150. 150. Is that like a sesquicentennial or something? What's a- Ses- sesquicentennial? Sesquicentennial. It's something like that.
33:36
Sesquicentennial. I don't know if- God, why? Damn... I don't know if that's 150 or whatever. But anyway, it's some sort of a milestone of some whatever, an activity. Much like 17 or 1976. No. That was the bicentennial.
33:51
That was the bicentennial. Yeah. God. All right. Whatever. Uh, sasquatch centennial. Thank you. All right. Next week, folks.
33:56
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