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Full Spectrum Cycling
Full Spectrum Cycling #62 – Talking with Dave Schlabowske – SDC in the Northwoods
May 29, 2020
Full Spectrum Cycling #62 – Talking with Dave Schlabowske – SDC in the Northwoods
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Transcript
0:00
[upbeat rock music] Did you push the button? I pushed the button today.
0:16
I pushed the button on, uh, Full Spectrum Recycling show number 62. 62. That's my, uh, niece's boyfriend's bir- uh, age right now. Holy mackerel. He's an old dude, Mo. What do they call that? 62.
0:34
Yeah, s- s- May-September. Mm. [laughs] Oh, yeah, yeah. Probably not quite. More like, uh, August-September probably, huh? [can opens] Well- Top of the hill already.
0:47
Well [laughs] No, no, we're starting, uh, we're starting a little early at the bottom of the hill. Just making our way up slowly. Just starting with the beer water before the main course.
0:55
[laughs] Uh, freaking warm out there the last couple days. Holy cow. It w- it went from zero to 100 in no time flat. Oh, for sure. Yeah, there was...
1:08
I had a, a non-winding or non-breeze little vantage point when I would step away from my office today and it was- Mm... not really wonderful. Uh, it's, uh, Sven here and JK to my right and- Ahoy...
1:22
Tony a socially distant and, uh, Lake of the Ozarks [laughs]- Returnee... six feet away. [laughs] I was trying to find, I was- Went into the maw of the grand beast [laughs]...
1:33
I was trying to find Tony's picture in the, uh, the thing that was on the thing there with the- Oh, the where's Waldo [laughs]... the glam. Where's Waldo shot [laughs]. Yeah. Where's Tony? Where is he?
1:42
[laughs] I, I trust that he was in a private residence and- He's a very-...
1:45
socially distancing for the most part [laughs] I, I had a very relaxing do nothing vacation where we played a lot of Uno Attack, the new version of Uno. Oh, my.
1:54
And some cards and- What's the difference between the old version of Uno? It's got a machine that spits out [laughs] cards if you get, have to draw. Oh, nice.
2:01
And it's random and sometimes you can get yourself about almost a dozen cards. [laughs] Oh, nice. So [laughs] if you have Uno and it comes to you and you don't have the color, you hit the button, you can get unloaded on.
2:10
[laughs] Wow. It's very, it's actually really fast-paced. That does- Really entertaining... does sound a little- You know?... crazy.
2:15
But yeah, we, you know, and I, I might have drank a small amount of beer and a little bit of Fireball. Mm. Which is something I don't usually do. Yeah. Yeah, that- Thank God, 'cause that stuff sucks. Oh.
2:23
Yeah, don't jump on that train.
2:24
Let's just say there's [laughs] a clear beer tasting- All that Jack Fire, all that stuff is- But I did, you know, ride in a really fast boat that was passed by a lot of other really fast boats and the funniest part about it was all of a sudden everyone's like in their, you know, 200,000, 400,000, million dollar boats just cruising.
2:42
All of a sudden you see this, uh, shop boat with twin outboards just go screaming by everybody and they were all totally embarrassed. [laughs] Yeah. And it was great. Yep. Boats are for suckers. That's, uh, is, as the...
2:56
I, I don't remember the comedian but he said, "You don't wanna be the guy that has the boat. You wanna be the guy that brings the beer to the guy that has the boat." [laughs] Nice. And I was that guy. [laughs] Right on.
3:07
Speaking of beer, here's something sad. Sunrise has been sold. Mm? Our local corner wonderful convenience store- bodega... that stocks a lot of good, uh, six packs of good beer has- Wait, wait, what? Wait, wait...
3:21
has been sold. I go away for a couple of days? Yep. What the hell? Maybe JK knows more about it than I do, but I- I was-... Mike, Mike was saying, "I'm retiring. I'm not going to be here anymore." I don't know.
3:36
I was, I was scouring- He sold it to one of his brothers or something, right? I don't know. It doesn't sound like it. They've been there for 22 years and he said, "It's just time to, I'm done."
3:44
He's an old dude, you know?
3:45
And they originally had a place further on the west side, 35th and somewhere out that way, but yeah, kinda sad because those guys are a neighborhood fixture and everybody really likes that place because of those guys.
3:56
Their beer selection is pretty cool. [laughs] And it is a great beer selection. So we'll see what happens. I, hopefully the new owners- Yeah...
4:01
have a vision not to fuck with it because- They, they understand the pulse of this neighborhood- Maybe... and realize they can make money on beer. Yeah, we'll see.
4:09
He's there for another week or two, so if you're in Milwaukee, you wanna stop by Sunrise and say, you know, happy retirement, feel free. Corner of Wheel and Locust here in River West Milwaukee, Wisconsin. You have to go.
4:21
I mean, if, if you're not f- in, haven't lived in River West for more than six months, you've been there before. [laughs] For sure. Yep. We said, uh, we said another bye-bye this week. We said bye-bye to the Bombora.
4:36
It went down the road. Oh. [laughs] Holy cow. You didn't even get to ride it. I, I took it out for a test ride and I'm like, "I'm not giving this to Jessica. I'm keeping this 'cause this is badass." Oh.
4:49
I got some pictures though so you can relive the, the glory. Plus you'll probably see her riding around the neighborhood. Yeah, probably. Probably. Yeah, probably. How big a tire did you end up fitting in that?
4:58
Oh, we went with the, uh, 650B by 46- Oh, wicked... Surly Ekstatelestial. Ekstatelestials. Is it a- She's gonna ride the crap- With, with, with- The nice thing about her, she'll use that bike...
5:09
with Slate, with Slate Gray sidewall- The Slate sidewall? Okay, yeah... uh, or sides. She will use the shit out of that bike. I mean, that's the best part about her. She will put tons of miles on that bike.
5:18
I've seen on the interwebs, in the Instagram feeds other builds of this bike and there's, it, people are doing interesting things with it. I think Joe at 718 in Brooklyn had a build.
5:30
I can't remember who all else had 'em, but it's been popping up since I think they did a, like a one-off order and they all went out and now they're all getting- Pictured up and stuff, yeah...
5:40
built it, built it up into completing bicycles. Fantastic. Fantastic. Yeah, that was a pretty bike. It reminds me a lot of a Growler actually. It's got some similar traits.
5:49
Little more on the put a bunch of stuff on it side of things. Mm-hmm. But very similar in the execution of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, man. Yeah, man. That's how it goes. I, uh, did both to and from-
6:04
The Lake of the Ozarks. Looked for Big Sexy and did not- [laughs]... have a Big Sexy sighting. I'm serious. I told all the people in my, in my entourage.
6:12
I said, "Look, you see anyone on a tricycle, you point it out immediately." [laughs] 'Cause it could very well be Big Sexy, and I'm gonna kill a whole bunch of your time.
6:21
But- He- I know he made it to Springfield this week, so I went through Springfield there and back. He did do the state capital stop and- Yeah, I don't think it made... I, I, I- Is that-
6:31
As, as being the navigator, I didn't really know where the hell I was going r- in relation to if I would have been crossing. That's right. He says follow the blue line. Yeah, he was way south of where you went, probably.
6:40
Yeah. That's what I figured. Yeah. Molly just said, "Follow the blue line." That's what you do. It's a blue line. Plug in, plug in your destination and follow the blue line.
6:47
Oh, my God, you used navigation to get down there? Oh. Well, I had a fancy-ass SUV, and it, if you plugged your iPhone into it, it Apple played onto the screen and then we were all set to go.
6:56
I know that because everyone I was traveling with had an iPhone. So now you know why iPhones are the kick-assesses. No, 'cause I'm sure it would've worked with Google too, but I didn't wanna show 'em up. [laughs] Yaman.
7:08
Yes. I played with technology as well on the mappings- And went out and bought the new dirt Dingo... and it was like, okay, all right. JK. Very, very intrusive. I'm the only one that stayed in town over the holidays.
7:18
Yeah. Like a good little stay-at-home boy. Exactly. That said- Well, what'd you do? Did you get any riding in? Got a lot of riding in. Yeah. It was gorgeous. Yep.
7:26
That was more, you know, go out and ride around, stay away from all the imbeciles because, you know- [laughs]... Wisconsin is now open for stupidity, and by cracky, the stupid people are doing what they can to- Right...
7:37
live up to their name. Yeah. I returned the truck via the lakefront, and I could not believe- Oh, yeah... the number of people that were just walking around the lakefront yesterday at 4:00 in the afternoon. Yeah.
7:47
You weren't there. First I was all- Well, that was yesterday... yelling at people. I'm like, "Wow, don't you people have jobs?" Oh, Monday. I'm like, "Oh, wait. You did." Yeah.
7:53
Monday there was a bunch- I got, I got, yeah... a b- a bunch of a, there was a shit storm down there, like 30 to 50 people were in a fight. Cops. I mean, it was- Oh, really? Well, yeah. Just normal- Lots-...
8:01
normal- First hot day of summer... lakefront. They opened- Let's get into shit... they opened up the, uh, all the parking- Par-... on the, on the pa- uh... What did they think was gonna happen? Right. Right.
8:14
So- And I, I mean, yeah, 'cause we were coming back, like, the afternoon. Did Stinky Burger open too? The- Whatever they're, whatever they're calling it now. Yeah. I don't think so.
8:24
People were milling about in front of it, so I assume so. Yeah. It was hard to tell, but I, I don't think they were open because it didn't look like there were... If they were open, there'd been fuck all lines. Yeah.
8:31
I guess if you just had an area for 60 people to stand close to each other. Yaman. Yaman. Yeah. People- So-... act smarter... uh, we got a guest this week. Come on. Huh? We got a guest, I think. You bring a beer?
8:44
We got a guest here now. Now here and now we have a guest here now. Do, do you bring a beer? I, I heard a beep. Am I on? [laughs] Welcome to the show, caller. Who do we have on the line?
8:55
Hi, this is Dave Schlabowski back. Dave Schlabowski. Nice. Dave Schlabowski back. Two back. How are you? Now also Dave. [laughs] Dave was also not over the Memorial Day weekend, but recently up north. Der hey. Der hey.
9:09
Yeah. Bi- bike packing during the pandemic. Yeah. Tell us how, how f- My first- First of all, because- My first trip... yeah, like Wisconsin opened up and you made some calls and said, "What do you guys think?"
9:24
How did that go? What did you, who did you contact and stuff? Yeah. The, the, it's... Well, you know what I mean, I, obviously I've been dying to go up there.
9:32
I, I, I canceled a, a couple of planned trips, and then I would've normally taken a couple others.
9:39
Um, I mean, I had a, a winter trip planned that, you know, for February and another one for March and, um, none of those happened because of the stay-at-home orders. And, um,
9:51
you know, despite the fact that I'm riding by myself out in the middle of nowhere and, and really probably no risk to anyone and at no risk personally either. Um, but I wanted to follow the rules.
10:03
And then, um, just recently, a, a few weeks ago, I got, um, some emails, some marketing emails from, uh, CAMBA, the Chequamegon Area Mountain Bike Association up by, um, Cable/Hayward area,
10:16
um, saying, "Our trails are open, and you can come visit as long as you follow these, you know, uh, you know, social distance guidelines and stuff like that."
10:27
And then I got something from the Hayward Area Chamber of Commerce. I, I got something from Rohn Adventure Base Camp. I got, you know, I'm on these marketing email lists.
10:37
And so I called up there and I spoke to the president of the board of directors for CAMBA.
10:44
I spoke to the executive director for CAMBA, and they both assured me that they had spoken personally with the, um, with, uh, health departments at, um, for their counties, uh, and, uh, and they got the go-ahead to, you know, in general, along with, you know, other businesses up there, not just the trails and stuff, got the go-ahead to invite people up as long as any message sent out to invite people to visit included, you know, the safety guidelines, so- Oh, okay
11:21
... um, so given- So if you invited your buddy from Illinois, you'd have to say in the email an addendum that says, "We are following safe blah, blah, blah"? Yeah.
11:31
So any, any of their marketing emails, which I mean, it, you know, I mean, if you know up north, it's, those marketing emails are not going to people that live in, [laughs] in Sawyer County for the most part.
11:42
They're going to people that live in Milwaukee County, you know, Lake County, um, you know, Nicolet County, um, Hennepin County. You know, there, there...
11:51
Y- you look in a- any of those parking lots up there, and the plates are all, you know, I mean, you can't tell a Milwaukee plate, but there's lots of Illinois and, um, Minnesota plates, and I'm sure a lot of people from Milwaukee and Madison as well.
12:04
So, uh, so they have to- I think, I think that's something Wisconsin should institute is, um, counties on plates. Like, I think even in Montana where there's- Yeah. Yeah, absolutely...
12:10
very few people, you can tell- Yeah... what county someone's from by their license plate. Florida, I think. Yeah. I mean- Yeah We could shame everyone from Winnebago County Yeah
12:20
It'd be awesome During a pandemic, it'd certainly be, certainly be helpful, but- Oh, for sure...
12:24
so I, I had been hesitant to take any trips, but once, you know, I got the official go-ahead in knowing that I was gonna be off by myself in the middle of nowhere anyway- Yeah...
12:34
I figured why, why continue to deny myself, so. With or without Cowboy? So I, I did not take Cowboy. This was too long a trip for him, so, um, he stayed home with Mom.
12:47
And, uh, and I just went, and I, I start most of these, um, adventures in Cable 'cause they have a handy dandy municipal parking lot, um, where you are free to leave your vehicle for, even for extended periods of time.
13:01
You don't have to give anybody any notification. You just pull in their parking lot and unpack your adventure gear, whatever it may be, and, and you can leave it there. Um, so- Nice... so I like to start there.
13:13
Plus, I love Cable, Hayward area, Seely, you know. Um, I've got friends up there, and it's just, you know, a bunch of really great, um, assets up there, even though most of them were closed when I was up there-
13:25
Are, s-... this last trip. Normally, normally- You, you called them assets. I think they're now called human capital, I believe [laughs]
13:32
Well, I'm talking about places like the Rivers Eatery, this amazing wood-fired pizza up, you know, in the middle of Cable.
13:38
Um, you know, uh, Velo Cafe, uh, the Sawmill Saloon, and just, there's just a whole bunch of really great... The Delta Diner.
13:47
Um, you know, there's just a bunch of really great places up there that I, I love, but, um, of course, most of those were closed when, when I did my trip. But, um- Yeah.
13:56
I mean, if anybody- They were doing some curd- curbside... right on. I mean, if anybody gets the chance to go up that way, um, definitely all the places Dave's mentioned, I've been to them as well, and it's...
14:06
You can't go wrong in Northern Wisconsin for hospitality. Right. That's true. That's true. Right, yeah.
14:12
A- and, and that area of the state, for those don't know, is, you know, has long been a silent sport mecca, both because of the, um, the Chequamegon area mountain bike association trails.
14:23
Um, you know, they've got, I think, 150 miles of single track and, um, and modern flowy stuff, you know, purpose-built, you know, berms and, you know, banked bridges and stuff like that. They've got all that too.
14:37
Um, as well as, of course, the, the, uh, cross-country skiing, um, the Birkebeiner, the home of the American Birkebeiner- Right... um, is there, so- Got them dang old snow machines up there too... so it, it...
14:48
Yeah, I mean, you're as, you're as likely to, you know, find somebody, uh, you know, in a bar that came in with a four-wheeler as you are to find somebody with a heart rate monitor on.
14:59
[laughs] That's, yeah- That's a great way to look at that... that's good company. Yeah.
15:03
[laughs] So you st- you st- Yeah, so I'm- You started in Cable, and, uh, I'm, I'm looking at your Wisconsin Waterfall Loop right now. I, just right off the bat, I'm just gonna make one suggestion.
15:14
You'd knock 33 miles off of this, and then you'd only have 333 miles, which would be halfway to hell. Yeah. Yeah... which would be awesome. [laughs] But no, it says Wa- Wisconsin Waterfall Loop, 366 miles.
15:27
You could have that theme going. And, uh, I'm, I'm just- Yeah... yeah, so tell us about what your, your route is all about Well, you'll, you'll, you'll link that...
15:34
Yeah, you'll link that route in the show notes, um, I'm sure, but, um, so our listeners can ch- can check it out. It's on Ride with GPS. Um, but, uh, so the, the route starts in Cable, and it does kind of a loop.
15:49
I have mine going clockwise. Um, you got customers in the store? Tony's got a customer over there. [laughs] He's Here, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna cut Tony off right now.
16:03
See, I'm gonna push this button, push these buttons. The sonic commerce. Right? Yeah, you know, we're open till 8:00, apparently. So, um, yeah. Anyway, um, m- we can hear you fine, so tell us what, uh, y- you- Okay.
16:15
All right... I, I'm looking at the pictures with- Okay. Sure... with... Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I also gave you some photos from this trip.
16:22
So it's, it's, it's a loop that goes up towards Ironwood and then up towards, uh, Lake Superior and Saxon Harbor, um, and then back down, and then kinda goes, uh, pretty much underneath the Bad River R- Reservation, back around up north towards Cornucopia and Herbster, um, then comes straight back south down towards Delta, and ends back in Cable.
16:48
And along the route, I think there are a- 25 or 26 waterfalls along the route. That is spectacular. And this route, I, I modified.
17:01
I've done, uh, various versions of this, and this one I added, I strung together a bunch of, um, CAMBA single track at the start. So the first 24, 25 miles or so, um, are all on single track that,
17:16
um, begins at the North End Trailhead just south of Cable. Mm-hmm. You head south on Randy Sack, and you run right into that trailhead. Um, that's where the, the, one of the yurts is.
17:26
They've got a couple yurts on their trails, and that's where one of the yurts is. Um, and so you ride, you know, a whole bunch of their trails that, um, uh...
17:37
The, the couple of new ones, Dirt Candy, um, is, uh, is, got a b- is purpose-built with, you know... There's a photo I think I've got in there. You can see it, you know, spiral berm bank downhill, you know.
17:51
And then, uh, I...
17:53
It, it's got a little section called Do Over, and even though I was doing a [laughs] 366 mile bikepacking route, when I got to that point where I was like, "Okay, go left to keep, uh, going on my route," and I'm like, "Wonder if I could session this one more time," and I thought I'd hit Do Over.
18:08
[laughs] So I went around and sessioned Dirt Candy, um, even though I was on my loaded, loaded, uh, mountain bike. Um, but it's, it's a super fun trail network.
18:19
And then there's, a lot of the stuff is pretty rocky, so I rode- Uh, I rode Danky Dank is one of the trails there that I included, and, um, and that's really, it's like 50% rock garden.
18:33
So, um, so for this route I chose, for this trip I chose to take my Milwaukee Bicycle Company 29er with its front suspension fork and 2.3-inch tires. Um,
18:47
you could, in theory, ride that section with a, a drop bar gravel bike, but it, I, I wouldn't want to personally. Um- So for the, for the most part- So we're at-...
18:59
the most part the route is basically gravel bike friendly and you just added some more exciting stuff into it for your own personal- Yeah... use. Gotcha.
19:11
So the percentage I think is, like, I think it's, like, 80% gravel roads, um, and then,
19:21
like, 5% pavement, and then 5% mountain biking stuff, and then the rest are, like, um, kinda like real rough ATV two-track. Gotcha. So how long did you spend on it this time through there?
19:40
So the, what I decided to do this trip is I, I cut it a little bit short. Um, I, because Ironwood is all shut down basically, and because I, I've ridden that section
19:55
a, a half dozen times, what I did this time is, um, if you look at the route there's a little section, um, down, um, down south, southwest of Ironwood a, a ways, um, where there's an intersection there and there's a Bear Chasers Pub is there.
20:13
It, there's a, an real old deer hunting camp there called Kids Camp that's got a giant arrow stuck in the road, you know, like a, a 40-foot tall arrow stuck in the road. And, um, there's an intersection there.
20:25
And I instead, so what I did was I s- I went straight north there and, um, I went up to visit this, um, old growth hemlock forest that's on the route up there.
20:37
So there's like 250 year old trees, um, along that section of route. Wow. So. I mean it- So I cut that a little short and I headed straight up to Iron Belt. Cool.
20:49
So just while I'm looking at this, let me ask you about the app itself, Ride with GPS. It's not Strava, so what, um- Right...
20:57
how do you use this app and what makes it, like, the thing for this type of a trip and to map out something? 'Cause you've been working- So-... on this for a while, so. Yeah.
21:06
And I've, I've s- personally settled on Ride with GPS. Um, other people use Strava. Uh, some people like Gaia, um, for this. I, I find this to be, um, super user-friendly in terms of editing.
21:23
The way I develop most of these routes is, um, you know, I've ridden some areas and then I wanna connect them and stuff, so what I do is I, I go on Ride with GPS and I open up the satellite imagery and I zoom way the heck in, and then I look to see what's gravel, try to see, um, try to see ATV trails through the forest or logging roads that are visible on satellite imagery.
21:46
And then I, I draw a route and, uh, through those, those, um... 'Cause the app won't automatically route on those.
21:54
It'll route on roads and it'll route on trails, but it won't route on, you know, um, those logging roads or, or ATV trails. So, but I can often see them.
22:06
However, you know, the accuracy of satellite imagery and, and how fast the forest overgrows up there and, you know, that sort of stuff is questionable, so, so sometimes those things don't pan out.
22:19
Um, but that's how I do it and, and I draw them and then I go ride a recon and actually fact check it and track my route with Ride with GPS and work my way through the... My friends call those sections Davement.
22:32
[laughs] Um, and, uh, [laughs] 'cause I insist, I'm like, "Well, we're going through the middle of the forest.
22:39
I know we have to walk our bikes because it's impossible to ride 'cause either there's so many trees down or the, the grass is up above our heads or something like that. But, but, like, there's a path through the forest.
22:50
So somebody cut a path here [laughs] at some point in time, even if it's not ridable today." Um, but so that's how I use Ride with GPS for that.
22:59
And then when I'm, and then you can, if you do the premium, which is, all these apps are really cheap. You know, what, 25 bucks a year or something like that.
23:07
Um, it allows you to download the routes, and I just run it on my phone. Um, and my iPhone. And, um, so I can download the route, so even where I don't have cell service, um, the, the GPS application works and- Oh, cool.
23:22
Yeah, 'cause-... I can see my map, I can zoom in, I can- Just, just as a heads up for Northern Wisconsin, I think AT&T is basically the only service that works reasonably well up there, isn't it?
23:32
It depends where you're going. It, certain sections are AT&T and other sections are Verizon. Ah. Um, and then there's some sections where there's just nothing. Yeah.
23:40
So, um, uh, so- Well, it was a, one of those weird things about how telecom happened was there was a, uh, I forget what the com- United States Cellular or something held onto that area for a long time, and nobody could get in there.
23:53
It was kinda like the opposite of the Coca-Cola kid story where, you know, Coca-Cola had everything, but this one little spot in Australia didn't. So yeah. Anyway- Yeah...
24:04
I digress, but any, so it, I'm looking at your s- Well, yeah, so where... Yeah. So I love Ride with GPS for that. Uh, like I said, some people swear by, by Gaia.
24:14
I, I don't find it as easy to use, but maybe it's just 'cause I've been using Ride with GPS for years. But, um, so this trip- Yeah... um, like I said, I added sections that I haven't done.
24:25
I normally go up to Saxon, um, but this time I added, um- I added a, I kept going north up to, um, Saxon Harbor, where Superior Falls is. And, um, and I hadn't been there before.
24:42
It seemed a little out of the way and maybe unnecessary, but, um, but the route that I found going s- going up there is pretty much straight ahead gravel roads, which are pleasant.
24:52
Um, and then you, you get to stop at, at Saxon Falls up north of Saxon, which is a, a real nice waterfall with a, a, a, a town park in it that's a really nice park.
25:04
Um, and then you keep going and, um, you get to Saxon Harbor, which was destroyed in like a flood, uh, a while ago, but they're rebuilding it. It's gonna be a very nice campground there, um, soon.
25:16
Um, and the waterfall is kinda cool. So, um, and the bonus though, what, what sealed the deal is the route
25:26
back south down towards Gurney and through to Cedar and to Gurney is a bunch of, a bunch more pavement, and it's really fun. So it's really, really rough, hilly, um, ATV and logging two-track.
25:42
Um, so it's probably for me it was about 50% rideable, but, um, it, it... I like those sections. It's part of the bike packing experience for me is to... I mean, you can always avoid them, you know?
25:56
Um, there's always a road. You can go on 169 if you wanna avoid it, you know? But, um, but I like seeking out those, getting as far into the middle of nowhere as possible. Yeah. Right on.
26:08
Well, I mean, you've done a lot of work on this, so I encourage everybody that's listening to this show at this time, uh, to take a look at what Dave's put together.
26:16
And if you can make it to Northern Wisconsin, by cracky there'd be a lot worse ways to spend your days than to bike pack on this route, so. Yeah. And you can divide it up into...
26:26
You know, I do it in little two-day sections, and there's lots of places to take shortcuts back to wherever you wanted to start and end and leave your, leave your car, um, or your truck.
26:36
Um, I'm gonna be going up in a couple weeks just to dial in some of the, the sections up, um, up, up by, um, north of Grandview that are on some real sandy...
26:52
And, and north of, north of Delta that are on some real sandy, um, sort of forest roads, sort of ATV roads. It's kinda hard to tell, but it's really deep soft sand, and I just wanna dial them in a little bit.
27:05
So I'm gonna go up and I've got, you know, 160-mile route. I'm gonna do it with my buddy Tom Schuler, and we'll do that, you know, in two days. Right on. Cool. Out and back from, out and back from Cable, so.
27:18
Well, I- And hopefully once, once I get that section dialed in, then I'm gonna submit this to bikepacking.com and, uh, and try to get it published there. Yeah. I think, I don't see why they would...
27:29
You got spectacular pictures too, so I think that will help a lot. Yeah. I got a lot, a lot of photos. Yeah. I know you've mentioned, I just got an email today from CAMBA that, um, what's the Candy Trail?
27:40
There's another one now, t- number two. Dirt Candy. Dirt Candy 2 is now around.
27:44
And it, and in, in that email it mentioned about being a member of CAMBA, and I think, you know, if you go up there and you ride on the trails, it's pretty inexpensive to be a CAMBA member, but they're doing a ton of work.
27:56
Yeah. And everybody that can help support it. So maybe you can- I agree. Yeah... do a quick plug for, for CAMBA. Yeah. I'm a C- I'm a CAMBA member.
28:04
I don't even ski the Birkie, but I'm a, I belong to the Birkebeiner Foundation just because they do so much great stuff up there.
28:11
You know, I mean, I don't kick in a lot of money, but, you know, I'm a entry level member of, of that foundation as well just because they, they do so much great work up there, and we share a lot of the same resources.
28:24
Right on, Dave. Um, I'm gonna go ahead and, uh, ring the top of the hill bell right now. [bell ringing] All right. Yeah. It's about that time, isn't it? Yeah.
28:34
I don't know if you're, uh, if you're having a brew today, but, uh, our friend Jessica that just picked up her Crust Bombora, which is a really kick-ass bike, and I, I mentioned to her and her boyfriend Dan that they should check this route out, 'cause they do a lot of riding around the state and, and doing some bike packing and whatnot.
28:52
But, uh, she brought us over some Dogfather from across the street over there to the, uh- Oh, nice... to the, uh, Black Husky Brewery, so. Is that Dogfather? It's, is it... Oh, it's Loki. It is Dogfather. You, quiet you.
29:06
[laughs] Tony's, Tony's lipping off over there. Well, I [laughs] I do, I, I do have a show beer in hand.
29:16
It's, it's from, uh, my neighborhood, uh, brewery, uh, Venture Brewing Company, and it's, it's appropriately, uh, a, a Zoom beer. [laughs] Oh. Um, it's an easy drinking ale with Mosaic hops and Kiwikis.
29:33
What's the old, uh, alcohoozy content on that one? Uh, ABV, they don't always put it on their stickers. It's, I don't... I think it's a little for, you know, sessionable, so it's probably 6% or something like that.
29:51
Five or six. I think the Dogfather- Most of their beers are, are, are six and a half to seven. Yeah, they're not quite as, as big as, as Tim's beers in general. Right. He's mentioned that before. I like big beer.
30:01
Yeah, this one's a 6.8. Yeah. On the old Dogfather. This is the one that makes Tony- I was interested to hear on that show that, that Tim's, Tim's riding. I, I didn't know.
30:11
I mean, I knew he was like a powerlifter, but, um, I, I didn't know that he was a... And I knew he was a, obviously a, a dog sledder, but I didn't know that he had started getting into cycling. Yeah.
30:22
I think it's a relatively new thing, and they did, uh, w- they did some long ride last year and, uh, I think they like it, so they're gonna continue. Somewhere up where they are, Pembine, that area up north of
30:34
The Milwaukee's always And I've, my, my, one of my original versions of this route actually started in, in, um, Amberg at, at...
30:42
I thought it would be appropriate to start this route at Dave's Falls, um, and, and went north from Amberg straight through Pembine. So I'm familiar with Pembine. I've ridden through there a few times. Nice.
30:56
All right, Dave- But, um- You got anything you wanna- Okay. Well, thanks guys... you, you wanna leave us with anything, and otherwise, uh, we'll- N- no, I'm, I'm just-... talk to you soon...
31:05
uh, I guess, uh, Greg, I'll talk to you when, uh, when the, the brake lines come in. Uh, um, you know, the build on my bike was, was perfect.
31:14
It's, i- i- if your listeners, you know, it's a Milwaukee Bicycle Company 20, Ferral 29er, which is built by, um, my former employer, Waterford Precision Cycles, um, out in, in Waterford by, uh, you know, under the guidance of Senior Richard Schwinn and his son Tucker, um, out there.
31:35
And, um, it, it performed great. I, I originally had the bike set up as a straight-up mountain bike, and I've, I've, you know, built a...
31:42
I added some new braze ons to it for, uh, kind of a funky custom rear rack inspired by the Trek 1120 rear rack, but real lightweight.
31:51
Um, uh, 'cause in the back of my bike, I mean, I, I, I strap my, my tent, which weighs, I think, a pound seven ounces, and, you know, my sleeping bag or quilt, which weighs, you know, a pound, and they're just a little kind of bulky pack.
32:08
So I have two five liter Sea to Summit bags that strap onto each side of this, a- along with, uh, the tent stakes and the, um, the poles and some custom bags that I sewed up.
32:20
And, uh, and I, I welded up or brazed up, silver brazed up the stainless steel rack for the back of the bike, and then I had a couple other braze ons added on to, to that bike, and then I added Jones bars.
32:32
And unfortunately, the, the cable setup isn't, doesn't reach quite right, so that's why I wanted to bring it in to, um, Everyday Cycles and have you put some longer cables on it. Right on.
32:43
Yeah, the operative word is they're not cables, they're hydraulics, so [laughs] Right. Yeah. Hydraulic brake lines, yeah.
32:49
I, I think the, the shifter cable does need to be longer too, but, um, you know, the, it, it works great. The bike is, is amazing.
32:57
I'm, I'm just a giant convert for that Jones bar, and the, um, Ergon GA3, um, lollipop grips, they're really soft and squishy. They're amazing. But, um,
33:09
but, you know, when I put a front bag on the front, the, the cables are getting squished back, and I just don't like when I turn the handlebar, it's, like, kinda pulling the, the cable and the brake line- Yep...
33:20
at kind of a, an extreme angle right at the caliper. It just looks like something, something's gonna break at some point from stress, so I wanna have you, you guys put some longer- Sure... stuff on there.
33:32
We'll, we'll suss you out there. Cool. All right. All right. Well, I look forward to talking to you again. All right. We- And, uh, look forward to doing this route- Okay...
33:38
with you, or portions of it, in the not too distant future. Yeah. Thanks, Dave. Yeah. You bet. All right. All right. Thanks, guys. Yep. Bye. Adios. Bye.
33:48
Well, by cracky, that was a whole lot of information about that, uh, Wisconsin Waterfall Loop, currently at 366 miles. Oh, wait. I should have muted Tony. Hello. Not... Hey, JK's back. Hello. Hello, hello.
34:02
Why didn't you... You should've said something before. [laughs] Well, it, it was hard- Man. It was hard to tell if the, uh- I was-... if the sound tornado was gonna return back over.
34:11
[laughs] Well, I was like, I thought Tony didn't put his headset down. No, he did. But, uh, I thought, I've... Yeah, JK's always number two. [laughs] Not number, not number three. JK's number two.
34:20
[laughs] Well, no, it, it minimized some of the- Some of the, uh, extraneous sounds- Indeed, indeed... of commerce happening here at the open by appointment only/when our door is open now in Wisconsin- [laughs]...
34:34
bike shop. Thank you very much. Everyday Cycles, Riverwest, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, galaxy, universe. US. America. And I had to take a deep breath right after that one.
34:46
By the way, my lung capacity is still fantastic, so. Ah, yes. Um, well, I think we kinda used up everyone's time for this show, so thanks for listening, and, uh,
34:59
I don't know, come back next week again or something or whatever, or, you know, or don't. Listen to- Or don't. I don't care. [laughs] The dulcet tones of our blatherings.
35:14
[upbeat music]
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