After the trip to Bentonville, the Blades family headed back to continue our regular schedule of events. AKA work and school.
The AK crew got to play for a while longer, Monday - Thursday were play days for them. On the Friday they all headed towards Oklahoma City to stay the night at our place before flying out on the Saturday. The plan was they would get a ride in along the way, before coming to stay at my place.
The problem I was facing is that the Oklahoma trails close due to rain, wet trails and clay soil = ruts and poor riding in the future. They even have a system to keep track on what trails are open and closed. Link to trail closure page.
It had rained on and off all week and was looking like everything would be closed. A little more research revealed that St Crispins was open. I sent the AK crew an address and Megan (she had come in to OKC on Thursday) and I met the rest of the AK crew at the trail head.
Getting ready to ride - PC Andy
I had done very little research into the trails at St Crispin's and as we started riding along the yellow trail I was a very apprehensive. The trail was in the woods but very tame. As we approached the lake at a reasonable pace we dropped into a technical rocky section. It was totally unexpected and a blast to ride. The trails continued to surprise me for the duration of the ride with technical climbs and descents linked together with fast and flow sections.
Although the trails were a little wet from all the rain, due to the rocky nature of the area the trails were grippy and not muddy.
After around 8 miles we hit the road where the blue trail was currently closed. We made the decision to turn around and re ride all the trails we had just ridden in the opposite direction. The fun downhills now became technical climbs and the climbs fun descents. Looking at Strava I believe most people ride the trails only one way (Yellow to Blue), which is a real pity as they ride well in both directions. Note we all had to walk a couple of sections in both directions on the trails.
Chasing Megan again... some things never change.
- PC Megan
Another rocky step up - PC Jason
End of the Purple trail - PC Megan
It was a great set of trails to get out and ride with some of the top riders from Alaska. I was reminded how much I miss riding with these people and how I really need to find more people down here to ride off road with.
Hopefully I will keep finding little gems of trails in the surrounding area so as when people visit, I have great options to take them riding on.
The epic ride series had its final round in Bentonville, Arkansas on the weekend of the 5-7th October 2018. Megan was finishing up her Pro series and a hoard of Alaskans made the trip down to race and spectate.
Given this trail network is only 4 hours away from where we now live it would have been silly not to get out to the event, if not to ride, at least to see all of our friends.
The trail network in the area is impressive and due to the unique geography of the area, manages to put a lot of elevation changes into each trail, though I will say the rocks are sharp, more on that later.
After a summer off the bike, I was a little apprehensive about racing the 50 mile event so initially I signed up for the 35mile event. Since signing up I managed to get in a few miles and, a couple of weeks ago I was also able to change my entry from the 35mile to the 50mile event.
We arrived in Bentonville around 4pm on the Friday afternoon. After meeting up with everyone we headed over to watch the pro's race in the fat tire criterium. As ever with these events the racing was fast and furious. Pizza was on the cards for dinner then we headed over to where the Alaskans were staying, there was enough space to park Baby Groot at the house they had rented.
All of the amateur crew then checked over bikes and loaded them up for the early start the next day. The race starts at 07:30 on the Saturday morning, so soon it was off to bed for an early night.
Saturday morning rolled around far too quickly for me, I didn't sleep well. At 06:15 we headed into town to ensure we had good starting positions for the rollout. We need not have worried though as it was super quiet at the start until around 07:00.
AK guys pre race - PC Janice Tower
At 07:30 the shots were fired and we were off, the pace was high for the non neutral roll out, I sat in with a group and we shared the workload until the singletrack started at around mile 8.5 and 25min of racing. As ever with these events some of the faster road riders are definitely not the faster singletrack riders, but within a couple of miles things have started to spread out and people appeared at least to be riding a little more confidently.
A little before the first aid station at mile 15 it started to rain. Not knowing the trails and how they react to rain meant that everyone seemed to be riding a little more cautiously over the rocks and wooden sections. The aid station passed before I knew it, at mile 15 and 1hr 5min in. I didn't stop, and it would seem many who were riding around me didn't. More singletrack sweetness followed the aid station. As we climbed alongside a road I made the choice to stop and take off my glasses and have some food. I was stopped for less than a minute but it was a smart choice. I don't think I would have made aid station two at mile 30 without the stop, or been able to see much more as my glasses kept fogging up.
A little way further down the course the trail popped out onto a road and I was able to take in some more nutrition; I also saw Dave and family out supporting which was a big moral boost. More sublime singletrack followed and after stopping for a bacon and beer stop at around 2hrs 15min, thanks trail fairies, we started a longer downward trending trail. The next thing I heard was psssstttttt, oh shit I had a flat. I was riding along and being sprayed with sealant from my front tyre; I have no idea what I had hit. I stopped to check the tyre, the leak appeared to be stopping. I continued riding, hit a bump and it started spraying sealant again! But, I decided to continue along the trail as I knew I was close to the 30mile checkpoint and if it went completely flat I would tube it.
I heard the noise from the 30mile checkpoint before I could see it, and was being cautious on the descent into the checkpoint as my front tyre appeared to have sprung another leak. I rolled in and saw a track pump, an aid worker added air to my front tyre, another filled my waterbottle and a third guy offered me dry gloves. My wife and friends were there cheering me on and in a few short minutes I was off again with dry hands, about to ride Ledges.
At this point my front tyre had finally stopped leaking. I passed a girl going into Ledges and had the trail mostly to myself for the full run; I cleaned everything once I had passed the girl. I did manage to get a flat on my rear tyre, but this time the sealant did it's thing. What is it with the sharp rocks out there?
The checkpoint at 40 miles came around really fast, in my head at least. In actual fact it took me 1hr 3min to get between them. Another refill of the bottle and some pickle juice to prevent the cramps and I was off for the final 10ish miles. I was expecting some singletrack, paved trails and a little climbing. I was not expecting Sally (the trail!). Luckily for me I was following a couple of the pro riders who were out practicing for Sunday. When I could keep them in sight, they sure were good at picking great lines.
After what seemed like forever I could hear the finish line announcers and I joined the road where I could see my wife cheering me on. I pedaled as hard as I could towards the finish and stopped the clock at 4:56:31 to take 60th place overall.
I had a blast racing and although I didn't win or get anywhere close, I do think I managed to fuel pretty well and finish strong.
Full results here
Post race in the sun with the Alaskan crew PC - Janice Tower
Comparing to the Whiskey 50
At the Whiskey I cramped a bunch and finished around 1hr 10min behind the leader. At Oz Trails I finished within 1 hr of the leader. I also closed the gap on the guys I used to train with in Anchorage, finishing within 15 min of Andy and 12 min of Tom, compared to 35min of Andy and 25min of Tom at the Whiskey. All in all a good day on the bike.
Chasing Megan
Megan has raced the whole Epic rides series this year as a pro. Although I have only managed to see her at two of the four races, the difference in her between the two rides was huge. At the Oz Trails event she was cool calm and collected before the race compared to being very nervous at the Whiskey. As far as I am concerned at all events, she has absolutely crushed the courses. The pro's raced the same course as the amateur's at the Oz trails and Megan put the same time or faster on the Strava segment as all the Alaskans, aside from her Husband (and even that was close). At the Oz Trails, Megan finished in 10th place, and I THINK 6th overall in the Epic rides series.
It has been a real pleasure to watch her race, as ever she is always smiling.
Today I got to get out on my first Mountain bike ride in Oklahoma. The weather and timing have been stopping play for me until now. When it is wet, the trails are closed, I am guessing due to clay content in the soil.
Anyhow, yesterday I read that one of the local trails was open, today I decided to check it out.
The trail at Bluff Creek park, is a four ish mile trail which twists and turns through a local park It is around 5 miles from where we live so I think it's the nearest trails to the house. The trail is flat and has a few roots interspaced to keep things interesting. There are also a couple of sections that have ride arounds/bonus sections. If I had to compare it to an Alaskan trail It would be like riding towards the sand dune from the Jodphur parking lot, albeit without the elevation changes, or the sand... so not really like it at all. :D
The trail is going to be a fun one to ride with the family and I am looking forward to getting out there with them. It would be fun to follow them whilst recording on a camera through the twisty parts.
We have been here almost a month and are starting to settle in, I have been out riding and we have been swimming plenty since the pool is just down the street.
another quiet time at the pool!
We have some of our pictures on the walls and most of the things we brought with us put away although not always in the right places.
Now that we have a place with a garden we have been able to splurge on some non essential items.
We now own a telescope, weather radio and a weather station.
The Telescope
We bought a Celestron NexStar 130SLT. It was purchased from a local company (astronomics) albeit online. The telescope is really fun so far, we haven't tried the tracking feature yet but we have enjoyed looking at the moon and a few planets. Since we bought it we have had very limited clear sky to look at however, we are looking forward to seeing what this whole astronomy thing is all about.
Here is Amanda doing some back yard astronomy on the first night we bought it.
Back yard Astronomy
Here are a couple of snapshots taken with our phones through the scope.
Moon
Jupiter and moons
Next step will be to join the local astronomy club and really start to enjoy it.
The Weather station
Oklahoma has weather, which I have been informed that Alaska didn't have, right Amanda?
Weather warnings
"Interesting weather"
To be prepared for this we bought a weather radio so that when sleeping we will be woken up by weather alerts.
To track/record what has been happening in the local area we decided to invest in a weather station. We bought the Ambient WS2902-A. This station tracks a whole host of things but most importantly can be seen online.
While looking for a weather station I learnt that windspeed is measured at 33ft, this is not going to happen in this neighbourhood. So wind speed is never going to be that accurate however I did the best I could with placement and I'm sure it will be fun to track what is happening in our back yard.
Station placement.
Link to our weather station.
And this is our display indoors
All the data ready to view
Other things
As I mentioned earlier I have been out riding, see my other post about that here. I still haven't gotten all the bikes together yet but we can at least ride as a family. I haven't managed to get mountain biking yet as the trails have been mostly closed due to lots of weather (AKA rain) but I will get out as soon as the trails open.
Today I got out on my first real ride since leaving Alaska. I don't count the play riding in Whitehorse as I wasn't really pushing myself. I chose to ride with a local shop (The Bike Lab), they put on 5 rides a week, full schedule on the website. After 5 weeks of the bike I knew today had the potential to be a rough one.
The ride started off great and I was doing fine, advertised pace is 18-19mph which in a group of 20 plus people should be very achievable, it reminded me a lot of riding in Denmark only a little less organised on the road. After we were passed by the ERR (Early Riser Ride) those guys and girls are FAST! we followed them for a little while then I noticed my seat was dropping (I really should have used the torque wrench when building the bike back up.) I stopped to raise and tighten the bolt by which point I was off the back, way, way off the back. I tried to catch back on, but it was not going to happen. Not to worry though, the ride is a lollipop so I thought I would be smart and go the opposite way to the way the route was posted on my Garmin.
They should be right around the next corner
Just me, myself and I for around 17.5 miles
following a route, glad I downloaded it last night.
Unfortunately they went the same way. Oh well, I caught back on after they did the rest stop, AKA no rest for me. Tired after an 17.5 mile time trial I was then spit out of the back a couple of times on the return leg.
Big group
Me on a cross bike, everyone else on road bikes,
kind of like bringing a knife to a gun fight.
All in all it could have been much worse, I am excited to find a group down here to ride with, even if it is on the roads. On that note though, the drivers we encountered today were fantastic, even the ones in Dodge's!
The road trip down from Alaska to Oklahoma was carefully planned to pick up a couple of states. The trip netted me six more states on my quest.
State 17 - Washington
We were staying at a camping ground that enabled us easy access to Seattle via the public transport network. I ran from the camping ground for a couple of miles on road.
State 18 - Oregon
Combination road and beach run. It was nice to get out for a little beach running again even if it only reminded me how hard it is to run on the beach.
State 19 - Idaho
We had pushed the mileage a little the previous day to make an easier day for us the next day when we wanted to go to Craters of the Moon National monument. I got my run in before we got going.
State 20 - Wyoming
While I would have loved to have actually run an interesting trail in one of the great National Parks we visited I had to settle with a run from the camp ground again.
State 21 - South Dakota
Finally some trail running! We arrived in a thunderstorm, the following morning I got to run in the sunshine albeit on wet trails.
State 22 - Kansas
When I booked the camp ground I hadn't realised there were not many trails near where we were camping so it ended up being a road run. I did see a deer, although I was to slow to take a photograph.
Our final day for the RV trip. We finished with an easy day mileage wise, crossing into our final state. Amanda called me the night before to inform me that all of our stuff would be arriving on the Wednesday, the sooner I could get there the better. We rolled out of camp a little after 7am and after a slight navigation error whilst trying to get fuel everything went smoothly.
We made it to Oklahoma!
We made to home at 11am and unpacked Baby Grootso as to put him into storage. The rest of our day was filled with counting boxes and continuing to make our house a home. At the moment there are lots of boxes, everywhere. The trip down has been a fun one with lots of interesting things to see on the way. It has been fascinating to see how the US and Canada changed as we drove along. It has gotten warmer as we headed south with lots more people. Obviously if you drive almost 6,000 miles you would expect a few close calls on the road, the only incident we experienced was a pair of suicidal deer in Nebraska, we didn't hit them. All other road users seemed to be really great when we were on the road. We are looking forward to a little time off the road for now, however I'm excited to do more exploring in Baby Groot soon.
Today was a driving day again, we had an relaxed start and the driving was relatively easy. We crossed into Kansas which is our 9th US state on this trip. Both states today were pretty flat, we had a little interstate travel and then mostly quiet single carriageway roads. Our destination was Cheney State Park, though I think I should have booked the other side of the lake which at least has a “mountain” bike trail. Oh well next time.
Our last day of driving is tomorrow. We will be home soon Amanda!
Another big miles day for us to get us to North Platte so we could stay with Amanda's sister and husband but more on that later.
The day started off with a stop at Mount Rushmore. When getting our first glimpse of the National monument my first thoughts were, wow it's smaller than I expected. Thanks to having Grandma and Grandpa Dennis with us we only had to pay $5 for parking.
A short walk from Baby Groot took us into the monument and as you walk along the avenue of flags you start to realise how vast Mount Rushmore is.
pretty darn cool
All that blasted rock.... would that be allowed now?
Due to the storm the presidential walk wasn't open however this gave Fiona the chance to complete another Jr Ranger badge. If you have a child and visit any National parks/monument, definitely check these out. It's a great way to learn about what you are visiting.
Another Jr Ranger
We left Mount Rushmore and enjoyed a pleasant cruise through the Black Mountains and out onto the Grasslands as we headed towards North Platte, NE.
We stopped for lunch at a place called Alliance, NE the home of Carhenge, it's a pretty unique place and kept thinking about the Eddie Izzard sketch about Stonehenge whilst I was there, at least they would be easier to move.
Under the cars
The henge!
We hit the road again for the remaining ~200miles to Jeff and Pam’s, we arrived around 6pm and we wasted no time getting in for a swim and out water skiing.
Today was our biggest mileage day by a long way though thanks to interstate travel the time travelling didn’t seem to bad. We set of really early for our standards at 06:45. The first part of the trip took us out of Yellowstone park and was as scenic as ever. Following the exit from the park we drove down an amazing valley.
Part of the valley we drove down.
After a breakfast stop in Cody, WY we hit the road again and the remaining miles flew by. We had undulating terrain until we crossed some big hills.
Up up up we go!
Along the road we kept passing signs telling us about the formations we were driving past. Pretty darn cool don't you think?
Another formation sign
Then we hit the interstate for some easy cruising. The final part of our trip was slowed a little due to a thunderstorm.
Hmmm thunder, hail and lightening
Oh and we almost cracked 5,000 miles on this trip.
Today’s adventure took us into Yellowstone National Park. This is America's oldest National Park and if today was anything to go by, the busiest. We got rolling just before 8am and after a couple of photo stops of Grand Teton on the way.
Final views of Grand Teton
We arrived at our first stop for the day the Old Faithful area. I was planning on visiting some other parts of the park but by the time we had got Fiona underway with her junior ranger program and gone for a walk we didn’t manage to hit up much else in the park. Though that just gives us an excuse to come back to see more.
Old Faithful
Old Faithful was worth the wait though, I personally enjoyed seeing the other smaller geysers on the walk we did along with the hot pools.
more colours
Even more cool colours!
The other thing that we did today was cross the continental divide 5 times. I did manage to get this photo of Baby Groot about to cross the divide for the fifth time.
Baby Groot could use a little more power at this height.
Today we crossed out of Idaho and into Wyoming. We were heading to Grand Teton National Park. After a false start heading towards the park on a road that RV’s are not allowed on we made it into the park. (Pic) We enjoyed a fantastic hike around Jenny lake with a boat ride at the end. Grandma and Granddad Dennis saw a black bear and we all saw another bear further along the trail. (Pic) The park was impressive and we also saw some Pronghorn, Deer and I think a fox. All in all a great day in the park.
The days are starting to blur a little, especially when we started driving on US20 again today. Then we started up into some foothills and the scenery changed considerably.
You can see the road we drove in the distance.
Our big stop for the day was Craters of the moon National monument. Again we found ourselves saying Wow what an incredible place.
Our first sight of the lava.
Witches broom
More lava
hiking up a cinder cone
Lava bomb
Tree molds
Tree mold
The weather was once again amazing, we have really been lucking out on this trip. Our day finished up a campsite in Idaho Falls (Snake River RV Park and campground), this site has a pool so we took advantage, it also has all you can eat pancakes in the morning.
Today was a lot of driving and not much else. It was also the warmest day so far.
Yep it's a little warm here.
We had breakfast out, at a great diner in Bend called Sargent's Cafe. Following breakfast it was off to Fred Meyer for a little shopping and to refuel baby Groot. We then hit the road at around 10am and drove mostly on highway 20 which was flatish and straight for around 120 miles.
First stop, no photo from lunch time it was too warm :D
Then more undulating and twisty for the next 120miles. Soon after that we crossed over into Idaho. Interstate 84 was smooth and fast, I didn’t know the speed limit was 80mph on the Interstate, I’m not comfortable driving that fast in Baby Groot but 75mph is great. We also crossed over onto Mountain Time so are now only one time zone away from Amanda :D
