Copper Harbor. It's WAY WAY up there!

Open up your map.  You know, the Gazetteer.  (It's tattered and in your car somewhere.  I know you mostly use the GPS unit, but it is in there somewhere...)  Turn to the Michigan page.  Now look at the part that is called the UP.  Find the Keweenaw peninsula.  Most likely, it is in a separate little box, because IT IS TOO FAR NORTH TO FIT ON THE PAGE!  That is how far away it is.

It's a peninsula... that means it is surrounded by water on 5 of it's 4 sides, right?

I mean, holy crap!  I think you can see the polar caps from a high spot.  It is THAT far north.  Wow.  But, Wow is it worth it.  Geezz.

I have now found what I believe may be the absolute best MTB riding this side of the rockies.  It might be hard pressed to convince me that there is better riding anywhere in the midwest or east of here.  I am willing to try to find out, but right now I am pretty convinced. 

For a long time Hansi Johnson, the IMBA rep here in Wi., has been trying to get me to go to Copper Harbor and try the riding there.  "It's fantastic Joe.  You will not believe it."  I didn't.  I still cannot.  Before I went, I could not believe that Hansi really knew what he was talking about.  Now that I have been there, I cannot believe what I just experienced. 

Check out this link.  This is the site for the trails at Copper Harbor.  

There are a ton of great trails (something like 37 miles).  There are great XC trails, great flowing trails, great DH trails.  You can ride up, and earn your gravity or you can take the shuttle up from Keweenaw Adventures. 

There is a trail called The Flow, that is out of this world. 

 

We were in Copper Harbor for some planning meetings.  We were there to do the planning for the 2013 model lineup.  We met, we figured out a lot of great things for the lineups.  Of course, I could tell you but...  The meetings went well, but as you can imagine, that was secondary to the fantastic riding.

(Please do not tell my boss, that the riding was fantastic there.  I do not want to have to justify why I was out of the office for more than a week.  We were working is the answer.  Ok?) 

Serious Plug. 

Aaron Rogers is the president of the club there, and he is a trail builder extraordinaire!  He and 2 other builders have built every single mile of the 37 miles of singletrack there.

The locals call it CH.  That would be for Copper Harbor, not Switzerland.

Sam at Keweenaw Adventures will set you up with a shuttle, take you kayaking in the harbor etc...  Great stuff. 

Aaron Rogers and I.  He is one of the most talented trail builders around.

Berms are fun.

The Corkscrew.

Artsy.

Don't ask.

Keweenaw Adventures

Apparently South Park has been abandoned in favor of North Park.

Wood

More wood.

Trailer full of fun.

Which way should we go?

The Flow starts here!

Get yourself to CH.  You will not regret it.  Tell them Joe sent you.

Cheers.

Joe

 

 

Chequamewamwamagan - or something like that.

It is a MTB race.  Up norther there eh?  In the woods of Wisconsin, step aside my Johnson (Red Hot Chili Peppers). 

Bike races are FAST!  I am not FAST.  I pretend, but in reality I am not.  If the dog could talk, we would all know the truth.  When did the dog become that smart anyway?  Have you ever noticed that your dog always seems to know the truth?  If you were to make up a story about why you did not get that work project done, you would not be able to tell your boss on the phone that made up story about why it is not done.  If your dog was watching you while you were telling the story, you would not want to make eye contact.  Your dog knows better.

So we decided that it was time to get back to being a bike racer.  Rather than start out with a fun XC 1.5hour singletrack race, we decided to do that 40 mile road bike race on a MTB bike.  Dirt roads and the Birkebeiner trail.  Rev it up baby!

It has been a while since I had a bike with a number plate on the front. 

If you do not know the Chequamegan 40 mile Fat Tire race and Festival, it is huge.  The race goes from Hayward to Cable.  It follows much of the same trail as the Birkebeiner ski race (only in reverse), and then a bunch of dirt roads.  It finishes at Telemark Lodge across the ski runs.  It is a tough race, but not because the trail is technical.  It is a flat out road race.  It starts on the road and goes 3 miles on pavement before it gets to the ski trail.  It is a flat out 30 mph pace line.  This year was led by Christian Vandeveld and Jason McCartney.  Holy crap, is all I can say. 

Look closely.  I am in there somewhere, along with at least 2500 other people.

There were a couple of things to note. 

1.  There is a group of pirates that serve rum on one of the hills.  It was a riot. I actually took the rum and took a sip of it.  It was actually pretty good. 

Aye Mate!

The Pirate Gang!

2.  It is impossible to have 2500+ people on singletrack.  The Hayward area has become known for it's singletrack.  This race uses none of it.  In fact, you go right by some really sweet looking pieces of singletrack during the race. I found myself saying "what about that piece of singletrack?"  We did not hit any of it.

We did a great singletrack ride on Sunday morning.  It was raining, but we rode for 2 hours on really sweet singletrack south of OO.  It was called the Makwa trail (Little Bear in Ojibwa - We did not see any bears).  Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!

Out.

Joe

Goatee of filth. 

 

 

MTB - La Crosse - on the river there...

Last week, I played hooky from work one afternoon and busted over to La Crosse to see my daughter at College there.  She is in her 2nd year and needed a visit from Dad.

(Actually, it was Dad that needed some daughter time - the other daughter is next up on the list)

I busted over and we did some grocery shopping, hung out with the roomies, went for a MTB ride, visited the bike shop in town and then busted out for some dinner (Mexican of course).

It is always fun to see the kids at school, and always good to sample the mexican food somewhere else.  But, I have to say the 2 highlights from the day where the following.

First highlight.

The HPT trails outside of La Crosse on the bluffs.  The IMBA rep Hansi Johnson originally told me about the trails.  He said they were good, he was right.  They wind up and down the bluffs and have great swoopy turns and a few rough things here and there couple of features etc...  They are not long, but the kind of trails that every town should have.  If you get a chance to get over to La Crosse with your mountain bike - check them out.  HPT Trails.

Hanna and I about to plunge into the trails.

The HPT trails have one of the most scenic pump tracks in the state.

 

Second Highlight.

I stopped by Smiths bike shop in La Crosse.  The people there are pretty nice.  They have a great little shop and hire college kids to help them get through school etc...  Really nice.  There is a legendary Trek employee working there. 

Scott Mccullum used to work at Trek.  He did a lot of different things from engineering to tech rep to proto lab etc...  Scott was here when I first started.  He lives in La Crosse, and works at the shop there now.  My favorite Scott story is when we were a small company, Scott got employed one time to help with some impact testing.  We did not have nearly the sophisticated testing facility that we do now (this was like 20 years ago), and Scott was the test pilot for doing impact testing. 

He would put on a full face helmet, get all padded up and ride a bicycle right into things.  Hilarious.  Wow.

Scott and I at Smith's now.  All those crazy memories.

Out.

Joe

PJ20 - You knew this was coming from me!

 
The scene at Alpine Valley.  Perfect night at a pretty cool spot for a concert.

 

#PJ20

You probably have already figured out that I am a pretty big Pearl Jam dork.  I was a Pearl Jam fan from the first album.  I cannot claim, as some people do, that I was a Pearl Jam fan when they were called Mother Love Bone - or some other point.  Good Grief people, if you are a Pearl Jam fan, isn't that enough?  Do you have to try to prove that you are more of a fan of Pearl Jam than me or some other person by claiming you have been a fan longer?  Are people really that insecure in their band worship?

So, somewhere this summer I learned that Pearl Jam was coming to Alpine Valley.  The problem was, on the weekend that the tickets were to be made available, I was going to be gone and I was going to be somewhere that did not have wireless access.  Ugh...  No problem, join the PJ fan club and there was a presale on the previous weekend.  So I did.  Problem was, that I completely spaced buying the tickets on the previous weekend - DWEEB!

The situation is, now I am a member of a fan club.  OK, I'm a big Pearl Jam fan (I think my Sirius Radio is stuck on that channel in the truck), but I am not the kind of person that joins a fan club.  Like Groucho Marx used to say, "I would never be a member of a club that would have me for a member".  But, I am a member.  I guess when they send out a mailer now, I will receive it.

So how did I get to the concert you ask?  Well, Len Zanni from Honey Stinger (len_zanni on twitter, check him out), came to the rescue.  He had an extra ticket on Sunday night and offered it up to me.  Wow.  That was super cool.

If you have not been to Alpine Valley, it is spectacular.  A natural outdoor amphitheater.  The slope of the hill is just right, the stage and roof project the sound really well etc...

I found the playlist for the concert online.  I added some of my own comments also.

01. Wash
02. The Fixer
03. Severed Hand
04. All Night
05. Given To Fly- (This may have been the highlight of the night, except they did play Yellow Ledbetter)
06. Pilate
07. Love Boat Captain
08. Habit w/ Liam Finn
09. Evenflow
10. Daughter/It’s OK-(This was pretty damn cool)
11. Leatherman
12. Red Mosquito w/ Julian Casablancas  (I have been hearing this song so much lately)
13. Satan’s Bed
14. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter A Small Town w/ Dhani Harrison  (Only problem was that I wanted Eddie to intro it with Longest-Title-In-The-Pearl-Jam-Catalog-Elderly-Woman-Behind-The-Counter-In-A-Small-Town-One-Two-Three-Four-Two-Three-...)
15. Unthought Known
16. New World w/John Doe-(Doe)
17. Black
18. Jeremy
ENCORE BREAK 1
19. Eddie improv/new song (performed solo by Eddie on acoustic guitar)
20. Just Breathe
21. Nothingman
22. No Way
23. Public Image-(Public Image Limited)
24. Smile w/ Glen Hansard
25. Spin The Black Circle-(dedicated to independent record store owners and customers)
ENCORE BREAK 2
Chris Cornell wishes Pearl Jam a happy 20th birthday
26. Hunger Strike {Eddie Vedder duet vocal}-(Cornell)
27. Call Me A Dog-(Cornell)
28. All Night Thing-(Cornell)
29. Reach Down w/ guests singing bg vocs-(Cornell)

(Honestly - I kinda liked Temple of the Dog, but I did not come to hear those songs.  I was fidgety during this, I just wanted the Eddy back with the microphone.)

30. Sonic Reducer w/ Mudhoney-(Bators, Blitz, Chrome, Magnum, Thomas, Zero)
ENCORE BREAK 3
31. Alive
Eddie thanks family, friends, and crew
32. Rockin’ In The Free World w/ lots of guests, friends and family-(Young)

BREAK LIKE THEY ARE ENDING
33. Yellow Ledbetter/Star Spangled Banner

Of course we all have our favorites, and they played forever, but I would have loved to hear Crazy Mary and my favorite - In Hiding.  As impressive as the Pearl Jam set was, what’s most remarkable is how every song, regardless of whether it’s a little known PJ track or a Public Image Limited tune, the audience knew every word to every song.  They knew every word, and they all sang along at the top of their lungs.  It was really cool, but I felt inadequate in that regard as I did not know every word.

We all have bucket lists, and some of us have certain bands we wished we could have seen.  I have missed a few of my other favorite bands along the way, and some of them are not around anymore (Led Zepplin, Aerosmith...)  I did not want that to happen before I got to see Pearl Jam. 

I tweeted during the concert that I was not leaving until I heard Yellow Ledbetter.  I almost had to reneg on that.  They played Rocking in the Free World, and acted like that was it.  People started filing out.  We did also.  I was a little bit bummed.  Then, all of a sudden they were back on stage and Eddy mumbled through the opening lyrics of Yellow Ledbetter.  Damn.  That was something.

Just in case you are really wondering at this point what I am talking about.  Here is someones Iphone recording of the song at the end of the show.

 

If you do not like Pearl Jam, there is something wrong with you.

Out.

Joe

Great Athletes Ride Trek

Eurobike. 

The annual pilgrimage to Freidrichshafen Germany.  Yep, that is right.  The famous little town on some obscure little lake on the border of Germany and Switzerland for the biggest bike show in the world.  Everyone knows Freidrichshafen and plans to go there for their next vacation, right?  Not. 

Who knows why it is there.  It just is.  We all go there every year.  Plane to Detroit, to Amsterdam, to Zurich, get on a train, take the ferry, take a taxi.  All in all it is about 24 hours of travel that feels more like 27.5 hours.  Just kidding, but it does feel like it takes forever.  (#trekworld is exactly 14.2X better than traveling to Eurobike and 7.69X better than the show is itself).  Whatever Joe, right?  Get over yourself.

I'm here, again.  I think this is about the 93rd time that I have been to this show.  It is 10+ halls of thumping techno music, wall to wall people, bad coffee, cigarettes, body painting in someone booth, free tattoo's etc...  But, mixed in there is piles and piles of sweet bike stuff.  You do have to wade through all the junk to get to it.  But for a bike knob, it is paradise.  I love it. 

This year, we are carrying over our Great Athletes Ride Trek theme to Eurobike.  In the past, we have just shown off bikes and accessories.  But, since Andy and Frank and Jens are such good sports they allowed humored us and said they would come to the show for a day and meet some dealers.  Great!

We opened up the booth for the night, and had a cocktail party while John Burke interviewed the guys and they told stories.  Jens told the story of shut up legs again.  Found out that Jens very first bike was a Diamant, which is a brand that Trek owns in Europe and still sells.  He was pretty psyched by that.

John Burke interviewing the boys on stage.

Unfortunately, Andy did not make it because he ended up having to have mouth surgery with a tooth abscess.  That was too bad, but Frank filled in nicely for him. 

Jens said 2 things during the night that were absolutely hilarious. 

First, when asked what wheels he likes best, his answer was the taller ones because he has to pull for 3 hours to get Frank to the bottom of the hill, where Frank goes hard for 20 minutes and then just raises his arms at the finish.  (He said all that like "How hard is that?") Classic.

Second, he said he hates flying to Luxembourg because the country is so small, the front of the plane is in France, the middle in Luxembourg and the rear still in Germany.  He doesn't know what paperwork to fill out. 

There are plenty of places to see the stuff at Eurobike.  Just do a google search on Eurobike 2011.  My time there this year was not so bad, mostly because Great Athletes Ride Trek.

Thanks guys.

 

 

 

 

Hasta la vista, baby.