Save Human Powered Trails - La Crosse, WI

The trails in La Crosse on the bluffs over looking the city should not be lost to a housing development. There are plenty of potentially nice places in town to live. Riding from town, there is a trail providing easy access to the Human Powered Trails. I have a picture that hangs in the garage that shows the view from these bluffs. This place should be for everyone that lives in or visits La Crosse. The La Crosse City Council is considering whether to designate a city owned tract of land on the bluffs above the city, Upper Hixon Forest, as a park or to use the land for housing developments. This petition is to encourage them to designate as a city park. This will protect the land and the shared use trails that have been built there by HPT volunteers. I have worked on these trails with the HPT volunteers. They do a fantastic job of building and maintaining this area for everyone, not just bikers. Please send a message to them in support of the park designation before January 10, 2012. This petition will be delivered to the mayor and every city councilor. The La Crosse trails need your help. Please go to the link below to find out more information and sign a petition to stop a housing development on the LaCrosse trails.
Click here:
http://signon.org/sign/park-not-development

Visit the HPT site:
http://www.humanpoweredtrails.com/

Thanks!

This is "Freeze/Thaw Season"

Getting up early is hard. But that is when the trails can be ridden this time of year. And a frozen trail is actually nice to ride. This Saturday morning is Christmas Eve. I'm planning to do a frozen trail tranquility ride starting at a little after sunrise 8AM. Just let me know if you want to join me.

Mid-December Trail Work

Greg and I got the day started off right with some Mid-December Trail Work at Tranquility. Last week the wind took down a large dead tree. It landed perfectly perpendicular to the trail north of Fort closest to the creek. So this big tree should make a nice Technical Trail Feature (TTF) when conditions are right to work on it. For now Greg used his monster saw to notch an easy access route. We cleared the debris and it's ready to ride. Maybe the MNR riders will get a chance to use this route tonight if the trail doesn't get too soft today.

This saw is a beast!

Greg doing the initial burn in.

Human Powered Snow Trail Groomer

Well, the snow is gone now. It will be back. So I'm thinking ahead. This doesn't look like a bad way to groom some snow trails. Maybe a narrower version would make more of a single track feel. A wood pallet cut in half might work well.

Kayak For Sale Sold

Update - The Kayak sold quickly. The UNO Outdoor Venture Center rents Kayaks!

Get ready for spring! Are you thinking about Kayaking next season? Here is an entry level deal on a kayak that is much better than entry level. Doug L. listed the kayak he was using last season on Craigslist. I've seen this kayak in action and you would not be disappointed. It's stable and easy to use. It's light and very easy to carry. And it's nice looking too. Check the listing out and get in touch with Doug if you are interested.

This ad is for a Current Design Vision 120 composite kayak 12 ft. long weighing an actual 34lbs. Price $600 - nice deal considering it's a $2000 kayak.

Here is the link to Doug's Craigslist listing...
http://omaha.craigslist.org/boa/2750352265.html

Day 2 Day Snow

The snow riding was tricky yesterday. The powdery snow just didn't want to pack under the tires. Today the snow was perfect. Strange what the change in a day does to the snow. Great to see the trail getting used in every season. Way to go Brian, Chris and Mike!

Home Improvment Snowshoes

One thing I've learned about snowshoes is they are not really easy to get in and out of. The other thing is it's nice to go with someone else. Mike informed me that Menards had a sale on snowshoes that started Friday and ends today. I wouldn't normally think of getting sporting goods from a home improvement store. Turns out they were really great for the sale price. So I got some for Emma as an early gift. Now we can help each other get in and out of our snowshoes and enjoy winter together a little. Thanks for the heads up on the deal Mike!

Join The Movement

Swedish single speeder ya

Short 30 second video from Stockholm, Sweden.

First Snow of the Season

Today was our first snow ride of this winter season. I fell quite a bit but snow is a soft landing. Mike's Salsa Mukluk fat bike is amazing in the snow. Floats effortlessly, well the first laps felt like we were climbing a steep hill. But we packed down a 3/4 mile loop north of Fort St. by Kelley Field. Unlike the heat of summer, every lap got more fun. Chris P. showed for the last few laps. There was almost no wind and temps stayed in the upper 20s. The snow did not get slushy, just nice and packed down. Great day to be outside! Don't let old man winter keep you inside.

Snowy gullys, no problem for Mike on his Muk! Just to be fair, Mike flawlessly rode this tight spot on the previous lap. Here are the photos...

Snow Ride - Dec. 4th, 2011

The Correct Freewheel Tool

When the time came to change the freewheel on my single speed I thought I was prepared. I obtained a spare ACS freewheel. Before the one I had failed I was anticipating that I would switch from 22 to 20 teeth. I researched the "how to" sites. Got a tool cheap online. It may not have been designed for the ACS Claw Freewheel I have. But when the time came to use it I learned, once again, that cheap is often the wrong choice. The cheap tool would not grab the freewheel correctly and metal shavings were appearing under the force. So I'm thinking, what do I use when the edges start getting rounded? I just use the trusty backup method - big vise-grips. The freewheel was trashed anyway. But that didn't work to get the freewheel off. I just created more metal shavings. I took the cheap tool up to Bike Masters to seek some advice. Said advice ended up being "don't use cheap tools". Thankfully they had 1 PARK FR-6 in stock. This worked right away in spite of the edge rounding I did to the freewheel with the cheap tool.

It's good to have the correct tool for the job.

Here is video on how to use the tool...

Joyful SS Video

I found a Single Speed video to share. It was shot in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada. The dog appears to be as joyful as the rider.

Boogaloo - Whitehorse singletrack from Anthony DeLorenzo on Vimeo.

I hope to get a ride in after work tomorrow but Pete is staying home. He is more of a walks with a leash kind of dog.