nfl

I know what you are thinking. NFL = National Football League. Superbowl Sunday. Packers vs. Steelers. I am watching the game but the post title refers to the other N.F.L. The National Forest Lodge of course!

Kate and I drove up on Friday for two days of cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in northern Minnesota just outside of Ely. We couldn’t have asked for a better weekend — warm temps, fresh snow and nearly no one else on the ski trails. It had been a ridiculously long time since my last trip up north (BWCA 2001, really?) and I’d forgotten how beautiful the north woods could be.. and in the winter no less! (i.e., winter camping be damned).

Andy, Laura, Gerry and the rest of the crew at the National Forest Lodge were excellent hosts. It quickly became clear Andy knew how to make his guests feel at home. Having purchased the NFL just three years ago they have done an amazing job transitioning the lodge into their own special place. The cabins were cozy, warm and clean. The lodge was always welcoming including the tasty provided meals — breakfast, lunch and dinner. No doubt Andy and Laura’s experience in running the Baptism River Inn B&B helped them understand what it takes to be successful with the rustic ski cabins at the National Forest Lodge.

As a bonus Andy asked Grand Marais musician Timmy Haus to perform a few sets on Saturday night. Tim is a talented guitarist and singer with an exceptional range playing everything from country and blues to rock and pop. He occasionally plays in the Cities and we’ll be sure to see him again when he does!

They haven't received as much snow up north as we have in the Cities but still plenty of white stuff to go around

Mildy disturbing. Fortunately the trails showed no signs of snowmobiles and hardly signs of other skiers -- mmm, fresh groomed.

Kate styling on the trails

great white north

@#$%! I’m moving back to California. Okay, maybe not but ridiculous amounts of snow fell and are still falling in Minneapolis today. I can’t remember the last time it’d snowed this much with the wind blowing to boot. For some crazy reason I decided to drive back from Kate’s house through the middle of the blizzard. After passing numerous cars stranded in ditches along Highways 36, 35, 94 and 394 the trusty Subie made it to within about 30 feet of my driveway. My wonderful neighbors helped with the final stretch (thank you David!). Safe to say I ain’t goin’ anywhere for a while.

post mortem

Since the Southern Tier tour ended in St. Augustine I’ve had a few days to ponder the ins and outs, ups and downs of the trip. Before I dive in however I need to give a shout out to two of the east coast Atack clan from Flagler Beach. Thanks so much for putting up [with!] Rob and I for three days. Sharon, you are a very gracious host and have a wonderful home. Craig, you are a rockstar for driving us all the way to MCO. FFC and Snack Jacks were amazing too.

Suffice it to say our extended stay in Florida left me with a much improved impression of the state and the northern beaches! I’m wishing now I had snapped a few more photos during our stay.

Back to the topic at hand…

Adventure Cycling
Overall I give ACA good marks for their maps and pre-trip organization. Granted I didn’t have much interaction with the Missoula office but when I did (registration, etc.) they were speedy and professional. My one and only big beef with ACA is the lack of a comprehensive guide to accommodations along the route. With up to 4 tours per year on the Southern Tier why is there not an accurate and detailed list of places to stay and places to avoid? We stayed in some real shitholes (refer to my rants in previous posts) which could have been avoided. ACA does provide their trip leaders with notes from past trips but the detail and organization of content is seriously lacking. Note that I’m pointing the finger here at ACA and not the trip leaders. Rick did a quality job on our tour of working with the information he had.

Okay, I lied. I have a second big beef with ACA. On a couple of route segments biking in traffic was positively suicidal. One segment was the white knuckle downhill with crazy crosswinds back in… er… eastern CA I think. The other one that comes to mind was portions of east Texas on Hwy 120 with no shoulder, logging trucks and traffic regularly going 70 mph. Rick provided a good suggestion calling for ACA to sanction use of a van or truck to shuttle riders passed such deadly sections of road.

Expectations meet Reality
Crossing the country on our tour like ours (i.e., low budget, adhoc) is not for everyone. Heh, it’s not for most people period. For anyone contemplating such a trip I have a few suggestions garnered from my own experience and observations of my fellow tourmates influenced equally by their struggles and accomplishments.

Know what the hell you are getting into. Don’t sign up for a 60-day tour if you haven’t already completed a shorter but similar tour. Do a two week trip where you climb some big hills, carry your own gear, cook your own meals, are forced to collaborate with strangers, etc. before taking the big plunge. To not do so is akin to lining up at the starting line for a marathon after putting on some newly purchased running shoes and believing you are prepared.

Get in shape before the trip. To ACA’s credit they provide suggested mileage and training guides well before each tour begins. Whether anyone reads the guide is another question. It was obvious on our tour that folks not prepared for the grueling first several weeks enjoyed themselves considerably less than those who showed up fit and ready to roll. For the record I’m one of the those who didn’t prepare enough although I had the luxury of “youth” on my side. Props to Gunnar, Freddo and Rick — it was clear you guys put the miles in before September. The rest of us should have put more time in the saddle before setting out from San Diego.

Are you a people person? If you are doing a self-contained tour across the U.S. with a dozen strangers I sure hope you are. Intra-group dynamics can make or break a trip. In every tour it is almost guaranteed there will be a few odd ducks. This shouldn’t come as a surprise — how many sane people choose to subject themselves to such a torturous “vacation”?

Personalities are sure to clash when riders are cold, hungry and exhausted after riding 80 miles in the rain and someone makes a snide remark about so-and-so’s cooking after so-and-so just spent two hours shleping groceries and preparing dinner while huddled over a tiny campstove and hiding under a painfully narrow roof eve in a feeble attempt to stay dry.

A final suggestion is to not underestimate the complete effort required for a self-contained trip. If you are a Tour de France caliber cyclist but can’t handle camping day after day, rain or shine, sleeping on the ground then keep saving your money and give Backroads a call. Cycle touring on a budget is much like wilderness backpacking. Those who enjoy it the most are those who enjoy the satisfaction of making camp, foraging for wood, being self-sufficient, etc.

Black Boxes
If used “correctly” smartphones, laptops, etc. can enrich a trip significantly. Having weather reports and maps at one’s fingertips is very powerful and takes the guesswork, and subsequent pitfalls, out of navigating and planning. Having the wealth of information from wikipedia and other WWW sources is an incredible resource to lend color to the tour experience whether it be explaining a geologically formation or providing historical context for a landmark.

Too much tech can be a bad thing however, even I with my black box wielding ways will admit. When the tech interferes with immediacy and intimacy of experiencing the place and the local people it’s time to rein it in.

If I was to do the trip again I wouldn’t change much with regard to which gadgets I brought and which I left at home. As a participant (i.e., and not a trip leader responsible for arrangements, taking frequent notes, etc.) a laptop is overkill and an unnecessary burden. Smartphones do 90% of what a laptop can do and often do that 90% better. Having my iPhone in the back pocket of my jersey meant it was there when I needed it to snap a quick picture or perform a quick map check. Add a lightweight, foldable Bluetooth keyboard and the functionality gap between phone and laptop narrows further.

One gadget I didn’t need to bring was the solar charger. First, they don’t work for crap at least the one I brought did not. After days of the charger sitting in the bright Arizona sunshine I’d still only get 10 to 15% of a phone charge out of it. I ended up giving the charger to Elise for whom it served only minimal utility by allowing her to “jumpstart” her damaged iPod Touch. Second, some may disagree with me but the southern U.S. ain’t exactly some third world country with an antiquated electrical grid. 120 volts can be found nearly everywhere providing a few precious Joules as needed. Finally, the battery life of smartphones these days is impressive. At least on the iPhone 4 it is (and presumably on the latest Droids, Palms, etc.). When listening to downloaded media like podcasts and music the phone positively sips power — I was seeing battery expectancy in the 40 hour range. Only when receiving and pushing large amounts of data did I see battery life taking a big hit. Downloading content over the 3G (and even more so the old cellular) network took considerable juice. GPS-related features like route tracking (e.g., MapMyRide) and streaming audio (e.g., Pandora) are demanding. After about three hours of continued use the battery bar would dip into the red.

WiFi was frequently available throughout the route. Rarely did a day go by where I couldn’t poach some “high speed” connectivity if needed. I found in some places however the 3G network was actually faster than the (presumably) throttled WiFI connection.

Highlights
I’ve already been asked a few times which was my favorite part of the trip. I find this is not an easy question to answer. Working around the edges of the question let’s see if I can nibble out a coherent response.

At the macro level of state by state I enjoyed Texas and Florida the most. Others’ mileage may vary but I found locals to be the most friendly in these two states and the combination of cultural and geographical interests most appealing. Of all the towns we passed through I’m most likely to return to Austin and St. Augustine.

Arizona and New Mexico were a disappointment at times. There are some rough stretches of nothing (and also of nothing worth stopping for) in both states. To their credit the northern reaches of each I enjoy but unfortunately the Southern Tier steers wide and clear of them.

In no particular order and completely off the top of my head here are specific experiences from the trip which I recall fondly:

- hanging out in New Orleans with my brother, sister-in-law and our MN peeps
- Texas v. Iowa State in Austin… hook ‘em horns!
- epic views from the top of Emory Pass in New Mexico
- Freddo, Rob and I shopping as gringos in El Paso, TX
- camping in Wickenburg, AZ at the Horsepitality RV park. Bad name but great place to stay and magnified by the string of shitholes during the previous week (ref. Palo Verde)
- high school football in Sanderson, TX
- exploring Austin for the first time with Kate
- slowing down the pace each day when cycling with “slow pokes” (Gunnar, Katie, Milena & Frosty) who know how to stop and smell the roses with frequent picnics and photos of every swamp and bridge
- the Hilton in Orange Beach, AL. It’s remarkable how good a little bit of luxury feels after slumming for weeks on end
- Cowboys v. Vikings at the Buzzard Roost’s bar in Del Rio, TX. $1 tap beers all day long and Dallas fans to harass and tease = good times
- decompressing from two months of biking in sunny 80 degree Flagler Beach, FL amongst friends before returning home to snowy 20 degree Minneapolis
- the anticipation in San Diego during final preparations and before setting out on Day 1

extortion

So I’m flying back to Minneapolis from Orlando onboard a Sun Country (an MSP-based charter) flight. In addition to selling over-priced food and drinks they now sell blankets. Blankets! Since the flight crew has their hand on the thermostat controlling the cabin temperature isn’t it a bit ridiculous they charge for blankets?

by the numbers

Day 61: Hawthorne to St. Augustine, FL

3102 miles. 13 cyclists. 8 states. 2 months.

We made it! Coast to coast in sixty-one days — we arrived in St. Augustine on Saturday, November 20th greeted by the sandy beaches and crashing surf of Anastasia Beach.

The Atlantic Ocean at St. Augustine, FL

The mixed feelings were palpable as we gathered for a group photo under the setting afternoon sun. We all felt the pride and joy of having completed the ride but also the tinge of sadness knowing we soon would bid farewell to our tour mates…

ACA Self-contained Southern Tier Fall 2010 — front to back, left to right: Katie, Cas, Frosty, [Young] Mark, Milena, Rob, John, Tina, Rick, Gunnar, [Dr.] Mark. Not pictured: Richard and Freddo.

My apologies Frosty for the unfortunate expression you have in this picture! I recall you saying something about “toes in my bum”. I’ll leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine who in the back row is responsible for the aforementioned toes.

For everyone who has read the blog over the past several months I hope you have enjoyed the words and the pictures. I’m not sure yet what my next adventure will be but I suspect KrambleJam will live on.

A few additional photos from our final day…

Gunnar and Dr. Mark reminisce

Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine — beautiful town, high on my list of places to return

Badass Fred (aka Freddo, aka Mr. Fred)

critters

Day 57: Tallahassee to Monticello
Day 58: Monticello to White Springs
Day 59: White Springs to High Springs
Day 60: High Springs to Hawthorne

“Get off the trail by dusk… it is DINNER TIME for the alligators” — posted warning at the alligator park in Gainesville, FL

The holy grail of animal sightings for us on this trip has been seeing an alligator in the wild. We’ve stopped many times on bridges across the panhandle to scan the swampy waters for the characteristic pair of eyes floating on the surface. Finally on our way out of Gainesville we passed a state preserve park which promised gators in abundance. We were not disappointed!

Warning sign outside the state preserve

Warning sign inside the state preserve

No barriers between gators and people in most of the preserve. Crazy.

We spent well over an hour walking the paths of the park, observing the gators and in Milena’s case, scaring the gators. After leaving the park and continuing on the bike path (which would eventually take us all the way to Hawthorne, our stop for the day) someone made the comment “the only thing which could make this day better would be spotting a [live] armadillo”. Not two minutes later we see this cute bugger nosing around in the leaves beside the path…

Armadillo butt. Not my best photographic work, tough to not spook the little fellas

Spanish moss covered trees common between Tallahassee and Gainesville. Katie calls these the “Lord of the Rings trees”… a great description

book: america’s secret war

America’s Secret War — by George Friedman

I liked Friedman’s first book so much I decided to read one of his earlier works from 2004. The subtitle to the book is Inside the hidden worldwide struggle between America and its enemies which smacks of an editor’s pen and doesn’t accurately reflect the books focus on 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Similar to his most recent book, Friedman notably does not take a political stand in his observations of how and why the government has done what it’s done for the past 10 years of the “war on terrorism”. It is primarily for this reason why I enjoy his writing so much. I’m sure he, like everyone, has an agenda at some level but his books are factual, informative accounts of what is really going on.

After finishing the book I felt I had gained a better appreciation for some of the decisions made by the Bush administration. For those that know me well, and know my political views, the inclusion of “appreciation” and “Bush administration” in the same sentence may come as a shock.

Friedman makes a compelling argument for why the U.S. invaded Iraq. He describes the need for posturing and a show of force demonstrating to the Muslim world that the U.S. could sufficiently fight Al Qaeda. There was also a decaying relationship with Saudi Arabia, including a mandate from the Saud Family to remove military forces from the Kingdom, which would have led to a lack of U.S. military presence in what is arguably the most vital region in the world. However, he makes no mention of private industrial interests in an occupation of Iraq which I believe is a significant oversight.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of foreign policy in the Middle East and South Asia. In particular Friedman does an excellent job of describing the nuances of relationships with key countries including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran. It was startling to read just how heavily involved, on seemingly all sides of conflict in the region, the U.S. was and continues to be.