The "Devil Track"
What a great name for a river! It's up on the north shore of Lake Superior, starting in the swampy headwaters of Minnesota's northeasternmost county,
flowing south and east until it reaches a choke point in the coastal hills near Sawtooth Bluff and backs up as Devil Track Lake. The next four miles downstream from
the lake, the river cuts a deep gorge through the Proterozoan rock and finally lets out into Lake Superior a few miles east of Grand Marais. In spring melt it
becomes a completely wild river, full of twists, bends, cascades, occasional waterfalls, and very few places to climb out of the gorge that's often filled wall to wall.
By late summer, however, the flow diminishes enough to expose much of the canyon floor, and the river becomes an attractive target for a little bit of "canyoneering".
A few days ago, I just so happened to be in Grand Marais, and took that opportunity on a cloudless Sunday morning.
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A Dose of Humility
Last week the Gnome Hunters headed out to New Hampshire to race in the
Untamed New England
expedition race. We fielded a four-man open team; me, Brian, Rick and Dave. Liz and
Chris came out as well, but since it was an unsupported race, they could treat it as a real vacation.
Let's just say that our performance was a bit of a disappointment. And it all started with the portage wheels. (Depending on who you ask, it might have started even earlier.)
I also navigated too conservatively at times, and that meant we lost time to most of the rest of the field.
That's not to say we didn't have a good time and see some beautiful sights while navigating through the wilds along the Canadian border.
We didn't get to see as much of it as we hoped, but at least we did keep plugging away and finish a short course. Many of the teams didn't make it through the second night
(always the black night of despair) and in the end, 12 of 41 teams dropped out or went unranked. Brian has a detailed
writeup on Facebook
that describes it all - the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Sunrise from the summit of Magalloway Mountain.
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We, the Navigators, Remember
Posted Sun, July 25, 2010 - 10:21 PM
hawaii, orienteering
(photo by Will Kyselka)
The Hawai‘i news
has been busy lately with the news that
Mau Piailug has passed away at the age of 76. He was the navigator of the
Hokule‘a on its maiden voyage from Hawai‘i to Tahiti, a teacher to David Lewis, Nainoa Thompson, and many others, and largely responsible for ensuring the
survival of traditional Polynesian oceanic navigation into the 21st century.
Although my wary personal relationship with water may keep me from ever setting foot on a voyaging canoe, I'm still amazed by what he, his peers, and his
students have been able to accomplish.
Knowledge can be a fragile thing, at times. Thank you for keeping it alive, Mau.
Equality!
Found, on West River Road at the Greenway underpass. Within full view of thousands of commuters.
Click on the photo for a high resolution version.
I guess it was for Augustus :)
All Night Ride (Or Not.)
I skipped competing in the Tri-Loppet this year because I was going to join Rick, Brian, and Corey for
the (now 2nd!) annual All Night Ride.
It doesn't get any prettier.
Start: Brian's house, South Minneapolis, 7:30 PM.
Turnaround: Somewhere near Hutchinson, McLeod County. 2:30 AM.
Finish: Bryant-Lake Bowl, Uptown. 9:30 AM. Breakfast and celebratory beer.
Distance: About 140 miles.
Chafing Factor: Severe.
Rick, Brian, and I started out on time, and rode down the parkway and around the chain of lakes up to the eastern terminus of the Luce Line extension.
It was a bit more exciting than usual because there was a strong line of thunderstorms bearing down on the Twin Cities right about that time. As we
crossed I-394 on Wirth Parkway, we could see a dark black storm to the WSW, with a disturbing amount of lightning on the horizon. The storms were blowing rain up out
ahead of them, so we were fighting a little bit of wind and spit.
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Another Year at the Tri-Loppet
It's that time of the year again - high summer. Bright sun, thick humid air, plenty of mosquitoes, and the annual
City of Lakes Tri-Loppet offroad triathlon. In a change from
last year, I decided not to compete, and instead showed up to take photos and videos
of the intrepid MNOC gang and any other folks who happened to wander into my field of view. The decision was motivated by my plan
to do the Gnome Hunters
All Night Ride that evening, and sealed by letting the June 23rd registration deadline go by without
sending anything in.
More photos behind the link.
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2nd at the Fat Otter Raid!
Ahhh... the joy of looking back on finishing another expedition-level adventure race! Gnome Hunters fielded a three-person coed team at the
(hopefully) first annual Raid put on by
Team Fat Otter this past weekend.
The venue was central Wisconsin, in the Black River Falls area. Rick, Val, and I were
all tempted by the close location and reasonable price, and signed up despite knowing little about the reputation of the race organizers. It
turned out that was absolutely nothing to worry about - in fact, it was one of the most well-designed 3-day races I've ever participated in.
I might as well spoil the results right now, and say that we did better than we expected - but needed a little help to get there. We ended
up in 2nd place overall, 1st in the open division. The only team to gather more checkpoints than us (since the time was filled out with a rogaine
section) was Team Goretex, who came east from Colorado, Utah, and Oregon to go after the Checkpoint Tracker points this race offered. But still,
we weren't far behind. We were also pushed quite a bit by Midwest Mountaineering, who had a strong performance, took 3rd overall and 2nd in division
to Goretex, and further showed their sportsmanship at the end of the race.
I took some helmet cam video at this race too - not as much as I'd like turned out, and my battery ran down too early - but to see our route
on Google Maps, read the play-by-play, and check out the video I did get, click on the link for Part I!
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Anemone
I've been watching the condition at Wolsfeld Woods over the past couple of weeks - unfortunately, it looks like the dry sunny weather is resulting in a short
season for the spring wildflowers. The trees are starting to leaf out rapidly, but there's a few nice touches.
More pictures behind the link.
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William O'Brien - New and Improved!
Posted Thu, April 22, 2010 - 9:04 PM
orienteering
Sunday was the orienteering meet at William O'Brien, on what's basically a completely different map than the one we had three years ago.
Two years I entirely redid the base contours using LIDAR from Washington County, and last year Kevin T. came to town and quite a bit of
field checking and vegetation remapping. So now it's back to being pretty accurate, although there's still an excessive amount of raspberry
vines that, if you're not careful, leaves you looking like you lost a battle with an angry cat.
My legs were still a little cashed from the Trail Mix the day before, and staying up until 4:30 AM the previous night didn't help matters
either. However, I am no longer allowed to claim certain things
as extenuating circumstances.
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Trail Mix
Posted Wed, April 21, 2010 - 7:54 PM
running
Last weekend was a rare one for me, with two "official" race events. On Saturday morning, I subbed for Tom on a 4-person team at the
Trail Mix, an annual 50K/25K trail race at Hyland Lake Park Reserve. The the elite event is the solo 50K, or four loops around
a 7.8-mile trail course. They also offer a two-loop solo 25K, and the team event is for those runners who aren't ultra-level; four people start
at the same time and each run one loop, then their times are combined.
Tom had signed up with Kelly, Justin and Molly in the even-mixed division (two men and two women), but swapped onto his friends' team at the
last minute because one of their runners bowed out. So I ended up running for the whimsically named "Rainbow Unicorn"!
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