Salsa Cycles Fargo Adventure #2: Report

Going on adventures is always a risky, stressful, and yet exciting and fun thing to do. Well, at least the great adventures include these elements, to my mind anyway. Such was the case with the latest Salsa Cycles Fargo Adventure held in late July by Salsa Cycles head honch, Jason Boucher.

Jason's "theme" this time was to hit up all of the southern metro area dirt highlights which include the most excellent Murphy-Hanrahan and Lebanon Hills single track loops. We would also be covering much of the Salsa Cycles Fargo Adventure#1 route along the Minnesota River Bottoms trail. All of this linked up by stretches of bike path and road. Truly an adventure of mixed terrain and perfectly matched to the Fargos strong points.

My part in the adventure included my rushed arrival via a drop off of my two children at their grandparents house and getting dropped off by my wife at the Lebanon Hills campground at about 11pm on a Thursday evening. Unfortunately this meant that I missed the Lebanon Hills part of the adventure. However; I was fortunate that my friend had come up earlier to set up my tent and everything was ready. With friends met and after a bit of chatting, I turned in somewhere on the AM side of midnight.

The Fargo Adventure Peloton

The adventurerers awoke sometime around 5:30am and prepared for the ride. It was looking like rian, but that didn't deter us one bit. We had food aplenty and we were loading up for the long ride ahead. In fact, we were so attuned to our coffee making, eating, and chatting that we forgot to leave at the six o'clock start time and we didn't actually push off until seven in the morning!

Leaving on the Adventure on the Twin Cities bike paths

As we sped along on our Fargo rigs we noticed that the skies ahead of us were angry and flashes of lightning were visible. Were we worried? Oh, maybe a bit, but we forged on ahead to our appointed starting off point on the Minnesota River Bottom trail at the Sibley House in St. Paul. By this point we were all cruising along merrily and having a good time.

The River Bottom trails actually start up the river a bit further than Sibley House, but for all intents and purposes this is where the trail becomes more rustic and "woodsy". I just lump it all in with the River Bottom Trail because, well it just seems appropriate.  This continued along until we crossed over to the other side at the Cedar Street Bridge on the attached bicycle/pedestrian bridge. Then more double track towards a sweet section of single track.

At this point the skies darkened strangely. In fact, it was eerie how dark it was and in the woods we felt the need for lights at one point. The skies opened up, of course, and we all stopped to don some rian gear. Going through classic Mid-Western single track in summer always includes tall weeds. Now these weeds were all wet, and "painted" us with moisture as we went speeding by. The trail became treacherous in spots and mist hung in the hollows. I couldn't help but think of rain forest scenes I had seen in pictures.

Now that we were thoroughly soaked, it quit raining, of course! We all threaded our way through the twisty, flowing single track. Finally we popped out near Quality Bicycle Products where several of the original bunch were headed to get into work. This cut our group down to four: Captain Bob, MG, Jason, and myself.

Taking our Fargos directly from single track to paved roads was no issue for the bike, but a bit of a shock to the mind perhaps. Traffic had to be payed attention to, and we had the attendant noises that were blissfully absent in the woods. We found a convenience store and stopped to refuel and rest before the single track heaven that is Murphy-Hanrahan Park.

After we left convenience store, the day had turned hot and steamy. The dirt at the park was a bit slick at first from the rain, but was tacking up nicely. Too bad I was at about 50% at this point! That said, I wouldn't have rather been anywhere else at that point.

Re-grouping in Murphy-Hanrahan

After a bit more single track, and then a break at the trail head, we made our way the last six miles to the campground going up long, grinding climbs on a cement bike path. It was really hot by now, and none of us were going all that fast. The Fargos were all reeling in the miles though, and we never had any issues with the bikes at all. Even though I dumped mine pretty hard in a high speed corner back in the "Murph"and ripped my Endura knickers in the process!

Finally we gained the campground again after 57 miles of multi-terrain Fargo goodness. Beers were cracked and showers were on the order. We rested only a bit though, because a date with some northern Wisconsin single track was looming, and we had to leave soon. But that's another story......

Contemplating the ride (photo: J. Boucher)

Comments

[MG]

That was an incredible day... Thanks for the great post and the awesome memories, my friend.

Cheers,
MG