Welcome to the Minnesota MS150 Team Norske 2002 ride report!
Welcome to the Minnesota MS150 Team Norske 2002 ride report!
Jeff Hernes
Jeff Hernes (1997) - captain
Melissa Hernes (2000)
Warren Kalsow (1997) - chief fund raiser
Wesley Kalsow (1997)
Rachel Kalsow (1999)
Wally Kalsow (2000)
John Jones (1999)
Chris Geisler (2002)
Monday: The weather forecast for the weekend between Duluth, the starting point, and Anoka, the ending point of the 150 mile MS150 ride wasn't looking so well. I ordered fenders for our tandem Melissa and I would be riding.
Thursday: The fenders arrived and I optimistically hoped to get them on in an hour. I dearly wanted to test them out with Melissa on a twenty mile ride to make sure they wouldn't fall off or rub a tire, etc. That hour slipped away battling the easier fender for the front. The rear fender installation was looking too ominous to even attempt to put it on in "such a short time." I had a clip-on-rear fender I'd gotten earlier, but which didn't work because Melissa is short enough and sitting on a suspension seat post so there's no exposed post to clip the fender to. In desperation, I hacked off the clipping part, drilled some holes, and zip-tied the fender to the rack. It'd at least keep the rooster tail off her back. Our twenty mile ride was cut to fifteen, partly because of the lateness of getting on the road, and partly because of the ominous blackness in the west. We had a good ride, nothing fell off or rubbed, and we beat the storm. I wouldn't have minded really testing the fenders, but I get a little leary of riding through lightning.
Friday: John was planning on getting to Anoka around noon to hang out and wait for the rest of Team Norske to show up. Warren and the rest of the team showed up at our house shortly after noon while Melissa and I were scarfing down some lunch. She had just gotten back from her last day of being a fourth grader, and I had put in a half day of work so hadn't been home long either. We got the bike and bags loaded and were on the road before 1pm, a new record. Warren's daughter Katie bailed out at the last minute because of work constraints, so the rest of the team consisted of Warren's three younger kids--Wes, Rachel, and Wally, and Chris, a new team member and co-worker we picked up at Health Partners.
Registration went smoothly at Anoka, except we didn't run into John until we were on our way to board the bus to Duluth. His leisurely morning was shot to, uh, heck, with a much longer-than-anticipated fender installation session. I could only snicker. :-) We waited for him to register and get his Rivendell on the truck, and then boarded the bus as a team.
The trip up to Spirit Mountain in Duluth passed through occasional showers, but it wasn't raining when we arrived there. I hate putting a tent up in the rain. :-) Chris was staying with friends, so he left, while the rest of us broke from the usual tradition of walking to McDonalds, and took a bus to the Canal Park area in downtown Duluth. Grandma's was busy, but we chose to wait a half hour anyway to get in. After a fine meal, we caught a 746 foot ore boat passing under the lift bridge, and then walked along the boardwalk in the rain to catch a bus back to Spirit Mountain. A quick check back there to find our bikes, and we headed off to bed around 9:30.
Saturday: The crowd started rising at 4:30, a ritual I've never figured out.
We gave up at 5 and joined the madness to break camp, have breakfast, and
start pedaling. Much to our surprise, the tents were completely dry--a first
in the many years I've been doing this ride. Some last minute bike
maintenance delayed our departure to 6:45, at which time we joined the
masses (2400 was the official total for this year) out on the road.
Chris, John, and Melissa and I formed The Faster Group and Warren and his kids brought up the tail end with The Slower Group. The riding went well and we found ourselves at the Moose Lake lunch stop by 9:20. This was the halfway point on the 70 mile ride. We took our time with the Subway sandwiches and were on the trail by 10.
Melissa and I were at the lead, pulling for the other two, and then a couple more, and then some more, until I lost track of "all those who HAD been catching us but never passed." I'd heard that tandems have a reputation as a good thing to draft behind, but we weren't going particularly fast for a tandem team (16-18 mph). By the time we pulled into the next rest stop though, we were a train of twenty bikes or more.
John took the lead for the next stretch, until someone drafting behind us
thought it was his turn to pull. He upped the tempo by a couple of mph's,
and we struggled to keep up. We made good time, but at a physical toll. :-)
Finally I had to drop off the back, especially when we hit the only curvy
and hilly section of the whole trail. While the Cannondale tandem handles
very nicely, I couldn't take the curves as well as a single. Our pack of
four riders splintered over the next mile or so, but once back on the flat,
we regrouped and headed into the final rest stop at Finlayson together.
One notable absence on this year's ride was the lack of spring flowers along the route, and I missed them! We had more winter weather during spring than during winter, and it was apparent. Everything was behind the normal feverish "gotta get as much growing done during the short summer as possible" pace.
Speaking of pacing, the last stretch into Hinckley is always challenging, needing
some mental pacing. It isn't long--11 miles or so--but on a straight, tree-lined,
flat corridor into the sun, at the end of the ride. (I'm trying to resist using
the word "boring.") We got in by 12:30, having averaged 16mph. We were happy
with that!
The Hinckley hockey team once again helped gather our bags and haul them over to our camp site. Chris was staying at the high school so headed over that way while Melissa, John, and I got our tents set up. Showers and "hanging out" followed. The Slower Team arrived a couple of hours later, having had a good ride this year with no one sagging and no major mechanical difficulties.
As with past years, the rest of the day was spent "hanging out"--naps, walks, reading, visiting, eating, getting the team picture taken, etc. It was a good day overall, especially considering we were all healthy and the 60% chance of rain didn't materialize!
Sunday: Folks were a little slower at getting up than the day before. We
packed up and had our pancakes and were on the road by 6:30 in some sunshine. The
Faster Group was joined by Wesley on an old homemade recumbent. He had some "mechanical
difficulties" with it--the seat kept sliding back. His fix was "rather than
fighting the problem, treat the symptom." At the second rest stop we located
some cardboard (not hard to do with all the food coming in boxes :-) and he built
up the back of his seat an inch or two. That got him to the end, but the
cardboard was somewhat mushy by that point!
The ride went well, but felt long toward the end. We again took our time at the lunch stop in Cambridge. The temperature rose to about 90, and the winds picked up out of the south, the direction we were heading. My stoker was giving out, putting more burden up front. The five of us plugged away and made it back to the cowbells and cheering at Anoka by 2:30, an average of 13.9mph over the 81 miles. The Slower Group rolled in a couple of hours later. After eating and loading up the van and trailer, we left Anoka for the last time, as the 2003 route ends in Lake Elmo!