Jon unloads, Jake makes the save with the eyes closed and the red Power Ranger closes in on the rebound. Amazing the glass door dresser has survived the high shots. I can't believe Jonell has let this set up go through the whole winter. Mom deserves an award, like always.
Fun in the snow. What Jake and Jon do not know Jack has in store.
Driver Max has to be the best driver for deliveries into Maplelag. No questions asked on the driveway. Has the right attitude "it can be done". Was running 4 hours late last week and steps out "no breakfast today" Past few deliveries Jonell and I have been on breakfast shift and we always set him up with a big plate.
Not easy turning a big semi around. Top notch driver. Fun to watch him wheel and deal.
Jon and I made it down Thursday am to check out opening games for state hockey. Driving down noticed the factory effect snow machine was going full on. Is this why Woodland has skiing the longest in the metro? Top notch grooming most likely. Wanted to ski there this year. Probably out unless a spring storm. Moorhead/Edina game was excellent. Met up with Bruce. Scored club level seats, center ice. Mom went to school at Moorhead, Dad at Edina. Mom was happy.Another high energy weekend of Moosejaw, old time dance, music and clogging at Maplelag. These folks go 24 hours. Nice to have the background music. Skiing in between. Makes the weekend go by fast.
Found the big three binder that has past results of the early races. Had more saved results than I thought. This goes back a bit farther than the Quadna post. This was the second year they did the Sawtooth race. But the first year was a point to point 40 mile race that ended up being 48 miles for a group of 6-7 of us. I was near the front early, flatted, then got on a chase group. We were riding along and the grass starting getting longer, trail started getting narrower...we agreed we got off course so we turned around, rode back and found the course. That race took me almost 4 hours. I bonked in that race like no other race since. There were no feeds along the course and I ran out of water, fig newtons and bananas, two hours in. It was my first year racing Expert and I had second thoughts after that race. I think Erik Ringsrud won the first edition in just over 2 hours which was incredible and wondered how anyone could ride that terrain so fast. The second year (results above, click on photo for full view) they made some adjustments and it was a great pure mountain bike race. Good mud, singletrack, double track and awesome downhill finish. Jack was less than a month old at the time and Jonell, Jake and a friend from Norway at the race. At the start they were doing pre-race announcements and I was thinking I was a bit overdressed so I started to take my underlayer off....the race started!!! The entire field (beg/sp/ex) rolled out and I was at the line with no jersey. I got jersey on and rolled out dead last. Managed to pass most of the field on the long climb up and worked way up into experts on double track. Geno double flatted but rode the downhill on his rim, bunny hopping rocks and what not. Hall family representing nicely. Jeff was 15 I believe. Dean Vetter only ND rider. Dean and I hit pretty much all the WORS races that year, racing out of Fargo/MHD. Most races were 6-8 hour drive times, one way. He won the Sport class that year, battling out with Randy Gibbs. Good racing, good times.
5 comments:
crazy (but awesome) how many racers you had for a mountain bike race in grand marais. how many you think that race would draw today?
They have been holding the Sawtooth race in recent years and drawing maybe 50-70 racers. Back then there was no series and not as many races to choose from. No endurance or 24 hour events either. So when this race popped up, it looked very cool and attractive to most mtbers and nothing else that weekend so they drew a good crowd. If they would of continued, I think it would of been a classic event. For various reasons, they stopped holding the race and then the MN series started and those races became priority for most racers.
Jay, do you remember the torrential downpour during the 1993 event? Yowza! Whipping down the long downhill on the snowmobile trail, to the finish line at the high school, the water was gushing. Back then more people camped for the races, which made Grand Marais a particularly fun weekend. I've done the current GM race for the past two years, and I highly recommend it. A very old-school feel to it...still starts in downtown GM and climbs up to the pincushion xc trails, but now there's a fun section of singletrack that wasn't there back in the day. We (and several other families) camp and make a great weekend of it.
- Sandberg
I do remember that...we were sleeping in a tent and moved to the car since we were soaked. We rode that new section the other summer and it seemed really nice.
93' was a classic, mud + water on the rocks race.
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