What the what?

I often sing/refer to the chorus of Europe's "The Final Countdown," a lackluster song from the 1980s whenever it is getting close to crunch time for something, whether it be a bike event, a work thing, or some other occasion. I just looked at the lyrics to that song and they are super stupid. I need to find a better song! Especially this week, leading up to the Ride Across Minnesota.

Anyhow, it appears I've been neglecting this blog once again. Years ago, I posted at least twice a week. I guess I've gotten to a point in our relationship, dear reader, where I feel you don't need to know every detail of my existence. But the resulting effect is that you get an update that reads like a 3rd-grade essay on "What I Did Last Summer: The Sequel." So is that a 4th-grade essay by now?!?

Oh yeah, so getting back to the point. A week from today, I will have finished the first day of my 5-day Bike MS ride. What's noteworthy? Well, the first day this year is going to be 81 miles. We haven't had a 60+ day on the 5-day ride for several years. And, unlike prior years, I have not ridden that far yet in a single day. (In fact, the furthest (farthest? ☺) ride I have done this year was exactly one day ago - - when I rode 65 miles. Before yesterday's ride, I noticed that I'd ridden about 820 miles this year. In previous years, for several years, I'd have logged at least 1,500 miles by now. Like last year, for instance. (What are you gonna do? I can't go back in time - only forward.)) (Also, how many parentheticals can be put into one sentence? (I'm not sure, but if anyone can succeed in breaking the record, it is me.))

Anyhow, the first year I did the Ride Across Minnesota, we rode either 94 or 96 miles the first day, and it was freakin' hot, and unusually hot for a ride originating in International Falls (depicted as Frostbite Falls on Rocky and Bullwinkle). But I digress.

I'm not totally with it this year. I will be just fine on the Ride Across Minnesota, but it will be work, for sure, compared to recent years. But what else have I got to do that week? Nothing. Nothing except to ride to support the MS Society. Oh, and I do need to remember how to camp in a tent, on the ground, in a city park often near train tracks. And under relentless floodlights. With someone squealing their car tires nearby.

We also have had some memorable storms on this ride in years past - - like the the year when water from a lake was spraying into my tent and I zipped the tent into my pants when trying to put the rain fly on when pulling on said pants (after sleeping as close to naked in a public park as possible in super hot temps) and as the wind broke my friend Steve's tent, meaning that we had to share a 2-person tent with all of our gear. Or the year that the guys were at some bar (where "picklebacks" were a thing), while Deb and I heeded the tornado sirens and sat inside a municipal building. Or the year that Stacy, Steve, and I made it back to camp and our gear was sitting in puddles and Travis made us some coffee with Irish whiskey to warm us up as we set up our tents. Or the year that the trail got washed out and Deb and I got a hotel room so that we could dry out our gear yet that was the also year that I tried taking senna pills for the first time for bathroom issues and poor Deb was subjected to my stinkiness in a hotel room with windows that did not open.

So, it is sure to be a memorable week, next week, with some stories.

Oh, my 3rd- or 4th-grade report! 

The Twin Cities Bicycling Club's all club ride this spring.
I really need to just smile with my mouth open rather
than covering up my braces. I love my new sunglasses and cap.

Running lots of errands this year - pharmacy
drive-thru, Target curbside pick up, and...

Clematis and wisteria at the garden store... and

going to the Red Cross...

...to donate platelets. (I did get hot shortly
after exiting and did remove the vest STAT.)

My bruise from a collision on a group ride.
This is the yellow and green phase, rather 
than the swollen black sore phase. Better this than
the alternative: landing in the lane of 
oncoming traffic.

I've been riding with Major Taylor most
Wednesdays...

And have been doing a women's ride from my
local bike shop most Thursdays.

Some beverages follow, either at the local
taproom or Sea Salt, the park restaurant
by Minnehaha Falls.

My worlds collide a little bit when I get to see
my Major Taylor friend Carolyn on a ride organized
by the local bike shop rider leader woman. I'm so 
fortunate to have so many resources - and riding friends! 

Even though I haven't done many
Twin Cities Bicycling Club
rides, I do follow their routes
on my own time, to learn new
parts of the metro.

I did get to do this ride with the group
yesterday and it was tons of fun. Not shown:
my house to the green starting point and
from the red stopping point to my house.

Not sure how I got so dirty considering
that fellow TCBC riders did most of the
work in fixing my flat tire yesterday
(thanks, guys!)

A bunch of my time is also spent with her royal highness, Haley Alice Swardoney, and getting her out into the woods, acclimating to other dogs, and living her best dog life.

Haley and I went to my favorite spot
in the whole world. Glad I got to finally
take her there.

The lake at my mom's and stepdad's place. I didn't take my bike this time.
And that's totally okay.

Haley engaged in her first real appropriate
dog play activity ever. Good job, girl! 

So excited to go to Wisconsin.

Livin' the dream.

Thanks to the generosity of friends and acquaintances, I am past the halfway mark to meeting my goal. Want to support my fundraising efforts for the MS Society as I take a week off work to ride 300 miles in uncertain conditions and with an 81-mile ride the first day? Here's the link: https://mssociety.donordrive.com/participant/GoMaggieGo-2022. Thanks for considering my request! 

Oh yes, biking!

I finally have some biking updates for my biking blog. After a long, arduous, torturous, horribilis winter, it became spring about 10 days ago (and then it was summer-like for a day, we had a massive storm, and now it is back to spring). All of a sudden, we have leaves on trees, and my neighbor's mock orange has the most wonderful smelling blossoms. 

My friend Matt had a flat tire on our first and second rides together, but we've done a couple of weeknight rides since, with no problems.

Cannon Valley Trail - cold & windy

I've ridden with the Major Taylor club a few times, and I am trying to figure out how I can support the new Venture North bike shop beyond the donation I already made to them. They have a great mission and that neighborhood could really benefit from having them stick around. (For more info - https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-lifestyle/black-owned-venture-north-bike-and-coffee-shop-in-north-minneapolis-is-finally-reopening)

Many thanks to Michael for always taking photos.

And then today, I did the BikeMS Twin Cities Ride. I hadn't really been planning on doing it, but Matt couldn't ride today and I figured there's nothing wrong with a supported ride for a good cause, and paid the fundraising minimum and headed up there. The route was kind of weirdly marked (including no signage at a key turning point). I'm proud of my proactive way of voicing my concerns to the MS Society - telling them that next year, I won't do the Twin Cities Ride on the actual day, but will gladly volunteer to do the route the day before, when the signs go up, to "test" the route for them. 

Nothing says BikeMS like biffies.
Also, my lip got stuck on my braces.

Up until a few days ago, I was still taking the dog for really long walks and an occasional run, but am taking a bit of a break due to an Achilles tendon problem. My theory is that it is due to the hamstring pain I had a month ago and that I've had weird compensatory body mechanics. Anyhow, the good news is that it doesn't really hurt while cycling or when doing reasonable amounts of yard work.

All in all, life is really good. Which is why I'm a little puzzled about why I've been in such a funk (not good 70s funk, a yucky funk) lately. I'm out of shape, yes, and things have been sore, yes, but I can't seem to get caught up on somewhat taxing work obligations or home obligations (as well as my BikeMS fundraising!), and I find it hard to get motivated to get on my bike. Also, because of the late spring, I'm really confused about what month it is. Am I just becoming less functional, or is it the weight of the world? Or both? Today at a decision point on the route, I was talking to a long-time volunteer: Do I take the longer route or the medium route? She suggested the medium route for the reasons I was thinking, but had not articulated, and I'm grateful to her. I think of how fortunate I am and how, if life feels hard to *me* right now, I'm sure it is really, really hard for a lot of people, and my heart goes out to them.

Anyhow, I decided to get on the ball and plan a bike ride for next weekend for those of us who are doing the week-long BikeMS ride in July. It is always fun to think of a route for a range of people. At least I think so. Please consider making a donation to the MS Society in support of my fundraising efforts: https://mssociety.donordrive.com/participant/GoMaggieGo-2022

A highlight of the weekend was being grateful for having a $5 bill in my pocket while biking, which allowed me to continue working toward my multi-year goal of stopping at every lemonade stand I see. These cuties were selling lemonade and horchata. I asked which was better, they unanimously agreed on the horchata, and that's what I got. It was delicious.

Surreality

So apparently, surreality is a word. I thought I made it up to describe surreal reality. But apparently it actually means the state of surrealness. Huh. Well, I guess either works.

One week ago tonight, I was sweating bullets in anticipation of getting up at 4 a.m. to hike from the south rim of the Grand Canyon, down to - and across - the Colorado River, and back up. (Also, the people in the hotel room above me were super noisy, which didn't help.) A 19.2-mile hike with a change in altitude of over 5,000 feet in each direction. I whittled down the photos in a way that I hope tells the story. There aren't as many photos of the journey back up to the rim. By then you're more tired, and you kind of don't want to think about the fact that you're just going up and up and the top doesn't really seem to be getting much closer.

The captions in the photos address many common questions, except the following: 

1. How did I feel at the end? Remarkably good, considering I'm in the worst shape I've been in for several years and that my training was minimal (e.g., lots of long walks and some runs with the dog, when not sitting for way too long working lots of extra hours). 

2. Would I do it again? Yes.

3. How long did it take? We went slow and steady, with decent breaks (including about an hour at the bottom of the canyon, drinking lemonade from the little store at the campground that is serviced by mules - I mean restocked by mules, not staffed by mules), and it took us 11 hours. We could have done it in 10 if pressed. But we had plenty of daylight.

Without further adieu (okay, I know, I know - - ado): 

I had never been to the GC before. I've been to Colca Canyon
in Peru. Colca is deeper. The GC is so vast! I loved looking
at all the different layers and types of rocks as we hiked
through the different elevations.

If you zoom in, you can see a little white line.
That is the South Kaibab trail that we took down.
Gulp. Yes, it is on the edge the whole way down.
On the way up, we got a little bit of a break from cliff edges. 
I took this the night before, thus the nervous energy all night.

Waiting for the shuttle to the trailhead at 6 a.m.
It was just above freezing, with 40 mph winds.
Kim and I flew from MN to AZ, where Matt (aka the
best guide/companion) lives.

At the trailhead. It was cold and my lips got
stuck on my braces, it seems. Also, I was
trying not to freak out. I'm really scared of heights.

That's the trail behind us, it kind of goes... down.

A different angle of the trail.

Switchback down, if you look, you can see a person
three levels down from us. This is how a lot of the
trail was on the way down.

Zoom in - the little zig zag ladder looking things
is the trail, broken up by little tiers of rocks
and timber to help make it more like slanty steps
than a ramp you could slip down. Although I did
slip a few times and let out a yelp.

We had to go to the right and loop around to get on that trail
over yonder.

Here is where we got the first glimpse of the Colorado River.
We were about halfway down and had much more to do
before we got to the river.

It doesn't really look like it, but this is the trail,
on the edge of the cliff. If you zoom in and look in the lower left corner,
that helps show it.

Mules carrying trash and other things from the store down by the
river. I would never ride a mule on those trails. 
This was a wide part of the trail. The trails 
weren't a whole lot wider than the mules' packs.

That little thing just below/left of center
is a big suspension bridge across the river, which we hiked to.

It was really stable.

Crossing the suspension bridge.

We took S. Kaibab down and Bright Angel up. All the
literature says not to do it in one day. You can if you're in decent
shape and you have the right gear/weather. I highly recommend
hiking poles. It would have been much more painful and slow
without them. And more scary.

Gonna head up. It was nearly 90 degrees
at the bottom. And dusty, dusty, dusty! 

A nice break on the way up.

Three miles to the end. I didn't
see a phone.

Not a flattering photo, but 
it is proof that I was there.

The last 4.5 miles are pretty much a steady slog up steep switchbacks. Once we got within a half mile of the top it started getting windy again and as soon as we got to the rim it was super cold and windy. We just went straight to the car and hit the showers. I'm so glad I did this, and very lucky to have the means, the physical ability, and the time to do things like it. Even though I was there and it was very real at the moment, it was also very surreal. 

I came back to Minnesota, where it's been snowing some pretty much each day. But it looks like good weather is coming soon, which means you'll be seeing biking posts from me soon as I train for my July BikeMS ride.