Tim's Adventure Race

 Last night and this morning was the St Croix 40 Winter Ultra and it was awesome! 40 miles in 10 hours on brutal soft conditions. It began with the required gear check at 8:30. After the gear check, I crawled in the bivy and waited for the start at 10:00 p.m. And then I was off  to complete the first 20 miles.  At 2:24 a.m. I hit the water boil checkpoint and then began the second 20 mile lap. This lap was brutal with all the bike, foot and ski traffic along with super soft conditions. A lot of :hike-a-biking had to be done!  I had  a chance to race a mouse! The little fella came out of the woods and ran alongside me for about 20 feet. Then the sun came up and it was awesome!! At about 8:24 I approached the finish line and my wife was there cheering me on, of course I had a few tears in my eyes for what I had just accomplished and  Laurie being there.  For me this was an accomplishment I will never forget and I can't wait until next year! An adventure this long with no sleep and th

 So this is it, 1 day away from my first adventure race and I am excited and nervous!! Last night I packed up everything and headed out. Arrived at my starting point and setup my bivy and sleeping gear climbed in and it was very warm and comfortable!! Didn't want to get out!! In fact fell asleep for just a few minutes!!😴 Climbed back out just as we will do at the start of the race and packed up the bike and started riding. this went off without any issues. Did a quick 3 mile ride and setup my stove for what will be the required "water boil"  This was going well until I dropped the stove fuel upside down and it clogged with snow😬 Once fixed lit it up and had 12 oz of water boiling in 3 minutes. Packed everything up road back to the car and that was that! A successful shakedown!! Stay tuned for more as I pack up Saturday morning and head to Hinckley, MN!!!

  So a little bit about this adventure I am undertaking and very excited to do! The St Croix 40 is taking place in Hinkley Minnesota January 14-15 it is a 40 mile adventure race taking place within the St Croix State Park. The really cool part is (literally) is it starts at least for the bikes at 10 p.m.!! We begin in our sleep bags and bivys. What is a bivy  you ask? It is a "little " one person tent as shown here. So precisely at 10 pm the race director will ring a bell and we need to pack up our gear and stow it on the bike and take off.  So here we now go for 20 miles, once we reach the first checkpoint we are required to boil 12 oz. of water in front of a race director. This is also a good spot to refill any water container. Once given the go ahead by the director I will ride another 20 miles to the finish. Once there I need to show the race director I have 3,000 calories of ready to eat food left, 4 oz of usable stove fuel and batteries for my lights to last 20 hours. T

 The Ultra is all night starting at 10 pm.  Just a few night and early morning rides.

 So with a little over 2 weeks until the St Croix 40 Winter Ultra I'm starting to setup the bike. New rack, and new gear. I'll post the insulated water cover in another segment and describe how its made.