Cycling in Winnesota.

On Friday August 11th me my dad and my mom all headed up to da UP for Ore to Shore. We pulled into the Marquette campground, located conveniently about 2 miles away from the race venue, setup camp and headed over to the spaghetti feed/ registration with our friends Jay Vandervoort and Eric Peterson and his family.

The next morning we headed to the start area early so I could line up in the front row of the non-preferred start. I stood all ready to go when Swiftie and lil' Sova pull in right along side of me. The gun went off and we headed out, everyone was motorin' it too. I dangled on the back of the lead pack and finally fell off about 5 minutes into the race. for most of the rest of the race I tried to stick with some familiar faces. I ended up losing a ton of places midway through because of Severe back pain and almost dropped out, but started feeling better towards the end. I came on real strong in the last 15 miles and ended up taking back some places. overall I ended up 61st just cracking the 3 hour mark and missing a podium in my age group, i was fourth, by a small margin. Next years bike is definetely going to be a fuel, the ol' hardtail's gettin' me.



the day after the race we headed west to the Porcupine Mountains for some campin' with the fam. We met with my sister and her boyfriend Mike as well as Ryan a friend of the family. During our stay I did a few road rides, lots of climbing, and a mountain ride as well. We hiked a bit and swam our fare share as well, all in all a typical Muraski camping trip.

The day after we arrived we hiked in to trap falls, an 11 mile hike round trip, and swam at the falls.

The whole crew of us, except for my mom, rode to the top of the ski hill, looks different w/ no snow.We found a ship wreck off shore in Lake Superior and swam out to it to collect treasure, well hoping to anyway. I found a 50 lb. iron bar and carried it back into shore, nearly drowning. A lady at a local shop told us that the wreck had been there for about 100 years.

All in all I'd say a pretty sweet family vacation. I came home w/ a sore back, two very beaten-up bikes, and a few counterpoint records, nothing like a little Palastrina, never know what you'll find in some old ladies attic. Anyway another chapter brought to a close.