Turkey Trot

On Thanksgiving Day, Linda, her daughter Jen, two dogs (Bugsy and Kaiser), Ann, and her husband Paul took part in the 18th annual Turkey Trot 5k to raise donations for the local food pantry. Ann's husband Paul decided to run the course instead of walk--a decision he would regret the next day due to all the sore muscles and joints! Although the dogs would have preferred trotting, Ann, Linda and Jen decided a nice brisk walk would be best. The walk began at Transmission Supply on London Rd and wound through neighborhood towards the mall and then looped back. There were plenty of other walkers with their four-legged friends, and also quite a few runners. We had a great time chatting with the other people, and Bugsy did his best to steal mittens from the walkers in front of us! We all agreed it was a great way to burn some calories before digging into all that turkey and pumpkin pie, as well as raise money for a worthy cause.

Posted by: Ann Franke

Lowes Creek Ride (Nov 23)

With deer hunting in full swing, Lowes Creek Park was the default location for mountain biking this weekend. Linda, Don and Chris met Taylor and me for a sweet afternoon ride. Ruth came also, but she wanted to walk instead. Temperatures were just above freezing, but with the sunshine and little wind, it felt downright balmy. We were a bit over dressed and Taylor's new booties kept his feet dry and toasty.

Taylor took charge of the ride, taking us around the park on his favorite trails, which for some reason didn't include Rad, Tetnus Shot, or Skull. Linda mentioned repeatly how happy she was to have Taylor leading. After a little over an hour, we headed back to the lot, because someone still had a science test to study for.

Road Trip to Levis

Sunday morning was considerably cooler than I anticipated, so I wasn't surprised to find an empty parking lot at Fairfax, but I was all dressed up, so I decided to head down anyway. It turns out that Levis Mound is less than an hour from Eau Claire, so I was on my bike by 9:15.

The trails are sweet with the vast majority being winding and rolling through evergreen and deciduous forest punctuated by seemingly vertical switchback climbs and descents and long runs along ridgelines with huge drops. The sections of trail through the low lying areas make extensive use of corduroy and boardwalk brigdes and serveral of the bluff trails also use boardwalks. I decided do the system counter-clockwise, but after 3 hours I was beat so I missed out on a bunch of cool-sounding trails like Cliff Hanger, Pile Driver, and Cork Screw, but I did get to do Tornado and Plumber's Crack. The pictures don't do it justice.

When I got back to my car there were several hunters about to head in and scope out the trails and their stands, which explains why the deer were so skitish. Not at all like the ones in Lowes Creek.

Levis is closed during deer hunting, but if the snow holds off I will try to do another trip the first week of December.

Lowes Creek Ride (Nov15)

Ann, Joel and Steve met me Saturday afternoon at Lowes Creek. With temps in the 30's and intermitent flurries, we had perfect fall mountain biking weather. We opted to go clockwise around the west side of the park, but skipped the creek crossing on Rad. About halfway up Missing Link we nearly ran into Dean, so he joined us. We took Worm up to Ax and then Mind Games, but when we got to the Expo center, Ann decided she would have more fun riding by herself, so she took off to do her own thing. We goofed around on Focus, Twister, Dazed and the Pines and then we took Split Rock over to Far East, where we met Bob and Claudia. We did Far East, the west leg of Split Rock, Fern Gully and Red Flint, before heading back into the Pines, Dazed, Twister maze. By the time we found our way out, it was time to head back, so we took Worm down and Rebench up. When we got to the top, Claudia thought her dad needed a little more work so we did the west side counter-clockwise. The snow really picked up while we were in Tunnels, but it was just teasing us.

Weekend Mountain Biking at Lowes Creek Park

MountainBiking(Nov08)

On Saturday, November 8th, Taylor and I met Steve Bircher at Lowes Creek park for a ride in the light rain and flurries. We warmed up on the ski trails and Tunnels before heading over to the east side up Worm, to do Twister and Dazed where we met Joel Roesch. We also hit Split Rock and Fern Gully. Dave Olson found us there, but Taylor had had enough so we headed back to the car while Steve Joel and Dave continued on.

On Sunday, I met Dave Hogue and Ann Franke at the parking lot and we jumped right into it on StartMeUp, Tetnus Shot and Missing Link. This was Dave's first mountain bike on his bionic hip so we opted for Tunnels and Long Trail South instead of Rad. Then we headed east up Worm to Twister and Dazed, where we met Joel again. (He might just have a tent up there) We practiced bumping over logs for a while and then Bob Schwatz caught up, so we heading over to Far East through Pines Split Rock and followed by another trip on Split Rock and Fern Gully. We finished up with Red Flint and Onion, though intelligent minority took the ski trail down. We got back to the lot just in time for the Packer's kickoff.