Run with the Foxes

The Plan:

Bicycle 40 miles, camp, run 13.1 trail miles, ride 40 miles back home....

The half marathon is called Run with the Foxes, which is put on by the Hoosier Hikers Council in Morgan Monroe Forest, (MMF).  I haven't been running a lot this year, but I felt alright running the Indianapolis Mini Marathon, plus I've been commuting a lot on my old Fuji bicycle, so I'm good right?  

I didn't want to waste the beautiful ride to MMF in a lousy car, so I decided to go ahead and ride my bicycle to the starting line.... The run was on a Saturday, so I figured Friday I'd ride my bike 40 miles to a MMF campsite, wake-up Saturday morning to complete the run, and finally ride back home.  Sounds easy enough, eh? 

Is there another bike back there? Yep, I was able to get some good company during the ride. 

 

The ride was going real well, even though the sky was turning ominous.  The local weatherman said "not to cancel plans this day, if we did get a storm it'd just be a pop-up".  Well we were lucky enough to have a storm pop-up on us.  I don't mind riding in the rain, in fact I kind of enjoy it, but when strong winds, lightening, thunder, and hail are thrown in the mix, I'm looking for shelter.  Luckily we were about 4 miles away from a shelter I knew about in Brooklyn, but of course during that 4 miles we rode through the strongest part of the storm. 

Thankfully the storm was just a pop-up, once it passed the day cleared up and turned out quite nice.  The next stop was dinner in Martinsville.  We figured we'd load up on food and a couple mugs of Dos Equis before we ride the last 6 or so miles to to the campsite in MMF.  

After dinner we made another stop for a few essentials: Sierra Nevada and Crown Royal... 

We took a rest after a big climb entering MMF.  The beer added a little weight. You can tell by the blurred picture that I was still trying to catch my breath while snapping it.  The hill was a real nice climb.

Finally made it to the forest headquarters to pay for the campsite.  Once at camp we set up our tents and hung around the picnic table till about 1am. I had to get up in a couple hours to run 13.1 miles so I decided to turn for the night.  The next morning I definitely wasn't feeling 100%.  Too many beers and too late of a night.  I still wanted to do the run, so after some coffee and oatmeal I headed by bike to the start line.  

Here's a pic at the start/finish line. Somewhere in there is a slightly hung over and tired runner wondering what he's doing.  I did finish the run in over 2 hours.  Not too bad considering the lack of running I've done this year, plus the unnecessary drinking the night before didn't help. How do I celebrate finishing a trail half marathon? I ride my bicycle 40 miles back home. 

Cleaning up at Southwestway Park.

Whoever was fishing at the river, my 5 year old son, 1 year old daughter, and I picked up all of the trash you forgot.  

Stay Classy

BWCA flashback: Perent Lake

Figured I'd write this one to light a spark in some people that shared this adventure with me.

Besides the great company, night sky, mosquitoes, and black flies one of the fondest memories I have is the shear silence.  It actually felt as though my ears were clogged because I didn't hear the constant hum of the city.

 

 Our luxury cottage for the week.  Comes with a bay window and all of the warm lake water you can drink.  Seriously though, the cook did a great job keeping our bellies full, food was excellent. 

 And the cottage came with it's own Pandora's box of music. Most notably the Loons.  This is as close as I could get to them, they are awesome swimmers.  

Beyond those trees are more trees, and beyond that.....yep more trees.  Up north in the middle of nowhere. 

 

 

Of course we had some awesome sunsets:

 Exploring our Island:

 

 

 

While hiking on the island our foot steps sounded hollow on the ground??

To the dismay of my fellow campers I practice catch and release. 

Our Island. 

It was better in person, trust me.  

Few more photos of Perent Lake:

 

 

 

The morning we paddled out:

Its almost like the lake didn't want us to leave. 

What I sight to wake up to though.  That last day was as amazing as the first.  

 

Back on wheels.  A Couple Indiana Jeeps hanging out in the north woods. 

Indy to Detroit via bicycle.

The rig:  2013 Surly Cross Check built with components I stole from a bike I already had.
The plan: Ultra light self supported bike ride from Indianapolis to Detroit, roughly 300+ miles in 3 days.  Yes I said Detroit.  I did receive a couple blank stares from people that asked me where I was headed.....
I had a sleeping pad and bivy for my sleeping arrangement, 3 water bottles and a Camelbak for about a gallon of water, and the food I packed was Cliff bars and Nutella with tortillas.  Totaling a little over 20lbs of gear, food, and water.
Shortly after this Pic was taken I was riding along and noticed I lost my map seen strapped to the aero bars.  Additional time and about 8 miles was wasted back tracking and searching for the map, thankfully I found it.  My planned 300+ mile journey was almost cut short at mile 30. 

Where the Monon ends.

 Nice flat beautiful country roads with perfect weather the majority of the trip.  Would of hoped for more reasonable wind conditions, but I really couldn't complain. 

Rest stop at a church in Indiana around Marion.  This was approximately mile 80.  Water bladder was empty so I transferred water from my bottles to the water bladder. The 3 bottles and water bladder held about a gallon of water. I had to refill my water system 6 times. 

For some reason I love rustic man made structures that are brought to ruins by Mother Nature.  This is a pic from south of Marion Indiana.

Decamping after the first night, which didn't take long, not much to pack up.
The night before I pulled into camp at around 23:30, with some help from a pretty cool person I know.  I camped at Salamonie Reservoir south of Huntington Indiana. Since I'm used to traveling country roads at night, the couple hours searching for the camp ground in the extreme dark really wasn't an issue for me.
1st day of riding totaled about 114 miles, my first century.  In the morning I noticed my rear tire was low on air.  As it turned out my valve was leaking.  This would be my first tire change of the trip.

 Salamonie Reservoir

2nd and last flat of the trip.  I used my last spare tube and my glueless patches weren't holding air.  I needed to find a bike shop in Huntington.  

EXCELLENT!  First intersection in Huntington I found an awesome Bike shop, Spokesman Cycles.   They even gave me some road magic, a couple energy bars.  

Lunch in Huntington.  Yes that's a large pizza.  Couldn't finish it all, for some reason I had a problem eating, I had to force meals down at some points.  Drinking water was no issue though.  

One of many bicycle paths in Fort Wayne.  A great place to ride.  

The Command Center.  Still in Fort Wayne.  44 miles so far this day, 158 miles total. 

Bicycle trail along the Maumee River in Fort Wayne

Another break. Pushing 80 miles for the day here. 

About 10 miles from the Ohio border.

Crossing the border gave me an awesome boost that I needed. I Took IN-37 to get here, the absolute worse road I've ever ridden on. No shoulder and cars traveling 70 miles per hour.  Thanks Google bike route. 

Made it to camp in time to watch the sunset.  Camp was at Harrison Lake campground in Ohio.  I was able to grab Subway before the campsite.  117 miles today, 233 miles total so far. 

Back on the saddle again for my final day of riding up to Detroit. About 100 miles to go.

About 5 miles from the Michigan border. Good year for corn, eh?

Road name says it all. Side note: Michigan dirt roads are smoother than their "paved" roads.  

Another boost crossing my 2nd and last state line.  Plus Morenci Michigan was coming up, which meant breakfast. 

Re-supply at a grocery store in Morenci.  The clerk told me to try the Village Inn for breakfast, "best breakfast in town".  And it was good. 

Adrian Michigan bike path.  Michigan touts they have more bike paths than any other state??  This path was a nice one.  Creek crossings were over the original rail trestle bridges, it was real cool.  

 Still in Adrian.

 And then there is Detroit's bicycle path.  Is everything rough in Detroit? I've never ridden a "bicycle path" quite like this one.  It looks as though nobody's ridden it for decades.  Also there wasn't any entry or exits to the trail in this area? I had to hop a fence to get on or off the trail.  This was one for the books.  

Actual trail name is the I-275 Metro Trail.

I was able to snap a couple pictures, but I really just wanted to get off of the trail.  

Walked across the bridges as they didn't look safe.  They had dry rotted wood and missing planks. 

In certain areas it was hard to see the "trail".

An old abandoned garden nursery. 

Trail did clear up the further I got away from the city, and actually turned out quite nice.  101 miles on my last day.  Total was about 335 miles.  3 centuries in 3 days.  Time for some food, beer, and baseball.