Surly Pugsley cleans up nicely for the Big Dance on Monday

I've been home from work the last two days. My place of employment has closed due to weather. Monday night we had rain followed by plummeting temperatures down into the negative numbers. Tuesday the roads were skating rinks. Duluth sits on a hillside, so those skating rinks were not flat. My company works with vulnerable adults and are transported by bus. So when the schools close, we usually close as well. Today we closed due to dangerous windchills. The temperature over the hill, away from the lake, was -20 this morning with a -50 windchill. So what did I do with my unexpected days off? I went for bike rides. Yesterday I did some errands on the Cross Check. Riding on the ice with studded tires was easier than trying to walk on it. I went to the bank and then stopped and got a supply of the batteries I'll need for the Arrowhead 135 on Monday. Included were new batteries for my cycle computer, headlights and required front and rear blinkies. Walgreens was out of some of the batteries I needed, so I had to go to the local home center to complete the battery buying. I normally use rechargeable batteries in my lights. But for the race I'm getting the regular throw away ones.

Today I got out one more time on the Pugsley before the race. I did a short ride just to keep the legs loose. The new chain was working fine. Drivetrain was shifting good. It was up to -12 degrees F when I went out. Windchills were still around -40. I was dressed just right. The wind never really penetrated my layers. After the rain, the snowmobile trails were still fast. I did 12 miles on snow (really ice) in one hour and 13 minutes. Very few snowmobiles have been out on the trails since the rain. But where they had been out, their tracks chewed up the icey snow into something that resembles crushed ice you might get out of a refrigerator door ice maker. It was slower going when riding the loose stuff. Much faster when I could avoid it. At -12 degrees the crushed ice was very brittle and incredibly loud riding on it. I didn't see any snowmobiles today, but if one had come up behind me, I doubt I would have heard it with all the noise my tires were making on the ice.

Despite the cold air and wind, the sun was shining and I had a very nice, enjoyable ride.

For anybody looking for racks to mount on a Pugsley, above is my solution. I worked with John at Old Man Mountian Racks to get this set-up. Last year I used a skewer mount for the bottom attachment for both the front and back. That worked great, but added an extra step when removing a wheel. An extra step is fine if it's 80 degrees out. At -20, the fewer the steps the more fingers you can keep.

The rack attaches directly to the frame with the new set-up. A better solution and the racks have more tire clearance. It may look unconventional...but so does the bike. The attachments and the racks are rock solid and could probably carry a horse. I bought the Sherpa model. Both racks are "rear" racks. Since the front fork has spacing for a rear hub, for best fit you need a rack spaced for a rear hub. So the front rack is a rear rack turned around facing forward.

I can't say enough about the quality of these racks and the great customer service. I'll be buying at least one more OMM rack for my upcoming touring bike purchase.

I've had a few days to do more AH135 prep. Susan helped me last night figuring out my food. The main reason I had to drop out last year was because I mis-calculated the conditions and didn't bring enough food. I would have run out and ended up with hypothermia. I had no idea how much to bring this year. To make matters worse, I make a lot of my own food since I have Celiac Disease. So I can't look at the labels on my food to see the nutrition information. And I'm not good at making lists. Susan helped me list all my food, roughly estimate the calorie count and decide what to take along. We started with the goal of having 6,000 calories for the event. I think I'm satisfied with what we came up with. I was going to take more than what we came up with. So hopefully, it will lighten my load by a few pounds.

Tuesday: 7 mi
Wednesday: 12 mi
2008: 592 mi