Filling the Dirty Kanza Void with the Dirty Doom.

Saturday was the original date for Dirty Kanza, now moved to September.  I was slotted to do the DKXL, 350 miles.  When I got up at 5:30 on Saturday I should have been 14.5 hours into my ride!  Instead Jim (Onyx Jim) and I were departing at 7 on a 200 mile ride.  I quickly made a route on Ride with GPS a few days prior.  I had Ted fix my errors and we had a route!  Normally I don't use predetermined routes but sometimes it's kind of nice to not worry about which road to take but rather just ride and take it all in.

Jim was on his Seven Evergreen and I on my Cutthroat. The wind was already alive and well at our depart time of 7:00 but not terrible.  It was a North wind and seemingly stayed that the entire day.  Our route took us on gravel roads south of Milaca.  There we started heading north.  Some of my favorite roads are in this area.  We took several roads through the extensive Mille Lacs Wildlife Management Area.  Several were closed to cars.  One had freshly laid gravel, requiring lots of watts to get through!

Jim giving his thoughts to Charlie, who went boating.

Our first refuel stop was Wahkon, on the southern edge of lake Mille Lacs.  We jumped on the Soo Line Trail to Onamia.  Our route had us taking the trail all the way to Hillman.  I neglected to think of it being the weekend and the amount of ATV traffic there may be.  There were many people out so we abandoned our route and made the rest up on the fly.  From Onamia we went north to Kathio State Park.  Although paved we jumped on a frontage road of 169 that was right next the Mille Lacs lake.  We did ride 169 for 100 yards, but it wasn't bad.  

I had been on these roads before so I somewhat knew where I was going.  I successfully navigated us to part of the Freedehm 76 route, Oxcart Road.  Such a great road.  We continued pushing west with some southern direction tossed in.  The tailwind was nice!

Look at that sky!  All day blue.

Our second and last stop was at the gas station outside of Camp Ripley.  From here we basically took the River Road all the way home.

We made great time on the way home thanks to the tailwind and pavement.  

We did have to make one more stop for Jim at the Mississippi River Park.  According to him this had not been emptied in sometime.  I waited.

Jim biked from Onyx (St. Augusta) to my house.  He hit 200 no problem.  I was a bit short so I biked with him part way to Onyx before thanking him for tagging along on my crazy rides.  It was my first ride since early March that I have been with another person.  Kind of nice!

The Ride.

Sorry for the tiny Strava image, but it's our route.

At the finish I felt great.  I was really happy how I felt.  That's not to say I didn't have issues.  My left foot was sore and my knee gave me a scare for an hour or so north of Milaca.  Thankfully the knee pain left.  I was also getting a bit sore in the undercarriage but nothing crazy.

Sunday I got up early, allergies had be coughing.  I headed out for an easy 50 miles.  It too felt good.  At home we decided it was time to put our garden in.  I turned it over by hand.  That may have been the icing on the cake!  I was sore after that!

We may have had the best weather weekend of the year so far.  It was perfect.  Like all weather it doesn't last.  High 80's, flirting with 90, and high humidity moves in today.  Yuck.

I slept in a bit today and skipped a ride.  Maybe a short jaunt on the mtb this afternoon, evening.

Happy Week.