Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Shell Lake- Winter Lake.
I was up around 5am to get breakfast at Shell Lake. You can pretty much ride to McGrath as a Lodge to Lodge if you wanted to. Except Rohn to Nikolai, there you're definitely sleeping in the woods.
Anywhoo. I was last to leave in the am. I felt good and this punchy section would really suit the big bike. I would ride by everyone that stayed at the Lodge overnight...Also not having to pick lines through the flat light really helps a lot.
You get this for about 4-5 hours a day, it's weird at first but then you adjust.
Trail goes through singletrack as you wind around the mountains surrounding Winter Lake. It's one of my favorite sections of trail. It can also be brutal, the wind section that plays during the first part of Safety to Nome is through this area. The wind funnels through the range and across the Lake and is generally the highest winds of the entire race. Today was a bluebird day with a gentle breeze.
The last section onto the Lake was fast and fun.
They moved the Checkpoint to the tent because of Covid but I didn't realize it until I rode to the old spot and no one was there. Thankfully we still got some World Famous Winter Lake Burritos!! I stashed an extra one in my TT bag for later. I also got my first drop so I had food on my bike again, yay.
I was up around 5am to get breakfast at Shell Lake. You can pretty much ride to McGrath as a Lodge to Lodge if you wanted to. Except Rohn to Nikolai, there you're definitely sleeping in the woods.
Anywhoo. I was last to leave in the am. I felt good and this punchy section would really suit the big bike. I would ride by everyone that stayed at the Lodge overnight...Also not having to pick lines through the flat light really helps a lot.
You get this for about 4-5 hours a day, it's weird at first but then you adjust.
Trail goes through singletrack as you wind around the mountains surrounding Winter Lake. It's one of my favorite sections of trail. It can also be brutal, the wind section that plays during the first part of Safety to Nome is through this area. The wind funnels through the range and across the Lake and is generally the highest winds of the entire race. Today was a bluebird day with a gentle breeze.
The last section onto the Lake was fast and fun.
They moved the Checkpoint to the tent because of Covid but I didn't realize it until I rode to the old spot and no one was there. Thankfully we still got some World Famous Winter Lake Burritos!! I stashed an extra one in my TT bag for later. I also got my first drop so I had food on my bike again, yay.
