Cuyuna at last

Mass Transit - The beauty of having a truck

Ever since moving to MN, I've heard about how amazing the singletrack is up at Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Biking trails. We decided to take a pre-Fourth of July vacation to Cragun's resort up on Brainerd, MN. As it turns out (coincidence or not?), Brainerd is a next door neighbor to Cuyuna. We loaded up the truck with mountain bikes for all and headed North for a few days.  I talked Shannon into taking the Trek Farley fat bike just in case she wanted to ride. Of course, I was more than willing to ride it too.

Riding into Sunset

Day 1 Ride: Lost and Found
I chose my Superfly 100 for the my first ride. We arrived at Cragun's mid-afternoon and hung around until we could check in. Once we were checked and had dinner, I raced off to the trails. It took about 30 minutes to travel to the trailhead, but due to construction, I couldn't find the trailhead. I wandered lost on the paved state trail and wondered if I had made a great mistake. I then find a rider walking back and I asked where the trails were. The person pointed me in the right direction and I was on my way. What seemed like 2 miles later, I finally found the singletrack.

Superfly 100 at the trailhead

I ended up with 14 miles of action.
http://www.strava.com/activities/159792367



Day 2 Ride: Riding with the Boys
My day 2 ride was at a reasonable pace with Sean and Luke. Both have mountain bikes but don't really have a mountain biking bug. They have gone with me a few times and seem to enjoy it when the go. This time, Luke led us on the first loop. He set a comfortable pace. On the return, Sean took the lead and was gone off the front. I was pleased that Luke felt comfortable to ride his own pace. When Sean saw the video, he wondered why he wasn't in it more. I explained that he was out of camera range most of the ride. He smiled.

http://www.strava.com/activities/159989811

"Riding the Red"- The trails have a lot of iron so the dirt had a nice shade of red.

Day 3 Ride: Saying Goodbye
I wrapped up the trip with a solo ride ride on the Farley. It gave a completely different ride experience. I felt faster but at the expense of taking a pounding. The bike handled great and begged to be leaned deep in the banked turns. I ventured further into the trails and found myself with more climbing to do. The Farley climbs just fine, but after three days of riding and the little extra weight the Farley carries, I could feel the elevation changes more today. The descents, however, were a blast.




This is a view from the top of Miner's Mountain. The view was amazing.

 I'm actually excited to try to get back up there as soon as I can. There are 25 miles of trails begging for bikers. I covered maybe half of the trails over the three rides--27 miles of riding.


http://www.strava.com/activities/160791239

This was a cabin perched on the side of a hill. At the bottom (47 steps if I recall correctly) was a beautiful lake. The lake, however, was way too cold to enjoy. It was fun to watch people try to enjoy it.

Between biking days 2 & 3, we did have another day. It was a rain day, so we loaded up the truck in search of Lake Itasca.  This lake is the head waters for the mighty Mississippi River. The photo below is of Kyle walking across the river--all 15 feet or so of it. Kyle and Drew also walked across the river without a bridge just to enjoy the process.

And finally, I brought a little of the "Red" back with me.