The Fox 2022

The Fox | Gravel Bikepacking Event with a Tandem

Photo Credit: Pointed North 

We stepped into the unknown with The Fox (formally The Heck Epic). The Fox for 2022 was a 2-day & 140-mile route, and it is self-supported gravel bikepacking event (a ride to some & race for others). Lisa (my best friend, stoker, and wife) contacted Jeremy (The Fox organizer & director) to get approval to enter as a tandem team. After getting into The Fox, there were months of building up our bikecamping kit and planning for this new adventure. 

The Fox offered me a long list of "firsts" and a longer list for Lisa... for starters, we've never bikepacked! 

The Fox course is very remote in Northern Minnesota's Superior National Forest, from Finland to Grand Marais to Finland. There are no towns on route, only one bar and a handful of cabins. The event offers one checkpoint with support at the half-way point each day. Each rider is responsible for carrying their camping gear. There is no outside support, meaning there are no personal support crews anywhere on course. 

The Fox Course, day 1 & 2 shared many roads, but the middle section offered new scenes

The Bike

We got our custom Co-Motion Java late in 2021 as a 30th wedding anniversary gift to each other. Last year we inaugurated the Java with The Filthy 50, toeing the startline with only 90 miles of experience on the bike. This summer has allowed more miles and experience, but we've been challenged to keep Lisa comfortable in the stokers positions, changing and tweaking handlebars and saddle. Lisa loves Brooks saddles on a couple other bikes and is super happy with the new Brooks B-17 we got for the Java with the stokers Kinekt suspension seatpost. Even with all training rides, Day 1 of The Fox was our longest tandem ride ever at 68 miles 3,500+ ft elevation gain & ... and day 2 upped it to 69 miles with 3,400 ft elevation gain.

Our fully-loaded Java was close to 100 lbs at the start line

Friday | The Drive and Setup 

We both had the day off on Friday to pack the car and take a relaxed drive up to Finland. The back of our car was stuffed, we don't have a rack for the Java, so I took off both wheels and fitted it into the car with all our gear. We enjoyed a late lunch in Duluth at Canal Park Brewing, and didn't get much further because we can't drive through Two Harbors with out a stop at Castle Danger Brewing.

The loaded drive north

We arrived in Finland at the Wildhurst Lodge & Campground with many other Fox riders setting up for the night before the ride with a wide variety of camping options, from adventure van, to tent, to hammock, to bivy. The lodge is a very backwoods-hunter's bar with some food options, that was nice to get a light dinner without having to cook it on our camp stove. After a lot of conversations with riders we know and just met, we all bedded down for a loud night ... others at the lodge and in the campground clearly didn't need to get up early to ride 68 miles. 

Saturday | Day 1

After making a pot of coffee, we packed up our camp and loaded the Java to get to the Finland Community Center for the rider's meeting and light breakfast. Since the tandem is challenging to load in the car, we separated to get to the community center, I rode the tandem by myself and Lisa drove the car. 

The Fox offered nice breakfast burritos and other options at the morning rider's meeting, and more coffee! After some rules and instructions, we rollout around 8:45 with roughly 70 riders.

Photo Credit: Pointed North

Lisa and I had a great start to the day, the first 10 miles are broad straight roads and we had a nice tailwind allowing us to average 16-17 mph. The first big climb was at mile 23, Heartbreak Hill! That was a very accurate name, after mashing up 200 ft of 5% to 8% at 5 mph, you hit a nasty kick that ramps up past 15% and my heartrate surged to 180 bpm (I haven't hit that number in a long time). I called for the first stop of the day to allow my heart some recovery before finishing the climb.

Heartbreak Hill even has a National Forest sign!

After that we had a few miles of mellow roads, then turned north on the Sawbill Trail, this was  a slow climb up the Sawtooth range. When we turned off the Sawbill Trail, we saw our day 1 checkpoint and it was an very well supplied with ice cold Coke, water, chips, other snacks ...  and Embark Good Energy (maple syrup). I broke my own rule about trying new foods on a big ride, but I'm happy I did with this maple syrup energy drink! One little sip every hour or so was amazing fuel keeping me feeling strong through the day. Embark will be with me on all future endurance rides! 

Our biggest challenge of the whole weekend was the stoker's saddle got messed up at the checkpoint, I had been using the stoker's saddle to lift the rig to put the kickstand down ... but we found out that saddle's mounting bolts had loosened just enough for the saddle angle to change when I lifted the heavy rig. We noticed the change before rolling out, but lacked a great way to be sure we had the angle back to the correct position.

The rest of day 1 was stress-free roads, and the last 8 miles was all downhill into Grand Marias allowing some easy coasting to the campground.  

After we checked in and set up camp, we took a very short ride to claim our 'free' beers at Voyageur Brewing Company and grabbed some food.

The hardest earned 'free beers'

We got back to the campground to find that saddle position caused some damage to the stoker's "bottom bracket". I was able to get the saddle dialed in at our camp. But the injuries had us going to bed planning to DNF and thinking about ways to get back to our car. 

Getting to know our neighbor at the Grand Marais campground

Sunday | Day 2

After another loud night in a camp group, we packed up our camping gear and rode the short distance to the morning rider's meeting and breakfast. At the morning meeting, Lisa said she was feeling like she could ride day 2. We understood that there was no "kinda do it" on this course, we either get to finish line or we'd be stuck in the woods with swarms of biting flies.

Ready to start day 2 - Photo Credit: Dev

So we rushed to the showers to get changed into our bike gear and back to the start line by 7:30 for rollout. We started day 2 with a wall right out of the camp ground, ramping over 15%, before becoming a very long drag up and away from Lake Superior, gaining 1,000 feet in the first 7 miles! There were a few more steep ramps in the first 25 miles. Also, there was the technical 5-mile double-track section, we had four emergency bailouts along this section because of steep boulder climbs and deep sandtraps. I think Lisa jumped off the bike before it stopped on one of these emergency stops. 

The check point was a great break right after the double-track miles. And they were serving "The Fox", a tortilla with hummus wrapped around a pickle ... that really hit the spot! 

The Fox in the making

Happily we made the finish line with few challenges, just a few more quick stops to remove pressure from damaged areas, and we learned to post (stand) together to get rolling breaks.

Lisa's view

We enjoy an increasing pace on the final miles, it was generally down grade into Finland, but we had a headwind. With two of us putting down power, with basically the same aero profile to other riders, we were able to ride faster and pass others on the way to the finish. 

The Portrait stop by Pointed North

We started The Fox with no goals other than enjoy adventure and getting back home safely ... bonus we finished 39th & 40th (we each had our own bib) of the 64 riders that finished. Our two-day combined time was 12:15. And we are the first riders to complete this event with a tandem! 

It was great weekend adventure with an amazing group of people at The Fox, from the organizers to the volunteers to the cast of characters riding with us. 

Lisa has quickly become a serious bad-ass gravel rider, able to handle challenges in stride and never shying away from the unknown, she even bought her own gravel bike. I look forward to our upcoming adventures together! 

Here is partial list of gear we used on this ride: 

• Nemo Dagger 3-person tent
• Nemo sleeping pads
• Sleeping bag (Chris' 40 year old LL Bean; Lisa's new Kelty)
• Ortlieb panniers
• Ortlieb fork bags
• Revelate Co-Motion frame bag 
• Jelly Belly Sports Beans
• Clif Bars
• Kind Bars