The Heck of the North | 2022

The Heck of the North is a play on the nickname for Paris-Roubaix: "The Hell of the North". Paris-Roubaix is a spring classic race for the pros, it's 160 miles long and includes dozens of cobbled road segments. There aren't any cobbled roads in Minnesota's North Woods, so rocky ATV and grassy/muddy snowmobile trails take the place of the cobbles. 

The Heck of the North is the oldest of a three-race series on Minnesota's North Shore every summer. I started the year planning to do the "Heck Flight", riding all three events: Le Grand Du Nord in May, The Fox in July, and The Heck of the North in October. But the "Heck Flight" wasn't offered this year, and I need to drop Le Grand after some tough personal stuff in May. 

The prestart pic

The Heck of the North course is made up of mostly gravel roads, with just a little paved roads, plus the challenging grassy snowmobile trails and rocky double-track trails. 

The course starts with a short gravel road that quickly turns into an ATV double-track. It's always tense riding in a dense pack of riders pushing hard right out of the gate, but add some massive & water-filled potholes and large rock to a narrow & descending double-track; I was averaging nearly 20 mph at the end of this section ... this will wake you up faster than strong coffee!

At mile 6, we got out to some gravel roads and there was a big shuffle in groups. I came out of the double-track trail with my heart rate near redline, so I slowed my pace and let a group ride away from me. I was kinda surprised to find myself alone for a few miles and wondered if I'd ride the next 100 miles solo. 

The grassy snowmobile trail started at mile 11, the trail required dismounting and walking a few times for massive/deep mud puddles that covered the whole trail, even my 4" tires sunk and spun out. 

One of the mud pits that required walking, and we got to do this one twice

This trail also had a snowmobile bridge that took out one rider that tried riding it. I'm guessing the rider tried to ride the bridge, but their tire fell into the gap and lost control. The injured rider was up and had a couple folks offering support by the time I got there. The ramp up to the bridge was so steep, it was hard to get traction with bike shoes. Besides these challenges, I found the snowmobile trails fun to ride with my Pugsley, it could handle anything hidden in the grass (like rocks, culvers, or fallen trees)

The snowmobile bridge

After roughly 3 miles of snowmobile trails, we got onto gravel roads again. I spent a few miles solo after getting back on the gravel roads. I had a few small groups of riders pass me, but then a big group came by and I got on their wheel. This was a fast group of 12-15 riders, I was happy to hold the back of the group. I'd normally offer to take a pull on the front, but I wasn't strong enough. The pace was so strong that we'd send riders out the back and just disappear behind us. 

I was able to hang onto this group right up to reenter the grass snowmobile trail at mile 50. Again this grassy/muddy stretch shattered the group down to much smaller groups. On the return trip, I rode over the snowmobile bridge, but with a lot of caution and it was easier since my tires had better traction than my shoes. And on this second time through, we got a few more miles of the snowmobile trail, including a creek crossing followed by deep mud pits.

Getting the feet wet ... again

Around mile 54, there was an aid station. I stopped very briefly to add some water to a bottle, and grabbed the wonderful Fox (tortilla with humus wrapped around a pickle). I ate the Fox as I rode away from the aid station, I knew if I stopped too long, the cold would get to me quickly. 

I think I was annoying one of the rider on a nice new carbon gravel bike, he kept on seeing me on route and couldn't figure out how I was riding the same pace as him with my fatbike. Truth is, my 4 inch tires let me ride the challenging double-track conditions faster than most.

There were a couple of long stretches of kinda uneventful miles with mostly gravel road, but they were made interesting by long grinding climbs and a good amount of headwinds. At mile 81, we had our second aid station where I made a very quick stop for a dixie cup of Coke and grabbing an Embark maple syrup. The person handing out Embark was impressed that I was taking on my third pouch, each pouch is 3oz of organic maple syrup... so I was working on 9oz of maple syrup!   

After the aid station, we got a few miles of paved highway before making a left turn out to a rough double-track. This section is mostly downhill, keeping you moving quick and forcing you to focus your tired mind! 

With roughly 10 miles to go, you get back on gravel roads with the a good tailwind to help you get to the finish line. 

At the finish line, I found Lisa waiting for me ... and she shared her adventure riding the 55-mile course with repeated flat tires causing her to cut the route short to avoid getting another flat in remote trails without cell coverage and no more tubes. 

This was my second Heck of the North, but a very different course, only sharing the final 35 miles of the 2019 course. I don't recall walking my bike on the 2019 course, but the 2022 course included a lot of places that required walking your bike through deep mud and the creek crossing too. 

The 2022 course is in blue and 2019 course in red

I was so happy with the weather with temps +/-50°F all day and the rain held off, we had 10-12 mph winds out of the NE most of the day. 

Here are the stats:

Distance: 104.5 miles
Elevation: 3,990 ft
Conditions: cloudy, 45F to 52F, 10-12 mph out of the NE
Official time: 7:01:27
47th place of 160 finishers (& 11 DNF)
6th place of the 31 men in their 50s
... and fastest of two fatbikes I saw on the course (I've reviewed event photos to confirm)

The finish line pic with my drop-bar Pugsley

I love The Heck of the North, riding a bike in Northern Minnesota is simply the best! I look forward to more of Jeremy Kershaw's rides in 2023 ... and into the future. And I must say a big thank you to Jeremy, the event volunteers, and the event sponsors! 

Photo credit: Josh Kowaleski of Pointed North Photography

And if you're into the video thing, here is my GoPro edit