The Hardest Bike Climb in the World | Mauna Kea

Mauna Kea

Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano on the island of Hawaiʻi. Its peak is 13,803 ft (4,207m) above sea level, making it the highest point in the state of Hawaiʻi. Moreover, measured from its base at the bottom of the ocean, Mauna Kea is 30,610 ft (9,330 m), and some argue the largest peak in the world. Along with all that, Mauna Kea is "Biggest Climb" you can do on a bike (Strava Mauna Kea Segment).

The sun rising over Mauna Kea from our Airbnb

There are five volcanoes on Hawaiʻi that are revered as sacred mountains; and Mauna Kea's summit, the highest, is the most sacred. For this reason, a kapu (ancient Hawaiian law) restricted visitor rights to high-ranking aliʻi. Hawaiians associated elements of their natural environment with particular deities. In Hawaiian mythology, the summit of Mauna Kea was seen as the "region of the gods", a place where benevolent spirits reside. Poliʻahu, deity of snow, also resides there. "Mauna Kea" is an abbreviation for Mauna a Wākea and means "white mountain," in reference to its seasonally snow-capped summit.

With its high elevation, dry environment, and stable airflow, Mauna Kea's summit is one of the best sites in the world for astronomical observation. Since the creation of an access road in 1964, 13 telescopes funded by 11 countries have been constructed at the summit. In 2023, there are 11 observatories active and operating. The Mauna Kea Observatories are used for scientific research across the electromagnetic spectrum and comprise the largest such facility in the world. Their construction on a landscape considered sacred by Native Hawaiians continues to be a topic of debate to this day. 

The observatories at the summit of Mauna Kea

A July 2022, state law responds to the protests by removing sole control over the master land lease from the University of Hawaiʻi. After a joint transition period from 2023 to 2028, control will shift to the new Mauna Kea Stewardship and Oversight Authority, which will include representatives from the University, astronomers, and native Hawaiians. [1]

Biking Mauna Kea
This is hands down, and by far, the hardest bike climb in the world. My route begins at Waikōloa Beach, with the waves of the Pacific Ocean lapping at the shore, and my goal is the summit of Mauna Kea, 55 miles away and 13,803 ft above sea level. This ride is nearly always going up, along the 55 miles, there are only 275 ft of descent. The environment on this route is ever changing, starting at manicured resorts and golf courses to lava fields and up to the lunar landscape in the final 10 miles of the climb. At the top of Mauna Kea, you will have 42% less oxygen available as you climb the final miles at grades reaching 16%. The last 14.5 miles, on Mauna Kea Access Road, goes from 6,588 ft to the summit at 13,802 ft averages 9.5% (this segment alone qualifies as the #4 hardest world bike climb).

Something for the number nerds, statistics for the climb from Waikōloa Beach to the summit of Mauna Kea: 

1.02 miles at -7.5 to -2.5 %

15.27 miles -2.5 to 2.5%

25.94 miles at 2.5 to 7.5 %

7.88 miles at 7.5 to 12.5 %

2.97 at 12.5% and more

Planning 

Biking up Mauna Kea has been an idea in the back of my head for many years. The ride was spurred into action when Cory (an ultra-endurance biking buddy) reached out to a few like-minded folks to schedule a trip. Cory and I made plans to ride it together in late-February 2023. This worked great since this is our traditional week for vacation and Hawaiʻi is our favorite destination. Cory was working with a local service for ride support and I was happy to have Lisa's support. Support is a key part of this ride since there are no places to stop for water or food along the route and you should expect it to take over 8 hours on the bike and likely 10+ hours total time. 

We had Lizz (our daughter) and Shea (our son-in-law) to join us on this trip. Making for a fun family vacation. 

Training/Prep

August 22, 2022 I rode up Old Fall River Rd in Rocky Mountain National Park near Estes Park, CO. This was a solo training ride to get ready for Mauna Kea. I had a few goals, starting with making sure my body could handle the effort of climbing at high elevation; testing out my new bike travel bag; and test the tires I bought for Maua Kea. 

The day before my ride up Old Fall River Rd, Lisa and I took a 9 mile hike from 7,400 ft to 10,600 ft and back, and my heart rate averaged 100 bpm. So with hiking, I never felt stressed by the thin air. 

Early in the morning, I got on my bike at our hotel in Estes Park and rode to Rocky Mountain National Park to find Old Fall River Rd. The 8.5 miles of paved roads getting to Old Fall River Rd were nice and quiet in the early morning and had me climb over 1,000 ft just to getting to Old Fall River Rd. 

Old Fall River Rd is a one-way gravel road that climbs from 8,600 ft to over 11,500 ft with an average grade of 6.8%. I could feel the effort of the climb, but never felt over stressed or unusually out of breath. Also, I was grateful to have Lisa follow me up the road with our rental car to offer support and capture some great photos.

Old Fall River Rd above the tree line, near the top

Reviewing my training goals:

• I'm totally happy with my fitness and ability to handle biking steep roads at high altitude.
• My new Thule RoundTrip bag worked great for my bike, and this bag includes a simple bike stand making assembling/disassembling the bike so much easier.
• I was very happy with my Bianchi on 32mm GravelKing SK tires, but after this ride I talked with some experts that let me know that the unpaved parts of Mauna Kea will demand 38mm or larger tires ... since my Bianchi is maxed out with 32 mm tires, I'll bring my Breezer gravel bike with 50mm gravel tires (sorry Infinito).

The Ride | February 27, 2023 

Starting at Waikōloa Beach

The Start at Waikōloa Beach

We planned to meet Cory and his support driver at Waikōloa Beach for a 6:00 start. But Lisa and I could not find the public access to the beach (the entire Waikōloa resort area is a maze of dead-ends with security gates, not the Aloha Spirt at all!) I contacted Cory and told him that he should start without me, and this worked out best for both of us, because Cory is a stronger rider than me. We saw Cory rolling out but still couldn't find the beach access ... pro tip: just look for the Lava Lava Beach Club to find the public beach access. We finally found the beach access after many wrong turns, and I rolled out at 6:20. The first couple miles getting out of Waikōloa had me very focused on my map, there are so many options to get lost with a gate blocking your path, but I was able to get out without a wrong turn. Of all the things I obsessed about for this ride, finding the start point was never on my mind, not once. 

Waikōloa Road

The first leg of the climb felt great and I was so happy that the winds were mild after days of gale warnings. Lisa stopped to check on me right before Waikōloa Village, about 45 minutes into the ride. I felt great and wanted to push on, getting as many feet below me as possible while I was fresh and the day was cool. 

Mamalahoa Hwy

This short 3-mile leg was very stressful, with narrow/no shoulder and highway speeds. Traffic was light and only a couple stressful vehicle passes. This road offers the only significate breaks in the relentless climb. 

Daniel K Inouye Hwy - Saddle Road

This road has a nice wide shoulder but with 60 mph speed limit. Saddle Road was a long slog of 6% grades with long stretches of 7% and 8%. I felt fine, but had a hard time keeping my power down to my at my target pace, and my heart rate was above my goals. I'm not sure exactly why I was riding above my pacing targets, and I knew it at the time and still couldn't get myself to slow down without constantly checking my numbers on the Garmin. Around mile 39 (4 hours from the beach), the road flattens out for a short while, but I was hit by a strong headwind and some light rain. What should have been an easy section of the route was anything but easy battling into the wind.

Saddle Rd and one of the countless trucks passing

Mauna Kea Access Rd

Turning on to the access road, I felt good, but I knew I had put a lot of work into my legs. Lisa was stopped there and I used this stop to get my warmer layers out, including long-sleeved wool jersey, wind vest, and gloves. Also she let me know that Cory was at the visitor's center, waiting for them to reopen the summit access road, it was closed due to ice/snow.

As I started up the access road, it didn't take long for the road to kick hard, and I had the first thoughts that this ride was going to be too much for me and my bike on this day. 

Riding up the access road, it's amazing as the terrain starts to looks like the Colorado Rockies, and nothing like Hawaiʻi. I rode up into clouds, through the mist, before looking down on the clouds ... I've never experienced anything like that on a bike. 

In the last mile to the visitor center, the road holds 16-17% and kicks to 18%. I dismounted to walk the stretch, I was outta gears and I couldn't get my heart rate down. I'd take 5 minute break to recover, and as soon as I rolled out, my heart rate would be right up to the redline in a minute. Adding insult, I noticed that my pace slowed so much that my Garmin went into auto-pause and lost some of my effort on this steepest part of the climb. 

Feeling Crushed

Getting back on the bike and started again is HARD with these grades, this helped me understand why the pro riders get a push when the need to change bikes on a steep climb. 

Just after remounting my bike, I see Lizz come running down the road from the visitor's center, cheering me on ... making my heart so happy! I rolled into the visitor's center to find Cory under a blanket in the back of the support driver's vehicle. He's trying to stay warm until they reopen the summit road. 

Visitor's Center

9,200 feet of climbing from the Pacific Ocean

The Mauna Kea visitor's center is at 9,200 feet, I rolled in feeling rough and decided to call it the end of my ride. I'm happy I didn't wreck myself going too deep. I could've started the ride past the visitor center, but I can't image I would have made it very far. 

Chris, Shea, Lisa & Lizz at the Summit of Mauna Kea

I changed into warmer gear and we drove our Jeep to the summit. Only 4WD vehicles can go to the summit, and there are park rangers there to check that your vehicle is qualified and that you know how to use it. The road above the visitor's center is steep, exposed, and very intimidating. At the summit, I was feeling weak and a little light headed with the altitude and fatigue. We saw Cory on his way up, we stopped to get some pictures ... super impressed with his effort climbing to the summit! 

Cory near the summit

Thank you! 

Big mahalo to Lisa for all the support and planning out our vacation around this crazy adventure. Lisa is a passionate and well-qualified support driver, I couldn't ask for any better! Also loved having Lizz and Shea drive up to join us for the last miles to the visitor's center and the drive up to the summit. 

Tonka Cycle & Ski was great help getting my Breezer in top form for this ride. 

Lisa with her trusty Jeep Gladiator (rented through Turo with specific permission for Mauna Kea - rental car companies will not approve you using their vehicles past the visitor's center)

Odd & Ends ... and Random Stats

My route 

My ride was 5:09 moving time; and 6:22 total time from the beach.

My ride was 47 miles and total of 9,462 ft of climbing (some data lost with my Garmin auto-pausing).

I burned an estimated 3,900 calories. 

The roads on this route are heavily traveled, I rode with my Garmin Varia (radar) and it counted 571 vehicles that passed me on my ride. 

Temperatures ranged from nearly 80°F climbing the Saddle Rd to 50°F at the visitor's center. 

I found it challenging to grab a bottle since there's no freewheeling on a non-stop climb. I had to think more about my hand position while grabbing the bottle to avoid conflict with my leg. 

Strava segments statistics, this highlights the limited number of athletes riding Mauna Kea:

• View Sea to Sky - Muana Kea Assult, Alternative South at Junction shows 111 athletes have biked this route to the summit
• Mauna Kea dirt to summit shows 296 athletes have bike from the Visitor's Center to the summit
• Waikōloa Beach to Mauna Kea Visitor Center shows that I'm one of 291 athletes that have bike from the beach to the Visitor's Center 

My climbing experience:

• The biggest climb I can ride to from my house is 298 ft over 1.3 miles (Ohio St in St Paul) 
• The biggest climb I've done in Minnesota 1,018 ft over 7.4 miles (climbing out of Grand Marias)
• The biggest climb I've ever done prior to Mauna Kea is 4,088 ft over 17.5 miles (Estes Park to Alpine Visitor's Center RMNP)
• My climb to the Mauna Kea visitor's center is bigger than Chris Froome's biggest climb! (Froome is four time Tour de France champion, and a long list of other pro wins)

Froome on the left and me on the right from Strava - see the bottom line

Food & Drinks: 

• Water with Skratch Labs mix 
• Embark Salted Maple Energy 
• Jelly Belly Sports Beans 
• Salt Stix 
• Clif Bars
• Honey Stinger Waffles
• Turkey & cheese on Punaluʻu Bakery rolls from the support Jeep
• Coke and Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino from the support Jeep

My Bike | Breezer Radar Pro

This is my steel frame gravel bike, purchased new in 2017. This bike has carried my on my longest bike adventures, including The DAMn (twice); The Royal; and The Last Call Challenge. 

The drivetrain is SRAM Force 2x10 with 48/32 chain rings and cassette range 11-36 (not enough gears for this climb)

It's rolling 700x50mm GravelKing SK tires, the width is overkill, but that's kinda my thing ... riding extra wide tires (but likely too much for this ride)

I used a new set of Garmin Rally XC100 power meter pedals to track my effort (but still failed to pace myself)

Revisit ???

I'd like to revisit this challenge. I'm debating starting from the beach again or start with the hardest part from Saddle Rd to the summit. Either way, I know a lot of things I will do differently if/when I get to try this challenge again: 

• I will need smaller gearing, either smaller chainrings or possibly a new bike
• Better focus on my pacing
• Fewer distractions and more focus on the ride on the trip
• Plan for a longer day, somehow I thought I'd get to the summit in 8 hours ... I'll never be that rider! 
• Ride later in the season, like September or October, this is when I'm at my peak conditions and will have the best fitness for this ride

I'm very grateful that I was able to test myself on this mountain and that there's a chance I could revisit for a second attempt. 

YouTube edit 

Sources: 

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauna_Kea and related pages

2. https://pjammcycling.com/climb/1.Mauna-Kea 

Ride Report Summary for 2022

2022 was a wonderful year for bike adventures, it was full of bike events large and small. I wrote some ride reports but ran out of time to post full reports for many of  this year's events. So this is an overview for most of my 2022 rides and annual stats too. 

Photo credit Josh Kowaleski

Arctic Fat Fever
January 15 on Lake Minnetonka, Excelsior, MN with my drop-bar Pugsley

The start area on Excelsior Bay

The 2022 Arctic Fat Fever was brutal! The course is roughly 10 miles, mostly on Lake Minnetonka ice, across a small island, and finishing on the Lake Minnetonka Regional Trail.

 
The course was "groomed" ... but the grooming did nothing for riders, the snow was too soft to ride. I typically finish this event in an hour, but the 2022 course took me 3 hours! So much of the course was unrideable, so we'd just pushed our bikes though the soft snow. Additionally, it was cold with temps around 10°F and dropping to nearly 0°F for my ride home.

The picture is another challenging part of the ride, my tires dropped into some water on top of the lake ice and I got this nice ice added to my rims to add weight to my already heavy Pugsley. Plus, this ice coated the cleats on my boots making it impossible to clip into my pedals. Thankfully, the Erik's van at the finish line had a screw driver to clear the ice out of my boots for my ride home .... and you know I'm the dork that rides to/from the race ... that ride home was a slog! 

The ice was caked in my rims 

Loppet Fatbike 33K
February 6 in Minneapolis, MN with my drop-bar Pugsley

Photo credit Elizabeth Lopper (I think) 

I always enjoy the Loppet Fatbike Race, it's a special opportunity to ride the groomed Nordic ski trails. It was a challenging and fun course starting with a lap on Bde Maka Ska, then to Lake of the Isles, to Cedar Lake, with some challenging soft snow north of Cedar Lake before getting on Brownie Lake. We continue our way north on the Nordic ski trails in Theodore Wirth Park, across Wirth Lake, then onto the Theo golf course and some of the single-track trails to keep things interesting. I finished 64th of 154 fatbikers with a time of 1:58:05.

The route including lake ice and Nordic ski trails in Theodore Wirth Park & my ride to/from the race

Frozen Facundo

February 20 on Lake Harriet, Minneapolis, MN with my drop-bar Pugsley

This was simply a fun day on a frozen lake with a bracket elimination short track race, an intermission with a live mariachi band, and then a time trial across Lake Harriet including feats of strength (like dragging a heavy log across the ice). We enjoy a warm and sunny February day on the Lake Harriot ice and with good friends.

The start of a short track heat

vEverest

February 25 on Zwift

Full ride report: Revisiting vEveresting on Alpe du Zwift 

Ragnarök 

April 2 in Red Wing, MN with my Breezer Radar Pro

I'm not sure how it's taken me so many years to ride this spring classic. And some how I didn't write a full ride report either. Ragnarök was one hell of a ride ... messy and hilly. It nearly all gravel road with some still thawing out (peanut butter conditions), it includes 8,500 ft of climbing over the 110 mile course (this includes my bonus miles & climbing). 

I was doing well when came into the first check point in 43rd place, and I got into the second check point doing great at 19th place. But then I seriously blew up between Lake City and the finish, dropping from 19th to 53rd on those final 30 miles (including bonus miles) ... oof! 

Ragnarök challenges riders by using cue sheet navigation (no GPS route). I was getting so tired after a very hilly 90 miles, and I missed the turn to the finish, started a second loop of the course. I went down a long descent before figuring out my error. I stopped to catch my breath, eat and drink before starting back up the climb in hopes of finding my way back to the car at the finish line. It painfully clear that my endurance/pacing were not ready for prime time this early in the spring! I finished 53rd of 90 finishers (plus 17 DNF) with a time of 8:49. 

Just a little feel for the mess that was the 2022 Ragnarök 

Last Call Challenge with Utepils Cycling
May 13-14 in Minneapolis, MN with my Breezer Radar Pro

Another major spring ride that didn't get a full ride report ... and this is my longest ride after my three DAMn rides. The Last Call Challenge is 200 miles of every road/trail surface available. 

The ride started at from Utepils Brewing at 10:00 pm (last call). The route was amazing and a ton of fun! 

2022 route with me starting/finishing from home ... route went right past our house 😁

I rode out strong, averaging 18 mph in the cool evening air. When the route got to Mayer, it transitioned from mostly rail-trails to gravel road ... and I started feeling a gut issue coming on. I felt the need for an 'extended stop' to relieve some pressure, but the few gas stations we passed were closed. As a result of these issues, I wasn't eating enough. It took until the I got to Farmington at 7:00 AM (around mile 110) to find an open gas station. That took care of the "pressure" issue, but I'd gone 60-70 miles with very few calories. With another 90 miles to go, I was in a serious calorie deficit and there's no way to properly recover while you continue to ride so my pace slowed way down. 

I spent much of the ride with Steve, he was having GPS/route issues and Steve was offering me great support as I struggled. But we got separated in St Paul before the Brickyard Climb (around mile 150). After that my pace crashed to 12-13 mph, part of that was riding the sandy conditions on river bottoms. There were challenges with flooding on trails along the river, but nothing that you couldn't get through or around. The rest of the route was just mashing the pedal with a loop on the St Paul side of the river before getting back to Utepils along the Midtown Greenway. 

I finished a little after 1:00 pm (roughly 15 hours) and was the 6th person to finish the 200-mile route. I believe there were 10 riders that finished the 200-mile route. 

And I added to the fun by riding to the start at Utepils from Hopkins. Lisa met me at Utepils for my finish and after a beer or two and some food truck tacos, we rode back home together. I was so happy to have the company 'cause I could've fallen asleep on my bike getting home!

The aftermath of The Last Call Challenge

The Fox
July 30-31 Finland, MN with our Co Motion Java
Full ride report The Fox | Gravel Bikepacking Event with a Tandem

Old Fall River Rd - Rocky Mountain National Park
August 22 in Estes Park, CO with my Bianchi Infinito 

This was a solo training ride to get ready for my goal of riding Mauna Kea on Hawai'i (The Big Island) early in 2023. I had a few goals, starting with making sure my body could handle the effort of climbing at high elevation; testing out my new bike travel bag; and test the tires I bought for Maua Kea. 

The day before my ride, Lisa and I took a 9 mile hike from 7,400 ft to 10,600 ft and back, and heart rate average 100 bpm. So with hiking, I never felt stressed by the thin air in the least. 

Early the next morning, I got on my bike at our hotel in Estes Park and rode to Rocky Mountain National Park to find Old Fall River Rd. The 8.5 miles of paved roads getting to Old Fall River Rd were nice and quiet in the early morning and had me climb over 1,000 ft just to get there. 

Old Fall River Rd is a one-way gravel road that climbs from 8,600 ft to over 11,500 with an average grade of 6.8%. I could feel the effort of the climb, but never felt over stressed or unusually out of breath. Also, I was grateful to have Lisa follow me up the road with our rental car to offer support and capture some great photos.

 

Reviewing my training goals: 

• I'm totally happy with my fitness and ability to handle biking steep roads at high altitude. 
• My new Thule RoundTrip bag worked great for my bike, and this bag includes a simple bike stand making assembling/disassembling the bike so much easier. 
• I was very happy with my Bianchi on 32 mm GravelKing SK tires, but after this ride I talked with some experts that let me know that the unpaved parts of Mauna Kea will demand 38mm or larger tires ... so I'll bring my Breezer gravel bike with 45mm tires (sorry Infinito). 

At the Alpine Visitors Center at the top of Old Fall River Rd

Ride DC

September 10 in Washington DC with a rented comfort bike

We were spent the week with my brother Jeff and his wife Wendy in Virginia and DC. This ride was on our last day of the trip and was a fun opportunity to ride together. The route was roughly 18 miles, including the 305 Express bridge over the Potomac, I'm still blown away that they closed the expressway for this ride. The event is the largest bike event I've ever been involved with, they had roughly 9,000 folks riding! It's was a party pace ride including many stops for snacks and drinks. It was amazing to ride past so many DC landmarks. 

Post-ride selfie at the Lincoln Memorial

The Heck of the North
October 1 in Two Harbors, MN with my drop-bar Pugsley 
Full ride report: The Heck of the North | 2022

The Filthy 50

October 8 in Lanesboro, MN with our Co Motion Java 

The 2022 Filthy 50 was amazing. We had beautiful clear skies and the autumn colors were on full display! The temps were cool, starting around 45°F, and stayed chilly most of the ride warming up to the mid 50s. The big challenge was the wind ... with 10-15 mph winds outta the west all day, and gusts getting to 20-25 mph. Somehow there was never a nice tailwind, just lots of crosswinds and some brutal headwinds to keep it spicy! The other challenge was the soft gravel, there was very little hero gravel to be found. And the limestone dust was so fine and covered everything. After the ride, I looked like Pigpen taking off my socks.

One of my favorite parts of The Filthy 50 is that it's a wonderful gravel family reunion. We saw so many friends at the start, on the route, and at the finish party ... and that extra special greeting from Ray on the road (he grabbed my butt as he passed us ... 😆)

Stats: we finished the 50-mile & 4,200 ft course in 4:47, that's 6 minutes faster than last year (I was hoping with all our experience on the tandem since 2021, we'd have been much faster). With a bigger field of tandems this year, we were 4th of 7 tandem teams. Overall we finished 416th place, moving up 42 places overall from last year & a larger field finished... 588 finishers this year and 541 last year. So based on the rankings, everyone was slowed by the conditions, and I feel pretty good about being just a little faster this year.

Trenton, Joel, and team put on another amazing The Filthy 50 ... THANK YOU!

Big thanks to Matt Hoven for getting this great photo!

Gravel West
October 16 in Long Lake, MN with my drop-bar Pugsley

2022 was my sixth time riding Gravel West, that's every year there's been a Gravel West. I love this ride for being close to home and low key. The ride starts at Gear West in Long Lake and I've enjoyed biking to and from this event every year, adding about 20 miles to the day. This year, I was feeling run down after The Heck of the North and Filthy 50 over the previous two weekends, so I opted to ride the 32-mile route. 

I rolled out with the riders on the 80-mile route, and that got a little funny because I was talking with Steve Marshal (he's a powerful rider that gets on many podiums). As we talked and rode, I thought we were leading the whole pack out of Long Lake, but when I looked back, the rest of the pack was nowhere to be seen. I was well aware that Steve would drop me quickly, and he rode away from me before we hit the Luce Line (less than 2 miles from the start). I rode solo until the Game Farm Rd climb (12 miles from the start), a group of 15 riders caught up to me at the top. It was nice to work with them, but that lasted less then 2 miles before my short route took a right turn and they went straight on the 80-mile route. I didn't see another rider for the rest of the route, but I enjoyed the autumn colors and quiet roads. When I got back to Gear West, the store hadn't opened for the day and no other riders had made it back yet ... so I took a quick break and headed home to grab some lunch. I look forward to joining them again in 2023 to keep my streak alive! 

A round barn along the course

The Last DAMn

The Last Damn is a film by my friends at Checkpoint Zero Films, the film documents the adventures of the 2021 DAMn (Day Across Minnesota). The film began its festival run on December 23 in The Bicycle Film Festival's BFF 2023 Virtual Worldwide, with in-person events and other festival screenings to come in 2023. I'm humbled to be included in this film showing my finish line conversation with race creator Trenton, as well as an interview with documentarian Nick, and contributed video from my GoPro. You can stream Program 4: ADVENTURE long form (The Last DAMn is the third of four films in this program). And for my side of the story, here's a link to my Final DAMn ride report.

Annual statistics (as of December 25, 2022):

• Distance: 5,214 miles (including 439 miles on Zwift)
• Hours: 388 hours (including 31 hours on Zwift)
• Number of days riding: 257 days 
• Elevation climbed: 196,748 ft (including 49,672 on Zwift)
• Bikes: 14 different bikes including 7 of my bikes & our 2 tandems 
• States biked: 6 different states, plus DC (I think that's a personal record) 

2022 Heat Map (local)

I'm looking forward to more adventures in 2023, riding with friends old and new. 

Filthy 50 Photo Credit Cam Evjen

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

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 

Revisiting vEveresting on Alpe du Zwift

Catching up on ride reports: vEversting February 2022

Some of you might remember my vEveresting adventure back in March 2021, mostly memorable for a night in the hospital with IVs. For those new to this challenge, here's a little background: Zwift is a great way to ride a bike on an indoor trainer and not get bored. For those that don't know Zwift, it's like a video game with your bike as the game control. There are many worlds and courses, some of the courses are based on real world roads/routes and some are totally fictional. 

I mount my bike to a Wahoo Kickr to connect with Zwift, this is a trainer that has a power meter and it controls resistance, this means that the trainer will make it harder when climbing, making you shift down through gears just like in the real world. 

Everesting is riding up-and-down the same hill over-and-over until you accumulate an elevation gain that is equal to the height of Mount Everest - 29,029 ft. With the popularity of Zwift, the concept of "virtual Everesting" (vEversting) became a thing. I got the idea that vEversting would be a good idea thanks to Zwift, Zwift encourages riders with badges for achieving challenges and the vEversting badge is one of the very last achievements I have left on Zwift. 

There are a number of climbs available in Zwift for vEveresting, I pick the iconic Alpe du Zwift - the game version of the real-world Alpe d'Huez. This is 3,398 ft per climb over 7.59 mile for an average grade of 8.5%. A rider needs to climb Alpe du Zwift 8.5 times to complete the vEversting challenge. 

Looking at my schedule, I had a limited window to get this ride done before a vacation and I had my first outdoor race shortly after vacation. So February 25 was the date that worked. 

The fresh look first thing in the morning

Looking back at my 2021 effort, I had a good idea how to pace myself. Funny thing about pacing yourself on a ride this long ... the open couple climbs feel like your not working at all. But based on past experience, I know the climbs later in the day at the same effort are going be feel brutal.

Lisa had fun setting up my riding buddy

In addition to in-game chat with other folks riding on Zwift, I was enjoying Facebook posts about my effort, and had the radio playing to keep my mind busy. Plus the Zwift display gives you lots of data to watch as you ride. 

Here's a look at the Zwift screen

There were some thoughts that my struggles on the last attempt included overheating. So, I had our two fans blowing on me the whole time to minimize the chance of overheating. 

Throughout the day I kept a basket of snacks on the table right next to the bike, this was empty by the end of the ride! Snacks included peanut M&Ms, Sports Beans, Kind Bars, and Salt Sticks. Plus water bottles with Nuun tabs (electrolyte mix), Starbucks Doubleshots, and Coke. I took a couple breaks to get whole food, like an omelette in the morning and been burrito around noon. 

When I was getting worn down and mentally fatigued after my fifth trip up the Alpe, I was super happy to have Birchwood friend Ben jump on and ride with me on the sixth climb ... and that ride up saw an improvement in my pace. It's funny but a riding buddy on Zwift is just as helpful as in the real world. 

My last trip up the Alpe, I could barely turn the pedals over. I had planned to finish the ninth climb, but my body let me know that this was not an option! But to avoid any technical issues, I went past 20,029 feet, finishing at 29,501 for the ride.

In total, it took me nearly 14 hours and I was riding (or the avatar was riding) for over 13 hours, so there was very little down time. I can finish Alpe du Zwift in under 60 minutes; but that is doing the climb one time. For vEversting, my fastest early climb was 75 minutes; and slowest 90 minutes ... I'd call that good pacing! I was able to keep my heart rate between 130 and 140 BBM for the whole effort. Other nerdy stats: power averaged 166 to 192 W on the climbs; and I kept my cadence between 80 and 90 rpm on the climbs.

After the ride I was confused by sore shoulders, upper arm, and core muscles. After thinking about it, this was because of the amount of time I spent out of the saddle, using my upper body more than I think I've ever done while biking. 

My effort was recognized in the Everesting Hall of Fame

I may try to do another Everesting in the real world ... some day .... maybe ...