Those of you that ordered AM cycling gear on the first weekend of the sale, your items shipped out today!

This is the final installment of my story of Gnat’s River Ramble. I had a great time want to thank Jason and the Boucher family for their hospitality and friendship. I gotta say, that was the best part of the trip – reconnecting with friends.

After dinner we disappeared into the garage to prepare the bikes for the next day’s ride. I brought my seat and pedals and wanted to get everything fit. After looking the bike over I asked Jason if he had an old toothbrush or a bristle brush so I could clean the bike a little. It was going to be used in pictures for crying out loud. He chuckled and said no. Some cyclists clean their bikes a little too much and some don’t. I am used to riding dusty gravel that clogs up my chain and makes shifting rough, so I am used to, at the very least, cleaning the chain between rides. But while I am at it I like to make my bike shiny again too. I may be a little anal about it. To each his own. I did find it amusing that an employee of a superstar bike company had no cleaning kit in his garage.

I kept looking at those big tires. They look pretty cool and you can’t help but smile when you ride those fat tires.

We got up early and headed out before dawn. I was armed with the point and shoot in the feedbag and my dslr in a backpack. I wasn’t used to riding in the cold yet, so I wore too much knowing I would shed layers as the day wore on.

We soon met up with the other guys and headed down towards the river.

See that smile on Jason’s face? That’s what these bikes do to you. We did a little bushwhacking and rode off trail and into the woods. Being able to go anywhere was my favorite part of this bike. I was constantly looking for something to ride over.

We rode through the woods and found an abandoned car

The flood lines show plainly on the trees. It often played tricks on my eyes and appeared like fog.

Keeping the big tires rolling

The guys were stopped and checking out the bridge. I would see why as soon as I rode up. It’s a cool looking bridge.

Jason Boucher – the man, the legend, the fat bike wheelie rider

That bridge was pretty sweet. I’d love to shoot down there with a tripod and some strobes

Riding through dry stream beds

Getting back on the trail

A beaver dam

Taking a little break

Riding through the forest

Another quick break

The flooding had left tons of fine sand all along the river trails, making it a hard slog to pedal through. It wore me down. In the morning, after I got the feel of the Mukluk, I was riding over everything and using the walls of the stream beds to climb up and race down. In short, I was having a blast.

As we were heading back towards the cars, I suddenly felt tired. My thighs were pretty sore from pedaling through that sand and my arms were quite sore too. I found myself a dead stick just sitting on the bike seat trying to maintain my pedal stroke to get back to the cars. I was slowing down. I had tightened my Brooks saddle that week and it was pretty stiff. At the end of the ride, my body was so tired that I was taking all the bumps without standing on the pedals anymore. I was just that tired.

I finally made it back and Jason was glad to see that I got my money’s worth from that ride. I shamefully report that those 35 miles kicked my butt. I knew what my tour participants felt like after I tired them out in the Flint Hills.

I am thinking a Mukluk would be a great bike to allow me to keep riding gravel in the gross Kansas winters. Not to mention cowpaths and other offroad exploring. If I road that all winter long, I would come out in pretty darn good shape.

All in all, the Mukluk is a fun bike to ride and in my opinion is the ultimate adventure bike. You can literally go where no other bike can.

I had a great weekend riding bikes and hanging out with the Bouchers. I was able to eat breakfast with Smoking Joe Meiser before I left town. Minneapolis proved to be an awsome place to be if you are a cyclist or even a photocyclist.

Thanks Minneapolis! Stay classy.

A bridge in Kansas City. I made it safely back to the land of Oz. That was a quick weekend, but well worth it. It’s always good to get away every now and then. Thanks Jason and Salsa for the Mukluk riding weekend!

Feed Your Monkey!
Eric