Josh McMinn

First off I’m a dummy! I forgot to swap chainrings so I ended up doing it all with my 46T chainring which was brutal… I did have my 10-52 in the back at least. This ride was a prep and shakeout ride for The Day Across Minnesota ride at the end of the month. Started off feeling pretty strong and made it to Green Cove at a decent time, but as soon as I walked out of the store from resupplying my water the bottom feel out and starting pouring down rain. I decide to hangout there until it passed because it got pretty cool which wasted probably 30 plus mins. Got going again after then heavy rain subsided and got a little cold actually as the rain was cool, but soon warmed up as the biggest climb started shortly after. Did I mention the 46T sucked! Climb, climb, climb. Started feeling a little crummy by the end of the climb as I got behind on my carbs, but Indian Boundary Lake was pretty and got me back in good spirits for a moment as it was the half way point too. Took a little break at the lake and ate a bite just for thunderstorms to start building all around me. The thundering got pretty constant so I decided to hangout around the campground as I knew I had shelter if I needed it. Wasted probably close to a hour and almost decided to call it. Most of the lightning started to move south of me so decided to push on and road probably for the next hour in small thunderstorms. The rain at this point made things a muddy & slick, and lucky me I decided to test out some new 45 mm semi slick tires on this ride… Wishing I had my MTB tires and my 40T chainring at this point. Right before the last climb, you have to make a hard left turn onto a gated road which I was warned about, but I still missed it and had to back track a little. I thought all was behind me when I made it to the last big climb for it to only be on a non maintained double track. The climb was punchy and loose chunky rocks which zapped me. Finally finished the climb and surprisingly finished the last 15 miles or so feeling pretty strong. Made it back to the truck with just a tad bit of daylight to spare!