Recent persistent rains and high winds have taken a toll on the courses of this weekend’s Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival presented by Trek. After review and consultation with responsible land managers and trail workers, it is agreed that a wet weather contingency plan will be implemented for the Chequamegon 40 race course from Hayward to the Telemark Resort in Cable.

That is the official word from here. But, don’t let it scare you off. They are mainly taking sections of the Birkie Ski Trail out of the race and rerouting the race on logging and fire roads. In theory, it is going to make the race flatter, thus easier, but you never know the conditions of Phipps Fire Lane and other reroutes that could be “heavy”.

Supposedly we’re all going to be receiving emails with a map of the new course. Here is a link to Chequamegon website that has another link to its Facebook page. Eventually all the new info will be there.

Normal course, but not this year.

Lots of guys showing up today at Dennis’. A couple more from Kansas, Kent and Katie Eriksen showed up yesterday. Plus, a few others. Kind of chaotic right now. Everyone is heading out to ride now. Cool and damp here. Not even 50. Gonna be cold tomorrow morning. Below is the new route. They took the section of the Birkie Trail from Phipps to OO out. That should be interesting. That was a hard section. Okay, I’ve got a ton of stuff to do today.

Revised course map.

Kent Eriksen working on the tandem that he and Katie are racing. They won Leadville on it.

5 Kent Eriksen road bikes. You don’t see that very often.

My pieced together bike. It is rigid and weights about 18 pounds. Nothing special about it other than the frame.

Kent brought this along. Last two times I’ve tried beet juice I’ve been incapacitated for 2 days.