It’s the first real snow of the season. Forty three miles into my 86 mile route is a three mile section of Marinette County Forest Road 1121. It’s a section full of curvy, hilly gravel forest road, twisting and turning, up the punchy climbs with rewards of bombing down the other side after each climb. The OG 4” Surly Nates on my Pugsly hooking up and grabbing the snow as I make the turn going into the bottom of the hill. Super fun! The entire three miles was doing this over and over. You need to be smart, make a fast decision and pick a good line for your descent. Certain truck tracks in the snow are better than others. Some will throw you especially if you are coming down and into a curve. And don’t even try the ATV track. It’s obvious from the churned up snow that the driver is ripping up the hills. The bright sun casting shadows on the bright white snow makes it harder to see the perfect lines. These roads are normally sand during any other season but now the sand is frozen and covered with snow. You also need to remember to stay in the seat on the climbs so that you have weight on the back tire or you’ll lose traction and will be pushing your bike up the hill. That’s not always easy for a single speed rider to remember. The road, Prestine Lane, also known as Forest Road 1121. Such a perfect name for one of the best roads on this 86 mile loop. The road is only 3 miles long. I knew this from riding it in the past. It would soon lead to Kremlin and it’s giant quarry, the quarry that mines this weird greenish grey mineral that’s on the roads near the quarry, but for now I was living in this moment blasting through the corners and down the hills.
For me Global Fatbike Day for the last few years means an adventure ride on a forest gravel route I create. Last year there wasn’t any snow and I organized a group ride through the Butler Rock area. This year Northern Wisconsin has snow so I decided to do a solo trip up to Marinette County to check out waterfalls. These are some of the same falls that are on my bikepacking tour but I wanted to see what they looked like in an early season frozen state. A week earlier I created a 90 mile loop that went past 9 waterfalls. I have been looking forward to it since then.
It’s a two and a half hour drive to get there before the sun would rise so I had to leave Wausau early. Way early, like 4:30 early. I decided to park and start the ride in Dunbar. Getting up early was so much worth it. Riding before the sun rises and watching the sky change colors as it comes up is one of my favorite things. Only a few clouds made it a spectacular sight. It’s a great way to start your day and because of the length of that route I would get to watch it set too.
The falls that I would do and the order I would do them are Four Foot Falls, Eighteen Foot Falls, Twelve Foot Falls, Eight Foot Falls, Horseshoe Falls, Dave’s Falls, Longslide Falls, and Smalley Falls. I skipped the unnamed falls that requires a bushwhack to reach just for the reason of time it would take.
The sun continued to shine all day. Perfect blue skies.
The only downside with the weather was the wind. But when the sun is so bright this time of the year it’s hard to complain. I passed a few people in and around Amberg who were out for walks and most of them smiled and waved to me and a few commented how beautiful of a day it was. I think they too found it hard to dwell on any wind. Amberg would be the one and only town I would go through.
The ice formation on the falls was better than I expected. It had been so warm last week so I didn’t have very high expectations.
It also surprised me with how few people I saw. Of course a couple of county roads that I used to connect the forest roads had car traffic but on the majority of the roads, the gravel forest roads, I only saw three cars and four ATV’s. Long Slide Falls and Smalley Falls are close to highway 8 and also on a paved road and they were the only falls that I saw people at. I also made the first tracks in the week old snow at Eighteen Foot Falls.
Being the only person out there is so peaceful but at the same time I am very cognizant of the consequences of anything happening so far from help. I took a few extra precautions when packing my bike. I put the frame bag on my bike. Along with my usual tools I threw in a couple extra layers of clothes and a spare set of riding gloves and socks to replace if they got wet from sweat. An extra water bottle stayed unthawed wrapped in the extra clothes. I also threw a lighter in there. I packed enough food so I wouldn’t need to stop for lunch or gas station resupply, optimizing my riding time during the daylight.
As expected I finished off in the dark and got to enjoy the sunset as I was riding a forest road that was new to me. As the sun was going down it was amazingly blinding.
The sunset was equally as amazing with clouds moving in ahead of a front that was forecast to bring 6-8 inches of new snow overnight and into Sunday.
And although I was headed into the stiff headwind for the last three hours or so it really didn’t bother me as the sights were beautiful. My mind frequently wandered off into the sounds of nothing but the low bass rumble of my fat tires and the occasional hoot of an owl. What a perfect way to finish out a long day in the saddle. Those great forest roads lasted almost to the finish. Only a mile and a half of asphalt county road to finish it up.
The window for perfect snow conditions was small and Global Fatbike Day couldn’t have landed more perfectly. A couple days earlier it would have been wet and slushy above freezing conditions. A day later there was a snow storm. The route was not completely new to me as I added a few roads I haven’t ridden before. Knowing the area and what to expect helps. It was a very large loop style route so once you start you really have to commit to the long mileage with no bailout options on this one and you need to bring appropriate gear for a long ride and riding at night. In the winter planning becomes so much more important and really essential.
Shane Hitz Biking Adventures 