First Ride with Q and his Green Ops. Pugsley

November ended with a beach ride along the Mississippi River near Hidden Falls Park.  40+ temperature competing with the ribbon of ice forming on both sides of the river channel.  We rolled rocks, floated over sand and did hike-a-bikes around fallen trees.  Jared started fat biking in 2009 when he purchased the Pugsley in the  foreground that I now ride.  His Moonlander sporting Bud and Lou  is to the left.Q's Black, green, Ops Pugsley on the right is a brilliant bike.  It was fun to ride fat with him for the first time.

Jared's flat ended the day.  Our only spare tube, a 2.3" downhill tube, was not up for the job of filling Lou.  We pumped it up, but it died whining .  Jared hiked up to a road while Q and I rode to the cars so we could drive over and pick him up.  All part of the fun and adventure.

Bike Packing Along the Minnesota River Near Chaska

 Jared and I left his house about 5pm Saturday riding toward the Minnesota River.  After a climb out of his neighborhood, we had lots of fun downhill rolling.  We camped quite near where we overnight-ed last winter.

 This is the first outing with my new sleeping bag, waterproof compression sack and double stem front mounting system.  Every thing stayed brilliantly solid without issues.  

 Dinner was outstanding.  I made instant potatoes with bonito flakes for a bit of smoky umami.  Jared's angel hair pasta with olive oil and campfire toasted berbere spiced pine nuts won the backwoods culinary award of excellence.  Even cooler is the fact that he cooked the pasta on his homemade alcohol stove.  

 We gained an hour setting our clocks back while we were out.  Morning was a relaxing slow wake event.  A bowl of oatmeal and a cup of  instant coffee mixed with hot chocolate boosted my homeothermic system in the same way laying on a warm rock stirs a reptile.

 Jared is snug in his Mount Laurel Designs tarp tent.  I'm not sure of the temp. upon waking but the white in the background is frost.  My bivy/tent below had ice crystals on it when I crawled into bed.  Once again I was quite pleased with my sleeping bag.  The ground was soft, so I didn't take time to inflate my pad relying instead on my bag's insulation below me without the r4 of my insulated air mattress.

 Jared's tarp and bike below.  My bivy and bike above.

 Final shot of our loaded bikes as we were ready to ride out of camp after a night out.