JENNY FROM THE BLOCK: Highlights of Summer

Ore To Shore Mountain Bike Marathon

This years Ore to Shore performance may have been outshined by Annika's on stage debut.

It's hard to compete with a 5 year old child playing a deer. Little lone a deer with antlers that just won't stay in place. It didn't seem to bother her too much.

I sort felt like performing as a deer with falling antlers is about like racing a bike with a seat that falls down.

Thankfully we had no mechanicals on course. No accidents. Not even a lost shoe for Team Neuschwander. Yes, I said that. Who looses a shoe in a bike race? Despite the ankle ratchet some riders lost their shoes in the mud. I only stepped in until mid thigh and envisioned needing a snorkel. I can't imagine suspending my race to look for a sunken shoe nor can I imagine riding any length of time barefoot on a pedal. I do imagine that if you race long enough your number will come up. Eventually one will be forced to deal with the unthinkable. Just a lot of mud. Did I mention mud?

We had a lot of mud. Times were slower across the board than last year but still was a fun day of racing ~~says the woman who did not do the majority of the clean up.~~ I would have been happier to race the course in better conditions so we could spend the afternoon picking blueberries... but was not to be.

I think I left a big chunk of my quads in Copper Harbor the weekend prior. I met a girl named Mary. She was mighty strong. I would get ahead on the climbs and she would catch me and pull ahead on the flats. When we hit the pavement on Hoist road I wanted to draft. I just wanted to sit on her rear wheel and let her do all the work. I'm not a bad person. It's was my quads who were being a**holes. The race was draft legal and.. she was pulling at a pace that seemed plenty fast. Guilt burned stronger than my quads and I forced myself to the front to take a pull. There was a pack of 5 men riding that I would not feel bad drafting off. I suggested we work together and get those boys. It was a big gap . We made short work of closing it. Unfortunately the men had blown up and couldn't hold our wheels. Mary and I had no choice but to drop them boys. We reentered the singletrack and enjoyed much dryer terrain near Forestville. Mary and I went back and forth a few more times but having the home field advantage I eventually pulled away. At the end of the day I was 9th woman (vs 16th last year)...and that actually means something. It means I earned a preferred start for 2018... which means my bike gets to start at the front of the race (no guarantee it will finish there). I will be granted the privilege to pee in a port potty just before race start and not start behind 1,000 other bikes and not have to ride around bike crashes in the first minute of the race. For a minute let's be totally honest I'm just excited to have a merit based opportunity to line up in front of really flashy looking 30 year old girls who ride their bike 6-7 days week and have no wrinkles...Sadly I'm not sure the mechanic in chief has any desire to return to the race start if it is a wet summer.

Best race of summer quite possibly and best kids race in the world: Marquette Trail 50 kids race. A real gnarly trail run followed by pizza and dancing to live folk music. It's the best of times. Isaac ran the whole thing!

Family Hikes

We started a tradition/new routine of hiking Sugar loaf before church on Sunday mornings

I'm not sure it helped get the kids wiggles out before sitting quietly in a pew but it sure was fun.

And the view from the top is devine.

Annika launched herself and landed on the top bunk. Her "nest" is her happy place and once was her Dad's

Isaac is not so patiently waiting for his flight feathers

After a hot afternoon spent inside rearranging furniture we headed to the water fall to cool off.

I took the long way a found this on the trail. Early August and in peak color. Tim said "that leaf just gave up on life" Maybe it won the race to reach full beauty.

This is Isaac. It's 100% who he is right now. 100% who he has always been ...really since before he was born. I've warned future teachers of the impending class clown.