New U.P./Old U.P.

WNR # 28 came and went. I think A/C said he was going to do the post so all I'll say is the race this weekend is going to hurt like a mother fu**er.

I had a really nice last minute trip to the U.P. over the end of the weekend. Some of it was same old same old, and some of it was brand spanking new to me.

The same old same old: I stayed at the Landmark. It's a really nice (not overly $) hotel in downtown Marquette, and I like it a lot. When I called to check on a room and gave the front desk person my last name, she immediately said "You've stayed with us before if I'm not mistaken Mr. Gurney. Let me pull up your information." Hardly necessary, but nice all the same. While in town I ate breakfast at the Sweetwater and had pizza from Aubrey's, they are both top notch eating establishments. If you ever find yourself in or around Marquette, I highly recommend checking them out.

The new stuff, in order of least exciting to most painful:

I took the Newberry way home. We always go Blamey Park. It's literally six of one, half a dozen.

I finally pulled into the Scenic Turnout just west of Munising. It's pretty, and there's a good view of Grand Island. I stayed about two minutes.

I rode two and a half new loops of the South Marquette trail system over the course of two days. The trails up there are sweet. Part of one of them is a long downhill literally on top of an old concrete pipeline. It's called the pipeline. So the trails are super technical, but almost all rideable even on the singlespeed. I've now ridden all but half of one loop in the system at least once.

I was talking with Kate and Nick before I left work on Saturday afternoon, and I mentioned I was thinking about checking out the Cut River Gorge on the way up. Kate and the fam had been up across the weekend before, and they stopped there on their way home. I had been thinking they had some stairs down to the bottom, and Kate confirmed that they indeed did. My mind was made up. I'd park, change into my running gear, go for a little jog to warm up, and then do a good hard stair workout to break up the drive. There are something like 250 steps, and I ran up them three times. People looked at me like I was insane, and with the way my legs feel today after that workout and a couple of solid rides they may have a point. I took a sauna last night, and that seems to have helped a little. I'm just hoping they start feeling better before the weekend.

P.S. I was thinking of doing a cross race up there on Sunday. I didn't. The blue skies, warmish weather, and the abundance of sweet singletrack trumped riding/running around a park as fast as I could for an hour.

WNR @ HQ tomorrow.