Global Fat Bike Day 2020

For those of you who ride the fat tire the first Saturday in December is a holiday, those that do not likely see it as just another Saturday on the Calendar. Global Fat Bike Day, as near as I can tell, started in 2012 and was the brain child of the folks over at Fat-Bike.com as a way to get riders together and celebrate the new found popularity of the fat bike. It's also my annual reminder that I have received a life time ban from their Instagram page, the ban is coming up on it's third anniversary here shortly. Not entirely sure what I did but I have a suspicion it revolves around a few Pugsley pictures I shared that they accidentally let slip a wee bit earlier than Surly wanted them to do so. Wasn't done in malice as I didn't know at the time I shared them that they posted early, nor did they ever actually say anything to me about it but shortly there after... poof, Fat-Bike.com's Instagram account ceased to exist in my world. I reached out to them once to see what the blockage was all about but after their initial response saying they were looking into it, crickets. Much like Nebraska, I guess I'm not for everyone.



I didn't get into fat bikes or Global Fat Bike Day until 2015 so I missed out on the first three but to be honest I don't remember there being a bigger, sponsored and organized event in eastern Nebraska until we put that first one on. Over the years we've had some really fun events and even added a chili cook off on our second rodeo. The prizes and the chili cook off I feel really bumped things up from a ride to an actual event, not only did the event attract riders but it also started to attracted chili slingers looking to pit their best recipe against all comers. Add a few kegs of beer, a fire pit or two and you had hours of fun after the hours of riding. This year being what it is most of that went away and we pared it down to just a ride. I was a little apprehensive on what that would do for the ride but as it turns out we still ended up with a good group of folks looking to get their fat biking on.




Not sure what the turn out was going to be this year we planned a fairly short ride down to Van Dorn Park for a few laps but not before we hit up the Dockhorn SAG stop for beverages and donut holes.




VDP was a blast and it was pretty cool seeing so many fatties in there on the trails all at one time. Not sure I've seen that many riders in there at one time since the old CX races that used to be held at VDP not too many years ago. VDP is rapidly becoming one of Lincoln's favorite parks, much like it used to be decades ago and with all the new trails, a new water refill station coming next year, a push to get native grass and flowers going in to replace the evasive species in there now and new playground equipment there is plenty to get excited about. 







Since the day brought fantastic weather and an adventurous group, we decided to head through Wilderness Park for some additional miles and smiles. Managed to get in the entire east side, well as much of the east side you can ride minus the small sections rerouted around due to bridge outages. Even managed a few trails I hadn't been on in years.




With the official ride over and the unofficial bonus miles also over, the numbers started to dwindle as the numbers do but those of us still in it for the long haul found ourselves enjoying a beverage at Saro before closing the door on another great GFBD and heading home.

 

Pirates, Powder and Pizza

This weekend was the final weekend of the Gravel Worlds virtual series so we opted to meet out at Schillingbridge and spin the Buccaneer course, slightly modified to hit Raymond.




The weather was absolutely perfect to be out on the gravel, more fall like than summer with very little wind. Since B. Paul was kind enough to load down the panniers on this fat bike with Busch Lattes we repaid the kindness by lightening his load a bit right before we hit the halfway point.





When near Bluff Road, a bridge stop is always a good call.




It was nice to have a shortish ride for a change, 30 miles was the perfect milage for Saturday in my opinon and it enabled us to patronize Schillingbridge after we finished. If you can you should always support those who support you and Schillingbridge has been a long time supporter of not only Gravel Worlds but the cycling comminity at large.




That was Saturday, on Sunday we decided to hit up the Lincoln single track scene. We started out at B.O. 7 where I apparently didn't take many photos. I blame the fact that I don't take the actual camera on single track most of the time so I didn't have one handy.





The initial plan was to hit Wilderness Park second, after a brief stop at White Elm. That plan quickly changed when we spotted Todd and Isabell riding Van Dorn Park and then we bumped into the entire McColgan clan shortly there after. So Van Dorn Park ended up being the second stop, being Lincoln's newest and only city park single track the hype is pretty strong right now behind the trails. Even though it's not all that long it ended up being quite a bit of fun, I think it will be a really popular trail as it's super close to the rest of the city and easy access by bicycle or car.


Next up was Wilderness Park, Todd and Isabell decided to join us for a little romp in the trees. I realized while riding in the The Park that I hadn't been in there since January when it was cold and there was still snow on the ground. Need to change that and try to give it a whirl a few more times before winter decends on us.





Scooted down the east side to Danger Bridge, with the other bridge out that was about as far as we could go on the east side without back tracking. While we were there we checked out the progress on the new bridge going in that will span over the railroad tracks and FINALLY connect Wilderness Park to the rest of the trail system. After a few pics, we went across Danger Bridge and back up the west side.




Why do they call it Danger Bridge, well there used to be four of these signs that said danger at one time before and after both bridges. They were changed over the years to Anger and even one said Winger for a little bit of it's life. They have been removed now but the fact that the one bridge has no railing and a 30 foot drop is reason enough to keep the nickname.



The Park was in fantastic shape, maybe even a little dusty but I was glad we were able to get a partial lap in.



A quick bite to eat at the always tasty Yia Yia's put the bow on a fantastic weekend of riding. We loaded up and headed back to Omaha, I slept like a champ that night.