Gophers and Cheese

Ever since Moto Mania (yes, a huge write up and many photos are coming soon...), I have been wanting to get my 883 out on more gravel and dirt roads to go adventure riding.  The trick has been finding places to ride near the Twin Cities but thanks to some recommendations and gravelmap.com , I found some good spots over the last two weekends.  If you have additional recommendations, please send them to me!!! The first place I found was the Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area near Ham Lake and East Bethel, MN.  I visited the park two weeks ago and it was beautiful!  While I know snowmobiles and ATVs are clearly banned, I didn't see any reason I couldn't ride a motorcycle through it so I did. After that experience, I wanted more and planned a full day down in the Red Wing, MN area this past Friday.  Here are a few sunrise photos along the St. Croix Trail between I-94 and Prescott (which is now freshly re-paved by the way - go check it out)....

Moto Mania was incredible!!!  I am currently working on a feature for Chop Cult and after that I will start work on blog posts.  I took over 1,300 photos and after a first pass have it down to 400.  I need to take another pass or two and then get to editing.  That said, I already chose and edited 30 really good ones for Chop Cult so you can look forward to that along with a detailed write-up. For now, enjoy this photo that Dan Raleigh took of me riding around the track during Moto Mania on Saturday.  HUGE thanks to Dan for organizing such an amazing event. I posted a bunch of photos and video clips during the event on Instagram / Facebook / Twitter if you want to check those out (same content on all 3).

I've you've been following me on Instagram , Facebook , or Twitter , then you know I'm REALLY excited for Moto Mania on 8-1-2015.  It's only a week away!!! I'm so excited that I even bought and then modified a 2003 XL883R with the goal of having it ready for the event (I plan to use it long after the event too, of course).  This is it, probably 95% done: I am also very excited to be an official sponsor of the event, alongside some of my favorite local and national brands. However, after all the posts and buzz on the interwebs, you might still have no idea what Moto Mania actually is.  I suspect that the main reason you might be confused is because the monthly bike night at the Uptown VFW that occurs the first Thursday of each month is also called Moto Mania and it is organized by the same person, Dan Raleigh.  It turns out that Dan calls everything "Moto Mania".  The monthly bike night, the dirt track event, all of his kids, his wife, each of h...