Lakeland News reporter Shane Lee catches Cuyuna Lakes Whiteout fever.

Special thanks to Lakeland News of Brainerd and Bemidji for reporting live from the Cuyuna Lakes Whiteout this past weekend. Reporter Shane Lee took a great amount of time to document many facets of the Iron Yeti Sagamore Snowxross and also chat with racers following. The end product, pure awesome.

Looking forward to 2014. The Whiteout is proof positive of why living in Cuyuna is nothing but sweet.

Twin Cities Live producer Kelli Hanson experiences first hand Cuyuna's fat bike trails.

I need to give a shout out to Twin Cities Live producer Kelli Hanson. She really dedicated her total self to the fat bike experience. No holds barred and 100% fun. She rocks. It was great to have Kelli up to the Sagamore Unit at the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area. It's always fun to experience a first ride with someone new to the sport.

Thank you Twin Cities Live, thank you Kelli. An amazing segment, you did great!

Mike Binkley of WCCO TV in Minneapolis investigates: "Is the Cuyuna Lakes Yeti real?"

Below is the WCCO TV - Minneapolis/St. Paul Finding Minnesota video segment that Mike Binkley produced to ask the question once and for all: "Is the Cuyuna Lakes Yeti real?"

Riding a fat bike in the dark.

Above is a nice video of fat biking at night I created earlier this winter. Except for five times this winter, night riding has been my default time to spin the pedals.

Schedule dicated.
It's not so much the desire to ride at night, it's more necessity. The day is short, the responsibilities are long, and by the time all has been settled for the day, it's dark and it's night. It's generally cold as well.

Thankfully the Yawkey Unit of the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area is open until 10:00pm. I generally can score a two hour ride three times a week to "burn out the carbon" as I say. In other words, pedal out the stress gained from the day. Stress from my creative director position at RedHouseMedia, stress from being the president of the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Crew.

In the video is John Schaubach, Schaubach rides the Minnesota State Highway Plow Truck Orange Salsa Mukluk. Special note: John is 66 years old.

Don't tell John that though.

I ride with John 2 out of every 3 times I ride.
He's a pitbull on wheels and he rides fast.

John is visual proof that fat biking is not just for 20 and 30 somethings that are crazy.
It's also for sixty somethings that are crazy.

All kidding aside, fat biking offers a new way of enjoying the great outdoors, in a way that defies the typical way of interacting with the outdoors.

Defy the typical, sounds like Cuyuna.

PS) Special note on the video The lyrics were created and sung by Father Klunker, to the epic rhythm and tune of Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."

Escape from the Cloud City.

A quick shout out to Weather.gov.

This past Saturday I was in St. Cloud for the American Ad Awards. The good news is our agency brought home two silver and one gold awards.

The freaky part of the fun night was wondering what the weather was going to do.

I was referred to Weather.gov by Steve Weber, the Park Manager of the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area.

Looking at Weather.gov's analytics of when they forecasted the snow would start to fall was a huge travel advantage.

I left at 7:45am. The road between St. Cloud and Rice was a little interesting but nothing bad. From Royalton to Cuyuna the road was in good condition.

Checking in with my associates who also left St. Cloud shortly after me their story was quite a bit different.

It looks like just leaving 30 minutes earlier saved about one hour of additional travel time once the sky opened with the snow and wind.

The summary is check out weather.gov. It's not as flashy and cool looking as the other ad generating weather channels but it turns out weather.gov was spot on accurate!

The Cuyuna Lakes Whiteout.

Since my last post it's been non-stop Cuyuna Lakes Whiteout event promotion. In my role as the President of the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Crew the Whiteout is one of our key fundraisers for the year. I have the honor of co-chairing the Whiteout with our Crew Event Director, Bonnie Finnerty.

To get everyone up to speed, below are a handful of the social media and traditional tools that we're launched to get the word up and running for the Whiteout.

The first Whiteout interview on Mountain Bike Radio with Ben Welnack.

Father Klunker (Bruce Swanson) sings his epic ballad to the Cuyuna Lakes Yeti. Musical melody in honor of Gordon Lightfoot's "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"

The point of view preview video I created for the Iron Yeti Sagamore Snowxross Race. Thank you to Matt Sundquist and Kelly Ziegler who helped out with the video. Thank you to John Schaubach who helped me on the first two filmings, but then the epic hard drive fail happened and we needed to re-shoot a few days worth of film.

The Cuyuna Lakes Whiteout event shirt. Dain, Keith, and Matthew from RedHouseMedia took a photo that I captured from the 2012 Whiteout and illustrated the Yeti into the fat bike starting line. Pretty cool.

The 2013 Whiteout event poster. Cool art, great colors, super partner businesses who helped us make this happen. Thanks again to Keith, Dain, and Matthew at RedHouseMedia for bringing to together the artwork!

Friday, March 1st through Saturday, March 2nd, 2013.
Cuyuna Lakes Whiteout.
Crosby-Ironton - Mountain Bike Town Minnesota.
Be here.

Yawkey Snow Day

 This past week in the Cuyuna Lakes we were blessed with a storm of 6 inches of fresh powder followed by another storm of sleet, freezing rain, and then snow.

Turns out that mix, along with the awesome volunteer work of the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Crew snow shoe brigade and fat bike super stars allowed the Yawkey Unit trails to be spot on.

Above is a short video highlight proving why I think the Yawkey Unit might just be on of the most beautiful places in all of Minnesota when dressed in white.

Home Sleet Home.

The scene inside the East Yawkey Clubhouse following the day of fun in the white snow, sleet, and snow. (iPhone 4)

6:00am this morning my alarm clock fired up to John Denver's "Country Road."

Immediately I went outside.
I received a text from Steve Weber of the Minnesota DNR (CCSRA Park Manager) the night prior that we would be receiving rain this morning in Cuyuna.

Once again, Steve was right.

Upon opening the front door I was greeted with puddles of water and a shiny sidewalk.
It was obvious for today, the fat bike would stay put.

This however did open the book to new opportunity, good opportunity.
For the first time this winter I was able to fire up the Craftsman lawn tractor and snow blow our driveway.
Like a hot knife through butter that project was completed before daylight.

Following the snow removal, the wee Hautala's came outside all bundled up in their winter's finest. 

Trail left behind Lou. (iPhone 4)

This provided myself a little wiggle room where they were enjoying themselves in the snow, I needed to stay out with them, and I knew Moonlander might not mind coming out for a few hot laps around the yard.

Since having the new Bud and Lou 4.8 tires (4.8 inches wide) I've been wanting to get a few good pictures of the tread pattern in the snow.
Not only was I able to capture a few fun photos of the fat boys in the snow, I also had the opporortunity to ride (4) times on my summer trail I've called "Rhubarb Run." The name was chosen as this trail goes by the garden on into the scrub brush of the woods.

Oddly enough in this dreary, wet, melting snow day, Bud and Lou trudged on without fail. (Even through uncharted parts of the woods through scrub brush and who knows what.)
I'd say it was easier pedaling through 4.0" of melting sloppy snow that it was pedaling through 4.0" of powder fresh snow last week this time.

This snow was like mashed potatoes.

The wee Finn and his pride and joy for this day, Mr. Snowman. (iPhone 4)

While I groomed the Rhubarb Run trail the wee Hautala's were working on their snowmen. The snow was sticky as ever, making a ball for a snow man only took a few feet of rolling as the snow added up so fast due to it's moisture.

I took a quick pedal down the road in front of my house. I had a few neighbors see the Moonlander for the first time, that was fun! I also noticed all the tire treads on the road from the cars passing by. When I saw a Ford F-!50 go by I had to drive right near its tracks to see the difference in tire footprint from the Surly Moonlander to F150.

The results speak for themselves below.

Moonlander's Lou on the left. Ford F-150 on the right. (iPhone 4)

All said, this snow day, sleet day, freezing rain day was a wonderful retreat from Saturday as normal. Now let's freeze up, snow often, and ride fat, daily.

Seeing the light before the sunrise.

Lately our mornings have been dark. 

Cloudy too, which for a seeker of light (photographer) can be a bit tough on how my brain feels.

Yesterday near 4:30pm, the evening sky broke as I exited work at the Franklin Arts Center. The picture above is the sky that met my eyes.

Perfect gradation of color and form. In a way only the Master could create.

The sky triggered in my mind one of my favorite songs by Matt Maher titled Alive Again.

Here's the first few sentences from the song, check it out, buy it yourself, listen to it every morning, see what you think. When I drive to work every day with the wee Hautalas we sing this song out loud.

'Cause I can see the light before I see the sunrise

You called and You shouted
Broke through my deafness
Now I'm breathing in and breathing out
I'm alive again

You shattered my darkness
Washed away my blindness
Now I'm breathing in and breathing out
I'm alive again