#coffeeneuring2019: Eight Is Great; Nine Is Fine

It was the last weekend for this year's coffeeneuring season. I already had seven rides in the book. But a) this year's challenge suggested doing an "eight is great" bonus ride and b) the weather forecast was very promising for late November. So in the end, I did two coffee rides.
 
On Saturday my good friend and riding buddy Kevin headed out for a quick morning ride. Kevin had suggested Finca Coffee as our destination. I hadn't heard of them before but was intrigued when Kevin told me their backstory: Before opening Finca, the team had run 5th Element Coffee in our neighborhood. 5th Element had great coffee but for various reasons didn't survive very long as a business. The new shop has a different (and probably better) concept: Less industrial, minimalist decor with a focus solely on coffee; more light and warmth, still good coffee, but also fresh Salvadoran food. There were still some issues with the place, which is why in the end decided to not make this my final coffeeneuring ride. I'll have to go check Finca out again to come up with a more informed verdict.

Cemetery on Kroghville Road

On Sunday the plan was to head east, pick up some VeloViewer Explorer tiles and also collect new roads. With no firm coffee plan in place, I headed to Cottage Grove. In the interest of road collecting and because my usual routes to Cottage Grove suck in various ways, I tried a slightly different route: Milwaukee to Sprecher to T to Seminary Springs, but then I continued on Gaston instead of turning right on Vilas. Gaston was great and taking Highway N into Cottage Grove started promising as well, with a comfortable bike lane. Unfortunately the bike lane quickly disappeared, and I may have to try yet another route to get to the Glacial Drumlin Trail in a comfortable, stress-free manner.

Where are ma fenders???

The trail turned out to be in not the greatest condition. Compared to other unpaved trails in the area, the Glacial Drumlin usually drains well and dries quickly. However, I was greeted by soft, peanut-buttery conditions. Presumably the ground was still frozen, preventing the water from draining. Of course I was on a fenderless bike...

Fortunately my route took me off the trail soon anyway. Heading further east on Highway BB, I was reminded that it was deer hunting season by a big dumpster on the side of the road, "Deer carcasses only." I was getting close to the first tile, on the wonderfully quiet Kroghville Rd. The roads remained quiet, with most through-traffic either on BB or on the interstate. Because of the interstate cutting off access, I had several out-and-backs on dead-end roads to get to the tiles I needed.



At this point I was well beyond the half-way point and needed to make a coffee plan. I considered riding north into the small town of Marshall, but I suspected the only coffee I'd be able to find there would be at a gas station. Cottage Grove was another option, but in the end I decided to just ride back to Madison and get my coffee there.

This was my first time visiting Garver Feed Mill, a restored historic brick building hosting several food vendors. I had seen pictures of the interior before, but only being there in person made me realize how huge (and currently empty) the space is. Surya Cafe brands itself as "conscious, plant-based cuisine." As they were closing shortly and their food prices seemed fairly high, I just got a double espresso and a gluten-free, vegan cookie. The cookie was crumbly but tasty; the espresso was quite alright. I'll definitely return and try their food.



I guess this was it for coffeeneuring season in 2019. I had a really great time and look forward to doing it yet again next year. Thanks so much to Mary G for organizing the challenge year after year! I would never ever ride this much at this time of the year without the Coffeeneuring Challenge.

Rider name: Harald, Kevin
Ride #: 8
Date: 11/23
Total mileage: 25 mi (41 km)
Drink: Drip coffee
Location: Finca Coffee

Rider name: Harald
Ride #: 9
Date: 11/24
Total mileage: 69 mi (112 km)
Drink: Espresso
Location: Surya Coffee
Music: Bad Company - Inside the Machine

#coffeeneuring in Minneapolis: Minnehaha Falls and Angry Catfish

My previous coffeeneuring ride involved lutefisk; today's ride featured Angry Catfish. I'm in Minneapolis for a couple days and so I went on a coffeeneuring adventure on a NiceRide bike share bike. From the UM campus, I followed the Mississippi downstream. My first destination was Minnehaha Falls. Google predicted it would take me just under 30 minutes to bike there and my NiceRide day pass only gives me free 30-minute rides, and so I had to flip bike about halfway.

The NiceRide station near the falls is one of the southernmost stations in the system, and I took some time to walk around the falls and marvel at the beauty of falling water and ice.

For my coffee destination I had picked Angry Catfish, which is a combo of a bike and coffee shop. Getting there by bike share bike involved quite a bit of walking from and to the nearest bike share station. The coffee -- an espresso, the brand of which I forgot -- was excellent and served with sparkling water. The bike shop was very cool too. Lots of bikepacking accessories, Swift bags, Swrve clothing, and a bunch of neat bikes. I discovered that Big Agnes now has a bikepacking-specific version of their ultralight tents, with poles that are only 12" long. Way too expensive for me, but also tempting.

If you're in the area, go check out the shop. Definitely worth a visit. On the way back, I made a lunch stop at Hard Times, a vegetarian/vegan worker-owned café with great punk/crust music and tasty food.

Rider name: Harald
Ride #: 7
Date: 11/15
Total mileage: 14 mi (22 km) on the bike, plus a good bit of walking
Drink: Espresso
Location: Angry Catfish Bicycle Shop and Coffee Bar
Food: Vegan Helter Skelter at Hard Times: Hash browns with a bunch of grilled veggies and tofu

#coffeeneuring 2019: The Northern Edge of Dane

The below-average temperatures and above-average snowfall have continued in Wisconsin. So it was a relief to see slightly milder temperatures forecast for Saturday. Whereas last week I kept my ride rather short and focused on collecting roads, this week I was determined to get more VeloViewer tiles. That meant heading northwest, and then following the northern border of Dane County east. My intermediate destination was Sun Prairie, where a 'cross race would take place.

At the county border

What made the ride more challenging was that I was on my fixed-gear Cross-Check with studded tires. Last year I had put on the Schwalbe Marathon Winters on November 17; this year I had to grudgingly install them two weeks earlier than that. The tires have very stiff sidewalls, and so etween the studded tires and the sometimes rough roads, I felt pretty beat up by the end of the ride.

With no great coffee option along the route, I brought my own

 There was still plenty of snow on the ground, but the roads were almost completely clear. I loved seeing the contrast between the white snow and the remaining leaves on trees and cornfields that hadn't been harvested yet.

Northern Dane County has many very straight roads

Not too steep, not too long for my fixie

Not exactly sure what makes Morrisonville "Frogtown USA"

 I arrived at the race course in Sun Prairie just in time to see my friend Kierstin depart. She had taken the direct route to the race in the morning in order to cheer on friends and team mates. I also saw some other familiar faces watching the race: Andy, who kindly threw me a can of Hamm's, and Baltazar and Mark. The race was horribly muddy, which made for good spectating and picture taking.

Enjoying my coffee, 55 miles into the ride

I believe this was my longest ever fixed gear ride on studded tires, with 6 hours on the bike. Hard, but very satisfying. Oh, and I did get 23 new tiles!

Rider name: Harald
Ride #: 6
Date: 11/10
Total mileage: 76 mi (122 km)
Drink: Cafe latte (2 shots with Equal Exchange Breakfast Blend, oat milk from Trader Joe's)
Location: Sheehan Park, Sun Prairie (WI)
Music: Nile – Vile Nilotic Rites
New gear: I finally threw out my almost 10-year-old Lake MXZ-302s winter boots and replaced them with the successor model.

#coffeeneuring 2019: Wandrering in the 'burbs

I have a new addiction: Not only do I collect tiles, I have started collecting roads on the Wandrer app. In short, where with VeloViewer's Explorer Squares the goal is just to ride any road in a given square on the map, Wandrer makes you ride every road in your neighborhood, city, county, country, or the world! My Explorer Square is pretty sizeable at this point, which means that to get new squares I have to ride a long way. Wandrer of course has many more roads to collect, even just within my neighborhood. This makes it great for combining it with a coffeeneuring ride on a rather grey day.

I picked a Starbucks in suburban Fitchburg as my destination. I know, I know... Usually I try to avoid chain coffee shops for coffeeneuring (and in general). However, for weekend coffeeneuring they do have the advantage of staying open longer than most local coffee shops.

As for the route, I made a plan for picking up some local road very close to my starting point and then just play it by ear. By doing that I discovered some good stuff: fun leftover Halloween decorations, quiet residential streets, sandhill cranes, the freshly repaved Cap City Trail. But for the most part it was: depressing single-family greenfield development at the edge of town, three car garages, overly wide cul-de-sac roads, car-centric malls -- you know the type.

Rider name: Harald
Ride #: 5
Date: 11/3
Total mileage: 35ish mi (50ish km); forgot to turn back on my Strava after a stop at Aldi
Drink: small Pike Place in a paper cup. Only upside: In a seriously backlogged Starbucks, I got my drink immediately
Location: Starbucks inside the Target on McKee Road, Fitchburg (WI)
Podcast: Die wundersame Fahrradwelt [The wonderful bicycle world]. This is a great German podcast by Johanna Jahnke, an accomplished amateur fixed gear racer and ultracyclist. For this episode she spent over two hours chatting with Fiona Kolbinger, who won this year's Transcontinental Race.