Fatties at The Beach

The forecast for today was a high of 39 degrees and rain all afternoon. With a foot of snow still on the ground, that meant the day was going to be extremely dark, misty, and gloomy. When I woke up at 7:30, the melting snow was already starting to produce a fog that hovered over the ground.

Marc and I decided to take the fat bikes up to the beach in the car, because he had to pick up his commuter bike from a friend’s house in Michigan City that afternoon, and the beach was on the way. It sprinkled all the way there.

When we got to the beach, we parked at the Kemil Beach Visitor Center. It’s about a mile from the visitor center straight to the shore. As we headed onto the shore, we noticed the sand was not very compact and was very difficult to ride on, and the shelf ice was soft, making riding in some areas even more difficult. After about 1/2 mile I was ready to give up. My bike was sinking in the sand and a higher gear made me sink deeper. Shifting to a lower gear didn’t work. Marc stopped and took 8 pounds of pressure out of my tires, and the bike immediately took off. It was amazing the difference it made.

We rode all the way to Porter Beach, where we were to hook up with some fellow fat bike riders. By then the mist and fog was so thick that I could barely see 100 feet in front of me. I could hear the 5 fat bikes coming long before I could see them.

The seven of us continued down the beach, and I was very happy to see that some of the guys had found a very fast moving path along the ice. Some of the guys opted to ride on the ridge of the shelf ice. At one point Eric fell through some ice and soaked his shoes. Melanie and I decided to go to higher ground to some sand. By this time we were all moving pretty fast.

I rode ahead and then turned around to see that the guys had discovered something. It was a cave of sorts in the ice shelf caused by the waves. It was so cool, and was the perfect photo op spot.

After we took pictures, we walked our bikes down off of the ridge and Mike slipped and slid all the way down with his bike. It was an oops moment that Marc captured on video. (Mike wasn’t hurt!)

We all continued back down the beach and turned down Kemil Beach Road to head back to the visitor center. The whir of 14 fat bike tires riding in unison on the pavement was awesome.

Marc and I packed up our bikes and got ready to head to pick up his commuter bike. Eric tried drying his feet, and then the rest of the fat bike group headed home.