We Are Dreaming

Good Morning. We are busy planning, dreaming and hoping for our upcoming 2020 gravel cycling season. We will be following state and local guidelines as to when it will be safe to begin traveling again and bring you all back together. I hope our work with keeping each other well pays off soon. Thanks for doing what you can on that front.

I have been thinking a lot about the power of cycling on my mental state. I know that getting out and riding our local backroads helps me to keep my act together. I know that it is where I go to explore creative ideas. It’s where I go to vent and have discussions with my demons. It’s where I get some semblance of clarity. I know it is where I go to dream.

I have been thinking a lot about the emotional and physical stripping down that happened during and after my 2017 Tour Divide journey. For unknown reasons, I have been drawn again to that level of commitment, travel, suffering, joy, process, cleansing. I do not know if one can ever have the same experience twice. I feel fortunate to have had one that powerful at all. I am curious what other long distance travelers have felt about that desire. I also know the power of being near to my family. I feel thankful for both.

I am also feeling an overwhelming desire to be camping, sleeping on the ground and fishing. Building campfires, cooking by pack stove and listening to the wind at night. Having my girls tucked in close to me.

We are missing our shared time during the events. We hope that you are surviving and even thriving in some new meaningful ways. If there is one thing that I experienced every day on the Tour, it was the fact that no matter what, I had to keep the pedals turning. Every day presented a new challenge that scrambled my plans for what I had envisioned. And every day I traveled and discovered that I was right where I should be. There is clarity in that process. I hope you are keeping the pedals turning, too. See you soon.

high tailing it across the Great Basin

Le Grand du Nord is Canceled

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the cancelation of this year’s Le Grand du Nord, May 23, Grand Marais, MN.

We are making this decision now because the best available data indicates that bringing hundreds of people together into a community (Grand Marais, Cook County and the greater North Shore region) with very limited health care resources would be highly irresponsible on our part. Our first concern is that our participants and the small communities that host our events stay as safe as possible.

This is what we will do:

• Refund 95% of riders’ original event entry fee back on the card used for registration

• Refund 100% of tee shirt orders

• Do not refund those who registered for The Flight because it includes a “free” event within the package

We remain hopeful that The Heck Epic (July 17-19) and Heck of the North (September 26) will take place. We will make those important decisions closer to the event dates.

We will miss the opportunity to bring you all together to experience some of the best gravel cycling in the country. We will miss being hosted by our friends in Grand Marais. I will miss meeting you at the finish line. Our events are our passion. I’m not sure what I will do in its place but ride my bike and hope for healthier times together.

Be well. I miss you already,

Jeremy Kershaw and Family

Photo Clint Austin

Waiting and Watching

Good Morning!

We are taking the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic very seriously. We view this as a world wide concern, not a “foreign virus.” We wish good health and civility to all in this world.

As of today, our 2020 Le Grand du Nord, May 23, is still on. We will be monitoring the situation very closely and make changes as necessary.

Ride your bike! Get outside! Take care of yourself, your neighbors and send good energy to those around the world who are struggling!

Ride the Good Line~

Jeremy Kershaw

A Trip to Romania

My view from our apartment in Lupeni, Romania, June 2019

In June of 2019, I was invited by Dave Nonnemacher (of Duluth, MN) and Dana Bates (of Lupeni, Romania) to visit Dana and Brandi Bates’ home in the town of Lupeni, (pronounced “Lu-pen”) Jiu Valley, Romania. This invitation was made by Dave almost a year before, sometime after he finished his 2018 Heck Epic.

Dave, Dana and Brandi do work for an organization called New Horizons Foundation. Dana is the co-founder with his wife, Brandi, and Executive Director of NHF. Brandi is the Administrative Director and Human Resources/Fundraising coordinator for the foundation, as well as childhood reading advocate and mother of two (see bio’s at bottom of page.) Dave has worked with Dana for decades, both in Romania and in the US with various aspects of New Horizons. We met as he tackled the North Shore by bike on a few different Heck events.

The New Horizons Foundation mission statement: “which was founded in 2000 in Romania’s Jiu Valley, is to inspire youth to lead and to produce social change.  We do this by innovating and sustaining models of experiential education which empower youth to develop themselves, their communities, and the world in which they live!”

Dave had an idea that maybe my work with creating gravel cycling events could possibly assist with Dana’s latest efforts to introduce cycling to the Jiu Valley as a viable source of economic stimulation and healthy activity for the youth of New Horizons and the valley, in general. Dave started sending me teaser photos of his recent travels in the Jiu Valley by bike. Roman roads. Lush mountain scapes mixed with rock-cairn alpine trails. Emails peppered with comments, like, “I think you might really be interested in this area. It receives almost no cycling pressure, either.” After a couple of modest nudges to make the trip, Avesa and I booked tickets in the snowy days of 2019. I had never been to Europe and the idea of the Transylvanian region, among the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, being my first travel destination across the pond took me a bit by surprise. There were more than a few nights I lay in bed wondering what I had just gotten myself into.

I am going to cut to the chase and show a few of my photos from the trip. Dana and Brandi are incredible hosts doing truly groundbreaking, inspiring work. Dave was an amazing travel companion helping me to negotiate the nuances of Romanian culture. Avesa and I experienced a world that was beautiful, spirited, awe-inspiring, ragged at times, and in the midst of shaking off decades of rather interesting governing policies (put mildly.)

I will say this. I plan to go back someday soon. I plan to discover more by bikepacking. I plan on consulting to help build a Heck-like event with very Romanian aspects. And I think you should pay attention to the work being done by some truly amazing people in this special valley. Please feel free to contact me (jeremybkershaw@gmail.com) with questions, comments or ideas of visiting. Peace!

Dana, Teo and a small group of us heading out of Lupeni into the mountains

Mountain biking, downhill and enduro are getting very popular in Romania

Everywhere we traveled, locals would welcome us with food and spirits. And hold onto your hat with the homemade stuff.

Dave and I helped do some local beehive relocation work…

…were offered fresh milk, delivered in a recycled, 2 liter Fanta soda bottle…

Explored world famous caves…

cycled over Roman/Dacian made roads (80 AD?)

Met many gracious shepherds…

strolled the Saints Tunnel on the ski slopes of Straja, just above the town of Lupeni

And we road the wild roads of the Carpathian’s, home to Europe’s last populations of brown bear, linx and wolves.

Ves and I traveled a lot by train. I have very strong feelings now about humanity, gun violence and the civility that comes from sharing a train with the young, old, rich and poor.

Our post communist-era housing in Lupeni was completely perfect

Ves and I did some side traveling through the ancient cities of Sibiu (this fella was anxiously awaiting his person to come inside…)

the Eyes of Sibiu are a common window construction in this city’s roof-scape

and Sighisoara (do not come here to visit Vlad the Impalers birth place)

If the stars align, I will return to do what I can to assist the good people of this valley.

A sincere thank you to Dave, Dana, Brandi and our family and friends (especially Farrow, Susan Perala-Dewey and the Soderberg family) for helping us complete this journey.

evening stroll in Retezat National Park

A brief bio on Dana Bates: Dr. Dana Bates is the executive director and co-founder of New Horizons Foundation that pioneered both adventure education and service learning in Romania.   The unique youth development programs now span the globe.   Dana is also the director of Northwestern College’s Romania Semester. He graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. After earning his bachelor’s degree he went on to earn a Master of Divinity degree at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a doctorate from Middlesex University in London.   In 2017, he began to dedicate much of his tiime towards the transformation of his coal mining region in Romania through mountain biking and adventure tourism.

A brief bio on Brandi Bates: Brandi Bates graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. Brandi co-founded New Horizons Foundation with her husband, Dana Bates. Brandi Bates serves as the Administrative Director for New Horizons Foundation, and she is the Director of the summer Viata Program. She also coordinates Human Resources and fundraising for the Foundation.

Welcome to Gravel for Good Commuting

This year, we are encouraging all participants of any Heck of the North Productions event (Le Grand du Nord, The Heck Epic and The Heck of the North) to commute the same number of miles they race. For example, if you are planning to race Le Grand du Nord 100, then your goal is to log the same number of miles commuting. Any form of commuting is acceptable(cycling, walking, running, skiing, etc,) as long as it does not involve driving (and taking the bus is still better, but does not count.)

We have been fortunate enough to be able to walk or bike to work for the last 15 years. I believe that this simple act helps improves our health and reduce carbon emissions simultaneously. Our hope is that you enjoy the same benefits for this 2020 season.

Feel free to join our Gravel for Good Strava club. Or, keep your miles logged in your own notebook. However you choose, I trust that you are keeping track. Of note, the Strava club is for commuting miles only! I know that many put in lots of other training miles and log via Strava. I ask that all miles logged in this club are to and from work or other commuting miles only. Thank you!

We are working on a special thank you gift for completing this challenge. I believe that the reward of accomplishing this is well beyond that of any token item…but I’m game to throw in a carrot or two to help!

Good luck! The season begins now and ends by the start of The Heck of the North in September.

Jeremy Kershaw

Dogsledding counts!