2023 Gravel for Good

This mural was completed in August 2017 by NSRGNTS (lead artist Votan Ik), with help from over 50 community members who came to assist the artists in finishing the designs on the jingle dress. The mural is located at Gimaajii-Mino-Bimaadizimin (202 W. 2nd Street, Duluth, MN) overlooking our solar rooftop gardens.

Gravel For Good is our way of giving back to local communities. Each organization will receive $500 from Heck of the North Productions.

We are proud to donate to the American Indian Community Housing Organization (AICHO.) In their words: “We started with nothing. Today, we offer an American Indian Community Center, 44 units of permanent supportive housing, a domestic violence emergency shelter, legal advocacy, a climate and cultural resiliency initiative, social enterprise activities, youth programming and an arts and culture initiative. All of our work is anchored in our mission to honor the resiliency of Indigenous people by strengthening communities and centering Indigenous values in all aspects of our work. Our philosophy is that every American Indian person deserves to live in non-violent and non-threatening environment and has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.”

We feel honored to be partnering with New Horizons Foundation and the transformative work being carried out by Dana and Brandi Bates and our local friend, Dave Nonnemacher of Duluth! This year, we are donating toward The Ray of Life solar light project.

We are proud to sponsor the Northwoods Cycling Team in Two Harbors and Lake County. This team will promote local racing, training and cycling education options for all levels of cyclists.

Northwoods Cycling Team at Le Grand du Nord 2023

We will also be donating to the Superior Cycling Association in Grand Marais and Cook county. This organization works to build trail and promote cycling in this beautiful part of the world.

Duluth, Grand Marais, Ely and Two Harbors are fortunate to have strong and growing cycling communities. But more could always be done. We hope to contribute toward making cycling more accessible to all ages and incomes in our region. Thanks for helping out.

-Jeremy Kershaw (founder)

Welcome Northern Movement strength & PT

As Graveleers and folks who are active in all parts of our lives, we strive for optimum health and fitness. Many of us manage acute and chronic health issues related to physical activity. Some are looking to build strength and seasonal training goals. And one of my personal tenets, proper bike fit, is key to cycling success. With this, we welcome Hailey Corradi DPT and Northern Movement Strength & PT as a new sponsor of Heck Productions events. Hailey, a Duluth resident, is a veteran Heck/Le Grand cyclist and usually found crushing it at the front of the pack.

Northern Movement was created by Hailey Corradi, Doctor of Physical Therapy and Strength and Conditioning Specialist, to help cyclists dealing with persistent pain that is limiting them.

 Northern Movement is providing three different services:

• Rehab Programming for Pain & injury

• Strength & Wellness Coaching

• Mobile (in-home) bike fits in Duluth, MN

Hailey received her Doctorate of Physical Therapy from The College of Saint Scholastica in 2020 and her Bachelors in Health and Wellness from the University of Minnesota in 2015. She is also a certified bike fitter and strength and conditioning specialist."

Hailey is offering a special 20% off first visit/service with proof of registration (BikeReg confirmation #) for Le Grand du Nord or The Heck of the North. This can be submitted when registering for a Northern Movement program.

This is the perfect time of year to begin working for your gravel goals in 2024. Thank you Northern Movement for being part of our 2024 season!

Registration Reminder

Ready to roll! Photo Josh Kowaleski

It’s hard to believe but registration for all Heck of the North Productions events begins January 1, 2024.

We welcome all levels of riders to our gravel and bikepacking events. We especially appreciate those who may have never ridden in a gravel cycling event. We know it can be intimidating! The best way to get over some of those jitters is to reach out to someone who has ridden one of our events before. That means emailing us or one of our Gravel Go-To’s to ask any question you may have about this style of cycling. Yes…our events are tough. Some distances (the 100 milers) and (The Wolf Bikepacking Race) may be out of reach for a beginner. But I believe with proper training, a reliable bicycle and realistic expectations…you can be a Graveleer in 2024.

Please use the registration buttons found in each event’s Registration Page to start the process. BikeReg is our registration platform again for 2024.

We know that you have many options for events in 2024. What a great time to be a cyclist! We thank you for what you bring to our races. They just would not be the same without YOU!

Jeremy Kershaw

Registration and The Fox Date

Deep into The Fox Photo Josh Kowaleski

We are both waiting for good snow and also planning for Summer gravel and bikepacking. Please note this important change to our 2024 schedule!

The Fox Bikepacking Race is now June 22-23, 2024. We were kindly informed about a double booking with our good friends at the Lutsen 99er on the last weekend of June. We are moving The Fox to the new date of June 22-23. We sincerely apologize for any hiccups to vacation planning/booking we may have caused by this change. We hope you can join us at this earlier date!

Registration for all Heck of the North Production events goes live January 1, 2024. We typically do not crash any servers…but we are certainly filling up faster each year. We thank you for your participation. We have the best people in cycling both racing and supporting the events. We are truly grateful for the spirit and energy you bring. It is inspiring.

Until then, keep active, be outside, surround yourself with good people and Ride the Good Line!

Jeremy Kershaw

The Flight

Ross emerging from the wilderness, Knife River crossing, Heck 2023. Photo Josh Kowaleski

In 2019, we introduced a special award for the season called The Flight. This award recognized racers that completed all three Heck of the North Productions events that year; Le Grand du Nord 100 mile, The Heck Epic 220 mile and The Heck of the North 100 mile. Then the world got all weird.

This year we were wacky enough to offer four Heck Productions events; Le Grand du Nord, The Fox Bikepacking Race, The Wolf Bikepacking Race and The Heck of the North. With pandemics, floods and wild fires, we just do not have the audacity to assume all of our events will actually happen in a given year anymore. But, as luck would have it (with some really amazing people, too!), we pulled them all off in 2023.

When we went through our lists of finishers, we felt not only obliged, but also honored to recognize a certain rider this year. And that special person is Duluth’s Ross Fraboni. Ross completed Le Grand du Nord 100, The Fox Bikepacking Race (120 mile), The Wolf Bikepacking Race (330 mile) and The Heck of the North 100 with the grace and style that none only Fraboni can produce. For that effort and dedication, we are awarding him The Flight Award; a three night stay at Bearskin Lodge, way up on the Gunflint Trail. Thank you Ross (and thanks to our sponsor friends at Bearskin Lodge!)

Here’s another bit of Ross Fraboni trivia that we especially admire. He is, by our calculations, the only rider who has completed every Heck 100 race since our beginning in 2009 (that’s 14 of them.) And not only finish, but usually within the top 10. Holy smokes.

We also want to give a huge congrats to our participants who finished three Heck Productions events this year: Kevin Kaiser (who almost got the Flight award, too) Mary Gorski, Gina McCafferty, Elana Bantle, Devin Koob, Rob Weum, Patrick Pawlowski, Eric Storbakken and Alan McEwan. These are some seriously hearty Heck racers and we appreciate your dedication to our events. Thank you!

This month, we will be looking at our notes from the events over coffee and wine and maybe both. We will look at what worked and what needs tuning. We will be keeping it as Heck worthy as we can. We will finalize dates for events, too. Stay tuned for all of this and more.

And if you have not read this by Avesa, Jeremy Got Sick So Avesa Took Charge and Slam Dunked The Biggest Heck of the North Ever please do. Our friend Josh at The Nxrth does good work.

Until then, Ride the Good Line

Jeremy

Kate Ratkovich is one talented athlete herself. Kate recently finished The Fox this Summer along with some really long trail running events. Together, Ross and Kate are a pretty badass team. Thanks for all that you bring to our events. (Ross usually wears shoes during races.) Photo Jeremy