If you would’ve told me 6 months ago that we’d have over 100 people sign up for this thing, I would’ve laughed in your face. Today we hit 101, and I had to go change my underwear.

We’ve also picked up a few more sponsors. I’m pleased to announce that The Therapy Source, (Owensville, MO),  will be donating Biofreeze samples to all racers.

Dana Goodman, (owner), also said that if we can raise over $1,000 for the Callaway Animal Shelter, she’d release video footage of Corey Case and Adam Hempelmann doing a Zumba class together at her facility. I’m writing out a check as we speak.

And just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, I heard back from Kep Heintz. Kep owns the company that brought us Kep’s Balls. Do me a huge favor and “like” his facebook page. When he hits 1,000 he’s giving away a wool jersey.

I’m excited to say we’ll have an untold quantity of Kep’s delicious pollen balls to give away on raceday. If you want to try them ahead of time, (I recommend the Espresso flavor), you can order some right here.

I just think it’s great that Don Daly won’t be the only one with balls in his mouth on raceday. (Was that too much?)

The Convention and Visitors bureau has prepared a list of Cedar Cross-friendly hotels and their discount rates. You may now find them at the top of the page listed under “Local Hotels”. When reserving a room, be sure to let them know you’re racing Cedar Cross and you want the “Bob Jenkins discount”. That’ll get you an extra roll of toilet paper and one disposable toothbrush. You’re welcome.

The course has been finalized, but I don’t plan on releasing any route details until the final days leading up to the race. (I’d rather not give anyone the advantage or pre-riding.)

I also understand there are a large number of folks interested in a shorter course. I’ll work on that, but there’s a lot of other stuff to handle first.

Raceday is less than 3 months away.

Winter has finally made its way to mid-Missouri, but that’s no reason to quit obsessing about the Cedar Cross. This race will happen regardless of the weather, so course development must follow suit. This is, after all, Missouri.. you never know what the weather will be like tomorrow

While we’re out exploring back-roads and narrowing this down to the best 100(+) miles of gravel and singletrack, we like to take a few pictures. This one was taken just south of Hwy Y. On raceday you’ll roll through this spot on fresh legs…and might even see a cow or two. 

Watch out for that first step!

And why would I make you do that? Simple….cool photos. I mean, who wouldn’t want this picture of yourself hanging on the wall?

This overlook is only about ten feet from the trail

I plan to have a gear-drop somewhere near the half-way point. (This is largely dependent on whether or not I can find a volunteer to watch your stuff.) The largest gear bag I will allow is a 1-gallon ziplock bag. Put your name on it and throw it in the back of a volunteer’s truck before the race starts. I think that’s fair.

**Top-secret location**

SAG support is pretty much on you. There’s no way I’d be able to shuttle this many people back to HQ across a 100 mile course. I recommend getting a group together and setting up some kind of plan “just in case” one of you has an issue and needs to leave the course. This is what spouses and family members are for .

If you’re truly riding solo, please say so in the comments section and maybe we can get you hooked up with some new friends. Most gravel riders are good people, so these things have a way of working themselves out.

Very soon I’ll be posting information regarding hotel accomadations for you out-of-towners. Local businesses are getting excited about Cedar Cross and they’re eager to hand out discounts, free wifi and extra towels.

This race is gonna be awesome.

Enter, Backcountry Research:

Bricks were shat and my pants were ruined when I heard from the president of BackCountry Research.  For those who don’t know, Backcountry Research is the company that brought us the Awesome Strap, (among other things). He thinks the Cedar Cross is “legit” and has pledged to ”hook us up awesomely”. I can’t even begin to tell you how proud I am to say that The Cedar Cross is officially listed on BCR’s race calendar. Please go to their website and buy something right now. Seriously, do it. I did.

Did I mention we’re also sponsored by Foosh? I guess I’ve been using Foosh mints for about a year now, and I love them. Jason Kensey is the fonder of the Foosh empire, and I’m happy to say he’s a supporter of the Cedar Cross and Team Virtus. Everyone I know that’s tried Foosh has loved it, so you’re probably no different. Foosh is like an Altoid mint with more caffeine than a Monster or a Red Bull. Yep, they’re awesome.

My buddy Nick Smith, (owner of RedWheel Bike shop), was also quick to lend a hand. Not only will he be racing in the Cedar Cross, he’s also giving me a STEEP discount on one of these babies to raffle off on raceday:

Is your mind blown yet? It damn well better be. But wait, there’s more…

I also landed a pretty sweet discount on some Chamois Butt’r.   200 of the sample size ‘butter packs’ were sold to me for $60. So, everyone should be able to go home with a minimal amount of taint destruction. No need to thank me.

As if all of this wasn’t already overwhelming enough, I recently received an email from the Jefferson City Convention and Visitors Bureau. It seems they’ve heard the buzz surrounding Cedar Cross and they want to help out. I’m pleased to officially announce that the Cedar Cross will Start and Finish at the North Jefferson Commuter Lot/Paved Pavilion. This will be VERY convenient for you out-of-towners.

I’ve got a meeting with these fine people on Feb 3rd, and I’m really hoping they decide to let us use the pavilion for free. There is also talk of discount rates at local hotels and I’ll have more on that after the meeting.

I guess that’s all of our sponsors for now, but I hope to announce many more in the future. If you know anyone who wants to help make this a better event, please let me know. I think it’d be great if everyone could take home some kind of souvenir. This will be an AWESOME RACE!!! I can’t wait for May 6th.

It seems that most of the emails I get are from potential Cedar Crossers asking if the race is actually free. I happily respond that yes, the race is free of charge.. just bring your bike and a positive attitude. But as I watch the number of confirmed riders approaching the 50-mark, I can’t help but wonder how this race could benefit a worthy cause.

But what charity could possibly have anything to do with gravel riding? I thought about it, and it didn’t take long for my mind to wander back to the day I met “Falkor”. A few of us were out for a morning gravel ride when we found an abandoned puppy frozen half to death in a ditch. We couldn’t just leave him there, so this was our fancy solution:

That dog rode 15 miles on Phil’s back and never even squirmed. We all thought he’d take a dump inside the pack, but Phil lucked out on that one.

On a separate occasion, Chris Bopp and I returned to our cars after a ride on the Katy and found another dog scouring the commuter parking lot looking for food. The poor dog was starving to death; Her ribs were showing through the skin and she was covered with ticks. We fed her 3 Clif bars and then she jumped in my truck. That dog came home with me; I named her Pepper and I’m happy to say she’s quite fat now.

So where am I going with this? 

Well, there’s a no-kill animal shelter about 10 minutes from my house.  It serves as a refuge for these abandoned animals, and the shelter needs help in a bad way. I’m not talking about money for spa-treatments and fancy dog-sweaters, I’m talking about 2×4′s for fencing, food and water-bowls….inexpensive things that you and I could easily provide for them.

None of this is mandatory; you don’t have to donate anything. BUT.. a little bit of help goes a long way and we have a real opportunity to do some good here. The best part is, we can do it all while having a kickass time riding our bikes across 100+ miles of gravel, singletrack and National Forest.

 Now, how great would it feel to be part of an event that did something like that?

Show up on May 6th and find out.

(sponsorship announcement coming soon)

Northern entrance to the Moon Loop

I figured people might like to see a few more photos of the Cedar Cross course. I had a couple of days off, so I set out to do a bit of trail cleaning and find some new gravel.

I also wanted to get an idea of what the area would look like after 2 days of solid rain; Turns out it looks pretty damn fun. The picture below was taken on Burnett School road. This bit of gravel is usually dry, but when it rains the water has to go somewhere..

A few more miles down the road, the gravel was almost too smooth, as if I was the only person to have driven on it. Turns out I was right:

(You don't even want to know how much money it's costing me to get these roads in shape for raceday.)

Then I was off to the Devil’s Backbone to move some leaves off the trail. For those who don’t know, the southeastern portion of the Backbone was only recently acquired by the Forest service. Thanks to this development, the course will now be taking you past 3 DEAD END signs.

Upon entering the Backbone trail, there’s a short, unmarked trail that I can only assume was created by the property’s previous owners. From this trail, there are several cliff-faces where you can step a few feet from the trail onto a rock ledge overlooking Cedar Creek. You can literally see for a mile in either direction, it’s beautiful. Photos are forthcoming

As the trail descends, you get to cross this waterfall:

*This spot is also normally dry*

I’m happy to say that the leaves have been removed from about 90% of this trail, and it is now very rideable. It’s also worth mentioning that this piece of trail contains one rock garden that’s so nasty I probably wouldn’t attempt it on my full-suspension mtb….unless someone had a camera. No photos yet, but it’s not like a photo would do justice anyway.

It was getting dark, so the work came to an end. Rather than make the 45 minute drive home, I hiked up to one of the bluffs along the Smith Creek Trail and made camp. Lemme tellya, those woods come alive when the sun goes down. I’ve never heard so many coyotes in my life.

Thankfully, this fire was just big enough to keep the Boogeyman away

So lazy

Seriously. 2 minutes.

*Before*

*after*

In addition to a substantial amount of gravel and open fields, The Cedar Cross will traverse several miles of what I have come to call “forgotten” singletrack. This trail system, for whatever reason, seems to have been completely forgotten, and this is both sad and exciting. Sad because so few people know these trails exist, and exciting because SO FEW PEOPLE know these trails exist!!

Today, Pepper and I set out to clear one small section of the race course. Here’s what went down.

  On South Mill site road, there’s a trailhead just to the side of the road right before it becomes someone’s driveway. I suspect this piece of trail is forgotten because it’s fairly remote and just a bit hidden. This photo was taken while standing on the trail looking out at the road.

From here, it’s a short downhill to yet another hidden trailhead. I’m not kidding, it took me 30 minutes to find it the first time I was out here. The trail goes almost straight down into a semi-dry creekbed.

This is what I came up with for the water crossing. The water should pass under these rocks and roll off the trail. I’m still a beginner at this type of thing, so if anyone has a few pointers, I’m ready to learn a better way.

                      **All flat-rock, water would be coming right-to-left**

I bet it took over an hour to clear a piece of trail that people will ride in about 30 seconds, but it’ll be worth it on raceday.

After clearing “Pepper Hill”, I turned my attention Northward. Check out this Before/After shot:

The dog doesn’t even know where the trail is..

 ***Leaf-blowing sounds***

Well how about that

Obviously there’s still a lot of work to be done, but this course is  going to be worth it. There will be no admission fees, but there WILL be prizes for top finishers, manned SAG stops, bbq at the finish and a special SHAT trophy for the one racer who truly earns it. I’m still trying to figure out the race-date, but it I’m hoping to make it happen on March 25th

EDIT **Race Date has been set for May 6th**

This race will be awesome.

Two tired, hairy animals.

 

One of many ”natural” barriers:

Singletrack descent near Old Mill Site road:

Some of Callaway county’s finest gravel: