Silent Sports Sounds Off

If you happen to find yourself enjoying the last blast of fall color while mountain biking, hiking or kayaking in the Bayfield, Wisconsin, area on Friday, Oct. 12, you’ll have a golden opportunity to make known your appreciation for the splendor and “silent sports” opportunities that exist in the state’s largest state forest.

The Northern Highland-American Legion (NH-AL) State Forest – threatened to be carved up with 60 miles of ATV trails – is on the agenda of the Wisconsin Governor’s State Trail Council (STC) meeting that day at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Office in Bayfield.

The STC, this blogger has learned, will consider taking a stand against allowing ATVs in the NH-AL. If the STC does vote in favor of a resolution to that effect (the text of which follows), they should be applauded – really and heartily applauded by hikers, bikers, birders, paddlers and the like who are in the room when roll call is taken.

The nine-member STC advises the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on the planning, acquisition, development and management of trails in Wisconsin. Although the Natural Resources Board is a more powerful entity and the one which will ultimately decide the fate of the NH-AL, a vote by the STC in favor of keeping ATVs out of the state forest will likely be heard, loud and clear, by the NRB.

Summing up many of the reasons why the NH-AL should remain closed to ATVs, the text of the resolution, obtained by Silent Sports, is as follows:

Whereas, the Northern Highlands-American Legion State Forest (NH-AL) is the State’s largest State Forest and supports a great diversity of fauna, flora and human users;

Whereas, the NH-AL contains the greatest concentration of fresh water lakes in the world and is the headwaters of the Manitowish, Flambeau and Wisconsin rivers;

Whereas, the NH-AL was established in 1925 to protect the headwaters of these rivers;

Whereas, scientists have warned that off trail riding by ATVs would do irreparable damage to rare and sensitive ecosystems;

Whereas, a large portion of the public is in favor of maintaining the current recreational uses of the NH-AL State Forest;

Whereas, a recent Vilas County referendum resulted in a large majority of voters who are opposed to ATV trails on county land;

Whereas, there are numerous existing ATV recreational opportunities in county forests, state forests and national forests throughout northern Wisconsin;

And whereas, the Governor’s State Trails Council continues to support the concept of Motorized Recreation Areas where devotees of various motorized recreational activities may freely participate in their sports in a socially and environmentally responsible manner;

Therefore be it resolved, the Governor’s State Trails Council is opposed to the development of ATV trails in the NH-AL State Forest.

If you find this resolution as succinct and stirring a justification for saving the NH-AL as I do, drop a line to the members of the STC. Their email addresses are available at the STC site linked above.

And if you can, go to the meeting – again, its this Friday in Bayfield – to show your representatives on the council that they have your support.

– Joel Patenaude

Unless you had your magnifying glass out while reading the funnies over the last couple days, you probably missed the nationwide exposure Silent Sports magazine got.

The mag made two appearances in Frazz, a daily comic strip that appears in more than 150 newspapers (and in Silent Sports, published monthly), yesterday and today. The title character is seen wearing a T-shirt bearing our name – or at least “Silent Spor” on Monday and “ilent Spor” today.

OK, here are the strips, first Monday’s then today’s. It helps to squint:

The entire name of the magazine would have fit across the chest of Mr. Burke, Frazz’s running parter, but it makes more sense to depict Frazz, a marathon runner and triathlete, with such good taste in running apparel. (Clearly it is a technical, possibly vented, T. And the white on black is soooo rock-n-roll!)

If only the magazine had actual T-shirts like this available … or T-shirts of Frazz’s T-shirt. Hmm. Maybe I’ll look into this.

Anyway, this was a nice gesture by Frazz creator Jef Mallett (and a way to end the years of me badgering him to put his alterego in just such an outfit).

Thanks, Jef!

– Joel Patenaude

Mother Nature may have just warned Midwest marathon organizers against scheduling their races on the same weekend. This past Saturday and Sunday it was in the mid to high 80s – brutally hot for everyone who ran the Chicago Marathon, Twin Cities Marathon and Lakefront (Milwaukee) Marathon.

Tom Held at MJS’s Off the Couch looked at the attrition rate at the latter event – and the 20 minutes slower average finishing time from a year ago (when I ran Lakefront in perfect conditions).

In Chicago, a Michigan police officer died on the marathon course and more than 300 people were taken away by ambulance. Twenty-five remained hospitalized this morning, according to the Chicago Tribune.

I’ve run all of these marathons and found the support on each course phenomenal. The volunteers who aided the fallen this weekend were nothing short of heroes.

– Joel Patenaude

I picked up the November issue of Runner’s World for the pre-U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials coverage. And inside I found a funny two-page spread on Madisonian Laura Clark-Taylor’s ongoing quest to collect as many trophies at running races as she can.

The short “True Obsession” feature shows Clark-Taylor, 50, in her kitchen surrounded by her loot – including dozens of trophies, plaques, silver-plated platters and medals on display on the countertops, in open cupboards and even in the washing machine.

I know “Liver Legs Laura” from her posts on Ryan Hill’s Hillrunner.com messageboard where she roped me into the Surviving the Twister Fun Run she organized in November 2005 to benefit the victims of the tornado that struck Stoughton, Wisconsin, the previous August.

Now I know why she insisted on giving nice trophies to the top finishers of that 4-mile race. (I earned one and display it in my office.) She shared her experience as the chief instigator of the event with Silent Sports. Read the story here.

Clark-Taylor has lost count of the tropies she’s won, but her husband, Gene Taylor, has record of her taking home hardware from 110 of the 114 races she entered in 2001 through 2003. She has at least 304 mementos from finishing races high overall, in her age group or – as she explains in the RW article – in a category for heavier women.

Clark-Taylor’s winnings, at races large and small, are due to her speed and longevity in the sport. As she recounted a couple years ago on Hillrunner, her best three-mile cross-country collegiate time was 16:44; she set a half marathon PR of 1:26 in 2002; and finished an Ironman triathlon in 2004 in a very impressive 12 hours 37 minutes.

I’d give her a trophy, too.

–  Joel Patenaude

Better late in the season than never to note the growing popularity of triathlons in Wisconsin. In her story titled “We’re catching triathlon fever” in today’s Capital Times, staff reporter Katie Dean made a lot of calls, including to this blogger, to get a rather thorough sense of the excitement newcomers are bringing to the multisport.

Dean also wrote the sidebar “Be medically cleared before triathlon training.”

(For the record, the listing of 62 triathlons in the 2007 Silent Sports calendar – up from 44 in 2003 – is likely closer to the total number of tris in the state than the “couple hundred” guesstimated by a coach in Verona.)

For a pdf of the 2007 May-October multisport calendar – including triathlons, duathlons and adventure races – look here. Scroll down to the second item under the heading “multisports.”

–  Joel Patenaude

I just read “Wallhangers,” the U.P.-based winning story in the Dirt Rag Literature Contest, and I can’t stop thinking about it.

This is not your typical good-versus-evil, bicyclist triumphs tale. In fact, some of the details of the main character’s background and behavior are somewhat unsettling. But this story by Jim Crissman of Midland, Michigan, is a fine piece of writing about an unvarnished U.P. life.

After reading “Wallhangers,” you may never look the same way at that bearded, older guy you always see pedaling around town. He’s got a colorful backstory, too, no doubt.

And if you haven’t yet read an issue of the always satisfying Dirt Rag – “the mountain bike forum” – this is a fine entry point.

–  Joel Patenaude

Although I’m far from ready to mothball for the winter either my road or mountain bikes, I’ve wiped the cobwebs off the roller skis.

I bought a lightly used pair of Aero V2s …

… this past spring but set them aside (after outfitting them with speed reducers and a brake) until two weeks ago.

These are my first roller skis, and I was quite hesitant to invest in any. But my fear of not being in shape for the American Birkebeiner come late February because of a lack of snow on which to train properly proved greater than my fear of falling off roller skis onto hard pavement. (For the record, I have fallen a handful of times but have learned to tuck and roll into the grass edging the trail.)

More serious skiers than I roller ski year-round or go great distances on them. (For an example of the latter, check out this duo who recently rolled across Minnesota. And read their first-person account appearing in the October issue of Silent Sports.)

I get on mine as a means to transition from the biking season to the cross-country ski season.

So far, all is going according to plan. I’ve been out on them twice, logging less than than 12 miles, but growing more confident with each pole plant.

And judging by the growing number of roller ski reports accumulating on Skinnyski.com, other roller skiers are hitting the pavement and rail-trails too. The new issue of the magazine also features a roller ski scouting trip on the Gitchi-Gami State Trail along the scenic North Shore of Lake Superior.

–  Joel Patenaude