THE LONE WOLF SEQUEL 2022: REROUTES, PEAK COLORS, & A PERFECT DAY IN DAH U.P.

Year 2 of the The Lone Wolf gravel race recently took place in Iron Mountain, Michigan. Hosted by James Morrow, it was a beautiful, fully-colored day in the U.P. Here James talks about how the race went and why year two called for some rerouting and a new start/finish point.

Event recap by James Morrow.

Photos by Dylan Juchemich @jukendorf

(View full race gallery HERE)

Year two of The Lone Wolf wasn’t looking as easy to plan as the first. With Fumee Lake area not allowing their gates to be opened for our event this year we had to do some serious recon and planning to figure out how we could bypass the area while still making the route as great as it was the first year. While also needing a new start/finish line too. We turned to the DNR for support and usage and they delivered.

We were able to reroute the course while adding 10 miles of amazing U.P. Gravel, a few miles of which are brand new thanks to the DNR, and host the start/ finish at the gravel pit just around the corner from Carney Lake.

All these changes became a silver lining through the clouds.

We offered a short course (36 mile) this year that I believe was a nice option for beginners. Long course ended up being about 52 miles. Conditions were pretty dry and loose for gravel biking in the Iron Mountain area.

We had one aid station on course hosted by Embark Maple with Laura the fox and her rad Dad dishing out all the maple goodness. Laura selflessly left her Bearclaw on the sidelines to help support the racers. And every single racer who stopped definitely appreciated that.

Only downfall of the race is that we had some disconnects with the manual timing and weren’t able to log everyone’s times. This will be our main focus to correct for next years race.

Next year we are thinking about having the 36, 52 and combining the two for an 88 mile option.

With the proceeds from the race we were able to purchase a rescue device for the fire department that will help with single track rescues in the Iron Mountain area.