Erik's

This afternoon I visited Erik’s on its first day of business in downtown Grafton. The new shop occupies the space that until earlier this year housed Grafton Ski & Cyclery. The Minnesota-based chain now has six Wisconsin locations. Grafton's store is really nice looking, though not all of the remodeling is finished. And it’s a little snowboard heavy at the moment; I’m sure I will like it better once warm weather returns and the cycling stuff gets displayed even more prominently. It’s mostly Specialized with a little bit of Raleigh.

From Erik’s it takes just a few minutes to reach the new mountain bike trails at Pleasant Valley Park. That was my next stop today, just to see if anyone was around. The parking lot was empty and I assume no one was on the trails. With several inches of snow in the forecast for tomorrow, and with a week of vacation ahead, I might return to Pleasant Valley Park in the next few days for my first snowshoe outing since March 2. The fatbike crowd is grateful whenever snowshoers pack down fresh snow, and I will be happy to help if I can. I am definitely not going to ride outside anytime soon. At Erik’s I spent a couple of minutes looking at a Surly Pugsley, but only out of curiosity and without even the smallest twinge of desire.