Nathan's story: Dead Swede

BaseCamp athlete Nathan Trachta shared his experience at the 2025 Dead Swede gravel bike race in Wyoming.

Dead Swede is a really good event. Seems to be a big bike community here and they’re proud of it.

Check in was really nice and quick. Bling was a shirt and a patch (unique).

The course… Nice. Hard pack dirt with limited small gravel. For the 60 mile event you gain 4334 feet, don’t belief Ride with GPS, I hit 15% or more on three climbs. One was an extended climb and yeah, I chose to walk it to save matches (aid station was at the top, I bypassed it).

We had head winds and crossing winds for most of the race, Intervals.ICU showed sustained winds were 15-20 mph and gusting to more than 35mph (yes, I had my bike move sideways in crossing winds).

There’s no real single track, some might call the field/ATV path we were on single track but it was just loaded with stones.

I only stopped at one Aid Station (Beer and Bacon). Maybe 5 minutes there. Had a beer there (also put one in my water bottle) and 3 pieces of bacon. The beer was Pabst Blue Ribbon (cheap and normally I wouldn’t drink it) but honestly, being cold it was reviving and energized me.

This year I’ve done CO2UT 75 miles, Mad Gravel 50 miles, and now this one). I won’t say one is more difficult than the other becaus3 each has had a different challenge and all have been enjoyable.