Friday, December 31, 2010

300 and a ride

Had a nice mellow CCT/Light Trail ride last night. Things at WF were a bit damp in some area's at first, so we did the CCT out to the tunnel and back, then rode the creek trail to phase 4, to upper phase 1 then creek back to the rec center. It was pretty nice. Not that cold. Used the moose mitts with a new pair of gloves. Very nice, my hands were perfect.

The bike is a MESS. Gotta clean it up tonight and get it ready for Sunday's Kumbya Trail Ride at Greenbriar.

New helmet is nice. It's nice not to have old stinky helmet head. Got a great deal on a very nice 2009 Bell Volt. Hopefully the anti-microbial stuff will help keep it less stinky.

Surprisingly this is my 300th blog post here. I think my livejournal account which I've had for almost 10 years only has 400.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Bike-mas to all!

Have a merry Bike-mas and may all your biking (and well non biking) desires come true!

I'm off to toddle around the hood on my neighbors old cruiser.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Santos is pretty cool, Vortex Park is WOW!

Rode the Santos Trail system today in Ocala FL. Mainly the main park. I did venture in and do the pump track, and large parts of the Vortex Red Loop (But not the actual free ride hits, I did roll past them both high and low.). Pretty sweet. I got some good photos of some of the skills stuff. They build some really narrow elevated stuff. I'm talking some stuff was 8-10 inches maybe. None of that wussy 2 foot crap everywhere thats flat.

14 Miles of Logged Riding (I expect 15 to 20% loss due to twistiness of trails/cover) had drum roll please.......470 feet of climbing. Thats around 1/2half a percent of a percent grade on average. 33 Feet Per Mile.

The DJ section was insane.

MORE later. Off to ache in the shower.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Beer - OH YAH!

Went down to the liquor store near my parents to pick up a 6 pack of something.

I ended up with 2 six's. One of Terrapin Hopsecutioner and Rogue Mocha Porter. While talking to the beer guy he told me about a new place that was on the other side of the shopping center.

World of Beers. 40 on Tap. 400 bottles. CHEAP! compared to DC. I ended up with a Barnardius Christmas Ale. $7 bucks! HOLY Moly! about a 1/3rd or less cheaper than DC. I'm gonna hit it a few times for sure this week.

W-o-B

Dr.Phillips Current Draft List

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Snow, hell yah!

Awesome snow ride tonight. Great people, great fun. I'll post more thoughts and pics tomorrow. The motionbased is up and should be linked in the side bar.

Traffic to there was really pretty good!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Ho Ho HO!

Imagine my surprise to turn on the TV and see the Snow/School closing status bars of Fox 5 this morning. A quick look out the window to see a light dusting of the fluffy white stuff. Roads were fine, work didn't even seem to have any versus I saw a bit on the way in here and there.

Yesterday was a not bad day for Trailwork, the rain stopped by 9 or so. At 10 me and my other helper Ben went out and cleared the small section of rerouting where the creek was starting to washout a spot of the trail. That actually took an hour or more. We then planted 2 more trees on the slope we are re-claiming. We built up the primary water stop berm at the top and built 1 intermediate berm to slow the water more also. The reroute is bedding in great and handling water very well.

Then we went up north and did a bit of trimming and such. The rain picked up. I photographed where at least 1 more bridge needs to go in, really 2. Not a bad 4 hours out on the trail.

Hopefully we'll be able to ride trails on Thursday. Have to see how the water flows off.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Can you dig it???

Damn, winter time is a real mixed bag for riding for me. I love the frozen, hard fast speed of trails. Places like Wakefield feel quicker, and at something like the rose, you can REALLY fly. I also enjoy night riding a lot. I think I'm going to commit to more night riding in the spring and fall and maybe some summer trips to places I can night ride also. But the cold sucks. It sucks mightly. 24 and change degrees when we finishes last night.

Ooo and we have a good chance for SNOW next weekend. Damn!

ON the plus size, I have to say Moose Mitts kick ass. Mostly. The fall off my bars a bit, so i'm going to have to sew on some sort of loop/hook to hold onto the bar and and maybe something to make them a wee bit less floppy.

The big plus is once I got a bit warm, I was fine in them just wearing my normal full finger summer gloves!

Got some cool pre-ride photo's and a few shots of the Ice on my bike after wards. GPS track should be cool also. Group rolled about 10 miles in an hour and a half. Not bad for hacking a lung out while riding.

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Down with a Sickness

FCK! Woke up Saturday am with a cough and sore throat. By today it had fully moved into my chest. So I am hydrating, drinking tea, and eating soup, it gets me clear for a bit but then blech it's back. Hoping to kick this thing by Tuesday but I'm not counting on it. Just hope to be fully back on track by Thursday.

Got to enjoy the new TV a bit, LOST on blue ray is awesome. Starting from the beginning. Oh well relaxing ain't such a terrible way to spend a down Sunday.

Next Sunday it's Trail Work @CJ. Supplementary work and a short re-route.

Hopefully a better week of work and a better week of Riding.

Check out the new Trail Rat achievement for MORE 2011 - HERE.

Friday, December 03, 2010

Mixed Modes and Options

Let me start off and say I've been laughing my head off at this since Thursday morning, and if you ask me a question involving MTB right now, it's probably going to start off with something about Options:

We have Options!

Trails at WF were still a bit wet, but better than I thought we would be. I got in a pretty good preride of what was almost 5 miles on the gps. Then we rallied what turned out to probably be near 20 riders in the lot and after a slight mis-start we were off. We did Rusted Truck out to the CCThing out to 50. Going under the road in the tunnel under Pickett Rd (I think) was a bit of an adventure. 12 Miles on the CCThing then about 3 more at WF doing the creek trail to sewer line, back along phase 2 to phase 4. Then the upper half of phase 1, ascent hill and berms, back to Salemander and up and out the hell hill. 15 Miles almost on GPS.

Damn nice ride for what may have been really crappy. Good to hang out and chat on the ride and in the lot afterward.

Not sure where I'm gonna ride this weekend. Laurel Hill is a possibility though I might try offering a casual group ride at Fountain Hell on Sunday. Decisions.