Friday, September 30, 2011

Wet and Wild

Got out to Wakefield with moderately high hopes of riding single track. The first section I did of Rusted Truck was okay, and then I hit lower phase 1, not good, then creek trails, not good, phase 4 lower half, under water. The bowl, upper area's were dry, but by halfway down things went from moist to very wet. Terrible, walked back out. CCT around WF was a mess honestly also.

No one out for a ride, everyone apparently saw Neil's late post but me :( Fail me. Ended up doing CCT North and getting very wet and dirty. Ugh. Saw a few random riders around, tried to talk 2 late arrivals out of riding but they weren't listening. I hope they enjoyed sliding down hills in the mud.

Probably late today or Saturday before WF is actually good to ride.

This weekend I've got a lot of options for stuff to do on Sunday. Lake Fairfax trail work, Pump Track Grand Opening at Rockburn, a couple ride options. So much to do, so little time!

And I get to wash my bike again, in just recon WF last night it got muddier than in 20 miles of riding the week before.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Primus, Beer, and Tech

Saw Primus at the nearly brand new Filmore in Silver Spring, sooo much nicer than the one on Geary in SF, but doesn't have the history. Nice facilities and food. Drinks were pricey of course with draft Sam Adams running $10 and same for a shot of Tequilla.

Primus put on amazing show, 3 hours long counting a 30 minute intermission. Les and co played amazing music, just rocked it out. Great stage setup and lights, sound was very good, could have used a bit more on the vocals but whatever.

The pit went crazy a couple times for sure. During the intermission, they showed old B/W popeye cartoons. It was great.

Before hand I met up with Joel and Sharron at The Firehouse. Tried 3 beers, the IPA, Red and Stout. The stout was probably my favorite. The Cuban sandwich was excellent. My companions found the calamari appatizer un-inspiring, but the fish sandwich was good.

After wards we met up with Frank and Lynn and hit Quarry House, but I crapped out after 1 more beer, 5 hours sleep, then an 18 hour rocking day with a fair amount of beer did me in.

Slept in on Sunday and didn't end up riding, had a brunch to go to that didn't finish till near 1, then it was time to get a new phone. I've moved into the future with a Droid Bionic. Nice. Gotta setup the wifi here at work now.

Had carne asada from Trader Joe's, rice, grilled Veg, and a nice Monmart from Savannah Chanelle Winery, went really well with the spicy flavor of the beef.

Friday, September 23, 2011

In the Dark, sometimes it's easier to fall.

In a fit of coordination not to be exceeded by a blind drunk monkey I fell into the bushes of doom on the Berm Ascent Hill of Wakefield, not a bad fall but a very dumb one after a hurried restart attempt. UGH. Talk about lame. Well actually lets all forget about it and hope that gets my Falls in Fall out of my system.

It was still a good ride, 18 miles logged on the GPS, so probably about 20 miles in 2:22. Wakefield was a bit damp, the soil occasionally hiding some nasty slick spots, the creek trail was a sandy mess. The washouts are still amazing, the entrance to the bowl via the tunnel is unbelievable. Really. Water is an amazing force, I really hope we don't get the amount of rain they are predicting for today.

Next week we might slip in some trails by Thursday if the rain on Tuesday isn't bad, but otherwise if I'm gonna ride on Tuesday it's going to not be Single Track.

It's really amazing to me still how much it helps to get out and ride in lowering my stress levels. I feel much calmer today. Versus Wednesday I was starting to crack out.

Primus concert tomorrow. I'm stoked over that, haven't seen Primus before, but I've always been a fan. Time to look for Winona's BBB.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

RCST Last Bash, but not The End?!?!?!

Good news that I saw on RCST Blog that while they are done with the RCST Bash, that another group, VMB another bike group is going to take over the event hopefully for next year. Right now I could see myself alternating years between their and the MORE Douthat trip.

The Last Bash, was a blast. Got in friday afternoon, setup camp and rolled out with Double G for a short ride, ended up meeting most of Camp Monkey up on the ridge and rode with them on Matter, ended up with 9 miles.

Partied pretty good that night but crashed out early around 12:30. Woke up at 6:30 moderately hung over as hell. Oy. A long slow breakfast helped. I opted to skip the big group ride and rode out with Joe C and Sarah R.

We went back up Iron Mine, Schaeffler Rd, Rattling Creek Trail, Fawn Kill, Preserve Line, and back down Iron Mine. Zoom, solid 15 miles, though I was bonking at the end, the last stream crossing on Preserve Line really sucked the last of my energy.

Was feeling pretty mellow/tired already before festivities cranked up, probably was dehydrated already more than I thought. Something about the chicken dinner put me off, other people also complained the cajun was kinda dry. Had a big beer and went to watch the metal cover band. Pretty good first set. A bit of moshing and headbanging. Went back to camp, hung out with Sarah and Joe and Big Dave. Was mellow, after a bit I felt a bit sick/headaching and layed down to try a powernap. Napped in and out but due to noise changed over to ipod on a book on tape, ended up getting sucked in and not going to sleep till 4. Mr.Sun came out full force Sunday morning and I couldn't sleep past 8:30'ish.

Got up with all the other slobs and ate breakfast, started breaking camp, rolled out a bit after 11. Ended up taking another way home and missed riding Schaeffer, which was fine as my shoulder was partially dead and my knee was a bit sore.

Back I think is now 95% recovered. GPS Tracks are up. Did take 1 cool vid of Sarah R riding rocks on Fawn Kill that I'll try and post this week. We will see.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Cabin John - Goya to Tuckerman

Finally spent a bit of time up on CJ between the Goya Drive terminus and the Tuckerman Ln Area. Did a LOT of trimming on the trail, opening up some tight area's and overhanging annoyances, clearing a fair amount of FOD also off the trail. Cut out some small down limbs that were in unfortunate area's. 2 small sets of trees in the first half mile need to come out. Ugh, but it may be a while.

The middle crossing needs to be fixed permanently, I cleaned it up a bit as it was not stable with a bunch of shit/rocks debris piled up.

Also there are 2 or 3 sections that are probably within 6 months of being fully eroded out where re-routes need to be under taken. 2 are easy rake/grub and rides, 1 is going to require a fairly major set of work to cut away growth in and out.

I'm sure the other area's need work also, hope to make inspections/ride and clips on them maybe next week.

Debating trying wake-o-tink tonight or a short ride in the hood, probably the hood ride as I have a MORE BOD meeting/concall tonight. JOY!

Friday, September 09, 2011

So it was a little wet last night?

So people always ask hey Rob, why did you cancel last nights ride? It was only lightly raining at Wakefield last night. Well it was a bit more than a little rainy at Wakefield last night. Larry C aka MOBL on the more-mtb.org forums posted these pictures up. Take a look, they are crazy. Wakefield was more like WakeRiver last night.

Wakefield Sept 8 Storm Pictures

Had to drop the ride off at the Datsun err Nissan dealership today for it's current maintenance. Watched Top Gear UK and they tend to still call Nissan's Datsuns. My mom and dad both had datsun's when I was a kid and my mom's station wagon we had for 125K miles, my dad traded his pickup for a Isuzu that got better mileage. Later of course I had the Altima that I ended up with 150K miles I put on it in 10 years for 180K total.

Hoping to get out onto the WO&D saturday after work, and maybe some CCT or something sunday, if it's dried out a bit. Not holding my breath though.

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Go AWAY RAIN!

Ugh the rain seems never ending already, and it's only been a bit over a day. Rain actually woke me up at one point last night, after I had only been asleep an hour. Now its just a very light/gentle rain, but boy are the trails taking a soaking.

So for now I must limit myself to bike entertainment via the WEB:
Danny MacAskill is back at it with some friends.

GPS should be in Thursday but I dunno if I'm going to be riding. Grrrr.

May have to pull out the rain jacket and take a walk or something tonight. Or maybe I'll go the mall and walk around for an hour or so.

Monday, September 05, 2011

Back to Michaux!

Got up a bit late and a few wrong turns and I missed the group ride for the 25 miler Pre-ride for Terror of Teaberry at Michaux. I ended up doing about 3 hours of exploring on my own, good times, rode some tuff stuff, had to push a few things also that I'm not proud of. This chest congestion is making a mess of me a bit still.

Good week of riding though I figure around 6 hours or more of riding, feel the best mentally I think I have in a while.

Crap week for riding I suspect I'll be doing some paved trail crap if anything looks like a rainy week this week in punishment for really nice weather last week.

Friday, September 02, 2011

New More Jersey

The new jersey looks super sharp. Green ain't my best color, but I'm not too disappointed. I just have to remember to suck in my gut and pull the thing down a bit in any future photo's. Guess that means no racing in it!

I guess the lesson is here is pactimo is 1 to 2 sizes smaller in race cut then most others including sugoi and twin 6. I can wear a sugoi large fine. twin 6 I usually order xl. Maybe next time I'll go century cut instead or maybe I'll go dirtbag and order a BMX jersey. Still I'm stoked to ride in the thing, especially when traveling. No knock on the wooly, it's usually either too warm or cold enough I need another layer or a vest.

Ride last night was good, did a solid pre-ride with Tony. His bike survived that easily. Then I had a pretty casual group with a crazy dude (Cough ranger Cough) who was on a hybrid but made solid efforts. Dude's gonna be a monster once he gets the right MTB.

Still dunno what I'm doing this weekend, thinking about doing the Terror at Teaberry pre-ride sunday though being up in Ghetto'sburg by 9 may suck ass.

Also need to clean the cranks again sounds like I have some dirt in the bearing area.