It was quite moist down there...really.

Went for a solo CCT south bound tour tonight. Everyone else had better sense than I and stayed home and warm. The way out it wasn't bad light mist in the air. Some sections were really pretty dry. Got to the top of the exit for Gambrill road off 7100. The way back wasn't too bad till I got down off Hunter Village Dr. Then the sprinkle/misting picked up to a light rain I guess. By the time I hit the lake I was pretty wet on top but dry underneath. After the long grind back up Queensbury to Wakefield Parking lot I was really moist, thru most of my top layer. The endura's kept me mostly dry along with the pearl over pants.

It was kind of a light weight test run for rain/water management for Bakers Dozen. I think I'll be in okay shape but i have to bring some extra junky towels along. Time for a trip to homewarez depot for cheap dirt brown towels.

No gps route again as I thought I forgot it but it was just buried in my clean cloths. Oh well a similar route looked to be about 15 miles.

tuBLESS? tuBLISS!

Sitting at work counting my penny's today I thought about a conversation I had earlier in the week with Christopher and the guys at the bike lane, in burke post LH ride. And I realized that while converting the whole bike to tubeless is a bit costly, converting just the rear wheel costs half as much! Hurrah! Viola! Eureka!

This was spurred on knowing that in just over 2 weeks I'll be facing my arch-tube-nemesis, Douthat State Park where I once had 3 pinch flats in 1 day till I went to almost 45lbs in my rear tire!

Not very fun that! Plus I should be able to get this in and installed in-time for Bakers Mudfest, err Dozen. While yes I'm being a bit alarmist, the pattern seems to indicate we may be in for a rainy day that Saturday. I've had I guess one other flat than that also so I'm hoping that the conversion alleviates the flat problem before and it's a blissful long weekend of riding at Douthat.

It is not looking to good for a ride tonight as of right now. Though we are seeing a GAP in the weather I'm tempted to do a messy CCT ride right now. Just wish the backup wasn't popping gears.

Catchup

Been a weird/busy March I've realized. Between relatives passing away, work, trips and bad weather my riding this month has been in the crapper. And I've got a major enduro race thats 10 days away. Lovely. I had a good start to the month but where I rode in like a Lion with some big rides (Even just paved trail). I've gone out like a lamb really. I've logged 30 miles in the last calendar week (Tues -> Tuesday) with 15 miles on the WO&D last thurs and 15'ish out at LH last night.

So I rode the 3rd at Wakefield/Accotink (Preride). the 4th thru the the 16th I was totally slack in Whor-lando. The 17th was the first accotink evening ride/St.Patty's ride. The 24th I did WOD and yesterday the 29th. Maybe the rain will end early and I'll slip in another quick ride thursday. So maybe I'm between 40 and 45 miles for the month. The last week of Feb I had 60 and the whole month I had i think 130 miles. Eeesh. I need a road bike in Orlando I think. And here honestly.

So looking forward I'm gonna try and sneak in a ride Thursday or definitely Friday after work. Then hopefully a good ride on Sunday at Schaeffer after the Ride Leadership Clinic. Then Joy! Another very wet week leading up to Bakers Dozen. Can anyone say MUD FEST! If they delay it a week I don't know what I'll do as right now I'm set to go down to douthat that weekend following.

Tired tired tire....

Damn good ride last night. We had amazing weather, trails were in moderate to good condition (Accotink was good, WF was moderate). With near 70degree starting temps and finishing in the mid-low 60's with a nearly full moon we had amazing riding. And being back in Accotink on the regular ride was excellent.

I arrived early and pre-rode Wakefield. The lower area of the bowl is a mess. The new drainage covert under 495 pushes a LOT of water in big rains apparently. The stream crossing near 495 is nearly not ridable in one direction. TONS of errosion even on the access trail. Creek trails weren't bad in any unexpected way. Powerlines were surprisingly good.

For the main ride we went over to Accotink. I separated the casual into Casual and a plus group. The plus group had some issues with flats while leaving Accotink and I think we out rode them :) Accotink's first section was great though I did slip and fall on the new trail at the tight turn on the hill. Oh well too much breaking, it was an easy fall. A ways in we picked up Howard also who was riding very easy on his recovering broken hand. He rode the rest of the night with me and JoJo. We only did the first third of accotink as we started a bit late and darkness set in pretty quick and we kept the pace pretty casual. We rolled back to WF and rode the creek trail to phase 1 to the race course to powerlines the upper half of phase 1 back out salemander and were done. We rolled 9 miles I think on GPS so probably close to 10 total. My preride was 7 measured so probably near 18 miles total yesterday.

Post ride was a good time to. Enjoyed some Black Magic's, and other fine PLB's before we went to Kilroys. Good times.

TRAILS!

WOW! I rode perfectly mostly acceptable trails yesterday. Accotink was 98% ok and Wakefield probably 95%. It was damn good. The WF portion was a bit short at 7.5 miles but the Accotink was probably around 8 with the over and back. It was really nice for accotink but by the time the sun went down and we rode wakefield it had REALLY cooled down. Brrr. Spoiled by the weather last weekend.

OOOO and my cyclepassion calendar/video just came in. Nice.

Bikes going in for replacement spoke on the rear wheel, truing, adjusting and brake check.

GPS is on the fritz. GRrrrr.

New Hauler

Had to upgrade the bike transport system due to ongoing failure of the power train. Weird bad engine sounds indicating pending failure of major component. Probably either a main bearing or something. 181k miles on the ole 1999 Altima. It was a damn good car. I got it almost 11 years ago and put 150K of those miles on it.



The new ride is a new Rogue SV. Nice. Comfy. Decent mileage. I was thinking truck (Tacoma or Frontier 4x4 with Crew Cab) but the mileage was just too bad and with gas prices going the way they are this is a good middle ground I think. Should be about the same mileage I was getting out of the Altima as I traded it.

Now I just need to scrape together some cash next payday to get a hitch and rack for it.