Monday, January 30, 2012

The Shed.....

Well it finally happened.

Chris burned out almost everyone's retina's at the ride yesterday with his Stig inspired bike outfit. I won't subject your eyes to the trama directly but it's out there on flickr. I believe Denis C ruined at least one camera taking photo's.

I also got my first Fredrick Watershed ride in. Me likey. I opted out of the optional early climb to the shuttle point and instead caught a ride up with Chris and Marco before his outfit of doom was applied.

We then rode Skink, Salemander, Iceberg, F2, Viper, and Pit. I bailed on the last part (Vandal). I was feeling it with the lack of riding lately. And nothing like that since the fall at Rattling Creek.

Had some good sections where I was very happy with my rock handling, then a few I should have tried or done better on and a few where due to the group it just wasn't worth trying. And plenty of things I couldn't figure out how to do for my life.

Going back next week is the plan, but who knows if that will or won't happen. Tried ot really pay attention to the trails so I can go back and ride some of it again even by myself, though I dunno if I would do iceberg or F2 by myself. The built stuff at Capital Hill is amazing.

Great to see a bunch of familiar faces up there including Chris, Todd, Darius, Adam, Marco and anyone else I forgot and any of the new guys I met, I'm terrible with names. D'oh.

Michaux jaunt possible 2 weeks from now that I REALLY want to do.

Monday, January 09, 2012

Beers, Bikes and Broncos

Congrats to that Nutter up in Denver and his buddies for sending the Steelers home for the rest of the season. But don't get your hopes up Bronco's fan. It was close and a better running team will beat them. Will it be New England? Maybe.

Had some excellent beer this weekend of note, but no pictures.
Widmer's Galaxy Hopped Barleywine - On Draft - Wow it was good and smooth, excellent balance for a 10%. Good malt flavor not overly alcohol forward.
Legend Barleywine - on Draft - Only had a taste but it was super impressive, but at 15% ABV it's an asskicker. That puts it in wine range, meaning a pint is like drinking about 3 glasses of wine aka - legally sloshed. Even a snifter is pushing it.
Founder's Porter - On Draft - The coffee notes seem bigger on draft, more roasty, but still my favorite porter.
Founder Imperial Stout - Bottled - This was just crazy awesome, I'm glad I picked up 2 4 packs so as to stretch out my supply into summer along with Breakfast Stout, however I think that the Imperial is better. Breakfast is almost too complex to drink at all but breakfast honestly.

On the homebrew front tonight I'll try and roast the peanuts for my PB Choco Stout. I've got plenty of supplies so I should be able to make a mistake or two. Green peanuts are NASTY! Honestly waiting for Snow for doing the next beer. 2nd gen Snow Day IPA. Gonna half and half it I think half normal, half raspberry.

Biking wise I didn't do as well as I wanted this week but I did get in 2 rides, a bit longer one at Wakefield running near 2 hours total with pre-ride on Thursday. The trails were pretty good. Then Sunday it was a Laurel Hill day, got in a full loop with return via Giles Meadow in just over an hour for near 12 miles.

Riding this week is looking Paved. Possible rain today, possible rain on Wednesday. Ugh. Double UGH even. Busy week at work and around the area this week. Though I am successfully managing my current nerd addiction pretty well (SW The Old Republic).

Monday, January 02, 2012

Trail work 1 of 2, Riding 0 of 2. Oh yah.

So I'm wrapping up numbers for MORE today for Rides we had listed for 2011. Here are a few highlights:

525 Calendar Listed Rides
Unknown Actual Rides (est 330).
62 - June # of Rides, Most of Year.
21 - Feb, Month with Fewest Rides.
44 - Avg # of Rides a Month Rounded Up.
Parks with Most Rides - Pataspco and Wakefield.
Parks with No Love - Too many.

So if I do end up remaining Ride Co-ordinator, my big push this year will be for every park to have a lead ride at least 2x per year. Probably over reaching but who knows?

77 Rides in Garmin this year for 880 miles logged. But I was missing my GPS for almost 2 months so I'd figure add another 200 miles as I was riding a good bit during that part of the summer as stress relief. So with 10% loss avg I'm going to tag that I had say 90 rides for 1200 miles. Not bad, but I do want to do more, but right now that means I need to go to the road at least somewhat. Ugh.

Did a minor build project by myself on Cabin John yesterday near River Road, doing a cleanup/fix of a incomplete reroute near a bad washout from the fall. Had to move some big rock, fill some major holes and move a lot of loam and dirt. Ended up pretty decent. Pictures to come.

Back to work.