Friday, September 28, 2012

The mountain might get ya, but the law never will.

Yesterday went from being a partial Sh-- day to full on status by the end of the Wakefield night ride.  We had a rider on the casual group take a OTB dive and needed some help evac'ing out, he took a big red truck ride to ffx hospital.  He was sore but they emt's wanted to check everything.  I'm sure he wasn't OK to drive at the minimum. 

The new JK Rowling book started things on the downhill, a frustrating conversation with J via phone based IM sent it to the 50% mark and then that topped the day off. 

I will say Casual Vacancy seems interesting in the first 50 pages, but that it may be very depressing also.  It's not Harry Potter.  I've got an impending sense of something in the order of the Ice Storm but not really.  We'll see.

I did order the Bond 50 retrospective on Blu-ray so that will be cool, it should come in next week. 

I was going to try and ride in today but last night left me wiped out and continuing T-storms kept me up till Midnight.  Maybe I'll run tonight instead.  Legs were very tired to start with yesterday with 5 rides in the last 6 days. 

Just heard from the rider and he is fine.  Maybe a minor concussion, but he was out of the hospital last night and sometime over the weekend we will hookup to get his bike back to him.


Thursday, September 27, 2012

Loss on Ignition.

During the Saturday ride several times I had my map drop out of the front pocket of my enduro's.  Not that unusual with nothing more than the map in the pocket vs pedaling action.  So a few times I had to back track small sections to find the map. Joel Gwadz found it one time as I was on my way back looking for it. 

So Sunday started off with me loosing the map.  In the car full of packed gear.  I spent probably 30 minutes tearing apart my pack and the driving compartment of the car looking and looking and was about to start tearing everything out when I found it on the back seat.  From when I had grabbed my shoes to put on.  Sigh.

A quick word on the maps in the Davis area.  Colors and distances aren't always quite right it seems.  And not all intersections are well marked.  But still I do suggest getting copies of the maps. 

With the map found I was back to the nearby camping area to start my ride, the trail entrance was thru an RV campers area, though some of their direct space.  I felt a bit bad but no one was really out.  Started off heading towards the overlook below Dobbin House.  Wow, amazing trail and the overlook was spectacular.


While there I met up with Michael W and another couple who was riding together.  I joined with them for the rest of the Dobbin House outer loop.  Wow some climbs and hike-a-bikes.  Some nice views also.  They ended up splitting off after crossing back over the dam/lake area as they had to get back to town.  Later heard Michael led another group out on the same ride.  Me, I was off to the Yellow Elm trail I think.  MIssed a few of the cross campground trails so I took the road.  Skipped the first falls overlook and went to the far side.  Got this shot there:


Then I hit the yellow trail.  Wow a real mix of rocks and roots, like parts of the shed and I dunno.  Very challenging for me.  For the frednecks it would have been fun.  Got lost on a poorly signed direction change.  Ended up taking a bunch of trails and exploring all over.  Without the map I can't remember really now 4 days later.  But it was cool.  One trail was supposed to be horse only but wasn't signed so where I picked it up....OOops.  Had a blast getting lost basically in the forest.  Eventually I had to head back and blasted back along the road.  After changing and taking some more photo's from the overlook I skipped before of the falls I was back off to town for food and then to head back to Civilization of the phone.

Ran into a bunch of Team XXL at Hellbenders and so stopped and had lunch with them.  Damn good to hangout post ride.  Tried the most excellent Face Plant Burrito this time.  Very tasty. 

On the way outa town I hit Boomtown Java and bought some additional gifts for friends after getting some cool Jelly types at the Park Gift shop.

All together a damn good trip and somewhere I will go again to bike and hike.  The campground is pretty nice.  The lodge is very impressive and the cabins look good too.  Go out for a long weekend. 

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

2012 Davis Trip - Part 22/7'ths

The Journey Continues on Disc 9!

Sooo I was back at camp not to past 2PM on Satuday and it was time to enjoy a beer while prepping my EPICAwesome Super Secret Appetizer for the Potluck Battle Royale!  First I had to find something to skewer my food on. Found some small dowels at a general store and soaked em in water.  And the super secret ingredients are:

Bread
Pork
Cheese

Combined with fire and herbs to become Toasted Crusty Break in Olive oil with Rosemary Mozzarella chunks wrapped in Prosciutto, The Pork of the Gods.

Cut up the crusty bread, the best way is to tear it up by hand into un even chunks, but I was being VERY lazy.  Toss a bunch of olive oil and rosemary chopped up on it and let sit, shaking up occasionally.  Seperate Mozz into small pieces/balls.  Then you basically should join together in holy matri-moan-ee the cheese and bread wrapping in a piece of prosciutto then skewer for easy grilling.  Well my skewers failed and I went to simple way.  Piece of bread, piece of cheese ontop and cover with piece of prosciutto.  Grill.  To get melty reuqires too long on the grill directly so after having to reject the first few I went with a quick grill on the open fire then place on foil for finishing while covered also in foil.  Worked pretty well as long as I got the toast right.  Only ended up with 25 good pieces.  OH well. 

Finally potluck is starting a bit after 6, food is out!  Tons of food.  5 picnic tables full pretty much.  Some way amazing, some was average.  Everyone had fun while working on the 2 kegs of beer.  Voting kicked off around 6:50 and by 7:20 the vote was in.  I wasn't even nominated for the final running and here was the organizers thoughts on why several excellent things didn't get nominations.  Not enough of it.  Ran out before everyone got some and no 2nds.  so next time I have to plan for 1.2 to 1.3 times group production. 



During making my dish I opened a bottle of DuClaw's X-1 an Bourbon Barrel Aged - Imperial Chocolate Rye Porter.  Amazing.  One of the best porters I've ever had.  Well balanced, super smooth.  Damn good. 98 on Rate Beer.

After dinner I opened a bottle of Schlafly Reserve Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout, that for a bourbon barrel stout was very mild interms of bourbon boy whoooo was it rocket fuel, I think 10% and change.  I chilled a bit with various groups sharing some out and eventually went back to my camp area and stoked the fire.  So I added logs, got the fire going good and relaxed.   And I was sleepy.  That nights 4 hours was catching up to me and so I decided to nap for a bit.  And I was asleep from 9:30 till about 11:30 when nature called.  And after a quick mental debate back to bed I went.  Heard the wind a bit and it was starting to chill down but I was toasty warm in the sleeping bag. 

Slept till about 7:15, that was awesome.  Wanted to sleep more but nature called and so it was up into a VERY cold pair of jeans.  Quick walk around the area to warm up a bit and when I was back the other tent's occupants were stirring or at least the wife was.  So I setup the camp stove for breakfast of oatmeal and cocoa and started emptying out the car for re-packing everything.  Car reports 41 degrees.  Joy.  By 9 I was fully packed and ready to roll out.  Quick walk around to chat with folks, help clean up the potluck area and such and I was out at 9:20'ish to park in the overflow lots as we were supposed to be out of camp by noon.  Car was reporting mid 50's at least. 

And then things got ugly.  Thats for tonight or tomorrow in Revenge of the Lost Map of Doom.
Photo stolen from Neil A.

Monday, September 24, 2012

MORE Fall 2012 - Camping trip to Davis.

Busy week last week so I didn't get to post much.  Did some riding.  Accotink season is over.  Slept like crap Thursday night before the trip.

Friday - Got started a bit late and took too long to pack/get ready.  Giant's lack of Rosemary also was a major setback.  Forgetting skewers for grilling also set back my food plan a bit.  GPS/DATA failing also set me back and I apparently went a very back way to get from 48/55 to 50.  Oh well.  Got to Davis around 3:30 and decided to skip riding, fully unpack and drink a beer.  Camp was set by 5:00 and hunger games had set in.  I was off to battle at Hellbender Burrito's.  Damn good.  Enjoyed a Mountain State IPA and the Hellbender Burrito.  Saw a bunch of folks intown and stopped to shoot the breeze, perhaps my favorite part of this trip was running into people around Davis and Thomas hanging out. 

Back to camp and the drinking games were on.  Lots of beer later and chatting with everyone went to bed around 11:30 I think.  Too much beer and water apparently, I'm up every hour or two to increase the flow of the river.  And then the Winds of Hell start.  Trees shaking furiously and Bikenetic decides to getup at 2 to 4 and have a wind party.  ugh.  Finally ended up getting some sleep maybe 4 hours.  It did warm up though as the winds brought in a small cloud system. 

Up early at 8 and ready to go for the day with oatmeal and cocoa already fueling the insanity.  Went up to check out the breakfast pizza's from Siranni's and it was awesome!  At least the meat-za's were.  Yum.  2 Slices later I go and chat with others till the 10'am photo call.  Gotta check the headband for proper positioning and such. 



And we were off to Blackwater Bikes to meet up and get the rides together.  Well the issue was supply and demand.  Everyone almost wanted to do the moderate ride, I think they had 40 people riding at least.  Sue Haywood's faster ride had a fair number also I think 15 or so people also.  The kids ride had 3 or 4 adults and probably 10 kids so that was a great group. 

We took off and hit a traffic jam waiting to enter the single track and this was after about half the group got going.


So by the first major intersection it was obvious we needed 2 groups.  Hell we really needed 3, we just didn't have leaders.  So I volunteered to run with a pair of ladies who wanted a more casual pace and we went off to explore.  We went up and hit the Trials Rd trails, then Jo's Shunt I think then we hit Rock Shox Red.  Damn fun, till you hit what was labeled purple on the map.  Then it was a suck fest for the 2 ladies, some shed worth rocks for sure.  Did ok.  Not awesome myself. 

At the end of that we met up with the original group.  Teresa the leader was just coming up the trail from Hoodoo/etc as I waited.  Got to ask everyone what took them so long....hahaha. 

Got a few photo's myself along the way but none with people turned out.  Oh well.  My camera is not made for action shots.  We eventually opted to reverse our route, do a section of Trials we hadn't done then take white back.  Ended up with about 14 gps miles back to the campground.   Strange weather day started of overcast.  Then bits of rain.  Then sun.  Then MORE rain.  Then sun most of the rest of the way back. 

Then it was on to prep'ing for the potluck but thats going to be in part 2.  I want to upload my photo's now.

The above photo's come from a mix of Todd B, Joel G and Jason Miller.  This shot from Todd Bauer though sums up my Saturday.


Gallery Links - So Far
Neil
Todd
Gwadz
Jason
Mine

Friday, September 14, 2012

999.53

So far for the year in Garmin I have logged 999.53 miles of mtb, road, cx, and running miles.  Versus I only had 857 logged last year total.  Though I estimated closer to 1100 total.  I figure I'm already there this year with MTB distance loss, my MTB report gives 530 for the year, not surprised it's looking a bit down.  I honestly thought this year would be the year I got my 2nd day a week off.  I've been working 6 days a week for over 2 years now.  Pretty crazy.  But feeling good to be on pace for an official 1500 mile or more year. Part of me wants to do distance road things Sunday, but another part is hungering to do a MTB ride up in Gambrill then transition and do some of the shed.  Probably will do road as next weekend is an all MTB Blitz!

Looks like I won't make it up to Rattling Creek this weekend, I've got a Festival tomorrow afternoon night, and as noted, next weekend is Davis.

Had a good group of 8 Casual'ites out last night..  Had 29 riders out total and boy by the end did it FEEL cold till I dried off and changed out of my sweaty shirt.  Covered about 10 miles or so.  Had a few crashes slow us and the days of Accotink are really over this next week or maybe the one after for all but the fastest of fools. 

Going to start trying to run a 5PM pre-ride. 

Tomorrow's festival is Theivery Corporation whom I've heard great stuff about for years, and the other big band is Gogol Bordello who I've wanted to see for a while. 




Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Bike Things Galore

Today I'm taking a co-worker mountain biking with another co-worker who also rides.  The guy has some big box bike he tried riding up at Great Falls (whoops he and those guys didn't know it wasn't open to biking).  So were going to let him try our two nicer bikes and see if he's interested!  Very cool.

Bored, err Board Meeting for the club on Monday was very lively.  But only went 2.5 hours not too bad for a phone meeting.  Big things in the works at a bunch of parks with some great potential publicity for the club and such.  Fall camping trip is next week and I'm stoked. 

Kristen Armstrong's (no relation to that Lance dude) Olympic bikes were stolen, here is a link to the Tumblr post about them describing them and how they were being shipped.  Link Here!

Did some more trimming up on Cabin John last night and managed to tweak something in my left ankle.  No more flats while trimming I guess.  Saw a bunch of riders and even chatted with Mike Stoll a bit about some stuff that could be very cool.  I've now managed to trim the following sections:

Tuckerman to Goya - Fully Trimmed
Tuckerman to Seven Locks - Partial I've trimmed from Tuckerman to the parking lot and then up to the power lines/ball fields.  I need to start at the ball fields and go to the tennis center next. 
Bradley to River Rd.

Also note the park has done work and cleared some stuff to really helping out, and they did some drainage work sometime in the last month or two in the very badly eroded trail from the ball fields to Tuckerman, but it needs more.  Will try and find out about any more to be done in that area.

I like to bike places as much as the next biker and in the last 2 days I've seen people on the section of Seven Locks from River to Bradley.  Thats an extremely narrow road, and I saw a somewhat close call or two during heavy traffic.  The guy riding the fixie eventually passed another rider on a very nice road bike up near Tuckerman Rd. 


Stupid Cyclist Learns He's Not Invincible - Watch More Funny Videos

I hate when I see cyclists doing stupid shit almost as much as when I see drivers doing idiotic things:



Monday, September 10, 2012

National Tri 2012

Ended up going down to the Capitol due to a false start on a lead on another cool place to ride.  Didn't realize that was why the Cabin John Park Rd was closed in Bethesda earlier in the day. 

3500 of my friends or more doing a Tri.  Needless to say the mall area was a bit of a zoo when I first got down there at Noon.  Sooo many people with their bikes, most walking, a few riding.  Soooo many carrying packs with pumps, obviously self supporting.  But tons of people.  Got good photo's of some of the monuments from the phone, gotta finish upload those today.  Yippiee!   For only a 30 mile ride I was crushed but I also blame that on a light breakfast, and not getting any food while riding also.  Basically by then end it had been 6 hours since my last meal.  OH well. 

Using the center lanes in DC are a blast and they had Penn Ave open to ped's and cyclists for a change and I got a very good shot of the whitehouse.

The weather is amazing, 55 this morning.  Yesterday it hit 84.  Barely broke a hard sweat all day. 

Been getting all the 25 million Patapsco Night Rides up on the 2 calendars and forum.  Eesh.

Debating my ride plan for the week.  I'm leaning towards a shorter ride today maybe a Cap Cresent down to Georgetown and back, thats about 15 miles. 

Trying to figure out if/when I can make a run down to see the old folks in O-town.  Leaning towards mid-october.  Gotta check in with a few people.  See whats what. 

Camping trip is 2 weeks out!  Can't wait to ride somewhere new!  Woo hoo! 

Weather for the next 10 days looks amazing!  I plan to get out and ride or run a ton.  More riding hopefully, want to boost my general distance, do more hills and maybe have a prayer of doing the Seagull in October.

For now I leave you with my slightly off angle photo of The Vampire Hunter Memorial in DC.


Friday, September 07, 2012

Back on the CCT South

Last night was the first CCT ride I could find in my connect logs since February!  Thats pretty awesome.  It has in general been soooo dry this summer we've been riding a ton!  

Had a good 19 miles with 2 miles exploring Wakefield to determine if it was rideable.  It wasn't.  So I made the official call for CCT South.  After a bit late start we headed out with some confusion on routing.  I was planning on going Queensbury to the park back entrance, most of the rest headed up the CCT.  Oh well.  I took my group and we caught up after a bit.  I splashed some huge puddles and got a wee dirty.  It was fun.  We then settled in for a pretty relaxed ride up the CCT.  Made it a fairly good way before we hit the 7:45 turn around.  Enjoyed a TSB and headed back. 

I was on the CX bike and so was Ian we took of first due to some of our inability to corner hard etc.  Need some practice but the wet leaves, wet pavement and such were freaking me out, probably being my normally over cautious self. 

The ride back was a blast, I let myself hang back about 2 minutes on one crossing then I got to take off and race down the steep road.  Hit a blazing 27.6 miles per hour barely pushing.  Damn that was fun!

My HR Strap is giving some weird readings that are way low.  Must be time to replace the battery and if that doesn't work replace the strap.  Kinda wanna replace it anyways but will be frugal.

Did order a new MINI stove for camping.  A coworker got one and it's very impressive and a 3.9 ounces tiny and works really well with a great flame range!  Ham and Eggs here I come!  My JetBoil's cooktop issues suck.  It will boil water faster than hell but it's range is a bit limited really temp wise. 

Also did my first bike to work in a REAL long time today and next week looks great with even lower temps predicted!  The gear bag worked really well, next time I will add the laptop to see how that feels with 10lbs of tech instead of a ton of clothes and a spare set of shoes (I'm leaving a new pair here).


This is a really cool photo from a cycle chick blog the title of the shot is Bike Accident.  The soda red really makes it jump out and sorta shocking. 

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Who's in da kitchen?

Well my riding collapsed under the forecasted random storms this weekend and still not being fully over my plague from a few weeks ago.  It's re-entered my sinuses.  I almost left work early today due to sinus pain. 

The SM100 was a bit wet this year I hear.  Re-affirming my life choices the endurance mountain biking is for those with not enough to do :)  Or those with a few screws loose.  Some of the tales I've heard are truly shocking and some are typical of the madness.

Maybe I'll take up 24 hour solo racing,  with a team of 24.

All things said much respect to all the racers who do these epic insanely long and hard things.  I'm simply not competitive enough to be interested in that or a strong enough rider to care about shorter things.  I could see myself doing some orienteering mtb stuff someday.

New video up from the summer picnic.  I only have to see myself a few times, though two of them you can only see me if you know what to look for.


Did get in a good short ride tonight, last ride on the CX bike - over a MONTH ago.  Oy.  My posterior is still complaining a bit.

I need to pull apart the frame and treat it with frame saver soon.  I pulled the seat post over the weekend and found some rusty-ness for sure.  Sigh.

Ordered my copy of Reveal the Path the new Mike Dion film, the same guy who did Ride Across the Sky about the Tour Divide Race.  The art book I got is amazing.  Can't wait to see the film, should be here in time for this weekend.

Drank some epic beer over the long weekend including Evolution's - Rise UP Coffee Stout 7%, Double Jack's Double DBA a bourbon barrel aged strong ale at  12%!  And I had the DC Brau/Stillwater - Middle Name Danger - A very tasty farmhouse ale at 7.2%.  Damn. 

Now I'm just waiting for Thursday's TNR.  With Sunset at 7:30 we are rapidly running out of regular riding in Accotink.  Soon it will be Wakefield only.   Joy.   Joy.  Happy.  Happy.