Down with the.....

Pew.  Pew. Pew.  said Curiosity's laser. 

Hack.  Hack.  Hack said Rob's lungs.

Since Wednesday night I've been coming down with something thats going around the office.  Thursday was rough as I was tired from not sleeping well and several very long days on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The ride was okay, felt not too bad but a bit easily winded.  Good group and good fun though.  Huge crowd of 35+ riders. 

Friday it all went to hell over night, way more drainage and by Saturday morning I was hacking up new life forms yet to be discovered by Curiosity on Mars.  uGH.  Still sleeping like crap.  Woke around work time on Sunday and couldn't get back to sleep so I ended up running errands then doing 3 hours of solo trimming on my trial before the rains came in.  My shoulders are killing me as apparently I had the pack straps mis-adjusted and was rubbing myself the wrong way with it. 

I did get some new extendable clippers that are AWESOME!  with 2+ feet long handles my back is actually fine versus how bad it hurt after my last trimming effort.  Now I just have 3 more sections that need trimming.  Groan.  One of them is pretty short so I may try and get it tonight if it's not raining again.  I should complain about the rain but honestly it's a good thing right now open trails are extremely dry and dusty.

Tonight's real major project assuming I leave work ontime/nearly ontime is to STORE all the picnic left over supplies at the storage ctr.  Then maybe Tuesday after work I will try and return the mega cooler that pork came in leaving me almost done with picnic stuff. 

Gotta plan a fall trip but I'm waiting on seeing how some projects work out and then how J's new roommate works out with the cats.  If she doesn't then my vacation limits for Sept/Oct really change. 

Still bummed I didn't get a ride in Yesterday but there was no way I was doing something epic, being sick like this stinks.  My goal is to have it mostly kicked by the end of this week.

Ramping up for the big 2012 MORE Fall Camping trip to Davis, WV that is about a month away. 

Did sneak in some beers this week of note the Red Hoptober from New Belgium is very tasty.  Also did a 4 beer flight at WF on saturday including DFH Burton Baton, Firestone's Walkers Double DBA, Alewerks Bourbon Barrel Porter, and Weyerbacher's Imperial Pumpkin.  The first 3 are all Bourbon Barrel aged and were tasty.  The porter was VERY sweet and was honestly my least favorite at the time.  The DDBA was almost too much.  The punkin beer wasn't bad, but with the cold I have I don't know how much I could trust my sense of taste and I had absolutely no nose.  Yesterday I picked up a bottle of Widmer Bro's Kill Devil Brown Ale special release and am really looking forward to it.

Now I'm really confused.

Winter has returned apparently un-announced last night. I came out this morning and promptly went F@#$ it's cold, and went back in for a jacket and glove (only found 1 of my light pair of course). 32 Degrees! Stupid weather.

And looking at the rest of the week I see odd low/normal temps again! Oh where have you gone 80 degrees? I should't complain though, this cold snap may deal the really annoying bugs a deathblow. Go away ticks, gnats, etc!

Due to the explosion of allergens I got a minor sinus attack this weekend and it's really put me down hard. Add in the TON of rain we got Saturday/Sunday and I haven't gotten in much biking since Thursday. Or more correctly, any biking. At the rate I'm going with other commitments it will be Thursday before I ride again.

Sunday is supposed to be the Big Raystown Lake Day Trip, might rain a bit but that may just make for good riding. We shall see. It would be nice to try the legs out for a 30+ mile ride. To see how I'm ready for the big rides coming up in May.

Also prepping for the Big Spring TW at CJ. Going to actually try and get flyers/info out to all the local shops this year and get some flyers up at the park.

Tapering...sorta

Tapering a bit in prep for the big week next week down at Pisgah/Western NC.

Currently plan is to leave Saturday after work and drive till I'm tired. Hoping to make it most of the way so I can hit an early epic on Sunday doing probably Big Ivy that day I think. MOnday will be 2 shorter rides or 1 maybe then a bit ride on Tuesday and so forth.

Rode Lake Fairfax last week and it was good till the tubeless upfront blew on a piddle rock.

Wakefield and Accotink with casual barely gets my heart rate up anymore. In 2 hours i burned 2/3'rds of what 40 minutes of chasing Jason and Camp at Lk Fairfax.

Good day at Cabin John yesterday me and 3 helpers built a new bridge on the Tuckerman Rd to Goya section leaving 1 final crossing to fix, however due to its potential length we can't build the bridge due to county rules, so in the near future we are going to do some armoring/shaping I suppose.

Today I practice tent setup work.

Then maybe bottle beer tomorrow. Got new bottles just need to run them in the dishwasher on the sanitize setting. New b33r kits should be here today!

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.

This weather sucks

Did I think a ton of good deeds yesterday, perhaps some karma will go my way and my new ride will appear tomorrow. Otherwise it looks like the 15th. Not a HUGE deal really. Though my rear wheel disagrees. :(

Trailwork at Accotink was a success. We added 3/10ths of a mile of new trail that will eventually replace I think about 200 yards. Maybe. Another Quarter mile to do in the other direction. The apparent plan is that the trail along the railroad will be left alone with no maintenance in the future due to park concerns and the railroads request. The RR may fence it off also is another possibility. They are nervous about their own liability for people on/near their tracks.

Got the ball rolling again on getting myself and another official set as Trail Monitors for Wake-o-Tink.

Helped a friend change his car battery that went dead. Fixed my inlaws I-pad and one of their bikes at dinner, and replaced the bulb on my wyf's driver side low beam that has been out while she was away.

Was going to ride today but with the 95 degree temps I think I'm going to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

Trimmed

Also did a bit of trimming at WF and accotink. At WF it was only near the big HILL on the creek trail where the briars were out of control.

At accotink I did a bunch on the 2nd part of boyscout and then also cleared the lower exit/entrance near the paved path in accotink it was WAY overgrown and I was tired of fighting the overgrowth.

Lots of TW not so much riding

This is the time for insane trail work apparently. We did a WF one today and made major fixes to the destroyed power station descent. We fixed major rutting and put in 3 minor grade reversals/rolling dips to help get more water off the trail. We need to build one more somewhere in the first area though to get the worst off. Also teams weed whacked the powerlines and trimmed the bowl entirely. That will be very nice!

Last week I did an epic 6 hour trail ride/work binge at CJ and boy was i wiped out after wards. Only got in 1 other ride last week at WF and that was a bit of bummer as we hung around WF and I wanted to to Accotink. So I think I had 26 miles last week and this week will like be the same as I only got 13 miles after wards today. Unless I do W@W or hit FH on Tuesday or something but we have a lot of t-storms in the forecast for this week so who knows?

Still not sure if I'm gonna try and do the curse of dark hollow next weekend. Wait and see I guess.

Full Sail's Session black is excellent and very drinkable, I enjoyed it while doing laundry last night and watching The Girl with a dragon tattoo, very cool.

Long Day Done

Went out a bit later than I wanted today for some Ad-Hoc Trailwork on Cabin John. When I'd visited a few weeks ago it was starting to get bad. Well the goya drive section was real bad. 1 mile of trail took me almost 3 hours alone to trim. Though I also did saw out the better part of one tree with a folding hand saw.

I got to about 1/4 of the way into the section to river rd at around 6:30 and decided to be done, rode out to River Rd and headed back. To towel down and pick the wyf up from here trip to NYC this weekend. Ran out of water crossing the powerlines near the baseball fields.

Quick rinse off in the bathroom at CJ of my head arms and torso and I was done. 13.5 miles of riding and probably walked 6 or 7 I figure in pruning/trimming. Still need to do the last .9 miles from river rd up to near uhm watchama-call it. Though the first .3 miles from river rd in doesn't need much, just one spot where there is a log down, and the ride around is in the bushes.

Maybe one day after work this week. We'll see.

I love the Sugoi RS bibs. Best money ever spent. Also traded in a recent gift and a gift card from the hols at City Sports on a posh new set of Oakley Jawbones. Sweet! Need to order some clear lenses for night riding stat.

Cabin John Return

Finally got a FULL ride of CJ end to end. About 15.5 miles currently from Goya Drive to the bridge on 7 Locks past river and all the way back. Some mud in 2 spots, that are known bad area's the rest was great. The last section from River/7Locks to the Bridge on Seven Lochs was in need of some more trimming, but it's actually a pretty fun little addition. Not sure though if it's worth the half mile road connection each way though. Still pretty cool. Trails in pretty good shape. Only 2 small trees that could be cut out.

The new area for the shed on the Sunday trail work is set behind the tennis court building. I'm stoked.

Gotta pick up tools I guess 1 day this week incase we do get to some trimming work. Hu.

Schaeffer Farms next monday for sure! If I don't have ot do finishing work on the shed that is. Pushing milage on this month. I'm at 70 so far, not bad considering I've ebeen stuck at 20 a month since the beginning of november. UGH! Legs still aren't at optimal strength. Need to spend some time suffering at accotink the next few thursdays.

Busy is Good.

Been a busy couple weeks, we've now had our 3rd TNR at Wakefield in a row, and it was the third one with 20+ peeps out on the trails. Last nights casual group started out at 10, but broke down into 2 or 3 groups since we had a complete new guy out. Sarah and I took him around and showed him the ropes. Sarah really has the teaching thing down, must be from being a ski instructor!

And managed a respectable 8 miles, not bad. The new guy had only done 4 miles of pretty flat stuff before.

Now if only the trails would get a chance to get really good and dry.

And the SHED is in for our trailday build at Cabin John. Hopefully we'll have enough volunteers to have a shed crew and a trailwork crew.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

I have had some REALLY good beers lately, 2 major standouts

Avery Maharaja 2009, Batch 9. A hop monster with nice malt. Amazing hop balance for how hopped it was. Smelled like gold. Tastee,drank the whole bomber myself on Friday. Felt like crap though the next morning. 10.5%. Hope they make it again this year. Imperial IPA.

Terrapin Brewer (GA, not md suprisingly) Dark Side Belgian Stout - Project beer for them. We had this on Saturday before thisone at Jen's birthday thing and it was amazing! The mouth feel alone was superb, excellent balance. No one thing really jumped out at you like say toast, coffee or chocolate. It was all just damn fine and really strong. Very nice to sip and drink and savor. I got the last bottle WF Fairfax had on Friday. Yeh haw!

Other good beer. Tuppers Hop Pocket, Duck Rabbit Milk Stout (v.nice) and Bells Consecrator Double Bock.

bad beer - Yeungling Double Bock, Butt Wipe wheat, it was on a dare.

Did about 3 hours of cleaning up the north section of cabin john today, some clean up and some prep for the season pruning back annoying plants in bad sections.

Tomorrow I may ride it or work on another section. not sure.

Cabin John Trail Work Day - FALL

Come on out to the CJ Trailwork Day, this Sunday, Oct 4 at 9 AM.

We will be performing a wide range of tasks:
Paint blazing the new route
Moving trail head signs
Closing the old route
Trimming the corridor as necessary
Additional Possible Tasks include:
Small sections of trail work such as bench cutting several small badly slopped area's
Small reroute of trail section
Trash cleanup
And anything else that can be addressed.

As of now the weather looks not bad for Sunday as some recent rain, and a little drizzle often makes trailwork easier if dirt must be worked with. You may want to layer yourself carefully as even in slightly damp 60 degree days you can build up quite a sweat. Do make sure you wear clothes that can get dirty, and good shoes for working outside, as you might in a garden. Also suggest you bring a pair of good work gloves, and a bottle or two of water. I often carry a small pack for this as I work.

We will have probably 2 crew leaders at the event so we may be working in separate multiple area's. Some of which we may drive/shuttle to (the campground or perhaps the Goya Dr trailhead). If you are getting dropped off we will get you safely there and back. But you may want to make sure you can call for an early pickup if we finish early.

Tools - We should have most of the tools needed but as usual feel free to bring your own. I'll have my own loppers with me. No machete's or chainsaws!!!!

Teens - Welcome for work, a parent will be necessary to sign the form.

Summarization:
Cabin John TW Day
7400 Tuckerman Ln (See Google Map, Across the street from the Maint Yard).
Bethesda/Rockville, MD
9AM Start, 8:45 Suggested Arrival
1PM Finish
Bring Water, Gloves, and Good Shoes.

My Cell # is 850-443-0181
My Email is atlantis.rob@gmail.com

Links:
Sign up with MoCo Parks:

Sign Up Page

Map:
Google Map

CJ Report

Hit the CJ again today.

Tomorrow I should go up there and clear the northern section. Going to pickup a new personal set of loppers. Once you get near the creek its an overgrown beast.

There is also a tree down near the craptacular footbridge.

The rest of the trail wasn't in too bad, shape except where some "helpful" souls had put down some branches where the trail had gotten soft and rutted near the ball fields.

Also someone recently re-blazed the orange route around the Democracy Tennis center to Blue. Now the maps need updating. Off to send a report to the bosses at MNPCC.

Stoked for Michaux on Sunday and Raystown on Monday I think.

Cabin John Trailwork Day March 29

Cabin John Trailwork Day - March 29, 2009 - Sunday.

Come out and help us finish the bridges, to complete the re-route started this fall/winter series, between Tuckerman Rd and Goya Drive.

More info to come!

Insert Clever Title Here

Damn it, I had a great idea for a title here yesterday, but alas it flitted off into the ether.

Yesterday I was out at Wakefield putting in a ton of work on the new Phase IV area. There were 7 of us out working like nuts. We put in about 300+ feet of new trail armoring made up of crushed concrete aggregate. I also near the end I went off with Eric to cut a tree out of the bowl trail. Alas it was so big and eric's chain was so dull we had to simply ramp it. Turned out pretty nice.

Didn't stay for the evening/night ride since the wyf came home 2 days early. We spent a nice evening together and passed out after some excellent sushi at a place on Wisconsin Ave near Friendship Heights.

Trailwork is good for the soul.

Sunday I finally made the trip up to Gambrill's for a trailwork day. I was a bit worried at first that not many would be up there with it rainy and cold, but we ended up with 12 hardcore workers. A few people I've ridden with before including Todd, Dave, Julie, Joe and some others. New folks included clyde, frank, charlie, and a few others. We got a ton done and finished up with some beers before we tripped down to Brewers Alley, pretty good food and the oatmeal stout was nice.

Today I was going to go for a ride in the afternoon but the rain kicked back up and back in I went. Opted for a Run and ride at the gym. The new running shoes I picked up this morning were great. Very nice.

Friday the wyf and I went to a champagne tasting. It was pretty good, we ended up with 2 nice bottles in the $30 range. I liked a couple of the nice $60 ones too. I also picked up a 6pack of Full Moon, Blue Moon's winter ale version. Very Nice!