CJ at Night

Finally got up and did the CJ Night ride with Michael W (no James) last night. It was a damn good ride really. Started from the group picnic lot on Tuckerman Lane and rode to the Goya Drive end first. One area in there really need a reroute as the stream edge is really close.

Then we went south. 1st 2 sections weren't in bad shape, pretty damn dry in fact. But then we got towards near the end of The 7 Bradley rd to River Road section and there are 2 big washouts. 1 already has a decent bypass. The other is in need of some real work. Might be time to consider a full re-route of that section.

12.9 miles according to Mike's cycle computer, my GPS came up 11.8.

A spoke gave out early on or maybe Saturday at FH so thats another thing to be handled when I drop the bike off tonight. Gotta clean it up a bit for sure before then or they will flip on me.

I have to note again how impressed I am with the new Gemini XERA lighthead I got a few weeks ago. It's great, solid light and good life on the battery. I was re-reading on the GeomanGear page about the 1600 I have, apparently the red status occurs at the 50% battery mark, not 25% like I thought so maybe it would run almost 2 hours on high and 2.5 on 3. I'll have to push it soon on another ride. I will say on high it is incredibly bright and the next step down is still Very Bridge.

Wakefield Festivus on Thursday night, not looking like a trail ride at this time, more of a CCT or such.

Ouch. Never trust a Trail Liason.

Damn busy week last week while off, the weekend before was busy with stuff. Monday became a day of house cleaning, and passing out forgetting about a MORE BOD meeting. oops. Tuesday was a relaxation day. Wednesday I went to Fountain Head and rode. Thursday was a 2x ride with a stop at TBL. Friday I don't recall but I think it involved b33r. Saturday was trail work and ride at Fountain Head. Good to see a bunch of folks I haven't seen in a while including Paul H from Rosaryville. We moved a LOT of lumber again. Probably a couple tons. Then we moved a couple of tons of rocks a short distance building a wall.

Then we got to ride the new stuff, the new entrance loop is AWESOME! Then we only did the blue loop and rode the new SOB alternate. Very cool, better than it was on Thursday. Then we tried the new exit loop. It will be really cool once it's done and compacted down.

Sunday I was too sore to do the Shed Ride, which had 70+ riders in 7 groups. Thats awesome. So instead I lounged, helped at the old house, and TCB'd.

Now I'm back at work. Back on the self fitness chain gang, though I'm still sore from Saturday. Trying to decide if I want to ride tonight or not, the rest of the week is looking pretty shitty.

Tuesday the Paragon goes in for new chain, new (already owned) cogset, and a rebuild of the fork (seals and fluid). Didn't know it was supposed to be done once a season, it's been a year and a half.

DC Bar-si Ride

Riding with DC Tony is always an adventure. On MTB Rides you know what the score will be. A broken chain and maybe a flat. Ok. On an urban ride it's different but the same.

Traffic Lights? Ignore Em!

Stop Signs? Suggestions!

Lane Marks? What a Joke!

Directions? For Spaniards, Not Italians.

If nothing else it was entertaining risking life in limb in the heart of DC thumbing our noses at the collective multitudes of DC.

I met the group at Haines Point and did a lap before by myself to warm up. DC Tony was at the Club House and warned me they might close gates before we got back. So I moved my car to the Tennis Courts. The group arrived a bit late, a bit after 7 and we waited a bit for Larry and Liz to catch up. Then we were off, finishing across the 14th st bridge I think and up to the Capitol to meet with Joelski who had Metro'd down with his shiny nused Dawes road bike, he bought for $35 bucks earlier in the day. What a great find.

We then took pictures at the Tree and of the nuts protesting at the Capitol. Then we were off to our first bar (2nd technically, the club house bar was closed). Ended up at the Capitol Lounge. They looked at the 13 of us like we were nuts. We had beers and rolled out a bit after 8. Off to the Argonaut on H street. Damn good we had a bunch of pitches of Bells Double Cream Stout there and DC Brau and some Long Hammer IPA. I had an awesome Cubano. We took off from there to misc rowdy cheers as we headed up I and headed towards The Big Hunt in Dupont Circle. Some scary ass riding later and we arrived, shaken but not stirred.

The Big Hunt was also busy but we got a table in back and beer pretty quick. Unfortunately I fell prey to one of the big issues at the Hunt, my beer was soured. I didn't even finish it or feel like arguing. We rolled out of there a bit after 10:40. Back down past the Cap.

I split from the group and went down to Haines Point at Ohio. Ended up doing another lap, but I was pooped and couldn't push it as hard as I wanted. Barely averaged 15. Maxed at 22. LAME!

Still not bad night probably 19-20 miles of riding for me. 4 Beers, 1 Cubano. Good times with good people. Can't wait to do it again. With someone else leading. :P

Last weeks Wakefield ride was nice to be out on the dirt. Trails weren't optimal but it had been to long. Most stuff was dry enough a few area's were still wet.

I'm off this next week and hoping to get in some rides in new places to try and finish Trail Rat 2010. We'll see.

Rock and Roll is Goot for the Soul

Busy week with a complete lack of biking so far. Still a bit bummed I missed out on the big Elizabeth's Furnace ride Sunday but stuff had to get done. Sigh.

Monday had a board meeting that I forgot about due to being stuck at work till 7. Oops.

Tuesday was beer racking and prep for today's feast at work.

And last night was Kid Rock. Hell yah! Damn good show at The Filmore in Silver Spring. No strippers though. He did have 2 nice looking backup singers. Maybe not on this sort of tour. New about half the songs. Kinda surprising in that I own 0 Kid Rock albums and I think I have 2 mp3's. Crowd was good and into it. No mosh pits was somewhat surprising.

Feeling it a bit this morning also, had 5 beers and a shot last night between 6 and 11. Peg Leg Stout, Old Jock Wee Heavy, Troegs Javahead Stout, Smuttynose Brown Ale, then a Sam Adams actually at the filmore and the shot of Tequila.

Off to finish prepping for the feast at work.

Weekend Fail

This weekend ended up as a cycling epic fail. Saturday wasn't bad but I had to go to a performance of my wife's up in College park. And she was feeling sick so I spent the rest of the weekend helping her a bit around the house. We threw out a ton of expired food (2+ or more years in some cases). We cleaned out a bunch of stuff and got the house caught up so she can have the maid service in this week for a full cleaning before she is out of town for the launch next week of the Mars Science Lab.

We did watch a really cool special on Spirit and Opportunity rovers from NOVA, Mars, Dead or Alive. VEry cool.

Missed out on EF. Kinda bummed but the extra rest was nice.

Had another awesome brunch also at 8407 Kitchen in Silver Spring. Tasty. Even had a Flying Dog Imperial Pumpkin. Pretty tasty. Not overly pumpkin flavored, but lots of spice.

Uh yah it's not the beer....really.

4th Ride of the week was a bar ride down in Shirlington since we got too much rain to ride trails at Wakefield.

Getting down there sucked, I should have just parked up at Madfox and road down. But that would have turned at 12 mile ride into a 20+ and honestly my legs don't have much left in them.

We hit 3 bars on the ride. Hitting Freddies first, then we hit Galaxy, then finished at Lost Dog. Met up with a ton of folks at Lost Dog and enjoyed a couple good beers and an excellent Pizza.

Also on the way over I accidentally Snot Rocketed someone....oops, I thought I'd moved far enough to the side and angled away enough.

Kept up pretty well except for one point between Freddies and Galaxy Hut where my legs got tired. The final down hill before turning back onto the trail was a blast.

EF on Sunday. Am I excited? A bit. Nervous? My legs just sent me a text complaining about over use. Oh well. For now I'm relaxing till Sunday. Maybe a very short spin to loosen up Saturday. And the weather for next week is looking up!

No...... No ..... No.....

No .... today. No .... today.

Big riding week so far, after today I will have 4 rides in 5 days. By Sunday I will have racked almost 10 hours on the bike this week.

Unfortunately the standard maxim is holding true. We are in for 3 days of XXXX next week on Monday thru Wednesday at least. UGH.

Got a quick spin in Centerville after work so as to enjoy the last of the light and great temps again yesterday. Found the remains of the Manassas Gap Railroad that I've heard of before here are some photo's of the marker and a pair of what I assume are bridge foundations.





Wasn't really planning on riding nearly 10 miles yesterday but it was too nice to stop after only 3 or 4 to turn around so I just kept spinning. Started cooling down noticeably again at the end. Yep it went from 71 to 53 by the end of the ride last night.

Tuesday's ride was logged as dropping from 55 to 41. Yeoch! No wonder I felt frickin freezing when I was done, as soggy/sweaty as I was.

Got a real nice semi-sunset shot. Gotta see if the high res is useful as a new header here.

Now if only I can get in a good ride tonight at WF. Not looking for huge length but a good spin, as I've got a BIG ride on Sunday out at Elizabeth Furnace.

Tired in the Light

Jeez. I'm pooped as I sit here slacking at work this morning. My legs are sending complaints via IM almost. If they could work my phone I think they would for real. The long drive back from Rosy is a real killer. I had to snooze a bunch this morning.

Got out to Rosy in pretty good time considering I took a long'ish detour to avoid a car fire on 66 east bound. Then a slowdown on the way to the Wilson bridge. Got there around 5pm. Got my stuff together and got out for my first lap a bit before 5:30. The sun was sinking rapidly along with the temperature from near 70 to what the weather channel says was 45 by 9PM.

Memo to Self - Add vest back to kit ASAP!

My legs were a bit lazy at first but by halfway thru I felt pretty good. Did the interior loop after a quick detour down a horse trail. Good stuff. Felt a bit tired near the 1st loop end but still good. The lot was pretty full when I got back. The 20 minute wait probably didn't help a lot. 14 riders total went out to ride. I was in the middle to start but the first good climb ended that really quickly, I couldn't put the power down anymore and was forced to my little ring. ugh. I swept for a bit and recovered some, but never could get back on pace. The regulars are just DAMN FAST! By the time we hit the split we were 2 definite groups, the casualties skipped the interior and as the tail of the group I hit the lot a few minutes after they did. The fast guys came in 3 or 4 minutes behind me! Flying!

Couple good (Bad) wrecks with no injuries. Eric decided he need some Taco action and taco'd his wheel at the blown out bridge crossing. He got it mostly bent back and finished the ride. 1 guy had a double endo-flip after catching a root. Another guy safely completed the superman maneuver at some point.

The new lights are awesome. I can run both on low and feel pretty good about lighting. I got a solid 3 hours I think total out of both lights (counting post ride parking lot sitting). For shorter rides I should be able to run a mix of high/med high on the Magic Shine with no issues and high on the XERA and have insane light. The magicshine's width/brightness is truly nuts. I do think I will change the XERA to a reflector beam when it's available to have a bit more spot. I ran sections using one or the other just for comparison. I can even safely run the XERA on low and be alright in non-techy area's.

Shameless Pimpage

Part 1 - The Pimpage - Easy money for MORE



Part Duex -
New light mounted and lightly tested - Check
New tire mounted with stan's - Check
Ready for a whole lot of Rosy - Check (\M/)

Also in another strange coincidence my new flashlight ALSO came in yesterday a Fenix light I got off SaC. Pulled out my untouched batteries from last winter for the knock off version that sucked, put in and left on for 2+ hours with no problems. I'm rotating all the batteries thru the charger. I do note one side of the charger is broke-ass. With it's reflector at short distanced the damn thing is BRIGHT!

The new tire was almost painless to mount, I think I spent about 10 getting it on one side, getting the bead aligned then getting the other side 2/3'rds on. Added a ton of Stans and then a few minutes to wrestle on that final third of the bead. Then I hooked up my wimpy floor pump and was able to easily inflate it to 60 lbs setting the beads. Then a few hours of shake and set. I'd say by this morning it hadn't lost any air! That's awesome. Even when new on there the ardent had some minor bead leaks/etc. The power of running a REAL toobless tire. Can't wait to try it out at the Rose tonight.

Also trying to layout a Falls Church based Bar Ride so far I have:
DFH
4 P's
Mad Fox
Dogwood Tavern
Public House #7
Clare and Don's Beach Shack
JV's

Now I just have to figure out a starting point. Maybe Vienna.

Flat as a pancake compressor.

While out searching high and low in storage for a ice scrapper this morning I decided to check my rear tire on a lark. Surprise!

It was flat as a pancake. It's been slowly leaking a while. Over the last few weeks it's been getting faster. At the end of the first lap yesterday the pump said it was down to 20. I pumped up to 33 or so and did the next lap, I think it was in the high 20's by when I finished. The ardent was a good tire but I don't think it lasted well and being non-toobless it didn't hold air as well as a toobless specific tire.

Guess it's time to mount the Specialized Purgatory I've been hanging onto since June. No biggie. See if I can get it to mount up myself this time. If not, I know what I'm ordering for Christmas!

Got some other stuff I need to fix around the house so hopefully I have time.

Yawn. I got to bed pretty early last night i thought but I'm still tired. Even though I woke up at 5:30 pretty much fully awake. ugh.

Gemini XERA came in and wow it is TINY! About the size around of soda top (20 oz) and about as long as 4. Pics on Flickr. The new MS still impresses with how damn powerful it is. Though the lack of spot in it sorta sucks. I think the Gemini will give a solid balance to that issue.

Fall Fountain Head Report

Fountain Head in the fall is a different beast during the summer, it rolls by easier, the trail seems better. The cool weather makes the experience not suck. Sure its hard but all good things are. The sound of a crew event from the reservoir hits you unexpectedly, the blanket of leaves carpets the ground with the preferred line always appearing to run in all the best spots. Less guessing, less thought I think.

Tons of people out today. Even the trail guys were hard at work (Brock's crew I think). The entrance loop changes look amazing and some of the new stuff farther out looks much more enjoyable then sucky old climbs like Possum Hill.

Talked to a TON of people out today. Ran into the trail liason Tom and his brother Rob. We discussed the need to put a warning up saying in big words/graphics (IE A BLACK DIAMOND) that this isn't a beginner friendly trail. I ran into 2 groups of families out who were in WAY over there heads. I was in the entrance loop I suggested they bail out near the construction and try Laurel Hill they were very appreciative. The other group had gotten lost at the 1st intersection and were pushing up Shockabilly. Yep. I got em turned around and advised them the same. Though as I was done and they decided to finish out also I was able to give them directions and a LH map I had. Talked to Brock I think it was as he was working. Also talked to a new guy in town who was looking for places to ride. Gave him the website and the 411. Also helped a semi lost walker out. She was very confused. Very very.

Did 2 laps, pretty solidly. About 1:15 moving time I think each time...Maybe a bit less on the 2nd. Way faster total time on the 2nd though as I stopped way less. OY. 2 minutes longer now that I look at the GPS. Thanks cramps! Was cramping out from the start of Possum Hill. Still made it. On the 2nd lap I cleared EVERY climb. And that's rare. I haven't done that on my 29'r yet. At least 4 attempts. I'm stoked.

Tuesday my plan is to ride Rosy. Thursdays looking rainy. Suck. Maybe a bar ride.

Get out and ride

AFter a really crazy week I got out to WF with 5 minutes before official ride start time to find only 5 or 6 people in the lot. AT first I was dismayed but then I realized that meant a small group and not as many riders to share the trail with. I ended up only having Chris in my group while the evil empire of Stoner, JoeP, Dylan and Eric went out fast. We passed each other a ton of times. At 8 Chris bailed and I opted to keep riding, got in another 4 or 5 miles. It was good to be out and spinning in the dark with my thoughts. The stress of work really flowed away over the course of the ride.

As I finished I realized where everyone was. The postponed Schaeffer Farm Halloween Ride. And boy those pictures have left me scar's I can't get over till I have insane amounts of b33r.

Mad Fox in Falls Church rules. Good food, good beer, good times.

AT kilroy's post ride last night I kept thinking how I wish we were at MF. Better food and b33r. I got stuck with Sierra. Oy.

For now I'm trying to figure out where to ride Sunday and Tuesday. Tuesday I'm leaning towards Rosaryville. Sunday, I dunno. Maybe something different. Might do James River or something NEW.

And the curse rolls on.

Well it rained most of Thursday again, so I went off for a MORE/IMBA pre-meeting before the fall .GOV ride out at LH today, that I'll get to a bit late. Unfortunately the IMBA group had to bail early as a team member apparently fainted while out to go to dinner from not eating enough. So Jason and I were left with a free beers and no one else so we headed off to Whole Foods for some better beer and food.

Bells Hopsolution is Delicious. Very well balanced for a 9% beer. Stoner and I killed the Keg as Ben B showed up later found out when he tried to order one and about 3 ounces came out and the keg was kicked! I went for sushi which was pretty damn good and Stoner got a plate of indian type stuff. We hung out and shot the shit about riding and dogs till a bit past 9. Then we were off. I crashed out at home by 10, and slept till basically 7. Ugh.

This weekend was supposed to be the Bliss but lack of participants caused it to be canceled, now we are facing rain/snow on Sat. The Gambril/shed area may get 5 to 8 inches! Not sure if I wanna deal with that or not on Sunday.

So I may try and shoot out to LH right after work today to get in a part of a ride with IMBA .GOV ride.

It was a good ride.

So finally on Sunday I was able to pull the bike out and try and figure out what the hell was going on with my "ghost shifting" issue. Had to wash a good bit of mud off the bike. Wiped it down and inspecting the rear d I found the issue, the shift cable was about 3/4 frayed/snapped. Oy!

Over to TBL Springfield I went and the guys got me fixed up real quick. Though the shop guy did note my chain is getting close to warn out and that my rear gear set is pretty chewed up. Not unexpected. Fortunately I have a new rear gear set that I won at the MORE Winter party for 20-20-25 trail work. And it's a WAY nicer one that came with the bike. Tempted to also go ahead and replace the triple at that time, but I really would like to go to a 2x instead of the 3x but that requires a new front derailleur and shifter also in addition to the crankset and it's just not in the budget I guess.

So after getting the bike back to rideable I headed out for a quick tour of good ole Laurel Hill. Nice fun to zip around the place. Didn't feel great at first, couldn't generate power and was tired at the end. Argh, gotta ride more. The washouts were HUGE. The one at the big bridge on Giles was shocking as was the one in the field. The crossing at the bridge one sucked. The weather/temps were amazing. It was SOOOO nice. Though with some of the brambles I would have like to have had my enduro's on.

Hoping to hit Schaeffer tomorrow night but the weather is not looking super happy. With rain possibly tonight and then Thursday is looking like another non riding night. ugh. STOP IT MA NATURE!

GRilled up some steak and sausage when I got home and enjoyed a SixPoint Sweet Action, a tasty brew in can. Check em out.

Down with the wetness

It was still pretty wet in most area's of WF last night, about the only stuff in GOOD shape was one area of the creek trail and the powerlines stuff where the wind worked well to dry out stuff. The trails under the trees are holding a water still in part due to all the wonderful leaf cover, that is starting to come down. By Saturday I think WF will be decent. So we ground the CCT mostly. Visited 495 and did the powerlines and parts of the creek trail. ugh.

495 is in for issues, looks like the construction company is starting the stormwater drainage work in the area and with the size of the pipe going in some lines/stuff there is probably going to get taken out. The building there also seems a bit haphazard currently, some stuff is huge now but it blows out the lines, and the beginner line stuff isn't being maintained really at all.

And my shifting went to SHIT last night about half way thru. Ghost shifting plagued me in many gears on and off the rest of the night,first really shifting issues I've had with the bike. It was pretty damn grubby and I didn't really inspect it in detail in the lot afterwards. We went pretty much to some PLB's after getting back and changing. Then right to 'Roy's. Nice having a small group we got to hang out and really shoot the shit. Good times.

Tonight I may go pick up ANOTHER brew kit and some brewing gear. Not sure. Part of me wants to F'off, clean the bike and take it easy. But another part KNOWS I need to get the secondary ready for the brew, get ready for the next brew and pick up the new HOPNOG 2011 kit. The 2009 was my basis for my Snow Day IPA that everyone loved.

Return to Little Bennett

Last night I got a chance to return to one of my favorite stomping grounds for night rides, probably the 2nd place I ever did a night ride, Little Bennett Park. It was a fabulous night for riding temperature wise. Looking back at my GPS logs, I see this as my 10th logged ride at LB, since May 2007 and my first in over 3 years! I think there may have been one or two un-logged ones, but I'm sure it's been about 2 years at least since I'd ridden there. Crazy!

The new trails Trail Conservancy has put in will be a BLAST once they bed in and dry up fully, even on a few of the dry sections we started to really pick up some speed! Kinda like Rosaryville but a bit more rolling at least on the Browning Run reroute so far. The final climb back up Kingsley towards Purdum sucks! Nothing like a 15 degree pitch or two to make you suck wind. Parking at the Burnt Hill lot makes it a fairly interesting and somewhat different ride. Flying down from the top of Tobacco Barn is still a BLAST! And Pine Grove is still a nice challenging climb. Good times. LB doesn't get the props it should, when it's dry its a real blast, when it's moist/wet in low area's like last night it's a real work out.

Also got in a quick pre-ride at Schaeffer, doing 2 laps of the whoops, the first was terrible the 2nd was better, need to spend some time learning the slight changes in the lines and the difference in momentum my 29'r requires versus the old Giant. Did white down to the orange whoops cut off, then at the merge I rode white down to the stream and took the green bypass over to yellow and did the sections of yellow I hate back to the lot, not bad. Saw Joel, Sharron and Mark getting ready to head out with the Tuesday Night group.

With the rain today I'm surprised both rides didn't have a WAY bigger turn out as I suspect tomorrow's rides will be canceled, the trails were still all on the marginal side. Maybe a CCT or a Bar Ride for Wakefieldians.

Boards Beers and Rides

Busy Busy week continues from the Brewing on Friday, Sunday's brunch/planting/etc blitz, yesterday I got in a good ride at Schaeffer Farm smoking my best previously recorded avg pace by .8 miles an hour. When I adjust the rate to the true distance it puts me at 9.4 mph. That's flying for me, no wonder the legs are feeling a bit gassed. Did the full white loop, then did the other side. Was running out of daylight at the end, that kinda sucked.

Then we had a MORE Board meeting. It was good, covered a lot of stuff including MOCO Epic related, tasks, strategic vision, and info on the new site. Looks really good.

The beer is fermenting well, surprisingly it hasn't overflowed into the drainage bucket. Who knows maybe today?

Tonight I'm into DC for the Pearl Jam 20-20 movie with a buddy who's a big PJ fan. Thursday we should have some sort of ride baring storms. And I'm hoping for a Friday Night Lights ride, but that depends on just how much rain we get over the next few days. This weekend I may be working a double in prep for having the following Saturday off.

A Brewing Headache.

Brewed some stout finally last night, but it's a long drawn out tale of misery, annoyance, shattered life and sweet completion.

I intended to kick off promptly when I got home with the water just a bit after 4. I get chanced into ratty warm weather clothes and head down start getting stuff together when I realize I only have my empty'ish small tank and the old taken from the old grill. I hook up the old tank and see what happens. The gas is not flowing well. I suspect the valve is going/gone bad. Grrrr. Oww to the nearest Blue Rhino exchange. By the time I'm back and ready it's nearly 5:30. In we go. Using a kit from Northwestern Brewery Supply for Choco Stout. Steap some grains, enjoy some Troegs fall Perpetual IPA. Damn good. Eat some pizza, time to add malts and other things. Add malt and 1 container of PB2 - powdered peanut butter (De-oiled also). Start gathering things for racking to the fermenter including sanitizing my 6.5 gal glass carboy. Water and iodine in, let it sit. Bring it into the garage before dumping it in the sink in the house. I set the thing down. Carefully as usual, but on concrete. Crack! Out pops a piece and out goes the water! Well at least it wasn't in the house. Mop all the water I can out into the driveway. New plan. Use the secondary for now and either use blow-off hose or normal valve till I can get a new primary and re-rack the beer. ugh. Off to the HW store. Get some new transfer tubing as my current one is a bit nasty. Pick up some hopefully right hose and back to base.

Oops only 15 minutes left and I'm late adding the final hop addition. Oh well. In go hops, final bit of PB2 and the wort chiller. Start prepping other things. Time's up and I'm cooling the wort. Ugh sanitize the secondary. Get everything set. Start the transfer.

Trub city with all the PB2 in the mix. ugh! Terrible. Almost 4 cups in just racking the beer almost took an hour. I need a new pot, with a simple drain. Oh well. Gravity kept changing, started off near 8, but an hour later I rechecked the meter/reading and got 5.2 Oh well we'll see. Clean up. Damn. I like having my own brews and doing stuff like this PB Chocolate Stout is very cool (if it comes out alright).

But damn stuff like this sucks. Bottling Sucks. Cleaning Sucks. Oh well back to work and dreams of rich peanut buttery chocolate stout.

New Hydration Bladder

Got the new hydration bladder I ordered only on Wednesday! Damn. Love the new quick connect on the hose at where it hooks to the bladder, makes draining/drying easier for sure. No more funk-i-fied bladder usage that I've been ingesting who knows what little germs/critters, for the last few months.

New set of pads should be in for the rear brakes in the next few days.

BOD Meeting this Monday up in G-Berg. Hoping to get out of work a bit early and hit the Schaeffer pre-ride.

Weathers looking crappy for next Thursday. Enough with the rain! GO AWAY!

Also took advantage of the Back Country Research deal on 2 straps and a Tuhl-Bag for fall riding. I love being able to ride without the hydration pack, at least in area's where I know I'm close to the parking lot like Wakefield or Accotink if I park up near there. Rides where I'm liable to get further out I still carry a pack usually if riding alone. In a group I may try and cheat out of it and have others carry a spare tube. I'm lazy. Almost time to remount the flask carrier also.

And I think tonight I shall brew. Not sure if I'll do the Raspberry IPA or kick of the stout finally.

Cold Crisp - Yep OCT Wakefield TNR

Got out nice and early to Wake, and was nearly ready to roll with a few quick tasks.

The new gear bag is super nice, keeps the clean clothes for post ride away from the dirty bike gear. Dynastar Cargo Bag - Post ride I can put the wet/nasty/dirty post ride clothes in a couple different area's to keep them from contaminating extra clothes or picking up more nasty mud crap. Another great steepandcheap find, getting it shipped for $100 bucks.

I blasted over to Accotink with Doug Vinson, we had a blast riding Gas Plant to the new trail section and down the way and came back Boyscout. I pushed a bit more than casual pace for sure. Sorry Doug!


Then it was time for the night ride, at this point only the fast guys had a chance to ride Accotink very briefly and they took off at 6:40. We may have a 6:30 group next week if people want to ride the big A. Otherwise it's pre-ride only now.

Wakefield was drying up nicely, only some wet spots that tend to hold water in corners/low area's. But the damage done by the rains is shocking. Started of with 9 followers in casual but by 7:45 we had dropped 5 due to lights/cold/etc. By 8 it was just me and another guy, we got in another good loop doing a bunch of stuff in reverse order. Rides started out around 70 degrees, by the end of the ride it was near 50! Had good layers/setup, have to remember it.

Good times in the lot post ride, then nachos and good food at Kilroy's.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

WTF is wrong with TN?

Besides being a state that appears to have an Orange disorder, after reading this article I can only go WTF?!?!?!

I biked to school thru half of 5th, all of 6th and 8th grade. Also occasionally biked in 11th. My ride in 5th and 6th was a 1.1 mile ride each way in the burbs on Scottsdale AZ. I started off with only a few friends riding, but by the time I moved away, we often had 10 kids riding out from my house, with another 2 or 3 passengers. Usually girls :). Ahhh those were the days, being a paper boy, flush with my own cash. Damn. We crossed 1 major road where there was a light and usually a crossing guard. Depending on how far away it was 10 might be a bit young, but hell kids within a half mile I think had to walk or ride, as they didn't provide bus service.

My question is if it was against the law/neglect full to let her ride to school, what would have happened if it was after school and the girl was going over to a friends? I ranged long and far in those days, often 3 or 4 miles or more. Hell several times we skated home from Paradise Valley Mall. A bit longer haul of I think 5 miles. Crazy. People need to calm the hell down.

Rode Lake Fairfax yesterday and it was a damn good workout the first half. Took a half hour phone call after an hour and never got back into a good grind. Legs felt better than Monday for sure. Cleared some minor debris piles but it appeared everything else had been cleared. Lots of fun playing on the rocky sections too.

Had to pick up new brake pads for my front as they were very weak/soft and visual inspection showed barely any pad left.

Might go up and police CJ today after work, depends on how I'm feeling.

Irene is a bad bad girl

Power stayed on for me and mine mostly in the face of hurricane Irene, only the inlaws in Bethesda lost power.

Got out for a short mixed surface ride I wanna say about 45-50 minutes. Didn't feel awesome either as I noticed some throbbing indicating some minor sinus crud and in general my fitness is way off. Though the only way to fix that is get out and do stuff, so that's the plan. I'm going to either go up to Cabin John today or maybe Lk FFX.

I've also come to the sad conclusion that during the last great gear bag clean out I accidentally dropped my Edge 500 into the recycle bin. Alas 2 weeks ago that recycle bin went out after I had forgotten to retrieve said GPS. UGH. I think I'm going to pony down on a Edge 800 on payday.

And in a bit of bawdy humor:
20 Worst Tramp Stamps

Also have a full PM of the bike due this weekend. Apparently I never quite correctly reinstall the cranks and I quickly end up with a creaky bottom bracket.

Another week, another Quake

Survived DC-Quake-Armageddon 2011, no issues, all is well.

Had a damn interesting ride last Thursday at Wake-o-tink. Arrived nice and early and got a quick start on riding, by 4:30. But within 10 minutes the storm started to roll in. I rode another 20 minutes and headed back, thunder was picking up as was lightning in the distance.

Jason M was in the lot and we bullshitted for a bit then it started to rain. We dodged to our respective cars. It rained lightly for a bit then hard for about 15 before slowing and stopping around 6:05.

Dan Hudson from IMBA arrived to ride with us and some trail builders in from out of town. We talked for a bit, and the storm line was slowly creeping south but still pretty clear over accotink. Larry arrived and reported at his house only minimal sprinkling of rain for 5 mins. A check of trails at wakefield showed minimal dampness, maybe just slightly tacky. So in a light shower a moderate pace group rolled over to Accotink.

I did okay for the first half of chasing the intermediates but after that I popped badly due to blowing 1 climb and missing a turn. Ugh, after that I was hosed. Blew up on one of the final climbs on the way back and had to push. That sucked. Finished out finally catching up doing all of boyscout in reverse. Not terrible.

Ended up riding with XXL at WF for another 20 minutes before we finished around 8:20. Probably a nice 13-14 miles total riding for the day.

Slow week otherwise, still run down from the last few weeks, hoping to get back into the swing in the next week or two.

And Hurricane Irene is on it's way! Hoooray hurricane!

Rockburn Branch Fundraiser

I just need to say WOW! What an amazing job the Rockburn Branch Skills Park team has done in building a top notch grassroots team to get this project rolling.

Yesterdays picnic/fundraiser turned out very well even without the big/adult rides. I ended up staying the whole time from 2 till 7 and helping a bit with clean-up. I was a bit concerned on the way there as the weather looked crap-tacular and with the main rides canceled I was a bit worried about turn out. Ends up people really care about this park getting done, I think almost 200 people came through during the main event.

The main part of the fund-raiser was the raffle of 2 bikes and a trip to Moab. They only offered 300 tickets for the chance, but sold them for $25. That kicked them off to a start of $7500. Pat Miller then rustled up a ton of bike gear for a $4 ticket raffle. I bought 5 and I think a LOT of people did. I'm gonna guess another $1000 raised there, though it might be a bit more. Meals were $5 and tons of waters were sold also they had a snow cone machine running constantly at $2 a pop. Say another $1000 bucks raised there. Then Jay brought a donated Keg of Clipper City beer and I think that raised about $250 bucks in donations for cups of beer. 2 Corney Kegs were acquired of Troegs Beer and I bet that was another $250. I'd say the picnic itself there raised an additional 2500 bucks or so. Putting them at 10k. Then Pat announced a local family has donated $10K in support. Amazing. There almost at the half-way mark. They also have now 2 more bikes there going to be able to raffle in the near future that were donated in the last day or two. Tshirt sales were rocking also. An excellent event.

I know they also have some grants out that could push them into the 30K range with a bit of luck.

On the down side I've ridden my bike 1 time in the last 2.5 weeks. UGh. Blows. Anyways I'm out. First short day of work in a week. Yah!

Face of the World. It's where I fall off!

I fell of the face of the world I think with how crazy July has been at work. My work schedule has been bouncing around every other week and my schedule changes during the week with mid-day shift on Mon-Wed, mornings on Thursday, afternoons on Friday, and morning on Saturday. Last week was 57 hours, this week will be near the same. Ugh.

I have been riding a bit but really only once a week between other stuff going on also, exlcuding last Sunday when I led a ride up at Gambrill then snuck in a solo ride at the new pump track in Germantown. Fun! Ran into DKEG afterwards at G-town Cycles.

Bike needed some emergency work also this week. Realized when I had changed out the bottom bracket a few weeks ago I forgot a spacer on the drive side, no wonder I was having "Shifting Issues" D'OH! So cleaned it up and put it back in correctly, and shifting on the stand seems much better.

Also replaced the pads in my rear elixir's! DAMN EASY! Not sure how long I'll stay on the metal pads probably until next payday when I'll order a couple more sets of organic compound ones. Unless they are horribly noisy then who knows.

Final week and change of this left at work before my boss is back, but then other stuff will change too.

Big stuff coming up bike wise, we have the MORE summer picnic on July 30 at Rosaryville State Park, and then in mid August we have the first Rockburn Branch Skills park fundraiser!

Also registered for RCST Bash in September.

At whole foods last night enjoyed a very nice aged Old Curmudgeon from 09 on draft. Yum.

I Shall Prevail!

I shall prevail and eventually finish my posts of my trip and finish posting my pictures. Today I will upgrade to Flickr(HO) status with a paid account. And I will find time at somepoint this weekend to finish posting up.

Had a damn good night up till the last 20 minutes or so at Wake-O-Tink. Jason M and I did a solid 8 mile'ish preride then I led a fairly large casual group to accotink, we did the gas plant, went along the railroad tracks for a ways, dropped back out on the cinder trail went up to the last entrance before the road and worked our way back. Ricky and Jo split off then, but we met up with Delmar and Sarah who arrived late. Just as we start the new section we put in last fall I hear the dreaded call - FLAT!

Turns out our singlespeed rider had punctured his tire during the emergency stop on the previous climb where I blew the climb and nearly crashed. Poor Neil did crash. After several attempts to fix I sent the others on, we ended up trying 2 tubes, tehe 2nd a road tube that got us another half mile back out before it snake bit and flatted also. So I pushed on with him. Near the Accotink exist I phoned Neil for a pickup for the guy, Neil called back 5 minutes later and the pickup was set. I hauled ass back to the car. They pulled into the lot as I finished changing.

I then got to share the Awesome Awesome Green Man porter from Asheville, NC. Damn good, smooth, and simple. No complex flavors. Damn tasty, I managed 2 cups myself. Also have and Anderson Valley Brewing Summer beer, weird and malty and good. Kinda different.

Day 3 - Slate Rock Creek Trail to Pilots Cove

Monday was supposed to be another day of big riding, planned on doing 2 rides of about 7 miles. I woke up a bit later than originally intended, but as a vacation, an extended lie-in in my comfy cot was approved by me.

Good breakfast later I gathered my gear loaded the car up and headed up the mountain. The ride down FS 1206 was a bit longer than I realized but after going to far I found a suitable parking spot and headed out back down the road.

Making the right I started the next 4 miles ascending, most of it very ridable except for down trees. Even made several tricky climbs that I was pleasantly surprised about. Crossed 2 amazing waterfalls. And then I went North. Missing a left turn, up some VERY steep trails. Pushing again. Lovely. Eventually after 2 miles of pushing on and off I got back on rideable trails heading south. Taking some cool photo's. Descending some wicked stuff. Stop to take more pictures, huh. No camera. Camera bag is upside down and unzipped. Back up the trail I go on foot so as to not miss the damn thing. 1/2 a mile back I find it laying sadly on the trail. Descending a bit further I hit Slate Rock.

Slate Rock and the views descending from there are truly impressive and the switchbacks scary. The first few have cliffs on the outside. Rolled a REALLY nice granite outcrop that you hit by skipping 1 switchback. Then down and down I go. 14 Switchbacks. Somehow ended up off the trail again after that adding another mile back west. After a slight misroute going the wrong way up the forest road I was super happy to see my car. A slow drive back out and I was cooked. Was going to hit Sliding Rock on 276 heading back down but my arms were scratched up and I was tired. Back to camp, change into my suite and I rode up to the river. Cold water and anti-poison ivy soap and a beer. Ahhh. Relaxation.

Finished the day with not so great bagged dinner, just add water. Points for easy, but A LOT of salt and not so great flavor. Oh well. Live and learn. Enjoyed some more beer, the Old Leghumper Porter was still under impressive. The Old Speakeasy IPA was still my favorite.

Photo's for Day 3 thru 5 now up

Photo's from Day's 3, 4 and 5 are now up on flickr.

HERE!

Day 3 - Slate Rock Creek-Pilot Cove Trails in Pisgah
Day 4 - Dupont State Forest Self Epic
Day 5 - Dupont SF - Return for the rock and new trail.

Day Blog to come.

Pisgah 2011 - Day 1 and 2

Day 1 was as previously noted driving from the DC area down towards lovely Asheville, NC. A late start and rain on I-66 and too much soda kept me from making it fully to Asheville this night. I blame the cornucopia of crap available at Sheetz. I'm a sucker for make your own shakes. And coffee drinks. Almost got some great sunset pics just was a bit late and they didn't turn out, but I did get a fewhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif good ones at various stopping points and a few while driving. Not a terrible drive at all. The hotel (my high school job alma matter, Days Inn) kinda blew but at that point I didn't care. I was run down.

Day 1 Photo's HERE!.

Day 2 - Get up, eat a minimal craptacular free breakfast of cereal and head back out. With minimal fuss and muss I make it safely and sane around Asheville around 9 AM and head south to Pisgah Forest and follow my GPS directly to the Davidson Recreation Area/Campground. My home base till Friday. A quick check in and I'm rolling to my new home, spot #103 on Poplar Loop. No generators on this loop! Good thing I left mine at home, oh well no compressor then either to air up mattresses and tyres.

Open the back of the truck up and start unloading. A quick dance of weirdness and I manage to setup the tent again by myself, thanks to El Hefe (Stoner) for warning me that it takes practice. It's technically a 2 person job to setup and is much easier with 4 hands for sure. Get everything snugged down and time to haul in gear.

New camp bed is awesome but takes up ton of room! Wow! Gear does fit nicely underneath though! +1 Setup cooler and cooking area and it's time to be off. A quick change into gear, water in camelback, tires checked, book packed (Off the Beaten Path, Western NC, Pisgah!) and I'm off. Decide to roll from the campground as I'm planning on doing shorter/easier loop of Pressley Gap, 9.3 Miles total from campground entrance.

I blast away and start the climb up 477 towards the Horse Stables towards Clawhammer Rd. At the horse stables I miss that the turn off it hidden in the back of the parking lot and continue about a mile to far up 477. WHOOPS! Book confirms I've done something wrong, back down I go to the horse stables! Wheee, that was fast as hell!

A quick look shows my error and I'm off to grinding again. 1.1 Miles now till the turn off for Maxwell Cove Rd. 3 Miles later I realize, oops another mistake, guess I'll stick with it and end up doing Clawhammer, a 10 miler from the Horse Stables! Jeez this 5-6 mile climb BLOWS! I BLOW! BIKING BLOWS! Argh. Level out and meet a rider that passed me a while back, he's smartly resting. We chat a bit and he points out a few neat areas to check out and says the trail ahead is pretty good but technical.

By technical he must have meant everyone pushes it with it's repetitive foot to two foot high water bars and hairpin turns along with some down trees. UGH. PUSHING BLOWS! And to make things perfect, thats thunder I now hear in the distance. PUSH FASTER DAMN IT!
in
Eventually I reach the first summit and I've a beautiful view to the north and see the storm is off at the next range. Probably 10-20 miles away. I've got some time, but not a ton. Start riding again, challenging but not impossible. ARGH who put this rock here a nice scramble up about 8 feet of rock face and I finally make the final peak! YAH! Awesome view to south but storm is coming in/getting louder now damn it and I'm on the wrong side of the mountain. Didn't even stop there for pictures, honeshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giftly it was a super HAZY day as you can see from the photo's I'll link to below.

Start rolling DOWN. Some serious downs. Time to drop the saddle downs. No QR on the seatpost clamp blows. Tools out, seat lowered. Rumbles in the background - DOWN We GO! Wheee! OH SHIT!!!! Wheee! Maybe FS makes sense here, the other guy had a nice Santa Cruz! Whee! And I'm back on the REAL south side of the mountain heading south, some burly descents thru some very eroded trails. Lots of growth too, my legs are already itchy/stinging. Ugh. Hit a crazy intersection. Book time! AHHH this is Maxwell Cove RD! More Rd/Trail down, WHEE!!!! Gotta really watch your speed. Left on Clawhammer and continue on! Wheee! Just Over 2 hours back to the Horse Pen! That makes me an advanced Pusher! WOW!

And back on down and back to camp. 17 Miles, 2:05 Moving, 3:13 Total Time. 2600 FT estimated climbing. Garmin Connect Link HERE!

And to the creek to rinse of itchy bad stuff, ahh the joys of 55 degree water after crazy hard riding. For me thats epic, 1000 ft in a day is a big days, sometimes in 3 hours at Wake-o-Tink I end with 800 feet. In 20 miles.

An awesome dinner, a couple good beers (Bells Porter and Old Speakeasy IPA!) and I'm sacked out at 9:30 or 10PM. Tomorrow's gonna be another great day!

Day 2 Photo's HERE!

The Trip-Timeline - Who needs a TARDIS?

So more almost for my own notes, I present my timeline for my trip in rough outline form so when I write each days worth of notes, my beer dulled memory can fill in the gaps with most excellent made up tales! Hooray BEER!

Saturday 11th - Late start almost 4pm by the time the truck was loaded, beer was iced, and gas was filled. Horrendous rainstorm as I drove thru Man-ass-ass. Due to hunger and pitstops I ended up stopping just before midnight near Mars Hill, NC, north of Asheville.

Sunday 12th - Drove the rest of the way and setup Camp at the Davidson River Campground, rolled out a bit after noon for the first ride, intending to do an easier one ended up doing Clawhammer. 17 miles total.

Monday 13th - Pilot Cove and Slate Rock - Ended up with 10 miles. Not sure how on a 7 mile loop.

Tuesday 14th - Dupont Epic - 22+ Miles of fun and waterfalls.

Wednesday 15th - Dupont Part Duex - Rerode Cedar Rock and New Trail plus a few others - 10 Miles.

Thursday 16th - Asheville and Biltmore - Very cool town, friendly people, good beer at the Wedge!

Friday 17th - Blue Ridge Parkway Drive - Camp Breakdown - Green Lantern - Back to Mars Hill in prep for Big Ivy/Coleman Boundary Ride

Saturday - Big Ivy Ride - Mainly Fireroad as I had no map :( GPS also finally had battery death - Near 10 miles.

Will be adding to the Flickr stream tonight a few good ones up for now that should be visible in the side bar.

Asheville is Good, Pisgah is Awesome, DSF is Awesome

Title says it all. The area is in general really cool, with damn friendly people and some AMAZING Riding. Those are some mountains there. 10K climbing in 1 week. 3X my previous best week. Accounting for GPS distance loss probably 75 miles of riding.

Pisgah is challenging as hell, dupont has some amazing trails and the length of ride you can put together makes it challenging as hell! Next time I am gonna hit Tsali which is supposed to be like Dupont but less service/fireroad.

A Full Suspension bike might be advisable. Even with 4-5 inches of travel. Of the few riders I saw out I only saw 1 other hardtail and no single speeds.

More on the trails/etc as I decompress and process photo's.

A LOT of pushing for me also, less next time is a major goal.

Asheville is a great town with awesome people and amazing Beer Culture.

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!

IPA Notes

Mt. Hood Bittering
AA 6.1%
1 Oz

Mt. Hood Aroma
AA 6.1%
1/2 oz

Cascade Dry
AA 5.0%
2 Oz

Not sure if I posted this before so I am now.

Okay, Enough is Enough

I'm sure the Transylvania Epic Riders would agree with me in saying "Enough is Enough Ma Nature, take this heat back to where it belongs....Tex-ass."

My car registered 103 yesterday in traffic at one point and is low as 96 in the shade/low traffic area's. So thats my official reading for the high. We'll see how today goes. Ended up riding Rosaryville in the dead of the heat, but as it wasn't humid and is 90 to 95 percent shaded it was awesome, felt maybe 10 degrees or more cooler when moving. Being stopped sucked but when you rolled again it was almost chilly as the sweat evaporated away. Nice casual pace, as Jen doesn't ride MTB much so the first half she was struggling to handle the hills/climbing/pedals but the 2nd half she kept up much better.

So instead of staying in the nice AC today I've determined I shall go ride again today. Maybe not a ton, but I will try and rack up another 90 minutes. Trying to ride more regularly in prep for the trip south. It looks like more and more that's where I'm going. In another 4 days I should have the long range forecast in hand, and after that I'll make a call to go there or re-plan to go north.

Enjoyed some awesome brews this weekend, at a BBQ I unexpectedly got to try Long Trails Centennial Red, it was really good with an un-expected coffee finish! Smooth, well balanced. Last night I relaxed while playing some Black Ops with Long Trail's Imperial Porter - it was very imperial. Dark, smooth, well balanced, bitter and sweet. No noticeable burn to it, but still a whole big boy of it put me on my ass and out of the game :) Also had an Old Rasputin, and Jen has described my latest Hefeweisse as closer to Leffe. And to me thats a compliment. Leffe is one of my favorites, though I do prefer the Brune to the Blonde. Oh well.

Order kits to do the Peanut Butter Chocolate Stout and for the Mild Raspberry IPA based of Rogue Dead guy, which is actually a Maibock, not really an IPA.

Now I just need to pick up a spare fermenting bucket.

Thats Hillarious and Trip Planning continued.

Fatty put out a challenge, he had to loose 13 lbs from May 1 to June 3 or 4, or he would give away his super awesome brand new Trek Superfly. After months of struggling it's apparent he is going to meet his goal and get to keep the bike, but for a while there it was looking like someone might win a new bike.

So one of his "friends" does this:
http://www.fatcyclist.com/2011/05/27/nice-try-matt/

Nothing like trying to sink a guy trying to loose weight by sending him super awesome homemade cookies.

Okay ride at Wakefield last night but was more tired than I thought, ended up spinning small ring WAY more than usual at WF. The 15 miler with sprints really kicked my ass the day before.

Getting psyched up for the big trip. Looks like GWNF, Pisgah/Tsali/Dupont Forest, then a run down to FATS with a possible return stop at Anglers Ridge in Danville, VA,if I go south, which is the current preferred plan. Trying to work up a Northern plan but short of going to VT or Maine, I'm a bit lacking. I've done a few things in Penn already (Rothrock and Raystown). Just driving up north bums me out for some reason. South seems quick!

Somebody stop the pendulum!

That describes my general riding habits it seems.

After an epic week the previous week last week except for Sunday and a 35 miler was a BUST! Between psychotic weather changes (Sunny, Stormy, Sunny, Stormy in 1 day), Cat Issues (Diabetic cat needs to start biking I suppose), and the occasional work crisis. Crap weather is continuing to Friday I think then clearing for the next week into REALLY nice weather.

The Bottom Bracket is making some new lovely sounds after a week to rust/dry out/gunk up, etc. I'll probably do a ride on Thursday and plan to swap drive components Friday Night or Saturday afternoon.

Did some major rebuilding on the shoes last weekend finally getting new SRS pads in from Race Pace/SIDI, and then after many trials and tribulations I got the old cleats off (2 came off, 2 stripped, were dremmel cut, 1 more came off, and had to break/wrestle the other off however the head broke off to close and I had to replace both base plates). Found workable shorty plates to use till the new SIDI plates come in in a week or so. Greased the hell out of the bolts this time.

Also finally took the Bonty's tubeless. Dunno how the Maxxis Ardent in the rear is going to do. I believe there is an ongoing slow leak, I'm going to air them back up to 40 tonight, then see where they are tomorrow morning. But on the ride thru dc it did feel like improved initial acceleration. And thats a good thing on the 29'r.

More later.

Triple Shots. Thats the way!

No, I'm not talking about booze, for me 3 shots and I'd be ruined in short order. I have a low tolerance for the hard alcohol. Sure a nice hit of Tequila or Bourbon is good for the soul. But only in moderation.

No what I'm onto is 3 days of riding, back to back to back, to try and push my fitness level from that of a slightly fit office zombie to that of a semi-vigorous undead creature on non-distinct type.

For me riding even back to back used to be noticeably hard on the old legs and posterior. These days it's not super impacting. I actually had a triple shot back near the end of April with rides on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Just I didn't log the Monday one so it's semi-un-official. So now that's my goal. 3 rides a week, if possible somewhat back to back to back when doable with weather. But 3 rides a week, even if it's just the short commute to work one of the days. The weathers nice, time for the wimpy excuses to end.

So between today and yesterday I'm at about 22-23 miles I figure and if I add in Sunday I am at 33 or so. Tomorrow I'm debating riding to work and back then hitting Wakefield. Say 7 to 10 on the work loop, then another 10 at Wakefield could push me towards a super level week of 50 miles. For me that's pretty rare unless I get out and have a big Sunday ride like on the WO&D to National Harbor or such.

Today at Lake Fairfax was awesome I explored I think fully 3/4's of the trails out there with only not riding a few sections and maybe 1 other that I think is in but not on the map. Check out the connect link in the sidebar. Frank R has done amazing job with LFFx. Saw Don also out there. And a TON of riders. Probably 30+ during the 2 hours I was there.

Gotta update photo's tonight, got some neat ones I think lately.

The IPA is bubbling away, will consider secondary on Friday I think if fermentation slows a bit more.

Patapsco = Goodness, Pressfit = Dumbness

Sunday I got to do a good tour of a fair amount of the Howard Co side of Patapsco, and it was a blast. Tough climbs, a few tough rock sections, nice downhills. Yum. Felt good and strong for most of the 10 miles and i really could have done another lap of the whole thing if I had another pair of dry socks to put on but my wet socks were driving me nuts. Several crossings were at least bottom bracket deep.

Victor who was leading commented that it was at the wet-est part of the year and the deepest he had seen in a few years.

Got to hit the new location of Frisco Grille, now know as as Frisco Tap Room. Had a damn good chicken sandwhich. And a Flying Fish Exit 9 Red IPA thing. Yummy!

The a quick detour over to Race Pace in Ellicot City to see if they had the rubber replacement sole parts for my sidi's. NO luck but they are trying to order a set. Hopefully I'll be able to get the old one's off fully. Some are WAY worn down.

So the new IPA I brewed on Saturday is already fermenting pretty well but definetely hasn't peaked. I need to rough clean the secondary I guess. Maybe Friday I'll go pick up a porter or stout or both to prep for the next beer run. Also need to buy more bottles I guess, as I think I'll have the IPA's also all in 12's. I think the porter/stouts will be 50/50 bottlings of big boy's vs 12's. Really thinking the stout will be a 50/50 brew of 2.5 gal of Peanut Butter/Dark Chocolate and 50/50 brew of PB&Jelly.


So while JRA on Thursday I noticed the @#$@#$ cranks were creaking again. I was like WTF?!?!?!?! REALLY??!?!?!?!

So last night I did the deed and pulled the cranks back off, except when I pulled the crank side the pressfit bearing set on that side came with it. ARGH!

So on Saturday I bought the parts for a Make Your Own Headset press. And it worked. But I forgot these pressfits are cheap and I cracked the outside seal edge of the bearing when putting the drive side back in. So I will be ordering one of those bad boys up later this week I'm sure.

Back to work.

Blast Away!

Damn good night out on the trails yesterday after work. Got to WF just before 5, geared up and rolled out. I did a quick tour of WF then trucked over to hit Accotink quick before the main ride, and surprisingly made it back in good time! Felt pretty good that first lap. Did it somewhat in reverse for the main ride where we went to Accotink first, did only the front half, then we back-tracked to WF, and rode more trails. General most things were in pretty good shape excluding 495 after the berms and 495 before the berms due to construction. The lower entrance to Phase 4 was a mess, till you got the the 1st rock garden.

Great weather, warm and dry with a nice breeze at first, but a bit chilly when I left the lot just after 9:45. No 'roys for me I was a tired buck-a-roo. GPS logged 19.3 so I figure close to 22 actual miles.

Big ole group after wards as it was Steve-O's birthday for Cinco-de-Steve-O. We enjoyed cupcakes and a wide variety of PLB's. My wimpy dinner of Muscle MIlk and the cupcakes went very well, but having 2 cupcakes was a bit counter productive. GRRRR.

Right now the plan is to brew again tomorrow, then hopefully get in a solid ride at Patapsco on Sunday. However if it's looking rainy I may sneak of to Gambril's/The Shed and see if I can find anyone up there. If I don't brew Saturday then definetely Monday.

Beer, Glorius Beer!

Finally bottled my Hefe I brewed 2 weeks ago last night. It went super well with help from a buddy, and I think I had my most efficient EVER bottling with the least loss. I ended up with 54 bottles, and I could have done 1 more of Devil Brew with what was in the Final Gravity meter tube, the drip cup and the remains. But I was short bottles, and I was extremely stoked to get even 54. Previous best was I think 49 or 50 (or equivalent as I use 20's a LOT typically). To get my final 2 bottles I used the beer I drank while setting up and then I poured another beer for dinner that was the final bottle, that really wasn't sanitized much at all. So for now I'll call that one the DB.

Estimated ABV - 5.9% at the high end of a Hefeweisse. The yeast and temps have yeilded a more complex beer I think than my first one with a solid balance of fruit and spicy-ness.

Got it all cleaned up except the fermenter, which I need to pick up some brushes to clean fully. ugh!

Biking looks a bit iffy again this week due to the Whack Weather of DC we are suffering. 80 today with t'storms possible, rain tomorrow am, nice Thursday, rain Friday and possible.

Hopefully ride some dirt on Thursday. May try and sneak in another 'round the hood ride tonight, if the storms don't show or come in early.

Oh and following my hero, The Dark Lord of Single Speed Rich D, I've picked up some Ergon GX1's to replace my current grips that seem to think they are for motorcycle twist throttles.

Also picked up a new pair of gloves, as I seem to have lost one of my current fox gloves. Time for a trip to Cycle Powersports in Falls Church soon to get some summer gloves, etc.

The great mail cleanup

Sometimes you just have go thru all the damn email. My work primary email was up over 500 messages. The 2nd'ary was pushing 150. Gmail was getting bloated. It was time to take out the trash, handle the important and kick back the crap.

4 Hours later my inbox's combined have about 100 messages. 30 in each of my work emails, and about 40 in gmail. God what a hassle but I did take care of about 20 billion little things.

Yesterday was the IMBA Laurel Hill .GOV ride with local movers/shakers in policy positions in DC. It was pretty good, 40 or so riders out with 5 newbie's, 10-15 non regular riders (at least of mTB) and another 20 regular riders or such. Good spin for our casual group doing Slaughter house and a bunch of the perimeter trails at LH. 8 miles from our start in the Occaquan Park. Nice

GPS should be in the side bar. Maybe pics to come from the after part. I need a camera bag for mounting on the bike.

Tomorrow will may be a self trip up to Gambril/shed or a ride at Schaeffer with Jen. We'll see.

Triple Shot.

Yesterday I went 3 for 3 and bagged my third ride in 3 days at CJ. Wasn't feeling awesome or fast but it was a pretty good ride. Nearly made it up the climb of doom on my 3rd and 4th try. May need to drop rear tire pressure a hair. Probably a bit hard for a quick climb then rock crawl up a pretty steep grade. Did see a guy on F/S make it. Also in general I know I'm not trying with enough starting speed.

But a solid 10 miles. Clipped a small section also, but I can see where other area's are gonna need TLC by the next trail day in mid-may. The current plan is to put in a small bridge then go from there. I'm stoked.

Off day today, dealing with sick Cat. Ugh. Poor old fella's 13 and some issues can be expected I guess.

Big IMBA ride at FH with big-wigs on Friday. Thursday is no looking bueno.

Press-fit is Silly.

Yep, thanks Trek and Gary Fisher and Shit-mano for introducing another semi-useless, more annoying technology to "improve" our bikes.

You call it BB90 with Press-fit bearings! I get how wider is better for bottom brackets. 2 Semesters of college physics plus tons of auto work as a kid helping my old man repack bearings during the summers when bored at his work. So I do get why this is a somewhat improvement. What I don't get is what MORON said hey lets put in non serviceable, not easily replace bearings that must be pressed in!

On my old bike with external bb I could pull the cranks and full clean each cup/cap set in about 30 minutes and re-install. If I had the interest with the right tools I could even open the bearings and re-grease them. (Or if pimped out with CK BB I could use the Fittings and do it very quickly).

I did my best to "service" the bb short of breaking out a chisel and investigating how REALLY dumb this design is. I wiped all the accumulated crap off the shell, the bearing faces the interior area's. I re-greased the back of the bearings that had some REALLY crappy grease. I couldn't find my high grade synthetic so I used good ole polypro from Park Tools. Re-ass-embled, and went out for a 40 minute test ride. No signs of creaking from the BB Area. Lots of bugs in my eyes though, gotta remember to wear glasses if going out anywhere near water near dark these days. UGH.

Hmmm might have to spend some money with Park Tools again in the near future

http://www.parktool.com/product/p/pressfit-bottom-bracket-bearing-tool-set-bbt-90-3

http://www.parktool.com/product/bearing-cup-press-hhp-2

Don't believe the Hype!

Clip and Ride and Walk

Did my good deed part 2 for April. After riding a fun lap at Laurel Hill yesterday I retrieved the trusty hand clippers and went out and clipped back the Giles Run trail from say Too Cool Hipster Length to more like slightly Shaggy Pretty Boy Length. Took a couple of hours, but when I re-rode it after wards it made a huge difference in not having to twist myself like a pretzel to avoid thorns, leaves, etc. Though I did see 2 spots that needed improved trimming. However I was done. 15.24 miles of Riding and probably 3 miles of walking with back and forth trimming on the trail.

Thursday was a good ride in Accotink land with a good pre-ride and a solid regular ride. 15.63 miles. So probably about 34/35 miles last week plus the clipping. I'm down with that.

Gonna have to sneak and peak rides in this week as we have lots of storms/rain. Thursday isn't looking good at all.

And taking the un-frickin believable award for the month? Dicky ate found shot blocks while riding down at Amelia Island. Scroll down about 2/3'rds of the way.
Dicky loves found food!

Beer fermentation has slowed to a couple of bubbles a minute from its rapid ferment Thursday. But it's still going.

Tonight I disassemble the cranks and see just how annoying these new press-fit bottom brackets are going to be. The guys at the bike lane (At least burke) haven't had to service one yet. Hopefully mine won't be first. But I'm not counting on it. Grrr. Best case scenario is that I can clean the grime/stuff out, re-grease the crankshaft and it will be G2G.

Bring that Beer Back

Well for the first time in over 2 years I brought out the brew gear tonight and performed mad science on malts, green goodness and yeast. I think the batch may turn out pretty good, it had aI' super quick chill thanks to cold ass water still in the lines/ground maybe 5-6 minutes to sub 100 and 8 or 9 total to near 70.

2 3.3lb Briess Wheat LME
1 Oz MT Hood 6.1% Hops for bittering
1/2 oz Mt Hood 6.1 for Aroma
Wyeast 3333 German Hefe Yeast in a smack pack.

I'll check it's fermentation in the morning.

Names Options are so far:
Summer Day Wheat
82Deg Day Hefe
Hefe #Duex
Glorius Weizen.

Damn warm today wish it would be that temp tomorrow for the ride really.

I'm off to bed, brewing is a ton of work!

My work week so far.

Back to Normal here in DC

Well it's raining so things seem back to normal. Legs are almost fully recovered from being miserable Monday and Tuesday. My shoulder is still frickin weird, though trying to do push ups yesterday did not help. D'oh.

I was right in my estimate of our position in the Bakers Dozen results, in that we finished 27th of 39 teams with 8 laps in 11H:10M. 2 More laps would have moved us up to probably only 20. Top team had 17 laps duo, then 4 16 Lap teams, then 2 14 Lap Teams. Ugh! It was still a fun time and I'm hoping to try it again next year.

Looks like stuff clears up late today then we have a couple decent days then rain again Saturday. Awesome. Not.

Works blowing the up and I may be skipping a trip this weekend I've been looking forward to since the winter. Damn it.

Bakers Dozen Links
The Start - Youtube Video With yours truly cruising along near the end 30 to 32 seconds.

Carl Bruce - Photos

JCS48 - Flickr Photos

Mud Racin is Rubbin.,,

Left here a bit late on Saturday morning at 6:15 with a quick stop for Ice and hit the Race Course a bit before 6:50 AM.

Nearly got stuck pulling in, but managed to escape the muck. Found an okay parking spot away from the existing crowd and started scoping for a good camping spot! Picked one up near the trees/rocky hill in the center but it was the cows favorite spot to poo apparently. Found a mostly patty free area to put my tent then used a tarp up front to give me a safe entrance.

Barely used the damn tent. Changed/lived in the car mostly. Next year I need to bring some spare gloves, and more headbands especially if I'm doing laps. More/easy food to eat early when finishing laps. Maybe post lap kits, having longer down times would help so with getting food in easier.

1st lap was a bitch with how muddy it was. Traffic was pretty well split up 2 miles in. Pushed a bit to hard on the lap. 2nd lap the course was pretty wet still the new section was really rough and stayed/got worse the whole race. Rode a better pace I think. 3rd lap was really rough cramps and stiff on the way out. If I had not been starving I should have doubled that lap, then gotten a final 5th. Oh well. 4 was good really except being tired and nearly falling near the end of the pine forest. Ugh.

Adjusting for GPS lost time I think I had around a 7.4 to 7.8 mph average. I'm pretty happy ATC.

Ate 2 sausage links after, then later 2 slices of peporoni pizza, then crashed early. Woke up a few times with cars leaving and a few loud neighbors. I was wiped out. Going out to the porto-let blew it was miserable getting out the sleeping bag. Terrible.

Woke up and gathered gear, helped pack the XXL area then packed up my camp site.

Back at home doing laundry, ate a bunch of pancakes and eggs. Relaxing.

Ready, Set, Rain then Go

25 Hours from the big race start and the nerves are starting to flare just a bit but I'm practicing mindfullness of The Force(TM)(R)(C), and keeping all thoughts positive.

Had a good but pretty short ride at WF of a logged 7.5 miles so I'll round up to 8. Kept the HR out of Zone 10 and my legs only feel lightly spun right now and thats good. We made a good pace and it felt pretty frickin easy. TONS of riders out I think we had 28 or 29 sign in and with a few late folk who didn't. And a ton of non-group riders. It was a blast! Conditions over all were good on the trails.

Good weather thoughts....Only minimal sprinkly rain today. Good weather thoughts!!!

Gear is mostly assembled for the morning. Have to pick up some snack supplies and some post ride chow to grill/donate. Water is purchased and in the car already. Gotta pull together the newt-trition gear though I realize (Gu's, Supplements, Hammer products, etc). As usual potassium loss will be my big enemy, and since I can't eat @#$@#$@ banana's its all on the supplements/additives. SUCK!

Crushed like a beer can at a Frat Party in 85.

Subject sums up how I'm feeling physically. 4 rides in last 6 days is awesome but I'm wiped out. Gotta relax the rest of the week for Bakers. Do a light ride on Thursday. Gotta remember to carbo load a bit extra this week though.

Rode Cabin John today and it was in great shape. Schaeffer was pretty damn good yesterday.

We'll see how things go. Better update tomorrow. Today's weather was unreal. Saw 86 Degrees on the way home.

Nice, Nice, Naughty?

WEIRD Frickin weather the last few weeks. The best way I can some it up is that if you are prepared to ride, you may be able to. For me to get in 3 rides in the last week was nearly unheard of since maybe the fall. Yesterday turned out really nice, thursday blew kinda but tuesday was nice.

At Schaeffer Farm yesterday we had the first Ride Leader Clinic. Only had 3 people attend but I feel that any of the 3 now do feel able to lead/organize rides, where I don't think they would have felt comfortable setting up rides on their own before.

Good people.

We then rode the farm doing Yellow, blue, yellow field loop to the cell tower then back up that to yellow then did the orange bypass then back on the blue bypass and back to the lot. FElt good. My 2nd ride up their on the new bike and when it wasn't wet it rode REAL nice compared to the first time when I was slipping around on everything that was wet.

Gonna slip in another good ride today, we're supposed to hit mid to high 70's!!! Gotta decide if I'm going to punish myself and do a Fountain hell visit or go maybe lake ffx. Hmmm.

Stoked for the race coming this weekend, but also kinda scared of the weather, calling for scattered T-storms. Tents/popups are bad things along with being on bikes during t-storms.

Nice, Nice, Naughty?

New Sponsors

New Sponsor - Derma-GU

And my new favorite thing Here!

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.

Rolling Around Town

Got in a great ride with a bunch of folks from LORO on Sunday. Chris and I rode from Spokes in Vienna to the East Falls Church metro station and met up with them. We then rode down to National Harbor in MD using the WO&D, 4 Mile Run Trail, and the Mt. Vernon. 42 miles for me. My legs were cooked when I was done. Random cramps last night while relaxing if I overly stretched my legs in one specific way. No night cramps though so that's cool.

Weather is looking better this week, might be able to ride trails by Thursday again. Hmmm.

I was planning on a Sunday Fountain Head Casual but it seems no joy rain in the forecast. Maybe I can slip in a morning one or the weather will shift out another day. hahahah.

Need to take some TLC on the giant tonight. its a frickin rusted mess. I feel terrible.

Toast....Milktoast.... Expanded

3 Days in a row success. 25 miles tonight. that puts me at 45 this week. Might try a commute in tomorrow or saturday. Felt good up till the last 20 mins tonight when my ass started complaining. But with 2.5 hours of saddle time I'm not surprised.

Wakefield was not in good shape for riding in most area's. Maybe Saturday. Probably Sunday.

It was a beautiful night for riding, I think the entire ride it averaged around 57 degrees. We had several sections where we had to run dark and it was a blast. Can't beat weather like this, a nice taste of spring. This next week we have a bit of a roll back towards normal of 30-50 range stuff. But still better than the crap in January/Dec of 15 to 30.

Updated - I was falling down tired when I first posted this last night. Or perhaps a better analogy was the lawn mower, my ass and grass. Regardless I was a zombie almost.

Today the legs are a bit tired, I didn't ride in as I woke up late and had to drop a friends extra key set off at his work. But with the weather on tap tonight I am going to get out and do a few miles just to loosen the legs up. And I'm hoping to commute in tomorrow morning.

Also in my Blame Rich Dillen segment I'm blaming RD for ruining America by providing me with the link to:

The Fucking Weather

Thanks Rich!