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.