multi region ride

what a cool ride today in the good ol' Watershed. Why the hell don't I ride there more often? It's ridiculously fun compared to what we usually ride. This ride had Cupcakes, a Philly thoroughbred, Frederick locals, and Capital Hill denizens joining the Chambersburg contingent of Darius, Martin, and me.

Joe makes beer
Joe makes trails
A tasty pre-ride sampler of a fresh stout

Shawn takes the girly line like the rest of us did. Moments later, we were all schooled by a freerider who did a minor huck off the ledge to Shawn's right, then casually threaded his way through the lycra-clad xc-ers littering his landing zone.

Andy ponders the view of impending parenthood.


Serious distribution discussions underway.

The ride was followed up by dinner with Joe & Julie, Ernie and Tony at the brew pub in Frederick. It's conveniently only a couple blocks from Darius' new office.
The day ended much later with 4 hours of cards, games, Hot Wheels, etc. with the kids at D's house. A long day for sure.

December so far..

this is what I've been up to.
Green groomers with Oliver

cool bike vid

Found here

I especially like the pipe stuff near the end.

according to one

According to one crazy lady patient of Kim's, I am President George W Bush. This woman has been sending letters to the office directed to Dr. Kim for several months. Kim just received her christmas card last week. The lady thinks that:

• Kim is her daughter
• Kim is engaged to George W
• that she is married to VP Dick Cheney

In past letters she has detailed her own and family's history going almost all the way back to William Penn. Apparently her family was instrumental in the building of most of eastern Pennsylvania's churches, universities, and medical schools. In the christmas letter, she mentioned again that she really wanted her daughter (Kim) to be a Presbyterian Minister, but that she's still proud of her present occupation anyways. She hopes that Kim will convince me to run again for another 4 years. She believes that regardless of whether I run or win, that she and Dick will remain in office for 4 more.

I think I'll tell Kim to tell her next time, that I will run again, but the first thing I'll do when I win is to fire her husband.

more stokage of a watery sort

These are all from the last week or so.
The Atlantic and the Pacific have been going off for the folks big enough to handle it.

Spain (click to see the dwarfed surfer)

Ireland

Todos, Baja

the Pacific had the swell of the last several years, biggest Mavericks ever they're saying. Same storm system that flooded the Seattle region.
One Monterey local wasn't so lucky and drowned at Ghost Tree (aka Pebble Beach)

all photos poached from www.surfline.com

first turns

Got out for a couple hours on Whitetail's opening day yesterday, and it was surprisingly good, soft snow upon arrival (not exactly dawn patrol either). No lines, burnin' legs, good turns, and home by noon for relief duties. Today doesn't look so good, nor does the next week of warm wet Wx. Doesn't look so good for the mountain biking either until the ground freezes up. Really glad I got something yesterday....

some stokage

this is all from the Northeast in the past few days.
from this thread in case ya been missing it.

they've been backcountry skiing for 6 weeks already.

first ski of the seas

I wish I could spin some tale of light, soft, dry snow, swoopy turns, and exploration rewarded. No go. Took a lap last night on the Michaux xc ski network (yea, that sounds funny to say that). The snow was dry and light, and there really was almost enough of it on those smoothish grassy double-tracks. The problem was the un-frozen, warm ground underneath the snow. It hasn't been cold enough yet to freeze the ground, and there were lots of water runs hidden below the snow. These caused loads of snow to stick to my skis, which turned my planks into 175 millimeter slowshoes. It was 25 degrees last night and still snowing while I was out. This morning probably would be much better at 13 degrees if it froze up all that water.

I'm sure White Grass is off to a sublime start right now...

trailwork

Some weekend work, not un-sanctioned by DCNR