In need of some content, I offer a scene from today's sledding site with Oliver and the Mark kids. The snow was too wet and heavy to make it all the way to the creek. The snow is too wet to make for a good night ride. The snow is too little to open up any decent x-c skiing. But, the snow is enough to cancel Outlaw Joe's planned GW hooky ride tomorrow.

Saturday's snow, on top of this snow, may make Sunday's Buck-day ride interesting.

Have had a few decent rides lately, mostly with this crew. Joe has come up a couple times recently, and then I had this bit of a clustermark last weekend.

Seven Springs

I met up with Quigley, Buchness, Tom & Julie in Breezewood the other day and we went to Seven Springs. We all really wanted to go to White Grass or Laurel Mountain for backcountry turns, but we knew there wasn't enough base for backcountry. None of them had any turns yet this season, so they were particularly desperate. They needed to get their legs some work before their western road trip where they'll be skinning 7 miles into this hut in the 10th Mountain Division system.

Then they get to spend 3 days yo-yo'ing anything they want from the hut. Then they have 2 more weeks of bumming and skiing with Tom's friend in Aspen, and mtn bike buddies Glen and Jens in Salida. Tom and Barry have been getting some Level 1 avalanche training and they're hoping to practice digging some pits instead of digging each other out of something.

Oh yea, Seven Springs looked nothing like this Saturday, but it was still a great time. Five of us on tele gear, ripping lap after lap at the same pace. 7Springs is a decent place, it actually looks and feels like a real ski area, like old Vermont or Colorado. It doesn't have big vertical, but it has interesting terrain features, the mountain is cut wide open so you can ski anywhere, and you even have to do a little work to get to certain places. The natural snow trails and the glades had some brown and thin spots, but, they were open. Most places woulda roped off anything that wasn't crushed velvet. It's a lot different than the straight up straight down skiing at Whitetail that I've been doing so much of lately.

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

GoogleGeek stuff

Thanks Dominic for this link to USGS quad sheets for Google Earth. They are much better resolution than the ones released by Penn State.

Here's a link to the National Snow Analyses Center if you want to lay current snow cover over your Google Earth. Not much more useful than the snow cover website itself, since you have to download a new KML each time you want it.

click this (sorry if it doesn't open in your browser, seems to be a Blogger problem...)

This week, my work sites were talking about this new terrain feature in Google Maps. Pretty is a good word for it. Somewhat useful for planning and visualization. Would be nice to see this imagery get into Google Earth too, though my work sites say it's going the other way. That GE will be gone in a couple years, with all the functionality being moved over to Google Maps, (allowing for easier display in our cars and phones?).

V---a Trail

I don't know how this trail came into the inventory, but it is one fine selection. Twas part of a Tomi-Special loop yesterday, 4+ hours of quality singletrack that I don't usually ride.

Leedin'

Ancient Pete and the Hemlock

BTW, Has anyone noticed that Google Earth has upgraded the imagery for Pennsylvania? It's much better resolution, they're taken airplane rather than LandSat. But it's still an old photo for Michaux. Its shows the empty reservoir as not.

to add PA quad maps to your Google (use the transparency to lightly show overtop the imagery)

Tuscarora Trail

One more thing about the Buzzard Rocks, Shawl Gap area. The Tuscarora Trail is the trail we climbed up to Shawl Gap. The same Tuscarora Trail that begins near Carlisle. Food for thought....

the Fort Valley

click to engorge

For any who may be curious, here's a shot of the Fort Valley. We rode (sans Cupcakes) the top northeast section. These ridges are ridable with trails all the way to Harrisonburg and the ski area. Some of this was in this year's Tour, and the southern bit of Kaylor's Knob has been often featured in the Tour.

Buzzed Rox

The trail on the Massanutten East ridge was riding very dry and leafy yesterday. The leaves made it pretty sketchy in a lot of places and they hid lots of wheel traps. Leaf surfing is not something I like to do a whole lot of on this trail, but we all made it through fairly well, though we did miss a few attempts at tricky sections since the leaves covered the good lines.

It was a pretty tough 5-hour tour, especially on singlespeeds. We climbed up Shawl Gap from the Day Use Area, then Buzzard Rocks Trail down to the Buzzard Rocks parking lot, then down the road to Sherman Gap Trail. Hike-a-biked up Sherman for about an hour (or more?). Refueled and froze at the top, then rode the ridge from Sherman Gap to Shawl Gap.

For years I've been telling people that this 2-mile ridge section is one of my favorite pieces of trail anywhere in the GWNF. But I wasn't feeling that much love from it yesterday. I was whipped hard from the Sherman slog. The leaves were covering the rocks that I usually try to stay on top of and it was hard to take as many chances as usual. But, I drained the legs anyway, trying to clean as much as possible knowing that we had no more climbs ahead. That last bit of trail dropping into Shawl Gap brought the smile back to my face. And, just as the smile was returning to Darius' face, this happened on the last rock steps. He evac-bailed left into the rock face. For those who know this trail, you know how ugly that coulda been if he fell right-side.


Martin early on the Buzzard Rocks ridge

Was good to ride with Buchness again. Mike and I go way back in GWNF experiences.

NOTE: No Cupcakes were harmed in the making of this ride.

Where is he going anyway???

Had to steal this when I saw it...

One year in PA

We've been in Chambersburg a year now, and it couldn't be much better. One way I know it's been a year is this is happening again. Since I photo'd this same thing last year, on Nov 4th

Here's today's pic, on Nov 8th. Since these Ginkos drop their leaves in one day, I wonder if the date is some kind of climatic indicator? The amount of daylight remains the same, the amount of precip and temps don't. They're dropping greener than last year too, and on the first really cold morning (25 degrees). I wonder what the temp was last year when they dropped? (Easy enough answer to find....29 degrees, also the first morn' in the 20s last fall)

This year I have a bright idea of putting tarps out to catch some of the leaves. Then all I'll have to do is drag them out to the curb. Obviously, I don't have enough tarps...

Leaves also played a role in my frustrating search to find and learn the good mountain bike trails in the Forest. After being busy getting moved in, I'd get out to Michaux any chance I could and try to learn something. I remember getting totally lost off the trail on Lower Buckets, Rattlesnake Ridge, and Lewis Rocks (in the dark w/ no lights) to name a few. But leaves certainly weren't the only reason I had trouble finding the trails. I whined constantly that they're just freakin' hard to find and figure out. My maps were so useless that I made up my own trail map of Michaux (click below).

Finally, the Cupcakes included me on their e-mail chains which on every Sunday, led to a cool ride. I tried to ride fast and keep up, keep my mouth shut, and bring my share of beers and treats. But I couldn't keep quiet. I never complained about the ride being too long, or the trails too hard, but I peppered everyone with questions like "...what's the name of this trail? Where does that one go? How do you get to such & such from here....?" I rarely got an answer that I really understood.... And then I'd be dropped, off the back on some rocky descent, passing numerous trail junctions that I hoped the group didn't take, hoping they were waiting at the bottom of something for me...

I also did some exploring west of here. Went to the Tuscarora Trail a couple times, and thought I'd be back often (I haven't returned). X-C skied a couple times at Sideling Hill and thought I'd be back to explore by bike (I haven't). Skied the Laurel Mountain area a couple times, and I will be back there for sure.

In my year here, I also learned a lot of cool bike trails from this guy, and drank barrels of good beer with him.

Here's to another great year in the Pennsylvania forests with new friends!

the Sunday ride

A big group yesterday.
TG was out in force, which meant plenty of stops,
but the KeeferKeefer factor kept the pace pretty high in between those times.
We had a few folks who bailed out at various spots. I think many peeps were pretty whipped, I know I certainly was on the last trail section, H-3, or Campsite-3, or Hansel & Gretel-3 or whatever we call it. I led the pack through Campsite-2 Trail and cleaned it, then faded fast on the ensuing Sketch City descent and powerline hike-a-bike.

Back at the coldest spot in Michaux, we faced an unusual low number of beers for a group this size. It's nearly winter-time boys and girl, we need to up the beer time:ride time ratio. How are we gonna pull off a grand tour if we can't even load up the beers??

O.C. yesterday

Nice!
Our nephew Jake sent this shot of yesterday's surf in Ocean City, MD, courtesy of the remnants of TS Noel.

Gnarly-SpruceBerries

I got to partake in Day-1 of the annual Fall Classique this year, and Day-1 was a ride on a famous trail I'd never yet ridden, the North Fork Mountain Trail.

A major driving dab had Tomi and me discovering a slice of WV State Park heaven en route to Seneca.



My pace at the back of the pack didn't give me much photo opp time, but I snagged this at the first re-group.

But there was plenty of time for this......

where's this at?

Who else knows where these trails are in Michaux? Found them poking around this week. Anyone?

Lil' Belgians II

A couple more pics of Oliver from the bike race from lensman Don Pagano here

Oliver gettin' lessons from local legend Levi.

own a piece of Laurel Mountain, PA

Laurel Mountain could end up like Mad River Glen, owned by people like us. There's a chance that a co-op could buy the closed-for-3-seasons ski area and run the lifts again. This ski area is right next to the Laurel Mountain State Park Cross Country Ski Area. Check the map, you'll see the old downhill area at the top, a real easy ski over from the first trailhead parking lot. I skied here last winter and saw the potential. It's a lot like White Grass with x-c trails and downhill runs together. It's in the same snow belt as Canaan Valley, and usually gets similar snow.

I would definitely like to see this area open up again as a co-op and would love to buy a share. Or maybe even better is have it remain "as is", and accessible from the Park's x-c trails only. I always like the idea of adding real estate to the State Park system, especially, since those x-c trails are some fine mountain bike trails too. Either way, I'm sending in some thoughts. Check out the article pasted below from a Pittsburgh paper and the contact info below that.
article link

n Vermont, the Mad River Glen ski resort is proof of what a nonprofit, cooperative-owned entity can do with desire and hard work.

"Twelve years ago, the skiing industry was rapidly consolidating and becoming increasingly commercial-based, and we kind of flew in the face of that," said Eric Friedman, longtime marketing director of the Mad River Glen Cooperative, formed in 1995. "Today, we're the only cooperatively owned, not-for-profit ski area in the country."

The group -- which in 1998 fulfilled its purchase agreement by selling its 1,667th share and has grown since -- has local admirers.

Ligonier Mayor Ormand "Butch" Bellas, Butler County's Rob Davis and others want to form a similar group to buy and operate Laurel Mountain ski resort, which will remain closed for a third consecutive winter season for lack of an operator.

"We're looking at Mad River Glen as an example of what we're pursuing right now," said Davis, an avid skier who recently requested pre-approval to form a nonprofit, cooperative aimed at purchasing the resort -- located in Laurel Mountain State Park -- from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the R.K. Mellon Foundation.

"Right now, we're just a handful of enthusiastic people with an idea," Davis said.

Key to making that idea a reality is the prospective co-op's intent to maintain a strictly winter operation at the 64-acre, 18-slope site, Davis said.

Since Laurel Mountain is located in a state park, it is forbidden from operating outside the skiing season, which hampers marketing efforts, Bellas said.

"The state is really intent on honoring the agreement with R.K. Mellon in the 1960s to have no overnight lodging and no summer programs there," Davis said. "We'd be willing to keep that going."

Since Somerset Trust Company took control of the area in 2004 from Laurel Mountain Ski Co., company representatives said they have talked with up to 10 parties nationwide interested in buying the resort.

"We are actively marketing the property," said Thomas J. Cook, Somerset Trust executive vice president, who declined to comment further.

But Bellas, a ski patrol member who has worked on Laurel Mountain, said the operational restrictions and the recent string of mild winters have driven away many of those parties.

"It's a big investment, so I can understand with winters why people have been scared off," Bellas said. "Somebody's got to be really committed and have really deep pockets to take it on."

But by attracting members to a cooperative like Mad River Glen to purchase the resort one $1,500 share at a time, Davis said anything is possible.

"We would need people with business and legal skills to form a board of directors to help shepherd us through this process," Davis said.

Representatives of R.K. Mellon Foundation and Laurel Mountain State Park were unavailable for comment.

Contacts (from here)
State Parks/PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources should be sent to Doug Finger at: dfinger@state.pa.us

The Westmoreland County commissioners should also be contacted. They are:
Tom Balya, tombals@wpa.net
Thomas C. Ceraso, tceraso@co.westmoreland.pa.us
Phil Light, plight@co.westmoreland.pa.us

Lil' Belgians

Oliver did his first bike race at the Iron Cross.

summer's over

I'm back home from my first night ride of the season.
First ride in wool,
first ride in the rain,
Started raining hard on H-1 Trail, aka Campsite 1, aka Hansel & Gretel 1,
we were all cold, and under-dressed,
we bailed on Yellow Ridge and took the freezing road descent instead,
my light was fading as we pulled in, way sooner than it should've,
guess I better pull out the manual and re-learn what that button does,
shivered in my car on the drive home with the heater set on 3,
felt the mud caked under my jeans,
thermo read 48 degrees,
I need to harden the hell up,
it's gonna get a whole lot colder and wetter than this

this was taken last night, out messin' around with Oliver,
when it wasn't cold and raining