reunion ride in The 'Shed

Pooch organized a Gambrill/Shed ride from Ghana over the past few weeks. He was back in town for a bit, preparing for a soft return later this summer, just before the SM100. Pooch finally missed a Shenandoah last year. No direct flights from Accra to Harrisonburg I guess was his excuse.

here he is on a surface just like the sandy beaches of Ghana

his ride for the day. left the price tag on all day

they call him Quigfoot, coming off a long road trip to Colorado, 15 straight days of skiing which included these quotes: "....powder in Aspen for 5 days straight. Powder in Summit County 3 out of 4 days, and great weather for the Hut trip.... "

"...yo-yo'd the 3K' of vert off the gangadubie all day in a dump, and got tons of freshies everywhere. The tree skiing in Aspen and Snowmass is a lot nicer than I expected. Lots of nicely spaced aspen groves and hardly anybody seems to ski Ajax mountain..."

And treated to the local hookup by expat Virginia mountain bikers now living in Aspen and Salida.

Yes, this post is useless without pictures...

as good as Whitetail gets?

Between a couple of night shifts for snow duty this week, I had a few hours of daylight to play with. I wanted to do a ride, some snowy ridge trails, maybe on the fixy, but I felt I should ski since I'll be jonesin' in July. It was about 18 degrees this morning, no wind, with a dusting of au naturale and some man-made overnight.

Whitetail *was good*. White, soft, quiet. Except for the hum of the blowers, which I tended to ski as close to as possible for that extra powdah effect.

It also got noisy when the heli whisked the well-healed guests to the top. When did they start heli-skiing?

I ran into my friend and neighbor Tim (of the enduro trail). He was working his regular Thursday shift on the Mountain Safety crew. Tim has had this thing for many years where he tries to ski 1,000,000 vertical feet in the season. Most of that is done at Whitetail. One recent Thursday, he did 44 runs there.

So, I skied with my boots totally unbuckled again. I've done this the past 6 or 7 times out this season. Two of those times were icy boilerplate, and the rest have been pretty soft including that powder day at Blue Knob. I do this sort of thing, like skiing without poles, as training. Going without poles has actually been useful when with Oliver so I can help him onto the lift. Skiing with unbuckled boots was pretty hard the first few runs, then I got used it. I definitely see how it forces you to get up front on the balls of your feet and stay in an aggressive position, something I know I need work on for moguls and trees. It also makes you really feel that back ski. After a few sessions of this and feeling really good with it, I decided to lightly buckle the bottom 2 straps for a run. Man, I felt like Frankenstein. It was work to get up front and stay there. So I went right back to the loose boots, and have stayed that way, yesterday trying the last run with a barely buckled bottom strap. It's making me wonder why I'd ever want to tighten them again, much less ski a heavier stiffer boot?? I'm skiing better loose because it's forcing me to stay out of the back seat, and use all of the ski edges. My transition between turns is smoother, and I'm controlling my speed on the steeper runs easier than before.

mid-A powdah

clicky to see buttery goodness

Schools were out so I took Oliver and cousin Tiffany to Blue Knob. Was about 15 degrees, blowin' and snowin' all day. The snow was great, the crowds were typical Blue Knob - nil, and it was cool getting the kids out in soft deep snow for their first time. The driving sukked however, snowing on the way, and somehow, raining on the way home even though it was 22 degrees. When we got home to 5 inches of nice dry snow here in Chambersburg, I wished we'd just gone to Whitetail. I thought it would turn to rain earlier here than the always frosty Blue Knob.

Tussey Mountain

From pro lensman Nabil Mark (Darius' bro). Looks like it was at about the time that the cold air met up with the warm air yesterday. I didn't move far enough north...

Rocky Knob

We can't ride this trail, at least Oliver can ski it.
It seems like ya really gotta work to get any use out of x-c ski gear in this new PA climate. Snowy windows lasting only a few hours.

Birches Garden?

Does anyone know where Birches Garden is?

The peak is in the area of my mouse/crosshairs (click-it).

Chipper's history

I like this shot of Tomi that Eric took last weekend

A cool article about Chip and the history of White Grass. I've read a lot about Chip in the past and still found plenty of new information in this article.

White Grass, finally

Eric

Marty, with Tomi below

Lee


Tomi, the last bit of Springer

Buck Day ride

A lot of party-minded fools gathered at Bucks Luv Shak yesterday at the coldest spot in MichSnaux (is this word trademarked?) to celebrate another year on Earth for our man, Buck. Many drove from afar, others sent treats in their stead.

Twas about 18 degrees, with a couple-three inches of snow and a fresh zipper crust. Loop ideas had been bandied back and forth for days, and those were instantly scrapped at the start so we could test out the conditions, and maybe, our motivations. When you put a large pot of chili and a keg of Troegs at the Shak, it's proving hard to stay out for the usual amount of ride time.

There were lots of bloggers in attendance, but cameras didn't seem to come out except for Chris, who got a couple shots. After the first uphill turned out to be a lot more work and effort than we'd hoped for, the loop was edited again to stay on the ridge top and avoid anymore of those anti-downhills. I don't think anyone could drink from their tubes for the entire ride, as hydro packs froze immediately after take off. We were able to take off the packs and get water right out of the bladders at our one mini-break.

Turned out that the rest of the ride in the snow wasn't as slow as we thought it'd be, so we were faced with an uncomfortable decision as we arrived back at the Shak after only 2 hours.

• grab some water
• chug some group beers
• head out for 3_mile Trail, Lewis Rocks, Rattlesnake, or another blazed trail

Or,

• retire to the Shak and commence eating, drinking, and talkin' story for an extra amount of socializing.

Funny how hard of a decision that is in a big group.
I thank Buck for having a birthday in January again, and for the extra story time.
Cheers

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...