the other Tour

A nice shot of Reuben and Matthew posted on this thread

MBM ride

Oliver's summer commute to school

Got in a shorty, almost dawn patrol ride yesterday before needing to be somewhere family social in the afternoon. Rode Buckets-Sand Rd-top of Spooge-Curran-Fire Tower-Turtle and back at the car by 10:30. No camera, no pretty sights, just smooth solo riding.

It's nearly the end of June, already into summer, and I have only done one race. That is so unusual. The Wednesday at Wakefield start this week, for the next 4 weeks. May make some of those since I may need a few more trips to the office soon. But, a look at Kim's schedule shows that I'd need to get someone else to pick Oliver up on 3 of those dates. So, maybe not ...

One of the benefits of this blog to me is to look back at old posts, like this giddy one about W@W last year. Surprised how differently I feel a year later. I also feel some subtle differences in my overall riding starting to creep in.

Two things are for certain, the 101 and the SM 100. Will I be more or less ready for those than previous years?

das pack

Darius enlisted some trail helpers for a project.
We did some work, while the kids pulled a 4-mile walk.

the other point to the day seemed to remedy all the tired feet.

I've been thinking about trying to get a Friday evening 6-Pack Downhill series started in Michaux. Same deal as the H-burger's version. Ride/parade/hike up what you plan to race down, riders go off at 30-second intervals, entry fee is a 6-pack of beer/coke/milk, whatever. Winner takes all and shares all. It's not about the workout, and it's not about the long ride.

I can think of many good downhills to use in the Chambersburg area: Buckets, Turtle, Yellow Hill, Lollipop, Methodist Hill, Blue Blaze etc. I wonder if there'd be enough riders to make it fun? Once a month? Twice a month? Once a year? Of course, I can't even seem to make a regular Weds or Thurs night ride, so I guess I'm dreamin' out loud.

Also thinking about doing it the night before The Curse, but that's kind of upside-down to finish at Big Flat.

Tour Divide

Anyone following this?
Original Cupcake Reuben has been riding up front with Matthew Lee the whole way so far. They have a cool SPOT mashup of the riders' current positions. Their original map failed, apparently as Google changed their API one night recently. Many followers of the event jumped in and created their own map mashups for use on the site. http://www.tourdivide.org/

Had a nice 3-hour tour with Keith today in central Meeshow. These pictures are not of Keith. Good pace, good trails, cool stream at the end.

Southside

4.5 hours of chasing this group up the hills. Felt like we climbed for about 3 of the first 4 hours.

the entrance gate to H or H Trail

After being crushed on the ride, but holding my own in the PRBs, I looked forward to getting crushed again by Oliver and the neighbors when I got home. Instead, we just rode down to the creek in our trunks and stayed right there for 2 hours. Niiiice! Needed that.

lerned something

evening ride with an MBM guinea pig

did not miss the slab this time. Pay attention.

this is one damn fine trail.
next on the syllabus, C****n
and the skinnies

scenes from town

at the ice cream station on the rail-trail

cross-eyed and torched

For the second week in a row we ended the ride with one more single-speeder than we started with. Wonderboy's full-squish SS worked out a lot better than last week's version, thanks to the good doctor. Doctor Tom. Surgeon. Mountain Biker. Singleator porter. A good man to have on any ride.

I did not go to the Hoo Ha as I had told many I would. That plan took a few hours to unravel as one King Cupcake started a mutiny which trickled down into our Hoo Ha group. None of the 3 of us slated to ride down in the Legend's van were super motivated, and it didn't take too much to push each of us to the local side of the fence. The local pot was sweetened for me by the inclusion of some fine northern Michaux trails like Weitzels, Vista, and Canyon that I don't often ride. Was bummed to not see the Virginia crew, and to have missed a chance to ride with the Frederick folk who did their own central Michaux ride today.

Instead, I hung at the back of a long train with my tongue hanging out. I had the camera, but didn't get much chance to pull it out with the pace. Woulda loved to get some shots of the sticky green rocky trail on the way to Vista, or of the nervy high skinnies, or the buff ferns, or the slabs of Canyon. Some real quality trail in there, photos another time.....

scenes from town

a couple blocks from the house

Buzzard Rocks or Hoo Ha?

Don't know what to do this weekend. Haven't raced the Hoo Ha in years, not since the new buff trail was built. Am considering not doing the XXC for once, and going down Sunday w/ Martin just for the regular loop, and maybe hitting the pump track in town on the way.

Saturday is the first quasi-unofficial-not-by-the-book race on Massanutten East, from Veach Gap to Buzzard Rocks. How can I pass that up? There might be very few racers though, and not many friends. Family things that day might make that one either easier to do, or more difficult. Wishy-washy as always when the whole fam is involved.
One thing for sure, I really want to race somewhere this weekend....
Anyone else going for either of these?

Council meeting for pump track

Got it!....

Presented the case for a pump track to the Town Council last night. I wanted to show a video to help everyone better understand what they look and ride like.

I was using PowerPoint and had to figure out how to get YouTube videos to work inside Powerpoint. I also wasn't sure if I'd have an internet connection in the meeting, so I wanted it to fly without that. I downloaded a couple of free softwares, and jumped thru a few steps to get them working in PowerPoint without a connection.

The videos were all too long and would lose the Council's interest, so I learned how to edit clips, and put multiple clips together with music. Got it done in the wee hours, and this is what I showed last night. It ain't gonna win any ESPYs, but it sufficed. We got the approval to move on to the next step!

Today, checking out the site with some of the key people.

scuttled

My giddy plans for an all-day southside Sunday ride were quickly changed an hour or so from the lot on Rocky Ridge. Though I began the day with good kharma, my chain fell off twice, and then this happened upon remount after fixing the second chain drop. It's pretty damn unusual for me to have 3 mechanicals in an hour.

We tried on the trail to get this shard out with my Swiss Army pliers, but instead, we kept breaking off pieces, making it lower and even harder to grab. I'd hoped to put the shortened post back in, and at least ride Mackey Run w/ a BMX-height saddle. That wasn't happening.

I left Lee and Travis, and turned around on Rocky Ridge headed out to the road. I messed around checking out some of the numerous horse-signed trails and double-tracks headed back to Rocky Ridge, trying to at least learn some trails on my solo ride back. Then the drizzle changed to a harder rain, and I stood up the hills, and sat on my top-tube on the descents back to the car. Jumped on the trail to Teaberry instead of climbing Cold Springs Rd. Discovered the different muscles used when you stand and lean forward the whole time.

Back at Teaberry, it was full-on pouring rain. Stripped and changed, then almost felt guilty grabbing beers from Travis' cooler (hey, you insisted...). Thought of them, and how they'd now be at about the farthest point from Teaberry, and at the bottom of the mountain. Wondered about their mental state.......

Had a bit of a time getting the shard out. I hacksawed halfway down the slit, then vice grips grabbed enough bite to pull out. I'm damn lucky I went through this BS a few weeks ago and had a freshly lubed post and all. Otherwise, I don't know if that shard would've ever come out if it was still oxidized in there.

The sky cleared later in the day, and after a 2-minute nap, I took Racer-X and 9 of his small friends (and 2 other dads) on a tour thru town hitting the usual fun spots.

pain train or party train?

tired daddy stretching out his back for a while

A fine locale to start the Wednesday evening rides from. Gotta try to make as many of these as I can.

Pic from Don

Pump Track meeting

Double-post to cover both blogs.
Look here please

view from the top

Any ride with this cast is sure to entertain. The thick fog made it impossible to locate the real source of a problem.