dusting off the blogwebs

With nothing really substantial to say I decided to log into my blog and dust off the cobwebs. I've been lacking lately and as usual it's been more of a lack of time than anything. Even when I don't have a great story to tell, (great in my own mind) I can usually make something out of nothing just by starting to type.

Work is about to get really nasty in a couple of weeks for me, actually it's been nasty but starting Oct. 10th I will do very little in the way of bike riding or blogging. I plan to make every free day count in the way of riding so if you have a sick day or two to burn hollar, I'll be riding. For those of you who are in the mileage contest with me this is a good time to play catch up. I need a good challenge so get off the couch. Speaking of mileage I'm well over 1000 miles on my mountain bike for the year with a new goal of hitting 1500 before Dec 31st. There is no sense in discussing road miles since I've only done one road ride for the entire year after which I realized my frame was cracked. I've still yet to get any urge to buy a new frame, for a while I seriously considered buying a Surly Cross Check not really for CX racing but more of just cruising on but that has been put on the back burner for more important purchases.

I thought I might do a bit more CX racing this year since the introduction of the fat tire class, but with no points or prizes I guess riding for free in the woods was a bit more appealing for some crazy reason than riding for $10 in the grass with people shouting obscenities in your face and ringing cowbells in your ear. Doesn't sound like fun? Trust me it is, every time I do venture onto the race course and get past that feeling of, "I might vomit at any moment" I think to myself I should do this more often. I totally plan to get out there but since I'm not racing for points skipping the first two or four surely won't hurt me in the standings.

Melinda and I did manage to get in some good quality rides this weekend, the first being the newish Pinnacle fire tower trail on Buffalo Mtn. I've ridden a portion of the trail a couple of times hooking in to the end of the trail from the other side of the mountain for the final push to the top. Saturday we rode from the Unicoi side and did the entire trail from top to bottom for the first time. It was better than I had expected or had heard, yes there are a couple of steep but short sections that were not wisely built but it's better than nothing. Maybe one day they'll extend the trail making it a loop rather than an out and back, now that would be cool.

Yesterday we ventured over to Bays for the usual Sunday ride. Unfortunately I couldn't con anyone to ride with me so I went out for a solo ride with a new route in mind. My pace was a bit faster than I usually do but I was racing against the clock as Melinda was riding with the girls and I wanted to be done when they were. My plan was to hit all the singletrack on the front side as well as some on the back. After passing the fire tower I rolled to over the top via Indian Pipes and all the way down to the bottom bypassing Bear Run. I skipped Kinear Hollow and made it back to the car in record time catching up with the ladies on Chinquapin. For a change of pace I rode the JET9 and had an absolute blast, the more I ride that bike the more I love it. I haven't looked but I'm pretty sure I've put more miles on it than my hardtail this year, something I thought I would never do. It has officially become my new favorite bike.