the cold, dark trail

Wow the winter season hit us quick, hopefully it's just a short blast and things will warm back up a bit once Sandy hits the road, at least that's what weather.com is telling me. I've never been a fan of the cold weather, my fingers & toes just can't stay warm enough, I think it's a circulation problem. I've got some of the warmest winter riding gloves, shoes & socks but sometimes I feel like I'm riding in flip flops. Nothing can ruin a ride more quickly for me than stinging fingers and toes on the bike.

With the daylight saving time change coming up next weekend, the night riding season will be in full swing as well. I thought we were ready for it with 3 separate lighting systems in the bike room but after Melinda and I both suffered dead batteries after maybe an hour of riding I quickly realized it's time to get rid of the cheap Chinese Magicshines.

Unfortunately we weren't the only ones who ran outta juice, 2 others with aging Niterider HID's walked out in the dark as well. What's bad is, our batteries were brand new with only a couple of rides on them. I sent off for the new batteries when Geoman had its recall and got 2 fresh new batteries which should have latest longer but these were worse than the ones that got recalled. Now with Geoman out of business I've got no other choice but to look elsewhere.

Over the last couple of years I've pretty much bought everything I could local and now I think it's time to do the same with my lights. I can understand buying something online if it can be bought locally but driving an hour and a half to buy at a big box store? I don't care what their return policy is, I would rather support my local guys, and it’s the right thing to do. When I bought the Magicshine's, they were selling LED's for under $100 when everyone else was $200-$300. Back then the LED market was just getting started and I couldn't bring myself to plunk down $600 just so Melinda and I could do the occasional night ride. Now things have changed, technology has gotten better and the prices have come down.

I've wanted to get away from lighting systems with a wire running down my back to the battery for a while but just couldn't justify it with 3 separate systems. Now the time has come to take the leap into the all in one unit LED's, that are all the rage right now. The technology is there and they just keep getting brighter & better.

Do the research though, I've been looking at 3 or 4 different models and it's the little details that make all the difference, like being able to swap batteries on the trail in the dark tool free. That right there is one factor that will decide which light I buy.

I'm not a huge night rider, with my shift schedule I'm able to ride during the day much more than most but there are times when everyone is doing a big night ride and I don't want to miss out on all the fun. I doubt I'll see any night racing anytime soon, I've pretty much been off the racing grid this year and the urge to pay $$$ and finish mid pack just hasn't been there this year. As far as training goes, I just can't bring myself to take the chance and ruin something I love to do. I would love to be fast and atop the podium but racing and training usually leads to missing out on the great things about mountain biking for me. Stopping and enjoying the scenery, pulling a can of craft brew outta my pack at the top of the mountain and toasting my buddies or spending weekends traveling to race venues I've already been to when I could be camping, and exploring new trails with Melinda and friends. Don't get me wrong racing can be fun and still is for me every once in a while but for now I'm just enjoying the ride.

 

playing catch up

Long time no bloggy bloggy, slacking as usual, I just haven't felt the urge to spend time blogging. Call it a bust schedule, call it the need to get stuff done or spend time outside with this awesome weather we've been having, I don't know. This post is basically a photo dump with a bit of narration. Alot has been happening, winding down the camping season, the pup is growing like a freaking weed and rides galore.

A couple of week ago we hit Tsali for the weekend, the last group ride in the club schedule. It was a small affair, with a ton of other stuff going on in our region that's cycling related I wasn't surprised in the turnout. Some say "you shouldn't conflict" but really there is no way not to. I look at it as having several options for riding or racing every weekend is a good thing. Some folks I know would kill to have a busy cycling calendar in their area.

Sometimes a "smaller group" ride can be a blessing as coordinating everyone and trying to keep all the different ability levels happy can be tough. I think we do a pretty damn good job with what we have, we never really hear any complaints, mostly compliments.

Tsali couldn't have been better, the leaves were changing and the air was crisp and cool, a perfect couple of days for riding the trails.

Not really one of the more technically challenging places to ride but definitely a fun and relaxing ride, something most everyone can enjoy. We rode alot, drank a few beverages around the campfire at night and had a ton of fun. It was Ocho's 2nd camping trip and he's fitting in perfectly. I'm thinking he's going to make an excellent camping and trail dog, it's like he was made for it. He and Moonshine are like two peas in a pod, they get along like best friends and seem to have alot in common.

On the home front, I've been working at a more rounded roll in the cycling community. Not just in the events we do but our involvement with the local parks and land managers. Joe and I have managed to make our way onto the Board at Bays Mountain. I'll not deny our intentions are mountain bike trail related but it's been interesting to learn the other side of the park and it's needs.

Our second meeting of the year was held on the park's barge, we cruised around the lake and pulled into one of the coves while we enjoyed a catered dinner and discussed that month's agenda.

On one side of the cove was a huge beaver dam, roughly the size of a mid-sized car.

This Thursday a plan was laid down to do a bit of exploring in the local National forest on some old trails in Laurel Bloomery. Forgive me if a butcher some of the details as I was unfamiliar with the area and the proper names. I wasn't even 100% sure what state we were actually in during most of the ride. It had been years since our guide Rob had ridden these trails so before we even mounted up he stated we couldn't blame him if the ride sucked. Right off the bat the trail went up, up a steep rocky as hell, old jeep road that kept up from maintaining a decent pace. 

Basically if you got stopped which we all did, alot, getting back going was sometimes a feat in it's own. The trail was a momentum killer with enough rocks to make Boone's new trail, Rocky Knob look smooth. Cover that with a bunch of dead leaves and we were better off doing the hike-a-bike for the first mile and a half. Once we reached the top we came to a fork in the road and a gate with several "No Trespassing" signs.

 

Unsure as to which way to go we looked around and before we came to a decision, an SUV came down the road and through one of the gates. When they stopped we inquired about the area only to find out we were indeed no longer on national forest land but private property. The guy we were talking to ended up being the owner and a cocky one at that. Basically he told us our only option was to go back the way we came. Frustrated we hung out a bit while he drove off, as we sat there and discussed our options we noticed the owner didn't continue down the mountain but was waiting around the corner to make sure we left. Eventually he turned around and came back through, three times he did this trying to wait us out so we decided to just sit down and have a snack until he got tired of wasting his gas. After a few pass through he finally gave up on us and we continued on our now illegal ride.

The last time Rob had ridden here it was public land but now private and from the looks of the owner and his fancy clothes and cocky demeanor, we were looking at the future site of a mountain top golf course or swanky high end community.

We opted to make the most of our ride and a few wrong turns here and there we finally found our way back onto public land without going back the way we came.

Some of the view we saw were absolutely beautiful, unfortunately not everyone is welcome to share them. One day no doubt this will be someones front yard or the 18th hole, sad.

Once back onto legal trails we were treated to more hike-a-bike. Some required some bike shouldering that would have made any cyclocross race course look like a kids playground.

Some of the names of the ride aprticipants have been changed as most were supposed to be at home sick in bed instead of riding their bikes. Thank goodness for sick days, I'm a firm believer in using them.

After some ridiculous mountain b-hiking, we came across a double waterfall that made it all worth it.

Some frosty beverages were consumed trail/creek side as we took in the beauty of our surroundings. All the new canned craft beers were made for packing it in on a good back country ride. I can think of a better place to enjoy a good oat soda, not everything good comes in a bottle anymore.

As we cruised back down the other side of the mountain we must have crossed this stream 10-15 times, most of which were not rideable.

As hard as we tried to keep our feet dry, it was inevitable that we were going to get wet. By the time we reached the truck not a single one of us had a dry sock or shoe but we all had a blast.

Trail building opportunities have not been a problem in our area in the last few years, especially at Bays Mountain but trails signs have been. At Bays, so far the park has been the ones who have constructed all of the signs and as can be expected they're a little slow at getting them out there. A few trails in the park are lacking signs including our new trail Chestnut. About a year ago a group of boy scouts made a few, much needed signs mainly near the top and the backside of the park where people were getting lost. Unfortunately some a-hole who I'm sure is an anti-mountain biker pulled up our sign for the top of Bear Run and hid it. It had only been in place a couple of months when it disappeared. We suspected it hadn't gone too far due to it's hefty weight but no matter how much we looked we couldn't find it. Finally after a about a year it was located buried in the woods about 30 yards from it's original location. The fact that it was buried is proof someone is not happy with mountain bikers and the new trails we're building at the park.

In an effort to discourage anymore disappearances I replanted the sign with a bunch of concrete and rocks. It's sad that some folks will go that far to discourage us from using the park. The irony is that while these folks don't like our presence they do use the trails we build on a regular basis.

I'm not going to promise that I'll try to get back into the swing of blogging because I've just not felt the urge to spend the time. Hopefully that will change especially with all the cool events coming up on our calendar. Trail building season is upon us!

I finally got around to editing the footage from the Porcupine Rim trail, it took a while but that concludes all of my Utah/Colorado footage from this spring. I filmed every trail I rode with the exception of one, (dead battery) and produced a video for each one. It took a while but it was worth it for me. Watching the videos always brings back great memories of the ride and the things I'd forgotten.

Porcupine Rim, Moab Utah from Greg Carr on Vimeo.

There was a ton of footage that I edited out or, 26 miles down into just over 10 minutes doesn't leave room for much. It was an awesome ride, easily one of my favorites. I think I've said that a hundred times.

I'd hoped to have the JET back by this weekend with some new, much needed upgrades but it's not gonna happen. I'm really looking forward to giving it a test run to see how the Shadow Plus derailleur will work, I've heard good things. With a hectic work schedule next week it will be next weekend before I get to ride it. Thank goodness I'm a 2 bike kinda guy or I'd be sitting watching everyone else ride this weekend. I'm due for a good ride on the FROG.

As long as everything goes as planned I'll be testing out thee JET next weekend at Tsali, our last official camping trip of the season, in the ECO. There will be one more camping trip at the Knoxville Fall Festival. We've decided to truck camp this year vs. getting a hotel which makes things more fun and safer considering all the festivities going on late into the night. Last year we left earlier than we wanted, missing out on alot of late night mischievousness, 2 more bands and who knows what else. The truck camping was Melinda's idea surprisingly, I thought the ECO had spoiled her but I guess not so I'm jumping at the chance and running with it. We've never actually slept in the back of my truck, especially with 2 dogs all up in our business. I'll totally have to get back in there and do a good scrubbing. My truck bed has pretty much been a dog house on wheels since we bought it back in 2007. It gets hosed out about once or twice a year but it's never been scrubbed and I guess it's due.
This could be interesting.

 

blah, blah, blah, blah

I wished I had a good video to share or an interesting story from a great ride this weekend but I don't. I spent most of my weekend at work and since it's pouring down the rain today it doesn't look good for a ride now either, maybe tomorrow.

 

Another great STC event in the book this weekend, with our annual Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day. Even though I missed the event due to work, I was living vicariously through my smarter than me iPhone. I requested pictures to be taken from those who did attend and soon enough my phone was being flooded with text messages full of photos of kids riding the trails. I did my part as best I could and began flooding the Facebox with the images. Despite the rainy start to the day we still had a good turnout, especially from all our great volunteers who made the event a success. Thanks everyone!

The two paragraphs above were written on Monday, I lost track on my topic or lack there of and gave up hoping I would come back and finish it later. It's now Tuesday and I'm still struggling. It's still raining and it looks as if I'll chock this day up as another no-ride day. I did some weight training yesterday but had to cut it short due to some back pain issues I've had recently. I would like to go for a run but that wouldn't help things either. I'm definitely stuck in a rut and I can't get out until the pain issue resolves. Since I injured my back a couple of years ago I've never been 100%, I don't know if I ever will but I definitely know it's time to start trying something new. What that is I'm not 100% sure yet but I'm working on it.

 

Speaking of aggravating issues, my bike is once again in the shop with chain drop issues. The JET that is, the one with the front derailleur. I've had it looked at a couple times and each time the problem is resolved temporarily but it usually comes back sooner or later. I've been running the 2x10 system for a while now and there are things I like about it but there are things I hate about it. Mostly the thing I hate is the lack of the ability to run a bash guard. The lower links on the JET won't allow the room for a taco style bash guard so I'm stuck bashing my $80 chainrings on rocks until I can get a different crank setup. My solution for the chain dropping issue? I going with the new shadow plus rear derailuer, I'm pretty sure this will help but only time will tell. Maybe in a couple of years when the new 1x11 system trickles down into the more affordable range for those of us folks who don't have a money tree in their back yard I try that avenue.

 

There is another upgrade coming to the JET but I'm gonna wait until I get the it back before I begin discussing that.



 

Yesterday I took Ocho in for his last round of puppy shots and his rabies vaccination. All the shots he got left him feeling a bit under the weather and he pretty much just laid around the house sleeping on and off yesterday. Now feeling much better and well rested, he's a fireball of energy all morning. I just caught him chewing a hole in Melinda's prized rug we just brought back into the living room. We had rolled it up when Ocho first came home with us not wanting it to get ruined while we house broke him but I guess it as too early. The pretty colors must have been too enticing for him to resist.

 

One more thing before I go, this weekend the 3rd Annual SORBA Tri-Cities Poker Ride will take place at Bays Mountain. It's our annual fundraiser for our trailbuilding program. It's a great ride that's all about fun and raising awareness for our trails. Come join us in the fun this Saturday, the ride begins at 10:00 at the picnic shelters so you'll want to arrive a few minutes early to get ready.

 

Coming soon, the Porcupine Rim video.........

 

 



big south fork: the beauty, the carnage and the video

It's been a few days since we got home from our trip to Big South Fork and I'm already missing it. I've been to Big South Fork a couple of times previously but I had ever been allowed to ride the trails we rode this last weekend. The park itself is beautiful and the campground is very nice. No harassing park employees and no silly rules. Several miles of trail that were previously only open to mountain bikes during the weekdays, the Grand Gap Loop & the John Muir trail, have recently been opened 7 days a week. One of the park guys even lead our ride stating that this was the biggest group he'd seen yet. Big groups can be good and can be bad, good for having company and camaraderie but bad for a fun smooth ride on singletrack. Thankfully no one was trying to keep us all together. As the trail wore on we all split up and did our own thing, everyone seeming to have a great laid back time.

 

Periodically we would exchange pleasantries at break points and scenic overlooks but other than that we just rode and enjoyed the heck out of the trails we were on. The fast people worked there way to the front, the people just enjoying the ride were somewhere in the middle and those of us who were stopping taking pictures and sampling a bit of the honey were in the back. Not to say we didn't ride fast we just took our time and sucked it all in.

 

Rewinding a bit, a few of us arrived early on Friday and decided to kick things off with a pre-ride on the Grand Gap Loop that afternoon. I had packed the GoPro last weekend with intentions of filming but left it at the campsite on Friday. Somewhere about midway through the ride we came upon a tight squeeze between a giant rock that jutted out about shoulder to head high and a tree. Right in the middle of this mess was a smallish rocky downhill section thrown in just to keep things interesting. I was 3rd in line going through and I watched Jody & Todd clean the section but when it came my turn I was more worried about clipping the giant rock in the trail than the rocks I was riding on.

 

Unfortunately my lack of attention to the trail sent me flying over the bars and landing face first onto the trail. As my bike flipped up backwards, it and me rolled off the trail and down the hill into a mess of leaves and roots. When I stood up the first thing I did was make sure all of my teeth were intact as they took a serious blow to the trail which was obviously just a small amount of dirt covering alot of rock.

 

Other than a little blood, some nice bruising, most of which I would find over the course of a day or two I was good to go. One thing that did bother me was that I didn't have the GoPro with me to capture it all. I climbed back up onto the trail, did a bike & body survey, spit out all kinds of dirt and got back on the bike.

 

Saturday, I made sure I had my GoPro on and filming when we hit this section. I wasn't sure if I wanted to ride it and I never really got the chance. One of my buddies in front of me took a bit of a spill in the same section. Luckily he wasn't hurt either and luckily for everyone else I got it on film. His crash wasn't nearly as bad as mine but I asked him for his permission to use it in my video and he agreed.

 

We got in 20+ miles alone on Saturday and had a great time, the trails were smooth, buff and fast with just enough rocks to keep the guys with big squish happy. The scenery was probably some of the best I've seen in a while, it ranked right up there with some of what we saw out west. Even the small amount of time we spent riding the gravels was scenic.

 

This was Ocho's first camping trip and I'm pretty sure he enjoyed every minute of his time there. I think he's going to be a great camping dog and when he gets little older, a great mountain biking dog. He's already getting the hang of running off leash at our local trails and staying with me.

 

 

Normally when he gets quiet for a while I know I need to check on him because he's likely into some kind of trouble. On Saturday afternoon, I caught him licking on an empty beer can that had been smashed. I'm not sure where he got it but I had to snap a picture before taking it away from him. I will admit I was a little proud.

I skipped on posting any of the photos since they're all over the box already. Enough talk, onto the video, I will admit it's a little on the long side but I couldn't bring myself to edit anymore out of the footage than I did. I apologize in advance.

 

 



Big South Fork - Grand Gap Loop/John Muir Trail from Greg Carr on Vimeo.

 

 Enjoy!

 

Amasa Back - the video

Finally! I've been slacking on getting the rest of my Utah video footage edited but I refuse to throw in the towel. I've been doing them in the order which we rode them and that saves my favorite for last.

 

This trail, Amasa Back was mostly jeep trails so when we were gearing up for it I wasn't really excited. My visions of jeep trails were MUCH diffrent than what we actually rode. This ride ended up ranking right up there with my favorites. It was pretty much an out and back with ridiculously awesome views. We climbed for a good hour or more to a peak that was crazy cool and then descended back down trying to stay upright on our bikes.

 

I'm impressed people take jeeps up some of the stuff we rode. The terrain was a bit more than my puny xc bike could handle, I would've been better off with around 6" of travel but I managed.

 

Enjoy!
 

Amasa Back, Moab Utah from Greg Carr on Vimeo.

 

 

 

Up next and hopefully not 3 months down the road, the Porcupine Rim trail.



the weekend off and some trail dog training

What was supposed to be a laid back restful weekend with no plans turned into a great weekend of riding. I had hinted around to Melinda that there was a ride in the works on Buffalo for Saturday morning but she wasn't interested. I didn't want to commit to taking off for the day and leaving her at home alone to deal with the dogs by herself, I say the dogs, it's mostly Ocho. Late Friday evening she made a ride plan of her own so I was good to to go on Buffalo.

 

The route plan was to head up the newish Pinnacle Firetower trail to the top and climb up into the firetower and have a refreshing beverage. That was accomplished but only after the crowd cleared out. We have a bit of a tallboy can crushing contest amongst friends that basically goes like this. Crush a tallboy can and see who can get the can to crush down the straightest without shifting.

 

 

 

My attempt atop the firetower, probably my best one yet, even Anthony was impressed. Rob, not so much, he informed me that it needed to be a 22 oz. not a 16 oz. Sheesh.

 

Anyway after some much enjoyed refreshment we decended down the Buffalo/JC side of the mountain via some fireroads, ATV trails and singletrack. It was good fun, some downed trees were moved, some crashes were had and some blood was left on thorns by all.

 

After all the good downhill fun was over we proceeded to make our way back to the top via the fireroad slog of a climb. It's been a while since I've done this climb and I forgot how much it sucked, I misjudged my re-fuleing needs and had to raid my emergency food stash which really isn't much but it got me to the end of the ride and the drive home.

 

We did get to end the ride on a good note, down the Pinnacle trail at which point I was beginning to bonk a bit. With only pancakes, a clif bar, a gel and a Shift in my belly I opted to sit in the back to not hold anyone up or cause a pile up as I was feeling pretty jittery. It was a great day and an awesome ride.

 

 

 

 

On the dog front, it's crazy to see how fast little Ocho is becoming bigger Ocho. He's growing so fast I feel like I should be documenting his growth with pencil marks on the wall. The first day we brought him home he couldn't reach Moonshine's water bowl, after a week he was drinking from it with ease

 

 

In the truck he's pretty chilled out, we've been hesitant to put him in the back much because he's not scared to jump out the windows. Moonshine, Melinda and I have already begun his "trail dog" training. We've started out slow with short hikes but I have a feeling he'll be ready to chase us on bikes in a few months.

 

 

 

The fall flowers were in full bloom at Warriors last week.

 

 

a short post about a dog and a lack of self discipline

I was in the mood to post yesterday but put it off due to the need to get stuff done around the house, later that evening I didn't feel the urge to post anything. Today I half way feel the need to post but I have a feeling it's gonna be half a$$ed. No photos just random discussion, one sided only that is.

 

I have plenty to share, pics and all just no urge to do so and really I need to be doing other stuff.

 

Trying to up my running game this week but only 1 run in so far, we have a certain new addition to the crew that demands constant attention. Anyway I am going to squeeze in a run today, a trail run. I'm a little burned out on the bike so I've done more stuff like kayaking and running lately. It's actually been a little over a week since my last ride and I'm cool with that. Another thing I've been off of, my healthy eating, not that I was really that healthy of an eater but the past 3 nightshifts at work there have been an arsenal of homemade cakes and fruit cobblers laying about, sheesh! 3 cakes and 2 cobblers all over the course of 3 days. I sampled every single one of them, a couple more than once.

 

I've been bad.

 

So last weekend we adopted another dog, a black lab mix from a rescue in NC. A male, 2 months old with absolutely no training whatsoever. I forgot how much fun it is to house break a dog.  Sleepless nights, cleaning up pee and poop off the carpet, picking up dog toys in every room of the house. It's great though, he's a ton of fun and really cute. Ocho is his name and no we did not name him after any football players. We've had him less than a week and Moonshine and I have already had him out training to be a trail dog twice. This weekend, he goes on his first camping trip, weather permitting. Yeah we're making sure we cover the most important things in his training. Once he gets a little bigger we'll buy him a proper Cycle Dog collar.

 

 

More stuff to come as I feel like typing and posting: photos, kayaking trips, pub crawls, new tires on the JET's and of course more dogs stuff. Oh yeah and a primitive back country camping trip this weekend. Should be interesting.

 

 

more new river gorge blah blah blah

As promised I've got more words about our trip to the New River Gorge. Sunday we got up, errr I got up early and began to cook a big breakfast for all the STC kids. Pancakes and bacon were on the menu. I tried to get things underway hoping help would arrive soon but disaster struck as I'm used to cooking turkey bacon and not the real deal and the grease was beginning to overwhelm me. Cooking 4-5 lbs of bacon on a small camping stove is a difficult thing to do. In a panic I sent out a flurry of text messages to sleeping campers asking for assistance.

After breakfast we began gathering our riding gear and bikes as a few non-campers rolled into town for a day-trip ride. Our original Sunday ride plans included some scenic trails that cruised along the Gorge got cancelled in favor of a repeat of Saturday's ride for those who didn't get to ride the Arrowhead system on Saturday. No big deal, it's super fun trail system and Melinda and I were there until Monday so I figured we would sneak in the Gorge trails sometime.

Monday morning I headed down to the campground office to see about extending our stay into the late afternoon to squeeze in some more riding and lake time. Most campgrounds will allow this for a small fee but unfortunately for us the unruly campground host was manning the office and fubarred our fun for the day. She insisted that we would have to pay for a full night's stay, $33 just to stay a couple of hours extra. Once again I had to fight the urge to show this lady my middle finger and say a few choice words in her direction. Instead I said muttered a thanks, un-liked to them on Facebox and vowed never to camp there again.

We toyed with the idea of parking the ECO at the trailhead but I was super nervous about there not being enough room to turn around and backing that thing up blindly was not sounding good to me. Instead we opted for a day at the lake with Moonshine where there was plenty of large truck/trailer parking.

Also as promised, my Go Pro footage from Saturday's ride. I wanted to shoot more but I ran out of battery juice and forgot my back up at the campground.

Enjoy!

Arrowhead Trails, Fayetteville West Virginia from Greg Carr on Vimeo.

 

new river gorge or bust

A week or so ago we hitched up the ECO and headed north into "wild and wonderful" West Virginia for our local club camping trip. It's a yearly event that's taken us to Warrior Creek for the past two years so we figured we were due for a change.

A couple of months ago Melinda and I drove up for the day to the New River Gorge area to do a bit of scouting. The trails were great and the area beautiful but what we saw in the local campgrounds, not so much. After multiple visits around town we finally had to call it quits and head home to finish our research via the interent. Our conclusion after a week landed us with reservations a few minutes up the road at a campground near Summersville Lake. We booked our sites 2 months in advance to insure we would have enough room for our motely crew of sometimes rowdy mountain bikers. Rumor has it, this group was nearly evicted from a state park in VA. for having a little too much fun.

Fast forward 2 months we were packing up and ready to leave town when I realized our campground played a bit of "let's switch up the campsites" and not tell anyone. Some were ok with it, some were not. A few heated conversations were had and the campground host involved declared that it was her right to do as she saw fit. Whatever lady, we took it with a grain of salt and delt with it. Unfortunately that wasn't our only issue with her. The campground itself was nice and so were most of the folks who worked there except for one badly balding older lady who thought she was queen bee.

At one point I thought Melinda was going to grab her by what was left of her hair and drag her into the street but she played it cool and we opted to ignore her as best we could.

Though the weekend got off to a bumpy start we didn't let it slow us down. We ate alot of pizza, consumed several adult beverages, (some made with corn), burned alot of firewood and rode the hell out of the local trails. On Saturday we started the ride with the Arrowhead trails not far from downtown. A stacked loop that was super tight, full of twists and turns, never really allowing you time to pick your nose or you would find your handlebars wrapped around a tree.

The trails were smooth in most sections, fast and begged to be ridden fast. The faster you rode the more intense the ride, it was a blast.

After we covered most of the Arrowhead loops we headed back to the parking lot to regroup and refuel. Most had brought a pb&j but with the local pizza and beer joint within riding distance via singletrack we opted to roll into town. The Fayetteville trails which connected downtown to the Arrowhead trails were more on the old school side. Gut busting climbs and screaming, ass off the back descents with plenty of roots & rocks to make you grin. I'm not sure which was more fun, the lunch ride or the loops, it was a close match.

As we decended into town, poor Mike Boggs had a make session with a bee which landed a real doozy on his upper lip. Unable to swat him off for fear of loosing control he opted to bite the bee into and spit it out. Luckily for Mike he's not cardiac arrest allergic but he was allergic just enough to make his upper lip swell to epic proportions. Once we hit town, Mike made a bee line, (no pun intended) for a pharmacy to pick up some benadryll.

After several benadryll were consumed we crossed the street and headed into pizza heaven. Pies & Pints the local gourmet pizza joint did not disappoint. It doesn't hurt that they have several excellent beers on tap along with a few local micro brews. They say Fayetteville is America's coolest small town and I think they might just be right.

After a monsterous amount of pizza was consumed we headed back to the singletrack and proceeded to find our way back to the trailhead. Having a belly full of pizza and Bridgework's Kolsh does not sit well on a steep climb.

More tomorrow and some Go Pro footage of the Arrowhead trail system. I just put the finishing touches on the video and it should be available for your viewing pleasure sometime tomorrow.

stay tuned...........

I'm cooler than you, in my mind.

There is alot of really cool stuff coming down the pipe from bike companies right know, when I say cool I mean the stuff like weird colors and other stuff that's different not all that tech crap or the rebirth of grip shift. I dig the odd ball crap from companies like Surly who are constantly throwing up their middle finger to the mainstream crowd that insists of having the fastest, lightest, carbon this or that in only red, black or titanium.

I noticed the other day a few tidbits of info via the Facebox, that Surly is rolling out some new colors, one being what they're calling "Hospital Foam" on the Cross Check. What color specifically that is, I dunno but my mind is throwing out hues in the tan/orange/yellowish/cream color spectrum. My favorite so far has been the Robin Egg blue which has been hugely popular. I know of 3 local kids with it. Also with the release of the new "Krampus", a fat tire 29er, they just keep upping the "I'm cooler than" you factor.

Then as if the funky color teasers from Surly weren't enough, Independant Fabrications came out with an Easter Egg purple fully rigid steel 29er.

 Too many cool bikes and not enough bills in my wallet, it's the story of my life. I've been drooling over a Surly Crosscheck for as long I can remember but life just keeps getting in the way of me pulling the trigger. I don't do CX and my commute is too dangerous to ride a bike so I haven't come up with a good enough reason to add yet another roadie to my collection of bikes. What I need to do is dump my Masi and replace it with the Surly. Deep down inside I know I don't need aluminum or carbon, I'll never race it or be a serious roadie. I'll always just be the occasional road rider and why not do it in true "I don't give a rat's ass style".

On a more serious note, Niner has announced sometthing new is coming down the pipe. Mum is the word on what, but it is a new bike, the rumors are either a carbon RIP or carbon WFO. Both would be totally sweet but the RIP seems to be the one that would make the most sense. The all-mountain/trail market seems to be moving to carbon. Check out the teaser video for yourself that Niner put out there to, really tease us.

On a sad note the hunks of junk we call our work bikes here at work are about to disappear. Somewhere some dummy wrecked in our company while trying to ride down railroad tracks and the higher ups in our safety dept. have deemed bicycles as a safety hazard. There are all sorts of rumors flying around, like the guy leading this charge didn't get the bike he wanted for Christmas when he was 11 so he's taking his anger out on us peons that do actually ride bikes here at work. We use them for all sorts of reasons, carrying tools, making trips to the shop to get parts or fittings that we need in a hurry and just plain ole transportation. It's really ridiculous and I wish I had a say in the decision but I don't and its a shame really.

That's enough for now, I've got plenty of work to do. The New River Gorge trails, ECO, and a campfire surrounded by my bike riding buddies is calling my name.

scratching in the dirt for ideas

It's Saturday and I'm at work...... again. Bleh.

Last night's down pour made me feel a little better, it's pretty rough sitting at work during the weekend knowing there is a big ride going down somewhere out in the woods and all your friends are there to experience it except you. I was totally ready to call in a vacation day this weekend had the plans been laid down but they never came and it's probably a good thing as it's likely to be a mess out there. I seriously doubt I'm missing too much.

A month or so ago I decided I needed to mix up my routine a bit, that and up my game. Things are coming along nicely so far but I've not been out running as much as I'd like to. There were a couple of mornings when I was coming off of nightshift and had plans to squeeze in a run before hitting the bed but I talked myself out of it. Not sure why but I did, I think the long shifts started to wear on me after a couple of days and my motivation flew out the window. Taking a couple days off should recharge my batteries and get me back into the groove, hopefully.

Lately I've felt the burn out effect, I don't think I'm the only one. Burn out from my local trails that is, you know when you've ridden the same trails over and over all summer with very little change? Yeah I'm feeling that, it's part of my reasoning for wanting to switch things up. I did have 2 seperate plans to ride a specific local trailhead this week and rather than go and trudge through the same old same old, I mixed it up a bit, took different lines, slowed the pace down a little and explored some. I wasn't exploring as in riding un-chartered territory but more of exploring new lines, ideas for new lines and places or features to jump, slide through or ride over. It's funny how you can ride through a certain section of trail week after week and never see that rock or root or natural berm/lip that can make your ride that much more fun and exciting. Slowing down and stopping to smell the trail can really open up your eyes to fun and exciting things, even if you've ridden that trail a hundred times.

There is a section of trail on Chestnut at Bays Mountain Park that's all downhill, swooping fast and bermed in a few places. It's a fast section and if you've got the guts to lay off the brakes it can be one helluva thrilling ride. A few of the locals have started a sort of contest where they see who can coast, without pedaling down this trail and go the farthest on momentum only. No one stops to fool with removing chains, it's all honor. I've joined in recently and it's alot of fun, just when you think you've had an awesome run and you're going to beat your last distance you end up coming up short with you last run just a few feet away. I'm left scratching my head wondering what tree or turn was it I pulled on the chicken shit brake levers for. Did I go too high on that berm? Did I loose momentum trying to jump everything that looked like a jump? I dunno but it happens and it makes me want to turn it around and go back for another run.

Back on the subject of trail features, all of this stopping to smell the trail whooha has got me thinking, thinking of new things to build. Not really new trails but new features to add to trails and ways to improve what's there. I probably should be writing this down as ideas come to mind but who knows if I'll ever have time to make any of it happen. There was so much I had planned to do last year that never got done. Time flies when your out digging in the dirt and I'm itching so bad for the weather to cool off so I can get out and about and scratch in the dirt with my trusty Rogue Hoe.

Come on Fall!

The Slickrock Trail - Video recap

I think I may be getting the hang of this blogging thing again.

I took a few minutes, well actually alot longer than that, to put together another video from my footage of our riding out west in Utah. This video is from the famous Slickrock Trail.

While the Slickrock Trail is cool and definitely unique due to the fact that you're riding a smooth rock surface for about 98% of the time it definitely wasn't my favorite ride out there. I enjoyed it for sure but let's just say it was it was a weird experience.

When I thought Slickrock I imagined myself soaring all over the trail swooping and flying up and down the sandstone. It wasn't like that at all, it was more like crawling up and down and across steep slopes of hard sandpaper. Go down anywhere and you're likely to loose some skin. I can image the locals who ride this one regularly, really go though the tires.

Don't get me wrong if we go back I'll do it again and I'm sure with practice it gets faster and more fun. It's definitely one of those must do trails if visiting the area. I've never rode anything like it.

Enjoy!

I've still got 2 more videos worth of footage to put together so stay tuned.

rain delay

I'm trying to keep this thing on a roll here. Blogging that is and hopefully once I get into the swing of things maybe my blog posts will become entertaining again? Hopefully.

Yesterday's ride was a total freaking washout. The Tuesday group ride has pretty much been a bust this summer due to rain. It's been hard to keep things consistant with the occasional pop up T-storm that seems to hit every Tuesday at 6pm. That and coupled with my work schedule that keeps me away once a month I've never had a decent showing.

I sat around the house all day yesterday, not really sat around, I did stuff but I could have gotten in a good long ride during the day when the sun was shining but no I waited until 6pm hoping for a good group ride rather than going it solo as usual. I eyed the radar and weather channel and all seemed good until I stepped foot into the parking lot at the trailhead. Before I could even get both bikes off the truck we heard that distant rumble that's plagued us all summer.

I took a quick glance at the radar and it confirmed my guess, it wasn't a distant train wreck that we'd heard. A pop-up t-storm had appeared out of no where and was bearing down on us like an angry bear. I was determined to ride something even if it was only for 15 minutes so I conned Melinda into getting on her bike and heading down the first trail for as long as possible with the intention of turning it around as soon as it looked bad.

As we barreled forward through the woods we passed a friend who was making a mad dash back to the parking lot, and he gave us a puzzled look as if we were crazy. I confirmed his suspicions with a crossed eyed look and a mumble about the beautiful weather and took off before he could say anything else.

About 5 minutes later we were stopped dead in our tracks with a deafing boom. We hadn't made it as far as I'd hoped but that was definitely our signal to turn it around and do it quick. We made it out unscathed and into our truck just before Mother Nature unleashed one helluva storm.

With nothing else to do we headed home and cracked open a couple of Rangers and tried out our new fancy matching N.B. glasses we scored for free at a beer tasting.

Something about a fancy glass just makes a good beer taste even better. It's probably in my head but after posting this pic on the facebox I'll probably have to hide them when friends come by.

Today I'm determined to give it another go, we have yet another group ride this afternoon at 5:30 and the chance of rain is 10% less than yesterday. If this one gets rained out I may just call off the group rides all together or at least until the afternoon t-storm season is over.

nothing special

Quick post today, I got a bunch to do but I felt like blogging and since that type of stuff has been scarce around here I figured I'd better get on the stick.

Anyway, 6 straight nightshifts, 12 hours each and I feel like a zombie. It had to be done, I gots some hella vet bills to pay. I did pick up Jackson's remains yesterday and since Moonshine is still sulking around the house I held the box down to her and told her I brought Jackson back. She took a long sniff of the box and looked at me as if she understood a little.

Oops sorry didn't mean to get sad on you, I woke up this morning with thoughts of riding the FROG out at Warriors this afternoon for our weekly group ride but when I opened the shades I saw that it had rained. Crap! I checked the weather and the future looks bright so I moved the ride to Bays Mountain where things tend to dry up much quicker than Warriors. Warriors is a rocky, rooty maze that can really kill your momentum and ride when those rocks and roots are wet. With this high humidity I figured they'll still be wet this afternoon.

Speaking of the FROG, I did a bit more research and found a couple more easier to understand explanations as to how to fine tune my Reba and I tried it out last Sunday. I don't know if it was the rebuild or my fine tuning attempt but my fork seemed alot smoother. I gave Melinda's the same treatment but she didn't seem to like it as much. I think I may know why, prior to my research, my attempt to make things smoother was to drop the psi to a lower setting to achieve a smoother ride. On my fork I upped it to where it should be but I don't think I did on hers. I guess I'd better remedy that.

For a while now I've been wanting to shave my head but I've put it off partially due to Melinda's affection for me with hair, but since I continue to loose the battle of going bald I finally convinced her it was for the best. My plan was to shave it off this morning but I think I may have talked myself out of it yet again. I'm really not to the point where what hair I do have looks bad but it is getting thinner on top maybe I just need to flip a coin.

Last weekend while in Brevard we were cruising downtown sticking our heads in whatever shop looked appealing and while we were headed back to the truck I noticed the newest Brewery in town. Not Osker Blues, but the Brevard Brewery. http://www.brevard-brewing.com/ I drug Melinda across the street and inside to check out the wares. Being that we both had full bellies from lunch and Mexican beer, we opted to go with 2 of the samplers and try them all. I have to say I was impressed, probably my 2 favorites were the Munich Dunkel, a dark German lager. This was definitely a first for me but I liked it! The other was a good ole American IPA, it was good and punchy and the 6% snuck up on me just a bit. The guy running the place was pretty cool and said if we ever come back we were welcome to bring in a pizza or whatever and dogs were allowed to, as long as they were friendly.

That's all for now, not the greatest post but definitely a start to getting back in the groove.