Flower Power and Fire Power

Today was a high drool factor for the amount of single track – almost 4 hrs. and 25’ish miles, starting at area 19, to Dark Forest / power line area to area 21, and on to and through area 22.

There were two white Ranger pickup trucks and an orange VW Beatle parked at area 22 with items outfitted for mountain biking. We left them a note on one of the trucks to contact us about hooking up for a ride.

Came across some large fire power shells sitting next to wild flowers today. The casings say “ALK M9.” They are BIG, 10 CM or 4” long and ¾” wide – see pictures. Fire Power along with Flower Power.

All this to say, it threw a few of us back to a different time and another dimension . . . lost. Peace.

Hung It Up On Winter -- Ready For Spring

Ironic -- it snowed today . . . again, even when Ol' Sol was out. Just plain weird!

Time to hang it up for winter . . .

Faint indicators of

spring are showing up on the trails!

Spring Snow Ride

Today's ride -- started from Rainier Road --Ft. Lewis area 21.

Then single-track to and through the Black Forest . . .

hooking up to single track to Yelm . . .

. . . all the way to Yelm where single track starts (area 19).

Total mileage about 21 -- 3.5 hours, 1 flat, snow to start, sunshine in between and snow / hail at the end.

To your health . . .

Sunny and Good Dispositions . . .

Al, Ron, and John rode areas 23 to 21 to 22 for about 17 miles and 2:40’ish riding time today. Lots of fun single-track with no mud! A few stops were attributed to stripping off the tights and extracting the long-sleeved shirt for short-sleeves.

There are just a few logs and debris over the trails (at 23 near the landing strip and pipeline area) and Ron said it wouldn’t take much to clean it up. Al showed up today with “his new toy” -- a new Specialized Stumpjumper bike – the one with the “Brain” shock in the back! He states (and we can attest today) that the bike (with Al) really holds (“sticks”) going up steep hills with no spin-out of the rear wheel when hammering on the pedals.

Also, see the new picture of Al on the far right column! We got him worked out enough going up one longer hill that we were able to grab a quick shot with his new steed. Thanks Al.

By the way, the rocking chair is missing . . . only the back pad lies where the chair once sat – waiting . . . waiting for Todd.

All the best . . .

Alternatives To Rain?

Do any of these sound familiar?

Rain got you down?
Feeling like a pansy?
CRAVING your bike?

Check this out! Start looking around for folks’ “spring cleaning” toss-outs. Their junk could be your deliverance! The stationary bike beauty (SBB) in the picture was found outside with a “Free” sign on it last spring.

When Skyler is feeling like he “just needs to do something” he gives himself a healthy “time out” and goes out to the garage for a “spin.” Well for that matter, when I’m feeling “whipped at work” (WAW!!!!) I’ve been known to go reward myself with a quickie spin. “Ahhhh, all better now!”

Truthfully, before we came across this, I’ve been found a few times when its pouring meows and bow-wows just sitting on my bike out in the garage – "imagineering" (Disney speak) the next ride. (It scared the wife and kids for the first few times.) But hey . . . it worked -- even if it just got me fixed for a few minutes!

Get yur spring on however you can!

Fort Lewis Secret Single Track Trails-

A crew of three Ron, Al (no picture yet), and John rode out from area 21 Weir Prairie through the prairie, up the very steep warm up hill and then hit single track joy for 8 miles out and within 2 miles of Yelm Highway today. The weather was just right and just a bit of hail until the end when there was about a 2 minute drizzle – that was all. Hardly NO MUD! No horsies!

John tried to get a pic of Al on the single track but couldn’t get enough distance in front of him. Every time he’d hop off to snap a shot – BAM! Al was right there with Ron – too late to shoot. Did we mention that Al’s been in CA for 3 months training and knocking off various single track trails through CA? Al’s been doing a lot of elevation climbing. Said he rode mountains that had a variety number of crosses on them. He said the locals talk like . . . “Yeah, I did the 3-crosser today in 3:45 hrs. today! Will just nailed the single-cross . . . .”

On the way back and in the middle of one of the meadows that the Chinook helicopters fly in we came upon a “Special Ops” (operations in military terms) group of about 10 or so camouflage-dressed guys that were practicing flying their special RC (radio-remote controlled) spy planes – about 3’ wide wing-span and the prop in back. They run off a battery for more than an hour. And, house a color and infra-red zoom camera in the nose of the plane, and can coast and soar in “silent mode.” Not a very talkative bunch. John saw the same group when he was out Thursday night and they were quite tight-lipped and finally hinted somewhat strongly along the line of it’d be a good thing if he’d like to ride off -- then they could use the plane to zoom in on him. They did not like the idea about maybe getting a picture of them either. Hmmmm.

Today’s ride: about 16-17 miles and 3.4 hours. Some killer hills. And, riding the prairie grass is harder than one may think!

Todd wrote to say he’d be out tomorrow early morning for a ride with Brian and perhaps a few others. Hope it doesn’t rain hard!

All the best . . .