Armor & Low Slung Top Tube = Amour

Tried out a Specialized P2 “Jumper” bike this afternoon on single-track for 1 ½ hours. Jumped on and off everything one could - rocks, big roots, gaps, holes, but the 5-6” high log was a TOTAL show-stopper. I literally became “hung up” attempting to jump over it. The front tire cleared it perfectly and like perfect science the momentum started to carry forward and glide over the front chain ring and bash guard until it met . . . the rear tire and science decided to flunk my sophomore moves and the bike from any forward inertia. Science stopped everything. Mr. Zech, my high-school science teacher, was undoubtedly laughing. Is it ironic there are skulls and cross-bones painted on the bike’s down tube?

In another bold (asinine?) move one launched off of a 6” ramped up log only to find out that both feet CAN actually LIFT completely OFF the pegs a couple of inches and land back down with a “thump.” NOTE: this is not a good sign, and it should scare the bejeebees out of one if it happens.

Today’s science lesson is: Body Armor = Amour. Low slung top-tube = precious and priceless.

Short Intense Ft. Lewis Area #23 Ride Today

An interesting profile of an intense ride today.
Thanks Jeff for the mapping provided at this link:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/6350343

Roadies Suprised by Non String Being & Pimped Mtn Bike

One of us P.O'd a couple of "roadies" on separate occasions Friday afternoon on a paved Chehalis-Western "recovery" (HA!) ride of 32 miles. The riders weren't happy to see your editor being less than 6', and . . . stocky keeping up with them as "string beings" for respectable distances on a "Pimped Out" mountain bike compared to their fancy-smansie racing bikes. This editor thought he lost one particular rider only to come around a corner to see him red-faced, drinking, and leaning up against his bare-boned elegant racing bike. He looked stupefied to see someone on a mountain bike, full Camelback pack on, and mouth guard hanging from a chin strap. He was panting, mouth wide open, and eyes followed suite. He looked absolutely stunned. It was precious and worth every forced pedal stroke this editor delivered. The muscle burn was worth it! (Okay, tomorrow we'll recover.)

Sprint and Leisure

Started the day with a 9 mile sprint up and back from Benham Falls parking lot to Lava Lands Visitor Center. 777 feet elevation gain, running 32 minutes out and 26 minutes home. Sweet ride - i.e., no snow or falls like yesterdays five hour hike-a-bike marathon. Just what the doctor ordered.

Second ride of the day was a nice family ride - about 9 of us altogether. Helen and Maggie toughed it out for 10 miles, though Helen did not enjoy the single track and Maggie is now running a fever. Suzanne took her Yukon on it's madien voyage and has a couple of bruises to prove it. Pinky's rear brake seized up - only one bolt left on the disc. Took one from the front and nursed it home on the front brake when required. Picture is of Suzanne on her new ride with Maggie and Uncle Pete trailing behind. Heading home to Olympia in the morning.

Doing "B52 Bomber"

Awesome views today with a 19 mile, 4 hour, 2,400’ elevation gain ride. Started from Summit Lake area up B5200 (a.k.a., the “B52 Bomber”) to Rock Candy Mountain saddle and back. Legs got spent way early in the ride while trying out a new seat. During the first 2.5 miles and steep 1000’ pitch, the seat was initially angled down far too much. It changed the whole dynamics of leg leverage and peddling. Adjusted the seat two more times and finally found the sweet spot but legs were tapped after already experiencing such a l-o-n-g edgy muscle burn. Here’s pic of the Sound from Rock Candy and a vid of Summit Lake and South Sound.

Hike-a-Bike-athon

Note to self: Memorial Day weekend is too early to ride Cultus Lake. A normal 2 hour, 12 mile ride was a five hour marathon of pushing bikes through snow and much hoisting of iron ponies over winter falls. Egads. Notwithstanding, Pete and the boys (Christian, Michael and Bryant) were troopers. The effort was rewarded with shakes and fries for the boys and pie a-la-mode for the men at Cultus Lake Resort when all was said and done. Looking to ride the lower elevations around Sun River tommorow with the wife (on her new (used rental) full-sus Giant Yukon FX). Here's to seeing today's ride in the rearview and tommorow's ride yet a dream of bliss on rubber on dirt.

mtbMistress.

Edge 705 Initial Exploration

A 01:44:20 ride covering 11.48 miles and 623 ft of elevation gain. That is what Edge tells us. The Edge misses, of course, the sun, the trees, the roots, the puddles, and the companionship. A good exploration ride today, mostly on double track and a few single track sections which had been previously discovered. And, the maiden voyage for the Edge. Will be nice when the Topo Maps are loaded - still hoping I can add trails to the Topo using some third party software. Will have to wait for that. In the meantime, you can (I think) check out the ride.

Mystery Poles & "Go Figure 8" Work(aholic) Out

One is wondering about this mystery of poles found today on a trail waaaaay out in the woods off of Kennedy Creek area. Any ideas? (They are 6-7' tall poles, and mostly all debarked.)

Today was “Go Figure 8” (like last weekend) and “Then Some” (extra special pain hill-riding) today at Kennedy Creek. Goal was and has been to focus on hill climbing skills, and middle-gear workouts. We didn’t do the very steep “Heart Attack Hill” today but the next one, “LSDH” – Long, Steep, Daunting, Hill.

Today there were about 80-100 horse trailers parked under the power line at Kennedy Creek for the “Back Woodsman, Fun Trail Ride.” We talked to the organizer and she told us they got approved a bunch of new trails in this area (Green Triangle), and started punching them in shortly before this ride. They are well marked with yellow and orange hanging survey tape. We went on a few tails but kept running into horses. Some of the new trails are steep, very narrow, and rocky "baby-head" rough, especially dropping DOWN from “Windy Gap” (the scenic area previous pics were taken from.)

Stay in touch. Phone is on. So are we, except for Jell-O-ee legs. (They're out of commish for the evening until they can "get pumped" . . . up again tomorrow, maybe? Please? Please!)

Garmin Edge 705

At last I have taken the plunge and it has arrived. The Garmin Edge 705 - the ultimate in bike tech geek according to one article I read. Just out of the box and no playing with it yet. It is smaller than I thought it would be. Not a lot of information out there on how to use it, particularly in the manner I hope to - cartography 101: riding our home trials and creating accurate maps to share. Looking forward to the first ride this Saturday and the ensuing learning experience in map making. Stay tuned - hope to post maps of Ft. Lewis riding areas soon that make sense of the maze.

Remembering Mother's Day in a Fatherly Way

In honor of Mother's Day -- an early Father's Day ride yesterday with 2.25 hrs of hill-climbing, 12 miles & 2,200 feet elevation gain. 1st pic shows Eld inlet (?) near Shelton, and 2nd pic shows Olympics in the background.

Gum Surgery Recovery Ride and Nothing to Say

A ride with friends that took John's mind off throbbing pain (in the mouth). [Jeff, Don, Todd, Lisa]

This just in over the AP wire...

Galbraith Mountain, Bellingham, WA. - On a bright, sunny Monday afternoon, two brothers set out to conquer the mountain and did. A nice long burn going up as the elder adjusted to clipless pedals. The younger stopped at one point causing the elder to also stop. This led the elder to gracefully tilt to the left, whilst struggling to unclip, ending with full contact with the gravel road. Much loosening of the pedal tension later, the elder began clipping and unclipping with practiced ease. Upon arriving at the top of the mount, with cell towers pointing to the skies, the descent began. A full vista of Bellingham and the Northernmost waters of Puget Sound glistening before them, the brothers carved up succulent single track like it was so much medium-rare prime rib. With horseradish spicy dips and turns, the trail led first down and then across the mountian. An unbelievable run with only short intervals of gravel road to traverse before the next course was served up. But for a fading sun and a child to be picked up, the two would have stayed for dessert. A four-star day - both the company and the trail. Will look to repeat in June, perhaps starting earlier in the day so that we may repeat the repeat in a single repast. (Sorry no photos - the knucklehead younger left the camera in the car!)

Gum Surgery and Not Really A Ride

Other day one had gum graft surgery. Plus drugs. One tried to ride a bike on flat trail surface tuday and tupid bike wobbled way much side-to-side. So, after hour. One quit. But had to go down steep hill and fall down. No pain though! Happy happy!

Teen Nephews Visit to “Kick-Out-The-Jams” (Ref. MC5)

Jeff’s teen nephews Christian (center), and Eric (right) were up from Redding, CA for a visit, and joined us for a MTB ride today. They did excellent on the single track (well duh, they’re young, and full of testosterone!), and though we sort of got slightly displaced (never lost), they still were exclaiming “at least we’re having fun.”
Today’s jaunt was about 2 ½ hours, 90% up and down swooping, and twisty-turning single-track at area #21 and numerous trails at the power line. “Love the paths off the line."

Have a healthy and stellar week ahead . . . and better than the last!

More Please . . . Cross Country?

Little to say here yet could we have a little more please? Pic: John E, Ron (pointing to more), and Al on Saturday. Sunday, Jeff H. and John S. walked out the door to push for more . . . new single track -- some brutal. John went "man down" two times and another "stupid one" over the handle bars going over a log. (Jeff: "Let go of the front brake dude!")

Riding time this weekend about 6 hours. It’ll have to do. Whoot for more!

Wet, Not Slippery, Little Mud, and Man-euvers

Don (right side of photo), and Tom (middle) a virgin rider to the area we rode today, area #21 at Ft. Lewis, joined Jeff (left), and John on a 2 ½ hour ride on many great trails today. Even though it was wet (and sleeting at times), there was little mud and not much slowing down either! Having them along was great company and a boost in the sense of humor department. (See video) There was one mishap today when a stick jumped out and overly probed Tom’s derailleur, bending his derailleur-hanger in toward the spokes. He finished out the last 2-3 miles just fine yet confined to only a gear or two. (We are all sorry for and regret the “trail-hazing" Tom received. The only thing that makes it better is knowing that we’ve all experienced this in various degrees at one time or another.) As far as finds today? The ride almost climaxed at a point when Tom found a box of Trojans near a trail head at the end of the ride. It was a conundrum (Sp? or, is it condomdrum?) yet Tom proved to be a man of wisdom because he sited to the rest of us that most likely the troops were out on man-euvers.

Meet Noah -- Meet Bruce

Today Noah (at Right)

and a friend Bruce (below) went out with us to some of the trails at the place we usually ride.

Your host can’t speak for Noah or Bruce yet what I can do is show a few pictures.

Brothers Mop Up . . .

Jeff (left of the pic) and his bro' Mark (from Ferndale) joined us for ride today that had everything. Gradual yet long lung-busting hills, steep heart-spiking short hills, sweeping / swooping single track, twisting technical single track, low jumpable, and high groin-busting logs.




The boys mopped up for 2 ½ hours.

Your editor was sucking wind really good today (not a good thing!) after one particular steep hill shown in the video. It took him four tries to finally make it up. (His excuse = not having worked out for three days because of intensive training, late nights studying, and an exam.) Jeff cleaned the hill in the video 3 times just to "encourage" the editor and show him how to keep a steady line. (B.S., it was to keep the editor humble and on the teetering edge of puking or losing it.)

All was well at the end though -- especially with a "good cup-o-Joe" at the end. (Thanks Mark for the caffeine hit afterwards.)

Digital Camera Gone Wild

You are so right.
The digital camera and mount went wild and didn’t prove to be stable enough for the dual track today. We’ll work for better stability this next week.

Barbed Wire, Bleeding First Aid Sign, and a Roadie

Went for a late ride today. No e-mail. No calls. Just . . . quiet. Found stacked up barbed wire along with a first aid sign near single track I was riding. The First Aid sign was bleeding (ink, no kidding).

On the way home in the dark I passed a “roadie” who was pulled off the side of narrow Rainer Road with a flat (sew-ups so no spare). He was “texting” for help and a ride home. Name of Vaughn – road races with The Valley (first year on the team). Real nice guy, late teens, stellar shape, loves speed of the road. Gave Speed Road Racer Vaughn a ride home. The end.