Alternated bmx and mtb rides this week. Today it was way cooler than I was expecting, thanks to a strong wind. The heat is definately coming though :/ . Saw 3 lizards and my first quail of the year. I love seeing the little quail families scurry across the path/road, though the one today was alone. Also ended up with some flats.

Today I rode the Colorado Trail with my wife who is brand new to mountain biking. Although she has been a lifelong bicycle rider, this was only her fourth MTB ride, and we are still married! Great day. With a lot of the snow melted, it's nice to be able to ride some of the higher trails. This section is about 10 miles west of Salida near Cree Creek.

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Today I rode 33.6 with the South Bay mountain biking group from terminal parking lot near shoreline park to ravenwood space preserve and back. It was a nice calm bike ride with good weather. On the way back I went to cardinal bike shop to help my friends that work there put in bikes and close up for the day. Now I have 809.1 miles on my trek mountain bike.

Also I beat my old record and got 255.5 miles in a week! I rode all seven days this week with both bikes.

ChimPex loop in the morning - finished it before GCB opened, so headed to the GBS/Niner demo day at White Ranch instead.
This bike was Wonderful, Fun & Outstanding.
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Saturday: Intended to DJ the dmr all day, but while warming up on the pumptrack and heard the loud pop that a sealed cartridge bearing makes when it fails. Only to discover that both cartridge bearings went at the same time. So wound up using the 24 for the rest of the day.

Today: 44 miles on the road.

32 miles at Brown Co. State park in Indiana. It's fully understandable why it's been labled Epic by IMBA.

http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/5350/0522wr09.jpg
I've had it with these monkey-loving snakes on this monkey-loving trail!

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/6683/0522wr16.jpg
Almost done

Nice pictures, cool snake what kind is it?

Wed night XC race tonight on this weekend's 24 Hours Round-the-Clock course. It was a good workout on the XTS Moto. Lap is about 14 miles of some pretty good ups and downs. About 10-11 miles in, my legs were wishing it was over; sheer force of will kept them churning. Finish was not stellar: 8th tonight out of a field of 12 but I'll take it. Sure am going to be glad to get the hardtail functioning again.

Minimal riding the last two weeks, what with rain, work, and Mom visiting from out west. Finally got out to play today.

Cranky->ride->not cranky.

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I hiked a section that was trimmed last night just to see how far the other two trimmers got. Daggum near stepped on a snake myself. Only a 5' black snake though.

This stretch used to be all bumpy, rutted, rough and fun, but it got smoothed out :(.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...%20stuff/1.jpg

But I also saw a rabbit and a hawk :) . That little dove is a brave one, landed right besides the hawk.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...uff/Rabbit.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1.../Hawkpath2.jpg

And then a delicious dinner of spaghetti & toast to finish off the day!

Cocky bugger.

Came blasting down one of my fav sections of local trail yesterday to discover somebody had taken the time to trash the main line with a huge oak tree branch and a bunch of boulders. Damn near killed myself. And on top of it all got poison oak in my eyes from clearing it out. What a day.

Today I test rode
Niner WDO? The one that lubes rode at the top of the page.
Salsa horsetheif
Cannondale jeckyll
Kona Honzo.

That honzo is the bees knees. A close second was the horsetheif.

Took the new whip on a shakedown ride...

Looking at the trail from the bridge...

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikep...12pugride1.JPG

It was a little wet this morning...

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikep...12pugride2.JPG

And muddy...

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikep...ridetrack1.JPG

Just me and a friendly dog went through here...

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikep...ridetrack2.JPG

Opted to ride around this... in the river.

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikep...12pugride7.JPG

Coffee time...

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Played in some sand...

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I forgot my glasses...

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Easy ride home...

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikep...12pugride5.JPG

I f'ing love this bike.

I raced on a 7-person team in the 24-hour race.

http://app.strava.com/rides/9442171 Laps 1 & 2 back-to-back (which were laps 2 & 3 for the team, I didn't do the Le Mans start). The first lap was ok, the second one was VERY good (breaking my previous PR, which until last week was also the KOM). KBP and I were out doing our 2 laps at the same time, and ended up really close, which was cool because he's inhumanly fast :D Strava's calling the laps a 50:42 and a 50:13 (official timing will be a little different, I think).

http://app.strava.com/rides/9442309 Lap 3. I rode it brilliantly, hitting the afterburners in several strategic spots to get the holeshots into the singletrack sections to avoid getting bottlenecked. This took my PR on Strava down to a 49:30, despite having to pass tons of people.

http://app.strava.com/rides/9442399 Lap 4. My nighttime lap, a 53:58. This one ended up slow due to fatigue, cautious riding because of reports that some rock hazards that had moved on the worst descent, the fact we were now over 20 miles ahead of the competition, and just night laps being inherently slower.

They had me down for four laps. I could've done a fifth lap if I had to, but I was glad to head home after the fourth one and get a hot shower :)

Way to go, mech!

Ah, yer an animal, man; 'specially keeping company with KBP.

Son, daughter-in-law and I went out to Riverside about 4 today and did a modified lap of the 24 Hr course (same distance, just changed order of sections). My son, having ridden the tight-and-techy of Galbraith so much, had forgotten how fun the more wide-open and flowy of R'side was.

BTW, Little Vietnam is rideable now. Would not have held up to 24 Hr traffic but it is firm enough everywhere to ride w/o damage.

Good job Tom! I was out with the kids riding in the Nine Mile area and we ended up hanging out and cheering people on just before 5 minute hill. I had a great time racing last year and wished I could of done it this time around.

very nice. way to ride.

Way to kick a55 & take names, mech!

19 miles of climbing & 13 miles of blast-o-matic downhill = :thumb:
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Epic!
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Fore Mountain Trail, Alleghany County VA
 

Today I tried again on the Fore Mountain Trail. Made it 4.8 miles in this time (self-imposed time limit), mostly climbing. My goal for this year is to be able to ride all the way through to Douthat Park, that is about 13 miles to connect with the Middle mountain trails, then I'm not sure how much farther.

Trailhead, 3.0 miles from my house:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...rdRock_087.jpg

It ranges from singletrack to no-track, you have to guess and watch for the blue blazes because the trail is completely overgrown in places. It is also steep, both in the climbing sense and side-to-side. I hit a hidden rock and "lowsided" close to here:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...rdRock_078.jpg

For reference, I was holding the bike upright and looking down in that shot. Luckily I fell in a spot with plenty of dead leaves and no rocks.

Up on the ridge:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...rdRock_080.jpg

The only clear view in the first five miles of the trail:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...rdRock_081.jpg

. . . and the cliff below the view:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...rdRock_084.jpg

I didn't capture the steepness very well, the bike is lying on a relatively level patch, then there is a drop of maybe two meters to the next level which is steep, then drops off vertically at the furthest rocks visible in the photo.

The general steepness, it is like this for most of the ride:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...rdRock_085.jpg

The damage:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...rdRock_088.jpg

Both legs scratched from the berries and locust growing across the trail. Somehow I didn't get any locust thorns in my tires (first time). Total 15.7 miles in 4 hours 18 minutes, including the 6 mile round trip from my house to the trailhead. To do the whole trail, I expect to have to leave early in the morning and commit all day to the ride.

Overall it was good today :).

I can't manual for crap. Bah.

I'm supposed to go ride tomorrow. Someone remind me of this after the beer wears off.

Gave the RP2 a trial run today, & it's amazing. Compared to the RP2, the Bar felt like a squeaky pogo stick with a rebound issue. The techy DH stuff that used to have me bouncing all over the place feels so much better now, the traction is ridiculous. Very satisfied.