Gorgeous morning in the mid 40s. Went for an hour and a half. Met a nice couple from Virginia at the trailhead for Bur Sage. They are travelling the country. He had just come down from an Elk hunt in NM where he dropped a 7X7 Bull elk. Fun people. Great start to the week.

1-12-2009 Springhill Park Fort Smith, AR
 

]It has been rainy since December started, but the sun has been out for the last week and a half, and it got to 51 yesterday, so today i went for a ride. I predicted the trail would be pretty dry by now, and I was proven wrong within 2 minutes of hitting the trail. There was mud, and there was frozen mud. The high was around 45 while I was on my bike.
I got myself some new pedals (Wellgo 8017 platforms), a new rear tire (Specialized Eskar 2.3), and mom got me some padded bike shorts (Garneau Fit Sensor) for Christmas, so I was pretty excited about this ride. I did about 8 miles today, which is less than I usually do due to mud and the 20 pound weight vest I was wearing. Also, the bridge in the pictures was blocked the last few times i went there, so I took my hand saw and fixed this problem today. I also saw an Armadillo and a logging accident, from the looks of it.
Sorry for the cell phone pics, that's all I want to take along with me.

Maybe you'll have better luck with it, but my beanie is too thick to wear comfortably under my helmet. I wrap a scarf around my neck and pull a loop of it from the back over the top of my head where it covers my ears, then I put my helmet on top of that to hold it on. It's thin enough that it doesn't mess up the fit of the helmet but still keeps my ears warm.

^^ Headsweats makes what they call their Midcap - - like the normal Headsweats cap but with ear coverage. It's exactly what I've just been looking for - - gonna have my LBS get one in for me.

Went for an hour and 10 minutes in a 20-25 mile an hour wind. It kicked my butt and froze me. I declare myself wimp of Thursday. I had nothing. But I rode. That's the best I can say.

^^ Don't feel bad . . . I've been getting in my first full week of lunchtime runs this week since before Christmas and am turning the slowest times in 10 years. I suck.

Ive had to take to running lately cuz the DFdub is too wet to ride and most of the trails are closed. I was going to ride today because the trails were open yesterday but guess what 2am this morning it starts pouring and its supposed to continue through the weekend.

Dminor thanks for that post that midcap is what I was looking for!

2 night rides the past 2 nights. They were both awesome.

Last night, rode some trails that have been closed for about 2 months and were completely covered with leaves... hard to see, got lost multiple times, it was really dark but still had fun.

Tonights night ride had an awesome turnout. Probably 50+ people out tonight. Ended up in the fast group and freakin HAMMERED for about 2 hours. My legs were gone and I started feeling sick by the end of the ride but still had a great time. Best couple of rides I've had in a LOOOOONG time.

Life is good. :D

Almost everyday this week has been sprint intervals on the pista, except for wednesday which was road ride.

Took the pug out for its inaugural ride this morning in Duxbury. What a fun bike. I didn't want to stop.

I got further up the power line road than ever. I almost tried to keep heading west, but it was getting dark so I chickened out. 22.7 miles, 1800 elevation gain. Got that great got my butt kicked feeling. Great weather, best ride in my 50s.

Where is everyone, am I the only one riding this weekend. C'mon slackers, get posting. Rode and climbed Joshua Tree trail. Met a rider from Nottingham England. 18.24 miles, 1,328' elevation gain. Great weekend. Big storms are supposed to blow in tonight. Glad I got two hard rides in.

Rode in the rain and wet saturday. Spun on the indoor trainer today while watching football. Yes a very dull weekend of riding that's really not worth posting. I would of posted a pic of myself on the trainer but I still had "bed head" :p

You guys'd get pretty fed up with me if I posted every time I took one of my short rides. Just imagine me saying "Four miles on Lanana Creek Trail" a whole lot.

I need a laugh-POST IT!

Met up with sscyco and his son at Beacon today. Also got my friend Ben up from Moscow, ID so that he could finally get some time in on his Lenz. Our snow is virtually gone and we had a rare weekend of not-as-much moisture, so the ground wasn't quite as soggy as it might have been. A lotta great traction and, despite a few soft spots, the downhill trails were in amazingly great shape. We later went up one of the gullys to play on a very fun step-up.

sscyco boosting it:

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...0/IMG_1529.jpg

His son throwing in some good hang time. He's working on his one-footers; unfortunately I didn't catch one:

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...0/IMG_1534.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...0/IMG_1530.jpg

Ran into another friend from Moscow quite by coincidence:

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...0/IMG_1528.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...0/IMG_1531.jpg

And a random local kid on a Kona. Included it only because it was my best shot from my little point-'n-shoot (something was in focus):

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...0/IMG_1533.jpg

Fun day all-in-all, and cool to finally put a face with a username.

Thats not real mountainbiking.......

We actually did real riding - just took pics of the jumping crap. Fun day, got several runs in - Doug is a fun guy to ride with. Here he is on the step up:
http://is.pinkbike.com/photo/4487/pbpic4487352.jpg
and the bottom of a DH run:
http://is.pinkbike.com/photo/4487/pbpic4487327.jpg
And here is one of my son booting the one footer - tricks are for kids........... (notice Doug's attentive stare in the background)
http://is.pinkbike.com/photo/4487/pbpic4487357.jpg

Great pics fellas, after seeing them I knew I would of been alittle out of place. Me with my CC hard tail and my non jumping abilities.
In fact the list time I took a big jump at Beacon I ended up taking a five minute nap and a trip to the emergency room for a free CAT scan. :injured:

If you guys would have been on 29rs you could have just rolled over that step up........

Most of my riding is on my CC HT - and I keep it relatively grounded. We should meet up for an XC ride - the boy does that as well.

As long as they were SS and rigid.

Ya, that business of pushing up to just ride down is for pansies :D. Gotta tell you, though, by 2:30 I felt thoroughly flogged. Guess that makes me the pansiest of the pansies that day.

Shucks, you'd have found enough fun on other parts of the hill without risking life and limb. But I agree with sscyco that we need to get together for an XC ride. Park at the Ezzy side and make the big loop or something. Let's stay in touch, especially if this weird unwinter-like weather sticks around.

I hate you Doug (and anyone else riding DH)! We still have snow and since it's been warm during the day and below freezing at night, the snow on the trails is super slick!

After a couple weeks of bad weather we were blessed with a day of upper 70's temps, the wind was howling but in the woods not bad at all. I really do love riding in the woods especially rockin out with the ipod. I have learned some good tips on hill climbing from this site.