Michaux Meander

Sunday was a really nice ride with great peeps. Don, Zach, and Jim showed up and we tooled around Michaux in the snow, ice, and rime ice for 3+ hours. Made it from the house out to Grave Ridge and back in typical mountain bike wandery meandery fashion. Even fit in a new-to-me trail.

I stole all the pictures from Don, because he rocks. I was really glad he was able to come out to ride--work and life have been conspiring against him lately, it seems.

Rime ice on the undergrowth

Clouds blew out into a beautiful day with sun on the ice-rimmed trees--phenomenal.

We met Joel and the MBM crew at the end of a trail, BSed for a minute or two, then split up.

Zach has obviously recovered his log skillz.

demotivated

Gots little motivation right now. Overweight, undershape, no goals.

Gotta find a goal.

Need something to work for.

Lose this freaking poundage that has crept back into my life.

It's bad news--affects everything....

And not for the good.

crap.

Thanksgiving in Tsali

Look--two posts in a day. I'll be good for months...

We went to Tsali in NC over Thanksgiving. Decided to skip the family juggling and be really selfish and go ride our mountain bikes instead. Did all of Tsali in two days. About 18 miles on Friday and another 16-17 on Saturday. Fun trails--could be screaming fast with no leaf cover to hide the occasional obstacle. I tried to take pics but I had no luck with the camera. Here's one, anyway.

I suck.

It was crappy last night so we ended up doing a trainer session inside. It proved to me that I am woefully out of shape. In the past several months, I have almost never had to keep my legs spinning for a straight hour on the bike--coasting, stopping, waiting on people, mechanicals, etc.

As much as I try to avoid the hard, nasty truth, I cannot escape the fact that road biking immeasurably helps mountain biking.

I need to suck it up and do some road and trainer time this winter.

Post Number Two

Yeah, put another finger in the air. I'm back.

Went here last night, met up with this guy, and had some fun.

Then my better half and I went to the Chambersburg Y to the pre-race meeting for this after eating PBJs in the car for dinner.

Tonight or tomorrow I plan to put this fork on this bike. Should lead to good fun.

Yes, I know, isn't that the same fork? No. It's 100mm instead of 80mm and it's TA instead of QR.

I'll quit now.

October

Got out for a solo ride last night. Wanted to check a route for a group ride this coming Saturday. Rode a new-to-me trail that I can't believe I waited this long for. Beautiful evening. Been on and off the bike this year due to injuries and such so it was also good to just see what I may still have in the tank.

Beautiful night.
Ridgetop gloaming rolling down singletrack
Defeated sun ruddiness to my right
Pale triumphant moon to my left
Cabin windows winking through the trees
Turn the light off, expand the world
Night sounds crowd in, the last effort of insects before winter
Silver pools of moonlight on the road, my shadow glides through
Trail up, flip on the light, shrink my world to a pool of electricity
Stare down a deer, say hi, see Jr. poke his head up beside mom
Back to road, kill the electricity, open up the universe and climb home...