pics

A couple day hikes, a couple vistas, some graffiti, some sweet nature, fruitcake the way it was meant to be, a funky fungus, life savers, sweet new chain for the saw, and spokes for a wheel project. Works for me. Except for the graffiti.

Get it!

While the gettin's good. May this weekend be a harbinger of things to come for the rest of winter.

Measured 11" in the driveway Sunday morning. There was only one thing to do....XC SKI! Cutting tracks in the freshie fresh on a bluebird day in Michaux...phenomenal. Even better because it doesn't happen that often in recent years.

Deep enough to drag the diffs in the Cruiser

We plugged in the bike lights to be ready for night skiing tonight...tomorrow...Wednesday...as long as we can...have more tracks to cut and runs to glide.

Leaving the bike in the basement has never felt so good.

Hope everyone is enjoying the winter wonderland.

Holiday Cheer PSA

Remember, keep that Holiday Cheer flowing.

Don't let the hustle and bustle get you down.

Focus on the great things about this season!

Partial Year End Music List

Stuff I've been digging this year...in no particular order:

Dan Auerbach--Keep It Hid
Dawes--North Hills
Son Volt--American Central Dust
Silversun Pickups--Swoon
The Avett Brothers--I & Love & You
The BPA--I Think We're Going to Need a Bigger Boat
Moby--Wait For Me
Gomez--A New Tide
Major Lazer--Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do
Nellie McKay - Normal As Blueberry Pie: A Tribute To Doris Day


Stuff I want to listen to some more:

Metric--Fantasies
The XX--X
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros--Up From Below
Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears--Tell 'Em What Your Name Is
East Hundred--Slow Burning Crimes

By no means complete. Perhaps I'll add more a bit later.

What have you been digging this year?

It's been too long

Sunday night I fell asleep with the mental film of Sunday's ride replaying in my head.

That hasn't happened after a ride in months.

It was a beautiful thing.

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot.

I know of no reason

Why the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

I missed it by a day. Damn. Yesterday was Guy Fawkes Day. He was arrested in 1605 for his part in the Gunpowder Plot, which was attempting to blow up Parliament, hopefully killing the anti-Catholic King James I and all his Protestant cronies. Catholics and Puritans were having a bad time of it under the staunchly Protestant government. Ah, the good ol' days.

The Authorities found him in the cellar under Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder. Of course, he was vilified for his role. And tortured to extract a confession. And then sentenced to be hung and then drawn and quartered. They knew how to execute a motherfucker in those days. Supposedly, he jumped off the gallows and broke his own neck to bypass the rest of the gruesomeness. Depends what account you believe.

And, since this was a conspiracy, there of course is a conspiracy theory to paint him in a positive light. Like, he was set up by the Man, man. Most of the other people involved in the Gunpowder Plot were known to the authorities. Think someone would have noticed them amassing 36 barrels of gunpowder? And the letter was a fakery that was shown to the King. And it would've behooved the government to catch some so-called terrorist to better consolidate its own power, especially because there were a few other smaller plots uncovered prior to this one. Sound familiar, anyone?

If you want to see a recent big screen adaptation of a graphic novel that paints Guy Fawkes as a hero, check out V for Vendetta.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot.

I know of no reason

Why the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Feel free to interpret that either way.

Never forget the threat to the government and be ever vigilant?

Or never forget that tyranny and discrimination should always be struggled against, even if it's the government?

I prefer the latter.

Built Blackbuck

Built and ridden last weekend. Built as an SS because I was mechanically lazy. Seems pretty playful--short wheelbase, short chainstays. Easy to get up and over stuff.

The weak link was the pilot.

Need to swap the rear tire for a Mtn King to deal with the leaves and slickness of autumn and adjust the EBB to get the cranks higher and the chain tighter. And play with the air pressures everywhere, too. Back end was a bit bouncy due to erring on the side of caution, and the fork was bit soft for my taste due to following the recommended starting pressures.

After riding the geared squishy ever since July, the instantaneous engagement of the SS caught me off guard a couple times. Man, it's nice.

How will it last? I don't expect the world of it. However, Mark Slate said he does not know of any breaking yet. Bring on the Michaux torture lab.

A few more rides will tell the tale.

Oh yeah, a friend ran into the Kona rep I got my Hei Hei from and told him I broke the frame. The guy said I deserved some sort of reward? How about a new 2010 frame?

That would work.

Cross Post of the Day

I put some of this on the MBM blog, too.

The Buck Ridge II stumpage sale was awarded to Merritt Burdge from Spring Run, PA. He/they (?) placed the high bid of $14, 563.00 for 29 acres of saw timber and pulpwood.

The Wirt Road stumpage sale was awarded to Mohn's Lumber from Waynesboro, PA. They placed the high bid of 170,008.00 for 303 acres of saw timber and pulpwood.

These sales were posted down here previously.

How much are trails worth?

How much economic influx could a region see from being a recreation destination?

How much could/should the system change?

Different people want to see different things.

How are they balanced, prioritized, compromised?

There's no guarantee existing trail treads will be respected. Afterwards, they may be reopened, or they may not be salvageable. Guess we'll see.

The Next Contestant

The replacement for the Inbred arrived today at my office. Designed by Mark Slate of WTB fame, it's an Of Spirit Blackbuck. They make but one size, and it looked like it would fit me. So I took the chance.

Some neat design elements on this, like the curved seat stays and the disk brake tab inside the rear triangle. Tensioning is via an EBB with a split shell set up.

One thing I'm not sure about is the rear brake hose routing underneath the BB and chainstay. I fear a severed hydro line when caught between a rock and a hard place. I'll consider it further during the build.

Please, Sir, Can I Have More?

Tore down the Kona this weekend in preparation for whatever I have to do with it. Looked the frame over some more and found another crack on the left chainstay, again right at the weld.

JRA, man, JRA.

Sent the pic over to Kona...maybe I'm looking at a whole new frameset now instead of just possibly a front triangle. Guess we'll see.

Everyone Loves Crack

The other bike. 2008 Kona HeiHei 2-9. Cracks in the paint on the welds around the BB shell on both sides. The jury is still out. This might bear watching.

Drive side

Non-drive side

And a roached XT BB, after only a year of use. The seals failed on the non-drive side, causing premature death to the bearings.

And I HATE composing in Blogger.

Upcoming Michaux Timber Sales

Going out to bid shortly. Yeah, we ride through some of this. But without official trail recognition, no existing routes will be respected during the process.
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/timbersales/prospectus/01-2009BC02.pdf

The irony with this sale is that the logging road used to access the cut is the Buck Ridge Trail, which is off limits to bikes. Yet it is permissable to drive log trucks on it.


And below Rt. 30...
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/timbersales/prospectus/01-2008BC05.pdf

The locals know what stands to be lost.

Is it inevitable?

What the hell does this mean?

Both sides of the seat stay wishbone junction. Is it cracked? Weakened? Just paint?

Is it inevitable that my On One will suffer the same fate of every other one in the region?

What think ye?

Damn the torpedoes. Keep riding it?

o

r

Abandon like a rat and scuttle a possibly sinking ship?

This Is How It's Done, Son.

Pork?

Sausage?

Got it in spades, bitches. Representin' all the while, too.

My bus tub weighs a ton.

Kick-ass trail trimming weaponry? Check.

Don't get close, it doesn't care if you're leafy, woody, grassy, or meaty.

Hot wife that mountain bikes? Hellz, yeah.

Damn, it's good to be a gangsta.

North Park

...in Pittsburgh rocks. Had a great ride there Monday evening. It was great for a bunch of reasons. I got to ride with a friend that I don't get to ride with much any more. We got to stand around in the dark with no lights and enjoy the night woods--something I think every night ride should have in it. Why the hell do people need to leave their lights on when they're just standing there, anyway? The trails were twisty, off-camber fun and it was cool riding a new place on someone's wheel, running on faith in some cases, much faster than if I had been on point on unfamiliar trails in the dark.

Riding with my bud was great because I helped him get into the sport, probably 10 years ago or so. His first real mountain bike was the 1996 polished aluminum Cannondale frame I bought in college. He bought it from me and we ordered the parts to build it back up. I helped him build the bike, he rode that for awhile and then started down the road of looking for new bikes. That Cannondale made its rounds to other of our friends--serving as another's first MTB, yet another's interim bike, and then finally back to my friend again, who vows never to sell it. I told him that if it ever leaves his possession, I get it. In the intervening years, I've watched my friend immerse himself in bike obsession, learning about parts, frames, suspension types, and it was cool. It was really cool to know he got his start in the sport from an old bike of mine. It was cool to watch mountain biking get under his skin like it's under mine. To be able to pick up the phone and hear him say, "This isn't a work call. Let's talk about fun stuff." I kept using the term "awesome" to describe the ride Monday night. And it was, for a lot of reasons. I think we could have been anywhere. What made it awesome was that it was the two of us, riding together, like we haven't done in a long time. Thanks, Mark, for the awesome ride.

It totally made up for a rained out pisser of a camping weekend in the great northlands that was only saved by seeing my family and by these guys on Sunday. We did see a coyote, though. And many examples of Dodgious Ramicus Ignoramous.

We're still cleaning up dirty, crapped-up camping gear.

Vermont 2009

We spent a great week in Vermont. A couple days in Stowe, a couple days in East Burke at Kingdom Trails, and visits to several breweries along the way. The weather was impeccable the whole time and the riding was stellar. We stopped in Middlebury on the drive up to visit Otter Creek and picked up some Imperial IPA and Russian Imperial Stout.

From there we ventured over Lincoln Notch--a pretty heinous forest road through the Green Mountain Nat'l Forest--with the pop-up camper in tow to reach Warren, where we could purchase some of Lawson's Finest Liquids. This is a brewery so small, they don't give tours, there are only two retail outlets for their brews, and only a couple places have it on tap. It's a one-man show. We obtained a couple bottles of Maple Nipple (great name) while dodging the time trialists warming up for the beginning of a road bike stage race that weekend.

Our next stop was Waterbury, for two reasons: a new fork for Donna's Lenz from Five Hills Bike Shop (the brick and mortar arm of Bike29.com) and dinner at The Alchemist brew pub. After a great dinner and several really good brews, we finally rolled into Smuggler's Notch State Park outside of Stowe around 7:00 that evening. Set up the camper and crashed hard.

Saturday we hooked up with the Stowe Mtn Bike Club for their annual Pond Jump and BBQ. They showed us some great trails and then we chilled by the pond and watched people launch themselves into the pond. We spread some Troegs love, ensuring we would be invited back next time. It's a great club with great people. Thanks to Rick (the prez), Hardy (trailcutter extraordinaire), Ron (big dawg of Iride), and everyone in SMBC for the good times.

On the way back to the camper, we stopped in at The Shed for another brewery notch in our belts and some nachos. The beer was barely okay and it is really a tourist attraction now. We decided we never had to go back. The harbinger of this decision was Rick's reaction to our intention of stopping there. One word. "Why?" We figured it out.

Jeez, this is going to be a long post.

Sunday was a ride on the town trails by ourselves--about 2 hours of fun and then a stop by the local farmers' market for some good local fare. Then off to East Burke. We stopped in at Rock Art on the way, in the hopes that someone might be tending the tanks on Sunday, but, alas, it was not to be. It was a cool little place the last time we were there about 4 years ago and they expanded a bit since then. Their Vermonster is worth checking out. Stopped at a sugar shack further along and picked up some sweet, sweet maple syrup made on the premises--better source than any grocery store schwag. Rolled into East Burke and up to the Burke Mtn Campground, which we quickly dubbed, "The Ghetto," for its low-brow condition when compared to Smugg's. It turned out to be okay after the hordes of Labor Day weekenders left the next day.

Monday it was time to ride Kingdom--we started from the campground and made a nice loop that ended up with a road climb back to the campground. Lots of these trails deserve multiple rides to really get to know the lines and take full advantage of some of the alt lines with drops and other fun stuff.

Tuesday we met up with Scot and Jen, who just happened to be there at the same time, and rode with them. This time we drove down to town to start and pulled off a really fun loop of most of the trails in the Darling Hill area. Sure, we missed a few, but we tried to backtrack as little as possible. One trail deserved backtracking, though. Sidewinder was excellent. I haven't laughed that much on a bike in awhile. Big swoopy loops from side to side in a steep-walled, narrow hollow that made you feel it in the transitions. The last trail was worthy of sessioning, too. Kitchel, the downhill back towards town, with huge banked turns and tabletops in between, was begging to be thrashed. Alas, by this point, we were kinda beat and decided not to partake a second time. Back at the general store, the conversation went from buying a couple single beers for post-ride refreshment to instead purchasing two six packs. Afterwards, in the parking lot, both six packs disappeared in short order. I think we were trying to fulfill the new beer-to-ride ratio we came up with that day. For each hour of riding, you earned 10 beers. We were looking at around 35 beers for the day. Made sense to start hearty after the ride. Dinner that night was at Juniper's at the Wildflower Inn. Great view, good beer, good food.

We pulled out of town on Wednesday to head for our friends' house in CT and stopped off at Harpoon on the way. This is a great brewery--they put out quality. Had some samples, made some purchases, and were off again. Our friends met us with cocktails and stupendous food and hospitality in their beautiful home set amongst the woods outside of Hartford. The next morning, after looking at the weather in PA, we decided to fit a ride in CT before heading to uncertain conditions. Nepaug State Forest, just down the road from our friends, has a challenging and Michaux-like trail network. As in, not mapped, lots of rocks and rock features, and in a one-uppance, lots of built jumps and gaps by the locals. This is another place that deserves multiple rides and a dropped saddle. We lucked out by running into a hiker that gave us a general idea of where to go, and then later, we ran into another rider that showed us some stuff we would not have found by ourselves.

Afterwards, it was on to PA and the RCST Bash and rain, rain, and rain. By the time it quit on Sunday, we just opted to pack up and head home. Of course, while we were sitting in the quagmire, we found out that the weather in VT was still beautiful...I guess that's the way it goes sometimes. We had a straight week of great weather, so we really couldn't complain.

We're ready to go back.