Well, you have made it to one of my little chunks of cyberspace. It may not be much, but I do what I can. The purpose of this blog is to let people know what I am up to. I may post about riding mountain bikes, dealing with my crazy kids, working on the house, tinkering in the garage, or even overclocking my computer. Either way you are here, so sit back and enjoy the ride. Feel free to comment as you see fit.
Well after 21 weeks I paid a small ransom and got the Remington 552 back from the "Remington Service Center" in Birmingham. Kind of a crock, for the money I spent I received the rifle back in no better shape and with the same glitch it had when I dropped it off. Regardless it is a beautiful rifle and shoots nice tight groups.
Despite the ordeal and the glitches which are still present I am happy to have the gun back. In spite of the mechanical issues the rifle fires very accurate groups. Here are a couple from today:
These were from a standing lane, me kneeling and bracing the gun by hand
Obviously the gun is more accurate than I am... Same distance, just shooting from a standing position free hand. Obviously from a standing position with nothing to brace myself on I am a mess and have no business shooting anything smaller than a rabbit out past about 40yd with the 4X scope. I can live with that.
Dang constipated blog. Same story, months gone by and the blog goes neglected. Sorry to the 3 people who actually follow this train wreck. Life is really just not that entertaining at the moment. I am not spending much time rehashing on things that I am doing.
That said, life has been moving on. We have had a banner Winter with respect to snow and ice, so much so that I totalled my truck in one of the storms. On a more positive note we have been able to take advantage of the recreational side to all this white stuff.
(Yes, that is a boogie board with a trash bag on it. So what, it works.)
As things have started to warm up a bit I have been able to get out to the range a bit more. I actually managed to complete the test firing of all the guns I brought back in November. That was no small task to feed the guns their desired ammunitions and to find the time. Several of these guns haven't been fired in years, a couple are more than a decade without action, and one had never even fired a round. Good times. Here is my Grandpa Brummett's Remington 721 (probably the first brass cycled through it in 10-15 years).
Then of course there is the 45 Long Colt. Not a cheap cartridge. I will most likely have to invest in a hand loading press for this round if I want to shoot it much. Fortunately the Ruger Blackhawk comes with a 2nd cylinder that is chambered for the more economical 45ACP bullets.
In other news, I have decided to take a short break from cycling. I shipped off the Home Wrecker V8.0 last month to its new home in the NE. I will miss the riding, but it is a necessary evil. For one it allows a bit of time for the shoulder to finish healing. The second reason is that it is easier not to spend money on bikes if I do not have one.
Last item to hit is the hiatus from woodworking. Yes, there is a trend here. No hobby, no hobby spending. Over the last couple of months I have cleared out most of my large power tools from the garage. Now there is a lot more floor space available for bikes and crap. Yes, we still have bikes in the house. Erin and the kids are riding now. I did put my 20in bmx bike back together to ride with them around the neighborhood.
Okay, not much activity here. Life has been on hold somewhat since the beginning of October. I put Erin and the kids on a plane on the 7th IIRC. At that time work situation was looking pretty grim with layoffs lurking in the near future. On the 15th of October my contract was canceled with TBE.
On the 16th Clay, Gary, Cam, and I headed out on the ride that was just not meant to be. First off as we are driving up 72 a rock kicks up and cracks Gary's windshield. Then upon arrival in Chattanooga everyone piles out and starts getting bikes ready. A couple of minutes later a better parking spot opens up so Gary jumps back in the truck and ends up running over Cam's back wheel. At this point we really should be careful and watch out for what would be next. However we soldiered on, got Cam's wheel rideable, and headed off down the trail.
Just a couple of miles into the ride we enter the "Chunk" section of the trail, an experts only playground with drops, jumps, and good dh speed. Things start off well and I am finding a groove. We stop and eye up one of the big rock drops up top and I decided to hit it. It went off without a hitch, a good 4-5ft drop into a steep dh landing. I was feeling pretty good after nailing that one, so as we headed down the trail I was packing a lot of speed taking the jumps and trying to remember what comes next. I drop into a valley and pick up speed for an upcoming jump out the other side of it. Well long and short of it is that I ran a lot of speed into a near vertical jump and pussed on the takeoff. This resulted in me catching 5-6ft of air. Unfortunately since I didn't pull up hard enough on takeoff the front end did not get as much lift as the rear. This put my landing fully on the front wheel. I death gripped it and tried to ride it out, but in the end the bars twisted and I ended up pile driving my shoulder into the hard dry dirt.
I knew pretty soon that something was not right in my arm/shoulder. Lifting it was excruciating and I could hear/feel stuff moving around that shouldn't have been moving. The guys helped me adjust my backpack into a sling and Gary and I hiked back out to the cars. I was pretty rough and apparently a bit pale. Fortunately we ran into a couple at the lot who offered to guide us down to the hospital in Chattanooga.
From there things went as expected. Lots of waiting. Some excruciating x-ray contortions. Then a few hours later I sent off with an immobilization sling and a prescription for narcotics. We then spent a couple of hours trying to track down a 24hr pharmacy in TN as we had been warned that AL wouldn't fill the out of state prescription. I gotta hand it to Gary. He was really helpful and nice throughout the whole ordeal. Definitely a good test of friendship.
On the 5th of November I went in for some hardware. I was put under and the doctor made fast work of it. When I woke my throat hurt and my arm was completely numb from the nerve block. It came to life in the middle of the night and the pain really picked up. At least the clicking and thumping of the bones had stopped. I was left looking a bit Frankenstiened. and still bruised... The bruising on this side is mostly due to the original crash 3 weeks earlier.
I managed to tough it out by myself up to this point. Lots of pain meds and some help from friends here and there. But by in large I spent most of my time medicated and zombie'd out. Sleep was not very good/comfortable, I was not coherent enough to surf the web much, so I watched a lot of movies.
On the 12th I headed out to CA to meet Erin and the kids. It was my first time back in CA since moving out in 2007. Lots of family visiting over the next couple of weeks. We were able to stay for Thanks Giving, which was nice. After 3 meals I was officially turkey'd out...
I was able to spend quite a bit of time with my Dad, which was one of the main reasons for making it out to CA. Our best conversations seemed to be gun-centric. Guns are something I am starting to get into shooting at the range and hopefully I will be able to do some hunting here in AL as well. We spent a lot of time going over my Granddad's and his collections. I was even able to do a bit of shopping. I brought a few home with me. I gotta say I was a bit concerned about flying with firearms, but overall it was uneventful.
Here is a good video on the topic:
Here is the rifle case: The shotgun is an 80's vintage autoloader that looks to have never actually been fired. The rifle was Grandpa Brummett's and it originally left the factory in 1952. I am pretty excited to have some family firearms around to use/enjoy. Since getting them home I have been trying to get them cleaned, lubed, and tested out at the range.
Of course Christmas was thrown in there somewhere... We were spoiled by the family. Lots of presents under the tree. It took a bit longer than I expected to make it through all of them. Mom and Dad gave us a family gift of a game console. Amazingly it didn't get turned on until around 2pm. After that Austin got a bit sucked in.
Erin and I managed to pull off a somewhat more traditional meal this year. We invited the Lawson's over to share the evening and the dinner.
Okay, mix in some vegging out, a trip to Ikea, a lame New Years Eve and you are now up to date with my life for the most part.
Okay, really slacking on the blog. Guess I don't get over here as much these days. Oh well, life goes on and the blog is obviously not much of a priority. NBD.
So what have we been up to? Check out Erin's blog. She has been very active in posting since she stopped working at the preschool.
Summer is coming to an end. We have had a taste of Fall weather and honestly I want more. It is nice to have the return of low humidity and temps in the 70-80*F range. We have had a couple of hot and humid days mixed in and the difference is major. Once you get a taste of the cooler weather the hot and muggy is not fun to revisit.
Riding is picking up as the weather waxes to cool. It is becoming enjoyable to get out and ride again. I haven't been too obsessive about riding, which I am sure is appreciated by the rest of the house. The ride log has just passed the 1 year mark and the verdict is in, just over 1,000mi in the saddle for the year. Meh, that's just how it rolls out when the typical ride is <10mi. Oddly I don't think that my ride times are much less than they have been over the last 5-6 years, just a bit more rugged terrain.
I have gone back and forth on wheels and tires over the last 3 years in AL. The terrain really does demand beefier tires, but on the flip side it sucks to push them back up the hill at the end of the ride. If you can handle pinging off the rocks on the downhills and getting a bit beat in the rough then the lighter tires/wheels help keep speed up in the flats while making the uphills a lot less work. In the end I run a wheelset that is heavier than a lot of peoples downhill race wheels with UST tubeless tires. I don't spend much time truing my wheels or fixing flats though, so I guess it all works out.
This weekend I managed to make it out to the rifle range in Madison. It was fun to get out and plink off a couple hundred rounds of .22cal, but also a bit frustrating. The scope on the Remington 552 is way off. It is going to take a bit more time and prep to get it shimmed in. The gun itself is nice, when working correctly. But it was having an issue with jamming/ejecting on missfire rounds, which were plentiful on the 2-3 year oxidized old ammunition I had. It was getting better with use, but I may need to disassemble the gun and clean/lube it for best results. By the end of the day I was pretty proficient at clearing it when it jammed. On the other hand the old bolt action single shot was performing like a champ. Matt and Mike plinked out nearly as many rounds as I did despite the speed handicap of having to chamber one round at a time. Guess messing with the scope settings and gun jams is more of a handicap. Needless to say there were no bullseyes fired with the Remington.
Around the house? Nothing much new. Erin went full-bore on the bathroom face lift. The aesthetic portion is covered in her blog, so I won't rehash it here. Biggest issue turned out to be changing out the faucet. First issue was that Erin neglected to pick up connecting hardware. Not a big deal. After a quick run to HD I fitted it up and turned the shutoff valves on. Crap! Water spraying everywhere from one of the new connectors and a drip out of the valve on the other. Back to HD to exchange the flex connector with the bad seal and to grab some new shutoff valves. Can of worms officially opened. So there I am with water all over the place, cursing and crammed under the sink trying to release 10-20 year corroded swage fittings. I hate this part since the water to the house has to be off until I get valves back on. Instead of cutting off the old swage and nuts I re-used them on the new valves. I ended up tightening the heck out of them and still had some very slow drips. But I was ready to call it a day and grab a beer.
Well about an hour and a half later I walk in to find water spraying out all over. F*%_(_*(&*(^%!! One of the nuts that I over-torqued cracked. This is not good. Basically I have only one option at hand. I can remove the valve and cut back the pipe 1/4-1/2in to get a swage on fresh tubing. Okay, I skipped the step where I cut off the old swage and tried to just swage with a new crush ring and nut. That didn't work due to the mangled nature of the pipe. Obviously I am not the first monkey to wrangle with this pipe. Right about here is where we called in backup. Fortunately Mike was available to come over and solder on a new section of pipe. So by around 9pm we were in good shape. He came back in the morning and extended the other pipe as well. Done deal.
Man, I do hate it when things go awry on home repair.
That's about all I got at the moment. Already a fairly lengthy post at any rate and no pictures or anything really exciting to show for it. Thanks for reading.
I started this posting a couple of weeks ago and never posted it up...
I have been thrown under the bus. Seriously, every thing I touch in my new position here at NASA is either behind or on a very tight schedule.
This week I have been fighting with my computer solid for over 40hrs. My current model loads up at over 10gb, so despite my machines best effort the pidly 8gb of RAM just wasn't cutting it. Now I am squatting over in another building on a 16gb machine. Only issue with it, only a quad core. (yes, that is all 4 cores totally pegged)
Things are going better, but these huge models really to grind PC workstations to a snail pace.
First time on a surfboard. Who would have thought it would be in Alabama :-)
The family headed out at the end of July for the annual company lake party. Like most company functions, the more you participate the more fun it is. I was out swimming, surfing, and chaufering eveyone on the waverunner. Erin and Austin managed to snare a couple of tiny Brim, which is pretty good considering they really weren't biting much this year (maybe the higher temps drove most of the fish to deeper water).
Overall it was a great way to spend the afternoon and yet another reminder of how great of a company I work for. If you are ever heading my way, N. Alabama, let me know and I will forward your resume on to the boss for consideration.
In case you are not catching this blog on the day it gets published I have copied the forecast down. Basically what this boils down to is that by 5pm the temperature should be about 100 degrees and the humidity at 40-50%, which makes it feel about 110*F. Should be a nice day for a ride. Yep. Gonna need to pack some extra water and electrolytes along.
I rode on Sunday at 7am and actually enjoyed the temperature. We did a very manageable 9 miles mostly on the upper end of the park in about 2 hours. It was a nice change from the recent afternoon rides in the 90-100 degree weather.
In other bike related news, Erin has actually been making it out and getting some miles in on her bike. She seems fairly comfortable and content with it as I have built it up. That is a definite plus. Maybe I can get her out in Monte Sano this month.
My bike riding has definitely been pretty weak lately. It has been far easier to hide out at home in the AC or at the pool than to gear up and go out for a MTB ride. Looking at my ride log I went from low mileage to pathetic about the time summer started. The layoff was a good excuse, but I think the weather has a lot to do with it as well. Hopefully we will start to see the temps tapering down by mid-end of the month, then we will go into my favorite time of the year for riding here in the SE.
Nothing else too noteworthy around my neck of the woods. Little bit of mowing, little bike riding, bit of beer drinking, and the rest is family time and lazying around.
So, what's new? Laid off: I got notified on June 21st that my contract with TBE was on the chopping block. After months of wondering when and if my job would be effected by all the doom and gloom surrounding NASA in the wake of Obama's administration. Answer: Yes, directly. June 30th was my last day on the job. Looking for new work is never fun, but having to do so under duress just plain sucks. I hit the deck running and sent out updated resume to anything that was even partially applicable to my skill set.
Laid back: After processing out of MSFC on Wednesday I had an interview Thursday morning that ran long. I got home in the afternoon cracked a couple of beers and received a call from my boss in the afternoon. Apparently he had found another TBE contractor spot in another branch and I was going back to work on Tuesday. So I ended up with a 5-day 4th of July holiday weekend that was much more relaxed.
Government inneficiency at its finest: So the last 2 weeks I have been getting paid to just sit at work. I can't log onto a gov. computer without my badge. So turning in my badge on Wednesday and missing 2 days of work constitutes the need for a whole new background screening. Weird. Beets not getting paid any day though :-)
Home life: Not much to report. Been hitting the pool up quite a bit lately. It is cheap, fun, and good exercise. Erin and I have used the whole layoff scare as a wake up call. We have figured out a budget that will hopefully have us much better prepared for the next time this sort of thing occurs.
In the garage: Nothing news worthy to report. More outward than inward tools at the moment. Part of the budgeting and being better prepared meant that some of the lesser-used woodworking tools need to go to put money into savings. So last week I sold off several of my hand planes. More tools will follow. Life goes on.
Working on cars: Yep, my newest hobby has been embarked upon begrudgingly. I have mentioned in the past that I am really not into working on cars. After spending most of my latter teen years working on them to one extent or another I lived quite happily paying someone else to do all maintenance on our cars. Well, sticking with the budget theme I am having to get out and do more myself. The other motivator is that most of the real issues with our vehicles seem to stump the mechanics. We took Erin's truck in for a full tuneup a couple of years ago figuring that would allow them to get in and really see what was causing power loss and making it run poorly. Not the case. We received a clean bill of health, a bill for about $1000, and a truck that ran no better than before. Tuesday had me changing the fuel filter on the Tundra and swapping out the brake pads. For $62 in parts and a couple of hours of time I did 2 tasks that would have cost me $300-500 had I taken it in. Not my favorite way to spend time, but it is nice to take care of things myself and save money at the same time. Today I will be putting in a new air filter, cleaning the MAF, and cleaning the throttle body. Should be fun.
Riding bicycles: Been hot as hell here in the SE last month and a half. With humidity varying from 50-100% the heat index has had us somewhere in the 90-115F range pretty regularly with actual temps 85-100F. Riding around in a sauna is interesting. 100oz of water doesn't seem to go more than about 2-3 hours even keeping track of consumption. My saddle time has also suffered due to the job hunting and related stress. Thing are starting to settle in, but I am still only getting a couple of rides in each week. That will have to do for now. I have been riding a set of 777mm wide bars and a 65mm stem. That is nearly 31in for the Americans in the audience. It is amazing the difference in DH stability/control. It rides like the bike did when I had the fork at 150mm, but I am still running it at 140mm. Only down-side I see is that it killed my tech/steep climbing stability. Guess it puts too much weight out over the back wheel. Always trade offs. For the Heckler there is a balance point, on the one side is xc/trail ride all-around stability and on the other is shredding DH stability. You can't get both.
I am diggin on the Hilltop Hoods lately, good music:
Yep, feeling a bit worked over this morning. It is my own fault. Erin put the notion in my head that I could ride all I wanted on Sunday. Sounds good. After sleeping in and missing the 9am group ride, lazying around the house, procrastinating, putting the bike back together, and drinking a couple of beers I decided that I needed to punish myself with a massive ride.
The plan, or notion as it was, is to ride the big loop around the base of the mountain. That nets you a little over 20mi of undulating trail. Most of the hills are short, so it is mainly a sustained pace. The only real climb is about 600 vertical feet to get back up to Burrit trailhead at the end of the ride. No problem right?
So here is what I actually rode (green blaze)...
I started off with high hopes on completing the full loop, but by the third connector off of Flatrock I had to pull the plug (red X on map). But in all honesty I had been contemplating other routes since the first connector. The main problem turned out to be the temperature and not having enough water. It was in the low-mid 90's when I headed out with just under 100oz of water. At the red X I had about 20oz left so I decided the prudent thing to do would be to head straight up. I knew I would be running out of water, but the difference in this route and the planned route (blue blaze) is that I could stop at the park office to get enough water to finish the ride. It was only about 3mi to the water where as the car was still about 8mi away. Easy choice other than the 500 vertical feet up to O'Shaughnessy Point in a mile of trail. Most of that is hike. I ran out of water just after getting to the top, so at that point my choice of route was looking pretty good.
So in the end I think I came out around 18mi of ride, 4mi of that was pavement back to the truck. I am gonna have to write this loop off until the temperatures come back down in the fall. It is just too much time to be out on a 100oz of water in 90 degree plus weather. Total ride time was just over 4 hours. In the last 45 minutes my body went into shut down and really wasn't dealing with the food and water well. I think more electrolytes would have helped. Gonna have to figure that out for the summer rides here since you sweat so much.
Here in Huntsville we have been blessed with rain just about daily for since my last entry. 10 days into the month and I have racked up only about 20mi on the bike. Fortunately rainfall has not really been all that much, so when you do make it out the trails aren't really all that soggy. Main thing is getting the timing right so you don't get caught in the rain. Of course you also have to fight off the mental block that thunderstorm weather puts on you. It is far easier to grab a beer and hangout than to brave the "potential" of bad weather.
So yesterday with the best of intentions I got off work early, grabbed my bike, and headed out for the Wednesday night group ride. A mile before my exit off the parkway it starts dumping rain. Doug scratches head for a minute and carries on. It was sunny and rain free most of the afternoon, even upon leaving home no 5 minutes before. I keep on driving and the rain lets up to a mist by the time I reach the mountain. It is dry up at the biker's lot. Go figure.
So we geared up and played around at the lot while the rest of the group dragged in. The skills course is always good to spend a few minutes on. It is roughly the same as it was at the FTF minus the teeter.
As we headed out thunderheads were starting to make some noise and were closing in fast. We headed out Family trail at a good clip and decided to make the most of things. Once we hit O'Shaunessey Pt. though we did change our plans and decided to stay closer to the top of the park by riding Mt. Mist. There was light rain and slippery conditions, but there was no downpour. So at the end of the trail we turned down and headed deeper into the park. Once on Goat Trail the rain had settled into a light sprinkle that was not really a bother. Lots of slick rocks, but the soil was still firm all the way up to the climb out where it did get a bit slick in the clay/mud. Overall more of the trail was rideable than not though.
Once we got back up to the point we hit South Plateau back to the lot. About 1/2mi into it the skies became black and within a few minutes the heavens opened. Rain dumped on us as we sprinted back to the cars. A hasty strip down in the lot and everyone headed for home. No hanging out or post ride BS with the rain pouring down.
So it sucked getting caught in the rain again, but again I am happy that I went for a ride instead of huddled up at home waiting for the bad weather to pass.
Yesterday started out as a nice Wednesday night ride. I got to the biker's lot early to check the tires and such. It was beautiful and about 80 degrees with sunny skies. So we decided to once again got top to bottom in the park and hit Flat Rock trail. It was looking to be the perfect day for a longer ride.
Well, the weather had other plans and the 20-30% chance of rain and thunderstorms rolled in on us about 6 mi into the 13mi ride. It was a blessing and a curse wrapped into one. The temperature dropped by 10-15 degrees which made it much easier for me to kick it up a notch and hammer out the remainder of the ride. But the rocks and roots became slick as snot, the puddles went from 6in to over 12in deep within minutes, and the soil turned to mush under our tires. I am still amazed when the skies open up here in the SE. It really is no laughing matter to get caught out in the weather as 1-3in of rainfall in an hour can really make a mess of things.
Fortunately the ride went smoothly for the most part and the only delays we had were waiting for people who didn't know where they were going. Usually when it rains it is every man for themselves. But with new riders on the trail there was a lot more consideration, maybe even too much. I found myself crouched under a tree for over 10 minutes waiting for the last straggler and really wanting to push on. But I would hope that if I were bringing up the back that someone would extend me the same courtessy. Call it putting a bit into the Karma bank for later if you will.
I have to say, as much as it is a pain to get caught out in the rain it is also a lot of fun. Sure you get soaked and traction goes to hell, but at some point along the way it turns from work into play. The whole tone of the ride stops being a training race and goes back to the days of splashing in puddles. It is nice to have that reminder of weather being fun. I can remember back in high school taking off with Rodney or Stuart to go puddle jumping on our BMX bicycles. So long as the temps stayed over 60*F it was always fun. Of course a full bike overhaul would follow. Last night I opted for a hose down and light lube. I think the Heckler can take a little water.
In the news: Another factory video shot on home turf
Sometimes I really do miss the trails off the side of UCSC. Good stuff.
In other news, I have started building up another bike for Erin. I know, I said I would never do it again. But she has been hinting that she would like to have a bike and the quickest/cheapest way to facilitate that is for me to build it up from new and borrowed parts. I have taken a few ques from past failure and am really trying to set this one up for success. So far so good. Initial fitting went well and component selection appears to be approved by the boss. Wish me luck.
You can always go to the album and view larger images if you like.
Heckler v6.0 for those who weren't paying attention. Stripped the Home Wrecker down to raw aluminum for 2010. Figure I will be running it into the ground for at least another season, might as well give it a face lift so I look good. It is of utmost importance that bike bling is inversly proportional to your speed on the climbs. Since my speed isn't improving my bike better be looking sharp :-)
More riding than taking photos. In retrospect we should have taken time to photo the log ride, jumps, BUMP, or even me actually on my bike ;-) Oh well, next time...
Well, got rousted out of the house by the boys for a weekend of MTB in N Carolina, Tennessee, and N Georgia. Pictures to follow, gotta get them from everyone else as I forgot to grab ours.
Highlight of the weekend would definitely turn out to be Jackrabbit MB/Hiking Trails out by Hiawassee Georgia. Check out SABA cyclings website for the details, maps, and weather conditions.Tons of flow, equal up and down time, little bumps, jumps, and berms all over the place. A must ride trail system IMO. Like most of my favorite trails there are tons of small loops so it is easy to bail out once the legs have had enough abuse. We managed almost 16mi before bailing out. Clay and I were more than willing to just continue riding here and not move on to Tsali just yet.
We started out at Chilhowee for 10mi of near solid climbing. Not sure how that worked out, but in the end we all agreed that this was a trail system we weren't all that interested in riding again.
From there we headed on to a tried and true trail, Brush Creak Trail from Boyd Gap trail head. It is a bit farther down the road and a solid/fun 6-7mi out and back. We rode out and then pussed out for a road shortcut back to the cars in order to make sure to get checked-in and dinner under control. Probably a good thing. Clay snagged some video here, gonna have to see if it turns out. It is another great trail to hit so long as you are passing by.
Next morning we hit Jackrabbit. Just about everyone was all smiles on this trail system. But we packed up sooner than later in order to hit a loop at Tsali before dark.
At Tsali everyone was starting to slow down and feel the 3 previous rides. So getting geared up to go was lethargic. Normally we would start with the 7mi Thompson look, but Jeff and the endurance riders were arguing for a Left or Right loop since they are officially open to bikes on Friday. At any rate as that argument goes on Gary and I go back to the truck, lock it up, and put on our helmets. We look up to find that the lot has cleared out completely and there is no sign of our group. WTF! Not only did we not see them go, but the decision of what trail they were doing was also not made clear. Total group ride communication failure. So Gary and I debate a few minutes and slowly head out the Right Loop figuring that the Left Loop would be too much for the tired riders. After about 1/2mi we figure they would have realized our absence, so when we didn't catch them we called and then headed back to the lot where I promptly cracked a beer.
After a nice nap and conversation with some other nice folks we determined that the group wasn't comming back for us, so we had free reign on our ride choice. So we did a 5mi short loop on the Right Loop. This sent us down the heinous climbs we did last October. I must say, they are quite fun in the "suggested direction" that we were taking. Then a short climb up the Rt. Alt. connector to the fire road and back out. It was a great lite loop to cap the day. We had a couple of beers and about then the group popped out of the Left Loop looking pretty beat. In the end we dodged a bullit by being dropped off the group ride. Sometimes you get lucky.
Saturday morning everyone is moving a bit slow but we head out to Tsali once more to hit the Thompson loop and Mouse Loop. Both trails have fun downhill sections and a fair amount of climbing to earn them. There was some debate once done about doing another short loop, but in the end everyone had a beer and was happy to call it.
In the end: 4 trail systems were hit ~56mi were pedaled 36 beers and 2 half pitchers of Margaritas met their demise very little blood was shed I got to do on trail wheel straightening and brake fluid venting to make new pads fit
Yeah, I got nothing. Weather here in N. AL has been awesome for over a week straight. Temps in the 70's to the 80's. Sunny skies. Beer drinking, mower riding, Spring cleaning, riding the bikes, and just enjoying the nice weather. That about sums it up.
This weekend I got in a couple of 10mi adventures with the local B-Team. Saturday was the 7am dawn patrol out on Monte Sano. Sunday was a slacker Wade Mountain run. Both rides had 4-5 people riding and a pretty well matched crew with respect to speed and endurance.
New parts for the bike? Yeah, I got a few odds and ends but for some strange reason I don't feel like geeking out on it. Maybe another day.
Other goodies? Went out this afternoon and picked up my super Stihl eletric hedge trimmer. Ended up with the HSE71 IIRC. Costs as much as 3 basic Home Depot disposable jobbers, but it has a 24in bar on it instead of a 16 or 18 that the cheap ones have. It also has parts available should it break, so I won't have to throw it away. Not sure if it is worth it, but if my Stihl weed wacker is any indication the brand makes good tools. Time will tell.
All right, I am out of here. Catch up on other stuff later...
Just try and say that trail doesn't look inviting :-) In a month things will be looking like a jungle and the Banana Spiders will be dropping huge webs across it, but for now it is good.
Wednesday SORBA ride has been getting a good turnout. We had 11 on our ride. Only caught 8 on camera. It is hard to keep a group that size together. By the end of the ride we were down to 5. It was a great day. Weather was a bit cooler, in the low 70's, so it was very comfortable.
I broke out the Heckler for the first time in a few weeks. Boy, that thing is the magic carpet ride. Super smooth. I really think the effort saved over the course of the ride more than makes up for any pedaling inefficiencies or bobbing. The X-Fusion Vector HLR is still behaving itself. I am amazed at what I can slam the bike into with this shock. Miles of smiles for sure.
Other signs of spring arriving... - the lawn looks like crap if I haven't mowed it in over a week - the trees in the yard have bloomed, pink flowers everywhere - the parking lot at work is empty by 5pm
I have a couple of friends who have been taliking up the riding down at Lake Guntersville. With the recent rainfall it would be a safer bet than the local trails. We ended up riding 2 trails, both somewhat of a flop IMO :(
We started on an un-named trail that is in the process of being built up that flanks the edge of the lake. It has the potential to be a nice trail, but it is definitely a bit green still. Lots of off camber, IMBA would have a fit with the lack of shouldering. The crossings are mostly hike-a-bike.
Clay and Josh
A nice section of trail
Yours truly
the only bridge in the place
From here we jumped back in the car and headed up to higher ground to run the Golf Course Trail. Turned out to be a bummer as they have destroyed a good section of the loop clearing out trees.
Blog has been a bit stagnant. Not really sure why. I have been riding a bit and things are busy as ever around the house. Guess it is just waiting out the Spring stretch that gets most bloggers a bit quiet, holding their breath for warm weather and dry trails. It has been a bit of a roller coaster this year. Every time the trails get to a stable, dry enough to ride, condition it has snowed or rained again. Pretty frustrating.
I got in 2 rides this weekend and another ride earlier in the week. With all of the weather dodging I am stacking in as many rides as I can when the trails are clear. So my riding is also on the roller coaster. Seems like I go a week or so without riding and then will get 2-4 days of back to back riding. Gotta say that sometimes I really miss the consistancy of riding in Northern California. But for now living in N.Alabama I have to take it any way I can get it. Fortunately there is some diversity in trails so that even when some trails are soaking wet others can be ridden, mainly because they are entirely made of rocks.
As of last week I received my X-Fusion Vector HLR back from the factory. Looks like the new internals have fixed the obnoxious clunking during the hysteresis. I am happy to report that this shock is working great. My DH runs have been butter smooth and climbing traction is unstopable. As far as function this is the best shock I have run to date. There is definitely something to the Hi/Low speed compression control. It allows for good small bump sensitivity while still being able to take high speed and big impacts without spiking. Looks like Fox's new DHX RC4 has moved to this platform as well. But at this point companies like Avalanche, Elka, Cane Creek, and X-Fusion are already 2 steps ahead. Each with their own spin on the technology and tuning preferences. I am favoring the X-Fusion since the canister pressure and volume are externally adjustable by the rider. Elka and Avalanche are only tuneable by the factory. At any rate, time will tell if X-Fusion is durable enough to get 2 thumbsup.
Just over a week ago I got in the first night ride of the season. I got off work and the weather was warm, too nice to pass up. So I called up Matt and we headed out for a spin. Unfortunately the planning was lacking so my light wasn't charged up. I got by with an LED headband though and we had a nice ride. I do like the focus, intensity, and pace of a night ride. Nothing quite like it. Hopefully I will be able to set a more regular night ride up with Matt out on the Arsenal trails this summer.
This just in... It snowed again this morning. Melted as soon as it touched anything, but snow none the less. It isn't really cold(about 36F, but feels warmer to me), but I guess up in the clouds it is cold enough. We are still trending up in temperature. Saturday afternoon was my first short sleave ride of the year. Things are looking up inspite of the snow this am.
I spend way too much time online. Beer is my beverage of choice. I like long moonlit rides in the Santa Cruz mountains, but will take whatever I can get. My quiver of bikes is in constant flux. Currently I only have an old BMX bike and a Santa Cruz Heckler.
