sailing

i took a step outside my comfort zone this weekend with a 2-day sailing course on a hunter 36 with my dad. i haven't been on a sailboat in over 20 years and even in those limited experiences, i had never been involved crewing the boat, other than being allowed to hold the tiller and told where to point it. the course itself was a lot of fun and once i was on the boat i found myself a lot more comfortable and a lot less intimidated than i expected to be. what i didn't expect was how great of an experience it was to take myself out of the space my life normally occupies and really dive into this headfirst for the whole weekend.

the last weekend of summer with twice the bike fun

prologue

it started with a comment on a facebook post... scott asked if i'd be bringing some of my new homebrew down to to the MORE camping trip at douthat. i replied with a quip about the beer having to sneak out and catch a ride with someone else since i couldn't make it down, but at the same time it started me thinking. i was already signed up for charm city on sunday, but heather was planning on taking sam up to see her parents at the end of the week and probably wouldn't be back until saturday afternoon at the earliest. would there be time for a 1 day trip to douthat? i went back & forth... the riding is sweet, but it's almost a four hour drive and even more with traffic, so would it be worth it, and would it make charm city hurt even more on sunday. in the end i decided to give it a go, so friday morning i loaded my biking into the car, along with some minimal camping gear and parked up by the office and waited to start my weekend.

stage 1: douthat & beards mountain

a friday after work drive down to douthat (or anywhere that required driving I-66) is always a frustrating experience, and this one was no exception. it was past 9 when i pulled into the lakeside campground in the park but the frustrations of the drive washed away in the sea of friendly faces, both old and new. i pulled a chair up to the campfire, poured a cup of homebrew, and started catching up.

talk quickly turned to riding and jason started talking up a ride that headed north, along beards ridge, out of the park and into the national forest on a trail that gets little use and until a couple of years ago was all but forgotten. i'm a sucker for a ridgetop ride, so i was very quickly sold on the ride.

12 of us started out on the ride the next morning, with a few riders who thought they might break off at some point depending on the ride and the pace. we started by climbing up the eastern ridge of the park (beards mountain) on the beards gap trail in the park. it's recently been rebuilt by trail dynamics from north carolina, and while i hadn't ridden up that way before, they've definitely done a really good job. it was a tough climb with some tight switchbacks, but mostly rideable and took us most of the way up the ridge.

at the top we made a right and went north on mountain side to the northern end of mountain top trail. mountaintop we turned right an finished the climb up mountaintop but instead of going right to the top we stopped at an almost invisible intersection that marked the start of beards mountain trail.

beards mountain started with more climbing, up to a knob on the ridge, and then started weaving along the sides of the ridge. after a short downhill we started in a fairly overgrown section that rolled up and down for a while. after a mile or so of this the fun started when the trail started heading downhill more intently. there were some sketchy corners and a few little climbs thrown in, but the trail was mile after mile of grin inducing ridgeline downhill. this kind of trail is the reason i love the riding in and around douthat.

there were a couple of navigational problems to work out along the way where the trail got a little indistinct, but with a couple of maps, some good eyes, and a GPS or two we managed to find our way to the split at the end of the ridge. there are two options at the end of the ridge. drop off the western slope and you can ride back into the park on fireroads in 5 or 6 miles. drop off the eastern slope and you get a couple more miles of downhill, but there's no easy way back across the ridge to the park. luckily we had lined up a ride and knew chris scott would be waiting for us at the bottom of the trail for a shuttle back to camp. a couple of riders took the western route to get a bit more riding in and the rest of us set off down the eastern spur.

the downhill that followed was pretty sweet. there was a little sketchy trail at the end of the downhill, but nothing too tricky, a couple of narrow bridges on the trail and a nice swinging bridge at the cowpasture river that had a few of our group humming the indiana jones theme. chris rode into the clearing while we were regrouping and most of the group took quick dip in the cool clear water of the river.

the ride wasn't actually that long and while there was a good 3550' of climbing in the 13 miles of the ride and some of the riding was slow going where the trail was overgrown, it wasn't a ride that would be beyond a lot of riders, as long as you've got a shuttle lined up.

todd has pictures of the ride here on flickr.

stage 2: charm city cyclocross

after a quick lunch back at camp -- and a change out of my wet shorts -- i packed the car back up and hit the road. i made pretty good time, in spite of being a little more tired than i'd have liked to have been for that drive, and made it back home around 8 and got my gear ready for charm city cyclocross the next day. i ended up being lucky that i'd done a shorter ride at douthat than i'd expected, as my legs felt pretty good.

up early the next morning, if not bright. a couple of cups of espresso along with a quick breakfast perked me up and before too long i was on my way to druid hill park in baltimore on time.

i've only managed one cross race in each of the last two years so made sure to arrive early to take a couple of warm-up laps to remind my legs what cross was is all about. by the final warmup the instincts were all coming back. while the mens cat 4 race was going i went back to my car for a refuel and to dump the arm and knee warmers, and vest, and to check in with Heather who was hoping to come by the race on her way back from Philly with Sam. she'd called while i was out warming up, so i called back. she was on here way, but wasn't sure if she'd make the start. i kept my legs spinning and checked out the start and prologue loop, made a pit stop at the conveniences, and then checked the time. 10 minutes to start time. time to head towards the line.

staging was by bib number and well marked so i took my place as the grid started to fill up and the waiting game began. two dcmtb team mates where nearby -- dave vannier was just to my left and corey twyman was in the next row up -- and some bike lane friends were just behind us. joel gwadz was a couple rows ahead and trevor and jonathan from family bikes were a row ahead as well. 1 minute to go, 30 seconds, and we're off.

i'd like to be able to write a detailed account of every lap, but they blur together so seamlessly in the race induced haze that it can be difficult. i lost a lot of places in the first couple of laps. riders seemed to be coming around me way to easily at first, but after 2 laps things stabilized a little. Heather and Sam had missed the start while they were looking for parking and i missed them on the first lap, but by lap two i'd found them near the sandpits, cheering me on.

after i settled into a grove i managed a couple of passes. a c3 rider, an adventures for the cure rider, and i was holding of the riders behind me, but i was starting to have some traction issues wit my rear tire. i'd put a little more air in my back tire after my warmup after having problems with a sharp turn onto pavement near the end of the course, but was now having trouble with ton some of the corners. eventually i took a spill on lap 4 in a big fast right hander and lost a couple of places while i got my chain back on. somewhere in the race i started having twinges of pain while running up the stairs on the back side of the course, i wasn't feeling that bad, at least not anything out of the usual the scale of cyclocross pain and it didn't look like i'd be lapped. i managed to finish fairly strong to heather and sam waiting for me at the line.

after a little chit-chat with team mates and some time in the playground with sam (*1) we drove downtown and had lunch, and some recovery beverages, at pratt street ale house. just took a look at the results, and it looks like i finished in 74th of 96 starters. not great, but i'll take it. next race: maybe hyattsville on the 11th, or granogue on the 17th.

next weekend: sailing lessons...

*1 - note to race promoters: please make sure all race infield areas include a playground.

Am I Specialized?

my first pair of pro carbons -- about to be retired and replaced with an identical pair.

This story may be familiar to my regular readers or anyone who read my first Spokes column back in May, but I'm retelling it here and now for the benefit of the folks organizing the Specialized Trail Crew 2010. They're looking for riders and I think i might be what they're looking for.

If you're looking for a list of bullet points here goes:

• I think the best way to spend the day before labor day is riding 100 miles in the woods with several hundred of your closest friends
  
• I love doing big backcountry rides and races
  
• I've been blogging since you had to explain what a blog was and I think i'm pretty good at telling a good story
  
• I'm a photographer and also a writer
• I have my own beer on tap in my house and I like to bring it along with me
• I'm 34 and live just outside Washington, DC with my wife and 1 year old son.
  
• I've love my stumpy 120 (and my epic and tri-cross)
• I love the shoes and gloves and helmets too
• other places to find me online: twitter, facebook, flickr
• somewhere out there, there's some really embarrassing video of me doing a slow-speed endo right in front of ned overend on a ride at the IMBA summit
  

But here's what the story that i think you really want to hear...

Back in the year 2000 or so I was just out of college, overweight, and out of shape but something grabbed me one day and made me pick up a copy of a local mountain bike trail guide in the book store and see if my little brother wanted to go mountain biking.

I dusted off the bike I'd used (rarely) to get around campus and the second I put knobby tire to singletrack I was hooked. Mountain biking was like nothing else I'd ever done before. Rides went from monthly to weekly to daily in no time flat. The old bike was replaced within weeks and before too long I was heavily involved with the local trails advocacy group, MORE.

The next winter I tore my ACL in a skiing fall, but mountain biking helped me come back stronger than ever. Afternoon rides turned into all day backcountry epics and weekend trips into the George Washington National Forest. Before too long i was racing, joining a local team and then I signed up for the Shenandoah Mountain 100.

It was the 100 that was to become the real turning point for me. That first year I trained seriously for the first time and finished the race, but as the very last finisher in just over 15 hours 10 minutes. The race hurt, badly, but it was the best day of my life so far and the next year I trained harder, rode more and went back down to Stokesville to try it again. The second time I finished (this time on an S-Works Epic that i still have and love) in 10 hours 50 minutes, a single year improvement that I don't think has been matched by anyone before or since.

I didn't realize it at the time, but mountain biking had profoundly changed my life. Over those first two years of racing the 100 i'd lost over 50 pounds, but more than that I'd made great friendships and found the self confidence that I'd always been lacking. I didn't just mountain bike, I was a Mountain Biker. At the end of that year I met the girl I've since gone on to marry and I'm not sure that would have happened if it wasn't for what mountain biking had done for me.

But that's in the past, what's going on now. I started blogging back in the run up to my first 100 and haven't stopped since. The subjects have varied a bit over time but there's been lots of riding, some politics, and recently quite a bit of photography.

A couple years ago, a few of us from the DCMTB mountain bike team decided to take a stab at the Granny Gear 24-Hour national point series, so in 2007 we traveled across the country to race in California, Vermont, Missouri, and locally at the 24 Hours of Big Bear in West Vriginia. We had some stiff competition and the series came down to the wire, but we did win the Expert title in the series along with 2 class and 1 overall win at the races.

A year ago my wife and I started a new adventure with the birth of our son. Now i'm trying to figure out how to balance riding and family. The riding has been a little thinner in the past year but i still jump on every chance to ride, especially on dirt, and now I'm looking forward to next year and trying to pick some new challenges...

Back in June of this year I organized a fundraising team through the Team IMBA program. We raced the Massenhutten Hoo-Ha, and three of us managed to raise $1500 for IMBA and $4600 for MORE that's going to be dedicated to The Fountainhead Project, and effort to make the trails at a Fountainhead Regional Park in Virginia a model of challenging and technical environmentally sustainable trail.

I need to get back to the 100 for my 4th attempt at that (10 hours?) and there's the Transylvannian Epic, a brand new 7 day stage race in Pennsylvannia, that looks like an interesting challenge. I'd like to get out to Fruita and Moab, my last attempt at which was cut short my a broken collarbone a week before the trip.

But mostly, I just want to ride. To take those extra hours that crop up in the day and get out into the woods, to recharge and feel totally and completely alive.

thanksgiving day 2007 at avalon