heading up to atlantic city this weekend for steve's bachelor party... left work early for a 3 1/2 hour road ride... did 50 miles...
Friday, August 20, 2004
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Schaeffer
Quick spin at Schaeffer after work before stopping by my parents place... Conditions were marginal, the trails are going to take some work at the fall trailwork days to fix the mudholes. Saw a deer 20-feet off the trail in the fields and almost ran over a snake...
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Just Another Tuesday
Just a quick ride today... Down through the park to the river, back through Georgetown and then back via L St. and Conn. Ave... Downtown streets at rush hour... Fun? Couple of graffiti pics from the Key Bridge.
Sunday, August 15, 2004
Top 5 All Time Favorite Downhills
I've done a lot of fun downhills on mountain bike rides, but until yesterday my "Top 5 All Time Favorite Downhills" list only had 2 entries. That's not to say there are a lot of other great ones, but none that warranted the all time favorites list. Yesterday's ride gave me another entry... The Braley's pond downhill, Bald Gap, was a classic. It was smooth, fast, and twisty, with a flow that was perfect - twisting down the side of the ridge on beautiful bench-cut singletrack.
So here it is, my Top 3 All-Time Favorite Downhills...
1. Brushy Hollow (Douthat State Park, VA)
2. Dowell's Draft (GW National Forest, VA)
3. Bald Gap/Braley's Pond (GW National Forest, VA)
Or maybe Bald Gap should be number 2?
So here it is, my Top 3 All-Time Favorite Downhills...
1. Brushy Hollow (Douthat State Park, VA)
2. Dowell's Draft (GW National Forest, VA)
3. Bald Gap/Braley's Pond (GW National Forest, VA)
Or maybe Bald Gap should be number 2?
Shenandoah Recon
Drove down to Harrisonburg on Friday night for our Saturday recon ride. Met up with Mike Bender for dinner the night before and to talk about the route for Saturday. We went to a local brew-pub and had a good meal and couple good beers.
Saturday morning we met up with a couple of other riders at the Stokesville market. The general plan was to ride the start of the race through checkpoint 2, about 25 miles. After that a couple of us were going to drive to the other end of the course to ride the "Braley's Pond" loop (checkpoints 3 to 4).
The first part of the ride includes the first 2 large climbs of the day, Narrowback and Lynn Trail/Wolf Ridge. With a couple of navigation stops, it took us about 3 1/2 hours to finish the first section. The cookie trail on Narrowback was a lot of fun and the Wolf Ridge trail almost made the ride/walk up the Lynn trail worth it.
The climb up Bridge Hollow at Braley's Pond was better than the Lynn Trail climb and the downhill was, well it deserves a post of its own... Overall the day had 42 miles in about 5 hours riding, with at least another hour of waiting around and refueling.
On the way home I stopped by Mitch and Amy's new store in Front Royal. It looks like they've got a lot of work to do but it's a cool space and I'm sure it'll look great by the time they're done. Their Store: Vintage Swank (online only until October)
Saturday morning we met up with a couple of other riders at the Stokesville market. The general plan was to ride the start of the race through checkpoint 2, about 25 miles. After that a couple of us were going to drive to the other end of the course to ride the "Braley's Pond" loop (checkpoints 3 to 4).
The first part of the ride includes the first 2 large climbs of the day, Narrowback and Lynn Trail/Wolf Ridge. With a couple of navigation stops, it took us about 3 1/2 hours to finish the first section. The cookie trail on Narrowback was a lot of fun and the Wolf Ridge trail almost made the ride/walk up the Lynn trail worth it.
The climb up Bridge Hollow at Braley's Pond was better than the Lynn Trail climb and the downhill was, well it deserves a post of its own... Overall the day had 42 miles in about 5 hours riding, with at least another hour of waiting around and refueling.
On the way home I stopped by Mitch and Amy's new store in Front Royal. It looks like they've got a lot of work to do but it's a cool space and I'm sure it'll look great by the time they're done. Their Store: Vintage Swank (online only until October)
Saturday, August 14, 2004
Thursday, August 12, 2004
more rain...
it's raining and i'm stuck at work, working on a last minute change to a system that's had lots of last minute changes....
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
rain...
i've always avoided riding in the rain... but whenever i do i end up enjoying it - with the possible exception of my second lap at Lodi last year, but by then i was very cold and very wet and had no dry socks left...
this afternoon was fun, the rain was really heavy, it was windy, and i was almost alone turning the cranks in the big gear...
this afternoon was fun, the rain was really heavy, it was windy, and i was almost alone turning the cranks in the big gear...
Haines Point in the Rain
It's Wednesday, right now that means a long road ride with an hour of tempo at Haines Point, unfortunately the weather looked like it wasn't going to co-operate with the skies darkening all afternoon. The heavens opened at 4, not a good sign for a ride that I needed to start by 5 in order to finish by dark... Fifteen minute later the storm was down to drizzle and by the time I left the office the rain was over and I thought I was in the clear... When I hit the road to start the ride the streets in the neighborhood were dry, but by the time I got to Haines point the rain was picking up again and half way through my first lap it was pouring... The rain didn't last long and by the end of my third lap the rain had stopped and and there was a rainbow over the tidal basin... After 8 laps I crossed over memorial bridge to the Mt. Vernon trail to start home... Passed Ezra, a fellow City Bikes rider and one of my snowshoe team-mates, then back across the river, key bridge this time, and through Georgetown to rock creek and home....
Got my new camera phone today and tried to shoot the rainbow... It's in the shot but you've got to look closely... A couple of pictures that I though I took weren't on the phone when I got home...
Got my new camera phone today and tried to shoot the rainbow... It's in the shot but you've got to look closely... A couple of pictures that I though I took weren't on the phone when I got home...
Monday, August 09, 2004
the 'shed
Legs are very tired right now... 5 hr mountain bike ride at the 'shed on Saturday, then 3 hrs on the road on Sunday... 13 1/2 hours total last week, and a bit more this week. Then rest and "tapering" until the event...
The 100 will take me 12-14 hours IF I finish... still in doubt right now and will be until it's over.
The race is on 9/5 so 4 weeks to go...
The 100 will take me 12-14 hours IF I finish... still in doubt right now and will be until it's over.
The race is on 9/5 so 4 weeks to go...
City Bikes
Intro...
I'm going to try to blog my attempt at riding the Shenandoah Mountain 100 in real time... If I've got cell coverage out in the woods then i'll use audio, photo, and e-mail posts to chronicle my race. I'll be heading out to the Harrisonburg (VA) area this weekend to pre-ride some of the course and i'll see what coverage is like out there....
Thursday, June 03, 2004
East Coast North America Singlespeed Champitionships of the Universe, Part Deux
This Was Originally Written for the MORE monthly e-mail newsletter back in June... Just stumbled across it while I was cleaning up the MORE site and figured i'd post it here...
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ECNASSCU 2004: I've Got to Climb THAT on a Singlespeed?
That’s what I was thinking as I checked out the course map and description for the ECNASSCU Part Deux for the first time. According to the description, stage 2 was a hill climb that gained 700’ in a mile. I’m normally at my limit riding Fountainhead on a singlespeed and I was starting to doubt the wisdom of trying to do this, and doing it while carrying half of my camera gear and trying to shoot the race. But I should start at the beginning and not in the middle.
I drove up to State College, PA on Saturday morning for ECNASSCU (the East Coast North American Singlespeed Championships of the Universe, Part Deux) and the MORE spring camping trip – convenient how those 2 events just happened to be in the same place on the same weekend – it’s almost as if someone planned it that way. Pulling into the campground around 12:30 I found Scott Scudamore and Mark Wigfield trying to out for what should have been a morning ride. I set up my tent and joined in the discussions around the map as we tried to hash out a route.
We finally set out on what we guessed was a 10-12 mile ride in Rothrock State Forest around 1:30, joined by fellow MORE members DT, Trevor, Eric and Lisa. The ride started with a 2 mile fire road climb that gained about 350’ from the campground. I was on my singlespeed, as I’d decided to stay in the spirit of the event and ride 1 gear all weekend, and I was feeling surprisingly good on the first climb. After some navigation discussions at the top of the climb we found our route and turned down a long smooth descent on an old fire road, losing over 1000’ in 3 miles. The downhill was pretty smooth, but you could let go of the brakes and hit speeds near 30 miles an hour.
At the bottom of the fire road we decided that instead of riding the road to the next section of the ride we could carry our bikes down a steep and rock portion of the off-limits to bikes Mid-State trail to get to a legal trail that ran along side a creek. The trail at the bottom was a blast with a couple of nice rock gardens that we sessioned for a while. Once we made through the trail we started up Long Mountain Trail to get back the vertical that we lost earlier in the ride. The trail turned out to be 4 mile, 1100’ climb up an overgrown fire road and I probably walked as much of as I rode.
Once we hit the top of trail it crossed a gas line right of way and became singletrack so tight that you could barely see the trailbed at times through the mountain laurel. We climbed for short time and then the trail turned into a sweet twisty downhill with a very steep and rocky section about half way down which we attempted to ride but I don’t think anyone managed it. After some more singletrack the trail dumped us out half way up the first fire road we climbed at the start of the ride and we sprinted back down to the campsites.
Later in the afternoon, as we drove into town, I looked at a copy of the course map for the race the next day and kept looking at the description of the 2nd stage. 700’ in a mile sounded like another long hard walk after my performance on Long Mountain. By the time we got back from town the rest of the group had arrived, set up camp and most had managed to fit in a ride. We finished the day with a great potluck dinner and settled in for a night around the campfire.
The next morning we had a great pancake breakfast – courtesy of Scott and his mobile kitchen – and then packed up the cars to head over to Tussey Mountain ski area, the staging point for the race. Since I, like most of the riders there, was there to ride and have fun, not to compete I brought my camera along and tried to shoot as much of the race as possible.
We started with a long but fairly gentle climb that started on road then became doubletrack and finally singletrack. At the top of the climb everyone lined up for the lemans start of stage 1 and I headed down the trail into the woods to find a good place to shoot. Since the race is a stage race I’d have plenty of opportunities to get ahead of the pack to set up. After the last racer came through I started down the trail, a sweet, rocky, undulating ridge top trail. I didn’t keep going for long as I had my first flat, then a second, and third. I ended up walking to the end of the stage and caught the support van just before it was about to leave. They gave me a “Rothrock Approved” inner tube to replace mine and gave me directions to the 2nd stage, since it had left long ago.
The stage 2 climb that I had been dreading was hard, but it was on a smooth gravel road and I surprised myself by managing to climb the whole thing without walking or stopping. At the top I managed to find the start of stage 3. Stage 3 was a 2-up downhill time trial, riders raced against the clock, starting 2 at a time about 30 feet from the entrance to the singletrack. When I arrived there were about two dozen pairs of riders left to start so I walked down the trail a short way to shoot the riders starting the stage. After the last riders started I rode back to the end of stage 2 with a couple of the Mt. Nittany Wheelworks riders who were helping to run the event. The finish of stage 2 was also the finish of stage 4, a climb on an old rough fire road and I wanted to be there early to make sure I was there when the racers finished in case it was contested at the end and finished in a sprint. After shooting the racers finishing (including a sprint) we rode over to the top of stage 5.
This is the stage that I’d been waiting for. I’d seen pictures and heard descriptions of it from last year. The racers were still waiting at the top and would ride it as a time trial, but the non-racers were already heading down the trail, and combined with the fact that I was carrying a lot camera gear I decided to ride down the fire roads to the finish. Once we got to the finish I walked up to the rock garden and spent the next 45 minutes shooting the action and watching riders come down and try to clean it. The atmosphere at the stage finish was amazing; everyone was watching and cheering on each and every rider as if they were old friends. There were a few crashes and less than half the field made it through to the finish without at least a dab. The biggest cheer was for an injured rider walking down the course.
Stage 6 started with a climb up a fire road that was followed by a beautiful bench cut downhill just technical enough to keep you on your toes. I got a head start on the climb and managed to make it up and find a place to shoot the downhill just ahead of most of the field. I rode down to the end of the stage just as everyone was forming up for stage 7, a short dab/no-dab section through a rock garden and 3 narrow footbridges. The atmosphere was like stage 5 with riders watching and cheering on everyone as they made their attempts on the rock garden and then the bridges. Very few riders managed to clean the whole section.
After the end of the stage 7 we rode trails back down to the ski area where Scott was firing up the grill for the post-race party. After some food and beer the top finishers and a wild card faced off on the go-kart track to decide the winner. DT rode the whole race fixed-gear and got the wild card slot. In the end go-kart the race was won by the same rider who’d won the most points during the race, a local road pro.
We rounded out the weekend with another night around the campfire and another great pancake breakfast, this one provided by Bill Trossen. All-in-all it was a great weekend. The weather was great, as was the company and the riding. If you’re thinking about heading up to the state college area I’ve got a couple of quick recommendations. First, get some nice thick tubes and keep the pressure in your tires higher then usual, and second, make sure you’ve got a map and some local knowledge of the trails – Rothrock is a huge park, not all of the trails are well marked, and some a definitely a lot better in certain directions.
------
ECNASSCU 2004: I've Got to Climb THAT on a Singlespeed?
That’s what I was thinking as I checked out the course map and description for the ECNASSCU Part Deux for the first time. According to the description, stage 2 was a hill climb that gained 700’ in a mile. I’m normally at my limit riding Fountainhead on a singlespeed and I was starting to doubt the wisdom of trying to do this, and doing it while carrying half of my camera gear and trying to shoot the race. But I should start at the beginning and not in the middle.
I drove up to State College, PA on Saturday morning for ECNASSCU (the East Coast North American Singlespeed Championships of the Universe, Part Deux) and the MORE spring camping trip – convenient how those 2 events just happened to be in the same place on the same weekend – it’s almost as if someone planned it that way. Pulling into the campground around 12:30 I found Scott Scudamore and Mark Wigfield trying to out for what should have been a morning ride. I set up my tent and joined in the discussions around the map as we tried to hash out a route.
We finally set out on what we guessed was a 10-12 mile ride in Rothrock State Forest around 1:30, joined by fellow MORE members DT, Trevor, Eric and Lisa. The ride started with a 2 mile fire road climb that gained about 350’ from the campground. I was on my singlespeed, as I’d decided to stay in the spirit of the event and ride 1 gear all weekend, and I was feeling surprisingly good on the first climb. After some navigation discussions at the top of the climb we found our route and turned down a long smooth descent on an old fire road, losing over 1000’ in 3 miles. The downhill was pretty smooth, but you could let go of the brakes and hit speeds near 30 miles an hour.
At the bottom of the fire road we decided that instead of riding the road to the next section of the ride we could carry our bikes down a steep and rock portion of the off-limits to bikes Mid-State trail to get to a legal trail that ran along side a creek. The trail at the bottom was a blast with a couple of nice rock gardens that we sessioned for a while. Once we made through the trail we started up Long Mountain Trail to get back the vertical that we lost earlier in the ride. The trail turned out to be 4 mile, 1100’ climb up an overgrown fire road and I probably walked as much of as I rode.
Once we hit the top of trail it crossed a gas line right of way and became singletrack so tight that you could barely see the trailbed at times through the mountain laurel. We climbed for short time and then the trail turned into a sweet twisty downhill with a very steep and rocky section about half way down which we attempted to ride but I don’t think anyone managed it. After some more singletrack the trail dumped us out half way up the first fire road we climbed at the start of the ride and we sprinted back down to the campsites.
Later in the afternoon, as we drove into town, I looked at a copy of the course map for the race the next day and kept looking at the description of the 2nd stage. 700’ in a mile sounded like another long hard walk after my performance on Long Mountain. By the time we got back from town the rest of the group had arrived, set up camp and most had managed to fit in a ride. We finished the day with a great potluck dinner and settled in for a night around the campfire.
The next morning we had a great pancake breakfast – courtesy of Scott and his mobile kitchen – and then packed up the cars to head over to Tussey Mountain ski area, the staging point for the race. Since I, like most of the riders there, was there to ride and have fun, not to compete I brought my camera along and tried to shoot as much of the race as possible.
We started with a long but fairly gentle climb that started on road then became doubletrack and finally singletrack. At the top of the climb everyone lined up for the lemans start of stage 1 and I headed down the trail into the woods to find a good place to shoot. Since the race is a stage race I’d have plenty of opportunities to get ahead of the pack to set up. After the last racer came through I started down the trail, a sweet, rocky, undulating ridge top trail. I didn’t keep going for long as I had my first flat, then a second, and third. I ended up walking to the end of the stage and caught the support van just before it was about to leave. They gave me a “Rothrock Approved” inner tube to replace mine and gave me directions to the 2nd stage, since it had left long ago.
The stage 2 climb that I had been dreading was hard, but it was on a smooth gravel road and I surprised myself by managing to climb the whole thing without walking or stopping. At the top I managed to find the start of stage 3. Stage 3 was a 2-up downhill time trial, riders raced against the clock, starting 2 at a time about 30 feet from the entrance to the singletrack. When I arrived there were about two dozen pairs of riders left to start so I walked down the trail a short way to shoot the riders starting the stage. After the last riders started I rode back to the end of stage 2 with a couple of the Mt. Nittany Wheelworks riders who were helping to run the event. The finish of stage 2 was also the finish of stage 4, a climb on an old rough fire road and I wanted to be there early to make sure I was there when the racers finished in case it was contested at the end and finished in a sprint. After shooting the racers finishing (including a sprint) we rode over to the top of stage 5.
This is the stage that I’d been waiting for. I’d seen pictures and heard descriptions of it from last year. The racers were still waiting at the top and would ride it as a time trial, but the non-racers were already heading down the trail, and combined with the fact that I was carrying a lot camera gear I decided to ride down the fire roads to the finish. Once we got to the finish I walked up to the rock garden and spent the next 45 minutes shooting the action and watching riders come down and try to clean it. The atmosphere at the stage finish was amazing; everyone was watching and cheering on each and every rider as if they were old friends. There were a few crashes and less than half the field made it through to the finish without at least a dab. The biggest cheer was for an injured rider walking down the course.
Stage 6 started with a climb up a fire road that was followed by a beautiful bench cut downhill just technical enough to keep you on your toes. I got a head start on the climb and managed to make it up and find a place to shoot the downhill just ahead of most of the field. I rode down to the end of the stage just as everyone was forming up for stage 7, a short dab/no-dab section through a rock garden and 3 narrow footbridges. The atmosphere was like stage 5 with riders watching and cheering on everyone as they made their attempts on the rock garden and then the bridges. Very few riders managed to clean the whole section.
After the end of the stage 7 we rode trails back down to the ski area where Scott was firing up the grill for the post-race party. After some food and beer the top finishers and a wild card faced off on the go-kart track to decide the winner. DT rode the whole race fixed-gear and got the wild card slot. In the end go-kart the race was won by the same rider who’d won the most points during the race, a local road pro.
We rounded out the weekend with another night around the campfire and another great pancake breakfast, this one provided by Bill Trossen. All-in-all it was a great weekend. The weather was great, as was the company and the riding. If you’re thinking about heading up to the state college area I’ve got a couple of quick recommendations. First, get some nice thick tubes and keep the pressure in your tires higher then usual, and second, make sure you’ve got a map and some local knowledge of the trails – Rothrock is a huge park, not all of the trails are well marked, and some a definitely a lot better in certain directions.
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