Today's Ride

I'm still a roadie at heart. I missed my annual ski train ride from Saratoga to Tahawus and I hope to do it around the 4th of July but today I did a nice ride from Newcomb to Minerva and back, love that down hill into Minerva. A few years back when they had just paved that stretch I hit 52 mph on the downhill. Was hugging the top tube with my knees to keep the bike stable. Today was much more tame, the max speed on the GPS was only 41 - the slog back up the hill was more like 6. I am not nearly in as good a shape as when I did the Whiteface race 4 years ago - age is beginning to tug on me.

There is a pretty good chance that my next bike (you know, N + 1) will be a Salsa of some sort. If for no other reason than I really like their company slogan: "Adventure by Bike." Today's ride was a bit of an adventure, in the best sense of the word. Leaving the house at 7:15 to avoid the forecasted heat (now it is here: 30 C equals 86 F), I decided to ride the snomo trail in the other other direction. This is an "out and back" ride, with some moderate climbs, fun downhills and a gut-busting climb at the finish, back to the paved road home. I would ride it more often but for a couple of mud holes that take a long time to dry up. Thinking that it since it almost July, they would have to be rideable. No such luck, the wet parts were wetter than ever. Oh well, it was fun anyway, if you don't mind a few short portages.

First there was the fallen tree:


Then the sand bog (Must. Get. Fat. Bike):


With a bit of downhill mud bogging:


And finally, the temptation of pavement at the turnaround point. I did not give in:

Overheard today while I was in the LBS.  Couple of corn fed teenaged boys with a distinct American Midwest accent, looking at a bunch of Salsa fat bikes on display.  

"Those are huge tires!"
"I bet they're for rock jumping- like the x-games"
"Yeah... You're probably right.."

Up walks dad...

"Those look like mudders!"
"Nope, they're rock jumpers."
"They must do a lot of that around here..."
"Yeah, you see all those cliffs on the highway..."

Dad, again.."well they don't have to pay for Healthcare here."

I smiled and moved on.  

TD

Wicked funny shit right there Mr.

campgottagopee wrote

Wicked funny shit right there Mr.

You're welcome, Camp.  I couldn't even begin to make up stuff like that.... Sometimes it's best to just listen in.. And share later with those who appreciate it.  

Best of all, now that I know that I don't have to pay for healthcare, I think I'll go pound down some beers, smoke a fatty, and go rock jumping.    

Td

Telemark Dave wrote

Best of all, now that I know that I don't have to pay for healthcare, I think I'll go pound down some beers, smoke a fatty, and go rock jumping.    

Td

Pics or it didn't happen.

Dam ext at SMBA. Nice evenin for a ride perfect weather today

Today I went for a ride with SBR.  
I'm sure he'll file a complete TR here.  


I think he's playing the air Banjo.

TD

Telemark Dave wrote

I think he's playing the air Banjo.

TD

Yes, that is me playing the air banjo and not sucking my gut in. It all seemed appropriate at the time and place. This was just before we heard the rapid-fire gunshots.

OK, so TD and I went for a ride in my neighbourhood, which does have its rustic elements. I proposed a variation to my usual tour, turning left instead right down a section of the snomo trail I had not ridden before. The added incentive was investigating the certified ghost town of Centurian, located in the middle of nowhere off a snowmobile trail.

After turning off the known trail, we found some fun hills, some lonnnngggg sandy stretches (must get fatbike) and evidence of human activity long ago. Maybe this truck had an ending like Daddy's big block Dodge on Copperhead Road.



Clearings in the middle of the forest, random old car parts, and an old log building convinced us that we were in the old village site. But why would people want live here? Probably a crew of misguided Scottish or Irish settlers thinking, like many did way back, that if all those trees could grow on this soil, surely it must be good for farming. Wrong.

So we did check out the hunt camp, located in the biggest clearing. TD relaxes at the Hawkeye Hunt Camp:



The door was unlocked, so we went inside. It looked like the porcupines and mice pretty much owned the place but there were some shooting trophies and pictures that informed us of the camp's ownership. If you live or vacation in a rural area, I'm sure you are aware of "those families" that have lived in the area for generations and may have a slightly tarnished reputation. This camp belongs to one of those. We decided to leave and ride on.



Not too far far from the camp, we rode into another cleared area and found an atv/dirt bike pump track. No pics but it was entertaining to ride, though clearly an engine would have helped in the sandy loam. Trails were going every which way, so TD consulted his phone (this still blows my mind). We rode on to a mud bog, when I heard gunfire. "Dave, do you hear that?" Focused on the mud, TD replied, "hear what?"

Then we both heard it:  Blam, BlamBlamBlam, Blam Blam, BlamBlamBlamBlam, BlamBlam. Coming from not far away, in the general direction we would be riding. Hmmm. There is no hunting season right now. No reason to be firing guns except out of sheer exuberance, or drunken stupidity. Discretion being the better part of valour, we turned around.

And enjoyed the trail back home.  TD on a nice little doubletrack drop:

"TD consulted his phone"

Yes, being a Trekkie, I love using my communicator/tri-corder

My sons think I'm crazed.  "Dad, it's a phone, get over it..."

....phasers on stun....

TD

That's a great report.  What a neat place to explore, I always get skeeved out when around old human made structures in the woods. The photos make the interior of that camp pretty darn clean.  

I've been riding some double track/old logging roads lately, while single track is super fun and fast it's also neat getting the adventure feel while riding a bike, still lots of fun to be had on old roads etc.

I'm not really a beach guy. But my company works for a really nice beach resort in South Carolina and Zelda has been wanting to come down, so somehow we made it happen.

One thing I've never seen before is sand that is compact enough to ride on.  Riding on the beach, especially at low tide, is a blast.



This place has all kinda fancy acoutrement (sp?) but there is one single objective that Neve is focused on. The double barrel fast and twisty slides...



We spent the day drinking umbrella drinks and playing in one of the pools that has these awesome water cannons.

The ride home tonight was sublime...






Baby loggerhead turtle just hatched, headed out to sea.



In the days we were here the sun really never came out.  But the girls were game and swam in the ocean almost all day every day.  Pretty cool really.



Personally I'd rather spend my free time in the mountains and my money on skiing. But nothing wrong with expanding your horizons and seeing how the other half lives.

Harvey wrote

Awesome report and images. This pic FTW. Harv rockin' the bum pack on the beach ride.

Thanks SBR. The images were all phone pics and the threat of rain was constant.  The butt pack was basically carrying my shell as protection for my phone.    While the biggest downpours were at night, getting caught in one would probably mean byebye droid.

Not sure what kind of crab that is but he was so cool. Pretty much had a ten minute stare down. Every time I got a little closer he would move two steps to the right.

We saw our first gator too.

Harv, you're getting major points for heading down to SC.  And your little one is out on the bike with you.  You're modeling the active life.  What could be better?

Peter Minde wrote

Harv, you're getting major points for heading down to SC.

True. Zelda is giving me a ton of credit for heading SOUTH, something that is contrary to my religion, or maybe DNA.

Peter Minde wrote

You're modeling the active life.

This may be a stretch.

But thanks.  :)

I have no idea.

Been taking my son riding on my out-the-backdoor trails this summer.  These are from this afternoon:

Nice! Thanks for sharing the pics Jeff. TD

..was a paddle



The old Grumann has become quite the conversation piece as it has a Grumann Aircraft Engineering Corp tag, guessing vintage mid 50's - early 60's.