Today's Ride

I should've brought my GoPro with waterproof casing yesterday.  Freaking Black Fly challenge almost destroyed my Point & Shoot.  Here's some pics:







Full Report Here

Yesterday's ride was a breakthrough. Faster, smoother and more aggressive. All of a sudden I realized that riding 2 or 3 times a week for several weeks is beginning to have a positive effect. Look out, winter!

It has been a tri-sport weekend at Casa SBR: SUPing, lawnmowing (no TR, sorry) and MTB riding. Meanwhile, Blue Toes is off helping a help friend move in the heat and Royal Visit chaos of Canada Day weekend in our nation's capital. Glad I stayed home.

You may recall a few posts ago I reported on my disastrous ride on a section of Snomo Trail 82. Today I returned to the scene of the crime in 30 degree heat (AKA 86 degrees F). A month later, my riding is more dialed, fitness has improved and the trail is a lot drier. This is a fun section through a beautiful forest (bonus of shade on a hot day), some fast "flowy" downhills and for the most part, rideable uphills. Think of it as wide singletrack, with a variety of lines on any given section.


The trail speed limit is probably more realistic for bikes than snowmobiles.

The three biggest hazards today were the deerflies, occasional patches of fine, dry sand (read: bike-stopper) and highly protective ruffed grouses. The little grouses have hatched and let me tell you, the parents pull out all the stops to defend their chicks. The first one scared the crap out of me when it flew out out of a bush I was pedaling by. The bird's wing beats were so loud and stacatto I thought I was being strafed with machine gun fire. The second one tried to attack me as I pushed the bike up a steep section after being bogged down in the aforementioned sand. It tried the broken wing tactic at first but clearly I wasn't retreating fast enough. The thing puffed out its feathers and came stomping towards me with fury in its eyes. Not wanting to get pecked to death by a game bird, I beat a hasty retreat uphill, listening to the cheeps of the little grouses as they scurried off.


Rest stop before one of the fun downhill runs.

Other than the bird encounters it was a pretty mellow ride. I took it easy in the heat, and was the only soul on the trail on this holiday weekend.

OK, this was not my ride but I kind of wish it was. Except maybe for the pack-raft part. That looks a bit sketchy.



I  only learned about fat bikes a little while ago but am currently lusting after after a Pugsley or a Mukluk. It is the ultimate go-anywhere bike. Kind of the the fat rockered ski of the bike world.

Edit: here is a well written TR and some great photos:
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=721166

Seems like the ladies in our family really dig the fat bikes.

Matt's Last Chair this week had more awesome fat footage:

http://skiequalsmc2.blogspot.com/2011/07/last-chair-7811.html

It was a big hit at dinner tonight.

Nice of those guys to take their bikes for a walk.- Fat Possum

Yesterday's ride:

Very cool. Where?

Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont.

mattchuck2 wrote

Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont.

That looks like some deluxe single track.

Matt's most excellent TR:

Pine Hill Park, Rutland, Vermont.

Agreed. Nice. Nice. Nice. The surface looks hard pack and very smooth. Very few rocks. Some jumps. A few tight spots....Lots of downhill?

Thanks MC2.

Snowballs wrote

Agreed. Nice. Nice. Nice. The surface looks hard pack and very smooth. Very few rocks. Some jumps. A few tight spots....Lots of downhill?

Thanks MC2.

Yep, Lots of downhill . . . After the uphill to the top.  It was very smooth and flowy.  Highly recommended for families or Beginner-Intermediate riders.

Yesterday, Blue Toes and I ditched the dog with the dog-sitter, left the cat a full bowl of food and headed down to the Big Smoke, AKA Toronto. We met up with some friends and went to a great Cuban-fusion jazz CD release concert at Hugh's Room.

Our friends are both artists and live comfortably but not extravagantly. They don't own a vehicle and ride their bikes everywhere: to work, to shop, to be entertained. If they need to leave the city, they take the bus or rent a car (they are not skiers). Needless to say, we hillbillies drove our air-conditioned car to the club but Kit and James rode their bikes.

I lived in Toronto back in the 80s and even though I had a car, rode a bike everywhere at that time. There are (were?) some great MTB trails in the ravines and most of the time, you can get places faster on a bike than a car. As we drove the short distance to the club during inner-city rush hour, I was amazed at how many bikes were on the road, locked to poles and stashed on balconies: bikes are everywhere.

After a great dinner and fantastic concert, Kit suggested that she was a bit tired and would I mind riding her bike home. This seemed like the perfect way to unravel after three hours of driving and several more hours of sitting in an uncomfortable bar chair, so I agreed. James and I headed out, taking Bloor Street, one of Toronto's busiest streets, as most it was the most direct route. I should point out that I am riding a female artist's commuter bike. It has the "girl's bike" frame, a spring mounted seat and gears that don't like to change, since according to James, she prefers riding in one gear. Oh, yeah, and a milk crate mounted on the back for grocery storage. I can tell you, it felt pretty good when we blew by the hipsters on their techy fixies, riding department store commuter bikes. Although they did blow by us shortly after.

Riding at night in a big city requires a big adjustment when you are used to riding by yourself in the woods. There are cars everywhere threatening to open their doors, big trucks belching fumes, sewer grates, potholes, more cars, more bikes, stray cats, weird smells, random art installations and people jaywalking out of nowhere. It was a blast. I was really glad I wasn't on my own bike. I would have been tempted to ride a lot faster and farther. If you want a very different riding experience, try an urban night ride. But just make sure your spidey-sense is dialed up to "full" before you saddle up!

Toronto is supposed to have more than it's share of beauties....Would the SBR confirm this?

Why, yes, Snowballs, I saw many beautiful bicycles on my ride through Toronto.

I have been having a hell of a lot of fun riding the trails out my back door this summer.  It's not a "destination" mountain biking area like the TRs Matt has been putting up, and my bike's an old (but decent in its day a dozen yrs ago) suspension-less model, but there's miles of single-track and ATV trails that mostly seem to no longer see ATV traffic.  I'd describe the terrain as fast and "flowy" - ups, downs and turns that are not overly technical, rocky, rooty or muddy.  I received a few requests for more info on those trails, so I drew up a map (admittedly sketchy) of what I've been riding - PM me if you're local and interested in riding there, I'll share my map.  Rumor is that SMBA may adopt these trails, which would be interesting.

As a footnote, the mountain biking reports Matt and SBR have been putting up this summer were part of the inspiration for writing up the mtb TR for my blog, linked above, so thanks go out to those guys.

Thanks Jeff, I am glad that my adventures have inspired you to get back into biking. You are fortunate to have such nice trails close to home. I too have trails close to home but they are a bit more, shall we say, rustic. Yesterday's ride seemed worthy of a full TR, so check out the full story at TFTH - Summer Edition.

On this ride, SBR explores a multi-use trail:

Danny Macaskill again. Unbelievable. Take 4 minutes out of your life and watch this beautiful little film.

Sick Bird Rider wrote

Danny Macaskill again. Unbelievable. Take 4 minutes out of your life and watch this beautiful little film.

This is obviously awesome trick biking, as usual from DM.

The colors in this video were something else.  His videos have always been well done but this one is more beautiful than his previous stuff.

He never ceases to amaze me. However I still think his first video was the best.

I bet the colors were so much better because it was probably filmed with an HDSLR