Election Day

Some gremlins in the works here at Piso de Smith. I figure going forward is the best way to deal, so forward I did. We're off school today since schools act as so many voting places, so after a fitful and too-short night's sleep I hit the road for a morning constitutional (older use, as I had already...well, enough) to my voting site, after which I walked up for a cup of coffee. I ended with 6.5 miles of pleasant trail and sidewalk walking. And several hours of avoiding the gremlins. Some gremlins struck again this afternoon (after some brief errand riding), so I eventually ambled out so some evening rush hour road riding, using the Blueridge since I knew the weather and darkness would descend. And it did, in fact. I made it home after a reasonable 19-miler out to Iroquois. Tomorrow is a new day.

What I get for...

First day off the bike since September 30th and what do I get but a gunky throat hack. We took a college visit with the younger and then his indoor soccer game afterwards, so there wasn't much time for two wheels. And now I sit here at home with no car and a slightly- not very icky- icky feeling. Damn.

Active October

I'm in the midst of this-and-that, so October was a busy month on the bike. Basically, my son had my car the entire month, so I lived somewhat Car-free. I didn't work every day of the month due to PD days, but of the days that there was school, I commuted by bike to work on every one of them save yesterday, Halloween. I was also on the bike every day of the month, which I'm sure is a first. My mileage ended up being 471, which I've superseded plenty of times, but it was/has been an interesting journey to live a true Car-free lifestyle. I'm sure I borrowed my car somewhere in there, but I did all my grocery shopping and errand running my bike, and only drove if I was driving the fam around for some reason (complicated).

As I begin November I find myself truly car-free. We traded in the Volvo yesterday to bring down the cost of my son's new car, a nice, dependable Honda Accord. He's happy and I'm happy for him. I ended up catching a ride from him because we had to time things for after-school, post-dinner at my mom's for Halloween. Sort of wish I had ridden somehow.  Now I find myself sans wheels, and that's alright. The only drawback I can think of is not being able to get frozen stuff all the way from Trader Joe's to the house; I don't think I'm ambitious enough to use coolers and ice and whatnot. I just won't eat Trader Joe's. And at some point I'll pick up something motorized, maybe even soon.

Lastly, it's been a very warm, dry Fall here- as I'm sure it's been elsewhere- so the riding has been easy. This morning's commute will be 63F and dry, with the afternoon in the upper-70's or even 80's. Yeah Global Warming!!

Country Ride

Trying to recapture a bit of our cycling youth, i.e. what we did a few years ago, Mr. Crowell and I have take a few country rides of late. This past Sunday we took a route designed by DC out of Sonora, KY, which is south of E'town about 55 minutes south of Louisville. It was new country for both of us. It also added into my new-found obsession with my Strava Heatmap. I don't really care about my segment times (much), but I sure like to fill in more squiggly blue lines on my own heatmap. This 37-miler did the trick. It started cool and misty but ended quite warm, and I personally ran out of water. So be it. I enjoyed myself and generally felt good on the bike during the course of the ride, so it's a win/win in my mind. Some images.

If you look carefully, you might make out the image of a horse-drawn buggy down this road. Where we parked in Sonora, it was church time for the local Amish population. As such we saw maybe 10 buggies making their way. This one in the pic was piloted by a boy of 13 or so, and the other 3 in the buggy were equally young. 

 Some kayakers on the Nolin River. We missed what could have been an interesting portage on the north side of the bridge.

Nice valley, cheeky climb. 

No water at this church. The cheek!! 

 This guy was quite friendly, and as dogs are sometimes wont to do, he followed us for a good while. I almost put him in my randobag and took him home.

Country rides, country roads.

Fatbiking the Falls of the Ohio

Long time, no blog.

Brian S and I took advantage of a dry spell and spent a Sunday afternoon 2 weeks ago to fatbike the area around the Falls of the Ohio. Brian had explored this same area when he was younger, but I have never ventured out on the rocks. I'd say we were out for a good 3 hours and went a grand total of 5 miles, but every one of those miles was earned. While seemingly flat, the constant texture changes in the rock made for tough pedaling, but what a great place to practice riding skills with the constant weight shifts and front-end work. The other drawback was our unseasonably hot temps. We started to bake out there with the rock acting as oven.  

All-in-all it was a really fun afternoon. Here are some shots. The others are on my phone somewhere. Too much tech. 

 Brian's Trek Stache+ bike, which he loves. He decided that the extra width of a 4" bike would be worth in at the Falls, for both sand and rock.

 The Muk, which did the trick. Probably wish I had run an extra 2-3lbs just for safety sake.

Brian for scale at the hydro plant. It doesn't supply much energy, but does some.

Borrowed from the website listed above. Our route took us all along the rock formations to the left to the end of the island, seen as the green area in the center. We made out way back and then took the right bank up past that bulbous formation of rock in the center before bailing and taking a bit of road back. We were hot and tired.

Big South Fork Bikepack- Bandy Creek car camp edition

Patrick and I hemmed and hawed as to how to proceed with the trip. In the end we wanted to ride but decided to abandon the "bikepacking" thing. Instead we drove down to TN to the Bandy Creek campground, where I had read about some nice mtbiking. No, we wouldn't be bike touring, but we would be bike riding, which is a good compromise.

I don't know that we did enough each day to really differentiate. We based ourselves at the nice-maintained campground and took trail day rides to inspect some of the different portions than comprise the IMBA Epic. After our first day experience, we realized that we would fall short of  "epic" in 2016. Below are some pics with the strava routes of each day. Outside of riding we mostly sat around and acted like we were 12 again, including the intake of fast food in nearby Oneida. It wasn't a bikepacking tour, but it did involve bikes, bears, copperheads, and really pretty scenery.

His head, in fact, is the color of copper, resting just outside the Blue Heron campground bathhouse.

As we were at BHC, the "snake man" came and took him away. Only about 2 feet. To this city slicker, it looked like certain death.

Scene at our second location, Bandy Creek campground, also part of BSF.

Part of the Collier Ridge trail at Bandy Creek. The first half is old forest road, pretty sedate. At the west end the trail dives into a couple miles of very nice singletrack. 

Collier Ridge at the crossroads. I think most folks turn left and take the West Bandy Creek Trail. We didn't know much and took a right, for the CR return. It was even more sedate narrowed forest road rolling until a quick, fun, open downhill to finish the "lollipop". 

Scene returning from Collier Ridge. Pretty, but also pretty damn hot at that moment.

After our brief ride Thursday we got in the car to head to town and then for a little sightseeing on the way back. Fact is, we had time to kill. We stopped by the lovely East Rim Overlook and then down to the river at Leatherwood Ford, where the old bridge wasn't looking too hot.

We descended down to the start of the Gap Loop in the car the previous evening. It looked intense. Later study revealed favorable reviews of doable singletrack. Several mentioned the trail changing at the cemetery, and indeed there is a random grave deep in the woods along Gap Loop. I'm ever amazed  the remnants of the early European settlers in the area.

This lookout is the big draw for the Gap Loop. I'm utterly chicken of hights, so I'm sure my face is in pain, but the view of this valley here is outstanding.

Typical forested singletrack along the Gap Loop, which did a nice job mixing up cliffside views with non-technical trails farther inland.

Nighttime hammock setup with lots of glow cord. Too bad the glowcord doesn't help when trying to escape from the hammock in the middle of the night. I still think I like the night's sleep better in the hammock than on the ground- no sore shoulders or hips- but it's not an elegant exit, especially with the bug net.

Friday night we went up to the field near the campground, one which had a wide expanse of viewing for star-watching. The moon was a little too bright for really dark conditions, but it was really pleasant anyway. I used my cheap point-and-shoot for these, so no blue ribbons for night photography, but it was a nice space anyway.

Although fuzzy, we have a 3/4 moon, Saturn immediately below, Antares (Scorpius) below that, and a brilliant Mars to the right. Jupiter was much further to the west too. Awe.

One-minute exposure straight overhead. Little dots of distant light.

Exposure fun with moon.

However questionable the sleep, we awoke to a magical moment in the morning. I have perhaps 10 different pictures, all with the same glorious expression of life.

Our last ride included the John Muir trail, which I see as an extension of the Gap Loop. Both are moderate singletrack trails with not much technical terrain but with plenty of flow, and of course some amazing views to boot.

With a reasonable amount of skill this set of stairs is the only required dismount on the backcountry trails at Bandy Creek.

Story needed: So I come around a turn to see this pile of scat in the middle of the trail. It looked reasonably fresh, thought I am no scatologist and took no time to analyze it. I surmised, though, that a bear had indeed shit in the woods. We had spoken to a camp worker just previously that she and/or her boyfriend had recently seen 5 black bears in the area. I was pretty cavalier until I saw this evidence that a big, furry apex predator was along our trail. I made some noise and proceeded a little more gingerly.

Ten minutes later again around a turn I heard a rustling in the woods to the right. Looking down a valley at maybe 50 yds I saw him/her, a big, black, furball in the woods, a damn live bear!! I started hollering but also tried to grab my camera. As I hollered some more he/she took a look and went high speed up the hill and out of site. Again Patrick and high made some noise and took our time, since the bear's departure cut across our future trail course. We never saw it again, which is good. But I wished I had caught the fur ball on film first. 

The John Muir Trail ends up on a gravel climb working its way back towards the campground. I snapped this only because the rest of the route is heavily forested and it was strange to have a sudden clearing.

Bandy Creek is worth a weekend return, to sample the trails, and others again, while staying in a nicely maintained campground. It wasn't what was expected, but we did ride our bikes, and we did not get bitten by copperheads or attacked by bears. We had further plans for a Saturday night camp, but the weather was becoming oppressive and our time was done. Tour 2016 is in the record books.

Big South Fork 2016 The Departure

It's that time of year, the summer bike trip which Mr. Johnson and I have now done 4 different years. Years 1 and 2 centered on the areas around and to the south of Natural Bridge SP. Year 3 moved further south to take in what I'll call the S-Tree environs. The "plan" was to ride even further south in the Big South Fork area of very southern KY, an area I visited with DC and Michael many moons ago (2010), so I thought it would be fun to return, only this mixing some bikepacking with some singletracking too. Given the terrain, I though it best to dial back on the mileage, with rides in the 30ish range, albeit with the usual bushwacking and hike-a-biking.

We left Williamsburg and warmed up with a 1.5-mile climb along Becks Creek Rd. I say warmed up because right away it showed to be a hot day. Foreshadowing and all that.

We hit gravel on Waldroup Rd. at around mile 7 and enjoyed a steady descent into the Jellico Creek valley. We found the creek passable and had a snack on the banks, where many a can of beer had been drunk, I suspect. It was pretty deep in the boonies.

Next began a 5-mile stretch of not-road, listed as Newman-Campbell Rd., but really it was nothing more than a 4-wheeler track. As the pics below show, it presented us with innumerable mud holes and a few creek crossings too. The temps were edging 90F or more, and the oppressive heat and humidity took its (their?) toll. It was a tough section.

The conditions aside, the blackberry snack en route was a nice distraction. 

At the southern end of our mixed-terrain escapade we made a decision to change tack and salvage our day a bit. One in our party was burning many matches and not responding well in the heat. It was hot. We chose to take the main road, 92, towards our destination of Blue Heron Campground and try to enjoy ourselves a bit more, in addition to deal with the heat better. I'll be honest; I hated the next section, a grinding 6 miles in the sun with a bit of traffic. About half of the section included a 3-mile false flat with a kick kind of hill that I just am not good at grinding out. We eventually turned onto 2792, which looks to be the old 92, as the new one involves a huge rock cut which we could see as we turned. We ground up a 1-mile climb until I found some shade at the top next to a cemetery. I waited for Patrick, who was really struggling with the heat.

The entire scene was, I don't know, unusual or encouraging or something. While I lay there in the shade a gentleman came across the (his) field to check to see if I was alright. Once Patrick arrived his son came across the field and offered us two bottles of cold water, a very welcome reprieve from some hours of gross, hot water. At the point the trip turned. Patrick's body just couldn't seem to deal with the heat and humidity; his heart rate wouldn't go down. After some encouragement, he asked for a ride from the nice family back to the car while I decided to continue with the route. We would meet at camp. I assume this was the first tour Patrick has bailed on ever, much less within the first 20 miles. But the body can only do so much.

I plowed on and into Pine Knot where I bought a refreshing cold gatorade and a snack and had a nice rest on a bench in front of a middle school. I'm a teacher and all, you know. From there I made my way north towards the campground and the land got a little lumpier, especially the climb out of Roaring Paunch Creek. While I cleared that climb, it took what remaining reserves out of my legs and the final miles became a brief deathmarch into camp.

No coal. 

Mountain views are always nice.

I beat Patrick into camp, although he arrived shortly thereafter. This trip was the first to employ a full hammock set-up, with both bug net and tarp for potential showers. After checking out a brilliant Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn in the southern sky, we settled down early, considering what our next steps would be the next day now that the bikepack had turned into a car camp. Things happen.