tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156529782024-03-13T13:49:22.234-04:00Tex's Luavull CyclingBikes, Futbol, Birds, StuffUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1901125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-84783238073919388522018-04-14T16:21:00.003-04:002018-04-14T16:21:46.773-04:00Alabama Sky Day 3 Vistas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We began Day 3 with a basic breakfast at the restaurant, again better than camp cooking a salt bomb,and bundled up for a long descent in the cold (the same descent we partially covered the previous evening). Aside the cold, the bonus of the day was lots of sun and blue sky. Looks were looking good.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aero!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I LOVE this sign. If I had a better angle I would make it a profile pic. Pavement to Gravel. Great stuff. This is at the well-known Adams Gap, which denotes the gravel but also is a popular hiking trailhead. Or so I read.</td></tr>
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Our 7-mile warm-up made for a pleasant early morning. The off-road Skyway began in earnest at Adams Gap. We found manicured gravel and occasional glimpses of humanity with a few nice country homes and seemingly some more lots being prepped. In some ways that ways strange because in our previous days we saw virtually no construction save the state park.<br />
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At mile 12 things got more interesting when we left the manicured gravel for some tough-and-tumble off-roading. This section of road reminded me very much of not-maintained roads in Daniel Boone NF in Kentucky. I liked it very much, although this section did open with a 1.5m climb. More climbing.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I wished I had stopped and better inspected this section. The rock here had a sparkle to it. Unfortunately I have virtually no knowledge of geology. Fun section though.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some mighty fine adventure bikes in this pic. I'd say each owner is quite happy with the purchase and set-up.</td></tr>
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A long technical (not singletrack, just chunky) downhill led us to the creek and then a short time later to our mid-ride stop at the church at Horn's Lake Rd. As previously noted on the <a href="http://www.bikepacking.com/routes/alabama-skyway/">AL Skyway</a> route, this church has a spigot, a trash dumpster, and a nice porch for a quick rest. We took full advantage. Thank you, church at that corner whose name escapes me. From here we faced the second longest climb of our trip, up CR307/FR600-1, a 3-mile textured haul. Strangely, I got the best phone service of the trip at the start. As Pondero distanced on the climb, no shock there, I stopped to answer some texts, all while in a very sparsely area. Technology. Modernity.<br />
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And then we climbed. Strangely, midclimb I found Pondero talking to a guy in a big pickup truck. I figured Pondero had found an interested local. Instead he had run across the race organizer of the <a href="http://www.southernfriedrides.com/">Skyway Epic</a>, which ironically was to start on Friday night, the final day of our adventure. Where we had split the route into 4 pleasant (albeit hard) days, the mtb racers were going to do it all in one day. This year the race was introducing a 280-mile, self-supported race. Boggles the mind, really. The contrast of the race organizer enjoying the same roads as we tourers was fun. He base us adieu and we returned to our climbing.<br />
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After several miles of rollers along the ridgetop, we found a spectacular overlook into western AL. We contemplated stopping here for the night but decided it was too early. We ventured on. I really enjoyed this section of road along the ridge on the Skyway. The blue skies and mild temps helped.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pondero looking very heroic. A man assessing the terrain. Discoverer.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me gusta.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A slightly weird scene at the Horn Mt. firetower. This spot, yes, had a firetower, but also had remnants of a former rest area of some type. It had concrete picnic tables, shelters, and even remnants of a water fountain, all very tired. Strange.</td></tr>
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After our visit to the Horn Mt. Fire tower, we started looking for our evening spot with a bit more interest. We were still in good time, but I for one, was ready for a bit of camp r & r. I passed (Pondero being up the road) a blocked-but-passable road to the right, one that maybe would provide some open area to set up camp. Not much further, though, I saw his bike perched up aside a tree, but no sight of Pondero. Shortly thereafter he camp traipsing up from the bush after having done a bit of recon. To his mind, he had found it, a camping spot at an overlook that also would give us a bit of cover from the road. I hiked down as well to survey and gave my seal of approval. It might have been a bit too close to the Pinhoti Trail considering etiquette- we were even greeted by a passing through backpacker- but we practiced no-trace camping as best we could.<br />
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I'm not sure the pics below reflect how cool this spot was, hovering over the valley with the entirety of western Alabama on our feet. We even had some rocks on which to perch our camp stoves. It was just all good. I took many pictures, most of which did a poor job showing the campsite. It was just one of those special moments that will live longer in the memory than in pixels. "Oh, that night atop the ridge overlooking the valley, hammocking under the stars." It was grand.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-82843373623923555082018-04-10T21:47:00.000-04:002018-04-10T21:47:14.942-04:00Alabama Skyway Day 2 The Climbing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Day 2 opened damp-ish, but no precipitation was falling as we left camp. We expected a 30-mile day with a finish at or around the <a href="http://www.alapark.com/cheaha-state-park">Cheaha State Park</a>. Without surprise, our day began with a climb.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Uphill, with Pondero already extending.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I wanted to get a pick of the Pinhoti Trail symbol, which is the white one 3rd down. It's was a precursor to the construction of the AT, and I've heard well-marked in AL.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oh, look! Another climb!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The only reason I had the time to set up for a Pondero pic was that he waited for me at the top of a climb and I descend faster than he does due to intertia x mass or whatev the physics is. He looks pretty plumb here. Good for him.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I strangely like the juxtaposition of the fire tower, tree, and modern communications tower, so a strange melange of tech and nature. This is at the top of a fiercely long gravel climb. I didn't see Pondero for minutes and minutes.</td></tr>
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We had a jolly time rolling along our 15 miles- no, I just checked and it was only 7.5 miles, Geez!- before we stopped off at the ranger station for a water-topping and rest. Thereafter we hit pavement along AL 281 for the remainder of our day, the Alabama Skyway. Of course the AS began with a mile-long climb. Climbing. Day 2. Yes. 281 presented us with about 10 miles of reasonable rollers before the climbing began anew, in this case up to a nice lookout at mile 17. The lookout vista was the first of what have named "The 3 Sisters", or what could be the "3 Lizards" or "3 Hills". Suffice to say the first had a nice lookout, the second I don't really remember.<br />
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It was the 3rd "Sister" that proved my personal downfall. Pretty quickly I dismounted for what ended up being a challenging walk up % grades in the teens. While not as long as the previous two "sisters", #3 was a real pain. We found some lumpy stuff at the top before a bombing descent and the sign for the entrance to Cheaha SP. And its climb.<br />
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While the star of the show, the climb up to Cheaha wasn't that bad. Yes, 3 to 4 miles of climbing isn't fun, but it was paved and reasonable in gradient. You just chugged in a low gear. Yes, I did experience a little cramping in my left inner thigh; yes, that was new. But I chugged up to meet Pondero at the top. All was good.<br />
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At the top we studied plans and decided on reserving our campsite, setting up camp, and returning to the restaurant for a warm dinner instead of camp food. The young lady at the counter suggested that the camp was about "one mile down". I became alarmed, but somehow Pondero soothed my concerns. We would descend, set up camp, and return unburdened, and easy jaunt. So we descended. And descended. And descended. We made the necessary turn and descended. At some point stopped, no campground in sight and decided that this "one mile away" campground was WAY too deep in the boonies so we decided to ascend to the hotel/restaurant area to reassess. Pondero climbed ahead while I eventually stopped to eat some welcomes PB crackers. About a mile back up our climb, (which we measured at 2.2 miles and 700+ft of climbing), my right leg began to cramp, and thusly I enjoyed an additional mile of walking uphill.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Contrast, peoples, Contrast.</td></tr>
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After a nice cleaning (in the hotel shower. We got a room. The extremely right decision with impending mid-30s temps), we partook of the restaurant and its large burgers. Later we enjoyed the Cheaha sunset, a trip highlight. What a day! 30 measly miles and 5K of climbing. I was at my limit and eventually met my limit on the restaurant return. It was all a bit much, but turned out to be beautiful day. Hard, but I already remember it fondly.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pondero pondering.</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-19208804597897109162018-04-08T22:31:00.001-04:002018-04-08T22:40:09.585-04:00Alabama Skyway 2018 Day 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Borrowing a bit of inspiration from the <a href="http://www.bikepacking.com/routes/alabama-skyway/">Bikepacking Alabama Skway</a>, <a href="https://pawndero.wordpress.com/">Pondero </a>and I plotted our 2018 Spring Break adventure around some family time and free time respectively. I'm going to regale you of our adventure although nobody really reads blogs anymore. Pondero used <a href="https://www.instagram.com/pondero/">Instagram </a>rather actively, but my phone had neither the battery nor the coverage to do the same, so you're going to get a rather 2010 analog version here on <i>der blog</i>.</div>
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We met in Birmingham, and his gracious family volunteered to provide shuttle. Very kind (and they are shown in the photo below). What was not kind was our route beginning almost from the first mile with a climb in excess of one mile up Duggar Mountain. I don't like roads with the name "mountain" in them. I went slowly, but didn't get "last" on the Strava segment, so I guess I kept a reasonable spin. It was terrible.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Notice that we're on flat terrain, but that extremely large hills are in the background. Ugh. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Very steep profile in the distance. I walked.</td></tr>
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After our inital climb, we were met with a few more challenges, all of which Pondero passed with flying colors while I grunted up, sometimes on two walking legs instead of on two wheels. My lack of winter conditioning made things quite evident, which is why Pondero is ahead of me in every picture. The gradient up to CR55 at "Grantley" proved particularly miserable. Once we topped the CR500 climb, we were met with a nice spin of rollers, but at least with the opportunity to ride our bikes instead of doing leg presses and adding to our step count. Alabama is hilly.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On top of the ridge, we were met with wafts of smoke, eventually rolling through a section of forest recently destroyed by a tornado. We later learned that the smoke was from controlled burns, but the combination lent an eerie World War I vibe to things.</td></tr>
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We started our first day rather late, around 1pm. The two substantial climbs and rollers gave us a pleasant-albeit-challenging to the Alabama Skyway. At the bottom of a gravel descent we found <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/alabama/recarea/?recid=30159">Pine Glen Campground</a>, which was mostly empty, giving us the pick of the litter, all for the fair price of $3. Yes, $3. A little dismaying was learning the the water spigots were all turned off, but the only other person in camp walked over and offered us a gallon of bottled water, which we accepted with gratitude. It made for an easier night in camp, and an extra cup or two of coffee.<br />
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Our focus turned to effectively tarping our tents for impending storms. The night began with a starry night overhead- and a passing bright satellite- but later we were buffeted with stiff winds and a lightening show. Pondero and I both mentioned strange dreams, but we also both stayed dry and slept adequately. We survived, and the morning was basically dry.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Jones mount with Eno tent and Kammock set-up in the background. I stayed dry. That's all that matters.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pondero's Bantam, but with gear still stored. I didn't take pics of his Hennessy and new, larger tent. He stayed dry too.</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-87671788268466604572018-01-26T20:06:00.001-05:002018-01-26T20:29:51.931-05:002017 Review2527 miles<br />
Most trips: Jones ATB (78)<br />
2nd most trips: Jones Ti (22)<br />
IF Club Racer: 17 rides, 418 miles. Not as bad as originally computed. Dumb.<br />
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My 2017 was framed around my broken arm in late June. Shit, I didn't even post anything here. Like the other cool kids, I've mostly moved to Instagram for the short-and-sweet. I had surgery in early July and wasn't back on the commuter until September 6. I did a mix of road and commute throughout the Fall but never got my mojo back. I did finally hit the (frozen trails) in late December, but my riding has been very tentative, and that's alright. '17 was my lowest mileage year since keeping data on mycyclinglog.com, but that's what happens when you break you arm.<br />
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<u>Top rides (in no particular order)</u><br />
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1. Ouachita Bikepack Tour with Pondero in April. (Days <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2017/04/lake-ouachita-2017-d1.html">1</a>, <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2017/04/lake-ouachita-2017-d2.html">2</a>, <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2017/04/lake-ouachita-d3-drying.html">3</a>, & <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2017/04/lake-ouachita-day-4.html">4</a>). This image will ever stay with me.<br />
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2. A quick Napa, CA roll. Nothing special, but I rode in Napa.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/i9qEvvB-J_2jTuwE1E12D_9MUlNnG94B2hbU_n3l9wHitmZYT57oFjRp8-CllD2pnP70v4xRgHTw7vsQ_sfx0rV_mf0iDZL4QXh9DLhB2r0F6sCl-vl79jRE7v3e_JReL9j2suTNKJRxBSwYUqasZM2TKjog_8ctZJSG0okcnHUirHaZSYohWqkh5DEEovm29JBPgS3GQazuFDL9B6_Y66HpFEjjJtBxKvIKdBSP8zA1AWnOAqbEanjGpyGOjNlor7-Rre0VLzX9VcDUHKCDTmwErWrcyrQzcW3n2exxChfOrjx6ylxx6LrBvWQHRcEOkPn2CvsXbm_SxJOShZqx8Oyd9qjx8a-uHnntTh1V7f9gH87_hoYuo5hP8nIAd_cKqDn5qg7AqOhWW8dXi-qSN_YTNT3gNXkr1Go3QzaEY8MpNrAfbOVXtSnZ7SOdtceBhM1CKG81ZnXJZ2drya-ECy1hDyPWh1HQxJaE5rYfsO6pE1Skn16lK4nCExOQRNaxAktNuTiaqVe-9H8_D_o8pHucXEryatFCr9fq8mZZ-yEixKkxy6nvZSvP71I4T86VVagHNfsknsFLCne69SOHUqgN0HjsQRjxAQ=w1133-h637-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="637" data-original-width="1133" height="179" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/i9qEvvB-J_2jTuwE1E12D_9MUlNnG94B2hbU_n3l9wHitmZYT57oFjRp8-CllD2pnP70v4xRgHTw7vsQ_sfx0rV_mf0iDZL4QXh9DLhB2r0F6sCl-vl79jRE7v3e_JReL9j2suTNKJRxBSwYUqasZM2TKjog_8ctZJSG0okcnHUirHaZSYohWqkh5DEEovm29JBPgS3GQazuFDL9B6_Y66HpFEjjJtBxKvIKdBSP8zA1AWnOAqbEanjGpyGOjNlor7-Rre0VLzX9VcDUHKCDTmwErWrcyrQzcW3n2exxChfOrjx6ylxx6LrBvWQHRcEOkPn2CvsXbm_SxJOShZqx8Oyd9qjx8a-uHnntTh1V7f9gH87_hoYuo5hP8nIAd_cKqDn5qg7AqOhWW8dXi-qSN_YTNT3gNXkr1Go3QzaEY8MpNrAfbOVXtSnZ7SOdtceBhM1CKG81ZnXJZ2drya-ECy1hDyPWh1HQxJaE5rYfsO6pE1Skn16lK4nCExOQRNaxAktNuTiaqVe-9H8_D_o8pHucXEryatFCr9fq8mZZ-yEixKkxy6nvZSvP71I4T86VVagHNfsknsFLCne69SOHUqgN0HjsQRjxAQ=w1133-h637-no" width="320" /></a></div>
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3. My June S24O up-n-back to Clifty Falls. Actually I didn't have that much of a good time, but I'm glad I did it. (even the pic is bad)<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/E-f2I7-dWVEQbdDpHW7tiL3WuLGM52aIU-Ea4HdW5Gtq7wLjX7CuI6NwzY0zlHYX1guaQTuQhF_j8o8xtm0nBom9tdKUVFfoDVvbtdo9WpGzDQRwKpHiNoXHSQkHT-RIAe7BwXAgQzmkwTv0ZXWFtYvZ5Zlskf8MJT8z-r8AsR34Bz1SLXJGLmFVYK1UKyhT8Rxk8QvZ9f41bq9chWIKOltxJxeQRis9XhXxv1AHNiex0xcilor_VykSsA9cwg70AeyFgJ08UPGIwblG578W-NC5_PpOJz9eDWrCeT2mnDy5R1NHq4iRuODhCq8dLUerADLUHn-fbf5JDaCXkvkJc21yIqdWVKNAIstEnN47maSMOGZGn1NVcskVyIAbgxu5MnjYCYEj9vUrpQ_CUADln9_iUUgpP8ZsBAym-h_IYEFr7GKNHo-rooCDBGIeM_es565KftNkqBHsga18XtZBVxWvldHvZ5S1xeeDMGu60bDdLVwnJYUI3dROHQgYRZDxKdAd9kbyj3iDSRJvXrCLeIMA2wEyo334TCxEdBGIemdevsV7FC1_zD7Gw5VC5dU4DHGOPI6CPLbO2Vqz5TAoCPHp33oFJkdD1A=w1133-h637-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="637" data-original-width="1133" height="179" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/E-f2I7-dWVEQbdDpHW7tiL3WuLGM52aIU-Ea4HdW5Gtq7wLjX7CuI6NwzY0zlHYX1guaQTuQhF_j8o8xtm0nBom9tdKUVFfoDVvbtdo9WpGzDQRwKpHiNoXHSQkHT-RIAe7BwXAgQzmkwTv0ZXWFtYvZ5Zlskf8MJT8z-r8AsR34Bz1SLXJGLmFVYK1UKyhT8Rxk8QvZ9f41bq9chWIKOltxJxeQRis9XhXxv1AHNiex0xcilor_VykSsA9cwg70AeyFgJ08UPGIwblG578W-NC5_PpOJz9eDWrCeT2mnDy5R1NHq4iRuODhCq8dLUerADLUHn-fbf5JDaCXkvkJc21yIqdWVKNAIstEnN47maSMOGZGn1NVcskVyIAbgxu5MnjYCYEj9vUrpQ_CUADln9_iUUgpP8ZsBAym-h_IYEFr7GKNHo-rooCDBGIeM_es565KftNkqBHsga18XtZBVxWvldHvZ5S1xeeDMGu60bDdLVwnJYUI3dROHQgYRZDxKdAd9kbyj3iDSRJvXrCLeIMA2wEyo334TCxEdBGIemdevsV7FC1_zD7Gw5VC5dU4DHGOPI6CPLbO2Vqz5TAoCPHp33oFJkdD1A=w1133-h637-no" width="320" /></a></div>
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4. An early summer, rainy 58-mile road ride with shop guys. Fun to feel like a cyclist even though I was garbage.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/IiguvIrVxc7CRZxKPaqJkvH-cahJHjRHywozczmfFzikYFGR6NAAdR5Fw0BeoAqWOvBJ6mZnKM6wClmgNKd2VATLmsHTz0NBSelobflSUCJdH9RIkJOybHtQIREvzJ9oP1--9V6VOdfR-v5xwvjeFsjoLgL-1Z-J3dKOK4MrRV1CgFqJDgO4XXpEaki9g6OQ9VPEYVj8qm9awOAJiaktvs6DraiwbqRIElUL6lN6RpFD-SAWcHUjhCxCDlRIxy2LR_FVhSXuxhBUm__XmCZDwURcvxEWq2mPNbNSJh-gszYg7EA7k1HR2UUp7Oc8BBJzQj1S2XpqeLf5vX49PqqxJY78z-j4mgPsO1H-xb6SorYGFZW1--K3ffGe-6FlVBb0SPA9I268_Tng-i_XBOggaEkwx9ChorSlhukoPGiXyALsWRk9apMg7geMlHa8IsAAkQjibzf-Rbpnn0b8FrjjUizDfbF5n3CfM2413GMW6HukamH9X_qchClDxOR6-XYnGAfuyWb3IXGjmqbK0mh9hHyO8yyI2nAUbTGbLCzTBREQtKsLpK2SuwYdHX8zFcgHo0Dp-gtU5LbN9OCrf751S6wRsd0H3YkqDw=w1133-h637-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="637" data-original-width="1133" height="179" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/IiguvIrVxc7CRZxKPaqJkvH-cahJHjRHywozczmfFzikYFGR6NAAdR5Fw0BeoAqWOvBJ6mZnKM6wClmgNKd2VATLmsHTz0NBSelobflSUCJdH9RIkJOybHtQIREvzJ9oP1--9V6VOdfR-v5xwvjeFsjoLgL-1Z-J3dKOK4MrRV1CgFqJDgO4XXpEaki9g6OQ9VPEYVj8qm9awOAJiaktvs6DraiwbqRIElUL6lN6RpFD-SAWcHUjhCxCDlRIxy2LR_FVhSXuxhBUm__XmCZDwURcvxEWq2mPNbNSJh-gszYg7EA7k1HR2UUp7Oc8BBJzQj1S2XpqeLf5vX49PqqxJY78z-j4mgPsO1H-xb6SorYGFZW1--K3ffGe-6FlVBb0SPA9I268_Tng-i_XBOggaEkwx9ChorSlhukoPGiXyALsWRk9apMg7geMlHa8IsAAkQjibzf-Rbpnn0b8FrjjUizDfbF5n3CfM2413GMW6HukamH9X_qchClDxOR6-XYnGAfuyWb3IXGjmqbK0mh9hHyO8yyI2nAUbTGbLCzTBREQtKsLpK2SuwYdHX8zFcgHo0Dp-gtU5LbN9OCrf751S6wRsd0H3YkqDw=w1133-h637-no" width="320" /></a></div>
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5. PJ and I had a really good time in Knoxville on a couple days of trails until my fateful accident. The first day was a bit sticky but we did most of what's to offer in the <a href="http://www.outdoorknoxville.com/urban-wilderness?gclid=Cj0KCQiAwKvTBRC2ARIsAL0Dgk3CEaoFxMd7ok-1vR2Bc6VJnTclgmzIF_1qw3VcrhavrGHG-7C6VfYaAs5rEALw_wcB">Urban Wilderness</a>. The second day we found rain so went a bit north to the well-draining trails at Norris Lake. The first run was fun, so we were doing things anti-clockwise and I bit it in a turn. Just lost it. No explanation except for a bit too much speed. I'll live with a gimpy, arthritic wrist the rest of my days because. Life.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/0-NT9hxXSkp4hTt3-kZFhEGimSdSomfwdjGvwXILkJDww_PF__uqqe-ThLWdKmOgtwzXRzGKwlzGHccWS8g3D8gZO3MZJjOn4RHQQA_sEj_PvVFKnwSNAPZBv_y8RVwesz12kx5lCe24DJyMRt3aIKoVpS3urg3TzmyrdyMNYIFxRaecajXzbAwyI26jrTo7zoXR_4gyYDF_WZRjRpdjMALwACNidsGtu996mQYEb7nxmC47_mnJ0_yAMKEZLPsNnTArwaFJo84xaUtajyFlYTs_T894MdCCQ5HU_I4IRI2c7Nja4xVfPkzE7BBKxmf5o71VHVZJ5pAKbb8lZGZjCzggEel8Djlyc5TLKtV3iunzYiayYsbPVlQmuNQ0FO5TE1ebYG2DgqndAAp_hYvKAh-3cxMZfWJBh7I8CxADbXk9YkdGnu8yqcVJjtK16xxHMpfgMP8VXI6MiauNF-uDvxCpJZjOvebvWRR72klL4Rw_Vg_uTtFwHpgu5hX5WBCi_QwuMA4nw2g2TPHfDPI7-oPwU0nGXkiYtuU9POXQt9KCa3rB3KVqjHU9Wjm95g0pR31_fb2yW45_ABndoo92Fqx8VhVIeEY2EA=w1133-h637-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="637" data-original-width="1133" height="179" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/0-NT9hxXSkp4hTt3-kZFhEGimSdSomfwdjGvwXILkJDww_PF__uqqe-ThLWdKmOgtwzXRzGKwlzGHccWS8g3D8gZO3MZJjOn4RHQQA_sEj_PvVFKnwSNAPZBv_y8RVwesz12kx5lCe24DJyMRt3aIKoVpS3urg3TzmyrdyMNYIFxRaecajXzbAwyI26jrTo7zoXR_4gyYDF_WZRjRpdjMALwACNidsGtu996mQYEb7nxmC47_mnJ0_yAMKEZLPsNnTArwaFJo84xaUtajyFlYTs_T894MdCCQ5HU_I4IRI2c7Nja4xVfPkzE7BBKxmf5o71VHVZJ5pAKbb8lZGZjCzggEel8Djlyc5TLKtV3iunzYiayYsbPVlQmuNQ0FO5TE1ebYG2DgqndAAp_hYvKAh-3cxMZfWJBh7I8CxADbXk9YkdGnu8yqcVJjtK16xxHMpfgMP8VXI6MiauNF-uDvxCpJZjOvebvWRR72klL4Rw_Vg_uTtFwHpgu5hX5WBCi_QwuMA4nw2g2TPHfDPI7-oPwU0nGXkiYtuU9POXQt9KCa3rB3KVqjHU9Wjm95g0pR31_fb2yW45_ABndoo92Fqx8VhVIeEY2EA=w1133-h637-no" width="320" /></a></div>
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6. I got antsy and did a solo S24O down by the Ohio River, bum style. I freaked out at 5am to what eventually proved to be a golf course mower. I thought drunk rednecks were coming. It was fun, a little adventure.<br />
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7. My big adventure post-surgery was a road trip to TX to Pondero's Ramble. I first stopped in my birthstate of AR and did a morning ride in St. Francis NF under sunny skies. That was fun. And I used the trip as one of my 'coffee outside' stops to help complete the #coffeeneuring2018 challenge. The Fall wasn't awesome, but the challenge and the road trip did help to break things up.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/oIjjFdjA7ul0RBgCkQYVfNShzCq5GB38me1eQGr6qebdrd3jmWMGA-N6J-AIFIZuMBvSK60mjeUppXfkTVGiwY7waR0QeWz056DpZCruJOid1K1J1CTm-PpvUsY81AP_RfLftOgvUeqr50KH-glDaEyO8OEyXKJh7YtcwMjpeWzt8dGN29r3lF7cmAsamKQ7_UwlXgNxs8BsjLI00FyWVRbLAlV2-yEobuHKrgAFDt_Lt_iTb1GtzIkmB1UPEwJdn5coQl7hSl2jwUm6qboAPyWadj4OpGR3LDg2NLh4zTfSfdkfy3_nrvcnlEuONlsBIyajhpDXE8tZKJQW6Izk6unbgvojTdJNtsVyJTloKGrI6AZOW2Y3wmOrk-yugR_uIvnC7LJqUBA2BlsLIVcznwhJgBT5HgDhlSnedMG3wlbRfrmHr6J3fn_QDaRl0CkyxY7jCLm6WTSbnnIMrUf3zl5u0H8MWOpipn7i27mKBJTp7PcFN0-l-yRD57aA8QHbZ3KcgIcVflA2dyrPpv8oPr8B7RtX1xNDsnq12coHjfxlXsN--WfJR2gmv268a_QCiniauuKtmFoUHQuRiNPeFEBdysoVKBp8SQ=w1133-h637-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="637" data-original-width="1133" height="179" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/oIjjFdjA7ul0RBgCkQYVfNShzCq5GB38me1eQGr6qebdrd3jmWMGA-N6J-AIFIZuMBvSK60mjeUppXfkTVGiwY7waR0QeWz056DpZCruJOid1K1J1CTm-PpvUsY81AP_RfLftOgvUeqr50KH-glDaEyO8OEyXKJh7YtcwMjpeWzt8dGN29r3lF7cmAsamKQ7_UwlXgNxs8BsjLI00FyWVRbLAlV2-yEobuHKrgAFDt_Lt_iTb1GtzIkmB1UPEwJdn5coQl7hSl2jwUm6qboAPyWadj4OpGR3LDg2NLh4zTfSfdkfy3_nrvcnlEuONlsBIyajhpDXE8tZKJQW6Izk6unbgvojTdJNtsVyJTloKGrI6AZOW2Y3wmOrk-yugR_uIvnC7LJqUBA2BlsLIVcznwhJgBT5HgDhlSnedMG3wlbRfrmHr6J3fn_QDaRl0CkyxY7jCLm6WTSbnnIMrUf3zl5u0H8MWOpipn7i27mKBJTp7PcFN0-l-yRD57aA8QHbZ3KcgIcVflA2dyrPpv8oPr8B7RtX1xNDsnq12coHjfxlXsN--WfJR2gmv268a_QCiniauuKtmFoUHQuRiNPeFEBdysoVKBp8SQ=w1133-h637-no" width="320" /></a></div>
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8. While low numerically, I did enjoy Pondero's Ramble. But dammit if my '17 luck got the better of me. I returned home on a Sunday at 4pm. By 9.30pm that evening I had the beginnings of my first kidney stone. That ensuing week sucked. While I am really glad- and appreciative of the hospitality- I attended Pondero's ride, unfortunately it is inextricably linked to that damn kidney stone.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uHCsIHWz0cs4aTK0BO1JyoGACFDY83N99bmMVwGYBR3ZNwRRyzW3BIeuxlM7ih9oSXoPr3j-x9CUksRPKAOFtLYN3iVOxlqvsr3ewSUtWrlByKE7OlEL5y5GJR1Euz3ADx5Wiq5RG6EurbYxxi13Ue7ZcN9hPJajwxvaXChnAzT6TWD7yKj9Z8TkZQJYwQKWPNw-dVHU9nDlhEvcUe8cuy5jVeJNjH_j3NTRb-17NoeVXYCdLteIDFDfTler_j6weusquhHyOU3KZOxJ97C_KxwWpGiX_JTfJzlpe9FjRhtUX3hTAkOqSj7jYm83BAXpGgbB8zICp8cchfvucupkrYp9bSw59DhNNFb22R33L53fo67aFZnjbxqTgUECvmmkqLUaVizEtzv9cAJiny6yBAmVPk1Z83UP0YPpM1X6qeOr0ZCnrKzBnkKiMQ9N93aUoCWEdXDHnGp-Be9HGlo3Ho-IvczNLgwIvLCmCOT4nWhNEnQPJYi6p3tczZOVj0v0KEygw-VYh2km9KZNpY7vm0WLrGzwJknEpXyKlGGzDHHfflhSaOa_gL_fyHIOVhww2WV0gZfwUwcKVASXPNvyyVsTr5wXY1sNQ=w1046-h588-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="1046" height="179" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uHCsIHWz0cs4aTK0BO1JyoGACFDY83N99bmMVwGYBR3ZNwRRyzW3BIeuxlM7ih9oSXoPr3j-x9CUksRPKAOFtLYN3iVOxlqvsr3ewSUtWrlByKE7OlEL5y5GJR1Euz3ADx5Wiq5RG6EurbYxxi13Ue7ZcN9hPJajwxvaXChnAzT6TWD7yKj9Z8TkZQJYwQKWPNw-dVHU9nDlhEvcUe8cuy5jVeJNjH_j3NTRb-17NoeVXYCdLteIDFDfTler_j6weusquhHyOU3KZOxJ97C_KxwWpGiX_JTfJzlpe9FjRhtUX3hTAkOqSj7jYm83BAXpGgbB8zICp8cchfvucupkrYp9bSw59DhNNFb22R33L53fo67aFZnjbxqTgUECvmmkqLUaVizEtzv9cAJiny6yBAmVPk1Z83UP0YPpM1X6qeOr0ZCnrKzBnkKiMQ9N93aUoCWEdXDHnGp-Be9HGlo3Ho-IvczNLgwIvLCmCOT4nWhNEnQPJYi6p3tczZOVj0v0KEygw-VYh2km9KZNpY7vm0WLrGzwJknEpXyKlGGzDHHfflhSaOa_gL_fyHIOVhww2WV0gZfwUwcKVASXPNvyyVsTr5wXY1sNQ=w1046-h588-no" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/LoFYNZlG5Y32c2UGxa5E9nyRTjt14MdSsj4WZA7JI29kxIba_H4FmFW9he7kTR75zn6kJ_kC7TtuuxWIFzVEW1hg41x0dFDVOvNCuJo6xezUbP1J3CB_PLg9xPq7tjvReMgq8M09UkTgvj-LsT1yV35DJAWfyJcC_OYumwWz8IqOKQuQkvIYCMcbyOjDkxUUbbzrW3oZE3xBFtj0aOVRPdzf0elOUrHrLTTwiSOLsivKnvC3FBEelCgJqgY_r_l1kj0vKhN0zSToXgxXyVBjXEVSPiZq3IUkJHCYsx0XBnQ5f_819Xmqz0XKrrot9mkAqwOl2FT0cFV2cGslz-tfcObXFFXVARyK92HZYdKmo5Md36FvvMj4JybxfCFJPseEsVfDnBK0W4rz5E22NdjsZL_bwaBn8XHdti_-RlvH6wWj_SgIA3jpen_Z7kdSIh9aRsB0McinqOmY5XP-ydRXG5cs4c6ooXHAGOUZxwhfYckKn6d8VuqnOfaBQBJvXgPGNkLg5W-1qd2cdV_vh3wZgKqSQDX5ZqknOIbGu8O0yfBvuy8miPJ_nDiq1z1Lcqp4C9uegyb1zeJG-ZidOPTSD1dGFUwEAu2Lhg=w1046-h588-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="1046" height="179" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/LoFYNZlG5Y32c2UGxa5E9nyRTjt14MdSsj4WZA7JI29kxIba_H4FmFW9he7kTR75zn6kJ_kC7TtuuxWIFzVEW1hg41x0dFDVOvNCuJo6xezUbP1J3CB_PLg9xPq7tjvReMgq8M09UkTgvj-LsT1yV35DJAWfyJcC_OYumwWz8IqOKQuQkvIYCMcbyOjDkxUUbbzrW3oZE3xBFtj0aOVRPdzf0elOUrHrLTTwiSOLsivKnvC3FBEelCgJqgY_r_l1kj0vKhN0zSToXgxXyVBjXEVSPiZq3IUkJHCYsx0XBnQ5f_819Xmqz0XKrrot9mkAqwOl2FT0cFV2cGslz-tfcObXFFXVARyK92HZYdKmo5Md36FvvMj4JybxfCFJPseEsVfDnBK0W4rz5E22NdjsZL_bwaBn8XHdti_-RlvH6wWj_SgIA3jpen_Z7kdSIh9aRsB0McinqOmY5XP-ydRXG5cs4c6ooXHAGOUZxwhfYckKn6d8VuqnOfaBQBJvXgPGNkLg5W-1qd2cdV_vh3wZgKqSQDX5ZqknOIbGu8O0yfBvuy8miPJ_nDiq1z1Lcqp4C9uegyb1zeJG-ZidOPTSD1dGFUwEAu2Lhg=w1046-h588-no" width="320" /></a></div>
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9. PJ and I hit some gravel in late Fall near Rough River, KY. Like the rest of my rides, I felt like shit. But the ride was pretty damn nice, one of the nicest VitaminG rides I can remember in fact. It definitely makes the list.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iJ0zfO0lk4cK2zgy0vksDvoLvK-sRM3t4hSOJulz7Ys8ArEuXmFHeYg_Dvks8X4_gQw1A36VnccFMfnPOR0Plv2iifufL092lJhtrCwECUmDuFU-dEr0O5JgC-jIW2Opj2o7brcUvkOl2KKwK9SvUx1efs1yyPAiLwPi4NDtKpQ5GXUkHJ9hU__W9q4SAaHUPu8Oywvt-OfKMgSuwfOsVbvD0oyDLwilcwkYeuj3kZm7IfmNaQbmm1LgXG8PnIK9RU61f7ojV7VVpKnj7mGHfnLaNHMEVYuKGHV0MsisdojWbB5nBDWn3DODkTfJnBEy0cwJmJ9gaLqkmPLpVuDJZfPhQh_TV9AZn8uHYJ5LmaJ-jf0bL0_aYct2Iw6s9OUvOV7LNQBUpAQwj5r60KCFKmi-JVwh2mQ4nKdlvU9SiZfI2jnFIWBm_U74wDdDSHB08OnXN2hxjVFBKKEfgvQKMcNEg70nwY2f5FYj6DBg2OFjbfzs0Cr4Ip1OAeOcQ0fnJIq9efBISxnkZ_fEPlt_ikkm2-Afl5bmaZJ-rUvJvu8AgTVkIPNPHTMe9_e_2wuBzBXZPMp6oumbZu59ZyiTwL4q0azDN2tmg=w1046-h588-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="1046" height="179" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iJ0zfO0lk4cK2zgy0vksDvoLvK-sRM3t4hSOJulz7Ys8ArEuXmFHeYg_Dvks8X4_gQw1A36VnccFMfnPOR0Plv2iifufL092lJhtrCwECUmDuFU-dEr0O5JgC-jIW2Opj2o7brcUvkOl2KKwK9SvUx1efs1yyPAiLwPi4NDtKpQ5GXUkHJ9hU__W9q4SAaHUPu8Oywvt-OfKMgSuwfOsVbvD0oyDLwilcwkYeuj3kZm7IfmNaQbmm1LgXG8PnIK9RU61f7ojV7VVpKnj7mGHfnLaNHMEVYuKGHV0MsisdojWbB5nBDWn3DODkTfJnBEy0cwJmJ9gaLqkmPLpVuDJZfPhQh_TV9AZn8uHYJ5LmaJ-jf0bL0_aYct2Iw6s9OUvOV7LNQBUpAQwj5r60KCFKmi-JVwh2mQ4nKdlvU9SiZfI2jnFIWBm_U74wDdDSHB08OnXN2hxjVFBKKEfgvQKMcNEg70nwY2f5FYj6DBg2OFjbfzs0Cr4Ip1OAeOcQ0fnJIq9efBISxnkZ_fEPlt_ikkm2-Afl5bmaZJ-rUvJvu8AgTVkIPNPHTMe9_e_2wuBzBXZPMp6oumbZu59ZyiTwL4q0azDN2tmg=w1046-h588-no" width="320" /></a></div>
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In my mind, aside the Ouachita Lake, AR trip, the year seemed like bicycling garbage. On second pass, though, I took some nice rides with nice people. While not pictured, I also rode new mountain bike trails in KY (Skullbuster, Mammoth Cave) and TN (Knoxville), and generally had a fun time on the trails until that damn corner.<br />
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AMMEND! AMMEND!<br />
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A bit more exploration has me add a melange for:<br />
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10. I did some really nice mixed terrain rides early in the year. Again, the damn arm hazed over yet more fun rides, in this case a <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2017/02/muscatatuck-ramble.html">Muscatutuck </a>mixed-terrain with DC, a <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2017/01/livingston-mixed-terrain.html">Livingstone mixed-terrain </a>again with DC, and a hootin' good time with DC and Andy doing some <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2017/02/a-little-muddin-s-tree-style.html">muddin' in S-Tree</a>, all in winter.<br />
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There's always 2018. My health care providers have told me that it's time to drop some weight. I guess it's time to ride more, then. Challenge accepted.<br />
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I wish I weren't such a damn pessimist. I had some *really* good rides in 2017, and I need to get over myself and get to riding.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-69350686821880353642017-04-16T21:24:00.002-04:002017-04-16T21:24:57.064-04:00Lake Ouachita Day 4<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We awoke to a glorious morning in sky, sun, and temp. Knowing we had a solid day in front, we packed up efficiently and left without coffee or breakfast. Savage, if you ask me, but we had a planned stop some 5 or so miles from camp in Mountain Pine.</div>
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<i>Yes, I did have to drag myself out of my hammock for this, but it was well worth it. </i></div>
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After our 1-mile uphill grind out of LOSP we bombed down the other side only to find a snag in our route, with our right turn going nowhere but into a large earthen berm. The road, indeed, seemed lost. We made the easy decision to follow more traveled roads downhill into town. To our overwhelming dismay, the planned cafe was closed. I'm sure Pondero had similar thoughts to my own, "we're making some dang coffee!", but Doolittles in the same parking lot was open and inviting. Inside this little, well-worn country store we found coffee and several biscuit options. The sausage, egg, cheese hit the SPOT! The nice lady even poured our refills. Seems the cafe and store have an understanding; Doolittles does breakfast, the cafe lunch. Perfect. We even had a nice talk with the Mountain Pine mayor about the town's potential renewal. Good luck to them. After breakfast we moved on in sunshine, bellies full, prepared for a steady roll and our longest day of the tour.</div>
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<i>Dam holding back a big Lake Ouachita.</i></div>
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<i> I took this just for myself. </i></div>
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After a bit of very pleasant pavement along Owl Creek Rd. we hit the gravel again west of Bear. Like two days prior, we ran into another turkey caller looking for action along an empty rural road. We eventually emptied out onto the local highway, 270, where we stopped in Crystal Springs at the Mercantile Store for a snack. We were making good time and bypassed the local barbecue and suffered our longest stretch of pavement along 270, helped by occasional shoulders. Much appreciated.<br />
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<i>Yes, this is a nice nature moment, the waterfall in the woods. What you don't know is that this is mid-climb, the nature shot giving me a reason to stop and suck wind.</i> </div>
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The first two days were a nice mix of singletrack and gravel, the third a transition stage helpful to save the legs. Day 4 was built around the long run of the Womble Silver Rd. It changed names a bit, but we tackled a 15-mile run of rural gravel. While the rising heat began to announce itself a bit, this section was very pleasant, with lots of shade and no traffic to speak of. Our first climb on the flanks of McGraw Mt. was a 4-mile leg stretcher stairstep climb, never digging in. I liked it. Things got a little lumpier thereafter, but we made steady time and wiled the miles away.<br />
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<i>If I'm ahead of Pondero, it means that there was a recent downhill, and certainly not an uphill.</i></div>
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<i>We stopped for a breather and a snack and recharged our stores for the final push. Very enjoyable.</i> </div>
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<i>As we got deeper into the forest we ran across signs such as this, an "autotour". We were not on the "autotour" </i></div>
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We (actually probably I) suffered up our final big climb of the trip, a 1.5-miler during which my rhythm was walk-ride-walk-ride. I think Pondero cleaned it, but the EnergizerBunny often cleans climbs, crafty devil. From there we started looking for our right turn towards the highway and our return to Mt.Ida. Surprisingly our trip along Moon Dance Rd. (which was def named differently on the sign) as a trippy, fun-filled exclamation point to the trip. We received important intel from a local on a bike, he with his various dogs running to and fro. The "10 miles to town, maybe 7" was a circumspect estimate, but we did find some nutty terrain in short order, first a spikey climb which I did indeed clear, and then a bomber downhill that had me braking hard. The obvious 4x4 road was made of big slabs of sandstone with very little engineered surface. I would have been at home on a dual-cush bike. #Chunky. It did make for an exciting conclusion.<br />
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<i>My second favorite shot of the week, Pondero bombing at the bottom of MoonDanceRd. Such fun!</i></div>
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We faced a bit more gravel and then turned left onto 270, where our "10 or maybe 7" was a 2.5-mile trip into town. Admittedly I sort of broke down. Hurting feet, hurting hands, tired legs. It wasn't much of a time trial. Our afternoon involved rest, getting into our rooms, and deconstructing our dusty, dirty laden mounts. After a clean-up we finished our trip at the Mt. Ida Cafe with barbecue, burgers, okra and eventually ice cream at the Dairyette. Pondero climbs better than I because I eat way more than he. And that's alright. Great trip.</div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-58835742920374690532017-04-16T19:29:00.000-04:002017-04-16T19:47:14.858-04:00Lake Ouachita D3 The Drying<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
After our thorough drenching on day 2, we awoke to foggy surroundings, but no actual precipitation. Putting on wet clothes was not highlight #1 of our trip, but somehow I slept 11.5hrs in the shelter hammock and felt like I could somehow muster the energy for a short stage down to Lake Ouachita S.P.</div>
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<b>**Wow, my typed narrative disappeared for some reason. That's disappointing**</b></div>
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<i>Foggy, but no rain.</i></div>
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<i>Morning at Moonshine Shelter, my hardest-earned, favorite image of the trip.</i></div>
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<i>Downhill from Moonshine Shelter to the road, probably my favorite singletrack portion of the trip. Save a short hike-a-bike, a flowy fast-but-not-too-fast section of beautiful trail.</i></div>
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<i>We both tried out our new MSR TrailShots, to good effect. Recommended.</i></div>
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<i>Very Slippery when wet.</i></div>
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<i>Two interesting takes on this ominous, clear-cut hill. One is to liken it to a WWI wasteland. The other- on this Easter Day- is to image three crosses atop this. Again, ominous.</i></div>
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<i>Our gps track led us astray, necessitating a bushwack. It worked out.</i></div>
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<i>Along a fence clearcut, leading into someone's yard in Jessieville, or maybe Blakely according to googlemaps.</i></div>
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<i>Water tank in the middle of a neighborhood.</i></div>
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<i>Castleberry's had seen better days, only to find that Castleberry's had rebuilt just down the road, and had the $$ to festoon their establishment with every American beer sign in sight.</i></div>
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<i>Yes, we did travel down Murders Rd.</i></div>
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<i>Amazed at EnergizerBunny's penchant for climbing well up in front of me.</i></div>
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<i>Probably 7% here. Felt like 27%. I walked.</i></div>
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<i>Jones at lake</i></div>
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<i>Pondero, Bantam, and lake</i></div>
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<i>Hiding from the vociferous wind</i></div>
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<i>Noodles seriously improved by salami.</i></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-27529345698729470002017-04-06T14:07:00.002-04:002017-04-06T14:09:06.400-04:00Lake Ouachita 2017 D2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
So I'm not even sure how to characterize Day 2 other than...wet? Epic? Punishment? Beautiful? One day of riding had it all. All.</div>
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We began our day with a camp coffee and then some very pleasant singletrack trail followed by a fun descent off Sandlick Mt. It was all good.</div>
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And then it wasn't it.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Barely discernible, the pine needles and leaves made for a soft, dry trail. Very nice, even with a slight, little bump upwards out of camp.</td></tr>
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After our careening descent and a bit of route confusion, we found a concrete crossing of the Iron Fork river. I'm always amazed and weirded out to find infrastructure like this in the middle of the woods, but so be it. A wet crossing would have been a challenge, to say the least. We crossed and found just a bit of rideable trail before beginning our next hike-a-bike, the interminable hike-a-bike, the h-a-b from Hell, the Misery. We were faced with a 3.5-mile uphill in two stages, much of it already replete with briers and weeds on each side. While the previous two h-a-b's wended through pine forest, this one cut straight up the hillside in a clear-cut area, whose increased sunlight made the briers and weeds all that the more prominent. I hated it. Honestly. It wasn't fun. But we survived to again careen down the downhill and find ourselves on gravel.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pondero's technique involved using his saddle to pull the machine along. I tended to use two handlebar positions to push. He was always faster than me on ascents, so I guess his style wins.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clearcut. Gross.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More clearcut makes for a chunky un-fun trail, hot and bramble-y.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Black snake on the trail. Really interestingly, it was shaking its tail mimicking a rattlesnake. It eventually moved on, as did we.</td></tr>
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Pondero action shot exiting the nameless 3rd mountain. Because I was consistently faster than him on the descents, I set up to get get the shot emptying out onto the road. To my surprise, I had to call "Car up!", as there was a white pickup coming up the hill. In short order we were met with kindness, as a couple (names I forget, sorry) got out and we commenced to have a 15-minute conversation about turkeys, bears, trails, the hills, and living out there. They were very nice and ended up filling up our water containers with what they had in the truck. An important aspect of the route was the lack of facilities from Saturday afternoon (Story) to Monday afternoon (Jessieville), so their refill cut down the anxiety of filtering water for the next day. Really nice folks.<br />
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Finally past the 3-hill h-a-b fest, our route next took us along gravel, paved, and gravel roads through and out of Mt.Tabor. What we did was gain 1500ft in 18 miles of gravel roads, first in reasonable conditions, then in rain, then in pouring rain. Pics became rare as the rain increased. It became "epic suffering". Frankly it was pretty hard. Not much more to say. We were really wet. And tired.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I like old buildings, the stories they tell, the stories they lose.</td></tr>
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The aforementioned pics show dry-ish riders, because I stopped taking pictures in the driving rain. Pondero actually overshot our trailhead a bit, adding to our mile-long climb along the Ouachita Trail looking for our next shelter. At some point we might have had a bit confusion or even disagreement as to our actual route. Suffice to say wet, tired, a smidge cranky, and maybe "lost" was not an awesome way to end the day, but we pushed on a bit further to find Moonshine Shelter, a Godsend on the mountain.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wet. Foggy. Wet.</td></tr>
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With Pondero's encouragement, I set up my hammock using the wall pegs as did he and then we did a bit of this-and-that to keep warm and dry out. The storm winds were blowing up through the floor and through the roof eaves, buffeting our cold bodies. Pondero cooked an early supper to keep warm. We even discussed how to use our tarps to create a windblock in the shelter. Eventually the winds calmed and we were in our hammocks by 7pm. I suspect we were both asleep by 8, and amazingly, I awoke at 7.30am to find that Pondero had already cooked coffee and breakfast, all the while I was asleep. I still can't fathom that I slept for 11 hours. Amazing stuff for me.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hammock style in the shelter. Worked like a charm.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pondero with the thumbs up for his hammock style. He must have warmed up by then.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Evening skies clearing after our foggy, wet arrival. This was taken at 7.40pm. We were asleep not much after.</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-77270410363748849792017-04-06T11:31:00.001-04:002017-04-06T14:08:36.215-04:00Lake Ouachita 2017 D1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Wow, so much to consider. This week is my Spring Break, and after several months of conspiring, <a href="https://pawndero.wordpress.com/">Pondero </a>and I met at the Royal Oak Inn in Mt.Ida, AR to undertake a #Aprilfoolsadventure bikepacking adventure, looping around Lake Ouachita. Basically we chose a spot sort of in the middle between TX (his) and KY (mine), in a region rife (or even ripe?) with camping and riding options, include the <a href="http://www.mvk.usace.army.mil/Missions/Recreation/Lake-Ouachita/">Lake</a>, the <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/ouachita">Forest</a>, and <a href="http://www.ouachitamaps.com/OT.html">numerous </a><a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fsm9_039463.pdf">trails</a>. This trip was to have a bit of it all, and we packed accordingly. I returned to my usual bikepacking mount of the Jones, adding a couple Revelate bags to flesh out my storage options. Pondero would be giving a somewhat maiden voyage on his <a href="http://www.bantambicycles.com/bloggy-business/2014/12/6/fxebz6gtydbjm15tcvds4icszxtp7n">Bantam Adventure Bike</a>. Our pre-ride night was filled with tech talk and prep for the following day.</div>
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Day 1 opened with an easy roll west. I had noticed Joy Donuts the previous night and we couldn't resist a tour stop for sustenance. But the donut stop didn't impede our plans to have a proper breakfast at the Mt. Ida Cafe. Both Pondero and I were big fans of the cafe. It hit the spot several times and had a comfy feel you need, even while we were festooned in our strange bike gear. After breakfast our route took us pretty quickly towards gravel roads NW just outside of town.</div>
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Our gravel run provided a warm-up and an opportunity for a little bird-watching, seeing a nice black&white warbler in our view. I'm not sure whether Pondero got tired of my bird-watching or at least bird-talking, but he was a good sport. At mile 5 we hit the Womble Trail and started the first singletrack segment of our ride. Interestingly, Annoyingly, even though I've done the bikepack thing previously, it was my gear that first failed, with my fork bags being poorly mounted. We stopped briefly and got things straight and then enjoyed a 5-mile segment of the Womble. Highlights along this included the views overlooking the Ouachita River valley and the many side-hill portions. We made sure to not look, because the left trail edge offered an instantaneous plunge of several hundred feet to the valley. Yikes! None-the-less, although built as a hiking trail, the Womble here felt very suitable for mtbiking, with a good flow and rideable portions all along. Towards the end we had a good chat with an AR local we found walking up a hill. Hike-a-bike. Why would he do that?<br />
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We ended our first section of the Womble and crossed the causeway along Hwy 27 before diving into our next section. This one was a bit more mundane and unoriginal, crossing low pine forests with little interest and some swampy spots. It was fine, but not to the standard of the first section. After some nice lake views we exited the Womble to follow gravel roads north towards Story. At some point I noticed a softening rear tire and elected for a quick pump to nurse it to our lunch story, a strategy that worked well. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pondero action shot. He cleared this. I didn't. It looked deeper than it was.</td></tr>
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Our lunch stop brought us to the <a href="http://bluebellcountrystore.com/">Bluebell Cafe</a> in Story, AR (It's got a website; that's awesome). We found a pleasant, clean country store with very helpful service. More nice folks, which would be a theme of this trip, the general generosity and kindness of the residents of the region. Pondero's burger and my grilled cheese hit the spot, and we even got a water top-off from the filtered water, not the well water out of the spigot. After a bite I changed the tube in the sunshine. The day was a beautiful one, but maybe just a bit chilly in the shade. After lunch we hit more empty gravel along Red Ridge Rd. before emptying back out onto 27 and the climb up to the Ouachita Trail. Pondero consistently beat me on all the climbs. He's an efficient spinner.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside the Bluebell Cafe, pre-lunch.</td></tr>
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Our arrival at the Ouachita Trail began our second stint of singletrack. We found a 1-mile climb with some hike-a-bike to top things off. Oh, the effing hike-a-bike. I'm sure racers clear the sections we did not, but they are racers and aren't laden with bikepack loads. On top of our first mountain the trail was a flowy, rideable run through pine forests. Very pleasant. At the top we surveyed the first shelter, a nice one overlooking a valley, but decided that we had more miles in our legs, and decided to push on to the next shelter.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from the first shelter, a nice one, but we moved on.</td></tr>
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I'm pretty good with route details, but at some point things got a little hazy. Suffice to say the contours, climbing, and hiking-a-bike were starting to take their toll. The second climb involved even more brutal hike-a-biking. At some point the forest cleared, making for an open climb with the sun beating down. I got tired. I found Pondero waiting for me at a clearing and I lay down for a brief bit. We headed on but my climbing legs were done. At the top of Sandlick Mt. we found the shelter sign and walked downhill looking for it. I had read about a "steep descent" and I bet Pondero walked a good 20 minutes (I a little less; I gave up) and never found the shelter, which apparently is nestled deep in the valley. Instead of dragging the bikes down (the trail was unrideable) and back up the next day we decided on a wild camp atop the ridge. We found a good, flat spot and took advantage of the pleasant weather to hang our hammocks our in nature. It was delightful, nothing less.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-74857552342355217652017-02-19T20:28:00.001-05:002017-02-19T20:28:34.392-05:00Muscatatuck Ramble<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Sr.Crowell and I undertook some mixed-terrain riding today up at Muscatatuck, where we've visted previously. Good stuff up there. We're experiencing an unnaturually warm stretch in the 50s, so we were able to dress lightly (although a bit chilly all day) and take in some empty country roads, nature, birds, gravel, and solitude. Good stuff.</div>
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<i>Opening in Muscatatuck NWR</i></div>
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<i>We've used this not-road previously. Seems like someone else has too.</i></div>
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<i>Large-to-medium dinosaurs in the field. I jest! I kid! <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sandhill_Crane/id">Sandhill Cranes</a>. It's migration time.</i></div>
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After a spell of gravel and such in Muscatatuck and after, we hit a stretch of roller pavement to the east. We played a kind of yo-yo, with me in front and then DC in front, getting in some miles and taking advantage of the empty roads. Eventually I need to take a break and we did so on the bridge below. Rawland Sogns along the bridge in rural Indiana. All good.<br />
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We found our reentry road into Muscatatuck to be non-existent, so we rode south to pick up our original "road". The detour took us over 30 for the day, a nice leg stretcher, VitaminG and fresh air dose. Sometimes you just gotta get out there. Thanks DC and yeah us!<br />
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="405" scrolling="no" src="https://www.strava.com/activities/872585012/embed/dc536ad55e23cb826ddae86a3624610c032ae71a" width="590"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-40646076179255463072017-02-14T06:18:00.000-05:002017-02-14T06:18:09.746-05:00A little muddin' S-Tree style<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I guess this is old news, since we took this ride more than a week ago now. But the world needs some images of the great place that is<a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/dbnf/recarea/?recid=39572"> S-Tree</a> and DBNF. I suspect this is about the 5th or 6th time down there in some guise. The plan was to keep the mileage down for the day and enjoy ourselves, and I think we achieved both of those goals.</div>
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<i>Sinuous gravel on the lead-out.</i></div>
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We opened with almost 5 miles of downhill-ish gravel, with the occasional whooptido to keep the blood pumping. "Flow" as the kids would say. Somewhere in there we took a quick stop in an meadow and adjusted the layers, as the temps for the day were to be delightful for early February. The mud and campfire bade us turn left onto Tark Hill Rd., which Sr.Crowell and I had climbed back in <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2015/02/more-s-tree-delight.html">February '15</a>. It's one of those fun roads of which the lower portions that may or may not be on the map depending on which one. I like those.<br />
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<i>Sr. Crowell at the bottom of the Tark Hill descent. I was feeling pretty positive mid-hill when I moved to the side a bit and Mr. Beichler went SCREAMING down on my right. Shit. I don't ride with folks who are that macho. Impressive. And fun.</i></div>
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<i>Sort of a useless pic, but the previous had a peek into the cabin that DC and I visited previously. This is the growing mudhole area opposite. If you compare below it seems that the entrance path/road/"driveway" has grown.</i></div>
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After a creek crossing of which none of us have photos, we had a bit of fun exploring and mudding about. Nothing too manly. Someone may have randomly fallen, but did get up.<br />
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<i>Sr. Beichler post-descent, I'm sure still feeling macho.</i></div>
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<i>Where's fallen-in-the-mud Waldo?</i></div>
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<i>Confluence of Horse Lick Creek to the left and Clover Bottom Creek to the right. </i></div>
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<i>Our route crossed the shallows of Horse Lick and then again had to cross Horse Lick because Clover Bottom has no good crossing. My posse bitched about this until they saw that CB was by in large impassable. We all managed to cross here with minimal damage.</i></div>
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<i>Like some of the other low-lying "roads" in the Horse Lick area, this along Clover Bottom, listed as Bethel Church Rd. just isn't a road. Yes, fat bikes and horses can traverse this, but that's about all. Well, and your occasional 4-wheeler ATV thing.</i></div>
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<i>We started encountering semblances of civilization, including this interesting barn.</i></div>
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<i>And bucolic house thing nestled in.</i></div>
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<i>Double Track. Good stuff.</i></div>
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<i>The terrain of Bethel Church Rd. wasn't particulary challenging; in fact it was easy riding once we hit the farm-like areas, but I suspect we had 5 creek crossings, some of them deepish on bikes. We had wet feet the rest of the day.</i></div>
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As we often do, we made an executive decision. Our route was to take us up Clover Bottom Creek Rd. to the north, in effect turning left. We turned right/straight and climbed up Bethel Church. The pic below is one of my favs, but the climb was very challenging with pitches in the mid-teens. Brutal. We stopped at the top for a snack and some respite and enjoyed the sun.<br />
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At the bottom we had chosen shorter and chunkier, which is to say less mileage but a part of the Sheltowee which follows the road. This is a multi-use trail which frankly is overrun by 4-wheelers and motorcycles. And that's fine. Whatever. This couple miles of trail was short but brutal, with mudholes and short, biting climbs, and certainly a modern lack of "flow". It was mtbiking circa 1988. We followed that for a it before respectively jumping back on to the road for our finishing climb up to S-Tree campground and the cars. We managed to enjoy a beautiful day in rustic KY with good company, and even finished it off with pizza in Berea at <a href="http://www.papalenos.com/">PapaLeno's</a>. We win.<br />
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<i>In a couple spots, no more than 100yds long, the Sheltowee is lined with these stones. It immediately dives back into mud shortly thereafter. Not sure what the point is. But it is different.</i></div>
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="405" scrolling="no" src="https://www.strava.com/activities/856814040/embed/ae6f9f81e4dca18c9a3cdfee9b66221f68705ea6" width="590"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-409819458910355652017-01-15T10:29:00.002-05:002017-01-15T10:29:54.288-05:002016 HighlightsI've done a year-end review for the past several years, and this morning amid the wet, cold, and footie online I realized that I didn't do for this past year. Fact is, 2016 was the hardest for me personally ever. I don't need to share much, but suffice that life was tough. And still is. But, you know, you just have to keep going. I did have some nice experiences on the bike and outdoors and hope to do a bang-up job enjoying my 2017, whatever comes my way.<br />
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In no particular order:<br />
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<li>4152 mileage- Fact is that number is a bit fudged because of how you deal with mtbiking. I fear the "real" total is a bit less. But that's alright. Fact is, I spent a good deal of time on the bike.</li>
<li>My car-free experiment in November and early December went very well. I lost some weight and spent a month and a half do virtually all car-free. It was a fun time. But as soon as it got really cold, I was glad to have something motorized and warm.</li>
<li>Numbers show lots of trips on the JonesATB (139) and a balanced approach between the mtJones, IF, and Blueridge (abt 30 each). Those are the 4. I can do everything with those 4. The others in the stable are decoration. The JonesATB was also the mileage winner at 1492.</li>
<li>My longest ride of the year was only 57 miles. Oh well.</li>
<li>I did very little bike camping in '16. Strange that I had the time to do it, but just didn't. One that does come to mind was me and <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2016/06/swift-campout-2016.html">Dave visiting Clark St. Forest</a> in June, when I did my first hammock camp.</li>
<li>The <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2016/04/laurel-lake-overnight.html">Bee Rock mixed-terrain overnight </a>was definitely a fun one.</li>
<li>Mine and PJ's trip to <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2016/07/big-south-fork-2016-departure.html">Big South Fork</a> and <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2016/07/big-south-fork-bikepack-bandy-creek-car.html">Bandy Creek</a> certainly turned out differently than anticipated, but it was a fun diversion and one I would like to explore again.</li>
<li>I really enjoyed fatbiking at the <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2016/10/fatbiking-falls-of-ohio.html">Falls of the Ohio</a> with Brian in the summer. That certainly was a unique experience.</li>
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I didn't blog very much, with my efforts trending towards the visual highlights on Instagram. 2016 was a fog of depression, anxiety, and fear of the unknown. "Make the change a positive one" is what one person suggested to me. I guess that's the task.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-75864695710987930792017-01-15T09:46:00.001-05:002017-01-15T09:46:44.753-05:00Livingston Mixed-Terrain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I need(ed) to get out of town, immediately! Those who know me well know that I've been dealing with some stressful life events in 2016 and into 2017. One way I want to cope is to get fit, ride the bike(s), and have some great adventures. A side note is my ongoing fixation with my Strava Personal Heat Map. As a map nerd, it's such a cool way to document our travels as cyclists, all the many roads we've visited. I wanted to add some more. And, of course, there's gravel, Vitamin G. All these factors contributed to a route I designed leaving <a href="http://www.kentuckytourism.com/outdoor-adventure/attraction/livingston/769/">Livingston, KY, a KY Trail Town</a>, and one I had previously <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2015/06/dbnf-2015-livingston-ky-trail-town.html">visited with PJ </a>in 2015. We had done gravel to the south of town and gravel farther east of town towards S-Tree, so this time "north" was the call. While I put out the general casting to call some folks on G+, the only taker ended up being trusty Dave C. He's always game regardless of his fitness level. Assuming we would be hitting gravel and pavement and nothing more serious, the Sogn got the nod for the steed-of-the-day, albeit I shod it at the last minute with the 2.2" Racing Ralphs instead of the narrower Riv tires that were on there. Good choice.</div>
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<i>Good ol' Sogn. I've been coveting an updated version of one of these like the Elephant NFE, but I don't know. This one works pretty damn well. Given the rain forecast I grabbed some fender-like objects. It did rain, so my butt was less dirty than DC's.</i></div>
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<i>We opened with 4 miles of pavement including a couple little climbettes to get the legs warm. As you can see, conditions were misty. There might be a DC in this pic, or might not.</i></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">Mullins Station Rd. provided us our first pleasant gravel along the train tracks. I like this section because it had a little of everything: train tracks, good surface, funky houses, a weaving interaction with several crossings and eventually dove down into and along the creek. While short, these few miles were fun. And that's the point, right?</span></div>
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In short order, Mullins Station delivered us to one of the finds of the day. Just 6 miles in to our trip and we came across this bizarre limestone quarry and train tunnel, all covered with a blanket of coal remnants and shotgun shells. The pics, especially the one of DC can give you some scale. I suspect many a beer, joint, and condom has been exhausted in this spot. Simply weird and wonderful.</div>
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<i>Coal remnants all over the place. It was wet and gooey and not that easy to ride across.</i></div>
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<i>The backside of the cavern where we climbed to.</i></div>
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We spent, probably, 10 to 15 minutes goofing around the cavern and then went further up Mullins Station. Just a mile or two later we ran into a bit of a quandary. The road- seemingly public according to all the maps- had a cattle guard across it, which is very unusual in KY, and a sign for no trespassing. In this area of the country one doesn't trespass flippantly; you could end up with a gun aside your head. Eventually we saw an old gentleman come out of his trailer and he motioned us that it was fine. This morning I checked satellite images and can't see the cattle guards, so I guess somebody took things into their own hands. Just up the road beyond that to the right I saw a home with two horses, but there wasn't a fence. They were loose horses. The bigger of the two gingerly approached us to a distance of 10 yds and check us out before running off. DC got spooked. He *was* a big, damn animal. We passed a second guard on the far side of the hill. I guess horse man had built himself a large horse encampment or something. All very strange. But again, this is eastern KY.</div>
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<i>The big boy who spooked Dave, but the one who sprinted off like a scaredy-cat. Just a weired interaction. Owner man was behind the shack and didn't seem all that interested in engaging with us. </i></div>
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<i>Our short run along KY 1004 was a very pleasant one. I think this farm is named "Pleasant Valley" for the same reasons.</i></div>
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<i>"Beware of Cow". Indeed.</i></div>
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<i>Poplar Gap Rd. was a 1-mile climb with some dicey pitches at the top. I was having issues getting into my granny ring and actually coasted back down the hill a bit to DC to reconnect and fiddle. Eventually I used my heel to get into the small ring and complete the climb. The "gap" was a neat stone formation- who knows if natural or not- with several options at the top. We took the left gravel option, but the paved road actually passed through to our return leg.</i></div>
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<i>Probably a lot of Trump voters in Rockcastle Co., at least this artist.</i></div>
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<i>Our left turn along what is listed as Poplar Gap Church Rd. for me, was a highlight, a gravel road cut atop the ridge overlooking the forest and vistas. The fog cut down the view a bit, but gave the woods an ethereal quality. I would climb the 1-mile gap climb again to get an opportunity to roll along this stretch.</i></div>
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Our day changed for the interesting along Poplar Gap Church Rd. After a nice gravel run we came across this creepy cabin atop the hill. After coming round the bend, Dave observed a dog at the trailer behind the creepy cabin. Someone was living up there. Traveling deep you have those "Really?" moments. People can subsist in some amazingly challenging conditions. People are strangely strong. And why do I feel so weak sometimes? </div>
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Just beyond the cabin/trailer combo, this bit of texture announced a "schedule change" in our ride. What had been gravel up to this point was quickly becoming one of our "not roads". I've done enough of these boondock rides to know that maps do not appear as they should sometimes, and today along "New Hope Rd." we found a 4x4 hunting trail, one not used too terribly much given the briers grown up along it. This morning's research says we were on this section for only a couple miles, but it felt much longer with its rock gardens and mudpits. We have been on much rougher sections, but the newly begun rain and unrideable portions sucked some energy out of us, I think. Fun, but at a cost. </div>
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<i>This is New Hope Church, with his and her outhouses. The rain and mist made for quite the setting.</i></div>
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Somewhere beyond New Hope Church I made a tactical decision. Fact was, I was bonking, wet, cold, and a little verklempt. I was having a good physical day, but a lack of ride maintenance made me decide to cut off the top portion of the route. While not out for many miles at that point, our total time was creeping up, so I need to cut short a bit. A robust descent down 1797 had us turning onto Crooked Creek Rd., which yet again offered great gravel and misty, moody mountain scenery. (Like all that alliteration?). While a little out of sorts, I was able to access my small ring and clear some of the lumpy, steep climbs along Crooked Creek. Crooked Creek was another excellent gravel run.</div>
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<i>I really like this stretch along a homestead and field. Just passed this I heard some gunshots. Eventually we rounded a field to find two gentlemen shooting at traps while shooting AT THE ROAD. They saw us and stopped to let us pass, but that just wasn't cool.</i></div>
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<i>This rock formation was for sale. The creek was actually coming up and out of the rock, which was cool. We didn't tary long.</i></div>
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The "adventure" portion of our ride was coming to a close. We turned left and found our other long climb of the day past <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Saltpetre_Cave">Great Saltpetre Cave</a> (good <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Saltpetre_Cave">review </a>here). We couldn't visit, as that is only allowed in May, I think. We were back on pavement but faced another mile-long trudge, this time with some steadier rain coming down in addition to more fog. DC tailed off the back and I ahead, where at the crossroads I waited for him, all the while getting colder and wetter. It *was* scenic though, in its own way. We eventually stopped at a church pavilion and decided to head straight back and bypass the last short portion of gravel. We found a long, steady downhill back into Livingston and then did our best to practice extremely-wet-clothing management, to good or ill effect. Our short cut only cost us 4 miles, and we found some of the best gravel in recent memory. Success.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-15878685319695360982016-11-08T19:55:00.001-05:002016-11-08T19:55:10.038-05:00Election DaySome 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.
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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.
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Tomorrow is a new day.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-51719022234210000542016-11-05T21:27:00.002-04:002016-11-05T21:27:43.216-04:00What 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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-7241260036393964012016-11-01T06:24:00.003-04:002016-11-01T06:24:39.798-04:00Active OctoberI'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).<br />
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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.<br />
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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!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-68364618907730329072016-10-02T08:31:00.000-04:002016-10-02T08:31:11.555-04:00Country Ride<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Trying to recapture a bit of our cycling youth, i.e. what we did a few years ago,<a href="http://fatguy.org/"> Mr. Crowell</a> 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.</div>
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<i>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.</i> </div>
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<i>Some kayakers on the Nolin River. We missed what could have been an interesting portage on the north side of the bridge.</i></div>
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<i>Nice valley, cheeky climb.</i> </div>
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<i>No water at this church. The cheek!!</i> </div>
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<i>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.</i></div>
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<i>Country rides, country roads.</i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-75917920900692438442016-10-02T08:13:00.001-04:002016-10-02T08:15:57.075-04:00Fatbiking the Falls of the Ohio<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Long time, no blog.</div>
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Brian S and I took advantage of a dry spell and spent a Sunday afternoon 2 weeks ago to fatbike the area around the <a href="http://www.fallsoftheohio.org/">Falls of the Ohio</a>. 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. </div>
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All-in-all it was a really fun afternoon. Here are some shots. The others are on my phone somewhere. Too much tech. </div>
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<i>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.</i></div>
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<i>The Muk, which did the trick. Probably wish I had run an extra 2-3lbs just for safety sake.</i></div>
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<i>Brian for scale at the hydro plant. It doesn't supply much energy, but does some.</i><br />
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<i>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.</i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-33930169098697825172016-07-17T14:29:00.000-04:002016-07-17T14:29:03.820-04:00Big South Fork Bikepack- Bandy Creek car camp editionPatrick 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 <a href="https://www.nps.gov/biso/planyourvisit/bandycreekcampground.htm">Bandy Creek campground</a>, where I had read about some nice <a href="http://www.mtbproject.com/trail/76708">mtbiking</a>. No, we wouldn't be bike touring, but we would be bike riding, which is a good compromise.<br />
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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 <a href="http://www.mtbproject.com/trail/76708">IMBA Epic</a>. 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.<br />
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<i>His head, in fact, is the color of copper, resting just outside the Blue Heron campground bathhouse.</i></div>
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<i>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.</i></div>
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<i>Scene at our second location, Bandy Creek campground, also part of BSF.</i></div>
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<i>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. </i></div>
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<i>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". </i></div>
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<i>Scene returning from Collier Ridge. Pretty, but also pretty damn hot at that moment.</i></div>
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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.<br />
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<i>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.</i></div>
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<i>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.</i></div>
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<i>Typical forested singletrack along the Gap Loop, which did a nice job mixing up cliffside views with non-technical trails farther inland.</i></div>
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<i>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.</i></div>
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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.</div>
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<i>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.</i></div>
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<i>One-minute exposure straight overhead. Little dots of distant light.</i></div>
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<i>Exposure fun with moon.</i></div>
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<i>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.</i></div>
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<i>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.</i></div>
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<i>With a reasonable amount of skill this set of stairs is the only required dismount on the backcountry trails at Bandy Creek.</i></div>
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<i>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.</i></div>
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<i>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. </i></div>
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<i>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.</i></div>
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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.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-14200495553300138012016-07-17T09:24:00.001-04:002016-07-17T09:24:47.242-04:00Big South Fork 2016 The DepartureIt's that time of year, the summer bike trip which Mr. Johnson and I have now done 4 different years. Years <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2012/08/dbnf-mt-tour-2012-day-1.html">1</a> and <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2013/08/lagolinda-fixer-dbnf13-d1.html">2 </a>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 <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2015/06/dbnf-2015-bee-rock.html">S-Tree</a> environs. The "plan" was to ride even further south in the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/biso/index.htm">Big South Fork</a> area of very southern KY, an area I visited with DC and Michael many moons ago (<a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2010/10/big-south-fork-day-1.html">2010</a>), 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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<i>The conditions aside, the blackberry snack en route was a nice distraction.</i> </div>
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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 <a href="https://www.nps.gov/biso/planyourvisit/blueheroncampground.htm">Blue Heron Campground</a> 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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<i>No coal.</i> </div>
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<i>Mountain views are always nice.</i></div>
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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.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-43388250949647993632016-06-29T08:52:00.002-04:002016-06-29T08:52:54.079-04:00Swift Campout 2016Using the<a href="http://builtbyswift.com/swiftcampout/"> Swift Campout </a>2016 concept as some inspiration, Mr. Crowell and I set about a short-n-sweet S24O on Saturday night, the first in a while. Why we don't do more of them, I just don't know.<div>
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<i>Pre-ride meet up at Against the Grain.</i></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/BeBfONg_Prlgar7ZbI0tTW1NUduh2dceWCa4N2NyCh3jObczROCVt-TClk0PblEGsubr_4edtHJ6fbSMJkWWAFS8JSkJ90xzuIwoWhJxCq1x5w3qhQu3yYGDEiqSuD2LEEAXB3PDsh0A9xlkbcN0YNWgBjsntIcgm9v3yuZf6Uuqv2xoJ-A5D7q9_LwwZlYSnwmdBsZO_2pqGlakEzGmLVfnAAFgLfCEPzFa3hTnaxDy-0SDinKG-5qpH2tixrZe9jDji5d9ro96XcaPAsUynF2jLel8IwJVr-CM7t9HjIW9Z_Spdok5bPcyUf9U0NE2a-GqNGMArijahHNs-A5Wj0qTbg_3UAzTd9GX2dbuQSA4c_YkRKsHhuGUAClHTPc2qlOl78K_dyFukqCiWN90a81ogHIGEMtuqB9L9TNzLNIhEJgEAaJjNabewVjzm4FNtYCMbaZ-Apf5_mxMfT68jWqUElk5lHptgcS6rm3jjtnXfdh6CkwzQxHrzXVbeIKAYKSShK-aE1_TXWwMuCDIvgJxwdZoDZ-MCD_41HJ75WYzi-r5EVEFMVEyAtIUrcpp0ahn8ClSNmVegB9MoMRChoVQSbA=w1186-h667-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/BeBfONg_Prlgar7ZbI0tTW1NUduh2dceWCa4N2NyCh3jObczROCVt-TClk0PblEGsubr_4edtHJ6fbSMJkWWAFS8JSkJ90xzuIwoWhJxCq1x5w3qhQu3yYGDEiqSuD2LEEAXB3PDsh0A9xlkbcN0YNWgBjsntIcgm9v3yuZf6Uuqv2xoJ-A5D7q9_LwwZlYSnwmdBsZO_2pqGlakEzGmLVfnAAFgLfCEPzFa3hTnaxDy-0SDinKG-5qpH2tixrZe9jDji5d9ro96XcaPAsUynF2jLel8IwJVr-CM7t9HjIW9Z_Spdok5bPcyUf9U0NE2a-GqNGMArijahHNs-A5Wj0qTbg_3UAzTd9GX2dbuQSA4c_YkRKsHhuGUAClHTPc2qlOl78K_dyFukqCiWN90a81ogHIGEMtuqB9L9TNzLNIhEJgEAaJjNabewVjzm4FNtYCMbaZ-Apf5_mxMfT68jWqUElk5lHptgcS6rm3jjtnXfdh6CkwzQxHrzXVbeIKAYKSShK-aE1_TXWwMuCDIvgJxwdZoDZ-MCD_41HJ75WYzi-r5EVEFMVEyAtIUrcpp0ahn8ClSNmVegB9MoMRChoVQSbA=w1186-h667-no" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Tree bridge</i></div>
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<i>Crowell</i> </div>
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<i>Field dinosaurs</i> </div>
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<i>Google algorithms having fun.</i></div>
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<i>Caballo</i></div>
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<i>After a warm, sunny 34 miles on the bike, I was craving some salt, so the Pringles did the trick. They might have lasted 5 minutes, maybe less.</i></div>
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<i>DC with his trusty Alps 2-man. I was trying my <a href="http://kammok.com/">Kammock </a>for the first time as an overnight option. Because I rarely write on the blog anymore, I doubt I'll review it, but suffice to say that it was much comfier than sleeping on the hard ground, but even at 72F, the chill woke me up. I look forward to giving it further tests. And with some gift cards I bought the <a href="http://kammok.com/products/dragonfly">Dragonfly </a>that goes with it. Looking forward to testing even more, because sleeping with the headnet is annoying.</i></div>
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<i>Preparing morning cup.</i></div>
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<i>Leaving camp there is a signed cut-through hiking path (no motorized vehicles). It was a fun diversion, but I probably didn't need that much cobweb action so early in the am.</i> </div>
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<i>More field dinosaurs.</i></div>
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<i> Two raptors in the tree. The one to the right is obvious. Can you find the other? I assume these are red-tailed hawks, but I'm not 100% sure. The size would suggest so, but no red tail was obvious when one took flight.</i></div>
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I miss blogging, and at the same time, I don't miss blogging. It's all so immediate now. You can find me at @transytex on Instagram, where I tend to post more regularly. <i> </i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-84627686593826880902016-04-11T17:30:00.000-04:002016-04-11T17:30:16.145-04:00Laurel Lake overnightSome a few of us regulars go together for a two-day extravaganza of mixed-terrain foolishness on the opening of week of my spring break. The plan, and one must always consider the plan- not the reality that we always cut shit short- was to do a very mixed kinda road/singletrack/hikeabike/gravel kinda day on Saturday, a full day but one that kept the mileage reasonable, and then add on Sunday inspecting the well-reviewed <a href="http://www.mtbproject.com/trail/7005298/sheltowee-trace-nrt-section-26">Laurel Lake</a> singletrack system.<br />
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Saturday's route began at Bee Rock Campground, where Patrick and I had visited before, and included a chill 4-mile warmup before we dove into singletrack. Unfortunately, the group had problems staying together pretty early on. We were introduced to our "theme" of the day.<br />
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<i>Patrick and Timothy on the one-mile-ish climb out of Bee Rock.</i></div>
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<i>Patrick and David further on up the road.</i></div>
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The off-roading commenced as we dove down a portion of the Sheltowee into <a href="http://fw.ky.gov/More/Documents/CaneCreekWMA_ALL.pdf">Cane Creek WMA</a>, again an area PJ and I explored back in the summer. With a little more confidence and fresher legs, I through myself with abandon and really enjoyed the sketchy descent, even clearing the man-made wood bridge that the others (pussies) chose to walk. I was early.<br />
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<i>Smartly choosing dry in the chilly conditions.</i></div>
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<i>Standard sketchy rock garden. None of us cleared. Pussies.</i></div>
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<i>The area is rife with waterfalls, of which we stopped and snapped a couple.</i></div>
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Towards the base of the descent we were passed (while waiting for someone, cough cough) by two very capable ladies from the Rogue Racing outfit of Cincy. They were very capable on a descent that the rest of us sort of chunked. Humbling.<br />
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At this point they turned back uphill to go find the groomed action along Laurel Lake while we went west on #trail401 (don't quote me), we were found a mix of hike-a-bike and rideable trail. One of the Rogue girls had complained of too much "hiking in Sidis", which I scoffed at as being soft. She was right.<br />
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<i>Yahoo Falls. A nice hike. A less-than-nice bike push.</i></div>
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<i>As stated, the trail opened up into more rideable conditions.</i></div>
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<i>Dammit where are the pretty little purple flowers I took a picture of behind the Jones?!?</i></div>
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<i>Someone walked a lot.</i></div>
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After an interesting blend of riding and hike-a-bike, we found a nutty descent which eventually led us to our turn north for more of the same. I was having a pretty good time, while others in our party either a) fell in creeks or b) walked>biked. To say it lacked rhythm is to say that Stalin lacked empathy. </div>
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<i>While not extolling the virtues of modern flow trail, it didn't hurt that this portion of #401, aka the trail with the white diamond aka the trail along the river, provided very nice views.</i></div>
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<i>Plenty of Rockcastle River attractiveness.</i></div>
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<i>Seek-and-Find. How many bikes do you see?</i></div>
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We found things rough going, but along this section a pair of motos were working their way south along the same trail. Honestly I don't know if they're actually allowed, but they were there. Their part in the story surfaces just down the road.</div>
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<i>This innocuous pic is here for a reason. Embiggen (I/Grant talk) and take a closer look.</i></div>
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OK. We were already a bit tired and taking much longer than we should have been, but that's the story of our rides. All that being said, April '16 DBNF got much more fucking crazy here. I've used my mad skills to screen shot a map of <a href="http://fw.ky.gov/More/Documents/CaneCreekWMA_ALL.pdf">Cane Creek WMA</a> and the nice trail we were on. The yellow star indicates where we got lost as fuck. It does not good to rehash the fact other than that we spent an hour plus clambering and debating how we were going to scale cliffs with our bikes, trudging up dangerous slopes, Dave avoided being impaled by wooden spikes, and generally fucking ourselves. It was just dumb. Oh, we followed some moto tracks too. They had to have been more fucked than we, as the notion of hauling their bikes up or down some of those slopes was just unacceptable. Eventually we saw a nice, fit couple we had seen earlier and conferred on the general direction of things. Patrick had been on the trail an hour earlier buuuuuut....</div>
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<i>Nice view amid fuckery.</i></div>
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The trail is listed as the "narrows", and so the trail ended up being the steepest shit imaginable with bikes. At some point Timothy and Patrick up ahead were looking for white diamonds to no avail. In the end, though, the trail was found and multiple hours later we were back on track.<br />
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At the top, we conferred and hatched a plan. A couple of us went forward to camp to secure transportation. The other two did their forward progress towards camp. And we met together eventually. It was a memory. Jesus.<br />
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A totally screwed ride being the given, camp ended up really nice. Yes, it was chilly, but the wind died down and we dined on both our own fare and some jambalaya that Timothy had concocted. Along with the refreshing beverages, camp was solidly chill at some point. Later in the evening three of us visited the bridge and took in a very nice starry sky until the clouds rolled in. My camp sleep was typically brutal; at 1am for some reason (later found out to be an un-closed tab) my sleeping pad was flat as a board. I finished the night in the passenger seat of Dave's vehicle. -8 camper points there.<br />
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Sunday's plan was to ride the "flowy" singletrack of<a href="http://www.singletracks.com/bike-trails/sheltowee-trace-laurel-lake-trail.html"> Laurel Lake</a>. One in our party had had enough and decided to sit things out. The remaining three found a rather easy, yes, flowy portion of singletrack along the lack punctuated by short, quick power climbs after crossing dry creek beds. The path was well-maintained and even along the more populated portions there was a very light layer of pea gravel of some sort to minimize erosion. Someone yet again crashed into a streambed, truncating his trip by some miles as he returned via the road. Our morning ride ended up being about 10 miles total, as we missed the most southern leg at a road crossing we didn't cross. I consider Laurel Lake to be a very good "girlfriend/boyfriend" trail for those getting into riding trails. It was mellow and probably appropriate after our Saturday fiasco.<br />
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You know, a week and change later, I would enthusiastically say it was better than sitting on the couch.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-12534690447802531842016-01-24T20:32:00.003-05:002016-01-25T06:13:16.410-05:00Big (Bend) ThoughtsI feel to be in a period of transition. Perhaps more to come at some point. I saw this image and it immediately nudged me an inch closer to a position- mental, spiritual, physical-, some kind of position where I need to be, to strive towards. Just a thought.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4Pcm_p-4Mgo/VqV6smdIXPI/AAAAAAAAgJk/N1wBaM-h2GA/s1600/24566005466_220cec8b1e_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4Pcm_p-4Mgo/VqV6smdIXPI/AAAAAAAAgJk/N1wBaM-h2GA/s400/24566005466_220cec8b1e_z.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
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<i>Thanks, Justin, for the inspiration. Blog about Big Bend, TX area found <a href="http://justinlott.com/the-other-side-of-nowhere/">here</a>.</i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-38652497939957411692016-01-23T08:19:00.001-05:002016-01-23T08:19:29.661-05:00Mas snowfatcold<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I met Timothy at Please&ThankYou for a cup, and for me one of their excellent egg bagels, before we headed out on the early edge of our next snow-ing, billed this time as a potential storm between 1" and 12". Yes, you read that right. Anyway, it was snowing.</div>
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Timothy brought his Orbea 27.5+ bike to try in the snow for the first time, while I was again on the Mukluk, whose tires were I'm guestimating at 8psi or so. We plowed the bumpy trail our the Riverwalk towards Shawnee. In this section, Timothy was stronger than I and I think having more fun than I. Pushing the knobby Nates over long flat sections (long is relatively here) is not particularly enjoyable. As we began to explore the Shawnee/Portland river bottoms area the Nates sprang to life, so to speak. Noodling and Toodling around at 3mph with an extra grippy footprint seems to be what the Mukluk is made for, while Timothy was consistently losing grip with his mild knobbed 3" tires (sorry, don't remember make). We explored a bit until Timothy's cleats were entirely frozen up. After fortunately retrieving a missing coffee thermos, we wended through the woods a bit more and began to head back. At the flood wall under I-64 I borrowed Timothy's pump to boost my pressure a bit and basically tore the valve stem inner stem off (whatever it's called), but low and behold the tire held air. I assume there was some frozen stuff in there aiding my cause. We trudge back in increasing snows and wind, eventually popping over to River Rd. to avoid the snow drifting o the Riverwalk. A beverage and hot food melted our frozen edges and topped off a fun day. This made for the 3rd snow ride in a row, all with different shoe combinations. The zipper on the Wed boots (my favorite broke, begetting the Oboz boots, begetting the new Shimano bikepack boots, all with weaknesses. Maybe I'm the weak link. I hate cold toes.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/6BAj_29ylM8WLpOZvI1FA72PVVzrlsglAqm6Qfi4eOwan-FZ1JEPw6Zvxlq3t3aM7ASdpXZm_7cdUmTYJE15UNL9Ia31gs7KzOX1pugBadFI8vaUrJETT3-70nc66cBnhv5RA_2RZ17KItuwNCox7ALvDTo8V_HupqEXKqz5xv6HiqBoU7cb2eYbGCcT6rcLJSMEfA50y271o6tn2Ilz-3VzeRSyKUjee62trc5Ftyc3_hbjn_Uu0jLmEKBis4Bg55wQJrY2HDnSk_4_vLiDhXTFJiWM0vX7kj37_IXvdiBLLY0EJC0hLWM3mlUadBLKZVzP02IShqZQgcGHUqInfJx8NIFdqUgn7sOBFNind05d28p1VpgvFP-O0BGMMbVrhr-zAaLWP34WFVLAjGoXgLK3DNEK-2_lfBXXrJ_p4o5M1Qxud5B0eoOrkEXVVNRUTFHxyOqtCmSJNlehFciOZjWsFk-Nct8NgE_8mrCC71h_YRLgtSN9V_8ZQzHxsnmZsO-lkGSNZhSMe3ONTpZsA73KayE3-ZSXUifkmsMMyGvkFUExbdxrycV-oMyPB4Kn=w538-h955-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/6BAj_29ylM8WLpOZvI1FA72PVVzrlsglAqm6Qfi4eOwan-FZ1JEPw6Zvxlq3t3aM7ASdpXZm_7cdUmTYJE15UNL9Ia31gs7KzOX1pugBadFI8vaUrJETT3-70nc66cBnhv5RA_2RZ17KItuwNCox7ALvDTo8V_HupqEXKqz5xv6HiqBoU7cb2eYbGCcT6rcLJSMEfA50y271o6tn2Ilz-3VzeRSyKUjee62trc5Ftyc3_hbjn_Uu0jLmEKBis4Bg55wQJrY2HDnSk_4_vLiDhXTFJiWM0vX7kj37_IXvdiBLLY0EJC0hLWM3mlUadBLKZVzP02IShqZQgcGHUqInfJx8NIFdqUgn7sOBFNind05d28p1VpgvFP-O0BGMMbVrhr-zAaLWP34WFVLAjGoXgLK3DNEK-2_lfBXXrJ_p4o5M1Qxud5B0eoOrkEXVVNRUTFHxyOqtCmSJNlehFciOZjWsFk-Nct8NgE_8mrCC71h_YRLgtSN9V_8ZQzHxsnmZsO-lkGSNZhSMe3ONTpZsA73KayE3-ZSXUifkmsMMyGvkFUExbdxrycV-oMyPB4Kn=w538-h955-no" width="223" /></a></div>
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<i>Snow Ohio River scene.</i></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/nLTY99CPgkPzqyzztVZ1MO9n2W7FmgA6CYnbQ6yV1edjSkeKjUQscZnZISP6u6qqX2qJl5Fctt8oTiWQrNuvP3Ddiv4ISN_jTo2f1lIt2suk6pvNSY-9_Tl3ldJcnsnrRUEGdp3SL3YlZOOzv4LsZbi66f9ljVzrKMA-1wYP-HgNbBRg4ZOpXLYOfpas_z1B0qGqLRpUrPu4N1DYsXccHiI0MFMRIhfKZcGEldx4HIogfzphnYEAQwZxj2YUEnq-z_dhPWQ_Lkfq-4boXB5v27ntt4-I5iaH6A8UwXDxpNf49E1UNaXki_KyJ_nApclR170K1gob_aDr0EpTVG5aF_3poohvO0c8O7g-VEFOx3kGdiM10DRU3N2xeBciBSyONspIyyuhdypGHeaOR60-i0WBdGda3t8TdUA0aGsEqCPPNF0PHwOvrG0h0SgVL-eWPSg5gXod5aE0L4IZ78RI_2UNc9jPy4HhcDYFUmi5N33OtKuoV_K7jAH8kS_8ZM5BxwH7ehwTrTOJ2Qneiv15WmScSEjOZbmP_iUdkw5v5GnKJCL4nlFz3rzAF7KhqC5j=w717-h955-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/nLTY99CPgkPzqyzztVZ1MO9n2W7FmgA6CYnbQ6yV1edjSkeKjUQscZnZISP6u6qqX2qJl5Fctt8oTiWQrNuvP3Ddiv4ISN_jTo2f1lIt2suk6pvNSY-9_Tl3ldJcnsnrRUEGdp3SL3YlZOOzv4LsZbi66f9ljVzrKMA-1wYP-HgNbBRg4ZOpXLYOfpas_z1B0qGqLRpUrPu4N1DYsXccHiI0MFMRIhfKZcGEldx4HIogfzphnYEAQwZxj2YUEnq-z_dhPWQ_Lkfq-4boXB5v27ntt4-I5iaH6A8UwXDxpNf49E1UNaXki_KyJ_nApclR170K1gob_aDr0EpTVG5aF_3poohvO0c8O7g-VEFOx3kGdiM10DRU3N2xeBciBSyONspIyyuhdypGHeaOR60-i0WBdGda3t8TdUA0aGsEqCPPNF0PHwOvrG0h0SgVL-eWPSg5gXod5aE0L4IZ78RI_2UNc9jPy4HhcDYFUmi5N33OtKuoV_K7jAH8kS_8ZM5BxwH7ehwTrTOJ2Qneiv15WmScSEjOZbmP_iUdkw5v5GnKJCL4nlFz3rzAF7KhqC5j=w717-h955-no" width="298" /></a></div>
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<i>Frozen face selfie. Googles this time, but same hat.</i></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/7LCxdMGpGBmhGNgB2CuZAofLm8b3ATuZOqQW6sXPpt2HSIJ-y7QCtFjYTpRe6qSxY0f5M6YA5FFWqKtqi7TBQddywyuMxYvnJF3-oRG1BSocjQwY4lcgTqTZcte9kXNzf0GjiJ-ORVyafsGU_7rLBa15xfQMfx73zhJmKa18I6KLmzs83cnHlFO2ojbbouc87uopzoAquTQCS_2s-APFzQcqNVChpdYejcdvd-F2FFHUW8CqmH9PD3mA8-NSX3YURGdaX4P9pt8iEJcwDKiUaa0k-3S5TGbqgi8Knhx_2wdb1CBUDsDfVBb4yaYVj69zIWn9mMobPLX2HSPmFUKcMRxIKJCYfS_rW1HlHqGsWg-nrCU0Lx_3Vvd2xLQ0dqdgjpgGmiT6L9XvJBfSUlWG4hOu4eExX-FTFJ1s2-IIVrWTOYlKLkfRHzERvlx87do-Z98Ysn3bfR4WPImb8eE0ZuNlPwZ_h09VmOoTpyLN1C6awWy-Jx5oORU-yCSCkjhiFbHU4GAcoqjRBtTpSewb5gaTUoQjh-BHHEnY6AuFHMIT7jTGZXR_mkdvUGCO2_Li=w538-h955-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/7LCxdMGpGBmhGNgB2CuZAofLm8b3ATuZOqQW6sXPpt2HSIJ-y7QCtFjYTpRe6qSxY0f5M6YA5FFWqKtqi7TBQddywyuMxYvnJF3-oRG1BSocjQwY4lcgTqTZcte9kXNzf0GjiJ-ORVyafsGU_7rLBa15xfQMfx73zhJmKa18I6KLmzs83cnHlFO2ojbbouc87uopzoAquTQCS_2s-APFzQcqNVChpdYejcdvd-F2FFHUW8CqmH9PD3mA8-NSX3YURGdaX4P9pt8iEJcwDKiUaa0k-3S5TGbqgi8Knhx_2wdb1CBUDsDfVBb4yaYVj69zIWn9mMobPLX2HSPmFUKcMRxIKJCYfS_rW1HlHqGsWg-nrCU0Lx_3Vvd2xLQ0dqdgjpgGmiT6L9XvJBfSUlWG4hOu4eExX-FTFJ1s2-IIVrWTOYlKLkfRHzERvlx87do-Z98Ysn3bfR4WPImb8eE0ZuNlPwZ_h09VmOoTpyLN1C6awWy-Jx5oORU-yCSCkjhiFbHU4GAcoqjRBtTpSewb5gaTUoQjh-BHHEnY6AuFHMIT7jTGZXR_mkdvUGCO2_Li=w538-h955-no" width="223" /></a></div>
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<i>Portland/Shawnee river bottoms. This area had scene much ATV/truck/4x4 activity, making for ruts that Timothy found difficult with his level of tire grip.</i></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/D6NkLme6TJg-dcqMTeGoZM4D2slexV01E2VHi9_lsMYIgl49znhPXd0iSSkvQQs9uCyu5DGHJ2DvdR-q5BgUWmWCCpCHEEh8m2J84HNT8JNgXcP6KuE61hzyI49pu4rrNw6S5daWjQL8Y_th8hBcHd1dQiMPZzWDT-mM5nu2Hs7tCIp9BS91uckPMwjdmaKufuutFVuNfiQC2oMY1tVcczEQ5Yta2Ch6OWXtDChzMSCTGyJDeUl7EgWGwKLtlNVdprrR6r0V1qLbFs3eBbNPX8QfphP3wZJBEFVlr1U02OK6PQ4noX9aSsPn9SBfYuxInY9NN2ANCm3Acv3IKefGGFXs0z_k95uBjQsKhdfODlVqTLCRd6mFKY0sLCvzped1_Vuh1XbqG9vTy48g67iu0X1TRv6DHuzaTFxb5hPnOtavDWabaND3qSDNnTaQMY6XB7BR4dQ4TNrOd2P6PJrUIvs_g9kXiAyWT1l3XyQ5OrThSqVhY_n5jfwK27MgLt_qs8QY74LaRZVpGaRz02M2LKrJ9JJk7HEupWcwcQ5i_xBQC3nu0qVSvMtz_tCPYmPx=w538-h955-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/D6NkLme6TJg-dcqMTeGoZM4D2slexV01E2VHi9_lsMYIgl49znhPXd0iSSkvQQs9uCyu5DGHJ2DvdR-q5BgUWmWCCpCHEEh8m2J84HNT8JNgXcP6KuE61hzyI49pu4rrNw6S5daWjQL8Y_th8hBcHd1dQiMPZzWDT-mM5nu2Hs7tCIp9BS91uckPMwjdmaKufuutFVuNfiQC2oMY1tVcczEQ5Yta2Ch6OWXtDChzMSCTGyJDeUl7EgWGwKLtlNVdprrR6r0V1qLbFs3eBbNPX8QfphP3wZJBEFVlr1U02OK6PQ4noX9aSsPn9SBfYuxInY9NN2ANCm3Acv3IKefGGFXs0z_k95uBjQsKhdfODlVqTLCRd6mFKY0sLCvzped1_Vuh1XbqG9vTy48g67iu0X1TRv6DHuzaTFxb5hPnOtavDWabaND3qSDNnTaQMY6XB7BR4dQ4TNrOd2P6PJrUIvs_g9kXiAyWT1l3XyQ5OrThSqVhY_n5jfwK27MgLt_qs8QY74LaRZVpGaRz02M2LKrJ9JJk7HEupWcwcQ5i_xBQC3nu0qVSvMtz_tCPYmPx=w538-h955-no" width="179" /></a></div>
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<i>Drive home not so rosy for the Mukluk wheels. Even worse (not shown) was the frozen front mechanism on the rack. I engineered a questionable solution with a small bungee. I got home in tact, so I guess it was good enough.</i></div>
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="405" scrolling="no" src="https://www.strava.com/activities/475936961/embed/808a6fec1a42bcea09d3bfa7a8691a351ec394ac" width="590"></iframe>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-7396160075982987392016-01-20T17:27:00.000-05:002016-01-20T17:27:09.422-05:00First Snow Fattie '16<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Is started snowing around 3am, so by the time I awoke at 4.45am to check on school status they had already cancelled. I tried to go back to sleep, but to no avail. Eventually still under the cover of darkness I hit the ol' fatbike, for the first time in while. I managed to stay out for 3hrs. Although I didn't do much mileage, it felt good to manage temps at 21F and to pedal for a long time. Below is my account.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2F22XeZAd6o/VqADCpW_UzI/AAAAAAAAgGQ/z0wM0EgvjtU/s1600/P1020512.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2F22XeZAd6o/VqADCpW_UzI/AAAAAAAAgGQ/z0wM0EgvjtU/s400/P1020512.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<i>Seneca golf course is always fun</i></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5CvdZR2dN5w/VqAE0C3KOiI/AAAAAAAAgHI/EGvBas3ZkIc/s1600/20160120_073009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5CvdZR2dN5w/VqAE0C3KOiI/AAAAAAAAgHI/EGvBas3ZkIc/s400/20160120_073009.jpg" width="225" /></a>'</div>
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<i>Along Beargrass Creek as the light begins to increase bit by bit.</i></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FTmqYhFyhTg/VqADIT6yn4I/AAAAAAAAgGY/4TWDCSHlb3M/s1600/P1020513.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FTmqYhFyhTg/VqADIT6yn4I/AAAAAAAAgGY/4TWDCSHlb3M/s400/P1020513.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Seneca Golf Course singletrack. I only did a portion.</i> </div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cWUtU0UcjQg/VqADJBEolTI/AAAAAAAAgGg/qWkmfPn71nY/s1600/P1020515.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cWUtU0UcjQg/VqADJBEolTI/AAAAAAAAgGg/qWkmfPn71nY/s400/P1020515.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Further into Cherokee trails. I dabbled and explored but don't consider it much of a trail session.</i> </div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pj3tYbFsh7g/VqADRg209fI/AAAAAAAAgG4/T4T0XuxLBS0/s1600/P1020518.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pj3tYbFsh7g/VqADRg209fI/AAAAAAAAgG4/T4T0XuxLBS0/s400/P1020518.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Bad pic, but a cold, wet Blue Heron along Beargrass Trail. He set to flight shortly after this. For as large as they are, they tend to be nervous, although a bit less so than Kingfishers.</i></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XkUgwdgTh1w/VqAG2azB17I/AAAAAAAAgHU/gGENHnKFyCE/s1600/P1020519.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XkUgwdgTh1w/VqAG2azB17I/AAAAAAAAgHU/gGENHnKFyCE/s400/P1020519.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Skeedaddle!!</i></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OFpcu6cdATM/VqADP9gBmsI/AAAAAAAAgGw/ORBvKxY10UY/s1600/P1020521.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OFpcu6cdATM/VqADP9gBmsI/AAAAAAAAgGw/ORBvKxY10UY/s400/P1020521.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>New bridge behind old bridge</i></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/WWmPEvaJpY1xLOTySpp1l6dewUe93x3YPinCCUVG24wb_ZIbKJAkRRYmfHhpVVvyAprOvDskkuXeQRPJOjGbj7Vy3yj5nFFHHJXQIHQfXu3VV5LMZZfrbxN4KgfknawWoA-4irJB6oBgBwihQkCXx19Tyjcn4huc_4iZEn-4xTJYrOcCNYGk_KPCcIxVUDJJ4DhJkAOYcSb-MfxAL4QwLruc8shLb0h8_gVtPnWkjYdo-i9qJqn1iW-K9tSzoYpotmFYi321SzoiItIaqLZolSH-LzbYhuulGdPpys5gS7cMDG25yr3BOsOmTpnArmKf8tLjcJuBdAoTJCwKp0O46QNMjJ695uclgwMPOtPGglOqkuprBNKR-UTNcFwNEqHdwGp7fdpIMkaep9fLADvRIE71F0B9EidyRomBZWeI2uU23ENaqEbzFnyxFmYM4Zwp1QDVmv5_ppAh_B2IEzycU6QgMDKt2TWGe6ns9s47ldzGe3e_jWEcEEPrZNYtqqWmY9FnBD66iCK5qVC6jaNlcTTFMRaxWJBtbd3Zr9NWCw_8BM-B1KXFGj1-VswUBvdo=w538-h955-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/WWmPEvaJpY1xLOTySpp1l6dewUe93x3YPinCCUVG24wb_ZIbKJAkRRYmfHhpVVvyAprOvDskkuXeQRPJOjGbj7Vy3yj5nFFHHJXQIHQfXu3VV5LMZZfrbxN4KgfknawWoA-4irJB6oBgBwihQkCXx19Tyjcn4huc_4iZEn-4xTJYrOcCNYGk_KPCcIxVUDJJ4DhJkAOYcSb-MfxAL4QwLruc8shLb0h8_gVtPnWkjYdo-i9qJqn1iW-K9tSzoYpotmFYi321SzoiItIaqLZolSH-LzbYhuulGdPpys5gS7cMDG25yr3BOsOmTpnArmKf8tLjcJuBdAoTJCwKp0O46QNMjJ695uclgwMPOtPGglOqkuprBNKR-UTNcFwNEqHdwGp7fdpIMkaep9fLADvRIE71F0B9EidyRomBZWeI2uU23ENaqEbzFnyxFmYM4Zwp1QDVmv5_ppAh_B2IEzycU6QgMDKt2TWGe6ns9s47ldzGe3e_jWEcEEPrZNYtqqWmY9FnBD66iCK5qVC6jaNlcTTFMRaxWJBtbd3Zr9NWCw_8BM-B1KXFGj1-VswUBvdo=w538-h955-no" width="223" /></a></div>
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<i>Mukluk along the riverfront. It was sorta snowy at this point. I was comfortable until my hands got a bit cold about here.</i></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/P4J2nIScB5aHp8RN3b711qgOyoL_9dCVXCSIowiLss_ZNN7l7lu9pCVEF1XqmgzXEBtsW3EjN1MyooslHnqu3gjIbSMK4u5jGS65kojXMfr1OzQm7zeBHjTPvXksQsm1xpqZMLZULipuaVBYpEykTgN5PBcsp2dcAyyAT0EVmgTx5cqC9AfCILZc4OFbOMAcrRQ6Plbcmr1_Tn8S9ILmMm3E8NB05_SS3w9WRL7vNYuVDa9gNFRrFbE-emDHna9YqpRnbK8QZNY85iMC89mGF011jppuJdl8NZUrAdV5WY83K3t-U66Ab1TqmVZsEH7X8H8wCkpQ0EAuAeiMGiZKqpqi_bG-a9yQvvt3giCTbCZixUKQ2mzDiqkdjiP7pisv9gXdlLcH6x48yUvC5pTfrEWPWk75CeJ2PLjq2zWia2WBZ_oYXhlOTE1XflSK_4I_HWxBgFTKPrLAjy9mJTmNQzb42uGQ1sg93WyBMckLwRxqZ-G8U7ZCIgN10lm_qpNDYS_xbu--3EBYE17OZeulHWn6dJnautmb-8O5ec7HeWeBt853krFoWwHFrzit6h6g=w1698-h955-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/P4J2nIScB5aHp8RN3b711qgOyoL_9dCVXCSIowiLss_ZNN7l7lu9pCVEF1XqmgzXEBtsW3EjN1MyooslHnqu3gjIbSMK4u5jGS65kojXMfr1OzQm7zeBHjTPvXksQsm1xpqZMLZULipuaVBYpEykTgN5PBcsp2dcAyyAT0EVmgTx5cqC9AfCILZc4OFbOMAcrRQ6Plbcmr1_Tn8S9ILmMm3E8NB05_SS3w9WRL7vNYuVDa9gNFRrFbE-emDHna9YqpRnbK8QZNY85iMC89mGF011jppuJdl8NZUrAdV5WY83K3t-U66Ab1TqmVZsEH7X8H8wCkpQ0EAuAeiMGiZKqpqi_bG-a9yQvvt3giCTbCZixUKQ2mzDiqkdjiP7pisv9gXdlLcH6x48yUvC5pTfrEWPWk75CeJ2PLjq2zWia2WBZ_oYXhlOTE1XflSK_4I_HWxBgFTKPrLAjy9mJTmNQzb42uGQ1sg93WyBMckLwRxqZ-G8U7ZCIgN10lm_qpNDYS_xbu--3EBYE17OZeulHWn6dJnautmb-8O5ec7HeWeBt853krFoWwHFrzit6h6g=w1698-h955-no" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Love this pic, the snow, the river, the RR bridge. Oh, and the green grocery cart.</i></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/ZiMxBSm8bt_O9j-vKINQwsU_xUDaVvv1rtwBEeKzQiF3hCbzZH68yqHhIi-Ddneouvp3DIXeAKx2IEfLxqpCt7yaH4iyisGobOBPcIGk9we4ZVRx0dMXuG2bDu10tmqmo6k8IswTlfBNlTRQPlcx0m6ZDz4bnn9ZKNKEw0hGcDDPJC2m5KyH9eAKvqx7c9LmOyyOt4pfaW8HX3bdi_gWa6YYl1fQkjgkXhfnhKUUc71oLks6sAHaB-ubMCQ8_n3PyYqTtQVRYAHEWX6YR89t4geYNJGrPBbnjUtdCFV7mJv4zYclPt4Ce562ZBLXLZS11tJ4PW0whkFfKhyLfJRCWYbo0mWjSd_wVboomc2wbUaHO1fka1M5AbGS4R6Cngov1P23lrlztv1JkORyC8YrNHS4H8zvL0Vb7DO8XB4mwazVyVyGIqYHwwKMk6QM-D5SwUED9HUEFpRgqxsJU1gTnuk10sXJD4yt-Qb_dSj6eiB7VlFsm4qEyCb-mttK0KRgRWHNTbwkKip58Cqh3AmSQtgyYGliFE_Ikh3rQXqPpeUwtHWkwHD4tA8SdQR2sdhf=w717-h955-no" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/ZiMxBSm8bt_O9j-vKINQwsU_xUDaVvv1rtwBEeKzQiF3hCbzZH68yqHhIi-Ddneouvp3DIXeAKx2IEfLxqpCt7yaH4iyisGobOBPcIGk9we4ZVRx0dMXuG2bDu10tmqmo6k8IswTlfBNlTRQPlcx0m6ZDz4bnn9ZKNKEw0hGcDDPJC2m5KyH9eAKvqx7c9LmOyyOt4pfaW8HX3bdi_gWa6YYl1fQkjgkXhfnhKUUc71oLks6sAHaB-ubMCQ8_n3PyYqTtQVRYAHEWX6YR89t4geYNJGrPBbnjUtdCFV7mJv4zYclPt4Ce562ZBLXLZS11tJ4PW0whkFfKhyLfJRCWYbo0mWjSd_wVboomc2wbUaHO1fka1M5AbGS4R6Cngov1P23lrlztv1JkORyC8YrNHS4H8zvL0Vb7DO8XB4mwazVyVyGIqYHwwKMk6QM-D5SwUED9HUEFpRgqxsJU1gTnuk10sXJD4yt-Qb_dSj6eiB7VlFsm4qEyCb-mttK0KRgRWHNTbwkKip58Cqh3AmSQtgyYGliFE_Ikh3rQXqPpeUwtHWkwHD4tA8SdQR2sdhf=w717-h955-no" width="298" /></a></div>
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<i>Legit ice beard at my coffee stop at <a href="http://www.mcquixote.com/">McQuixote </a>down in Portland</i></div>
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My original plan was to travel down to the Shawnee river trails area for some exploration. At this point after coffee I had been out for two hours and had around an hour to get home at the substantial mph I was managing, so I turned for the barn. I stopped at OYLC on the way home for some bike BS and even briefly test-rode a 27.5+ Scott, which I had to say tracked better in the snow than the Muk. Less rubber though. It was a great day on the bike, and apparently I might have another opportunity on Friday as we get another system.</div>
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Additionally, viewing passively:</div>
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Great Blue Heron</div>
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Northern Cardinal</div>
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American Tree Sparrow</div>
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White-Throated Sparrow</div>
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some other LBJs</div>
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Dark-eyed Junco</div>
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Downy Woodpecker</div>
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Starling</div>
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Mallard </div>
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Bufflehead</div>
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other ducks along river</div>
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Ring-billed Gull</div>
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Red-Bellied Woodpecker</div>
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Goldfinch</div>
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Mourning Dove</div>
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Eastern Towhee</div>
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Carolina Wren</div>
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Carolina Chickadee</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15652978.post-64783402369658667192016-01-01T10:01:00.001-05:002016-01-06T06:08:12.773-05:002015 HighlightsIn no particular order:<br />
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<li><b>4510 </b>miles- my highest mileage year ever. I had a slow-ish start to the year but finished quite strongly, totaling 3400 miles since the beginning in June.</li>
<li>The "Most Trips" award goes to the JonesATB with 52 trips, and that is from early August. I had a really nicely balanced year of bike usage with 6 different bikes with 30 or more trips. Share the wealth. The "Most Mileage" award rightfully goes to the IF with 908 miles. </li>
<li>In February I picked up an amazing new ride, My Jones Diamond+Truss. My previous mtbike rig was a 10yrold Cannondale that had seen its better days. I wanted something fun, interesting, and capable on the trails and I found it in spades with the Jones. I love the Jones. It makes me want to ride the bike, which I think is the point. My trails rides increased significantly with this new rig, and my long-term ambitions are that much greater with its capabilities. AZT? CT? Maah Daah Hey? Big Bend?</li>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qSR3n3mYtLk/VoaLdhgRHGI/AAAAAAAAfzw/_x6L1iE8msU/s1600/Jones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qSR3n3mYtLk/VoaLdhgRHGI/AAAAAAAAfzw/_x6L1iE8msU/s400/Jones.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<li style="text-align: left;">In August, heavily influenced with my love of the truss Jones, I got another Jones, this time a steel unicrown Jones ATB. I love the Jones' position, security, footprint, comfort, comfort, comfort. I loved it so that I wanted to translate that feeling onto all aspects of my riding, not just on the trails. I didn't want to have to constantly bounce between set-ups. I wanted to jump on and use it, so Jones for trail, Jones for everything else. I was also influenced by an article I saw in Bicycle Times, <a href="http://bicycletimesmag.com/review-jeff-jones-atb/">a review</a> of a "Jones ATB" as a city/tour/trail, as the article states, "anything short of road racing". Jeff Jones himself is also marketing his machines in this way, obviously trying to expand into new markets.</li>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G4yQQQLPscE/VoaKdZdV6TI/AAAAAAAAfzo/iucvEWobzhg/s1600/P1020494.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G4yQQQLPscE/VoaKdZdV6TI/AAAAAAAAfzo/iucvEWobzhg/s400/P1020494.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<li style="text-align: left;">The most memorable cycling experience of the year was our DBNF modified bikepack all-terrain tour in June. Again Patrick and I visited that area as we had done in previous years. We spent 4 days on a mixture of pavement, forest, gravel, trail, 4x4, and bushwack. Write-ups can be found for <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2015/06/dbnf-2015-bee-rock.html">Day 1</a>, <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2015/06/dbnf-2015-daniel-boone-historic.html">Day 2</a>, <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2015/06/dbnf-2015-atop-infamous-s-tree.html">Day 3</a>, and <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2015/06/dbnf-2015-livingston-ky-trail-town.html">Day 4</a>. If I could capture the essence of cycling in a bottle of magical elixir, it would be the 15 or so miles of ridge-running on day two, paved mind you. Empty roads, great flow, good company, good temps. What it's all about.</li>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kB91ms8EA5A/VoaNaz7R9aI/AAAAAAAAf0E/klK3Edk2YqA/s1600/P1010992.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kB91ms8EA5A/VoaNaz7R9aI/AAAAAAAAf0E/klK3Edk2YqA/s400/P1010992.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HrV0SPRyubg/VoaOtqI8UZI/AAAAAAAAf0M/Zx0nikF9QPc/s1600/P1020019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HrV0SPRyubg/VoaOtqI8UZI/AAAAAAAAf0M/Zx0nikF9QPc/s400/P1020019.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Found this spot nestled deep in Rockcastle Co., KY. This is my off-the-grid dream.</i></div>
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<li style="text-align: left;">While not "epic", our <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2015/11/lake-shelby-s25o.html">S24O to Lake Shelby</a> on my birthday weekend was deeply satisfying. I felt great on the bike both days, slept great, and generally had a wonderful time exploring this new doable campsite.</li>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LCHqvX2NNug/VoaPdaMJ1nI/AAAAAAAAf0U/2Ck7SS_HMSQ/s1600/P1020455.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LCHqvX2NNug/VoaPdaMJ1nI/AAAAAAAAf0U/2Ck7SS_HMSQ/s400/P1020455.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<li style="text-align: left;">In keeping with the theme of bike camping and such, the <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2015/02/ferdinand-s24o.html">Ferdinand SF camp-and-bike</a> in February was another highlight. We car camped on a very cold night and the rode FSF's old-school trails. Other than belching a rear tubeless tire that I'm still confused about, it was a fun first test for the Jones.</li>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uoXGSdpMb4s/VNfd9PJeUoI/AAAAAAAAYws/a7YvRrWEGf4/s1600/P1010722.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uoXGSdpMb4s/VNfd9PJeUoI/AAAAAAAAYws/a7YvRrWEGf4/s1600/P1010722.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<li>Yet another off-road ride of note was my and Dave's <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2015/02/more-s-tree-delight.html">another round of DBNF</a> exploration in January. I had forgotten this trip a bit until looking back, but the memories and textures remain strongly embedded, aka I liked that ride a lot, a whole lot. And the Mukluk was entirely in its element.</li>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d4YTayvxRsg/VoaS55tkh2I/AAAAAAAAf0o/we00ViGwQQA/s1600/P1010652.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d4YTayvxRsg/VoaS55tkh2I/AAAAAAAAf0o/we00ViGwQQA/s400/P1010652.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<li>My mileage was predicated mostly on small and medium trips, but I did pull off a nice <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2015/04/maysville-lexington.html">Spring Break 70</a> from the in-laws down to Lexington. I felt so beat up the last 15 miles of that ride, but it was a fun experience and the longest ride of the year.</li>
<li>Another memorable road day was my "<a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2015/08/bikes-and-pace.html">Sunday Service"</a> ride with a mix of local strong riders I sort of know. It was a fast 50-miler on which I sucked every wheel I could find. For them it was just a random semi-easy training day. For me it was proof that I could attain another level of fitness if I really applied myself. </li>
<li>Louisville hosted the <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2015/03/rawlandmind-nahbs2015.html">NAHBS show in March</a> in the middle of an enormous last season storm. Incredibly, I never did a post of pics from the show. Weird. I volunteered to work the door and later even wrote some copy on adventure bikes. I don't remember where that article ended up. Suffice to say that was an excellent bike weekend, albeit in 10" of snow which basically shut the city down.</li>
<li>And finally, I can't say much more than that <a href="http://texlouisvillebike.blogspot.com/2015/06/my-friend.html">we all lost a great person</a> in Drew in June. He inspired me to ride 3 <a href="http://foundations.nortonhealthcare.com/site/TR/Events/General?fr_id=1100&pg=entry">BiketoBeatCancer</a> rides, including the one this year with a sizable group of his former classmates. He was a good man, a good friend, and an inspiration regardless of activity. I am better for having know him and spent time riding bikes with him on his quest. Peace, my friend.</li>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1