Laundry List

A big thanks goes out to my Dad this week as he helped me kill almost every project I needed to get done at the house before winter. Experience goes a long way. There is no reason for a gym membership when you are working on your house. Here is a quick list of items that were conquered:

Smashed concrete walkway, replaced with pea gravel and large natural stone.
Re-hung and replaced all the crawl space insulation.
Dug holes for fireplace jacks, poured concrete, installation of jacks.
Bolted back deck to the house along with adding support connectors.
Cut down a few trees and chopped them up including a very large hardwood.
Re-caulked the floors in the house.
Put up the Christmas tree and lights outside. Not like the Griswold’s.
Raked most leaves away from the house until the rake broke.
Installed new counter top lighting in the kitchen. (Work in progress)

Yup, we did all that including throwing a Thanksgiving bash at the house in-between all of this handiwork.

During all of this, I was still able to get some good rides in. I rode by myself at Paris on Tuesday getting in a strong loop. I felt awful in the beginning and really warmed up nicely. It was nice to get out before the masses.

Wednesday night was a huge success. I met Broussard early and he, Harley, Shade and I all went for a pre-loop around Reasonover. I am so proud of Shade as he ran the entire loop of Reasonover more than doubling his previous trail distance. That’s two successful trail rides following Harley. So now I have to see if I can get him to run with just me and the bike. When we first hit the trail last week he took off so fast I couldn’t keep up. He burned the first switchback headed down to the creek and had to smell his way back to the trail. I think he is going to be a great short distance trail runner. I am trying to break him in real slow but he is gaining strength quickly.

The ride after the dog lap was fantastic. We had a great group and as always a great ride. I was able to keep the rubber side down except for a little slide out following The Goat around Reasonover. It was one of those soft slip outs where you don’t even feel the impact. The tires just couldn’t hold.

Saturday was my birthday and we had the usual crowd show up along with one new face. It ended up being a great ride with lots of energy in the beginning and nothing but tired smiles in the end. That was to be expected after close to 40 miles in the hills. The route was a long one:

Fawn Lake Loop, Airstrip, Laurel Ridge, Corn Mill Shoals, Barn Trail, Shelter Rock, Conservation Road, Lake Julia Road, Reasonover, Turkey Gap, Poplar Hill, Turkey Gap, Pinnacle Mountain Road, Johanna Road, Briery Fork, Grassy Road (out and back to Johanna) Grassy Creek Falls, Wintergreen, Tarklin Branch Road, Sky Valley, Shoal Creek Trail, Rifle Trail, Guion Trail, Hickory Mountain Road, Ridgeline, Hooker Creek Trail, White Pine Trail, Buck Forest Road, Jim Branch, Lake Imagine Road, Hilltop Loop, Lake Imaging Road, Buck Forest, Staton Road, Sheep Mountain, Pine Tree, Longside, Corn Mill Shoals, Shoals, Laurel Ridge, Mine Mountain

Thanks to everyone who came out and an extra thanks to Zach for supplying us with some hot soup post ride.

There won’t be any pictures here for awhile as my camera took a big hit and is going to be headed back to Canon for a hopeful fix.

Peace