Fire

Click here for friday's moment of Zen

It Is Here

Broussard, D-Kuntz, Dave, SingleTrack Pig and myself all showed up for the weekly pain in Dupont.

Our route:

Longside, Pine Tree, Sheep Mountain, Buck Forest Road, Hickory Mountain Road, Hickory Mountain Loop, Ridgeline, White Pines, Buck Forest Road, Jim Branch, Lake Imaging Road, Buck Forest Road, Sheep Mountain, Buck Forest Road, Cascade Lake Road, Rock Quarry, Wilikie, Micajah

It was about 20 miles and we got back just before dark. I wasn’t sure if we could park at Corn Mill Shoals, ride to the top of the park and make it back before dark but we did it. Even with one flat tire, we still made it.

A couple things to note from the ride, don’t give Sparks to Broussard. The first climb, he was singing while I was struggling to breathe. I don’t mean the kind of singing that you can kind of hear, really loud singing. To quote Dave “That’s how I knew what direction you guys were going.”

Jim Branch is a ton of fun, but all the trails we did last night were a ton of fun. Nice ride gentlemen.

Thursday is a rest day for me. Thank the lord I need it, especially considering the fact that I am supposedly going to ride my bike for 50 miles on Saturday. It will be one of my last long base covering distances before my first race of the year. It will also be the longest ride so far this year. Bow chikky wow wowwwwwww.

So what to do on a rest day? Talk about the only weekend in golf that really matters that’s what. Yes, it is that time of year already, the azaleas are blooming and the red bud trees have yet to shed their beautiful flowers. The green built in TV towers are already in place and the caddies have been throwing green dyed sand into the divots for over three weeks now. Augusta National misses no detail when it comes to this event. It is absolutely ridiculous, you would think that the grounds crew was out all night combing the grass and individually placing the sand particles in the bunkers. If you ever have a chance to go, which you probably won’t, do it; it will be a moment to remember even if you hate golf.

If a husband takes his wife to the masters and she has never watched golf before in her life, she will still be interested. It just happens that way, it is contagious at Augusta, there is no place like it in the world. The food and beer are cheap, relatively speaking for a sporting event and the camaraderie amongst the crowd is second to none.

That must mean, that Tiger is about to dominate Augusta once again? I would rather he not. It isn’t necessarily that I dislike Mr. Woods and his incredible nature to win anything he sets his mind to, it’s just that I would rather see a competition. You see Augusta National is a place that thrives on competition. If someone rolls in an eagle on 13, (one of the furthest points on the course from the club house) you can be sitting by the green on 18 and hear the roar of cheers come up through the valley. I want to see a putt for a win on 18, not a sullen Tiger walking off the green getting ready for ANOTHER green Jacket.

The year I went to Augusta in 1999, was the first year they introduced “rough” or a second cut of grass. The entire course used to be one big fairway but they did away with this due to the fact that players and equipment have driven golf into a new era. Sort of like having 8 inches of travel to eat up the rocks, what’s that, there were rocks on that trail, I didn’t notice.

So it is a great thing that I am riding long and hard on Saturday because come Sunday, I will be watching the boob tube. There is an interesting thing about Augusta on Sunday that I never knew about until I witnessed it for myself.

If you want to be where the action is, the place to be at the end of the day is sitting around the 18th green of course, but how do those people get those seats? There are no grand stands around 18 like other PGA courses, only personal chairs.

As a caddy, we learned that you just put your name on your Augusta National green chair. Magic Marker style and yes, you have to buy one and yes it has to be an official Master’s chair to sit it on the course. Then you take your chair to the desired location and set it up. You can leave it un-attended for as long as you like. No one will sit in it or bother it. So being an employee in 1999 my roommate took all of our chairs over early in the morning to set them up in a prime location before the general public was allowed in.

I woke up after Lonnie had taken our chairs, so I wanted to go check out the spot he picked for me. I moseyed from our apartment, used my caddy pass to enter and started wandering toward 18. Just then, I heard a ton of commotion and I realized they were getting ready to let the masses inside. I looked over my shoulder to see a conglomerate of people waiting to get in. All of them wielding multiple Master’s chairs and looking to lock down their own piece of real estate on 18. I think I saw some of them breathing fire and snorting smoke. I watched stunned as they opened the gate, it was a free for all. They had cops telling people to walk but it didn’t matter. People came at me in a full on sprint carrying as many as eight chairs. If you can imagine the running of the bulls, with no bulls and everyone must carry at least 6 folding chairs, you can envision the madness. I stepped out of the way and watched people careen past me. It took my breath away.

You would think that after all of that madness, I wouldn’t be able to find my chair but there it was awaiting my arrival. It is still a glorious day in my mind. I remember sitting in my chair on 18 when Greg Norman rolled in an Eagle on 13. Even though I was over a half mile away, I could feel the air vibrating from the emotion as the roar worked its way up the valley. Greg wouldn’t last against Jose Maria Olazabal that day but it was great watching.

Racing Spiders

The guys at Clemson have got it going on with this course. Check out the MTBR link and look at their awesome wall ride. They got Red Bull as a sponsor N'everythang.

Broussard and I met up for a circuit of Paris last night. This is why I love the Drunken Monkey. I wrecked the poor girl three times on Saturday, got her muddy, it rained on her on the way home Sunday, I wiped her down, put her in the closet and she was all ready to be ridden yesterday. Sweet.

Kristin went on a five hour hike on Saturday while us bike fools frolicked in the woods. They saw flowers, huge spiders and awesome views.

Flower:

The view of Looking Glass from John rock:
Yikes!

Ride tonight at Dupont.

Peace

Gathering Ride Reports

Now that I have stopped bleeding from the weekend, I have time to write about the rides. We got the jitters out Friday night with a quick spin around Davidson River and Cove Creek. The player’s were Jack, Jaq, Meghan, Broussard, D-Kuntz, SingleTrack Pig and Rick.

We all took beers so we could celebrate the start of the weekend in style. The climb came and went, then we drank.

The downhill on Cove Creek was next. I hadn’t checked the PSI in my tires lately and I paid for it. I flatted pretty early on. After a slow change, we were rolling again. D-Kuntz was in front of me during the last section of super fast roller coaster rhododendron tunneling and it was great.

Brad caught us on camera as we came zipping out of the woods into the Cove Creek campground.

Friday evening I started chatting about the ride I had been dreaming up for Saturday. Dennis quickly chimed in and added some extra insight into the loop.

Saturday morning we ended up with 11 of us who were ready for a “quick four hour loop.” I apparently had bitten off a huge chunk of raw meat and had no teeth to chew with. The players were, Josh the wonderboy, TeamDicky, Jody, Eric, Dave, Rick, Mike Brown, Broussard, Guy from Greensboro, D-Kuntz and myself.

Our route was cove creek, no-name-trail, 475, 276, pink beds, 5018, Horse Cove, Squirrel Gap, S. Mills River, Buckhorn, Black Mountain, Buckwheat Knob, Bennett, Coontree, 276, 475, Davidson River trail

Once we were ready, I saw Dennis headed up Cove and I followed suit. Rick was right behind me. I had only climbed that singletrack once before. Dennis and I were chatting it up, when we got to the big rock stairs and I realized no one else was around. We waited, wondered if the group had decided otherwise and then they all showed up. They hadn’t listened to the proposed route and headed down the gravel road out of camp, instead of up the trail. I thought it was weird that we hadn’t been passed yet.

We made quick time up the rest of cove and then headed on towards no-name trail. I was again behind Dennis when all of the sudden he pulled over. His rear shifter cable had broken. He had a spare and after a bit we were rolling again.

The no-name road was super fun. Next thing I knew, we were on a rock n’ roll coaster named Pink Beds. It was super fun and I was feeling great, really whipping through the trees. I had Eric behind me and on one thread the needle spot in the trail I heard him grunt from a little slip up. He still held my wheel all the way through the rollers though.
Next up was the long arduous climb up 5018, I hadn’t climbed this since around Christmas time when Eric showed me the road for the first time. It was painful but not altogether tough. Once we made it to the top, I realized this was going to be a longer day than I had anticipated.

I jumped about fourth or fifth in line for the Horse Cove downhill and ended up behind TeamDicky. I was feeling nice coming down and was really enjoying Rich flail about along the trail. I thought for sure I was going to watch him fly off the trail screaming but somehow the sketch didn’t get him.

This was my second time on Horse Cove. Last time I tried the move across the big rock at the bottom and lightly crashed. This time I waited for the coast to clear, watched Jody expertly roll the rocks and I went for it. As soon as my front wheel rolled over the first rock I knew it was all over, my wheel wouldn’t straighten, I didn’t have a bail out, I had no speed to commit, so I fell right onto the two big rocks. I smashed my elbow and knee into the rock. It hurt but I was ok. It shook me up though, Broussard told me to slow down and shake it off. I took his advice and we decided to wait for Josh since Dave said he was pulled over to the side. After a bit, we rolled down to the intersection and eventually Josh came rolling up, he had flatted.

I decided to take a back seat at that point. I went from feeling great to badly shaken after the fall. All the way to the next stopping point I felt like something wasn’t right. My bike felt weird, my head felt strange and I wasn’t with it at all.

I got to the bottom and tried a tight turn and crashed again. The front of my bike was acting strange, I realized I had a flat in the front. Changed the flat and caught up with the group filtering water.

I can hardly even remember the rest of the ride as I started to bonk from not having enough food and the lackluster feeling that was quickly overcoming my own optimism. Next thing I know, I am JRA (just riding along) when a stick smacks me in the eye and I lose my contact. I had been carrying around a spare in a film container for a year and half. I prayed it was still good. I Got in my eye, but it hurt pretty bad. I was hoping my eye would water whatever it was that was hurting out. It didn’t.

Next stop, Dennis showed me a little mirror he carries with him, (are you kidding me? This guy fixes his rear cable with a spare and he has a mirror?) I borrowed the mirror, then proceeded to gross out everyone that stayed back with me. I had to clean the contact but all I had was water in my camel bak. So I took a mouthful of water, spit it onto my contact and worked the contact back into my eye. Much better! Now the sandy feeling was gone.

Down Buckhorn and Bennett I was just trying to not die. When all of the sudden I saw Broussard walking into the woods, getting very excited. He found two very old bottles of Oatmeal Porter. I couldn’t believe it. I had an opener with me, so we drank one and Dennis put the other in his bottle cage and carried it all they way back. I guess that’s what suspension is for.

Going back up Davidson river, which is basically a rock road, I had a brush with death. I would look over the side of the trail (I had been out of water for the last hour) see the river a couple hundred yards below and think about riding off into the void and what it would be like to drink the water, then drown in the water. It would be like some sort of seductive siren death. I am sure there would be odyssey’s written about it. Dave exclaimed that the gravel road up to the campground would most likely be on par with Clawhammer at this point. He was right but eventually we made it back to the campground. I laid in the grass, drank a cold coke and thought this must be heaven.

Gathering Pictures and Statistics

I don’t feel like writing much this morning so I will give you the skinny and the pictures. I know that’s all you really want anyway.

Gathering Stats:

Two rides = 45 miles.
Two Flats by me, five or six flats altogether.
One major mechanical that was fixed on the trail! Nice work D-Kuntz.
I met the dirt intimately 3 times on Saturday.
Two 24 oz Oatmeal Porter’s found in woods by Broussard.
4,000,555,666,222 beers drank
222,333,777,888 logs thrown over heads and onto the fire.
Two awfully sore shoulders from previous stat.
1 scorched scare crow.
0 deaths
0 people eaten by rabid dogs
60 – 400 hangovers

Enjoy!

Bikes, Bears and Beers

Off to see the wonderful wizard of Pisgah this afternoon.

If you need something to kill time with on your Friday, check out the pain wagon passion on MTBR. People are starting to take hold of that thread properly.

Thanks for the comments on my setup the other day. I am still working on sobering up the Drunken Monkey. That will be the most dialed in Monkey on the planet when I am done with her.

I leave you with a moment of Zen:

Professional Setup

After making my decision to ride the Drunken Monkey all year, I knew I needed some upgrades. My Hayes brakes were getting old and I was losing my ability to one finger brake on the steep and deep. This was causing hand cramps to ensue dangerously fast.

I called up my main man in Columbia at Harrells Bicycle World and asked his professional opinion on what brakes I should look into. Without hesitation, he told me to ditch the Hayes and go for Shimano. I told him to give me some time. I did some research on the Shimano Brakes and they seemed to have pretty good reviews so I called Paul back up and told him to order them.

I ordered the XTR calipers and the XT levers. I also ordered a 7” rotor for the front. I dropped my bike off on Thursday evening. Saturday morning I went over to the shop before they were open and voila my new brakes were all setup.

I had a problem when I installed my Hayes on the Drunken Monkey. I could never get the front caliper aligned just right. Come to find out that my Walt Works fork’s disc mount holes were not bored to the same depth. He bored the hole out for me so the caliper would sit straight.

The brakes are setup perfectly for my riding style. They are nice and tight so I can one finger the steep technical descents and still have four fingers for holding onto the bouncing madness. They are also mounted perfectly for quick rear wheel removal as there is no need to loosen bolts. This is very handy and why I love the horizontal drops with a quick release.

They also use mineral oil instead of DOT brake fluid, so if I do happen to have catastrophic failure again, I won’t have to worry about the harm I have done to mother nature. Hippie brakes, fantastic! Supposedly there will be very little maintenance required with these brakes. They should run a long time without having to bleed them.

I am using the semi-metallic pads as of right now. I will have to wait until I get a good rainy ride in to know whether they will hold up. These pads and brakes are quiet, super quiet. I could goose the road runner with my handlebars at this point. I have a set of full metallic pads to try as well.

I have also been looking into some other ways to relieve my hands of any numbness that might come from sitting on the bike for hours on end. Paul gave me some bar ends to play with. I have never ridden with bar ends before and I must say that for cross country they stink. I hate them with a passion. Luckily I learned quickly that when your hands are on the bar ends, there is no way to brake.

See I am a wide gripper. I usually ride with my hands way out on the ends of the bar. This way I can “feel” how wide the bars are for weaving and bobbing through the trees Muhammad Ali style. The bull horns prevent this.

I did see a great advantage to having them for extended climbs though. They give you a great amount of leverage for out of the saddle efforts. I foresee the ends being a big help on my long mountain days. It is also very nice to have some different hand positions. I will most likely run them on some of my longer rides and races but for short rides I will not have them on. I am still learning their nuances though so who knows.

Last night we had Dave, Dave, MtnGoatEpics, D-Kuntz and Broussard in for a ride.

It was an awesome night to be in the woods. I could say a lot about this ride but I will let the pictures say it for me.

The players:

Did you know that D-Kuntz and I are brothers?

Dave showing us what he’s got after the steep climb:



The Goat himself: Peace

Do You Miss That Feeling?

I started a little thread on MTBR yesterday that awoke some old feelings. I realized that I haven’t felt like death was beating on my back door in awhile. If you have ever ridden your bike so hard (or done anything hard enough for that matter) that you thought you secreted every fluid out of your body, deer start licking you, vultures are flying overhead awaiting their next meal then you probably know what I mean.

My ultimate moments from last year were probably coming down Black Mountain in our 13th hour on the bike during PMBAR. It was the only time I have ever wished for a downhill to be over.

The second time I rode hard enough to catch the bug was when I was lying on the gravel, 75 miles in on the Shenandoah 100 puking nothing and shivering like I was racing the Iditarod. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the suffering from those two events.

So I dug up these old pictures from last year to try and remember the feeling. Let’s reflect shall we? So let me set this picture up. It was my first 12 hour race, it was hot enough to make Dr. Evil happy, I wanted to complete 100 miles in 12 hours. I completed 80 and this picture explains it all:

The next one I have is from the Assault on Mount Mitchell. I should have pushed myself a little harder last year but I still came in 45 minutes faster than the year before:

At least I was suffering properly in that picture, I had a beer.

Last night I went out and rode Paris. As I was headed out of the parking lot I saw Ty and stopped to say hello. We started chatting about the new trail and he was telling me they have some steep grade issues they are trying to resolve. They are looking to build some ladders to prevent erosion on the steep sections. Here is a picture of a “trial” (yes they are trying it out and it is not on the trail yet) ladder they are using:

It is hard to tell, but that ladder is at a 43 degree pitch. That’s pretty steep. Most likely they will incorporate steps along with the ladder for hikers. Ty was having some issues figuring out how they would incorporate them into the trail properly. I suggested using them for the steep section of a switchback. It is going to be a cool trail for sure!

One last picture from my ride:

Peace

Cross Gardening

Yesterday was a rest day as I am only riding four times a week in March. No worries, I will be stepping it up come April. Since it was a rest day yesterday, Kristin had me help her with some yard work. Yup I can wield a shovel with the best of them. There is nothing like trying to dig into some South Carolinian clay to help your hand and forearm strength. Reminds me of when I was a golfer and my local pro would tell me to go home and use the weed whacker to gain strength.

So I don’t have much to say this morning as I just drove in from Columbia and I have a meeting to get ready for.

So I will leave you with my game face for the Gathering:

Cinderella Story

This weekend I got a couple rides in at Harbison and Manchester. I rode hard with a slightly cross countrier gear than I normally run. My legs are pretty sore today.

Friday evening Kristin and I went to see Carolina Ballet’s production of “Cinderella.” Kristin teaches dance to these young children and so it was our privledge to get to see them for free. As Kristin sat there, watching with a critiquing eye, I started thinking about the similarity in her passtion to be a dancer and mine to be outdoors and on the bike. It is good that we are both very passionate about things in our lives. That way we are more understanding of how much time goes into these sorts of things.

I wondered if there were any ballet enduro nut jobs out there. It does seem as though ballet takes a lot of endurance. However, I couldn’t find any 24 hour ballet’s or anything of that sort.

I did find that the longest tap dance ever was 20 miles 63 yards and it took 8 hours to complete. I wonder if he or she used any sport legs or hammer gel.

I did listen to my own advice this weekend. While I was out at Harbison, I met a fellow on a Voodoo 29’er. We rode together for a bit since we were on our own but quickly parted ways as we set our own paces.

I have some new weapons installed on the Drunken Monkey but I am not yet ready to reveal them as they have not been fully tested.

I am sure this weekend will give them a good run down though.

A Year In Time

Last year about this time I was just coming off of a month and a half hiatus from the bike. I had chrondomalacia of the patella (that’s a big word for ouch my knee hurts) which forced me to take some time off. Sometimes we take our health for advantage. I remember telling Kristin “I just want to take a shower and watch dirt flow down the drain.”

I started back up riding at a very easy pace and when I would go on group rides I would always be sucking wind in the back. I had a couple weeks under me and then the spring gathering in Pisgah was here. I had never been to a gathering or met anyone at one of the gatherings before but I wanted to go so I could meet more like minded people.

I had just recently joined MTBR and I figured “What’s the worse that could happen when you incorporate bikes and beer?” Kristin and I weren’t able to make it Friday night, we showed up around 10:00 Saturday morning. When we arrived, we quickly set up the tent and I noticed that there were two cats getting ready to ride. Everyone else was already gone on rides for the day. I rode over and asked if they would mind me riding with them. One of them said “We are going to the top of Farlow and we don’t really know where we are going.” I said “perfect just give me a minute.”

I made sure Kristin had everything she needed for a relaxing afternoon; (unbeknown to me that I had forgotten the bicardi part of her bicardi and cokes) I suited up and rode over to make my introductions. The two guys introduced themselves as Rich and Josh, another independent rider Drew, joined us.

As we started our ride, I noticed that Rich and Josh were riding fully rigid single speeds. I didn’t even realize that people did that in Pisgah. I figured it spelled out death for sure. Drew was on a single speed as well but he had a fork. I was on my Gary Fisher Cake.

As we were headed out, I remember Drew making the comment “So you just show up, set up the tent and tell your girlfriend that your going biking all day? That is your girlfriend right?” I said “Yes, she is cool.”

A couple lungs later and probably 9 or 10 hours of wait time for Rich and Josh, we were at the top of the “gnarliest” bike legit downhill in all of Pisgah. I rode down the first wall of rock and had to bail before the “big stuff.” I watched as both Josh and Rich negotiated moves that I would have thought impossible on a rigid bike. I remember specifically Rich cleaning a super steep section that blew my mind and my front brake trying to negotiate the top half, more or less the bottom half. I walked down spitting dirt saying “Crap, you friggin cleaned that didn’t you?”

After the weekend was over, I was staring at Jeremy’s site, wondering if I was going to try any races for the 2006 season when I noticed a link he had on his site at that point in time. It said “TeamDicky” and I remembered a few people calling Rich that name. So I clicked the link and there was a picture of Josh coming down Farlow.

I started posting my rides on MTBR just to see if I could get anyone to ride with me in the mountains. At first, no one paid my threads any attention. After a while, people started jumping in on the rides and I was meeting new people all the time. We had so many people show up for my birthday ride last November that I couldn’t even figure out who was riding with us and who was just there to ride.

Fast forward to a year later and now I have met so many good people through my initiatives and biking. We are headed to the Gathering this year knowing a laundry list of people and I can’t wait. Things have gotten so out of control that my own link is on Jeremy’s site, he even has a picture up of Eric that I snapped while he was coming down Sinkhole in Wilson’s creek.

It is pretty cool to think about, how strong our inter-web of mountain bike crazies is. So now, here I sit typing for a BLOG entry of my very own and I actually have readers and people that look to my site for valued (ok not really valued) information and a few moments of sanity during busy work weeks. I enjoy everyone's comments and feedback as this is a great tool for outing my creativity that I have every now and then.

I write this just to remind everyone of how lucky we are to be healthy, have a great area to mountain bike in and all of the wonderful people you get to meet on the trails. So remember this spring and summer while you are riding, smile and be courteous to your fellow trail users, sometime soon, they might be your friend.

So in the end I say thanks, thanks to everyone for putting time and effort in on the gatherings and being so kind to those who we have never met before. Thanks to those who have shown me a new form of mountain biking. Thanks to everyone that I have met along the way and everyone I am going to meet. We all hold an awesomely unique position to aspire to do more in a world where laziness seems to be increasingly overwhelming.

Peace

"Nevitude"

D-Kuntz, Dave and I convened for a daylight hours Dupont ride last night. On the drive from Greenville to Dupont, I did something I have never done before. I used my cellular telephone to call and complain about a truck driver. I am almost 100% positive that it did no good but I felt better anyway. Even if my Father was a trucker, I would still hate them all. It is a generalization that I employ.

We parked at the Fawn Lake area last night. Here was our route:

Fawn Lake loop, Mine Mountain, Airstrip, Shelter Rock, Corn Mill Shoals, Bridal Veil falls Road, Barn Trail, Shelter Rock, Conservation Road, Airstrip, Shelter Rock, Corn Mill Shoals, Shoals, Laurel Mountain, Cart Trail, Reasonover out and back

I have never done that route exactly; we just rode hard and kept an awesome pace. My new Nevegals are giving me “nevitude.” I feel like I am cornering on rails at all times. They corner so well that I am grabbing onto more aggressive lines than I am used to. When you lean the tires over to turn, a turning method that is extremely effective with 29’ers, they feel like you are still flying straight because the outside knobs are so prominent. Soon I am going to push the tires to the limit and find myself on the ground. I almost did last night on the new section of Corn Mill shoals. Both tires slid out from poor turning technique by me but they caught before I hit the ground and I just ended up perpendicular to the trail on the bike.

We were really warmed up when we got to Reasonover and D-Kuntz was leading. Past the uphill, it turns into this rock and roll roller coaster from heaven. We were flying through the trees. I could hear the grip of my tires chewing into the dirt as we held our speed into and back out of tight corners. We were ripping.

D-Kuntz and I commented on the fact that we don’t know too many other places where we feel comfortable going that fast through the woods.

Rest days follow,

Peace

Pep Talk

Picture taken by the Extreme Tomato at Congaree National Park.

I saw one of my old college buddies over the weekend and it reminded me of a time when we used to have pep talks. We would go over to each other’s perspective place of residence, prepare (drink) to go out, and then we would conclude with some manly terms for the evening.

Yesterday before my ride I had to sit the Drunken Monkey down and have a pep talk. DM wanted to chat about our good times together but I couldn’t let things waver off course, so I had to cut her off.

I let her know my initiatives (I hate the word goals and expectations) for the season. I explained how even though I have good knowledge of the Ranger District she might still be called upon to make some crucial north, south, east, west decisions in May. I talked about how warm she would be when we go exploring in Georgia and not to forget her swim suit so she doesn’t have to go skinny. I discussed our early to bed, early to rise routine for our trip through Virginia.

When I commented on her good looks and sleek figure she brought up a good point. She said “Your fat and lazy, you drink too much beer and I want to go faster.” I quickly responded with “Whooooooaaaa there Miss DM, this is a PEP-talk not a DOWN-talk.” She agreed to keep it positive and told me that my hair was “strikingly dapper today.” I sensed sarcasm in her voice.

So after some good words of encouragement we decided that we should have these talks more often. Then we rode like the wind.

Now that it is light out, people are more inclined to speak to you out on the trails. Last night when I got to the top of Sulphur Springs, I always have to stop because the pitch is so steep up and down that you want to gather your composure before going down and I saw two riders at the top.

After I stopped, I got these two quotes:

“You don’t have a front fork or a back fork.”

“Where are your shifters.”

Abstract couple

No Pictures For You

I left my camera in the car and it is at least a 200 yard walk from my desk. I don't want to over-train ya know.

Kristin and I went for a quick walk around the Congaree Swamp again yesterday. All the water had subsided and we got to see a huge woodpecker. We had seen some large holes that this beast of a bird had created before but this is the first sighting of the bird.

I can imagine that as close as we were it was a bird watcher's fantasy. However, I am not a bird watcher. Unfortunately, I did not get a good shot of the guy doing his business. He seems to prefer dead trees as they had the most holes.

Well I believe I have made my decision for the year. I am doing all of my races on the Drunken Monkey come hell or high water. I haven’t still completely committed to single speeding the hundred miler’s. It will depend on my physical limitations at that particular point in time. Yes, I have a lot of physical and mental limitations.

The DM will see some more makeovers in the near future though. There are still some additional weapons that I might need to add. Who knows, you might even see the Drunken Monkey featured on this show sometime in April.

Sans Bike

This was the first weekend in a long time that I did not even look at my bike. It was a special weekend filled with friends who were once close but are now far away.

On Sunday we purged our souls of the St. Patrick’s festivities with a short hike up Stone Mountain in GA. They have a tram to the top of this mountain even though it only takes twenty minutes to walk up it at an easy pace.

Does this sentence hit home with anybody?

“Relish the challenge of overcoming difficulties that would crush ordinary men.”

It is a sentence from “Will and Suffering” written by Mark Twight.

Dave sent me a link to this article:

http://www.gymjones.com/knowledge.php?id=23

It is a very short but great article about Alpinist. It can easily be applied toward just about anything but most importantly, endurance mountain biking. He thought about sending me the article after the slightly sadistic route out at Dupont last week.

Here is my four part series on how to take a group photo:

1. Set up camera, set on custom timer as you please, run.

2. Attempt to arrive in position quickly:

3. Make stylish uber skate move to acquire position within the group:

4. Pose:

Table Rock Dysentery

This past Sunday Kristin, Meghan, Broussard and I all made the five and a half hour hiking trip up to the top of Table Rock SC.

The trip didn’t seem to take as long as it did last year when we hiked up. We stopped at the shelter on the way up for a break:

Once we were at the top we were rewarded with great views and swirling Hawk. They were riding the waves of wind that would rush up the two sides of the rock. At one point I could count about 7 of them. It was mesmerizing watching them float effortlessly through the air. I could have stayed there and watched them all day.

As we sat taking in the view:

We noticed some teenagers that had come up in running clothes. Out of five of them, no one carried a single thing. No water or anything at all. As we hiked back down I heard the gitty teenagers behind me. I figured they were in a hurry since they had nothing to eat or drink and decided to let them around. However, when I turned around they weren’t rushing to get by me. They were slurping the ground seepage where everyone hikes down. YUMMY!

You can’t beat that place for a nice day hike. I would mark it down as semi-strenuous.

Have a great St. Patrick’s weekend.

Peace

Amateur Fro

In case you didn’t know there is a picture contest on www.dupontforest.com right now. Should I enter the one above from last night? Never hurts.

Sorry you won’t get that title unless you are in the know. Last night Mtn Goat, BrouSSard, Dave and I all rode Dupont.

Our route was slightly sadistic as we didn’t feel like crossing the creek or heading north.

Corn Mill Shoals, Long Side, Pine Tree, Rock Quarry, Buck Ridge Road, Micajah, Wilikie, Corn Mill Shoals, Big Rock, Cedar Rock, Little River, Cedar Rock, Big Rock, Corn Mill Shoals, Burnt Mountain, Nooks, Burnt Mountain, Corn Mill Shoals, Longside, Twixt, Rock Quarry Road, Micajah, Wilikie

Dave coming up from the first climb.

Shewwwwwwwwwwww, that’s a lot of names for 15 miles. And people wonder why you have to have Dupont memorized to ride there.

I had a milestone last night. I climbed Big Rock for the first time. No one cleaned it. Then we went down the tech side of Cedar and came back up the easy side. Well, for the first time ever, I made it up Cedar without walking!

We completed a small amount of mileage but we earned it the hard way. The figure eight we did on Cedar was breath taking to say the least. Next time I think we will park at Fawn Lake for some less sadistic riding. Good for the soul.

Ok enough of the gibberish.
Jeremy and Dave climbing hard.
Still pushin'
Ahhhhhhhhh a Burnt Mountain sunset, does it get any better?

Peace

New Weapons and Races

The local mountain bike community has been awaiting this announcement from Eddie for quite some time. So here it is a new hundy festival within two hours of the house. He had to tease me though as this race is two weeks before the SM-100. That settles it then, I will be riding my bike 200 race miles in two weeks. Let’s get it on!

In other news I was able to make my circuit out at Paris last night. I was trying out some new weapons. I recently received some Nevegals that I installed for the first time last night. Here they are in all their fatness:

Now you must first understand something when I tell you about these tires. While I was riding my suspension bikes I never really took the time to research tire options. I just kind of ran whatever. Now with the Drunken Monkey I pay very close attention to these things.

The Nevegals inspired a new confidence in me. I have seriously never ran a tire with this aggressive of a tread pattern and volume. Wow is all I can say. I could even feel sand and dirt flying off the tire onto my legs around corners. There were two times last night were I was really testing the tire and my own limits when I would hit a root and send the front tire through the air. I would un-weight the front end and get ready for disaster but the tire just hooked right back up. AWESOME!

My other new weapon is shown here:
Yup I got some “adventure racing” shoes. I figure most of my rides involve hike-a-bike so why not get something more suitable to this design. The soles aren’t as stiff as I would like but that is the trade off for being able to actually hike over rocks with some sense of safety.

The shoes are definitely comfortable and the first ride I had with them was over 40 miles so I am confident in them already. It is weird to look down and see a normal looking shoe though. It doesn’t seem right.

I got back to the top of Sulphur Springs just in time to see the sunset. I was able to snap this one after I stopped gasping for air.