family//bike//words

Snowy Mid-Day Ride

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:00:00 +0000

You probably won't see any snow in these photos. Nothing had stuck to the ground while we were riding. But there was enough to really blur your vision on those fast technical descents.

Justin and I headed out over lunch today to get in a quick ride. It was cut short by him taking a little spill. Long story short, he went missing for about 25 minutes. When I finally turned back and found him he said, "I went over my handlebars, then I had this weird dream..." He continued by telling me how weird his dream was, only to be interrupted by me telling him it was, in fact, weird to be having a dream while riding a mountain bike. Yes, I think he knocked himself out. He was under the impression it had only been minutes. We ran through all the relevant do-you-have-a-concussion questions... most of which he failed. Then when we got to my car he promptly fell asleep. Hmmm. Seems pretty obvious to me.

Anyway, here's how it all went.

I found a Billy Ray Cyrus CD. Jealous?

Waiting...

And waiting...

Oh! There's Justin after his little nighty-night time in the woods.

All is well. He's taking all the necessary precautions. He seems a lot more normal after a couple hours of rest.

Get out there.

Checking In

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:05:00 +0000

I've been sick all week with strep throat. No riding for me. Hopefully I'll be back on the bike tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy this old school Danny MacAskill video...

Get out there.

Twice in One Day

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:06:00 +0000

Yesterday was a beautiful day. In the late afternoon I bumped into Mike, who happened to have his bike at work. After about ten seconds of cordial exchanges, we began to convince each other to do a ride after quittin' time. We put in a quick hour of trails in the bright, beautiful sunshine. I love Mike's attitude. He's not a heavy planner (much like me). No riding clothes, no helmet, no problem. He goes for it anyway.

It was awesome to begin the day with some non-ride bike time and end it with some hard trail pedal mashing.

Get out there.

Eno Hammock Time

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:51:00 +0000

Sometimes I'll randomly throw things into a backpack and go for a ride. Today, I threw my hammock in my backpack. The hammock is great when the weather is warm but cold weather, matched with thin nylon and a breeze blowing above and below you, makes it pretty unusable. And with my phone telling me it was 41 degrees out, I didn't plan on using it. Like I said, it was random. But when I rode up on the trails, this is what I saw...

Someone had taken logs and blocked the trail. Not just here, but you can see more logs about 30 feet down the trail doing the same thing. And about every 30 feet or so, there were more and more logs. I'm not sure if the parks and recreation people are doing this. My guess is that when the trails are wet and muddy, they don't want people riding them and eroding them away. That's one theory. My other theory is that people are just being buttholes. If it is the parks department, I would suggest they invest in a sign or something. This didn't stop me from riding. It just annoyed me.

But after so long of dodging logs on the trail, I decided I had had enough. I was going to give the hammock a whirl. I busted out my coffee and my Kindle (two things I have on almost every ride) and set up mini-camp.

There was a perfect spot by the creek. To me, there's no better combo than coffee, bikes, reading and prayer. This morning was more therapeutic and needed than a fast and hard bike ride.

The view from the hammock isn't bad, either. I never got cold until I started packing up to leave. When the chill creeped in, I poured more coffee. I even set an alarm because I was so cozy. It never happened, but I did feel a small threat of dozing off. I didn't want to wake up at lunch time and be late for work :)

It feels great to have rested. I'm glad the mud kept me from riding hard for an hour and a half. My day is better for it.

Get out there.

Amazing Weather Fail

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:29:00 +0000

Yesterday's temps were in the 60s nearly the entire day. Mike and Jeff just got new (used) mountain bikes so the obvious choice was to hit up some dirt after work. Why wouldn't we take advantage of such great weather? Well, after staring out my office window at the bright sunshine all day, we loaded up our bikes and it began to rain. We had a blast, but it did cut the ride much shorter than I had hoped. I wasn't prepared for rain so I was pretty uncomfortable the entire time. The fellas did get a good handle on their new steeds, though.

This is Jeff on his new Haro Flightline Comp. He's walked away from his tried and true Trek Antelope of yesteryear. Now he's a big dog on his stealthy all black trail machine. I'm not at all familiar with Haro mountain bikes. But this thing looks to be well made.

Here's Mike on his Trek 3500. He got the deal of the century on this barely (if ever) used bike. He paid nearly nothing for it but he's now able to join us on trail rides and camping trips. I think it's a great entry level bike for what he paid. I love when someone can enter into the world of biking without investing much.

Sorry for the crappy pics. Like I said, it was raining and all I had was my iPhone... so I didn't want to keep it out of my pocket for long. Also, in the picture above, I was actually pedaling my bike behind Mike. Impressive, right? Now that I look at it, it doesn't seem like the best choice. That's a pretty good drop on sloppy mud with a hard left turn at the bottom. And if I hadn't made that turn with one hand, there's a creek right off that ledge that would have been bad. Things don't always seem as wise when you look back at the photo :)

And for the sake of full disclosure, I should confess that I went over my handlebars at the beginning of the ride. It was, literally, about 12 feet into the trail. My front wheel slid on a log and my instinct took over in a bad way. My left hand clinched the front brake lever and sent me flying. It didn't hurt and I got a great laugh. Jeff had a good laugh, too. He knows that I usually bite it early in a ride. My theory is that I have to establish my limits early on. After I wipeout, I know how far I can push it for the rest of the ride. It's been to long since I had an early wipeout. Yesterday brought me back to my roots.

Get out there.

Year in Photos

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:54:00 +0000

I'm a little late getting up my year end review of my favorite photos of 2011. When the last day of the year came around, we were still in the hospital. But I love to look back and see all the fun that was had. So here you go. This was 2011...

Looks like I had a lot of fun. Now I only have to wait for more to come.

Get out there.

Old Faithful

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:31:00 +0000

There was nothing exciting about this morning's commute. As I was scouring the landscape for a solid photo, I decided to go with the old faithful shot of the bike leaning up against a black fence. Honestly, it's hard to escape this shot. About 95% of my commute is along black farm fences.

Get out there.

Ahhhhhhh

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:56:00 +0000

Today's ride was much needed. For whatever reason, I was in a pretty foul mood yesterday. I've not been doing great at managing my introvert time recently and I think it finally caught up to me... or caught up to everyone else. But this morning's ride seemed to remedy some of my inner turmoil. It was nearly fifty degrees and raining this morning. And when I've dressed appropriately, riding in the rain is really soothing and peaceful. It was perfect. I even took a little detour on a gravel road to kill some time.

I did thrash my shin at a stop light. When it turned green, I stood up and mashed on the pedals. The combination of single speededness and a crapload of weight in the pannier made it a sluggish start. My foot slipped off the pedal and I raked my shin down it's metal teeth. This photo is post-shower. It was a bloody mess the whole way in. I think I'll live, though. Honestly, it's been a while since I've had any type of incident on the bike. This isn't bad compared to other spills I've taken.

Get out there.

Underdressed and Out of Shape

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:04:00 +0000

This morning I took the long way into work. I've been feeling a little out of shape after taking nearly a month off the bike. I figured if I can get in the long route for the next couple weeks, I can gain back some stamina that I lost.

It wasn't very cold this morning but I still managed to underdress. I'm always experimenting to see how little I can wear yet still stay warm. Today I was off. The only result was a little headache after the ride. Somehow, that's how my body reacts when I don't stay warm. But a few cups of coffee will help my brain and thaw me out just fine.

Get out there.

Lunch Break

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:24:00 +0000

Just did sloppy MTB trails and Starbucks Via over lunch break with Mike. Can't beat that.

Get out there.

Slow and Steady

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:14:00 +0000

Today I rode the Xtracycle into work. It's my first commute since before the baby was born. I've been getting in some trail time here and there, but have had to play dad duty with the car for the majority of the last couple weeks. So commuting has falling to the wayside. It felt great to be back on but, man, was it slow!

I put the studded tires on the Xtra a couple weeks ago but haven't seen any snow yet. Despite today's temps in the low 20s, there was nothing on the ground. The manufacturer of the tires say to give them a settling period of a few miles before they see ice. That way, the studs can settle in the rubber before ice starts trying to pull them out.

So today's riding was on a heavy bike with heavy cargo (lots of work stuff) and major rolling resistance in the tires. I'm not complaining. When you ride for transportation, you're bound to have slow rides occasionally. But this one felt long!

Get out there.

Matt Hunter Bikepacking

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:31:00 +0000

Matt Hunter - Lone Wolf - More Mountain Bike Videos

Get out there.

Coffee Spot

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:31:00 +0000

For whatever reason, I've been riding a lot more trails than road recently. One of my favorite practices in the woods is stopping for a bit of coffee at the end of a ride. I've even found the perfect spot for just such a stop.

There's a nice big tree that reaches out over the creek. It's big swooping trunk allows me to lay back and relax after pushing the bike up all those hills. It's the perfect shape. And if I leave my helmet on, it's like a pillow when I lay my head back.

It's even got a great post-ride view.

Get out there.

Stopping the Xtracyle

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:28:00 +0000

Angie was kind enough to give me some Christmas money that was dictated as "bike only" use. To be honest, there wasn't a whole lot of stuff that I felt like I needed in the realm of "fun" spending. But this was the perfect opportunity to give the Xtracycle some much, much needed love in the realm of "stopping." After a couple years of using some crappy generic brakes to stop the beastly machine, I finally bought some nicer v-brakes and levers.

The old v-brakes weren't just generic and crappy. They were completely rusted and corroded throughout. I didn't get any photos of the old levers, but, man, they were rough. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I put them on there. They were some junky Shimano levers that were half plastic. I have nicer levers in my parts bin, but somehow overlooked them when I built this bike.

It took about 20 minutes to re-run cables and get everything adjusted. It was so nice. This thing finally stops the way I want it to. That's a nice feature when you're hauling over 100 lbs. of cargo... or your children :)

While I had it on the work stand, I also took the opportunity to take some slack out of the chain. When I originally installed the IGH, I wanted to leave the ability to shift in the front so I could experiment with gear ratios. After realizing I only needed the middle chainring, I took the front shifter off long ago.

I had never taken the time to take out the extra chain, though. This will eliminate all the slapping that the chain does. It feels a lot tighter now. This will certainly help.

I also noticed that I never took off the front derailleur. It's funny how you can overlook this stuff and not even realize it. But after intentionally looking it all over, I've ditched an unnecessary derailleur, some chain links and a terrible brake system. It feels like a whole new bike!

Get out there.

Nighttime MTB Ride

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:11:00 +0000

Presley and I headed out for a full moon run on the local trails last night. It was a totally different experience to ride the Troll in the dark. When you do get some speed, your mind begins to race. It becomes a mental game to keep your wits without being so cautious that you don't have fun. We stayed out for nearly two hours in 35 degree temps, navigating by headlight and headlamp the entire time.

There were no serious crashes (although they were expected) but we were more sloppy than usual. The biggest issue for me was timidity. There were several times I got hung up on a root or big rocks because I was just going too slow. At normal daylight speeds, I tend to let momentum carry me over more obstacles. During this nighttime ride, I tended to creep over everything at a crawling speed, which made it more difficult.

All in all, I loved it. I will certainly do it again. It's fun to get out in the middle of nowhere and look up at the clear skies. Perhaps I'll take the opportunity during each full moon.

Get out there.

Solitude

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

After being home with the kids over Christmas break and the baby's birth, it had been a while since I had had a good chunk of time in solitude. With four kids and an open schedule, it's easy to forget to work it in. I'm not the best at realizing when I need some alone time. Unfortunately, my wife is usually the one to let me know when my mood becomes a little foul. The good news is, I never got in a toxic mood this week. Angie just knows me well enough to send me out before I get too affected.

I took a few hours to venture off into the woods on Saturday after coordinating nap times for Angie's sake. It was perfect.

It was great for the heart. Riding the Troll in the woods is the perfect mix of excitement and serenity. One minute I'm bombing down a hill that's a little too muddy for safety's sake (pictured above). The next minute I'm standing in the middle of a big silent field, with no one in the world around me (pictured below).

I really love it. When there's no clock ticking, it's so easy to let a couple hours go by without realizing it. That's always a good sign for me that I needed to be alone. This trip felt like a few minutes. Not to mention that I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt in January. It was such warm weather, it felt like the day was tailor made to enhance my time. Beautiful.

Get out there.

Finally, Some Security

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:04:00 +0000

Well, the long streak of anxiety when I ride on ice is over. For the past three years, I've risked life and limb to pedal through the winters here in Lexington. Though the winter is far more mild than some places, I have ridden ice and snow at least a few dozen times each year without studded tires. That slippery journey is no longer an issue. I finally have some security because I finally have studs.

I happened to be in a local bike shop, killing some time while my wife was at a doctors appointment when I spotted some Continental Spike Claw 240's on a clearance table for 75% off. 75% off of this sticker price? Could that be right? It was. Apparently, the market for studded tires isn't strong enough around here to unload them at full price. Well, I snatched them up and threw them on the Xtracycle as soon as I got home.

I was a bit worried about clearance with the fenders and frame on my Xtracycle. But everything worked perfectly.

From what I can tell, the Xtra isn't the best option for slippery riding on the ice because of it's long wheelbase. But my Xtra has the internally geared hub, so it's going to get the most foul weather duty this winter. I'm sure I'll make it work. I do have a feeling the the Troll will see these studs here and there, as well.

But I'm just excited to finally have a studded tire for those rough rides. I've taken enough spills each winter to generate some excitement, I think.

Get out there.

Heart Surgery: Done.

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:08:00 +0000

We have nearly reached the end of a five day journey that has felt like months. At 7:30 this morning, our brand new baby girl underwent heart surgery to repair an underdeveloped pulmonary valve in her heart. Two doctors used a catheter to navigate to the tiny valve and then a slightly less tiny balloon inflated to stretch it to a better working capacity. While this is on the lower end of heart surgeries, it is still someone going into your baby's heart. Tough to stomach. But about an hour after going under, those doctors were finished and our baby was fixed.

As of now, Roselyn lays in the bed next to me in recovery. Her heart is fine. She's now a completely healthy baby. In fact, the cardiologist told us we would be able to go home if it weren't for the anesthesia. Her heart is fixed. There's nothing wrong with her. They just like to keep an eye on someone that was put under when they only weigh six pounds. We're in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and they love her. "It's so great to have a healthy baby," they say. Those are such great words to hear after all the drama we've experienced this week.

I can't explain what the last few days have been like. Emotional. Tiring. Delirious. Joyful. Tearful. Complex. New. Shortly after the surgery and all the good news, I went outside and realized how claustrophobic I've been in that hospital. I felt like I was breathing for the first time in a while. I wanted to ride my bike. I wanted to walk outside instead of taking the shuttle. I wanted to sit on a bench and just... sit. It was kind of strange to feel that. I think all of my emotion and energy has gone towards feeling on behalf of Roselyn. That was the first moment I felt for myself. As strange as that may sound, I think it was a sign that the weight has lifted. It felt so good to broaden my concerns to include petty things like riding a bike. In the last few days, the only thing that mattered was survival. At this point, I can expand my world of concern.

What's next? One more night in a hospital. They're talking like they may even take all the monitors off tonight. But tomorrow morning we'll be loading up Roselyn and she'll get her first ride (that's not in an ambulance). We'll take her home and she'll get snuggled and cuddled by our six-year-old. She'll get kissed a thousand times by our four-year-old. And she'll get poked in the eye by our two-year-old. It will finally be normal life and our house will finally be full, as will our hearts. We've been waiting desperately to be a complete family. Tomorrow's the day.

These words are of the "family" variety. But, hey, this is family//bike//words. I'm proud to share good news with any readers. I'm a beaming father, proud to claim Bliss, Clive, Abe and now Roselyn as my little flock to shepherd. It's a blessing to belong to a family with them.

Soon enough I'll be back on the bikes. But for now, I'm just happy to have the room in my brain to dream about it.

Get out there.

Christmas Eve Ride

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:48:00 +0000

Well, I figured while I'm sitting here in the hospital, I may as well report my last ride. I didn't intend to write anything about this ride, since it isn't much different than my last few posts. But I've got a laptop and a lot of time on my hands, so here you go...

Still lots of water on the ground. I pretty much stayed in the granny gear the entire ride. It's not that it was tough to pedal, but all the higher gears caused me to spin out in the mud. I could slowly crank the pedals in the lowest gear to stay moving and upright.

More play with the self timer and time lapse app on the iPhone.

Hills never look steep in photos. But I had to get off the bike to make it up this one. My legs were good to pedal, but I couldn't keep my front wheel down. When I'd lean forward and put weight on the front wheel, my back tire would spin out. So I pushed.

View from the top showed neighborhoods for miles and miles.

There was a fire pit on the top, too. This didn't look like a camp-fire pit. It looked more like a let's-drink-beers-in-a-place-our-parents-will-never-find-us-fire pit.

I took this photo on my way down the previously mentioned hill. It wasn't a wise choice. The mud and one-handed steering were a bit more squirrelly than I had expected. I stayed upright, though!

I ended with my ritual cup of coffee. I park near a little stream that runs into the larger creek. It's a great place to sit and sip at the end of a ride.

I used my Detours Coffee Bag for the first time, too. It kept the mud and water off of my coffee thermos, snacks and gloves. Big thanks to Jason for the Christmas gift. This thing works much better than just strapping junk to my rack.

I'm guessing this ride may have been my last for at least a week or so. Who knows, though. Angie was trying to convince me to bring my bike to the hospital so I could get some rides in.

Get out there.

Welcome to the Family, Roselyn

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 02:40:00 +0000

Well, at 5:13pm, Angie and I had an unsuspected Christmas present in our arms. Roselyn (pronounced Roz-ah-lyn) was born. That's right, we had a Christmas baby, the only one for the whole day at the hospital.

Angie is a champ. She's so strong and incredibly patient. We stayed at the house as long as possible with the assistance of our fantastic doula. When she gave us the word that we needed to head to the hospital, things got exciting. Long story short... well, short story short, I guess, I drove to the hospital, dropped Angie and doula Julie at the door, and by the time I got up to the room Angie was pushing. From my driveway to the moment Roselyn was in our arms was only 23 minutes. Whew! That's fast.

Angie and baby are doing great. As I type, Angie just said, "Man, my foot really hurts from when Abe (our two year old) dropped that toy on it last night." Seriously? You just pushed a baby out of your body and you're thinking about your foot? She's a tough lady.

We're happy with our little Christmas baby. We're blessed to have four awesome kids. Most of the posts you see over the next two weeks will be at random. I'll keep checking and will get a ride in here and there, but my priorities will certainly shift for a bit!

Get out there.

Merrell Review

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:03:00 +0000

A year and a half ago I won a pair of Merrell shoes on Twitter. You can't beat a free pair of shoes! But I really didn't wear them a whole lot until recently. I wasn't a big fan of the look of them for some reason. And I'm incredibly partial to my Salomons. But the Salomons are getting so worn out they they lack enough tread on dirt rides. Enter: the Merrells. These things are great on the mountain bike. They stick to the pedals really well and when I do have to get off the bike, the tread is plenty aggressive to climb and walk in thick mud.

They're waterproof, sturdy and feel great on the bike.. I'd highly recommend them as a riding shoe. I've put tons of miles on them in the last few months.

Get out there.

Secret Santa

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:11:00 +0000

When I walked in my office the other day, I had a wrapped gift on my desk with a little gold nugget inside. Although this looks like a bag of coffee, it's actually a dry bag with two straps that attaches to your bike frame. Super cool!

Detours makes The Coffee Bag as a "tribute to Seattle's favorite brewed beverage." Their website says, "Throw in your lunch and use the two-point attach system to secure the bag just about anywhere on the bike – under the seat, on top of your your rack, or even in your water bottle cage! Or just use it as a dray bag to toss in a pannier. Just like there are a million ways to order your favorite coffee drink, there are a million ways to use your favorite Coffee Bag!"

Here's a photo of the straps and packaging. You can see on the package that you could strap this thing anywhere on your bike. It's really a fun design that allows you to keep important stuff dry without having to carry a bulky pannier. Later in the day I learned that, my buddy, Jason was actually my Secret Santa. Way to go, Jason. You've found a product that meshes my love of coffee with my love of bikes. This thing is perfect for bike, boat and everything else. Thanks, man!

I'd never heard of Detours, but I'll keep an eye on their stuff. This is a simple, yet useful product that I got pretty excited about.

Get out there.

More Dirt

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:27:00 +0000

I realize that all of my posts for the last two weeks have been of the MTB variety. I'm not sure why I get into cycling moods like this. For some reason, I'm not as interested in posting about a commute these days. But riding these trails gets me more energized recently. Yesterday, after a morning of rain, I headed out again.

We did get a good amount of rain, so the double track I had ridden just two days earlier looked like this. It did make things a bit more interesting. I wasn't able to get much speed. So any workout I got came from climbing.

Since my previous routes were pretty gummed up with mud, I looked for some new places to ride.

I stumbled upon a dirt bike track. There were huge tire tread marks, revealing that this was no bicycle. Then I found several dirt mounds used for jumping.

As I made my way around the loop, I eventually rode up on some houses. Soon enough I saw a little trail leading back to this fence. Apparently, this family is serious enough about their riding that they've built quite the trail system right out of their back yard. Pretty cool for the kid that lives here. Honestly, I have no idea if I was on the park's property or if it was private property. I'm getting the vibe that no one knows or cares back here. There's a whole lot going on in a whole lot of wooded land.

I eventually made my way back to the creek. I had brought some coffee to end my ride with a little refreshment.

I found a little rock to sit on while I enjoyed 12 ounces of hot goodness.

A year ago, I would have said this little park was pretty lame. Honestly, if you stay within the limited boundaries of what you see, it is only about 30 minutes of riding. But recently, I've been discovering more and more beauty and opportunity on two wheels. And, to be honest, I just love how this stuff is available within city limits. You could look at the first three photos in this post and not be able to tell where in the world I was. I kind of get that feeling when I'm riding the Troll on dirt.

With the baby due any minute, I'm a little more tethered geographically. I don't want to take off in the kayak and have no cell reception. I can't leave for a long ride on the Cross Check. But being able to feel remote has it's advantages. And that feeling sure does put me in a better mood.

Get out there.

Exploratory Dirt Time

noreply@blogger.com (DerrickP) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Yesterday was an unexpected day off, so I used the opportunity to jump on the Troll and ride some more trails before I take the knobbies off. Once again, I headed to Veteran's Park. It's close enough to my house that it's lack of trails is beat out by it's convenience. Yesterday, though, I made an effort to seek out some new stuff. I was glad I did. It turned out to be more than I expected.

The first little off-shoot trail turned out to be nothing. I went out with a goal of finding something new. Although this little deer trail was new, it was boring. It went on and on into a field. I followed it for about 100 yards before I got bored and turned back to the main trail. I kept my chin up and decided to keep looking.

Eventually I found miles of double track with lots of side trails to explore. This hill was a bit daunting with all the mud. I was in my granny gear, just sliding from back and forth with each pedal stroke. It was tough to get traction but I slowly made my way to the top. When I descended sloppy hills like this, it was a wild ride. My front tire would slide out from under me and I'd have to work hard to stay upright. Somehow, I managed to keep the rubber down for the entire ride.

The mud wasn't miserable by any means. It seemed to only be on the very top of the ground surface. I've had trips out here when I would sink deep into the ground and it wasn't ridable. This stuff just made things interesting, not impossible.

I found an old barn that was still in use. I guess I was on someone's property. There aren't any markings that tell you when you leave Public Park and enter Private Property. I would imagine that these land owners get a lot of trespassing for that reason. I didn't see anyone around though. It was an erie system of single track and double track. I would guess there are lots of people that come out here for no good reasons. It's so close to suburbia but remote enough to stay unseen.

This basketball goal was literally in the middle of nowhere. Someone would have had to walk hundreds of yards or ride a four-wheeler out here to play. It was quite odd.

From the ghosts of mountain bikers passed. I'm just assuming this guy was trespassing like me and his wheel was shot with a shotgun. This tire tread is the only evidence :)

I was very pleased with this exploratory trip. Veteran's Park is great, but small. There's nothing technical out there for interesting riding. It's just a couple miles of trails. From what I found today, I could get in decent mileage on dirt without doubling back over and over again. It'll be fun to keep these trails in the rolodex of riding options.

Get out there.

family//bike//words

Snowy Mid-Day Ride

Checking In

Twice in One Day

Eno Hammock Time

Amazing Weather Fail

Year in Photos

Old Faithful

Ahhhhhhh

Underdressed and Out of Shape

Lunch Break

Slow and Steady

Matt Hunter Bikepacking

Coffee Spot

Stopping the Xtracyle

Nighttime MTB Ride

Solitude

Categories

Finally, Some Security

Heart Surgery: Done.

Christmas Eve Ride

Welcome to the Family, Roselyn

Merrell Review

Secret Santa

More Dirt

Exploratory Dirt Time