'09 Race to the River

I haven't seen the final results but I think Rebecca said we had 25 racers in the sport 30-39 class. It sure felt like a crowd at the starting line for our group. Rebecca did a role call at the starting line and I was at the bottom of the list so I quickly realized I was on the fourth row and getting to the woods first was going to be a challenge. So I did the rude thing and elbowed my way to the second row in the middle so I wouldn’t get caught in a crowd trying to get into the woods.

The horn blew and off we went up the gravel road and onto firebreak. When we crossed the wood ramp on firebreak I was in a comfortable 4th place position. This is where I stayed all of the way to spiderwoman and into inner woman. Essentially riding in a lead group of four riders including me at what felt like a moderate pace.

Inner woman was not on my mental preparation leading up to this race. I was surprised that we were going to ride inner woman when Rebecca announced it. I really do not like this trail. It never has been my strong point. So up inner woman we go and I am on the wheel of the dude in front of me. He is having shifter problems and can’t power up the hill so I have to slow up and wait for a place to pass. Finally I pass but by now I have let the 5th 6th etc place riders catch up. In the granny gear up inner woman in severe pain cussing the whole way up. Jim passes me on the way up and that’s the last time I saw him. I’m still in good position at this point and ready to descend inner woman. When I got to the rock garden I was trying to show off for some photographer on the side of the trail and unclipped. I couldn’t get back on the bike in time before several riders passed. I am now in about 10th position. Crap. Things are falling apart for me mentally.

Exiting spiderwoman and trying to navigate the rocks at the trail crossing, I darn near endo’ed and was surprised I didn’t bend the front wheel. Luckily I stayed vertical on the bike and was able to navigate through. Climbing out the big climb on midland mountain, I am still wondering when I will recover from spiderwoman. My lungs were on fire and my legs felt like watermelons. But I knew that once I could get my speed up and get in a consistent cadence, things would get a lot more comfortable. And indeed they did. I was able to regain several positions that I had lost on the fast sections and through crooked pine.

For the remainder of the race, I traded places several times with one other rider with a ETSU jersey on but he is the only person I saw. As we rolled along the fast section of stewardship we traded places several times…we must have ”on your left”-ed each other ten times as we rolled along. I was able to drop him for the final time on the climb up the switchbacks on the second lap. The rest of the race was solo for me and it felt great to cross the finish line.

Due to the shenanigans on spiderwoman, I honestly thought I was in about 8th or 9th position to finish the race. I was disappointed in the performance. But it turns out that I was racing the final lap with the ETSU guy for 5th place. I am glad I raced him for that position and was able to fend him off. It made the personal best 5th place finish that much sweeter. I had lots of fun which is what it is all about.

1 regret: The initial lead group pace was too slow. I should have jumped out into the lead early and then I wouldn't have gotten stuck on inner woman and my spiderwoman experience probably wouldn't have turned out so sloppy. Or it could have been sloppy as usual but wouldn't have mattered because I think I could have put some distance between me and 2nd place to make up for the sloppy performance. If I knew I was holding on to a top three finish after spiderwoman, I might have dug a little deeper to finish. But as it is, I don't think I left anything on the course...just got behind the eight ball a little by setling for the pace line instead of taking the lead when I could have.

Tires

When I started riding mtbs in ’02, I bought a $900 Raleigh Hardtail from Harrell’s. It had wtb motoraptors on it and they weigh probably 700g. I think they were 26x2.1’s. I rode the snot out of those tires, putting probably 2000 miles on them and they are still ridable today. They seemed to hook up fairly well (I rode slower back then) and the durability was impressive. These tires are heavy and durable.

Then I bought the Giant that I currently ride. It came with 500g Hutchinson pythons 2.0s on the front and rear, a tire meant for dry hardpack xc race conditions. They are fast rolling, low resistance. I busted my tail about 3 times right off the bat on the leaves and needles of our area before I realized the front would not hook up at local trails like harbison. So I slowed down and adjusted how I entered turns. Because of this, I have developed a bad habit of not leaning my bike into turns, rather leaning my body instead. One day while riding at harbison, a ½” diameter pine branch punctured the tire and tube on the rear. This ruined the tire so I used it as an opportunity to get a more aggressive tread on the front.

I ended up with a Continental Explorer 2.1 on the front and a Hutchinson Python 2.0 on the rear. This proved to be a nice combination for me considering how and where I ride. I need to replace both tires now and I’d like to lose some grams and gain speed, but need something that hooks up well around here. Dennis loaned me some used Continental Mountain King 2.2’s. I rode them last night and thought they hooked up well at first. They are also light and accelerate well. But according to Dennis you have to run 40 psi or they’ll pinch flat. I was running 32 psi so we bumped them to 40 psi. They no longer hooked up at 40 psi. I have personally watched Dennis go through 5 tubes with these tires so I am not very confident in the 2.2 size with 40 psi.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I might go back to the Continental Explorer 2.1 on the front and a python 2.0 on the rear, but would like to improve on that as well.

Some pics from our trip to Colorado

Good times with the Girls

F.A.T.S.

Dennis and I made our way to FATS on Saturday with hopes of completing all of the trails including the newer ones. We got an early start and arrived at the trailhead at 8:00 am. Our goal was to be back at home by 1:00 pm before the kitchen pass expired.

It was quite solitary at 8:00 am except for one other car in the parking lot and this guy was making enough noise to wake the wildlife. He had his radio cranking out Dance Music tunes echoing across the forest.

After glancing at the posted map, we headed down the trail. We did the “left turn only” route which takes you all of the way out to Brown Wave then Skinny Loop, then Great wall. After 20 miles of this we were joking about the lack of climbing. Somehow we both felt like we had rolled downhill for 20 miles. After regrouping, we headed down Deep Step and were going to intercept the connector over to Big Rock and Tower. Here we found some elevation and did a good bit of climbing. I really liked the connector trail and the short pavement and gravel road section. Big rock has some serious elevation to it, but they built it following topo so the limited climbing sections are short and sweet, but numerous. By this time, there were a lot of people on the trails. We also crossed paths with a hunter who was hiking to his favorite spot in the woods. I had my Red Wolfpack jersey on, so hopefully I didn’t look like a deer.

We ended up running short on time and had to bail early, but we ended up with about 35 miles and 3.5 hours in the woods, including a flat and some sag stops. I believe you can now get close to 50 miles out there. We skipped Tower and only rode half of Big Rock to get 35. I want to go back and do the full 50-ish soon.

Jim was on board to go with us until “something hit him” and he had to pull out the night before. I hope you are feeling better.

Carolina Adventure World, Winnsboro.

Exit 46 on I-77. Jim and I rode it Saturday am. I think they have a good start to a fun trail system. It is spanking new so the clay is soupy in a lot of places but the clay is also similar to FATS clay so theres will be times when it dries out and will allow you to rail. There are some banked turns, woop-de-doos, and switchbacks. There is currently a lot of deadfall and tree litter which I don’t mind too much except, sure enough, a stick hopped up into my derailleur and almost ripped it off. So my bike would not stay in gear for the rest of the ride.

You start out at the main parking lot and enter the trail by the ATV gatehouse. You then go down some twisty stuff and begin a climb to “Top of the World”, a helipad…that’s right a helipad. I would say that climb is around 200’ elevation gain, but I am no Garmin. This reminded me of the airstrip climb at Dupont, but for just a second. This climb gets the legs burning nicely and then you descend into some flowy and technical stuff along ridges and creek bottoms.

http://www.carolinaadventureworld.net/images/CAWBikeTrailmap.jpg
Our first loop we did: a>A>C>A>B>A>E>D>E>A>a. Look at the map and it will make sense. It is directional so this is the full loop and is about 11 miles. C and D were almost un-ride-able so on our second loop we left them out and the trail felt a lot like FATS or a Lost Creek with a lot more climbing.

$5 per day or $40.00 per year. I think $40 is too high but it is what it is. There are some nice employees out there who really want the trails to succeed and they said they just need to get ridden. I agree with that.

New York

We spent three days in the city and two days traveling there and back. I am glad gas was $1.80/gal just in time for our trip. This is a great trip for families but bring your savings account because they love tourists.

If you were an immigrant in the early 1900's that came through Ellis Island, you approached the US by boat and this was the first thing you saw as you entered the New York Bay area on your way to Ellis Island. The immigrants were said to shout with joy, whooping and hollering as they saw the statue and they knew what it represented...Freedom. They were going to begin their new life of opportunity where "you can do anything you want to do".

By the way, did you know that the base of the statue is star shaped and was one of four forts that protected the bay. No enemy vessel ever tried to get past the four infamous forts. It was considered impenetrable. Now it is the base of the statue. This reminded me of Fort Moultrie and Sumter in Charleston (except the impenetrable part).

The kids in Central Park.

Ice Skating at Rockefeller Plaza. This was the kids favorite part of the trip. We didn't get any great pictures here but did manage to get a shot of this local kid who offered to help my youngest daughter skate. This fella was about 12 years old and probably started skating when he was 1.5. The picture doesn't do it justice but he was twirling around the rink with Abby between his legs. I was amazed at his skating ability.

A trip to New York isn't complete without a subway ride. And of course you get to share a bench with all kinds of folks. This lady seemed totally out of it but content with her bag of donuts. I didn't realize it till we got back to Columbia, but the subways were under high alert while we were there due to a terrorist threat.

Harbison Samaritans Purse Race

Although I REALLY wanted to ride in the race, I was there as a volunteer and had to restrain myself from snagging someone’s bike and going out on the course. My friend, Paul, offered for me to borrow his daughters Barbie bike but it was a single speed and I thought that might cause me some problems. Seriously though, it was a success from the standpoint of raising money and doing something to benefit others. I don’t have the final numbers, but we raised somewhere in the range of $500.00 after expenses. That’s enough to ship 55 shoeboxes full of Christmas cheer to children around the world. Its also enough to provide tools and training for 5 families to be better subsistence farmers for their families (give a man a fish vs. teach a man to fish…).

The idea was to do this November race this year without loosing our shirts and for Rebecca to “show me the ropes”. Next year, I’ll try to do it solo and then make it an annual event after that. That’s my goal atleast. Since it was a multi lap event, it was really cool to see the race play out as the riders passed the start/finish line. I had a really good time and it was good to see everyone who participated.

Harbison Race

Here you go:

Volunteers - Race to the River

Soon we will be releasing specifics on the upcoming Race to the River. This popular local event will return in November and the current date is Sunday Nov 16. Pencil that in and I will post the flyer once it is finalized. I hope all of you will participate. We have scheduled it to kick off the holidays to raise some support for others in need.

I have committed to supplying 15 volunteers! If you are riding in the race, maybe your spouse could volunteer to be a course marshall, help with registration, etc. Let me know if you would like to help. Thanks in advance.

Thursday Night Urban Assault

45 miles - 2:45 ride time. There were heavy winds all night long and it was to our back the first 1/2 of the ride.

At one point, we were riding along at about 20 mph and the air was completely still which meant it was about a 20 mph tail wind.

With the wind at our backs we climbed the long climbs on Pine Plain?? road off of Charleston highway at around 17 mph then when we crested the hill and were riding on the flat section we were going 27 mph (thats on a mountain bike with fat tires). Of course the down hill section was fast and we approached 40 mph coasting on the down hill.

All of that was fun until we headed back into the wind on the way home and my legs were toast. Even in the draft line the wind was rough because it was a cross wind.

Saturday Morning Ride

Well, it really stinks always bringing up the rear but Saturday was no different.

Jim – must be drinking some of natures recovery drink lately. You have really stepped it up since the last time we rode. Setting a 12.3ish pace through inner woman…

Dennis – Energy level reminded me of the squirrel in “Over the Hedge.” Then I found out he drank several Red Bulls before the ride.

Monty – was Monty. Wish I could say the single speed slowed him down...

I had a good time and it was great to get out in the cooler morning air. I think I actually saw a few leaves floating down from above. Sorry I bailed before Lost Creek, but it just wasn’t my day. No excuses.

New toy

Tomorrow I am taking these babies on their maiden voyage.


My Giant Anthem came with the Race Face predecessor to these cranks and I have had nothing but problems from them. They kept loosening up and therefore wobbling in the bottom bracket. Summit Cycles would work on them under warranty and add spacers to correct the extra play. And we would all scratch our heads wondering how they loosen up because the crank bolt tightens till it bottoms out. Once it is tight you cant tighten it any more, but it would still be loose. That would work for a while then they would loosen up again. Finally, the extra play damaged the BB and I had to replace that on my own dime since it was several months out of warranty. Went with a Shimano XT BB thinking the play was in the BB. Eventually the play returned.

I called Race Face and they agreed to send me a new one even though I had 2 years and probably 1500 miles on the bike. They said the predecessor was experiencing a problem where the internal shaft that is pressed into the drive side crank was pulling itself out over time. This solved the mystery of how they were loosening.

Looking forward to not worrying if they will loosen again and not scaring the wildlife away with the old noisy ones.

Just say no to Sports Glasses

I recently came across this on USA Cycling website. In an Olympics full of whacky sports eye wear (especially from the American athletes) its nice to see someone go against the grain.

Adam Craig while racing in the olympic mountain bike race in Beijing sporting some aviator style glasses.

Albino Deer

Keep your eyes out for an albino deer on Lost Creek. I saw one today. Lost Creek usually provides a glimpse of several does that must live over there. One other time, I stopped the bike to do something or other on lost creek, and looked over to see an 8 point buck with his head low following a doe. That is the only time I have seen a buck at Harbison. But, the albino I saw today was quite unique. She had a brown head and her color changed on her neck to white. The whole rest of her body was white except she had brown "socks". At first I thought she was a tall dog, but then she bounded off and it was the unmistakable gait of a deer.

Man-cation Day 2

It was 9:30 before we all rolled out of the tents. At this elevation, there aren’t many birds…or maybe it is the time of year when migration has already occurred. But it was conspicuously silent up in the gap. Reheated pancakes hit the spot and the coffee was awesome. We all had to stop drinking coffee when we realized we used all of the filtered water we collected the day before. We would have to hike to get more water.

What do you do when you have a whole day to spend in the wilderness and nothing to REALLY get done? Nothing to get done…this really goes against my daily scramble to get everything done at the office. Well, when you are with Eric and Paul, you will have plenty to do. These two guys must be related to Rudy Mancke, the naturalist on ETV here in Columbia. I am not joking when I say that we could not walk 10 feet without getting a nature lesson. “Oh,look at the striated veins on the back of this beech leaf, its hairy so that makes it genus “e pluribus unum” (or some other latin)”. Or, “is this a silver maple or a sugar maple?” “Wow, this parasitical plant lives on the host plant and is chlorophyll deprived therefore depends on the host plant”. I mean it took us on average one hour to hike a mile. Don’t get me wrong, this is all very fascinating stuff and I enjoy learning. But their minds are like information warehouses. I am a point A to point B kind of guy. We spent all day “smelling the roses.” I decided to play along.

I already mentioned that Eric is a missionary in Kenya. His job is to help Kenya develop in an agricultural sense. He provides a service to the locals where he will develop a crop management plan and help them implement it so they can grow their own food. To support his family, he raises bees for honey and quail as well as pheasant. His knowledge is more pragmatic and practical. Paul is just as knowledgeable, but is more academic in the sense that he learned what he knows in labs and degree programs. He is currently a biology teacher. Eric was on vacation and was in the states for about a month or so. It was evident that he knew this wilderness like the back of his hand. He spent a lot of his childhood hiking around this area with his Dad trout fishing. He was back in his element and he was enjoying every minute of it.

This leads to the theme of this day: Blueberries. We were about a week early but the balds were covered in almost ripe wild blueberries. I am referring to hundreds, if not thousands, of acres of blueberry bushes. Eric noted that the short bushes are called huckleberries and the tall bushes are blueberries. As you walked down the trail, you could pick blueberries from the side of the trail almost in unison with your stride and pop them in your mouth. You could use both hands and while you were popping a few in your mouth with one hand, you could grab another few in your other hand. They were not super sweet like the store bought “cultivars” (Paul’s word), but they were wild and delicious. On our way to Shining Rock, we ate at blueberries almost the entire way. We began to look for bushes with the best tasting blueberries. When we all agreed that we had found them, we would pick it clean leaving only the unripe berries. We weren’t the only ones enjoying the blueberries. The birds, bumblebees and butterflies were also partaking. So we had absolutely nothing to “get done” today, but we spent most of the day looking at the details, learning about Gods amazing creativity, and adventuring through this vast garden laid out before us.

Man-cation DAY 1.5

The beauty of this wilderness is that you really are not in control when you enter into it. You are now a visitor to a dominion not your own. Consequently, it doesn’t take long out here to desire more permanent shelter and better comfort…to try to organize the environment to suit ME better. In the early morning, a pack of coyotes howls in the distance. The sound of their call echoes up the coves and reaches the elevation we were at. Then on the opposite hill, another pack answers. The pack below begins to howl again, but this time they seem to be disturbed and it sounds more like fighting amongst themselves. Or maybe they are tangling with another animal. Listening to the coyotes emphasizes this wilderness and sets the stage for what happened next.

Gary couldn’t sleep and kept unzipping his tent and zipping it back up. Almost every time he did this I woke up. At one point, I heard him unzip his tent, walk over to his backpack, fiddle around with something inside it and get back in his tent zipping it back up. About ten minutes later and before I was able to fall back to sleep, I hear a large animal enter our camp. It walks by our tent and brushes against it. It is breathing heavy and making a low grunting noise. It seems hungry and out of breath. It obviously has four legs as its steps seem too numerous to be a human. I hear it go to the area where Gary’s pack was laying and hear it rummaging through the pack all the while grunting and breathing heavy. I have never been close to a black bear and I was certain we had one in the camp. I had to take a peek. Feeling around in the darkness, I grab the headlamp. I sat up in the tent and got a good vantage point and aimed the lamp. Sliding the button over I am anxious to see the bear. But the light reflects off the black tent mesh and temporarily blinds me. It takes a few seconds for my eyes to adjust but in the meantime, I can tell something large is out there and am trying to get my eyes to focus. When my pupils finally adjust and my eyes gain focus I struggle to make out the form of this large animal. As I make out the image, I realize it is Gary bent over his pack and I am shining my light on his posterior side. About this time he turns around and does a classic hand gesture at me. No bear this time I guess. I still can’t figure out what all the grunting and heavy breathing was about. I guess he was hungry.

We all slept in until 9:30 am. The sky was overcast with a blanket of clouds that looked like winter snow clouds. There was a nice chill in the air. We had packed in pre-prepared pancakes and syrup. Paul even found a way to bring a stick of real butter. In Columbia right now it was probably already 90 degrees. I smiled as I pulled on a sweatshirt and stood by the campfire to warm up. Drank about as much instant coffee (left over from old MRE’s) as I could stand. Today we are hiking to Shining Rock and maybe Cold Mountain if our legs are up to it.

Man-cation DAY 1

Headed up to Shining Rock Wilderness in NC last weekend with a few friends...actually one friend and his two friends. I later became friends with his two friends so I guess I can call them friends. All right, enough of that!



We started out at the parking lot on 816 off the parkway and hiked to Ivestor Gap via the Art Loeb trail. Set up camp at Ivestor Gap which is a grassy meadow/gap right at the Shining Rock entrance sign. The gap is between Grassy Cove Top and Tennent Mountain and you can see quite a view in either direction. No fires beyond this point, so we decided to go no farther with our base camp because there WOULD be a fire at this 5600' elevation.

Right off the bat Eric (missionary and naturalist from Kenya) decides he wants to go trout fishing. Gary (diesel mechanic from Maryland),Paul and I think we are going to hike down into the cove below to a trout stream via a trail. Eric had other ideas. Gary throws on his Crocs (thinking it is a short easy hike...keep this in mind as you read) and a bathing suit so he can wade in the stream. We all followed Eric to the trail. He immediately turns off the trail and walks straight down the side of the mountain bushwhacking through mountain laurel, thorny blackberry bushes, moss covered undergrowth, following a trickle of water down the hillside. We stay on this course for what seems like an hour and let me tell you...I don't think more than ten people have been where we were. It was steep, remote, difficult travel. We did stumble upon a rusty tuna can so we know at least one other person was here...and the last thing he ate was Tuna. What a beautiful and different way to hike. I guess in Kenya a trail is for wimps. Eric took us on quite a tour of the forest. The trickle of water has now turned into a stream with pools that you can stand in about knee deep. It is Greasy Cove Prong and I think we descended about 800 feet of thick forest, bushwhacking the whole way to get to where we are. All of us have lashes on our shins and everyone has some visible blood somewhere on their body. OHHAHHH - as they say in the army.

He assembles his trout rod and on his first cast, he hooks a native brook trout and would catch several more. But none of them are big enough to take back with us. After a while, we abandon the fishing for fear of darkness setting in.

Eric says he wants to go back back to camp by a different route and starts the bushwhacking in reverse. We climb straight back up the mountain trying to intercept grassy cove ridge trail to the north. It is evident we are on a wildlife trail because there is fresh bear scat and broken limbs all the way up the mountain. Something large bulldozed up this hill and we are benefiting from its freshly blazed path. Consequently, we make quick work of this climb but along the way I notice something really cool. Instead of the mountain laurel being tightly packed into impassable thickets, they are spaced almost perfectly at 10'-0" centers so you can meander through this grassy forest environment with laurel canopy overhead. The floor of the forest was what seemed like Kentucky bluegrass freshly mowed. About the time I was marvelling at this micro environment, we stumble into a yellow jacket nest and all of us gets stung at least once. Boy these things can pack a punch!

Back at camp, we eat a nice pasta meal and after warming up by the fire, we crawl in our tents for a nights rest.

Around midnight I wake up from a dead sleep and start having what I think is another anxiety attack. Can't explain this sensation very well, but it is the second time this has ever happened to me and both times on a back country hike and both times it is late in the night and occurs when I am in the tent. It is a combination of claustrophobia and an overwhelming feeling of helplessness. (I know its stupid but I am baffled by it).

Paul wakes up and asks me if I am OK because I am breathing heavy, shivering and sweating and my heart is racing. Like the true friend that he is, he encourages us to go out to the edge of the mountain and talk about life for about an hour. It is cold and quiet. This ends up being a high point for me for the trip because with our busy schedules, it has been a long time since I was able to reconnect with my old college buddy. After some bonding time we go back to the tent and sleep like babies.

Tortoise, terrapin, turtle, cooter...

I found this picture on the camera from our trip to Marrington. We were cruising around a blind curve and almost ran over this fella. Never heard them called cooters till I moved to SC.

Tonight

Anyone riding tonight? A group of us are meeting at Harbison at 6:00 pm. Ride till dark.