What's been happening lately

It's been a little longer that usual since my last post, but don't fear because I'll fill you in on every spine-tingling detail.

My latest camera stopped working a week or so ago, and I haven't replaced it yet.  I tried using a couple of other cameras that I had sitting around, but the results were pretty disappointing.  The first one didn't work at all any more, the second one was very blurry, and the third had some other quality issues with the images.  I also tried taking some pictures with my GoPro, but trying to get in a decent photo with the wide angle set-up isn't easy.  For example, here's a shot from up at the Fellows Riverside Gardens.

Kind of distorts the edges just a bit, huh?  Of course you can always crop the shot, but it gets old pretty quick when you have to crop every shot.  Here's one with the edge distortion removed.

With less photos to post I haven't felt much like spending a lot of time trying to get something online.  But I guess I've worked up enough of a backlog to get something typed up.

It's been 14 days since my last entry on May 14.  I've tried to keep up my 5 out of 7 riding schedule as much as possible. My MapMyRide workout log shows that for the first week I got in my five rides, with two days of singletrack - including a nice, big long ride at West Branch.  That week also included the normal bunch of yardwork and gardening, as well as a trail work day at Beaver Creek and a canoe ride on the Clarion River with my son.  So that was pretty much as good as I could have hoped.

This week was going pretty good, but the wife, son and I headed on over to the Allegheny National Forest for a camping trip.  We left just after lunch on Friday and found a great campsite back on Loleta Road, right on the banks of East Millstone Creek.  My brother and his kids came over for Saturday and Sunday, so there was a whole lot of fun being had by the young 'uns.  I missed riding on Friday and Sunday, but managed to get in a really great ride along the forest service roads and what I think might be abandoned logging roads from a hundred years ago.  Just spending the little bit of time that I had available riding out in the deep woods makes me want to get some real backwoods bikepacking in this summer.  With the research I've done to get my Allegheny National Forest mtb and bikepacking map started I've found some very interesting possibilities.

Nice lawn.

So this last week I only got in four days of riding, and there was no trail work.  But it's all good, since we don't really get very much family time together.  Kenny had a great time camping, and also really enjoyed spending some time with his two cousins.  And Matt took the three kids for a ride on the river in my canoe - the first paddle boat ride for his two.  So it turned out to be a great weekend even if it didn't revolve around mountain biking (who would have thought?)

I ended up the second week with a mountain bike ride with my brother out at West Branch this afternoon.  With it being Memorial Day I expected to see a big crowd of people out on the trails.  The marina beside the mountain bike parking lot was packed - there must have been a hundred trucks with boat trailers - but there were only a few cars in the mountain bike lot.  Maybe it was the 92 degree temps and muggy conditions that kept most people away, but we had a great ride on the rocky side of the trail.  I kind of pooped out on the second half of the ride (I forgot most of my water) and took a shortcut back to the car, but it was still a blast and I feel re-hydrated and happy this evening.

Back to work tomorrow morning, with a can't-miss deadline hovering over my head for the whole week.  But I'm going to try to get some saddle time tomorrow and aim for a singletrack ride after work on Wednesday.  Here's hoping for a tolerable week and a good weekend.