Back at it again

Last week I confidently proclaimed that I would get my lazy butt off the couch during weekday evenings and make myself ride at least five days out of the next seven.  And that there is the whole problem with the internet - it's available to the public.  See, if I had been disgusted with myself and muttered under my breath "Hey slacker, you need to pry yourself out of that chair and ride your bike five days this week" - no one would have heard it, and then no one would know if I didn't actually do it.  But since I'm foolish enough to put it on my blog - which is available to the general public - it kind of puts it out there so that I at least feel obligated to do what I said.  So in one way - that of providing motivation - it's good.  But it also removes the easy way out, so that can be a problem.

I started out the week well, with a singletrack ride down at Beaver Creek.  It was just a short ride, since my weekday riding time is also short - but at least I spent an hour riding the dirt.  Then I set myself up for failure by not riding for the next two days, which meant I had to ride the next four days straight or not make my goal.  Way to plan out your week, Steve.

But there was a chance to pull it off, since I had the weekend available to fit the next two rides into.  I got in a ride on the rail trail on Saturday, which does count even though it's pretty boring.  Then on Sunday I got Diana to accompany me on a drive down to Beaver Creek, where I got in another short ride while she napped in the car at the campground.  So that was good - five days past with three rides down.  Still could work...



Beaver Creek State Park

Kenny went to his fifth grade camp for three days starting Monday, and Diana worked till late, so when I got home after work the house was empty.  That worked pretty well for me, as I quickly changed and headed out to ride around town for a while.  I've been more careful in picking my route lately, just hitting up the low-traffic suburban side streets and keeping away from congestion as much as possible.  But still it seems to me that I have to keep on my toes so much more in town than on singletrack.  You never know when some nut will reverse out of a driveway between two houses just as you're riding past.  Then it's up to YOU to stay out from under those wheels, even though the driver has the responsibility to check before pulling out.  Give me rocks and roots any day...

Tuesday would be the last day of my week long cycle.  When I got home from work I was thinking about a ride around the neighborhood for a little while, maybe even a ride out on the rail trail.  But my wife, who knows how much all this riding contributes to keeping my questionable sanity at least tolerable, suggested that I take the time to head on out to Moraine and get in some dirt riding before dark.  And with her encouragement I packed up food, gear and bike in record time and headed on over to ride.  And it was a great ride, too.  Not too long, but sometimes you don't need a lot to feel good.  I hit some of my favorite tech sections, including a stretch I call The Big Rock Downhill.  Here the trail leaves the ridgetop and heads down over a hundred feet to cross the tiny brook in the valley below.  And on the way the trail builders have routed it over about 6 or 7 really well built rock features, using the huge boulders littering the hillside to make an unbelievable challenging and fun route.  I've ridden each feature successfully, even making a no-dab ride from the top almost to the bottom before.  But on Tuesday I was clearing the rocks with a combination of technique and power, not the bounce-n-bash style that I usually display.  After clearing the third tough section in a row - and doing it RIGHT - I realized the groove I was in and just pushed it as far as I could take it.  Don't be fooled into thinking that I'm extreme mtb guru, but for a 49 year old with not so great breathing I was pretty satisfied.

Moraine mtb trailhead

So I did make the 5 out of 7 for that week, and I'm going to try again for this week.  I started writing this up on Thursday, and I've managed to get in an hour on the rail trail Wednesday and 10 laps around my block (7.5 miles with 400 feet of climbing) on Thursday.  That gives me hope that I've gotten past my latest motivation drought and will continue to push myself at the level that I expect.  And Kenny is back from his summer camp experience, where he had a good time with his fellow fifth grade lunatics.  I'm glad that he got to go, but I'm even gladder to have him back home.  He's wanting to go for a canoe trip this weekend, so it looks like I'll be checking some water levels for the local waterways.  Might be an excellent chance to get some paddling video on the GoPro!

This one is for Diana

Striving for Rhythm

Human nature is a funny thing.  Or more correctly, MY nature is a funny thing.  All winter I kept on the stationary bike, spending hours down in the basement spinning and sweating.  It certainly wasn't what I wanted to be doing, but I knew it was good for me.  So I gritted my teeth, put on a John Wayne movie and pedaled.

Now the weather is much, much nicer.  Even if there are some cool, damp days and it seems to be cloudy more often than it's sunny, the contrast with cold, wet, muddy and grey is pretty amazing.  But I've been slacking - not riding when I should and could be out.  I've made a couple of singletrack forays each week - but the other days I've been doing nothing.  Most of those days the weather was good enough that I could have had at least a nice ride around town, but I haven't.  So now that I've confronted the problem I'm going to try to get in at least a short ride five of the next seven days.  And I'll even get back on MapMyRide and log my miles.  Yeah.

Friday afternoon I headed down to Beaver Creek with Dave.  My plan was to ride a bit, from the campground down to the picnic area.  Then I planned on hiking back up, rather than push the bike up the insanely steep and rocky 5/8 mile "shortcut".  Once I got back to the car and caught my breath I would hike the bow saw down the trail about 1/4 mile to a downed tree and cut it out.  So I geared up and headed on down the trail.  I finally got the mount and lens cover replaced on my GoPro helmet cam, so I tried mounting it on the front fork for a bit.  Unfortunately that needs a bit more work, so I switched it to my helmet.  Even more unfortunately, when I came speeding down a hill, pegged my left bar end on a sapling, and crashed onto the trail at a pretty good rate of speed, sliding at least 10 feet on my right side - I had accidentally switched from video to photo every 10 seconds.

Immediately after crashing - you can tell because the bike is LAYING DRIVE SIDE DOWN.

Thankfully I didn't do any damage, but that was entirely too hard for a 49 year old guy to hit the ground.  Kinda took the oomph out of the afternoon.  I continued on my ride, eventually getting back into a semi-natural groove, but my shoulder and hip were pretty sore, as well as my right ankle.  The flat section down by the creek was a lot of fun though, and I actually managed to get some of that part on the GoPro - before the SD card filled up and it stopped recording.



I'm not sure why exactly, but I didn't leave the bike at the bottom, instead hiking (mostly) and biking (a little bit) back up to the top and the car.  By the time I got back up there I was twice as sore as when I hit the ground, and I wasn't about to hike back down and spend another half hour sawing through three tree trunks.  So I had a nice cold drink and headed back home - good enough for one day.

Saturday morning I did something a bit different.  Diana was sick at home with a nasty bout of intestinal flu, so Kenny stayed at home with her.  I headed out before 9:00 to meet up with two of the adult leaders from Kenny's new Boy Scout troop.  They had an idea to do a canoe trip on the local river, a slow and muddy waterway that has something like 20 dams on it.  And since they knew I was into kayaking they asked if I'd like to go along on an exploratory trip to see if the river was passable.  We put in one town upstream, near the Bliss dam in Newton Falls, and paddled downstream in spotty rain and cool temperatures.  Over the next four hours we came across three river-wide blockages, the last of which was a huge mess in an area that was very difficult to portage.  So they may have to either find another place to paddle or find another way to use the clear sections in order to get in enough distance to make the trip worthwhile.  It was nice to paddle on the Mahoning in the upstream sections where I'd never been before, but what I really need is some whitewater.  I'm waiting for a weekend when the water level and my free time are both right and I can get in a nice ride on the lower Slippery Rock Creek.  Now that's some REAL fun!!

A fortuitously placed fallen log at Moraine State Park.

 

Sunday my brother and I had planned on a ride over at Moraine, but he was feeling a bit under the weather and had to cancel.  I considered heading over and riding myself, but with the chilly, damp weather I settled on going to the nearby North Road trails and doing some trail work for a couple of hours.  Now that the tread is solid enough to actually ride I've managed to get over there and put in some laps.  It really pointed out where the trail needed to be tweaked to make it more bike friendly.  The twisty, narrow tread is great for hiking, but once I rode it I found that the corridor pressed too close in some areas, the sight lines were obstructed in others, and some of the turns were too tight for a bike.  So I spent a couple of hours widening the tread, cutting back undergrowth at corners, and making re-routes for the sharp turns.  I only got a little further than half way, but I think that the changes should be pretty noticeable.  I need to get my bike back out there and ride it again to see.

A too-tight corner before...

...and after.

I guess it was another so-so weekend.  I did get some stuff done, and managed to get in some riding, but I certainly hope to do better in the upcoming week.  With a little bit of cooperation from the weather, and a few other things falling in line, hopefully I'll get more miles - and have more fun.

The Joys of Summer begin to Return

If you live in a place where the seasons change, then you've undoubtedly heard them - the people who complain about the weather.  All summer long they complain about the heat, and the humidity, and there's too much sunshine - and the rain storms are too scary and what if it tornadoes for God's sake!??!  When fall comes you can hear them catch their breath and take in a big inhale - to give themselves more air to complain about winter.  It's too cold, too windy, the roads are too scary, I hate it when it's below zero, what if I get frostbite??!?!  Then another deep inhale in the spring, to get the wind to start the whole thing over again.

The Ranger approaches...

I'm out there all seasons, and I like when it changes.  When the weather stays the same for too long I get tired of it and welcome the next front with open arms.  But that doesn't mean that I don't NOTICE when those special irritations return as the weather warms up.  For instance, I have the first poison ivy of the year - a little area spread across my left forearm.  When in the woods I'd noticed the little stems with the tiny new red leaves coming up, and I knew what they were.  Yet somehow while doing trail work I still managed to get some on me.  Oh well, its not the end of the world.

Another thing I've notice is that the bugs are back.  Not many mosquitoes yet, or horseflies (thank God) but the little buzzy, annoying, fly-up-yer-nose things have returned.  And ticks - can't forget those little monsters - are going strong this year. But the thing I keep thinking about is the roses.  The wild roses didn't even really stop growing over this mild winter, and now they're just booming.  When I was at Moraine I noticed that every bit of undergrowth I could see was wild roses.  There is going to be a LOT of trimming of undergrowth this summer.

All that green undergrowth is wild rose.

But it's so great to get out in just shorts and a t-shirt, which is what makes summer worth the bugs and thorns.  I had a great ride out at Moraine on Friday afternoon, but my free time was limited so I had to zip out, get in as much riding as I could in a set time, then zip back.  Not really a problem, but it wasn't the great ride that I'd hoped for.  I did take a little bit of time and take video of one of my favorite rock features. 

The entry moves.

I forgot to bring the GoPro, so I set up the camera on the mini tripod and recorded it in five sections - which meant I had to ride it clean five times.  I had a couple of "unplanned dismounts" but actually got the whole thing done in just a couple of minutes.  It was Friday the 13th when I rode, so I edited a quick little video of that one rock feature.



Sunday morning we had a trail work day at the North Road Nature Preserve.  There were about 6 or 7 volunteers that showed up, so we got quite a bit of work done, mostly finishing up a new section of trail.  Eric cut a bunch more corridor near the old road, and we also moved in some more rocks.  Kenny was the staff photographer for the day, and took some great shots.

Sunday afternoon I got in a little bit of a gravel grinder out around West Branch.  I parked by the mtb trails, but since the park closes the trails until just before Memorial Day to keep people from rutting them up (though they aren't muddy at all right now I betcha) I kept on the road.  It was a nice little ride, with a couple of hills and some bumpy potholed roads.  The sun was out doing it's thing and I was loving it.

At the parking pull-off just past where I parked someone had abandoned a bunch of cats.  I checked them out while I was there and they seemed to be very friendly and in good shape.  It was hard to forget about them out there, so I ended up heading back out there to see if they were still there.  Sure enough, once I got back into the woods a bit I found them - except one kitten was missing.  So now we have a new kitten in the house (there was no way we could take all four of them).

The white one with the black "horns" is the one that came home with me.

Diana had mentioned a couple of times that she'd like to have a cat again, and I knew Kenny would love it, so we have a new pet.  I'm sure it will be all the fun that I remember (unfortunate heavy sarcasm).  Still, it is a sweet and friendly little cat.  Lets see if it meows all night...

Here and There, but definitely not Everywhere

It was another slow week at work, but Friday eventually found it's way around again.  During the wet and muddy winter I'd heard that the trails at Quail Hollow State Park had been damaged pretty badly by irresponsible riders.  Apparently it got so bad that the park actually closed them for a while, something that they usually don't do.  But towards the end of the week I saw on the CAMBA board that the trails were not only re-opened, but in good condition.  I hadn't been out there for quite a long time, probably not even last summer, but I always enjoyed a spin around the loop there.

Quail Hollow State Park, Ohio

The trail there is a 3.15 mile loop, with one way travel.  The elevation change in the park is a whopping 50 feet, so there aren't the hills like at West Branch or Moraine.  And there are so few rocks that you could probably give each one a name.  There are maybe three stretches where you can see rocks and only one rock feature - and it looks like it was imported.  In short it's a beginners trail.  But it's still possible to have a LOT of fun there - if you just try to pick up the speed a bit.  The beginning is especially fast, as there are a couple of small descents that help keep up your momentum.  During the first year I rode Quail Hollow my record for  lap was 29 minutes.  A couple of years later I dropped it to 24 minutes.  On Friday I managed to tie that on my first lap, then I took a slower paced lap where I stopped and took some photos.

The boardwalk at the meadow at Quail Hollow.

I would have made another slow lap, maybe two, but I don't like to leave Dave waiting forever, so we headed home.  Still was a great afternoon and I was glad to get out and visit Quail Hollow again and see that it hasn't been destroyed.

Saturday I did some things that had to be done, but I did take an hour or so and get in a ride on the rail trail.  Time was at a premium, so I went to the closest trailhead and cranked out some miles.  It's nice to be able to head out for an hour and a half ride and still know you could easily ride for another hour and a half.  But sometimes you have to fit a ride in the available slot, so I was content with what I got.

Wildlife observation platform on the Western Reserve Greenway Trail.

Saturday afternoon Kenny and I headed down to Beaver Creek to camp overnight.  My brother Matt and his two kids also headed down, but since his boy has been feeling a bit under the weather they decided not to spend the night.  The kids had fun running around and playing on the playground while I set up the tent and Matt got a nice fire going.  Then he cooked an excellent steak dinner, with potatoes, beans, cider and pie - so good it was hard to believe I was out camping.

Trumbull County Courthouse on the banks of the Mahoning River.

Sunday afternoon when we got up Kenny and I had a fire to get warmed up, then packed up camp and headed down to the picnic area for trail work.  Even though it was Easter there was one other brave volunteer, Eric, who showed up.  He and I worked for over three hours to bench the top part of the new trail.

The new trail at Beaver Creek State Park (picture by Kenny)

The soil on the hillside varies from 80% rock/20% dirt to loam to clay.  Some of it is relatively easy to bench cut - and some not so easy.  But the two of us got quite a bit of work done in an afternoon, so that I'm fairly confident that we'll be finishing this thing off before the end of summer.  It's going to be a nice addition to the mountain bike trail system, but I think it'll be even better for hikers since it's a short scenic loop that's right by the parking areas.

Another pic of the new trail (by Kenny).

So there wasn't a great, grand ride this weekend like the one last week at Moraine.  But I did get to visit two places that I enjoy seeing.  There was a nice ride involved, plus another grinder on the rail trail.  And getting more done on the Beaver Creek trail was really great, as this is a project that I've been working towards for over two years. 

Nonetheless, I can't help but hope that next weekend I can get in both some rewarding trail building time AND a fantastic ride on some singletrack.  And maybe even a bit of a ride during the week, if I'm lucky and the weather cooperates.  Hey, a man can dream, can't he?

Time Warp

When I wrote my last post, the one talking about how I spent the whole weekend doing trail work, it turns out that I had an unseen passenger.  Behind my left knee, the one that doesn't move around so well so I can't actually SEE the back of it, there was a tick.  I didn't find the little monster until Tuesday, so that means that it was there at least two days, and according to what I could find out, that meant that there was a better chance that it could have transferred bad juju to my bloodstream.  Then when I got sick the next day, with a fever that just wiped me out, I really started to worry.

When I got hold of my doctor and described my symptoms he basically said "Get in here right now."  That's never a comforting thing to hear from your physician.  So I went in and they drew blood for tests and started me on some drugs in case I started to grow Lymes.  But regardless of what it was, I was miserable - fever, congestion, achy and it felt like my IQ had been reduced by 50%.  But I finally got the blood test results back after the weekend and found out that I didn't have Lyme Disease - just some sort of cold (ain't the power of paranoia a wonderful thing?)

But I did spend about ten days down and out.  I went to work the whole time - when you work at a desk with a computer there's not much difference between sitting at work being miserable and sitting at home being miserable.  But my head was so scrambled that it almost seems like the whole time I was sick didn't really happen - the Severe Cold Time Warp. It's not like I did anything that I could look back on, just sit around in a fog being sick.  But finally I'm more or less back with the rest of the world (as much as ever, anyways) and able to actually participate in living.

But after nothing going on for a week and a half I started to get my energy back towards the end of the week, and on Friday I headed down to Beaver Creek after lunch.  My plan was to get in a ride and then do a small amount of work on the new trail.  But as I've learned before, you're never ahead of downed trees when you're maintaining a trail.

There were two new trees down on Dogwood Trail.  I only had my small saw in my pack, so I couldn't clear them but I did get rid of all the branches so that you could at least lift a bike over easily.  That took up some of my trail work time, but I did get a chance to do some more benching on the hillside section of the new trail.  That has to be some of the rockiest soil I've ever seen up there, the exact opposite of the silty soil at the North Road trail project.

Next weekend there's going to be a big Beaver Creek trail work day, where I get a chance to do more than just a little bit of work at a time.  But this weekend it was time to work on North Road Nature Preserve.  Only a small crew showed up - just four of us - but we put in a good morning of work and finished cutting the corridor for the reroute around the wettest section.  The woods are waking up to spring pretty quick this year, which isn't suprising I guess considering we only had a quarter of a winter.

For TJ - this is the trail wagon from earlier in the year.

Then on Sunday afternoon my brother and I headed over to Moraine for a ride.  I was feeling a bit less than perfect with a nice headache going on, but I'd been thinking about riding all week so I was going to give it a shot.  And it turned out so fine - one of those nice, long rides in nice conditions with good company when it seems like you're firing on all cylinders and riding at the top of your ability.

I can hardly even attempt to describe how great it was.  A TOUGH ride, with lots of technical stuff to push yourself against.  No big falls, no crashes, no bike parts broke.  After a week and a half of time warp flu it was exactly what I needed.  I'm feeling sore from my legs to my shoulders, and I can tell I'm going to sleep like a rock tonight, but it's all good.

Also, this week my son Kenny graduated from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.  He left Webelos with the Super Achiever award, which you only get if you complete every single one of the Webelos achievements.  He did a heck of a job and I'm EXTREMELY proud him.

That must be spring in the air

The half winter (maybe even quarter winter) that we've been enduring seems to have finally given it's last gasp, leaving us with a gradual, almost unnoticeable transition from brown and muddy to green and muddy.  But the temperatures have climbed into the 70's and the smell of earth is in the breeze.  I can hear the spring peepers calling, the robins (and turkey buzzards) are back, and the daffodils are blooming.  It would be cruel and unusual for winter to stage a final tantrum at this point.  Now if I was still living in Minnesota it would be totally possible, but for northeast Ohio - I'm calling this winter over.



Trail side ruins from the canal days at Beaver Creek.


After watching the weather all week while I was sitting at my desk - indoors - looking out the window at the sun - I'd hoped to have a veritable orgy of mountain biking over the weekend.  But with nice conditions the unmistakable knocking of delayed commitments started to make it's way into my consciousness and I decided to take care of some trail work.  So on Friday I headed down to Beaver Creek with Dave for a ride and trail work day.  I knew there were a bunch of trees down so I strapped a bow saw to my pack and started up Dogwood Trail from the picnic area, ready to play my lumberjack role.  Turns out someone had cut out at least one of the downed trees, but at least one more good-sized one had fallen - so I had plenty to keep me busy.  I think I cut out at least 6 trees and did a bit of on-the-fly drainage work, but there was one tree up near the top that I didn't get to.  It's always more work and takes longer than you think (that should be the Golden Rule of trail building).

Someone else is cutting trees at Beaver Creek too.

But it was nice to get in a ride, even if it was a short one, and the extra danger of riding singletrack with a big honkin' saw strapped to my back made it even more fun.  Beaver Creek is one of my favorite places, where I've spent literally hundreds of hours camping, hiking, kayaking and biking.  That makes it even nicer to give back some by working on the trails.



Panoramic shot of Beaver Creek.

 Saturday morning I'd scheduled trail work on the North Road Nature Preserve project.  With nice weather I'd hoped that there would be a pretty good turn out, but the only one to show up was Bernie.  That guy is something else - 73 years old and full of energy.  We hauled in about a half ton of rock using the trail wagon, then moved some flagstone we found on-site.  After that we went over to the super wet area and started to cut the corridor that is going to be the re-route.  It would have been nice if I would have been smart enough to avoid the trouble area in the first place, but I think that this new line will definitely be an improvement.  We put in three hours of work, then collected up the tools and headed back up the trail with the wagon - just in time to meet another volunteer who was delayed in showing up for his first trail work day.  No worries though, we talked and he'll likely be returning to help (yay).



I wonder how far down that you could ride...

I'd thought about going out for a ride on the rail trail Saturday afternoon, but I was pretty worn out so I just spent some time starting the season's yard and house work.  But I was thinking about what I should do on Sunday afternoon after Diana got off work.  My inclination was to head back over to Moraine and try to lengthen up the loop I'd been riding the last couple of weeks.  But I could still faintly hear those blasted commitments knocking, so I once again loaded up bike and tools and headed back down to Beaver Creek.

Ready to rake and ride.

First I left the bike in the woods at the top of the loop, then I parked at the bottom and hiked back up - which gave me the opportunity to tackle the last blockage near the top.  I managed to tear off a big flap of skin on my hand and painted a good portion of the surrounding trees with my blood, but eventually the huge mass of grapevines that was dragged down by the falling tree was cleared enough to ride through.  I completed the hike and then rode back down the long leg of the loop back down to the bottom (no blockages - hooray!)  Once I got back to the car I packed up the bike, grabbed some tools and headed up to where the new trail is going to be built.  I got the okay to make this trail the week before I fractured my skull in October, so this job has been waiting for quite a while.

Cell phone pic of the brook from the hillside trail.

I wanted to take a chance to start the benching on this project before getting a trail crew out there.  If it was going to be an impossible job to bench the extremely rocky soil then I wanted to know before there were other people there.  But I was happy to see that though it was a tough job, it was something that we could do.  So next weekend is Boy Scout camping, the weekend after is North Park trail work and the NEXT weekend is going to be the first big Beaver Creek work day.  I hope I can get a couple of people to come out and join in, but even if I have to do it myself I'm going to get this new trail put in.

Starting to bench the new trail at Beaver Creek (another cell phone pic).


So instead of three days of riding, this weekend was three days of trail work.  It would have been nice to get in at least one longer ride, but I'm really happy to see progress on my two trail projects.  Because when I get these projects done I'm going to see if they'll let me build some mtb trails at Mosquito Lake State Park - just ten minutes up the road from my house.  I can hardly wait.

Just another gorgeous dawn.

Next weekend though, after the Boy Scout campout - I'm going to RIDE.

Variety - photo supplement

When I put together the "Variety" post yesterday I realized that there were a lot more good photos than could be used in a short blog post.  So after a bit of reflection I decided to make another post with captioned pictures, as well as a short video clip.



The restless waters of Beaver Creek



Gathering sap for maple syrup the new-fangled way.



Beside the Greenway in Ashtabula County.



Youngstown Underpass

 

Contoured hillside trail at Beaver Creek.



Ripple on Mill Creek.



Rain filled hole in a rock beside Mill Creek.


I went for a ride on the rail trail this afternoon (love daylight savings time) and heard the unmistakeable sign of spring.



Spring peepers - the little frogs that let you know that spring is here.  Very, very cool.