Tour de Chemungville Stage 1

I can go on adventure rides starting from my driveway. This makes me happy.

Today was Stage 1 of what will be many many loops around 'Chemungville' or the Chemung Region, which is the network of dirt roads surrounding our house. I had been chomping at the bit to get out and explore to see what kind of loops I could put together.

Exploration was part of the plan today the other part was to try and put in some harder road type efforts to get ready for the Sunapee Road Race that Adam and I decided we would try. I definitely got some good training in today but I wouldn't necesarily call it roadie training. The climbs were punchy to say the least with sustained pitches of 10-15% for several hundred yards in spots. For a non-cyclist that hurts real bad. There is no attempting hill sprints on stuff like that (at least not at my current fitness level), just keep it spinning and hope you dont tip over.

The terrain around here is gorgeous. Lots of up and down with views and picture perfect homesteads and huge farms (I know, I know, where are the pics?! I'm still trying to track down my digital camera...). And barely any traffic to boot, partially because some of the "roads" I was on would have required a skidder to navigate, yet on Google Maps / GPS units they show up as viable options haha. Crotchtown doesnt care if you get lost/stuck. You shouldnt be here anyway, go back to Massachusetts (I am assuming that is their reasoning anyway).

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8176101

Ride came in around 27 miles and I was only able to muster an average speed of 12.3mph haha. A very slow road ride or a pretty fast MTB ride. I think the elevation profile is a pretty good indication as to why the speeds were a tad low. Plus my cross/commuter bike is not light by any means, hauling that thing up gnarly pitches kinda sucks, not gonna lie. It excels in the other direction though so I guess its worth it.

Color coded for your convenience. Blue = Pavement, Brown = Dirt, Red = Not in Kansas Anymore

3,259ft of climbing is a pretty good Saturday. Hopefully I can get some more road miles in Monday to continue my Sunapee prep.

Reaping What I (We) Sow

I know that saying is usually used in a negative context, but I don't care. I'm using it anyway. Because I am going to be reaping the awesomeness from this past weekend all summer long and then some.

This past Sunday CNH NEMBA hosted a Trail Maintenance day at the Franklin Falls Rec Area in Franklin, NH. We had a crew of 26 people(!) working various projects all day and we completed tons of work. Some accomplishments for the day:

- Installed ledge pack at the entrance to Rogue Trail and around 'Whaleback Rock' to alleviate some bogging down sand issues.

- Reroute and bench cut / berm installation on Stump Trail (so much more fun now, great work Jesse and crew!)

- We finished what we started of 'L' trail last year and it is ready to start riding in. New name is in the works currently. It's probably either going to be "Crooked Tree" or "Caddywhompus".

- 95% of trails were raked and cleaned up

I worked on the crew that completed 'L' trail. It is definitely back busting work at times but nothing beats taking a blank canvas of woods and making something that you will be able to enjoy for possibly years to come. 'L' is a 'max out the real estate' kind of trail winding back on itself in spots a la Gyro in Plymouth just not as extreme. It is a blast to ride even with it being really soft still in spots.

Another promising thing we all saw during the maintenance day was several other groups using the trails that weren't with our group. A group of riders from Gilford, a Father and Son duo and a Husband/Wife/Daughter crew. Lots of different types of riders all enjoying the trails...nothing gives you more clout than more headcount, this bodes well for Central NH.

Hopefully I can get some pics up soon. Chapter Prez had a camera out and was taking pics, my digital is still buried in a box somewhere.

Busy, Busy, Busy, Ride, Busy

Buying a home takes up a lot of your free time...go figure.

I have had maybe half a dozen 'idle moments' over the past 3-4 weeks, it has been straight out for a while now. But things are starting to mellow out (kinda) and I have been able to intersperse some riding in between yard work, unpacking and the ole 9 to 5.

We have already had a few NEMBA group rides this year and the trails in the area are in great shape right now. It's been real dry so far this Spring and the trails are nice and grippy. This morning I snagged a chance to get out for a ride at Harold Parker down in Andover before I had to pick up Gina's dad at the airport in Manch.

Amazingly I was able to convince 3 other dudes to hit trail at 730am. Me, Shaun, Ben and Jake got in about 7 miles of very sweet technical terrain, most of which I had never ridden at HP. That place is huge and there is still lots of stuff I have yet to check out. Ben is getting a good handle on the layout now and we are thinking a full day epic is in order. 15-20 miles of non stop awesome.

But don't take my word for it, see for yourself:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8129719

Be on the lookout for posts to increase in the near future. I forsee myself continuing with the busy theme but rides will be increasing and the race season is fast approaching, the new manarea needs to get set up (its going to be RIDICULOUS), and homebrewing will be back in effect now that the move is done.

Summer '09 is gonna be a doozy, can't wait.

Like a Phoenix

Fox Park is back!

It's not quite burning as bright as it has in the past but its well on its way. At the end of last season I wasn't very optimistic, I thought we had lost a great place to ride locally. But MTBers die hard and the locals have spent what must have been 100's of man hours cutting reroutes around logging damage.

Most sections need to be ridden in a bit, but its only April, plenty of time to get things squared away. I even think some of the reroutes use the real estate better and might even add a bit of mileage as well. I'm not sure how sustainable some of the trails they cut are, there are some sections with some hilarious switchbacks on very steep terrain. Very fun to ride but I can see it getting washed out at some point. I guess part of the good thing about blazing trails in a location like Fox Park is you dont have to worry as much about sustainable trails because chances are they will be logged out within a few years and you'll have to start over anyway.

For early season I am really pleased with my fitness. Naro and I didnt push the pace by any means but my legs were more than there when I needed them and my average heart rate stayed low for the ride at 146. I was on my 9 speed so that probably helped. I didn't get to ride the 9 speed much before the season ended last year and it was great to get out and let it rip. Of course it took me a few miles for my muscles to remember all the subtle coordination needed to operate a mountain bike correctly but it came to me slowly. It was hard to remember to shift, I have def become a SS rider at my core.

It was also my first ride on my new Cane Creek Thudbuster ST (thanks Dad!). I am pretty pleased with it so far. I think I may try playing around with using the different elastomers but I could definitely feel a difference in ride quality. Not so much on the downhills because the travel isnt huge but on the flats and false flats when you are putting the gas on a bit and little rocks and roots kill the rhythm of your powerstroke and make you bob out of the saddle...thats gone and I can keep the power going to the pedals. Thats gonna make a huge difference and save me a lot of energy in the long run, def worth the added weight in my opinion.

Unfortunately towards the end of the ride I blew my chain up riding through some logging debris. I think something got jammed in the drivetrain for a second and the chain torqued past the point of no return. At least it wasnt my derailluer that went. Luckily we were at a good spot to just continue out back to the car almost all downhill. I can't wait to get back in there and explore more...I should probably get into doing lunch rides. Possibly more on that later.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8021198

Back to Commuting

Let me apologize to my 3-7 readers for the recent lapse in material. Early Spring and Late Fall are traditionally my 'down' periods. Weather isn't ideal for either of my preferred outdoor activities and homebrewing is on a holding pattern while our home situation is still up in the air...hence Manarea has gone dormant.

I have still been getting out there though, I have done a few road rides but they were more uneventful type base mile rides without much intrigue so I figured they didn't warrant a post, just a tweet.

BUT! one thing I can do in early Spring is get back on the commuting horse and start biking into work again. I had forgotten how nice it is to get 7 miles in the morning. It's a great way to start the day, gets everything rolling nicely (PUN intended). I was a tad frantic this morning running late trying to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything. It takes me a bit until I get into the autopilot mode packing routine for the commute. Gotta make sure you have underwear and your keys to get into the office, everything else is luxury or just added weight.

It became apparent within about 5 mins that I have somewhat forgotten how to layer properly for real cold weather riding. Some parts were too cold, some too hot. I had it down last year, it will come to me I just have to experiment again a bit. I also forgot how to pack a bag correctly, I very quickly got a hot spot on my back either from my shoes or the tupperware holding my lunch (mmmmm lasagna). The bike was running great though...new Crankbrother Smarty pedals are nice but they have A LOT of float. Might feel nicer if I dial the retention up a bit, but they are only gonna be for commuting and off and on ice riding so whatever. New cassette is nice and smooth and has a nicer gear range than the 'frankensette' I had on there before.

It's good to be back to saving on gas and getting more miles in AND they installed new massaging shower heads in the HUB! SCORE!

Here are the goods from the Garmin:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7963890

I was hoping that when I turned the device off when I got to work that it would commit that ride to history and reset the data tracking so the to and from portions of my commute would be recorded independently. Unfortunately that's not how the Edge 205 works and when you turn it back on it continues from where it left off unless you upload the data off the device apparently. I'll have to look into that more but I'm kinda bummed about that, not a huge deal but it would be nice to have the option. So you'll see the Garmin tracked the whole time I was at work as 'stopped time' so this activity came in over 10 hours total haha. I learn more about this thing every day. Pretty soon I will be a pro.