Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Ended up hiking the Riverbreaks trails Sunday AM. Did a 4.5 - 5 mile loop on the East Section of the area. It was great. There were some trails that would be really fun on a down hill bike. Looonnng down hills, wide open, I bet you could carry 35 mph without too much effort.

Afterward, met Rusty, Ray, and Randy (R^3) at Sunbridge. Things were a little wet, but not slippery or sticky. Rusty climbed the big hill that almost everyone walks. On a single speed, I don't think climbing it is even an option - but Rusty ripped up it on the gears. I even saw him stand up out of the saddle, almost didn't recognize him at first. Congratulations man, what a climb.

We also went looking for new trails at Sunbridge. Found some really overgrown stuff that required lots of hike-a-bike. Then we ended up climbing up the side of an old motor cycle climb, which was nearly straight up - tough with a bike slung over the shoulder. Definitely a challenge, but it was something different that kept things interesting.

Rain, Rain...

Kind of rainy today. I don't think many folks rode today. Usually when it rains I like to go hiking with the dogs, but ended up going to Pumpkinfest downtown with the family. It was a good day for it as the weather cleared in the afternoon.

Hoping that we can get a ride together in the AM. If its clear, lets try to meet at Corby Parking Lot around 8:30. Corby will be rideable by tomorrow AM. Krug will be a mess. The River will probably be okay, maybe we can check that out too...

Thursday Already?

Can't believe it's already thursday. After a lame attempt at a ride on Tuesday, I'm ready for some trails. Got the SS fixed up and I plan to be there around 6. Hope some others can join me.

Saturday is the Beer Ride in Lincoln. It's a blast, but not sure if I will go this year. It is the last weekend that bikes can be in the conservation areas for the winter (deer hunting time is here). Would like to do an epic on Saturday and hit Honey Creek, Riverbreaks, and maybe Sunbridge to round out the conservation area tri-fecta.

Any takers - don't want to do it alone. It will be a long day though, I guarantee. We're talking 30-some miles of trail with 50-some miles of dirt road and highway between. It will be worth it though, I can guarantee that too. Who's in?

It's Tuesday

It's Tuesday, the light is charging, I'll be at the newly paved Corby South Parking lot around 6:30 PM.

See you all there!

NEW MAP!!!

Check out the map of Honey Creek. Went and hiked most of the "A" loop on Sunday with the dogs and my daughter. Not the best mountain biking, but it is still challenging to ride. Can't complain about any form of trails.

Note that if you want to go ride these trails, bikes and horses are not allowed during the winter months, as the hunters kind of invade this area. October 15 is the last day to ride at Honey Creek.

There is about 20 miles of trails in this conservation area, maybe 30. It is a very well maintained area, and is beautiful. I like to ride out there on gravel roads. It is a ride with some of the best gravel hills, dirt shacks by the side of the road, wild packs of dogs, and even a couple of hollars along the way. With the "B" loop, the ride is about a 70 mile day.

Also, if you come back over Monkey Mountain you are in for a helluva climb. I broke a single speed frame climbing the hill that goes over Monkey Mountain. Still made it home, but twisted on it so hard a weld just popped.

With the dirt on the way there, the whole experience is a great ride! Check out the Map.

Saturday AM Ride

Had a great group ride this morning.

Rusty showed up early and took the Chainsaw to a couple of downers in south corby. Trail's all clear.

I showed up a little later and we rode (this is Rusty riding with his chainsaw) over to the North side and hacked out a couple more downers. Trail's all clear.

When we got back to the parking lot Randy was there and Brad was just showing up. We joked around for a bit then realized Spellman was out riding too and called him over.

It was a good ride. Everybody is in pretty good shape and the group held together nicely. It was a really nice ride, and I am looking forward to more of the same in the upcoming months.

We also did a lot of talking about what the new-new girl scout camp trails will look like. Sounds like everyone is getting geared up to get those chain saws spinnin and shovels chucking. Can't wait to have some more trails to ride. We're going to have to cut the next round real wide to minimize maintenance, as all the mileage is getting tough to keep up with as it is. Still, it's worth it though.

Total Ride was a South Corby lap, North Corby lap, Over to the GS Trail (out and back on that trail), North Corby backwards, South Corby backwards.

Dark Rid'n

Rusty and I hit the Corby trails in the dark last night. Good trails, decent lights, good times.

Looking forward to some good dark rid'n this winter.

Tuesday Ride

Met up with Rusty and was introduced to Jason for the first time last night. Weather was great, although there was a couple trees down at Corby. Rusty said he was going to get that chainsaw running this weekend.

Mud was pretty much under control, and even though it got pretty dark and we didn't have lights, the trails were still negotiable.

Made it home without getting run over, and made the decision that next time I will have a good light kick'n so the cars mistake me for a alien spaceship instead of a target.

Twilight Riding

It's Tuesday, and time for some twilight riding. We're talking one of the last evening rides where there is any light at all. So bring a light, and lets do a couple laps at Corby!

4-trails & a game

Hit Krug and Sunbridge with Rusty today. Pretty eventful ride. We both accidentally ran over a copperhead, one of Missouri's 5 venomous snakes. It was a really cool looking snake. We didn't kill it (that we know of anyway). Felt bad for hitting it, but just didn't see it in time. We also found some ruins on one of the Lower Sunbridge trails that neither of us had been on before. Pretty cool stuff.

At Krug we found a box turtle and stopped to play around with him for a few minutes. I am not in very good shape right now, so all these breaks were a welcome distraction from pushing that single speed up the hills.

Also said good-bye to a dear friend on this ride. While we were hacking a tree out from across a Krug trail, my trusty saw blade broke in two. This thing has cut down, out, and through countless trees and brush to clear new and old trails alike. It will be missed. Even so, crippled and bent we finished the job together and pressed on.



After leaving Rusty at Krug I hit the Girl Scout camp trails and Corby North on the way home. After doing Corby North backwards, I didn't have much more juice, so I headed for home.

Later I hit the second to last Royals home game of the season. Love the Royals, can't wait till games start again next year. There is nothing like sitting in the stands with a beer and a hotdog just taking it all in.

Wisdom from Albert Einstein:

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."

Seems like this is a line of thinking I need to consider daily.

Been riding sporadically, but even still this is my favorite time of year to ride. Seems like there is so much more to see than at any other time. Ran into lots of different folks that I didn't know out riding tonight. Ran into 2 separate, unconnected groups of mtb riders in the corby south trails. Said hi, briefly conversed, but I needed to get home so pretty much did the anti-social thing and kept trucking. Also saw a number of hikers in the trails. It is good to see them being used. The only bad part is none of them knew where they were going because most of the arrows have now been ripped down. Too bad, I bet it has been more work ripping them down than it was for me to post them. I guess I don't give a rip, I know my way through the trails, just too bad for everyone that doesn't.

Ever feel like this guy? Ran into him at Krug.

This little dude hitched a ride with me for the better part of a day - nestled right there in my hair. That's right, I have spiders in my hair.

Well - just sort of kicking around doing a cyclo-cross race or two. Don't know for sure, can't really decide.... Details for the Nebraska series below. It's a lot of fun for sure.

info on the NE cyclo-cross series - if you haven't tried it, you should

2007 Nebraska Cyclo-cross Series

Omaha Weekend - Swanson Park
Saturday & Sunday, October 20-21

Lincoln Weekend - Pioneers Park
Saturday & Sunday, November 17-18*
(*Nebraska Cyclo-cross State Championship)

Complete details for both weekends of racing will be posted by October 1 on http://www.nebraskacyclingnews.com/

Weekend Ride

Anyone up for a group ride at Smithville or ?? Saturday or Sunday? Give me a call, I'm in the phone book.

Rain, rain

Been raining, hard. No ride tonight - working anyway, so wasn't going to ride in the first place.

Might go for a run with the dogs though. Been craving a run for some reason, which is weird cause usually I don't like to run. Oh well, the dogs do - and I guess that's enough.

Need to clear some of the cob-webs out, feeling a little edgy and dull.

Hmmmmm

Went for a ride at Corby last nite trying to clear my head. It worked for the most part.

Somebody hacked out a couple of the most problematic fallen trees out there. Thanks guys.

Unfortunately, with the wind yesterday another big one fell above the tennis courts - damn.

Also, somebody tore down every arrow that was posted off the main trail. Kind of pissed me off at first - but then I figured, what the hell I know my way through the trails. Stupid hill-billies.

I won't be out for the Tuesday Nite Ride this week, have some other stuff going on. Hopefully others will be out. The nights are beautiful, spiders are slowing down, and the under brush is dying back. Enjoy it.

Fall is coming...

Wednesday and Lily after running Corby N&S on Sat. AM. Said hey to JSpell on the N-side. Randy & Tom were out there too, but we didn't see them. Otherwise, all quiet. Only had time for one quick lap before taking off to Nebraska in the afternoon.


A little friend we met at Sunbridge on Sunday.

Beautiful rainy day in the hills...

New Krug Map

Haven't been riding, but took a few minutes at work to update the Krug map from the St. Joe Bike Club website. Check it out on the STJMTB Trails website.

Also, check out the new DirtDiva link. Ran across this page by accident, but have sort of become hooked. This girl is amazing. She's an ultrarunner, and does 100 mile races. 100 miles of trail on a bike is a real chore, I don't know how its even possible running. Kind of inspirational I guess.

No Ride Week

Another week of no riding because of work. Kind of a drag...

Here is a picture that I saw on Syd's site. This is some place in Texas. At first I thought Krug might have almost as many spider webs, but I suppose this place has it beat - by a little anyway.

Rides

Thursday night. Just me and Rusty. We took it easy - but it still kind of hurt. Think we were both a little tired from Tuesday night.

Saturday.

Lets do Krug, then Sunbridge on Saturday Afternoon. Start at 1:30 PM. Meet at the Krug parking lot at that time.

Call me if you will be there. 752-2025

Tuesday Niter

Went for a one lapper at Krug before meeting the group at Corby for the 6:30 ride on Tuesday. We took an easy lap on the south side first, then did a scortcher on the North side.

I'm not kidding when I say I was at max wattage output for the entire lap, and everyone was right in there.

It was a fun group; Rusty, Aaron, Shawn, and Randy.

Weekend Activities

Went to a Husker football game on Saturday. NE stomped Nevada, it was sad toward the end. Started out the day with Elkcreek Waters (a drink) at Sandy's (a bar in Lincoln). A neighboring table gave us their pitcher of pink drink (I think it was a porch crawler). Whatever it was, I gathered all my manhood together and drank that pink frilly drink with pinkies out; like a real man should.

On Sunday Rusty and I rode the full Corby loop (N&S), the Girl Scout Camp (4 times), and the Krug race loop, including most of the bridge trail. We cut a lot of trees off the trail, but all in all Krug was in pretty good shape.

We saw lots of cool stuff that we hadn't run across before. Ran across a big blacksnake, must have been at least 4' long. Also explored the cemetary behind the park, there's some old stones in that place. Finally, we checked out the maintence area. There is a lot of good bridge building material in storage (or disposal) there. I will give the parks contact guy a call in the next couple weeks to see what we can have.

Also, the mushrooms are back. There are "fairy rings" all over the place, and some of the shrooms are huge. Here was one of the average ones - about the size of my helmet.

On Monday I took a couple hours with the dogs and went out to get some bridge repair going. All bridges on the Bridge Trail are open and passable; except the one by the waterfall, which someone has moved down stream of the waterfall. I think it was punk kids, which I would really like to catch in the act of destroying stuff.

The bridges I fixed are no where near as good as the bridges that were there before, but it was all I could do by myself. This fall, lets get a group together and fix them right. For now, this should do though. I apologize for one of the bridges. There is no way it can or should be ridden at the moment, but it is better to walk the bridge than ford the stream.