Busy Weekend

Another busy weekend. Saturday, Nate, Steve and I worked on a reroute on a particularly sandy section of the gravel road at UWF. What started out to be a new short section of trail ended up being a long section of reclamation. Someone back in the day had cut a trail going exactly where we wanted and I guess they abandoned it, maybe when the gravel road got constructed. Anyway, we reclaimed it and it should be a lot nicer than the eroded and sandy road. There is a small creek that may be a wet weather creek but it had water in it so there may need to be a creek crossing of some sort. Right now it’s crossed by some slippery rotted logs. I had the trailer loaded down with tools so by the time I got home, my legs were fairly sore. I spent the rest of the evening reworking the trailer so the tools sit lower making the bike not so tippy. I think I had about 4-4.5 hours at UWF.

Sunday, Barbara and I loaded up the bikes and headed up to Blackwater to do a nice and easy lap on a perfect fall day. We got about a third of a lap in before Barbara gave out and headed down to the creek to read the paper. I met up with Marty, James, Mark, Nate, Ryan, and two new guys whose names I can’t remember and we knocked out a lap. The trail is hard to follow in places due to the weeds and encroaching branches. There must be some law about trees falling on the trail because there was so much deadfall across the trail. We got in a good lap though. Several sections were tedious but others were pretty exciting. Mark and Marty stayed on my wheel so I know they had a good lap without having to search for the trail. The others worked on their trail following skills. All the trail needs is a little trimming and a lot of riding. I’m thinking of taking off the week of Thanksgiving and get in a weeks worth of cleanup. I think they stayed to get in some more riding. I finished off the day by completing the trailer project. I loaded it down with all the tools and it rode so much better.

Mostly Bug Free

Saturday I took advantage of the cool weather and brought the dog out for some trail maintenance at UWF. I got there at around 9:00 and the parking lot was just about full. Lots of people gearing up for the 50 mile Epic Ride in November.  It was good to see so many people out enjoying the weather. The schnauzer and I hiked out to the Gorge to finish the reroutes and then headed to the Chute to rework some areas the horses trampled. As we were headed out I saw more horses headed in. I just don’t understand why they choose to ride our trails when they have an equestrian center, trails on NWFWMD land and about 100 miles of trails in Blackwater that are maintained for them. I’m not a hater though. 4.5 hours

Sunday Barbara and I loaded up all the dogs and ventured to Blackwater to do some trail work there. We touched up the first mile or so, nothing real strenuous. We were pleasantly tired and the dogs were exhausted when we finished.  3.5 hours each.

I asked the forestry guy about flagging some trail where they were doing some logging and he said he would rather keep the trails near the Juniper Creek Primitive Area. That’s fine by me.

Road Ride

I did the Fenner/Wantz ride yesterday, a total of 62 miles. Last year I managed 74 or so but I was with stronger riders and there wasn’t as much wind. Yesterday was blustery and cool. I bet we did 40 miles into the wind with only 22 with a tail wind. I was done in. Road riding is fun but it’s painful mostly because I’m not sure my bike fits me all that well. Knees, hips, neck and shoulders were more painful than my muscles. There was a fellow riding a Bacchetta recumbent that looked less goofy than most recumbents and it sits up higher on 650 wheels. I might try to do a test ride on one if I can find one my size. Lots of PORCers and several first timers. Lots of nice bikes and good food but lousy t-shirts.

On the way up to Munson we hit Sandy Landing road. It’s one I’ve been on in the past. Between the road and Juniper Creek they’ve done some logging and it looks pretty good since they didn’t clearcut. I’m going to ask the forestry people if they did a biological survey and if so can I go ahead and scope out the area for a trail running north. That might be a cool quick and easy trail to build. The only drawback is it’s a hunting area but it’s very open so it shouldn’t be a problem.

Blackwater Finally

I finally hit Blackwater after months of inattentiveness.  I spent the better part of the day at the Blackwater Bike Festival lounging around, looking at cool antique and custom bikes. Not much activity at the PORC tent although I forgot to bring the tent so I was in a loaner tent. Robbie B. was nice enough to loan me his tent and was also nice enough to drop it off at Truly Spokin. Barbara was nice enough to go by and pick it up and bring it home. I however forgot to get it out of her car and put it in mine.  Brett W. was nice enough to loan me a spare tent so I didn’t have to roast in the sun. I had a nice chat with Charlie from Bikes Plus about bike advocacy in our area.

After packing up I headed up to the trail. Lots of activity in the parking area with Boy Scouts camping out and a large party of EMS people (I think). As I was riding up the road, a couple of riders were heading back to the parking lot. There were fresh tire tracks on part of the trail so I can assume they made an effort to ride. My guess is the spiders chased them away. I rode a full lap and it was quite pleasant. There was some deadfall in places and the weeds were getting pretty tall but it was easy for me to follow. I think a day or two of trimming would help out a lot. Waiting for the cool weather. Why is it trees fall across the trail instead of the other direction? They’ve got 360 degrees to fall but invariably it’s across the trail. I rode the new skinny twice though not the full length. Dropping off the top wasn’t as difficult as I feared. My bottom bracket started slipping so I eased back to the car and tightened it and then hit the northbound gravel road. I took a new route for a nice ride through the forest adding another couple of miles. Too many beer cans.

UWF Part II

Saturday Barbara and I helped with a creek cleanup, the same one we did last year where I sliced open my leg. This year we hit the Blackwater River finishing up at Blackwater River State Park. The river was a lot cleaner than Coldwater, even though we filled a garbage bag full and part of another, but the trip was a lot longer, close to eleven miles. After about 3.5 hours I was done collecting garbage and we still paddled for another hour. Still, it was fun and cool to see another river.

Sunday was the Official UWF Trail Maintenance day. Around 14 people showed up but no real newbies. Still a good turnout for a rainy day. Ed B, Dustin and I hit the Gorge and managed to reroute two sections I’ve been wanting to fix for years. We flagged them out and then Ed and Dustin did the clearing while I rehabed some water bars. It started raining off and on for a while and then it rained pretty heavy for an hour or so.  It made it fun building water bars and actually seeing them work. It’s pretty amazing how much water collects on the trail even over a short 20 foot section. Ed and I finished off the Gorge as the rain eased off. It should be a fun ride on Tuesday.

UWF

Dustin and I finished blazing the Bayou Loop at UWF and then did some rehabilitation on several sections of trail that either got washed out with all the rain or were starting to show their age. I guess there has gotten to be a larger number of riders on those trails because they are starting to wear more now than they ever have. All those places that were poorly designed (probably not designed, just cut) are getting unrideable and places that were borderline are now staring to erode. Water bars are hard to build but fortunately they make the trail pretty fun to ride. Next weekend is an official trail maintenance day so maybe some of the newer crowd can come out and see how it’s done.

I was all fired up to buy a new Gary Fisher HiFi 29er after the fork on my Rig locked up at Oak Mountain. $500 was too much for a new fork and there were other things that needed fixing and I want to do some road trips that require gears for the longer climbs of North Georgia. To my disappointment, all the 2009 models were sold and the 2010 models don’t arrive until mid November. That’s too long to go without a bike so I hurriedly bought a rigid fork to keep me in action for a while. All it took was a ride or two to realize a rigid fork is a form of torture. Dustin came to the rescue with a Reba fork that is brand new and reasonably priced. I also splurged on a new drive train, lock on grips and a new saddle and I put on my old Juicy 7 brakes after the cables on my BB7’s got ruined in the rain and mud of Oak Mountain. It’s like riding a brand new bike. I used it today to pull the trailer and it rode well enough to notice a difference. Tomorrow I plan on riding trailer free and hit the new stuff we built today.

Fun Filled Weekend

Friday was the beer fest which several of us attended with gusto. I know I sampled a lot of beer and ran into lots of people I haven’t seen since last year (and even for several years). Most of the beer was good but after several super hoppy beers, my taste buds gave up and they all tasted the same. I don’t recall anything epic other than the Lefthand Milk Stout but it was to hot outside for stout.

Saturday was rainy and I had a hangover not from too much beer but from too many beers. It lasted the whole day. I probably could have done some trail work and cured the headache but the weather radar looked stormy so I stayed home. I did manage to get a fork put on my bike and for dinner we went to the new Mellow Mushroom. Good pizza and 70 beers on tap. No beer for me though. Nothing but football on the TVs. Yuck.

Sunday I hit the woods with the Schnauzer and built a skinny from a fallen pine tree. I’ve been eyeballing it for a year and today was the day. The tree has settled a little so it’s not quite as high off the ground as it was but it’s still about two feet high. The tree was still pretty solid so chopping took some effort and I only managed to get maybe 20′ and I only flattened the top third instead of the half I was wanting. It’s got maybe 8-10″ of tread on it. My hands are ruined. They held up for an hour but I chopped until the blisters bled and then chopped some more.  The skinny looks good and it’s probably ridable but I didn’t bring a bike to try it out. Maybe next weekend.  We hiked a little of the trail but the Schnauzer was getting overheated so we drove down to the creek so he could cool off.  Lots of iron rock around there that would make a nice rock garden or a drop.

Saturday I bailed on Blackwater to work on the Bayou trail at UWF.  On the way out to the trail I found a pine tree across one of the trails so I spent about a half hour chopping it out.  That pretty much ruined me for the rest of the day but I persevered. I built several water bars and shoveled lots of sand and I still didn’t finish. I drank all 100 oz of my water by the time I got back to the car and I was used up. There are still some areas that need attention plus a reroute that needs looking over (I looked it over Saturday but I was not able to get enthused about it).

Fall?

Beautiful weather today, unseasonably cool which made for a nice ride. I pretty much finished the Bayou Loop at UWF as far as being a rideable loop thanks to Grumpy and his chainsaw.  This morning we loaded up the dogs and the bike and headed up to the creek with Janet and her dog. They stayed in the water and I did some exploring and then a loop on the trail. The exploring went OK but looking at the aerial there was more to explore that I missed. The trail is getting overgrown in places but I only went off trail once so it’s not to hard to follow. It needs to be ridden. I talked to David at Forestry and he’s received the .shp file I sent him of the trail. He’s also receptive of the new trail I want to do that parallels the road from the parking area to the trail head. I told him I probably wouldn’t do anything for a while and he was fine with that. He also wants me to join a steering committee for the OHV park near Whiting Field. I signed up but I’m not sure what it entails. Saw a huge owl.

Nothing

I haven’t been up to the trail in several weeks due to family in town or other stuff. Plus it’s been hot and rainy. I almost headed that way yesterday but it looked like a big storm was moving up out of the Gulf of Mexico. I bailed and headed to the University instead and finished trimming the Bayou Loop.  We used to ride that loop regularly but erosion, sand and downed trees made it not so much fun. Now that we have a kiosk near that trail, we thought it would be a good idea to have a blazed trail that could be hiked or biked that didn’t venture very far from the boardwalk. I have all the blazes and I had intentions of blazing but the trail was so overgrown I figured I would do some work on it first. It took about 5-6 hours of trimming but I got it opened up and created a couple of easy reroutes around some troublesome areas. There’s still a lot to do but I feel comfortable blazing it now. Next will be sand removal and water bar construction and maybe another reroute.

We got a new digital camera, one that’s waterproof and shockproof.