Trail buddy

Churchill and I got out for another trail ride this morning.  He loves it out there.  It was pretty muggy and hot at 11 AM.  Surprisingly the bugs weren't bad at all.

Signs, signs, everywhere signs in SMH.

Dog nose cam.

Was lucky to get out this morning.  Presently it's thunder & lightening, heavy rain and hail.  Hopefully the weather cooperates for this weekend as I am headed to Kingdom. 

Fight The Power So You Can Run(Ride) To The Hills

I was over on The Goat's blog the other day (and if you haven't been recently you'd learn that he broke a paw while riding - go give your brother some support and kind words) reading about being a moral hoodlum.  I read the article and have to agree, despite being paid to do the right thing and preventing others from doing the wrong thing, that sometimes you need to fight the power.  I thought about all that during my ride Thursday . . .

There are lots of wide, non-technical trails in 'the park' . . . but I didn't ride too many of them today.  Did I just incriminate myself?!?!

Ribbon of single track amongst greenery and mosquitoes (they are getting bad).

Grandma's house - weren't any cookies in side though.

Broke Eddy out for the 3 + plus hour solo ride since I was Riding To The Hills.

Trail Dog

Churchill is turning out to be a very worthy riding buddy.  We're working on lengthening the time on the trail.  Yesterday we were out for a little more than an hour.

A swim in the swamp helped cool him down and rejuvenate him for the rest of the ride.  He is a water dog.  Finishing the ride we crossed one of the longer bridges over a stinky dirty swamp - instead of running the trestles he opted for the water crossing.  Ewww, he was so gross and smelly afterward . . . . it was pretty funny and now my car is funky for all the wrong reasons.

Four ride weekend (photo dump)

God save the queen . . . being part of the Empire (not to be associated with THE Empire) ain't a bad thing.  Victoria Day weekend was a beauty this year!

Only photo I took from Friday's SMH ride with Scott, Mark, John B., and King - a flat.  Exciting stuff.

Saturday's ride with Brian and Jason.  Check out those panty lines!  Is that a really wide thong Jason is wearing or Depends undergarment for being incontinent?  He did wet himself once during the ride.

Tower on top of Fortune.  I was the middle man - Brian was ahead of me on the climbs, Jason behind.  Perfect scenario for not having to try.

Camp Fortune Ski Hill - trails were in great shape and work had been done on them.

Brian

Depends Undergarment Man

Sunday was a 2 hr city tour with wifey and The Peanut in tow.

I think this is the only stretch that wasn't littered with walkers and runners who took two lanes.  Even with a 9 AM start the pathways were chock-a-blocked.

Lots of baby geese out. 

Rolling through Experimental Farm - here they grow two headed cows and tomaccos. 

A Sunday ride would be a waste without coffee and cookies.  The Peanut loves her chochy-chip cookies.

Sunday afternoon was spent taking a dip in King's newly aquired pool.  It was nirvana escaping the heat  minus the wee penis. 

The Peanut working on her doggy paddle.

Holiday Monday morning was spent knocking out a reverse loop of Fortune.  John B. all fuzzed out.

King draped over the handlebars like wet laundry riding up a particularly steep pitch on Fanny.

Matt's dog Chance chased.

Two ride Tuesday and Church

It was Churchill's first mtn bike/trail ride Tuesday morning.  Seven months old and full of beans this dog can keep up! 

Well, almost full of beans.  It was pretty warm at 9 AM (mosquitoes are preparing to be in full force very soon) and everytime we stopped he laid down in the middle of the trail and I gave him a drink.  I really didn't know what to expect with him on the trails as he is still young, full of piss & vinegar, and his re-call isn't the best yet.  However, he did amazing and was a natural.  He stayed behind me, always kept close enough (but not so close to run into me if I stopped quickly) and responded so well. 

New signs out in SMH look great.  Churchill christened a couple with  one legged salutes.  I wasn't sure how I was going to feel after 140 + kms on Sunday and RoTD, but I was surprised how spunky I actually felt.

I was tempted to let him jump into the lake/swap but it was pretty dirty.  I'll be looking for better swimming spots.

I won a new pair of Giro gloves from a draw prize from RoTD on Sunday.  Whoot!  Not bad - comfy, grippy and light.  Best $20 I've ever spent on a bike event - registration, feed zone, free cookie, bbq and draw prize.  Whoot!  I feel like I owe them money for such a good time.

My only beef is that there is no velcro closure dealie.  Meh.  They're free so I ain't complaining.

Church liked them - good patting gloves.

To prove I was feeling good I went out, after dropping Church off, and did a 65 km loop of the Park.  Two ride Tuesdays!

Ride of The Damned 2012

I showed up wearing baggie shorts amongst skinny, lycra clad roadies.  I did strip the baggies off after getting shunned - I'm standing in line and no one is talking to me as I sip my coffee.  Bastards.

I had to add this photo of Rodd.  It's his photos who I poached off without permission. Maybe if I put up an image of him he won't beat me up with his long, gangly roadie arms and thrash me about with his jet black Ramone-like hair. 

The dam of 'Ride of the Damned'.

130 kms (not including the 10-12 km neutral start).  Whoot!  Good fun.  Pavement, tons of dirt and gravel roads, lush green farm fields and plenty of climbs.  We had beautiful weather, a free cookie at Pipolinka Bakery, superb feed zone support, and a kick ass bbq with draw prizes! 

In an effort to write less and be more lazy that's all I am going to say.  But you can read more about RoTD in Matt's write up here. 

My nipples hurt - Haiku win

Damn my vanity.  When I had the Jet 9 built last year I had them use pink nipples.  They all have been breaking.  Junk.  I swapped them all at for brass, but when I did so I did not reapply new linseed oil or spoke prep and as a result they backed off ten minutes into a ride.  Left the rear wheel all noodly.  I also but a ding into the Crest - these are not built for techy, rocky, rooty trails under a 210 lb carcass. 

The Bearded One at Tall Trees built be up a new wheel with an Arch (and did a stellar job mind you!).  I've run these in the past and for me they are bomb-proof and still light.  This time with brass nipples. 

Now that I've become a Twit I spend time reading the mass amounts of crap that gets posted up.  Who cares if you're drinking a soy latte?  Every now and then you can run across a gem though.  Surly had a little contest a while back - you had to write a Haiku with the word "steel" in it.  I sent in a couple and won me some stickers!  Titz! 

Day VI - NC Road Trip 2012

Home for over a month since the road trip and I am still posting about it. That's either indication that I'm a lazy procrastinating sod or that not much has been happening bike related since my return. A little from coloumn A and a little from coloumn B I'm thinking.

Day VI began by meeting Dicky, Aaron and Dave out in the middle of nowhere to go ride Wilson's Creek.  I never did see a creek or Wilson, but I did manage to see lots of hills and my front tire as it was pointed up approximately 5000 ft of them (hills that is). 

No creek, no Wilson seen.

The first kick to the gnads came right from where we parked and had a nine mile (yes, my Canuck readers, I said "mile") climb.  It was all on road and pointed straight up.  Just what the legs needed at the end of a week long road trip.  Aaron and Dave in the background grinding it out (but not each other).

Treacherous and precarious stream crossing on a long piece of steel.  This is the only shot of Dicky I have.  I can say he attempted to stick his weiner in Curvy Butt's mouth again though. 

"It's just a little climb, a down, another short climb . . . " and so on.  All the "it's just a little climb" bullshit really added up. 

Anywho . . . there you have it.  A weeks worth of road trip half-assed-ly presented.