Vacation

If you're unmarried, like me, you don't give much thought to your left ring finger. You don't point at stuff with it or don't make hand gestures with it. It's just sort of there. Now, I'm giving lots of thought to it because I broke it on Sunday at the Reservoir. I'm leaving for vacation soon and I'm down a digit. It seems to be healing quickly, but I'm certain it'll be a bit of time before I can mountain bike with it. It looks like I won't get the Kingdom Trails time that I was hoping for.

Anyway, anybody have recent broken finger stories that can clue me into healing time? When I get I start riding my road bike? Tomorrow? In a week? October?

However, I will get to spend lots of quality time with Johanna!

Read more!

Strange Terrain

On Sunday, I took a mostly bad mountain bike ride. It rained for most of the time and was super muddy even at the beginning of the ride before the rain started to fall. I probably shouldn't have gone. But, as you know, weekends only come once a week, so you really have to exploit them. I had also endowed my Stumpjumper with a working drive train, so I wanted to test it out.

Despite the bad riding, I did see some interesting things:

The weirdest pavement ever.


What remains of the West Hartford leaf dump.



A secret gazebo, about a half mile south of Heublein Tower.


A south branch of the Park River watershed plaque. I had seen this plaque many, many times before, but never took the time to read it.


I also wanted to see if the Avon Land Trust's trails on the west slope of the mountain below Heublein were any good for a bike. They're pretty tough and were profoundly muddy. I forgot to take a picture. I don't know if I really have an opinion. If you're coming from West Hartford or Bloomfield, they strand you on Nod Road, which sort of sucks. Read more!

A Painful Case

Well, not really. It just happens to be one of my favorite stories in Dubliners, along with "Eveline". As egos are an important part of cycling, I thought maybe I'd give some words of caution.

Everybody knows that I'm mediocre on a bike. I can mostly ride without looking stupid, but I don't have an emulation-worthy style. I'm just another schlump with a beard on a bike. However, like more cyclists if I don't get beat down periodically, my ego will start to grow unchecked. I think that's probably been happening lately. So, when I took off for Case Mountain (it happened to be the first time I rode there by myself without getting lost at all!), I thought I was going to slaying and doing whatever other cool verbs there are out there for single track. I did have a good time, but I rode the yellow/blue blazed trail and got my ass kicked. It's really hard! So, I've been humbled again. I'm not awesome.

I rode this and I was all proud of myself, but there was a really sharp turn right after that I couldn't make. That's why I stopped to take a picture.

I did not have trouble riding this, but this picture illustrates how nice of a day it was.

I didn't totally understand what this posting meant, but was happy that I was riding before the 17th. Does it mean that a parking area is closing or that the trail is closing?

Read more!

Looking for stuff

View keney stuff in a larger map

On Saturday, my job impelled me to chill in Keney Park, which is fine because I love chillin in Keney Park. When chillin disbanded around two, I headed north because of I've wondered what's north of the golf course, as in the mysterious Matianuck State Park and its dunes. There's a trail that runs along the western edge of the golf course, which I had been a little ways down before, but not very far. I figured this would be probably be the best way to access the mysterious park. It goes for a ways and then starts to branch off. It appears that these trails are seldom used except for by a few dirt bikes. Eventually, I must have entered the park, because I saw a few professional-looking white blazes on the trees (like in real state parks). And, I think I found a dune, or least it something sandy. There were also lots of stacks of tires, which led me to think that this state park must have had grand prixes in it at some point. Eventually, I ended up in that big cemetery off of Blue Hills Ave in Bloomfield.

tires

dunes?

Sunday, I found a pond on top of the mountain in Avon off of the secret communications station road at 360 (380?) Montevideo Rd. I guess it must be Hoe Pond. It looks like there's a really awesome house on the pond that goes the pond in its backyard and a view of the Farmington Valley in the front.

pond

Read more!

Hard shell

On Friday, I rode half of the metacomet epic and met a turtle. Read more!

ATVs and Trains

I'm not going to lie: I don't like ATVs. As a mountain biker and periodic hiker, I don't see the need for a engine to get through the woods. They also ruin parks in my city, race dangerously down the street and tear up trails in the woods. Often, other people and I think that if they had their park, they wouldn't abuse and destroy trails and parks where they don't belong.

So, yesterday as I rode past the Connecticut River Motorcross Park, I was thinking to myself about how it must be nice how ATVs and dirtbikes stay out of the nearby parks because they have their own park. Then, I entered a nearby park (Quarry Park) to find that the trails had all recently grown ruts because morons on ATVs were riding through the park.

Oh, also, you may recall that El Presidente had written about some kind of weird train/bike/walk thing that he wanted to do. I don't know what ever happened with that, but I have been exploring much of what his proposed route would be along the river. Last week, Salem (lover of Sun Tour and winner of The Eel) and Dario (Trinity professor and rider of a fixed gear Fat Chance) went north and I learned that there's a trail through Windsor Meadows State Park up to Loomis. I also learned about the crazy Hockanum River Park! And yesterday, I went south towards Cromwell and discovered the very boring Bukley Park in Rocky Hill.

Here are some pictures:

Wethersfield's river mud is nasty, but fertile.

I also signed up for the D2R2 today. Read more!

Tardiness

Once, awhile ago, I was supposed to see Belle & Sebastian in Northampton with this friend of mine. We bought tickets about a month in advance. As the concert approached, my friend was convinced (even thought I had checked the tickets and disagreed) that the concert was on Saturday. She remained convinced and was also the driver. So, we went on Saturday. After some pregaming with a bottle of Bailey's (you take what you can get when you're 20) in an empty parking lot, we walked over to the Calvin theater. To find it completely dark. Belle & Sebastian have never returned.

On Thursday, I realized that the Orchard Assault was at UMass today. I decided it'd be a good chance to finally race on my singlespeed. The online pre-reg was over, so I'd have to pay in person. Generally, the Cat 2 singlespeed open class races at 2. I decided that must be the case for this race, too. My girlfriend, Johanna the great, asked me repeatedly if I was sure of this, since I had forwarded her a link to the race flyer on Thursday which had information to the contrary. Around 10:15 this morning, I checked the website to discover that the Cat 2 singlespeed open race had started at 10:00. So, I went for a nice road ride instead. (Which didn't cost me any money!)

I also broke my brake lever yesterday, so this meant that I didn't have to take any steps to fix it today.
Read more!

Pressure

Dear internet, I have a question. On the road, tire pressure is easy. It says on the side of the tire what you pressure you need. Off the road, not as easy. Tires give a ball park, but that's it. It's there some kind of formula you can calculate with your weight? I don't like getting pinch flats, but I like to maintain control and not slide out on rocks. I weigh 150lbs and usually have about 25 or 27 lbs of bike under me. At present, I ride on the high pressure side, but it's pretty unforgiving. I know this is a rookie question, but I've never quire figured out the sweet spot for places with rocks, especially when I ride rigid.

Happy May Day! Read more!

More socks

Your intrepid and wool-clad Cat 3 racer went back into the woods last weekend at Winding Trails in Farmington and came out with not just socks, but also a cool multitool. The 15th Annual Fat Tire Classic was last Sunday and I had a great time. By a hair's breadth, I got second place in the 19-29 Cat 3. I started in third, but got in second after the first mile or so of the first lap and I had the leader about 100 yards off for until the end of the first lap, when he finally pulled away from me. The man who came in second, Kyle, started creeping up on me and was soon riding my wheel. This went on for the middle third of the second lap (of two), he'd get really close on climbs and then I'd beat him back into the single track. Suddenly, he was gone and after the race he told me that he slid out in some sand. I thought I was sitting pretty and started taking it easy. As I approached the finish, I saw him maybe 50 yards behind me, but thought I was cool. I was not. If it wasn't for the spectators telling me to "watch out! he's right behind you!" I would have been behind him by half a bike instead of in front by half a bike. I was fourth fastest overall, but the fastest in Cat 3 was a woman who just decimated everyone.

Soon, if I move up to Cat 2, I'll write great race reports about puking and coming in last. Read more!

Terrorist or Monster Attack???

As you know, people in the Hartford area cannot drink tap water right now without injesting rotifers and copepods. Boiling water, as prescribed by The MDC, is cumbersome and bottled water is enviro-unfriendly. What are you doing to cope?

Strangely, when this news broke, I was at the reservoir mountain biking (WH reservoir, not Bloomfield). I also had a camelback filled with MDC water.

Remember when it looked like this?

Also, I'm very surprised that no one has made mention of the Reservoir Monster. Mentioned here, here, and here.

Read more!

Wednseday

I am house/baby sitting this week for my parents, so I'm riding from Avon to Hartford. 10 miles is a nice length.

Also, your favorite Cat 3 (it's not called beginner anymore, which i think is great) racer won some socks last weekend at Hopbrook Dam. Check out the hot action and my tights:



I also finally met Mark, from cyclesnack. He was doing some damage with his singlespeed. I needed my gears. Read more!

What happened?

Dear reader, it's been some time since that nonsensical post about fish and parties last week, so you're probably assuming that one of those things claimed my life or caused me to quit this blog. Nope. In fact, I was doing lots of cool things and now I'm going to tell you about them.

Thursday was this:

People were drinking & dancing at City Hall!

On Friday, nothing really happened besides eating some Vietnamese food at the Vietnam Restaurant. Best bún around!

I also walked home from work in the rain on Friday and considered the necessity of Green Infrastructure in Hartford.

On Saturday, I went to Penwood with my newly rigid Stumpjumper and I found this (which I did not drink, because Mike's Hard Lemonade is nasty, not because I found it in the woods):


And, it caused my rear tire to go flat shortly after I took this picture.


The evening led to some more dancing courtesy of that Bacchanalian HartBeat Ensemble.

On Sunday, I went to Cockaponset and it wasn't all I hope it would be. Most of the trails were kind of overgrown. This description was a little hyperbolic if you ask me.


This above trail was kickass, but I'm not altogether sure if I was allowed to ride on it. There were bike tire tracks, but that's often a meaningless measure of the rules. I apologize if I screwed up and rode on a "no bike" trail. I know you aren't allowed on the blue blaze here, but this was blue & red and I know you were allowed on the red. There weren't any of those CT Forest & Park Association "NO BIKES" diamonds on it, though.


There was also this weird moonscpaed fireroad where it looked like they had done some logging.

I ate this bowl of soup, too:

Read more!

New Parking

I'll admit it's not the most fascinating news, but the parking lot at the West Hartford reservoir has changed. The big dirt parking lot is closed. Instead, when entering through the main entrance, parking is off to the left in a nice new paved lot. It has plantings and benches- the whole nine yards. I'm not sure what effects this has had on our water bills, but I don't mind spending a little bit more on nice benches. The trails, including the paved loop, haven't changed at all. Anyone else have an experience with the new lot? What do you think? Pretty nice, huh?

I discovered this when I decided to do a late afternoon loop of the reservoir. I'm uncertain as to why I decided to do this after the mini-epic of Glastonbury, Portland, and East Hampton with Salem (Eel #1 winner) and the 2009 Biking Vikings. Cool dirt roads over there. Read more!

The Unexpected Dryness

This is more of a question out to those who read this and mountain bike.

I know that you're not supposed to ride during the spring thaw because it makes huge ruts and ruins the trails. I respect that and in years past have stayed out of the woods for weeks this time of year. Strangely, this year it doesn't seem to be the case, though. At least in this area, we had one "thaw" day two days before the last storm when everything was really gross. The weather was nice, so some people went out and their ruts are still there. Apart from that day, though, the trails have been fine, super-solid except where there's always mud. Am I the only one noticing this? Am I going to be crucified by NEMBA for suggesting this?

Update!

I went for a ride after I wrote this post and took a picture to prove the solidity of the trail:


Second update:
I didn't go on the ride to take the picture. It's more, I went for a ride and took a picture. Read more!

Before the snow

All weekend I was terrified about the over-hyped snow storm that showed up yesterday. Not so much because I was worried about whatever it is that makes snow storms scary and cause people to stock up on canned goods, but because it would threaten my ability to mountain bike. (Remember all those other posts about me either being self-centered or a weirdo? I wasn't lying.)

On Saturday, I only kind of wanted to go mountain biking. I could have also taken a hike. Johanna wanted to buy a cool car. At first we were going to go car hunting and then go for a hike. Johanna decided that she'd rather do some extensive research on cars instead, which paid off because she made a good offer. It subsequently was not accepted, but car dealerships are crooked anyway. So, while she did her extensive research, I hopped on the 'cross bike and went down to Rocky Hill for the reverse version of what I'd done earlier in the week. Nothing really exciting to report.

Riding back home on Fairfield, I spotted a pink purse in the road. I stopped and picked it up. There was a woman nearby in a parked car and I tapped on the window to ask if she dropped it. She shook her head and strangely reacted as if I had done the rudest possible thing. Very strange. Upon arrival in my apartment, I opened it up and found some IDs and a few bills, which I didn't count. I checked on 411.com and whitepages.com, which yielded nothing. I don't have a regular phone book, so I took the wallet with me to go the car dealership and to my parents, because they have a phone book. I found the owner, called her, and she was much relieved. She was concerned about the cash in the wallet, so I checked to see how much was left in there and it turned out to be a lot of money. She was now very, very relieved and I was glad to have found it for her. I told her my address and she came by later to pick it up.

The moral is that you should ride a bike so that you can return peoples' wallets (or shut their trunks and gas doors).

On Sunday, it was colder and snowed a tiny bit. I also had no encumbrances, so I went to the reservoir. Waiting for a colder day was a smart move on my part because judging by all the ruts (which you'll have to take my word for because there are no visible ruts in these pictures), it had been nasty the days before.

My bike is there to prove that I brought a bike with me.

Now, the snow has fallen and I'm walking everywhere because I'm deathly afraid of getting salt on my bikes.



Remember, The Eel 2 is Saturday! And fear not, it's on the road and the road won't be gross on Saturday!

This picture is scary, though.

ps. 3 posts in one day? our blog is awesome!

Read more!

Another boring post on consistency of the snow

While our brave blogging brother was getting ready to speak to truth to power on Saturday, I went mountain biking. I had to feed my parents' cat, so I was over the hill in Avon. I don't really have any fascinating insights, other than groomed cross country skiing/snow skating trails are a weird place to ride a bike. Or really, they're just generally a weird place to be.

I found that much of this Avon snow was compressed to the point of becoming sheets of ice. That's no fun without studs, as I was without them on Saturday. However, pine forests stay shady even in the winter, due to the whole evergreen thing, so the snow compacts into this cool styrofoam stuff instead of becoming ice.

some nice styrofoam snow

some more nice styrofoam snow

some wound-causing ice. (the bike is like that because I crashed)

Read more!

Urban Mountain Biking

With the exception of that Soil Saloon thing in San Francisco and Highbridge in New York, urban mountain biking is pretty lame. Hartford more or less falls into the latter lame category, or at least you'd tend to think so. There's, in my opinion, pretty good legit mountain biking right nearby, at least within a rideable distance or a short drive, so why waste your time within in the City?

But you know, The Eel #1 was pretty rad and to assume makes an ass out of u and me. So, after work I explored some marginal lands of the south end and found some awesome stuff that I already knew about and some new stuff. For one, I found a very nice man who lives in the woods. Out of respect for his privacy, I'm not going to say when he lives, but I will say that he built himself a very cool house and provides good directions if you find yourself in his neck of the woods. I'll let pictures speak for the rest.

These are spooky and abandoned.

So, wouldn't it be cool to get together a couple of people and ride all the trails together? Maybe I should set something up.

---

I think the 1st amendment is great and so is sexual liberation, but I get so fucking mad when I see this truck driving around downtown:

Read more!

Problems

Since America has presidents, America has holidays for its presidents. I get those holiday days off from work. So, over the last six days, I had four of them off. When I have days off and Johanna has to work, I try to go mountain biking or at least hang out in the woods. (America also has trees and a holiday for them, but I don't get Arbor Day off. Too bad.)

On Lincoln's Birthday, I went off to Mt. Riga with my 'cross bike to climb CT's biggest hills. This was a totally failure as these are also CT's only seasonal roads (as far as I know). So, I took a long and snowy/rainy walk, pushing my bike through the highlands of Salisbury.

You cannot ride most bikes, but especially not a 'cross bike on hills that look like this (because of the snow, not the steepness):




On Saturday, I decided to use an actual mountain bike to ride in the snow and went to the reservoir. After about 1/4 mile of riding my chain broke. But, I came prepared. Well, sort of. In trying to fix the chain, the chain tool broke and I couldn't get pin all the way back. It was mostly back in, so I figured I'd probably be alright. I wasn't and the chain broke a 1 1/2 mile later and couldn't be fixed. This is the third cheap Lifu chain broke that I've had break. In fact, they generally are half broken after their first use. I bought a Park Tool now. It'll probably last until my fingers can't turn it.

On Sunday, I went for a road ride with three newly-met-by-me dudes, Ryan, Gabe, and Kyle from UHa. That was totally uneventful and a pleasant ride. I also now know what inland East Windsor looks like. Or, maybe it's inland South Windsor.

Yesterday, with another day off, I tried to ride at the reservoir again. I didn't fail per se, but thawing old snow requires an incredible amount of energy to ride through and has next to no reward.

I did get some cool rewards yesterday unrelated to a bike from my stove.

Home fries and tofu scramble:




Kimchi miso soba with tofu & bok choi:

Read more!