Knee Deep in the Big Muddy

This morning, I headed out on the cargo bike to run some errands, starting with a trip to the DMV office in Wethersfield to renew the lapsed registration for my rarely-driven car. Unfortunately, you can't do that any more. The asinine notion of not being able to renew a motor vehicle registration at the freaking Department of Motor Vehicles and the built-in delay inherent in doing so by mail left me in a moderately foul mood. While planning my morning loop, I had toyed with the idea of a side trip to see how the ferry landing area had fared in all of the flooding. Now, the mood-lifting power of an extended ride made it a necessity.

I rode through Old Wethersfield and under I-91 to the northern entrance to the meadows by the Putnam Bridge. Within a hundred or so feet, I saw the sun-baked mud of the high water line. Within a few dozen feet of that was the damp mud of a more recent water level. Within a tenth of a mile or so, my hubs were submerged in the gently flowing murky water. I opted for a U-turn when it it got knee-deep (roughly at the first break in the shade in the above photo). My panniers are rain-proof, but not fully submersible. I found myself wanting a 29er for the first time I can recall.

I backtracked to Ol' Dirty Wethersfield and picked my way southward through the local streets that lay between the Silas Deane Highway and the river until I came upon a trail entrance in Rocky Hill. Bicycles were not listed on the battered sign of prohibited trail users, so I forged ahead along what quickly proved to be debris-strewn singletrack. The trail had suffered a fair amount of downed trees and limbs-- some fresh, some older, and wasn't in the best of shape. A large, recently fallen tree eventually thwarted my southern progress, so I backtracked and followed another trail that eventually led me to the old railroad tracks, which I followed south until the ferry landing came into view. The Yuba continues to prove way more capable off-road than it has any business being, semi-slick tires and all. That said, riding the railroad ties made me wish my imaginary 29er had some suspension as well.

Not surprisingly, the ferry and the boat launch were most definitely closed and the Ferry Park parking lot was submerged. I headed home, wending my way northward through Rocky Hill and Wethersfield, following a quiet and scenic route through Mill Woods Park, Wintergreen Woods, Goodwin Park and the Trinity College campus. The morning's DMV disappointment was miles and worlds away. Registering the car doesn't seem particularly important any more.
Read more!

Things Worth Saving (Monday, Wednesday and beyond)

1) SAVE YOURSELF

Triple-digit heat and news feeds full of horrible things made the last couple of days lousy ones to spend indoors or out. It also would have made it easy to miss hearing about a Milford, CT Driver's depraved vehicular assault on a cyclist. This past week, 20-year-old Louis A. Melfi III, having reportedly verbally threatened and knocked down a bicyclist with his car, then reversing toward the man again, crushing his bicycle, was arrested and slapped on the wrist with a paltry $500 bail and evading responsibility and reckless driving charges.

Think about that.

From a minimal blurb about this case, I'm hearing an assault using deadly force, multiple counts of threatening by TWO people including a death threat, violation of the three-foot passing law and destruction of property. From the charges and the paltry fire-sale bail, it sounds more like a lousy driver who pulled a stupid and took off. That sounds astoundingly and irresponsibly inadequate. Would someone who deliberately fired a gun at someone's head TWICE but merely grazed their ear be let off so easily? Would the person who shouted, "FIRE!" to the shooter face no repercussions whatsoever? If so, remind me to stay the hell out of Milford. I feel safer in Hartford. It sounds like the Milford Police consider a person to be less than a person when they climb on a bicycle. Shameful. If this angers you, one of the things you can do is support Bike Walk Connecticut's efforts to protect vulnerable users. Advocacy is the more positive and attainable goal than, say, crushing Mr. Melfi's car with a monster truck (though, in theory, if you did so without being reckless or fleeing the scene, Milford Police might not charge you at all!)

2) SAVE THE FERRIES


The historic Rocky Hill-Glastonbury Ferry, hobbled by reduced hours of operation, is being dangled over the chopping block by Governor Malloy along with the Chester-Hadlyme ferry. The ferry is the nicest way I know for a bicyclist to get across the Connecticut River, and it connects two especially nice areas to ride to boot. The threatened Aug. 25 closing of the ferries would be a sad day, indeed. If you'd like to get involved and informed, there will be a Save The Ferry Roundtable this very Monday, July 25th at 7 PM at the Welles Turner Memorial Library, 2407 Main Street, Glastonbury, CT.

3) SAVE CEDAR MOUNTAIN

As mentioned previously in this space, Cedar Mountain in Newington is threatened by the Toll Brothers' desire to replace natural settings with shoddily-built McMansions and condos. Your next opportunity to speak your mind about this affront is this coming Wednesday, July 27. The turnout at last week's Conservation Committee meeting was weak, so please take some time this Wednesday evening to be seen (I seem to recall organizers suggesting that supporters wear green) and heard. Newington Town Hall is at 131 Cedar Street, Newington, CT. Meeting is called to order at 7 PM. Read more!

Mountain biking popularity

I think in the 1990s, 117% of all bikes sold in the US were mountain bikes. Everybody was mountain biking and therefore not everyone mountain biking was great at it. Being not great at mountain seem to make you much harder on trails. Trails got beat up and then got closed. Then mountain biking got less popular and trails started to heal. However, the Salem-theory of full suspension is that the learning curve for mountain biking is now much shorter. With the ubiquity now of those kind of bikes, people can ride on trails much more easily that before. So, I guess popularity is increased. To that end, the trails at the West Hartford reservoir are beat to hell this year, but I hadn't noticed because I haven't been riding much there. I did yesterday: The braiding is worse than I've ever seen it, like it's so bad that it's tough to tell what the original trail is, so braids get worn deeper. The cheater lines have cheater lines. The trails that have steep ascents don't even seem to be ridden anymore because they're too hard to get up. Puddled areas are so wide, they've become quintuple track.

I'm not trying to be holier than thou. I'm happy that popularity is increasing in the sport, but the poor and worn down reservoir probably can't sustain this. I know there have always been complaints about lack of NEMBA presence in West Hartford, but there desperately needs to be some trail maintenance. I don't know anything about trail building, but I'd be willing to learn. Either that, or I could just stop riding there. Maybe Salem's got something in his revulsion of the place.

Read more!

City hall singletrack

When I bring my bike into work through the side door and into the basement. Often, I'll do a lap of the basement hall, with its two little ramps and cabinets to dodge. Today, I decided to ride the elevator up to the fourth floor, which is used for storage. It's way more technical. Four sets of stairs and a ramp that's in a really tight corner.

Read more!

Passat own risk

My Passat was a car to be reckoned with. It had five gears, four cylinders, a turbo charger, leather seats, an aluminum skid plate that could withstand nasty rocks, almost entire soda bottle of displacement and some other stuff. While I might write about riding my bike all the time, when I do drive, I really enjoy it. The Passat was already to go up to Vermont on Friday with a bike, a cat and two ladies, but it wasn't meant to be. Turning on to Trout Brook, the suspension broke and the car ostensibly ceased to be.

This trail will improve when it dries on in the summer. Some parts were a tiny bit muddy.

After regrouping and traumatizing the cat, we eventually made it to Vermont, whereupon I explored the Craftbury Outdoors Center. Nice people over there. They let me ride their singletrack and I bought a cliff bar. I tried to find some roads that didn't exist. I almost repeated the same thing a day later, but by inadvertently trespassing. After some course correction, I found a pretty cool ATV trail over Dunn Mountain.

The famous Bayley-Hazen Military Road near Craftsbury Outdoor center.

Read more!

Save Cedar Mountain!

I stand corrected. I thought because the trees were still standing on Cedar Mountain this spring, the spooky mountain was safe. If you saw the front page of the Courant today, you know that the woods aren't so safe from the Toll Brothers (who made lots of money destroying our economy with the subprime mortgage crisis). Like any stupid plan to develop the woods and restrict public access, there's a thoughtful, organized and right opposition.

Anyway, if you enjoy Cedar Mountain, you should go to the public hearing tonight at 7pm in Newington at Town Hall, 171 Cedar Street. I can't make it, so I'm submitting written testimony.

May 25, 2011

Members of the Planning and Zoning Commission,

I write to you today to express my opposition to residential development on Cedar Mountain. For decades, residents of south Hartford, Wethersfield and Newington have been blessed with several hundred acres of woodland on Cedar Mountain. This area is one of the few large forests remaining in close proximity to the core of capital region and it benefits the area’s residents immeasurably. I understand Newington’s desire to increase its grand list, but there is no reason to destroy forest when there are redevelopment opportunities right downtown. West Hartford’s Blue Back Square, for example, redeveloped the town’s center and increased the tax base without negatively impacting the town’s balance of open space. Developing Cedar Mountain is akin to West Hartford having left the old car dealership in the center vacant and building houses in Westmoor Park.

As an avid mountain biker and hiker, I know that my opinion on this matter is somewhat self-serving, but I know that many others directly benefit from recreating on Cedar Mountain or indirectly benefit from having the exhaust from Berlin Turnpike cleansed by the trees in its forest. A few years ago, the City of Hartford turned down a proposal to develop a 200 acre equestrian facility in the middle of Keney Park. Hartford made the right decision in preserving its northern forest. I hope that Newington makes the right decision and preserves Cedar Mountain.

I understand that as Newington officials, you will probably take the opinion of a non-resident without much weight, but I hope that my writing impresses upon you that the destruction of Cedar Mountain would have a regional impact.

Thank you,

Brendan Mahoney

Read more!

Failed Jamaican food delivery

At work yesterday, a bunch of Jamaican food appeared and it was very good. There was extra, so I took some rice and stewed chicken home in a couple of empty lunch containers I had at my desk. Since the sun inexplicably came out when I was riding home, I decided to extend my commute down to the ferry landing. I cut through Mill Wood Park and Quarry Park. I slipped and fell on some brownstone extra-slick rock, but was mostly unscathed. It started raining again, but not too heavily.

I've often like to think that I could be a messenger or food delivery guy (the bike kind), but I doubt it: the rice container exploded all over my pannier. It was gross. The chicken survived, though.

Read more!

In praise of the swamp thing

In which I become the tallest midget...

Yesterday was the Winsted Woods race. As you may have noticed, it rained a lot. When it rains a lot, people make a big deal out of tire choice. I suppose they probably have a point. Originally, I was going to run an IRC Serac, but I brought another wheel with a Maxxis Swamp Thing just in case. It was a good decision. The Swamp Thing is magical in nasty mud (terrible the rest of the time).

In terms of actual racing, I didn't do very well. I had a good start, but on the first unrideable climb (a tire can only do so much), I started running and my heart rate went through the roof. It took like a mile to recover. I went from second to fourth and never found third again. Although, judging by results, I was pretty close to catching third by the end. Too bad they shortened it to two laps. Three wouldn't have been a problem. I did two in 1:07, so it would have been three in 1:40. I think the officials just wanted to go home. Also, I hit all the jumps and the log thing, and didn't crash at all!

I'm not generally one to Monday morning quarterback by suckitude, but I chalk up some of my problems to warming up inadequately. It was raining, which was unpleasant, so I wasn't eager to go out on the course and since it was muddy, I didn't want to ride very far for fear of seizing up my bike before the actual race.

But, anyway, my 3rd place at Winding Trails and fourth yesterday narrowly made me the Connecticut State Champion (CAT 2 19-29)! I got a medal and everything (the medal was everything). Being the CAT 2 State Champion just means that it's finally time to relegate myself to the back of the pack in CAT 1.

I went for a pretty kick-ass ride to the blowhole on Friday and found some nice connective and fun trails in Dividend Park. And, I did some intense grocery shopping training on Saturday. I can fit $80 worth of Stop and Shop food on my bike, so I can fit like $200 worth of Whole Foods food.

Read more!

Dented the rim on my favorite wheelset

I've been on some nice rides lately, but I seem to have developed some bloggers' block, because I don't know what to say other than that they were fun and involved bikes. There wasn't anything deep or philosophical and I didn't take any pictures. I suppose that sort of ride is the ideal kind, wherein it's only about riding your bike. Very zen (none were fixed, though!).

Very zen pipe smoking!

I went on Salem's ride. Although, I spent only about 5 miles of it with Salem. I rode from my house to the Manchester meeting point, but I was late and didn't catch up until Willimantic. Then in Willimantic, well Windham, the pace picked up and it was just Tim and me. In downtown Willimantic, I picked up some fine Williglass and got a flat and discovered that my spare had a hole in it. Fellow Beatblogger, Tony, had a patch kit, patches were flying around and soon I was on my way again (with a patched spare, too). It's a great ride and just as much fun the second time. Though, this time I rode it on my road bike with 25s instead of a 'cross bike with 35s. It would seem my memory of the amount of pavement was greatly exaggerated. The loose stuff was pretty slow going. I ended up not technically completing the whole thing, because I rode home after the Meshomasic, rather than ride all the way back to Manchester. It started raining again and I thought Johanna and I might be going to a play. I tried to take the ferry, but it wasn't running.

Pipe smoking and beer drinking. No better way to prepare for Salem's ride.

Yesterday, I rode with the group that used to ride on Wednesdays. It was a nice, long and fast ride around the Meshomasic. I was feeling good and riding pretty well. Sadly, I dented the rim on the front wheel of my favorite set (blue velocity arrowheat laced to xt hubs). Not terrible, but it's definitely a dent. Oh well.

Also, I broke a spoke last Friday. What am I doing to wheels!?

Read more!

Giant

I live in the end of Hartford with giant grinders. I try to follow suit by putting giant tires on my bike. A little more than a year ago I bought this lot of a couple dozen (or maybe more) tires. There were a lot of downhill tires, which aren't much use to me because the front fork of my Stumpjumper is the only place with clearance for them. None the less, I really enjoy putting a giant tire on there. For awhile, I had a super tacky 2.5" Maxxis High Roller. It was pretty good, but I knew I could do better. A couple months ago while wasting time on eBay, I spotted 2.8" Bontrager Big Earls at a good price. So, I bought them. I finally took it out yesterday and it's quite the experience. And, it has surprisingly low rolling resistance. However, I think I've met my match in terms of tire width with rim brakes (or at least V-brakes), because under heavy braking, the left arm hits the outside knobbies. Read more!

Bugs

I've never been to Seattle, but I'm supposing that we're having Seattlesque weather right now. Undeterred at quitting time yesterday, I rode off for the Reservoir with a rain coat, some fenders, plenty of racks and an awesome pannier. Winding my way through West Hartford, I happened upon some secret dirt jumps in an undisclosed location. While only a couple feet tall, the doubles seem pretty well constructed. If you're nice to me, perhaps I'll take you there.

Then I rode the Resvervoir, which was probably a mistake because it was much wetter than I anticipated. Saturday's storm was no joke. While I regrettably added a couple of ruts, I did unblock a creek that some doofus had put a clog-bridge in, thereby flooding this whole low spot. So my trail impact probably zeroed out.

Clam sauce on the move, with fancy bucatini. Perhaps my best clam sauce to date.

And, perhaps my finest beer-battered cod to date!

Read more!

Diversity

While Salem was attempting to visit Hartford in the most difficult way possible yesterday, I decided to go out to Farmington to race on what I'm assuming were the only passable trails in the state: Winding Trails. I grew up near Winding Trails and that's probably why I'm a bad mountain biker. The Farmington River valley probably has 20-25 (30?) miles of trails from rt 4 in Farmington to rt 44 in Avon, it's twisty, but there aren't any rocks or climbs. My parents wouldn't let me ride up to the Reservoir until like ninth grade because they thought the roads were too busy. Sometimes we'd climb up this cliff at the top of Stonefield in Farmington and but through a friend's dad's yard on Deercliff, but that was really complicated. Going downhill into the river valley was way easier.

So, anyway. Winding Trails is a popular mountain bike race. Every year it seems to get a slightly better course and this year, due to construction at Walton Pond and the world's biggest sand castle, the course was slightly shorter but featured a lot more singletrack. It was great.

29 people started with me. I didn't get to the line at the first call, so I took a spot in the second row. To my annoyance, people later than me still tried to crowd in the front and to the side of me. For that reason, I started out the gate in like 15th or 20th, but everyone went to the left up the first little dirt road climb, which was weird because I thought that was the bad line. I went left and entered the singletrack in 9th or 10th. I beat a few more people in wider sections and got into 4th near the rails-to-trails with the three person lead group about 100 yards in front of me. I caught them on the way to the powerlines. I passed a sort of hipster-ish guy on an S-Works to get into third. The trail turned back on to singletrack and this guy in the Bike Barn kit rode off the front and I never saw him again. The second place guy from Rhode Island, or at least his jersey from was Rhode Island, tried to bridge the gap, but succeeded in getting about 200 yards ahead of me. I stayed in third by about 30 seconds for the rest of the race. The fourth place guy, who was not the hipster, but instead a guy in a bikereg kit, stayed about 30 seconds or so behind me the whole time. It was a fun race, even if all the action was in the first 1/3 of the first lap. And, for the first time in ages, I wasn't lapped by any of the 30-39 guys. It was close, they were closing near the finish.

Speaking of lapped riders, I have a bone to pick. I'm crappy racer, no doubt, but I'm respectful and pretty chill. So, when I came upon a guy that I'm lapping and he tells me to "pass at my own risk" or another who blocks my pass when I'm announcing it, I get pretty annoyed. The women I lapped were very nice (and I was totally impressed by the woman racing on a 'cross bike). I have to admit that it's pretty weird that people were being lapped in a three lap race, but just because your ego is being bruised, it doesn't mean that you have to try and wreck the races of others. It's Cat 2 and there weren't even socks to win!

In other racing news, alley cat(s) racing is tentatively returning to Hartford (or at least the Hartford line). There hasn't been one since that Halloween one a few years ago. It's being put on by Orion and his friend Matt. Orion won the alley that I put on a few springs ago. So, you should do this one in May:

Read more!

Spooky mountain rally

I've played with the idea for a little while and I think I want to go through with it.

It'd be a two hour race made out of Goodwin Park and Cedar Mountain, coming out to 9 miles or so per lap. I think that'd mean that you'd get two or three laps (you'd have to fit two laps in two hours, to start lap three). This could be fun, right? You'll be scored on speed, style and intelligence. Beginning of May? Rideable on either a 'cross bike or mountain bike, I'd say.

Anybody interested?

Another Eel!

Read more!

The woods are still there

Last fall, Dario, Salem and I had an appointment in Berlin. We rode there by way of Cedar Mountain. While in the spooky woods, we encounter a woman who was sad that all the trees were being cut down to make way for a subdivision. That didn't sound good, though it did explain the orange bands on lots and lots of trees. However, it did seem strange that any would want to build a subdivision in this economy.

I haven't been back in the woods since the end of December and when I rode through there it was evident that something with big tires had been through. It hasn't really taken down any trees, so I don't know what the big-wheel thing was doing in there. Bulldozer off roading?

Today, I rode over there in the romantic sleet and the trees were all still present. The spooky woods are still standing and hopefully will be forever. Read more!

Summer employment

You know who's hiring? Kingdom Trails is. All sorts of summer employment stuff, including being a mountain bike patroller. Need something to do between May and October? This could be it.

Read more!

Bikes outside: the realm of possibility

I've never written a bike outside, so I'll probably break a rule or two.

Pictured here is Dario's Wicked Fat Chance. He got it a long time ago and I didn't know him then. Since he got it, it has shed derailers and is a single, dingle or fixed gear. Next to this snow bank, it's fixed and has fenders. The brakes are original and it has a weird bottom bracket with press-in bearings. If ridden through the Connecticut River, it starts creaking. It's also set up with one of cool fixed/free ENO eccentric hubs (thus all the aforementioned options). Like my Colnago it has a hole in the stem instead of a cable hanger. Some people think that's cool.

It was ridden in the Reservoir, early in the Reservoir's history of people riding in it. I've seen it carried up and down Constitution Plaza, bounce through both of the meadows and lumber through tracts of snowy powerlines. It's a nice bike and unlike other Fat Chances of the internet, it's not a bike shrine.


In other news I went for my longest ride of the year so far. You're perfectly allowed to make fun of me, but it's not exactly been easy to get out there. This, however, was a very pleasant ride with Salem & Peter to points east and south.

New bike attire!

Read more!

Day time snow

As a reprise to Wednesday's snow escapades, we met up with another famous Glastonbury mountain biker, Al, headed to the part of the Meshomasic on the eastern part of rt. 2 and its gas line. It was warmer and the sun was shining, we busted through the snow more. But, there were still awesome moments of riding on mogul-type stuff. It makes mountain biking a lot more like skateboarding or BMX or maybe surfing. Instead of riding for an hour without putting a foot down or pausing, it's ride for two minutes, punch through the snow, pull your bike out and try to go some more. Salem had a particular intense crash and broke his seatpost. The next two days don't look great for this type of riding because it's supposed to be warm. Read more!

The most unique of snow

The snow is in a unique state right now. It's deep, but it has a really strong crust. It's so strong that you can ride on top of it, despite being two feet deep. It's also crusty and not icy, so there's traction. For these reasons, Salem and I decided to ride the powerlines down to Portland. It was pretty awesome, like a pump track going on for miles. Although, unlike a pump track, the ground occasionally would eat one of your wheels. If that wheel was the front, an endo would ensue (for me). None the less, it was pretty awesome. Wide tires at low psi are recommended. Salem wore a full-face helmet, because he was worried about hurting his face. He also endoed way less, but he's also way better at riding a bike than me.

Read more!

The niche for fixed gear mountain bikes

Fixed gear mountain biking is like regular mountain biking, but harder. It greatly expands one's likelihood of hitting feet on rocks, roots, etc. and greatly reduces one's ability to reposition weight on the bicycle because one has to keep the pedals moving. Don't get me wrong it's fun, but it's harder.

I've opined about this before, so I won't blather on anymore. However, I did want to lend my support behind the superiority of fixed gear mountain bikes when commuting in the snow. Sheldon Brown knew what he was talking about. 32:19 might be a crappy gear for bike commuting in general because of all the spinning out, but it's great in the snow. Braking without braking is great!

In other news, I wonder how it'll be until mountain biking is possible again.

Read more!

Skiing across the country

Re: the poll. Road bikes, huh? I like going for road rides and all, but if you look at the tag cloud thing, mountain biking is the biggest tag. Does this mean I should write about road bikes more or that y'all are reading this blog as self-flagellation?


Anyway, mountain biking in the snow is great, but it has a rather narrow window unless you own a Pugsley or Fatback, so last year I started cross country skiing. While I have access to equipment, downhill skiing is far too expensive, and I know that you can hike up a hill with a snowboard and ride back down for free, but I don't own a snowboard. I'm really bad at cross country skiing, but improving. I didn't fall the last couple of times I did it and yesterday was going pretty well until right near the end. I attempted this more difficult trail that traverses a pretty steep hill and ends with two switch backs. I figured that because I could ride it on a fixed gear 'cross bike, somehow that meant that I could ski it because somehow that translates. Nope. I did a pretty awesome face plant, though.

So, you should try cross country skiing!

Read more!