State of the snow

This is not recent snow.

I'm a huge fan of Jill Homer's Up in Alaska blog. I think she's a terrific writer and an inspiring and talented athlete. She also reminds me that the winter in Connecticut is lame and manageable. So, when I think about driving to work, I remember that unless I carrying a large load or am injured, I've got it easy and should ride.




She spends much of her time riding around on the snow, because that's how it is in Alaska, so I also feel that I must continue mountain biking even when the ground is covered. I must admit that I'm totally baffled as to how she rides in deep snow. I went up to the reservoir yesterday and had a hell of time getting around. My singlespeed has 2.3"s and I was doing a lot of walking. This snow has had lots of time to compress and harden, but it's still pretty impassable. I suppose the Pugsley that Ms. Homer rides probably has those 3.7" Endomorphs. However, you'd think that lame Connecticut snow would be rideable with tires that are two thirds the size of Alaska-worthy tires.


So, anyway, that's the best I could do for a post today... How about the decriminalization of marijuana? Read more!

Cool stuff for the weekend

Cat!

This isn't a bike thing, but not everything has to be a bike thing. Well, I guess this could be a bike thing could be because these Joe and Joel ride their bikes to their studio, anyway...

This is a reminder and invitation to the first monthly (Dodec-Ennial)
CATALOGUE show at:

56 Arbor Street
Hartford, Connecticut 06106
Suite 216 (second floor)

When: Saturday, January 10, 2009 from 6pm-9pm

Jamie Horgan, the until-recently-Hartford-Art-

Star-turned-Boston-Art-Star,
will be showing a few of his recent and on-going drawings for our January
installment. CATALOGUE will take place each month, showcasing an
individual, a collaboration, an instillation, and/or funny joke, and is
hosted by Joel VanderKamp and Joe Saphire.

The studio is located at the front of the building (Real Art Ways is in
back). If you need directions or have questions, please contact:

Joe: saphire.j@k-o.org 860.216.3826
Joel: joel_vanderkamp@yahoo.com 773.259.2669

Please pass this invitation to those who might be interested and we might
have missed.

Joe Saphire
Joel VanderKamp

Gadabout Sam Mckinniss writes more eloquently about it on his blog.

--

Also, anyone want to go mountain biking with me this weekend?

Read more!

The New Year

I hate that Death Cab for Cutie song called "The New Year".

So, we're deep into 2009 and there hasn't been a post yet, so I guess I'll put something up. I haven't been doing much bike related lately. I put some studded Nokians on my Stumpjumper and rode it around in the snow some. The tires actually work pretty well on snowy things, though it seems that you can't ride in snow that's deeper than like 4" or 5". That seems pretty acceptable, though. The bike has rim brakes and they're pretty unacceptable in the snow.

I also have two bicycle related resolutions, or maybe they're goals.

1) Ride the D2R2.
I know that randoneuring is usually for people with helmet mirrors, but it also seems really difficult. So, I'm going to do the 108 mile edition of the D2R2.

2) Make a 'cross race happen in Hartford.
I put the bug in Ben Bare's ear for him to bring it up at the last Bike Everywhere and Jay and some others seem genuiely interested. I hope for Keney park, but most other people seem to want to do it at Riverside Park. Doesn't really matter to me as long as it happens.

Woodsy!

Anybody else got cool ideas and plans for 2009? Read more!

Mud and cowbells! Mud and cowries!

Photo credit to *Denise* on Flickr.

I resurrected the old Stumpjumper for a ride at the Reservoir last night. The surprisingly warm mid-December temperatures definitely invited it. Even the drizzle/mist for the first half of the ride wasn't too bad (though it made my pants kind of heavy (I don't know why I decided to wear pants)), and, unlike usual humid rides, the top of mountain wasn't in a cloud. The falling mist and the unfrozen ground made for a greasy ride, but no crashes. Someday, I hope someone joins me on one of these. It's like that ride we took on Saturday, but triply exciting.

Photo credit to Johanna, who's the best girlfriend in the world for accompanying me to Dayville for this race and taking pictures of me.
There are some other reasons, too.

I think the Danielson Adventure Sports' Beer Cross thing was great. I did two of the three races. Since I'm not very fast, I never did that well, but had a great time. They're very low key, but have a nice course and everyone is friendly. They also don't have horrible music blasting the entire time like most races.

At this last race, I think I did ok. I started slightly better than usual and was just off the leaders. However, since they're the leaders and are fast, I never saw them again except off in the distance when the course opened up. Like in most races, I found myself in no man's land. Significantly behind the leaders, but also significantly ahead of some other group. At point, some really fast guy caught up to me and passed me at a great rate of speed. It was impressive. Later, with two laps to go, this other guy caught up to me after I had made silly mistakes. It was pretty exciting, we exchanged positions a few times. I finally passed him with about a half lap to go and was holding him off pretty well. My brakes weren't going to have any of that success though, and with about 500 yards left, they quit at the bottom of a hill and I crashed into a bunch trees. The guy, who's actually pictured above, passed me and I never caught back up.

Also, pictured up there is the horrible labyrinth they decided the course needed. Over all it was a quick course and then all of a sudden there was this terrible and muddy thing that I could never get through with any amount of speed. Ugh! It was totally unnecessary.

Now that the 'cross season is over, I must say, it's way more fun than mountain bike racing. Maybe it's the bigger field, maybe it's the more laps, maybe it's the barriers; but I feel like there's a lot more happening. However, riding a 'cross bike is a lot less fun than mountain biking. Maybe I should Read more!

Wool

This is Maine, but their snow is similar in composition to ours.

We got our first snowfall of the season this morning. The South End was looking pretty with its layer of frosting. After my breakfast of crabcake Benedict and homefries, I checked in with my friend Jacob to see if he still planned to go mountain biking with me today. Snow didn't deter him, so we headed up Hunter Drive and did a loop of the reservoir. Riding on an inch of powder is a rare joy. Hopefully this is what we keep getting in terms of snow fall this year. Although, I bet my snow shoes would like to get some use. Read more!

My knee

None of this really answers my question.

For about a month, I decided to take up running. I think it was Johanna's idea for me to do this. She only went once, but I continued. Actually, up until two weeks ago I continued. The Sunday before last, I tried but felt this horrible pain in my knee and had to limp home. The pain hasn't really gone away, but riding my bike actually feels better than walking. So, I've kept doing that, but I mostly avoid walking these days. I just returned from a ride at Penwood. Riding a singlespeed there is rather tough on the knees, thus my aggrieved knee is particularly angry. In fact, towards the end I tried to ride up one more hill and the knee just wouldn't let me, luckily it was on my way back, and for those familiar with Penwood, it was right near Lake Louise, so I just went on the paved path back to the parking lot. From what I understand, you're not actually even suppose to ride on the Metacomet there, so maybe it was my knee just telling to follow the rules.

Anyway, my question is and the purpose of this little blog post: should I go to the doctor? Two weeks of knee pain does seem like a lot. Anyone else have any experience with this? Read more!

Eel legitimizes mountain biking at Riverside Park

Picture stolen from crankfire: http://www.crankfire.com/galleries/picture.php?imageid=3949 Photo credit to Jay!

Those of you who rode The Eel remember the part of the course that went through Riverside Park with my mediocre arrows. It appears that it's now a legitimate trail system (as of like this weekend). Looking at the detail of the map shows the "Challenge Trail". I have no idea what that is. It's really not that challenging back there. Is there some secret freeride park that I've never noticed? They also leave out the extent of how far these trails actually go. But, whatever, there's now sanctioned mountain biking in Hartford proper. I just got an email from the Director of Human Resources telling me that I have Friday off, maybe I'll go explore. Read more!

Maureen Dowd is hating on mountain biking again

Argh!

She's at it once more.

This time:

How could the Lincoln Memorial — “With malice toward none; with charity for all” — be as moving if the black neighborhoods of a charming American city were left to drown while the president mountain-biked?

From what I understand, Bush was at John McCain's birthday party when Katrina hit.

Why does mountain biking have to be her go-to cliché for emphasizing Bush's puerility.

Read more!

Legs

Photo credit to someone who actually ran the marathon.

This weekend was Columbus Day weekend as well as the running of the Hartford Marathon. It also was a weekend of beautiful weather. I'm sure the marathon runners loved that. My neighbor, Val, ran the half marathon. I think that's pretty impressive, as I have no idea how to run 13 miles, let alone 26. Some how that morning, Johanna convinced me that I should go running. I'm not sure how that happened. I hate running and I always have, but next thing I knew we were at Sports Authority buying running shoes and before long we were at the Reservoir. I've been the reservoir a million times, but I've never actually run around it. Now, I have. It wasn't so bad while I was doing it, but man I was unhappy the next morning.


Also, yesterday afternoon, as I had the day off, I went over to Case Mountain. I was having a good time and didn't get lost for once. On my way back I ran into these two kids who were partially lost and it was starting to get dark. I told them to go back the way they went, as it was the easiest return trip for them. I also told them to follow me, but realized I was going a lot faster. So, I kept on ahead and returned to my car to get my headlamp. When I got there, I ran into the father of one of the kids and told him that I was going to go retrieve them with my headlamp. I went back and found them. Things were going ok, until I was riding slowing down a drop and did a nasty endo. I temporarily got that I-bashed-my-knee-so-hard-I-feel-like-I'm-going-to-puke feeling, but I persevered and didn't want to look like a wuss. We made and it back just fine until the gate a very end, where I almost did the exact same thing and managed to tear my shorts but not crash. I'm uncertain as to how I tore my shorts. But, everything turned out ok. Also, I managed to grow another knee cap on top of my old one.

In the event of this much water, the race'll probably be canceled.

Also, on Saturday, Johanna and I rode The Eel. I think it's going to be a sweet race. Two laps shouldn't be a big deal and hopefully no one gets scared of 20 miles. I need to figure out how to make a map of it so people don't get lost while racing. Maybe I could spray paint arrows... Read more!

The World in Crisis

Yeah, it's a Homestar Runner picture. Don't make fun of me.

I don't like Maureen Dowd very much, but I seem to read her columns without fail. Today she was writing about some problem with Bush being emasculated and having to put the presidential seal on his mountain bike. Throughout the column there's some more stuff about him riding his bike as some kind of escapism. I'm not sure if she's talking about the bike stuff because bikes exist in the popular consciousness as puerile and she's calling Bush a child with no sense of leadership because he rides a bike; she probably is and she sucks. Anyway, I'm digressing. I don't like Bush either, but I do like mountain biking. So, I'm kind of torn, because she's using the mountain bike to make fun of him that pisses me off. I'm also pissed because Bush gives mountain biking a bad name. Couldn't he ride a recumbent and continue to give that a bad name? Ok, I'm digressing again

The point of this poorly conceived post was what does the international financial crisis have to do with bicycles? There must be some effects. I heard a piece on NPR the other day about Service Master (they own Terminex, among other things) and how they're being affected. They're having problems because the credit markets that allow them to get loans as they wait for customers' checks to clean are suddenly tight and its complicating their operating ledger.

So, are times getting more difficult for messengers because crumbling financial giants have no more documents to send around town? Are bike paths becoming more crowded during work hours because newly unemployed financial workers are finally getting around to riding those $7000 Pinarellos they bought on a whim? Is bike theft on the rise because of the high cost of scrap metal? (I think that one is actually true.) What do you think?

Argh!

Read more!

summer's waning days

Photo credit goes to Bill and Kent. I don't know who they are, but I know where this is.

It appears that summer is coming to a close. I went for a ride at Penwood last night, back and forth from the chimney, and on the return climb from that road whose name I forget, it was already getting dark. I returned to the car to discover it was only 7:15. Labor Day weekend is almost upon us. Anyone got any cool plans? I'm going to Vermont (again). Read more!

How to make a new trail

Whenever I try to take a picture of a trail, it doesn't look like a trail. It just looks like some rocks.

I haven't subscribed to a mountain bike magazine for awhile, but when I did, they would tell you once a year in some advice column to ride the trail you ride the most in the other direction. I suppose the only applies to loops. I never really did. I'm a boring nutmegger.

So, for the first time in my ten or so years of riding the West Hartford Reservoir, I rode it counterclockwise. It was crazy! It was a totally different trail. The lighting is different. The rocks are sharper. Curves are banked differently. There's more climbing (that may have just been in my head). That walk-a-bike section at the far southern part of the powerlines is not actually a walk-a-bike section; you can go down it.

Those mountain bike magazines are right. It's definitely a way to get out of the local trail doldrums.
Read more!

no subject

I didn't use one of these to move furniture. Would people have respected me more if I did?

I didn't get to ride much this weekend because Johanna and I are moving. In fact, I think the longest ride all weekend was either to the uhaul place to pick up the van or to my friend Jacob's house to play ping pong.


However, I just discovered this: http://mtbdee.blogspot.com/. It belongs to a mountain biker in Rhode Island named Brendan. Finding that was weird, but not that weird. He's into the Drop Kick Murphies and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. I'm not into them. Cool blog, though. What was weird was the time a Brendan, with the same last name as me and the same age, was prank calling the Ned Lamont office I ran in West Hartford. That was totally bizarre. I thought he was going to try to kill me, but according to the police he just wanted an absentee ballot.

Here's that oft-viewed Street Films thing about moving by bike. Read more!