Biodegradable Twine

Lasts long enough to be returned to the earth in a few months after it does its job.


It's been a weird few weeks in my head. Not all is well on the hippie front. Well, all things in perspective, things are great on the hippie front. Lately it just seems to me like the home range isn't really home anymore. I'm committed to be here for another year, but maybe it'll be time to take another journey at that point. I know I'm headed out west again in September.

Adventures are still rolling through with a race at French creek two weekends ago. To sum up that experience, I was spun out within two hours and never made it better than third. I needed two extra gears that day. I don't even know where I finished. I followed that up with a little fooling around in the kayak on long pine res on mothers day before the family dinner. I played with the two new GoPro Hero2's I picked up for TSE. Not sure how that cc bill will get paid. Oh well, they kick major ass.

I skipped out early on Friday to go turkey hunting, also on saturday morning. I sat in the woods for 12 hours and saw a bunch of squirrels and a hen. That's about how it goes.....I'd be one hungry hunter. We followed that up with a trip out to dirtfest to do a tiny little ride and mostly just hangout with people. We based our attack on two groups that had house boats, and it was the right decision. Fun times for sure. We had a long dark ride/walk out of the campground to where we parked, and Joe's derailleur decided it wanted to snap all of 3 minutes into the "ride". It's not the first time I've had to hitchhike out of somewhere, but it always takes awhile to find someone willing to give you a ride, especially with two bikes in tow. All of that was capped off with a little bit of playing "farmer" at, well....the farm. A couple fields needed planting and I woke up just in time to get yelled at for not waking up earlier. A few fields still needed it. The day wasn't a total wash, and it was only 9:30. Where were you all night? Living. You got yours in at my age, let me get in mine.

Last week was a big planting week at the house. I'm still playing in a small patch of dirt, but I've got a good bit in the ground. We got the rain water collection and gravity fed irrigation in....and it works....I'm surprised. One storm gave us a solid 200 gallons of water.....which didn't last nearly as long as I thought. The tomatoes are in the ground, all 9 plants. (I don't know why, but I always have a ton of tomato plants) My pepper plants are a couple inches high, and are getting hardened off. They are ready to go in the ground.  Most of my early onion crop has been eaten already. With the second round almost big enough to eat already. Out of my first planting, the carrots, the peas, the onions,the dill, some spinach, and some of the squash plants are growing. The rest was a wash. But we correct and adapt. That was the first early bed anyways, I actually expected a late frost to come in and kill it all anyways. I  finished planting all the beds this week and have a lot in the ground. I think that will set me up well for the rest of the year, with the additions of some individual plantings along the way to make use of dead space and bare dirt. I need some of my asters and other flowers to grow, or else the bugs will be out of control very soon. I'm hoping the chickens help that a bit. I've been letting them out of the coup most days to forage in the yard. They seem to like it, and don't try to escape. Lona likes to ride herd on them. Thats worth having the chickens right there. The blueberry plants have little blueberries on them. I have three bushes in the ground. I wish I had planted strawberries and rasberries. The potatoes I planted at my parents are finally growing too. There's cucumbers there as well. I wanted to plant corn and soybeans at the farm, but it's getting a little late. I still have time to plant a field of pumpkins there though: right after I get back from TSE.

TSE. It's a double edged sword for me, it's exhausting to be staff for something like this. Last year I cracked hard after stage 5. But it is always an amazing experience, and the people that come race are always fantastic. I leave on Thursday this week for that little endeavour. That means I've got 3 days this week to get everything done. Today it's raining, so I know I'll be inside doing paperwork all day. hopefully I get it all done. Tomorrow is a field day, and wednesday should be spent packing and prepping.

So I've been trying to race. Yeah, race. I know it's going to be a long year with a lot of work set in front of me. At this point I think I'm six months away from being where I once was. Although at this point I think it was probably easier to get there the first time compared to how it looks right now.

Two weekends ago was a one race weekend with Greenbriar. It's one of my favorite races in the mid-atlantic in the balance that it offers. It also holds a bit of sentiment for me. It's a venue that we camp at every year and set up our team compound for everyone on the team to come out in full force. Once upon a time this was one of my first few real mountain bike races: and I was dead last, maybe a half hour or more back from the winner. In my best years I cut my teeth on national level racing there, narrowly missing a worlds nomination. Last year may have been the worst, sitting on the sidelines watching everyone have their own adventures on course. This year I took an old page out of my play book and put in a solid effort for last place. I never had a shot. I was dropped within 5 minutes. But it won't be the last year I do it, and my best is yet to come.

This past weekend was a two race weekend, after Greenbriar's wake-up call of what needed to come. The line up was a heavy week on the bike followed up with the Turkey Hill Classic (yes, a road race) and Iron Hill. Turkey Hill went about as well as any of my road races have gone. I felt good sitting in the group getting some tempo, then things started getting a little sketchier for little to no reason. About that time, somebody pile-drived a cone (from what I hear) taking down several other people with them. I diverted over a line of large, grade 3 gravel on the side of the road and into some mud. The air remained in my tires, but my chain had become stuck betwinkst the crank arm and chainring. How it happened, nobody knows. I don't. It took what felt like minutes wiggling and yanking to get mr. chain together again. Once rolling, a fire-police type marshal was talking into his radio and said something along the lines of, I need one of you to come back here with me. I was a little tunnel visioned and thought he was talking to me so I whip around and follow him before he corrects me and tells me to get going. So here we go. Let's chase. Managing to catch up and chase with someone else, I layed it down as long as I could, as hard as I could until my tank was empty. That must not have been too far, because I think I got a full hour into a two hour race. I caught up with Adam along the way and we rolled the rest of a lap a little disconcerted. I hung out with some good new friends and then went down to Chris' to ride a few hours at fairhill.

That brings us to iron hill. Three hours and thirty minutes saw me turn 6 laps before finding myself in a familiar position: pulling into the pit in second place, sitting down and watching the field roll by for a half hour.  I can say one thing, I was very happy with my effort. It was the effort I was looking for. I was getting a little damp in the legs, but ultimately decided to wait out the clock instead of risk another full lap with nothing but rails on my seatpost. See, I crashed in a moment of lost focused when I was talking to the fellow I was passing. Not the best decision to be a chatty Kathy while passing someone when I was already fully tapped. I taped it up with duct tape at the end of the lap and that held for another half lap before I had to keep stopping and affixing my saddle to the bare, protruding rails. I think my highlight of the day was getting to ride with the blazing Cheryl Sornson for a couple laps. That woman can put down some power on the climbs. The race started in a bit of confusion. I had no clue where I was in the mass start with Open and SS racers. All I knew was that I couldn't spin as fast as the start took off. I spent a couple laps just trying to find where the front of the race was. I was settling into a lull when Cheryl came on by, and I decided to tag on to her wheel. That was nice. After the race was over it was a long afternoon of socializing like I've never socialized before. It was great to see so many friends and have the time to actually talk and hangout.

All in all a good week. Between my 2 day mini vacation with Abe and the double header race weekend, I scrounged up 19 hours in the saddle. It was a great week to be on the bike, with the highlight being a thunderstorm ride on the bike path with lona. It was one of those moments where I can only smile and be grateful to be on the bike. The low may have been climbing up the Gamber wall at turkey hill realizing my tank was empty and it was not in the math to be physically able to catch the pack, much less have anything left to continue riding if I had caught them. I'm just a hound chasing cars.

Keep it classy.

Wait, did that happen?

It's nice to be done with the past month. It's really been a blur, but then again, I always say that. Since the relay, I was in a flurry to get ready for the Trail Cup. Quite a few interesting things happened that week, but not much of that is important now. What is actually important anyways? Details aren't worth getting worked up over. I had a fun 15 minutes sitting on the side of the trail saturday afternoon wondering what the fuck was going to happen.

After some 16 hours on the bike that week, I made a bad decision and in the blink of an eye, I was laying on the ground int he middle of the trail. The immediate reaction was to get up and shake it off. While shaking it off, I looked down at my arm and got to see how deep the laceration really was (probably the big reason why it is still not healing yet after 2 weeks) Then comes the disorientation, nausea, and yep, I'm about to pass out. Let's sit down for a little while. Let's throw a mild concussion into the mix. After a little while, I regained enough composure to not black out and started to ride again. No grip in my right hand. The slice that's dripping down my arm is in an odd place, and with the loss of grip I wonder if it knicked a muscle. Anconeus perhaps. So I walked in bike shoes to put a few more arrows up and rolled back to the car on dirt road one handed.

                                           Some shots I just uploaded from the Texas Trip


Sometimes I wonder what would happen if a promoter got serious hurt and incapacitated the day before a race. What would happen? There'd be no time to tell anyone not to come. I'd imagine that as long as the course is marked and things are ready to go, that things would carry on. I think there would be mass confusion, but that inevitably people would get to race. I would hope so.

So after a few days of cleaning up and trying to get enough sleep to not feel run-down anymore, it was mid-week already! It was time to hit the road. I had planned on going to the IMBA trail care crew's visit to Salisbury, MD. I must not have looked at a map until I was ready to leave. I was pretty surprised to have a 4 and a half hour drive in store for me. I had no clue what to expect, where I was going to stay, and what we were going to do. I packed up a bag with some food: left over aid station granola bars, a loaf of bread, bagels, a jar of peanut butter, and a bag of apples. Lona jumped in the truck to wait for me, so I quickly threw my bike in the back and we hit the road. I did some extra running around to try and make sure I had everything I needed for fairhill since I'd just drive straight there. I figured it was only 4 days, worst case scenerio I'd pull off to the tiltin hilton on the side of the road or at walmart. I was pleasantly surprised with the weekend, and owe a big thanks to Tres Denk for hooking me up all weekend. Here's the breakdown: thursday was a class and camping at the Hazel Discovery Center (awesome place), Friday lona scared turkeys before a morning class and afternoon recon before camping at a state park, and Saturday was lots of trailwork at their YMCA venue. A good weekend. I always learn more than one thing and it was a good way to get thinking in the correct way again. Most of the thoughts as far as network management were there, they just needed a reminder and restructure. And the weekend did that. I think the biggest thing I took away from the weekend (other than a great experience and new friends) was the concept of surveying and it's role in trail construction. Hopefully the new "tools" will get put to good use. I have a few projects in the works.

                                                       Climbing and Camping from last month in Tennesse

Fairhill was canceled. I get it, I had my sad face on though. But when one door closes, another opens. After driving through some hellacious thunderstorms I stopped to stay with some old friends in Brunswick. That was great. I haven't stayed with them since I was traveling 12 hours every weekend for cross my freshman year of college.

This week has been a lot of catch up on the last month and a lot of layout for the next 6 months. Beyond just plugging away in the office, I haven't gotten a ton done. There's still a bunch of projects in the yard that need done. I think I got one evening of work around the house. I did manage to start my seedlings for tomato and pepper plants after I got the bed prepped. Yesterday was trailwork out at new frontiers to fix some stagnant water damage. It was actually pretty cool to watch what opening up a few drains did. Today is helping Kuhn dog clean out a shed to help get settled in at home. This weekend is a team weekend at greenbrier. Camping and racing! My race bike is ALMOST ready to roll. I'm about 3 ounces light of a full build. Now I need to sell my old bike to pay for it!

Let's wrap this post up with some pictures.

                                               Lona with Some geese down in Pokimoke City

Re-Lay: What I say from today

Or just forget about it. I'm very content right now. Another MASS weekend in the books. And a very good one it was. Nine, eight, and even seven years ago I mostly just showed up to races and raced. I mostly did the racer thing, and just the racer thing. I've been helping with races since I started racing with YBR in the early days. They raised their juniors (and members for that matter) right in that everyone had to help with an event during the year. And I took to it like white on rice: today in the making.

Nowadays it's rarely just the racer thing going on. And I'm very happy about that. I get just as much of a kick from the mess in my team tent as I do gliding past people on tight single track. This weekend was close to 22 hours of helping with the race- not counting the actual 4 hours of the race, facilitating a compound for a team of 10 people and families, and that racer thing with one serious lap.

It always impresses me how much work we manage to muscle through to put these things on. Who would have thought that a 15 minute lap would require so much work, but it does. It's never easy successfully bringing 350 people together for a common purpose- fun on on bikes. I'm just a pawn- maybe a rook- but there's a gravitational pull of bike races I can't resist. It pulls me in. I love it. If you took a few minutes to help us out today, THANK YOU! Jones and I got all the course demo done by the time the last racers left, a new record for us!

As for my new team we've assembled for this year, I couldn't be happier. It's a real good vibe and I'm stoked on it. The relay is normally such a fun and positive vibe, so it's hard to say anything but the like. It works when you have capable people on your side, they ran the whole thing today! I think Scott kept a parental eye on everyone all day while racing duo, and everyone chipped in when the day was coming to an end to cook, eat, and clean up. Rock stars.

As for the racing. Well, that part is coming. I haven't looked at any kind of results yet. I got three laps in (seems to be my number so far this year) and the first one was a full on effort for me, the rest I just kind of cruised on. I was ready for another, but I'm just as happy with those three. I rode the hard lines (except for the faster easy one on the first lap with all the killers). The last two years, I've been right at the front for the first lap. This year I was just a little back from that. I'm thinking top 15 for sure on the first lap, top 10 likely. Nowhere near the real front. That's a downgrade from 6th on the first lap last year but I'll definitely take it. I have a lot of ground to make up this year. I was riding with some very fast guys, and I'm happy to still be there. I think it will take about six months of consistent racing to get back to somewhere I can be happy. But I know I'll get there, I just have to put the work in. I need to get through this next event and I'll put it in. It's only a matter of time after all.

Up next is the Michaux Trail Cup, the next stop on the Mid-Atlantic Super Series Endurance series. It's next sunday!!!! There's four options: 100 miles, 75 miles, 50 miles, and 25 miles. All options are good. All options are hard. All options are fun. Come on out and get in your early season climbing work!

Also going on: I just got little chickens. Polts to be specific-er. They are snuggling together in their coop under a lamp. The coop looks so big in comparison to them, but I know they'll grow. I need to finish the shingles on the roof (which I was hoping to hand split some cherry shakes for them- actually the same wood as from the Tuscarora awards), make a feeder, and spiff up the run with some fencing. Thanks Scott for the hookup, we won't let Lona eat them. She's been trying already ;-)

Keep it classy world.

Pre-Ride Report

I want you to come to my race, but beware the presage- the ides of April: it's a freakin' challenge. I started piecing this course together last fall in bits and pieces. I've ridden it all like pieces of a patchwork quilt sewn together in a sinuous patterns. A little trail here, a climb here, and a baller' descent over there. I took some risks adding some steep descents that I normally would not. My main goal of making the 100 mile course (and the rest of it) was to design a course that would be accomplish-able. Two things would be sure: it would be really hard and it would have lots of climbing.

I finally dialed all of the loops in to 98% complete. I posted up last week about heading out on the 50 miler to check out how it rolls. Joe Wychock responded. "Let's hit it!" he says. Okay Joe lets hit it. We rolled out with chief this morning who would tag along for a little ways before heading back home for other things that needed doing today. What followed was the 50 mile course that MASS racers would tackle.

I suppose you could break it into two sections, the first 20 miles and the last 22 miles. That's right, it's only 42 miles. I know you won't mind. I didn't. The stand out points of the first 20 miles include both sides of Lippencote trail, those are real solid. It has 2 medium climbs in it, some nice rocky trail, and ends with a real grinder up to race central. Nothing super exciting happened on this loop. We saw some deer and some turkeys. Overall we just rolled along talking, and we both felt really good. It's not an easy 20 miles, but you feel good at the end of it. We rolled through the parking lot, opting to not stop.

I still felt fresh going down the first piece of single track in the 2nd loop. We crossed a powerline and entered into some very rocky trail. My "freshness" started to leave me there. The trail at the bottom of the super steep descent was a bit of a grind through the roots. After that.....we rode an often used trail backwards. I don't think I've ever ridden it backwards. I noticed that I couldn't lift my front wheel as high as anticipated anymore. I was getting tired, and there was a lot more to ride. Then my rear tire started going flat. I opted to try and pump it up several times and keep rolling before inevitably throwing a tube in. I made sure to pull all the thorns out this time....and there were several that had previously sealed up. Stans is great. My sidewall slice was just enough to warrant a tube. We kept a rollin.

From this point on it started getting more memorable. Maybe I was suffering more from that point on. Still feeling decent, I shoook everything out on a chill dirt road descent. My neck was starting to wear out. And what goes down must come up. That started a series of serious climbs. You don't really notice how long you climb on that particular climb because it spans two roads and a powerline section, but you climb the entire time. I was still fine with that. I got rewarded with the methodist hill single track. Fun, but it's starting to get old and bouldery now-a-days. There's also a killer road descent section that is super flowy after that. Joe thought that was memorable. I told him we'd need that since we were now almost at the valley floor and had the biggest climb of the course in front of us. This thing is massive. It's a climb worthy of respect because the mountain makes you humble- at least thats all I could think while I slowly spun my way up it. I'm thinking that one is responsible for at least 1100 feet of verticle gain itself. Then some multi-use trail that I haven't ridden since I had my "cast" on in October. I narrowly escaped ripping my drivetrain apart. I'm missing a few links in my chain and I managed to unknowingly cross chain into my largest combo. Not good. That started my thinking that I might me starting to get sloppy. After that I was having a hard time staying smooth. By the time we got to the next medium sized climb my elastic had snapped and I started turning into a chatty Kathy. Sorry Joe.....

We stopped at the top to sit in the shade and eat/drink a bit. That 5 minute rest helped a lot to get the elastic tied back together. I decided right then that I'd add an aide station there. What happened next may have been the most memorable section of the course....which I wasn't expecting. (Other than the ass-kicker climb that is) We ran the whole way out the singletrack portions of Canada Hollow. Both sides of the road. This was similar to listening to stairway to heaven- only the music in my head was a little more.....Ska-esque? It started nice and flowy through the berms and picked up the entire way out the trail until we were at the bottom and I all but wanted to sprint all out through the Rhododenrons. It was.....perhaps the most enjoyable section of trail on the course for me. Then after my desires to sprint, my band started warning me that it wanted to snap again. And another very long climb started. That one got me by the end and I was tired. My neck was starting to really hurt. And somewhere after the ass kicker climb my longs started to not want to take full, deep breaths anymore. Oh well. A spin down some dirt road and we made our way over to what is probably the 2nd gnarliest descent I know of on that side of shippensburg road. It's long, it's strong, and it's guaranteed to get the friction on. I actually came up with that at the start of it, and chuckled to myself as I went bobbling down it. I wasn't focusing enough and kept dabbing. My focus was no longer there. Damn. That's the first time I've ever NOT cleaned that descent. Crap. I found a dry line across the creek and proceeded to clean what I kinda expected to be a hike-a-bike. It feels like that is pretty brutal at the end of the race. Which led into a drag home down some single track that never ended. We started on that trail and I never would have thought it would take that long....but like they say, it's at the end of 50 miles. I was very glad to be done.

I can't decide if it's the right kind of hard or not. I know I'm in pretty good shape, even if I'm not very happy with where I'm at. I know Joe is a good endurance rider, and he was feeling it at the end of the day as well. It's no joke, that was a tough course. But I've felt worse. I think it was very very challenging. I don't think it was brutal. It was scenic, with good trail, and had some KILLER climbs on it. I was happy with it. I'm not going to ride it again tomorrow though, because I'm tired and I'm sure I will feel it over the next day or two. I think it's a good race course to showcase some of what we've got to offer.

It's going to be HARD. But 50 milers and endurance racing is HARD. I've never finished an endurance race and not been totally shelled. I was riding it steady today and it put me through the wringer....I can imagine racing on it. That would be very hard. I think it's one of those races that needs respect to not waste away on. Don't expect to sit in or just roll nice and chill all day. Sooner or later the course and the mountain will test you. I giggled at it and kept rolling.

Thanks for the good company Joe. I needed it today.

Quick Stats for the 50 miler:
-42.3 miles long
-5905 feet of climbing
-I rode it today in 6 hours and 33 minutes with mechanicals, breaks, and a pretty relaxed plan. I think winners will be close to 5 hours.

Reg is here, best of luck. There's always the 25 mile option.

Sow a Seed

It's that time of year and with 10 days of low temps in the 40's, my first round of planting started Sunday Afternoon.

Bed 1 = Dill, Nasturiums, Sweet Corn, Pole Beans, Zucchini, sweet peas, and.....I forget what else.

Bed 2 = Dill, Asters, Spanish Onions, Spring Onions, Leeks, Carrots, and....something else I put in there.

Solo Sowings = Spinich attempt

I need to get my tomatoes and peppers started inside this week.

Last weekend was our first team trainig camp this year, hosted on one of the EcoTone farms. It was a hoot. We shot a lot of clay birds, fly fished, rode mini-bikes, watched all the horses, blew stuff up, and checked out two future race venues. What a killer weekend.

During the last two days, I drove my mom up to Michigan and back to pick up a Doberman she adopted. A very sweet little dog, Zoey is very lucky to find a great home. Yeay!

Tomorrow is a lap of the 50 miler course. I also need to get a chicken coop built this week before the MASS AWesome ReLaY this weekend! Whhooo! I'm stoked about this.

See you down the road. Meanwhile, enjoy the new video creation:

Lah-ti-Dah

I took a long walk on a stiff pair of shoes today. I haven't snapped a derailleur hanger since two years ago at the 12 hour duo I did with Miss Gavin at Marysville. Sorry about that one girlie. Anyways this little dear just peeled off my bike in the blink of an eye, as silent and pleasant as could be. It happened on Graves Ridge (yes I was riding graves ridge, it's finally opened up) and was a reinforcement of a lesson I learned years ago.

Children,

The lesson for today is that master links are not quick links. You CANNOT get a masterlink apart on the trail unless you have a leatherman. If you can, you are one lucky bastard. SRAM chains come with master links. Get yourself a KMC quicklink, or better yet just run a KMC chain. I've had very good luck with them.

Best Regards,
Late for Dinner

I also learned today that a spare tube looped through a collar makes a good leash for the pup while you walk a mile down the paved road. Also that carrying a multitool with a chain tool is a good idea. You may only use it once every year or two, but it might save you a long walk.

Phew.

Wow what a week or two. I just posted up something I drafted a two weeks ago and never got to put up. Internet went out here at the house about a week ago. Wait- a week ago....(checking calendar)....Holy cow it has been a busy two weeks!

After we got back from Texas, I got one week to prepare for the Mid-Atlantic Cycling Development Camp. This is a camp that is in it's fifth year and perhaps has seen its lifetime. It peaked in it's second year at something like 58 people, and I haven't been able to see that glory again despite improving it every year. It was super warm though, and that made this years edition super special. It was a great group of campers that I know pretty well by now, with the addition of some new faces which is always a good thing. I love this camp because I get the chance to work with a lot of people at once. I do love coaching and skill instruction, but it's been taking a back seat to my other endeavors.

Our ride sunday was an enduro format, which was cool to test out with a group of people. There was a wide range of ability, so I sat on the front and controlled the pace between segments so that we all arrived at the best trail sections together before ripping each section of trail as fast as possible and regrouping. It worked very well. I'm convinced that it will be a popular racing format. We had a wide range of abilities but that kept it real fun and social. A great weekend riding bikes. And my lesson for the weekend was that if I illustrate a move enough times, I'm inevitably going to screw up and hurt myself on one of my tries.

That brings us to this past week. The Tuscarora Mountain Bike Enduro. MASS Endurance race #1. I always feel weird blogging about race promoting. In fact, often times when putting on events, keeping details to yourself helps people enjoy they day more. Stupid things always happen to elevate stress and make things feel like they are going a-rye: like when my distributor didn't deliver my product on time so I had to skip class and drive across the state to pick up the order so I wouldn't have to pay an extra $250 in shipping to get things in time- just for instance. That happened once a couple years ago. An ex-girlfriend of mine always gave me grief about only posting on facebook about bike stuff. Riding bikes, selling bikes, doing trailwork, needing volunteers, pumping up races.....that kind of thing. She was half right, but that's my life, so sorry babe get over it, I'm going to post things about bikes. And so I feel like it should be normal for me to blog about putting on bike races. After all, that IS me. It's not all of me by a long shot, but its definitely a big part of me.

So from the promoters eye- my eye- the Tuscarora MTB Enduro.

This is formerly the MASH. It's in it's fourth year. Last year put me in search of a new place to hold this race for another four years or longer. I found it sometime last fall. I was doing a bunch of recon and went back to somewhere I rode with the Perry County boys a few years ago. I emailed the appropriate bodies and didn't get a response so I sat on it for a month or so. I finally called in and started getting somewhere. I set about laying things out, planting the seeds, and promoting this thing.

This is actually an interesting exam of sorts in putting to use what I've been learning over the last 6 years of promoting. Yeah....it's been that long already. What could I do with a totally new venue? I'm pretty blown away right now. Stoked. I know it's really no big deal- 150 racers isn't a big race or anything. But this feels like the smoothest a race has ever gone for me, and I had very low expectations going into this race.

In all reality, the way the race went this past weekend was how I wish everything I put on went. Smooth, safe, and smiling faces all around. That's everything I can hope for in an event. Okay enough waxing the vase.

This was a very cool weekend for me though. I finally feel like things are working out and on track. I'm a dreamer and its a good day when the details come together and a dreamers thoughts turn into something tangible. A good event. I spent all week working on the race, Friday was at the venue, Saturday was a pre-ride to help out Brian Fults, and the race was Sunday.

Random train of events and thoughts through the week:
I spent most of monday clearing debris off the course, making sure things were good to go when I arrived for the weekend. The rest of the week was a blur of getting things ready. I got to do a ton of different jobs this week: wood working, painting, screen printing, gift basket arranging, topography, culinary arts, and graphic design to name a few. I was very glad to have enough cash on hand to be able to give out as prizes. For me, two of my favorite things to win at a race are cash and beer. It rarely works out that I have the cash so I usually have to resort to checks. But not this time! I was happy about that. So on Friday, I waited for Joe to get home before hooking up the pop-up and heading out to the venue in our little caravan of trucks and trailor. (after some last minute errands of course) We got to the venue, and set about getting camp situated. I expected to get caught out in the rain marking course, so I thought far enough ahead to stash away some dry firewood to dry out a bit and get warm afterwards. We got the course marked and didn't even get rained on. I tried a new technique of marking a few corners with flour instead of marking paint.....which didn't work because of the weather. I was pretty pleased with how much the trails had dried up since monday but that didnt last. I knew it was doomed. We set about setting a few things up around the venue before it got too dark to see. Retiring to the pop-up/camper thing, I don't think either of us had enough energy to cook. We also had not remembered to bring a pot or utensils. So I whittled a spoon and we chowed down on some cold ravioli. It wasn't chef boy-ar-di, but it got the job done. I lay awake for the longest time, just going over things in my head before the rain started. With my thoughts drowned out by the pounding of rain drops on canvas, it sounded like a million pissed off gnomes were chucking hundreds of little buckets of water at the camper every second. Then the thunder kicked in and I knew we were screwed. Luckily we stayed dry under that old Apache pop-up. It wasn't until morning that I thought about my poor jug of pomegranate lemonade fighting the flood water all night. Luckily it had not washed away despite the creek raising a solid foot. I rolled over and put the coffee on to brew. I had time, for once, to get things done before people showed up. I wasn't worried about my arrows getting torn down by vandals and I had a managable to do list. None the less, it was the right decision to keep moving. I filled up my mug, slipped on my crocs and called Lona to join me in the truck. I needed to get some signs out to the roads, and this was the driest job to get done (since it was still pouring rain). It wasn't as dry as I thought it would be, but a, alright way to get things moving for the day. Next it was on to staking and taping a section of course by umbrella. I was lucky that it was warm because I was ankle deep in water at one spot and I hadn't brought my rubber boots! I resorted to stay wet in my crocs because it was better than having wet sneakers all weekend. Lesson learned, have a wet weather grab bag to take care of myself! Now more signage, tape, and tents to set up....throw on a big pot of coffee and wait for people to arrive for the pre-ride.

Doing the ride for Brian was...honestly a little awkward. I didn't know Brian super well. I knew that he was a regular supporter of my races, I knew he was a MASS racer, and I knew he was a big ole brute (meant in the most endearing way possible, his "bulldog" motto if you will). The decision was made to do this a few weeks after he posted up his bikes for sale the second time. That hit a little heart string for me I suppose. I emailed him up out of the blue and we talked about it. I didn't want to try it and not get much of a response, and I didn't want to do it if it would be weird for him. But a ton of people wanted to help and things turned out great. I picked up a friend out of it and we were able to raise quite a bit of money for him. I don't think it was the retail price of the Superfly he was trying to sell, but it wasn't far from the pro-deal price on it. I'm glad it worked out well. PLUS, I think we all had a good time pre-riding as a group.

It was a very diverse ride of 30+ people and it was raining when we set out. Thanks to Harlan and Cheryl for helping out with tips and knowledge! While we were out on the pre-ride I noticed that we had some flood damage on course. One of the little water drainages went from two feet wide by 3" deep to ten feet wide and over 2 feet deep! Someone said there was a stream crossing up ahead, but I was confused knowing there wasn't. Then we rolled up to a pond sized puddle!!!!! I walked in to start pulling the debris out that was clogging the drainage and was helped by Joe, Gunnar, and Kyle. What a sight I'm sure we were: standing in 2 feet of water up to our elbows with fists full of leaves!

We were all drenched in mud by the end of the ride, but that's nothing that lying face first in a mountain stream can't fix! It actually got all the dirt off of my kit....and shoes, returning them to a very bright yellow gleam. A shade they certainly haven't seen since before Texas. I do wish there were warm showers at the venue though.

Everything adjourned and we actually had the evening to relax around the fire. Gunnar was kind enough to bring the pudgy pie machine, so we all had a good time together. Pudgy pies make everything okay, and the skies clearing up had elevated our spirits.

Unfortunately something was keeping me up again. I've been having some ongoing episodes of fire induced sickness. I was laying there and actually said aloud," I sure don't feel very good." Within about 30 seconds, I went from "I feel like shit" to "I need to get my ass outside NOW". The pudgy pie came back up for a tree to use as nutrients, and I was instantly feeling better. I'm not sure what causes this problem I've been having, but the common denominator of 4 episodes is food that is cooked and burnt over open flame. This time I think that the culprit was the edges of crust that burn off in the fire. No harm no fowl, but that sucked. Eventually I got back to bed for another bad night of sleep.

I didn't want to wake up in the morning. I laid there grumbling for at least a half hour while Joe gave me shit for not getting up. Eventually I got moving in an awful hurry and everything started unfolding for the day.

Things I wish had gone better: I must have had stage fright and couldn't get solid cracks with my whip for the starting sound, number plates hadn't arrived when reg started, my massage girl didn't show up, and .... I think thats it.

Things I was happy about: seems like everyone loved the hand thrown mugs Kurt made, forestry was happy with our race and the people there, even the district forester came down to see the race which is a big deal (I was very stoked about that), the chili didn't burn, and I got to ride my bike, and people liked my hand made awards.

I'm pretty proud of myself for this weekend. I'm proud of the racers that came. AND I'm proud of what we all accomplished as bike racers and what the future holds at Tuscarora. I'm already working with forestry on putting in a better network around the park for years to come. Not only for the race, but for a new riding destination as well. I guess I'm still new to advocacy, but its exciting.

My ride report for the race:
I didn't get to strap on a number for the race, which I slightly regret because I won't get to ride my other race and that's two drops for the series which means I'd have to do all of the other ones to get a respectable finish for the series. I did however get to put in three laps (at least thats the what the blurry lap counter in my head says. It may have been two, but I think it was three.) Anyways, I got to ride more or less all of it with Carolyn. That was nice because I rarely get to talk to her. So it was nice to catch up. Enough said. I was happy with the course being muddy. That made it great for me because I'm a mudder. PLUS the lines aren't super developed through the rock gardens there, so it helped to slow things down and pick better lines through it all. I actually felt surprisingly well, and never bonked like I did last year.....but I also didn't try to sit on the front group like I did last year. I had a nice ride and my legs felt strong for a change. I was pretty happy with my riding up until the end when I started letting myself get bounced around, sliding off my desired lines. Not good riding when you don't keep yourself under control. I wasn't stoked on the descent off the back of the opening climb or the last road descent....that's the nasty part of muddy races with high speed mud flinging up into your eyes and up your nostrils. My eyes took a beating. But sometimes you just have to rinse them off with the water bottle. The part of the course I thought I'd like the least, I liked the most. It's weird how that changed because of the weather. If it hadn't rained nearly as much, I don't think that would have been the case. But slipping and sliding around the muddiest section of trail was the most fun I had on that course for some reason. Also, it made the shorter steeper climbs more bearable. (or maybe I felt like less of a wimp for not being able to ride everything I thought I should be able to). I waited around a bit too long after my last lap and didn't get out on another one, but that's probably for the better. I had other responsibilities to attend to. I can't hide on my bike forever.

I'm very glad abe showed up to take his standard pictures. Standard for Abe means stellar. He's a very gifted photographer, and I come from a film background (versus digital) so I've been exposed (hehe, get it? exposed.) to some really talented people before things got very point and shoot. Some camera's nowadays shoot themselves. You can find his stuff HERE if you want to check it out for yourself. All these pics are his too.

I don't think that was too bad....I had to go back and edit through things, cut a lot out, but I think I can live with writing my first promoter report. I got to feel like enough of a Jackass today getting shot down at the bank by a very cute girl, so I think I can handle this. I haven't done that in awhile, so it was good to renew that experience of getting shyly shot down. I hope it made her day, but maybe I should have gone home and shaved first.