"It's not that bicycling is so important, it is that everything else is equally unimportant."

Trail Building School  
Anyone interested in learning the newest of the new when it comes to building sustainable trail needs to hit this up. I've been before and I'm going to attend again this Friday. What, take time off of work? Check with your company - some of them allow you to use "civic" time or volunteer time. I'm using civic time since I get 40 hours of it a year.

Saturday I'll be helping to lead the class since we'll be working at Lake Fairfax Park. So check out the link - Trail Building School and try to make it.

If the weather stays dry, I'll lead a fixie off road ride after class, but if it's wet, bring the fixie roadies...

DT
posted by DT at 1:31:00 PM
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TNS - 3/29/2005  
For the first part of the ride we decided to stay close to home. The plan was to ride around and time it so we arrived at Whole Foods in Falls Church just before 7pm. We headed out from the parking lot towards the W&OD, but skipped the actual trail. We just kept going on Great Falls Rd., which is not to steep, but definitely a nice sustained climb. This took us all the way to Magarity St. where we popped a left and headed out on the rollers. Magerity ends in a nice death march uphill. Up we go, me being the last to make it up. I honestly suck hard on hills. You might as well bring the beer cooler with you so you don't get bored waiting at the top. Stoner and Spearmint were up there for a few minutes tooling around while I was slowly mashing my way up. Once at the top we turned around and hit Fisher St. for a nice curving downhill over to Lisle Ave. This was a good chance to stop by my house and let Kristin now we were heading over to Whole Foods and we would meet her there. A little time with the Busterman and we were off.

Flying down Griffith Ave. before popping a right on Pimmit and running the red light across Rt.7 to boogie on up to the store. We got there a little early, but that was good because we were able to grab a booth right near the beer man. The deal was Old Dominion was showing off their 7 beers. We thought they would all be lagers, but they pulled out some Tuppers Hop Pocket Ale, Millenium Barleywine, and the super special ($30/6pack) Oak Barrel Millenium. That last one was mmm...mmm...good! With a little liquid courage we were ready to head up Rt.7 crossing by the entrance to 66 and cut over into the neighborhoods to get onto the W&OD. From there it was a nice ride through the hills of Arlington to Key Bridge, battled Georgetown traffic before working our way over to the Brickskeller. This was my idea as I got an email from the owner that he now had 12 taps at the Brick and one of those was 90 Minute IPA. Awesome! So with a little extra riding because we are all somewhat directionally challenged, we pull up to the Brickskeller just in time to meet up with Zack Attack. Once inside they shove us in the corner of a 200 degree room. We opt to move seats to a roomier much cooler area. Then comes the shock - "oh the taps are upstairs and you can't get them down here", oh that sucks. "Yea and the upstairs is closed tonight"...WTF! So we did what any beer drinker would do...we left and rode over to RFD, where we put down some Racer X and Arrogant Bastard.

The Buffalo Burger was nice and bleeding, filled me up something good. After closing down RFDs we headed back out into the city streets. Riding in traffic is so much fun. We took our lane, or in the case of Georgetown both lanes. Back out of the city we hit "DT's Hill", where once again I was passed by everyone and soon they were out of sight. I tell ya, the light at the top of this hill is where all the trouble starts. Maybe if we made sure we stopped at this light...stopping, that would be dumb. I didn't see anyone so I kept on the trail to where it curves around and starts to follow 66. I couldn't see anyone or their lights, but I saw someone on a bike straight up on the street, near the top of the hill. So I took the street thinking that was the way to go, being it hooks back up to the trail, no worries. PUll back up to the trail and up the S curve and find Steve-o, but no Jason. Evidently he's waiting for me back on the trail so we start back down the hill when Jason comes cruising down. He was waiting, but no harm no foul. This was all in a 1/8th mile stretch of trail, haha. Who would of thought it could go down like that.

So grouped together again, we lined up and sprinted out. Up and down the hilly path before cutting out to the streets and taking the long way back to the cars. Finished up around midnight with a little something over 30 miles I think. A nice night to ride being it was in the 60's when we started and the temps didn't drop much. I was able to wear shorts the whole time and got to skip out on the tights...

DT
posted by DT at 11:49:00 AM
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Updated TNS Info  
So here's the deal on TNS rides. We try to meet at the parking lot next to Panera in Falls Church, Va at 5:30pm. That way we can be riding by no later than 6:00pm. Here's the link to where we meet.

Throw your bike in the car and get ready to ride!

DT
posted by DT at 12:41:00 PM
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Testing Route  
Saturday, Steve and I decided to meet up and try out a possible brewpub for when the occaisional Tuesday night ride will be shifted to Thursday night. We met at the usual location and grabbed some coffee at Panera. We then headed out and hooked the W&OD for some hills in Arlington. We were moving at a pretty good pace through the hills and seemed to pick up some other guy as we headed down through Roslyn. I was leading the way at this point and took us over the boardwalk. I kept up our pace until about 35 minutes into the ride when I slammed into the wall, not the concrete one, the physical one. I bonked hard! First Spearmint pulled past, then the guy who was on Steve's wheel pulled on past, then my pedals slowly crawled around. After Steve realized I wasn't the person sucking his wheel he slowed down to wait for me. At first I couldn't think why I was slowing down so much and then it dawned on me - hmm, the last real meal you ate was Thursday night. Friday was busy at work and I don't usually eat lunch to begin with so I can get home earlier. But for some reason I wasn't hungry Friday night and all I had Saturday morning was a coffee. So I imagine this is why I hit that wall...

I let Steve pull me around and just tried to stay on him at a slower pace. We made it into Old Town and rode up to Founders where we checked out the map. About 15 miles down and only 6 more to go. Rather than grabbing something at Founders we pushed on to our final spot, Shenandoah Brewing in Alexandria. The ride wasn't bad, but we realized this was no ride to be doing at night, especially after visiting Shenandoah. You have to ride for 3 miles on Duke St., which is only 35 mph, but people usually drive 60+ like your on a highway. It was pure joy though pulling up next to people at stoplights that had just floored it to pass you and sit at a redlight. I only had one person buzz me and I didn't get any honkers, so people were at least behaving.

We cruised on in and parked the bikes. A quick check on the computer and we still pulled 15.2 mph average, even with my bonking. Evidently I got some chain grease on my fingers, because it was now smeared across my nose/face. Cleaned up a little and sat down. This place is amazing! The smells of freshly brewing wort encompass you. This place knows beer! The menu is pretty limited though - 4 kinds of chili and a meatball sandwich. Chili was good, added a bunch of nacho chips to it for some more energy on the way back. Had some "nothing but hops" and a double chocolate stout before heading out.

Back on the road, Steve gave me two options: we can ride back through Shirlington (easier flatter ride) or we can ride back the way we came through the hills of Arlington. I chose option number one, Shirlington, knowing that Steve would force me to stop by Cap City Brewing for a pint. Pretty uneventful getting there, Steve pulling and me sitting back trying to hold on. My Pale Rider Ale came none to soon. After that we charged back to the cars, taking a few streets I usually don't take. Back at Panera, Steve loaded up some cookies and I grabbed a fresh loaf of sourdough and then headed home. We managed about 40 miles all said and done. Steve added 17 more miles by riding into DC and back for a veggie dinner and show. I stayed home cause Kristin was sick, possibly flu. Hopefully I don't catch it, tried my best to chase and destroy it with some Vienna Inn ale later in the night with friends. We'll see.

Tomorrow's TNS ride...well I'm hoping we hit Whole Foods. Odd yes, but Dominion is presenting 7 of their beers for a tasting and heck, Whole Foods has pretty good food.

DT
posted by DT at 12:04:00 PM
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#1045 California Style Imperial Pale  
Steve and I brewed up an Arrogant Bastard Clone beer a couple of weeks ago, now known as Hop Dog. I moved it over to the secondary fermenter to see if anything will settle out at the bottom. It's looking really good so far and it smells grand. Should be hoppy and around 6.5% if all goes well. Now that the primary is free it's time to come up with the next beer to brew. What would people like to see?

DT
posted by DT at 11:59:00 AM
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TNS - 3/22/2005  
We expected rain on this ride, so we changed up our plans to make the front ride longer than the back. I was the last one to the parking lot and Steve was the last one ready...again, haha. Here's what we ended up doing -

Left Panera's parking lot and headed out on the streets until we picked up the W&OD. Cruised the W&OD until we were able to go straight onto the Four Mile Run trail. This whole section of trail is pretty flat. We picked up the pace a little with the decision that if we made it into Shirlington before 7:00pm, we would stop at Cap City Brewing for one happy hour beer...we made it, one Pale Rider Ale down. We sat outside, hopefully a sign of things to come!

After jumping back on the bikes, Steve realized his light wouldn't come on and tried to work it a little. It ended up coming apart and had to be put back together. Still not working, Spearmint rode in between Stoner and myself. We headed over 395 and stayed on the paved path, through Alexandria until we reached the Mt. Vernon trail. Rode past National and on and on until the Key Bridge. At this point we cut back into Roslyn to take what Steve lovingly calls "DT's Hill". No gauntlet was thrown. We all made it up and then cut through a housing area and on up to Dr. Dremos.

Dremos was pretty bumping for a Tuesday night. None of us brought a lock so the doorman let us bring them inside. Nice! If it did rain, the bikes would be dry to start the ride home. Veggie chili and grilled cheese, pitcher of Arrogant Bastard and Donut Beer, with a final pint of Dogfish Head 60 Minute...mmm...good.

Enough conversation and back on the bikes. Still not raining. We head up Wilson Blvd. and cut past Revolution bike shop. Spearmint had some cooky way of picking roads through the neighborhood. I had something totally different in mind, but I managed to regroup and pull Stoner along for "gutter pass". Cut across a parking lot to pull in front of Steve and up the long winding S curve on the Custis Trail. This is where we get to have some fun in the hills of Arlington. Up and down until we pull onto the W&OD. From here it's not a far stretch to the cars. Before the cars though Stoner tried to keep on the W&OD and Spearmint wanted the hills of the streets. The group split for the last couple of blocks and met up in the parking lot.

Ending at a reasonable 11:11pm. It's nice to get home before 11:30pm! Stoner was the only one with a camera. Nag him and maybe he'll get his site back up and running...

DT
posted by DT at 3:24:00 PM
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Dos Rides  
Saturday was a full day. Woke up early and met Spearmint who dragged along Braun for a spin around Wakefield. It was my first time really riding the trails we just built. The flow is awesome. We headed into the woods and rode the trails clockwise (the way they were designed) and ended back at the parking lot after a bit to drop off some unneeded gear, jackets and whatnot. Joe P. was in the lot waiting for trail maintenance people to show up and suggested we ride the new stuff backwards, so we did. It flows just as nice and climbing up the switchbacks is a treat. Everything is really well designed. We busted out of the race track area and shot down the creek trail. Pulled the creek drop, but my chain was loose and had to stop afterwards and put it back on. My chainline must be slightly off because when putting the chain back on it seems to fall on the inside of the rear cog. Finally we worked our way over to the Bowl area, up and down, then back to the parking lot. A good quick early morning ride. It once again reinforces how bad I am at hills once they reach a certain grade. I can hold my own pretty well on downhills, flats, and anything technical, but put me on a trail and point it towards the sky and just start to die pretty quick. Hopefully that will come with more hill riding this season. Thanks to Spearmint and Braun for yelling at my ass until I made it to the tops.

Would have been cool to help with the trail maintenance or help Gary with his move, but today was a busy day. Had to rush home and get ready to drive up to Philly for a family pub crawl. Got to Philly early so I could get a ride in with my brother. He borrowed a mountain bike from a coworker since his is down at the beach. It's about a 4 mile ride to the park, so we hopped on and started pedalling. This is where the gears have it. It's downhill for the first half of this and he hit the gears and I just met him at the bottom. It was good fixie practice though for unclipping at a high rate of speed and then trying to clip back in once you hit a flattish part of road.

Once at the bottom we contended with traffic and started through Mantayunk, but decided to turn around and give the Mantanyunk Wall a go. It's something like a 17% grade and a mile long. I managed to make it to the top, but I couldn't have done it if I was riding 48x16 on the Pista...rocked it though with the 34x17 of the mountain bike. Once at the top of the hill it was a short spin to Wissahickin Park. We cut into the park and rode an access road to the dirt trail doubltrack. We went for a bit, going up mostly, before turning around and taking a switchback down to the gravel road that sits next to the river. After a brief break, we followed the road out to Manayunk and went to a nice coffee shop. I can't say I was looking forward to the climb out and neither was my brother as it turns out. A quick call and we had a ride back to the house. Just enough time to clean up before the rest of the cousins showed up. Replaced my carbs with some damn good lasagne and did my best to replace calories with beer.

Been awhile since I've gotten two rides in one day. Felt good to ride and get in some family time. No pictures...to busy riding.

DT
posted by DT at 10:10:00 AM
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TNS - 3.15.05  
Last night was the sixth Tuesday Night Swill. Once again it was the three hardcores out there. We left Falls Church a little late as usual. Somehow Steve is always the first one there and I'm always the last, but Steve is always the last to be totally ready, ha. I had a big internal debate - winter gear or spring gear...it was 45 degrees or so and quite nice, but when the wind picked up and knowing it was going to be mid 30's when we finished I chose the more suitable winter gear.

We headed out to the W&OD and Spearmint layed it down leading us out at a good pace. This is the first time that I can remember that we rode all the way to the bar/restaurant without stopping along the way. It's always something - Steve's light not working, me getting dropped, Stoner talking to the ladies...always something. But this time we just cruised, picked up a guy on a mountain bike while on the Mt. Vernon trail. He assimilated into our group for a bit before dropping out. We made the trip to Founders in about an hour, so we must have been clocking about 15 mph.

We got a nice spot back behind the wine tasting that would be going on later in the evening. Ended up with a super cool waitress, which always makes the restaurant experience a better one. We started off with Bill Maden's Big Al Imperial Ale...all 22 oz. of it. The new optional rule was in effect tonight, 3 beer limit. This on the hopes that we could something more out of the ride...more than fat that is. Luckily, when you join the Founders Club ($25/year) you always get happy hour prices and 22 oz. glasses instead of 16. A great deal for sure!

I ended up going with Spearmint on the Chicken Burrito, good stuff. Definitely recommended, but ask for fries instead of the rice. The rice was good, but a little crunchy, kind of like when I make it at home, ha. The waitress spent a lot of time talking trash with us, evidently we are more interesting than a group of 40 old timers doing wine tasting, imagine that. Then later in the night, the owner of Founders, a super nice lady, came over to chat for a bit. Evidently she rides and is trying to get the sponsor ball rolling with a local shop. Good luck to her on that, hope it all works out.

After more fun discussions it was time to get back on the bikes...actually they turned all the lights on and started mopping the floors, ha. Trying to give us a message you think? Back on the bikes we took off to return from wence we came. Stoner took a dinger on the railroad tracks, which like to eat wheels I'm told. Stoner now has a mandatory helmet rule, especially after drinking. Hopefully he'll get his site back up and running and can give full details. We spaced out a little on the ride back, but never real far apart. Took the big hill up through Roslyn and then regrouped a little later down the trail. Made the final push home by taking some hilly side streets to spice things up. Back to the cars by midnight, good times.

So Tuesday night is set in stone...will you be there?

DT
posted by DT at 11:03:00 AM
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TNS - 3.8.05  
This was going to be a shorter TNS ride since the weather rolled in early in the morning. Some heavy rain, which turned into a full on white out as the snow was whipped around by the wind. There was finally a reprieve from the weather later that afternoon and it was decided we would head to Cap City Brewing in Shirlington. After some good old fashioned heckling, Gary agreed to come on out. We left Panera's and scooted on up to the W&OD. There were definitely some icy spots, but we just took it easy and kept on pedaling. We took the 4 Mile Run off shoot and continued on our way to Shirlington with Spearmint leading the way. Not bad, a little under an hour of riding and it's only 7pm. We tasted a couple of beers and I put down some fish and chips. There was some good natured ribbing by all and I don't know how, but we spent 3 1/2 hours eating, drinking, and talking. At some point I broke out the phone number of a guy from Craigslist who was selling some cross tires - $5 for a set of Ritcheys, pretty good deal considering I need a pair. Turns out he was a flake. Thanks for nothing. Guess that's craigslist for you, can be real hit or miss, but it's free to post. I could go on a nice little rant here, but hey, the seller probably knows that was a dick move and I'll move on to better things now....like more beer.

I toted an empty growler along to be filled at Cap City. Filled it with some Irish Dry Stout that was pretty good, but damn, only 4.0% - what's up with that? Next we filled up with some California Common. It's not real hoppy, but it packs a good flavor for this lager. Once refilled, we suited up and headed back into the cold. A quick spin back to the cars, definitely not enough to burn off anywhere near what we just consumed, ha. Got back to the cars and the temps on my car's guage read 22 degrees, not taking into account the wind chill...it was pretty damn cold out. Everyone seemed to stay nice and warm though, definitely a case of having the right layers. Having windproof layers and winter shoes is a must have for these nights.

Four die hards on this ride, just the usual suspects. I have a feeling once it warms up people will start flocking to this ride and the 40+ milers will be coming out...can't wait!

DT
posted by DT at 9:53:00 AM
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City Bikes  
Monday turned out to be a beautiful 70 degree day. I was hoping to get out on the trails, but I had a 7pm meeting at Tryst for the City Bikes mountain bike team. Rode the fixie out there and hung out for the meeting. Mostly talked about new goals for 2005, what the shop is looking to get from us, and who is doing what races. All pretty standard stuff for a first meeting of the year.

After the meeting I pedaled on over to Local 16 at 16 St. and U St. It's sort of a tapas type of restaurant, really small portions, but good if everyone is actually sharing. Met up with Kristin and some friends for food and drinks. Hung out and caught up with everyone, then pedaled on back home. It was a really nice night, makes you really think about the coming of spring.

DT
posted by DT at 9:52:00 AM
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I'm From Away...  
This past weekend, Kristin and I flew to Maine to take care of wedding business. I was hoping to get a ride in, but Maine has a ton of snow and it's even tough going on the snowmobile trails according to the locals. So I bagged the idea of getting a ride in, but came up with the idea to go snowshoeing. Turns out we were so busy that we didn't even have time for that. We did manage to book the flowers, go cake tasting at a couple of places and reserved a baker, reserved the tent and chairs, and decided on invitations. Sometimes it's good to be from away...

We were so busy, I don't even think Kristin took any pics over the entire weekend...pretty rare.

DT
posted by DT at 9:50:00 AM
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Short Swill  
From Paneras we headed up the W&OD and pondered whether or not to take the Custis Trail into Shirlington, but eventually decided to go with the original plan of Georgetown. Along the way we modified that plan so we would go to Dr. Dremos. Good idea Stoner! Dremos had a few really good beers on tap. The favorite of the night had to be "mmm...beer" with a Simpsons chocolate donut with sprinkles on the tap.



A super chocolate stout it was! I definitely haven't tasted anything quite like it. We also had a pint of the Racer X IPA, which is always a good choice. Being it's only 7 miles to Dremos, this was a super short night. I'm officially the first one of the three to not finish the ride. I had to meet up with Kristin and some friends to watch the "Great Race" at 9pm. This did however extend my ride as I cut down through Rosslyn, across the Key Bridge and on up Wisconsin. I tend to forget just how long Wisconsin is, but it was a lot tougher than I remembered. I didn't have to stop and I was able to keep speed, but it's quite the hike. So Wisconsin to Calvert then over to Tunlaw where I finally reached the peak and was able to cruise down the apt. building. My initial plan was to ride back from their apt., but we didn't finish the show until 11:30pm and with me needing to get up for work in a few hours I took the easy way out and loaded the bike up in Kristin's Jetta. Fit like a charm and was much warmer on the way home...

Spearmint and Stoner finished up a little after 10pm, hope your ride back was good!

DT
posted by DT at 9:47:00 AM
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TNS...s is for short  
We're going for 4 weeks straight. Tonights TNS ride goes off, same time, same place...5:30PM from Panera in Falls Church. We aren't going to wuss out because of the conditions, but we shortening the ride a bit. We'll ride into Georgetown, get a bite to eat and throw back a couple of beers. Then everyone is heading back to Panera. I'm missing the ride back, gotta meet up with Kristin and some friends that live off Macarthur...get to do some extra fun hills...

So who's wussing out and who's stepping up?

DT
posted by DT at 12:51:00 PM
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mmm...Drop!  
Monday night Spearmint and I hit up Wakefield. It was snowing pretty hard and the ground was covered with a couple of inches, but there were still soft areas so we needed to limit where we rode. Mostly just the creek trail. The riding was tough in the snow and with the soft conditions we only did about 3 miles, but that's better than 0 miles...

Spearmint broke out the camera and we had a mini drop session. Usually it's on the creek trail into the creek bed. This time I almost got Spearmint to jump it by accident by riding off the drop without saying anything. He almost followed me over, but just managed to go left and stay on the trail. A little farther down is a little bit bigger drop that puts you into a flood shelf area just above the creek. Surprisingly there was a ton of snow and the ground was solid, so I had a go at it.



Good times. This night was special because I took Buster out with us for the first time. I figured it's a Monday night and it's snowing like crazy. In my experience that usually means there is nobody else out on the trails, which makes it the perfect time to teach your dog how to mountain bike with you. Buster did great and had a blast! We didn't encounter any other trail users and he pretty much stayed in between Spearmint and myself, but never really getting in the way. We gave him a couple of little breaks to run and play in the water, but he ran all out for most of the 3 miles we did. Once back at the cars, he hopped right in and took a nap in the front seat while Spearmint and I threw one back. Just the sort of random Monday night I needed!

DT
posted by DT at 12:51:00 PM
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