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

TNS - 4/26/05  
For this TNS ride we took to the dirt for the first time. There was enough rain previously in the week to keep most of us off the trails, but after a couple of days of dry weather it was time. An email exchange between Stoner, Spearmint and myself confirmed we all wanted to taste dirt.

I got to the Wakefield parking lot a little late and the other two got back to the parking lot from doing a quick loop as I was finishing up getting ready. We mounted up and headed for Accotink. Stoner took us out on the new trail and we put a nice loop together to include the rock garden twice. From there we stuck mostly to the perimeter trail until we could make it up the double bubble. Once we finished at the dam, we decided to head back on singletrack the way we came instead of cruising on the Cinder trail. Stoner and Spearmint are pushing the pace pretty good and I can feel it. The legs are there and willing, but I still have a long way to go on the lungs as I gasp for air as we head up. Luckily they keep me within their rear site and I’m able to stick with them. Then in a harmless little roller section, PING! Great, there goes my chain. I don’t have any links on me and the link that broke pretty much bent and disentegrated. So I’m stuck a few miles from the cars and it looks like I’ll be coasting and walking. We pull up to some singletrack that shoots downhill and should drop us onto the cinder trail. I headed on down and once on the cinder trail got the offer from Steve - “grab on to my seat”. Nothing to grab on his seat so I grab his seatpost and off we go.

Steve pulled my ass several miles on the cinder trail and all the way back to the cars. I appreciate it man! If you’ve ever wondered what a guy riding a bike looks like with a hand stuck up his ass…well you should have been at Wakefield. As a thank you, Spearmint got first tastes on my new homebrew, Hop Dog. It’s an Arrogant Bastard clone and damn it was good!

After polishing off a few homebrews and whatever I had left in the cooler, we headed over to Kilroys with Joe Foley and got some grub and more beer. Ah, nice to be outside on these nights. Now if I can only remember to bring my damn light battery!

DT
posted by DT at 11:56:00 AM
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NYC  
It has rained on and off since Thursday afternoon. Some of the guys got in some early dirt, but I'm sure the trails have been off limits all weekend. I don't know for sure though, because I was up in New York City. Why? I was checking out my first Broadway play, Spamalot. We drove up Friday night, so we could be in NYC all day Saturday and be free for the show on Sunday before driving back Sunday night.

Saturday was great! Cassell and I brought the bikes up on the roof rack, because I figured it would be the easiest way to see the city and man was I right. NYC is just so much taller than DC, with no height restrictions on the buildings everything towers over you and you just feel enclosed.

We rolled out from our friend Kim's place on the East Side and headed over to the Empire State Building. Took some pictures before heading back to play in traffic a bit. Eventually we made it over to Central Park and had good romp through the carless streets in the park. Lots of runners and other riders with an amazing amount of open land in the heart of the city. After riding on the street/path enough we ventured into the park itself and rode some rocks and little dirt paths, before pushing back out to ride in traffic again. We rolled our way into the West End and met up with a friend of Cassell's and hit Artie's Deli...mmm...

After all that it was time to cruise back to the East Side and get ready to go out for dinner. Now I like riding in traffic so I feel fairly comfortable, but I was pretty impressed with Cassell riding his mountain bike in and out of the cabs. I mean DC traffic is one thing, but this is 4 to 6 lanes full of one way traffic. It's usually backed up at the lights, but when it's green, look out! Cars are routinely blasting through intersections at 50+ mph with pedestrians either jumping out of the way or standing within inches of the sides of the car. So yea, biking in the middle of it keeps you on your toes. A couple of times I slipped into the zone and would rush it for a few blocks racing traffic, only to have to pull out and wait a bit for Cassell as he isn't really used to the whole "take the lane" thing and he values his life, ha. So after mixing it up with traffic we ended up back at Kim's and it probably only took us around 25 minutes to get back. Granted, I'm sure NYC residents, couriers, etc. probably can do this in under 10 minutes, but damn it was fun.

Cassell definitely got a kick out my "yes I'm traffic" behaviour. He was behind me and got honked at so this guy could slam on the gas in order to stop 15 feet later at the red light. It's just too bad that he would have to end up behind me taking the lane and giving him the eye, with kids in his car no less, what an ass. There was also the pedestrian "I'm just gonna walk into the middle of the road on a don't walk symbol". He basically walked into the road when I was bearing down hard to make the green light. He finally looked up in time to see me and he just froze in the middle of the road, not knowing whether to go back or run across. Since several other people had decided to follow him, because well he must have looked right, I took to the inside and squeezed through. Not tight enough to slow down, but tight enough to elicit an "asshole" from the guy. I got a kick out of that since I had a green light.

So that was the only biking I got in NYC, but it was a blast. I definitely like the big apple. I have no idea what the local mountain biking scene is like, but the city itself is steeped in bike culture and the fixie scene is ever vibrant. I'll see if Cassell can send me some of his pics as I didn't take any.

Sunday we saw Spamalot and it was freaking hilarious. They say it's the next "Producers" whatever that means. All I know is I laughed and I laughed hard. It was good, because it wasn't exactly like the film, but pulled several of the best scenes and then incorporated some "broadway only" stuff. Great show! Now if it didn't take us 90 minutes to get through the Lincoln Tunnel on the way home, the trip would have been fabulous.

DT
posted by DT at 10:08:00 AM
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Give me a break!  
Yea, so I'm a slacker. I pretty much only write this stuff when I have a break in work and recently I was taking a training class AND trying to make up for what I was missing while I was in class. Thus updates have been slow. Maybe I should have famous guest blogger Spearmint do occaisional write ups.

Ok, so because this is going so far back (over a week), I'm just gonna summarize the summary...

Tuesday (4/12/05) we did our usual TNS ride. Well it wasn't that usual, it was the first semi lame one, but people were pretty worked I guess. We rode into the city and it took us forever, but we finally found John Harvards on a corner. Basically, don't ever take a date there. The food was bland and very average, but the beer was even worse. Not a strong quality in either of the two we tried. This also set the tone for the night, we only had two beers the entire night! What kind of swill ride is that? To top it off, we finished by 9:30pm. We did get Braun out, so that was cool, good riding with him. I think Kristin was a little out of sorts having me home before 10:00pm, but it was nice to be home at a reasonable hour for once.

Wednesday (4/13/05) I rode Colt's Neck with a couple of friends. Check out Gary's blog for an awesome map of the Colt's Neck loop and his account of the ride. All I know is this was my 5th day of straight riding and four out of the five were off road, so my legs were toast. I think I had a little over 100 miles for the week.

I finally took a break on Thursday to attend the Washington Nationals home opener. It rocked, we won! Enough said.

The next day I ended up riding was Sunday morning. I hit Accotink/Wakefield with Steve. We did a bunch of the new stuff on the Accotink side and put it with the older stuff, then back over to Wakefield for a quick loop. Then Donna showed up and we took a nice casual pace around the new Wakefield stuff. Ended up with about 14 miles on the day.

Monday (4/18/05) I hit up the new Wakefield loop with Gary real quick before he had to go pick up his kid. gary flatted and it was one of those "we're close enough to the cars in this loop theres no reason to bring tubes, etc." moments. I went down to the parking lot and got borrowed a patch kit from Ricky d. who was gearing up for the MORE ride. Did a nice sprint through the loop backwards, but didn't find Gary. Turns out he walked it out and I just missed him coming into the parking lot. Oh well, got to do a little sprinting through the loop, which was a blast.

Tuesday (4/19/05) was yet another TNS, what's that #11 or #12? This was back to the old school. We rode into the city and hit RFD's, who recently opened up their outdoor patio. Within about 2 minutes of sitting down, some jerkoffs leave their outside table to sit on a bench behind our table and have a little smoking pow wow. WTF man? Why not sit on the bench right behind your table? What, you don't want to bother the people at your table with your smoke, great, but that doesn't mean I fucking want it. It's not like we're inside at the bar, we're sitting outside to get away from that crap (well that and to soak up what the weather goddess was delivering). So yea, you three win the jerkoff award of the night. Go get cancer and die already, but do it with Joe Cool cigs, cause their the coolest! Ass.

Anyway, getting out of RFDs a little early was too much to bear, so we hit up Georgetown traffic to play and then headed up DT's hill and over to Dremos. More antics ensued, lots of trash talking, good stuff. Then we headed out so Spearmint could show us Steve's Hill...it's about four times longer than my hill, but it's a little more gradual and only gets really steep right at the end, just to make sure it really gets you. Fun hill and I think we'll be including it on the way back to the cars from now on. Once back at the cars we hashed out a little arguement about whether you can switch disc calipers from rear to front. Spearmint's arguement was you needed the front adaptor and I said you didn't. Well for future reference, I was wrong. It's IS mount, but you still need an adaptor, damn devil. Not having enough of the trash talking, we went into a nice tiraid on when it's ok to ride on trails after rain. This mostly stemmed from trash talking about a ride I led out at Colt's Neck. This was a fun little dity, at least until the cops showed up. Guess someone in their McMansion didn't approve of our loud voices and called in a complaint, granted it was midnight so it was kind of late. Problem is, then we had to sit around until the cops felt it was cool to leave. They didn't bother us at all, but they just hung around talking to each other directly in front of our cars. My inspection is expired so it's not like I need any other reasons to get pulled over. So Steve and I just hung out for a bit longer until they finally left. They were cool about the whole situation though, just said to keep it down a little. Back home by 1:00am. Now that's a good swill ride! Trash talking, beers, and cops...who's coming next week?

DT
posted by DT at 10:28:00 AM
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"Monday, Monday, Monday!"  
Last night I met up with Spearmint, Gary, and a couple of other guys for a Monday night spin, only this was a finish before dark type of ride, because none of us were carrying lights. I convinced the crew to head over to Accotink first since I haven't ridden there this year and with Wakefield being open at night, there was no reason to do it first. We picked up Delaware Dave leaving the parking lot riding his IF single. Steve showed us a section of trail that skips the 2 blocks your riding on the street to get to the cinder trail, not sure I really liked it though. It must be the access road for the power trucks because it has tank tracks. On top of that it puts you out past the new trail right when you hit the cinder. We did however sight a small line of dirt jumps, not sure if it's private property or not though. It's small enough that you would probably need 20" wheels to really do it justice. We tooled around Accotink for a bit before I got a rear flat near the gas plant. Guess they thought I was right behind them as they took off when I said "I've got a flat". No big deal, Gary stayed behind while I changed my flat and then we took it at our own slightly easier pace. Turns out the just did the perimeter trail, while we went back and forth into the middle of the park and back to the outside. We took a little bit shorter cinder section back where as they took the longer cinder, not that that really matters, it's all flat anyway. We made it back to the lot in time to grab Spearmint for a loop around Wakefield, even though he already did two loops while we were still out in Accotink. This was Gary's first time on the new trails and I think he really liked them. Might try and get out on Wednesday to ride them in the sunlight as light was fading fast when we rode.

The ride was pretty casual and uneventful, at least until the very last boardwalk section in the middle of the rock pathway. I was pulling up to go over a peak section when I felt it, running fixie I was able to stop without using any front brake, which is a good thing when your carbon handlebar brakes at the edge of where your front brake is mounted and it's detached in your hand... The front wheel went off the edge of the boardwalk, but I was able to stay standing and there was no accident to speak of. So let that be a warning, when you cut into carbon fiber when you wreck, replace it before getting in that one more ride. Thanks to Steve for not giving me too much shit after we just had a nice throw down over beers about whether carbon fiber bars are safe on the previous TNS ride. I'm sure more heckling will ensue tonight though...

DT
posted by DT at 11:35:00 AM
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Weekend Wrapup  
Got in some good riding the past few days. Saturday was a special treat. Kristin had a friend coming into town who wanted to do the Cherry Blossom Festival and since I was planning on biking down to it with Spearmint and his lady, she decided to bike along. We had a nice casual ride from Clarendon to the Tidal Basin. Locked up the bikes and took a hike around the water, the trees were in full bud and tons of people were out. Couldn't ask for a better day! From there we biked over to RFD's, but they didn't have their back patio open yet, so we opted to keep on biking over to Cap City Union Station and sit outside. After some late lunch/early dinner and a few beers, we decided it was getting a little late and we better head back and take the quicker way. This involves lots of DC street riding, in particular Georgetown. I have to say, I was most impressed with Kristin's traffic handling skills. She followed me into the lions den and kept on going without a word. Weaving in and out and riding down the middle between the traffic jammed and moving cars. I think she finally felt that scary adrenaline rush you get from having to be aware of so much going on in so many directions. Her slow bike riding balance was incredible. All this after a few beers! So yea, Kristin rocked it rockstar style. We headed across the Key Bridge and the only time she walked was going up our giant hill in Roslyn. From there we cruised back to the car and packed it in with something around 15-20 miles on the day, the most she has ever ridden. Yea, I'm proud.

After the ride we hit Jaleos for dinner with friend from out of town, turning into an all nighter and getting home around 5-5:30am. But no worries, I told Steve I'd meet him for a 9am ride at Wakefield and I know he would be disappointed if I didn't show...haha, so out of bed I pulled myself. Met Steve and Stoner for a lively romp around the new Wakefield trails before I cut out. They headed over to Accotink and I went home to try and squeeze a nap in before my 2pm Gambrill ride.

No such luck on the nap, drove over to Tysons to meet up with Lee and Joe R. for some carpool action. Thanks for driving Lee! We ended up getting to Gambrill about 30 minutes late due to some book drop off debacle. Sorry guys. This was a great ride though, almost all of the DCAMB old timers getting together for some old school action. We headed out on the yellow loop and rocked every bit of it. The pace was casual and we did plenty of catching up. Near the end we had play time on the rocks. Scud was the first to go down and hit the elbow, but not being outdone on injuries I had to take it one step further...it's always that last run once the camera is away that hurts most. I was lining up a rock drop that I initially was just going to roll, but decided it was too steep and went for the wheelie drop. Couldn't get my feet and pedals right on the landing (which in itself is a rock garden) and bobbled the landing. I couldn't get my left foot out in time and took a nice crash on the left side. Ripped into the back of my leg, smashed three fingertips (bruised fingertips suck when you work in computers), bent my Avid Juicy brake lever (lucky they bend back, mostly), sliced into my carbon handlebar, and just generally bled on stuff. Not really that bad, didn't even crack a helmet this time, but it made me that much more tired for the rest of the ride out.

After the ride there was a little hanging out at the cars, but everyone was tired and eager to get home. I was on the verge of falling asleep in the car, but held out. Thanks again to Lee for driving, that would have sucked if I had to drive. Missed JB's birthday party on Sunday afternoon, sorry man. But between the ride and the weather I hope you understand. Next round of beers is on me.

Wow, what a weekend. Great weather and great riding and thats the wrap.

DT
posted by DT at 11:34:00 AM
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Races  
Well Gwadz kind of already beat me to posting my own information, but here it is - the 2005 area races. I read the comment from a couple posts so I know I need to add the VA Deraileur series. Anyone got anything I'm missing?

DT
posted by DT at 1:56:00 PM
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Been Away  
It's been awhile since I threw something up on here, but it's a busy couple of weeks. Let's see, I got some catching up to do. After the 3.29.05 TNS ride, I did the Wednesday night Fountainhead ride. We started on the White trail, which isn't a mountain bike trail, but we were allowed to ride it since we were the only users out there. Directions were a little spotty and it's definitely a hiker trail and not a mountain bike trail, but it was cool to ride something your usually not allowed. After that trail we split into different groups and headed out on the mountain bike loop. Everything was going good, legs felt a little wooden after the TNS ride, but I was hanging in there. I was stopped waiting for some space going up a hill, sat back on the bike to start going and whoosh...instantaneous air release in the rear wheel. Damn, first flat in a long time. Gotta run up the hill and replace the tube, turns out I grabbed a road tube instead of my mountain bike tubes, but Maj was nice enough to shoot me a loaner. Back up and running and things are going ok. Conditions were a little sandy in places. Then, about the farthest out on the loop you can be, I flatted again on a downhill. No reason for the flat, didn't hit anything, just instantaneous loss of air again. Well that sucks, no more tubes and the group is pretty far up ahead. I chose my punishment...walking out the 3+ miles or so to the parking lot. Tried to run some of it, all adventure race style, but that got old fast with the shoes I was wearing. To top it off, my light died just before the intersection that leads you to either Shock-a-billy or the alternate route. I chose correctly and slid my way down billy in the dark. Finally at the lot I was able to take a break and pack it in. What a night.

Thursday - the TCC was in town doing land managers training. I took a half day and walked them out to discuss the section of trail I wanted to reroute on Saturday. We flagged and headed out.

Friday - attended the TCC Riverbend visit. We got shutdown on doing a reroute last minute, so I spent the afternoon helping Jill help people to learn to use a clinometer and lay out trail. It's a lot harder than most people expected. You can take a step down and a slope might go from 4% to 17%...not good.

Saturday - up early for the Colt's Neck TCC visit. We had about 20 people or so in the morning classroom session and about 13 of them came out for the second half of the day, which included trail maintenance while it poured down on us. We did what we could, but the reroute looked like it wasn't going to happen. At 3:00pm, the sky cleared and we set to work doing a couple hours of bench cutting. In the end, we got a nice reroute that ends with a pretty wicked rock garden. Check it out, leave from the ice rink and drop into Lake Fairfax. It won't be long before you notice a new section of trail that isn't fully bedded in up on the hillside...great stuff.

Tuesday - brought about another TNS ride, the ninth so far I believe. Gary made a surprise appearance before heading out on his own ride. We headed out to Cap City at Union Station so we could sit outside and enjoy the 75 degree weather. I got some pepper stuffed shrimp on pasta...mmm...tasty. Feeling like we were getting out too early, we headed over to Dremos and did a pretty good number there. Somebody (cowboy) gently placed the gauntlet down while I was in the bathroom and when I got back there was a pint of 60 Minute staring me in the face...damn. The ride back was pretty uneventful, ask Steve...right, haha. Arlington really should get a handle on those pesky moving posts. Back at the cars there was some fuzz action out on the street that watched for a bit. Give people a chance to clear their blood before jumping in the cars. Made for a long night though, getting home at 2:00am. It made last nights ride a little tougher.

Wednesday (last night) - finally, more hours of daylight. I led an official MORE ride out at Colt's Neck. I hiked a large section of trail between Tamarack Park and the Dulles Toll Rd. around 1pm and with the exception of a couple of spots, everything seemed nice and dry. 9 guys showed up to ride and we lost one before starting. 8 of us rolled out onto the trails working out any mechanicals in the first hundred yards or so (dropped my chain), then it was on. One guy got a flat and Randy Kerr took on the task of helping him and leading him the rest of the way, since we were sort of on a time crunch. 6 of us continued on and only hit 3 muddy sections that we had to walk. Lake Fairfax Park was in fine condition and our new reroute is bedding in nice. The rock garden at the end is a surprisingly great. The first muddy section we hit was just across the neighborhood road at Rt.7. Just inside the woods where it's always bad, we needed to walk a section. Then we were on the bikes until just before passing under the Toll Rd., where that section is still under some water. The muddiest section was actually the paved CCT which has collected a nice mud film, so beware the slick spots, but at least no trail damage. After the Toll Rd. we ran into one more section we needed to walk, but from there on out everything was dry and rideable.

We had two people go down trying to cross the fairweather water crossing. Lots of water still flowing through (powerful) and the concrete slab had a nice slippery film on it. I rode it anyway and made it, but the couple of people who tried to ride it behind me weren't so lucky...gotta know the line I guess, ha. Anyway, everything from there on out to the W&OD was dry except a small section that has standing water and is prime for some reroute action up on the hillside. This section wasn't really muddy, just watery, lots of leaves holding the water in. After a short spin on the W&OD we took a left just to show people where the CCT continues on, then back on the W&OD to the cars. Ended up hitting ODB on the way home and picked up my WUSS jersey...looking good!

There, I think I'm all caught up. Hoping it doesn't rain today as it's actually looking pretty nice out right now, cloudy, but warm. Spring is here!

DT
posted by DT at 12:37:00 PM
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