Life's Not Fair

"Let's ride."

Wishful thinking...because it has been raining since Friday, there is standing water everywhere, and today's Fair Hill Mountain Bike Jamboree is basically washed out.

Oh and to add insult, the forecast is bone dry for the next 10 days - which, coincidentally is the start of a travelling work week of hotel food and air conditioned meeting rooms.

I might have to suck it up and ride the skinny tires today, just to take the edge off.

Chris

"Life's Not Fair"

-- Scar (from Lion King)

Sitting on a Bucket

I don't get it.

I do get hunting. It's what carnivores do (sorry Jamie). Most of us prefer to have someone else do the dirty work so we can buy our meat shrink-wrapped in serving-size portions from a grocery store, but in the end it's the same thing. And frankly from the victim's perspective, I'd rather be shot by a high power rifle while peacefully grazing than to "buy it" in an industrial slaughter house. So I am totally fine with hunting.

But I digress.

What I don't get is why we allow hunting in a suburban multi-use park like MCSP? I mean hikers, bikers, and horseback riders peacefully co-exist every day without fear of killing each other. But once the hunters take to the woods, the rest of us have to stay home or risk taking a frickin' bullet. It just doesn't feel so "multi-use" anymore.

Today I ran into three hunters in less than one hour. One was sitting on a bucket in the middle of a trail about 100 yards from the parking lot. I had to swerve off the trail to get around him. He had the gun, so I just said "hi" and got the hell out of there.

My opinion - flying bullets just don't mix well with hikers and bikers.

Chris

Hitler Wants to Ride his Mountain Bike

It is 36 degrees It has been raining non-stop since yesterday afternoon. The forecast is rain for the next three days. This is the sort of thing that drove me to spend some perfectly good money on a road bike. This video is hilarious and sums it up pretty well. Thanks to Mountain Biking by 198 for the tip.

Field of Dreams

I am visiting family in Maryland this weekend so I took the opportunity to check out the nearby Schaeffer Farm Trails. The trails have a reputation for being crowded, but I was the only car on the lot at 7:00 this morning - 40 degrees and dark may have something to do with it. I had the trails all to myself (and a few deer, chipmunks, and a lone fox).

The trails are wicked fast with awesome flow, especially out on the yellow loop. This is a single-speed wonderland. One particularly fun stretch was sweeping through a corn field on some twisty singletrack for a few hundred yards as the sun was coming up. I was half expecting to run into Shoeless Joe Jackson as I railed one of the many blind turns at full speed.

This is all SWEETNESS!

Chris

Reality is Biting Me, Don't Let it Bite You

Just watching this trailer got me totally jacked. I can't imagine seeing the actual movie which is too bad since imagining it is my only option since I will be on business travel on the only day the movie is playing nation wide. I guess I'll have to settle for watching the trailer until the movie comes out on DVD in a year or so. This just really bites the big one.

Bump in the Night

Monday's night ride started innocently enough.

Riding the along the creek near the Blue Trail climb. Jim thought he had broken a spoke so we paused for an equipment check. We could hear running water and splashing - it sounded big (i.e., not a deer). When we stopped, it stopped, abruptly...Jim and I glanced at each other then promptly saddled up and departed scene.

A minute or so later during the (miserable) Blue Trail climb we heard a strange and distinctly unpleasant howl in the distance. These did not sound like your typical dog or coyote. In between wheezes, Jim made a not-so-innocent comment "what would we do if we were chased by wild dogs?" This was followed by another pair of howls that sounded noticeably closer. That was all either of us needed - the hair on the back of my neck stood right up and I thought to myself "scared of the dark, how pathetic is this???" but we wordlessly put the hammer down to create some separation between us and the howls.

The rest of the climb was uneventful. I think there was one more offhand wild dog comment and then the conversation moved on...and the whole experience was on it's way to the dustbins of our fading middle-aged memory, or so we thought.

A short while later we were traversing the empty boat launch parking lot when we came upon a lone vehicle:

Even though we were moving briskly in order to avoid detection by "The Man", Jim noticed something peculiar about the vehicle so we circled back to investigate. Upon inspection we noted this large steel cage with very sturdy locking doors...

...affixed with this sticker...

...and it all came together. Our earlier encounter had been a nite hunter and his 'coon dogs in the process of treeing a raccoon, or attempting to tree a couple of mountain bikers.

Of course we did not have a camera with us so we had to ride home, grab a camera, and ride back to gather this photographic evidence - all the while kidding each other about Pennsyltucky, giggling about white supremacists, and cracking Ned Beatty jokes...and of course that is when we had our near run-in with the hunters returning from their nite hunt.

But you will have to join our next night ride to get that part of the story.

Chris

"Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you"

-- anonymous

O.G.C.B. Palooza Video Report

Ruth and Sara (my wife and daughter) called the OGCB-palooza rally the "old guy thing." They had it basically right, but that does miss some of more sublime aspects of yesterday's event. For example:

• Singles and gearies;
• 26ers, 29ers, and at least one 69er (some call them 96er but what fun is that?);
• Bicycles built for one and a couple built for two;
• Bikes with seats and bikes without (ouch);
• Geezers, youngsters, fathers, daughters, wives, old friends, and new;
• Coolers overflowing with cheap beer...Strohs, Mickey's wide-mouth, the newest expensive-sounding-cheap-beer Lionhead...and a few fancy-schmanzy beers to round out the selection;
• No bikes had a potato cannon, but I think it is just a matter of time.

Many thanks to Jim for organizing OGCB and to everyone else for rolling out the welcome mat for some new riders. I had a great time even though I left before the 3rd trip to the teeter!

Thanks again,

Chris

"Bikes, babes, and beer. Whenever life gets you down, return to the fundamentals"

-- Anonymous