Wha???

Forecast for tomorrow night


Snow Low
26° F

Precip: 70%


Snow likely. Low 26F. Winds N at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 70%. Snow accumulating 3 to 5 inches.

How many people are going to ransack and loot the grocery stores tomorrow?

City Loop!

I just got in from a night city loop with Drew and Curtis. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite night rides. The city traffic is low at night, and the lights downtown are very cool. I didn't get any pictures tonight, unfortunately, but did get this video of Drew skidding like he's riding a fixie back at the shop.

Drew Skid from Barry Stevenson on Vimeo.
On the way out Peace Haven, some jackknife in a black Crapalier started heckling us. We pulled in behind him at a red light and started yelling back, much to the dismay of other motorists around us. Little did they know they were the butt end of the joke, for it was none other than Steve that was harrassing us. We headed through the campus of Wake Forest and on into downtown, making the mad climb up through the West End. Looped through downtown and back onto Country Club. Drew and I had a bit of a scare on CC when we heard squeling tires and realized that Curtis was behind us. Our first thought was that someone hit him. It scared the crap out of me, but apparently it was someone pulling out of a parking lot mashing the gas pedal. Each time I ride with these guys I am reminded of why they are such good friends. There is nothing like being able to get out on a bike, push yourself, sprint, climb and share all of this with someone. I don't know how to explain it, but I imagine that most people that read this blog are cyclists, and you know exactly what I am trying to get across.

View Larger Map


Moving Time (h:m:s) 1:05:28
Distance (mi ) 18.01
Moving Speed (mph) 16.5 avg. 38.6 max.
Elevation Gain (ft)+1,372 / -1,333

Horizon Park Exploration

This afternoon I went to the shop to work on my bike a little bit and just hang out. My intention was to go to tanglewood afterwards, but when I got back in the car I realized I had forgotten my shoes....idiot! Ran home, got shoes, decided to go to Horizons Park. After riding for a few miles in the park, I got bored with the singletrack, and decided to go do some exploring. I headed out of the park and out onto some roads, spinning like crazy on my singlespeed. Everyone driving past me probably thought, "Why doesn't that guy shift?" Anyways, I found some gravel roads and farm roads to tress...er....explore.....yeah, explore. Along the way I saw some interesting things....

Turkeys in a field, one of which was white?!?!?!
Pilot Mountain way off in the distance

An old abandoned schoolhouse with a note on the door stating the owner would donate the building to anyone willing to move it off his property....interesting.

Sauratown, Moore's Wall, and Hanging Rock off in the distance
I kept seeing this white fluffy stuff on the side of the road, and was confused by it...after thinking about it, and looking around more, I realized it was cotton. Man, I'm a clueless northerner, I guess!

And, some doofus out on the singletrack!

Night Ride

Steve and I actually got to ride together tonight for the first time in a very long time. After hanging out at the shop for a little while getting stuff together, I realized I had forgotten my battery for my lamp. So, I borrowed Curtis's Trinewt...man alive, this thing is sweet! He mounted it up on the bars for me, and I was very impressed with the output of light. In any case, Steve and I made our way to a local haunt...tanglewood. After bundling up a bit more, we were on our way into the singletrack. After about 4 or 5 miles though, Steve's light went out, so we made do with one. From time to time, I had to make Yeti noises to convince Steve that he was prey, since he said he felt like he was being chased by something. We popped out of the singletrack and decided to just chill and ride around on some of the roads around the park. It was good to be back riding with Steve. We rode around for a while longer, just chatting it up. Talking about bikes, and plans, and all sorts of things....there never seems to be a shortage of conversation between the two of us.

Moving Time 1:02:57
Distance (mi ) 9.14
Moving Speed (mph) 8.7 avg. 22.7 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +954 / -874

Wild Brookie Scouting

Arwen and I had a mission for the day. Scout some of Stone Mountain's wild streams to see if we could spot any wild brook trout. I loaded up the X and made the drive out, rigged up my vest to my camelbak. I felt like a doofus out walking along the stream with a vest strapped to the back of the camelbak and carrying a big long silver tube (fly rod case). We were scouting an ominous sounding area... Widow's Creek in the Devil's Garden area of SMSP. I didn't see a single soul while I was out, nor did I see any trout...boo! It was a nice day in the woods though, and Arwen snored in the X on the way home.

Widow's Creek

Widow's Creek Falls

Arwen in front of an old chimney in the middle of nowhere. Whenever I see one of these, I always wonder what it would have been like to live in these mountains when the chimney was built. How wild the area must have been 100 years ago.

Sick, but getting better!

Well, my students shared another sickness with me, hooray. Flu and head/chest cold, lovely! Anyways, today was the first day back on the bike in two weeks, it was a painful, slow ride.



Moving Time 1:17:16
Distance (mi ) 10.78
Moving Speed (mph) 8.4 avg. 41.7 max.
Elevation Gain (ft)+1,850 / -1,817

Yes, that says 41.7 mph max. I decided to ride down to the spillway below the dam. Part of the road is incredibly steep, it reads on the GPS as a 48% grade (which cant be right) but I would guess it is probably over 20%

Flyers Victory

The view from the Thrashers bench just before the game

The trip to Atlanta for the hockey game was highly worthwhile. I got the tour of the facilities, got to see the locker room, met a couple of the Flyers players, and got to hang out on the Thrashers bench before the game. The seats we got were about a dozen or so rows off the ice behind the net, unbelieveable! During the warm ups, I made my way down to the glass and was trying to get Nittymaki's (the Flyer's goalie) attention since I was wearing a Finish National jersey with his name on the back, but alas, no luck. In any case, the final score was 3-2, with the Flyers on top. Oh, and I found out, apparently I was on TV in Philadelphia celebrating after the Flyers' first goal....I'll have to see if I can get my hands on a tape of that.




A cool fixie we saw downtown


Flyers Warmup from Barry Stevenson on Vimeo.

Plans Change

Original Plan: The original plan of TMHTE would have me suffering right now alongside Steve. Steve's parents came to town, so plans got cancelled for racing.





Plan #2: Attend TMHTE to assist Eric, hang out, and ride. All plans were abandoned when presented with an idea earlier this week





Plan #3: A co-worker of mine has a cousin who is the trainer for the Atlanta Thrashers (NHL team for those non hockey fan readers). This weekend they are matched up against one of my favorite teams the Philadelphia Flyers. Said co-worker offered up an unbeatable offer. Hang out in ATL Saturday night, head to the pregame skate, to the locker room to meet the players, then chill in $300 a seat comfort. I had to take up this offer!

Owned, by Mike Richards

On a side note, the weather this week looks spectacular, I should be out riding quite a bit this week!

Group Rides are FUN!

Curtis, Drew, Laurent, and I had planned a ride for Sunday afternoon at the OVT. On our way up, we talked with Alex, who was already out there riding, and he agreed to meet us at the parking lot when we got there. After trying to keep up with Laurent in the Audi on 421,
we pulled into the lot at about the time Alex came rolling in, muddy. Key word of the day; muddy. We rolled on out the trail and made our way on the OVT to Shiner's Run and to the end at Bandit's Roost. Along the way there were some near spills, and some thorough tumbles. Evidence:

Curtis touched the ground on more than one occasion, quickly assisted to the floor by the small block 8's. Great for dry, and as evidenced by the picture above, not so great in muddy conditions. On the way back, Curtis was having some major chainsuck issues, to which my response was, gotta get rid of gears. He was relinquished to riding in the big ring for the remainder of the ride. We made a couple of stops along the way, after one of which I had some issues getting clipped in. Upon further investigation, I noticed something looked slightly askew;




I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I don't think eggbeaters are supposed to look like that. At this point, we were just a stone's throw from 268, so Curtis and I limped it out to the road and I one-footed it back to the car. Alex Drew and Laurent took off to continue on the trail. We met up back at the cars for some bike washing, and pose-off time. Overall a great ride, just a bit muddier than any of us had expected!

Back at the Cars

Laurent enjoying part of the OVT

Drew enjoying the same section

Alex, making interesting faces

Alex after just having stated, "There he is, everyone act normal." Normal apparently is relative....