Tanglewoooooood!

Curtis and I were able to beat the rain last night at Tanglewood. After looking at the 10 day forecast, 7 of which are calling for rain, I decided that I had to get in a mountain bike ride. We met up at the shop and after a bit of preening on the bikes, we were on our way. We decided to start with some trails first because we weren't sure about the length of charge left on our batteries, and we could always limp back on the roads with blinkies. We were tearing up the trails keeping about a 10mph pace, both feeling pretty solid. Curtis made the comment that we hadn't ridden at Tanglewood during the day in quite a while...it was kind of odd to not have tunnel vision. Anyways, after we made it through the two loops of trails we headed over to some of the horse trails. Along the way, we were noticing things that were otherwise unnoticeable when night riding...

A cool swampy area...

We spooked a couple bedded deer along one of the horse trails. One took off across the trail in front of us and we almost pulled a Matt Lauer avoiding it. The strangest thing though; that deer was seriously hauling, hopped over a five foot barbed wire fence, just narrowly missing a trees' low hanging branches. We popped out of the horse trails near the BMX track so we hung out for a few minutes watching the wee-wheeled people doing their thing.

Then, around the rest of the park on some of the paved and gravel roads, just chilling. Curtis ramped it up along one of the paved roads and owned me in a sprint...freakin' Quadzilla! Much fun was had...no GPS stats for the ride, the elevation looked all funky, so I don't think it was very accurate last night for some reason.

Woohoo!

Moving Time (h:m:s)2:30:02
Distance (mi )23.20
Moving Speed (mph)9.3 avg. 29.4 max.
Elevation Gain (ft)+3,323

Salem Lake

A cool sign over one of the entrances to the graveyard in Old Salem

One of many old houses in Old Salem

A pretty Pansy (I think) that was blooming downtown

More proof that I am not an artist, apparently a whole mess of ladders qualifies as art... ???

After so much rain this past weekend, it's been hard to justify a ride on my mountain bike until today. 70 degrees sunny, ang beautiful! I decided the trails were probably still a little wet so, to Salem Lake greenway I go. Looped around the lake, headed through Old Salem, and into downtown and back. A fun ride, just to kind of work some kinks out of the bike, make sure everything is running the way it should. About 16 miles in just over an hour, with about 900 feet of climbing, not bad for the first time out with the Superfly!

Robinhood Road Loop

I got out for a short ride last night around my area. Got in some decent hill sprints, to at least feign some semblance of training. I'm always amazed at some of the things I see when I'm out on the bike. I saw an old guy walk out to his mailbox smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer. As I approached the old man crumpled the can and threw it into the street. He grumbled something to me as I passed, I wasn't sure if he was attempting to throw the can at me. If he was, it was a half hearted attempt. Anyways, here are the stats...


Moving Time (h:m:s) 1:03:20 3:35 pace
Distance (mi ) 17.63
Moving Speed (mph) 16.7 avg. 37.1 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +1,612


View Larger Map

This evening will be the maiden voyage of the Superfly!

Supa-Fly

I've been wanting a Superfly since they first came out a while back. After throwing together some funds from Christmas and my birthday (plus a little more from the future sale of my Soma) I was able to order one through the shop. I went out to the Greensboro location to pick it up, along with a few other parts I ordered, and was able to build it up tonight. I'll head into the Winston shop to finalize everything with the torque wrench and set up the wheels as tubeless...and maybe change a couple of other things. The extended forecast calls for rain for the next seven days, so I can't promise any kind of write up on ride quality for a little while, but soon enough...soon enough! Anyways, here are some photos I took tonight...

City Loop with Curtis

Curtis and I got in a city loop tonight. Pretty uneventful aside from the lady in the tiny little BMW who couldn't get past us on a three lane road...baffling! Anyways, here is a pic of Curtis on the Graylyn estate. Fun ride, on a great night!



Moving Time (h:m:s) 0:57:56
Distance (mi ) 16.56
Moving Speed (mph) 17.1 avg. 33.1 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +1,247

Stone Mountain Camping

City Loop Group Ride

Curtis, Drew and I got out on this beautiful evening to do a city loop ride with a few of the customers from Paceline. Mitch, Scott, and Chancey joined us for a nice group of pretty evenly matched riders. We headed through the outskirts of Winston and onto the Wake Forest Campus, through Graylyn, and into the West End. Chancey had an idea for a bit of a different climb through the west end...it was steeper than the normal route. Riding through downtown, I had to do the obligatory, "Hey, Phil, Hey, Rick!" It's always mildly entertaining to see people's responses when dining outside. One guy today, partially raised his hand to wave when I said, "Hey," but as I said, "Rick," he revoked the wave, to the amusement of riders and diners alike...foolishness on my behalf. Anyways, we descended back through the West End, and through some neighborhoods, back to Country Club Road. This is where it gets painful for me. I've never been much of a sprinter, or fast paceline type guy, and this is where the pace gets ramped up. Pulling us along at about 25-26mph for the remaining distance, we all took turns on the front. Drew outsprinted everyone to the speed limit sign, much to the dismay of the rest of us, well done Drew. Back to the shop, hang out for a bit, head home for some beans, rice, and peppers....yum!

Total Time (h:m:s) 1:12:44
Moving Time (h:m:s) 1:07:21
Distance (mi ) 19.75
Moving Speed (mph) 17.6 avg. 39.0 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +1,572


View Larger Map

Hanging Rock Ride

Today after school I was able to make it out to Hanging Rock to get a nice road loop in. Short, but with plenty of climbing! I parked at the top, made the 40mph descent to the bottom and continued on over to Danbury where I took this picture of the old courthouse.


After finding a place to turn around, I stopped to take some pictures, then headed back to the park. On the way back I stopped to take a few photos, one of which was this one of the backside of the mountain.

I made the climb back up to the top with quite a bit of suffering and wheezing. I rode around at the top, headed up to the campsites and then back over to the lake where I took this photo.


Also, at the top, there was still evidence of this weeks snowfall, even though it was probably about 70 degrees.

After School Road Ride

I got out for a short road ride yesterday after school. Rode around Pfafftown, Vienna, Bethania, and Tobaccoville. Only snapped a few pictures during the trip because I was kind of racing daylight. I'm heading out tomorrow to either Pilot Mountain or to Hanging Rock, either way, much climbing to be had!


A bunch of Turkeys in a field, with the silhouette of Pilot in the background


Some old buildings in Bethania

so I tried to mess with the template....that was a mistake.

Snow Day

I woke up early this morning to about 5 inches of the white stuff, cool! I let the dog out to go play in it; she's definitely missed it since we've moved here from NE Ohio. She used to lay out on our back deck when it was snowing and let herself get covered in it, to the point you could barely tell there was a dog there, she loves it! Anyways, I let Arwen out, and shoveled the drive. I had planned to make some fresh tracks out at Dark Mountain, but with the report that the Brushies have 13 inches of snow, that's a no go....what to do?

Bluebirds and snow

I spent the other day swapping tires, and cleaning up the Soma. I've decided after riding rigid and singlespeed for about 6 months now that I'm quicker, and have more fun on a geared/suspended bike. I've not yet decided for sure what I am going to replace the Soma with yet, but, the three plans that I have would net me an awesome bike.

And yes, the scale says 21.1 lbs for an XL steel 29er, I was impressed!


In any case, we're supposedly in for a round of good snow tonight, so I'll be making some freshies tomorrow either with the hiking boots or the 29er tires. While tooling around the house today, stuck inside because of the buckets of rain we were getting, I glanced out the window to see about a dozen bluebirds in my backyard. This was about the best shot that I could muster unfortunately, but they were beautiful!