Tanglewood Group Ride!

What a group! "Perfection," one might say even! Seven of us made it out tonight for the weekly Paceline group ride. Great pace through the singletrack, picked it up a little on the horse trails, then railed it on the gravel/pavement. Much fun! The crew was Curtis, Steve, Ryan, Brian, Billy, Adam, and myself. Some photos from the ride;

Curtis looking Oh-So-Pro...yes!

Short break to shoot the breeze a little bit

A couple over the shoulder shots with Ryan seemingly having entirely too much fun!

The tree Ryan tangled with will never grow straight again, I'm sure this will be sore tomorrow as he heads into work.

Tanglewood Ride

Got out for a couple hours tonight and hit Tanglewood. Nothing too terribly eventful, aside from it being about as good as it can get...it was perfect! There were tons of people out tonight, runners, and just a few cyclists. I'm struggling here to write anything even remotely interesting. roots, trail, fun, ride, night riding, horses, dogs, people....hooray!

Warrior Creek

Billy and I were able to make it out to Wilkesboro today to check out Warrior Creek. I've helped work on these trails, but never ridden the full loop, so I was excited to get out there. We met up, and headed on out. When we arrived, we were surprised to see that there were puddles everywhere, then I remembered that last night I had seen some lightning off to the west. The trails were muddier than I expected, but still not too terrible. Overall, I was pretty impressed with the trails, as they get more worn in, and packed down, I think they will be even more fun. Fast, flowy like the OVT but with some tech sections thrown in like Dark Mountain. About nine miles in, Billy's chain broke. I've been so used to riding a singlespeed, that I've stopped carrying a chain tool, and extra links...I'll have to break myself of that habit now that I'm riding gears again. Needless to say, with no tool, and no spare powerlinks, the day was over. Still a fun ride though!

Interesting Day

So, I'm at school and the phone to my classroom rings. Secretary says, "you're wife is on line two." Lisa never calls school, so I knew something was up... I duck into the AP's office and take the call, and hear her upset voice on the other end of the line. "Something hit my car, the windshield is cracked, can you come help?" So I talk to the principal and get coverage for my last class and take off to see what the deal is. I arrive to the scene to this...

Whilst driving past the driving range, apparently someone had an errant drive, and lo and behold, a golf ball will damage a windshield! A couple of quick calls, and the problem will be remedied the day after tomorrow, zero cost to us, hooray!

As a side note, I've been up to some landscaping the last few days. After some nice rains this week and last, and plenty of sunshine, all the landscaping I've done is starting to turn out pretty nicely.

Slow Fishing

Well, my buddy Justin and I made it out to Stone Mountain this afternoon. Fishing was pretty slow today, only brought four fish to hand. They were still pretty visible in the normal holes that they like to lay in, just not as aggressive today. Not sure what the deal was. Just a few photos from today.....

A nice little brook trout I caught



Can you spot the Feeeshees?



The backside of Stone Mountain

A Good Day

I know those of you that read this blog (all three of you) are probably tired of reading about Dark Mountain and the Overmountain Victory Trail, but it is such a blast! I was amazed at the amount of people out enjoying these trails, Billy and I both remarked about how it was the busiest we'd ever seen it. All kinds of people, kids, families, everyone it seemed was out! I always like seeing kids on the trails because it lets me know that there are parents who actually invest in their kids lives, take them outside, encourage them to be active. So much in my profession, I see kids who are raised by TV and video games. It's always refreshing to see kids outside, especially when they are out playing in the woods. Billy and I shot a couple videos, and snapped a few pictures, I'll get them uploaded shortly....


Does this video make my butt look big?

OVT from Barry Stevenson on Vimeo.



OVT2 from Barry Stevenson on Vimeo.

One day.... Two rides

I managed to get in two rides today, both of which were on the road. This afternoon I rode down to the shop to drop off something of Steve's that I had been holding captive for a while. Then this evening I ventured out on the shop recovery ride. Who knew that a recovery ride would have so many sprints??? Not much to say about the rides. No crashes, no dogs, no angry drivers...amazing! All in all somwhere between 48-52 miles were logged today with maybe 3000-3500ft of gain. I got home from the shop ride and had forgotten to turn off the Garmin while in transit....needless to say the average speed went way up.

Flyfishing!

It had been a while since I had been out fishing, and with the weather being so crappy as of late, I decided today would be a good day to break that streak. With rain, and a mid week day off, I knew there would be only a few people out on the stream, and I was rewarded with many fish! I caught probably about 20-25 today in the span of about six hours. I started off really slow, and

miserable in the rain, but once I got the right set of flies on, I was golden. My biggest reward of the day was this nice 15-16 inch brown.

On the way into the park, deer are normally everywhere, and today was no exception. I had Arwen with me in the back of the truck, and normally the ruckus that ensues when dog meets deer is deafening. Today though, was different. This deer was only about eight feet from the truck, and Arwen was just sniffing away wagging her tail. Sometimes, I am absolutely baffled by her personality!

Signing Up!

Well, in order to provide some more motivation for longer and harder rides, I've signed up for a few events in the coming weeks. Two road rides, one mountain. I read about a FREE ride in Boone called the Gap Grind (April 25th), and couldn't help but sign up for this one. 65 miles in the mountains sounds like a good day. Also signed up for the RAW in Wilkesboro (May 2nd). 65 mile variety again, climbing in the brushies. So, no, no worries, I'm not turning into euro trash roadie, but I have realized the merit of having/riding/training on a road bike.

The other event that I've signed up for is an event that I've been dragging my feet on. I've been hemming and hawing as to whether or not I would do it this year, but I've got to. So I slapped down the money, in the form of cold hard plastic and bit the bullet. I signed up for Solo at BURN 24 Hour. I was disappointed with my performace last year, had issues with hydration and nutrition. I am vowing to get those problems figured out before the race this year so that I can turn more than 11 lame laps like I did last year. If you're out there, look for the lanky dude on the Superfly, and say, "Hi!"

As a side note, I'm looking to get a ride together for saturday. 6,7, or 8 hours at Dark Mountain, or maybe another big loop around Heartbreak...anyone? Anyone? .....Bueller?

Westwood

I was able to sneak away from the house for a little bit tonight to get in a short ride at Westwood in Mt. Airy. The trails were in perfect condition, with little to no mud. The set of trails does not easily really make a loop, its more of a spiderweb of trails that you just meander around. There are some very cool sections with some steep rooty chutes, and there are some sections that lack any flow and the design of which is pretty lame. Overall though, from a technical standpoint it is the most technical trails within about an hour from my house, so it's worth the drive periodically.

Usually, when riding these trails, I'm fortunate enough to see some pretty cool wildlife. In the past, I've seen deer, turkeys, and even an extremely territorial groundhog that would not yield the trail. Today though, I was able to witness another animal, one that I've seen so seldom on these trails. I knew there was something else out there, I had heard some clinking noises and some huffing. I even caught a pleasant wiff of it. The scent I thought was...mmm...maybe Wisteria, or some other type of blooming tree/shrub. But alas, all the mystery was ended when around the bend came a female mountain biker wearing perfume...odd! Wearing a full Kenda race kit nonetheless...odder still!

All in all the ride went pretty smoothly, though, I did have one altercation, with a tree...stupid trees!

Serious Heartbreaker!

Moving Time (h:m:s) 5:41:33

Distance (mi ) 43.57
Moving Speed (mph) 7.7 avg. 39.0 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +7,336 / -7,260



View Larger Map

I met up with Johnny and Peter to show them a large Heartbreak Ridge loop. It ended up being longer than any of us had anticipated. More pictures and writing this afternoon....

Plans...

The Heartbreaker ride for this weekend is panning out nicely. Looks like there will be about 5 or 6 of us meeting up to make the trek. MTBR is good for getting a bunch of random people together for a ride, I'm digging it!

Anyways, I just got in from a ride around Salem Lake and some of the Winston greenways. Curtis and I were really wishy washy on whether or not we wanted to ride in the rain, but the decision was made, and it was worth it! The fly is going to need some serious TLC after all the sandy-grimyness has built up all over the shifty parts. I'll spend some time at the shop tomorrow prepping it for saturdays ride.

no GPS stats for todays ride, and no pictures either due to the rain.
Stats from Curtis' computer
about 16 miles in a little over an hour...not too shabby for pedaling in what amounted to wet cement for a majority of the ride!

Looking forward to these views, just with a little less foliage

Heartbreaker!

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday! No money this month for 6 hours of Warrior Creek, so Saturday will be free for me. I've got a 30 or so mile loop around Old Fort planned. Hopefully heading out rather early so that I can allow time to explore some of the trout water in the area in the late afternoon. Weather looks perfect, about 71 degrees and sunny. Should be a good trip, post up a comment if you'd like to join me, all are welcome!