Carl’s Day Out

The little lady took off for the hills to camp and ride Pisgah with the Dirt Divas over the weekend.  That left me unsupervised again.  As much as I like having time to myself, I didn’t know what to do this time.  I had a few loose plans that were coming together, but when she left the house Friday evening I just sat there.  Lunchbox took off with his friends, and other than the pets I was all alone.  I’d already opened a beer (of course), but other than that I was lost.

Too lazy to go anywhere, I ordered a pizza and sat around watching a movie.  It would’ve been relaxing, but I realized that Carl doesn’t like the loud movie effects coming from the surround sound.  He eventually calmed down and I was able to finish the movie.  That killed about two hours, and by then it was getting too late to make any sort of plans.  I ended up playing my guitar for a couple of hours, which also confused our new Rottweiler puppy.  He kept trying to lick the strings and eat the pick.  FML.

Again, he calmed down and I was able to practice for a while.  I realized that maybe Carl needed a day out, so that was my plan for the next day.  I woke up early and went to a previously scheduled massage appointment.  After that I loaded up that big, goofy dog and we hit the road.  He was happy to hang out with me it seemed.

We went to one of the local pet store supermarket type places to let him shop for a bit (and sniff all the other doggy smells.)  This particular store had a neat selection of Star Wars themed pet stuff, and it was all I could do not to buy him a Chewbacca costume.

I did let him pick out a toy, but he couldn’t play with it until we got home.  I’m an asshole, I know.  I also wanted to get him a brand new food dish, but I didn’t like their selection.  We went to another pet store; he sniffed around, made some new friends, and got a new bowl. Satisfied that he’s had enough pet store action, we took off to my local bike shop, The Cycle Path.

Carl walked right in and made himself at home.

He really had a great time in there.  The shop folks treated him well (and gave him treats), and he loved all the attention from the customers.  Dogs are welcome there always, and I’m pretty sure Carl can’t wait to go back.  We spent a few hours in there, but since I’d made plans for later in the day we eventually had to leave.  Just before we left I grabbed a bucket of old parts they had been saving for the little lady’s thriving business.

We got home and Carl got his new toy.  He seemed to really like it (and now we know why TK-421 wasn't at his post.)

He played for a while, but I think his big day wore him out.

Saturday was just me and Carl running the roads and having fun.  It’s been a week since he came home with us and I think he’s adjusting just fine.  Thanks to him I had a pretty cool day, even if it didn’t involve beer and bike riding.  The rest of the day I left him home with Lunchbox while I took off to see some friends.

More on that tomorrow…

Again?

The little lady wanted us to spend a day together riding.  That sounded so much better than the death march I’d planned to do, especially since we were trying to go look at a new puppy later that day.  She hadn’t yet been to Lake James State Park and really wanted to go.  I’d been there twice already, but it’s fun enough (and in the hills enough) to make a day out of it.  So I went again.  

I’m getting used to riding there, but watching her ride it for the first time kept it interesting for me.  Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s fun and all that, but I get bored riding the same stuff all the time.  I’ve been there enough to know what’s coming up around every corner, up every hill, and down every descent.  Little Miss Sunshine does not, but that may have made her ride a little out of her comfort zone.

She rode fast on the downhills.  I couldn’t lose her (not that I was trying.)  I had to struggle to get up ahead of her to take photos to prove that we were actually there.

I know a few of the climbs were tough on her, but she rode that place like she’d been there before. 

I was proud of her.  Although I wanted to get in some serious miles Saturday, I didn’t.  I was fine with that.  Watching her have a great time made my day even better.

Plus, you know, mountains.

Yeah. 

I gotta get out of here.  We did more stuff that day (in addition to getting our new doggie.)  More on that tomorrow since I have a whole week to fill up with crappy blog posts.

Better Than Race Day

Saturday was the big one, but I don’t have time to get into that right now.  Instead, I’ll talk about one of my favorite holidays:  Fathers Day.  For the last sixteen years, being a dad has been what defines me the most.  Everyone that comes here knows my kid Lunchbox (Isaiah), and how much he means to me.  We spent the day Saturday on our bikes riding in the Tree Shaker, but our time yesterday was a lot more fun.

We took in a little history at a nearby military park.

Kings Mountain Military Park is only a short drive from us here in Charlotte, and since we both enjoy history we decided to spend the day there.  After watching a short movie about the battle that happened during the Revolutionary War, we took to the paved hiking trail to see the battleground.

It was beautiful out there.

And the best part was being out there with my boy.

There were all kinds of monuments to see too.

And we learned a few things.

When we finished, we took a nice drive through the beautiful South Carolina countryside and eventually ended up back in the city.

And even stopped for dessert.

Yeah, today has nothing to do with riding a bike, but I don’t really care.  Sometimes I talk about other stuff around here, and my kid comes first anyway.  As much as I love riding bikes, being a dad makes me feel better than anything else I’ve ever done.

Yesterday was pretty rad.

Back to bike stuff tomorrow of course.

Get Away

You know what?


Screw this shit.


I'm going to the mountains today.


Not to ride bikes though.


It's time to dust off the snowboard and get radical (or whatever the hell the kids say these days.)

The cat is not going.


See y'all tomorrow sometime.

It’s All A Big Blur

Ten Days ago, I left work and didn’t have to worry about anything for quite a few days.  I had big plans of course, and somehow I thought I would get out on a ride every single day.  Of course, other things got in the way and I didn’t get on the bike as much as I wanted, but a trip I had been planning for about a month was definitely a go.  I decided that it was time to head back to one of my favorite places to ride in Asheville…

Bent Creek.

TomTom had never been there, and Lunchbox couldn’t remember the last time he was there.  Since we all had the day off from work (or school in Lunchbox’s case), we headed west to the mountains.  We got there around high noon, and I mapped out our route.  The plan was to climb all the way to the top, hit some super fast downhill shit, and climb around a little bit to find some more downhill.  That’s my kind of riding:  climb first, and then enjoy the reward of gravity.

We got changed in the parking lot, and headed up the gravel road climb.  No trip to Bent Creek is complete without stopping to pay homage to the bike gods on the way up, so we paused for a moment.

We suffered in the cool temps for what felt like forever.  The road went up, then up some more.  I warned TomTom about this, but I told him the reward was well worth it.  There were no waterfalls like our trip to DuPont, but the view was still pretty awesome.

We climbed for a long time, stopping every so often to check out the surrounding mountains.  The rest of the crew was happy to be away from our local trails and in the mountain for a while.

After five (yes five) miles of climbing, we reached the top.  We parked our bikes and looked around for a while, plotting our next move.

The next step would be a two mile long descent, known around these parts as Greens Lick.

Greens Lick is the crown jewel of Bent Creek, and it was worth every pedal stroke to get to the top of it.  Although he’s been to Bent Creek before, Lunchbox hadn’t had a chance to ride that particular trail.  I informed him (and TomTom) that it was plenty fast, but not super technical.  The worst part about riding it was that you would end up going faster than you wanted to, so I advised them to keep a finger on the brake lever just in case.  We all took off down the trail, and I told them I would stop every so often when it leveled out to make sure we were all together.

It was on one of these stops that I got a chance to ctahc Lunchbox flying downhill.

After our first break, we took off again.  We were flying, and as I rounded a corner I didn’t see anyone behind me.  I was so busy enjoying the ride that I had lost my two riding partners.  I pulled over to the side of the trail, and eventually TomTom rolled up.  We waited for a bit for Lunchbox, but he was nowhere to be found.

Shit.

We turned around to climb back up the hill, hoping not to find him on the side of the trail in a pile.  After a few minutes, some dude came flying down the trail.  We moved over to let him by, but as he passed I asked him if he saw a kid up there with a white jersey on.

Dude (Removing the headphones from his ears):Uh, what?

Me:Did you see a kid up there on the side of the trail with a white jersey on?

Dude: Uh, he’s waiting for you. 

He put his earphones back in and flew away, hoping that his little pit stop didn’t mess up his Strava KOM time.  He was kind of a dick, but I guess that’s what Strava does to people.

Anyway, we kept climbing, and eventually we found him on the side of the trail.  He wasn’t hurt, but his bike was.

  

His front tire was flat, and was in the process of changing it.  Lunchbox is the only member of the B-43 crew without the benefit of tubeless tires, and his pinch flat reminded me that I need to change that.  We got him put back together, and went on ouor merry little way.  We didn’t have far to go until the end, so I told everyone I would see them at the bottom.

There’s a pretty cool jump/berm to ride down there, so I got some photos:

Greens Lick was done, and we all agreed that it was worth the climb.  The next trail wasn’t too far away, and all we had to do was haul ass down a fire road to get to it.  We all took off again, and just like before, I was way out front.  I stopped for a minute and TomTom rolled right up behind me.  Lunchbox was MIA again, so we started back up the road to find him.

And wouldn’t you know, there he was again with a flat tire.  This time it was the rear, and it was another pinch flat.  We changed the tube lickety split and got on our way, riding a lot more singletrack goodness before we hit the parking lot.  It was a great day in the mountains, and aside from two flat tires we didn’t have any major issues.

It was the best way I knew to counteract all that turkey we would eat the next day

I love going out of town to ride, and I was happy to take TomTom on his first trip to Bent Creek.  We have a shitload of future adventures planned, so this one was just the tip of the iceberg.