Ride Party

Last Saturday was a pretty special event.  Our local club here, the Tarheel Trailblazers, said goodbye to one of our own.  Most of you here locally know Big Bike Mike, and no doubt have seen him working hard on our trails.  He’s decided to retire and move on to Snowshoe where he’ll be doing more trail work and riding some downhill.  Definitely not your typical retirement.

Anyway, he’s done most of his work up at Lake Norman State Park, keeping that place in pristine condition.  He worked as hard as a crew of ten (or more) men, and gave up a ton of riding time so others can enjoy their rides.  That's commendable, so we gathered up there for one final ride with him.

We had two groups scheduled, and I somehow ended up in the one without Big Bike Mike.  I rode with the “fun bunch”, a crew of folks that are know for flying through the air instead of racing through the woods (not to say that the other group was a bunch of racers, mind you.) 

We did “race” through the woods a little though:

But we also stopped to session little jump line and it was rad.

Rocky sez, “RAMFB”

  

Eventually, both groups made it back safe and sound.  Much fun was had.  We gathered around one of the shelters for a big cookout and some socializing.

TomTom and Good Guy Greg “handled the meats.”

When our bellies were full, we gathered around to present an award to the man of the hour.  For some reason I was designated as the public speaker and I presented the first time award to Big Bike Mike:

Mike on the left, and some dude standing next to him.

In case you can't see it well enough, the text on the award reads:

The Tarheel Trailblazers would like to award

Mike Hamm / “Big Bike Mike”

The inaugural

“Big Bike Mike Trail

Stewardship Award”

for his tireless efforts and

outstanding Volunteer service

to the mountain bike community

of the greater Charlotte Metro area.

This Day March 26^th, 2016

No one is more deserving of such an award for sure.  Being the “inaugural” award though, it’s gonna be hard for anyone else to win it in the future.  He definitely set a high standard as far as trail work goes, and it will be extremely difficult to match his accomplishments.  He is a helluva good rider too, and a great all around guy.  If you had a chance to work or ride with him, count yourself lucky.  

We’ll definitely miss him around here for sure.

Too Fast

Not me.  The weekend.  Where did it go?  I put in a ton of extra hours at work last week, so when I got home Friday night I was exhausted.  I did a whole lot of nothing until passing out after one beer and a documentary on Netflix about dams.

The next day was more of the same.  I cleaned up around the house (it was raining outside), played guitar, and hung out with my little buddy Carl.  He was happy to have me there.

I eventually left the house to go guitar shopping, and after playing several models I came home with nothing.  So, it was back to Netflix for more documentaries.  This time I had a pint of ice cream while I sat on my ass.  Sorry, no photos.

Not a very productive weekend, I know, but Sunday was a little different.

I woke up early, but I was still tired from my weekend of nothing (and hell week at work I guess.)  I eventually got my shit together and hit the road to do something I  don’t normally do…

Pre ride a race course.

So that means I’m racing again, right?  Yes.  I’m coming out of cross country retirement to once again race in the Southern Classic Series.  Why?  Who knows.  I think maybe I just want to see what I can do, and if I can do it.  So that being said, I wanted to do a little course recon before my first race at the end of the month.

I took off for San Lee Park in Sanford, NC.  I hadn’t been there in a few years (since I last raced there), and I wanted to see what kind of gear I should run.  I was on a geared bike the last time I was there, and I remembered it being pretty difficult.  I no longer own a geared bike, so when I showed up at the trailhead I was prepared to struggle…

And wait.  The trail didn’t open until 1:00 p.m. due to the previous day’s rain.  I ended up in a group ride put on by my pal Josh, which consisted of a bunch of folks that wanted to see the “new and improved” race loop.

Photo credit:  Josh Miller

After the first big climb, I was starting to think that my gear choice was perfect.  My next worry was the rigid fork, since the last time I was there we had to ride over some of the rockiest shit I’ve ever seen.  Well, this new loop cut out a lot of that, save for a small amount of totally rideable stuff.

The group was pretty big so we stopped a lot.  It was fine, since I wasn’t out there to race.  It was also nice to be in a social setting on my bike again.

They didn’t cut out all of the super tech stuff.  Every once in a while we’d run up on some “difficult” sections, marked by some very creative signage.

Nothing there was too difficult, aside from the rake and ride stuff that was pretty prevalent.

That actually, uh, sucked.  I kept hearing that new trail was “cut in” and it just needed to be ridden to make it better.  That’s not what I saw.  It looked like poor design followed by lack of effort.  That’s not really anything new though.  The two years I raced out there I saw the same thing in a few spots.  That must be how they do it out there.  I guess I shouldn’t complain, since they cut out most of the difficult stuff so the racers can have better “flow.”

Oh great, here we go again.

Nah, I won’t let it get to me.  I can ride a good bit of tech stuff, but that doesn’t mean that’s all I have to ride.  If they cut some out and replace it with raked off shortcuts to avoid difficult sections, so be it.  It’s not my call, and I certainly don’t have to race it.  I'll probably bust my ass on a small root anyway.

Alas, I do plan to race, and I have no goals other than to put all I can into the upcoming season.  This might be fun, if I can keep my head in it this time.

No, it will be fun.  Whether I like it or not.

Who gives a shit. 

The Host With The Most

I had quite a few days off (from here and from work.)  Honestly, I didn’t want to come back to either one.  I pretty much had to go back to work (since I’m not independently wealthy) and coming back here, well, I sorta missed it.  I guess I can tell you what I did while I was gone.

Our local mountain biking club, the Tarheel Trailblazers played host to other clubs from all over the Southeast for the SORBA Board of Directors meeting.  I took last Friday off to take care of any last minute items.  Since there wasn’t much else to do (thanks to a ton of volunteers), I had the day to ride.  The plan was for TomTom and I to meet my Florida homie Dan Z. and ride at the whitewater park.  It was the start of a few days of chilly weather up here, but a few miles in it looked like he was having a great time (and staying warm.)

I’m sure it was because he came prepared to ride here in North Carolina.

Dan is a good dude.  I rode with him last year in Jacksonville, and he’s been to NC quite bit.  In fact, he took a few days prior to our ride to hit some other stuff in the area, like Rocky Knob Park, Warrior Creek, and even Sherman Branch.  He has this strange way of ranking trails, which he calls his “Top 5.”  The funny thing is, there are over twenty trails in his “Top 5.”  I’m pretty sure that everything he rides ends up in his Top 5, since there is no official ranking system.  He rides it, it makes the list.  The whitewater park was no exception, because it didn’t take long before he announced that it had also made the cut. 

I guess he has fun wherever he goes.

Anyway, after an abbreviated tour of the trails out there, we took a lunch break.  Two other guys from Jacksonville rolled in (Pete and J-Pow), and we hit the restaurant out there for some grub (and beer for me and Dan.)  The food was good, but our new guests were looking to ride.  Before our burgers had a chance to digest, we hit the trail again.

The new Tower 93 line is pretty awesome, and these guys too a few turns hitting the downhill, bermy, jumpy action.  I bowed out of the last run to get photos, and TomTom waited for the Florida boys to do something spectacular.

I think they really enjoyed it.

It was nice to hang with the Jax crew.  Being from my old home state, it was nice to play host to them in my new home state.  I think they had a lot of fun out there.  Hopefully they will come back soon and ride with us (when it’s a little warmer of course.)

It was a long day though.  Two rides with lunch (and beer) in between made for a great day off, but the “meeting” stuff was about to kick off.  I got cleaned up and headed over to host the rest of the out of towners at a new local brewery here in CLT.

We had beer, met some new (and old) friends, and closed the place down with our shenanigans.  The next morning, the “real” meeting would start.  I had to get up at the crack of dark and I wasn’t looking forward to that part of it.

The rest of the weekend, well, I’ll talk about that tomorrow.

Huge thanks to the Jax crew for riding with us.  They are good people, and if you are ever down that way hit them up at SORBAJax.  It’s a helluva lot warmer down there and they have fun shit to ride too.

Roadie Fun

I think my road riding is getting out of control.  I mean, I actually enjoy it now.  I’m riding on the road more and more and having a good time doing it for some reason.  Perhaps an intervention is in order.

Since it’s football season here in ‘Merica now, my Sundays are booked from 1:00 p.m. until late in the evening.  While this is pretty much the only television I enjoy watching, I don’t enjoy the fact that I can’t ride my bike all day.  Well, I can I guess.  It’s a choice I’ve made.  Anyway, I figured that the only way I can get in a good ride before foosball starts is to put in some road mileage.  Rather than go at it alone, I invited Little Miss Sunshine to come along.

“How far are we going?” she asked.

“Maybe fifteen to twenty miles” I replied, knowing that I was full of shit.

She bought it and we hit the road bright and early Sunday morning.

She wasn’t the only victim though.  The night before when we were hanging out with TomTom, we started talking about our ride and he mentioned that he had borrowed a road bike.  “Awesome”, I thought.  We invited him to join us, and after a short ride from our house we uh, picked him up.  He is borrowing a single speed road bike, complete with flat pedals (he doesn’t believe in being clipped in.”  We rolled out from his house, and to make things fun, we took a not yet traveled path through a construction zone.

It was nice having zero traffic around.  I thought it would make TomTom comfortable on the ride, since he’s not used to all this roadie shit.

Baggy shorts, a mountain bike jersey, and flat pedals...on a single speed?  Who gives a shit.  He’s still riding.

Anyway, after a little tour of the soon to be new Interstate loop, we headed for the hills.  Not the real hills (as in Pisgah), but the hilliest neighborhood around.  I wanted to get in some climbing for uh, training purposes.  There are a few tough climbs along the route I picked, and TomTom rode them like a champ with his one, tough gear.  It kinda made me feel like a douche for riding gears.  My road bike is the only geared bike I have left though.  Perhaps I can change that.

So we made it through some steep hills, with one in particular that was leg burning.  We hit the final stretch, which was a gradual climb back towards the main road.  I let the single speed roadie take the lead.

And the little lady wasn’t too far behind.

Even though it was fun for the most part, some of it was a little tough.  I felt good getting out for a ride so early though, you know, pedaling a little bit before I did practically nothing for the rest of the day.  We ended up with almost twenty seven miles, which for a road ride isn’t really too much.  I enjoyed it a lot, but mostly because I had company.

Oh shit, is the beginning of a regular roadie group ride?  I don’t even know who I am anymore.

Hey Eastwood, aren’t you healed up enough to ride around on skinny tires?

I Didn’t Enduro™

This weekend was the Pisgah Enduro™.  I was not there.  I wanted to be, but I actually forgot about it until it was too late to sign up.  It sold out and I missed out.  I originally planned to go anyway just to ride but decided against it.  Instead, I cleaned up my road bike.

That’s not something that I normally do.  I always wash my mountain bikes (the ones that actually get dirty), but the road bike always suffers from neglect.  I decided that it should be clean, especially since I’ve been riding it.  It wasn’t so much for looks though.  The drivetrain was full of grime (years of it methinks) and it actually needed to be cleaned.  Would it shift much better after being clean?  Who knows.  I don’t really know how to shift gears.  Anyway, everything was clean, and only one step remained before I could take it for a ride.

A little ProGold to make the moving parts happy.

Anyway, I went on a group ride Saturday.  The Collier Lily Ride 4 Life to be exact.  I wanted to get in some miles and this would be a good way to do it.  The Dirty Party Cycle actually joined me for this one too.

We were just out to have fun.  You know, easy pace, scenery, etc.  We started out near the back of the pack but that didn’t last long.  You see, roadies have this awful habit of riding their brakes on the downhills, so after suffering through that for a while we got the hell away from the group.  We picked off a few here and there, and even though we weren’t working too hard it was fun.  We kept it at a conversational pace for the most part, and kept the conversation to a maximum.  A social road ride?  You betcha.

A little while in, we came up to the first rest stop.  So, we stopped.

It was near this salvage yard thingy, which at least provided us with some scenery.

We didn’t really need a break though.  After a few minutes we looked at each other and realized that we pretty much stopped for nothing.  So we left and sorta put the hammer back down.  We blew past another aid station later on too.  Having the DPC there with me kept the boredom I normally get on road rides to a minimum.  We got in some good miles and actually had fun.  It was all social, and we even had food and beer afterwards.

I know, it was a road ride, but I’m actually starting to enjoy the road.  Just a little though.  It’s a nice way to break things up, but I really belong in the woods.

At least I was on a bike.  That counts for something I suppose.  Besides, I can't wear my white DeFeet socks any other time.  They would get too dirty.

Ride Drink Eat

Yesterday, it was back to the Tarheel Trailblazers Tuesday Social.  This week’s ride was at our local racetrack/hot lap mecca, Sherman Branch.  It’s a trail that I haven’t ridden in quite some time.  Although it’s fun to go fast on the smooth singletrack, the lack of technical stuff bores me enough to stay away from it on a regular basis.  On the social rides however, I go where the people want me to go.

So Sherman it was.

It really is a fun trail, since you don’t have to think too much when you ride there.  We had a really great group which made it even more fun.  As a bonus, I got to watch Eastwood be a test subject for a new “nutritional” supplement that I recently acquired.  The initial results weren’t good.

You know, judging by the look on his face after taking a drink.

I’ll test the stuff myself soon, but for now I won’t say anything else about it. 

Anyway, we did the usual social pace, stopping often to talk about how rad we are.  We even picked up a few first timers on our ride, which is always a plus.  The pace turned a little anti social towards the end, but our new friends didn’t seem to mind.  It was a good day on the trail.

After the ride, we usually head off to a local watering hole to get some food and such.  We ended up at Jake’s Good Eats, which was literally right around the corner.  The food was awesome, but the beer selection was lacking.  Instead of drinking shitty beer, I ordered a sweet tea.  Is there another kind of tea?  No.  Not here in the South.  As a bonus, they serve it in the finest of glassware.

Just like Grandma used to do.

The only bad thing I can say about that place (other than the absence of good beer for a sorta beer snob like myself) was the paper towel machine in the bathroom.  I had to wave my hands like I was flagging down a cab in NYC just to get a scrap of paper to dry my hands.

No big deal, but it was a little frustrating I guess.

We had one of our longer rides of the year, great weather, a good group of riders, and really awesome food.  Coming from someone who once upon a time was anti social, these Tuesday night rides are something I look forward to.  Even though we don’t ride too fast or do anything epic, it’s a good way to spend a day in the woods. 

I dig that.

Backup Plan

We were supposed to have another group ride at a local trail last night.  But, it was cancelled.  Anyone wanna guess why?

More rain.

Never fear though, because we had a backup plan.  The regular crew (Eastwood, Good Guy Greg, and Irish Luke) met at TomTom’s house to roll out on a local greenway, while my plan was to ride from the B-43 Worldwide Headquarters and meet them out there somewhere.

I just had to get my bike ready first.

Being a Drunk Cyclist, I grabbed a beer, put it in my Maxxis coozie, and got ready for the two mile ride from my house to the greenway.

I rolled out, eventually meeting the crew at the entrance to RTS.  You know, our slightly hidden, always open, singletrack heaven.  We took off in the woods, and it didn’t take long for us to realize that we built a pretty damn good trail.  Even though a storm had just passed through, the trail wasn’t too slick to ride.  It was so good in fact, that I didn’t take any photos while we rode.

Well, except for one of Eastwood adjusting his chain tension on the Glow Worm.

After two plus miles of private trail goodness, we ended up on the greenway again.  A lot of it had been flooded, but being on mountain bikes made it kinda fun (plus I drank my beer along the way.)  After a few miles of spinning my ass off on the flat, paved path, we found some more singletrack. 

This place is an oldie but goodie, and it was pretty much “all weather” too since it’s not official or anything.  With a good amount of cross country action here and there, we had to pay close attention to what would come next.

There is a gap jump/pump track wonderland in the middle of those woods, and if you were caught off guard you could end up getting hurt pretty bad.  There are go-arounds for everything, but cooking down the hill too fast could make you miss them (see above photo.)  It was fun as hell.

Instead of sitting around here bitching about the shitty weather and the fact that all of our local trails are closed, we seemed to have found a good backup plan.  This will probably be our go to route in the future during inclement weather, and I’m pretty damn happy about that.  This weekend doesn’t look too promising for local riding on “real” trails, so we may do this same route again tomorrow.

If not, I have another backup plan.

See y’all next week.

A Little Riding

For some reason, I had to tell you all about my Washington, D.C bicycle adventure yesterday.  While I was glad that I got to ride a little bit while I was up there, I wouldn’t really classify it as anything quality.  Sure, it was fun, but I need to be in the woods.

Tuesday night I was.

Finally, the weather cooperated and we were able to get back to our regularly-scheduled Tuesday Social.  This time we went to BackYard Trail, and I was amazed at how many people were out there.  Several group rides were taking place, and ours was the last to roll out.  We had a huge group wandering all over the trail at a social pace, and I have to say that it was the most fun that I’ve had on a bike in a long time.  Well, except that I was riding gears. 

I’ll get into that later.  As in tomorrow.

I'm still not used to riding gears, or suspension.  My geared bike is fun and all that, but sometimes I feel like it's not meant to be ridden locally anymore.  It feels out of place.

I rode TK-421 like a single speed (I haven’t gotten around to converting it yet), most of the time because I would forget to shift.  I still had a good time, and I’m glad so many people came out.  I only took the one photo (see above), which should tell you that I was too busy having a good time to worry about capturing images.

Who gives a shit.

Of course, much beer was consumed at the ride’s conclusion.  Fine hoppy beverages and good food, paired with good conversation made for a great night.

I love this bike shit.

And I love short blog posts.  

Lost In The Hills

So yeah, Sunday was my big ride in Pisgah.  It was a planned group ride to pre-ride the course for the Jerdon Mountain Challenge, but plans changed a little bit.  A lot of the group went up on Saturday, rode the Kitsuma side of the course, camped, and woke up the next day to ride the other side.  I wanted to do it all in one shot, so the plan was for TomTom and I to start in town and ride it all from start to finish. 

The only problem was that I didn’t really know exactly where I was going.

I talked to D-Wayne the day before, and he and Mike B decided to meet us up there (and hopefully help guide us along.)  When we got to the museum in Old Fort, I found D-Wayne sleeping on a park bench.  A few of our other friends rolled up and the plan was to ride to the picnic area at the bottom of Kitsuma to meet with the rest of the day trippers.  The overnight crew rode from the campgrounds across the highway, and that group included Little Miss Sunshine.

She rode to the picnic area with us.

Somewhere along the way, we lost D-Wayne and Mike B.  When we got to the picnic area, there was a giant group of people and they started splitting up.  One group would do the Star Gap/Heartbreak/Jarrett Creek side (with two people even climbing up Curtis Creek), and the rest of us would do the whole course.  Well, except for D-Wayne and Mike B, who I found out later did the pre ride for the upcoming Pisgah Enduro.  Anyway, I somehow got roped into leading the group, which I found odd because I don’t really know the area that well. 

I know Kitsuma though, so we took off up the Point Lookout Trail to the top of the mountain.

It’s a paved, five mile or so climb to the Kitsuma trailhead, and it’s not too steep.  I was pushing pretty hard though, until I realized that my heart rate was up way too high and I should probably save my legs for later.  At that point I slowed down to a respectable pace, and even stopped along the way to take a photo.

We got to the Kitsuma parking lot eventually (pretty quickly actually) and most of the group had already gone in while we waited for the last few people.  We hit the switchbacks hard, pushing up the steep climbs to get to the top.  Again I realized I should take it easy, so I walked a few of them to save my legs.  Once we got closer to the top I found another prime photo spot.

After a little more climbing, we hit the first downhill.  Having been there before I took off balls to the wall, and attempted a little jump.  I came down sideways and started sliding off the trail, until some bushes spared me from certain death in the valley below.  I didn’t really get hurt, but TomTom was right behind me and said it looked horrible.  I think watching me wreck gave him a healthy fear of the trail, so we both took it kinda easy the rest of the way down.

Well, maybe I didn’t.  Every once in a while I would let it go, until I realized that I probably shoudn’t go that fast.  That stupid squishy fork gave me way too much confidence.

After a short while (and somehow passing almost everyone in our group on the downhill) we popped out into the parking lot at the picnic area.  Some of our group had parked there, so they refilled bottles and we prepared to roll out again.  This time is was a road section that was pretty boring.

Except for the geyser.

Our group was splitting up again, and in an effort to conserve my energy I fell back a bit so we wouldn’t lose the couple of people behind us.  TomTom tried to stay between us so he could see where the people ahead were going and to make sure we followed.  It sounded like a good plan, but it didn’t work for shit (not his fault.)  At least I printed out a cue sheet of the course though.

I don’t know this side of the area very well, and although I have excellent map reading skills I wasn’t exactly sure where we were supposed to turn off the road and onto Star Gap.  The guy in the back of the group motioned to us where we were supposed to turn, but the group ahead of us kept going.  TomTom and I just kinda stopped there and waited, unsure of which was was correct.  There were no signs, but the map had a spot where we were supposed to go in that wasn't taken by the group ahead of us (they passed it.)  The whole reason I wanted to ride out there with a group was so we didn’t get lost, and now the two guys who don’t know shit about that area were left to fend for ourselves.

And then it started pouring rain.  Lovely.

We decided to take a chance and head up the unmarked trail, and it went nowhere.  We turned around, headed back down the road and took the other unmarked trail.  We saw tire tracks, so at least we knew that someone had ridden there.  Eventually it dead-ended at some train tracks.

And we had no fucking idea where to go.  At least the rain stopped…for now.

I looked across the tracks and spotted a U.S. Forest Service trail marker, and it said “Heartbreak.”  I finally knew where we were.  We headed in, and a minute or so later we started seeing people from our group coming towards us.  Did we miss something?

Turns out we were finally heading in the right direction.  They asked, “Did you just now get here?”

Yeah, we did because we were waiting there like a couple of idiots.  They told us that they were bailing on the ride to go get food.  Apparently no one wanted to push their bikes up the tons of switchbacks in the rain, and we also heard that they couldn’t “train” in conditions like that.

I laughed my ass off about that the rest of the day. 

They asked, “Are you still going?”

“Hell yeah”, I replied.  TomTom and I came out there to ride, and we were gonna finish that shit no matter what.  So, with the rest of the group hitting the road to go get some food, we rode on.

And then shit got real fun.

I’ll finish this tomorrow.