Happy Anniversary!

• Married--5 years.
• Co-habitating--11 years.
• Best Friends--23 years!

Weeping Willow Race Report

You think you're getting a full race report here, but a-ha, you're NOT. Instead, you're getting a photo that I borrowed from Seaside Cycle's FB photo page and a link to the coolest bike clothing company out there, Twin Six. Trust me, I'm sort of like a doctor's helper, and I promise, the click won't hurt a bit. Click here, and do it now!

KingdomTrails_part1

The Green Mountain State.

I love Vermont. It's been a few months since I had been up to the Northeast Kingdom, but the addiction is rekindled, and I can't wait to go back.

Jean and I headed up on Saturday, but we went up late… the weather was actually better here in MA, so we took care of stuff around the house and did a great road ride first. Ultimately, it was time to pack our stuff in the car and hit 93 north. The drive up was uneventful, and we made our way to our friend Jo's house.

It was great to catch up with our old friend and get re-acclimated to our home away from home. She's got a great B&B in the perfect location, and Jean and I have been staying with her so often, she's like family.

After getting reacquainted, getting a good night's sleep, and having a great breakfast, it was all about getting rubber down and hitting the trails!

Ah, and speaking of old friends, there was Harp, Coronary Bypass, Pastore Point Loop, Coronary, Tap & Die, Webs, West Branch, Hogback, Sidewinder, Border, Heaven's Bench, Ridge, Leatherwood, Riverwood, Nose, Worth It, Beat Bog, Widow Maker, Pines, Bill MacGill… Good friends indeed. If you know what I mean, you know how good it was. If you don't know, well, next time I mention that I'm going to Kingdom Trails, get your bike ready and come along to be enlightened.

In addition to riding, we did some more riding. In addition to that, we did one of our favorite hikes in the area, to the overlooks on Mt. Pisgah, looking over Lake Willoughby.

All in all, it was a killer get away to the Green Mountain State. Now, I have to review my calendar to see when we'll be back.


See some other pics here.

Avid BB7!

Avid's BB7. It's a simple component, yet the source of MUCH anger and frustration this morning...

It started out when I was doing a pre-race inspection on my Singular Swift. The rear rotor was a little wobbly, and there was a small nick in the finish that was causing some accelerated wear on the pads... oh, and the pads were probably at the point where they could have been replaced. So, I figured I'd just get a whole new kit. Easy enough, right?

I started by calling Western Cycle... no BB7 in stock. No problem. I checked Seaside Cycles, which is only about 3 miles from my house... the shop's Web site had an online catalog which showed the BB7... I arrived at the shop only to learn that the online catalog was NOT actual store inventory, but a list of things that could be ordered. D'oh!

Next. I tried calling REI. I had a feeling that they would have the caliper in stock, and I could get a new seat for Jean, as I knew that the also carried WTB. When I called REI, I was on hold for about 5 minutes. I hung up, and instead tried Pinnacle Bikes in Beverly. No luck. I called REI back, was on hold too long again, and hung up to call Beverly Cycles. No BB7. Repeat the same process with REI, being on hold, and then calling another shop two more times (Centraal Cycles and Brown's, both in Beverly), no BB7.

I finally got someone at REI, and I was in luck, they had the BB7! I asked to have it held for me at the front desk and then I hopped on 128 south (from Manchester By The Sea no less). I drove "quickly," pushing my Element to the limits. I had to get down to Reading and get back home so that I could get to work. I got down 128 south just fine, but when I hit Danvers, I looked across the median, and to my horror, the traffic was backed up as far as I could see. I could NOT spend my time in that. I hopped off 128 on 114 and hit more traffic. ARGH!

On a lark, I tried Salem Cycles, and viola, they had " a frig load of BB7's." I was there as fast as I could, navigating Salem traffic and parking (which suck). I got the caliper, and then battled Salem and Beverly traffic some more.

Sigh... so much for a quick errand and installing the caliper before work!

Kingdom Trails

Lake Willoughby

From the top of Mt Pisgah, thanks to Photoshop stitching about 5 photos together...(click on the photo).

Back to Blogging!

Wow. It's been about a month since my last post. That's lame, but I've been BUSY!

I guess I'll start with this past week and then work backwards a bit, mainly because this past week is still fresh in my memory, and the old memory ain't what it used to be...

I was off this past week, with the exception of putting a shift in in the emergency department on Monday, and this was a great week off--better than most in the recent past, mainly because I got to do plenty of riding and proportionally less moving stuff (although, in retrospect, still quite a bit).

Saturday, however, was not an exciting day. Jean and I spent virtually the whole day running around from store to store getting "stuff." What stuff? I don't really remember, but I do know that light bulbs were pretty important. So was a smoke detector. All I really remember was that we drove around all day, from Target, to Home Depot, to Lowes, to Wal*Mart. Fun, fun, fun. After a long week at work, there's nothing more fun than driving around doing errands. Seriously, we're getting everything online from now on.

Although, while waiting for Jean in Wal*Mart, I did get to see this VERY cool, custom painted, camper. I may have these guys do some signage on my car... we'll see.

Anyway, the fun part of Saturday came when we got together with Megan & Rick for Clash of the Titans--in 3D. I loved the original movie, and to this day, my all time favorite movie quote is "Let loose the Kraken." (For some reason, this was changed to "release the Kraken in the new movie...)

I wasn't sure if the new version would be as good as the first, and sadly, it wasn't. It was still entertaining, and most important, I got some cool 3D glasses.

Sunday was still raining. I had been longing to get out for a ride--especially after working 9 days in a row, but the crappy weather held me at bay. I decided to take the marauding morons (Gary & Luna) out for a run, with Jean (not a marauding moron), and then meet up with Doug for breakfast. Jean and I did a couple of miles together and then I peeled off with the dogs to log a couple of more miles. I was hoping for 4-5 miles, but as I'm still learning my way around the new neighborhood, I took a couple of roads that were longer than expected, and 7 1/2 miles later, we jogged back in to the driveway. Longer than I had planned, but I was able to reward myself with a great steak tip breakfast at the Cityside Diner in Beverly! Mmmmm, meat.

Highlights for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday include, riding, riding and more riding.

Tuesday night I met up with a group at Willowdale, to try to scope out some of the course that will be used on the race in May. I was the only sucka there on a SS, and when the course hit the fire roads, I was left behind. Damn. The singletrack was a different story though, and there's where I felt I could hold my own. It was a fun ride, and cool to hang out over at Matt's house after. Although, apparently I've got a $1 bill for the beer. Damn again.

Wednesday, my buddy Tim came out from Worcester and we explored some trails in Beverly Commons and Gordon College. For reasons that are too convoluted to describe here, I decided to take a geared bike. I haven't ridden a geared bike off-road (aside from my travel bike which has a 1x8, and is used exclusively when I travel) in years. I also had suspension... I'll get into that another day, but looking back as the trails in the Commons, it was the right tool for the job. Very technical trails with lots of short, steep ups & downs. I'd probably take the geared bike back there next time, but we'll see. We ended up walking as much as riding, so when we had the chance to pop over to Gordon College, we did. It was one extreme to the other though, as we found ourselves pedaling along smooth fire roads. I eventually found some good stuff though and there's a surprising amount of killer singletrack hidden away all over the north shore.

Wednesday's good ride was followed by another ride in Bradley Palmer/Willowdale on Thursday, this time with Mike and his SS. It was good to be back on my fully rigid, 29'er singlespeed. We banged out a fast & fun 13 miles, and we continue to find new trails out there. I don't know who's doing the building & cutting, but whoever it is, he/she is a mad genius. Perhaps it's simply trail gnomes? Whatever, I love Willowdale.

I was starting to feel some fatigue set in in the legs, so I decided to take it "easy" on Friday. Well, sort of. I did sleep late (10:00am!), but after being suddenly awoken by the doorbell, I headed out for a road ride with Glen and Jamie. It was an easy ride for them, but I was hurting. All in all though, I knew that once I got back to work, I'd be thinking about riding, so I figured I'd ride every chance I could while I was off. It's better to go back to work exhausted instead of well-rested.  Otherwise it's not an appropriate use of personal time!

COSTA RICA Day 7: Viva la Viernes

I was successfully reunited with my wheel. Alejandro brought the wheel to Bike Arenal which is also apparently called Ciclo La Fortuna, and to further confuse things, I was told that despite the sign that says that the shop was closed for renovations, the shop was open--although at the house behind the shop. Whatever, all I know is that my wheel got completely rebuilt, with new spokes, for $10! Ten! I was back in business! The weather was still a bit iffy, but after a day of milling about, we were ready to ride.

The first order of business was to head back to the waterfall. We had turned around about halfway up a killer climb last time, but this time we wanted to make it to the top. We did. From there, we went back down to La Fortuna, then on to another dirt road into La Guairia. From there, the road deteriorated to a slick, sticky, muddy, ATV trail. FUN! We climbed up some more, then descended down to the Rio Arenal. On our return trip we crossed paths with a couple of groups of ATV riders, and I think we were definitely having more fun. At least I had more mud on me.

Anyway, after some more climbs and some more killer Costa Rican scenery, it was time to head back to the hotel (of course, uphill), and then to the showers.

Our clothes were sticky, sweaty, and oh so stinky. Although we tried to air them out and let them dry, I felt bad for any TSA inspectors that had to open our bags...

After the showers, it was too late for lunch and too early for dinner--so it was perfect for coffee time! Back to the Gecko (I've got to find their beans... apparently a company called "Down To Earth." Once I was adequately caffeinated, Jean and I wandered over to an art gallery.

When we arrived, the girl working there was all alone, and we were the only ones in the shop. While we were browsing, a bus-load of demanding, impatient, and downright rude Americans rolled in. They huffed and puffed because the poor girl coudn't help all of them at once before finally making a few purchases and being herded away. Jean and I apologized, on behalf of all of the consciencous American travellers out there. We also got some VERY cool art.

Anch'io again for another great Italian dinner and then back to the hotel to start the bike break-down and pack-up process.

COSTA RICA Day 6: Well, it is a rain forest…(Jueves)

I was in a children's music video many years ago, doing stunt riding in a Billy Bob Bear costume, riding to the song, "You Picked A Fine Time To Leave Me Loose Wheel." I was reminded of this as I was without my loose wheel for the day...

It's a bit of a blessing that I didn't have my bike because we had some major mal tiempo... it was POURING. 

The day turned into another defacto chill day, Jean with her book, me with my laptop. We did try to head out for a couple of hikes when we saw some breaks in the weather, but it would literally start pouring again as soon as we arrived at the trail head. We took that as a sign.

We did brave the deluge and head in to La Fortuna for coffee--I loved the Gecko. Anyway, there we were treated to a reenactment of the famous Costa Rican Craneo y Culebra y Perro dance. In this dramatization a young boy donned a skull mask and taunted a local dog with a rubber snake. It was beautiful and moving. It was also very strange.

The really exciting part of the day came when we tried a local Italian restaurant, Anch'io, and Jean swooned over the pasta and wine. Mmmmmmmm.

Need a chainsaw???

As you may recall, I'm calling our recent wind storm the GDWSO2010 (the Great Destructive Wind Storm Of 2010), and I'm still amazed at all of the down trees I've seen. In the woods, and on the trails, there are still plenty of actual trees still down, but out on the streets and in the neighborhoods, I'm mostly seeing giant stumps and maybe big log piles. 

However, my neighbor (the house behind me), had a tree come down and crush his garage. Aside from some caution tape, NOTHING has been done. That's no big deal when it comes to his garage, but the tree that's down is resting against his neighbor's house. WTF? I'd be enraged if that tree was against my house. 

Anyway, I took this pic right after the storm, and sadly, the scene is unchanged!

Towel Sculptures from Costa Rica

Sure, I had never thought that towels would be an appropriate medium for sculpture, but the staff at Hotel El Silencio Del Campo opened my eyes...

The person who cleaned our room each day started with a relatively easy heart shaped design, followed for a couple of days with various geometric shapes, but then she (I'm assuming she was a she... is that wrong?), kicked it up a couple of notches by making an elephant and finally a pair of swans kissing. Origami that you can dry yourself off with... that's pretty cool!

THE Understatement of 2010

I'll take a little break from my Costa Rica postings (more coming) to briefly talk about my ride yesterday. Jean and I took the bikes up to Willowdale, and, well, to say that there was some wind damage and some trees down would be, in my opinion, THE understatement of 2010.

I'm calling that storm a couple of weeks ago the GDWSO2010 (the Great Destructive Wind Storm Of 2010). There were some MAJOR trees down. Someone (NEMBA?) has already done a significant amount of clearing, but wow, there's more to go. Get your chainsaws ready...

On the plus side, we did find some new singletrack!

Dogs of Costa Rica

I'll take a break from telling you about the trip to give you a short presentation about some of the dogs we met in Costa Rica...

 

  

  

  

  

  

We love dogs of all nationalities!

COSTA RICA Day 5: Quiero que me arreglen la bicicleta (Miercoles)

Another day of riding, and another broken spoke! No comprende!

After breakfast we headed out past Nuevo Arenal to a different hotel/resort called Mystica. This place is owned by an Italian couple, and they boast that there are good mountain biking trails nearby. We contacted one of the owners and made arrangements to head out there, get some good Italian food, and do some riding. Mystica was a very cool resort—we’d probably stay there for a day or two on our next trip, and the food—belisimo!

We got some directions for a ride, which included lots and lots of climbing, and headed out. I had hoped that my minor tweaking the other day would have limited by chances of busting another spoke, but alas, this was not the case. As we were climbing and climbing and climbing, I heard the all too familiar “ping” followed by “rub, rub, rub.” I could still roll without being too hampered, and I held my breath while I tightened the opposing spokes to lessen the rubbing just a bit. Then, we soldiered on. Or should I say up.

We climbed a good 700ft of elevation, then hit a town called Sabalito. From there, it was a steady downhill to Tierra Molenas where we were supposed to find a dirt road that would take us up to a wind farm. Unfortunately, we got a bit lost. Instead, we found some gnarly, rutted, jeep “roads” that seemed like fun. We cruised down for a couple of miles, ever descending, until the trail abruptly ended.

Jean was NOT a happy camper. Partially because we were slightly lost, although, I argued that point, because I had my GPS, and I knew EXACTLY where we were… I just couldn’t get us to where we wanted to go easily because the trails/road aren’t marked or mapped. The other part to her chagrin was the fact that we had essentially descended roughly 1,000ft on some gnarly trails, and our only option was to turn around and go back up.

In retrospect, the climbing wasn’t bad, and once we reached the peak in Sabalito, it was smooth downhill sailing on the road back to Mystica. The BeGo brought us back to the hotel and our hunger brought us back to the restaurant, for typico Arroz con pollo.

After an adequate amount of time to digest, we made our way down to the hot springs, when lo and behold, we ended up chatting with some fellow Massachusettians and one Connecticutian. The truly ironical thing is that one of the guys is a mountain biker and fellow NEMBA member.

As we were heading back to the room, we stopped off at the reception desk to talk with Elios, one of the VERY helpful staff here at the hotel. After much bilingual debate, he recruited his amigo to take my wheel back into town to see if anyone else could remedy my situation… 

 

 

COSTA RICA Day 4: More Volcano (Martes)

The Arenal volcano dominates the landscape in this part of the country, so we felt obligated to do some exploring at the Arenal Volcano National Park. No one is allowed to hike on the volcano, something to do with the fact that it’s active and magma burns, so we were kept a “safe” distance away. Some hikers did apparently try, and die, back in 2000.

The trails around the volcano were a mix of rain forest and walking on lava rock. Unfortunately, there were a few tour groups in the area at the same time, so we never could escape the masses. One trail, I’ll call “Broken Hip” was a steep climb up broken lava rock. I call it Broken Hip because hordes of tourists—old tourists—were trying to scramble up and down the rocks. I had to hold my breath sometimes while watching these people. I’ll give them credit for not sitting back in their rocking chairs, but yikes. I did see one woman go down, but she seemed to bounce back up. Hardy foreigners. An American, I would guess, would lie there waiting for a helicopter and a lawyer. 

Anyway, the tourists did provide some interesting visuals, but they were also, unfortunately, loud. While walking on one of the trails in the forest, we were behind a group of about 20 who sounded like they were all trying to stomp on grapes and talk to each other with their hearing aids off. And they wondered why they didn’t get to see any wildlife.

After our sojourn around the volcano trails, we hit the road on the north side of Laguna de Arenal. This TWISTY narrow road had a full-on traffic jam as some large trucks and tour busses—going in opposite directions—had to do some very creative maneuvering to get by. Once past that jam, it was smooth sailing in the BeGo, passing strangle little critters on the side of the road, until we hit Nuevo Arenal. 

We stopped in this little lake-side village, for, of course, some German food. Sauerbraten anyone? Filled with meat and dumplings, we made our way back along the narrow, twisty road, pushing the BeGo like a finely tuned racing machine, back to Fortuna for another delicious coffee at the Gecko Gourmet and finally back to the hotel for more hot springs relaxation. Ah….