MTB Night Ride

Inspired by the arrival of the replacement batteries for the MagicShine, I figured that the least I owed them was a spinaroo to make sure all was in working order.

We received a dusting of snow the other day but that was mostly gone in the lower foothills so I decided to head up to Blacktail and link to the Archery range, over to Thompson for the upper and lower loops, then the steep grind back up Archery and back to the car.

The lights worked smashingly (got me a little brit influence today).  There were no issues with the batteries and it was good to be out chasing the light fantastic (somehow, you can never catch it!).  It was a wee bit chilly though - as per the Garmin, it was an avg of 28 with a low of 23 during my ride.  The other cool thing I noticed about the Garmin is that it goes into reverse mode on the display when it gets dark - so the text is lighter while the background is dark...pretty sweet...

Given the normal volume of critters in the woods, I fully anticipated scaring something along the way but apparently all the animals must have been elsewhere or confused about something cruising through the woods with beams coming out of its head....

by the time I got back to the car, my feet were numb....apparently I misjudged just how cold it was and it might be time to bust out the booties / goretex socks....and some warmer gloves probably would not hurt either.  I had the forehead ice-cream headache going to - the downhills were the cold part...going up hill keeps a guy warm.  The trails conditions were smashing too!  nice and tacky!!

details of the ride:

MagicShine Battery Replacement

Just about the time I was wondering what the status of the Magicshine Recall status was, lo and behold, a little package arrived in the mail....maybe I should have wondered about them sooner?

I unpacked the small package and quickly plugged the 3 re-chargeable batteries to charge them up.  These replacement batteries were from the batteries that had been recalled due to a couple of instances of fires!  It was not a common occurrence but the possibility of a battery heating up while on your helmet or while unattended during charging could be a real problem.

GeoManGear quickly sent out recall notices and probably did not anticipate the level of response they got because the recall process ended up taking over 6 months for our batteries to get replaced.  For a relatively small shop like GMG it had to be a big hit on the books to step up like that in order to do the right thing.  I appreciate their ethical proactiveness - especially since they did not make the batteries!

Now that the batteries are charged up, it will be time to get a night ride on the radar to see just how well the new replacement batteries work.  If nothing else, at least the little magicshine battery family is back together again...

a pic of the 3 replcaement batteries:

 and the accompanying lights....

Obese is the new Phat!

The more I read & research the growing Fat space for snow/sand bikes, the more the whispers are turning into louder voices and I fear those voices might turn into shouting in my head...voices in my head?  yup yup - it could be something more severe but I am going to call it a case of the Phats....and no, in this case more cowbell will not resolve this.

I stumbled across another manufacturer of fatties, or phatties, or obesies - SandmanBikes

They don't appear to be in production yet but I have sent them an email inquiring....they are out of Belgium so the euro exchange rate probably won't help the price but ya' never know....it does take me back to the days of living in Belgie and all the GREAT beer over there!!!

As for hubs and hub width options, Arly pointed out to me that tandem bikes use different width hubs (check out their blog for further tandem adventures and the life of Gromit the trail mutt).  Being a total greenhorn regarding tandems, this was news to me...it did get the proverbial gears in my mind (as opposed to the voices mentioned above) churning wondering whether or not a 160 mm hub used for tandems could be retro-fitted into a 170 mm rear triangle with 10 mm adaptor in order to get around the offset issue on the wheel.....hmmmmmm

Obese Bike - Hub width

One of the design challenges for snow/sand bikes is the rim width / tire clearance.  The concept behind a fat tire on snow/sand is that the wider the rim the more float is will provide.  Float is increased by being able to increase the footprint of the tire.  The challenge is that these wider rims/tires have an effect on the drive-train and chain alignment.

The flavor of the day seems to be 100 mm wide rims.  A 100 mm rim will easily support a 4 inch tire.  That same 4 inch tire on a narrower rim creates a potentially wider tire as the tire overlaps the rim.   This does not really translate into a wider footprint because the tire does not create more contact area relative to the narrower rim.

100 mm seems to be about the widest rim options that will still fit on snow/sand bike frames.  Frames have to be made specifically for handling these wider tires as the current mountain bike models cannot accommodate these fat tires because the forks and rear triangles on the frames are too narrow.

Snow bikes have been built specifically to handle wider rims and tires without worrying about tire rub on the frame.  In most cases, frame builders stuck with the regular width rear hub of 135mm.  The problem with this width is that the rear wheel cannot fit on there symmetrically or centered because of the chain-line. Even with a wider bottom bracket the chain rubs against the tire in the higher gears....what to do what to do??  There are two options to this fix...a wider rear hub (170mm) or an offset wheel where the wheel is not symmetrical.

THe problem with a wider 170mm hub is that there are few people who make one and therefore they are expensive.  The upside is that the wheel can be built and installed without having to include spacers for offsetting the wheel.

The upside to the 135mm offset option is that the rear hubs are readily available and cheaper - the downside: you have an offset wheel...

At this point it starts to become personal preference - snow bikes were originally built with tons of modifications and that 'standardization' in the industry is continuing to sort itself out.  It is almost like when full suspension bikes first came out and there were lots of designs and it took several years before things started to normalize and frames started to use similar designs.  That is still happening at a fast rate in the snow bike industry where companies are starting to get closer to standards which is great for the consumers because it is less work in regards to modifications and not having to go dig for hard-to-come-by parts.

The wider wheels definitely create for some interesting challenges as it impacts the drive-train.  It has been fun to learn about all this and I still feel it is the proverbial tip of the learning iceberg for me - there is a ton to think about when buying a snow bike as whatever choice a person makes in the snow bike world, it will impact the downstream future buying decisions based on availability of parts and upgrades.  

MTB Helena Tour

We have been experiencing a little bit of an indian summer (not quite warm enough to be called summer so maybe it is an indian fall?) which provided for some good riding temps on Saturday.  I needed to head up to Helena to pick up my shock that was getting re-built and decided to take the single-speed up for some riding around Helena.

The forecast called for increasing winds with rain moving in later in the day.  Since it was going to be more stable in the a.m., the wise move was to get out sooner rather than later in the day.  I started by Mt A and worked my way through the gulches over to the Helena Ridge trail.  It ended up being a great day in the saddle with a fair amount of climbing thanks to traversing up/down/over the gulches leading to Helena  Ridge.

The legs felt OK but were starting to feel a little tired on the last climb - not too surprising given the lack of singlespeed riding over the past month.  It was still a great day and the weather cooperated enough to not impact the ride - I could see the dark stuff rolling in but was not yet localized.

Obese Bikes

To most bicyclists the words 'fat tire' conjure up images of mountain bikes.  They got this nickname from being compared to the skinny tired siblings on the road.  Most fat tires are around 2 inches wide with a plus/minus of about .4...but most fat tires seem to run between 1.9 to about 2.2

With the uptick in interest in fatbikes (which are unto themselves their very own genre), I have come to realize that my aforementioned term 'fat' might have been a little mis-leading - they look like they are on a diet relative to:

The new 'fatbike' genre applies specifically to snow/sand bikes that have tires up to 4 inches wide!!!  For my own little order, I am going to call these 'obese tires/bikes'.  Obese tires are to fat tires, what fat tires are to road/slick (or perhaps anorexic) tires.

I have recently caught the 'obese' fever and have been reading and reading and reading about these bikes. These bikes suffer from specific engineering/geometry challenges that make the decision making process all that much more interesting and challenging (there are many many branches in this decision making tree).  Since it is a fairly new genre in the biking world, the development is still in it's beginning (I won't say infancy because there is more than 1 player now).  With more players in the market, innovation has been pushed forward - which is always a good thing for the consumer as it means progress and options.

From most of my research, it really boils down to 4 options....The first option is the grand-daddy of the obesebike: The Surly Pugsley.
The Pugs was first to mass produce & market.  They have a good stand-by steel frame with horizontal droputs which makes the frame adaptable to regular wheels, single-speed applications, etc...

Other recent new-comers to the all-you-can-eat-obese-party include the Salsa Mukluk, 9:zero:7, and Fatback

More to come on the specific design challenges on obese bikes....if you are interested in learning more about this growing (excuse the pun) genre, check out the MTBR forums on 'Fat Bikes' as there is a girth (excuse the pun again) of information out there.

All Skyped Up

It had been a couple of years since I had used the Skype interface and I remember the video and audio being delayed and a little hurky-jerky.  Who knows whether that was a unique situation or perhaps SW related issue, a HW related issue, or even a bandwidth issue.  Whatever the hiccup, Skype seems to have made some strides as there was a marked difference when I fired up Skype and talked at ease with my bro' halfway across the world.

There was very little delay and although the video quality might not be good enough to go create a HD movie, it was plenty good enough to provide a good visual of who was on the other end of the video-call. It really got me to thinking back when I was younger in Portugal and we had to go to the Post Office or specific cafe's to make calls (international calls had to be made from the Post Office).  It is pretty crazy to think that technology has evolved so much that we have gone from scratchy noisy land lines with delays in voice transmissions to wireless technology that provides almost real-time video interfacing...what is next?  something that anticipates our conversation and thoughts?

It is a not-so-subtle-reminder of just how the years are cruising by and that relaying that archaic visual of standing in a telephone booth in order to make a phone call (and rotary phones to add extra confusion)  to our younger wireless generation would be like someone trying to explain wind up cranks on cars to me....although it might not be a Flintstones moment, it appears that I am now old enough to reference the 'remember when' moments!

ohh yeah - and the best part of Skype?  it is FREE!  big shout out to Skype!

Wilco making an appearance at NPR Tiny Desk series...the video really shows just how talented these guys are...

Politics & Religion

Disclosure: going a little off topic today but every once in a while it is good to let the gears churn a little bit in the head as opposed to the bike...

It dawned on me yesterday that there are many similarities between politics and religion.  Most political groups and religious organizations are exclusive by nature.  So if you are part of one particular political party, you are automatically against the other...the same applies to most religions where if you are part of a particular religion,  most others are in the wrong.  I am of course making generalizations and understand there are exceptions to the norm.

So as this thought rambled around in my mind I started to think more and more about it.  Many people's beef with religion is that it is exclusive and that it has not evolved and adapted as the humanoids have (I suppose you could argue we have devolved but let's just go with the evolutionary aspect for a bit).  As a result people identify less with many religious organizations because they have not adapted to our quickly changing world.  The same could be said about our political system...very very very slow to adapt - mostly because it is not in their best interest...that change thing can be scary for some.

In my opinion, religious and political views are often inherited from the parental units.  It seems as most people seem to align with their parents belief system...which I guess makes sense considering how they raised you has a huge bearing on how you see the world.  The journey of self discovery can sometimes lead people to different views of the world but me thinks this is probably more the exception than the norm.  I think this is changing somewhat considering that people are finding it more difficult to identify with archaic views that the churches still hold on to, etc

War...in the past, religion was the source of many a war - imposing religious beliefs on others could often lead to a forceful show in order to make people 'believe'.  Hmmm, the same could be said for political beliefs and how trying to change countries over to a new political system has also been the source of a few wars.

It can also be argued that religious and political parties do not have their flock's (excuse the association) best interest at mind, but ultimately their goal is to preserve and grow their power at any expense.  This is usually done by recruiting people but more than anything it is often done via financial routes.  The most powerful churches tend to be the ones with the most money - same for political parties.  Somewhere along the way both political and religious organizations have lost their way regarding taking care of their flock.  Unfortunately their agendas are driven by selfish reasons/agendas and not humanitarian ones.  Don't question authority and accept the status quo as fact.

The consequence of either organization's hunger for power (and them having obtained it) results in an above the law mentality where they are immune to the working person's plight and reality and their are little to no personal consequences for abhorrent or unethical behavior.

The biggest consequence of the exclusivity of religious and political groups is that instead of uniting, they divide.  The irony is that when you strip away the blubber and noise, most religious organizations have the same core belief system - we ultimately know what is right and wrong as individuals...the same goes for politics...ultimately they know what is right and wrong but we have somehow been able to turn an easter egg hun into a butt-f#$@-athon (to steal the quote from the move 'Made').  We tend to blur the obvious by wrapping all sorts of peripheral discussion around what are easily identifiable right/wrong views.

In some ways, religious views and beliefs drive political agendas.  Just as the right is hard conservative in some ways, the left is equally on the other end of the spectrum.  What I find interesting is that the right is unwilling to be open to discussion and possibly change their views - but the left is no better.  They are equally steadfast in their views and how wrong the other side is.   The exclusivity that surrounds these organizations automatically sets up a scenario where good solid dialogue is never achieved because they can't ever get to the table to discuss - they would spend too much time arguing about where the table is and what it should be made of, and what shape it should be, what height it should be....all non-consequential things that have nada to do with whatever the core discussion points should be.  Is it any wonder that in this day and age of technology where life moves quickly that not only do individuals suffer from ADD, but so do organizations.

as an end note, I turn to the great philosopher Groucho:
'please accept my resignation. i don't want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member'

there is a lot to be said for that which is probably why I don't affiliate with either political party or particular religious organization.

Vintage Townie - After

This past summer I happened to be driving by an antique shop and saw an old beat up Townie that deserved a closer look and subsequent make-over.  I picked up the bike on the cheap and promptly went about stripping the hideous home paint job that was on it.  It was in pretty bad shape but I really like the frame shape and the potential.

The frame had been coated with red paint - to the paint where rims, seat posts, handlebars, forks, etc were all coated with a sloppy paint.  Whoever tried painting it failed miserably as they did not prep or prime it and it showed because paint was not sticking and it was in sad shape.

I was able to salvage the frame parts of the bike but had to swap out the wheels.  I was able to cannabilize an old front wheel that we had sitting around but had to order a new cheapie rear wheel with a coaster brake (the kind that you can spin freely but once you put pressure on the back-pedal is engaged the brake on the rear wheel).

After some good old fashioned elbow grease and a lot of paint stripping and rest removal, I got it back to a raw metal color which brought back the bike's personality.  I ordered a couple of white wall tires, new seat and voila, a cool looking townie with a little character.  I should put it on the scale to see how much this lead weight of a bike weighs - just for giggles

a couple of pix from the finished product (will have to swap out pedals because one of them does not rotate evenly - a lumpy pedal stroke on the left).  I left the fenders off too - giving it more of a beach feel....

 a little beverage holder up front to hold...

Airstream - Stripping

Since the little tin can is a vintage 1971 trailer, the outside of it has the typical 'sun-burn' marks on top where the sun has baked it over the years.  One of the unique characteristics of older airstreams comes to the forefront when they are polished to a mirror-like finish.

Now that we have mostly finished the inside and have gotten to use the Globe-Trotter this summer, it is time to fine tune the inside and out.  I read many an article/forum regarding the process of polishing these trailers and they all say it is a lot of work.  The first step in the process is to use a stripper to remove the clear coat finish on the aluminum (the 2nd step involves multiple iterations of polishing/buffing).  This means applying stripper to the whole trailer and then removing the stripper everywhere such that it does not stay on there long term and do damage.

I decided to do a test run on a small panel to see if the CitriStrip product is effective.  I had used CitriStrip on the vintage bike I salvaged this past summer and it worked really well.  The best part is that it does not have those nasty nose hair burning smells - it is 'green' (ok, orange) so that makes me feel a little better when applying so that it does not destroy anything (like skin, clothes, or wherever else it might land).

One of the good things about Citristrip is that it is thick and so when you apply it, it does not run on you...which is good considering the curves on the silver bullet.

The conditions are not ideal for applying at the moment (optimal temps are between 65-85) but I was curious to see just how much work the stripping part was going to be (it is supposed to be the easier and faster of the 2 part process).  I applied the stripper and then let it sit for about an hour.  The crux was trying to figure out how to remove the stripper without making too much of a mess.  I used the tough blue paper towels to remove most of the stripper and then repeated several times until all signs of the orange gunk were gone.  This meant going through many many paper towels.  I tried using cloth but quickly realized that once the cloth removed some stripper it was just moving it and rubbing it into the aluminum more.  

I removed the stripper then wiped it down with water (with paper towels) and then did a quick spray of simple green cleaner to make sure it was all gone.  For good measure I then did another wipe down with water to remove the simple green....time consuming, absolutely but there is no time crunch at the moment and it is in the garage so it is all good.  I can see how stripping the entire trailer will take multiple days of work.

As I was puttering around the house a day later, the little symbolic light switch was turned on in my head and I heard the choir as the 'AHA' moment arrived...what exactly is this braniac idea?  It dawned on me that perhaps the best way to remove the stripper in bulk (besides washing it outside which would entail hooking the car up, moving it outside and then washing), was to use a window squueegeeee thingie.  This worked surprisingly well and did not make much of a mess - and also meant much fewer paper towels).

The temps might have shut us down for the winter in regards to continuing to strip but it seems as if stage 1 is doable...I do have a couple of concerns...

One is that there is one section where the stripper does not seem to be working - not sure if I just need to let the stripper sit longer so it can do its magic, or whether to get something a little more aggressive, or whether it is not the clear coat but something else that perhaps that has stained the top.
The other is that some panels on the tin can look newer and so I am not sure whether they will shine and buff out like the older panels...hopefully they will or else it will look a little inconsistent.  There is one panel in particular where the furnace is that looks like it is thicker gauge than the other panels - almost like it might be stainless...if that is the case, no amount of polishing will get it all mirror-like shiny...

some pix of the testing:
the top part of the panel is where I am having a hard time removing whatever is caked on there....

 panel after stripper has been applied and removed....hopefully you can tell the before/after

 one panel down, many more to go....

ellipti-what?

just another slice of a crazy off-spring of bike related product...

looks like it could be fun to play on for a day or two but I don't think I would want to ride one around town, or up a hill, or on a trail, or a tandem,,,,etc

perhaps this is the perfect product for you if you are addicted to the elliptical machines at the gym and want to expand your whacky flailing to the world that exists outside of the gym fishbowl...seems like a fall one of these bad boys would be pretty spectacular.

I suppose it is still a much better alternative to the ummm....runbike:

http://runbike.com/

after all, it is just like running on the moon....

Climbing Flashback Trifecta

some pix from our infamous (to us) road trip to the Red in Kentucky...

Biblical type rain (most rain in a 24 hr period in close to 100 yrs) in the area made for slim pickings climbing wise but we tried to make the most of it in the intermittent windows that provided micro windows to climb...it rained this hard for days!  note the tents underneath the shelter....we set up camp in the eating area at Linda's or else we would have needed a paddle to get to/from our tents

This missus getting her climb on, or practicing crunches, or something....

 mo' missus - gratuitous butt shot:

 mo' missus climbing through the buckets:

 yours truly enjoying the super fun warm up with gi-normous holds

 a little friend I almost stepped on at the base of the crag - fortunately he was in sleepy mode

 Twinkie - big holds, big fun...

from the ground it was hard to understand why this was rated 12a - the holds all looked super positive and HUGE

just plain fun climbing!

feet wherever you want

 just down the trail there was another super cool overhanging route that was beggin' to be climbed:

 same climb - steep and hard

 there were little glimpses of blue sky every once in a while....

 the missus leading some slabby looking horror-show (any slabby looking anything is a horror show to me)

Climbing Flashback - Part Duh

Some awesome climbs in Clear Creek - the old stomping ground in Denver...

back when there was a Tyrolean traverse over to Sonic Youth - one of my very very favorites climbs and projects in Clear Creek!

 working through the lower iron cross move at the bottom of Sonic:

 first crux down, now through the overhanging dyhedral

 getting out of the 'rest' up high and getting ready for the biznasssss on Sonic

 we have arrived at the biznasssss

 sticking and holding the sloper on the biznasssssss - reaching for a nasty little crimper with the rightie

 New River Wall in Clear Creek

Reminiscing of Climbing

As I was organizing pictures yesterday, the gears in the mellon started to grind away at all the awesome climbing adventures and how the plan is to get back there at some point and partake in the fun again - it will be humbling to try gain some climbing pump again but c'est la vie...to be expected after a long hiatus.

Until then it will just have to be a trip down memory lane:
Tensleep - looking up at the thin (not my forte) crux above...

 great climbing on great stone in Tensleep:

 and yes, there is some steep stuff to be found in Tensleep:

 Nice roof with some jugs!

 more steep Tensleep luvvage - climbing through the roof

 exiting the 'Woof'

 an uncompleted project in Eldo....scary clip - on a tenuous flake that rattled and you had to knee bar and smear your foot for the knee bar as you clipped...anything blowing off the smear prior to clipping, etc would mean a fall where you would deck - sketchy!!!

must get back in climbing shape!

Climbing goes Mainstream?

OK, so climbing won't ever be main-stream despite its growth in popularity over the past decade - and free solo action definitely won't make it main-stream but the fact that there is a 60 minutes segment and a recent front page of Nat Geo featuring climbing and specifically this guy, goes to show that there seems to be some level of raised awareness - perhaps? sorta'? kinda'? maybe?

just plain nutty...as in having a set so large that you need a wheelbarrow to carry them around in:

Unless you are a climber, it is difficult to appreciate some of the things this guy is doing.   Scary, impressive...or suicidal?  regardless, talk about some serious mental fortitude to stay focused - to me, his most impressive feat is the free solo in Zion of Moonlight Buttress....that climb was just recently (somewhat recently) freed and for this cat to walk up to it and free solo a 5.13 finger crack when the crux comes up high several hundred feet of the deck....WOW!

Airstream Maintenance

Upon returning from our last outing with the tin can, I stopped at the RV dump to empty out the black tank (sewer tank).  The norm is pull up, grab the sewer hose, empty the tank, do a quickie rinse, then put the hose back in the carrying pipe and motor back home.

Imagine my surprise when I pulled up, bent down to get the sewer hose and realize the pipe that carries the sewer hose was totally MIA!  The only thing left was an end cap - DOH!!

somewhere along the dirt roads of backcountry Montana there is a PVC pipe with a sewer hose snaking out of it.

Where it was supposed to be:

Since it is sorta kinda important to have a sewer hose and carrying mode, I made a quick trip to the hardware store where I picked up some end caps, clamps to secure the PVC, and a new hose...about an hour later, voila, back to having a functioning storage system for the sewer stuff...

the end caps screw on and the sewer hose is stored inside - out of the way....

the mystery loss happened sometime before this pic as the pipe is missing in this pic...dogs are showing their concern too...pic of the Bitterroot - Big Hole area

 more Big Hole fun

MTB: Bitterroots Again

The weather was unseasonably warm again this past weekend so it made for yet another extended window of opportunity to get out and ride...in the immortal lyrics of Queen:

"Bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle

I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like"


'Where I Like' just happened to be the Bitterroots that were calling out to me again.  This time however it was going to be a solo adventure as the missus had to work the weekend.  The plan was to get out and explore another section of trail that we had not gotten to the prior weekend.  I had my handy dandy Forest Service map, my nutrition, my water, my water filter, my little sordid collection of gadgetry and a can of bear spray just in case the bear bell on my 'wingnut' did not make enough noise to warn critters.


The Stewart fire southeast of Wisdom had picked up and the Big Hole was in a shroud of smoke from the fire that has been burning for weeks...fortunately I was heading further west and would not be impacted by the smokey skies.


I parked the car and clipped in and started to ride...I explored the first trail on the map that would gain access to the CDT where I was planning on riding the spine of the divide for a while.  The problem was that the trail that was on the map was nowhere to be found...no problem, it was a day to adventure with no particular agenda in mind so adventure onwards....The a side dirt road eventually gave way to an un-maintained trail that was overgrown and had no evidence of human activity - there were some wildlife prints in the mud but no footprints or bike prints.  After a couple miles of bushwacking, dismounting my bike to clear fallen trees, swamp riding, branch scraping, etc etc...I figure this trail was not going anywhere and it might be a wise move to turn back and explore option C.


I was glad to have the bear bell during the bush-whack-a-thon and found myself talking out loud a few times to make sure I was making enough noise to alert any critters.


fast forward a few miles on the retreat of the trail and there was another trail with a sign that indicated it was 5 miles to the CDT...'AHA moment'...The Plan:  take said trail to CDT and ride CDT to where we finished our ride last week (we went south to north last week and the plan was to ride north to south and end up where we exited the CDT last week).


What do they say about mice and men??  well awry it did go...


I followed the trail for 3 miles up the ravine (this trail was actually evident and no bushwhacking required) - although it was pretty tekkie which was fun though.  It reminded me of some of the BC riding with roots and rocks.  After 3 miles, the trail pulled a Bermuda Triangle and disappeared.  I bushwacked for a while but could not pick the trail up.  I was tantalizingly close to picking up the CDT but no dice...I looked at the skies and they had the look of change.  The blue skies were turning dark and I could feel the winds that were pushing weather into the area.  At this point I figured given the day's track record the best move was to turn around and head back to the car.  


I did make it back to the car unscathed, but frustrated at not having been able to get on the elusive CDT this weekend.  All's well that ends well....to use yet another literary quote...


It was still a good day to be out - 17 miles of exploring on roads and trails, and non existent trails.  Even in getting off the beaten path, the area opens up a little more to you.  It is all good in the hood G!


pix of the excursion: