A short ride up King's Gap

A short ride up Kings Gap



To make a short ride story even shorter, we went for a ride up Kings Gap on Sat.
A four mile climb. Maybe someone will tell me the gradient of this ride, seemed pretty gentle but relentless to me.

The pic above is at about mile one. Was a cool and cloudy day.This is long about mile 2. I wanted to stop at the little pond, but TLC was just cranking it out, so follow along did I. Puff Puff.





So, here we are at about mile 3. Right about now is when something in my right leg started shouting at me. Adductor longus, or Gracillis, or both, or heck, all three or four or whatall is in there. But I'd noticed this during my weekly commute. Gonna be careful with this now.


Hooray! The top. My knee/leg really wanted a break. Took an hour and seven minutes to do these four miles to the top. We didn't dawdle about up top, much as we would have liked, had somewhere to be. I won't go into how long the descent took. The speed limit on the road is 15mph; so telling, umm, would be telling.

This is really a beautiful place. Shame we were pressed for time. Another time perhaps.

This weekend, the Buy Fresh Bike Local ride is on for Cumberland County, Pa. Looking forward to that one. These are good folks, doing good work.



(yes yes, click on all the images, sheesh!)

LFMB Update

Lazy Fat Man's Bike Update



For those of you who recall (and who does?) back in late fall/early winter, I began -again- the quest for a way to try to -again- make my work-week commute a little less likely to kill me, and a little more likely to be agreeable. Seeing how I spend a quite measurable percentage of my waking hours driving back and forth to work, -in some of the worst sprawl traffic in this new world- I figured I needed some kinda break. The idea that I could do at least half of my commute by HPV (human powered vehicle) seemed to fit the bill.

Well, it's been a few hundred miles so far since this spring, and it's working out pretty well.
Most days it adds about 45 minutes to 'bike' (I ride a trike) the last 10 miles vs what it takes to drive. However, when the traffic is particularly abysmal and noxious, I don't know that it takes me any more time at all. Guess why I don't know. I don't know because I am not stuck in it! I have no earthly idea what is going on out there on the roads. As these pics show, this is how I spend that + or - hour that makes up the last leg of my commute.

Yes, I get lots of grief from folks at work, and yes I have to navigate a few blocks of normal traffic roads in an industrial area populated with aea piloted suvs and whatever the generic term for bmw/benz/audi/jetta/jap-equivalents but that's really okay, it's just a mad dash, and it's over. Out on the trail, most folks I encounter are also just pounding out the miles, paying attention to nothing in particular and are pleasant enough. The roadies, well, we all know about that. They are the same folks mentioned earlier except on the bicycle equivalent. And they act accordingly. Fortunately for me, I am so slow, I barely notice them.

So, yeah, so far it's working. Funny bit is, I haven't lost a single pound. Strange that.

In closing, let us consider this quote from the current issue of Adventure Cycling Association newsletter "Bike Bits":

"Let's have a moment of silence for all those Americans who are stuck in traffic on their way to the gym to ride the stationary bicycle."

-- U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.)

Nicely put.

2009 Canaan MTB Festival.

Dispatches from the Field:
2009 Canaan MTB Festival:

The weekend, up here back home in Davis, WV. They (we) are having a Mountain Bike Festival. This kinda thing has been going on up here for decades.(Well, on and off). While there are a few annual races and such, it's really nice to have a few days of clinics, and fun rides of varying difficulty for pretty much any level of rider. Sue Haywood held a women's clinic on friday, which is great. The only competition is the rider competing with themselves. Relaxed, fun and for many quite challenging. Good stuff all around. The rides today (Sat) were supposed to begin at 9:00 am, so around 10:30 or so, folks started showing up and milling around. Eventually folks signed up for the various rides, and set off for the trails. I was supposed to spend some time with Matt Sherald of PIMBY Energy LLC this morning, but Matt made the good choice to set the work stuff aside and mount up for one of the rides. Priorities, he's got'em down in the right order. I chose to head out and go down to my house in Ruth Bell, but changed my mind at the last minute because dear ole Pugsly really needed to get out and play. So I mounted up late and set off to find the folks who took the gentle and mellow ride out Camp 70 led by Gary Berti.

I rode and rode, and couldn't find'em. Since I was starting so late, I figured they were already on their way back, and might have come back via some of the nice trails further up the side of the hill, so I wandered up and connected with the Trials Road for some single track back towards town.
I can say one thing for my recent commuting via recumbent trike, it doesn't do much to help with my single-track skills. Pugsley was well behaved, civilized and very forgiving however and after a while of that I gave up at the power line and headed back into town. When I got back to town, I took off down to HypnoCoffee (more Surly folks) to see if I could scare up some lunch, but forgot to bring any cash. Oh well. Did however, take some time to hang out with the good folks at Highland Prospects, who are finally moved into their really nice new space. And gave a few free Pugsley rides.
Sorta gave up and came back over to Blackwater Bikes about the time that the group I had been looking for showed back up. Lots of smiling folks. good fun times had by all it seems.
Beautiful day. I figured I'd sit down and write this all up. So, there you are.





And a Good Time was had by all

Thank you Tucker County Trails.

And Hellbenders.

Vibram Five Fingers (sigh)

Well;

Stopped into a shop in Winchester Va a little while back. A shop I had been meaning to stop into for many years. I drive by it all the time, but never when they are open. As I've said in prior blog entries, I'm not a big fan of big mercantile outfits, but I have a deep and abiding soft spot for the independent shopkeep.

Whilst perusing the purveyor's paraphernalia, I saw that really silly foot gear (shoes) that are being hyped all over the place. The Vibram Five Fingers. A shoe, that has independent toes. I laughed when I saw'em on the shelf. The good shop keep asked if I wanted to try to fit a pair. What the heck? I stopped laughing the moment I stood up in them. Holy cow! They WORK!
It's just like having the feet you had after a long barefoot summer when you were 10. I love'em!

Sure. Not exactly work shoes, even on casual friday, they might not be really appropriate for office wear. And I don't think they'll work real well for my trike ride into work (where I really need to be clipped in), but outside of these things, and deep snow, I think this is pretty much it. I have my balance back, My feet feel better, blah blah blah. The benefits of these things might be overstated in the hype press, but it all makes sense to me. Went for a short hike last week up through the sloppy forests of Blackwater Falls State Park, and, well, gosh.
The 'instructions' caution one to break them in. however, it's not them that needs to be broken in, it's one's feet that need to gently get used to actually being used in the manner in which they are meant to be used. Yer foot gets to learn how to act like a foot again. Pretty cool, and feels great.

Made in China? Yeah, pretty much all footwear is these days. Which is wrong headed I think. Made of 'appropriate technology materials?' No. don't think so. Work really well? Yeah, so far, so good.