12 August 2012

Due West 200k yesterday. A bit wet, and about 90 miles on chip seal. Long day. But most of the chip seal was Forest Service land, so it was empty and pretty.

First break in the rain about 2 hours in.


Forest Service chip seal.




Sunflowers. Almost as good as dental floss.


Considering lunch possibilities.


Turn around point


Upper Long Cane cemetery, established 1760


Downtown Abbeville, SC




Abbeville International. Call sign: PDNK


Another cemetery.

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One of the many vicious dogs out there. Damn near licked me to death.


Wildlife


Almost home.



Bike set up. A good day for fenders.


Final tally. That's miles for you twinkies out there. :kiss: :nananana:

30 July 2012

Got in a nice road ride Saturday before the kid got up, then yesterday dropped him at camp for two weeks and went for a hike to change things up a little.

Road ride. Right on 50 miles. Just what the doctor ordered.



And hiking, which was pretty nice. A seldom traveled trail.





With some partially obscured views, par for the course in the Appalachians.



Hiking let me stop and smell the roses. Or something like that.



And the day's objective, Mackey Mountain, a whopping 4038 feet above sea level.

Fortunately not all the views were partially obstructed, and they're all the sweeter for the extra work.

23 July 2012

All that road riding finally paid off.  Spent 7 hours yesterday wandering around semi-legal trails with a bunch of new and old friends.  Good fun. 

An early start


Endless possibilities


Bikes abandoned for a waterfall break


Back to the grind


Money shot


Road march back to the car


Shuttle


End of a long day


A 30+ mile shuttle starting with a meandering climb to the highest point in the state followed by about 20 miles of mostly downhill singletrack, two flats, a broken chain, a broken spoke, a tweaked derailleur and two good crashes -- none of which had my name on them fortunately-- and we were at the other end.

July 20, 2012

Got dumped on last night during the Thursday nite ride. Big stinging drops at 25+mph had me happy to have a hat and glasses on. And after the rain....

July 19, 2012

Had a meeting in the upstate Tuesday, and instead of spending the last two hours of my work day driving home, I headed up into NC and a quick ride at Dupont State Forest.  Turns out they've had a lot of rain up there, and the 150 trail runners I saw coming up the trail when I arrived weren't helping.  I went the other way and found some trails that were holding up pretty well.  Sadly, I forgot my camera, so cell phone pics will have to do. 

Bridal Veil falls in the foreground

The view from the airstrip.

Company on the airstrip.  There were a bunch of wild turkeys up there too.

And down by Reasonover Creek.

July 14, 2012

 Riding my ass off of late. But just local and just road, and more like this

Than this

Did get in a nice paddle with the wife last weekend. Temps were around 100, which is not the time to snarf down a bottle of wine, even in the shade. Barely made it home before a nap was an absolute necessity.

July 5, 2012 Did the Fabulous 4th again yesterday, an annual metric century with 7k ft of climingput on by the Tryon (NC) rotary club. Really well organized, really empty roads. I didn't get passed by a single car until mile 40. And the perfect antidote to two weeks of way more beers than miles. Drilling it

Still drilling it around mile 30

Heading towards the big climb of the day, which is capped off by a screaming 45mph descent back to the start/finish -- a great way to end a ride.

And in other news, the blue bike arrived home safe and sound. Always makes me nervous when they're in transit.