Neverending Summer

If only I had the means to make a go of nonstop Summer fun. Chase the sun on the horizon, wherever it takes me on this continent. There's still some juice left to this Summer though! This, despite the fact that you have to hear a handful of times each day that the demise of Summer is moments away. No, there is still a lot to do, and plenty of decent weather to do it in.

Local hike in Delaware Water Gap, a spot known as Dianna's Bath

Walking the "stepping stones" path in  Del. Water Gap 

The days are getting shorter in a very noticeable way, however. The trips we take at this point are candidates for "last of the season" affairs. It's mid-September, and it feels like there hasn't been that much outdoor fun this Summer. And then I start going through photos and find that it's truly the opposite. That's a big part of why I write these things.

 Glen Run Nature Preserve

DWG Loop

As we get into late August, there's a discernible change in lighting in my snapshots. Most of my rides are in the evenings, out of necessity. Like a low-fidelity time-lapse, the light slants more and more as we go. I'm just now beginning to pack my lights, and had to fire the helmet mount up two days ago.

Trailhead pack-up at Glen Run

There's a distinct lack of kayaking in this post. Something's gotta give during a frenetic 2nd half of Summer. That's for another post that you'll see here soon, as the paddles were hoisted for a trip to Raystown Lake. I'll leave this post with a few more evening shots and the first appearance of bike lights this season.

 DWG Loop sunset

Glen Run Preserve 

How quickly the sunlight drops, not 20 minutes from the photo above 

SG38, AKA Camelback

Fourteen Days

This is apparently a newly significant span of time. 336 hours. Give or take a few. That's how long it's been between bike rides. I can't truly blame my job this time. We had another wild weather event in the Northeast US whereas it rained and thunderstormed for something like eight days in a row. There was a similar span of time prior to this that entailed eight days of 90-plus degree heat and humidity, which effectively grounded any fat tire adventures for me. I have limits.

The old local loop, AKA the backyard loop. The post-workday loop. The short loop from my garage, through the woods and back is 2.58 miles, give or take the accuracy of the Russian satellites. I had to bang some stuff out. Some mental demons, some weird thing in my thigh that made it feel like stone, which I attributed to inaction. Or a deadly blood clot. Getting older is a shitshow.

Oh, there were other adventures. There's been a few paddles, and you cannot discount their effect on the quality of life.

Delaware river with Tara

Looking north

July 13th, Tara and I put in a Friday the 13th paddle. Despite walking under ladders and owning a black cat, it was all good luck and weather. This was the final day of my staycation, which was mostly devoted to working on the teardrop camper renovation. You can see that here. Paddling was a good ending to the "work week".

We had another group paddle on July 21st with friends from the Tri-state area. The original plan was to camp overnight on the Delaware, but thunderstorms were threatening. Laziness was also threatening.

Group paddle support group

Tara in attack position

We paddled the section from Smithfield to Kittatinny, stopping at Shawnee Craft brewery for a few local beers and some small bites. I had a draft of their Mosaic IPA, which was tasy. This is becoming one of my favorite casual cruises, and you can't beat a six-pack of Apiarius to go.

Today is the last day of July, Summer is racing by. I'm hoping to rock the last official month of Summer with a rigorous schedule of rides and paddles. Sounds exhausting, but you gotta work to play.

-cheers

Peak Summer

You go outside after dark and the first thing you say is, "oof". It's still hot and humid like the inside of a damp duffel bag, and you know it's peak summer. We've arrived, folks. It's been a week of 90-degree weather, which somewhat inhibits my own riding motivation. Hey, it's a "wet heat".

Since my last post, I did manage to beat the heat and snag a few rides at Glen Park and Glen Run. I haven't rode Glen Park in 2018 yet, and it showed. Glen Park is overall pretty technical with elements wading into the downhill and North Shore BC end of the pool. A lot of its trail is pretty chunky, rooty, rocky with fall-line descents sprinkled in. The area even has wooden features to expend your Red Bull upon.

I did not ride any of those features that day a few weeks back. My tech skills are a bit rusty, I've been spending a lot of time on fairly smooth singletrack and relatively comfortable descents a la Glen Run. It's not surprising that my ride was cut short that night. It wasn't the grueling switchback climb to the top that ended me. It could have been though. No, somewhere on the first descent, I snagged my rear derailleur and brush, rocks or branches. That event managed to rotate the whole body back-and-upwards.

The ascent to do it all over again exposed serious drive train issues. I had to bail partway up the mountain, but I wasn't so sure my legs wouldn't have bailed on me rather than the derailleur anyway. I just didn't have the juice to get loose that night.

Four days later, I tested the juice again at Glen Run. We've been establishing what loosely looks like a regular crew for this ride, comprised mostly of DWG townies, some co-workers and always-welcome randos. We run into other small groups - local riders and newcomers to the mountain bike world. It's a great thing to witness. My own struggles with my particular demons any given night melt away with the realization that we're out there as a pack, my thoughts seem selfish regarding how well I'm doing out there. It just seems silly when the cameraderie and shared sweat equity kicks in.





We hit everything there was to ride, a few stretches of singletrack more than once, before the payoff descent to the trailhead. A few of us finished the ride off with beers creekside in the 'Gap. It's the customary dirtbag recovery beverage, my choice that night being a sixer of Lagunitas IPA. I eagerly look forward to the weather to chill a bit until I can churn some more dirt.

-g

May to June Rides and Paddles

Time and events fly by too fast to get regular updates in, so let's get a post out there with roughly a month's worth of fair-weather activities.

Tara and I paddled our first kayak overnighter of the year on May 28th-29th on the Delaware River. The overall route was from the Bushkill access point to Smithfield beach. We essentially witnessed Summer arrive overnight, as the weather transitioned from temperatures in the 60's and cloudy the first day into the sunny 80's the next.

Tara looking back

Gray first day

Yet another hammock contraption to try out

Camp for the night at Hogback sites

2nd day cast off, always lighter

We camped at one of our favorite sites on the river, which is a roomy plot on the first bend of the Hogback. Going back in time a bit to May 14th, we had a nice group ride on Glen Run. We hit some singletrack that was new stuff to me. Here's the embedded map below.




The section that was new to me was fast and flowy, definiUnfortunately, this was my last ride for roughly two weeks. I came down with some kind of cold/flu/allergies that went on for 10 days, at least. Three of us on this ride ended up with the same affliction, makes you wonder if we were infected by some heinous alien fungus. Anyway, here's a shot of the group below.

I'm not affiliated with The Loft, but some of these folks are

I've sprinkled a few more rides in this month at Glen Run and my "backyard" dirt in the recreational area. On the latter, I finally hooked up on a ride with another local dirt pusher who showed off the super secret stash of singletrack in the park.

Trailhead at local stash

Fubars are niiice

Summer if full of steam, barreling along, almost every weekend is booked and the projects are piling up. I'll have to hold on and find the time to do as much of these fun-but-necessary-for-my-sanity activities as I can. If you drink 5 5-hour energy tubs, do you get an extra day?

-cheers

Monday Wakeup, Tuesday Breakup

After a long, hard weekend of relaxing, having a few adult beverages and getting stuff done around the house, Monday snaps you back to the day job. The thing that actually makes you money. It's a rude awakening, but it seems too early in the week to need a head-clearing ride. But it helps.

So I find myself on another ride at Glen Run after a few succinct text messages with my friend Chuck throughout the day. I leave the office a half hour early and we get right to it. I struggle, as I often do, to find the right balance of physiology for after work rides. I might be under-hydrated, under-nourished, sleepy and my muscles are atrophied from desk duty for eight hours.

I just have to punch it. It can take quite a few revolutions of rubber before anything feels good inside my carcass. This day, it was after 40 minutes of some pretty hot legs at the redline. We did a few loops around the pond and ran a few sections of the singletrack multiple times. We squeezed out just under five miles and about 950 feet in total climb.





I discovered that night that I'm still not there yet with my mountain legs. I had to slap some ice on my legs and sprawl out on the couch. But tomorrow I would have a welcome surprise. Fresh gear day would arrive a day early.

Getting new bike parts in the mail is always rad. I'd decided I wanted to break up with the stock handlebar on my Bad Habit... it just wasn't working. I wanted a bit more rise and sweep. I ordered a Chromag Fubar OSX from Jenson USA. In frickin' blue. So sexy.

The blue almost matches some of the blue accents on the bike. Whatever. Maybe I'm reaching. I'm doing less reaching in a literal manner, as the rise on the Fubar is 25mm vs. 15mm on the stock bar. The sweep is an addition degree back and it's also 780mm wide, vs. 760 on the stock bar. It's also 30 grams lighter.

The first few rides with the Fubar have felt good. I think it tweaked the stance just enough to put me in the sweet spot. I'll leave you with a cozy photo from the mod shop session at sunset.

Glen Run Again

I recently hit Glen Run Nature Preserve for a second time after riding it a few weeks ago. It was perfect weather this time, 70s and sunny. I was a little bit faster this time, my fitness levels are kicking in a little bit more.

It will be fun to watch the foliage grow into the area. As you can see from some of these photos, we're not full green in the Poconos yet.

 Fun truck is also a working truck

Them bones surveying the parking lot

Again, it's great to see a growing bike scene again in the Poconos. Where we'd once had Jim Thorpe as a Northeast US destination-level location, we've witnessed some decay over the years. But hey, the dream of the 90's are alive in the Poconos again!

Let's Hit the Country Club!

Visions of visors, white gloves, golf carts and beers in the sun may be dancing in your head, but you've got it all wrong. OK, not the beer part, but the rest would be inaccurate because I'm just referring to the nickname of my home trail. I just laid my first tracks of 2018 on it last week.

New log obstacles arrive yearly 

 Finally, T-shirt weather

These particular trails are just around the corner from my house in the DWG National Recreation Area. It's a local stash sort of thing, so I won't post the map here, but it's probably out there in the ether somewhere. I did the extended shorty loop, which wrangled about 4.6 miles and 725 feet of total ascent.

There's a lot of debris along with a few new log obstructions, so it'll take a little bit of cleanup until it's got its summer shape back in place. That goes for me too!