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

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

April (snow) Showers

Mother nature has really jammed on the breaks regarding Spring this year. There were roughly five snow storms since I last posted on DWR in February. The last one squeezed in on April 2nd.

April 2nd snow... noooo

This was coupled with the rapid approach of the unofficial beginning of the Spring/Summer season: Bike 'n Brew with Edge of the Woods Outfitters. I was set to lead the 16-mile ride and I had barely rode at all during this not-so-young 2018. I mean outdoor riding, not just trainer "riding" (and I haven't been doing much of that either).

Finally, the mercury rose on April 12th, just two days before Bike 'n Brew, and I logged just my 2nd ride of the season. This was definitely my ride to shake the dust off, fitness-wise. I did 13 miles on the McDade: Hialeah to the park HQ and back.

DWGNRA HQ with the big rubber

The taco truck gets a gravel outing

I certainly had some rust to burn off. My legs creaked and burned for the first 20 minutes and my breathing was way off, but all this is akin to the fiddleheads making their crunchy emergence from the dirt and dried leaves of last Fall. Warmup ride accomplished.

Map of the Thursday 13-miler

Saturday for Bike 'n Brew brought the best weather you could ask for. It topped out at 85 degrees and was blazingly sunny. While the 16 miles from Shawnee Resort to the HQ and back kicked my ass, it went better than expected. The post-ride beer from Shawnee Craft was highly refreshing.

I only snapped one photo, too busy being "in the moment", as they say. There were about 150 riders this year, the largest collection yet of dirt rollers for Bike 'n Brew ready to kick off the season. I'll post the map for the ride below.

February Bike Rides

That phrase conjures layer upon layer of high-tech clothing, frozen toes, iced-up componentry and frozen snot. In reality, the mercury hit the 50's twice last week and will do so a few times this week. In case you've missed the posting date of this piece, it's mid-February. Apparently that's now a great time for biking!

I hit one of my local trails, the McDade Recreational Trail. It's a non-technical dirt and gravel trail that runs along the Deleware River and through the national recreation area. It's good for just getting out there and rolling, but not for gnarly riding. Sometimes that's just your groove. It's beautiful and relaxing - a good head clearing cruise. I snapped the photo above that captures some of the intoxicating Winter skyline.

It's that skyline and sunset, in fact, that are two reminders that this is still February, your Spring Fever be damned. The sun still sets early as your first reminder, so lights are a necessity if you're an after work rider. Secondly, the twilight skies are decidedly not Summer. The sun slices at an angle out of the West and fires its flares through the clouds as a warning that the night will indeed be cold.

-g

2018 Is Here

Happy New Year, we've made it folks. But where did the rest of 2017 go? I've been asking myself that more than anything in these days surrounding the New Year holiday. Did it just blow by like so much of our adult lives? Did I just work my ass, and time, away while crumbling to bed every night?

No, it's much different than that. The days between the months of June and now have been pretty hairy, especially September through November, after the requisite August calamity of work. I mean "hairy" in the terms of excitement, rather than just grinding the grind of work life.

Of sorts, this is a summary of 2017. It's hard to slice time to write this stuff, so we all get a photo cascade in return.

While the temperature sits at 17 degrees fahrenheit at the moment, I'll take us through a rather more pictorial roundup of a photo montage of the remainder of the Summer.

DWG Recreation area, June

State Gamelands 38, June

McDade Trail with Tara, July 4th

Delaware paddle, July 8th

I'll break here to speak a bit more about our trip to New Hampshire with our good friends Natalie and Paolo to their family cabin on the lake. This was in the 3rd quarter of July, and likely the calm before the storm for some of us.

We'd decided to pack four persons and all baggage, boats and gear into my extended cab Toyota. Tight. This was a six-hour trip... or eight? It's defensible. Nat has a fantastic family cabin-on-a-lake situation. Like real nice nice. I mean, it's a cottage-type situation, but it's a great place on a lake, so certainly kayaks went with us up yonder. We packed our booze, some board games and some distinct lack of giving a shit for several days. We saw loons.

I'll just drop some of the choice photos below from a lovely, relaxing long weekend.

A loaded rig, shortly after arriving. Loaded.

View from fire tower

I also got some time on my new bike in August. I mean, of course I did. I was trying to keep the weird slow frantic grind of August at bay. Part of the remedy was my new Cannondale Bad Habit, which was part of a deal for a cracked warranty claim on another Cannondale bike.

Tara, myself and her brothers and kids had a nice family camping trip in mid August. Something easy and approachable for the kids to get into. We camped at Worthington State Forest, which is as remote as 15 minutes away from home. Not to diminish the campground however, I'd camped here with family nearly every year from the time that I was 3 years old until my late teens. I'll drop the photos below.

Glad I bought a pickup

Once the calamity of late August subsides for me, I have some time to spare. It's time to regroup, re-energize, Summer is still here, despite the department stores full of Winter clothes. In a way, this is the prime time of the Summer. The kids have gone back to school, the tourists have abandoned their forays onto the river, and we have this kingdom to ourselves. We planned an early September river camping trip, and pulled it off nicely.

Out at 6 or 7 AM to drop boats. Peace.

Booze cruise crew. Scott, me, Jaime, Tara, Jen, Jim, Jason

You know what? September isn't done yet. Summer isn't done yet. Let's throw in another Summer outdoors trip, maybe the last one for the the season. This was with the Edge of the Woods crew, up to the Adirondacks and Lower Lake Saranac. It's one of those great caravan-esque trips you get for maybe a handful of times in life. It's a road trip paired with paddling and camping and partying in one package.

And there we have what we'll call the emotional and spiritual wrap-up of Summer 2017. Despite all the other bullshit going on, I can recollect just writing this that I had a pretty decent year. I just want to keep this going... but even better. If anything, I want to be more youthful in the coming year(s). I have to capture some essence of that live wire I had when I was younger. It's the demon of all aging people, but it really means something for me. It's imperative, and essential.

I'll leave with a Christmas tree cat, Tommy, blurry in all his glory, in summary.

-g