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!

Glen Run Trail First Ride

I just got my first ride in on the new trails in the Glen Run Nature Preserve. It's located basically between Delaware Water Gap and Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania across 611 from Glen Park in Stroudsburg. The preserve has existed since 2015, so this is some pretty fresh stuff. The particular path I took was about 3.6 miles with a total elevation gain of 734 feet. The first mile from the trailhead on Route 191 is mostly climbing.





The trail is mostly singletrack, with a smattering of jeep roads. There's nothing too technical here, beside an occasional log rollover, and some sections of the singletrack are swoopy and fun. Note that as of this post, trail signage is not yet in place. Perhaps the map above will help.

On the ridge looking South

Back to the North, you can see East Stroudsburg University over my shoulder 

It's really great to see the trail scene growing around the Poconos. I think we're in for a renaissance of dirt riding perhaps.

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.