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.

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