Nonsense: MORE Maintenance

MORE maintenance gathering.

Photograph by Chuck Bolte.

At some point in a previous blog posting, I mentioned that it would be a good idea for anyone who lives in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and who also enjoys mountain biking to link up with the group known as Mid-Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts, or MORE. Because I now live in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and clearly still enjoy mountain biking, I took advantage of a good idea and got in touch with a MORE rider. That rider was the Single Speed Outlaw himself, the man who is unknowingly responsible for inspiring the creation of this very blog. The SSO tipped me off earlier in the week that MORE was having a trail maintenance party at Patapsco River State Park on Sunday, November 25th and added that it would be a good idea for me to show up to the party to meet other mountain bikers and make new friends. Clearly, I took advantage of a second good idea.

Although, it was bitter cold, 18 riders showed up to Patapsco on Sunday morning to eat Christmas flavored donuts, tow BOB trailers full of trail maintaining tools, and to encourage water to flow off of Patapsco’s trails. In short, we rode out the Patapsco Thru Trail, and dropped workers off at various maintenance sites to dig nicks that would provide proper water drainage. Our intent was to encourage precipitation to flow off of the trail instead of down the trail.

A job well done.
Photograph by Chuck Bolte.

The crew worked for a solid five hours before calling it a trail maintenance day and headed back to the parking lot. The group accounted for all of its tools to ensure none had been lost and then we split up, some heading home and others, including me, made for the Bare Bones Grill in Ellicott City. There we proceeded to enjoy refreshment with beer, wine, and ribs.

Mm, mm, good!

XTERRA Skud tests fresh dirt.
Photograph by Chuck Bolte.

Journeys: Almost A Century

On Wednesday, November 21st, I drove to Berlin, MD with my fixie affixed to my Onward Tacoma to meet Steve and Mariana for the beautiful 100 mile View Trail road ride on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. When we left a random parking lot in Berlin at 1000, we could not have sacrificed a chicken, or dog, for better weather conditions. Temperatures in the upper 60's provided the comfort necessary to properly enjoy the scenery of the Eastern Shore farmland, which included the distinct smell of chicken poo mile after mile after mile. Oh, and hellacious wind all the way from Berlin to Pocomoke City too.

Our first rest stop was approximately 25 miles into the ride at Public Landing. Chicken poo farms were to the west, blue ocean waters were to the east.

Chuck by the sea!
Photograph by Steve Garrett.

After the Public Landing rest stop the ride started going down hill, and I am not speaking in literal terms. There are quite a few turns onto quite a few small rural road during the ride and we were able to miss no less than four, possibly five of those turns, and constantly found ourselves riding across the border into Virginia. In fact, we were so inept in our navigation that we were forced to slice off a portion of the mapped route south of Pocomoke City, MD in order to compensate for the added miles.

Steve and Mariana enjoy the fall foliage.
Photograph by Chuck Bolte.

After Pocomoke City we turned north for the return leg to Berlin. The wind was much calmer on the way back and the final 40 miles of the ride seemed easy, almost too easy. We rolled back into Berlin just as the sun and the air temperature were on the descent. At the car, it came to our attention that we had somehow over compensated for our slicing of the route near Pocomoke and shortened the ride too much. 12 miles too much. For us, it was the View Trail 88. Almost a century.

After post ride nonsense with Aunt Jen, we made way for Waterman's "all you can eat seafood" restaurant, where Steve turned into a never before seen crab consuming animal beast of a thing.

I swear, if you could have seen the fire in his eyes...

Journeys: Home For A Climb

After arriving in Maryland on the 7th of November, I secured a new abode in Laurel and then darted home to West Virginia for the weekend. While home, I visited with family in Charleston and in Spencer before driving south to Summersville with Steve and his girlfriend, Mariana for an introduction to roped sport climbing. Although I had some bouldering experience from my month in Arizona this summer, sport climbing proved to be somewhat difficult. I spent Saturday flailing helplessly on the face of two 5.8 routes without every reaching the top of either route. While I was driving home to Laurel on Sunday, I had six hours to decide that I need to find an indoor climbing gym in the DC Metro area to begin honing my climbing skills.

Steve getting after it in Summersville, WV.
Photograph by Chuck Bolte.

More news from Maryland coming soon.

Snapshots: Good Bye Augusta!

The real deal.
Photograph by ?

Journeys: The Move

Moving!

Photograph by Chuck Bolte.

The long anticipated move from Augusta, GA to somewhere in the state of Maryland is finally approaching, and, actually, as I am writing it has approached and passed. I left that peachy peach state and its ridiculously hot humidness on November 7th with no signs of ever returning, but I did throw at least one going away party at Paul's house as well as took a road riding trip to the mountains of northern Georgia during my final weekend in Augusta.

The trip to northern Georgia included myself, Paul, and Vegan Matt. We drove to Helen, GA Vegan Matt's six hamster powered Honda on Saturday where we enjoyed Oktoberfest in the small Alpine village, some enjoyed it more thoroughly than others. That night we camped in the vicinity of the top of a random small mountain on the outskirts of Helen. The stars were our night light, twinkling over fly-less tents and the mountain winds whipped with a crispness unimaginable in Augusta. It was a perfect mountain night with perfect intoxicated hiccups.

The next morning we awoke and dressed in our Sunday cycling best for a mostly chilly three gap ride in the mountains. Matt selected a route that began and ended in Helen and included Hog Pen Gap, Jack's Gap, and Unicoi Gap. The ride went off without a hitch, other than some mysterious wobbling from the Orbea on steep descents, and Matt took some great pictures of the whole event, but has yet to email them to me. I still like him nonetheless. The trip to northern Georgia was a wonderful way to spend my last weekend in the South, but it is time to move onto bigger and better things in the cold, cold North.

The last cycling related activity to occur in Augusta was a photo opportunity with mine and Nate's beautiful fixies. The intent is that these pictures will be displayed on the Fixed Gear Gallery (.com), but someone still has to post them. Below is a sample.

Papa's got a brand new bag!
Photograph by Chuck Bolte.