Best rides

It seems that most all of the rides that I have time to get together for with my brother end up being on or around holidays. This one was no different. We decided to meet up in West Virginia for the weekend after thanksgiving, which is half way between us driving. We took two different days to ride the lower part of the Greenbriar River trail. The first day we rode from the south end up about 13 miles and back. It was a good ride. The scenery is very good there since it is a rail to trail conversion which follows the river from north to south. The max grade is about 2% which made for a relaxing yet rewarding ride.

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My biking "vacation"

First off, this isn't really a "vacation", but a trip that was planned for a while.

A couple of my friends (who live in Illinois) where coming to Indiana for the Marshall County Blueberry Festival, and I was going to meet them there. This was over Labor Day weekend this year. After hanging out there for a bit, and checking out all the booths, we had lunch and I brought my bike to their van. The funny thing was that you're not supposed to have bike in the park, and there are cops at every entrance. So when we told the cop what we were doing, he said it was ok. (I was just going to put my bike on their rack) But, he did follow us on the way to the van in a golf cart. LOL

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Every year I start my season with a trip to Moab, Utah with a good buddy, some camping gear, and a cooler of the best beer money can buy. This year was no different. In May I left my home in Colorado for a long and glorious weekend of camping and riding in Moab.

Driving in a car for 6 hours can be torture on the mind. However, add a buddy that you’ve been great friends with for over 2 decades and the drive in a car becomes a ROAD TRIP! Topics of discussion included women, bikes, work, bikes, slapstick humor, bikes… etc. You get the point. The trip was a blur and we arrived in Moab around 1AM and started looking for a campsite. By 3AM we were fast asleep and dreaming sweet dreams under the starry sky.

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I was once on this ride with a few friends and we came across a huge steep hill that we thought would never end. When we got to the top our legs were really tired but we saw the other side of the hill going so steep and leading into a small passage. we could just see at the bottom where there were loads of trees. On the count of three we set off one by one. The track was dirty and muddy but it was so fast we wanted to do it again and again. As we were approaching the small passage I looked at my speedo; we were hitting nearly 50mph. The small passage took us through a windy trail almost hitting trees.

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On vacation in Aspen for the July 4 holiday, I took some time away from the family to ride Government Trail East, which is one of the area's most famous singletracks linking Snowmass and Aspen. Do this trail! Really, really nice.

I did the trail solo, starting in Snowmass at about 9 a.m. The full length of the trail (just under 9 miles from my starting point at the top of Wood Road to the end of the singletrack near the Aspen Rec Center), I saw only one group of four hikers the entire trip -- and one deer. Serious solitude, which is remarkable since the trail is so close to a busy resort area.

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Happy Fathers day to all you Dads and soon to be Dads. We went out to Alafia state park in Brandon FL. If you have never heard of it, I'm not surprised but it is gaining popularity. It has something for all level of riders from just starting to double black diamond. The swamp club organized a ride, and the trails were in exellent shape. We started out on the sand pine trail, a basic single track that is good for warmups or beginners. Then rode the bridges trail and went over to roller coster and moonscape. The last two have cutoffs to keep you out of the difficult sections. There are several more trails at Alafia, including the infamous "Gator Back".

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We are getting a group together for a Fathers Day ride at Alifia State park. Just wanted to invite anyone local who has, or has never ridden Alifia to join us Sunday morning. I will post some pics and let you know how the trails were. I drive a blue S-10 with a hardtail Iron Horse in the back. We are just recreational riders, so don't worry if your just getting into it.

Hope to see some new faces out there!

Do you love long rides? Do you enjoy epic adventures through the back roads of nowhere? If you answered yes to these questions then get off your butt, pack your car, head to Moab's beautiful Canyonlands National Park and ride the White Rim.

The White Rim trail needs to be on your tick list of trails to ride before you die. The scenery is incredibly dramatic and beautifully complex. At every turn you'll be surrounded by large sandstone castles and spires reaching like skyscrapers into the desert sky. You'll be amazed at the desert flowers. They seem to spring out of nowhere and from the most intense cacti I've ever seen -- hundreds of prickly little things. To top it all off you'll become familiar with the hundreds of feet of drop off when you walk or ride to the edge of the White Rim -- talk about air time!

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I pretty much rode bikes this weekend, and notta lotta anything else, with downhilling all weekend starting at Keystone on Saturday, then Vail on Sunday.

Saturday was excellent conditions, I don't think the track at Keystone has ever been better. I feel like I slowed down, concentrated on being smooth and flowing though each of the sections, and wound up being way faster overall. It probably helped that I was also chasing Yeti factory rippers Ross Milan and Jared Graves down the hill! There's one part where you have to "navigate" down three burly steps packed tightly together, then gap from a stump to backside of a big rock, while missing that tree just on the left of the rock. I came in smooth and on target, weight low and centered, and for the first time ever, just let go of the brakes and floated down it. It was way cool! Ross was at the bottom and cheering me on, saying I came through that section faster than he did, and that I looked über smooth and fast. Nice! It's not everyday you ride that at the end of it you can say... "I am a better rider than I was when I woke up" but Saturday was certainly that for me.

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