I love myself (can't you tell)

Here are some shots from awesome rides I have been doing over the last few weeks. 

 This not my shot, but it depicts how awesome I am. It is from the 13 hour Leesburg Bakers Dozen Mountan Bike Race. Which I won. I was so fast I finished it in 12 hrs.

 This one is a self portrait of Me climbing a 12,000ft peak in southern Virginia. It was the warm up climb for the day.

 Here I am again near the end of my 146 mile commute into work. I have to start at 3am to make in by 5:30am

 This one is of Me about to huck a 18ft drop on the Hoyles Mill trail on my Single Speed Cross bike.

 This one is not of Me but it is still awesome since I took it. This difficult shot was executed while leaning over the side of a cliff and hanging onto the hand of my Sherpa during our Man Camp in the Russian Ural Mountains.

 Here is one of Me commuting home. I am so Awesome, that DDOT (Washington DC Dept of Transportation, in case you don't know what DDOT stands for) built a cobble stone road just for me to ride when I commute through the City. I am such a nice guy, I let homeless people park on it while they are out begging.

 I really love this one of Me. It really captures how Awesome the rides I do are. I mean really, when you look at this photo, you see Me and how Awesome and Epic I look. The Sky is Awesome, the gravel is Awesome, even the grass is Awesome. But must of all, My backside is Awesome. 

I am so Awesome that when I road ride I color coordinate my outfits to match My bike to make me
look  more Awesome. The white building in the background is something the people of Boyds, Maryland built in My honor. It is a place where they can meet and discuss the rides I have been doing, watch videos of Me riding or sleeping, plan their days around what I am about to do or just hang out and think about Me.

Stupidity Knows No Bounds

I love it when you wake up on a Sunday morning and all you know is you are going to ride that day. You have a couple of options but no real plans. That is what yesterday was like. I woke up and bailed on my riding buddies so I could stay close to home. I had a lot of stuff I needed to do at home. So after drinking a pot of coffee and waffling for 2 hours, I got on my SS Cross/Mini-Monster Cross/ Gravel Grinder bike and started to ride. I figured I could head towards Leesburg, Va and maybe hit the Rockland Farm trails. They were allowing people to pre-ride the Leesburg Bakers Dozen race course that weekend. The ride would only be 45 to 50 miles I was guessing.

Seneca Bluffs Trail

So I decided to hit some Singletrack along the way. Hoyles Mill, Schaeffer Farm and Seneca Bluffs Trail (pictured above)

Hunting Quarter road

Then on some Gravel and Paved roads, and the C&O to Whites Ferry then over to Rocklands Farm for a beer, chat with some friends and a loop around the course.

Rockland Farm

After that, Mike (who is married to one the owners of the farm) had told me about a private gravel road I had never been on. They owned some land off of it and had a easement. This road would put me in a perfect place to hit the Freedom Center Trails. So I decided to check it out. I mean when someone tells you about a gravel road you have never been on and you are right accross the road from it.......you go check it out. Plus I could hit more singletrack.

So I hit Freedom Center Trails. At this point I was 49 miles into the ride. So I bombed down some gravel to Point of Rocks for some apple pie. It then dawn on me I was at least 30 miles from home and was going to be late for my home duties. So I hit some more Gravel/Paved back roads over to Sugarloaf Mtn. While climbing the up the side of Sugarloaf I began to bonk. I stopped and eat something, finished the climb and checked how far I had gone. 70 miles, shoot I could make this a century. I am starting to feel better. I took some more gravel/paved roads going out of my way to get the miles I thought I would need for a Century. I got back to Hoyles Mill Trails and hit some singletrack up to Black Hill. The Century was looking good. 3/4 of the way through Black Hill's trail I bonked a second time. Fudge, legs are starting to cramp, I don't remember the last 10 mins or so of riding. Screw the Century, this is stupid, I going home. 

here is the ROUTE I did 94.6 miles :( 

Here 2 pics of my Badass Sons from the day before

Rockland Farm

Action Packed Weekend

Jacob Swamping for me on the new Red Trail Connector At Schaeffer Farm

23 mile Mixed surface ride Friday after the lost wallet debacle. 5 1/2 hrs of bench cutting new trail at the Watershed. Followed by beer drinking and a check out ride of the new trail on Saturday. 2 hrs of chainsawing, early Easter dinner with the Wife's family followed by a 48 mile gravel grinder home on Sunday. Man that was a nice weekend.

Our newest add can be seen in Martha Stewart Weddings, GQ, and Road and Track Magazines

Robotic 3rd Arm

Jake on the SRT

So my son and I are going to do a 13 hr Mountain Bike relay race called The Leesburg Bakers Dozen. So I have been dragging him out with me a lot lately. You know for training rides. Trails have been a little muddy around here lately so we have been sticking to the road. Well Saturday we finally were able in good conscience (not sure if that is spelled right or not, but spell check says it is) to hit some single track.

During the ride Jake says he needs a break so we stop. He takes off his glove and does something. I really wasn't paying attention to him. I was more concerned about relieving myself. He says to me, "Dad, I need to invent a robotic 3rd arm". I says "for what". He says "to itch myself". I says "that is what your hands are for, you have two why do you need a 3rd one" He says " Dad, what if there was a Zombie Apocalypse and you are fighting off Zombies and your nuts itch. You can't take your hands off the Shotgun or the Zombie will get you. But your nuts itch real bad. What do you do? Robotic 3rd Arm to itch yourself. Dad, I am going to be a millionaire".

What can I say? The kid makes me laugh.

Here is a picture of the other son. The next day during trail work we did together at Schaeffer Farm Trails. He makes me laugh too. But this picture is just cute. I mean just look at it. He is wearing my helmet and holding my chainsaw (the other device that has a chain). Just looking all cute. You can't laugh at this. You just can say Aww, that is so cute.

Monster Cross in Montgomery County

Todd showing off his Wiener (I mean skills) on a Monster Cross Bike

OK, I have to say Monster Cross is just a Mixed Surface Ride (Gravel, Pavement and Single Track) on a dropped handlebar 29er with fat tires. I do this same ride on my Bianchi Roger SS Cross Bike (with 40mm tires). But the phrase Monster Cross sounds bad ass. Well bad ass 5 years ago. You can plan to lead a ride and post up calling it Monster Cross Mayhem, Epic Bad Ass Ride of Biblical Proportions or some other bad ass name.

Here is my Bad Ass Monster Cross Bike which I named it Mary the Monster. You know because it is a Haro Mary SS and a Monster Cross Bike.

I will say MX bike is a nice change up when you hit trails you hit all the time. Trails that are not as challenging as they used to be. Because you have become a bad ass of epic proportions. If you have not notice I like to use the words Bad Ass, Epic and Wiener (it just makes me laugh when I say wiener). I tend to fart around my kids also. It makes them laugh when I fart. But back to my Epic Bad Assness. I did this route yesterday with my BFF, Wrench or better known as the guy who I ride with a lot and has much more Bad Ass Bike Skills then myself. It was uber epic and bad ass. Check out the same route on Strava. I like Strava because it makes the same ride more epic and bad ass. Because the same route is usually longer in mileage when I use my iphone to track rides then if I use my garmin 500. Which I don't trust because the rides are not as Epic as I think they should be. 

In closing, the ride was Epic and Bad Ass. 

Wiener.

Grinding Michaux

District Rd., Michaux State Forest. 

This road is usually in good shape, someone just torn this 100 yd section up with they're truck or car.

It has been a while since I have done a ride report. I am getting the feeling to start again so......

A week or so ago I took off work on Friday and headed up to Michaux State Forest to ride a route I have been working on for my Grinding Gravel Blog. I don't know the roads in Michaux as well as I would like to. So routes have been hard to add to the blog. Mainly because what appears to be a roads turns out to be a double track forest road/trail. Which is fine if you are prepared for that style of riding. I tend to use a cross bike for grinding so most of the time it is fine to hit these forest trails/roads. But for my blog I know everyone might not be on a cross bike. So I try to stick to public roads.

This route here is a little ass kicker if you are not in real good shape. Every time I have done this route it hurts at the end of it. Mentenzer Gap Rd is a kick in the nuts at the end. This route has a nice remote feel to it. Well remote for the east coast. Mainly Gravel on this one with a real nice double track climb/ridge trail (Corls Ridge Rd.) with views from the ridge.  You don't see many cars until you back on the main roads. I think I saw one person in a truck during this ride.

The roads were wet so they were peanut buttery. Climbing was tough at times. Nothing exciting happened during the ride unless you consider climbing exciting. Which I tend to love to do, when I am in shape to do so. This route has a lot of climbing for the 38 mile distance it is. I highly recommend you check Michaux for grinding or better yet Mountain biking. There are some great trails up there.