Halloween

Reminiscing - '78

Yep, That's snow falling again 'bout 8,000 feet.  A little late getting out, but still worth the effort for sure.  Temp was something like 38° when I got home and getting pretty dark.  Next week it will be too dark to ride without lights, so getting time on the trail now is a must.  A few spots are getting a little slick and sketchy.

Not sure why, but I got to be thinking of Halloween, '78.  My parents had gone to Hawaii for a couple weeks and I had to work almost every night during that time.  That is except for Halloween.  I was bending tacos for a little joint at the time and felt like I was making it happen.  I mean, I wasn't a Rockafeller, but I wasn't hucking newspapers anymore either. Times at TJ's were pretty good.  For that matter, everything seemed pretty good - or so I remember.

That night I swung by a little church social with one of my "friends" - that I couldn't tell you his name if my life depended on it.  Don't ask why, but I do remember clearly an event that tied back to that previous Saturday, of which I wasn't really paying attention otherwise.  Nobody would ever remember this but me, however, I can still tell you of the "Foreigner"  45 RPM disc, song name and all that sticks in my head to this day.  I couldn't tell you about anything else from that day, but I remember about ten minutes as though it happened this afternoon.  Those two events and a similar time about one year later would come to play an integral part of .............. how I would see things for the rest of my life.

My parents wouldn't be home for more than another week and I would end up missing the Pheasant hunt because of it.  Still, when they did get home, I was sitting on a pile of cash from nearly three weeks of straight work - after school of course.  A week or so after they got home, I bought new skis and boots, which would prove to be another significant event.  My first love was always skiing and buying this gear was like an engagement ring.  It was mine, not somebody else's old stuff.  I had arrived.

I remember the very moment I heard John Lennon was killed and the events of that evening.  I remember exactly where I was when told Ronald Regan had been shot.  I clearly remember where I was when somebody told me about the Challenger exploding.  Key things that really didn't shape me personally, but were staggering all the same.  Yet I remember two events in October 1978 that seemed at the time completely insignificant and one other in the Autumn of 1979 that changed everything for me. At times, it is still what drives me.................................

Man, times where good.

Snow is coming.  Ride while you can.

Ride HARD!            Here's to the good 'ol boys - Don W.

Oh, Oh, Oh,..............Canada!

Back to the front..................

Seems whenever there is a crap-storm, I find myself right up front.  Another last minute booking back to Canada.  I can't be the smartest guy in the company, or we're all in trouble.  Dealing with equipment from Europe, in a building designed by Europeans, make s for a challenge.  400-volt commie-motors running on 575 volt, drives that were spec'd incorrectly.............engineering is truly overrated (sarcasm).  The Canadians I get to work with are great and make it tolerable.  These guys are pretty good at what they do and are darn good guys to boot.  Getting a little later flight got me up there just in time to enjoy the parking lot that is otherwise referred to as I-75.  By the time I got across the border and up to the facility it was nearly 19:00.  I didn't get out of there until sometime after 01:00 the next morning.  It was like that all week.  Saturday morning I had to leave Windsor around 05:00 to be to a planned power outage in Auburn Hills, Michigan.  After a long day at Auburn Hills, it left only enough time to head back to the airport - and sit in more traffic.  I kid you not, 60+ hours in four days - as an exempt employee.  What a bunch of crap!

Since my last trip ten days before, Canada legalized cannabis.   Thus the brown cloud hovering over the University, just off the Ambassador Bridge.  It's kind of like Boulder, Colorado on the Detroit River.  There was an automated highway sign up on the 401 with a Weed plant and red circle and line through it saying "don't drive high".  Huh, I guess we're not in Kansas anymore Toto.  

So what does this have to do with riding?  NOTHING, as in no riding for me.  I'd hoped to get out this afternoon for a quick trail ride, but I'm just hammered from the past couple of weeks.  The more I don't ride, the worse it gets.  I need to start building a maintenance program in the mornings.  I've already lost too much ground and can feel it.  You lose it faster than you can get it back - at my age anyway.  The registration for True Grit is November 10 and I really want to be in that race.  It isn't until March, but that isn't much time to train if I have to get it all back.  I also got a notice from Leadville, for a lottery registration in December.  I'd love to ride Leadville, but that would seriously take 9 full months of dedicated training - which would be hard with my current work schedule.  Along with this, I need to coordinate some Huntsman stuff, with the Company and Club.  Life used to be so simple.

On that note, today is October 28th.  Forty years ago, it was just another Autumn Saturday afternoon.  I wouldn't come to realize how significant that particular day was for a few years later, but it changed everything.  Man, things were so simple back then.  I should have been paying attention.

Dirt ride tomorrow afternoon -if I can get away from the office.

Only in Canada -Before and After

Ride HARD!

Need more time to ride

Problems on several fronts

Last Friday night I found myself, near midnight, standing in a rainstorm in Southern Ontario, Canada - for whatever reason.  Thing is, I didn't even know it was raining until somebody mentioned it.  That all started the day before when one of the guys that wear all the headdress-feathers (a plant manager) stopped by to brief me on a problem that I wasn't aware existed.  In other words, somebody else's problem that I needed to get in the middle of.  By 04:30 Saturday morning, I was driving back to Windsor, to the hotel, for maybe a few a hours sleep and a shower.  At this point, I didn't have a flight home and was hoping all along to be home earlier enough Saturday afternoon to ride.  When I got back to the job site later that morning, I was just hoping to be in my own bed that night - a small consolation - forget about a ride on the MTB.

So goes it since race day.  Actually, I was putting off several of these projects until after the race, but I had no idea it would be like this.  It makes it really hard to keep a positive attitude and update the blog.  I go out for a short ride, all the time thinking of all the worlds problems I'm dealing with - only to get home more frustrated than when I left.  What's the point?

This morning I went out for a ride on a familiar trail, using the Mokocam.  As expected, I had to address issues from work that "just can't wait".  I got a pretty good clip on the descent, that really doesn't do the ride justice - but................  The files are too large,. I'll need to post them on YouTube.  That will be down the road aways.

For now, I've got to head back to Canada next week with an early morning project in Michigan, Saturday morning.  The local weather looks good enough to ride every day between now and then - hopefully.  Something needs to change....................

A couple weeks ago, while driving back to DTW on a Saturday night, I caught a radio station out of Detroit that was doing a non-stop fifty-year commemoration of the mighty Zep.  It's hard to believe it was that long ago.  Three years ago, I was on the tail-end of a long couple weeks in China.  One of the guys talked me into a Tex-Mex the night before we flew home.  Out of nowhere came one of the classics from II.  Suddenly, I thought - "I can do this".  It's always good to get home, and I and II take me back home - in a way.

Click here - Your time gonna come

I can do this...........

Cold Weather Riding

Soft trails with snow on the horizon

Trying to make the most of the available time, I've been out on the mountain bike several times this week.  A couple later evening rides with a pretty nice early morning ride in the mix.  With temps in the low 40's. and always a chance for precip - cold weather gear is in order: Helmet cover, long finger gloves, and a good rainproof jacket.  With temps above 30°, warmer socks with shorts are still pretty good.  The rain has really made the trails soft and responsive - not too muddy and certainly not twitchy.  Still, an occasional blanket of thick leaves may hide rocks and stumps that can catch you off guard.

The season on these trails locally may be getting short, as this picture from this afternoon shows snow only a couple hundred feet above this location, with heavier snow not too far above that.  The forecast for tonight puts snow a few hundred feet below this point.  It likely means there will be no ride over Ben Lomond this year, but I suspect we'll have a few more weeks on the lower trails - hard to say.  What is for sure, I'll make the most of the time before I have to start riding down on the Shore Line Trail.

Something about the Autumn that takes me back.  I used to look forward to this time of year. I used to spend a lot of my fall in the field hunting - anything.  The colder, the better.  A good day didn't involve much, if any shooting, but rather just being in the field early and taking it all in. Being out with my yellow lab, literally for hours on end - it just beat just about everything. Even in the summer months, I'd like to carry my 9-pound, ultra-precision rifle (unloaded), take my dog, and hike from our house up to Ben Lomond peak.  Going up a back trail, we'd generally not run into anyone 'till about a mile from the peak.  The scope on my rifle provided great optics to spot wildlife a long way out.  All the times I did that little hike, I don't think I ever loaded a single bullet into the gun.  It just provided a great conditioning ballast and fantastic optics.  My lab has been dead for nearly twenty years.  I think I fired my last round through that gun last year - from a box of bullets I reloaded in 1997.  Shooting once a year, typically at a fence post 500 yards away - not a lot of bullets being used. I just don't get out much anymore - thus the bike.  I cover a lot more terrain, a lot faster, but it's not the same...........................

A lot to do before the snow flies and the first heavy frost.  Until then, enjoy the changing of the season.  Maybe another month and it'll be time to register for some spring mountain bike races.  Probably a good time to head south for a couple of days.

Click here for a little "Young Blood"

Ride HARD!

Off the bike for too long

Back home

After that ride to Porcupine two weeks ago, it seems there was just one more thing after the next.  Finally, last Wednesday morning, I headed for Michigan.  What started out as a busy week ended even busier.  Basically something like 60 hours between Wednesday and Saturday night - getting home just after midnight.  So much for burning some vacation............

Commitments and weather have kept me grounded until tonight.  Taking what I could get, I rode over to the horse corral trail and went part way up the back side toward Ben Lomond.  The trail was pretty rocky and washed from the  1 1/2" of rain last night so I couldn't make very good time. I should have gone for something a little more familiar.  Still, I wasn't really up for a hard ride and should have known better.  Riding the spin bike this morning was more of a strain than usual.  I guess that's what ten days off will do to you.  You lose it a lot faster than you can get it back - it a vicious thing.

More rain forecast tonight, but maybe I can get out tomorrow afternoon for a longer ride.  I could use the break from work  - and everything else for that matter.  I really don't have any confidence on my mountain bike anymore.  It's to the point that some of the technical stuff is more effort than fun, in fact, kind of tenuous.  I've gotta fix that before snow flies.

The leaves have all but turned, but not from the cold.  It's just so dry, the colors are not what they usually are this time of year.  Still, pretty darn nice just to be out and about.

Give me a couple days.  I'll come up with something................better.  The season is a changin'.

Try a little Steve Morse Click here for Ghost Wind

Suck it up! Ride HARD!