Hot Action Hoeing

The face pretty much says it all.

A long list of cleaning chores have hung over my head since reclaiming my gear from the murk inside the swamp car. I'd tackled much of it during the week after work, but there was still so much to do. Being insanely scorching out and not conducive to an enjoyable road ride, I opted to tackle the scrubbing duties. The tent, sleeping pad, camp stove, tools, etc... all got assembled, disassembled, and scrubbed clean. It was a hot sweaty job but luckily the puppy had chewed up the hose to the point of being like one of those sprinkler hoses we used to run through as kids on hot days. Thanks pup.

Then I set off out back with the pups to begin adding in new sections of trail I've been wanting to get started for a few weeks now. I'd laid out much of the lake side trail and with the help of my hot action hoe I got to work clearing and sculpting the trail bed. While I sweated and toiled the pups swam. As I made my way along the lake shore their swimming areas followed suit.

Another few hours of work and the lake shore loop should be completed. I hope to get out a few nights this week after work and get it done as it'll add a bit of respite from the climbs. It also has a few whoops and a table top jump for style points. I'm guestimating it'll add between a half to 3/4 of a mile to the trail before connecting to the current perimeter loop. The inside of the loop is completely un-planned but has some great elevation changes and a sweet ravine with ledges and drops ready to be cleared.

Should be good to go with plenty of zoom zoom before the camping stage race weekend. Moo hah!

Having completed my chores Saturday, Sunday was open to adventure. Four of us loaded up in the truck for a trip back down to the magic mountain. Jeffy and Eric hadn't experienced the trail at Franklin State Forrest and Parker (having recently returned from a 2 week pup crawl in Ireland) had only gotten a small taste of it last time we were down there.

Camo short brigade. Thanks for omitting my memo guys, that could have been embarrassing.

Awesomed Up.

(rumor has it the Envy Green label versions are ending soon, so move it or lose it)

Thorns and sharp rocks abound on the mountain. I tripled up for safety. No flats or mechanicals amongst the 4 of us which was pretty surprising since the more riders you have over 3 exponentially increases the amount of mechanical issues experienced on a trail ride. Doubly so when not on a perfectly groomed local trail.

Man down.

The only issue I can recall was minor and only caused a brief pause in the ride. One of my spokes snapped on a climb. I don't know if I caught a stick or if my heel got it, but there was a sudden stop of my wheel and a loud ping. Amazingly the wheel stayed true and strong for the remainder of the ride (it broke about 4 miles in). I say amazingly because the wheel barely goes true now due to it's extremely hard life, but it's solid and probably truer than when I started the ride. Nice work Hodge!

The trail was in decent shape and offers everything from fast flowy fun trail to rocky technical and grunty climbs, views aplenty and enough options to make for a long day. The humidity was lower than it has been but it was still stifling hot on the South side of the mountain. Which reminds me, we did have a minor equipment emergency before we started. Parker was missing a cleat bolt in one of his shoes, making for a sucky day if we couldn't remedy the situation.

Luckily he had a spare in his patch kit. Unluckily it was too short to fit his cleat and shoe combo. What to do? We tried a water bottle bolt but it was too long. Dug through our gear but came up short. I decided to pull a bolt out of my cleat to see if it was longer and it was. The bonus was the shorter one fit perfectly into my shoe. Day saved.

Then as we were nearing the final 7 miles of hot stifling trail, Parker ran out of water. I still had a full unused bottle in the waiting to which I handed over to Mr. Underprepared. Day saved again, unfortunately for Eric though, he was a few miles too late in letting us know he was out of water. Can't win them all.

Apparently there has been a rash of bridge thieves in the area as many were chained up. Either that or they have been escaping or potentially attacking riders. Not sure, but we made sure not to get too close.

Jeffy's boingy MootoX slider.

Shenani-feast.

After enjoying a refreshing dip in Lake Cheston to clean up and cool off, we headed to Shenanigans for food. This is the first ride since before Crude XC that I have enjoyed not getting sick. No issues and I was able to drink the entire time (water mostly with one bottle having Elite drips in it) and eat a single powerbar smoothie bar. Score. Hopefully this trend continues as it is awesome being able to ride without puking.