Getting Out

Two Block Town

Three weeks ago I started an 8 week plan to kick start some fitness for Dirty Kanza. I had to start a plan because it has been too easy to let work and other commitments keep me off the bike. It has been going fairly well, although I've not gotten a lot of rides longer than 60 miles in yet these past few weeks. H. asked me the other night if I was "going to be ready for this Kanza thing." I'm not sure, but I hope so.

Typically I lose motivation with plans that lock you into specific rides, schedules, times, power/wattage levels, etc... So I don't do them. Instead I've devised a plan that has me on the bike as much as possible, even if it's only 30 minutes at a time, and enjoying the time on the bike rather than dreading it. Three weeks in and I'm still going strong with it. Let's just hope the fitness decides to join me at the end of it.

The "plan" also includes enjoying things off the bike more. The extra hours of sunlight in the evenings has allowed me to enjoy the simple things living closer to work can provide. Even better, I've enjoyed getting out on the dirt after a day of work thanks to longer days and shorter commutes.

Keeping it simple has allowed me to enjoy the full amenities offered by a sleepy 2 block town. H. and I have been able to enjoy spending some hang out time together with the dogs at the dog parks, while running errands, and out back at our creek with it's newly cleared access trail. Staying far, far away from the hustle and hassle of Nashvegas has been good for me. Life moves way too fast, I'm taking the effort to enjoy slowing it down.

Slow doesn't mean any less-busy (ironically I'm busier now than I've been in years). It just means I'm letting the moments have time to breath and sink in before rushing off to the next item on the list. Stopping to enjoy a quiet moment in a creek skipping stones and throwing sticks as the sun begins to fade behind the horizon, then racing its fading light on the trail back to the car.

I've still got a lot of growing up to do. Hopefully I'll have a lot of time to enjoy it before growing too old to grow up properly.

Charlie Don't Surf, But He Loves Seafood

Cool breezy drizzly gray weather greeted me this morning helping to keep me on track for chores rather than heading out for a trail ride. Lopping the trees back all along the driveway from the road to the barn took much of my morning. After watching some Houffalize highlights during a short break for lunch, I felt inspired to get out for a little wet riding.

JD, Charlie, and I headed out for a few spins of the trail that we've been able to clear so far on the farm. Then I parked the bike and started clearing a bit more of the trail. I pretty much lopped from the far Northeast corner to the far Southwest. Then used the sling blade for a good half mile, which should really help my golf swing.

Thank goodness for tubeless, lots of barbwire still under the brush.

Then it was back on the bike for some more laps to help bed-in the trail. Despite the rain the past 2 days, the soil was holding up well. Wet but not slop and drying pretty quickly. Maybe the swamp land won't be too bad after all. I was able to test the pave section too and it rides well. Once fully completed, it should offer a fun, dry path through the swamp.

Charlie don't surf, but he does dig. 

A bit more work clearing the fire road allowed the pups more time to explore. Charlie was quick to start tracking and digging. He'd been up to it in the back as well. I figured he and JD were chewing on dead creatures or deer scat and digging up moles. I decided to take a closer look when a short tussle broke out between the dogs. I expected to see a dead possum or some old bone to be the cause of the ruckus. Nope.

We have a lot of mini-volcano looking mounds around the farm. I told H. that they were probably crayfish, but she didn't believe me at first. Thanks to the internet, she started to believe me, but we still didn't have any physical proof aside from matching mound photos on the interweb. When I got over to the dogs they had mouthfuls - MOUTHFULS - of crayfish. It was an all you can eat seafood buffet out back.

Riding-in my path that will soon become my pump track.

Goofy. Catahoulas are goofy, goofy dogs.

Say hello to Clara.

Oh, we also got a new addition to the farm. Clara is a rescued donkey that we picked up at the donkey sanctuary in Franklin Sunday. She's only a couple years old and sweet as can be.  We now have horses, a donkey, 9 chickens, 4 dogs (two fosters), and a tractor. Our little farm is beginning to take shape.

Tour de Double

With less than 8 weeks to Kanza, I started an earnest attempt to increase my miles. Getting consistent rides in has been rough lately, but luckily the temps dropped to the 30's and 40's earlier this week to make my renewed commuting pledge even more pleasurable. It was pretty much 30's and wintery the last time I regularly got commuting miles in, then we had awesome sunny and warm days. Days I didn't get to ride in. Ma Nature loves picking on me. I got several cold commutes in and one frozen early morning single track session in before Saturday's awesome 80 degrees laughed at my non-bike commuting self.

I came prepared though. The MXRSL was in tow for some post-work adventure riding. AdamD was the only one willing to explore some new spots I'd found and we headed out on a non-chamois, non-thermal jacket required two hour adventure ride. We rode out from the shop and headed to the country burbs of Franktown where we were greeted with awesome rocky technical river trail.

Then after a bit of double track field and gravel we hit the sweet mother load of fast flowy ribbons of singletrack.  We made use of every bit of daylight we had left and got back to the shop just as the sun disappeared below the horizon. A quick load up, off to the house to clean up and feed the dogs, the on to the 'boro shop to catch up with the crew for the rest of the Tour de Fun festivities.

 I caught up with the rest of the gang as they were finishing up dinner near MTSU and we rode back to town. We'd head out to catch some bands, roll some hot laps around the square, re-group at the shop "base camp", rinse and repeat. After 10 the downtown square was pretty much only bikes. The organizers had gotten a parade type permit and the square was a scene out of Amsterdam. Bikes everywhere. We hopped from pub to pub to see the different bands and catch up with old and new friends. One thing led to another until that thing led to 4am and Waffle House.

It's been a long, long time since I'd stayed out on my bike that late. Even longer since I'd stayed out that late and got up-and-at-them at 8:30 am. The mid-80's sunshine and a solid weeks worth of riding in my legs has me feeling fine. Wonder what the next week has in store?

Mud On The Tires

Life's been busy here at ZipTie Acres. I don't get a lot of "sit at the computer" time, so I apologize for the lack and lack of luster blog posts. My iPhone helps keep me actively updating Facebook, but the blogger app on the phone leaves a little to be desired, mostly the piss poor way it handles photos. So if life's too slow here, look me up on Facebook.

With Springtime weather kicking it in full force, my list of chores got a little re-prioritized. I've been full bore on trying to get some trails cut and cleared. Staying ahead of the rampant growth has been the biggest hurdle, especially without a bush hog or mower. Luckily it's been pretty easily cleared with my Cindy Loppers and Sling Blade. Of course, my trail help has been pretty weak of late. As you can see from the photo above they are easily distracted around water. Hard to find good help.

After lopping and clearing the first side of the perimeter trail, I was tired and bored with the slowing progress the far West side of the woods presented. So I rode back to the barn and fired up the 4wheeler and borrowed H.'s little green wagon. Inspired by the Trouée d'Arenberg and needing to finish finding homes for the hundreds of rocks we still have in the yard, I loaded up a few loads of "cobbles" and drove them back to begin building a cobbled path through the swamp.

The first of several layers is settling in. The swamp (aka "Belgian mud pit")  is low at the moment and one good rain will have the first layer of cobbles completely submerged, so I'm building it up one layer at a time making sure to seat them in so as not to rock or roll whilst being cycled upon.

Once my back gave out, a sure sign it was time to move on to more "funner" things, I dropped the wagon off at the barn and headed out for some hot laps with JD. I needed to burn in the trails a bit and the 4wheeler does a good job of matting down the tall grass enough to keep it easily rideable/hikeable until we can come up with a bush hogger.

Plus it's fun as hell. JD and I raced through the trail, around the hay field, through the swamp sections, and back down the access road only to repeat it all several times until the path was re-matted to a more manageable imprint.

Then my day ended just as it had begun, with a bike ride around ZipTie Acres with the pups and back up to the house from the barn. We'll head out a bit later tonight to bring the horses in and cover the garden for the frost. Other than that I'll enjoy sitting on my butt doing laundry for the rest of my day off.

Wednesday starts early again. Thanks to Rich at Backcountry Research my commuter rig is much cleaner thanks to the supply of Clutches he sent out. The Clutch allows me to attach my drybag to my road bars in a neat and tidy pack. My work pack being smaller, the sling I'd been running on my MXRSL wouldn't roll small enough to keep the drybag in. Enter the clutch. Damn handy.

One Cannot Contain the Clarke-ness

Starting gate.

Three of us met up early morning at Parker's house to meet MJ at the North Welcome Center at LBL. Being April 1st the joke was on Parker: I was on-time and he'd slept in. Fooled you!

Starting sinewy stretch of singletrack.

Clarke-ness has harangued me for weeks to take him up to LBL. Finally the day had come where I could skip away for the whole day and ride bikes in the woods. I love the North/South trail at LBL. Yeah it has become beat up over the years thanks to all the bad storms and flooding, but it still rocks. It is a 30+ mile point to point trail that flows up and down and around the coast. Totally different vibe than your typical mid-TN trail loops.

Lush and green with purple and yellow flowers in abundance. 

It also has very diverse topography. Green forests, pines, dry and loose, rocky and loose, rocky and wet, and open field. The trail never disappoints even when it's beating you down or your able to beat it. It's a gold-mine of riding opportunity.

Dry and brown.

Clarke-ness is a recovering Cat1 roadie who is rediscovering his roots (aka mountain biking). We are helping him through the steps of acceptance, such as learning that the statement "we're meeting at 9am to ride" - which would mean an 8:57 roll-out to a roadie - means: "arrival sometime after 9am" to a mountain biker. 

Dosing up at Dose.

We're also helping him realize that it's the journey not the destination that makes the day's adventure great by stopping off for good coffee and stocking up on gas station treats along the way to the trail head (why do you think we're always late? duh).

Loose white rocks.

He likes to go fast. Everywhere. Fast up hills. Fast down hills. Fast on the flats. Fast, fast fast. Which is great, when you're in Cat1 roadie shape. Riding with 2 knee injury recovery-ists left the Clarke-ness off the front alone a lot.

Leafy.

MJ did a great job keeping up and ahead of him from time to time. I got a few licks in too, but mostly we just rode and let him fly away off the front. Simply, you can't contain the Clarke-ness.

The hammer drops.

It was the first legitimately hot day for us. 86 degrees and sunny. It felt pretty brutal compared to the 60-70 degree weather I've been riding in lately. Usually at sun up or after sun down is when I've gotten to ride the past several weeks. Getting to ride during the heat of the day left it's mark on me a bit. I'm not used to sweating yet this year. The hottest day of the year always seems to fall on a day we attempt to do a long day at LBL.  It affected each of us to a degree, but it didn't stop the fun.

Several new bridges have been constructed over the creeks/ravines where the flood washed the old planks away. There were a few trees down and lots of debris on the trail from recent storms, but other than that, the trail was in immaculate shape. Fast and very flowy.

The Clarke-ness inspects his bent hanger.

One of the many small branches littering areas of the trail took it's first (and luckily only) victim 12 miles into the ride. Clarke's rear derailleur cage and lower pulley got twisted pretty badly and went into his spokes. Luckily it only affected one spoke, which didn't break, and a quick trail-side repair got him running again for the remaining 20 miles.

Stick 1, Clarke-ness 0.

Another bonus of the day was getting to ride with good friend and recent world traveler, Parker. It's been ages since I've hung out with him, let alone spent a good day in the woods riding and chatting with him. He's had a lot of turmoil going on in his world. Bad Cancer shit. It's good to see him smiling and enjoying being out. It's also good to see him still loving the hell out of his MootoX RSL. Epic days in the saddle are always better when Parker is around.

Parker exiting one of the many new bridges.

I wish we'd ridden longer, but I'm glad we finished up on the earlier side of all-day. It's been a long week of burning the candle at both ends and I couldn't wait to get back home to the farm. Once home, I immediately took the dogs out back for a run with the bike since some amazing friends had come over and mowed our front and back yard for us. The yard looked great and the recently cleared tree section out back was a hoot to ride through with the 4 dogs in hot pursuit.

Life is good.