So, how's your biking season going? What are the highlights?

[prolesunited]

I've been riding quite a bit, but my distances are down this year. With the price of gas, I'm doing a lot of errands by bike, reserving the car for work (location and getting off after midnight puts commuting by bike out of the question) and big grocery trips.

I haven't done that many organized rides this year and only one century and one metric. We loved Bike the Drive and are doing the LATE ride this weekend.

I love having both the hybrid and the road bike as each has its own uses, but I still like my road bike best.

So, what's your story?

[stop the bleeding]

1. Riding about

300 miles/week - 6-7 days/week

Races

Rouge-Roubaix (March) - Pro I II III - Got my ass handed to me
San Antonio Race for Humanity (Late March) - Flat Tire
Squiggy Road Race(Late March) Pro I II III - 11th in the III's and top 30 overall
Sugarloaf Road Race (Late April) Cat III - 12th

Got sick for 2 weeks in the first part of May

3rd week in may jumped into 2 crits on the same day - State Championships - 7th in the Masters, DNF'd the Cat III - still recovering from sickness:)

Last week in June Cat III Road Race - 6th place

My form and overall condition is starting to come back into where they need them to be. Just tonight I booked my hotel room in Helen Ga for the Six Gap Century in late September. This is one of my favorites I have done it the last 2 years, 1st time I did in 5hrs45min, last year was 5hrs29min - 33rd place out over 1000-2000 people.

This morning we did our usual 85-95 mile sat. morning ride. Sunday is a real ass kicker(60 mile hilly), so needless to say I have been eating the bee pollen/soy/brewer's yeast and everything else to recover along with copious amounts of water/gatorade and a little red wine(it's good for the form).

Well I guess the wine has caused me to ramble a bit more than I wanted to do. I got Bob Roll talking in the background(the stage that Jens Voigt wins).

Cheers and happy riding:toast:

[Gregorian]

2. I'm about to get my road bike out.

I've been mountain biking. I love riding. It's my therapy. My life. BTW, I also have Bob Roll talking in the background.

No matter how much I ride, I feel like I'm missing out on some other ride. I don't travel. Mostly because of my concerns about a petroleum society. But if I did, I'd be in Europe with the Tour right now. I could talk about my days with Tom Ritchey and riding the mountains of the Bay Area, or riding central California, or now Southern Oregon.

Anyways, I'm dusting off my road bike for the first time in eight years. I've got some incredible roads here. They are one lane logging roads that have been paved. No cars. Nothing. Just awesome riding through the hills. It's going to be weird getting onto a road bike after primarily mountain biking for the last twenty years.

Here's a shot of the trail I've been riding. Not a very good picture. The ride has several approaches. Two trails are both 26% grade for about two miles. Ugh! A bit much in loose dirt. Damn you quadrunners! The other approach is a nice 8% grade for 6 miles. Then singletrack.



That's how it's going. (:

[Kolesar]

3. I think it's a good picture

It's green, laddie! Thanks for your concerns about a petroleum society. I'm trying to match you in that respect. Our play today was a hike in the Metropark and we started by walking 20 minutes through town to the trailhead. I would sorely miss my vacations in the West.

[bvar22]

4. Grinding out the miles in Minneapolis.

150 - 200 miles per week at a sedate 12mph - 15mph average on my hybrid "road warrior" (Gary Fisher Zebrano). The mileage and mph is slowly increasing as my excess weight slowly drops off.
Added a new saddle, pedals, and toe clips last week to provide a little more comfort as my endurance exceeded 3-4 hours "in the saddle".
When I lose a little more weight, I will be shopping for a more serious road bike.

The Twin Cities is very bike friendly with several hundred miles of "dedicated" bike paths. It is possible to bike from South St Paul through Minneapolis without ever sharing the road with an auto. There are several "limited access bicycle commuterways" with emergency call boxes and entrance ramps.













Minneapolis skyline in the background


This is me, on the far left with the cell phone.

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just kidding :)

[happyslug]

5. I am trying to do some miles each day.

I try to do 4-5 miles each day and some sort of longer trip each night, but the later I have had to cut back do to the high temperatures. Anyway last week I tried part of the Lost Turkey Trail. I was on it for only 2 hours before darkness forced me to call it a day.

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/hiking/turkey.aspx

Now the Lost turkey Trail is maintained by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forest, and starts at the Babcock Picnic Area of Gallitizn State Forest and then runs through State Game land 26 and Blue knob State Park (Where it ends). There is a topo map of the trail at various trail heads.

Now the State Bureau of Forest attitude to bikes is Bike are permitted unless forbidden, when I went on the Babcock part of the trail I saw no signs forbidding biking (and this confirms a paper I read a few years ago that the Bureau of Forest was permitting biking on its trail).

For the Bureau of Forest:
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/sfrmp/recreation.htm#nonmotorized

The Game Commission has a different Attitude to bikes. Until last year the Game Commission permitted bicycle anywhere a person could ride, but found out a lot of Mountain bikers were riding their bikes in areas that disturb nesting wild life. Thus the Game Commission adopted a rule OPPOSITE of the Bureau of Forest, Bicycles are FORBIDDEN unless permitted. While this sounds harsh, the Game Commission then adopted a very broad list of roads open to biking (while closed to motorized vehicles, remember if it si open to cars it is open to bicycles in State Forests, Game Commission Lands and State Parks).

Game Commission Regulations: See 135.41(c)(4):
http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/058/chapter135/subchapCtoc.html

One of the Designated Roads for biking sounds like the portion of the trail in State Game Land #26. When my Jeep is fixed (The water pump died last Saturday) I will try to see if this is the trail or not (if it is not it run a close Parallel to the trail):
http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.asp?a=463&q=151245

Now the trail ends (or begins depending on how you look at it) In Blue Knob State Park. The State Park has the most restrictive rules on biking (Basically it is banned but without he very liberal places people can bike as on State Game Lands).

PDF Copy of State Game Land #26:
http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/lib/pgc/counties/maps/26A.pdf

Anyway I did the route from Babcock to the Ranger Station. This was a rough (and is the roughest) part of the trail. Rocks all over the place. While my bike has a front suspension it is aimed for road running not jumping up and down perfectly good rocks, so I ended up walking my bike in this area:

A Map at the start of the Trail (Please note there are paper maps at the trail head in addition to this big map)






After about a mile you run across a nice Glen (it does not last long):


While the Topo map do NOT show it you then come across a old logging road:



But the trail does NOT go on it, it cross the old road:


It continues through the rough terrain leaving the previous road behind but then enters a old road itself after about a mile maybe 1 1/2 miles:


This road, while overgrown, does not have the rocks in it so I could ride my bike even with its slicks and this despite the fact that the old road was soaked with water from the recent rains:





The trail continued to improve (must be an old logging railroad line as opposed to just an old logging road): In the late 1800 this whole area was logged out, on the Saylor Trail (on the other side of PA 56) you can see the remains of Several railroads grades, while it has several railroad grades Saylor is in a "Wilderness Area" and bikes are banned the last time I checked, unlike the Lost Turkey trail which is OUTSIDE the "Wideness" area.






After about three miles (1-2 of which I walked my bike) I came to a fork in the path:


I then took the ranger station exit off the trail:







I then arrived at the Ranger Station on PA 56 and took 56 back to my Jeep (It took me about 15 minutes to get back).

Now about 1/2 between the start of the trail and the fork to the Ranger station I ran across a group of hikers. I rode my bike the rest of the way to the fork, stopped to take the above picture and biked back to my Jeep and then after I loaded my Jeep up and took stock of my Pictures the first of the hikers arrived at the trail head. The first part of the Lost Turkey Trail is the roughest part of the trail.

[stop the bleeding]

6. thanks to everyone for the awesome pictures

I am jealous - all of you live in GREAT places to ride.

Be safe :)

[ContraBass Black]

7. See Here:

http://baritone-black.livejournal.com/142664.html