Out of Little Rock

Last night I got a nice mountain bike ride in Boyle Park. Will add to my web site with photos and trail info.
This morning I rode with 700 of my closest cycling friends in the CARTI Charity Ride - great ride.
In Jackson, MS en route to Ocala, FL.

Back to the future?

After last weekend's two day "tour" on The Black Magic, I am considering making my change to my touring set up. Apparently Australian PM Kevin Rudd wants to buy me a new MTB some time around April. I actually think it's a little early for the Rudd government to be engaging in vote-buying, after all, John Howard used to wait until the year of the election to start. It may be because the Rudd government are relatively inexperienced, but I suspect they'll get the hang of it by their second term. Either way, if the walking metaphor wants to buy me a new bike, I'm not going to refuse the offer.
I am considering using the new MTB as my primary tourer in future. While The Black Magic was only brought out this weekend due to The Blue Flame (the hybrid I usually use) still being unavailable, it performed extremely well for a bike that has had the benefit of no maintenance for almost four years, including a slaughter of the last climb of Tomewin on the Sunday. While there is undoubtedly a weight and rolling resistance penalty in using an MTB vs a hybrid or touring bike (another option I could consider in future), it's not really that significant when compared to the weight of a full touring load regardless. Indeed, when I toured on an MTB in Victoria some years ago, I completed two fully-loaded imperial centuries (rides of 100 miles or more) in the high country in four days.
The MTB also offers greater versatility and durability than the other options, and the smaller wheels make it easier to pack for air travel (Yes, it's a minor difference, but having packed both wheel sizes, I can appreciate the difference). Furthermore, the GEAX Evolution tyres I use on The Black Magic are the most robust I've ever owned. I once got 15,773km between flats on one set (which is pretty good considering the amount of debris on Gold Coast roads). I hope to have my new wheels on the road by April so I can test things out over the Easter weekend, somewhere in Northern NSW, and if that works, I might just take it to Western Australia in September of this year.
Alternatively, I could just hold out for a higher price for my vote. Over to you, Kevvie.

The new start

This could be the start of a beautiful friendship.
Yesterday the Beechmont range turned on just about the perfect conditions for riding, or indeed any kind of human habitation. The temperature was pleasant, the rain kept things cool and there was very little sunshine. The early part of the ride had been a little more difficult as it was an extremely humid and muggy morning on the coastal lowlands, but once on the range enjoying the sweeping views, everything changed. It was the perfect place to debut my new bike (if I don't count the previous day's commute or dawn 43km) after getting totally forked two weeks previously.



There were a couple of interesting things to come from the ride. First of all there was the process of adapting to a 9-speed cassette for the first time. This was easier than I expected, and it took no time at all to find a suitable "cruising" gear. Then there was the latest stupid road construction fad to take off in this part of the world. The response of the local authorities to having a road toll among the highest per capita in the world is to pave the corners (note: only the corners) of narrow mountain roads with a smooth, frictionless surface that becomes extremely slippery in the wet.
I suppose the idea is that people will somehow mysteriously become more careful in the conditions, but I'm not sure how this applies to drunks (i.e. the ones who actually represent the majority of road fatalities), or tourists who arrive from somewhere more civilised and don't know what to expect. Perhaps I should just try to take something positive from it, set up a betting agency and offer odds on how long it takes them to scrap that ridiculous idea.
The final tally from the ride was 119km, and around 1,700 metres of climbing once I'd factored in the detours around Beechmont itself. I'll be taking more this afternoon, but for the moment, it was just what I needed.

“Pilli Bebek” is SOLD

Kept the driver, but sold …

… the Highlander Hybrid today!
[photo taken at Chapman’s Mill in Virginia, October .]

For those curious, the Pilli Bebek in the title is a reference to the hybrid’s electric battery.  It means battery-powered baby in Turkish :-)

It wasn’t an easy decision to sell the Highlander.  Unfortunately, we can’t tow it four-down and storing it for the foreseeable future didn’t make sense, either.  So, off she went to a new home!  Too bad, we really liked driving this vehicle.

One more thing that was on our prep-for-fulltiming list is now taken care of.  Moving on …

And by the way, this means that as a one-car family, I’ll be working from home fulltime, borrowing the toad from Mui should my presence be required in the office on occasion.  That’s a good thing!

My Bliss-Solitude and a Book

"Everywhere I have sought rest and not found it, except sitting in a corner by myself with a book." Thomas a Kempis

It's the little things...

Often it's the little things we notice along the way that make life memorable. Often they are things we don't notice, because we see them so often, but I wonder whether life would be what it is without them. I say this as I contemplate the moon setting over the canal earlier this morning.



Yes, something I have seen many times in the past, but something that still captures my attention. Often in the past I've stared at it for a few moments in wonderment at it's sheer beauty -- however, writing this blog has given me new incentive to share it with the world, and an appreciation of just how fortunate we all are to have things like this. To steal a quote from Queen: "We have a miracle on Earth, Mother Nature does it all for us..."

Today is apparently Ride to Work day for Bicycle Gold Coast. This year I'm giving it a miss, not as a "boycott" as such, but simply because I'm feeling a bit jaded of the whole thing. Sure, I'll miss out on the politicians' speeches, but I saw those last year. We have a different mayor on the Gold Coast now, but I suspect the speech will be the same. In fact, if previous years are any indication, they'll probably be talking up facilities that actively make riding to work harder, such as useless bike paths that go nowhere -- as if that's the only place cyclists are able to ride. No mention at all of training cyclists to use the road (which isn't really all that difficult) so they can actually go somewhere.

The ongoing "Would you really like it if cycling was more popular" thread over on bikeforums, plus the phone calls I took about the ride last week have made me question some of my own long-held views on this issue, and some of the policies of the group that I'm involved with. The dumbing down of facilities to suit the beginner cyclist who doesn't intend to ride more than 100 metres is something they seem to support, given that they've published numerous views from that group in their weekly Coastal Rider publication, yet none have even asked me for my views on anything. I did write an article for them last year, but even that was chopped up (and I didn't even criticise the holy bikepaths!), and the extract they told me they wanted to run from my tour of Tasmania journal didn't get an airing in the end.

Again, I'm not terribly concerned about "being published" but the recurring issue seems to be that they don't want any input from an experienced, transportational cyclist -- and rest assured that's the input I'm going to offer, because that's the perspective from which I view things. Cynical as this may sound, I'm really beginning to think that perhaps the whole Ride to Work day and Car-free Week (or whatever it was) seems to be something that's done by people just to draw attention to themselves, or give themselves something to talk about in the coffee shop later.
Either way, it seems there are one or two in the group who set their own agenda, and that's the end of it. I doubt my absence will even be noticed. I think I'll just concentrate on enjoying the little things from now on as I pedal along my journey, and those who want to ride around in circles in paths can do so.

Have a Merry Season of Joy!

A Day off and a drive on the Needles Highway

Well the start of week 3 of work and we are all settled in so we decide to do some more exploring. The Needles Highway had been closed because there was still snow on it when we arrived but it is open now so off we go! The Needles Highway is a scenic byway filled with twists and turns and narrow one lane tunnels.

and the Rock Formation from which it derives it's name

A tight squeeze even for us!I make a friend along the wayThe views are fabulous

Where'd Gary go???



Cathedral Spires in the distanceCaution Wild Life at Large! (in small tunnels)

It's been2 weeks since we have done our hike-a-day and I have put back on 2 of the 10 lbs I lost getting here - so I think we should tackle the Cathedral Spires Trail. Seems the trail hasn't been groomed in awhile!



Since that was so much fun we added on the Sylvan Lake Loop



All throughout the forest there are downed trees that have been cut up into blocks.

Apparently they are having a major problem with a destructive Pine Beetle. Cutting the infected trees into smaller chunks reduces the larvae's ability to survive. After 100+ years of Man suppressing forest fires, the forests have become too dense allowing disease and pests to transfer easily from tree to tree.

Next on the list was Mt. Rushmore but as we leave Sylvan a dense fog is coming in. So this is what we saw of Mt. Rushmore! Oh well another day!





Computer Tag

A friend of mine, Katy, tagged me!  I've never played computer tag before.  I had to show the fourth picture in the fourth folder, so this is it.  I think I've shown it before.
This is the farm where I grew up.  That's my grandparents' house on the left down at the bottom of the hill. You can barely see the front of the barn before you get to their house.  We lived right across the road from them until I was fourteen.  We then moved up to the top of the hill where I was standing to take this photo.  
I never connected to the new house like I did our old one; probably because I had spent my formative years in our little one.  That's a pretty steep hill between Grandma's house and ours.  I used to be able to ride my bike SITTING DOWN almost all the way to the top before I'd fall over in exhaustion.  And I'm not talking ten-speed mountain bike either.  It was a Schwinn with coaster brakes and NO speeds.  I think that's why I still, to this day, have rockhard leg muscles.
So that's my story, Katy, and I'm sticking to it!  Thanks for playing tag with me.

Workers Needed at Manawa

This afternoon I was at Lake Manawa with the THOR Trail leader. We were the only 2 that showed up for the trail work session. This was the first time I attempted to ride any of the trails there since the summer flooding.
There is a lot of work needed to clear the trails. The photo here was taken on Woodchopper (the short side loop). It is true that the water has not completely subsided but is receding. But we need to start clearing and cleaning where we can.
If we want to be able to ride at all this year at Lake Manawa, we need your help. There are downed trees to be cut and moved, floated logs and branches need to be moved, the log crossing needs to be rebuilt or removed, trail corridor needs to be lopped and trimmed. Some places, its difficult to find the trail.

Foggy Maples

A foggy afternoon in the forest on the last day of August . This was taken with my 'point-and-shoot' camera, a Canon G11.