Making The Best Of It

Spending the first weekend after Labor Day in the greater Metro Detroit area is far from ideal. But there was a cousin's wedding and Sarah needed to get her foot fixed, so here we are. I did get a good ride in on some new to me trails at he Highland Park Recreation Area. They were quite typical of downstate trails, very twisty, rooty, and rocky. Hills were short and steep. On the way to Sarah's aunts house after the ride, I got to experience a good traffic jam on the freeway. It took about an hour to go less than a mile before I could get off the freeway. I made the rest of the journey without too much hassle, but all told it turned what should have been a 38 minute trip into something closer to 2 hours. But I did get to see a lot of suburbia that was totally new to me. The wedding reception was exactly what one would expect if you tried to picture the quintessential generic downstate wedding. Sunday was a bonus day. The hotel had an Aubrey's pizza place next door, and the Lion's pulled off the big W on the road in Tampa Bay. So we head over the doctor's office in a few minutes for Sarah's surgery and with any luck we'll be safely back above the 45th sometime this evening. I hope not to venture south of it again for many moons. All the people, cars, and pavement are enough to drive you insane.

Coconino 250, Stage 1, Part A

During a conversation with WPG the other day, he expressed his interest in flying out to the southwest for the Coconino 250, a 250-mile grassroots mountain bike stage race here in northern Arizona.  I've taken it upon myself to help him out by doing some reconnaissance by riding the route myself in smaller stages over the course of the next 8 months.  So, here's the first in a series of posts regarding the route:

Stage 1, Part A: New Frontiers to Marshall Lake

I began at New Frontiers (a local health food store here in Flag) and headed out for the first 10.4 miles of the ride from the start, near Lonetree and Butler Ave., to Marshall Lake.  Once off the pavement of Lonetree Road, the route follows about a mile of the Flagstaff Urban Trail before it veers off on the Arizona Trail (AZT).  It immediately brought back some fond memories for me.  I did my first group ride since moving to Arizona on this trail, and I also had my first Arizona OTB wipeout here.  Since I generally stick to the trails near Mt. Elden and Fort Valley, it's been years since I've ridden this section of the AZT, and I forgot how absolutely beautiful it is this time of year - lush and green.  The single track winds through the forest on an old double track and drops into singletrack that rolls through some open meadows below Fisher Point.  At about mile 4.9, the trail splits for a route to Fisher Point or a route towards Marshall Lake.  At this point, and although I'm familiar with the area, I realized how important it will be to carry the cue sheets, especially in areas that I am unfamiliar with.  The mileage seems very accurate and will be a necessary and handy thing to guide you/me through the course.

AZT Shortly Before the Junction to Fisher Point and Marshall Lake

Heading along the AZT towards Marshall Lake, the trail crosses a drainage before it heads up to the top of the Mesa.  Here begins the first of several hilly challenges.  A series of switchbacks lead you up the mesa and eventually to a loose, rocky straight up climb.  It's a challenging climb by itself.  I would imagine that with the required bikepacking gear, it's certainly a hike-a-bike.  I walked several portions of it carrying only my CamelBak. Once on top of the mesa, the singletrack trail undulates across a series of valleys through ponderosa pine forest.  I had two bull elk cross the trail in front of me, as I dropped down into one of the valleys.  A beautiful sight. The wildlife only got better.  As I cruised along, I approached a full tank on the right.  To my surprise, I saw what, at first I thought was a large black dog running away from the tank, but it turned out to be the first black bear I've ever seen in the wild in Arizona.  So cool!!!  And after some further map reading, I'm pretty sure that the tank is called Bear Tank...  kind of fitting.

AZT Singletrack Before It Heads Up to the Top of the Mesa Towards Marshall Lake

The trail emerges from the forest into an open meadow.  The nearly level singletrack is fairly smooth going, but with an occasional cluster of rocks, just often enough to keep you honest and on top of your game.  Around mile 9.8, the trail starts to descend towards Marshall Lake.  Now, as you'll see in the picture below, keep in mind that Marshall Lake is a seasonal lake.  Generally a small marshy body of water during the spring and wet times of the year.  Right now, it's dried up to almost a nonexistent body of water.  And at this point, the end of the first leg of my reconnaissance. Time to turn around and head home (please see this post about the return trip).

Marshall Lake, Almost Completely Dried Up

Next - Stage 1, Part B:  Marshall Lake to Mormon Lake Road, approx. 20.6 miles.

WNR Report

WNR # ?

We met up at he end of Valley Road to ride a little bit of the NCT and a little bit of the new and improved course for the race at Nub's on October 1st. The course for the first running of the Cry Baby Classic last fall consisted of mostly very wide and sometimes sandy cross country ski trails. There were a few tiny bits of singletrack, but mostly it was just hilly. Our very own Secret Steve took it upon himself to contact the promoter and the head honcho at the ski resort to get permission to build some new singletrack for the race and tie it in to the NCT. Last night was the unveiling, and we were all super impressed. We're going to have to ride it in some more for sure, but Steve's hard work is going to turn a so so race quite suited to roadies into a brutal test of technical skills and endurance. I'm pretty sure Steve said his new section was about 3/4 of a mile, and that tied into the section of NCT brings the lap total to 9.3 miles with just over 1,300 ft. of climbing. Three laps are going to hurt, especially on the singlespeed. So we rode that, did the roller coaster trail down into Trout Creek and then climbed back up. Lots of riders. Probably ten or so in Sarah's group and close to 20 in ours. Good ride, good trails, and good beer. Best of luck to all the teammates heading up to Copper Harbor this weekend for the Fat Tire. I so wish I could be there, so think of me right when you make that turn up onto Brockway Mt. Drive right after the gun goes off Sunday morning. If you've ridden up there before, you know what I'm talking about. If not, you'll see soon enough. Enjoy and have a good weekend. Over and out.

Coconino 250

Hey, man...  and other readers and followers.  Here's the link that I was talking about for bikepacking.  Figured everyone could enjoy a glance at the three sites listed below...  especially since I can't seem to find your email.  I'm sure you've seen the Arizona Endurance Series site as well as bikepacking.net.  Chad's bikepacking blog has some good info in it, as well as some nice photography.  I think I remember some posts in regards to the Coconino 250 on there from previous years, so scroll back through some posts and find it.  I printed out the directions for the Coconino 250 today, and I'm thinking maybe I'll preride portions of it for you just to scope it out myself.  Just reading the directions to the first stage makes me tired.  Looks like one hell of a ride; but, like I said, I'll gladly be your support crew.  Keep me posted.

http://rockyroad5050.wordpress.com/2007/10/20/aes/

http://www.bikepacking.net/

http://chadfbrown.blogspot.com/

Ore to Shore 2011

Another O2S in the books, and we all had a great time. It was a perfect weekend in Marquette: great weather, great friends, and great racing. My new singlespeed performed flawlessly, and I was able to pilot it to my best ever finish of 3 hours and 5 minutes. I forgot how nice the Lefty fork is, I was bombing down hills like I haven't bombed down hills in a long time. I metered out my energy just right, and I didn't start cramping until about 2 miles to go. And that late in the race I was able to just ride right through them. Later back at the campground, the booze flowed freely as we all shared our stories from the race and ate some wonderful burgers and brats grilled up by Sarah. Sarah, Hugh, Denise, and I were all lucky enough to get to stay Sunday night as well. So we went to Sweetwater for breakfast, did some shopping at Downwind, went to the beach, and topped off the relaxing Sunday with Aubrey's pizza by the campfire. Now I can concentrate on getting through the rest of the summer at work before starting to focus on the last two races of the season for me in October. Enjoy the pictures, and check out the data from the Garmin link as well if you are so inclined. Over and out.

Falling Bike(ers)?

I needed some humor this morning so as I strolled the never ending internet I came across this: 

If these had to be posted where we ride, they'd run out fairly quickly! 

Enjoy, and Happy Trails!

Action Chuck

If a picture is really worth....

a thousand words, theses may get me close to being caught up on the blogging front. Seriously though, my sister and I are in the midst of one of the busiest summers ever at work. And since I don't have the internet at home, blogging and surfing has been curtailed dramatically. I don't have time when I get to work in the morning normally, and the last thing I want to do at the end of a shift is stay here longer to use the computer. Fortunately for the one or two folks who may be checking in, I carved out a couple of minutes this morning to upload some shi**y phone pictures and some quick notes about what I've been up to(although that pretty much can be summed up with riding, working, and sleeping). So here goes:



New bike in the stable courtesy of Scott Quiring. It is currently set up singlespeed with a 34/17 gear, and I will be racing it come Saturday. It is very, very nice and weighs in at a hair under 22 lbs. with pedals and cages.



This is what some stupid bi**h thought was an acceptable way of returning unused stuff from a cocktail party. Really? I bet she has ants in her trunk now because a few of the coke cans had sprung leaks and I didn't tell her.





I have been working out the kinks in my bikepacking system as well with a few overnighters close to town between work shifts.





Sarge, last night I camped out about 2/3 of the way through your loop, and last week I was at the top of the old super pipe at Nub's. Fun stuff and nice to sleep outdoors on a semi regular basis. I've got a good long overnighter planned for the middle of September involving some monster miles and all of the NCT north of Thumb Lake.




So that's all I can manage for now. WNR's are going so well with huge groups and new riders every week. Good luck to all the riders racing the O2S this weekend. Hopefully we'll see you all at the campground for post race beers and burgers. Over and out.

And it all comes together

My how our group has grown! Since I’ve been a part of “Team Terpening”, I’ve seen the attendance peak and valley and the trend over the last few weeks is definitely peaking! Actually, I can’t even really say that; to say its peaking is to assume we are almost at capacity, or we’ve reached the top…the way the last few rides have been, there has been greater attendance all the time. I mean, who has mountain bike group rides with numbers in the 20’s these days? Oh yea, that’s right…WE DO! And we love every one of them!

This last Wednesday, we had another high attendance. I could fill a whole paragraph with the names of all that rode, so I’ll just say we were all pretty much there. I could name those who WEREN’T there, but I don’t want to give that kind of credit to anyone. There were a lot of riders. Benson had planned the route to break up the same old that we tend to get used to, an out and back kind of ride. Once we arrived, saddled up, clipped in and finally cut the chit chat after a group photo, we were off!

Dirt. Hardpack. Sand. Singletrack. Doubletrack.

We started at one of our favorite sections of the NCT, the Larks Lake Road Trailhead. This is a very nice section of the NCT trail system, perhaps one of the nicest. If you have a friend who is starting mountain biking, or even thinking of starting mountain biking, you want them to ride this section of the trail. It’s not too steep, not too tight; it has a nice flow to it, traverses through some great scenery, and is very well marked. There aren’t any forks in this section to get confused about, and aside from only ONE big climb (called Robinson Hill by most that are familiar); it’s a trail that will make any noob want to ride again and again!

So out we went. But not before Secret Steve did some sand pit sampling. Next stop, Robinson Road. Usually during the rides we hold up to re-collect everyone that has spread out over the last few miles. On a group ride, I find this to be an excellent idea. Not only does it keep us together and solidifies the meaning of a “group” ride, but it gives the hammerheads a little break to catch their breath. Except Kevin…we tried to catch him but he was gone! Ah well, we’ll find him later…. I mean, if we had to track him, it wouldn’t be hard by the freshly turned trail dirt from his rear tire digging in!

Grind. Tear. Rip. Crush. Crumple. Whoosh. Zzzzinng.

Our ride took a turn for the road as we exited the trail, Van Road, that is. Nice little stretch of paved road. Uphill road. I think there was a right hander in there too, but that was uphill too. I mean, it wasn’t like a cart path, but there it was, kinda uphill. And there was Joe, Hugh (whom we encountered a few miles ago), Uli, and Secret Steve mashing the pedals and disappearing out of sight. Man those guys can move on the flats! Action Chuck needs a little improvement in this area…as if it wasn’t apparent enough already! This brought us to the traditional Van Road trailhead we normally would have turned around at.

As soon as everyone was collected, Benson explained the change in route he had in mind. After barreling down this very fun section of trail back to Robinson Road, dodging some low branches and swerving around a downed Uli, we turned left and headed towards Palmer Road. Oh goodie, more road. Well, at least this road was rather flat and kept most of us even. I never get tired of the sound that 10 mountain bikes make on pavement in their own little peloton!

Palmer is a seasonal road. We crossed it already on our way out to Van Road…. All I’ve ever seen of Palmer was that little crossing and perhaps a longer section of it when Action Cheryl and I went ditchbanging (definition worthy of its own blog post) on the snowmobiles. But that was in the winter and under BRAAAP power! So, in order to help with its description, I took a few minutes and glanced at how Urban Dictionary would define “Palmer”. I couldn’t really find anything appropriate to cite in the blog, so I just came up with my own. The experience of Palmer Road will be seared in your memory much like your leg muscles sear after climbing a giant hill in a not low enough available on your bike gear, sandy Two-Tracked Sonofabitch Hill. Joe, on the other hand, looked back all the way wondering when the hill was going to start!! I can appreciate a good climb, but we REALLY appreciated this one!

Climb. Stand. Mash. Lean. Press. Balance. Torque. Sweat. Grunt. Press. Pound.

Once we cooled this leg furnace and got everyone back together, we zipped on down the NCT back to where we started. You really gotta love this section, such sweet reward for the climb…so, Benson, in a way, we thank you for the Palmer Experience! It’s pretty much downhill from this point on, all the way to the trailhead. Secret Steve, Joe, and I tunneled our way back at neck breaking speeds, trail dirt flying out from under the knobbies at every sharp turn, pumping every chance, and glancing a shoulder or two off an occasional tree!

Cool. Race. Speeeed. Downhill. Snap. Biff. Shoosh. Flyyyyy!

With everyone collected, packed, changed, and bikes mounted back to their respective racks, it was time to head out to The Moose Jaw Junction, or as some affectionately name it, “The Pond”, for some of their famous burgers and cuisine! A fine end to a fine ride!

What is it about a ride that gets you going? The scenery? The camaraderie? The exercise? The beer? The speed? Geez. If I was forced to pick just one, you’d probably be waiting a long time on an answer.

You really gotta love how it all comes together. As I touched on earlier, the group has really grown, but I dare say so have the friendships. Seems like the group is really rolling into something special. It’s not too often such a large a group of people get along so well that come from different backgrounds. Mountain biking is our common link; it’s something we all share, enjoy, and embellish upon. May the trails keep out in front of us for miles to come!

WNR AT HEADQUARTERS

Old Pic of Headquarters North....Post Ore to Shore 2010.

Attendance: WPG, Myself, Kevin, Karen, Benson, AC, Cheryl,Bobbi, Tina, Coopy, Secret Steve, Uli, Joe or Ryan, Brian, Belinda, Doug, Sherri, 9 year old Lexy!, Damon, Molly, Jim, Dave from Petoskey, Jenn, and I think that is about all...

No pics, sorry Sarge...but definitely from now on!
What an amazing night for a ride, 70's, (yes we actually wore short sleeves), beautiful sky, a tour around Pond Hill Farm, no bugs and the start of many new friendships with fellow riders.
The energy from everyone was just astatic and it was felt all around.
So after the great ride, we hung out in Headquarters new kitchen! Man can that thing cook!!
From my pulled pork on Gurney's breadends, to Bobbi's Flaun, we ate like kings and queens.
I never want the WNR to end and this past one, I didn't want to end especially.
Thanks for reading,
Sarah

WNR Posts

Hey Team Terpening folks!!!  A former WNRider located in the southwest corner of this fine country that we live in has felt a little out of touch lately with the haps regarding the WNR...  it's my way of keeping in touch with a group of riders that I loved riding with every Wednesday night.  Yeah that's right, I said it, the posts on Team Terpening have been a bit light lately.  As a past resident of N. Mich., I understand what time of year it is, and that by the time you get home from work, all you want to do is take out your aggression on some singletrack and drink a beer...  or, more likely, several beers.  So...  here's what I propose (with the permission of WPG):  In the same fashion as last summer, let's get some people involved in writing up some WNR reports in a competition, voted on by yours truly.  I will personally donate some fine quality brew from my beloved Lumberyard Brewery out here in Flagstaff, AZ (formerly, and kind of still is, Beaver Street Brewery).  So, you guys work out the details amongst yourselves as to who writes first, when the competition is complete (based on number of riders/writers), etc.. etc., etc.  I'll make a judgement call on my favorite post, and present the winner with some brew.  I look forward to some WNR posting.  Good luck.

Mmmm...