1 Speed Brian

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T18:44:00.002-05:00

SK8 Park

2009-09-24T20:08:00.002-05:00

Noah went for his first trip to the big skate park today

Bubble wrap fun

Paddded seat

Lilly loves the bubble popping sounds

Kid Pics

2009-09-20T19:38:00.006-05:00

Lots going on lately. We broke down and bought a family wagon (minivan) I have to admit it’s pretty sweet though I miss the element. Noah has made a couple of trips to the zoo lately.

Not a lot of picture of Lilly, she always seems to have demon eyes in pictures, I was able to tease a smile out of her yesterday though.

Noah is still all about his bike

I even had to true his wheels from all the jumps he has been hitting

He has made a few trips to the Concorde skatepark

My Girls

2009-08-17T08:48:00.002-05:00

Lillian Reed Nicholson

2009-07-03T20:55:00.003-05:00

Lillian Reed Nicholson

Born July 3rd 2009 at 11:01 am.

Update?!?!?

2009-06-07T22:44:00.003-05:00

Sorry I haven’t posted in quite a while. Life has been so busy at the Nicholson’s home its hard to take the time to type a few sentences. My time has been occupied with getting ready for our new family addition and trying to get some major chores done before she gets here around July 4th. In the last few months I have completely re-landscaped our entire front yard and, Ive been studying for the LEED exam that I’m supposed to take next weekend.

Work has been super busy for Tara and I booth. I’m knee deep in a new Music Building for the University of Tennessee. These days we are both very thankful to have work at all though.

Of course I’ve been doing a little bike riding when I can. I’ve done a little commuting, a few mountain bike rides but I’m mainly interested in riding the downhill bike these days. We have a fairly regular Sunday Windrock session going on plus I’ve slipped in a couple of weekday evening sessions at the Rock. I took a trip to Diablo Freeride Park in New Jersey last month, that’s was about the most fun bike riding I have ever done, riding the ski lift to the top of the mountain then blasting back down over and over. Lift assist mountain biking is truly the “crack cocaine” of cycling.

Noah has really taken to his little wooden bike. He and I do regular rides nearly every day.

He can coast and carve turns pretty well especially considering he’s just 2 years old!

We’ve been wearing out the neighborhood pool since it opened. We think Noah wll learn to swim this summer.

Noah is 2

2009-03-24T21:15:00.003-05:00

Noah had his second birthday last week and got his first bike!

PMBAR

2009-03-20T13:49:00.000-05:00

Looks like I have lost my PMBAR partner. I’m having difficulty finding anyone interested that’s not already committed to something that weekend. So if you’re free May 2nd and have the aversion to go spend 7-10 hours traversing up and down some big mountain trails shoot me a message. I’m hoping for a solid mid pack finish but a serious effort will be placed at the after party

Extreme Sheep Hearding?!?!?!?

2009-03-19T07:34:00.000-05:00

NAHMBS / Skatepark tour

2009-03-01T23:04:00.002-05:00

John, Jeff, Shawn and I went to the "North American Hand Made Bike Show" This weekend in Indianapolis. Along the way we sessioned the Louisville, KY skate park and the Indianapolis skate park.

The show was impressive I got to meet James Bleakey of Blacksheep Bike who is responsible for building several of my bikes over the years. lots of other cool stuff, so much I don't know where to start or stop so ill just skip it. This head badge summed the whole show up for me "A Sheep in Wolf's clothing"

We hit the Loisville park for a few minites on the way up and then played around at the Indianapolis park after the show

Coon

2009-02-23T23:27:00.001-05:00

I went to Raccoon Mountain last weekend with Eric, Thomas, and about 15 other K-town folks. It was a blast of a ride followed by another stop at Sugar's to top it off.

Sometimes I’m embarrassed I live in Tennessee

2009-02-19T08:44:00.001-05:00

It's a Girl !!!

2009-02-15T21:00:00.004-05:00

If you haven’t heard yet the Nicholsons are getting a new addition to the family. The male to female ratio in our family is about to even back out.

Its been a little warmer lately and Noah has been wearing the wheels off his trike. Looks like he’s getting a 2 wheelerfor his birthday next month

Noah is very attached to a Hot Wheels motorcycle, he won’t go anywhere without it right now.

I built a little back yard ladder drop/jump this weekend.

This is the best mainstreem beer company comercial I've ever seen.

Picture Update

2009-02-08T21:55:00.015-05:00

Here are a couple of recent Noah pictures, He is getting taller every day though he doesn’t seem to be gaining much weight. His 2nd birthday is coming up soon, I think he’s getting his first 2 wheeler, he’s outgrown his tiny tricycle.

I’ve done some riding lately, Thomas, Eric and I went to Pisgah this past weekend. We saw our friends John and Shawn racing in a 36 hour mountain bike race while we were there, turned out the came in 2nd at the event. I hadn’t been to Pisgah in awhile; it’s always a great place to ride.

Most of my riding lately has been at the Skatepark and the local dirt jump park (Bigfoot) I’m really having a blast doing this kind of riding, the skill translation to the MTB trails is helping take my riding up a notch, if only I could just pull some fitness together too.

]

Snow

2009-01-20T21:16:00.000-05:00

Noah got to play in the snow for the first time this week

!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!

2009-01-15T22:49:00.003-05:00

This is the best flying squirrel flick I've ever seen.

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Great Holiday's at the Nicholson's

2009-01-03T15:03:00.004-05:00

Peter Schiff Analogies

2008-12-03T10:34:00.000-05:00

Great compilation of Peter Schiff quotes:

Pumpkin

2008-11-05T21:16:00.003-05:00

Ann gave Noah a really cute pumpkin costume to wear on Halloween. Noah picked up on Trick'or'treating pretty quickly even if he didn't get to eat any candy.

October ride log

2008-10-30T21:12:00.002-05:00

1st Haw Ridge 1:30
2nd Commute 1:00
4th Windrock race 4:00 – City Ride 1:30
5th Haw Ridge 1:30
10th Raccoon mtn 3:30
11th Windrock XC 2:30
12th Windrock DH (5 runs/ 1WM) Plus short ride at the ridge 2:30
13th Urban 1:00 Jeff vs. John
15th Commute 2:00
22nd Haw ridge Fix 1:30
23rd Commute 2:00
25th party/Fixy ride to heckle at the Haw ridge race 1:30
26th Windrock Dh (7runs/2 WM) 3:00
28th I.C. King Fixy 1:30
29th Haw Ridge Fixy 1:30
30th Commute 2:00

Total : 30:00 – Pretty light month, I’ve been sick and traveling. What’s most disappointing was I was supposed to participate in 2 events this month and both fell apart. I have gotten back on both the Downhill and the off-road fixy bandwagons this month though.

Wily back in action

2008-10-26T21:04:00.010-05:00

After 6 months off, the Wily is back together with its issues repaired, all the rust cleaned up, and a new coat of paint. I toyed with the idea of leting this one go, I knew from the first peddle stoke I made the right choice in keeping it.

Running fixed for now, fall just feels right for riding fixed in the woods.

3rd Party Debate

2008-10-24T12:03:00.002-05:00

Last night on C-Span was the 3rd party presidential debate. This excerpt stood out to both Tara and I:

“It’s not a battle between Republicans and Democrats, because those titles mean very little. Same thing, it’s not a battle between conservatives and liberals. Really, the battle is between Globalists and Constitutionalists. We either believe we are a constitutional republic and we govern ourselves accordingly or we see ourselves as a part of, as George Bush Sr. talked about, the new world order. I think what we’re dealing with here is an infatuation between both parties to the new world order concept, the open boarder situation… Both parties seem to be obsessed with foreign aid. …we are pawns of the United Nations.” – Chuck Baldwin.

You can listen to the whole debate here: CLICK HERE or just the response I transcribed above located on Part 2, within the first 1 ½ minutes of this video.

Economic Woes

2008-10-11T10:11:00.002-05:00

Check out this article from February 5th 2008:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=55601

If you believe the curent financial woes are caused by bad mortages as claimed in the news media you are feeding into their lie.

Big Orange Boots

2008-10-09T21:50:00.004-05:00

Noah has some cool new winter boots and a cowboy hat

Hes my "stand in" blogger as well

September Ride Log

2008-10-08T08:44:00.001-05:00

1st Iron Mountain 2:30
3rd Haw Ridge 1:30
4th Commute 2:00
6th Raccoon Mountain 4:00
10th Urban Ride 2:00
11th Commute 2:00
13th Errands all day, one trip of 40 miles on the Big Dummy to pick up beer 3:00
14th Haw Ridge + SK8 2:00
15th City Fix 3:00
16th SK8 :30
17th haw Ridge 1:30
18th commute 2:00
20th Haw Ridge 1:30
21st haw Ridge 2:30
24th Haw Ridge 1:30
25th Commute 2:00
26th Brew ride and polo match 2:30
27th Sk8 1:00
28th Trailer ride 1:30
29th commute 2:00

Total : 40:30

Windrock 100/25

2008-10-05T10:40:00.003-05:00

I rode the Windrock 100 (reduced to 25miles) yesterday. It was my first time to ride the XC trails at Windrock. I think I may have found my favorite new place to ride. The trails are as hard as an XC trail can be, super steep climbs, technical rock that will challenge the most skilled riders, lots of funky little up and down moves, and banked corners for railing. The two main areas campground trails and Walden’s Ridge a isolated enough from atv traffic that it’s a non-issue.

I can’t imagine the original plan of 4 laps of the course for 100 miles though. I’m sure some folks out there could finish it but not many.

Photot credit- Mark Webb

Just for Jeff

2008-10-03T13:29:00.000-05:00

Get your own knuckles at the knuckle tattoo gun.

Republocrat

2008-10-01T10:47:00.002-05:00

A few things from thirdpartyticket.com

Vote Third Party

Recently Ron Paul gave an historic press conference asking for voters to consider voting for third party candidates. He invited four third-party candidates to be present at the conference and gave them all an endorsement.

Here is the press conference for your review:

In his press conference he made three major points:

1.) A large number of people do not want a McCain or Obama presidency - collectively we are a political force, 2.) All four of his suggested third party candidates have 4 positions in common:

bring the U.S. troops home
protect our civil liberties
investigate the Federal Reserve
balance the federal budget
3.) the two party system is corrupt, limits the choices of the American people and must come to an end..

Republocrat Campaign Song

I promise to get off politics and back to bikes and Noah this weekend.

Palin

2008-09-25T22:06:00.004-05:00

Education:
4 colleges over 9 semesters while participating in 2 beauty pageants, to receive a communications degree.
Experience:
2 term mayor of a town of 6,300 (that’s about how many students attend the high school next to my home). Has served 2 years as governor of the least populated state of the country.

McCain is 72 (would be the oldest president in history) and has survived cancer, 4 times. If elected McCain has a better chance of dying in office than any president previously so the question is more meningfull than ever, Is she ready to lead our country?

Bachelor week, Haw ridge weekend

2008-09-22T21:34:00.001-05:00

Tara went to her office last week and took Noah with her. It was very quite around the house what little bit I was there. I got in some urban riding, some skate park highjinx on boards and bikes (fixies in the pool are a trip) and a little dirt time. I went to Haw Ridge twice over the weekend Sunday was a fantastic ride with Thomas, looking for the best descending the Ridge has to offer.

Creeper/Iron/Phil/Coon

2008-09-07T13:57:00.008-05:00

Quick update on the last couple of week's riding. last weekend was a trip to Damascus with lots of friends. We did a day on the Creeper with kids and all and then a day of Iron Mountain.

Iron Mountain has become one of my favorite trails this summer. Its realy easy to achieve speeds that are way out of my skillset. Id love to take some pictures of the trail but its such a high speed rythem trail its hard to break up the flow for photos.

We beat our shuttle to the end of the trail, John and Shawn started trials'n on the picnick tables. The regular Creeper rides in the parking lot looked on in confusion.

After months of Ebay bargain shopping I recently built a new set of wheels for the fixy. They are hipster-dejure Phill/DeepV and turned out very nice.

Thomas and I went down to Racoon Mountain yesterday to enjoy the trails and let SORBA Chatanooga cook us lunch. We spent almost four hours in the woods and road about 3 trails. One of them we rode 14 times though.

August Ride Log

2008-09-04T07:53:00.001-05:00

1st Commute/Booze Cruse 4:00
3rd Road ride attempt/ broken stem 1:00
4th Haw Ridge 2:00
5th SK8 1:00
6th haw Ridge 1:30
7th SK8 1:00
8th Commute 2:00
9th Farmers Market/errands 1:00
10th Ocoee Tannassi 4:30
11th SK8 1:00
13th SK8 :30
18th Commute 2:00
20th Haw Ridge 1:30
21st Commute 2:00
22nd Commute 2:00
23rd Farmers Market/Dinner Cruise 2:30
24th Parkway/Dragon/Parkway 5:00
28th Commute 2:00
29th Commute 2:00
31st Creeper etc..3:00
Total: 40:30
August is typically my slackest month of the year

Prodigy

2008-08-26T21:06:00.002-05:00

Gi-Gi, Zoo, Dummy

2008-08-25T14:43:00.006-05:00

My mom (Gi-Gi) came to visit last weekend. We did allot of hanging out, eating, and went on Noah’s first trip to the Zoo. Everyone had a grand weekend. Hopfully Noah will get to see Gi-Gi more in the future

We got the new Big Dummy together and took it on our weekly farmers market trip this Saturday loaded both direction taking egg crates back to the farmer we get our eggs from and returning with lots of tasty veggies and breads. The bike turned out really cool, and I expect it will be part of our family for many years to come.

I did a little rework on Tara’s road rocket to make it a more appropriate greenway crusher. That’s an 18lb full carbon bike with a triple and runs 32c and is probably the nicest greenway machine in Knoxville. We met the Murrays for a booze cruse Saturday night, I think Tara was pretty happy with it.

I left the camera at home on Sunday but went on a road ride with Shawn, he brought along Lindsey and Fred neither I’d ever met before but where both super cool and I hope to ride with again. We did a Parkway/ Dragon/ Parkway ride that I was absolutely not nutritionally prepared for but I some how limped through the climb back over the parkway. Something about those 636 curves that I just cant restrain myself from going all out.

Next weekend is another camping trip to Damascus. We have a groupe campsite that holds 50 people, Hopefully more than just the Nicholsons and Murrays show.

Pickens Plan

2008-08-11T20:01:00.005-05:00

I'd seen the commercials but didn't know much about it until recently. Its worth some thought.

The Nicholson’s are doing our part reducing our dependence on foreign oil. We made it 4 days over the last weekend without cranking either of our cars. And we invested in "new technology" to further our independence from our automobile.

July Ride log

2008-08-04T15:13:00.000-05:00

2nd Haw Ridge 2:00
3rd Neighborhood Fix :30
4th Haw Ridge 2:30
5th Rocky top 100K (fixed) 4:00
6th City Ride with Tara and Noah 1;30
7th Farragut fix 1:00
8th Commute to work 2:00
9th Haw Ridge 1:30
11th SK8 :30
12th Ocoee/Tanasi 4:30
14th Commute 2:00
15th Commute 2:00
17th Farragut Fix 1:30
18th Rich Mountain moonlight ride 3:30
20th Ocoee/Tanasi 5:00
23rd Haw Ridge 1:30
26th Creeper 1:30
27th Iron Mountain+ 4:00
29th Farragut Fix :30
30th Commute / booze cruze 2:00

43.5 hours in July mostly during 90+ deg temps.

Rich Mountain/Cades Cove Moonlit Ride

2008-07-21T20:57:00.004-05:00

I fired up Monte Jones early last week about the upcoming Friday night full moon. With his email magic and a little word spread around town 17 folks showed up for a moonlit -Townsend>Rich Mountain Road>Cades Cove Loop>Rich Mountain Road>Townsend.:

Sunday Jeff and I went down for a Tansi ride/Ocoee shredding day:

COSIDER A THIRD CHOICE

2008-07-14T13:46:00.004-05:00

Georgia’s - Bob Bar

And of course Ralph Nader is in there again.

Rocky Top 100

2008-07-06T20:55:00.005-05:00

This weekend was the Rocky Top 100, a metric century (100 kilometers or 62 miles)that starts and ends at "Barley's Pizza and Beer", it was raining at the start and I happened to pack the fixy in the car the night before. I knew the rain would keep the speeds low, make drafting uncomfortable, sketch everyone on the corners basically making normal road tactics impossible. So if I was going to have to do my own ride I might as well ride the fixy. Honestly, I had a goal this year of riding at least one cycling event on the fixy so it was a perfect opportunity. It was a major effort but not quite as hard a day as I had feared. I learned a few lessons.

I’ve got more fixy skills than I realized, not the skidding/trackstanding type but the kind that get you up and down hills mile after mile without blowing out the knees.

30c tires at 75 psi make riding wet pavement allot easier than the normal roadie fair.

Die-hard roadies are an unsociable lot whose egos take a hit when overweight fixy rides in sandals stomp them.

It’s more rewarding to me to take the hard road and overcome at my own level but I’m not sure if that’s a masochism or an excuse.

I did this ride last year on the road bike and perfect conditions in just under 3 hours, it took less than an extra hour this year and was worth every minute. This was Thomas and i's 2nd road event in three weeks, I bet Thomas is shaving his legs by the end of the month ;-).

Noah’s cycling is really taking off, I think he has a future in downhill racing:

June ride log:

1st – Road ride 2:00
2nd – Farragut Fix 2:00
4th – Haw Ridge 2:00
5th – Road Ride 2:00
6th – Commute to Work 2:00
8th – Farragut Fix 1:30
9th – Commute to Work 2:00
13th Commute to Work 2:00
14th - Ride to the Farmers market 1:00
14th – Raccoon Mountain 3:30
16th – Commute to work 2:00
17th – Commute to Work 2:00
18th - Haw Ridge 2:00
21st – Cherohala Challenge 7:15
22nd – Farragut Fix :45
23rd – Neighborhood Fix :30
24th – Urban fix/Tomfoolery 1:30
27th – Commute to work and to Party 1:00
28th – Trailer Ride with Noah 1:30
29th - LeConte hike 7:00
30th – Commute to work 2:00

Forty Seven hours and thirty minutes in June, With a couple of big effort days in the mix but commuting to work is becoming my “base”.

LeConte

2008-06-30T20:39:00.003-05:00

11 cyclist/friends go for a hike together in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park:

Newfound gap> Appalachian Trail > Boulevard > Jump Off> Boulevard > Myrtle Point > Boulevard > Cliff Tops >LeConte Lodge > Alum Cave > Beer

14ish miles of rouged Appalachian/elevation hiking. It took about 7 hours and hurt worse than the 115 miles on the bike last weekend.

Thomas has some fantastic pictures of the day over at Harvest the Ride.

I took a few pictures:

I have to give credit to Mike Ford who came along after having finished riding the entire Blue Ridge Parkway in the previous 7 days. Had I just fished that kind of ride, I probably would take at least one day off.

Ron Paul on oil/Iraq

2008-06-28T19:54:00.000-05:00

Picture Catch-up

2008-06-22T21:06:00.008-05:00

Its been a busy month and I've fallen behind on the updates.
We've been on some trips latly, camping and family biking in Virinia:

We went to Florida and played on the beach:

We did some sailing and various boating:

We went to Tara's grandfather's 80th birthday party. I can only hope to be living life to the fullest at that age the way he is.

Noah and I have done some fishing latly, we have been moderatly successfull.

Noah is growing so fast he is already wearing my sandles and helment

Of course theirs been a little riding going on.

I road the Cherohala Challenge yesterday, 115 miles with +10,000' of climbing. 7:18 total time with a 6:45 ride time, 46.5mph peak!!!

Lots of fun packed days latly

Education

2008-06-11T13:30:00.002-05:00

A couple of videos that have been powerful for me lately. I'm not sure I believe it all but its interesting.

If you have the time and attention to read a couple of hours this site Peak Oil is a very good and well documented read. Whatever the "truth" is i do believe we are on the brink of a radical change in civilization as we have known it to be and your not going to find out about it through mainstream news until its already happened.

Greenway Beer Bike

2008-06-05T16:17:00.003-05:00

I scored a sweet new bar bike off Ebay last week. I got it together last night, should prove to give lots of commuting and bar hopping fun.

Love the head tube badge:

May Ride Log

2008-06-03T07:09:00.001-05:00

Kind of a slow month on the bike.

1st Greenway Fix 2:00
3rd PMBAR 9:15
6th Neighborhood Ride :30
7th Haw Ridge 2:00
9th Commute to Work 1:30
10th Cyclocross adventure 4:30
12th Commute to work 2:00
14th Rode to a Bar :30
16th Commute to work 3:30
17th Road Ride 3:00
18th Raccoon Mountain 3:30
19th Commute to work 2:00
21st Haw Ridge 2:00
24th Iron Mountain Trail @:30
25th VA Creeper 2:00
29th Rode to store in Fl :30

39:15 in May with a week of vacation and sinus infection in the mix.

Words cannot describe

2008-05-16T19:51:00.001-05:00

I suggest clicking the little arrows in the lower right corner to make it full screen then watch in amazement.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Recent Rides

2008-05-13T10:33:00.009-05:00

A few words about some recent rides:

PMBAR (Pisgah Mountain Bike Adventure Race)

This is a race outside of Brevard, NC and is just about the most fun day on a bike one can imagine. It’s a great format with checkpoints throughout the forest that nobody knows where they are until the start of the race you have to go to a minimum number of the possible checkpoints to finish (or more to win) in any order you deem best. It’s great because you’re seeing other people doing the same race as you going different directions all day but you have little idea whether they are doing better or worse than you. It has a total party atmosphere. For safety you compete as a team of two, Jeff was my partner this year. We had a great day and met out #1 goal of finishing, it took us a little over 9 hours. I road briefly with a bunch of old paddling friends, that was cool to see how so many people of similar interest have had those interest evolve in the same way. Knoxville was well represented at the event with about 10 folks coming out, all clad in the Union Jack.
I bought a couple of raffle tickets at the event and won a new mountain bike frame that happens to be Tara’s size. It’s a Vessago “Bandersnatch” in traffic safety green/yellow, where going to build it up with leftover parts and stuff to make her a nice neighborhood/greenway/grocery bike. I’m looking for a cheap 29er wheelset for it if anybody has one.

Fired up and ready to go, It seemed Jeff and I had some of the burliest bikes out that day:

Rider Meeting Harper's Crew in full force:

Me sketching out on the bridge, notice how the bridge is bowing up:

Jeff on the bridge, notice how the bridge is bowing down:

End of the day collecting my raffle prize, Tara's new town bike:

Cyclocross Adventure:

This past weekend Jeff and I couldn’t decide on what to do so we went with something completely new and went cyclocross exploring/adventuring. We went up to the Citico Creek area riding some fire roads and some single track that ties some fire road sections together. We did about 20 stream crossings, 200 log hops, 3 miles of horse chewed mud, and 4,000 feet of climbing in some of the most beautiful mountains of Tennessee.

Lots of Stream Crossings:

Lunch Break and map check:

It was a great ride and a beautiful day:

Photo credits to Brado and Jeff

I'm a Lush, What are you?

2008-05-13T10:08:00.000-05:00

82%LUSH

Created by OnePlusYou

April Ride Log

2008-05-09T08:06:00.002-05:00

April was a decent month on the bike with a little over 44 hours. Several trips out of town and a couple of local rides I dont do very often.

2nd Greenway Weiner Fix 2:30
5th Road ride 2:30
6th Parkway/Dragon/Parkway 5:30
7th SK8 :30
8th Trailer ride with Noah 1:30
9th Haw Ridge 1:30
10th Haw Ridge 1:00
12th Pisgah 2:00
13th Pisgah 5:30
14th Neighborhood Fix :30
15th Concorde 2:00
17th Greenway fix 1:00
18th Family greenway ride 1:00
20th Raccoon Mountain 3:00
21st Farragut Fix 1:30
22nd Commute to work 2:00
23rd Haw Ridge 2:00
25th Commute to work 2:00
26th 12 Hour Allycat 1:30
27th Farragut Greenway 2:00
29th Farragut fix :45

Quick update

2008-04-24T20:44:00.002-05:00

I haven’t posted much lately. Just too much going on. CarolAnn and Brian Blair came into town last week for the Cohutta 100, they both did very well and seemed to have a good time. I took Brian down to Raccoon Mountain on Sunday. We missed a few of the better trails but I think he had had enough by then anyway (Having raced 100 miles the day before and all). Noah is doing well his personality is becoming more apparent every day.

Banjo lessons are going well.

Just a week until PMBAR, I hope Jeff is ready.

Squeezing in the last of the Pisgah “Seasonals”

2008-04-16T09:08:00.003-05:00

I had a great weekend in Pisgah trying to squeeze the last bit of life out of the seasonal trails this year. In Pisgah some of the trails are referred to as “seasonal” meaning that they are only open to bikes during the winter months (Oct. 15th – April 15th) when hiker traffic is low. It’s only a handful of trails but some of them are among the best trails in the forest and some of them help tie trails together to make loops that just aren’t achievable otherwise. Jeff, Thomas, Eric, Levi and I met up in Brevard on Saturday. On the way in Jeff and I spotted DJ’s car at a local bike shop so we stopped in and recruited him and his wife to join us for the day. We snagged the last roadside campsite along the river by the stables. This spot just happened to be on the opposite side of the river from the road and that made for allot of fun all weekend. Once we set up camp we made our way over to the hatchery and made a loop up the fire road down Long Branch and Cat Gap then we loaded up and went over to North Slope for a quick spin around. Not too much ridding Saturday and all at an easy pace in preparation for Sunday.

Sunday was what this trip was all about, I have had the route I’ve wanted to do for a while but have never had a group that was interested in the idea and everything come together to pull it off. It’s a shuttled point-to-point ride and goes a little like this…. Laurel Mountain -> Pilot Rock -> 476 -> The Pink Beds -> Club Gap -> Avery Creek -> Clawhammer -> Presley Cove -> Black Mountain. It’s not that long at about 25, and the climbs aren’t that horrid, but the descents are some of the finest around. To get Pilot, Avery, and Black Mountain all in one day is as much as any mountain biker could ask for. So we met another crew from Knoxville (Jay, Jen, Shawn, John, Chris, and John from the UK)at the bottom of Black mountain Sunday morning to consolidate gear into a few shuttle vehicles and head to the beginning. It’s about a 30 minute shuttle drive and I think a few folks where getting nervous about the whole idea. One of the Participant (John from the UK) had just moved to the US a few days before, wandered into Harpers Bike shop and bought a bike, this was his first ride in the States and his first ride on his new Heckler. I have to say that Britt ripped. The ride went off like clockwork, You would be hard pressed to get a better group together for such an unknown undertaking. We lost a couple of folks at the bottom of Avery but the majority pulled through. I think everyone agreed that this is one of the best routes they had ever done in Pisgah.

Unfortunately I didn’t get the camera out too much all weekend. Thomas has some nice pictures over at Harvest the Ride to check out though.

Still no dogs on the grill

2008-04-09T21:49:00.008-05:00

Another Wednesday night at the ridge and still no sizzling meat in 08. Matt brought a grill this week and everything.

As usual we left the lot with a bunch of big wheel bikes with drive train deficiencies.

At some point the crowd dwindled.

We hit some rocky descents on the way out of the woods.

And then headed for hydration.

Dragon

2008-04-08T21:41:00.006-05:00

Jeff and I hit the Parkway/Dragon/Parkway ride Sunday, at a hair over 65 miles, about a zillion feet of climbing, and one 22 mile stretch with over 634 curves of fun. This is one of my favorite road rides and I expect its one of Jeff’s favorites now too.

Weiner Re-route

2008-04-03T08:23:00.004-05:00

With all the rain lately the “wiener ride” got moved over to a greenway ride this Wednesday. As any Weiner ride several groups went off and not all stayed together. We had a solid crew of two fixys, three single speeds, one cyclocrosser and one lime green “Cardio Hot Rod”. We did a little off-roading, 28c tires and a fixed drivtrain are not the tool for muddy trails.

Of course we had to stop in for some refreshments in town.

This rig was down at Market Square, words cannot describe my envy of this set-up.

Photo credit to Matt AKA “Go-Kart-Motzart

Its about time I get back to some bike commuting:

March Ride Log

2008-03-31T09:42:00.004-05:00

1st Greenway Family adventure 1:30
2nd Pisgah 4:30
3rd SK8 1:30
5th SK8 1:00
6th Fixy 2:00
9th Parsons/Rich Mountain 4:30
10th SK8 1:30
11th Sk8 1:00
11th Farragut Greenway with Noah 1:30
12th Haw Ridge 1:30
15th Road ride 1:30
16th Road ride 3:30
17th Sk8 :30
17th Neighborhood ride 1:00
18th Haw ridge Climb’0’rama 2:00
20th short fix :30
21st Fix in Miss. 2:30
22nd Fix in Miss. 3:00
24th Short fix :30
25th Haw ridge Climb’0’rama 2:00
26th Haw ridge Climb’0’rama 2:00
27th Racoon Mountain with Tara 3:00
30th Vanore road ride 4:30
31st SK8 :30

48.5 hours in March, not great but it’s all I got.

Easter Weekend and Beyond....

2008-03-28T21:30:00.005-05:00

Tara, Noah, Levi and I went to visit my mom last weekend for Easter in Central Mississippi. It was a great trip although long car rides become a different sort of adventure with a one year old. Noah had a big time at my mom’s house. She had a little red wagon he could have pushed for 30 miles If we would have let him.

I took the fixy to Mississippi and went out for a couple of road rides. The only places I know to ride at my mom’s house are on the Natchez Trace and I have a little hand drawn map of a ride that goes on not far from her House called the "Pig Out in Pocahontas". The event starts/finishes art a BBQ joint in a wide spot of a country road town, called Pocahontas. The route is ~30 miles and it takes me 5 miles each way to get into the loop. On Friday I rode the loop nearly proper skipping a section of highway by riding the “Hilliest road in the county”. That netted me ~40 miles on Friday. Saturday I went out to do the same loop but I realized looking at my hand drawn mad I could link some roads together to do the “Hilliest road in the county” twice. I worked out taking a little longer than expected but I found my way ok. This did result in my longest fixed gear ride of my life at 50+ miles. It was very interesting to get really tired on a fixy. I ride that bike allot but never more than a couple of hours and never near the point of exhaustion. When I start getting tired on a coasting bike, I sit up allot coast downhill more often than killing it and generally chill out. The Fix just doesn’t allow that type of recovery. I wasn’t blown to pieces tired but the inability to rest for a second on the bike was mentally taxing situation I had never experienced before. My respect for fixed gear endurance folks took a step forward as did my own interest. I think I’ll be rolling fixed off-road again soon and I have a desire to try an easy event on the fixy weather it is a road metric or an off-road sub 40 miler.

I hit the Haw Ridge twice this week on the Turner focusing on climbing. Tuesday I crossed the ridgtop 6 times, Wednesday I crossed it 7 times. That type of riding at the ridge is something I started doing at the end of last summer, really focusing on the interior ups and downs and staying away from the shoreline puts a new twist on the trail system and makes it feel entirely different. I’m completely in love with the Turner now. It’s an outstanding climber, possibly the best all around climbing FS bike I have ridden, the rear tire is just glued to the grownd on the tech ups and with a flip of the Pro Peddle leaver you can stand and honk on it on smooth ups with no ill effects. On the downs and flowy areas it’s just a rock solid traction machine. I’ve owned beefier, longer travel bikes that were not as confidence inspiring.

Friday we were supposed to leave for Pisgah to camp a few days but Noah has been a little under the weather and looks like overnight rain so we opted to take advantage of daycare on our day off and go ride together, just Tara and I. It’s the fist time since Tara found out she was pregnant we have ridden in the woods together. She had never been to Raccoon Mountain before so we loaded up the singlespeeds and headed south:

Happy Birthday Noah

2008-03-16T20:26:00.005-05:00

It’s hard to believe Noah is a year old already.

We had a birthday party for him Saturday night. It was tons of fun lots of friendsand a beautiful cake.

Its been the best year of Tara and my life.

I got out on a couple of road rides this weekend. Saturday Jeff, Thomas and I tried a Blount county loop but got rained out pretty early into the ride.

Sunday Jeff and I went out to try and complete the same route, the weather cooperated much better and we had a terrific ride.

Zippers

2008-03-14T22:35:00.003-05:00

A little Friday fun. I'm a long time Zipper fan, just love that sound.

Weiner Ride is back in Effect

2008-03-13T12:55:00.004-05:00

First weiner ride of the year last night, even though nobody broke out a grill we still did a little suffering on some bikes and a little hydration after in the parking lot.

Take note thats seven 29er singlespeeds and a token kiddy wheel squisher.

Had the Sheep out last night for the first time since it went all Catawampus on me. The bike is totally rebuilt. Every last bearing has been repacked, the frame was stripped and polished, New rims (Halo Freedom Discs) laced on my hubs, the fork was rebuilt by White and has a new crown, new lowers, new bushings and all new seals and oils, the frame has an all new drivetrain with new Middlburn cranks and an Uno ring. It probably has 30 hours of work on it since it was ridden last. With all that work I had 2 flats in the parking lot before I even got on the bike, and my ebb slipped (fresh lube does that) once during the ride causing me to push over the top of a short hill. I went to a slightly different gear ratio 32/21 from my previous 34/22 and I’m not sure I like it. It felt really spinney and I thought I was slow on the flats but I was able to climb most everything I tried which doesn’t always happen especially this early in the year. I’m giving this frame a good effort early this year, I have never really meshed with it and if things don’t change the Sheep may go to market.

Do the Test

2008-03-12T15:29:00.001-05:00

How observent are you? Click here to find out.

7.5 weeks and counting

2008-03-11T22:46:00.002-05:00

A certain blog out there has accused me of becoming a Tony Hawk want-a-be because of my recent interest in skating pools. Well all I can say is Tony Hawks a pretty boy wuss, its all about Bob Burnquist:

EAT THAT 20 FOOT. Today I spent an hour in the pool and hour and a half pulling Noah up the biggest hills Farragut has to offer, thats next level PMBAR training right there, diversity is key.

GSMNP

2008-03-09T19:49:00.003-05:00

Thomas and I went on a gravel road adventure today in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. Starting at the Townsend Greenway parking we road up the Old Cades Cove road over Rich Mountain into the Cove. Went around the cove to Parsons Branch, up Parsons Branch to the gap turned around and went back down into the cove. We took the road back down into Townsend and then Townsend Greenway back to the car. With 44 miles and Id have to guess over 5,000’ of climbing, I was cooked. We saw a good bit of snow all day but it was never terribly cold. Thomas supplied the well earned homebrews at the end of a satisfying day. Check out Thomas’s pics from the day at Harvest the Ride.

I think I have a problem

2008-03-03T21:05:00.009-05:00

The first step toward recovery is acknowledging you have a problem. As Tara says, tires are cheaper than alcohol, drugs, or gambling.

Jeff and I went to Pisgah this weekend, we road from the Hatchery>475>Davidson River Trail>475>Long Branch>Cat Gap>475> Canny Bottom>Daniels Ridge>475>Long Branch>Cat Gap>Beer. It was a beautiful day, weather and trails where perfect.

Jeff has a video of me crossing the same creek here.

Noah is way into bikes already. He’s been riding in his trailer allot and loves to "help" me out in the shop. I swear he will be truing flimsy 29er hoops before he is two.

Ride log update:
12th SK8 2:00
14th SK8 1:00
16th Haw Ridge 3:00
17th SK8 2:00
19th SK8 2:00
20th Fixy 1:00
23rd Norris 4:00
24th Farragut Greenway 1:30
25th SK8 2:30
28th SK8 2:30
1st Greenway Family adventure 1:30
2nd Pisgah 4:30
3rd SK8 1:30
I’m going to have to start riding a bike more than a pool to get ready for PMBAR

Best Norris Route Eva

2008-02-23T19:28:00.002-05:00

I went to Norris today. Met up with Eric, Thomas/Hank, and Even Drew emerged from his garage for a ride. We started out with talk of a double Cobra route but at the top of Camp Sam plans where re-evaluated. We wound up putting together a fantastic loop hitting some of the hardest climbs this climb heavy area has to offer. Finished up with a stop by archers to load up on beer before the big descent back to the car. Nearly four hours in the woods on a cold and dreary day, fantastic!

Old School / New School

Drew Leading the crew

Eric and 20foot

Noah Update

2008-02-18T21:26:00.002-05:00

Catawampus

2008-02-10T22:44:00.000-05:00

Had a great week, spent several days at the skatepark. Ill have to get some photos from there soon. It’s a ton of fun but it’s tough on a body as old as mine. Saturday was a major greenway family ride.

The greenway thing in Knoxville didn’t start taking off until after Tara got pregnant so she hadn’t seen a lot of the greenway I ride on a regular basis. We did about 30 miles, which was the longest ride I think I have ever done without a chamois thanks to handcrafter English leather. We had Towing a trailer that far puts a beat down on my legs.

We made a stop at the Tomato head for a late lunch, it was a great day.

Noah is taking some steps now and again and standing on his own without holding on to anything fairly often.

Sunday I went out to Haw Ridge. It was the first time there in a while, its usually too wet this time of year. I started out having a great ride. I ran up on a new deadfall and made a pretty big log pile ride.

Later in the day I met with a catastrophe for my front wheel. I actually did this on the same jump I broke a handlebar on back in the summer. The wheel looks bad and all indications show I bent my fork as well.

Ride log:
31st fixy ride 1:30
2nd Greenway, Noah’s first trailer ride, went with the whole Murry clan
3rd Raccoon Mtn 3:30
5th SK8 2:00
7th SK8 1:30
9th Greenway, first family outing
10th Haw ridge 2:30 – SK8 :30

20FOOT

2008-02-03T16:55:00.000-05:00

Lots of firsts this week,

Noah took his first steps
I towed Noah in his spank’n new bike trailer for the first time
Tara lost her bike off the roof rack on the interstate
I went to a skatepark and was twice the age of the next oldest kid there but still dusted off some mad skills I had tucked away somewhere
Jeff Murry was the first to attempt hucking the dam at Raccoon Mountain
And the legend of twenty Foot Thomas was revealed

This is a shot of me crossing the dam at Racoon Mountain, imagine riding down the side of this rock pile at 20mph. If its hard to visualise, ask Murry what its like.

Noah and I stop for a little snack mid ride. Check out Noah's sweet new trailer.

The legend of ”Twenty foot Thomas”

Ride log catch-up

2008-01-29T08:31:00.000-05:00

I have gotten behind in the ride log mainly because i havent been riding to much. Its time to start gearing back up though.

Dec 10th Greenway fix 2:30
Dec 14th Christmas shop by bike 4:30
Dec 20th Fixy ride 1:00
Dec 21st fixy ride 2:00
Dec. 22nd Norris 2:30 Was left for dead in the woods by everyone
Dec. 24th Fixy ride 1:30
Dec 29th Went paddling on the Tellico
Dec. 30th fixy ride 2:00
Dec. 31st Norris 2:3
198 days on a bike in 2007
Jan 5th Haw Ridge 2:30
Jan 8th Fixy ride 2:00
Jan 9th Fixy ride 2:00
Jan 12th Farragut Fixy ride 1:30
Jan 16th brief fixy ride :30
Jan 26th Racoon Mountain 3:30
Jan 27th Farragut Fix 2:00

Turner

2008-01-27T18:58:00.000-05:00

I recently mad a switch back to 26” wheels on the FS bike. I have to say it’s a very welcome change. I took the new ride down to Raccoon Mountain this weekend for a shakedown and was immensely pleased. The fit is perfect and the build choices seem to work together perfectly. It came in a little heavier than I had anticipated but the super solid feel of the bike on the trail is worth the added heft.

The new Turner 5.5Spot

Digg'n the Pink bits I picked up from John Magnusson

On this bike, the only times I missed the big wheels are the times they help compensate for poor skills. Steep climbing on the 29er required nothing but constant motoring whereas the 26” bike requires subtle weight shifts at times to keep everything hooking up just right. Similarly on the 29er you can really weight the front end hopping logs and stuff but the 26er needs a little more care as to where your COG is when planting the front tire. Rolling advantages are practically nil at this type of suspension travel. The high speed stability of the 29er is nice to loose; it’s a crutch that limits the maneuverability needed to really work the trail. The trails at Raccoon Mountain are pretty tight at times, lots of quick moves in rock gardens where a handful if not impossible on the 29er, these same super tight areas I hardly noticed on the new bike.

It sure is fun

All that said I’m still have no interest in 26” hardtails.

Shifthappens

2008-01-22T13:35:00.000-05:00

I saw this video at a luncheon today and thought it was interesting and would pass it on.

Fair and Balanced?!?!

2008-01-20T20:36:00.000-05:00

Watch this clip from Fox News’ coverage of the Nevada Caucus. Pay attention to the results at the bottom and the results as described at the top of the screen. I you get your new from main stream media, this is fine example of how reality is being twisted to achieve a goal by those in power.

Your country is being stolen from you. Educate yourself. Start by researching the presidential candidates, what their real positions are, what corporate boards they sit on, what their real voting and legislative records are. This information is easy to find on the internet with minimal effort. Most of the candidates are not at all what you are led to believe by television, radio, or newspapers.

BTW… this is the most watched and most discussed video on both Youtube and Google video this weekend.

If you care about your county at all you should also research the true issues our county faces not the “Gay Marriages” and other mindless “issues” you that are used as diversions. I suggest goggle searches of several topics including; North American Union, Amero, The Trilateral Commission, US Trade Deficit, US National Dept, and Fall of US Dollar. Look at news sources that are not tied to corporate media, find different viewpoints and formulate your own opinion. Do this enough and I guarantee the evening network news, CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC etc. will make you mad and feel duped.

Short update

2008-01-19T20:32:00.001-05:00

Sorry no updates in a long time, things have been super crazy around here lately.

There has been a little riding going on.

Most of its just screwing around

On fixys more than anything

Noah is doing well, his musical talent abounds.

Levi is hanging in there as well, getting little bit of attention when he can.

Columns or Rows, You Decide

2008-01-08T17:09:00.000-05:00

I have no intention of making this a political blog but, here is another video I ask people to watch and forward.

I promise to get back to bikes and Noah real soon.

Copenhagen

2007-12-27T11:08:00.000-05:00

Oh, how I want to visit Scandinavia. Just to fuel the fire I stumbled across: copenhagengirlsonbikes.blogspot Check it out and see regular folks (albeit, female and attractive) using bikes in their everyday lives.

World Clock

2007-12-11T17:01:00.000-05:00

Check this out.

They can’t all be great,

2007-12-10T09:20:00.000-05:00

I went to Pisgah this weekend. Saturday’s ride turned south fast when the group split up mistakenly within the first half hour. I spent more time sitting around in the woods wondering where everybody went then actually riding. When I did ride I was confronted by yet another I9 failure. A hard day of not ridding and breaking stuff was topped off by a disgusting BBQ diner. At least the campfire was huge. Sunday it started raining the minute we broke camp, I had no mood to put up with riding in the rain all day so I packed it back home and did a little greenway fixy riding in the afternoon from home. It takes bad trip to help you appreciate the good ones.
Ride Log:
5th Greenway Fix – 3:00
8th Pisgah – 2:00 (3.5 hours in the woods resulted in 2 hours of riding)
9th Neighborhood fix -1:00

Jog log
5th 2 miles
6th 2 miles
Marathon training has taken a nose dive lately.

Stuff

2007-12-06T11:41:00.001-05:00

I ask that everyone that visits this bog to please take 20 minutes of your time to watch the following video:

Click - Stuff

If you are willing, please forward a link for the video to others.

Lax on the posts

2007-12-05T15:06:00.000-05:00

I haven’t posted anything since before Thanksgiving. I guess not much has been going on and I can’t find my camera so no pictures lately. Thanksgiving was great, Noah got to spend some good time with my mother and everyone ate too much.
I got a little riding in last week. Jeff and I went to Pisgah and had a grand day hitting up some of the best easy climb for maximum downhill thrill routes I know. Jeff tested out his new Nomad which is one of the best looking bicycles I have ever seen. We went to the Hatchery, road up the gravel road to the top of Long Branch and then did the full Longbranch/Cat gap descent then jumped back in the car and drove to the base of Black Mountain and road North Slope> Claw Hammer>Maxwell>Black Mountain>Grassy Road>Sycamore. The weather was perfect and trail conditions could not have been better.

Its neerly oficial now, I am going back to 26" wheels. Well at least for a while and on a longish travel bike. More details to come.

The weather is supposed to be supper nice this weekend and Tara is going out of town with the boy so I will probably go camp and ride in Pisgah all weekend. If anyone is interested in meeting up, shoot me an email. (Briannicholson at charter dot net)
Ride log:
25th Neighborhood fixy ride
28th Greenway fixy extravaganza 2:00
30th commute to work 2:00
2nd – Pisgah 4:30

Jog log:
22nd - 2miles
23rd - 7miles – ouch
27th - 3 miles
28th – 2 miles
29th – 5 miles

This is a coaster for a shot glass

2007-11-20T20:57:00.000-05:00

Nice week, I did a little running and very little riding. I spent Saturday at the Ridge with Thomas and Eric, all of us on gears. We had a great ride spending the first hour and a half without riding along the lake any. It was an interior tour like none other. Saturday night was an engagement party for Terry Jeffers with a lot of Knoxvillian’s I would have never met otherwise.

Sunday was back to the ridge with Eric, Thomas the bithday boy, plus DJ and Jeff, this time all on SS. As always Thomas got a bunch of cool pictures and I’m ripping him off. Maybe Santa will help out with a camera that will fit in a pocket.

I borrowed Eric‘s Blur LT, and rode it around my neighborhood Sunday and I.C.King Monday. That is a fantastic bike. I’m almost certain the ElCapitan is on its way out. As a long time 29’er freak, I have to say big wheels don’t make as much sense as suspension is added into the eqution. The last two 26” bikes I have ridden have been significantly more fun than their 29” counterparts and I’m all about the “fun factor”.

I did a little running this week. One week left before the 18 week program begins.

Fez ?!?!?!?

Ride log
17th – Haw Ridge 2:30 One of the best ridge loops ever.
18th – Haw Ridge hangover ride 2:00 = 2:00 of hang’n in the parking lot
19th - I.C.King on the Blur 1:00

Jog Log
12th – 3 miles
13th – 2.5 miles
15th – 3 miles
16th – 2.5 miles

Farlow free weekend

2007-11-12T09:42:00.000-05:00

I opted out of the SWANK65 this year. I was in no mode or condition to pay $70 to push my bike up to Farlow gap. I hope Mr. Magnusson and the ZOO crew had a good day at it.
Sunday was a trip to Raccoon Mountain. We had a fun group of Thomas Gains, Eric Nelson, Ben Ramsbottom and I. I have been a little sick this week and definitely dragged the back of the group most of the day but still we did very little waiting around and moved together very well everyone in sight of each other all the time but never crowded. I am continuously amazed by Raccoon Mountain. It may be the most fun trail system in the south. I road several trails this time I had never seen before with rock and technical features that would challenge most anyone (I know I walked a few spots). We rode the outside loop clockwise whereas I had always ridden counterclockwise previously. Both directions are allot fun but clockwise gives you more long flowy downhills and tougher climbs. I’d say counterclockwise is a better SS direction although I’m not sure I want to take the SS to the Coon again the FS bike is too much fun in the tech sections. Check out Harvest the Ride for more pictures from the day.

Thomas weaving through some boulders (My ElCapitain's wheelbase made it extra challanging to make these moves):

Thomas on another roller:

I did my first bike commute this week since day light savings ended. It dark most of the way home luckily I have good lights and reflective clothing. I tried a new route home this week that used more greenway but the road sections had a ton more traffic and I don’t think I will go that way again, its fun to have options though.
Noah had a doctor’s visit this week, 27 ¼” and 17.5lbs. of growing boy. He doesn’t go back to the doctor for a year which seems like kind of a milestone. He is eating allot of solid food now, not 50% but getting close. He seems really fascinated with several things of late that have us on our toes he does everything possible to get into; plants, Levi’s water bowl, the staircase, and anything with buttons (Computers, remote controls, stereo etc…

Ride log (Pretty pathetic this week):
9th- commute to work 2:00
10th -Neighborhood cruzing 1:30
11th -Raccoon Mountain 3:30
Jog log:
6th -2.5 mile
7th -5 mile

Fall back

2007-11-07T20:20:00.000-05:00

Last week before DST ends, I got a few after work rides in. I rode the Queen for the first time in a while, Its sort of fun but I was reminded why I never ride there. Friday I got to ride with Chris Young, Chris is an old paddling friend (his wife set Tara and I up on our first date) that has taken up mountain biking and is getting pretty serious about it. I had a crappy ride, I trashed both wheels on the Blacksheep and took a good fall, but it was fun nonetheless. Saturday Tara, Noah and I went to the UT football game. It was a company outing (thanks BMa) with a shrimp boil/tailgate party before the game. We all had a hoot even if we didn’t watch much of the game.

I went to Pisgah Sunday for a Hatchery tour. We had a divers group, Jay and Jen Smelser, Mark Webb, Terry Jeffers, Brian Hann, Ben Ramsbottom and I, we also hooked up mid ride with some friends of Jay’s. We road Caney, Daniel Ridge, Butter Gap, and Cat Gap with a bunch of fire road in-between. It was a beautiful day and a great time. The descent down Butter was one of my favorite ever, keeping Terry and Ben in sight isn’t easy when the trail points down.

Group:

Jay:

Jen:

Mark, enjoying those gravel road climbs:

Terry:

Brian:

Ben was so fast his image could not be captured.

Noah is doing great he is likely to be walking any second. I spent hours trying to figure out how to rotate this video and never could so those of you with laptops, rotate you machine, those with desktops tilt you head:

I have a new winter training plan up my sleeve that’s going to occupy my interest until March 30th.

Ride log:
30th IC King 1:30
1st Haw Ridge – 2:00
2nd Haw Ridge – 2:00
4th Pisgah – 4:30

Lantern Carving

2007-10-29T19:09:00.000-05:00

Noah and I carved up some Jack-o’-lanterns tonight. Noah cried when I wouldn’t let him play in the pumpkin guts any more.

We got a new living room rug today, Levi matches it nicely.

Casual Cycling Week

2007-10-28T19:51:00.000-05:00

This was a great week of chilling out. The week started off with some needed rain that soaked the trails for the Wednesday ride. We rallied a huge greenway effort of ten riders instead of roasting weenies, for about 40 miles of greenway racing in the dark on wet leaf strewn trails. With a stop by Preservation Pub mid ride, we had about as much fun a late-night urban cycling can allow.

Saturday was the annual Hill of Truth 12 Hour Race.

I decided not to race this year, my fitness is low and I just didn’t feel it. Jeff and I course marshaled the first shift of the day. We loaded the bob trailer with chairs and beer and I hauled it out to the middle of the woods for a day of heckling.
A few pictures from the race:
Dorothy had a great outfit, beautiful bike and always a smile.

This bunny was on the first lap, he had to stop straiten his ears and ask us wich way the course went right after this shot.

We were at the bottom of a long hill. It was intresting to see the huge difference in downhill speed/skill of different riders. Based on my foggy observations DJ was the fastest descender of the day followed closely by Ben Ramsbottom

Chris Ivory was hands down the fastes full rigid rider we saw all day. That new Dekerf is a sweet ride.

Jen Smelser was riding strong all day. She finished 3rd in the women’s solo competition, that’s pretty impressive for someone who’s only been riding a couple of years.

One of the sweetest moves of the day was Allen’s pass on the inside of this guy. Allen had the fastes line through this corner of anyone in the race. That right 29er cutting the inside of the corner “detuning “ the trail.

Partying in the pits was top notch. Kegs, grills, and good times all around.

Sunday was a Specialized demo day at the ridge. I road a carbon Enduro for about an hour and a half. It was an amazing bike (at $5400 it ought to be). It was a fantastic bike with the most controlled suspension I have ever ridden. If I were in the market for an FS bike I would look hard at the aluminum version of this bike. Afterward I went back out in the woods for a ride on the Wily with Chuck Grant. It was a funy pair of bikes to ride on the same day, they weigh about the same thing except one has 6” of travel and small wheels and the other is fully rigid and rolls on big hoops. I have to say for riding casual around the ridge the rigid bike is more fun to me.

Tara and Noah are doing well. Tara had some old friends stop by on their way through town this weekend. Noah is eating sweet potato, peas, carrots, rice, and bananas. He’s going to give avocado a try this week.

Ride Log:
24th Greenway ride after 2 solid days of rain. 3:00
26th Missed the bus in the morning, the road around doing errands and visiting friends in the afternoon 1:00
27th Pulled a trailer full of chairs and beer around the ridge “Marshaling” the race. 1:00
28th Specialized Demo at the Ridge 3:00

Great new blog to check out

2007-10-24T10:50:00.000-05:00

I stumbled across a great new blog today. Mike Curiak is one of my cycling heroes as well as one of the toughest cyclists ever to mount a bike has just started a new blog. Mike has been instrumental in the development of 29” bikes and pushing ultra endurance racing to a limit not even imagined a few years ago. He travels all over, taking beautiful pictures of places most of us will never see. Check out his blog with its beautiful photography of some fantastic riding locations.
If you’re in the need of some new hoops follow the links on Mike’s blog to his business. He is one of the top MTB wheel builders in the business.

Home Alone

2007-10-22T08:28:00.001-05:00

I somehow made it through a week of Tara and Noah out of town without wrecking the house or going hungry. They got back late Friday night, sounds like Noah was a great traveler. He got to visit with his grandmother all week and made 2 trips to see his great grandfather too.
I did allot of trail work at the ridge this week. There was a fire out on West Shore Wednesday, Friday night I went in the woods for a ride and to survey the damage. Much like the spring fire, more damage was done to the park driving heavy equipment around to make fire breaks than the actual fire caused. I wound up spending part of my evening pulling downed trees out of the trail, knocking down loose dirt clumps in the trail, laying dead wood in areas to influence rides into the trail bed whether or not it was recognizable, and rock armoring an area where the fire break crossed the trail in a fall line manor.
Saturday and Sunday I did bridge repairs to two dilapidate structures in the park, one on Red Shore and one on Pond Trail. The Red Shore bridge is part of the race course at next week’s HOT 12HR race and though it hasn’t been an issue lately with the drought,all the rain we are supposed to get this week coupled with a few hundred people riding laps through that bog would have been a problem. The bridge on Pond Trail was a little dinky bridge in the bottom of a gully I just replaced the deck on the existing cedar structure. It’s narrower than the old bridge but not as sketchy .
Next week is the annual Haw Ridge 12 hour race it’s a big local party as much as anything and sort of marks the end of the summer riding season. I’m about tired of hanging around the park and look forward to something different for awhile after this weekend. I see some afterwork fixy rides in my future and may even hit up the IC Queen a little. I haven’t ridden Norris in months and have a huge desire to get over there soon.
No pictures this week, look for a mid week video update on Noah though.

Ride log
15th Haw Ridge 3:00
17th West Knox fixy ride 1:00
18th short neighborhood ride :30
19th Haw Ridge 2:00 ride :30 trail work
20th Haw Ridge 1:00 ride 3:00 trail work
21st Haw ridge 2:30 ride 2:00 trail work

Pisgah

2007-10-15T14:48:00.000-05:00

We went to Pisgah for the weekend. It was my first time over there since PMBAR. We met up with some old friends and made some new ones. It’s amazing how so many folks from such different “walks of life” can come together in the woods and throw down such a big time together. Noah had a ton‘o’fun making people smile, staring at the fire, and trying to eat gravel.

Saturday started out cold, so Tara and I went into town to warm up the child and get some breakfast. Upon our return a big ride was about to start. I made hast, got my act together, and jumped in on the ride not knowing where I was headed. With this type of group, heading into the woods without the details can get you in trouble quick. I quizzed a few folks on the route as we headed up Clawhammer and got several different stories. Turned out to be a great ride we went over Black Mountain to Turkey Pen and down to Mills River. At this point Zack, Jody, Jonathan, Dave, and I decided to head up Mills River instead of the intended Squirrel Gap Route. I don’t think any of us had ever ridden all the way up Mills River before. We knew there were a ton of stream crossings but it was warm and the water was aslow as it was ever going to get. Mills River was really cool, super rocky and technical in sections with about a million logs to hop along the way. I lost count on stream crossings early on but its more than ten and probably less than twenty, nothing over the knee as long as it’s the middle of a drought. I can see that Mills River would ruin your day if it was cold, wet, or you were tired.

Sunday was a slow start for most, Tara got to go up and ride the fun part of Black Mountain for the first time. She had a hoot even if it was just a little riding for the weekend. I did a similar loop but added some on the end, Clawhammer>Maxwell>Black>?>Grassy Road>Sycamore>roads back to White Pine. I had never ridden Sycamore before (thanks for the recommendation Jonathan), for some reason I thought it was a sanitized “easy” trail. I was terribly wrong on that one. Tara and I were the last to leave the campground I guess we didn’t want to leave until all possible fun had been

I never got the camera out all weekend, so no photos of my own, I did plagiarize a couple though from Beefcake and Brad (thanks).

Several good shots are available at:
Biking in a Zen Manner
Beefcake's
Eric's Ride Log
Bad Idea Racing
Brado1 + his Slideshow of the weekend

Pisgah is one of my favorite places to ride but I’m, going to have to get that North Carolina crew to come over the hills and give some Tennessee singletrack a try.
Tara is off to Philadelphia for the week, Noah is going with her and Candie is flying up from Florida to keep Noah while Tara works. It should be a very big adventure for all of them. If the rain holds off maybe I will get to ride allot this week.

Ride log:
8th Rode to SORBA Meeting 1:00
10th Haw Ridge 2:00
11th Haw Ridge 1:30
13th Pisgah 6:00
14th Pisgah 2:00

Short Week

2007-10-11T07:11:00.000-05:00

I’m out tomorrow morning family in tow, headed to an undisclosed location in the forest, possibly with some bikes. If I run into anyone out there it will be pure coincidence.

I’ll leave you with a trailer for a new Fixy movie “MASH SF”

Digital Start Over

2007-10-07T20:03:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while but I had major computer failure that resulted in a hard drive reformat. I luckily was able to salvage all my pictures and Itunes.

Tara, Noah, Levi, and I went camping at Tanasi last weekend. It was great weather, cool enough for a campfire. We both got plenty of riding in. Noah had lots of fun going hiking and playing in the woods.

Noah recently got his first bike helmet. We have borrowed Jeff’s kid trailer and taken Noah for some short rides in the neighborhood. He’s still to young for the trailer really, but a ride down the street too the baby swing seams to be ok.

This weekend was filled with Haw Ridge activities. Saturday a group of folks went in the woods to do some trail repair for the upcoming 12 hour race. I had been planning on replacing a decrepit bridge in the park and took advantage of the group effort to help haul material into the woods. I wish I would have taken some before shots this new bridge is a huge improvement over the old one. I think it ads flow to this stretch of trail.

Allen helped me out allot It would have been an all day job without him. Wally was riding by and we peer pressured him into some hammer duty.

Sunday was a Trek Fisher demo day put on by CBC. The turnout was unbelievable and may be the largest demo Trek has ever put on. Tara got to ride a new Paragon she came home talking about new bikes.

Ride log:
25th Neigborhood tour 1:30
26th Haw Ridge 1:30
28th Haw Ridge 1:30
29th Tannasi 3:30
30th Tannasi 3:00
2nd – Neighborhood ride :30
3rd Haw Ridge- smallest weenie ride of the year, light are now required for after work rides. 2:00
4th Commute to work thunderstorm on the way home
6th Haw Ridge/Bridge building 3:30/ride 1:30
7th Haw ridge 3:30

Bathtub

2007-09-26T20:29:00.000-05:00

Gauley

2007-09-25T20:47:00.000-05:00

Jeff and I went to West Virginia to contemplate life.

The one thing we decided is life sure is good in West Virginia.

I’ll have Noah out there one day.

I’ve been off the bike allot lately and it’s done wonders for outlook on riding. Sometimes I get too wrapped up in the peripherals of the sport and loose touch with the pleasure of just spinning peddles and feeling the breeze. One of the reasons I have trouble enjoying kayaking any more is the sport became too much about the details and not as much about the overall experience. Along those lines, I decided recently I’m ditching the Ipod while riding no matter how loud my bottom bracket gets. I think the Ipod brings a layer to the experience that disrupts the purity of why I’m on a bike in the first place.

Ride Log:
18th Haw Ridge 2:00
19th Haw Ridge 2:00
The rest of the week was spent on the river !

Down and Out

2007-09-17T19:35:00.000-05:00

I have been sick to some degree for about a month now, I kept starting to feel better, and then relapse within a day or two. I finally broke down and went to the doctor last Thursday, started some antibiotics and have been pulling myself together again. Hopefully I’m kinking it for good this time. This past weekend I did some leisurely riding, Saturday involved a 30 mile’ish greenway ride that took about 4 hours (stopped for lunch and beer along the way) and a trip to Raccoon Mountain. I hope to get back in the saddle for some decent rides soon. The blacksheep is giving me allot of issues right now. I got a new EBB for it after the crack but its slipping really badly plus my back wheel is breaking spokes every other ride. I checked the tension on the back wheel a week or so ago and it was ok I think it’s just dying and a new rim and spokes are in my near future I hope to try one of those Stan’s rims next.

Monte's new Badger finally arrived after over a year log wait/ordeal. Monte, Allen, and I went out on his inaugural ride of the new bike, the lime green looks sweet threading the trees.

Noah is getting pretty wiggly these days, he’s constantly squirming from one place to the next by any means possible. The weather was so nice this weekend we did a little outdoor tricycling.

Ride log:

September 3rd - Labor Day – Tandem Ride with Tara 1:30
4th - Fixy ride around town 1:00
5th - Haw Ridge 2:00
6th – Forks of the River Tour with Brian Hann 1:30
8th – Haw Ridge with the Badger boys
9th – Ocoee 2:00
15th – Extended Greenway super casual lunch outing with some pallet jumping behind the abandoned grocery store 2:30
16th – Raccoon Mountain, Love that place!!!

Labor Day

2007-09-03T17:42:00.000-05:00

Noah had a baby sitter this morning so Tara and I got to do something we had nearly forgotten, ride together. We do a pretty good job of getting out on the bike individually, but one of us is always staying home to watch the child. We didn’t have a ton of time so it was pavement from the house and what better way to enjoy a ride together but to bust out the tandem.

Levi knows he doesn’t get to go with skinny tires.

All smiles heading down some desolate country roads.

Noah had his first solid food today. It was some brown rice run through the blender. We shoved it in his mouth but his expression tells the rest of the story.

Cracked Up

2007-09-02T19:41:00.000-05:00

I’m in one of those phases where every time I ride my bike I break something. Last week was the cracked EBB yesterday was a flat tire and a chain snapped in two places and today I heard a loud pop followed by horrendous creeking that reveled a broken stem.

That’s the lower bolt holes of a Thomson elite face plate.

So far for the year in broken parts that’s; a Moots seatpost, Jeff Jones handlebar, Bushnell EBB, Crank Brothers Candy peddle, a Mavic Reflex rim, three I9 spokes and a couple of SS spokes, 3 torn tires, and countless tubes.

Carolann has been here this weekend for the Chandler/Tucker wedding. It was a traditional Catholic ceremony followed by a reception at a traditional civil war mansion, that struck me as an odd dichotomy. Noah got to come to the wedding, he got all dressed up in his fanciest duds given to him by my moms friend Ann.

Ride log
Aug. 31st – Haw Ridge, road the Captain, stuck to some remote trails and had as many as 3 spiders hanging off my visor at any time. 3:00
Sept. 1st – Haw Ridge, road the Wily had a blast, the Wily is the shortest wheelbased Mountain Bike I own, I forget how maneuverable it feels. 2:00
Sept 2nd – Haw Ridge, road the Wily again only made it a short distance before the stem failure. :30

Black Bear Rampaged

2007-08-30T18:25:00.000-05:00

I road the Black bear rampage last weekend. It was a ~40 mile race at the ocoee. I had been sick the entire preceding week with a stomach bug so I wasn’t hoping for much but I didn’t expect major equipment failure. The EBB on the Blacksheep cracked, the BB fell out and the bike was useless. I had to walk a little over a mile of trail to get to a sag stop and radio for a ride back to the start.

I hung out at a trail junction waiting on Jeff to catch up and he bailed on the race at that point, it had been raining since the start, visibility and traction stunk and the racing wasn’t much fun at that point. We made quick work of putting bikes away and busted out on the river for the rest of the afternoon.

I’m sick again this week this time with a cold. I feel like I haven’t been 100% healthy in about 3 months.

Noah got his first bike this week.

Ride log:
22nd Haw Ridge left the lot with a group of about 20 riders at full race pace, it was nearly 100 degrees and the pack thinned quickly as soon as the hard climbing started I overheated and dropped off, the pack was down to about 5 at that point. 2:00
25th Fixy ride, new tape on the bars, peddles and sandals fun ride, 1:30
26th Black Bear Rampage ~2:00
27th Haw ridge, Charles was in town so I went out to show him around the trails.

Long time - No post

2007-08-20T19:44:00.000-05:00

No update in a long time, things have been super crazy lately and I just haven’t had the time to mess with the blog. Riding has been pretty light the last few weeks, I just cant tolerate the heat. I often wonder if global warming will force me to move north in the future. I absolutely love Wisconsin in the summer time if the winter would get a bit milder….Anyway, I am officially sick of summer and cant wait for some cool autumn wind to blow our way.

I recently trashed the rear wheel on the commuter bike. The wheels on that bike where ~14 year old road wheels built with super light spokes and I knew they wouldn’t last much longer. I built up a new set of wheels to replace them with, they turned out the swankest $112 wheelset I have ever seen. I had the front hub and most the spokes, and all the nipples laying around the shop, I scored an incredible deal on the rear hub, and I got some solid yet cheep rims to finish the package. I got some good help from the get-go on the build.
This was my fourth set of wheels to build this year and my best yet they went together true, round, with perfectly even tension without any cussing at all.

Front: Machine Tech front hub 3x 32 W/14,15’s and brass nips to a Delgado Cross.
Rear: 105 rear hub 3x36 W/sg14’s and brass nips to a Delgado Cross.

Tara and I went to visit her brother, John, his wife, Amanda, and their children Aubrey, Cecilia, Adelle, and Francis. They recently moved from urban DC life to super rural Ohio. From their house its soybeans and corn as far as the eye can see. It was a good trip I unfortunately forgot to take the camera with us.

This past week Noah got a stomach bug, his first illness ever. Within 12 hours Tara and I both had it too. All three of us were sick as could be for the better part of a week. It was tough sorting out who was taking care of whom in the whole ordeal. It was the sickest I have been in years and I have never seen Tara that Ill before. Hopefully family wide plagues wont visit us again any time soon.

Ok now with the tons of Noah pics for all the family and friends that need a fix.
Sprinkler fun:

Noah cant wait to go Shredding:

Crinkling leaves is his favorite game:

Gotta love that smile:

Next weekend is a mountain bike “race” I signed up for a few weeks ago at the Ocoee. I plan to take it super chill and fight for the “Had the most fun" prize. Lots of Knoxville riders that never go to events at all, have signed up so it should be interesting. I have ridden those trails so much I know every rock, root, and soft corner of the entire 40 miles of singletrack hopfully my skill and familiarity will help make up for my current fitness. I started the year off planning to do the Shenandoah 100 again this year, Tara said there was no way I would have time to prepare and I didn’t believe at the time, I should have listened to her. Noah takes up so much of my time now but I love every minite of it.

Ride log;
August 1st: Haw Ridge 2:00
2nd: Commute to work 1:30
4th: Tannasi with Jeff 3:30 followed by a full river trip, both upper and lower sections of the Ocoee 7:00 t
5th: Haw Ridge 2:30
7th: Road Ride 2:00
8th: Haw Ridge 2:00 Road the Captain and had an interesting ride. I ripped the rear derailleur of the bike somehow. I had a spare hanger with me so I switched it out. The lower cage of the detailer was pretty tweaked but I took it apart and striated it fairly well. Put it all back together and it shifted as good as it ever has. It was kind of neat to repair such a mangled mess back to perfect working order in the woods.
13th: Road Ride W/ Jeff 3:00
14th Greenway/urban, ride I bailed just after the start :30
19th: Infamous West Knox, MTN Biker Road Ride 2:30
20th: Haw Ridge 1:30 hot but fun
***lots of running errands on the commuter bike never make the log but some of my favorite times on the bike these days involve rides around town with shopping bags hanging off my brake hoods half the time.

Update coming

2007-08-06T21:39:00.001-05:00

I’ve been super busy lately and hadn’t had time to write anything and then the power went out tonight and so updates are once again delayed. Trust me though I’ve been out playing

And Noah is as cute as ever.

Recovery/Regrouping Week

2007-07-29T20:49:00.000-05:00

After last weekend’s miserable performance and my general displeasure for riding lately I took most of the week off the bike. I did spend some time researching some new routes not far from home both on and off road. I have several cyclocross adventure routes picked out and plan to start doing some major fire road exploring in the Cherokee National Forest.
I have heard about some MTB trails not far from Knoxville that nobody seems to ride. I picked up a map of that area and have done some research, I’m interested to see why nobody rides there, its got tons of elevation change and that may indicate its just tougher riding than many people are interested in. I plan a recon mission in the next week or two and will report the findings.
Lastly I have been mapping out new road routes from my home. Theirs some pretty desolate riding not far from my home but you have to put in some mileage to get into it. I went out today to try out some new roads, traveling out to Kingston Tennessee and back. I went out hugging the edge of the Tennessee river and had intended to stay near the banks of the Clinch on my way back. The mileage started getting a little out of hand so the return route was a little further south than I had intended. Still I hit some really nice roads in the ride and only hade a couple of wrong turns. Turned out to be an 80+ mile ride.

Ride Log

Friday – commute to work 1:30 trashed my rear wheel on the way home hopping dirt mounds along the greenway. Those wheels had never once been trued in ~13 years of use. The nipples are frozen to the spokes and they are now untrueable.
Sunday – Road ride from home 80.5 miles @ 16.25 mph all solo (no drafting) with stops along the way (I checked the map a million times) it was about a 6:00 ride.

Who is the Hippest Hipster?

2007-07-28T22:13:00.000-05:00

Tarik posted some new links on Moscaline. One of witch may be my new favorite blog. If you’re a long-time cyclist and can see things for what they are you will absolutely love Bike Snob NYC. If you just got a new set of lime green deep V’s and spent the weekend doing skids about town on your top tube protected, NJS track bike sporting capris or star tattoos, you may want to skip it because it may offend everything you are trying to stand for.

I can’t explain this except it sure made me laugh.

Have a Good Weekend

2007-07-27T07:29:00.001-05:00

Bicycle Samba

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ORAMM

2007-07-23T21:22:00.000-05:00

Quite possibly my worst day on a bike since,…..well since ORAMM last year. At least last year I had an injury to use as an excuse. Everything started out great, I worked my way through the field with Shawn picking of riders left and right on the opening pavement and the beginning of the first gravel road climb. Then all of a sudden my rear shifter would not budge and I started freaking out. I stood on the side of the road about 5 minutes screwing with my non-cooperating shifter until mechanic extraordinaire John Magnusson rolled up on me. One touch of his magic fingers and all of a sudden the shifter worked perfectly and continued to work all day. I hung with John on the silly push up the side of a mountain that got added to the course this year all the way to the top of Kitsuma. He was a little more aggressive at passing than I was going down Kitsuma so I didn’t see him again until the start up to Star Gap. I was still feeling good but had lost some time to my mechanical.

Somewhere along the grassy road of death I think I realized I wasn’t drinking anything and I wasn’t feeling very strong on the steeper climbs. By ¾ of the way up Curtis Creek my calves were feeling twitchy so I pulled over to sit down a while. John and Jeff caught me there and we all sat and had a snack. John was ill and out of water so I gave him half of what I had left in my pack. We mounted back up and I was feeling allot better. We made it to the top and I went to fill up my bottles and pack but to my disbelief the rest stop was out of water! I couldn’t believe it, the most important rest stop in the whole event and they had nothing to drink but Red Bull and Coke. No problem the volunteers said theirs water 7 miles up the road on the Blue Ridge Parkway. So seven miles with no water already dehydrated with a steady stream of Harleys passing me, I finally got some water.

I made my way up onto heartbreak and I thought I’d be able to drink and recover some on the way down. I started getting into the descent passing tons of other riders until I came up on someone pushing their bike over some off-camber roots and I had to lock it up hard to avoid running them over. As I got on the brakes and off the back of the saddle tensing for impact, I went into a full body cramp. I was so balled up I couldn’t even rotate my leg to unclip from the peddle, all I could do was just crash the bike into the rhododendron and lay there in a ball of tensed muscle and aluminum bike on the ground. That’s pretty much where my day officially ended. I sat on the side of the trail until I could straighten out my legs. When I finally got back on the bike I was cramping every other peddle stroke. My nerves were shot and It was hard to focus on getting the big bike around the downhill switchbacks. I went OTB at one switchback knocking the wind out of myself. I pretty much decided then I had had plenty and there was no way I was going to climb that gravel road again for the pleasure of pushing my bike up Kitsuma one last time. So I rolled back to town and laid on the ground until it was time to go home.

A few pictures Tara snapped at the start Harpers Crew first shot

Harpers Crew Second shot

Justin from Team Yazoo in Nashville rocking the Surly Cross Check singlespeed with bar mounted stero system and bad ass jersey

I doubt I will ride ORAMM again, it’s a fairly expensive day once you figure hotel and entry fee, and its nearly all road with just a little single-track thrown in here and there and most of the single track is either too crowded or I’m too wiped to enjoy it even on a good day. The post ride meal sucks and the rest stops don’t even have water, plus they didn’t give me a t-shirt.

Thanks to Tara and Noah for putting up with me all weekend.

Noah recently got a few “big” toys. First he got a chair that helps him sit up on his own

He also got a backpack to ride in

We tried to Get Noah his own sprinkler after he liked this one so much but they where already sold out for the summer

Noah fond his toes this week

He can hardly keep them out of his mouth

Candy and John stopped by to see us this week amid their move to Florida, they where towing their huge spider boat with them.

Ride Log:
Monday, Jeff and I road from bar to bar in West Knox, Im not sure if we road more miles than beer we drank but im calling it a neer even ratio 1:00
Friday, Levi and I spun around the Ridge, 1:00
Sunday, ORAMM 8:00+