Douthat State Park

Man, I thought Big South Fork Was Big! Douthat really kicked my butt. I definitely underestimated this Epic! Granted it was 87 degrees (mini heatwave for April) and I attempted to follow the Mid Mountain Mama XXC race course, which does go outside the park. I can't remember the last time I used my granny gear, let alone so much. I was using it 40 minutes into my first climb (Stony Run) and quite a few times after that! I did use Stony Run for Threshold training and probably burned up too many matches, I got a 3rd out of 40 on Strava, so in a way it was worth it. I got almost 30 minutes of threshold in before I began to to sputter. It was the most so far this year and all in one chunk, not two or three intervals. I paid for it later though, boy did I pay! But the DH's were equally long and sometimes brutal and treacherous. I had to awkwardly negotiate more than a few tight switchbacks with steep consequences!

There were orange arrows on the ground, that I believe are for that race. It crosses itself and runs along the Middle Mountain ridge twice (best I can tell) I was toast well before this, so I dropped down Blue Suck Falls Trail. I rested there for a bit.
Tammy met me at the beach, with food and beachwear, so I could nap and refuel in the sun.

Check out the local IMBA club at http://www.roanokeimba.org/ 

They have a link to this map http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/documents/douthat.pdf (Became a 404) Try http://www.americasstateparks.org/park_maps/douthat-parkmap_trails.pdf
I got in touch with Carter Shumaker for the next day's ride, through their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/roanokeimba
More on that later...

Big South Fork NP Gears John Muir and Grand Loop in reverse

I was Feeling good this day, despite 12 hours of riding this past week. This ride makes 155 miles of dirt in a week. Sweet. No spectactular interval numbers, but a pretty good average power for the duration. Gears definitely provided more Pedaltunities going reverse on John Muir. I found some Tifosi glasses in one of the caves. They were probably too dark for the shadows, prompting there removal. I left them with the visitors center's lost and found. I hope the Karma will help me find the pair I misplaced. No sightseeing this time. I just wanted to feel the flow of the trails. I am glad we are splitting the trek to Douthat in two. Eight hours of driving the bus can be rough, even when I am well rested.

Big South Fork NP SS John Muir and Grand Loop in reverse

Saturday I was going to do the part of Collier Ridge I have been skipping.  After I realized it was one way I just did the whole loop, both up and down and just took the fire road up to the start of the West Bandy trail. This added 3 or 4 miles, so I just about had an endurance day, HA!. Like 36 plus is short. But after 72 miles in two days, almost 48 hours off the bike, the sun smiled on me as we drove the switchbacks to the overlook on the Eastern Rim. I dusted off the road bike and took the 10 and 15 minute hills that came out of the river valley. That was late Friday. So endurance pace felt just fine, Saturday morning! Single Speed today, saving gears for Sunday's ride, in case I am tired. I rode John Muir and the Grand Loop in reverse. Funny how it did not seem up hill to the north trail head, but it sure seemed more down hill on John Muir than the opposite direction. This was fine, but if I was looking for more Pedaltunities I would go the from the Grand Loop up. The trail flowed, in some ways better in this direction, but there were a couple more places that I had to dab or take a few steps off the bike. I spent some time at the overlooks. There are so many that you could really make a day of it if you hit them all.

Big South Fork on Single Speed

Oak Mountain Video

I am giving up on Picasa as a video editor and I could not make hide nor hare of the software that came with the Go Pro. Nick probably told me about Microsoft Movie Maker, but I forgot until I it came up my second Google search. My first came up with AVS from www.avs4you.com. But it is only free if you want their logo smack in the middle of the video. To small to read, but big enough to be anoying. Here is the first one form Movie Maker:

Big South Fork Kwik Stats

BIG! It's in the name and it describes the trails. BSF is the only IMBA Epic in a National Park. While there was some two way on a fire Road, all 37 miles were on dirt. I just happened to run into Jim Cross from Big South Fork Bike Club (http://www.bigsouthforkbike.org/) as he and a buddy where finishing up. I mentioned that I was happy that I finally got some climbing, more tech riding and natural trails in at Oak Mountain. After negotiating the numerous switchbacks in the motor home, with car in tow, just to get to camp, I expected a ton of climbing. Joe said that there was not that much climbing and nothing really technical. He definitely under sold it, to my delight! Even though very few of the hills broke the 3 minute mark (only important if you are looking for intervals), I still broke the 100 feet per mile! Right up there with Oak Mountain.
He also said it was natural or old Army Corps of Engineers and that was on the money. I seem to prefer more natural trails.
There is is plenty of tech, spread out over the trail system, just the way I like it. I think what others call tech I call stunts. Built drop offs, machine built jumps and skinnys are what I call stunts. A technical section can consist of log hops, rock gardens, roots, some smaller natural or massaged drops even.
There is a fair amount of gravel fire roads. I love single track, maybe it is because I have been riding for decades that I enjoy a good fire road as well. Now I would not want a steady diet of flat straight fire roads, BORING! The fire roads as BSF are anything but! Barely a hundred yards of straight or flat. These fire roads are so fast and twisty, it just feels like big single track. I raced a Toyota pickup home. the speed limit is 15 mph. The Toyota could climb that fast sometimes, but had to descend much slower. I would descend much faster, but climb slower.
There is a good steady of diet of cliff exposure on both the Grand Loop and the John Muir trails. Both are open to hiking. I saw neither. I did not even see any wild life, not even a squirrel! First time that has happened since we left NJ. There are so many over looks and geological features, I did not have time to stop and take pictures of them all.

Tannehill Kwik Stats 2

I took out my Single Speed on the Tannehill 12 hour race course and the Furnace Quarry trail. The rain was not so hard last night, and the trails held up well after yesterdays 12 hour race, some of it in light rain. I could not quite figure out the start the other day. But it became apparent after watching the race. That is correct I sat this one out. I have done one 12 hour race and it was not the the most fun I have had racing. I prefer two to 6 hour races, going from experience. I also weighed racing against, being wiped out and missing riding for a few days. I rode hard on Friday and had a great time at Oak Mountain. That left some sight seeing time Saturday with Tammy to check out the history that is just packed into this park! The rain was mild enough and there was a nice break, with some sun even, that made for a fun session working on my cornering in somewhat slippery conditions. I rode a berm up to high and smacked a tree pretty good. Even after all these years riding, I see that I can improve my cornering. Leaning into the corner early, keeping the center of my mass towards the center of the curve, knee in even. From a physics stand point, I thought that pointing the knee into the center of the curve took weight off the tire contact patch. As gravity trumps, the inertial forces, measured in G's, that pull you out of a corner, until about 60 mph on pavement on a road bike. But as the coefficient of friction is reduced in a greasy corner, it is easier for that inertia to overcome gravity and make you slide out. With more of your mass inside the corner, it kind of acts like a planet and your bike acts like a spacecraft being slungshot around it. And then if you still manage to slide out, allowing your body to move outwards, brings more weight to the contact patch, yes, but more importantly, I think, it acts like a weight shift, similar to a log hop, just in a different plane, reducing the force pulling your bike to the outside, as your mass, your body moves out and you keep your bike (and tires) tighter in the curve. I practiced this more and more as the lap progressed. I started late and was running out or light, which is good, cause I have a 6 hour drive in the RV pulling the car tomorrow. But I was tempted to get more practice in. Building on the carving I learned in the sand, leaves and pine needles of Alafia, Balm Boyette, Santos, Munson and the Lake Overstreet trails in Florida. I threw in a blast through the slightly wet rocks of on the Furnace Quarry trail, hoping for a little Strava glory!

Oak Mtn Kwik Stats 3

I had to get my Single Speed to Oak Mountain. Did some VO2 intervals up to the start of the lighting gravity trail. Then rode the main loop but did Bloodstone, Johnson Mtn and Foreplay instead of Jekyll and Hyde.

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Oak Mtn day 2 Kwik Stats

Came mainly to do a tune up Threshold interval on the Red fire road. But had to play on the pump track and try Lightning. Wanted to do Blood Rock but read the map wrong and got on the short cut to Jekyll and Hyde. John at Cahaba said to stay away from Lightning, admittedly after I told him I was not into drops. The qualifier at the beginning almost made me turn around too! I skipped the one big huck and had a blast.

Tannehill Ironworks Kwik Stats

The course is mostly marked. I just did not know where the start of Saturday's 12 hour race was. I rode a bunch of the course backwards. It is fun in both ways! The Furnace Quarry trail, while not in the race (I think), is a must ride, particularly if you miss the rocks of the NE!

Oak Mtn Kwik Stats

This one felt epic! Not on the the leaderboard for any of the segments. Lots of folks have ridden this park. 77th out of 398 on the long fire road climb was my best segment Edit Or not so kwik. We are not that far from civilization but not only is the camp site Wifi spotty, so is TV and cellphone reception. My posts and videos keep failing.

Local Rock Garden

Red Bug Kwik Stats

Did Lake Overstreet trails first, kinda twice and had a great time. LO may be underrated. Over two hours into the ride I was back to do Redbug. I had a better time once I figured out the flow went in descending marker order.

Munson Monday

My jersey is soaked and I am stoked HA. Here is the second part of the ride chasing Dan Percy around.

 

Tom Brown Kwik Stats

Got a couple good tours of the Tom Brown/Cadillac trail system in Tallahassee Florida. Thanks guys and gals
I was actually glad to have some moisture in the air. It has been dry a little to long. I never thought I would say that. I complained about it quit a bit in New Jersey!

Santos long ride kwik Shot

In The Beginning

I get asked a lot of questions.  Here is a brief history to let folks know where I am coming from.

I rode the Berryman trail near Potosi Missouri. It was one trail that made a 25-35 mile loop around the foot hills of the Ozarks in Mark Twain national forest. It was reminiscent of Tsali near Bryson North Carolina. I had raced Tsali once long ago, before I even dared dream of this Quest. Then the spark that rekindled my interest in my Quest, Super Storm Sandy caused a slow down at work, for me, and my wife Tammy, mostly was telecommuting, mostly, as she went on a work reduction plan due to health concerns. I will not be a Debbie Downer with the details, but we have had Bucket list  discussions, including her childhood dream of visiting every state, in a meaningful way, not just driving through!

So Sandy made it hard to telecommute and I was jonesing to ride more than a quarter mile with out having to move, cut out or crawl over blow downs! We mapped out 5 IMBA Epics all within a few hours of each other where North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee meet up. I manged to ride:
Dupont State Forest, near Brevard, North Carolina
Jake/Bull Mountain near Dahlonega, Georgia
Tanasi Trail near Ocoee, Tennessee

On our way back from Tennessee to North Carolina, it dawned on me that this is one of those "The time is right"-"Do it before it is too late" situations. Rewind 10 years and Tammy could not sit through the 2 hour 25 mile per hour switch back through mountains and many waterfalls. But watching cry tears of joy at each new majesty that nature presented us, made it very poignant for me. A couple years back, after she came out of remission, I told her that we could sell the house, cash everything in and drive an RV around the country. I meant it, but she still had an incessant need to work. No cold turkey for her. Now that she has been weened back a bit, I am making good on that promise. Tammy is still so concerned with my happiness. After all it was while on a trip to Minnesota for her daughters Birthday, with a stop at the Rock-n-Roll hall of fame in Cleveland Ohio on the way and a stop at Mark Twains home town on the way back, that Tammy asked me what I wanted to do. She thought we were doing too much "Just" for her. I insisted that it was fine, but she insisted back. That is when I remembered that old bike magazine with several IMBA epics that I saved all these years.

Every thing is on line now and we found the Berryman trail. So there it is in circular fashion, I do admit, that is just how I roll.

Alafia River State Park Run Down

Alafia River State Park is on the IMBA epic list.

ARSP is less than an hour from Tampa.
The riding here is the polar opposite of my usual stomping grounds in northwest New Jersey!
One of the trails is called Rock Garden, but the only rocks to be seen are gravel.
I thought the climbs at home were short compared to the mountains, but ARSP has super short steep climbs, left over from the phosphate mining in the area.

I have to give the local club SWAMP, a ton of credit for this and the Balm Boyette trails systems.

There is plenty of fast flow trails through the sand, pine and palm trees. Then progresses to the blue trails that start to have some more up and down as they generally follow the contours of the terrain, with more twists, hairpins and roots. The black diamond trials step it up a notch and take advantage of the ridges by twisting in, out up and straight down them. My favorite being Moonscape, with all the extra advanced sections.

The south east section of the River Loop, a green or easy trail, was closed, but I put together a fairly full loop, that hit all the blue and black trails,intermediate and advanced respectively, and most of the green.

If you are in the area you have to check out Balm/Boyette as well!

See the Strava file and TWO videos below:

San-Lee Video

I can't get over San-Lee! Donn has truly poured his heart and soul into this trail system.It is super well marked, with some of the gnarliest technical rock garden sections. Calling them rock gardens does not do them justice.The map is very well laid out and color coded. I foolishly thought I was going to be disappointed, but then I came upon sections such as, Bouldergeist, Gauntlet, Free Fall and Rocknest Monster. That is when that evil little grin emerged my face. The camera breaks the video into half hour chunks and even with my short attention span, the second chunk of 30 minute kept me interested enough to watch the whole thing raw. Then before it finishes off you hit Mega Jump. Don Said he remolded them until they flowed well on the ground or in the air. There are a couple in a row that I am sure could be doubled, I would need a long session to work up that nerve though.

Here is a long one that I did not know what to cut! I will get some more video up, it is a long process!

Alafia Kwiki stats

Sorry I scared mister turtle

Buzzard bay

Alafia River state park

Warm and humid. I will have to acclimate. Nice people and nice facilities at the trail head!

San-Lee

With Don the builder

San-Lee

Looks like it will be a beautiful day to ride

Where's Waldo

Some folks have wondered where we are going to be when. I made a tab called Itinerary, with a calendar in it. We do kind of make the trip up as we go, but I will try to keep it up date as much as possible.

My Kingdom for the Video Card I Left in the Motor home

Note to self. Make new check list, add Video card. The camera does not do much good when the video card is still in the PC. Oh well, it was another great ride at Lodi Farm, this time, with Rob Maple of FAMBE. He is a driving force for the local trails and has done a great job at Lodi Farm He was quick to say it could not have been done with out the help of many others. He rode up at Quantico with his Wife and friends and still joined me for a lap. I squeezed in two before dark.

Fredericksburg VA

The FAMBE club members are very hospitable. I mean, they don't know me from Adam and they let me join their Facebook group. I did a little research and saw that Fredericksburg had a few trail systems that looked promising:
Lodi Farm, of 12 of Lodi fame,
Ferry Farm,
The Quarry,

I posted to the group that I was looking for an intermediate to advanced ride.

Rob, then contacted Levi Thornton, who happened to be finishing up a 20 training week with a 6 hour ride that encompassed all three parks, connecting them with road. Levi said he averaged 15mph on the road sections, so I though I could fake that on the SS. Oh no I couldn't, and I think Levi was underestimating his on road average, Ha! This one time, when Levi would start out at 12mph, I am thinking that this was too easy, but wait there's more....the speed started to creep up, soon I am doing 265 Watts (L3 for me) Right before my elastic snapped I was drafting Levi at 18 point something miles per hour at 320ish Watts. I was on a 34/20 gear ratio. Just sayin'.

Levi is a great guy. When we were done with the parks and Levi figured out that I could not keep that pace on the SS, we got to chatting.  He has an amazing story.

Levi has only been mountain biking, coming up on two years. He is a computer programmer and had put on some weight from all the desk jockeying. He told me that he was skiing and saw that they had DH Mountain biking and thought that would be fun. He would spend eight hours at a time making runs. Then he took to cross country and, like the rest of us, he struggled at first. He would ride a SS 29er with a 32/14, I would still struggle with that. He got himself a 1 by 10 fully rigid carbon bike now, but still likes to lose the shifters every so often.

Levi is training to take on the nationals in PA this year, in Cat 2. When he told me that, I told him that 20 hours was a lot for a Cat 2. He proceeded to out climb me in the steep greasy hills of the Quarry.  I only made one or two things he did not, to the several that he made that I had to walk.  But he would wait for me. I tried to tell Levi to just wait at the intersections because I found I could make some of that climbing distance up in the twists and turns and down hills and the berms. But, being a good host, he did not want me to get lost. Like I said a nice guy.

We then took the roads over to Ferry Farm. That took us through Fredericksburg, cool town with a burgeoning bike path and share the road system. Bikes can take an entire lane if there are more that one travel lane.There are huge bike lane markers and the motorists really seem to take the bikers serious, well mostly (there was that one Mustang).

The hills at Ferry Farm were not quite as long and steep and the ground was less greasy, so I kept up a little better and Levi let me catch up on the DH and tech stuff. I was even able to put him through his paces in a few sections. But remember this was his last ride on a 20 hour week! Lots of fun twists and dips and roots.

Then some more road to Lodi Farm. Levi said that Lodi handles wet better than Ferry farm and far better than the Quarry. They have been holding a 12 hour race there for some years now. The race started out as a midnight to noon race to accommodate bike shop employees, but changed it to noon to midnight to attract more riders.

This place is AWESOME! Take a look at the Strava map, see that Squiggle way over on the right that looks like somebody tried to scribble something out, well zoom in and see how the trail turns back and forth inside itself. I managed to make a log that Levi cased and just let her rip. That is where my 20+ years of experience came in handy!

At 35 Levi has never played sports before, he was home schooled and he was physically active helping with his family's flooring business.

Little did he know, two years ago that I would be comparing him to the few other freaks of nature that I have had the pleasure (and the pain) to meet.

I guess he can handle that work load after all.

Levi, rest up and good luck at Monster Cross next week end and at the nationals.

Oh, after I wrote all this I went back to Strava and saw that Levi did a race simulation at the Quarry the day after our 5 hour ride and got a KOM to boot. Go Levi!

Videos are uploading.... Sloowly

https://www.strava.com/activities/41170586

Fredericksburg VA Snapshot

Here are the (not so)quick (slow internet)hard facts: