Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Summer thoughts

As it snow/hails/rains buckets out side my window on this late April day, here are the bikey summer thoughts that are sustaining me:
  • Colville Nat'l Forest: I'm gonna rock that forest this summer. Rock it man! I'm going to dial in the river property set up and fill all gaps with Barstow hangs.

  • Quickie overnighters. For the itty-bitty gaps, I'm going after the S12O. We've identified a very good potential spot. It's only 13 miles away. This means that I can go on a whim, after I put Maddie to sleep. It also means we may have a great 1st-timer destination. 13 miles!! Anyone can do that.

  • Midnight Century. I'm pondering a tandem run on the course this year. We simply need better photos of this event. A good stoker would be able to push me up all the good hills AND get sweet photos (not of my ass of course).

  • Pump track building: Hopefully this phase will go quickly.

  • Pump track riding: I'm really looking forward to getting better at riding a mountain bike and I'm putting a lot of eggs (which represent skill building) in the pump track basket. (You know you have a bad metaphor if it requires parenthetical explanation.)

  • Early morning trail riding on the bluff. One of my favorite summer time happiness logs on the fire of radness is riding the Highdrive trails in shirtsleeves at 7 AM. Verily.

  • A few all day rides. This may be combined with the first bullet. There are a lot of great routes up to Barstow.

  • At least 3 proper S24O's.

  • At least one proper 2+ day bike camping event. Preferably in CDA forest. Preferably with Alex and co.
I'm curious -- what's sustaining you?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beret and baguette ride. A French ride into the countryside with wine, sans helmets.

Extra points if you ride a French bike.

Bryan B said...

The thought of trying a S24O is what is getting me though at this point.

That, and riding to the family place at Deer Lake. One way, and beer and the lake awaits at the end. Hmmmmmm.

If I get employed here soon, then I'm also thinking of getting some much fatter knobbies and changing my Cross Check to Monstercross Mode (TM).

I cannot WAIT for this rain to get done.

Hank Greer said...

Bikey:

A self-supported, camp-as-you-go 450+ mile ride up into Canada and back with my youngest brother.

Some trail riding to get ready for cyclocross.

Non-bikey:

Doing the Warrior Dash.

Hanging out back in the shade with the family and a bucket of beer.

Doing Let's Climb a Mountain.

Hanging out back in the shade with the family and a bucket of beer.

Doing the Wild Moose Chase on Mt Spokane.

Hanging out back in the shade with the family and a bucket of beer.

adventure! said...

What's sustaining me is the big cross-country tour! Woo hoo!

Now I just have to get through the next month before departure. This consists of:
-Tying up loose ends at my soon-to-be former house
-Planning this dang expedition!
-Packing up my dang house
-Last minute art deadlines

The thought of the awesomeness is getting me through. Plus the idea that the rain is gonna stop.

Ken Paulman said...

Having a proper kid-hauling bike, so I can take Elliot downtown or along the Mississippi River trails instead of just puttering around the neighborhood. It'll be nice to get some rides in this year that don't begin or end at the office.

Anonymous said...

what sustains me? you ask:
Well you can take the bike out of mother nature when she cries like this....but you CANNOT take the f'in bike attitude out of the biker!!
one day it will stop, the sun will rise and the heat will come with it, along with the dusty trails, broken streets and all the SUV smoggers!...and then I will pedal,pedal, and pedal some more and will every forget the April of 2011.

Spo-pedaler---anonymous

Anonymous said...

Campsite 13 miles away, let's see...oh yeah! The parking lot at the Valley Walmart Supercenter.

Great choice--you can get an economy size pack of Pringles at almost any hour.

Make sure to ask before hanging the hammock between the RV's though. Gramps doesn't sleep so well, and likes to hit the road early.