Ride Report: Silver Lake

On Sunday, a few of us rode one of the lesser known trails in the area; the Silver Lake Trail in Highland, Illinois- about 35 miles NE of downtown St. Louis.
The trail itself isn't very long. Only 4.5 miles out-and-back, but it includes a lot of fun little features along the way. It's tight and twisty, even more so than the SIUE trails, and there are many wooden bridges, including one that's a good 40 ft. in length, so there are plenty of chances to test your bike-handling skills. It follows the contours of Silver Lake, and then has around a half-mile loop section that puts you within earshot of I-70 before rejoining the main trail.
This probably isn't a trail you'd want to have as a frequent destination, mainly due to the lack of mileage, but if you're looking for a little change of scenery, on a fun trail in a nice setting, do a couple of laps here, head over to the nearby SIUE trails, and you can certainly have an entertaining day. One other thing to note is that while the trail is within Silver Lake park, for some reason, there's no swimming allowed in the lake.

Firecracker 2006

Fun and dirt were had by all. Greensfelder dished out the good times, rocks, and dust. There were a few casualties along the way. Retro Craig busted a spoke right off the bat and then busted his shifters later on. Flats were had, one by one, and then F'ed had the mechanical to beat all this warm summer day. He broke his 1x1. Damn! Thanks to Rob for putting this one together.

Tour de France Mapping Update

The TDF site now has an official link to the Google Earth file of the Tour route.
Now you can also track the race in progress directly in Google Earth, with a live link showing the situation of the race along the route. I'm not so sure how well this will work for tomorrow's Stage 7 Time Trial, but it sounds like fun, anyway. The link and how-to explanation can be found here.
Here's another site which allows you to track the position and vital statistics like heart rate, speed, stress and power of a few selected riders who are using special equipment on their bikes allowing this information to be transmitted. With accompanying blog explanation.

GORC does Whistler!

A small, select group of GORC members hit Whistler, BC Canada for the World Mountain Bike Conference, and some uber-technical riding last week. Here's some teaser pix, we'll get pictures, and maybe some movies onto the website very soon.

One of the early rides we did (Thursday evening) was "A River Runs Through It", this is a fairly well-known trail that features numerous stunt sections. It was a complete blast to ride. In fact you don't so much as ride these trails as you do "session" them. We'd often stop and ride sections of stunts over to take pictures or just to 'clean' them. Here's your's truly on one of the stunts.



Fast forward ahead a few days, and we hit the bike park. Kirb and I rented some monster bikes (Rocky Mountain RMX's 8-inches of travel!!) and tried to go big. Well, we didn't go as big as the bikes are capable of, but we did have some serious fun. Here's a shot of the GORC-Prez himself airing it out over a tabletop jump on "Crank-It Up".



Good times, no injuries. We'll get a new gallery section up soon.

Tour de France Time

Google Earth View of part of Stage 16, Wednesday, July 19th

Well, it's that time of the year again. Here are a few links to help get you ready for this year's Tour:
-If you have Google Earth installed on your computer, you can just click here to view the Tour route in 3D. (You'll probably have to rotate the globe around to France because the intitial view is still centered on the US. Funny.)
-I posted a link to TDF Blog last year. It has all kinds of interesting and unusual Tour-related items.
-ESPN's Cycling News Wire has photos published by the various wire services pretty much as soon as they're available to the public. Usually different than the ones found on cyclingnews.com or Velonews.

Chewie Does the Lumberjack 100

Lumberjack 100

The Lumberjack 100, a 100 mile MTB endurance race was held this past weekend up at the Big M Trail System near Manistee, Michigan.
A couple of our biking friends, Aaron "Chewie" Smith, and Nate Phelps have made the big time, not only finishing 57th and 58th out of 58 finishers, but getting their pictures on cyclingnews.com as well! Great job, especially considering that only 58 out of ~170 starters finished the race.
12 and 1/2 hours in the saddle in 90+ degree heat. Ouch. Oh yeah, Chewie did the whole thing on a fixed gear, and Nate rode a singlespeed.

St. Charles County Parks Mountain Bike Training Class

Eight participants showed up for the first St. Charles County Parks "Inroduction to Mountain Biking" ride. Four GORC elves showed up to help steer the participants around the park. SCC Parks employee Kent "trail shredder" James had a nice introductory level course laid out and everyone survived the the trek. All present seemed to have a pretty good time and I personally hear many saying "I'll be back to do this again next month".

The ride lasted for just over an hour and several folks went out for a few more miles after regrouping at the original start point.

I fully expect this ride to grow in size and when it does, there will be multiple groups going out covering varying skill levels. This is the perfect way to introduce that friend, relative, significant other, kid, stranger or coworker to mountain biking. Its also a great way to help someone who is familiar with riding to step up their skill level. We'll do our best to make sure anyone who shows up doesn't end up seeing something like this...

What:
GORC Mountain Bike Training Class

When:
2nd Wed. of each month, May 10 – Sept.13
6:00 PM–Dusk

Where:
June & July - Quail Ridge Park, Wentzville
August & September - Matson Hill Park, Defiance

Which Line Would You Take?

This is the spot on the trail at Big Bear where Rockboy broke his chain. The picture was taken looking against the flow of the trail. The line over the roots was the original trail, but proved to be a lot trickier than most riders were willing to chance, especially with the damp conditions. There were usually about 10-20 spectators here waiting for the carnage. Once the alternate line wore in, it wasn't quite as interesting.
So, which would you choose; the fast, straight shot over the roots with the risk of your front tire sliding and running you into one of the trees, or the safer, wider one which forced you to slow down?

Tilly the next generation

Ok, here she is. We got her from Gods Creatures. An anti-death adoption agency in SPFLD MO. She is approximately 12 weeks old now. Obnoxious! And wakes up at 5:30am leaping onto the bed and playing with your toes. She is the newest addition to the Adams's family and already pi$$ing off the Mandster. Anyway, she is helping fill the hole that Harriette made when she left us. RIP little Harriette and watch us down here going through the hell of kittenhood. Steph

Greensfelder Trail Elf

For those of you wondering who Kent, the Greensfelder Trail Elf is, here's a picture of him doing what he does best. Next time you see him, please thank him, a non-GORC member, for all the hard work he puts in at our workdays. Ok, well, maybe not hard work.
Don't worry if you see him wandering around in the woods talking to himself. That happens all the time. He's really ok.

Snap the flowers

Because sometimes it's worth stopping. Here's an article from MDC full of tips on taking pictures of wildflowers. I don't know when it was written but it seems a little dated -- there is no mention of digital, but photography is still photography, just quicker now. There's good info on lighting, improvised diffusers and reflectors, flash, composition, etc. If you're not comfortable controlling aperture and depth of field you might want to read up on that too. But past the basics, the real key seems to be having a good eye for photos, or just bring Frank with you like GORC in Colorado last year. Many of the modern small digital cameras have great macro focusing and some of them even have the controls to get really experimental. Then when you get back on the bikes you can use the same camera to shoot videos of your friends dropping off ledges. Or mount it to your handlebar for videos that would make you sick. This modern world...

Bridge to Nowhere

It made me sad to see this construction out on the Grotpeter Trail at Castlewood.
I thought about how many lunches the materials used for it might buy for workdays spent repairing and maintaining the deteriorating trails there.
It seems like it would be more useful to teach how to build sustainable trails, or reroute around problem areas, rather than attempting band-aid projects such as this.

Ride Report: Greensfelder

The DeClue reroute at Greensfelder is finished, so 7 of us decided to ride it on Sunday. We started at the Roundhouse parking lot and began by riding Dogwood counterclockwise. Dogwood is in great shape, even after taking a pounding during the Spring freeze-thaw cycle. The climb out of the valley back up to the Roundhouse has a few rough spots where it crosses drainages, but is entirely rideable. Next, the awesomely fun section of DeClue down to Allenton Rd.
Then it's up the steep, rocky grinder to the Radio Tower. Not much has changed with it. In order to enjoy all the fun stuff going clockwise on DeClue, there aren't many alternatives.
DeClue is in good shape aside from a few wet spots below the rock garden where post-holes have collected some water in the drainage.
Up, up and away, then the rollercoaster ride. Mountain biking doesn't get much better than this!
Regroup at the cut-off before beginning the next rocky section. So far, the Punisher is crash free!
Through, around, up and over the rocks until you get to the steep, rocky downhill section. Well, it's not there anymore. The trail continues straight, bypasses and cuts back across the old section in a S-shape before rejoining the existing DeClue section. Along the way are ledges, dips, alternate lines, off-camber screamer sections, and other assorted fun. Um, Randy, the trail turns left here.
You're only on the old trail for about 50 ft. and then there's a keyhole which directs you down and to the left--watch out for that ledge! Down, down, around. More ledges, rocks, turns, a bit of climbing, hoops embedded in trees, the "loading dock", and then back to Allenton Rd.
Then the hardest part is trying to decide which way to head next; back up the way you came, or hit the fun section across the road. Better do both!
We need to put a lot more wheels down on this trail. Don't forget the Off.

Illinois Riding in the Shawnee

When most people think about riding in Illinois, rocks are not usually the first thing that come to mind. Well, for those of you who aren't aware of it yet, there's plenty of rocky, technical riding in the Shawnee National Forest near Carbondale.
Our friends down at SMBA are working hard on some existing trails there that needed a little TLC. If you like Chubb and Greensfelder, with maybe a little of Matson Hill thrown in for good measure, then this is the place for you.
Pete and Gigi were down there recently and kindly submitted a few photos of their ride on the Cove Hollow Trail. Cove Hollow and the Cedar Lake Trail share a common trailhead, so you can get in a tough ride of up to 22 miles if you're so inclined.
There are other trails down there as well, so check out the website.

Greensfelder Workday Saturday 5/20

We're going to try and finish the re-route this weekend, but there are several somewhat complicated sections left to build, so we'll need help from all the experienced GORC trailbuilding experts we can get out there.
The map shows what's been done to this point, and what we hope to finish is shown in red.
If you haven't been out yet to see why some GORC members consider this to be one of the most fun, and exciting trails in the area, now's your chance.
Be aware that I-44 has some major construction going on around the 6 Flags exit, so you might want to consider an alternate route. Here are a few other alternatives:

You Were Wrong Cabinet Sanchez

This site features "poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines." The Cabinet Sanchez one apparently got things started. I know I've been getting some crazy ones lately.

SIUE Connector Trail

Here's a detail of the newly constructed connector trail between Trails 1 & 3 at SIUE. Previously, you went to the first intersection with the cross-country trail and followed it down to the bottom of the hill, made a left, then a right on the asphalt. Now, the connector branches off to the right just before the cross-country trail, and takes you around to a short section of asphalt which leads to New Poag Rd. and on to the trailhead of #3.

In search of the blue agave

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, the anniversary of the invention of the blender, here's a fourteen page article about tequila and mezcal. I figure it'll take an evening to read it for those inclined to learn more than they need to about the stuff. Happy 84th birthday to the magic spinning blade, and catch a cab home if you drive to the bar on Friday.

Bill Introduced to allow easier development of trails in MO State Parks

News from the MOBikeFed.
In case you missed State Rep. Mike Sutherland's talk at the MMBF, here are the details of a bill he introduced back in Feb. to make it easier for groups like GORC to build trails in Missouri State Parks:
Rep. Sutherland's amendment allows one organization to help across several (or all) Missouri parks and allows expands the scope of the allowed activities to include trail building.
In short, it allows organizations like GORC, EarthRiders, and IMBA to work with the Missouri Parks to build trails of all types.

Ozark Trail on the TeeVee

Not everybody gets the Ozark Trail Association's weekly email updates so I'll post this up here. John Roth of the OTA (and GORC, but he keeps that on the DL) just had a really big weekend with the Middle Fork / 200 mile grand opening celebration. Here's a great five-minute interview with him from last week on the KMOV-4 TV morning show. Click this link and then click Part 3. He even plugs mountain biking on the OT in it. Go OTA.

MTBr's spankin' the roadies!

It's been a good week for old MTBr's gone road racing.

First, Floyd Landis spanks'em good in the Tour of Georgia (not the "Tour de Georgia", as the promotors named it. That's lame) The second-to-last stage up Brasstown Bald was fantastic, with Danielson and Landis stalking each other up the hill. Danielson later admitted to making a potential "tactical error" by not attacking right from the start of the BB climb. Landis was able to cover his every move on the way up. Landis used to race for the GT mtb squad.



Yesterday, Cadel Evans showed'em his backside in the final ITT to win Romandie. Cadel is a former MTB world champ with Cannondale.



Keep'em comin' boyz! The Giro starts this weekend.

The coolest bike ever?

From Antbikemike.com, comes the Major Taylor:




Oh yeah, as pictured, it's $2600. But can you put a price on something with so much retro-cool that it drips off the frame. Antbike is the shizzle!

SIUE Workday- Saturday, April 29 + Other Happenings

We'll be cutting a short connector trail between the 1st and 3rd sections of trail out there, and doing some maintenance leftover from the construction of the 3rd section last fall. You might even learn the (im)proper way to carry tools. The fun starts at 8:45 am.

SMBA is also having a workday on Sunday, April 30 at the Cove Hollow Trail near Carbondale, IL.

This weekend is also the official dedication of the 200+ miles of continuous Ozark Trail. There's going to be bbq, music, hiking, and a shuttle for mountain bikers to ride North Trace. Details on the festivities can be found here.

Self Chilling Beer Can

Now you can go for a 3 hour ride on a hot summer day, reach in your camelback, grab a can of Miller, and enjoy a cold beer on the trail. Check it out!

Coming soon to a trail near you?

Yes, folks. Segway is now making and selling an off-road model, the Segway XT Cross Terrain Transporter.

From the website:

The wider track increases stability on uneven ground, and the Segway XT happily navigates a variety of surfaces including sand, grass, gravel, dirt and pavement. Depending on local regulations, it may be possible to use the Segway XT on multi-use pathways but it is not intended for use on sidewalks or pedestrian walkways.

I wonder how it will go over at Segway Polo games.

Then they've got the Concept Centaur, not for sale. It's like a mini electric Segway ATV that can switch from two to four wheels on the fly, i.e. ride a wheelie for you, in case doing that on your couch was too hard. I first saw this in one my my freebie electronics magazines but now it's on the Segway website.



I'm offering a six-pack to the first person to provide me a picture of someone navigating the steps at Chubb or the slab on donkey kong with either of these. 30-second photoshops don't count.

Thank goodness these things cost so much and we have hard trails. Hopefully that's enough to keep them on the golf course and nowhere else. I don't think the sky is falling yet. To be fair, I'd still play on either of them if given the chance.

Links:
Segway XT Cross Terrain Transporter
Concept Centaur article
Concept Centaur

South Trace plea for help, and free beer

The weekend is almost here. The Ozark Trail Association is pretty overwhelmed by their own festival planning, and some major storms and a few fires have caused an abnormal amount of trail maintenance needs along the Ozark Trail lately. So to help out GORC has volunteered to do some deadfall clearing on the South Trace Creek section of the OT. This is from Council Bluffs to Bell Mountain. Who am I kidding, it's selfish. There's an awesome trail here under a bunch of logs, and if we clear them, it'll be like a brand new trail in our own backyard. Plus we'll make it fun.

The plan for this weekend is pretty simple right now. We'll meet at the DD/hwy 32 middle fork trailhead at 9am Saturday morning (april 22). Yes it's early, but if we get a decent start and have enough help to do three crews or so, we could probably get an unencumbered ride in afterward. On Saturday we'll break up into groups to divide and conquer the deadfall on South Trace with chainsaws, USFS-certified sawyers, bob trailers, and helpers. We need all the help we can get because sawyers can't work by themselves and there will be lots of cut wood to move. We'll camp saturday night, then ride whichever trail we want just for fun on Sunday. This type of day is noisier, but less backbreaking than normal trailwork and we get to ride our bikes from point to point. The more people we have the easier this will be.

To sweeten the deal, I'll bring at least a case of some quality beer TBD to share on Saturday night, better than and in addition to my usual cheap camping beer.

Stay tuned to this topic in the gorc forum for updates, to express interest, maybe set up a carpool, etc. If anyone without a bike wants to help, say so on the forum or let me know and we'll make arrangements for a hike-in crew too.

tom

Tour of Georgia ---- It's ON!

Oh yeah, Things are heating up down south of the Mason Dixon line.

They even got the Godfather of Soul himself shootin' up in the air Saddam-style!!!
















the skinny --> Linky

velonews.com is carrying the stages live. Starts at 1:30pm today.

Progress on DeClue Reroute at Greensfelder

While we were listening to Tom's safety talk at the Tower parking lot right off of Allenton Rd. this scene presented itself:

Here's one of the turns that passes right above a nice waterfall. While the reroute does bypass one unsustainable climb plus another short one, it's certainly not going to make the trail any easier. Go see for yourself. You can ride the lower part of it below the current trail right now.

more Greensfelder goodness, coming right up

The MMBF is over and now it's time to get back to business. Lucky for us, business is building trail and riding bikes. What could be more fun?

So it's Easter weekend and you can't leave town. Come out to Greensfelder and start work on the next phase of the DeClue improvements. This time we're doing a pretty big reroute for the doubletrack hill climb heading uphill from where DeClue crosses Allenton Road. We'll reroute a little bit of high-maintenance singletrack too but don't worry, we're not about to throw the baby out with the bathwater, most of the old trail remains untouched.

This hillside is covered with rocks and ledges and the new trail goes through a lot of good stuff and some historical oddities. It's buildable in three sections and if we have enough people at both of the spring workdays we'll be riding a bunch of sweet new trail there this summer instead of a piece of low-quality trail with water problems.

The first workday is SATURDAY APRIL 15. You should register with St. Louis County Parks RIGHT NOW to ensure a free lunch. See the gorc homepage for details and directions. We'll post a map of the new sections when they're built. In the mean time, check out Ron's new mountain bike map of the Dogwood and Declue already. Then ride it all with us after the lunch on Saturday.

MMBF...even more

Here's some random pics:

The Iowa Posse spanked all in many events. Including the HillclimbTT.



The No-Touch event was off the hook!



Things got a little weird Saturday night...



Good times were had on all the rides.



Stay Tuned to the GORC website for more pics from this weekend. OR - Send 'em if you got'em!

More MMBF

I think the image speaks for itself...Friday night's ride was one for the books.

2006 MMBF is in the books

Yes folks, the 2006 Midwest Mountain Bike Festival is history, and it appears to have been a rousing success. If this photo doesn't convince you that EVERYONE had a good time, then it probably isn't going to be possible. More to follow...

Festival Music

If you're a fan of the whacked-out traditional music, don't show up late on Saturday.

The band lineup is looking great. Big thanks to Mesa Cycles for footing the bill for us to get so many good bands.

noon The Monads, punk bluegrass rockabilly, think split lip, but with more strings on the bass, I bet they hate that. Click the link and find out for yourself. Or better yet, just show up. The beer starts flowing at noon too.


2:00 Maid*Rite I don't have a link, but these girls rock country style, or play country rock style, or something. It's always a good show.

4:00 Red Ass Jones: You saw them last year but this year they'll have two more people, a mandolin, and electronical amplification. Another good country-style thing, maybe more traditional bluegrass than the others.

6:00 Dub Kitchen. Dub is kind of like reggae, but more electronic. Don't take my word for it, find out why these guys have such a big local following.

8:00ish The Choir: You might recognize Matt Black Matt James, the guitar player, as a local bike shop wrench (big shark, now mesa). Mr. Ray-of-Sunshine's band will be playing "balls-out rock and roll" as soon as he catches his breath after the night time trial, and hopefully puts on some pants.

After that, who knows.

So, fans of the stand-up bass, don't put off coming out. We have three in a row right from the get-go. Get your stuff together now, enjoy the show, get a demo bike and enjoy the trails, whatever.

Early registration is closed so when you come out you can pay your $25 (still a bargain!) for the whole shebang or pay $10 for the cheapskate limited-benefits saturday-only registration.

FEST

No Monthly Meeting 4/05/2006

There will be no monthly meeting on Wednesday, April 5th due to final preparations for the Midwest Mountain Bike Festival this weekend. Kirby says it's ok to go drink beer and talk about bikes if you like. See you this weekend!

Hell Tour

I watched this movie over the weekend. It follows Erik Zabel and Rolf Aldag of the T-Mobile team during the 2003 Tour de France. It's a great movie for several reasons: 1) It has really nice footage of things you never get to appreciate through the grainy, flickering video that OLN shows, including b&w archival stuff; 2) You get to hear a lot of talk about how it really feels to go through 3 weeks of the Tour--crashes, road rash, suffering, exhilaration, not the canned answers from some riders about how everything's perfect, couldn't be better, etc.; 3) Not much about Lance.
It turns out that Zabel and Aldag are really funny as well. You find out lots of interesting things about the "glamorous" world of professional cycling--with one French historian equating the origins of the tour with a way for riders to improve their lives by getting out of the coal mines. The title in english is Hell on Wheels (Netflix), but it translates more literally as Hell Tour. In German, French and English with subtitles.

GORC Does the DRJ Bike Clinic

A few of us helped out with the DRJ sponsored Bike Clinc at Castlewood State Park on Saturday. We gave a little talk explaining what GORC does and a little about proper bike etiquette on the trail. We had a lot of interest in GORC and the Festival. Rich Love and the rest of the presenters gave GORC huge props for the work we do, very nice of them.