Another fine fall trip to State College: dinner at Boxer's, a minor plumbing job at the Suchanec's, ride, tailgate, PSU-vs-Ohio State game, sleep, ride, meet with our tenants and inspect our rental properties.
After sweating some water pipe at my sister's house, HO and I were treated to suprisingly good weather and decided to take advantage of it before the tailgate. We jetted out to Tussey Mt. and rode some new-to-me stuff near Shingletown Gap. I renamed the trail Cagney & Lacey, due to its healthy blend of beautiful and nasty sections. Back to the Suchanec's for a quick shower and we rode the bike trail to their tailgate.
Our hosts: Daph & Mark.
Charlie perusing the chips and chocolate section.
Eric taking a break from stirring the big pot of chili.
My niece, Hayden, and I as game time nears.
Beaver Stadium on our way in.
Our seats at the game.
Long story short OSU is good, we played very poorly, and lost, the fans, the stadium, the tailgate were all incredible. This was the second largest attendance in PSU football history - something that was cool to be part of. I was able to ride back to my sister's house on the bike path and avoid an otherwise 45 minute, 2 mile drive.
This is HO and Otto's Jolly Roger Imperial Stout a 10%'er available in 22oz bottles. It is much better (and stronger) than their reasonably good Black MO Stout. CAUTION: Tis much better to drink AFTER a ride.
Sunday morning we had waffles, coffee, bacon, and sausage and then I met HO, Frank, and Rodney at Black Moshannon. Black Mo was riding great and this was one of the finest rides I have ever had there! Frank was on a 69'er, HO a dulie-geared 29'er, Rodney a big-travel 26'er and I had my SS rigid 29'er - we laughed, and blocked HO's lines the whole time.
Fall riding at Black Mo is a Pennsylvania standard - much like Penn State football.
Many folks drove in from PA, DC, MD, and VA to the Shed for a nice Sunday ride. In all twelve travellers were greeted by a friendly local wielding some home-brewed oatmeal beverage.
It was a sub-four hour, 20 mile journey that featured a pretty even mix of climbing (3000 feet), descending, and flat sweeping terrain. The trail was occasionally interupted by great rock gardens, log-overs, and other technical features. A trail named Super-Sweet is now Super-Sweeter.
A bunch of us headed into Historic Frederick to grab some food, drink, and check out my new office.
The meterologist was demonstrating barometric pressure with two suction cups. He removed the air and had Thomas try to pull them apart - no go. Then he lifted Thomas up - no go. He was about to let the air out and show how easy it is to separate them that way when Henry pipes in "my turn". 
So he lifted Henry up too and then let him pull the cups apart. The guy was very entertaining and kept the kids interested by making snow, a hot air balloon, a tornado of fire, and the show-stopper: a huge cloud. Thomas answered so many questions that I was beginning to feel self-conscious - he even clarified a couple points for the meteorologist (that the earth/ground doesn't absorb as much heat in the winter as it does during the summer). The meteorologist tracked us down after the show to give the boys an extra snow shower and say thanks.
The goal was to dial in the top of Connector, do some maintenance on Abbey, and scout alternatives to the eroded fall-line section of lower Abigail. This is the section that goes down from the intersection to Long Pine Reservoir. Specifically, the fall-line section that used to have the water bars, but is now a gulley of increasingly poor soil conditions. You can tell it's bad because of the sand bar forming at the bottom right hand turn. It is in dire need of a couple of switchbacks with coweeta dips to replace the water bar section. 
Martin removing a Michaux punji stick.
Leaving just a sweet line and nice log to ride over.
It was in the upper twenties, but you hardly noticed.
Little know fact: Larry uses poultry shears to mow his lawn.
When the trail is cleared it sure looks good - can't wait to ride it.
We think we found some alternatives for the short eroded section of Abbey, but since it is blazed trail, we want to run it by DCNR before cutting in a switchback or two.
Martin had mysteriously lost his spacers so we had a little tweaking, the hammer and large screwdriver type tweaking. It was cold and misty in Chambersburg as we left.
As we crossed from Pennsylvania to Maryland the rain picked up and in West Virginia it was overcast and threatening more precipitation.
Virginia featured some dismal gray skies and more rain. I was thinking that trailwork at Raystown Lake was the good option for the day and that we had possibly made a mistake. But, Larry had read the isobars and I only the icons. As we turned off I-81 the rain stopped, the skies opened, and the sun began to peek through.
Services began at 10:15 on dry pavement and crunchy leaves.
3 miles (1 hour) up to the saddle where we turned onto the Buzzard Rock trail. 
Which we rode out to a very nice vista through challenging rocky technical sections.
This is the domain of the fully rigid SS 29'er.
Fort Valley - North
Fort Valley - South
Fort Valley - Down
Buzzard Rock's features tight ledges, ups and downs, on a skinny ridgeline with a high penalty for failure and magnificent overlooks.
A vista.
A move.
We rode this fine trail out the Massanutten East side and hit the hard road for a few miles to our second major climb of the day. 
About a half an hour into this gem I got a call from my sister Daphne. Since I was hiking with my bike on my shoulder anyway, we worked out some Thanksgiving holiday plans and she said that it was cold and sleeting in State College. So that Raystown trail day was definitely not the way to go - kudos to Larry and his isobars.
A double whammy - the carbon fork was unscathed, but I was officially hiking from here on out (about 3 miles downhill). After about 20 minutes both tubes broke clear through and I had to carry it on my head and shoulders.
I purchased the frame on August 27th so it doesn't even have three months of use yet. Time to see how On-One's warranty program and customer service rate. We grabbed some Mexican food in Strasburg and headed North to PA and back into the rain.
Saturday morning we awoke to coffee, bacon, waffles, and fruit. After a quick breakfast, we headed out to the Tussey Mt. ride start (with a stop at Starbucks, of course). We had Mike & Brenda Mucker, Martin Kell, Aaron Hofelt, Eric Lensig (SP?), Kevin Bergman, Aaron Pontzer, John (LHORBA), Mike Steininger, and me (10 total).
Aaron and Kevin put together a nice collection of Tussey classics including the uncleanable John Wert Path, the fearsome Wildcat, and the always beautiful Tussey Ridge and Croyle Trails. HO actually rode the big rock garden on Wert clean, but failed to get the entire trail - I mean PATH.
Sunday morning I awoke to my nephew Eric who said that my friends (Mike) thought we should get moving. Mike was concerned about making the 10am ride start. It was 8am! Michele and I were just wrestling with Henry anyway, so I got up and moving. Plans changed several times, but we finally got under way (with a stop at Starbucks, of course). This stop had Mike convinced that we were running late and that we should call the others. I was still positive that were would make it on time and held out (I had told everyone to expect me at 10:05 anyway). Long story short, we made it to the Tussey lot at 10:01. In my own discreet way, I tried to let Mike know that the stress and worry about being late for the last two hours was entirely unnecessary - he was a good sport. We rallied and drove a convoy of bikers over to the shale pit. At the shale pit we were greeted with some hunter types (no hunting on Sundays in PA) who were sighting in their high-powered rifles across the shale pit and over top of the parked cars. I trusted that they were good shots and parked - they kindly ceased firing until we left the area.
