The Chambersburg contingent sans cupcakes rallied at the Mark house to chase Larry's good isobars South - way South to Buzzard Rock's in Virginia to be precise (click church photo to enlarge).
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.We rallied at the top for another nice technical ridge ride. This one had less exposure but some nasty little ledge drops and numerous skinny stone staircases. On one particularly nasty one, as he was walking down, Martin says "that's rideable". Ok, snap, highside save, and creak - then this:
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.
Despite the frame failure, this was a great service - a five hour one. I highly recommend reading Isobars chapter 3, verse 7 or attending a service with Pastor Camp soon.
4 comments:
well you did probably make the right choice, but it really wasnt too bad at raystown. No real snow on the ground there and only a bit of snow while we worked.
Nice work on the church sign.
Singletrack Saves!
Now will you go buy a Rig, you idiot!!!
Gary Fisher
I fully expect a warranty frame, perhaps in my wife's size. Then, I can procure something stronger for my butterfly-like riding style.
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