New red sled

Following the collapse of my On-One frame, I purchased a used GF Paragon and built a rigid 1X9 29'er with all the parts in my dining room.

1997 Tour de France

This is racing at its finest.

Sunday Morning Services

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.

We climbed and hiked.

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 - DownBuzzard 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.

11/11

Sometimes you just know it's gonna be a good ride.

Even from the gut pile.

And it was - michaux stylie.

das route: middle narrows to lee's rocks to heaven or hell to lower narrows to black andes to oak/shelf to sawmill (recently clear cut) bail to oak road to gas line (hike-a-bike) to deer bone to sand road to hermit to charcoal hearth (lower hermit) to buckets to black andes to lower tv/cable line (short) to lower wayne's trail to turtle (up) to 4 logs (up&ouch) to firetower to crumble to the gut pile to the fat dogs and to the sea hags.

somehow if lee had taken care of saddham the first time around this ride might have been easier. there was snow, safety, big logs, and no mechanicals.

much planning was afoot regarding the buzzard rocks ride next weekend and something about "man camp"?

Fight on State!

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.