KAW 53 & Covered Bridges

As is customary in south central PA, there were almost too many cycling options to choose from today. Just this past Thursday I was party to a 43 mile joy ride through thunderstorms up Whiskey Springs and Kings Gap with two former pros who happen to be married, and happen to live in Carlisle. Carlisle rides are always good. Keith, aka KAW, is sort of the guru of Carlisle's Tuesday and Thursday night rides - one of the longest continually running group rides on the East coast (My friend, Jim, has the longest running one from his shop in Nyack, NY). Regardless, Keith was leading a ride this morning and that was the one for me.

I first met KAW over five years ago on a referral from my younger sister, Sierra. She knew someone who rides a bike. You know how that can go - you show up at the ride start and the dude doesn't even have a helmet let alone a spare tube or water bottles. That was not the case with Keith. Turns out he has taken over the reins on this Pennsylvania standard, rides frequently, knows the routes, vacations to ride, and has a large network of friends who also ride. Little sister was right on this one but don't tell her.

9:30 from the Carlisle Movie Theatre and we were shooting for 50+ miles. The weather was absolutely beautiful, cool, dry, and sunny.Heading out of town we encountered our first climb, a warm up for things to come.

Up Starret's Gap, turn right on Mountain Road, down the other side and in Perry County the roads became sublime.

For some reason when this guy was pulling I kept getting real thirsty.

Certainly a road bike ride the green team would enjoy.

Covered bridge numero uno:

Graham Watson couldn't make it, he had some other engagement in France this week - his loss.
The powers that be converse on where we ought to go - the field of dreams won out over covered bridge numero dos.The real field of dreams. Because Kevin Costner insisted on cellphone coverage while filming we were able to check our voicemails, I made a call to set a ride up for Sunday morning, took a leak, someone decided that the powers that be made a bad call, so we decided to backtrack to covered bridge numero dos.Jen almost got creamed by a Dodge Ram Dualie SuperStudly 9500k Small Weiner Limited Edition Diesel Truck (you know the DRDSS9.5KSWLEDT) while crossing this obviously single-lane bridge.

We then cruised into Landisburg, took a look at my friend, Ray's, house and I found out that he is a banker. Ray wasn't home or I would still be there drinking Guinness. We tanked up at a Shell station. A Shell station that happens to be sporting the finest beef jerkey selection in southern Pennsylvania and an outside deck with a spectacular view.

We rode some more and climbed some more.
All told the day ended at around 53 miles and close to 4,000 feet of climbing.

If you haven't already, you should try a KAW ride (Carlisle Movie Theatre on Noble road Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6pm).

Catch & Release

Thomas called me while I was at State Farm training in Charlottesville, VA last week to ask if I would take him fishing when I got home. So yesterday we walked one block from our house to Falling Spring creek to give it a try.
I selected the two shortest fly rods I have and he wore Michele's vest. We had some fun and he especially liked picking out the "bugs" for us. It wan't too long until my cyclist friends Larry and Martin showed up and a good time was had by all. No, we didn't catch any fish - that section of stream is a Trout Unlimited Catch & Release stream, crystal clear, and wicked tough.

Ron Paul 2008

Very interesting and refreshing views. I don't know if I agree with all of his stances; however he takes a reasoned approach to forming his positions. You can watch footage of him on www.youtube.com or at his website www.ronpaul2008.com.

Carlisle 100

Saturday, June 2nd

All week long I had been attempting to recruit folks for a long weekend ride - I had 100 miler in mind and as of Thursday I had no takers. So when I got Josh Beck's email via the YBR's listserve looking for folks to do a 100 miler on Saturday morning - I was psyched.

It was going to be a hot day. Halfway to Carlisle on I-81 I realized that my water bottles were happily chillin in my refridgerator at home. A quick call to Josh to make sure he had a couple extra and the problem was solved. I had a full tube of nuun electrolyte tablets for refills.

The ride started from Josh's house (next door to the Carlisle YMCA) and I had to laugh when he gave me the loaner water bottles. One was a small Gatorade bottle and the other was the size of a small SCUBA tank - something he picked up on one of his racing trips to Europe. Apparently, they don't have Camelbacks on the continent because this baby had to hold 36+ ounces. It wouldn't fit in my seat tube bottle cage, but rather laid in the downtube cage like a cold-war era ICBM. Perhaps there was some aerodynamic benefit to this thing? Regardless, I drink water like a Hummer drinks gas and was glad to have the extra capacity.

The ride consisted of Josh, Bill, Daryl, and I; the route was undetermined as we spun out of Carlisle. For those of you who don't know, Josh is pretty damn fast on a bike, he finished third in world at the 2005 Powerman World Duathlon Championships in Switzerland - and his strength is the bike. He said that he would do all to pulling and we were all happy to oblige.

We climbed 233 up to Pine Grove Furnace and then let it rip all the way down to Caledonia State Park. Josh pulled for about 16 miles non-stop at speeds that I could barely follow in his slipsteam. We averaged over 32mph for almost the entire section. Straight across rt. 30 and then we climbed up South Mountain and descended into Mont Alto. Our first water stop was at a Rutters in Quincy - I reloaded the SCUBA tank and we were off for Chambersburg and points north. Daryl broke his rear deraileur cable around Scotland and had to ride the 53x12 which meant we had to keep the pace high (read: uncomfortable). Our second water break was at Sheetz in Shippensburg. The plan was to drop Daryl off at Merv's Mennonite bike shop outside of Shippensburg and for me to drop off and ride back solo. I hung on as long as possible (about 2 more miles) and soon found myself alone at mile 63 as I crossed I-81. I went back on Big Spring Road into Newville and stopped at the fire hall to refill the water bottles. Holding 21/22 alone wasn't a problem so it appeared I wasn't as blown as I thought - it was just really uncomfortable to hold those extra mph in Josh's draft (this must be what motopacing is like). Given that, I decided to do the whole 100 as originally planned and figured I needed to zig and zag my way back into Carlisle in order to hit the mileage.

I remembered how fun the climb up Kings Gap was last week, did some quick math in my head, and determined that climbing Kings Gap and then returning to Carlisle would be about perfect. Turned out it was. I got back to Josh's house at 100.14 and finished in 5 hours and 17 minutes with a fair bit of climbing. Josh had just returned from an 8 mile post ride run (you know - to loosen up) he and Bill had logged around 90 on the bike. Here is the elevation profile:

Carlisle 100 Miler - Saturday, June 2, 2007
Moving Time 5:17:24
Distance 100.14
Moving Speed 18.9 avg. 52.4 max.
Elevation Gain+5,832

When I got home I followed my own rigorous training program and had a post ride beer.

Reading Order

For the full effect - start reading at Bicycle Maintenance 911, then read Day 1, and finish on Day 2.

Grizvitational Day Two

Day Two was Bear Meadows/Tussey Mountain - Rothrock Classics

Getting our gear together for the ride. Jamie hones his Zen.This ride started near Bear Meadows and climbed up North Meadows Road to Gettis Ridge Road and then Bear Gap road to Wildcat, a memorable drop off the face of the earth. The view from North Meadows Road:Then up Laurel Run Road to the firetower and then down the Edge, another memorable drop. On my Garmin 305 the drops look like this: The first is Wildcat and the second is the Edge - they are both wicked steep. This is part of Wildcat: Karl was riding a sweet carbon Specialized unit to review for Dirt Rag Magazine. Rumor has it - he wants to keep it.
Regrouping at the bottom of the Edge and the beginning of Longaberger. Brother Griz, and Brother Nabil
Larry cranks it up a notch SS-style on a nice log ride near the end of Longaberger.

Keith proving that they ride big logs in Perry County too

Ray smooth as silk

Karl making it look easy
Nabil sneaks a peek at the landing prior to hitting the eject buttonWe looped back by the cars and dropped off a couple of riders then rode up the IMBA/NMBA constructed Tussey Ridge Trail to some new rocky alternative lines near the junction with Kettle. Click here for photos my brother, Nabil, took of this area: There were several other uber-technical alternate routes along the ridgeline; however, I pinch flatted three times and was playing catch up much of the time. This is a picture of the main trail:I did hear that the Dutch Eagle rode by far the most challenging of these puzzles; one I had stopped to marvel at back in April when I snapped this photo on a solo ride:It is a loose assemblage of log and stone that, if you use your imagination, roughly resembles a line. Word has it that Dean crashed in a spectacular fashion on his first attempt damaging both shoulders. The group then went to work reinforcing the logs to take the wobble out and spotted him for his second attempt. The Dutch Eagle nailed it on his second try - thus winning the coveted annual Hans Rey Trophy of Tremendous Riding (HRTTR). We hammered down the other Ridge extension to the gas line and as the raindrops began to fall we contemplated riding John Wirt in the rain. As the rain picked up, we decided to try to sit it out under a porch. John Wirt, the most technical trail of the weekend, is no bag of laughs when wet. Impatience got the best of us and we started out as the rain was still falling. About halfway in the rain did stop, but the rocks were already slicker than owl shit on a barn beam.Grizvitational Day Two
Total Time 5:00:03
Moving Time 3:38:25
Distance (mi ) 25.18
Moving Speed 6.93 avg. 25.4 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +3,352
Avg. Heart Rate 126 bpm Zone 2.8

Temperature (°F)
65°F avg. 68°F high
Wind Speed ( mph)
W 13.4 avg.
W 16.1 max. The riding in Rothrock is, how do you say? Unbelieveable.

Grizvitational Day One

Twice a summer, once early and once late, my friend Rob aka Griz organizes a fantastic weekend of singletrack riding somewhere in Pennsylvania. Rob has literally written the book on mountian biking in Pennsylvania. The spring location is usually based out of Penn Roosevelt State Park in the Rothrock State Forest due east of State College. Rob and I both graduated from Penn State and spent a fair amount of time cutting our mt biking teeth on the Tuscurora sandstone that makes these trails so memorable. Penn Roosevelt is especially well-suited for a weekend mt. bike getaway because it allows you to ride the newer trails of the Cooper's Gap section and the Rothrock classics on the Tussey Mountain and Bear Meadows sections. Coopers Gap is unique in that all the trails were put in by talented trail-builder from Lewistown and designed specifically for mt. biking. The Rothrock Classics include one of the most technical trails of the east, John Wirt (Read: you don't want to do this one in the rain), and some newer lines and extensions of standard trails.

Day one was Coopers Gap:
From a group of satellites high above the earth the ride looks like this: From my garmin 305 it looked like this:
Total Time 5:08:05
Moving Time3:14:03
Distance (mi ) 24.08
Moving Speed (mph) 7.4 avg. 36.3 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +3,889 / -3,940
Temperature (°F)
68.6°F avg.
69.8°F high
Wind Speed ( mph)
NW 14.9 avg.
NW 19.5 max.

Our motto is "safety first" and what a beautiful place to stop and check our helmets.
The trails were dry, fast, twisty, loaded with good flow and just enough rock to keep you honest. Dean and Rich climbing the stairway to heaven.
Pontzer riding the skinny
After 5 hours on the trail the Old Chub began to flow.