The ride up

After coffee and sun drying our gear, we headed back to the trails. The gondola up offered very clear views of the opposite range, Yatsugatake.


Brian takes in the view

Not too late to change her mind..

The trails were promising to be deserted, as most of the crowd below was only interested in the xc (cross country) racing, which was held far below. Tracy seized this opportunity to try out the 'B Course' without the aggravation of 'sharing'. This trail is much twistier, steeper and outright scary than Tracy's usual 'C Course', but she was ready for the challenge!


Tracy anticipating 'B Course' in gondola..

'B Course Blast!'

While the picture doesn't really do the trail justice (most of it is too steep for stopping / picture taking!), it does provide a glimpse of the conditions: narrow, twisty, rooty, and steep. This is where our friend broke his arm last year..


Tracy 'B course' chutes and roots

North Shore?

I am also devoting more time to 'B', and this 'stunt' at the top of the trail encourages me to relax and stay loose.. Tracy shot this on video, which may be available soon on our website, complete with forest sounds soundtrack!


Brian on Chutes and Ladders

Get out and ride

Riding is good. It doesn't matter if you only ride to the local store on an old cruiser, or if you are currently training for the Tour de France. It does't matter if you are a refined roadie or a rough mountain biker. It doesn't matter if you are a freerider, a downhill rider or a cross-country rider. It doesn't matter if you ride an hour each weekend, or if you ride two hours a day. Riding is good.

Bike Lust

Brian and I each own three full bikes and we have numerous frames scattered around the house. In fact, Brian, I realize, owns five full bikes (he built up another bike at the end of the winter, just as a project).

Owning three bikes (or five) is pretty much a full-time job. You have to nurture and care for each bike - regularly lubing the chain, lubing the cables, making sure the shifting is smooth, replacing tires as they become worn, etc...

And yet. And yet... there will always be Bike Lust. Bike Lust strikes at the strangest times - like right now, when all my bikes are in perfect riding condition. There is nothing I need, there is not work to do. But I want to buy a Rig, just like Brian's.

I will not, of course, buy a Rig. Unless I can sell my Cannondale!


My Cannondale - For Sale



Brian's Rig - a 29" Single-Speed. Also sold in size small

Interested??

Finally Clear!

Tracy and I devoted the best hours of our Sunday to restoring the Assistant's car (an Audi A4) to its original shine. Washing, rubbing out the finish, and finally waxing with a synthetic hardshell sealant. Whew; now the car is unrecognizably lustrous, but we were rewarded with 24 hours of straight wind, rain and cold.

Today the clouds parted, and just as I arrived home I took a quick snap of Mt. Fuji from the doorstep. Multiple work projects have both of us on our toes, but it is so nice to come home in the daylight and have a view of this..



Fuji-san with parting clouds and fresh snow

Group Ride - 16K!

Larry, Lisa and I went for a group ride on Saturday morning. Larry was riding his GT Avalanche 2.0 that I mentioned in a previous post, Lisa was riding her Panasonic touring bike, and I was riding my Cannondale single-speed (Lisa has now said that she would like a single-speed mountain bike!).

I usually ride alone or with Brian - alone the goal is just to ride; with Brian it is to ride and find new trails. In a group ride, the goal is social. Nobody is racing to get to the top, we stop frequently to rest and chat. The different pace and conversation livens up the ride, giving new charm to an old trail.

In the end, we rode 16 kilometers, which doesn't sound like much, but you have to remember that we live in a valley, so 8 kilometers of that was straight uphill!




Larry and Lisa, still fresh early in the ride.


The road got steep for a while and we had to push the bikes.



We made it to the top, although Larry looked exhausted!



Victory ballet at the top.

Not Squandering riding time

The weather forecast was wrong. Though it so often is wrong, I was quite surprised this time because, for a change, it was wrong in our favor: the morning dawned cool and sunny. Not wanting to lose another morning to net-surfing, we got out for an hour on the single-speeds.

The feeling of being alone in the woods in the cool morning air is one that we can't get enough of. We also want to share it - so we are trying to get a little group ride going for Saturday morning. If it works out, there'll be photos posted!

Squandering Riding Time

The sun has been rising by 4:30 these days (it rises even earlier in the summer), which means a lot of prime riding time before work.

Yesterday Brian and I went for a long-ish single-speed ride. There was no traffic, and once we got off the beaten track, no people either. We had intended to do the same today, but we squandered our morning net-surfing and trying to get out of the Crimson Room, a really fun (and frustrating) game online.

The weather forecast is now calling for rain later today and tomorrow morning - I suppose we should have ridden after all!