Eastern Panhandle Cycling Info!

 

Material by ways of EP/BC:

Hello Those about to Bike: I believe Fall is here, my favorite season and why I choose to live in Wild Wonderful WV! It’s hard to find any better place than WV to enjoy fall colors and festivities. Get out there and ride your bike and enjoy this wonderful time of the year. This issue: Take A Kid Mt. Biking Day Fall Cycling Breast Cancer Awareness Advice from the staff

This Sat October 6th is National Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day. With help from Specialized and IMBA, EP/BC will be hosting kids of all skill levels at Poor House Farm Park in Martinsburg, WV this Sat for some riding and mountain biking instuction. Date: Saturday, October 6th, 2012 Time: 12:00pm to 2:00pm Location: Poor House Farm Park At The Pavilion RSVP: epbicycles@gmail.com We Are Limited to 50 Participants      Please Bring: Parent Bike Helmet Good Riding Shoes Local experts will be on hand to discuss essentials for mountain biking. Give some helpful hints and help with skills. We will also discuss trail building opportunities for Poor House Farm Park

Fall Cycling Opportunities Fall is one of the best times of the year to ride (My Favorite!) and here are a few places that are wonderful to check out: The C&O Canal Towpath (No Brainer) one of the best bike paths in the country and it’s in our back yard. Mountain Biking Canaan Valley The Western Maryland Rail Trail The Great Allegheny Passage Sleepy Creek. Mainly hiking trails but the red multi use trails are good for mountain biking Gambrills State Park Greenbrier River Trail Just remember to pack the essentials and dress properly. Come in and we will happily show you the many ways to properly pack for the adventure.

 

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Bike Camping Adventures!

 

Well, as everyone knows… having a big fire is priority #1 after getting camp set up, and riding until tired. Last night, Tiffin, The Girl™, and I went out to the flats for a jaunt of night riding and camping. The night riding was fantastic! Being a little disoriented as to where you are is an interesting feeling. Without daylight, the same locations we always ride around look and feel a little bit different, but not scary different. Without being able to see as well, we ended up taking stray trails, which have not been ridden by bikes (ATV trails, dirt bike trails, etc) for months, if not years.

After riding around for about an hour and a half, we started to set up camp Just like past cyclocamping posts ere on WV Cycling, we used the same gear, same tents, so not a lot to report there. I did end up packing an abundance of leaves under my Tyvek ground cloth. This was free padding, and significantly made an improvement in comfort and happiness! I suggest everyone to do this when weight-weenie camping!

We started setting up a fire in a nice little firepit that we dug up the night before. Fire was a-blazing for a good two hours. We roasted hot dogs, and Tiffin tried to make popcorn by breaking open a package of microwave popcorn and placing them in a espresso milk frothing mug.

The oils got so hot in the stainless steel mug that they ignited, he had to blow out the fire before he could eat the popcorn…  Such a bad idea…

Our campfire was so warm that I had to move my stump bench away from the firepit. When I was scooting it away, I saw a Red Salamander. He was a very shy little reptile and attempted to hide back under something immediately. I was lucky to nab a photo:

Sleeping was very much more comfortable, just as I said earlier. Having the leaves, a foam pad, and a light sleeping bag really made a difference. Maybe being a weightweenie camper is as fun as being a weightweenie cyclist.

 

 

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Titus Video Contest

Titus Cycles is having a contest where you submit a 30 second video link showing why you think you would be a good global brand ambassador. Here is my submission:

Check the criteria on the site if you want to read about what this contest was about:

http://dev.titusti.com/2011/10/titus-global-brand-ambassador-program/

#globalteamtitus

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Bad Ride? Great Photo Ops

Even the worst rides have great opportunites for taking pics.

For exaple, today’s ride ended up taking me on trails (or lackthereof) that were so rutted out, there were creeks, craters, mud bogs, or rock gardens, luckily, the elevation of an average 8% (felt more like 20% up or down) allowed for some pretty sweet downhills after the steep hike-a-bikes.

 

I went exploring at our local airport, hearing there was a trail around it…. FAIL. There was nothing but tall grass that went over my handlebars.

After that, I was looking for a way out, and ended up on a deer trail that led me onto a private farm. There were a few cool things to take pics of, but this one was the best op:

Eventually, I made my way onto a familiar road, after having some hereford cows mooing at me for being in their pins (on accident). Decided to take a detour on a gas road I had not been on for a while. This linked up to a VERY STEEP power line trail. Another crappy travel, another great pic:

A view of a good portion of Buckhannon‘s downtown! Look at the powerline angles! 😮

By the time I got home, I was tired, hungry, and cut up like no one’s business. I even managed to find a tick on my arm 😦

After stopping, I could really tell I was bushwacking in deep grasses…. Take a look at my rear hub:

I really wish I would have gone on a road ride with my buddies, but every once in a while, it never hurts to try to break new ground, no?

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Trail Maintenance – Progress & Help

The velomihottie is also a runner, and was outside in the rain at 6am this morning. This kind of dedication to one’s sport is awe inspiring. Don’t get me wrong now, I haven’t picked up running, but I was motivated to go out and ride in today’s heavy downpour. By the time I got home from work, and was kitted up, the roads were already steaming and evaporating the rain off of the hot surfaces. Very eerie!

I’ve been working on a local trail for about two days now, and since it rained today, this was the perfect time to see how well my modifications to the trail have held up. There are about twenty-something coroplast arrows creating a trail path that maximizes the available land, while creating a very efficient and fun topographic course. All I did was cut up some coroplast boxes, make a cardboard stencil, and spraypaint each one with the little arrow design. To create a little less than thirty of them took about half an hour from idea to completion.

I’ve been placing them about five feet from the ground, 6-10 feet before a turn on flat sections, and about fifteen feet before a downhill section:

Very easy to see, no?

I’ve dug up some edges around ponds like the one above to allow the water from the rutted out ATV potholes to runoff down the hill, or disperse into wooded/grassy areas. This took a lot of time, but I’ve been wanting to do a lot of this since 2009 or so.

I’m having trouble determining what to do for one section of trail that the ATV’s have decimated with their tires, and there is about a fifty foot section of horizontal ruts full of water. Video below:

Related articles

• June 4 is National Trails Day (naturalhistorywanderings.com)

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