Speechless

World Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling Championship

Many people think the Brits are a bunch of stuck up provincials who are still pissed that a bunch of rag tag colonials kicked their ass a few hundred years ago. But this fine country has produced the likes of Monty Python, Benny Hill and the original Office series.

The Welsh, living in a hard but beautiful land, not only have a language that defies logic, they have quite the sense of adventure. So what do they do for fun? They fill bike frames with lead, load the tires with water and go for a little jaunt through a bog -- wearing a snorkel. Why do it?

"Organisers say the triathlon was set up to accommodate overwhelming demand for "more dirty fun around our famous Waen Rhydd Bog".

It being a triathlon, other events include:

". . . a 12 mile run . . . followed by two lengths of the 60 yard peat bog trench and then a 25 mile mountain cycle. "

Read the whole article here.

Lake Nokomis, anyone?

Cheers

A No Brainer, Really!!

For the price of one of these:

I could get one of these:
$8500 delivered. My favorite color of tires, pulse jet engine, 75 mph top speed. And a totally cool look.



Read the complete article here.

I have a couple of really nice vintage bikes to unload first but it's definitely doable. And I would definitely ride it.

And check out this site -- lots of great stuff.

Cheers

Enough Already

Is anyone else sick of hearing about these two freaks? Enough already!!

Fun Times

As is tradition, we spent the 4th of July with my wife's family at their lakeside cottage in Clear Lake, Iowa. It was great getting everyone together, and its always fun to catch up as we're all scattered around the country a bit.

Clear Lake moves at a pretty slow pace most of the year but over the 4th, almost every cottage is packed to the rafters with folks. Sleeping is sketchy at best and after a day or so, it all starts closing in on me. This year, I opted to sleep on a Girl Scout property that my daughter worked at for years. The current camp director was one of her campers when she was a counselor, and she graciously allowed me to camp where ever I pleased.

The camp is set on about 75 acres just off the lake so I had plenty of places from which to choose. I loaded up the Pug Monkey Friday and headed out to ride the property for awhile before I found the right spot. It was on the edge of a clearing on a knoll and looked out over some beautiful prairie.

The rain started in earnest Friday afternoon and went all night but I stayed nice and dry.

On Saturday, the skies started clearing in the afternoon and after a spectacular fireworks show, I headed back out to camp. My daughter and her husband joined me along with their two Gordon Setters. The skies were clear and the moon was almost full as we sat around talking and winding down. We could still hear fireworks off in the distance but the woods were quiet and peaceful.


A great weekend with family.

Cheers

Now That Fiat owns Chrysler . . .

I'm hoping they'll make one of these. Perfect for getting around the city in winter, eh?



Ciao

The Big Question is . . .

Never mind. Norm did the right thing.

Now, that the Minnesota Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, has declared Al Franken the winner of the Senate election, will Norm show any class and concede?


Or is he going to drag this thing out further? Rumor has it the Repubs have spent something close to $900,000 for his legal defense.

Norm -- show some class and respect the voters wishes. Every time you challenge it, the count for Franken gets higher.

Cheers

What's 14 feet long and still useful?

Sharp turns don't work so well.

Absolutely

A Sad Day

In a prior life, I was a police officer in Virginia. The year that I exited that noble profession, my sister entered it and has now served over 25 years with the Virginia State Police (VSP). A MacAfee has been in law enforcement in Virginia for the past 3+ decades!!

My sister recently took up drumming -- specifically, she is a drummer with both the VSP Pipe and Drum Band and with another similar band in the Richmond area. The missus and I saw her play in Colonial Williamsburg over the holidays, and it was quite an impressive show.

In addition to celebratory events, they also play at funerals for law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. This article includes a slide show with audio and a great photo of my sister doing her thing (the picture is about half way through and she's the one with all the stripes on her sleeve). She's been playing at too many of these lately.

So, the next time you cross paths with one of these folks, remember that they do a tough job and some of them don't make it home at the end of their shifts.

Record Online - Serving the Northern Neck of Virginia

Cheers

Camba's Festival of Trails

I spent most of the weekend working at CAMBA's first annual Festival of Trails, held up in the Hayward area of Wisconsin. I signed on as a volunteer with the Backcountry Mountain Bike Patrol to see what the group was like, and to have the opportunity to ride some of the trails in the Chequamegon National Forest.

Arriving Friday afternoon, I wandered over to the Hatchery Creek trail head where registration was in full swing. I had a chance to visit with some of the CAMBA board members and their enthusiasm for the trail system was infectious. Unfortunately, they had not had many pre-registrants but given it was the event's first year, were optimistic (ultimately, about 100-125 folks registered.

I hooked up with a few other members of the patrol who offered to take me on a ride on the Hatchery Creek Loop. I really enjoy riding trails, single and double track and gravel but when they were giving out the "balance" gene, I wasn't given the full dose. It's not that I fall down a lot but the idea of riding off perfectly good ledges or bunny hopping logs doesn't really have much appeal. The loop was described as "intermediate technical" single track and I was soon to find out what that meant.

As we approached the trail head, one of my colleagues proceeded to bunny hop onto a flat boulder, do a track stand and hop back off before heading up the trail. Cautiously heading up the track, I attempted to keep up until I fell trying to ride around a sharp corner climbing a hill. This was the view I had of one of the other riders most of the way around.

Despite a few falls, I completed the course injury free and rode it a second time without falling once.

The American Birkebeiner race is run here each year and the CAMBA trails often crisscross the race course. I actually preferred riding the Birkie course over some of the technical single track -- easier to take pictures and see the scenery.


On Saturday, I rode a few loops of the Mosquito Brook trails before venturing north to the Namakagon circuits and rode parts of the Namakagon and Patsy Lake trails. I enjoyed these trails even more as they were far less technical. All of CAMBA's trails are very well marked.

Volunteers have done an amazing job creating and maintaining hundreds of miles of trails up here.

As we were patrolling the Namakagon loop, the skies opened up and we got a solid rain for the next 4 hours. This was taken just as the rain got heavy, and the final few miles back to the trailhead were fun. The trail got wet and muddy fast and the rocks and roots that much slicker.

I am anxious to get back up here, preferably mid-week, and ride more of the trails.

Equipment wise, I rode the Pug Monkey, set up with 29'er wheels. 29'er is definitely the way to go -- you float over most of the obstacles in the trail. I had my first aid gear loaded on the back rack which threw the center of gravity off a bit. And, racks don't really work well on the PM, especially with disc brakes. I rode between some trees on the trail and when the rack hit a tree, it slammed up against the disc unit, rendering it inoperable. Some trail side repair with help from another patroller got it semi-functioning again. I think a frame bag or back pack is definitely the way to carry gear.

Kudos to Mark at HC for sharing his extensive mountain bike experience, and to Jim for building a bullet proof set of wheels.


Despite almost 4 hours of heavy rain, not one drop of water got into my Lunar Duo tent. Most of the others tents had some leakage but mine held up well. Definitely happy with the investment.

All in all a great time. I can't do much about a shortage of the "balance gene" but I still want to get back up there and ride those trails.

Cheers

Survived CAMBA

I returned safely from CAMBA's Festival of the Trails, during which I was a volunteer mountain bike patroller. I had fun, met lots of great folks and fell more than once with no injuries. I will post more later but thought this great sign at one of the food stops sums up the experience best.

Cheers