Michigan Vacation!

Back in the spring we asked Daniel where he would like to go for vacation.  Without much hesitation he said, "the cottage!"  KT and I agreed, remembering the good times we had last year on Budd Lake in Harrison, MI.

A major goal for this year's trip was for Daniel to catch a fish.  Without much delay, we headed to the boat dock upon arrival.

KT and Daniel casting away.

Fortunately fish are not very smart, at least not at first.  We soon caught a nice sunfish by simply dropping an un-baited hook into the water.  Subsequent attempts were not as successful so we progressed to banana chunks and finally bait on the hook to catch several more sunfish.

Nice first catch fisherman Daniel!

The temperatures were pretty mild the first part of our week on the lake.  It was mid to upper 70's by day and in the 40's at night.  We still spent plenty of time down by the water.  Tuesday I headed 5 miles south to Mid Michigan Community College for a mountain bike ride.

Forgot bike pump and didn't have presta to schrader

adapter.  Solution... shoot air into CO2 pump head.

It worked!

Last year I really grew to like this ~10 mile course.  It's not flat but rolling, there's plenty of corners and twists, and the occasional sand puddle adds to the interest.

In the woods.

The course was in great shape this year.  From some web reading I'd heard there were some storms resulting in down trees earlier this year.  I saw very little evidence of damage and constantly thought this is a cared for trail.

Plenty of interesting 'shrooms along the trail.

The Karate Monkey was my steed this year.  I knew it would be a perfect match to the course and there were no disappointments in this choice.  Only one gear is needed, though I could've used a smaller cog on this course, and suspension is not necessary here.  The quick handling and agility of the Monkey made for tons of fun.

Banana stop.

KT and the kids went for a hike while I rode.  As we relaxed under a tree near the parking lot a mountain biker car pulled in.  We talked with a retired couple of school teachers who came from nearby to ride.  They also had a really positive review of the course.

Post hike rest break.

This is how retired teachers roll.

 

Less than 10 minutes from our cottage to the trail, there will be more rides this week.

The end.

Knob with Patrick

After being rained out yesterday afternoon, which has not happened very often this year, Patrick and I went to the Knob after work today.  We enjoyed a nice ride.  I asked Patrick of his first memory of the Knob and he said his first visit was about 1995 just after the official opening.  It was interesting to hear his comments about different sections of the course and how they had changed over the years.

Towards the end of the course.

One Way Commute

Set out on an extended morning commute this morning.  After work KT will be in the neighborhood anyhow and pick me up at work, so I added some distance to the ride in.  Once again I was on the road while the sun was rising and enjoyed the brightening sky.

A pastel sky in the morning.

 

The weather forecast called for afternoon rain so the plan to ride in and get a lift home was a good one.  I rode further east before turning north towards work.  The back roads are nice and calm in the morning.  Sure, there's the occasional car that flies by, someone hurrying to work, but these passings are few.  I sure do enjoy the ride in.

Having the road to myself.

Carbon Control

It's been long enough with the Bontrager Big Sweep bars that came stock on my Trek Paragon.  These are abnormal bars with 17 degrees of sweep.  They were awkward at first, I sort of got used to them, and this summer I've come to blame them for the mild wrist pains I've had the past year.

The Big Sweep.

I upgraded to a carbon Bontrager bar with "only" 9 degrees of sweep.  This matches the setup of the Race Face bars on my Karate Monkey which have treated me well.  Now what to do with the boomerang?

An expensive carbon fiber tube and some cheap grips.

Rising Sun on the Commute

Finally made a bike commute happen today.  Though I often think about it, the schedule rarely cooperates.  I set my alarm for 6:15, rolled out of bed at 6:20, and was on the road by 6:30.

Bike was in the garage the night before and pointed out.

On my way out the door I questioned whether or not to bring the digi cam.  I was already carrying two cell phones and some food in my jersey pockets.  Do I really need the camera?  Yes, no, yes, no... yes, may as well in case there is something interesting to shoot.

More than half way to work I realized I never even thought to take a picture.  Why did I bring the camera?  To justify the carrying it along I paused eating a banana, holding it in my mouth, pulled out the camera and snapped four quick pictures towards the rising sun.  Later in the afternoon I had a look at the pictures and was glad I packed the camera!

Eastward on Secrest Road.

Nice morning light.  Cold enough for arm

warmers when I first left home. 

Lovin' the morning commute.

West and Back on the Road

It feels like it's been a while since I headed out on a longish road ride.  Sunday morning is church time for our family, but with two sick kids we stayed home today.  So, this morning I unhooked the road bike from its perch, pumped the tires, and set out on a ride with no specific route in mind.

Sun at back , heading west in the morning.

The sun was laying down some heat already but the humidity was not too uncomfortable yet.  A induced breeze of riding along helps on the road.

Tough decision; turned left for a longer ride.

I rode past Mohican Golf Course and into Ashland County.  Turning south I found an Ashland County Park I had either never seen before, or it was never there before.  The park only consisted of a short trail through the woods to a canoe launch on a stream.

I followed the sign to check it out.

I'm really not sure where you could paddle on this stream.  Knowing this area a little bit, I didn't think there would be any constant streams through these low lying areas.  I figured the waterways would come and go.  But I guess it's currently as dry as it has ever been and there is still a stream, so what do I know.

The canoe launch into a muddy stream.

After visiting the canoe launch I circled south and had a couple good gravel / chip-and-seal climbs.  At some point I lost track of where I was and found a couple new road to bring me back to the east.  The sun was getting higher and hotter as I rode.

Interesting terrain formation.

About 2 and half hours after rolling out the driveway I pedaled back up the driveway a sweaty mess.  It felt good to be out!

Bike Art

Title = "Bike", Artist = Me, Medium = bendy, sticky, kids' twizzle stick thingies

Ride and Picnic

The birthday festivities for Daniel continue.  Ryan and I went down to Mohican in the afternoon for a ride and then we joined the families for a picnic to celebrate Daniel's birthday.

A nice sunny day for ride and picnic.

 

Ryan and I did a trail, road, trail combination before heading to the campground.  Jessica and Chris met up with us there and we enjoyed dinner and playing with the kids.  Daniel fell asleep on the way home.  I think it was the first time ever that Ellen outlasted him.

Rylen checking out daddy's bike.

Daniel is 4!

Today is Daniel's fourth birthday!  He enjoyed a party with family, another party with friends, and another party with family and friends.

A robot cake made by mommy at Daniel's request.

A new water bottle and bike lock from

Aunt Jess & Uncle Chris.

Daniel received a workbench from Grandma and Grandpa.  Hmmm... it looks familiar because it was my work bench when I was a little guy.  Grandpa freshened it up for another round of service.

Daniel will undoubtedly get some

use out of the workbench.

 

Happy Birthday Daniel!

Grey Shorty Ride

The past several days of rain have been badly needed.  Today the skies were grey and overcast but no rain, and it was about 15 degrees cooler today.  I headed out for a short ride after dinner.

Looking down into town.

On the way out the driveway and down the street I actually felt chilled for few moments.  I guess low 80's are a slight shock to the system after 90's and heavy humidity.  It felt good.

Praise the creator for His creation

we get to pedal through.

The Tour de France has been going full force the past couple weeks.  Last weekend, a week late but better late than never, we upgraded out cable package in order to watch the Tour.  A DVR was also part of the deal and makes it easier to catch each stage.

Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky have the yellow jersey locked up now.  After just watching those guys in the high mountains of the Pyrenees it was nice to get out on the road and stand in the pedals a little bit.

"Bike lane" on the uphill.

The traffic was virtually non-existent.  It seemed strange to me for a Friday night.  I took the opportunity to ride the hill up Lincolnway to SR250.  It's not so fun when there are cars whizzing by but today I was only passed a couple times.  It's two lanes going up and one lane coming down, so the cars passing me have a lane to do it in.  Not a long hill, but fun to ride up chasing KOM points.

Ricardo at the Knob

Ricardo, a friend from work, wanted to hit the Knob before transferring to a new job out of state.  He is headed to South Carolina where I'm sure he will be able to find some good trails to ride.

Arriving at the Knob after work I watched lightning and dark clouds moving in.  Is it really going to rain?  I guess it's been so seldom to have rain this summer it's surprising when the skies actually let down some water.  Ricardo and I set out on a lap and rain it did.

Weather moving in.

At the first crossing of an access road I led us back to the pavilion.  Soaked to the core, we stood in the pavilion and watched the show.  Torrential down pour, lighting, and nearby thunder was frequent.  About 20 minutes later the storm had passed by and two guys rolled into the pavilion having experienced the storm out on the course.  It sounded pretty sketchy.

 Our mounts picked up some mud.

Already geared up, and muddy from our short ride, we decided to head back out and see what we would find.  Puddles were frequent but it seemed much of the rain had run off.  We had a fun, slightly sloppy time riding.  Ricardo's bike handling skill was impressive, the conditions did not seem to affect him.  I'm sure Ricardo will be able to find some off road, two-wheeled fun in his new neighborhood!

Back to the vehicles, sporting some wet dirt.

I enjoyed riding the Karate Monkey for the first time at the Knob.  The handling once again felt natural, which made mazeville fun.  The rigid front end did not beat me up to much, which was a little surprise.  Good ride and display of weather this afternoon!

Guess it's time to wash the shoes.

Daniel's Wheel Work

For a little while now Daniel has been saying, "my bike wheels are scratchy!"  This would be in reference to his Strider bike and KT has been making the same mention regarding the sounds coming from the rear wheel.  Today Daniel and I made time to investigate.

Without assistance Daniel had both wheels

off his bike in about 3 minutes.

Working in the manly outfit of shorts only, Daniel removed both wheels from his bike and brought them to the work bench for further disassembly.  We discovered wasted caged bearings on both sides of the rear wheel and a dry bearing up front.  Actually, I'm trying to decide if these wheels came with dry bearings?  No matter as they are lubed up now.  I put the rear back together with loose balls and we'll see how long that lasts.

Getting into the hub.

No more scratchy sounds and he is rolling again.  Daniel can ride his pedal bike mostly unassisted but only when someone is with him in the street.  The Strider still sees plenty of action around the house, be it on the sidewalk, in the yard, or even inside the house.  Good fun.

Getting a boost.

First Time Riding Reagan

Today after work Noah and I left the office and headed to Reagan Park in Medina.  I've never been there before and often thought about making a visit.  Noah, proud new owner of a Trek dual sport bike, had ridden some of the trails.

Noah on the Huffman Trail.

We rode the Huffman Trail first, it was ridden in and dry.  There were plenty of twists and corners but not much in the way of rocks or roots.  With the Paragon awaiting fork service I was on the Karate Monkey.  I quickly realized this was going to be fun riding on the quick handling Monkey.

Creepy tree on the Annex Trail.

The Huffman Trail connected us to the Annex Trail and the Annex Trail connected to the River Trail.  This is where things got interesting.  It was not so obvious how these trails went together and the few trail markings I saw were more confusing than helpful.  No big deal, we had fun finding our way.  It's less than 3 miles of trail in these two loops so a wrong turn or backtrack here or there is of little penalty.  I'm sure it makes better sense after several rides.

Noah pedaling hard out of a corner on the Reagan Park Trail.

It took a couple tries but we found the trail to cross the road and deliver us to the Reagan Park Trail loop.  The trail direction was obvious for a while but there were a couple confusing intersections.  Mostly there was more dry, dusty conditions with plenty of curves.  An occasional, short uphill or downhill kept it interesting but there were certainly no climbs.

Somewhere along the way, after I repeated a particularly curvy section of trail for the fun of it, I had Noah board the Karate Monkey.  I think he liked it as he took off and tore around on it pretty good.  Meanwhile I rode his dual sport and tried to not to crunch myself on a bike with saddle 2" too high for me.

I think it was Ray from Ray's Indoor Mountain Bike Park.

Back to our vehicles the bikes were covered in dust.  It's not like mud where you have some clumps in the expected places, it was solid dust over the whole bike.  I can say there is some fun to be had at Reagan Park and having a little better idea of how the trails link together will make it more straight forward next time!

A Bike in the Kitchen

A bike in the kitchen's a sign,

a sign of a coming good time,

 the bottles are full and I'm ready to roll,

so let's head out on a ride!

Low Trees at Mohican

The Paragon is currently missing its fork as I await some new fork seals.  Everything else is ready to go for the service work, I just need the seals.  It's also missing handlebars as I've decided the Bontrager Big Sweep bars are not compatible with.... me.  So, when Ryan and I were making plans for an Independance Day ride I knew it would be on the Karate Monkey.

We left for Mohican before 8.  The plan was to ride most of the loop and then I would meet the family for a picnic lunch and play in the river.  We parked at the Discovery Forest parking lot and hit the trail.  It was instantly obvious something had happened in the woods.  The trail was littered with leaves, sticks, and branches.  Before long we encountered a blow down obstructing the trail.

Tree down!

The Monkey was feeling really good.  I was running about 20 pounds front and rear on the 2.4" Ardent tires.  The tires were hooking up and providing a lot of confidence, plus my legs were feeling good on the singlespeed.  The climb up Mount Doom was better than I expected.

Off the bike again, navigating

another blow down.

As we continued through the loop we encountered more and more blown down trees.  The debris across the trail was constant.  It sounded like riding on rice crispies at times, due to the snapping twigs beneath tires.  Between the mile 19 road crossing and the campground there were countless trees.  Somewhere in this section we came across two trail runners who commented on the down trees.  They live in Loudonville and said the damage was mostly from the storm this past Sunday night.  Strong winds and hail, up to quarter sized, caused the damage.

Did I mention it was hot and humid?  By the time we reached the campground I had drained my 70 ounce Hydrapak of Heed.  For the sake of time we were going to take the short loop connector and save a few miles, but I needed some water first.

Stopped at a campground shower house

for liquid refills.

Up the short loop connector and back on the loop we experienced more of the same.  Leaf littered trails and more blown down trees.  It was interesting to see how big some of the blow downs were.  Some of these trees were pretty good size.

A large, downed pine.

The last climb delivered us to the group camping area.  Ryan turned right to his car and I turned left to head down, down, down the road to the covered bridge.  KT had setup picnic paraphernalia and the kids were having fun.  Daniel was eager to go back into the river and I was ready for a cool off.  We made our way out to the faster moving water and laid down for a while.  Happy July 4th!

 Daddy raft.

Hot Paved Ride with Detour

Our air conditioning has been on for a couple weeks now.  It's been hot and humid, feeling more like late summer.  Ryan and I headed out on a short road ride despite the 90 degree temperature and humidity.

We did a loop from Ryan's house and got in a few hills.  It felt pretty good when moving along but the slower speed and added exertion of the hills made us really feel the heat rising from the pavement.

Car back.

We scoped out and partook in a little detour outside Fredericksburg.  It was mostly good, clean fun other than Ryan's unexpected dismount, but very little corn was damaged.  ;-)

Where does this go?