HeR FiRsT 50 :O !

Paloma wanted to do the NK ride ever since she knew that I had connected the loop.

She has been pedaling a lot more lately. She is a natural if such thing exists.
On this day she did the entire ride, abridged, but just as fun.
It took us 10 hours to do the entire ride.
6 of them were spent riding a mostly off road loop with BUFF single track, BuFf double track and dirt roads.
Lots of climbs; I ended up taking a detour that gave us some of the longest sickest climbs I have done in a long time. Funny part is those climbs have been there for the longest time and I never knew.
4 of the hours were spent smelling the roses.
She has never ridden 31 miles let alone 50, but she was in to win. My plan was simple. Break it into sections, stop, post up, relax and enjoy, time, is not an issue or a factor; a true Off Road Tour.

Mr. Turtle met us on the road heading into Cassadaga. Its the funniest thing, as I sit on the machine doing cadence riding and chatting with my lady, I see the turtle in the road, Identify it outloud and take off in a chase after it similar to the crocodile hunter from back in the day. Plus I wanted to make sure he didn't get hit, but brother must cross the road here alot cause he was hauling ass.
The first mostly off road section of the NK ride was in good shape save for the last mile. The last mile was rough and you had to ride on the shoulder of the road where the grass is still growing. Its rough riding, cause at times you lose shoulder so you have to speed up sprint across the soft sand and bridge the gap to the other side where the shoulder is rideable.
Amazingly enough, its a great workout.

When we got to Cassadaga, I decided to hang a right and head into the "downtown" area and check out some of the sights and shops.

Here is where we took a slight detour from the regular NK ride. We took the road out of Cassadaga to MLK to Orange camp for 5 miles of back road and sidewalks. It was nice had some leg burning steep climbs on this progressive Urban slither of singletrack.

Great thing about riding for me. Is if I ride, the effort affords a cold one if I chose to do so and today I did. They made my belly feel warm.

Los on the phone. My phone is a bad ass on board assistant and entertainment machine. I got to say, I am into gadgets.
After lunch, drink, and desert at Angelina's, we rode another 3 miles to Lake Beresford park. This place has potential and I plan to do some approved trail building out there and hopefully build or inspire someone to assist. The Buff single track we rode looped perfectly in the direction on the paved spring to spring trail that we take that leads us into Debary and further down along the NK route. It was mostly uphill and really primitive, we totally dugg it.

I loved the detail in this log,





Great sights along this trail. I cant wait to get out here and give it more, I predict great things for this spot with some time and effort.






I found the sweetest connector off the spring to spring trail to the rail road track trail that involved a 20 foot steep off camber descent to a technical tight transition at the bottom. Also realized how nice the climbs are on this thing. This place is definetely going to be incorporated in my training loops I do out here.

LOOK FOR THE GHOST IN THE PIC

Once we left Lake Beresford the next Oasis was the Gemini springs trail head at Lake Monroe. We got there at 10pm and posted up. Used the spout to refill all our water, we had ran out about 4 miles back, we wet our hair, cleaned our legs, laid on the benches and relaxed.
We had some of the coolest experiences that I have ever had on a bike.
We saw a family of raccoons crossing the rail road tracks.
One sprinting deer.
3 owls. One sat with us for almost an hour sitting in the tree making chirping sounds like I have never heard coming from such a bird.
The best part was after this spot, when we were making our way across the Gemini springs trail and we hit the marsh land area.
There must have been close to 1000 lightning bugs flying around in unsynchronized movements. For a moment I thought I was having some sort of psychedelic rerun, but NO, what my eyes were witnessing did indeed exists.
It was beautiful and priceless.
Lights just flashing and floating in no particular pattern for yards and yards, breathtaking.
We finished up around 1am. She says it was great, best she has ever felt after a long ride. Man, those Ergon Grips sure do help.

Enjoy,
Laters,
LOS

The Santos 70: ThE GrueLeR!

Here is the Garmin data.
I had planned to do a Lil day before epic with the wife. I was going to take her on an abridged version of the NK ride, get lunch, stop and smell the flowers you know make a day of it.
But Friday night, my head felt real heavy. I was still feeling the effects of Thursday nights efforts. All day Saturday I pretty much just laid about, watched TV, read, relaxed, we both did my wife and I, we never even touched the bikes.
Well we did. We put on her Ergon Grips and new stem and bars to get her a better fit on the Fetish.
I went to sleep around 6pm Saturday evening and didn't get out of bed till 4 am Sunday morning. I was well rested, got up excited. Heck I was the first person in the parking lot.
I had my concerns about the ride. Being a guy who loves to explore and plan, after a couple of awful exploring experiences I can get a bit apprehensive. But, one good conversation with Rob(pictured here) and I had changed my tune about the ride and was excited to get out there.
The kit was the most important part of the day for me. I really want to get into super long extended self supported epics and figured this was a great enough adventure into the unknown to be able to really put the kit through its paces.
Full On epic Kit includes:
1 lighter.
1 roll of electrical tape.
1 tom tom navigation system.
1 spare cell phone battery.
1 set of music headphones.
1 topeak mini bike pump with pressure gauge.
1 Light and motion Stella light with headmount.
1 map.
1 camera.
1 phone.
1 Leatherman multi tool.
2 tubes.
2 16 oz co2
1 compatible c02 inflater.
1 multi tool.
2 Sram Powerlinks.
For nutrition, I had it calculate at 9 hours so I took 4 packets of almonds and 1 packet of mixed nuts, plus one packet of salmon.
For hydration I went with my 200 oz camelback bladder. I brought an extra bottle with the plan of using it to pour water over my head. Turns out I never needed it.
All this fit neatly and compactly into my Ergon BD1 pack.


Ron is a bad ass dude nuff said. Don't believe me, check out the trucker hat, this guy is no joke.

As well I was excited to see Luis, love riding with this guy, there is no slow with Lou and I dig it.

We rolled out, Tony, Rob, Ron, Luis and I. Ron and Tony were only planning to get out to the Landbridge and then head back, admittedly I wanted to get to the task at hand, but once we got going thru them woods I was caught up in the moment and didn't care what we rode. I was having some technical difficulties. My seat bag fell a couple of times. My pack wasn't working right. Turns out I had the front buckles way to tight for that type of design. Once I loosened the front buckle, the pack worked fantastic. Making my way thru vortex coming down a long drop, I hit a soft mud patch with the front wheel and did a little locked up with the bike slide on my side, smacked my knee and hip into a tree trunk right in the middle of the trail.
It hurt, and I cursed.
But got up and kept going. The rest of the ride out to the near end of Nayl's was super nice and it was nothing but smiles on my face.

At this point, Ron parted ways and we started making our way into what we would call the Unknown section of the trip.




The Start of the unknown was limestone road in fact I would be safe in saying that 85% of the track heading out to Pruitt Trailhead is of such composition. The terrain was rolling, which was a great workout in some parts, in others it was flat which was fine as well.We found a water source, the water looked so clean and it was so cold. But the sign says dont drink it, for those who would like to venture to the Pruitt trailhead this would be a good spot to filter water, there is another at the actual trailhead.

This is a shot of the little pavilion thing they put at the trail head. Not much out there just a lot of wide open land.


From looking at the map, early, Rob had mentioned that we could make the river. I pictured clear clean flowing water and a nice refreshing dip. In fact I thought about it a lot the entire way out there. Well we found it, and sat down and it was nice, but I wouldn't jump in the water. Still, it was a nice spot and it was interesting all the terrain we had covered, we had seen lots of animals and even had a little rain up to this point.
We rolled out hoping it would be a nice smooth ride back out. Well, I had thought once I got out there that it might rain. And sure enough it did, but then, it came back. As I was making my way thru the pasture like double track, the storm started creeping in from behind.
The lightning was ripping the sky above my head and very close by, definitely breaching any agreements I have ever had with Lightning and proximity. But sure enough I came around the corner to find Rob and Luis discussing. Rob suggested we seek shelter in the tree line since it seemed like our best bet.
Well I start looking around and immediately spot a cave like pocket in the brush. Seemed to me like animals had laid there before and sure enough that's where we took cover.
For one hour, the lightning was as bad as I have ever seen it. There were proximity alarms going off in my head. Things were looking bleak at this moment.
Then.
The Rain started coming down like blankets of sheer water being shed from a wheeping God. I was drenched 20 seconds into the ordeal and it didn't seem like It would let up.
Then.
I saw a piece of Ice hit the ground and I mentioned it to the Guys. Well, Not even 10 minutes after the ice was falling and falling. I had a good spot under a tree but we were all getting hit. Funny how many people can say that their bikes have been hailed on.
Then.
The wind started whipping. So I decided to go deeper in the brush for more cover, from the rain, the wind and the ice. I pulled my arms in my shirt, zipped all the way up, took my ergon pack and sat it up in the direction that the wind was facing, curled up on the ground and waited. The wind got so bad that I started telling the guys to listen for something that may sound like a train, cause it could be a Tornado.
We waited and waited...
Eventually, the wind died down.
The ice stopped falling.
The rain started slowing.
The lightning started moving away.
And a FuLL HoUr had passed!!!
Wow!
We got on the ball and rode back a completely different feeling trail, then the one we had taken out. It was flooded in some spots, and water everywhere, but it was good to be moving, and alive and no longer pinned down by a storm.
There was one 1/2 mile to 1 mile section of the trail that you had to improvise your line choices in order to keep traction. It was part of the challenge.
On our way back, we finished Nayl's and Robert and Luis who had been riding now for several miles without water stopped to refill and I kept going figuring they would catch me eventually.
I actually made it back to the lot, with just 200 oz of water. It was a good test to see how my kit would work and it worked perfect.
I felt great too. No pains, no aches, I truly felt like I could ride forever, I rode 70 and felt like I had ridden 40, it seems like everything is starting to come together for me.
I think anyone and everyone who likes to ride off road should go out and pedal the Grueler, I think you may enjoy it as much as I did.


Laters.
LOS.

Sometimes you Eat the Trail>>>

Sometimes the Trail eats you....

That's exactly what happened to me last night when I went to the Bikeworks Thursday snowhill night ride.

Previous ride, I parked at Barr st. Ended up doing a face plant into the creek, it was a couple of weeks before the Cohutta.

This time, War Machine and I made our way to the Jones east trail head. I wanted to scout a trail that I want to use for the 3rd stage of the SS race that I am going to do, and I wanted to get the extra work out and miles. The trail has some very technical sections and with the big gear I'm pushing on the machine, I was puffy buttin most of the trail. On top of that, I was supposed to meet the guys by eight o five and I didn't want to keep them waiting.
Point is, I was riding hard.

Got to the lot, to see Jason's Brand spankin new Specialized Stumpjumper 29er. I'm not big on specialized bikes, but this thing was BADAZZ. On top of that this was going to be his first exploration into a geared 29, the only 29 he had ridden previously was his single speed Karate monkey on which he killz. Trevor was there as well and he had his geared bike, how funny, I bring the single, they bring the gears, usually its the other way around.

Most of the time, this is a nice easy paced ride, but today, Jason wanted to test his gears and I wanted to test my gear, so it was on. Early; barreling down the fire trail; Jason is putting down the big ring attack, I am hanging on, spinning my legs off and decide to just go ahead and make a pass. Unbeknownst to him, I was silently sneaking on his right and he drifted right and almost took me out, any other time and you would of thought it was intentional, but the SS is so quiet he never even noticed my counter attack. Well, once he noticed that I was right on his heel and not off the back, he really put the hammer down. Man, I tried to hang on, but backed off and counted to ten, once I got to ten, then I started spinning a steady effort hoping to reel him back in.

Eventually we ended up back together, and from then it was each one of us trying to take advantage of the front. And trying to shake the other, it was good times, but right around my mile 9 which was there mile 4, I almost ate it in a corner and manage to step out of it and bail. Ok, then, my front light falls off, not once but twice. Mental note, I need to put my Stella on the head and my miniNewt on the bars, for some reason the Stella mount doesn't work on rough terrain. Especially on this night, I couldn't see shit, the light would sometimes end up shining right on my face, and I'm here trying to chase and the light is simultaneously blinding and searing my retinas.

In the middle of the back section, going thru the deep rooty whoops, I miscalculate and end up trying to ride up the Root wall instead of the nice smooth well worn in spot. I end up, compacting like if I had ridden straight into a wall. Luckily, I went with the impact, and shifted my weight to the left and crashed as smooth as I could into a rooty cradle. I laid there for a minute then picked myself back up. My wheel looked a little funny, but it was still rideable so ride I did.

After a quarter mile, we ended up at a spot, where I knew I could ride about a mile of fire road then do two miles of singletrack or so to end up back at the lot. Or, I could continue trying to chase Jason, truth be told, I was smoked and decided to cut out about 6 miles and ride 3 straight back in the woods instead of the road.

As I pedaled thru the woods, I was feeling the effects of my efforts. I really had not ate too many calories all day and the calories I ate before the ride were plenty but I'm now sure it didn't cover the calorie deficit I had acquired from the day. I felt run down and tired but kept a modest pace back to the car.

Once at the car I packed up, made it home, ate and fell out, woke up, feeling tired and Hungry. Followed that up with a 14 hour work day, O how yummy life can be.

enjoy,
Laters,
LOS

Addendum:
17+ miles is what I rode that night. Not bad for a Thursday Night off road ride.
Jewel of the Night, I came across a PACK of Wild Boars like 8 to 10, everywhere Boars, it was a lil intense. But charming regardless.

SundaY:Nayl's TraiLs

Lately, I have just continued to have a blasts while riding the bike. Just great rides. All my rides lately I have been doing with my wife. She is really getting into riding and she does so good and rides so hard for a beginner that its simply amazing. On this day we did 18+ miles at Nayl's trails over near the Land Bridge Trailhead. 18 miles to me is a nice little warm up ride, but if I think back to my beginner days I know for a fact I could not have ridden 18 miles without stopping for like ten minutes and resting. Self portrait. We start on the Wagon trail from the land bridge trail head, hit the 49Th st trails and then we hit Nayl's and do the ten mile loop taking the wagon trail back after we are done. At one point the wagon trail crosses over 75, right before the climb up the land bridge over 75 there is a nice long climb on the wagon trail. This is a shot of me waiting at the top. And then a shot of Paloma single speed slaughtering the climb. Now that I am a lean mean fighting machine, I can ride 3 times longer in the puffy butt position then I used to be able too. Love it!!
Her endurance is already at an excellent level for a beginner. Her speed, is good, but can get better. But, when it comes to technical terrain, she is still very apprehensive, understandably so, she has maybe 3 trail rides or so under her belt. She still made the trail and hiked a biked the sections she was intimidated by. I thought Nayl's was tame, but my idea of tame is skewed by years of technical trail riding. She will get the skills though, she has me as her coach.


Here is a shot of her finishing the trail. For the everyday MTBeer, no big deal, for her, a great feat.

On the 49Th st blue trail, there is a section of big whoopty doos that leads to a Lil downhill and a log bump at the end. Here is me doing the very end section of it on the war machine. I think all I'm going to ride in trails for the next couple of months is the war machine. I am considering showing up to some of the FSC single speed races and seeing what I got against the pro's who race single speed XC.

Laters,


LOS

TodaY!: ReVengE RidE>

One afternoon, My lady and I did what I would label as the middle section of the NK ride. Well, she made it about 25 miles into the 28 mile ride before she surrendered and requested to be picked up. It was a hell of a ride for an experienced rider and she surprised me with how long she lasted, she is lucky, she is a natural.
But.
Since she didn't finish it, It had become what I call a "REVENGE RIDE". A Revenge ride is a ride that you attempted, got your ass kicked and now your back to get REVENGE. I had it happen at the ORAAM when I got my ass kicked and I returned the next year and kicked it in the ass, etc. Well today, with two single speeds we went out to get REVENGE!!!!
Candid shot of my lady. I was outside, she was inside and I snuck a pic without her knowledge. She is an amazing cyclist. Her father was a champion road cyclist from way back; she some how has his skills genetically, its an amazing thing to observe.
The dirty drop into the pits from the NK ride. Its cool, we park our car at the Gemini springs lot and we start mountain biking after a half mile of road riding. It has been raining for the past couple of days so conditions were the best I have seen them in months. It was NICE.



Ladies and Gentlemen, I present you Lake Konomac. We went to a vista spot and ate some chocolate covered cashews and enjoyed the view. I honestly thought we were going to get rained on. The entire ride we were riding with either distant thunder or distant lightning, it was actually a fantastic sound track. It was very poetic out there today.



Someone took my camera and took this shot. Take notice, I have a huge head on my shoulders.
Dutchman trail from the NK ride.


Bridge rails section from the NK ride.

My wife on a bike is probably 5 feet 10 inches tall, compare that to the bridge, pretty tall. Ya the NK ride has some cool sights.


After riding the grueling rail road section we got onto the bike path and noticed it has now become official and it is no longer illegal to sneak rides on it. I have a great access point and everything is working out real well. Even better when we got to the end we discovered some sweet BUFF single track. We explored for a little bit but bailed cause we were running out of sunlight. I had brought my lights, but in retrospect I should have brought both, I have enough equipment to do it, I should do it for safety's sake. Heck, once we finished exploring the single track we had officially completed close to 18 miles and still had another12 to go before we were back at the car.
We rode on the road Stella on front of the train and my kick ass white LED blinky light on her bike, and stopped into Angelina's for dinner. We had some great food and even better conversation and rolled out. By the time we finished riding, it was eleven PM.
The REVENGE RIDE is done.
Way to go Baby, You are a beautiful and delicate MONSTER!

Laters,
LOS

The New ride: War MachinE!

REfLections: The NK100.

I just realized that I didn't take a minute to say what I thought about the ride.

Funny.

Regardless.

It was my first time sharing and showing my adventurous pursuits. My first time throwing a "RIDE" so to speak.
Well, I give myself a solid C+.
Of course I'm going to be critical. The price, was perfect, absolutely free. What was promised was definitely delivered. After all it did come together at 50 plus miles, heck, I have a legitimate 50. I can "OPEN" it up next time. On top of that, I already know what I can add to make it even LONGER. 60 plus mostly off road.
The conditions unfortunately were as bad as I have ever seen them. I tried to speed the date of the ride since it is so easily influenced by weather. But unfortunately I think in that regards I did the ride 4 weeks too late.
Usually, the loop is Solid, and rideable. And I still managed to ride 99% I didn't walk much that day. I TRAIN in ridiculous conditions at time, so I know the lines, I know when to stand, I know every little grass patch, so if you followed my line, we were working as if we were climbing but only riding the slightest incline or flat terrain. The stuff we rode, is actually pretty amazing when you consider that its a loop and it has a little bit of everything.
There were times, where we were near populated areas, only a few miles from homes, but you experienced that feeling of remoteness. I think that is one of the sole desires of endurance riding, is to feel that Remoteness, to feel that you VS. the world feeling. Well, you felt that on the tracks, it felt like we were in the middle of now where.
That's why I owe a huge thanks and big recognition to all the riders that made the first ride. I look forward to even more adventures that I can share.
As we speak I am cooking up some long mostly off road rides in the state. I am not working alone, so don't be concerned, and I am always looking for more info, so if you think you know something, please share.

Bottom line, I will do this ride again at the perfect time for the terrain to be in near perfect conditions and mark it 100%. LOL.

The cue sheet, I give myself an A +, it was ridiculously detailed and if you knew the start point you could totally do the ride alone anytime.

Finally, Because of the success and experience I had; I am going to go ahead and throw down a single speed race. Its something that needs to be done. Its something that this part of the nation needs. It will be completely Underground and at your own risk. It will borrow ideas, I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel, I'm just trying to put existing ideas and existing methods, and tweaking them and adding a Lil Beer and a lil adventure.

Stay posted.

Laters,

LOS

Team bike works Orlando

Wins at TSALI once again. For the Third time in four years we have brought the Team racing trophy back to Florida.
Congratulations to all my teamies and everyone who rode up there on your spectacular performances.

ROCK ON!!!