PaisLeY WooDs

My wife and I seem to be in the long off road single speed ride business. The shop opens mainly on weekends and we start rides and end them when we want and were always in for some fresh dirt. Today, after careful pondering and a super late start I decided to finally go and check out the Paisley woods mountain bike trail located in the town of Paisley and part of the black bear capital of Florida aka Ocala National Forests.
The trail was exactly as advertised at 22 miles according to Garmin and all his normal forestrial miscalculations. We decided to ride all the way to Alexander springs. The gate fee was ridiculous so we didn't fulfill the fantasy of a swim but the ride was pleasant enough.

If you have ever ridden croom, then you would recognize the flaura and fauna of this trail. I would say this is the lake county version of croom. The terrain even rolls just like croom, lots of climbing, I was surprised, some long downhills and uphills, this place was a real treat.


At this point, is where you do a small out and back and basically turn around.
Part of the reason of riding this trail is to get a look at the forests service roads, this one in particular is in prime condition. I saw some others that were not so nice. Yea, the wheels are turning in my mind.

There were some long climbs that added up out there today. There was some super buff areas, that had you diving into the bushes head first. The Bird made almost every climb today, this one was one of the ones she didn't. It doesn't look like much, but it was hard. My out of saddle skills have improved so much, I was riding real good, I like the War Machine.
The trail was clearly marked and there was only one or two spots that we stopped and had to look around for the blazes.

We started on the East side.

And came back on the west side. Nothing but flavor and I look forward to riding out here some more (moonlight night ride anyone?). The Bird took a Lil beating from this trail today, but she just doesn't realize how good she truly is. We rode 22 miles through rolling terrain, with not a single break. I can think back to my beginner days and I dont think I would of been able to do that then.

Tomorrow, the rattle snake!

Laters,
LOS

RattleSnake Phase 2

We spent a couple of hours driving around yesterday evening.
All I have to say is WOW!!!
I discovered the area I was looking at is privately owned by a local hunting club.
This place has so much potential its ridiculous, I have no Idea how many miles total the system is, but I am planning to go forward with what I find to be the currently the most manageable and easily navigated route to the Island.
stay posted!
Laters,
LOS

The RattleSnake Phase 1

There is a portion of dirt roads that link up close to my house that I have ridden a couple of times. Well, I have been looking to add some mileage to my already sizeable dirt loop.
Upon suggestion I started using Google earth and discovered a network of dirt roads out towards the Osteen area.
I have a plan to connect it to a section I am already familiar with and explore to an area labeled on the map as RattleSnake Island.If you look at my image from the Google Earth program, I have put thumbtacks marking key locations. My plan is to print this, then while looking simultaneously at Google maps make notes on the map of roads that are labeled and the intended route with alternates.
The only section of this ride that appears to be Buff is the powerline trail that takes you out to the Snake.
With that in mind, this course lends itself to phase 2 which I will do tomorrow and actually attempt to drive the course to "Scout it Out".
From experience you have to be very keen when chasing images from satellite photos. You have to learn to recognize the subtle changes in the trail, cause sometimes the location is not very clear.
You sometimes come across sand pits or gates and fences, or natural obstacles like creeks and marsh land. That's when its good to have more then one route to reach or complete the route desired.
The plan is to ride it Fathers' day early, thirty miles is my guess, could be more could be less. If its nice; I plan to use it as a good place to ride to and camp just to test my overnight kit.
Stay tuned!

Laters,
LOS

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.