Schaeffer & stuff

Yowza I've been busy lately. I suppose, I have been, as they say, busier than a one-armed paper-hanger. With what, you ask? Life, in general. In the last week, I changed the blades on the riding mower, mowed, trimmed the trees, cleaned out the car port (took a load to the dump) and pulled out the stakes from the horse shoe pits (after gouging my left shin on one). I also went to the Maryland Wine Festival this past Saturday. I drank plenty of tasty wines, though I found that an ice cold Pepsi paired best with the pit beef sandwich I ate while I was there. But Sunday I actually got a ride in on the mountain bike. I met Damien and rode 14 miles of singletrack at Seneca Creak Park. Good times! It was a nice & easy ride with a few stops to take in the sights and chit chat. As usual, we ended up at the Dogfish Head Alehouse after the ride. Not one for Oktoberfest beers, I was shocked that I truly did enjoy their Punkin Ale. The images in this blog post were taken with my new Samsung Galaxy S3 phone.

Schaeffer Farming - 21 miles

I've been pretty busy lately and haven't had any time to blog. Though I have some significant news: I started my new job and I bought a jeep. Life it seems, is beginning to smooth out for me (I hope). Riding truly brings me joy, perhaps that's why it's remained a constant throughout my life. Liberation,freedom; forward momentum. Yesterday was a great day to be on the trails with a friend and together Damien and I reeled in 20 miles of fantastic singletrack at Seneca Creek and Schaeffer Farms. As is becoming routine, we hit up the Dogfish Head Alehouse in Germantown for a cold barley-pop, good food & some catching up.

Schaeffer Farms - 21 miles

Today I drove out to Germantown, MD and met my friend Damien for a mountain ride at Schaeffer Farms. Schaeffer is awesome in general, but today's ride pushed past the confines of awesomeness and dare I say, bordered on the realm of epic. Though not fully worthy of the wearing the Epic robe, today's ride had nearly all the makings necessary for the aforementioned garment. The only ingredients lacking would be: distance and technical adversity. However, we did crank out 21.07 miles of nothing but singletrack.







And now... in bullet format... I give you the reasons for the nearly epic ride:

• Mechanically speaking: My bike rode like that of Tinker Juarez's at the 2000 Summer Olympics. (I'm assuming analogously here, that his bike rode in tip-top shape; given the fact that he is a pro-rider and as such pro-mechanics finely tune his bike to provide intimate responses to his affectionate inputs).

• Physically speaking: My body felt pretty fantastic. Even though the last bit of physical activity I partook in, was a 3 mile run around my home town this past Thursday morning. Unless of course you count the king-size mattress I folded in half and shoved into the back of the truck before taking it to the dump yesterday. I almost lost that battle. And if you think that's funny, I suggest you take your king size mattress out in the yard and try folding it in half... Anyway, I felt great today. Rock on.
  

• Weather-ologically speaking: Temps hovered in the mid 50's with over cast skies and the dew point at 51°F. Yes, it was quite comfy indeed kids. I rode in shorts, short sleeves and arm warmers which were just barely necessary (Tougher men could have gone without).
  

• Tera-firmically speaking: The trails were hard-packed, zippy, clear of debris and most notably: NEW. That's right: NEW. We stumbled upon a linking trail that connected Schaeffer Farms with the Seneca River Trail by crossing Germantown Road. This new trail is sweeter than sweet. It's manicured to perfection with a broom-swept appearance and has fantastic flow making you feel like a fun-loving luge racer but without any of the awkward & humiliating luge crashes.... awk-waaaaard! Though, crashes were kind of out of the question because the only possible flaw I could find with the trails was that they were too easy to ride. Great flow, but no real challenge. No baby-heads, big ledges, or rooty/rutty sections. Let the record show that I'm not complaining... just sayin'.
  

Tomorrow night is the Race Pace group ride over at Hasahwa. Till next time....

Above left: My beloved 1X9. Above right: Damien zipping by.

Above left: Beautious day to be riding. Above right: Survivors of a recent forest fire.

Above left: Me. Above right: Damien rides through the singed piney section.

Above left: Damien showing some leg. Above right: Damien in motion.

You shall not pass

Yesterday I drove all the way out to Schaeffer Farms, an hour away, to ride the blingle-speed on the lucious singletrack I've missed so much these past five years. Oh how I've longed for those zippy trails. And so it was with a smile on my face, a red bull in my lap, and coordinates punched into the GPS, that I backed out of the driveway and sped off to Germantown, MD. The whole way there I recounted excellent times had at this park. I remembered each loop and it's little nuggets of goodness (the evergreen sections, the half-pipe section, the cornfield perimeters... I remembered large group rides, changing in the parking lot, and waiting for the guy who was ALWAYS 20 minutes late. One thing I didn't remember was MORE's arguably over protective control over the park. I forgot that if it rains even remotely hard within a few days of when you plan on riding there, the park will most likely be closed to mountain bikers. And so when I pulled into that long familiar gravel entrance to the park, pleasantly surprised that “groove is in the heart” was just beginning to play on the radio, I was greeted by a locked gate which seemed to shout: “You shall not PASS!”

Buzz kill.

I sat in the truck for a full 5 minutes weighing the options. I could go to the Watershed in Frederick, but I brought my rigid singlespeed and I'd be miserable. I could just go home and take the road bike out, but I had an appetite for dirt today. Hmmm. I decided I'd head back to Baltimore and ride at Patapsco Park (Excellent singletrack). So I backed out of the entrance, popped the truck in drive and was on my way to my alternative riding spot. Until...

Above left: Dogfish Head Alehouse. Above right: A hut at Patapsco Park.

I passed a Dogfish Head Ale House. That's right. I'd never seen one before. So I pulled a U-ey and doubled back. It was lunch time anyway and I thought I'd finally be able to try out that 120 Minute IPA I've been reading about. And so I sat down at the bar, ordered a 120 minute IPA and the Ahi Tuna sandwich. I was talked out of the 120 after the bartender suggested I try a sample first. I tried it- it was sickeningly sweet and intensely strong at 18%. Yowza. So I ordered a 60 minute IPA. I was back on the road 30 minutes later and eager to hit the trails.

Above Left: Spring time in the forest. Above Right: The Singlespeed resting against an old oil tanker car.

When I pulled up to Patapsco and parked off of Rolling rd, I saw a bunch of riders leaving their cars and entering the woods. Awesome. I was stoked. I popped the 1X1 together and dove into the swooping decent that takes you down, down, down to a small creak which you crisscross a few times before being dumped out in a parking lot area. I shot across the parking lot, through a tunnel and into another zippy-fast trail that meandered along the Patapaso River. I searched out a familiar climb that was chock-full o' waterbars. I was huffin' & puffin' by the time I reached the top and though I was going to have a heart attach. I'm waaaaay out of shape! After recovering, I was really lovin' the purple trail. It was extremely fast and ideal for a singlespeed bike like mine. I did two small loops before I had to head back home. Excellent ride. Can't wait to get back in shape!

Above: An old oil tanker car beaten from it's roll down the train track embankment and several years of flood waters beating it to death, rests along the side of the Patapsco River.

Schaeffer Farms my true love.

This morning I cruised over to Germantown and hit Schaeffer Farms on my cross bike. This trip was long overdue. I have to say that Schaeffer's got to be my favorite place to ride cross country. It seems like the trails are always dusty dry, super hard packed and jam-packed with flow. For 4 hours today I was Mr.Speedracer on the zippy-fast singletrack.

I haven't ridden here since 2003, but, it was just as rocking as I remembered it. I was impressed with the maps at each trail head and the way the trails were marked. I knew where I wanted to go but it was nice to have the maps to make sure I was on the right track. I ended up hitting every loop once and then went back and hit the yellow loop for good measure. I ended up with 16 miles of sweet sweet singletrack under my legs.

Here are a few photos from today's ride.

- Mike