June Bug

I didn't see that coming. I could say there are worse places to be but there aren't. Glad you survived and are hopefully back home in much cooler conditions -- in your house...in the AC.

The temperature is too damn high! *said in "The Rent is too Damn High Guy" voice. Rode home from Hyde Park Gym via Shoal Creek, paved Gnarnia, Pickle Research Center, Domain, Kramer and neighborhood roads to home. Didn't feel super hot until riding through Pickle Research Center, which doesn't have a lot of shade. By the time I got home at 2:30 I was feeling a few of those weird little chills that actually herald over heating. Temp on the shaded front porch was 99; the outside sensor on the thermostat, which is in the shade at this time of day, read 101. A water bottle with SKRATCH helped big time during the ride.

Not a destination, but online tools to suss out what might be waiting at your destination; especially useful for contemplating bikepacking routes. I'm using a place I'm interested in (Red Canyon in SE Utah) as an example. I stumbled across this awesome web site called TopoZone.com. It has free access to USGS topographic maps and there is a print option as well. You can zoom in for details (for example, what's the elevation of this contour line?) or pull back for the big picture. And yes, view on a full size monitor. Cell phones and tablets wouldn't work well. One can order custom maps from TopoZone for a charge. Combined with Google maps 3d view, it's an excellent way to preview topography and get a better understanding of terrain and perhaps locate roads and trails. . This particular TopoZone link is to the South Fork Red Canyon, San Juan County, Utah, which has caught my attention for bike packing potential out to Lake Powell (water!) and back. If you scroll down, this specific information is provided: elevation, coordinates, the USGS topo map for this particular landform, links to nearby similar land forms (in this case valleys) and the related USGS topo map where that particular land form occurs. For example, the south fork of Red Canyon is found on the USGS Chocolate Drop topo map. It was fun spending an hour or two toggling back and forth between googlemaps 3D view and the topo map. I may be the last person to realize this, but Google maps will respond to queries for landform names if given enough info. I used "Red Canyon, San Juan County, Utah" as the address query. The result showed one red marker ("Red Canyon") in the middle of Lake Powell, because the mouth of Red Canyon is now in the middle of the damn lake. The second red marker, North Fork Red Canyon, marks the confluence of the north and south forks of Red Canyon. Then click on satellite view and zoom in. These areas in SE Utah have zip for vegetation, so what you see is what you get. I don't know how well this would work for forested areas. Anyway, if you're thinking about going somewhere new and route planning, combining Google Maps 3d view and TopoZone are a great combination.

Not in the cat family, but coatamundi (coati, ringtail cat) are related to raccoons. My first interaction with one was camping in the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness in Arizona. We set our packs down to eat a snack, without realizing that within less than two minutes, one of the rascals would chew a hole in my pack to get to food. When we went to bed that night (no tent), they were rummaging through our camp within minutes of crawling into sleeping bags. That looks like a big fat happy fox at Walnut. There are lots of bunnies at WC that would make a tasty treat for Mr. Fox, who probably also forages for cat food and what not in the houses adjacent to the park. Foxes are crazy successful in urban and suburban environments.

We'll be volunteering down in Ilium Valley, near the end of lap 1. Be sure and wave. With the major change in the route, Lap 1 should be much much easier without Black Bear Pass, so there's that. If ya can't ride the T-40, you can sign up on Tobin's volunteer list on facebook.

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but summer heat usually lasts until late Oct. That said, I'm interested in volunteering. Is the route already flagged? Is there any way we could get a variance to camp overnight on work weekends (or possibly weekdays)? Thumbs up for Cranksgiving at Reimers!

Neighbors here in Gracywoods have reported seeing one (maybe a mom coyote) that hangs out by Lincolnshire, in the heavily wooded area south of the Walnut Creek detention dam (now with concrete sidewalk). In my 'hood near Braker/Swearingen, there are opossums, raccoons, skunks and coyotes wandering around at night. I've smelled skunk on several occasions. I too love to see an ocelot or a jaguarundi! Even a bobcat would be awesome; they have incredibly cute ears. Mountain lion in the wild? Not so much.

Interesting north wind today and over the next three days or so. Maybe a bit less humid? Should get everything completely dry.

Crusty and I used to ride hill repeats on Far West back in the day. Some people would spread deer corn on their driveways for the deer who apparently weren't getting enough sustenance from dining on expensive landscaping in the neighborhood. When blasting down Far West to get ready for another hill repeat, I hoped like hell that a deer wouldn't run across the street in front of me. They were everywhere. White tail deer are a tasty treat for a mountain lion and not that hard for a mountain lion to kill. Just sayin. Also, it's not unusual to see deer at Walnut Creek.

Just picked up the Columbia sun sleeves this afternoon. I got the L/XL and the top fits snug, while the wrists are a little loose. They are very lightweight.

Yup, big rain in the WC 'hood. Knocked out power for a minute or two and still raining. The Weather Underground home station on Lincolnshire right by WC shows 0.99" (Edit: it's now up to 1.01") This feels so monsoon-ish.

I was remembering just now that we pumped up tires pretty close to max just before starting the ride, because, of course, it was all going to be a nicely bladed road and all smooth sailing. There was some smooth sailing but lots of variety to keep things interesting. Washboard sections of road were the worst; hard on hands and wrists, even when standing on the pedals. Ergon grips were helpful.

Yup, a super cheap 29er hardtail frame that fits just right is out there somewhere for you to find. What size frame do you ride? Also, not exactly on topic, but when we stopped at the Chamber of Commerce office right on the square in Mason to pick up a county map, they had individual county maps for all the counties in that part of Texas. These maps show all the roads in the county, although it doesn't specify which are dirt and which are paved. We got Blanco Northern Burnet County Northern Hays County Kerr County Kimble Lampasas Llano Mason Menard San Saba They are free if you contact the Chamber of Commerce in any of the towns in the county. They are published by Texas Trails in Llano. Planning to put together some great rides on dirt and ranch to market roads, and maybe two to three day credit card tours on same. The area between Fredericksburg/Llano/Mason has little B&Bs and cabins popping up out in the middle of no where. There's also an almanac of Texas showing every current road and it's status, from major highways to dirt roads. Whole Earth Provision Co might carry it, sometimes REI has it in stock. All good tools for planning a (relatively) local adventure.

Yesterday's ride on the James River Rd south of Mason: graded dirt, uneven bedrock, sand, loose dirt mixed with small rocks, a bit of rutted dirt from recent rains, washboard surface that almost bounced me off my pedals and everything in between. We saw feral hogs, many does and a spotted fawn, fat Angus cows/calves/bulls, a rattle ssssssnake, little cottontail bunnies hop hop hopping along, a jackrabbit, a wildflower hanging on here and there, blooming cacti, beautiful limestone bluffs, gorgeous vistas, a wide river we didn't cross and met a local guy checking his gates who brought his six best friends: 5 border collies and a small-ish poodle. None of them barked at us -- not one sound. Crusty's ride: gravel bike (carbon frame, dropped bars, disc brakes), WTB CrossBoss 35 x 700 tires with tread. Me: rigid Ti hard tail with Maxxis Re-Fuse 700 x 40 tires (smooth, no tread) mounted on 29 rims, MRP carbon fork, Surly handle bars with a super swept angle. I've use this set up for dirt roads, gravel, path touring, commuting. Don't let the simple word "gravel" make you think that a gravel ride will always just be smooth packed dirt or caliche on a bladed road; things can get rough. A rigid 29er hardtail with 40 x 400 cc tires mounted on 29er rims is a de facto gravel grinder with minimal cash outlay. For rougher roads, a 1.9" (remember those?) 29er tire with low tread (Maxxis CrossMark?) would be ideal. Ride the setup, see what you like (don't like) and contemplate where you want to go from there. Again, old school 29er rims (narrow interior width) are perfect for mounting narrow tires. Do you want to do dirt road/path/rail-trail touring at some point? I hope you do. That's long days in the saddle with varying loads. You can self support with camping gear or credit card tour. With this, you'll have some long days in the saddle, so comfort is paramount. You may want to take that option into consideration with whatever setup you have eventually. "gravel" is like opening a door. You might think you're opening a door to a small closet, but when you turn on the light, you've entered a new bike dimension with amazing vistas and endless possibilities for day rides near Austin to rocking multi-day tours on maintained dirt roads/paths/rail trails for days on end throughout the west and southwest and other parts of the US. Craters and Cinder Cones route River Road Ramble Great Allegheny Passage Bon appetite!

I remember the revelation when I first rode the Proflex. Then another revelation when I swapped out the Flex Stem for a regular suspension fork on my Proflex 856. Then huge revelation when riding the zippy and fun Titus Racer X! Even huger revelation riding a 29er for the first time at a demo. Then additional revelation when we realized that the early iteration Gary Fisher 29er was a clunky tank, and got better 29ers. Also, disc brakes. Mind blown. It seems people are getting injured less these days with advances in mtn bike frame geometry, but I could be wrong. That said, I'm sorry I ever let go of my fist mtn bike, a red steel Specialized Rock Hopper, in the (mid?) 1990s.

Heavy shower moved through the Walnut area this afternoon, Wednesday, July 3rd.

Did a loop backpack awhile back that involved climbing Engineer Mtn. There's a slot that you climb out of to get to the ridge leading to the peak. There were various people climbing that day, and just after we'd climbed out of the slot onto the exposed ridge leading to the peak, some people pointed out the static electricity crackling underfoot, on our clothes, and in our hair. We all backtracked STAT and sheltered down in the slot until the danger had passed. There were dark clouds to the north, but nothing particularly ominous overhead and it wasn't raining, but the danger of a lightning strike was still high. So yeah, just pay close attention to your exposure to lightning anytime after noon during July and most of August.

Thanks for the link. That is indeed a fascinating article. Amazing that between the satellites, motorcycles, helicopters, airplanes, mountain top RF relays, and all the crazy production action over the course of a day, that they manage to make it seamless for the viewers.

You beat me to it! This is such exciting news and I'm simply still in awe. Big shout out to Chumba for sponsoring her, and to Patagonia for hosting her talk. She must have smelled the barn and put on the afterburners to crank out that distance overnight. Well done, well done!

Alexandera is 110.4 miles to Antelope Wells! She should be done tomorrow. Wonder if she'll pedal straight through to the end! Hope someone is there to meet her -- like the Chumba folks. ETA: Will try not to think about Alexandera riding on the access road for I-10 at 9 at night right now. The route uses I-10 to jog a bit back to the east before turning south to Antelope Wells. The closest person to Alexandera must have gotten hung up in Silver City and Alexandera now has a 36 mile lead. If things stay as they are, tomorrow she will be the next finisher behind Ryan Simon, first female finisher, 2nd overall single-speed finisher. As noted above, it will be interesting in the morning to see if she stops tonight or just powers through to the end. Also, really like the timing of this. The person I'm following on the Tour Divide will be all wrapped up and then, Viola!, the T de F gets underway on Saturday. To whet y'all's appetite, there will be 30 categorized climbs with five mountain finishes, but only 54 km of time trialing. Froomie and Geraint Thomas are out with injuries; anything could happen. It will be interesting to see if Bob Roll (Bobke) has a larger role in commentating. Paul Sherwen, Phil Liggett's partner in commenting on road racing for 35 years, passed away of a heart attack at age 62 last December.

I typo'd in my original post. Cuba is on Hwy 550 (not Hwy 555) between Bernalillo and Farmington. It's a bit of a super highway these days and goes right by the turn off to the White Ridge Bike Trails. We've used Hwy 550 three or so times to drive back and forth to SW Colorado; smooth sailing on a 4-lane highway with minimal traffic.

Ryan Simon will finish today -- he has only about 50 miles to go. Alexandera is moving right along after a five-hour nap and will be in Silver City this evening. It looks like she stops about 1 or 2 am, sleeps for four to five hours, and then is right back at it -- consistently cranking out about 140 to 150 miles/day.

Wow, Ryan Simon is single speeding along and is only 25 miles north of Silver City! Alexandera is about 120 miles north of Silver City, still consistently moving along at (typically) 8 mph, knocking out 140 to 150 miles a day and sleeping 4 hours/night. She's been truly solo for a lot of this race; no riders are anywhere close in either direction. However, Evan Deutsch is now about 4 miles back.

Thank Thanks for this and ordering today! My once white Pearl Izumi sleeves are now a dingy gray and kinda baggy and they're also hot and clammy. ETA: There's a Columbia Factory Store at the outlet mall in Round Rock + IKEA* is on the way. If they have them, I'll try them on. There's a lot of confusion on the sizing ("fits small") but the web site doesn't give any other helpful info on choosing size. The options are S/M and L/XL. Otherwise ordering from Ridenfool's link to Backcountry. IKEA* is a forced march with meatballs two thirds of the way through, and air conditioned, so win-win, if one considers being in IKEA any form of winning. Also, Weather Underground shows a high on Wednesday of 85 with more rain.