June Bug

Angel Fire is offering a discount to Spider Mountain riders. Angel Fire Bike Park Lift Tickets

Leanderings are the routes taken by Leanderthals.

Gravel/sand deposits are from ancestral meanderings of the Colorado River.

Spicewookie and Ridenfool, Hope y'all are riding out this current storm and are staying safe and dry! We're kind of between two huge cells here in north Austin and it's still bad. There was a warning of straight-line winds, rotation spotted on radar in the Lago Vista/Spicewood area; Smithville looks to be getting slammed as well.

Chumba Bicycles and Wanderlust bikepacking gear (their house brand?) sponsored a talk last night at the Patagonia store on Congress Ave. They showed some Chumba videos and then Alexandera Houchin, the first woman finisher for the 2018 Tour Divide and a sponsored Chumba rider, gave a talk. I had a lot of assumptions about what she'd be like and how the talk would go and all that got turned upside down. She's a member of the Ojibwa tribe and that identity is strongly part of who she is. Her talk was a story teller simply telling the story of her life in the third person, and how she came to discover bikes and riding everywhere, slowly discovering her city, her county and expanding out from that. She weighed almost 300 pounds in high school, lost half her body weight at some point, was 20 years old the first time she rode a bike; she's 28 now. She's not a hard body. She doesn't do lycra shorts. She goes to college full time for nine months out of the year (double major in chemistry and Indian Studies) and is focused on getting into dental school. She does train in the winter, going to the gym, riding fat bikes and doing fat bike events. Some running. She was raised mostly by her grandmother. She lived out of her Honda Element for awhile relatively recently when the living situation with her grandmother was no longer viable. While going to school. In the winter. In Minnesota. She said that was kind of like bike packing. And her bike set up for the race is....minimal. This year she's taking an 18 degree sleeping bag and a tarp. Not a high tech Dyneema tarp. This is a brown 6' by 8' tarp that you can buy at Home Depot for about $8. I didn't see a sleeping pad on her set up. She said if it's raining she'll find a sheltered place to sleep...like under a bridge... and noted that when you've been riding for 150 miles, you just lie down and you're out. She carries a little speaker attached to the shoulder strap of her backpack and listens to music, podcasts and audio books as she pedals along. Her bike for this year's Tour Divide is a Chumba titanium hardtail Stella with a dropper seat post (!), with Industry 9 wheels, Crossmark 2.1 tires, flat handlebars. The front wheel has a generator hub to keep electronics charged up. She talked about how you resist the siren call of towns by stopping before you hit a town and eating up the last of your food and drinking lots of water. While you're wolfing down the potato salad you bought at the deli of the grocery store, you start making sandwiches out of the cheese, salami and bagels that you just bought, knock back a Mountain Dew and then just get the hell out of there STAT, because it's so easy to lose time in a town. I hope the ride goes well for her. Snowpack in the west is simply epic this year. It was still snowing in Telluride and other areas as recently as a week or two ago. I don't know how many streams riders will have to ford, but like the snowpack, the runoff will also be epic, so that might be a daunting challenge. During the question and answer session, someone asked her how one could train if they don't have mountains or time to do long distances. She suggested riding to the event -- that you'd be in pretty good shape after riding all day for four or five days. Anyway, I'm still pretty blown away by this woman and will be following her progress on the Tour Divide. A bit more about her: Local Duluth paper: Cloquet woman wins Tour Divide From the Chumba website, she's the first rider: chumbausa.com/riders Outside Online: She Learned to Bike at 20. Now She's a Champion Her blog: alexandherrastro.wordpress.com/ (She has a post up about her drive to Austin this week.) Edited to add: Her bike is rigid single speed for this year's Tour Divide -- no suspension, no gears.

Sad to see a king of the forest brought down in a storm. That is truly a monster tree. Pecan?

I didn't realize that Wingnut packs are still around, but yes, yes they are. They are a Camelbak/pack de derrière mashup, with a recent enduro design with more storage space. wingnutgear.com/

Just came across this on bikepacking.com Who knew Texas Tech up in the Panhandle plains of Lubbock, has an Adventure Media class: CMI 4313 Offers students practical, creative, and strategic insight and experience in assessing and producing media associated with outdoor adventure....and the class would go bikepacking in Big Bend Ranch State Park, and because it's an outdoor media adventure class, made a short film......TERROIR (FILM) AND THE DESPLABADO TOUR to promote Oveja Negra bikepacking gear. Great article.

Loved the Grindstone Trail system in Ruidoso. New-ish and IMBA designed and built, utilizing the watershed for a new reservoir. Has a fun flow trail you can take once you do the long, well designed climb to the top.

The regular Rogue Hoe is an awesome and beautiful tool, lightweight, balanced and a true beast, especially when sharpened regularly. The Rogue people know their stuff and create beautiful tools. You might want to try out one of the regular Rogue Hoes in the ARR tool inventory. McLeod? Heavy, clunky. There's no art or joy in a McLeod.

It's hard to know which bike to pick, but you have to get On One or another and not be Surly about it, or have a problem with Enve when someone gets a bike with nice wheels, Orbea meany about it.

We thought about doing that last Thanksgiving but the towns and citizens along the way have to step up and start doing maintenance. I've read a trip report or two by people that have attempted it and it's not maintained well enough to be a predictable experience. The maintenance will happen when towns and locals realize the potential (or actual) economic benefit. It could be a wonderful experience in the fall and spring and easy enough to get to from a large population center like Dallas or Longview. We did the Mineral Wells rail trail (starting at the Weatherford trailhead) in the spring as an out and back in anticipation of our trip four years ago on the Great Allegheny Passage/C&O Canal (first week in June). It was a pleasant first mile or so until we all started getting flats. A new guy had just mowed the verge and thrown up all sorts of stickery things like little mesquite branches ONTO the trail instead of off to the side. We had to track down the WalMart in Mineral Wells to stock up on tubes. We had 7 or more flats between the six of us. It would be fun to camp at Lake Mineral Wells and ride the rail trail as an out and back from that end. Could be an enjoyable family outing. It's a longish but not unpleasant drive on Hwy 281. AB, here's to a strike-free Spain for the rest of your lovely holiday!

Rorschach test for mountain bikers...

From bikepacking.com: Bike packing loop in the national park, utilizing The River Road and 4-wheel drive roads. RIVER ROAD RAMBLE (BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK) Stats: 4 days, 168 miles, 90% unpaved, 100% rideable, 7,626' cumulative climbing; difficulty rating is 5 on a scale of 1 to 10.

The Ranch at Cameron Park is a private mountain bike venue adjacent to the Cameron Park trails, and open to the public: Wild Wheels: Mountain bike course gains fans among daredevils, novices

Holter monitors* are getting easier and easier to use. When Mr. JB was dealing with arrhythmia and the doc was trying to sort it out, we had to stop at a pay phone in Burnet to replay the Holter monitor results over the phone after he had an episode. He did go to an electrophysiologist at St. David's, got the zotz on the misfiring cells in his heart, and has been fine since. When I had palpitations recently, they sent me home with three electrodes attached to a small receiving unit. Got it on a Friday and took the unit back to the doc on a Monday. They download all the data from the receiving unit. They send extra electrodes home with you so you can easily change to fresh ones. At some point this will probably all be done through an app on a smart phone and I suspect they are pretty close to that now. *A Holter monitor is a battery-operated portable device that measures and records your heart's activity (ECG) continuously for 24 to 48 hours or longer depending on the type of monitoring used. The device is the size of a small camera. It has wires with silver dollar-sized electrodes that attach to your skin.

mtbr.com has a review of various lumbar packs: Top 7 Best Hip Packs They included the Henty 3.0, which has some shoulder suspension, like a WingNut. The EVOC Hip Pack Pro 3L can carry a small bladder and two tall water bottles and looks promising. I like the voluminous side pockets. mtbr.com has more photos, and an extended review with video here. I may give it a try, if I can find one in a local store. Do any LBS' carry EVOC brand? I tried an Osprey lumbar pack and had to return it to REI; it just didn't sit right on my back.

Haywire Heart published by VeloPress:

A friend of ours (roadie) is a poster child for a life saved by CPR. He was on a group ride that started in south Austin and his roadside collapse was witnessed by an RN who pulled over and immediately began and maintained CPR until the ambulance arrived. The EMTs did not think he was going to make it, but he was revived by AED in the ambulance and again in the hospital and then had surgery/stents. He was in his early 70s when it happened, and was a super fit rider. He's doing fine and is back to riding quite a bit. His heart issues are genetic, but he did begin an anti-inflammatory diet and has done well on it. Many of us then took a Red Cross CPR course after that happened. I wouldn't mind a refresher. Me and the mister both had a full cardiac evaluations at 65 and 69 respectively. The cardiologist told me, "I'm not going to make any money on you!" Just had an evaluation for irregular heart beat but apparently "palpitations" are benign and in the normal range. Current cardiologist is Eric Tiblier at 38th and Lamar; highly recommended. I'm not afraid of heart attacks; strokes, on the other hand, scare the crap out of me.

The documentary The Bikes of Wrath is showing tonight (Sunday, April 21) at Violet Crown Cinema. The 7:30 showing is sold out, but there is a second screening at 8 pm. You'll have to buy tickets online. We saw The Bikes of Wrath last Monday evening, and I'd highly recommend it. It's a documentary made by five Australian mates who decide to follow the path of the family in the Grapes of Wrath, from Oklahoma to Bakersfield, CA.....on bicycles.

Thanks for this update. A big shout-out to the judge from note buying into the lawyer's request for "shock" probation. Here's a post on CBSAustin.com confirming his sentence:

"Bike trails should be closely monitored for signs of erosion" because who has ever heard of sustainable trail design? Maybe time for a social visit with a copy of the IMBA manual? Apparently Design Workshop didn't get the memo on Parks and Wildlife's interest in mountain bike trails at parks like Pedernales Falls.

Heart broken and feeling more than a little ill about this. Different circumstances, certainly, but I'm having flashbacks to the Tommy Ketterhagen murder -- I can't let myself call it a death -- and the minimal sentencing. And hitting someone from behind is NOT the same as not observing a 3-ft passing buffer.

No Hayduke back then! Times are a changin', though and Cortez seems a little more prosperous. Make no mistake, though, there are definitely some retrograde and Sovereign Citizen types still around, although many new people are moving in. My sense is that Dolores/Mancos/Cortez are in the process of being "discovered". When I left 20 years ago, the Californians were moving in here and there. Now it's retirees and younger people who can't afford Durango. All these communities are really pushing the mountain biking angle. For towns that depend on tourism, getting people to stay over for one more night, or any night, is a very big deal. Although just in the initial stages, there is a plan or a pedestrian/bike path from Cortez to the entrance to Mesa Verde NP on the south side of the highway, which would also provide access to Phil's World and the fair grounds. Recreational opportunities are amazing, there's a lake (McPhee Reservoir) and a golf course and housing prices, although high, are not yet stratospheric. It's nice for year around, because you can zip up into the mountains in the summer, and down into some amazing red rock country in McElmo Canyon just west of Cortez when it's on the cool side. I lived there for many years and was never clear on how the majority of people supported themselves. A surprising number of people commuted to Durango and Shiprock/Farmington for their jobs and I'm sure still do. There's no great internet, no diversified economy and it's prone to economic depression, but so beautiful.

Was this the Williamson County park that decided to favor development for equestrian trails and infrastructure and not allow mountain bikes?