Barry

Not my thing, but I did get a can of Slow & Low once just to check it out. Not because I'm a big fan of bottled (can'd, in this case) cocktails, but because I'm a huge fan of Cooper Spirits' other efforts. Mostly they're known for keeping Alberta rye from being blended and proofed down to Canadian rubbish. They (like WhistlePig and a couple others) rescue Alberta distilled whisky from this fate, and sell it to us. These are some of my real goods (apocalypse ready) from Cooper Spirits:

So it's hippies then!

I've been stopping for the past two years to block b-lines at The Puzzler. Almost every time I go, the low b-line is open. But every time I leave it, it's closed. Two weeks ago I spent quite a while gathering extra sticks for the low b-line. Like I said before, because fuck 'em. I imagine they feel the same about me, and probably threw a shit-ton of my sticks between the trees. The thing that I don't understand though--why this particular spot? Why ride the DD with all that entails, but constantly make b-lines around The Puzzler?

I don't want to overstate it, the trails are very ridable. They just don't see the volume of use that a Walnut or Brushy sees, so that means more face-slappers and sticks on the ground. I assume the regulars who live nearby are doing whatever maintenance gets done.

Yeah, the trails on the heatmap are pretty okay. I'd say there kind of like a not-very-much ridden Peddler's Pass before all the berm work started, or maybe like some of the SATN trals, but more overgrown. If I lived real close, I'd probably ride them a bit. I've been twice now as part of a much larger ride and for that purpose, they're pretty okay.

Early report sounds like it was a bit hasty. She said Inner Log was absolutely perfect and completely dry--but then one small section at the end was really pretty bad. And then Outer Log was perfect. Edit: she ended up giving up on it. Her tires were kinda packed from that one spot. Think I'll roll over to 4C instead.

Early report is that the Log Loops are dry...

I expect to have a report from tires on the ground at about 2:30.

I want an e-Surly Big Fat Dummy.

Oof.

I was all set to dismiss the possibility of Walnut being good today, but then the dirt in my yard wasn't muddy at all this morning. Tough call. Less than .1" barely gets through the trees.

In the right circumstance, I disagree. This is certainly true. Outside of a few weirdos, a fat bike's usefulness is location and conditions dependent. Ebikes will be everywhere, just with a specific user base falling into one of a few categories.

We that didn't happen. Now it looks like rain util around 3. It isn't raining hard, but conditions for later tomorrow are less certain.

I don't think they're going away. They're just going to find their segment and live there. Ebikes are not the new 29er, they're the new fat bike.

So long as the rain ends by noon, late tomorrow should be great at WC.

True. Danny+ebike makes uphills look real easy. He was smiling, riding one-handed, doing wheelies, and in no way winded at the top. That rock slab climb looked super fun though--it reminded me of climbing up Epic or the Full Commando peak at RPR. But certainly I wouldn't feel like I climbed them if the bike was doing a lot of the work. Also, damn, I have got to get to the Isle of Skye someday. Mountain biking combined with a Talisker tour? That sounds killer.

He doesn't flick it around like his 5010, that's for sure.

Definitely don't go to Big Bend without some solution. If it's too much trouble to maintain tubeless on the possibly little-use bike, you could just use Slime tubes. If you can't find the right tubes at Walmart, you can probably find them online. I didn't want to set my little-use fat bike up as tubeless, so I just got a bottle of Slime, removed the valve core, and squirted a bunch of Slime in there.

Ha, I was actually going to mention your fencing, but decided my post rambled enough.

It is a losing battle, but I've been fighting at at Walnut, Brushy, other local joints for going on 3 years now, and for 15+ years in NY before that. I haven't given up, and I know at a minimum the asshat who un-blocks the B or C line over and over is at least as frustrated as I am while I'm blocking the B or C line. To paraphrase Good Will, "because fuck 'em, that's why." Most of the ones at Walnut are just stupid. Just a cut through connecting one trail to another, when it already connected in 10 feet! Why the hell do you have to cut through instead of gong 10 more feet up the trail? And then there's the new line around any particular tree to the left instead of the right, or opposite. What. Is. The. Point? But then sometimes new lines do evolve. The middle of Outer Log Loop had a new line evolve to the left of a particular tree instead of the right, when a berm just upstream caused folks to go into the section much faster. That's fine, but now it's time to close the original line. I have accepted that I will forever be throwing sticks and stumps and leaves and such into new lines as they occur.

I stopped at the beginning when he said an ebike "definitely allows you to do more riding." Uh, no. The limited range is my primary disappointment with the concept.

Those couple of hip jumps have been there for a while. They didn't clue you in that the other direction was going to be better?

I was going to post The Mandalorian saying, "this is the way..." But actually, there are other ways than these (to paraphrase Stephen King).

As an owner of carbon wheels I can say they are absolutely worth it, at least for me in my case. I've used tons aluminum rims over the years and I don't think I've had a wheelset last me more than 1000 miles without dinging, bending, cracking or otherwise generally going FUBAR. For years my biggest maintenance and down-time issue has been replacing or rebuilding aluminum wheels. But now I've had nearly 6500 miles of cenTX rockiness on my SC Reserve 37s with little to no issue. All I've had to do is replace a few spokes. And if something does happen, I have that unlimited lifetime warranty, and a backup set of aluminum wheels to get me though for a few days. Same with the bike. I've never had an aluminum frame last more than a few thousand miles... until the SC 5010. So I don't see me going back to aluminum for a primary bike. But if an easily recyclable alternative comes along with the same benefits at a competitive price? Sure, I'm not an intentional asshole.

I think it was on MySpace.