The Tip

I forgot about Tim Eischen. His company is Eischen's General Contracting, https://www.egcatx.com/ He's built portions of the Violet Crown Trail and has an ongoing contract with Hill Country Conservancy for the maintenance of it. Nice guy.

S&S Trail Services is also local. Ryan Spates is the owner. https://sstrails.com/

I think you answered your own question right there. Hobbies usually don't make any economic sense.

I didn't click the like button on the last one. It makes me too nervous! When you say "staying in my truck," what does that mean? Looking at the picture of the opened back it looks like the truck bed is full of stuff. Where/how did you sleep?

We got there Wednesday evening and did a short ride. Then into the state park Thursday 25 miles. Airport trails Friday 25 miles. Saturday state park, the bigger loop, 30 miles. Home Sunday. Campfire every night.

There is a group of us going out Wednesday 2/22/2023 to Sunday 2/26. Most staying at Maverick RV resort, some staying at Airbnbs. I think we had ten or so this last year (2022). Great fun. Shaping up to be more this next year. Come on. Funny how I ended up going back to Big Bend one week after getting back from a long stay there in the national park with my wife. Ran into a friend on the SATN that said they were going and invited me to come. Two days to plan and off I went.

It's strange. I saw a very healthy coyote on the double track in Sunset Valley awhile back. We had this same encounter. But to me it looked like the coyote was thinking, "can I eat that thing?" He decided no I guess as he just casually turned and walked into the brush.

Red-tailed hawk. Almost ran over it when I was on the berm next to the water retention pond next to Will Hampton Library. It flew up into this tree.

Saw a very healthy one the other day on Reproductive Cycle in SATN. Usually the ones I've seen before are scrawny so it was strange seeing one so fat and sassy.

Athletic Brewing has some good products. They have two IPAs that I really enjoyed. And they are VERY active in donating to trails, They gave a lot of their beer to us for the SATN Social. And they donate 2% of sales to trail projects. Really amazing. I was drinking beer all day at the SATN Social. They kept me sober enough all day. One beer, one Athletic Brew, one beer, one Athletic Brew. An excellent system!

Be honest. I know your vacation environment skews your perspective, but does that hold up to Real Ale's Devil's Backbone? My perspective might be skewed also because I'm just finishing my second of the evening. And that's all it takes! (8.1)

On my last ride (three hours) I took great satisfaction that I didn't run out of water, I had just a swallow and two very small ice cubes left. A perfect mix!

I'm sorry. I simply cannot support taking a weed eater out of the hands of a potential trail maintainer! What the hell?!!! And I'm an ECHO man myself anyway. 😉

And it might be genetic. Somebody mentioned they didn't sweat much so riding in the heat was difficult. I don't have a problem sweating! The problem is in those high heat/low humidity situations is that you don't feel yourself sweating so you forget to drink enough. Played golf in Las Vegas when it was 118. Had to force myself to remember to drink water.

I don't mind the heat. My record is 120F at Palo Duro Canyon. But it's a dry heat!

The Vegas handicapping services have posted the line on this event on how many riders will complete all four routes. The over/under is 8.5. The opening line was 13.5 but some heavy west coast money came in on the under because of the weather and moved it down. 68 dirt miles will be a challenge in the heat. Hydration and nutrition will be even more important

My new bike came with Stan's. Everything else I have has Orange Seal. So I got a puncture on the new bike and the Stan's worked. Quickly. But then the next ride that same puncture came open again. It sealed up again but that reopening thing has never happened to me with Orange Seal. Based on my very limited experiences I will now say that Stan's works quickly and well, but doesn't stay. Orange Seal takes a little more time/losing air to work, but will last the duration of the tire.

$473.99 at Home Depot. Looks like the same thing, https://www.homedepot.com/p/Wilton-5-5-in-855M-Mechanics-Pro-Vise-28811/306368153

Of course. It's a business decision for bike shops to sponsor things. But I was taken aback yesterday when, due to a couple of different things, the porta potty ended up costing them $1,400. Guess what we are NOT going to have this next week? lol And wait until you see the swag table next week. There is a lot of stuff to give away in the ticket drawing. 2022 SATN SOCIAL, Saturday, June 11th, 8 am

The rain disrupted things. But there still was riding and the after party was great fun. BUT...it will happen again this coming Saturday, June 11. Same bat time, same bat station. Bless ATX Bikes for being behind this.

It's probably been said. Probably by me at least me three times! But it can't be said enough. It was really amazing what it did for my shoulder after suffering for six months or so. Immediate results. Not totally cured, but huge progress made that very day.

Tried it a different way. Can y'all see it?

No registry. Show up before 8 am and be ready for wheels down at 8:10. Be back 8 hours later. Show Strava to ticket issuers. Speaking of swag for the raffle, the Santa Cruz rep just this week donated ten Giro helmets. There are lots and lots of smaller things too. The picture above of the shirt still shows for me but here it is again. $20 Saturday. cheap enough

LOL! Well then, how about putting this out there AND a pre-ride talk? My concern is how to disseminate this information to people starting at different times during the day.