Suck It Up Buttercup and Other Smack Talk

I ride with a bunch of people who like to insult each other. It's all done in fun of course. This week Jack sent out an email asking for a flat ride to which I thanked him for the suggestion then told him I was going to lead whatever the hell ride I wanted to. There were a few more email exchanges asking who was this guy Jack and questioned his riding skills. It was all just a little pre ride smack talk.

After I sent out the route for the ride Laura sent back "My legs hurt" to which Ricky replied "Suck It Up Buttercup." There is no empathy among the posse.

The ride itself involved less smack talk. Ricky, Laura, Jack, Peter, Andrew and a couple of other people joined me in Rocky Hill for a somewhat hilly ride. The 48 mile ride I had planned I shorten to just over 40 because of impending rain.

I took the easier up over the Sourlands up the newly paved Hollow Rd. I haven't done a lot of hilly rides and so this ride is about starting to get back in hill shape. I felt pretty good over the hills and we made good progress through the rivers around the Sourlands.

We hit a little light rain as we approached the rest stop, the Wawa on Rt 202. The rain got a little heavier as we left the stop ad headed towards Neshanic. It only lasted 15-20 mins then it cleared up and we rode the rest of the ride without rain. It ended up being a decent if slight shorter ride than I had planned. Hopefully we will have some better weather in the weekends to come so we can do some longer rides and exchange some more insults.

  

Introducing the Bloody Bastard

There is nothing like the feel of a new bike under your feet....

In 2008 I got my first mountain bike as part of writing my Best Rides Philadelphia book. I needed the mountain bike to do some of the trail rides for the book. After the book was done I kept mountain biking mostly in the winter when I couldn't get on the road because of the cold or snow. The mountain bike I got in 2008 was a used Giant Yukon from the Trenton Bike Exchange. The bike was at least 15 years old when I got it. It was good mountain bike and served me well but was really showing its age and was too old to consider upgrading its components.

It's amazing how many different types of mountain bikes there are. Between wheel size, suspension choices and frame types there are thousands of decisions you have to make to choose a bike. After a couple weeks of searching online I finally went to a some bike shops to talk to people about what bikes were available for the type of riding I do. After riding a few I found the general style of bike I wanted then just had to find the exact model.

What I chose was the Jamis Hijack A1. This is a 27.5", one by hard-tail. I chose 27.5 vs 29 inch because 27.5 is more maneuverable and will be a little better for the times I'm in the woods on a single track. The 1 x 10 gearing simplifies the shifting as there is no front derailleur. With a 30 T up front and an 11-42 in back it has plenty of range for any hill I would need to climb while still moving quick enough on the flats. I thought of getting a dual suspension but it would have been twice the price and not really worth it for the type of riding I do. The bike only comes in one color "Blood Red" so it seems like naming it the Bloody Bastard fits it.

I got the bike in early March and did a few solo rides on the canal and LHT trail to tweak the set up and learn how it handles. This weekend I took it for a real test as Chris Bob and I went up the Perkiomen trail.

I had hope to get a few more people join us but most people had other obligations. The main reason for this ride, besides giving the new bike a good workout, was for Bob to do some training as he is planning a mountain bike vacation in July.

I meet Chris in Bordentown for the drive to Collegeville. My new bike has a through axle and is a little bit longer the the old bike so I had to make some changes to my rack. Luckily the pipes of my bed extender can be easily removed to allow the bike to fit.

Chris's dual suspension bike also has a through axle but I had an adapter that allowed us to get his bike in my car too although it was a bit of a struggle.

We got to Collegeville a few minutes before Bob got there. After admiring the bike we headed up the trail. The plan was to head up 12 miles to the end of the trail then do a loop around the lake in Green Lane before heading back. The Perkiomen trail is a well maintained scenic trail. Although we had to push the start of the ride back an hour because of some rain by the time we started it was mostly sunny and warm.

It was really a pleasant ride to Green Lane and sun was fully out by the time we got there. The last time I did this ride we started by Valley Forge and just went up to Green Lane and back, The lake in the Green Lane park is vast and scenic so I started this ride a little further north so we had some miles to tour the lake.

There are trails around the lake and based on my research they looked like they were flat trails around the lake as the few pictures on google showed gravel trails. When we actual started around the lake the trails were not marked very well. I had a map on my phone with the planned route and manage to get up to the trail.

It turned out the Red trail that I wanted to take was more a single track hilly trail than the flat rail trail I thought it would be. However we decided to do it any way because Chris didn't mind and it would give me a chance to test the new bike out on some real mountain biking trails. Once we got to the top of the hill the single track was a lot easier and Bob looked like he was almost enjoying it.

After a few miles we got to the a parking lot where there were a lot of horse trailers. The red trail then became a dirt road and was what I had actually had expected. This made the riding easy. The only thing that slowed us down was the many horses on the trail. We ran into may groups of people riding horses. We must have seen a least 40 horses or more. Most didn't seem to be afraid of bikes but there were a few that were so we had to stop a few time to let them slowly pass.

The only problem with the rest of the red trail was a river that we had to cross. Chris of course just tried to ride right through it and even with his wheel half way deep in the water he almost made it across before having to put his feet down. Bob and I chose to hike up to the road and take the dryer way. We followed the road the rest of the way to the top of the lake. I took a couple pictures of the lake but didn't really capture how nice it really was.

Instead of doing the trail back down the other side of the lake I stuck to the road. The only problem is that meant climbing up to the ridge. It was a long steep climb so I'm glad I had the mountain bike gearing. I didn't realize when looking at the map that the lake was surrounded by mountains. We probably did a few 300+ feet climbs on our way around the lake.

On the road we ran into a dead end and decided to head back onto the trail. We had another mile or so of single track popping over roots and rocks before getting to a boat house where another climb got us back on the road. From the road it was mostly downhill back to where we started the trip around the lake. We took a break to recover from the ride around the lake. I was happy with the way the new bike handled. It definitely rolls over roots and rock a lot better then the old bike and has more traction than the old bike so I can go up muddy hills with out slipping as much. It was also nice to have a functional shock as it absorbed the trail much better than the old bike. The bike was now fully broken in and a little muddy

Since this is a new bike I did protect it a little to keep it from getting too scratched up. On the down tube I add some helicopter tape. This is clear tape that is used on the edge of helicopter blades to prevent dust and rock debris from chipping the blades. It should help prevent chipping of the paint on the down tube from the rocks that get thrown up from the trail. I also added a pair of fenders. The front fender is actually attached to the down tube and prevents debris from spraying on me and the water bottle cage. Its just a piece of plastic velcoed to the down tube but seems to work pretty well.

After our break we made the ride back down the trail. The only tough part on the way back was a 12% climb that is needed to get over a ridge. It's short but steep but I didn't have any problem making it up with the new bike.

The only problem with doing the Perkiomen trail is that there is no real place to stop to get food. We did find an ice cream shop that had gatoraid about 5 miles from the end. The ice cream was good but it would have been better to find a Deli some where along the way.

By the time we got back to the parking lot we had gone 36 miles with around 1600 ft of climbing. This is long for a mountain bike ride. I was a little beat but was very happy with the way the new bike felt. It is definitely a big upgrade from the previous bike and is a lot more comfortable and easier to ride. Bob wants to do some more mountain riding this summer to get ready for his trip so I'm sure this bike will be out on the trail on occasion for most of this riding season.

This was a long but fun day. I will definitely do the Perkiomen trail again. Now that I know what to expect on the trails and roads around the lake I should be able to put together a route to avoid the bumpy single track parts and create a ride every body should be able to do. 

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil...

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With names like Dante's view, Badwater and Devil's Golf Course, Death Valley doesn't sound like a place you would want to visit. That was probably true when settlers first traveled across this hot wasteland of a dessert with no real source of water or food. Today however Death Valley is a national park and with the addition of some roads and other modern conveniences it's now a place you can explore and not die. Death Valley is a strange almost alien place. The landscape changes dramatically from flat dessert to folding hills then to a moon like barren crater and then back to large salt flats.

It took two days to explore the entire park as we drove over 300 miles exploring all the different areas. The park was a lot bigger than I thought it was but I'm glad we took the time to see all its features. Most people know Death Valley is a the lowest point in the US as well as one of the hottest and driest.The pictures you see of Death Valley are usually of the vast salt flats on the valley floor. But what you don't see are the cool folded hills like Zabriskie Point

 

Or the Ubehebe crater created by a steam explosion 

or the most bizarre  geological formation I have ever seen the Devil's Golf course. This is a a place on the floor of the valley where the occasional water has created channels through the dried earth and then deposited salt that crystallizes and end up looking a little like coral. It goes on for miles and must be experienced to full understand how strange it really is.

Also not to be missed is the Artist drive. This is a 20 mile loop through the hills near the salt flats. These hills are piles of eroding sand that are different colors and shapes. The color changes as the sun rises and it is a mesmerizing view.

There is some life in Death Valley. There are some little fish that manage to live in the very salty water of the few streams that exist for a couple months of the year. When the water dries up the fish can survive until it rains again.

We also saw millions of butterflies as they were migrating across the dessert. Sadly not all of them made it as a least a few thousand ran into our windshield at 70 MPH. It got so thick at one point it was hard to see. Our black Cherokee was covered with yellow sploshes before the first day was over.

I got the required picture of me at the lowest point and will add this to the list of highest/lowest points that I have visited (even though I wasn't on a bike this time)

One of the other reasons that I came to Death Valley was to see the night sky as there is no light pollution here. I got really lucky because the Las Vegas astronomy club was here and invited all the hotel guess to look through there telescopes. I'm talking 20 inch diameter tubes that were so big you had to climb a latter to see through the eye piece. Several of them gave talks and pointed out the different sights to see. Half the astronomers there had cameras hooked up to their telescopes so they could instantly take a picture and show it on a monitor next to the telescope. It was not only interesting to see the nebula and galaxies but technology itself was cool.

After a couple of days in the dessert that is Death Valley we headed for another dessert (there seems to be a lot of them out here in southern California). This time we spend the afternoon riding through Joshua Tree National Park. This is a place were two desserts meet (Colorado and Mojave) and it is a strange and unique place. Of course the place is filled with the Joshua tree cactus but it also has these rock piles that just seem to spring up in the middle of the dessert and really look like some giant just tossed a bunch of rocks on the ground.

There is even a rock that looks like a skull.

This area has actually gotten some rain over the last few months and because of the rain the wildflowers were in bloom. The park was crowded because the flowers hadn't bloomed in the last few years because of the drought so everybody was out looking at the super bloom. There were a lot of yellow and purple flowers and it smelled like lavender. We were really luck to see this as it only lasts a few weeks and doesn't happen every year.

One of the coolest things a Joshua Tree was the Cholla (Choy-ya) cactus. This one requires medical attention if touched but it is really beautiful in a strange way. What made it really interesting is that it looked like some one planted a garden of these and it was just amazing to see this many cactus arranged into neat little rows.

Between the flowers cactus and dessert hills it was another scenic day of driving.

At the end of our visit to Joshua Tree we headed to Palm Spring for a two night stay in a boutique hotel. Palm Springs use to be the vacation spot for Hollywood stars as it is only a few hours from LA. The place has a lot or resorts and spas and lots of places for good food. It is sort of an oasis in the dessert. We booked a place called Little Paradise and it was one of the best places we ever stayed. Its located in a residential neighborhood and was a little hard to find as it looked liked the other Spanish style houses on the street. It's basically a compound of 10 rooms surrounded by a low wall. In the middle of the compound is a pool. All the rooms surround the pool and have views of the mountains. Each room has a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. Outside the back of the room is a private patio and outside the front of the room is a curtained sitting area to relax.

The rooms were comfortable and it was nice to relax after being in car for the last few days. We did take in one attraction in Palm Springs that was the aerial tramway that went to the top of the San Jacinto mountain above Palm Springs. At 8500 feet is quite a view. They also had a good restaurant on top so we had a good meal while enjoying the view.

After Palm Springs we headed to San Diego. We took the scenic route to see some more dessert sights. The first sight on the way was the Salton Sea. This is a large lake that was created by accident and is now slowly drying up. You can read thefull story here. This use to be a resort area but because the lake has gotten more salty almost nothing can live here and it smells a little like dead fish. We stopped on the hard crusted salt beach for a few picture before heading to Borrego Springs.

Borrego Springs is a nothing little town surrounded by Anza- Borrego Dessert state park. There was some more cactus and dessert landscape that made the drive interesting but what really made it worth the trip was the sculptures. Scattered around the dessert are these large metal sculptures of prehistoric and imaginary animals and some other strange figures. These things are hugh and really well done and just so strange sitting out in the middle of nowhere. My favorites were the dragon and the scorpion. This was definitely worth the side trip and the death defying canyon roads we had to deal with to get there and to San Diego.

In San Diego we met up with my wife's niece and husband and took in a ballgame at Petco Park. Even though there are a lot of things to do in San Diego we had been here before and didn't really have to time to stay any longer.

It was a quick week long trip through most of the desserts in southern California with a lot of driving but there were a lot of amazing sites along the way. Its a strange and beautiful area and I have a new appreciation for the variety of sites that can be seen in a dessert landscape. And of course I have a lot of new pictures and stories to tell