The Most Dangerous Type of Biking

The most dangerous type of biking to do is downhill mountain biking. It has the highest injure rate if you measure it by the frequency of injury. So when Bob asked me if I wanted to try to do some downhill mountain biking at Mountain Creek I said yes. I mean what could possible go wrong. 

I have watched some downhill mountain biking races and they look both fun and scary. And it was something I always wanted to try. I knew that Mountain Creek had a bunch of downhill mountain biking runs but never have been motivated to do it. Mountain Creek used to be called Vernon Valley and Great Gorge in the late 80s. It's when I learn to to ski. I use to spend 5 or 6 days or night skiing there each year as I use to live 30mins away from there when I lived in north jersey. It's not a great ski resort but it was close and a good place to learn the basic of how to ski. I originally went there with some friends from high school then with some people from work. 

I don't ski any more as it is too expensive and far away to make it practical or fun. I haven't been to Mountain Creek in at least 10 years. Besides skiing, Mountain Creek has a water park to make money during the summer and recently added the downhill mountain biking. Based on the reviews it's a some what difficult but well maintain set of trails so Bob's suggested to go there made me finally decide to give it a try. Here is a link to a video of the beginner trails to show you what the experience was like.

Downhill mountain biking requires a dual suspension bike to do it right since I don't have one we decided to rent one. Mountain Creek has a package which gives you a lesson, a bike rental and 2 hours of time on the mountain. It's seemed like a good way to try out downhill mountain biking and it worked out pretty well. 

We got to Mountain Creek around noon and had a quick lunch and then checked in to the bike rental center where we got the bikes and protective gear. The protective gear is a full face helmet and arm and knee pads. I didn't bother with the knee pads but suggested Bob use them as he has a tendency to get injured.

The dual suspension bike felt weird because the seat is so low but when you do downhill you stand up all the time so the seat is not really needed. The dual suspension makes it really bouncy and also very heavy. 

The first thing we had to learn was how to ride the lift up the mountain. You have to load the bike onto the lift by popping it up on the back wheel and hang it over the side of the gondola as you step in. It was a lot different than getting on with skis. Unloading from the lift was a little awkward but we managed. 

At the top of the mountain the instructor gave us a quick lesson on how best to ride the bike which included best position and how to a brake and adjust to the bumps and turns. Then is was time to head down the trail. It was a little intimating at first to go down the twisting and turning trail but we took it slow and after a few turns I felt okay. The instructor stopped at a few places along the trail and gave us some pointers on our form. Since I'm mostly a road biker some of the things like standing up and keeping the pedals level felt wrong. But the most important thing in downhill mountain biking is balance and control so maintaining the correct position is the key to doing that. About half way down the trail I starting to get the feel of the downhill bike position and letting go of some road biking habits.

It takes a lot of concentration to find the best line and keep your balance while the trail winds down the mountain. Since your going downhill and not pedaling you are constantly on the brakes and have to be modulate them to keep from going to fast as you go around the hairpin turns and over some larges bumps. There is a lot going on as you go down the trail so it is mentally tough. It got a little easier the more we did it but there were a set of really tight hairpin turns that took all I had to get through them but I did. 

There was one hard uphill left turn that I had to walk up and around but otherwise we managed to get down the first run without crashing or getting out of control. It was then back to the lift for another run. The good thing about taking the lesson and having and instructor is that we got to cut to the front of the lift line instead of having to wait.

The second run was better. We stayed in the beginner trail and because we were familiar with the bike and knew the trail we were able to go faster and smoother. I still had to really focus to go down the trail and was still a little tense but some of the lessons about keeping the pedal levels and flowing over the bumps was feeling more automatic.  

Standing on the pedals for the entire ride was still hard and I could feel the strain on my quads as well as some sourness in my hands from holding brakes at the bottom of the second run but we headed up the lift to try it again. At this point I had the confidence that I could actually do this. I never got into a flow state as that would take a lot more runs but wasn't as tense and could start to actually enjoy it a little. We were both getting a little tired as we had been doing this for almost 2 hours. Bob actually had a couple of slow falls on the tight hairpin section but there was no blood as the slow speed and arm pads prevented any injury. 

After the 3rd run our time was over. I might have been able to do another run but was glad it was over. It was a warm and sunny day so that added to the fatigue. Over all it was a good experience and I'm glad I did it. It's not something I would do a lot but may give it a try again as it was a fun and different type of biking. 

P.S. Because of the dangerous nature of downhill biking I thought this would be where Bob got his yearly injury but he rode great and came away with no visible marks. 

 

New Shoes

 

The most important things you need to be comfortable when riding a bike long distances is good shorts, a good seat and good shoes. I've been lucky enough that the seats that came with my bikes fit me well. It took me a few years when I first starting riding to find the right type of shorts that work for me. Shorts continue to evolve so although I have a brand that I like I will always try a least one new type of short each year to see if I can find something equal or better. 

About 10 years ago I found the Specialized Torch 3 shoes that fit me well and are pretty durable. My feet use to get really hot during the summer. This shoe has a metatarsal button behind the balls of the feet that spread the metatarsal bones and are suppose to prevent the nerves and arteries from compressing to help improve circulation and reduce numbness. When the person at the bike store was explaining this whole body geometry metatarsal stuff is sounded like some hollow sales pitch but once I tried the shoes I found what he said was actually true. My feet definitely don't get as hot as they use to and the shoes in general are very comfortable. 

One of the things that annoy me about a lot of clothing and equipment companies is that they discontinue or change some of my favorite items so that they are no longer available or are not as good as they use to be. Luckily Specialized hasn't done any major changes to these shoes in the years I have been buying them. There has been some minor changes to the closure system and to the material on the upper part but for the most part the shoe is the same. For the new shoes that I just got, the upper material looks a little more durable and the toe part is a little wider which make the shoe a little better.  

I had to order the shoes online because very few bike stores carry shoes and the ones that do don't have the best selection. Of course this makes it hard to try before you buy and makes it harder if you have to return them but the shoes I got fit just fine. I have had a few rides with them they are almost broken in. This is my third pair of these shoes and they last about 5 years so I hope they keep making them because I would hate to have to find something new. 

The final ride to fully break in the new shoes was my ride this past Saturday from Etra to Farmingdale. Once again we had a problem parking at Etra. The park gate was closed but the parking lot across the way was open but crowded. It turns out there is a touch football league that meets there every Saturday. The gate to Etra was open a few minutes after I got there but I didn't want to move. I think for this summer I will avoid Etra as I don't want to have to deal these parking problems any more. 

It was a cloudy and some what cool day but we had a good ride to Farmingdale. The rest stop in Farmingdale isn't the best but the ride itself is a good mostly flat ride and a good test for any new shoes.  

Bathroom Renovation

Since I got back from Tucson one of the things that have been taking a lot of my time is a bathroom renovation at our place in Avon. The bathroom was original and had only had some small cosmetic updates since my mother-in-law bought the place in the 80s over 40 years ago. The bathroom had a one piece fiberglass tub and shower enclosure. 

Although I had painted the bathroom and added a new ceiling 15 years ago the bathroom was really showing it's age. 

The first thing we did was to hire one of those one day bathroom renovation companies to replace the bathtub with a shower as we don't really need a bathtub here. 

The actual installation took two long days so these TV commercials showing a completely new bathroom in a single day are false advertising as it takes a lot of work and time to do it right. They took the fiberglass bathtub out then ripped the walls around it down to the studs and built it back up from there. The team was careful and meticulous and did a good job. We now have a 30x60 inch shower instead of the tub. It has shelves and a seat and glass doors instead of a shower curtain so it's a nice upgrade to what was there. They also redid all the plumbing so it is like new. 

After the shower was finished it was my turn to do some work. The old sheet rock ceiling wasn't in good shape 20 years ago which is why 15 year ago I put in a beaded plank ceiling in instead of trying to patch and paint the old ceiling. The ceiling I had put up had reached the end of its life so I put up a new plank drop ceiling made of PVC which looks good and will have no trouble holding up to the moisture that's in a bathroom.

It was relatively easy to put up as I just had to put some metal tracks in the old ceiling and use clips to secure the PVC planks to the ceiling. The hardest part was just working in the small space of the bathroom. The bathroom is 53x59 inches plus the 30x60 shower so it's hard to maneuver a ladder, planks and tools around the shower and toilet to get everything installed properly. 

Our place in Avon is a studio so even outside the bathroom there wasn't a lot of room for the table and mitre saw I needed to do the work on the ceiling and floor. 

I also had most of the place covered in plastic to contain the dust. If people saw all the plastic drapes that came in and the bags of debris going out they may have thought I was disposing a body. 

After the ceiling was done I replaced the floor. I put a new vinyl floor over the existing crappy tile floor. 

Doing this require me to take the toilet out and reinstall it. So for a little over an hour I didn't have a working bathroom. Laminate floor has come a long way in the last 30 years. I installed a few of these in my last house and they ready stand up to abuse well and if installed right look really good. We had a cherry laminate floor in our old house that almost looked as good as real wood but was a lot more durable. The one installed in the bathroom was a solid vinyl laminate that snapped together really tight and felt real solid. It should last for a long time especially since this bathroom is really only used in the summer. 

After the ceiling and floor was in I took another day to put in the ceiling and floor molding. We then had a plumber put in a pedestal sink. We originally had a small vanity in the bathroom but changed it to a pedestal sink to gain a little more room in the small bathroom. 

It was a lot of work but it's the type of work I don't mind doing and I'm pretty good at this stuff. I still need to add a medicine cabinet to the wall but the rest is done.

Doing the majority of the work myself let's me take the time to get all the little details the way I want them. Something a contractor probably won't have done. The building was constructed in the 1930s and renovated a couple of time so some of the walls are not even close to square or plumb. So although the renovated bathroom my not be as nice as new construction its a big improvement to what was there and am very happy with the way it came out. 
   

Bike Fairies

You never know what you are going to find on a bike ride. I have seen a lot of weird NJ and strange stuff in other surrounding states but this past Saturday we encountered some bike fairies. Now we were in Lahaska so this is can be a strange and artsy place but these people definitely stood out. 

Unfortunately these fairies didn't have any magical powers to grant us a wish they were just having a final ride before one of their friends moved away. They never did explain why they chose to wear tutus for this celebration but it made for a fun encounter. The only problem was there were 15 of them and they got to the cupcake shop right before us so we had to wait in line with them for a while before we got our food. 

It didn't really matter as it was a nice sunny day and we were in no real hurry. We taken the easy way from Yardley to Lahaska and didn't mind the long break. The return ride was just as nice although I need to find a better road than Stoopville on the way back as it had more traffic than I like. 

Saturday's ride was a good end to the week as we had a few days of summer weather and I was able to get out a couple of time. I even managed to get a few people to join me on a ride from Manasquan to Belmar and back.

 

One of the good things about being retired is that I can get out whenever the weather is good and can usually get a few of the other retired folks to join me. It's still early in the season so the beach wasn't too crowded. At our usual rest stop the Dunkin Donuts is closed for renovation and only the pizza place was open so there wasn't a lot of choice for food but it was enough. 

The brief break of summer weather was great but it is still April so the weather is running hot and cold. We had a freeze warning this week with some rain in the forecast but the weather is warming so there should be some fun and weird rides ahead.

 

 

 

Back to NJ Roads

I have been back in NJ for almost two weeks and have gotten back to riding my normal roads. Since it is spring now the weather is getting warmer. Although I have one rides in tights and a jacket the others have been tights free as we had a few days in the 70s. 

One of the benefits of being retired is that I can do more riding during the week. This means this past Tuesday I could join the Pete Bagel ride out of Pennington which was an 30ish ride with a couple of easy hills followed by lunch at the Bagel place. Doing this ride officially made me part of the retired bikers. 

This past Saturday I went on Laura's ride to Flemington. This was my second ride from Pennington this week. The weather was in the 60s at the start so it was another warm spring day. Normally I would be reluctant to do a ride this hilly at the beginning of the season but I have a lot more miles and hills in so far this year so I didn't think it would be a problem. 

Laura had a full ride which meant most of the usual crowd was there and I was able to catch up with some people I hadn't seen since I got back. We made our way up and over the Sourlands on the way to Flemington. There was some traffic and congestion getting across 202 and 31 to get into Flemington which was a little annoying but part of what you have to deal with when you ride in NJ.

We stopped Bread and Culture Artisan Bakery which is was crowded. Some of pastries looked good but they didn't have anything to drink but coffee so I decided not to get anything as I had enough stuff with me.

After our stop we made our way out of Flemington and back to more quieter roads. The main climb of the day was up Lindbergh. It's not a hard climb but it is a bit long and gets a little steeper at the end. It's a climb I never feel comfortable on or enjoy. I'm not sure why climbing Lindbergh annoys me but I usually avoid it when I can.

After getting up and over the Sourlands I actually felt pretty good and went ahead of the group to the end of the ride. At 46 miles it was the longest ride I have done this year. The riding and climbing I did in Tucson definitely help me build a good base for riding this year so as the weather continues to get better I look forward to doing some more and long rides in NJ. 

Tucson Biking Part 4 Dove Mt and Oro Valley

 Click Here for all the Pics from the Tucson Trip

Click Here for all my astronomy Pics 

I had a lot of different routes mapped out before the trip to Tucson. I wasn't sure which one to do for our last ride but after talking to a local biker at a bike shop I decided to do a ride to Dove Mountain. This was a typical Tucson ride of around 35 miles and 1500 ft of climbing. The main difference between riding in Tucson and in NJ is the profile and types of roads you ride on. At the beginning of the ride we had a 2% climb for about 6 miles with a little bump of 4% to get through the pass to Dove Mountain. NJ is more undulating with a lot ups and downs and few climbs longer than a mile. Unlike NJ there are really no back roads in Tucson since almost all the roads here were made after cars were invented so the layout of the road system is more logical and meant for cars to get from here to there. So even if you pick the quieter sections to ride in Tucson you will be on secondary roads with some traffic. This isn't really a problem as all the roads have wide bike lanes but there aren't a lot of quiet back roads that like we have in NJ in the Sourlands or above Frenchtown. 

The view from the rides in Tucson are tremendous. 

 

The view of the mountains, desert and cactus has a certain stark beauty that I never got tired of. It's what made riding out here special and worth the trip. 

After we went to Dove Mountain we headed along the ridge to Oro Valley and Catilina close to where I stay the first couple days of the trip. It was the only part of the ride that was mostly flat. From there we jumped on the Loop and had an enjoyable 9 miles of gradual downhill to end to ride. This was probably the nicest part of the Loop we had been on. It was a good ride to end our trip to Tucson.

I want to add one note about the weather while we were here. Typical weather this time of year is in the 70s and 80s with nights in the low 50s. However a heat dome parked itself other the southwest and the daily temperatures were in the 90s to over 100 degrees. That is hot even for this dry heat. Basically we got June weather in March. This didn't really affect our riding as it was in the 60s in the early morning so we just went out earlier and got back before it got too hot. The only thing it affected was some of our post ride plans. If the weather wasn't as hot we might have checked out some of the other attractions in and around the city after our rides but we ended up doing them later at night or not at all. 

The accommodations we had in the Starr Pass Golf Resort were even nicer than I expected. We each rented the one bedroom suite which was better than any apartment I even had and one of the most comfortable places I have ever stayed. 

 

Its was a very picturesque place I got a few sunrise photos. 

 

And my patio overlooked the mountains to the west so I was able to continue to get some photos of the night sky before bed. 

We were also close to some other scenic landmarks like Gates Pass and on the one cloudy even managed to get some amazing shots of the sunset. 

 It was probably one of the top 5 sunsets I have ever seen. 

 

So as you can see from all the posts we did a lot and had a lot of fun on this trip. Besides the hot weather and confusion getting the bikes everything worked out better than planned. I'm glad I'm back and still prefer the riding in NJ to Tucson but it was a great experience on a number of different levels and was one of my better vacations that I will be talking about for years.  

 

Tucson Attractions

The main reason for going to Tucson was for the biking but Tucson also has a lot of interesting attractions. Since we were in Tucson for a week we did have time to check out some of the more interesting things Tucson has to offer. 

 When I was up in Catilina I took the morning to checkout Biosphere 2.

 

If you remember, Biosphere was started as an experiment to see if a closed system could be created that would be self contained and support 8 people for two years without any intervention. Although the goal wasn't fully achieved a lot was learned about creating a closed system. You can read the full story here. 

 

Today Biosphere 2 is managed the University of Arizona and is used to simulate and research different biospheres and how different environmental factors affect the environment. For example they have a ocean part where they have coral and can change the temperature of the ocean and see how it affects the coral. As part of their research they are learning how to mitigate some of the affects of global warming.  

Tucson has one of the largest air museums in the country. The Pima Air & Space Museum has 5 hangers of aircraft's indoors spanning airplanes from the Wright brothers to the moderate jets. They also have 80 acres and 360 different aircraft's outside. They not only have most US military and commercial planes but a lot of planes from other countries including Russia. They also have some very rare prototypes that I have never seem before. 

 

I could go on for paragraphs about all the different airplanes but if you are really interested in the museum I suggest you check out the exhibits page where you can take a virtual tour of the outside displays. 

 

Sunday we took a day off the bike so I decided to check out the Tucson Botanical Gardens. It was a small but well designed garden. Since this garden is in the desert it mainly featured desert plants like cactus and mesquite and other desert plants. There is actually quite a diverse set of plants that can grow in the desert. This is the bloom season for some of the cactus so I got a few pictures of those

 

They also had some other area featuring non desert plants and had a butterfly garden as well as some art galleries. 

 

 

It was definitely worth the trip.  

 

During the cold war just south of Tucson was one of the main areas where the US had nuclear missile silos. Today one of those silos is a museum and you can actually go down into the silo and see a simulated launch of a missile

 

 

 as well as the missile itself.

 

For me this was really cool for me because I use to work with a couple of ex air force people who actually manned the silos and told me a lot of interesting stories about their time in the the silo. Also the satellites I used to work on were launched using the titan missile so the scape suit and theodolite shown in the museum were more than relics as I actually had seen them in use. 

 

The best attraction we saw in Tucson was definitely the Sonora Desert Museum. This is a botanical garden, zoo, aquarium, hiking trail and playground all rolled up into one. I went there not only for the gardens but for the humming bird aviary. I got there early and had the place to my self for a little while. I did get a decent picture of a humming bird but the light wasn't great. 

 

I did however get an amazing picture of a dragonfly. Click on the picture below to see the detail I was able to get. 

 

We spent about 3 hours walking around and visiting all the exhibits. There was a lot to see. There are quite a few animals there include coyote's wolfs, Javalina (which looks like a pig but isn't), bear, mountain goats, sting rays and of course some iguanas just walking around. It was really a well run and interesting place that I would visit again if I was in the area. 

 

 

So Tucson is more than just biking there are a lot of interesting things to do if you ever visit.