Hale Of a Good Ride!

Really great ride opn saturday with Paul and John. Paul posted on the bikerag and was looking to get to Hale and saturday pulled together and the three of us were all set for 11:30. As usual I was excited for the ride and even Bentley was showing enthusiasm as I was gearing him up and left the house and he ran all the way to the homestead to meet with the fellas. We set off on the standard trails and it was so nice not getting torn up by the mosquitos let me tell you! I quickly lost Bentley as he yielded to the back of the pack and I began to worry about him since he is always by my side but with another dog in our pack and a rider behind me he was yielding to anyone behind him, smart doggy. Made our way up the what I would call a ridge kind of and found a huge long log ride that I stupidly did not take a picture of. Must have been good 50ft and I decided waht the heck I will try it, the get on was very tricky but not that hard, I got both tires on the log and began to ride and my balance and speed was perfect and I kept yelling out loud "what the hell" I am still on this thing more than once while I kept going and going and going! It was a long log ride thats for sure and I was very surprised how I rode the entire thing on the first shot but it felt great! We then sped downhill and onto bi-polar where midway I hear Paul yell bees! and before I could think I was already hit on the arm. We pedaled quickly out of there but not before Paul got hit twice and I assume Bentley did not get hit but he did have a funny look on his face coming out of the brush. I had not been stung by a bee in a long time and it sucked. Judging by my swollen elbow the jerk got me pretty good. Off we went to a tough one, scoliosis. I was on the full suspension so thing definitely went smoother but still one tough mother. John had the great idea of shooting over to the north side of the road which was good news which would add some miles and more mellow trail. I think the north side is underated and I always enjoy riding that side. I was slowing down by now, they kept disapearing in the distance but my good pal Bentley kept me by his side and we powered through it. We hit some more log rides along the way which I unfortunately did not conquer but did manage to ride bits and pieces but John and Paul dialed them in and had success. Soon we hit the car and we parted ways and I rode my bike home and reflected on a great ride! Fall is welcomed with open arms despite the snow that will soon fall.........

Hale full pull

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Wednesday Cruise Through Hale

Another great ride at the Nathan Hale forest. I had a tough 90 second commute from my house but I still had the energy left to ride for the next 2 hours. It was hot and humid and miserable again as it has been lately, but I was prepared for it with a full camelpack. I left Bentley at home since his panting antics are out of control when we get home and he hasn't ridden much so I gave him the next few days to rest. Off I went onto the north side Hale which gets so little love but it is growing into my favorite. I still have a few trails to adventutre to in there but I certainly seem to ride the main one. The full suspension was awkward and taking me off the pedals more than I would like, its quite a change going from rigid to plush full suspension but after some time I quickly adjusted. I would really like to have a hardtail to compare between the two but as always my dreams are crushed by lack money in the account. Thats ok cause I am very fortunate to have two functioning bikes. Back to the ride, it was super buggy but I was prepared and instead of using OFF I went for my 100% deet spray on my arms and legs. I managed to get it on my lips which made it to my mouth and numbed it for a good while. So on and off the whole ride my mouth was going numb from my camelbak line rubbing my arm and then me drinking but it was no big deal. I was done with the north side after 45 minutes and got cracking on the south. I found a great trail last time I was in there and I really enjoyed it since its not on the usual loop that my group rides take. I rode the section and was not sure how I was going to link it to another stretch that I am familiar with. With the help of my iphone I got myself on a trail I have never ridden. It was a really great trail too, it winded perfectly up where I wanted to be. It always such a great experience when you find a new stretch of trail that was just out there waiting to be found. It led me to a familiar trail and I was riding it in the opposite direction I normally would which switched things up and it was great. So many times I have ridden the trails I ride on my group rides without much variation, its nice being on my own and picking the trails to mix up a little bit. I ended up down at the back of the park where I slowly and tiredly made my way up the doubletrack to a fun twisty trail that I forgot the name of. Dark was falling fast and I had to close my loop out earlier than what I had planned. Got to the pavement and to home I went on yet another great ride this week! Can't wait for the weekend it is looking cool and sunny!

Mixing up at hale

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Case 1st Night Ride

Mighty fine ride! It was tuesday and Derek thankfully posted up a ride for Case and I was anxious and eager to get there all day. I had my headlamp ready to go for the most part, I somehow lost the charger cable and was unsure of how much juice was in the battery still but I had a feeling It had enough. I stopped home before the ride and picked up my buddy Bentley and we were off. It had been a little while since I have got out with the dog, it seems he get on a once a week ride which works but he could use more. Anyway we hit the trail and it ended up being just me and Derek as we headed up the hill. It was so humid it kinda sucked but enthusiasm for the ride was greater. We rode over to blue and did the normal ride over to tinti and as I rounded one of the trails corners there was a huge glowing ball of fire from the sun going down. It looked amazing and I wish I had a camera that was good enough to capture the image but the cell phone did a lazy job of it instead. Soon I had the light on as dark fell really quickly, it was tough with the light on since I don't have a great light setup but it does work. I was frustrated with having to focus so much on the ground in front of my tire and not far enough in front of me. It forced me off my pedals a couple of time but it's going to take some getting use to. I can only hope a more lumen light is in my future but with how tight $ is lately it is not likely. But my little Jet Lites A-51 definately allows me to ride safely in the dark. I love this light and its great! The ride was a success and we arrived to the car after 2 hours and 12 miles of riding.

I have put this light in my bike gear dreamssssssss

A pic from Tinti with the glowing ball

Case 1st night

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Middlesex Shorty

Saturday night I saw that John posted a ride for sunday morning and as sunday plans were unclear I did get the ok to go ahead from my awesome wife so I was set to meet john at 9:00 and head down to middlesex. The morning was looking very nice and the trails were in great shape as we began to pedal. The trail has a very fun section that begins at the reservoir which has a good mix in the first 10 minutes of what you will be riding the next 2 hours. Trails were dry to my surprise and free of Irene's debris. We made it out by china rock and began our way back and John got a stick that totaled his deraileur. So with some walking and riding we got out of there after 7ish miles of riding. It was a little disapointing that it was cut short but really wasn't a big deal since we had already been having sich a great ride.

Middlesex mechanical

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CaSe

The usual over at Case on saturday, always a good time!

Standard Caseeeee

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Wet Case

Got a crazy amount of rain the last few days and I thought for sure this ride would not happen, but on my drive to work between pouring rain storms I saw blue sky and then eventually the sun was out! It was a great sight. I guess it was going to be out much the day and it did so which gave a fighting chance at getting on the trail. The time had come and the ride was still on and I was glad since I hadn't gotten to do a group ride in awhile. Some of the normals didn't show so it was up to just me and John which was fine by me. We carried up the carriage path and took a look at the trail and went for it. This weren't even soaked it was crazy, just a few wet spots but no mud. The skies were dark but my legs strong and was still enjoying the ride through the woods. We rode blue out and looped the reservoir and headed back as light was fading. Despit the gloomy dark evening I was in good spirits and had a really great ride! Should be riding tomorrow morning probably back at case since Hale is probably still under water. No pics but I will post a few dream bikes of mine.......I wish I had all the money in the world to buy a sick bike! til then my humble raleigh and 6 yr old Dawg is doing the trick!

Case wet

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Country Life

Finally all settled into our home for the next 11 months. It was a grueling week but luckily it is behind us and now we can move onto bigger and better things. Renting our very own house is a tease as to what it will be like to have our very own house but for now even with renting it feels pretty great to call it home. I live out in the quiet woods which some of you may know is where I like it. Not too quiet with a grocery store 5 minutes away its not that far out. I do have 1500 acres of single track biking and dog walking heaven right at my front door as well! I always dreamed of having trails right at my front door and I can say it is a reality now. I wish I did not have to work 70 miles away which sucks up a lot of my free time and mother nature is not helping much either with fall coming. Still have some things to buy and stuff to move around but this is pretty much settled all in! LuAnn is now 10 minutes from school which I hope she can abuse fully since our family is back in CT for her so important education! The hottest orthodontist you will ever see! On saturday we decided to head down to mystic for a seaside drive and I was very glad we did. Mystic seaport is a very famous coastal town known for its sight and history. We drove the shoreline and admired the beautiful houses before we made our way into town. As usual we wished we lived in such a cool location and I envied their views. We walked around Mystic and had dinner at a very popular S&P Oyster Company. It was very good and was even better being on a date with my wife. We have plans to go back soon and do more things we did not have money or time to do. On sunday we visited the farmers market this sunday which was really cool, got some very fresh kettle corn, two different types of local cheese, farm fresh eggs, and some fudge :) Stuff is pricey but proud and locally grown, the farmers market here in coventry has won many awards. Ahhhh the good life....