It was the best of times

It was the worst of times. Ya, I know, stealing other peoples work, isn't cool, but as you could read from my last post, I had a pretty crappy turn of events after a killer ride. I'll detail the ride here so it can get as far away from that turd laden punchbowl as possible. For anyone that has been on the Center Trails in the past few days, you know how absolutely primo the conditions have been. The line is clear, you can see for miles, the weather is crisp, and the dirt is "tacky, yet refined".

I burned some serious wife points last night and got the pass to go riding again before the conditions were lost. I tried playing it cool, but I think my giddiness to go riding again probably wasn't well hidden in the face of a mountain of dishes and other household chores I really should've been helping out on. I'm sure I'll be making up for that tonight! In any case, I raced home as soon as I could escape the grip of the "Man" and ripped through getting changed and back out the door. I parked at the shop so I could say hello to the boys and have a few minutes spin via the levee trail to warm things up.

Feeling a bit spunky I decided to see where I was in comparison to last years Quarter Rage efforts. I ripped off a 22:40 something on my first pass through. Not blazing by any means, but a good start considering I've still got the tubes in and slower rubber mounted. I'm hoping to get much closer to 20 flat by the end of the year. Judging by my pace and comfort level on my final lap (in reverse) of the night, I don't think it's too far out of the question.

I met up with Kyle, Taylor, and Rick Noyce for some more fun at 5:45. We headed back down for my 2nd lap through Denman's where I chased Kyle pretty much all the way through. I felt like I was hammering the trail and wasn't having any problems with the various log-overs or even the tractor tire. All was good and right. We headed through Squirrel's nest where I washed out in some sand as did Taylor right before I got there. Once through that, both Kyle and Taylor gave pause to the gnarly looking drop through the wash by the river while I plowed through it. They had enough of the sand though and headed back for more flatlanding in Denmans while I opted to stress the legs on Hillside and Rollercoaster.

I ran Hillside about every way I could think of back and forth and I'm pretty certain I rode about 99% of the track up there including one dead end washout. I rode a few of the trails a couple times just linking things together and even road some backwards. I even cleared the angled log that always makes me pause and did it pretty much at speed. Nary a bump felt on the chain ring as I sailed my happy ass over it and carved my way down the hill beyond. After that, it was time for a requisite lap of Rollercoaster. I blasted everything and had a chain skip cause me to stop at the bottom of the switchback, but that was the only hiccup on that trail. I even cleared a nice rock at the entrance by the pond that I'd previously only been eyeballing. Something was just clicking with my ability to hop obstacles for sure.

I finally turned back as it would soon be dusk and I hoped to make it in time to the shop for a post ride brew. I attacked Denmans in reverse and everything fell into place. The flow just seemed even better that I ever remembered it. Logs barely made bumps as I cleared them with ease. I cleaned one new (for me) log out by the firepit that I hadn't attempted before and I had my eye on the prize. The entrance log to Denmans has amazed me from the get go. Watching the good riders hop it like it was nothing more than a twig put me in awe. As I rode, I was determined to give it a go tonight. At the worst, I'd be at the end of my ride and have a nice little crash to laugh at, but maybe just maybe things would be right and I'd clear it too.

I'll have to admit, as I approached it from the back side, I chickened out and went around. The angle just didn't seem right and the approach to steep. I circled through and came out of the woods headed towards home. Then, I circled back, eyed the target and cleared it with ease. Shoot, I don't know that I've ever cleaned anything quite that easy. I'm sure I let out a whoop of jubilation and then just to make it official I went ahead and hit it from the back too. It wasn't quite as clean as I made it over and then had to push off the tree on the far side after I was over it, but I made it.

Of course, you know the rest of the story....

A weekend on the bike

You can hardly complain when the temps top 50 and 60 degrees during the first week of February. I made sure to pay homage to the nice weather and did my best to enjoy it thoroughly. I bolted out of work a shade after 3 on Friday just to make the most of it. After Thursday's snowshoe through Denman's I was pretty sure the trail could/should/would be ridden so I packed the mountain bike along for the ride Friday morning. After hanging at the shop for a few minutes I set my sails towards the woods in search of my most excellent adventure.

Before long I was churning my way through a mixture of slush, ice, water over ice, mud, and about every other type of undesirable surface you can think of on the trail. Thankfully, the mud was limited to very few spots and mostly around Little Italy. While the slush was rideable, it didn't leave much for traction so I still had to hike a few little spots, but mostly I rode. It took me around 45 minutes total to traverse the trail.

Now done with the hard part, I was wondering which route to head. Apparently I thought I must have gotten cheated out of something on Wednesday nights ride as I headed off to do somewhat of a reverse of that loop. Actually, I was trying to figure out someplace to ride to and get dinner and a beer. I ended up settling on El Ray over on Grand which actually meant I'd be riding the entire loop before hitting dinner. So, I better get moving. The first misstep came when I headed up the trestle to trestle trail. I was heading over to Johnston in hopes of looping through Urbandale and then back down the Windsor Heights trails. I completely forgot about T2T being built up with mud due to the floods of last summer. 10' into the mud, my memory was quickly jogged as my drivetrain clogged and drug me to a stop. I doubled back trying to keep as much mud off of me as possible and took surface streets over to Beaver and jumping back on the trail.

The rest of the loop was less exciting, but still interesting in its own right. Urbandale sucks for not plowing their trails! I jumped back off them quickly and hit city streets again. Then back on the trail the melting led to some interesting conditions. Low spots were dominated by 6-8" deep puddles that were punctuated with large ice chunks and/or on top of sheet ice. It made for a few puckering moments to say the least. 3 hours down and I made my well to El Ray for the burrito and beer recovery food group. MMMMM.

I started off Saturday with my mind set on a nice easy 2 hour spin. I had to be back at the house by 9 so I was off nice and early. Most everything was still thawed out from the warm temps and I took the cross bike as a respite from the heavy resistance of studs and knobs. Off towards Carlisle and ultimately Summerset park I headed. The sun was coming up and made for some very welcome warmth on my face along with setting a few nice pics.

I wondered if they even plowed the Summerset trail when I took off. Even these guys out in the sticks apparently know that you should plow trails (hint Urbandale). Unfortunately, not far outside of Carlisle the trail crowns pretty heavily to both sides leaving a lot of missed patches with ice build-up. After dodging a few and a runner informing me it only got worse down the trail, I opted for the gravel. The gravel was actually in almost perfect condition. As I got to the park, my options were to turn back or suffer some hills and loop back through Norwalk. At this point I decided I might as well hit it hard and see what popped. Funny enough, my legs popped about halfway through the rollers headed to the West. I barely made it home in time, but another 2 hours and 30 miles were down for the count as I hit the showers and headed off to our appointment.

A ride was called up for Sunday morning with most of the usual suspects- Pete, Pig, and Kunze. The weather was a bit of a concern due to the refreeze on the road, but we opted for a couple hours of good endurance riding on the cross bikes. Almost an exact repeat of last Sunday, we rolled 63rd to the Maffit loop, but extended our sojourn through the housing development as we dodged icy spots. I'm not sure where Kunze and Pig ended up, but Pete and I opted for 3 loops of the Ritual Ride route before rolling back down Railroad to our starting point. I was pretty trashed with just over 2 more hours on my legs and the heaviest of the efforts for the weekend.

All in all, 7 hours was great on the bike. I can start feeling the fitness a little more with each ride and getting outside just makes it so much better. Hopefully the warming trend keeps up (though I wouldn't mind a quick snow dump to get one more snowshoe session in). I just need to start cranking up a few longer rides now. I hear the Winterset loop calling my name and will be hitting it one of these weekends very soon.

A warm wandering afternoon

The warm weather forecast for yesterday and the rest of the week had me worried that I might not get the chance to play with my new toys this winter. Being oh so fashionably late, I didn't order my new snowshoes until winter was pretty much over. On the plus side, I scored a pretty sweet deal with a 20% off sale and stacked another 10% coupon on that allowing me to buy a pretty high end set of shoes along with poles and a bag for less than the shoes normally retail for.

New shoes

Lots of grippy things (aka crampons)

The shoes are Atlas 1125 series along with Atlas collapsible poles. I went for something with a lot of grip in case I ever find myself scaling the hills of Colorado or more likely southern Iowa at our farm. They definitely work as advertised as I took off sidehill next to the levee trail towards the Denman's entrance. Sidehilling was pretty sweet as I barely slid at all. The only thing I really noticed right off the bat was these things fling snow. I mean like over your head if you get moving! I think it has something to do with the binding being set on a pivot point that is supposed to help pick up the tail when you walk. They definitely do that! I actually zipped my jacket up to keep any additional snow from shooting down my back. Beyond that small gripe, these things rock.

Don't you wish you were hot like me?

I tromped through the woods for close to an hour and worked up a nice little sweat. The one thing I noted about Denman's is that unless you see someone on the trail while you're riding, you really never get a feel for how close the various tracks run to each other. Walking through, I could hop from track to track to track and barely cover 50 yards of distance and in some cases much less. Once everything grows up in the summer, you'd never know how close that other track is. This is definitely a way to get a better perspective of the woods and the flow. I'll have to get back out there and do a little more off trail hiking/exploring this spring and summer for sure.

I ran across a structure I hadn't noticed before. This shelter is a scant 20-30 yards off the main track and I'm guessing must have been put together this winter. I thought it might be a bunch of flood debris from afar but as I got closer I saw this:

Are there tree spirits active in Denmans?

Apparently they like fires and sitting around them...

Still spooky looking

Maybe Squirrel or someone can shed some light on who put this thing up. Looks like it would be a great winter camp spot.

All in all, a nice way to kill off an hour on a warm afternoon. I've got to invest in some gators or snow pants as the snow flipping off the tail soaked the back of my legs from the knees down. Of course this might not be as much an issue in below freezing temps. The shoes worked pretty flawlessly other than that. Even the poles worked great. This was quite excellent considering I noticed I forgot to take off the plastic caps that cover the spikes as I was putting them away after my hike... Ooops. The poles are definitely a worthwhile add when buying some shoes though as they help to keep your entire body more active, plus work well for testing any possibly wonky areas you're getting ready to traverse.

I'm headed out for a couple hours tonight. The singletrack sure appeared to be rideable. I'm planning on giving it a try. There were even a few areas of bare dirt! Woohoo.

A line in the sand (err snow)

So many possible titles for this and so little time. Yesterday was finally time to draw a line in the snow and show someone who's boss. That particular someone is our favorite trail we love to hate because it acts like a rebellious teen during the winter- Denman's. This year and last as soon as it was decently rideable we got ice on the trails and they pretty much become impossible to ride. That's been the case for over a month now.

I was fed up with not being able to ride since the trails had been basically a sheet of glare ice. The 6" of snow we received Saturday gave me some hope. Apparently, nobody else shared my optimism though as Sunday rolled around to find me heading out for some solo miles. I knew I was in for a treat when just riding the paved levee trail from Railroad brought me down into the little ring. I slowly made my way to the back entrance while wistfully looking at the cross country ski tracks paralleling the trail. All good so far. I dropped off the trail down towards the entrance. Glare ice under 6" of snow does not make a rideable surface when it's on any type of slant! I quickly realized this as I slid and crawled my way past the culvert to the edge of the woods. I was determined one of us was going to cry uncle and give up the ghost today.

Exit from Denmans to Dirty Express (I rode backwards)


I finally started crawling my way through the woods. Resistance and stability were the game today. Little ring up front and damn near the granny in the back as I spun along at 3-5 MPH for the most part. In the spots where I was riding just the snow, it was great. However, there were a ton of spots where it was still crunchy and chunky underneath along with the icy layer. Those spots really drug on. I quickly mastered getting a push off and jamming on the pedals to keep my momentum going to start back up after I'd ground to a stop. That is to say, I was stopped on a pretty regular basis. One of the bigger problems I had was out in the flats where the trail and surrounding forest floor were equally coated. I couldn't pick out the line and managed to get off course a few times.

Blank slate, which way to go?


Sometimes it was a bit more obvious where to go.


You could take a run at most little pitches, but ended up walking them anyway.


Hike a bike was pretty regular today.


The skinny is looking a bit lonely.


Happy camper out on the trail.


I kept upright more often than not though I did have a couple ugly spots. I fell over in one spot and caught my lower leg between a log and the bike. That one will definitely leave a mark for a bit. Other than that, the worst spot on the whole trail was the gully crossing just before you get to Little Italy (if you're riding forward). The ice jam backup a couple weeks back pushed chunks up in this area and left some on the downhill slope. I fell on my face several times trying to crawl up it and push my bike up as well. Add in that there are decent sized holes in between the chunks and it's all covered in 6" of snow and it's a recipe for crashing and broken ankles. Be careful!

Finally, I rolled to the end of the trail. Almost an hour down to get from one end to the other, but I made it and was still smiling. Not to mention I captured one of my favorite shots.

Favorite.


The ass-kickin' machine.


Damn that was fun?!


I crab walked my way up to the top of the levee and found the worst trail conditions yet! I gave up and walked the last 50 or so yards out to Valley Drive as I rolled over to Squirrel's place for a quick warm up. He was just getting ready to head out for some gravelly goodness so we rolled down Railroad together.



I hear his knee was bugging him from running the other day so he had to bail on the ride. That sucks! Get some rest and ibuprofen on it man and hit it hard later this week. Sounds like we're in for some wild weather again.

All in all (not calculating today's snow), I'd say Denman's is rideable, but you're going to have to walk a decent amount and work on your handling like crazy. I have my computer set to not record any movement under 2.5 MPH and stopped to try and rest it half-way through yesterday since it was not recording in a number of spots. I was actually still riding those spots, but moving that slow! I think if we got about a half dozen or so more tracks through there it would created a packed track with a lot more traction. However, getting those tracks through there will probably suck mostly beyond belief. Hope to see some guys out there soon. Oh ya, I know I was off course a few times so feel free to ignore my line in those spots.

Bouncing baby boy

Well, at least it isn't the expensive kind (yet). Apparently I bounce well. Actually, let me rephrase that, I bounce better than Squirrel. I tried my damnedest to get out of work early enough to get at least an hour on the trails last night. Alas, the demons of work wouldn't let me get out of there until it was 5:45 by the time I hit the trail. Smart money was on hitting Denman's forward and backward and be done since I'm not running lights.

The trail really was in great shape. The leaf cover has somewhat filled and made the muddy spots less likely to coat you completely in goo. The rest of the trail was really leaf covered, but dry. In some spots there was literally a carpet of green leaves down that made for some awesome looking scenery. I was a bit too focused on putting down some good effort to stop and take pictures, but I definitely took a mental note of how cool it looked. However, along with the leaves, the wind from this weekend had put down a ton of sticks and in some places logs on the trail. Several people had moved some of the larger pieces and it appeared Squirrel might have all ready been down with the chainsaw to get most of the big pieces out of the way- Thanks Guys! The small sticks didn't really present any problem (or so I thought).

I made it through forward at a decent clip and just started the return when I ran into Brian's buddy, Corey. We stopped for a minute and exchanged a few words before heading on our respective directions. Just after the fire pit, I came to the log pile and hit it hard. Oops, a bit too hard. I've been trying to work out a plan to cross this obstacle as quickly as possible and also working on lifting my rear tire to keep it from popping up in the air so much. Well, I've done a couple wild nose wheelies all ready trying to get the timing right. Tonight was by far the closest I've come to totally eating it doing this. The rear end came up and I actually felt the shock fully compress before it rebounded just enough for me to get the back tire on the ground. That shook me up a bit for sure, but at least tragedy was avoided.

I hit the gas again and made a mental note that I was pretty lucky to get out of that without harm. Note- do not tempt fate or Bike Ninjas as they will come back to kick your ass. Just a few minutes later, I rounded a corner and bam, before I knew it I was over the bars and rolling on the ground. WTF?! Attack of the Bike Ninja! You know it's not good when you hit the ground hard and then roll over to see this:








Yup, score one for Bike Ninja attacks on Denman's. Consider yourselves warned. I have no clue how that big of a stick wedged itself so perfect into the spokes, but let me tell ya, it stopped me in a heartbeat. Luckily I was on dirt, only running about 10 mph (coming off a slow turn), and I bounce (better than Squirrel). Damn, it still hurt a bit, but no permanent damage. I bent one spoke and the wheel is slightly out of true, but other than that, I was able to ride out at a pretty good pace. The wheel is getting dropped at the shop tonight for the boys to play with. I'll be riding something "different" on the taco ride tonight. Can't wait to see you guys on the trail!