Posts Tagged ‘Mountain Biking’

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Get your downhill on! Paris Mountain awaits.

Friday, October 16th, 2009

And now a word from our downhill brothers and sisters at the SORBA.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Paris Mountain is once again hosting an exciting downhill MTB race this Saturday, October 17.  The race is sponsored by St. Francis Sports Medicine, SORBA (Southern Off-Road Bike Association) and the Greenville County Recreation District.  Don’t miss this chance to test your downhill skills against the clock or just come out and watch those that are willing to test their skills.

Barley’s Taproom is hosting a huge pre-race party, 6-9pm on Friday, October 16 that is open to all area cyclists.  RJ Rockers Brewing Company of Spartanburg and New Belgium Brewing Company are providing the beer.  Registered competitors and race volunteers drink free (teetotalers, like Pait, are also welcome), while others are welcome to make a one-time $5 donation to SORBA to help improve the trail system at Paris Mountain State Park.  Your $5 donation also gets you a raffle ticket good for numerous prizes that will be attractive to any cyclist.  It’s a great cause and should be a lot of fun.

Whether you are a downhill racing fan or planning to participate in one of the awesome cycling activities in Greenville this weekend (Paris Mtn Downhill, Greenville Spinners Cyclocross Races, Caesar’s Head Slog Fest or other), kick off the weekend by joining the Pre-Race party at Barley’s on Washington St. in downtown Greenville!  The sponsored beer is free, the pizza is tasty and you could win some cool prizes.  See you at Barley’s 6-9pm Friday, Oct 16.

For more information on the Paris Mountain Downhill Race, visit: www.parismountaindownhill.com

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From out of the thorns

Monday, December 29th, 2008

… cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee … from Genesis 3:17 & 18

I thought of this passage from the Bible as I was working on the mountain bike trail yesterday afternoon.  The road ride went by the wayside when my boys asked me if they could give the trail a try.  We grabbed our bikes and some tools.  Before long we were chopping our way through the briars and vines.

It is amazing to see the damage those briars do to the trees.  I would cut off one of the briar vines at the root and then start pulling at it.  You could see where the vine went up into the trees to turn into a jumbled mass of dead limbs and briars.

More often than not when I pulled I ended up pulling the tree down!  I’m not sure if this is the case, but it appeared that the vines sucked the life out of the trees and they were dead.  Thankfully, after pulling on the vines and cutting the briars away, I didn’t have to cut down many saplings to make the path.

After several hours of labor, we guys started riding (Thing Three spent most of his time pushing his bike over the mounds of dirt).  It was fun and quite technical in some places.  However, I did end up the day somewhat disappointed.

All of that work, but when we did a timed run of the route out and back the time was underwhelming!  My 8 year-old, who really took to the trail, finished in 2 minutes.  I finished riding the trail in 1:38.  Turns out it isn’t nearly as long as it seemed when I was clearing it!

Today I was back on the road bike heading out to the nearby town of Whiteville.  The goal for the day was to put in two hours focusing on my form — cadence, power, and distance weren’t a concern.  I figured I could make it to Whiteville in an hour and then turn around for the second.

I did it too.  However, I had a slight tailwind all the way there.  I also rode around a bit in the town.  When I turned around to come back, I had the wind in my face.  I ended up with about 2.5 hours in the saddle.

Well, I hope this riding serves me well come race season.  It was pretty lonely out there.  I even had someone throw an full and open soda can at my front wheel.  I’m sure it will be worth it…

One thing I have learned is that I can ride pretty strong for about two hours.  Once I pass the two hour threshold, I start feeling it.  It doesn’t seem to matter whether I ride hard or easy, two hours is the magic distance.  I guess that is why you have to train with longer distances.  You can move that magic distance out a bit.

More mountain bike trail work tomorrow!  We’re going to add a switchback to make the trail more of a loop.  That way the kids won’t get upset with each other blocking the way.

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Picturing the trail

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

Things are getting back to normal here after Thanksgiving — as normal as life around here can be as the Christmas season ramps up.  I’m watching my calendar fill up for the next several weeks.  It brings up that tense feeling as I see different responsibilities and my training collide!

I’m still enjoying the thoughts of what I’ll do with the new trail I’ve started building back in the swamp.  I went out in the rain on Sunday and took a few pictures.  I’m including them here.

The entry into the trail

The entry into the trail

There is a cool walking bridge my dad built sometime ago that leads into the trail area.  It has grape vines growing over it.  During the spring it has new leaves and looks like a portal to a different world.

The mounds of dirt that should make the trail interesting

The mounds of dirt that should make the trail interesting

In the above picture you should be able to see three mounds of dirt that have been there since the ditch the right was first dug.  They are well packed and allow you to ride a short serpentine pattern up and over them.  Not sure that moss will last very long once the knobbys get there.

Here you can see the type of woods containing the trail

Here you can see the type of woods containing the trail

Don’t let the above scene fool you!  While there are large portions of the wooded area that are open like this, there are also large sections with lots of undergrowth and briers.  To the left of this shot is an area that the trail turns toward.  I had to have a machete to cut through it.

The drainage ditch

The drainage ditch

The drainage ditch is what makes the fun moguls, but it also is something I have to get across to get to the larger section of the woods.  My plan is to build a narrow ladder bridge over it.  Then the trail will follow the ditch — you can see where I plan to go on the other side heading to the left top of the picture.

Sure hope all the fun won’t be in the building of it!  I’m sure once I get a bike out on it, I’ll have to make some adjustments.  I also hope to put more challenges into the larger loop.  This is going to take me a while, but hopefully years from now my kids will enjoy mountain biking at grandma’s!

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Trail making

Saturday, November 29th, 2008

Yesterday while here visiting my parents, I was looking around for something to do.  I walked out in a wooded area where I used to play as a kid.  A few minutes later, I was starting the construction of a mountain bike trail.

The geography around here is dominated by swamps.  Because of this there are many drainage ditches running along the various fields surrounding my parents’ property.  Along two sides of their yard there are wooded areas with these ditches running along the edges.

The neat thing about these ditches is that when they were dug many years ago the dirt was piled up beside the cuts.  Later the trees began to cover them.  So here in the woods there are nice little moguls — some up to four feet high.

I began clearing some of the undergrowth and removing some small trees allowing me to open a path along the moguls.  After taking this path along the ditch for about 30 yeards, I turned away from the ditch into the woods.

Things slowed down a bit then because of the myriad of thorny vines.  There were large green ones, old dry black ones, small vines with thousands of small thorns, and some with thorns about an inch to an inch and a half long.  What was fun suddenly lost its enjoyment!

Still, I got another 40 yards down and was starting plans for completing a loop.  Once I got that loop done, the plan was to build a ladder bridge over the ditch into another wooded area about 100 yards by 40 yards.  This could be a pretty awesome MTB trail!

I was very excited about getting back out there this morning.  My nephews said they would help me and I figured we could finish the first loop and build the bridge leaving me something to ride when I return in December as well as opening the new area for further trail building.

I woke up and it was raining!  Did I mention that there are a lot of swamps around here?  There also is no hint of a draught here!  The ground is saturated with water.  It is just way too wet to get out there.  So, I guess I’ll just have to keep planning in my mind until I get here for Christmas.

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Night riding at Paris Mountain State Park

Monday, November 24th, 2008

Bob Rentz and I take a spin along Turtle and Archery Range trails in Paris Mountain State Park.  The plan was to take Kanuga to Brissy.   It was so cold that when we reached the archery range we turned around and headed back down to Turtle trail.

The following video is edited for time (the ride was about 30 minutes in length) and I tried to include some of the riders we encountered and a couple of slip ups.  If you recognize yourself in the video, leave a comment.  Hope you enjoy the video.

Night riding is a blast!  If it just wasn’t so cold, it would have been great to have captured some frames of Kanuga.  Maybe we can go back at some point and do it again.  However, the intent of this video was just to show my relatives what it is like to ride a mountain bike at night.

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Bob, I can’t feel my toes!

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

Yesterday I mentioned seeing some guys playing bicycle polo in Cleveland Park.  A friend of mine passed along a URL to more information about some matches being organized in the park.  I guess it is something that might be growing here… along with kick ball!

Check out the information at the Upstate SORBA site.

It was pretty cool yesterday as well to find that one of my blog posts was linked from the Quarq Web site.  Quarq is the company that makes the CinQo, my new power meter.  They are linking to my first review of the device.

Last night Bob and I loaded up our bikes and headed out to Paris Mountain State Park with the intention of riding the trails there.  I took along my helmet cam so I could attempt to get some shots of night riding.  On that front, I did get some frames, but they certainly don’t give the full impression of what the ride is like.  I may put some of it up if I can find enough footage to use.

The ride turned out to be very short.  We were absolutely freezing out there!  The temperature was supposed to be 34 degrees or so, but with the wind the “feels like” temperature was in the mid-twenties.

I was dressed pretty warmly.  Most of my body felt fine because I had on enough layers.  However, even with two sets of gloves — one pair being rated for freezing temperatures — my fingers were nearly numb by the time we reached the archery range. Bob had to be worse off because he wasn’t dressed nearly as warmly.

We decided to turn around at that point and head out.  Funny, but by the time we arrived back at the cars, my fingers were feeling fine.  It was my toes that were numb at that point!

You don’t realize how important your fingers are to bike control until you can’t feel them.  I had hardly any feeling for what the bike was doing.  There were times I wasn’t sure I had my fingers on the brakes.  It was disconcerting and I was all over the place with the bike.

It was an experience, but I can’t say it was much fun.  Between the cold and the leaves it was pretty hairy.  A couple of times when riding horizontally across an incline, my bike just slipped right out from beneath me because I hit a patch of leaves on top of a sandy path.  There was no warning.  You just went down.

Still, it will give us something to talk about.  Ride on!

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The weekend: frustration and fun

Monday, October 24th, 2005

Saturday morning was pretty frustrating. I got up all excited about my first ride outside of Timmons Park since I restarted riding my mountain bike. I watched the kids while the redhead went to her exercise group. Once she got back, I loaded up in the bike in the back seat of the little red car and headed for the park.

I pulled up to the entry way and noticed the teenaged attendant was looking at me rather sheepishly. I asked, “How much is it to get in?” He gave me the number, but I can’t remember what it was because he followed that by saying, “…but the trails are closed to bikes today.”

What? You don’t understand, I have been looking forward to this for a week! “Oh, really?” I asked and continued, “How can I know when it will be open and closed?” He pointed at a sign by the gate, “The trails are open for bikes on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.”


Click here to see Paris Mountain State Park
Sure enough, I went to the SCTrails.com web site and in black in white it reads, “Note: This is a shared trail, used by mountain bikers and hikers on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday and hikers only on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.” Well, now I know.

I went ahead and did the Urban Ride (it is getting very boring) and I guess I’ll try PM later.

However, the weekend made a turn for the better after the Tar Heels beat Virginia Saturday afternoon and Jeff Gordon won Sunday’s race.  So, summing up my weekend, I would say: Frustration and fun.

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They’ve been here all along…

Friday, October 21st, 2005

I’ve been trying to create maps of the various places where I ride my MB. The maps have been here all along. You just have to know where to look.If you like to ride in South Carolina, go here to www.sctrails.net.

Click here to see Timmons Park

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Five rounds of dodge disc

Saturday, October 15th, 2005

I’m exhausted.

I slept in a tent last night with two kids under seven. I didn’t sleep very well. So, when I started my ride this afternoon I was already tired. However, I was determined to get in my six laps at Timmons Park.

The first lap indicated that I was going to have a hard time of it. Besides the fact my body didn’t want to cooperate, there were at least twelve people out playing disc golf. Once I had to dodge a disc. However, I got them back (unintentionally). I was coming down a rough section pretty fast (the worse thing you can do is use your brake and slow your momentum – you need it to get over the roots), and looked up just in time to see I was about to run over a girl who was standing in the middle of the trail. Talking about wide-eyed!

Two… Man, I don’t know if I can make it. Three… I took it slow to get myself together. Four… Hey, I might make it! Five… I hate these roots! I decided to substitute the sixth lap with the rest of my urban ride. So, off down East North Street… You know the rest.

Main Street was crowded with all the people for Fall for Greenville. I went on into the crowd with my bike. Out of the corner of my eye I saw one of Greenville’s finest coming toward me. Something about the way he was walking made me realize he was headed toward me. He stopped me. I took my iPod ear bud out of my ear and said, “Yes, sir?”

He must have thought I was some sort of rebel because instead of politely saying, “Excuse me, but you won’t be able to ride your bike here,” he turned on his intimidation voice and said, “You can’t ride that bike here. You’ll have to get off and push it.” It wasn’t really what he said, but the way he said it. Of course, I said, “Yes, sir.” I walked my bike over to a nearby parking lot and then got back on and rode away from downtown.

I got pulled over by a policeman on my bicycle!

Oh well, I finished up and crashed once I got home. I figure I rode about 18 miles today. I think I’m ready to ride at Paris Mountain now. Right now I’m just going to lay here on the floor!

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Four rounds at the rodeo

Friday, October 14th, 2005

Yesterday had its disappointments. I left work kind of down. The bicycle beckoned me to take it out on the trail. I ate an energy bar and was on my ride within 30 minutes of leaving the office.

The plan is to get up to six laps at Timmons Park before I begin branching out to other trails in the area. Memories of getting down a trail and then not having stamina to get back to the car have taught me to be in shape before riding longer trails.

Man was it rough! It wasn’t so much that I didn’t have the stamina. It was the trail. Once I was done, I felt like I had participated in a rodeo. Without a full suspension bike, I probably would have been shaken to death!

The good news is the first lap was kind of rough as my muscles, heart, and lungs transitioned from sitting in an office to pushing the bike around the rough terrain. The second lap felt great. The third lap felt like a good workout. The fourth lap started putting the burn in my thighs. I even could have done a fifth, but I had to get home.

My ride on the rodeo was good for the mind, body and soul.

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