Month: February 2017

Toast is what my legs are.

These guys are responsible.  (Note the suspicious Captain America socks on Mr. Thick Bikes on the right.)

On a road ride, 18 miles doesn’t amount to much.  Even on a gravel ride it’s  not bad.  But for me, 18 miles on a mountain bike is about 6 miles too far.  Much further than that and I’m not so pleasant to be around.  Even on trails as fun to ride as the Allegrippis Trails at Raystown Lake.

The Allegrippis Trails are some of the best riding in our fair Commonwealth, maybe in the East.  They are fast, smooth and flowy.  These trails were designed by IMBA, the International Mountain Bike Association, in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers, who control the property around Raystown Lake; implemented and maintained by the Raystown Mountain Bike Association.

Last week, to celebrate the unseasonably fantastic weather, we drove 3 hours to get there and it was worth every mile, all three of us in the front seat of a pickup truck.  Typically, this is the off season and we have to drive almost that far in the other direction to ride Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park.  But who would have predicted fair and mid-sixties in February?

Nice view, no?  This overlook is at a trail junction at the eastern most end of the trail system.

Afterwards, we celebrated at Boxer’s in the nearby town of Huntingdon with manly sammiches and IPAs.

Definitely better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!

Meanwhile, please donate to my Ride Against MS.

I spend yesterday riding with these two: John Hinderliter and Brad Fisher.  I’m claiming this as training for the June MS fundraiser, the Escape to the Lake, although, for me, every ride is training, by default.

John Hinderliter designed a terrific 45-is mile ride.  I say “ish”  because it involved a ride on the Tee from  the Northside, back to South Park.  Which, technically, isn’t bike riding.   This was necessitated by the stop for burgers and beers on the North Shore.  I eschewed the seafood section of their menu because it is titled “Bait”.    But the burger was fine and the house IPA was damn tasty.

Our ride took us from the VIP parking lot in South Park, through the Park’s Sleepy Hollow valley, southeast, combining parts of the Montour Trail and some other rails trails through Glassport, McKeesport crossing the Monongahela River five times, the Allegheny twice and the Yough once.  Our route offered a little bit of everything, single track, double track, rails trail, pavement, gravel riding along railroad tracks, embankment hike-a-biking.  Beer.

The photo was taken under the Glenwood Bridge.  The company and conversation were excellent, and, I learned all I wanted to know about Sludge and water treatment.   Hilarity ensued.  What a great time.  All this in the name of raising funds to fight Multiple Sclerosis.

If you would like to donate to my ride against MS, please click here.

Yesterday I went out for a quick road ride.  My house is at the top of Bower Hill, so wherever I ride, I have to finish by climbing Bower Hill Road.  I did a couple of quick loops and, at the end, on my way up Bower Hill, there is a fairly blind bend to the right.  It’s a long hill and I wasn’t going fast, but Lance Armstrong on EPO, couldn’t have gone fast enough up that hill to satisfy the pick up truck that rolled up behind me.

Problem was, even though it’s a four-lane road,  he was behind me and there was a car next to him in the left lane, so he had to slow down until he could pass.  I guess I could have ridden on the sidewalk, but I hate when people ride bikes on the side walk, so I wasn’t.

Anyway, I could hear the truck’s abrupt slow down behind me.  When the left lane was clear, he down shifted and went around me.  I had a feeling from the way he revved his engine for the down shift that he wasn’t happy about the situation.  As he came buy, I took a deep breath and held it, but I couldn’t hold it for long enough.  Just as he went past me, he slowed down until his tailgate was even with me, then he floored it, covering me with a black cloud of diesel exhaust.  It was delightful.

I could only hold my breath for so long, so when I finally had to take a breath, the diesel exhaust was burning my eyes and the stink filled my lungs.

When I caught my breath, I shouted “Nice truck, sorry about your penis”.  But he couldn’t hear me. Some day my mouth is really going to get me into trouble.

I had a cousin, Leonard Laufe.  He was older than me, almost old enough to be my dad.   I looked up to him, he was a doctor, an obstetrician.  He was smart and funny and didn’t treat me like a kid.

Leonard did a lot of good in the world, he invented obstetrical instruments, wrote text books that are still in print today.  He traveled on the Hope ship to give medical aid to victims of disasters all over the world.  He was worth three of me.

In 1998, he died from complications of MS.  He died too soon.   Leonard is the reason that I am asking you to donate to the MS Society.