Jellyfish stings and frozen King hubs

That was the first time Chris King has ever let me down
You can see the ice build up on the front of the derailer and rims

Perfect weather if it was 50 degrees warmer

Hagg Lake. 14.5 miles BURRRR!

I thought I could escape the snow at home by heading up to the Oregon coast area. I found plenty of snow here and some of the coldest conditions I have ever ridden in. I am pretty sure it was bellow 20 degrees. After riding for only 30 min I started to have problems with my rear hub. It was so cold that the ice was building up everywhere and made the ring gear in my Chris King hub skip and finally disengaged completely. I had to use all the water in my camelback to try to keep the hub thawed. Finally I just peed on it. That lasted for a good 30 min. The ice froze every cable on the bike. I couldn't shift front or rear derailer or drop my seatpost. I think the brakes were freezing, they were very hard to pull. The rear derailer was so frozen it wouldn't tension the chain. I used every piece of cold weather gear I own and was just barely warm enough. Wool and Gore tex are amazing. It was a great ride and a bit of an adventure.

Dogs 1 TROGS 0

Katie was happy to run in the rain

Ashton learning to stand up down hill

Mom had to learn to go even slower downhill

Gage was climbing everything

This mellow switch back was no big deal, but the tighter one later when he was tired got him

He was happy to make most of the hills but he was happier when we went down them

I followed a Trogs thread that said they were going to meet at Red Hills at 9am today. Unfortunately I did not decide to join them until about 7am, so I never posted that I would be going. Turns out it was a fair weather only ride for them. Katie and I never saw a single soul. It only rained a little and It didn't bother Katie at all. She hasn't been able to go on many rides lately.
I took the whole family down to Tuttle Town on Saturday. Ashton finally warmed up to his new bike. He was singing and begging to "ride the whole thing, no short cuts". After about 10 crashes we decided he was tired enough. Gage, who has always been pretty good on the down hills amazed me by climbing almost every hill. Even after the whining started. So far the false spring has been productive, lets hope the real spring in even better.

The bottom two photos are of Ashtons first attempt at Tuttle Town. The hill he is struggling on didn't even get his attention the second trip. The first trip I thought we screwed up buying that big of a bike. The second trip he couldn't stop singing and tried every down hill, sometimes more than once.

Big Loop

With Christmas and the feasting that goes with it over I felt like it was time to burn off some calories. I have had a long loop in mind for a while, but never seem to be in the mood to go that far by myself. Today I decided to tackle it. From Lyons over Mt. Elizabeth to Big Hill Rd. to Columbia and Italian Bar back. Turned out to be 46.5 miles and 6433ft of gain in about six and a half hours. All on a single speed. For the first time in recent memory I could not pedal all the way up my driveway. The only other time I had to walk was near the tower on Mt. Elizabeth when the snow was just to much. Awesome weather and big hills made it a great day. Wish you could have been there Bobby.

Overtrousers?

Almost the whole month of November realy sucked. Fortunatley December is working out much better. Its hard to find people to ride with when the weather is less than pleasant. Luckily for me I know a guy that is just as stupid as I am. Sean and I got a couple rides in on days when most people wouldn't even leave their house. Their loss! We rode the Olmstead loop on Saturday. That may the wettest ride I have ever done. The creek crossing was almost up to our waist. Today we knocked out 2hrs at Tuttle town. Both rides there wasn't another rider in sight.

The single speed seems to be the perfect weapon for the grit and grime of winter. Its impossible to have mud wreck your shifting or gum up your cables. I can't imagine a better setup for winter; hard tail (no pivots no maintenance), 29er (smooth speed),Single speed (just needs chain lube).

My wife was nice enough to give me an early Christmas present. The day before we rode Olmstead she looked at the forecast and decided that if I was going to be dumb I might as well be prepared. She bought me a pair of Endura Venturi E vent overtrousers. Its only been two rides but those have to be the coolest piece of bike gear I own. There is nothing like riding in a downpour with mud so deep it swallows 29 inch wheels to get back to the truck and have your legs and shorts clean and dry underneath. So far I have not been sweaty or cold in them they breathe so well you forget they are there. Thank you wifey. Now if I could just get that jacket to come off backorder.

Killer week

I almost forgot to mention taking my boys to Lyons. They have been helping me do trail work all summer but most of the trails are to hard for them to ride. Gage was begging to ride the Lyons gate trail ever sense we put in a log ride. He not only rode the trail but cleaned the log ride. You can see from the look on his face that he hated the whole thing.

Lava rocks are harder than HULK hide
Nathan still having fun


Sean still having fun

Bobby railing the snow

Sean popping out of the tunnel on Tunnel Trail(DUH!)

This last week I have been on some great rides. I started out with the most painful single speed ride yet. Sean and I knocked out 30 miles in Auburn with 4000 ft. of gain on Manzanita, Forrest hill divide, Tunnel, Confluence, and Stagecoach trails. I could barely stand up when we got back to the truck. It did make me feel better when I found out that Sean was hurting for a couple days as well.

Tuesday I tackled CHS up in Cold Springs before work. I did this trail the week before and it only took three hours, but this time we had snow. I drug Bobby and Nathan along for what turned out to be a lot of fun. We had to push a lot because riding up hill in snow is kind of like riding up a sand dune. We were pleasantly surprised coming back down when the traction was actually perfect. Two inches of snow on top of frozen dirt makes for some killer speed. Who knew?

Today I decided to get even with Sean for the suffer fest in Auburn with some of my own nastiness. We started with a grueling climb up to the rockiest trail I know of (The N*GG*R Head trail) or Pin Ball if your sensitive. After that bit of stress we hit up trail 20. I think Sean and Nathan (pore sucker answered my text) were still having fun at that point. We had a relaxing bit of recovery on the rail road grade before a killer descent to the river on some home made trail that unfortunately requires 30min of pushing to get out of. There was some name calling and more than a couple F bombs thrown my way. After a couple free beers I think they quit hating me.

Singlespeed = Pain

I think I am finally comfortable with log rides
I actually look for them now

I did make Sean go first though

It required a little more speed than he thought

I got my initiation into the world of single speeds last Saturday. Sean and I drove up to The Pioneer trail, outside of Grass Valley. From what we hear the trail goes all the way to Reno. We decided to ride up 15 miles and turn around. This is actually a perfect trail to try SS on because most of the climb is pretty mellow, but it never seems to end. We found a log ride near the end and took turns riding it after a little repair to the ramps. After a couple minutes my legs started to ache in a new and somewhat disturbing way. We high tailed it back to the truck before my legs gave out. By the time I changed, the front of both legs felt like someone was ripping the muscle apart. I have dealt with brutal cramps before, this was something different. Sean was very encouraging when he told me it will only hurt worse later. Fortunately it only lasted about 30 min. I'm not sure why a SS is so fun, but its pretty much the only bike I'm riding now. Maybe I do like suffering?

First rain ride

home made mud deflector(old tube)
Not much can stop the mud on the lower half

After the ride we were both a little muddy, with me it was mostly my back.

I was supposed to work Sunday but the call of the first rain was to much to resist. Stoker and I had plans to Ride Avalanche but we got a little more than scattered showers. We decided to stay off the sketchy rocks and play in the mud. We shuttled to the top of chair 8 to save some time. I added a down tube fender and a home made mud deflector and both work great. All the trails were packed down and lots of fun.