Spring Mountain Biking

Well, once again, my blog is floundering because I always seem to be busy with other stuff. Luckily, most of it is fun. Here's some phone pics from recent adventures:

In Rochester for work in May, I rode the Erie Canal Trail to Brockport. It was pretty nice:

I've taken a few mountain biking trips to some local spots, too. Here's Luther Forest:

Colonie Town Park:

Pine Hill Park in Rutland:

Pittstown State Forest:

Blue Mountain in Peekskill:

And the Pack Demonstration Forest in Warrensburg, NY:

Theoretically, I should do reports on all of these places (especially the places I haven't done reports for yet), but the more I think about doing that, the less I want to. I'll save the in depth trip reports for actual adventures, not 3 hour jaunts in the woods.

Other than that, not much going on. I'm looking forward to a fun summer of riding, boating, and general merriment. Time to start research some "real" adventures.

Instagram dump

In our ridiculous, ADD society, it appears that we've all collectively shifted our attention from the horrible tragedy of Connecticut to the ridiculously trifling idea that Instagram is going to sell our crappy photos without our permission (which isn't even true). Good job, America. Maybe someday you'll actually have the courage to follow through on your disaster day promises of reticence, reform, and remembrance and actually give hope to people that things in the future will be better. Wait, look over there, a puppy!

Maybe I'm just bitter because of the December malaise. It hits me every year. I know it's coming, but I'm powerless to stop it. The only solution is skiing - preferably powder skiing. But since Sugarloaf was just outside of day trip range for me (4 hours I can do. 6.5 hours is rough), I'm just going to have to keep waiting.

Until then, Enjoy this Instagram dump of pics from the last couple of weeks:

Mountain Bike Ride a few weeks ago on the Middle-Murphy-Bennett Trail (not really bike friendly, nice hike, but not recommended for riding):

Nice night out in Albany a couple of weeks ago:

Driving down to North Carolina to help my parents' move into their new house:

Beach in NC:

Golf in NC:

Downtown Wilmington, NC:

Happy Holidays.

Recent Biking Adventures

Been on the bikes a pretty good amount lately. Trying to keep in shape for ski season. Did the Drops to Hops road bike race a couple of weekends ago. Here's some pics of that . . .

Getting ready before the start:

And just before the race:

Rode behind Ace at the beginning (until she pulled away):

I was riding pretty hard, but not hard enough so I couldn't take pictures:

Eventually, I caught back up to Ace, and we crossed the finish line at the same time. Pics here.

Then, I tried to make a run at Skiing on Columbus Day. It didn't work out so well, so it turned into a mountain bike adventure. Going into Vermont:

Brought Skis and Bikes, just in case:

Stopped for beer. Mmmm . . . Alchemist . . .

Enough Snow?

We decided no, and just did some Mountain Biking:

We got to do the sweet Kimmer's downhill, which was awesome. And here's a pic on the way home:

New Phone, and MTB Trip to Pine Hill

I finally got my first smart phone, so I thought I'd try to write a blog post on it. Doesn't seem too great, but it might be good for a photo and comment type post. Here's some pictures from today's ride:

Mountain Biking - Ithaca, Shindagin Hollow State Forest

We took a trip out to Ithaca for a little mountain biking. Leaving Friday afternoon, our plan was to camp out Friday night. I read somewhere that there were a few free campsites along Bald Hill School Road. It wasn't too hard to find a spot to pitch our tent:

When we woke up in the morning, we were right on the trail system. Here's the map:

We were a little to the west of the green P in the top left area of that map.  So we started out on the yellow loop. Here's some pics:

It wasn't very technical overall, but there were some fun log features;

We did just about all of the Yellow trails in 45 minutes or so, so we moved on to the red trails:

We did a nice downhill on Y2 and came out onto the road:

Then went over to the blue trails. We especially liked B6, the "Creek Trail"

The creek itself was a little dry:

Still, though, the Blue trails were definitely the best trails there.  After doing a big counterclockwise loop (in retrospect, we should have done it clockwise), we rode through a nice little pine grove right before busting back into the parking area. Very cool:

We rode for about 4 and a half hours, then went into town for some awesome Mexican food.  Good times.