NYD Lake Loop

New Year's Day Lake Loop
Ride Date: 1/01/07
Meeting Time: 9:30 am
Location: Ballentine DMV

Please stay posted for future changes. A reverse route from last year is in the process. Just trying to find an convenient startin point in the Lexington area.

Two More Trails Ready

Two more trails are ready at Lynch's. The longish trail from the top to the last trail and the super-short step trail are all cleared. I'm going back in this morning to try to get one (or maybe two) more miles done before the rains get here and bring all that to a grinding halt.

My goal is to have as much as possible ready in a week to do some sort of kick-off-remember-how-nice-these-woods-used-to-be kind of ride for you all. It's been several years since there was any mountain bike traffic out here, and it'd be nice to see it get some use.

The county council has been debating for a year now about logging and clearing the whole thing in order to meet a short-term deficit problem. There's been a grass-roots group to show council just how much people care about keeping it as it is and available for use by folks. The good news is that the most vocal proponent for closing/clearing/logging was defeated in the last election.

At any rate, it's not all for a selfish (30 seconds out my garage door) reasons that I'm getting the woods back into shape. It's a valuable asset to this town, and I hate to see it get wasted. So when I get it all done, look for some sort of invite to celebrate with me on a couple of laps.

New Years Day Lake Loop

Update - 1/1/07 9:30am Location Ballentine DMV, Try to get rolling by 9:45 at the latest. Toby



My oh my how the time has flown by. It's now closing in on another "New Years Day Lake Loop". The requests are starting to come in daily. This will be something like 5 or so years since I first started to organize it. The mileage has changed every few years, but the cycling folks I call friends keep coming out. I'm not sure if it is to get a last big ride of the year or to ring in the new year on two wheels. What ever your reason I'm sure you have one. So I guess we will start the roll call now t-minus 13 days.

I've been pondering the the thoughts of a reverse loop this year. Another suggestion is mileage. Bare bones minimum 55ish miles to complete the loop. This will include some heavier traffic at times. Hopefully a 55-60 mile loop there would be no need for a sag. It's a winter training ride - so pack your extra bottle of HEED, Accelerade, Gatorade or Jack and haul it around the lake. This will be self supported for the most part. We could hit a store but don't count on it.

Holiday Mountain Rides

Two rides to note for the end of December.

Joe and I are headed to the Horse Stables area of Pisgah for a longish ride on Thursday December 28th.

Local trail master Jeremy is leading a ride on December 30th at Wilson's Creek. I have not ridden there but I have heard it is pretty technical. This will be a 30 - 35 mile day. Wilson's is about an hour and a half north of Asheville. So that might be a long day for you midlanders.

If you decide to roll on either of these rides let me know.

Late Edit:
I am going on another ride this Saturday 12/23/2006 in Coleman Boundary. Drop a line.

Peace.

Lynch's Woods Update

I spent this afternoon doing some more trail maintenance at Lynch's. The prologue trail is 100% ready, and when you come out of the prologue trail, and cross the road both forks of the trail are now 100% ready.

If anybody's got a 24" bar or larger chain saw, we could sure use it on a couple of places on the interior trail. This is the best part of the ride, and some of them are in spots that it's just not feasible to re-route around the timber. So if you've got something like that, give me a shout.

Would any of you guys be up for an afternoon of trail work one Saturday soon to finish getting the whole loop back into shape? I could use a hand, and could come up with some refreshing beverages afterwards.

Pisgah Rides

Gentlemen (I know that doesn't go for most of you),

Pisgah ride this weekend at Coleman Boundary. I (for once) am not the tour guide, but we have a good one.

If you are down, give me a shout. We are kicking it on Sunday, so you Harrell's peeps can make it if you got the wheels.

Break out the base layers and tights

Y'all better find the wool socks for Saturday: low temperatures are expected to be near 24F. I've been debating about whether to go do the Upstate Winter Bike League training ride or hit Harbison for a couple of laps. The thought of a 20 mph wind ripping through me on the road bike doesn't sound all that appealing, so I'm thinking "woods!"