First ride to drop the little one at school in a long while.
Exploring
I love exploring on a bike… and the Pugsley is the perfect machine for ‘no trail’ riding. Not 10 minutes from my house… the frozen transition from land to water along Lake Champlain.
Pugsley, the Moon, and the Tree
Pugsley
Finally got the Pugsley prepped for our lack of winter. Moved over some older H-bars, recabled, and generally lubed and cleaned.
Pugsley in the Woods
Been riding the Pugs in the woods. Good fun to climb up and over rock and root.
First time I rode this short section, and hiked back to ride over this rock twice. Carry speed from the backside, and get behind the saddle coming down the front side.
Gaining confidence in the woods – it will be a long long time before I’m an effective technical rider though. Starting to enjoy the little obstacles that riding in the northeast gives you – rocks, rocks, roots, rocks, wet, slime – all in places least likely to allow your wheels to roll smoothly over them.
Pugsley in the Woods
Been enjoying some mellow time letting my lungs recovered from some lingering affects of asthma. A new round of meds wiped me out for the better part of a week. Feeling human again I’ve been riding early morning laps in the local woods -the high trails are dry and nearly 90% ready for summer riding, with only a short stretch that I’ve been walking. The lower trails are another story – the standing water has disappeared over the last few days, but things are still wet and mucky, and some folks have been riding and widening a few sections of trail which is only serving to prolong the drying out (and damaging the single track hidden within the deep mud!).
I’ve been staying out of the wet sections, but the pugs floats over soft soil. Comparing my track to those that have come before on skinny tires is enlightening. The fat tires at low pressure seem to groom and heal up deep ruts that are left by ‘normal’ sized tires.
I do miss the Soma though. Nothing like a singlespeed for a quiet time in the woods. I was surprised at how loud the chain can be when bouncing along through the woods… and of course the Soma was a good 10 pounds lighter than the pugs.
Woods and Beach
re-Learning how to ride in the woods. Locally the high trails are dry. Rocks and roots are perpetually slippy. The lake is at a near all time high, cresting with all the snow melt and recent rain. Lots of crap on the beach. Nice morning to explore on fat tires, while trying to kick a bit of a cold I picked up from the little one.
Saturday Snaps
Pugsley on the tracks and through the tunnel, scraping hardened mud caked fenders…
Spring
Easy recovery spin on the first day of Spring. Quiet this morning in the woods – snow melting, some crust to ride, some mashed potatoes, some frozen post holed rattled your teeth out sections of bike path.
Currently we are under a winter weather advisory, with fluffy snow falling outside the home office window. 3-5 inches by tonight. Sigh. While I love the snow, winter fatigue has fully set in, and I’m looking forward to exploring some single track this year, as well as upping my fitness as I take on both organizing and riding our local brevet series this year.
High Water
Got out on the Pugs today to try my ‘normal’ off road morning loop. Snow was mixed from mashed potatoes to hardpack to just a dusting. I was running relatively high pressure @ 10 psi to make decent time on the paved and bike path connecting portions – which meant plenty of hike a bike in the mashed show full of footprints.
I had wanted to connect through the Intervale – but high water covered part of the farm road on my exit. I’d guess there was 30′ of 3′ deep water to cross – not something I was prepared to do… the nearby Winooski was inches from the tops of it’s banks.