Trail Conditions March 11th, 2011

It’s not looking good for this weekend.  Super wet from all of the rain.  And snow and rain forecast for tonight. Guess it’s a good weekend for drinking. 

Trail Conditions March 5th, 2011

Crappy. For almost anything. Reminds me of growing up in Oregon… Most of the snow and ice is finally gone, so no skiing or snowshoeing, but the trails are super wet from the melt and rain, and there are still spots of snow on the north slopes. Last weekend at least you could ice fish, but I think even that is a no-go this weekend. The river is running pretty good, so maybe go for a paddle if you’ve got a suit.  Guess I’ll be heading out for yet another road ride…

Trail conditions January 22, 2011

6″ of fresh pow on top of 2-4″ plus ice. Good for xc skiing and snowshoeing. Not so good for biking. Cold too. On the plus side, hunting season is finally wrapping up.

Trail conditions January 16, 2011

3-6 inches of snow.  Dry loose snow over 2″ packed base. Good for xc skiing, but with beater skis only. A little sketchy on the bike. Report for the week calls for more snow, could turn to rain. Typical January in Pa.

Brush MT. VA

On the way back from TN,  I stopped by Brush MT. in Blacksburg VA. On cousin Brian’s suggestion, I stopped in Eastcoasters bike shop and got the beta from the local wrench, an 18 mile loop of Poverty creek, snakeroot, trillium, etc. It turned out to be a great ride with a nice mix of fast singletrack, climbs, fast descents, fireroad and technical stuff. The only downside was all of the horse,  and human, shit on the trails. The horse shit is offensive enough, but people shitting right in the middle of the trail? That could  give Appalachia a bad name.

Southern hospitality

We’re down in Tennessee for Turkey day and some bike riding.  Not only have we been treated to southern hospitality,  care of transplanted Pennsylvanians, but we’ve gotten some first class singletrack too! Cousin Brian took us out for a good ride in Lynchburg VA. first. Then we rode Norris TN. and Haw Ridge.  Great trails with a healthy dose of punchy climbs and wet leaf descents.

Weekend Update, Nov. 12th 2010

It looks to be the 5th weekend in a row of near perfect fall weekend weather! I assume we will pay for this with a nasty winter… but for now, let’s get out and enjoy. All trails are in pretty good shape, there are more sticks out eying your derailleur (actually eying Dan’s mostly) than usual. A little tip for those of you running gears, if you hear something hit your spokes, stop pedaling immediately and stop.  It looks like we’ve got another good fast group heading out on the Broad on Sunday. Last week we did about 5 1/2 hours on the Broad and Pisgah. We saw more bikers and hikers then ever on one ride. Jim Thorpe is coming back!