Today's forecast............

[Max]

Ice, ice, and more ice. Today's commute, the best one yet. Best, not in the sense that I hauled ass through the chaos known as rush hour traffic, but best in the sense that as I was cruising down hills at ramming speed I kept thinking to myself, "You're a shaggin' mental case.", to which I then replied to myself, "ah, sure they don't have doors big enough for the ol' ball bearings." To those fellow commuters from the mid-west and upper east coast, I'd like to give a shout out. Mad ups, people. Well done. To the bastard in the Ford Focus who splashed me on the corner of Forbes and Murry, I hope you get a flat. It's hailing outside now. That would have been an even better twist. Perhaps when I write my book(the one about me), I'll include it. Chapter 12 or 13 probably. To Browne and Guererro, thanks for coming in last night, and, yes I asked my girlfriend to vacuum.

[Rotifer]

Gee, it was 49 degrees here yesterday. :cool:

[Browne]

Max,

I just couldn't do it. Although I vowed to ride every day this week, I just couldn't pull myself out of bed and on my bike. cold is one thing, but cold AND wet sucks.

But last night was fun. D's is a great place. riding home through the park was hilarious, as Hammer took a liking to both the icey ground and Jeff's rear wheel. I woke him up at 6:45 this morning, and as I was listening to him ride down the driveway, I heard him slip and fall, again... Geez, what was that, 5 or 6 falls? Go Hammer!

Good job on the commute, man. I wish I could have convinced myself to do it...

Thanks for the hospitality,

[leapfrog]

it was someting close to 40..maybe less..here today, but we had about an inch and a half of snow on the ground. i was excited to ride downtown but then got stood up so i made sure to go on a ride. took our little rails to paved trails thing and thought i might be the only person out there. the fresh snow had been previously used as i saw a few bike tire tracks in the snow before me. they looked like cyclo cross tracks to me, and i weaved my mtn bike tracks over them to let them know they weren't the only ones out there today.

scott
leapfrog bike zine

[DirtRagArt]

The ride home rocked... we took an extended route and raced our road bikes at breakneck speed like we were a veritable Tour de Sliberty... It's funny how much scarier the snow and ice covered trails in Frick seemed when we were SOBER.

Hammer did eat it like 5 times... All I really recall clearly was that I didn't even dab the whole ride home until I hit the ice in our driveway (closely followed by the Hammer). I wonder what the new neighbors would have thought if they had seen us all drunk, crashed and laughing hysterically on that sheet of ice...

Max, you shouldn't make Steph do your dirty work... he he he

[Max]

Sounds like my kind of ride. Oh, the joy's of cycling when one's already full on the way to decorating their livers. Sounds like you boys were mighty polluted after you left me. Had I known, I would have taken the keys, or your cranks.

[hairygrump]

Weather here has unexpectedly warmed up in the last 2 days. 30+, with this irritating sheet of frost over everything, always.

I had to shoot out to the franchise ghetto for a stop at Target this afternoon and it was a pain in the ass. The lame-ohs in their cars think the road is just wet, not icy, so they're skidding all over everything. Add this to typical franchise ghetto "Do I need anything in Target? No. Do I want McDonalds for lunch? No. Do I need any shoes from Payless? Wait! I want McDonalds for lunch!" driving and buying Hot Wheels for Christmas presents was refreshingly life-threatening.

[TheIntern]

Originally posted by Rotifer
Gee, it was 49 degrees here yesterday. :cool:

Wow. That's how warm it was in my apartment last night.

And I suppose that's why I'm moving to Walla Walla next year (no shit).

[Rotifer]

And I suppose that's why I'm moving to Walla Walla next year (no shit).

Cool. I'll hook you up. Let's see ... you're not a senior citizen so you must either be coming here to go to college or work at a winery.

[TheIntern]

Yup, Whitman college. Maybe a winery after that...

How's the riding in Walla Walla? I've heard there is some singletrack up in the Blues, and that there's a little bit right around town. Where do you usually ride? I hope I don't have to rely on only road miles to get my jollies while I'm there...

[Rotifer]

I spent my freshman year at Willamette and finished at Whitman in '95. There is superb riding in the Blues, within 30 minutes of Walla Walla. A little out of date, but this isn't a bad guide.
http://people.whitman.edu/~pogue/bike_guide.html

I have friends who drive up from Boise to ride here which, if you've ever ridden in Boise, says something.

[TheIntern]

Hey that's sweet- I'm really glad to hear that. I had heard mixed things about the riding in the Bues, so I wasn't sure.

thanks for the link. Funny thing about it- the fellow who made that site, Kevin Pogue, used to live in the town that I grew up in (Corvallis, OR). He made and rode many of the trails around there, and eventually made a fantastic topo map of the area. The mapmaking was shut down by the landowners who didn't want people riding there. That was about 12 years ago. Then, two years ago, I worked with some friends to update the map and put it on a CD, with photos and interactiveness (is that a word?) and whatnot. I've never met him myself, but when I show up at Whitman next year I hope to bring him a copy of the CD so that I can show him how far his map has come.

On another note- how'd you like Whitman?

[Rotifer]

I loved Whitman. I still go out for beers with a few of my professors and, in fact, live across the street from the college. The major problem is that there is no bicycling community. I've thought about posting rides and such but, with racing cross this fall, I never got around to doing it. The Blues are tricky, you have spectacular, long and smooth descents, but you earn them with solid climbing. Pogue is an interesting guy, I've never met or ridden with him but I've done every variation of every ride in that book save one - the Watershed Perimeter Loop. Home of Bigfoot and some ugly singletrack.