Airborne Seeker Mountain Bike

I want one so bad!

Haw Creek Claims a Victim

My buddy Jay and I hit Haw Creek Park for a cold riding session today. It was not intended to be anything heavy, just a chill ride so jay could test out his vintage 1991 Specialized StumpJumper which he recently converted to a single speed. I call it FrankenBike. 

This bike is pretty rad. It has a super cool lightweight tube set and was actually on the high end of the range when it was brand new. Combine decent specs, the single conversion, and the steep angles and you get one light, quick handling machine.

The ride was a short but fun one. It was fun because the locals have done some work on the trail since we were last there. We found this out when I took a new section and Jay stuck to the trail we knew. I sort of thought the new section would run parallel to the old one, which it did for a while, but then it abruptly hooked back into the woods, and I decided that since Haw Creek is pretty small, I'fd take the gamble that it would sync back up with the regular route.

The next few minutes were awesome. Very cool twisty turney singletrack with a few jumps, a wooden bridge, and rolly-poly elevation changes that made the new cut like riding a skatepark. Very fun. It did indeed sync back up with the trail Jay was on.

The ride was short because when we headed out for a second pass, about 1/3 of the way throgh Jay broke his chain. We both had no tools because Haw is so short. We just walked the climbs and coasted down the new cut section back to the cars.

Oh well.

The thing is, Haw Creek is about halfway between my hut and Jay's, so we ride there pretty often even though it is short. We use it to log miles and stay active, but it is far from a fave trail. That may have changed now that the new section has been added. It is also a directional trail so I can't wait to go back and try it again "backwards".

Strange Find on Fun Ride

The weather here in Georgia was incredible yesterday given that it is February. So of course I headed out for some miles on the road bike. On the back side of my ride, I noticed a green and purple duffle bag not too far off the side of the road in an industrial park area. I decided to double back and check it out. You're never going to believe what was in the bag:

When I first looked in teh top of the bad and saw all the glass, I thought, "Holy crap this is a mobile meth lab." But as I started to dig the stuff out it turned out to be weed and meth smoking paraphernalia. At the top there are two empty rifle bullet magazines.

There were two bongs, the large one was made from two pyrex containers modified to be comppressed together by a set of springs. The other was a smaller and still had weed in the hitter, The location was about .5 mile from a local bike shop, so at least 3 times while I was pulling this stuff out and examining it riders went past that asked if I needed help. Thank goodness I was able to wave all of them on without having them stop. Then it occurred to me that if a cop came by, the situation would be very difficult to may be very difficult to explain. I decided I'd better put everything back and get on my way. 

Before leaving I did grab a quick photo of the meth related irems, White stains on the stems are not from weed.

The rest of the ride was very rad for a while. Wind was heavy on the way out so it was all at my back for the return trip. Then I got to Buford and this happened:

Phone camera just would not let me get a shot of this in focus, but you can clearly see that its a safety pin. I had a patch kit, a new tube, and two c02 cartridges with me, First I tried to patch the hole, but I think I got over zealous with the little metal tool that you're supposed to rough up the patch area with. I put air in, it came right back out. I was about 6 miles from the car so I had to make sure attempt 2 with the new tube worked, or I was gonna have to call the sag wagon. Took my time since there was no reason to rush and the 2nd attempt went fine. 

The rest of the ride went pretty well and I ended with about 22 miles total (but only 600ft of climbing).

I wonder what I'll find out on the road next. I find stuff while biking all the time, The craziest thing I ever found was a working Nintendo DS video game. I still have it!