Real Mtn Bike #2

Today was even better than yesterday - 60 degrees and the sun was peeking out. I've got to go out again.

Go home. Clean the gutters. Grab the bike. No one wants to go with me this time. So it's solo time. This time I decide to do Morgan Hill - there's a lean to up there some place and I want to find it.

This place is not familiar. I'm going alone. Sun setting earlier. Not a good plan, but I gotta to do it. Find the trail, jump on the bike, down the bank, and promptly go right over my handle bars - WHAM! Heck of a way to start... Get up hoping no one saw that stunt, and brush myself off. Walk down the trail to make sure the legs are okay. Got no choice, this is steep and muddy. Walk down to the bottom and there's this beautiful creek running through the woods. It's pretty sizable, no real way to ride through it - a solid rock base with moss looking pretty slippery. There's an old bridge that's missing all it's planks. So I get on the bike and pull myself across. Up the other bank. Now where is the trail? Ah, that part going straight up a bank infested with roots. These biking shoes aren't that great for hiking so I slip my way up. Finally up to the top - ride maybe 30 ft and logs and roots. Push some more. In fact I do a whole lot of pushing. In fact I think: this ain't a good mtn bike place for me. So I push back to the car.

Cross the road and make an attempt in the other direction. This is a long steady climb up a hill. I'll be darned if I can get on the bike and get moving: leaves slipping, mud, and everytime I pedal the front rears up and tries to dump me. This ain't work'n either. Dark is coming fast so it's time to head back. Trail 2, Kurt 0.

Disappointed I didn't get the ride like yesterday, but now I know where not to go!

Real Mtn Biking

Today we did our first real mtn bike run! Joshua and I drove down to Spruce Pond just south of where we live. This is a huge hunk of state land that has great woods, ponds, and hills. There's this trail called the Finger Lake Trail that goes from one end of NYS to the other. There's a 'spur' that goes from this trail up into Onondaga county, and it goes right through the Spruce Pond area. The last five miles or so starts at Spruce Pond and heads east, then north up on to Fellows Hill. I wanted to ride it. The first part is very steep, covered with leaves and muddy so we had to push for a while. About 3/4 the way up we rode. What an awesome trail! Nice and wide, through beautiful open woods that changed from evergreen to hardwoods.

Our particular problem was that (1) we didn't know where this trail went, and (2) dark was coming in. What the heck, we could always bushwhack west until we hit the main road. The trail gradually climbed then cut back to the east into a dense pine forest. We found a marker indicating the top of the hill. The pine forest was pretty dark and I switched on the head light. This didn't help Joshua too much since he didn't have one. Then it was down throught the woods - with me yelling out the various obsticles coming up. I'm sure this part of the woods was beautiful too, but I couldn't see it!

Trip took about 1.5 hrs and we had a fair amount of mud on the bikes. It was worth it

Bike + GPS = Fun!

Days for biking in CNY are growing short, so when Kathy asked me to take Jonathan to soccer, I jumped at the chance. Soccer is over in Pompey which has got some great biking options. I decided that this trip I'd see if I could find some geocaches. There are four in this area and I thought I'd see how many I could find by bike.

The first was within .25 miles of the soccer fields. In the Pompey cemetery, this cache has got an amazing view. I'd only been around that area at night.

The second was more of a hike. The challenge with starting at Pompey is that everything is *big* downhill! This cache was at the place called Old Fly Marsh. About a 2 mile ride. I was interested to go here since one of the Scouts in the Troop I'm in did a project there to re-do some of the marsh board walks. I got there and had to bike in on trails about .25mile - what a beautiful place! Open hardwood forest, old growth ceaders and the marsh. Got to come back here.

Turn around and head back. Get to the soccer fields. Hmmm, do I have time to ride to Pratt's Falls to find a cache? Sure I do. This is farther and more down hill than I remember. Get there and find the cache. It's supposed to have 'geocaching pins' in it, but this one is looking pretty run down with no pins. Time to head back. Now I'm getting worried: got to get Jonathan before 11:00, lots of up hill and it's starting to rain.

No problem! Get back just as Jonathan is finishing. We head off and I tell him to go find the cache in the cemetary. It's in an pretty cool spot. He found it, then we set off to find a cache at a rest area on Rt 20. We've driven by this spot a zillion times and I always wondered if the cache was there. Jonathan found it.

What a great time!

The Nutritionist: Part 2

Went to the nutrionist yesterday, and I must say I was pretty impressed! Bottom line: reduce the carb's, increase the protein, and increase the fat. Less pasta, bread, etc. More meat - I was surprised that I should be eating 4-6oz at lunch and dinner. Couple eggs each morning too.

Interesting discussion around One Step, this is the supplement that Eddie recommended. She was pretty impressed with the stuff in it. The one problem for me with it is the soy: I may have some kind of food allergy to soy.

Pretty funny at one point: Kathy thought she'd ambush me, "hey, you should see how much butter he puts on his toast!!" "That's okay" was the word back!

Got two supplements: Natura Vital Adapt and a power called Pro-PNC. The later for the training. Bunch of solid advice, go do this for a month and check back in.
Can't wait to see how this works out.

The Nutrionist

Tomorrow is the day. I get to have my food intake examined. I'm tired of being tired. And sick. I'm hoping this will really help. Of course there's my nose. I can't smell. So I'm driving in the car tonight with Kathy and she keeps rolling down the window. Why are you doing that? Because the smell of freon! Maybe that's why I feel so crapy!