Riding with Turkeys - Cranksgiving 2010

It was Friday night, freezing rain came down at first and then the huge snow flakes started hitting the ground. Roads were slick, cars were off in the ditches and my traction control was engaging like crazy. Will there be a Cranksgiving tomorrow? Cranksgiving blog said pretty much rain or snow and we're still riding. As much as I hate riding in the cold temps, you gotta do what you gotta do!

 

Wait for me! Had some trouble getting tires switched out, ended up riding the full suspension instead

The list of 10 items to get from various stores 

Dave, this is a race. Get on your bike. 

No pre-race butterflies this time 

I missed last year's event for whatever reason and I really wanted to participate in this fun event. Convinced Aaron to go and the MNR gang would be there also. Aaron texted me super early Saturday after his donut run, said he's still in but it is windy and cold. Great, with such crappy weather conditions I was waiting for that facebook update to say postponed. Never happened, well I guess it's time to layer up and throw the fenders on the bike!

Lots of waiting for stoplights. Paul and Brian bundled up

Where there's a helpful smile...Aaron at HyVee 

Dave with the bottles of shampoo at Shopko. So fresh and so clean clean 

The watchmen were along the bike rack 

 

 

I was dressed like a bike ninja, got some funny stares in the stores (pic borrowed from Stratomatica's blog) 

Let's just say that I'm glad I went. Only 35 riders this time around, down from last year's count. That's okay, giving a little is better than nothing. But as it tured out, more than 1200 lbs of food was brought in by riders and people donating to the event, also at least $1000 in donated money was collected for the Food Bank. How awesome is that?

Mini cyclocross event at 84th and Center

 

Dave with the crate full of groceries

 

Glad the sun was out, but that north wind was brutal heading back

The seven of us formed an alliance to stick together. Dave N, Paul, Brian H, Aaron, Dennis, Chris (Dave's bro) and myself hopped on our mt bikes and rolled down the Big Papio trail. I'm glad that the veterans were with Aaron and I, because there was actually strategy to all of this. Yes it was a race, but we didn't care. We were out to get the mileage in for the day. The key was to get the light stuff first and make the heavier items on the list as part of your last stop. Makes sense and I'm glad we did this because the wind coming back from Shopko/HyVee at 84th and Center was brutal! Yes, we rode out from Bike Masters on Fort Street out to Center in 40 degree temps with a very chilly wind. Logged in about 20 miles with the ride from home to Bike Masters included. Oh yeah, we had groceries on our backs! This time, instead of crossing paths with the huge turkeys on the singletrack trail, Dave and Chris bought the turkeys from Target. They struggled at first getting those back to the shop (it was rather comical actually), but they managed. Good work guys!

Bundle up boy! 

Aaron and his trademark wave 

Martin Bixby made it home with a new bike they raffled off. Lucky! There was hot soup of various sorts to help our bodies warm back up. Good times, great ride, great friends. Afterwards, we enjoyed a cold one on a cold day at Paul's. Thanks for the fun event. Looking forward to 2011!

The fenders are a must for winter riding 

This boy luvs to shop! Especially for a good cause

That's a big turkey!

 Brothers Dave and Chris, turkeys strapped to bikes and ready to roll out

 Two and a half hours later we made it back to Bike Masters. What a long haul!

 Checking in

Lucky man Martin wins the bike

 We made a pitstop to check it out. Freaking chaos in there. Clerks didn't even have time to restock shelves, they were just opening boxes and handing items to customers. Important thing we noticed? No cold beer. No deal!

Cashier lines ran almost to the back of the store 

Reminder of Friday night's storm. I80 right there.

First snow, it's about time

Boy I sure wish I had some snowshoes to help me get around! Oh wait...I do. It's slick out folks, drive safe. Cranksgiving status tomorrow? Need to know because I need to change out the tires.

What's that sound I hear???

Oh, it's the unfamiliar sound of the wipers brushing against the windshield. Temps have dropped about ten degrees since this morning. Brrrr....

MNR with a side of toppings and whiplash!

I made it out for another episode of Monday Night Ride at Tranquility, which was the first since daylight savings. It was dark on the way home from work, but weather was in the 70's all day. How can I say no? Fewer riders showed up for last night's ride, about 13 as compared to the 20 plus that we had last week. The gang started with a backwards ride through the north side, continued on in the correct direction on the south side, correct direction on the north side, then did the south side creek backwards.

*Click on any photo to enlarge it.*

Since the need for lights this fall, I've been trying to capture the true meaning of the "night ride" on camera. The little point and shoot camera just couldn't hack it. Decided to pull out the DSLR and tripod. It's a lot harder than taking pics of a race, because you have to imagine where the trail curves and none of the photos are staged. Just the MNR progressing as normal. Even harder is the focus. Since I was shooting way off in the distance and trying to frame my scene ahead of time, all I could see was a pitch black hill. I had to manually focus on a far off light as a reference point and then cross my fingers. For shots like these and also for fireworks, it's best to set your camera to bulb mode (meaning the shutter opens and closes depending on when I push and release the button).Waited for the riders then used my remote shutter release to avoid camera shake. Tripod is a must!

 

Dave, remember when you asked if you were screwing up my picture? The result was pretty cool. Check out the lights from the riders on the right side. 

I was pretty happy with what I got and the riders had rejoined where north meets south. Had my camera on tripod in my left hand, steered my handlebars with my right. Took the bypass over and proceeded down the inner loop exit. Saw a bump in the trail and thought it would be terrible if I fell. Like one of those premonitions. Well I went over the bump, lost my balance from the 20 lbs of camera gear in the left hand, and flew to the right. I landed in the grass and all I could think was save the camera. So my head hit the ground and I remember trying to brace the fall of my camera in my left hand to prevent it from hitting the ground. The lens filter was all that got a little dirty in the dirt, whew. Brushed myself off and met up with the guys.

We ordered pizza at Paul's to go along with the recovery drink. Went home and fell asleep for the night. I woke up at 3am, neck sore like crazy! Neck pain in the direction my head hit and the direction that I lifted my head and body to prevent damage to my camera. Whiplash! Also got scraped through the long sleeve and knickers. Crazy thing is that I wasn't going that fast!

Moral of the story? Don't ride your bike at night down the inner loop one handed with 20 lbs of camera gear to throw you of balance! They say that photographers sometimes go out of their way to get the picture. Well there you go!

Check out the city lights in the background!  

 

Someone's taillight in the mix. Notice the inner loop hump at the start of the light path

 Trying to capture the turns in the trail

Some words of advice

If you happen to go to the supermarket late at night because you don't want to fall asleep at 9pm after a long day of riding and the daylight savings is screwing you up...remember that you have a trunk mounted bike rack up there. Got the groceries in the trunk, I started to move the trunk downward, the weight of the rack made it fly down with the speed of a ninja and the 25lb rack collided with the top of my head. Guess who won?

Today's interesting ride

I hope that everyone got a chance to get some pedaling in this weekend. With temps in the 60s and 70s, we may not see this weather until next spring! I had quite the interesting ride today.

Leaves everywhere at Jewell, makes it hard to climb in areas 

Decided to torture myself and get some riding in at Jewell, just for the fun of it I had thought. Man that place hates me. Can't breathe, can't climb, not sure why I bothered. I wasn't even five minutes into the lap when I stopped under a tree. Hmmm...sunny out. Sometimes my camelback leaks a little bit of water out and it drips onto my legs. But why did it feel like raindrops were falling on my head. And I'm talking BIG raindrops.

The bird said howdy DOODY to me today  

Carry on I said after trying to help a rider. Something isn't right. So I stopped and took off my helmet. Yellow shi*t all over my helmet, complete with seeds. Blech. You know how when you shop for a helmet, you pay more for the ones with the bigger and more air vents? Well, one disadvantage the helmet companies don't tell you. More bird shi*t goes through and onto your hair. Yeah. After cleaning my helmet off with the abundance of leaves on the ground, I go to wipe the sweat out of my hair. Not all sweat came off in my hand. Included were more seeds and yellow poo. Digusting.

Two deer on the right, at least four on the left 

Finished my lap at Jewell and decided to pack it up pack in. Might as well hit up Swanson for a lap. Why not? Weather nice, sun still out. Swanson was more forgiving, I would like to credit the warm-up lap at Jewell, but I think Swanson is just much easier in general. Lots of deer, lots of riders (some riding backwards on the trail)...AND...A motorcyclist was on the trail with his bike going backwards on the trail!!! WTF!!!! I almost hit him head on coming around the corner at the top of the prarie section. What a f*kin dumb*ss!!! I was too much in awe to even say anything to him. He just kept going and didn't look back.

Double dose of trails, double dose of bird crap, motorcycle nearly hits me head on, and a ton of wildlife. All in a day's ride!

The idiot on a motorcycle, going the wrong direction to make it worse 

Private property to the right, don't even think about it. 

Blog hits the 10k mark

To think, Todd, Cory and I started this blog in August of 2009 to have a place to show others our videos, pics and to share some stories from the weekend. I think it all began with me taking the tumble at Lewis and Clark (The "Oh Sh*t video). Then Todd's turn when he tumbled at Manawa in THORs playground. Anyway, 10k visitors in a little over a year ain't too shabby.

We've made a lot of good friends, rode a lot of miles, and squeezed in a few races here and there. Thanks for reading folks!

Trailday before winter hits

You gotta work to play. There were two THOR traildays at Manawa and Tranquility yesterday. Great turnout for help at Tranquility, I think the word got around at the last Monday Night Ride. Riders were armed with shovels, Mcleods, and rogue hoes in hand to give the trail a touch up before the snow hits. Trees were trimmed, edges were leveled, and water channels were put in to help with the erosion and ruts. Great day for trailwork. Thanks for taking care of the trail everyone!

 

Great turnout, few people I didn't know were there to help

Aaron and Dave N were taking care of the edges 

Yes, even I get into the pictures sometimes! 

 

Creating a diversion channel 

Dmars, Chris, Dave, Dale, and Paul there to represent! 

Since Todd was asking - Snowshoes

It's my goal to stay in somewhat decent shape this winter. Snowboarding, some biking on the rollers, and my usual 4-5 days of weight training at Gold's. Added to the list this year? Snowshoeing. Yeah, you tell people you got new snowshoes and they are like, so, big deal. You got new shoes for the snow. Like snowboots? NO, SNOWSHOES! Like the backwards looking wooden tennis racquet from 100 years ago. Oh, those snowshoes! Well they are much more advanced now. Flex this, different types of bindings (rotating and fixed) that, and even different types of crampons. Now a lot of these features you look for are determined by the purpose of the snowshoe. Many are categorized into recreational, aerobic, and mountaineering. I'm no expert and am fairly new to all of this so do your research first. For now, I bought an entry level pair just to see if I even like them. The gang at the MNR a few weeks ago thanked me for buying them because it means that it won't snow now. Which would actually be okay with me because I would rather stay on the bike all winter long. Either way.

Trail work to be completed before winter hits

Watchya doin this weekend? Working on the trail of course. Couple of trail days, one is tomorrow and two planned for this weekend. The more people that get out to work on the trail, the less time it takes and the faster you get to the riding.
From THOR blog and THOR trails on facebook

1. Trail day. Tuesday, November 2 · 9:00am - 12:00pm
Mountain Bike Trail Head at Missouri River boat ramp. The plan is to only cut and move trees, logs and branches. Bring the goods, people. Winter riding is around the corner. Lunch will be provided.

2. Trail Day
Saturday, November 6 at 9:00am
Location: Lake Manawa State Park


3. Tranquility Trail Day Sat Nov 6th @ 1pm
We are looking for a small group to come help finish up the fall cleanup. Meet at the Fort St trail head at 1pm.

MNR - Yes, I was that guy

Nothing like following in other people's footsteps...or in this case, MagicShine light. One lap down at Tranquility, so far so good. It was dark and I think Greg yelled out that we should ride the trail backwards, heck yeah! Well, before even rolling out of the parking lot for lap two, my Stella dies. Dangit, forgot to charge the light! NOOO!!! It has happened to Todd, Paul, and now me. Yes, I was THAT guy. And I was constantly harassed by Aaron and Todd for being the fool tonight. Let me tell you, riding through the trail in your own shadow or even a few short feet in complete darkness is an eye opening experience. Don't try it. Like those guys that fly by you on the tacoride without a light on in near pitch black situations. Dumb.

Can't remember who this was in the foreground, maybe Dave? But see the white lights down in the distance? More riders. 

Anyway, MNR was a great ride. No snow, no rain. I'll settle with tights and long sleeve thermals for a ride on November 1st. Great turnout, I lost count after I saw over 20 people at the regroup before the South climb. Welcome to new rider "Biombo", glad to have met you tonight. Paul, hope you get to feeling better. Ride on!

Prepping for the new tennis courts 

Can I borrow some lights, please? 

Somebody rounding the corner. Okay, the little Canon Elph in fireworks mode just isn't a long enough exposure. If MNR is on for next week, I promise the DSLR, tripod, and remote will come out to play.