This is NOT the greatest blog in the world, no. This is just a tribute!
- Thread starter rick81721
- Start date
Kaleidopete
Well-Known Member
Looks like you found one of those deer that the hunter says "I shot him, but he got away".
Mountain Bike Mike
Well-Known Member
I found the carcass of a 10 pt buck:
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Jackalope AND shit on the tire bonus
What's with you and white pickup trucks? Was it diesel?
thegock
Well-Known Member
That guy was Dan who works at Tenafly, a MTB friendly shop. Ramapo next...
thegock
Well-Known Member
Doggie style.
Paul H
Fearless OOS Poser
You sure it's ONLY from mtbing?
qclabrat
Well-Known Member
Rick you must be developing some mad skill post retirement, what's improved the most since you started riding 5-6 days a week?
JDurk
Well-Known Member
Looking back at your trip to CCC and GCC, you missed a little bit at each. And having 6 to go in SJ, Kresson will not keep you occupied very long. Better plan on doubling up will another location. Black Run Preserve is nearby, but difficult to navigate without someone who is familiar. Will be similar to riding other locations in the Pine Barrens. Did you ride Ceres Park yet?
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@rick81721 , u need to start getting in touch with people to give you a tour of parks. @Mitch or myself would be happy to give you a tour of Allaire any weekend we are around. If you are gonna visit a park that you don't know, having a guide to put together a good loop makes riding so much more fun.
JDurk
Well-Known Member
Don't think too much is going on at Seaview Estates. Maybe @theranch could provide some info. You could consider Port Republic and Estelle Manor. Kresson and Black Run Preserve would work better. The trail at Kresson is only around 3 miles, but there is more across the road that is technically on private property.
Mountain Bike Mike
Well-Known Member
Nice work... By the way, you may discover that you don't need to supplement upper body work in the gym if you're riding as much as you are. Riding a very technical MTB park rather than doing heavy weights will give you a better work out than being in the gym + a way better experience (nature, outdoors, fresh air, adapting to the elements) and overall well being. I know I can ride Water Co once a week and hit a good majority of the upper body riding all the tech features instead of going to the gym and doing back and bi's.
Because you are no longer at work and sedentary and are very active with cycling, you're no longer in need of supplementing exercise with activities like weight lifting to compensate. AND I don't think you're trying to win any kind of body building or power lifting competitions any time soon, so you can save your gym membership dues and keep doing what you're doing by being active on the bike.
With low BP, I've always had below normal BP and whenever I get up too fast, I get really dizzy. As of late, my resting HR and BP are at an all time low... I think it has to do with all the 13-15 hour weeks in Sept / Oct. My weight was also down during that time. If you can sustain those kinds of hours, you'll see all your physical measures will improve. The fountain of youth...
I'm very jealous that you have all this time to be able to ride - I can only hope to be able to do what you're doing one day. Keep it up. It's inspiring.
P.S. You're arms are starting to look puny
Because you are no longer at work and sedentary and are very active with cycling, you're no longer in need of supplementing exercise with activities like weight lifting to compensate. AND I don't think you're trying to win any kind of body building or power lifting competitions any time soon, so you can save your gym membership dues and keep doing what you're doing by being active on the bike.
With low BP, I've always had below normal BP and whenever I get up too fast, I get really dizzy. As of late, my resting HR and BP are at an all time low... I think it has to do with all the 13-15 hour weeks in Sept / Oct. My weight was also down during that time. If you can sustain those kinds of hours, you'll see all your physical measures will improve. The fountain of youth...
I'm very jealous that you have all this time to be able to ride - I can only hope to be able to do what you're doing one day. Keep it up. It's inspiring.
P.S. You're arms are starting to look puny
Kaleidopete
Well-Known Member
Great looking frame!Shark River and Turkey Swamp
Or Turkey Shark and Swamp River, or Turkey River and Shark Swamp - basically interchangeable parks. But first, a bike update. As mentioned previously, the Horsethief Reverb dropper post crapped out Oct 19. Took the bike to Halters for a fix. Later I got a call from Jay that they can't get the post out of the frame, have to send the entire frame back to Salsa. @jdog works his usual magic and Salsa agrees to replace the frame and dropper post. Halters is awesome! But I gotta keep riding so I dust off the old spearfish and been riding that for more than a month. The horsethief frame finally comes back last week, I had the shop also add clear frame protection as I chipped and scratched the hell out of the first one on rocks.
New frame/rear triangle/dropper post and they even replaced the rear shock:
Tried to get a closeup of the protection (I forget the make but it's about as thick as a nickel):
Did I mention Halters is awesome? Anywho, to the rides. Original plan was to hit 2 parks and get 2.5 hrs moving time in to get to 70 JimV hours on his month challenge. Drive to Shark River first and park in the lot. Not much to say about this place, just a small park with sandy trails, a few roots here and there. There is a "black diamond" trail that I hit on the way back that goes along the Shark River - how'd they name this thing? It's barely a creek - maybe a 12" sand shark could swim up this thing. Took a pic by the scary river:
Got back to the lot and I only had about 40 min moving time. No way I'm spending over an hour here. Put in vehicle gps address for Turkey swamp, eat a PB&J sammich on the way. At this point I'm thinking I need a third park to get to 2.5 hrs riding time, maybe Clayton or 6mr on the way back. But gps takes me to 195 west and I see a sign for Allaire - why not? Take the exit and try to remember where the parking lot is - I know it's not on Allaire rd, but I see a sign for Hospital rd and it clicks. Park in the lot, figure if I get around an hr here another 45 min or so at Turkey Swamp should be tolerable. Follow orange for a while, then light orange. Somehow I always end up on those stupid hog bog trails down along the river - wtf? Didn't want to re-trace my steps through muck so keep going, find a place to hike-a-bike through the woods up a hill and find real trails again. A little later I find a narrow unmarked trail off the power lines clearing and give that a go. Seems very little traffic on this, maybe it's just a deer trail? It ends up at a 1940s vehicles graveyard - pretty cool - there were probably 8-10 vehicles, motors, etc here. Took a pic of my new project car:
Trail ended here, so back-tracked and followed blue for awhile. Getting close to the lot, I see a rider crossing Hospital road - there are trails there too? Turns out via strava flyby it might have been @Johnny Utah. These trails are some of the funnest here - some swoopy up and downs, and one trail goes along an actual cliff - who woulda thunk it? Will have to explore these more next time I'm here.
Back to the lot, eat an apple and drive to Turkey Swamp. Pretty much same deal as Shark river - similar trails, maybe some more roots. No turkeys, no swamp - at least until I cross a road and find this - I guess this is the swamp:
Looks like this trail ends so I back track, had more than enough time for 2.5 hrs total at this point. The only interesting thing about this place is the ant mounds, and there were a bunch on the one trail that connected to this board walk from Nomoco rd to Turkey Swamp park rd. Some look like mini volcanoes - perfect cones - this one not so much but it was right off the trail and had numerous entrance/exit holes - no ant activity visible:
Strava - top 10s!
Both of these parks are solid Ds. So 6 parks left in south jersey, 4 central, 3 north - 13 more to go.
Weekly update:
7 rides: 2 road, 5 mtb
13.7 hrs moving time
168 miles
9,413 ft elevation
Totals for month (biggest ever):
27 rides
65 hrs moving time
683 miles
43,582 ft elevation gain
Plus 2 runs, and will get in one more before the end of the month, so about 2 hrs running time.
On a fitness note - it's been 2 months since my last day at work. With riding time more than doubled, I've lost 5 lbs and am now at 160 - lowest since college graduation! Hopefully just lost fat but slacked off on weight training this month so gotta step that up. My resting pulse has dropped from low 50s to high 40s. Also have noticed my blood pressure has been dropping - so much that after sitting around if I get up suddenly or bend over I get lightheaded. I started monitoring it with a home device and saw readings as low as 100/54. At my annual physical last wed I discussed with the doc - I know @stb222 likes to think all docs just want to medicate, well my doc always try lifestyle changes first. He said it's common that after removing stress from work and getting in better shape medications can be decreased or even dropped. So he says stop the bp meds completely and see what happens - keep monitoring at home and you'll know in 3-4 days. If it starts to get too high, go to half dosage. It's been 5 days now and bp is perfect - so no more bp meds - yay!
Mountain Bike Mike
Well-Known Member
BOWFLEX?
My wedding ring does that in the summer... never falls past the knuckle, spins loosely around the finger. Never fell off yet. Are you sure you didn't forget - that happens around this age...
Mountain Bike Mike
Well-Known Member
when was the last time you rode a bike without clips? I tried the other day and almost died
Mountain Bike Mike
Well-Known Member
Was riding my kid's 24' MTB in front of the house (has flat plastic pedals), hopped a curb and feet came right off the pedals - No footer up the damn curb... So used to pulling up clipped in...