30th birthday mountain bike trip stop 2- State College


Left Pittsburgh for State College and after scoring a map at Mt. Nittany Wheelworks we rode Nittany Trail in Rothrock State Forest. The trail was rocky and technical, the way I remember, but now there is a giant pipeline project right in the middle of the area. It does lend itself to great contrast for photos though.

30th birthday mountain bike trip stop 1 – Pittsburgh

I wanted to go away and mountain bike for a whole week. I thought of Moab or somewhere in Colorado or going back to Vancouver, but ultimately I chose Pennsylvania because there so many spots there I already know about and plenty of friends to ride with. When Steevo sent me an email that said, ‘Let’s go on a trip!’ it sealed the deal.
Loose plan: Fly into Pittsburgh on a Friday, ride there all weekend, spend the rest of the trip driving a rented hybrid across the state hitting up good spots, drinking coffee, hanging out (not looking at girls) and then ultimately ending in Virginia for the 10th anniversary Shenandoah 100.
My amazing girlfriend helped out a bunch as a birthday gift- sending me away.

Nickel -A Boilmaker- navigates rock to logs in Apollo

Saturday rode Apollo, PA with 8 dudes. I think all of which are ex-BMXers or current/ex-messengers or a combination of the two. Really fun. Perfect PA woods- fast pack, tons of turns and ups and downs along with logs, rocks and roots to navigate.

chillin.

I know it is blurry, but this is a rock bridge.


After a few hours of good riding we came across a waterfall with a good swim area and a rope swing. I was glazed from the humidity and ready to jump in. The first guy in exclaims how cold it is and then, on his way out, just as Steevo is jumping in, yells, ‘Snake! I think it’s poisonous!’

Steevo shimmied up the rope in no time. Who says bike racers are all legs? Ends up it was only a water snake.

Green. Tight. Fun.


Apollo, PA has one place to eat. We spent $50 and there was food left over. Eight of us. Been riding and swimming all day. $50. Below is my $4.50 vegetable hoagie. Stoked.


Sunday- Rode Bavington, PA with Steevo and an ex-Pro mountain biker named John. It’s tight and twisty, but drier and less fast than Apollo. I was struggling to keep up, but it wasn’t miserable. We rode fewer than two hours and covered a lot of distance. On the way home Steevo said they were ‘testing each other out’. I guess that’s what happens when a semi-pro and an ex-pro ride together.

In the afternoon I rode Frick Park with Justin and Steevo. Fast and fun with technical parts that included a seesaw and berms. Was great to follow the same guys I rode BMX with ten years ago. Some things never change?
Did I say ten? I mean fifteen. Wow.

Shenandoah 100

Mountain bike racing 100 miles is hard. Got in under 11 hours, I think in the top third somewhere overall, not sure where I ended up in the single-speed category. Beautiful course, though wet rocks and roots are not what I am used to riding! I struggled, but had a blast. Steevo is a faster blogger than I so check him out for a report. I’m on like 10 hours sleep since Friday and back to the grind manana. Photos soon.

When BMXers grow up…

Our trip is amazing, we’ve ridden a ton in spots all over Pennsylvania and have hung out with great people. Computer time is limited, which is a good thing, but not posting photos and stories is an unfortunate part of that. Here’s one story:
Last night Steevo fell and his tooth went through his lip (teeth are fine). What would you do if you had no insurance? We went back to where we are staying, looked it up on the internet, found that liquid stitch stuff in hospitals is basically super glue (cyanoacrylate) and then glued it shut. Done. It looks good and we hope for a quick recovery.
Are going out for a quick ride shortly. Photos soon!

Like skateboarding, but with mountain bikes

Today I leave for Pittsburgh for a 10-day mountain bike trip in Pennsylvania and Virginia with Steevo. But we are not riding! I mean, we are riding spots, but we are driving to them. Totally lame, right? I keep having to explain that our purpose is to ride good mountain bike trails not travel by bicycle. It’s an easy assumption for people to make considering him and I probably have close to 20,000 combined bike touring miles. This is like when we were BMX kids, like he says on his post about our trip.

The trip wraps up with the Shenandoah 100 near Harrisonburg, VA. You know, the race that Floyd Landis got 3rd in last year.

It’s Summer

Yes, it has been summer for a long while. But for me it is just beginning. I leave in a few hours via train to the Bay area. Saturday is Vineman!
I am not as stoked as I would like to be because I have not been able to run much since I twisted my foot 3 weeks ago on our shuttle adventure. Though I did do 45 minutes this morning and it felt okay. Not great, but okay. We’ll see how 26.2 miles go! The aerobars are already on my bike….
I’ll do my best to send some updates.

Venn Vegans

At first I could not believe the number of vegan blogs that exist and the amount of traffic they get. But it makes sense: No one likes to tell others about something they are stoked on more than vegans do. And is that not the purpose of blogs? Vegans are about 1% of the US population, but what percentage of bloggers do vegans make up?

Just look at this vegan blog and the amount of links to other vegan blogs!
I use this blog mostly to post about adventures and races, but I do admit to taking photos of food sometimes, so I might as well post them. Plus it is winter and adventures are on the minimum tip, while working to make money for more adventures is (slightly) more of a priority these days.

homemade Indian food

Our yearly Fall vegan potluck: Circle of Dead Pilgrims
(what says vegan and anti-colonization better?)

Porches bring much happiness

Morgan’s Metal breakfast
(note that he did not approve frothed Silk Nog for coffee as metal)

A vegan buffet in Oslo, Norway

Second plate.
Note the corn on the pizza. I had falafel the
day before and it had corn in it as well.

Fast food in Brighton, England

Cornucopia
meal in Dublin, Ireland

More dessert and coffee from Cornucopia