Old maps new borders, fordsstash.com

Okay so my goal was to finish all my partial posts above. But instead, I made a new one.
I call it Ford's stash. It is an e-commerce site dedicated to selling all the maps I've squirrelled away over the years. So if you need a map showing Oklahoma as Indian Territory, or a map showing Central Africa as Unexplored, you'll appreciate these maps. Properly framed and mounted, they make for great wall art.

To all my domains...

They seemed like such good ideas... Like children really, you get excited, pick a name, purchase it and then instead of building the site, I get another idea. So these malformed and illegitimate orphans lie:

• itinct.com/ - That was to be my all things Connecticut search directory. Still is a great domain name.
• dognpony.net - That was going to be my multimedia services web site
• CSScheatsheets.com - It is a half-hearted effort at a css reference site
• W3Ccheatsheets.com - While I was at it, I figured I'd buy an entire empire. More Web Help.
• HTMLcheatsheets.com - At this point I was just getting carried away with web help.
• mtbikebuilder.com - This is still a hope, but has nothing much right now on it.
• madpixl.com - The oldest and most complete, this is my web design portfolio site.
• indygoo.com - Would have been an indy rock site back when I was building another artist's web site.
• westwoodsct.com - This is my blog's companion site built with apple's crappy web application. That is a piece of garbage. So I don't update too much.
  

Who's watching you in the woods

Spring is the perfect time of year to see a variety of wildlife here in Guilford, Connecticut. When I'm not riding my bike, I like to take pictures. Here's some local nature photos of different beasts and their kids peering down from above. Keep your eyes peeled and you can see any of these animals who live in Westwoods diverse ecosystems.

The following pics include a baby Pileated Woodpecker, Great Horned Owl and owlet, a Red Tailed Hawk Nest with 3 babies, a Cardinal, an Osprey, and a Snapping turtle, a Copperhead, a Fiddler Crab and an Egret.

Still I ride through it

How many things happen in life? How many changes? How many layoffs, re-shuffles, scrambles for a new stream of green?

Yet, as I head out from Dunk Rock, I'm feeling good - the constant is this woods, these worn-out wonderful trails. So, now to the right and up the blue dot passage, over to that goat path, a ribbon of rocky, deep cut single track, the blue dot, tucked between green "hiker only" trails. Not worn-out the way the more popular trails have become, not even wide enough for one rider in many spots.

This run is draped along the cliffy ledge that faces north and overlooks a large valley of green streams and swamp, with several variations of that green hiker's trail. To ride the blue dot trail without much bike-hiking, but for a tree down, is approaching nirvana.

It requires concentration mixed with stamina and foresight. You need to know exactly when to shift and spin the pedals, and when to recover your breath in time for the next scramble. Not paying attention results in a dropped chain or lack of momentum to get up the next bank. Balance and foresite let you ride where others can barely walk.

It requires trust. You trust your tires to hold the bank as you traverse a stretch that's washed down the cliff. Your tires must hold fast on the uphill edge without letting go, until you can shift your balance back to center on the trail that is wide enough for the entire tread.

Then, as you begin your steep descent down the ridge toward the trail which resembles a road, you need to know when to let off of the brakes and lean back. How much to lean, and when to re-weight the front. It requires skill. Be ready to lift the front tire over slimy roots, so you don't washout or go over the bars. At other times you need to press the front wheel into the soft shifting sand to maintain traction, and let the rear end go where it may.

As your speed increases with the complexity of the run-off, you realize that few can do what you do here. The way you paint the trail with your tires finding lips and small rollers, moving without effort. Planning air, and improvising when you find yourself on a line that hasn't occured before...All with intensity and purpose. All in a relaxed manner (as if you've been riding this trail for 21 years). As with many pieces of the trails here, its also over too soon. A tease of "flow".

But so what? That's just the start of another great day. A day that leads across the wide green trail just past the stream and right onto orange past the caves and plankwalk, up the hill, and then back across all of Westwoods on the white dot trail.

But well begun is almost done... And goddamn it, Well done sure is fun-thanks blue dot trail!

Today was my best ride this year. I'm not the best rider, so I'll never get paid for it....

But I realize that this is my career.
Jobs come and go. They are only what happens between rides.

(wrote this about my first layoff ride last friday. thought it might be worth posting)

Mountain biking version coming soon

Beer Bike - My two favorite things all into one!

Rock Mysteries Continue

I found this site the other day.
It validated and explained a lot of the mysteries of stones in Westwoods. There are many balanced stones, shaped stones and arranged stones set in place by layers of moss. I'm not sure how old, but they do appear to be similar to the rock formations on the above site.

I Westwoods, I noticed some peculiar stones on a large slab of stone. Upon examination, I noticed that they all seemed "hollowed" or grooved... But also broken like puzzle pieces. I remember reading that Native American burials involved breaking favorite objects and wondered if that was the case here. Additionally, I imagined they might process food on this rock and just discard stone tools when they were no longer functional. It seems like there's more arrangement to these rocks though.... Here's some pics:

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Chipped and grooved Stones on a slab - piled along the edge



Sample of a stone I dug up that better illustrates the stones chipped groove areas.
This one seemed like a bowl. It would not have caught my eye, but for the fact that
so many rocks have the same groove or notch. Bowls? Supports for wooden beams?
I don't know.

I just know there are a lot that seem "arranged".

There are three spots that seem to have such arrangements.

The arrangements have not seemed to have been disrupted for a long time due to the molds and lichens on them.

And finally the rocks appear to share similar characteristics to the other "placed" rocks, and not so much to the rocks that appear to be random or occur naturally.


Here's one of the stones that are placed on top of the slab which appear to have some sort of chipping and or grooves. All the stones on this large slab have the same grooves.


Flat wall like structure has rocks placed on the edge, and rocks of equal size below, which presumibly have been knocked off at some point.


Then again, it might all be in my head.

9-11-2001

Changing it up with Timberlands...

You can't bike the same trails day in day out. So since I don't have a lot of time to travel, Instead of Westoods, lately I ride Timberlands, also in Guilford. These trails are of a much smaller land patch, but make up for a good variety of riding. If you like to pedal on pure single track there's a lot. But you can build your skills on plenty of rollers, hidden drops and ridge single tracks. These spots are well hidden, due to the majority of riders being advanced and good at leaving no trace when they hit natural features.

This is a place that is under-ridden, and primarily for people who can "saddle-up" as well as they can "drop-in" on the descent... If you can't ride a variety of up-hill and down-hill, you are in store for quite a bit of hike-a-bike. Go somewhere else. If you love all terrain riding, (and have the skills not to skid), this place is highly recommended.

Getting Loopy...
My favorite loop starts at the entrance across from Guilford Lakes School.

WHITE
You begin with a small climb and bang a dog-leg right, to a quick left onto blue...

BLUE
This trail is a pedal-fest of single track... Speed and timing keep you clipped in across the white trail stay on BLUE dropping down to a valley with a right off the trail to a DROP for those who dare.... Either way, you bear left to a huge difficult climb out the top of the valley. You are on orange or blue here, not sure. Just bang a right at the top of the climb and follow the trail until you hit the intersection with orange dot... It's a ridge. You will big up leftward on orange

ORANGE DOT
Stay on top of the ridge, this does not follow the braided chunks to the right that have come as workarounds that hikers made around downed trees and scary parts. Ride the ridge single track as far as you can. There's some scary drops and techs that will make you want to unclip, or get off the ridge, but stay the course, trail or not until you come to the stream. It will dogleg back, across the stream. Then you need to hike up a serious climb that's about 30 feet straight up.
That will provide you with a little bit more ridge techs on orange dot before it comes out on white again.

From there, you can follow the Timberlands map. IMHO the best part is over. Now its just typical Timberland single track pedaling whichever direction you go. Left on white will bring you back to Guilford Lakes School, Right will open up the largest part of the trail system. This is about 90% ridable terrain for pedalin' fools. It is rocky and technical, but largely unspoiled single track nirvana.

2007 Santa Cruz Heckler Air - AM/FR Bike Project

The Late Mr. White (after my step-dad who died in December)

It's hard as I get older to burn off the winter beer flab, and get motivated for a daily ride. To do this, I buy new crap. This year, I decided it was time to build another bike, (which is often my decision when I don't feel motivated). It always does the trick. I've been riding this bike nearly every day since I finished it. It plays in nicely as contrast to my big black evil Banshee, which I cannot find the power to part with, and was my 2006 build up.


To say this bike has everything would be an understatement.
Here's the bottle opener.

This build was designed with the goal of being as pure all mountain as I could get, but with the ability to take any impulsive drop that stood in my way. So I built it light, with the exception being the wheelset (Transition Revolutions), because the DT EX 1750s were just too expensive to bend... I could buy 3 pairs of the revolutions for the same price... So I put up with the heft. The TBRs have 32 spokes, and a 150 thru-axle on the back. The hoops are very similar to the Vuelta Xcalibers I bought off ebay a couple of years ago. In fact I'd guess that was the OEM.
The brakes are Magura Julies, the drive train x9. The cranks and king headset came with the frame off of ebay for $850 new!


White Peaty Grips, and the Spank Lounge Bar Complete the Monochromatic look.
This shot also shows my jealous Banshee muscling in like Sen. Lieberman to a photo-op in the shot,
reducing the photo confusing a jumble of bike parts.

The Marzocchi All Mountain 1 SL, (www.wheelworld.com) fork is actually the third fork in three weeks I tried on the bike, blowing through the Maverick DUC of my last frame, which felt to XC, a Fox Float 36 that I picked up off of craigslist, which surprisingly didn't play nice with the rear DHX AIR, and could not be tamed/tuned. It would have been nice with a coil rear shock, I could have put it on my Banshee... but It was just too Freeride for the bike that I was imagining here. Once I found the white Transition wheels and the white Marzocchi SL, I got hooked on finding more white for the bike. I got the Spank Lounge bar from Pricepoint.com and the white peaty grips. Logically, Mr. White became the name.

The ride
A few things stood out from the start.
1. I had the sensation of being propelled along with more than my own pedal power at times. Sounds wierd, but after riding the Banshee, which is not very light, my guess is that this bike felt slightly self-propelled as it would roll nicely, and was so much less effort to ramp up to speed.

2. It has a short rear chainstay, which means that you get air with the slightest effort, which is a good thing. It's easy to change up which end of the bike you want to land on mid air, depending on your jump... Not like the Banshee which crashes abuptly to the ground, only to be saved from its inertia by its Incredibly plush suspension. This air suspension takes a lot longer to dial in, but needs to do less work with 10lbs less weight. The disadvantage to the short rear end is that it seems to "stink bug" more easily when you are hoping for rapid slow down, (I don't skid - it's a sign of weakness), but on this bike, I had a few embarrasing moments of lock up when my speed could not be checked in a controllable manner as on my Banshee... ( I swear that Banshee(horst really) 4-bar has not been improved upon yet). For gearhead that may argue this, I heard good things about floating suspension from magazines etc. But I've ridden VPs that seemed loose and flabby in back, and know of many that failed in back. That made me go Heckler for simplicity sake. Though you cannot deny VPPs ability to hit sonic speeds on the DHs... Maybe next frame.

3. The SRAM x9s are shit compared to Shimano precision. I could not afford all this and XT, so I settled for X9s, which shops like cause they are easier to setup, but they are sloppy compared to XT precision in shifting, especially on the high gear. Maybe its my lack of adjusting ability, or just a matter of preference, but I'd take XT if I could afford it any day.

4. The Marzocchi All Mountain SL is at Wheelworld.com for 399. I was suspicious at first, but Marzocchi lives up to the hype and doesn't disappoint me again! It's my favorite fork brand fer sure. I've had them all.

5. The DHX Air is boring. Fox is boring. Not worth talking about because everything they say about their product, is totally true. It works flawlessly. It is totally predictable. Any Fox Rear Shock I've had is the same. It lives forever and just, well, works. What else can you say? It's like reviewing a ball bearing. It's just what we've come to expect. Totally dependable and everything you think it would be. No complaints. Air vs. Coil is another argument, and one I won't get in to here, having a DHX 5 and an Air and loving them the same.

We have an owl!

Okay so that was the big news at the old bike ranch.... But it wasn't all the news....



We have owlets!

Those owls took over the hawks nest after a March full of hooting, April brought the babies...

Needless to say that the Hawks were not happy, but size matters in bird world, as shown below.
Hawk (left) & Owl settle their differences...




I think this one is named Jim...


Anyway, they haven't started screeching yet, but concensus says they will soon!

First spring foray with Ian

green moss and caves on orange trail by green trail

As temperatures bring my riding out of the hunkered down, calculated trail traversal where I plan my rides around how long my toes can avoid frostbite, to really taking in the woods and absorbing everything the trail has to offer.

At Easter, I ride with my son. We found new corners of Westwoods that I had not explored as fully. We entered on the white trail off of Yankee Peddellar where the white trail meets the boardwalk. There we found old caves that had been filled in with rocks. Why would these caves be backfilled?, I thought... Not deep enought to worry about collapse... My guess is to keep animals of any size from homesteading there. Old bottles litter the trail by the entrance. Old dumps and new dumps (fill) are the gateway to the path less travelled.



The trails are drying out nicely, and I keep thinking about how I can advocate "no skidding" by urging any skidders to take their riding to a new level of skill by not EVER skidding the tire anywhere, (unless of course you are teaching your 8 year old how to skid for distance in your driveway).

Balancing out of balance

I am disturbed by an odd proliferation of rock statues... Lord knows, I'm no fan. But I was actually happy to see the grotesque overbuilding and dismantling of old walls for self-congratulation in recent weeks...

Pics on this page show ancient rock piles in various states of moss covering.
Most appear to be placed, or piled intentionally or removed out from somewhere else. But if these piles are gone, so too will be the clues they may have held, and the wonder they provide to those that care to look.

Maybe the builder seeks attention from the local paper. Maybe there's an army of subculture's, balancing every loose and otherwise rock they see. Maybe its my own fault. I confronted a rock balancer several weeks ago. But later apologized, and just requested moderation and care. Maybe its their revenge. Or maybe its a new natural fad.... Geo rock balance caching... or whatever... Whatever the reason, whatever the cause, it has spread through Westwoods like poison ivy, or a new blight. Leaving the landscape out of balance once again in its history.

I fell through one as it was built on top of a rock jump we've been fond of for the past ten or so years. It felt almost good to smash through it... Sent me off course somewhat... The stick cutting my leg didn't feel as good as I was veered off course into a dead hemlock. I hope that's the worst injury that comes of these...

.. Not that I care if the builder gets sued, (legally he/they can be)...

...But I don't want to see any kid hurt because somebody craves attention this badly... Now I'm not one to exaggerate, but I counted well over fifty along the blue trail last Saturday. Maybe more than one hundred. Each rock helped anchor in soil, was a home, artifact or held some other minuscule role in nature and or history. None are significant alone, but subracted by conscription into an army of rock balancing statues their abscence in the forest floor may be felt...

Rock balancers remove choice rocks from the trail, loosening a vital component of the firma "terra firma", (or maybe its part of the "terra"... Anyway the dismantling of old walls, and other "natural or prehistoric" formations in order to say "look what I can do," used to bother me...

Someday this may be the only record of these old stone piles. And that's fine if its only me that sees something valuable in their existence.

As I said before, I'm glad its getting so prolific. Now since whomever is doing it, seems to be totally out of balance, I'll wait until they piss enough people off with their over the top messing of the natural scenery. Those who care and make rules, will have to add a provision to the land trust bylaws that includes dismantling or disturbing rocks to the reluctant list of rules, by sheer preservative necessity. Yay, more rules! Thanks stone dude[s].

More boring old moss covered rock piles

These rocks were piled for some reason, (maybe important, maybe not so), long ago [ancient rock balancers?]. So long ago, that many are fused with layers and variety of lichens and mosses.


Just Tear them up and balance them.... yay.

Anyway, its beyond me... I resign to riding and preaching "non-skidding"... (of course, after making my case well heard in this post).

I will let others decide when too many stone walls, rock piles, ancient graves, and not to mention the anchors of soil to the trails themselves are disturbed and destroyed.I'm grateful to have the woods to ride through. I'm not the one to decide what is out of balance for all.

... But the proliferation of self-grandiosing rock balancing sculpture numbering near one hundred in about a quarter of a mile, then also everywhere else...

To defend the practice again, I can see how one or two special rock balancing locations might be fun. Even better would be a secret zen rock garden...
Recycling the smoothest of rocks and arranging them for hours at a time...slow down! But, now we have hundreds of balanced obstacles to site and bike, in our face everywhere in Westwoods. It seems like a lot of rocks displaced to me, (but not so bad as when I was a quarry Westwoods sighs)...

Enough Pontification

As a simple bike endowed creature of the forest. I will continue to clear inconvenient trees from my favorite trails, break up flooding where it overflows streams, or does not serve my trails by draining, but other than that, I prefer to co-exist with the woods and disturb as little as I can.

I'll watch the frenetic stone pile building, until this chapter too runs it's course. I'm just sad to know that my kids may not get to wonder at rocks like the moss covered mounds and piles on this page. They will know that these rocks were moved by those with an innate need to see newly man-made objects everywhere...even deep in nature.