the other night

full moon.
celestial rays filtering through and bouncing off scattered with wispy clouds.
Ridge and trees, graceful silhouettes.
Spectacular evening, from my backyard in central PA.

post double recap

The double century marked the completion of 1/2 goals I set this summer. Number two, the Wilderness 101 is just around the corner and with that in mind, trail riding has ramped up. (skip to the bottom of this post if you just wanna see a picture recap of the week!)

Reynolds and I have developed a somewhat abusive relationship. He's bucked me off numerous times in the past 2 weeks adding many scrapes and bruises to my legs and putting a serious damper on my mojo / slowing down rock riding progress.

Last week, post double, Peter and I tackled some forest climbs and descents. Thursday we climbed Laurel Run to Old Shingletown, sand spring to bear gap and down croyle. Sand Spring scared me, i won't lie. It was steep. I walked some. I bit it fairly hard on croyle but enjoyed the descent on my new DISC BRAKES continuing up gettis and then tuxedo to kettle. Saturday, marked part two of the climbing fest. Erik L. joined us for a 101 climbing tour as follows:

Seeger -- Telephone -- Spencer -- Sassafrass -- down to Chicken Peter -- Beautiful -- No Name -- to milroy and up still house and back via conklin, coopers gap and wertz.

It was a great ride, however I managed to bonk up the last bit of conklin (Reynolds often forgets to remind me to eat). To make the ride even more grand, after a refill at the bottom spring post noname, my ENTIRE hydration bladder leaked down my back. I had no water from the base of stillhouse on. Sweet. I was seeing double as we got back to the car. At the car, I devoured all of the food I had. I went home, drank glasses of water and ate 1/2 a bagel egg sandwich (breakfast leftovers). I showered, and then devoured a huge bowl of rice stir fry with tofu and veges. As if that wasn't enough, I proceeded to G-doggs for fourth of July festivities and ate a 3rd dinner.

Guess I was a little hungry.

Post fireworks, I made my way over to Mike's to hang with Leroy who was in town for the weekend! The sweet hammer was on her way out resting for her big triathlon but Rich stuck around and hung by the fire.

Good times.

Made it to bed that evening sometime close to 3am and was up around 5:30 to shoot my first Triathlon! Erik, the event organizer and Bicycle Shop owner invited me. What a blast! Highlights are here.

After a long, fun morning with my Nikon, I turned off my phone, and slept the afternoon away. Totally spent. Dang! Sorry for all the missed phone calls, I was temporarily comatose.

And so passed the last week and a half!
Some photos documenting the adventures passed are below...





Fireworks make me happy. This year was a blast!

Alberto (CONTADOR), boy can climb, was sulking during the fireworks. The big gsd's were picking on him.

Practice photoshoot starring: the sweet hammer. All dressed up in PINK! i had never shot swimmers (go figure) before and figured I should practice first. WV was kind enough to let me stalk, I mean photograph, her.

I am wv's personal paparazzi... screwing with her training regime via excessive laughter. Rockstar!

tri picts!! check out more here. The LAST pict in this album is my absolute favorite!

Left: I was stalking WV and didn't even know it!! oops! or maybe i'm THAT GOOD??





left: WV has a stalker. You can call him the t-1000; He's cool though. Right: the wee couple. WV WON by the way!! KILLER.

Double Double (via picture)

ATTN: this is the longest blog post EVER. Look at picts above and read below... OR just look at picts :) Picts below the top four thanks to COWBOY and TODD!!! You are both the awesomest awesome people ever. Yes that is gramattically correct cause i say so. Thank you!

EPIC Week: Rock Garden Endo on Tuesday - Double on Saturday. It's important to start a a double century with suitably bruised knees and thighs (knees are still swollen and it hurts to wear jeans but whatever). awesome!

Another key to finishing a double is to make sure your nails MATCH your bike. MMMMM lugged STEEL. My bike is awesome. Be jealous. (yes the scrapes on my arm are also result of said endo).

Us at the start. It was dark. This tends to happen at 5:15AM. sometimes.

The top of a climb!! GLORIOUS! mile 80 or so??

The ladies: Left rach and WV; Right: me as a bucktooth chipmunk. I'm stoked to be out and my pockets are so full of stuff like sunscreen and arm warmers (don't ask) that my jersey is fitted. oh boy!

Wellsboro: mile 100
Left: Todd and peter bein peter. Right: AWWWW the wee couple WV and Straub on their anniversary. You guys are too cute. But wait - share the love. It was OUR anniversary too WV!!!

Wellsboro - Eric and Steve rest those legs!

And then we roll out... and Jim beams! He smiled a lot and peter & I weren't even singing to him! (you're so vain!) ;)

Mile 130 or so
Broken spoke in Blackwell, time to chill on the bridge.

Left: Todd!! Who is more positive, up beat and encouraging than this guy?? And a killer climber too! Dang! Look at that view behind; Right: ahhhh beautiful.

Mile 150??
Sandwich stop! We're not tired. Nope. not tired at all. Lovin it!

Mile 180??
The best snack EVER. definitely. Yumm. Whoopie pie. yummy yumminess good yum goodness. Hence the goofy woodchuck smile. Note the stream of coke emanating mysteriously from my thigh. I didn't do it.

The boys (left to right): Allen, Cowboy lookin fierce??!!! but we're not sure why, Billy, Mac Daddy, Straub and Mr Buck... Right: Josh (who did his first century EVER this year - you are awesome man!) and Allen (also first time doing long road miles). Mountain biker? whatever dude.

Left: peter busting out his top rock. Don't laugh -- ok laugh... but i seriously wouldn't have been on this ride without this dude. good peoples! Right: no comment. But more good peoples! Cowboy!

The end!!! 210 miles! Right: me smiling cause we rocked it and are rolling into town!!! (nice shot cowboy!)

AND... the GANG. YOU ARE ALL SERIOUSLY AWESOME.
And so begins the saga below - IF you care to read -- a LOT... look at my other post.
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