Day 172 - rainy Father's Day - first day of Summer!

It was raining hard this morning. And afternoon. 

Although it irks me that Strava refuses to add hiking to my activity log, here is the Strava link for the short hike in the woods I took: https://www.strava.com/activities/330193853

I like how I went to shoot photographs of flowers in the rain on the trail and I didn't see flowers until the end of the hike proper, and they weren't even on the trail. Everything was very green, but most of the flowers were hiding!

Some regrowth on a fall branch next to lichen

Summer daisies - my favorite photo of the day

Summer rain on pine needles

Birches in the Fells (there are not a lot of them)

Day 171 - "You look like a 12 year old on that thing"

I started today's mountain bike ride with the Ripper road group. Someone said to me, "You look like a 12 year old on that thing!" To which I replied, "That's the point. I do this so I can feel like a 12 year old".

And that is the difference between road riding - "I am no longer a 12 year old" and mountain biking "I enjoy recapturing what it is like to be a 12 year old". And why I do very little road riding and lots of mountain biking nowadays.

Since I was schedule constrained today, I ended up riding lots of different single track sections in the Fells. There were a few opportunities to take some nice photos as well.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/329192576

Beautifully backlit tree in the woods

Boston as seen from Melrose

Weeds can be beautiful, too

Day 170 (Fri June 19)

After the two flats from the day before, I made sure to top up my wheels with sealant and had a nice flat-free ride. And another deer sighting!

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/328554987

This deer and her brethren looked a little skinny. I think it was a tough winter for the deer!

Day 169 (Thursday, June 18) - Deer sighting, and then amateur hour in the Fells

Paul and I came up with a pretty good loop to do in the Fells. However, I have neglected my bike maintenance and the sealant in my wheels had dried up. I put a small slash in the rear tire, replaced it with a tube, and then I promptly flatted the front wheel and had to walk fifteen minutes out of the woods and home.

Moral of the story: maintain your bike!

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/327911054

This buck stared at us for a good 30-45 seconds!

Day 168 (Wed Jun 17) - doing the Favorite lop

Petr and I had a pretty mellow ride around my favorite loop in the Fells.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/327203739

Daisies on the trail

Day 167 - the weekly Rippah road ride, crash, and another rose photo

The Rippah ride was a little scary today - I was leading the ride in Lexington Center, I caught a rider ahead of us, and about 10 seconds later, I heard the sound of metal hitting the ground. We turned back to see what had happened, and the caught rider had gone down hard "JRA" - Just Riding Along.

Ugh.

I hate to see crashes, and although the rider hadn't broken any bones, he was not in a state in which he could get back up and ride home. Fortunately, he had enough mental wherewithal to order an Uber home, and we were on our way.

Everyone on the ride was a little gun shy after that incident, and although I don't like the circumstances, it is good to be reminded that we are mortal and that riding is a dangerous activity.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/326501525

I have decided to not even bother photographing the Ripper road rides. Instead, here are some roses from the garden post ride with some heavy post processing.

David Austen Princess Anne rose

Day 166 (Mon June 15) - raining and then a walk with my wonderful daughters

Some days, it is really hard to get outside at all. Like yesterday, when it seemed to be raining the whole day! Fortunately, both of my daughters were excited to be outside and go for a walk with me, and boy do they walk fast!

At the end of the walk, I was able to enjoy the nice little patch of garden and the lovely rain-soaked Hydrangeas that Anita planted the other week between our house and our neighbor.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/326287649

Hydrangeas in the rain at dusk

Day 165 (Sunday June 14) - Rolling the log bridges at Russell Mill

Russell Mill in Chelmsford is just a really fun place to ride. It is a pretty small area, though, so it helps to have a great guide, and Dave has done an excellent job leading the ride the last two times I've ridden there.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/325225995

Riding the pump track at Russell Mill

Yep - that's pretty much a dead animal skull on the trail

Day 164 (Saturday June 13) - a hot but apparently not-that-long day at Harold Parker State Forest

It was pretty hot at Harold Parker and the heat started to really emanate from the ground at the end of the ride. We did some of my favorite trails - Black Ops and Lock N Load - with a good crew and at the end of the day, I was kind of glad to that I had to bail early from the ride to see Katie's last soccer game of the season (they won 4-0!).

But it was a really good ride - so good I never managed to take any photos until the bike was on top of the car...

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/324483724

Bike on top of car - not poetic!

Day 163 (Friday June 12) - stuck car and injuries

Well, you can't have a Strava log for:

• someone who blocks your wife's car into the driveway
• a fall where you slice open your hand
• a ride that you didn't record with Strava

The last one could have been handled by Strava, but the other two couldn't.

Note to self: make sure that when in doubt, lead the ride so we don't send people who don't want to ride technical terrain onto technical terrain!

The injured hand

Chris riding tough after the injury

Day 162 (Th Jun 11): Morning swim and crash

Well - it was a good thing I didn't bring my camera. I would have ruined it for certain.

I headed into a stream, and some logs had been added to the entrance. I took my usual line, the logs changed the approach, and I did my first dive over the handlebars on a 29er. So at least I know it can be done! My phone went for a swim, and it is still drying out nearly a week later. 

When I got home, I took another rose photo in front yard. This one is better, but still not good.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/323226876

Day 161 (Wed June 10)

I took my camera out on a ride and didn't take any photos.

The one rose photo I took at home (see below) sucks. 

Argh! 

At least the ride was ok - although the rocks were certainly slippery to the point I completely lost traction on one and received some minor scrapes from the fall.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/322384198

Lame rose photo

Day 160 - on the road for the first time in a couple weeks

Riding on the road is so much different than riding on the dirt. Perhaps the biggest difference is the most obvious - you just have to keep on pedaling! Unfortunately, I was the only rider to sneak past a large convoy of cars at the hardest part of the ride, so I had to attempt to hold off a large pack of riders for about 10 minutes. Fortunately, many of them were really tired from this weekend's state road championships...

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/321630753

 

Roses at the end of the ride

Day 159 - easy sunset ride in the Fells

A picture, a thousand words

Strava:
https://www.strava.com/activities/321465004

Day 158 (June 7) - Beverly rocks and primitive trails

Matt, Paul, Roger and I headed to Beverly to ride the trails near Gordon College. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the ride, Paul broke his free hub, and pedaling forwards no longer resulted in forward motion. Fortunately, we were not too far from the road, and Matt yielded a few extra miles retrieving his van so Paul could drive himself back to the parking lot. We continued without Paul, and hit some pretty primitive and "old school" single track with lots of rock, and significantly steeper pitches than what we are used to riding at Harold Parker and the Fells.

One section in particular was very steep, and then ended with a hairy assortment of roots that paralleled the trail. I had never ridden it before, but decided to thread the line between a large granite outcropping that rose up from the ground and the roots. Fortunately, I made it out of that downhill unscathed.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/320314941

Matt tackling one of the steeper sections of trail

Day 157 (Sat June 6) - single speed ride and trail work

After a mellow-paced single speed ride with friends, I spent a couple of hours volunteering for NEMBA to help improve the trails in the Fells. The work involved clearing out branches and other flora that could hurt riders as well improving the water flow on the trails. 

The ride:
https://www.strava.com/activities/319470546

The trail work:

Caterpillar in the middle of the trail

Blocking off a superfluous trail

Day 156 - single speeding into the woods

Unfortunately, my friend Chris had a flat at the beginning of today's ride, and I didn't have the right sized tube to fix his flat. I ended up doing a ride that was a little bit harder than I had planned, but still took the time to spot a lone tree high above the single track as well as capture a photo of a fallen tree I had taken in the winter, but this time without any snow cover.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/318743035

Lone tree

Fallen tree

Day 155 - not so treacherous riding in the woods

While the roots and rocks were still wet today, they were not nearly as slippery as yesterday and the riding was a lot less nervous and a lot more fun.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/318021053

North reservoir building

Endangered lady slipper

Day 154 (June 3) - back on the bike and slithering

It has rained the last three days, and today was the first opportunity to head back out on the bike. Yikes, it was slippery! But I managed to keep it up right by not riding that aggressively and by lowering my tire pressure to about 18psi front and rear.

There were some pretty nice views this morning. 

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/317310030

Fido lost his ball

Bird on building

Day 153 - walking to school with Katie

None of Katie's friends were walking to school today, so I took the rare opportunity to walk with her. We talked about how some parents don't like the teams their children are placed into for 6th grade, whether it makes sense to level kids at that age, what should be leveled in 7th grade and what types of flowers there are in the woods. 

On the way back, I captured a few images of a girl late to school and some really nice flowers on Highland Ave in Winchester. 

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/316676493

Girl late to school

Beautiful flowers on Highland Ave in Winchester

Day 152 - really wet hike at dusk in the Fells

The hard part of exercising and taking photos every day doesn't happen on those gorgeous spring days when I want to mountain bike until my legs can't push any more. 

Nope. It happens on days like today, which is the second straight day of gray, dreary weather that has been punctuated by occasional downpours. These are the days when i sometimes just don't want to head out.

But I'm glad I did, there were so many compelling subjects in the woods. Here are just three.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/316472333

Spring wildflower in the rain

Red building, moving fog

Creepy trails dusk

Day 151 (Sunday, May 31) - rainy hike in the Fells

After a long spell of dry weather, it finally started to rain. It was a great day to head out with the camera and concentrate on getting some photos of the lushness of spring under the cover of water.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/315810513

Impromptu stream

Droplets

Snaky tree

Feast of the bugs

Spring flowers

Day 150 (Saturday May 30) - lots of bony rocks at Harold Parker

I took the single speed out Saturday to ride at Harold Parker. The trails seem to get bonier and rockier every year, and this Spring has been no exception. Although I love riding the 29er full suspension bike through this type of terrain, riding the single speed through it presents a whole new type of challenge, but with the 29er single speed, the challenge is oddly easier than with 26" wheels and actually presents a kind of quiet masochism that isn't as tortuous as it sounds.

Regardless, I had no interest in attempting the feature that Dave cleaned midway through the ride, the infamous "Dougie Downhill".

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/314770291

Steep rocks are easier with lots of suspension and a dropper post

Day 149 (May 29) - beautiful sun in the Fells

I had a great easy ride with the father of one of Katie's friends.  We went on my favorite loop and got to enjoy the sun's ascent into the sky through the trees.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/314066330

Day 148 (Thursday May 28) - another good ride in the Fells with Paul

It was such a fun ride I neglected to take any photos.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/313431282

So here are some pretty flowers from the front of my house. :-)

Elyiums in front of our house

Day 147 (Wed May 27) - recovery ride and downed tree

Paul and I went for a recovery ride to lick our wounds from the beat downs over the weekend.

It was pretty uneventful until we came across this huge tree down in the middle of one of the main fireroads in the Fells.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/312759202

Paul in the middle of the fallen tree

Checking out the scale of the damage

Day 146 (Tuesday, May 26) - Legs are blocked!

I attempted to go had for a 5th day in a row on the Ripper's Tuesday ride. It was going fast, and I was tired, and I got spat out the back on the big hill.

But at the end, we got to christen a new rider!

https://www.strava.com/activities/312084594

Day 145 (Monday, May 25) - Memorial Day at Harold Parker and a family hike

The Memorial Day ride was my fourth hard day in a row, and I definitely could feel it and decided to back things down a bit at the end of the ride.

Fortunately we did spend some time practicing sections, such as this super steep climb at Harold Parker State Forest which Bruce cleared on a 20 year old steel hardtail with 26" wheels!

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/311496977

Rob attempting the crazy steep uphill on the Ripley Überbike

Bruce clearing the same section aboard a classic steel hardtail

After the ride, the family and I went on a hike to the top of Wright's Tower in the Middlesex Fells in Medford. No Strava Log, but it was great to get to the top of the hill and check out the wildlife at the bottom.

Panorama of Wright's Tower

Boston from Wright's Tower

Geese and her goslings

Kinetic Katie