A Return to the Red Trail!

Last night I took the bike for a spin around the block a few times to try out my new gloves and helmet. Nice!!! It was cool, but at 9:30 not really the best time to go for a long ride. This morning I woke at 4:15 with a 2 yo not feeling too well. Well after a while we aere all able to sleep again just as the birds started to sing. Once the morning started I decided to go for a ride back at Moraine Hills. I have not been back since my FALL in August... The weather was perfect! Warm sunny and just a light breeze. I did a check on the bike and filled my new trunk with all the important items including the wrench for my cranks. Well it was smart to bring that. About 1/2 way to the park my crank was loose!!! So I stopped and made sure I got it tight!!! Back at it. Well coming up to the park there is a NEW entrance fromt Lilly Lake Road that is directly across from Wegner. The old entrice a few roads up was terrible and difficult to get through with the placement of the posts. The new entrance is wider and much more open. As I started to get to the first road crossing I noticed the post there was also change and the entire area was paved. This made the crossing so much nicer and much more visible. The First HILL!!! I went up and decided it would be best if I actually stood up and helped myself along. WOW riding hills again is both great and tough!!! The trail was in great shape and there is fresh pavement everywhere. Every hill going up is now paved including the Hill of Doom. All the intercetions, hills and washed out areas were now paved... Even the odd 90 degree turn was paved. This made the trail a bit different and much easier to travel on. The park was pretty busy so I had to slow down a bit too often for my tastes. Overall it was AMAZING to get out on my bike again. I can not wait to do it again.

47:50 Minutes (Not Too Bad First Time out... Best time like 39:50)
11.?? Average Speed
9.09 Miles...

Mid May should be really interesting... The 17 Year Cicadas... I could not find anything on the previous numbers at Moraine Hills... I know that wooded areas typically have them in the MILLIONS per acre!!! So it may be a bumpy ride this Summer...

A leg too short

I had Saturday school yesterday. At 5:30 I decided to ride in for some reason. I didn't walk out my door until after 6:15 I think. Class is on at 8, I haven't ridden to work since about November. I felt (and was) slow, my spedo was flakey. Before my back problems I had put a backup wiring harness on but allignment is always an issue as the computers are designed for road bikes and the hybrid has a lot more space between the stay and the wheel. Every incline announced itself with increased friction. There was a nice 10-20 mph headwind I could complain about , but it kept me cool which is less sweaty and therefore less smelly on arrival as I ran out of time to change on arrival. There was only one student there at 7 after 8 so no big deal, I didn't loose anybody. I do hate being late though. Given that this is about the 2nd time in 8 years I was late and that I typically arive a minumum of 30 minutes early. I think I won't dwell on this. I felt my back bother by the end but I was pushing to not be too late and not drinking enough. I talked with HandyRider a couple of times and it was decided he would pick me up so we could go to Niles and try trikes. The drive to Niles was horrible. I road a trike for a bit and liked it but it did not seem quite right. Still I liked it. Probably it was not the right distance inbetween seat and cranks.

I got on and off OK. It's ugly but doable. I do wonder if I can do it once mirrors are on (I plop on perpendicular to the seat and swing legs over one at a time as apposed to straddling the bike ands easing back. The owner was nice. Unfortunately, the seat could not be moved forward enough for Handy to try. The Zoomer, a different terra trike model that has an adjustable boom (where the cranks are) should be in next week so Handy Rider should be able to try that. We came home and went to Duke's so Handy could try some BBQ brisket. Analysis have shown Handy's blood to be up to 18 % BBQ sauce. It was good to see my friend and it was not a bad day at all. We looked at the Mundelein web site and started an app for Handy to possibly gain employment at the HS. Single insurance coverage is free. I hope it works out.

Chamberlain Falls Part II

Last summer I paddled the Class IV Chamberlain Falls run on the North Fork American River at a paltry flow of 300 cfs. The water was warm, the air was warm, and the low flow gave me a chance to basically preview the run without worrying too much about actually running it.

My goal this season was to run it at a higher flow, working my way up to a flow where I didn't have to walk around any rapids because there wasn't any water flowing through them. I'm glad to say that I hit that goal last Sunday!

Because of the lack of snow in the mountains this winter, many of the rivers-- including the NFA-- are drying up especially early this spring. The Friday before the run, the NFA was running around 575 cfs and dropping. We figured we'd still have at least 500 cfs by Sunday.

We arrived at the put-in around noon Sunday. The air was cool, the water was cool, and the rain that started Saturday afternoon tapered off to a drizzle. Rain? That should help the flow.

Shortly after we put on the river, the rain stopped. More threatening storm clouds moved through the bright blue sky, but none decided to open up and dump more water on us. We made our way down the run, which is a nice consistent pool-drop-pool-drop, and then we stopped at the namesake of the run, Chamberlain Falls, to scout it. Sorry to say it's not some insane 30-foot sheer drop, but rather it's a simple 6-foot ramp. The only decision is whether to run left or right of the giant rock in the middle of the rapid.

The next major rapid was Bogus Thunder (named during the Gold Rush). I decided to portage around it, along with one other person. The line was to start in the middle, head left through some rocks, and over the drop on the left on the bottom. It didn't look too difficult, but the consequences were severe if for some reason you weren't able to get over to the left.

The last rapid we scouted was Staircase. I had heard bad things about it, but the line was a simple S-turn with eddies everywhere, making it easy to jump out of the current to see what's next. The only thing is that it was a fairly long rapid with about 4 drops, hence the name.

After that, there was a mile or two of nice scenic Class III whitewater with a couple good play spots. At the takeout, we ate our lunches which we hadn't gotten to earlier, accompanied by the beer that was waiting for us in the car. Mmm mmm.

On the way home, we debated what the flow really was. Certainly the rain had contributed significantly. During the run, we heard two local boaters chatting with each other, one thinking it was 1000 cfs, the other thinking 1200. They split the difference and called it 1100. After getting home, I jumped on the net and well enough, the graph showed the flow peaking out at just over 1100 cfs. Very respectable!

More pics here.

Back to back

A couple of weeks ago I fell in the bathroom and injured my back at the base of the spine. I was not walking for about 4 days. My back initially locked up on the Monday following the Sunday fall so it is most probably muscular. I am more ambulatory (with a cane) but hunched over still. Tomorrow I have a first therapy scheduled to hopefully expedite recovery. However, all who know such problems have advised me that it is a long recovery. I wish to thank all my friends and family for the warm thoughts and prayers and especially my wife who has taken it all in stride despite rising at 4:15 AM for her new job. She is simply the best and first class all the way.

My 4-6:15 job will got to 5 days a week for 5 weeks starting Monday. Four more weeks of 6:30-9:30 Tue and Thr. and five more weeks of Saturday 8-1. I am glad for the money to blast medical bills and consider a house and my new obsession with a commuter trike.

I need opinions. Spend an extra $400 on Aluminium trike because it will not rust and I live in IL and there's road salt etc. Or get the cheaper steel one and replace and upgrade parts as they break. Parts are metal anyway but frame is AL vs Steal. Please give opinions. Also Aluminium one is powder coated yellow, better visibility.

This Week

Monday started with a thirty-five-minute sprint on the basement bicycle! I didn’t have much time so I just pushed it as hard as I could for the whole time. I was sweating buckets in no time.

Tuesday FGB and I got outside and did a twenty-one-mile bike ride in an hour and forty minutes. FGB did really well. A persistent canine from the week before chased us, but he kept his distance. He probably was remembering the sting of pepper spray he received when CK and I last rode. At about 18 miles into the ride we saw a big husky sitting ominously in the rode. FGB had to get to a drawing class that was starting in 15 minutes so we didn’t have time to back track. We were at the top of the hill, he was at the bottom so we decided to try and blow past him. I got the idea that If I just rode straight for him he might get out of the road as if I were a car. I got up to 25 MPH and headed straight for him. FGB was to my right and back about 10 yards. My plan worked he was startled by my aggression and darted off into the field. Unfortunately he sighted FGB coming up behind me and decided to take after him. I pulled out my can of Halt and prepared to loop back towards FGB all the while shouting for FGB to kick it up a notch. The dog growled and snarled at FGB’s heels which caused FGB to spring forward with a great burst of speed leaving the beast panting in the road. Another successful session of Indiana interval training.

Thursday was a Doc’s appointment and I will say this all is better then could be hoped for. I have been using a new nutritional supplement and feeling great. On top of feeling great my creatinine (not sure if I spelled that right) level has dropped from 2.7 to 2.4 not great but the first improvement I’ve seen. My blood pressure was down to 130/85 and the protein in my urine was down from 4 grams to 1.3 grams. I told my doc what I was using and he said, “I can’t argue with the results.” The protein levels dropping are probably from the medicine he has me on but he says it wouldn’t explain the drop in the creatinine level. I celebrated with a some Chinese food and about 30 minutes of hacky sacking with FGB.

Today Friday was sunny and beautiful. The wife desired some out door activity so we decided to head up to Pokagon and hike. The woods in the North had barely any greenery except for some grass and other plants on the forest floor and a few bushes that were beginning to green up, but the temp was 50 degrees the sun was shinning and we felt great. I strapped the now 25lb baby to my back and we headed out. We took a wrong turn early on and ended up doing a 1 mile loop back to the trailhead. We decided that this wasn’t enough so we set out again towards our original goal to walk a three-mile trail of an adjacent Forrest Preserve. The final total was about 6 miles in about three hours. I was raring for more. Since the weather is supposed to be nice again Saturday FGB and I are going to go for an AM ride and then after lunch will take the wife back up to Pokagon for a 3 or 4 mile hike. I love Spring and miss all of my IL friends and my CA friend.

10 pounds in 100 days

I started the year around 220 pounds, started February at 218, March at 216, and April at 211. And yesterday I hit 210. So "(about) 10 pounds in (about) 100 days" isn't drastic enough to become a testimonial for the next fad diet, but then again, I didn't have to do anything drastic. A little less on the donuts-n-coffee and burgers-n-beer, and a little more on the exercise-- longer walks, a couple substantial hikes, and a couple days a week of indoor climbing.

Now that I've worked off last year's holiday pounds, I can start on the ones from the year before that are still around. Hopefully in July I'll be posting "20 pounds in 200 days!"

Shakamak and Indianapolis

Well we’re back from a week’s vacation in the beautiful southern region of Indiana. We stayed in a cabin heated by a wood-burning stove in the Shakamak state park. There are three lakes at Shakamak; Kickapoo, Lenape, and of course Shakamak. FGB and I fished the Shakamak and Lenape. The fishing on Lenape was fantastic. Unfortunately we went in the evening and forgot to bring a camera so I will do my best to describe it to you. The air temperature was 70 and the wind was only gently blowing. It was about 7:00 pm when we pushed off from the pier in our rented John boat. While waiting for FGB to bait up I took a cast by the pier and wham I had hooked something immediately. It turned out to be a 12 inch Large Mouth Bass. Not huge but a lot of fun on the ultra-light tackle we were using. Soon after that I bagged two nice crappies and then FGB got into the act the next 8 fish would be caught by FGB each of them crappie and one of them pushing 3lbs, what a beauty. The fish seemed to hit better while the boat was moving so I continually rowed us around the lake while we let our lines troll out behind the boat. We caught several more fish Crappies and Blue Gills all of which were good size fish.

Lenape is a long thin lake with many fingers and coves branching off along the shoreline. The lake itself lays East and West. After an hour or so of fishing the sun began to set in the West. It was a beautiful red ball of fire that reflected eerily off the placid water. The lake came alive with frogs of all kinds and other animals making their evening calls. The whole chorus rang out with an ominous beauty. FGB said that it sounded like an evil scientist laughing. Soon the moon was rising in the East, it too shone brilliantly reddish orange and added to the evenings “charm.” Truthfully the sights and sounds grew on us and we fell in love with this Southern Indiana Park.

The fishing hadn’t quite come to an end, we had yet to get back to the pier and there was one more promising cove to explore. Of course FGB quickly landed a few more crappie as we entered the cove. FGB couldn’t resist pointing out that his crappie total was much higher than mine, I quickly responded that I had caught a bass and that he hadn’t. Shortly after this exchange my pole bent under the weight of another nice fish. After fighting the fish for a couple of minutes I landed our expeditions only catfish. It was a beautiful channel cat. The sun was almost completely down and the fishing had begun to slow so we headed back to the pier. About 20 feet from the pier, my pole jumped up and flew towards the end of the boat. I dropped my oar and reached out just catching the end of the handle. I threw back my arm back to set the hook and felt the tug of a nice fish. He headed straight to the weeds and with the light tackle I couldn’t stop him. Soon I was just pulling up dead weight. I was sure that the fish had got off and all that was left was weeds. FGB reached over the side of the boat and picked up my catch of weeds. He began peeling away the muck when I heard, “Dad! You’ve got to see this blue gill!” I had caught the biggest blue gill I had ever seen, bigger then even the monsters I’d seen at the Milwaukee zoo river exhibit. It was truly a beautiful specimen and like all the fish we caught he is back in the lake making babies for the next trip.

The hiking was also great. If I had more time I’d describe it to you in detail. Suffice it to say we saw and heard more birds then we could name; water fowl, seed eaters, birds of prey and bug eaters all calling back and forth to each other! By the way on our way back from an excursion to Brown County State Park The beautiful wife snapped the picture of the shark in the sky. We also saw some clouds that looked like arrowheads and missles.

The trip ended up at the Crown Plaza hotel in Indianapolis. We went to the zoo, the museum, the State House, The historical society, the Indianapolis State Library, and the RCA dome. The wife who usually feels very strange in cities said that she truly felt great walking around Indy! It is a clean city and the hoosier hospitality was everywhere. By the way the zoo was fantastic and my 1 ½ year old daughter was a blast to watch! Her favorite part was petting the Yak! Go figure!

Wilderness First Aid

After hearing many rave reviews about Bobbie Foster's Wilderness First Aid classes, I finally got myself into one by signing up 6 months in advance. Wow, they were right, what a great class!

The class was 16 hours, a full weekend, and lots of stuff learned. If you've had a basic first aid and CPR class, you probably (hopefully!) remember the steps A, B, C. Well, this adds about a dozen more letters to the procedure.

Of course in 16 hours, it won't turn you into a superman. But what I came away with was a process that not only lets you treat some of the most common injuries, but also lets you decide what to do next: (1) Serious danger, call in the helicopter, never mind that you'll have to take out a second mortgage to pay for it, (2) Get back to civilization as soon as you can under your own power, (3) Continue on with your trip but go see the doctor Monday morning.

And interesting too that "wilderness" is considered more than an hour away from advanced medical care. So it's not just if you're planning a trip to the jungles of Borneo, it could just as well be the country roads of Indiana.

Indiana Interval training

I may come back and post more later but here is some news from Handy and I going to visit Dirt Mag and fam. 1st off What great hospitality. This guy is 1st class all the way and it was great to see the whole family. The new house is awsome with huge windows and tons of natural light. The air is fresh and clean and the whole atmosphere of the area is vital yet relaxed. I miss riding with DM so much. Friday we did go for maybe 20 RT to a covered bridge. I was on the backup- religh. It was fun, but I was slow. DM never complained.
We rode mostly gravel roads, a bit roug at times but "rush hour" was maybe 10 cars (trucks) A few times we were on roads (paved) and sometimes they were narrow but super light traffic and smooth smooth smooth! DM rode his old MTB and was still struggling to go slow enough, if he had been on his CX he would have lapped me. The halt was used once to cinvince a dog to give up the chase and once a fat dog went sooo sloooow even I outran him. That's how they sprint or interval train in Indiana. You ride along in light traffic but at any time one or more dogs can come launching at you. Aparently DM county rules state that all dogs must be unrestrained and ill tempered. Every road he knew DM would state..."Dog to the right, two to the left, be ready. Non the less I can not wait to go back. It is great. Thanks to the whole family.

We even went to a LBS (local bike shop) and I test rode a tadpole trike made by whizwheels. Getting on and off was not prety but was possible. I would have to rig a PVC rollbar for increased visibility in traffic to mount lights etc for commuting but I did manage to get on and take it for two quick circles around the lot. By my second loop I had a big goofy grin on. It was not too slow and very stable. It was like a go cart. It was very very fun/ I have found my next bike It may be slower as it has 20 inch wheels all around, but I am more confident and can put more max effort for more of the time so it should balance out. It will be a good dream/goal for after grad school and a house