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"Barvull"

I had been thinking about selling my Specialized Bighit downhill bike for a while. Normally it's against family policy to sell bikes. Instead, we usually ride them into the ground until they break or we upgrade/replace them. However, I had really been wanting an upgrade for my new KHS that's going to be coming later this month. I finally decided to sell my bike so I could by some nice shiny bits. Well I talked to my friend Brad Nelson up at Union College in KY. He said he wanted to buy it. He sold a few pieces parts and then called me back a few days later saying he had the cash moneys. Well I had been wanting to go up and take another visit to Union College (where I would like to attend school), so I decided to kill 2 birds with one stone and take the bike up to him while getting my visit in.

I left Saturday about 2 of the clock. It's about a 2:20 minute drive, so I cranked up some music and got comfortable. Unlike most people my age, I am not a huge fan of driving. I also have this REALLY bad tendency to get sleepy all them time. That didn't turn out too well for me once. So although two and a half hours may not seem like much driving, it felt like forever to me. It was cool though, its all back roads and it goes over the Cumberland Gap. Its a nice drive.

I pulled into Barbourville, KY. Time for a geography lesson. Barbourville is a little Kentucky town near the Cumberland Gap. It has a very small population, I don't know the exact number, but probably a bit smaller than Erwin. Barbourville is situated in the middle of a dry county. It is the home of a small college named Union College. It is also home to a large number of meth labs, moonshine-making operations, and marijuana patches. Almost everyone owns a four wheeler, so ATV trails criss-cross the woods around town. There is a group on facebook about this here "Barvull". Its quite an interesting place, and I really like it.

So I pull into Barbourville. I pull up to Greg, Nano, and Brad's apartment. It is a really sweet place. You walk up the steps and on your right is a large moose head. You walk in and there are 10 bikes leaned against the wall of the apartment. Old forks, number plates, and wheels grace the walls and windows. I brought the Bighit upstairs. Brad rode it around inside for a while. Savoring the 14" of total travel. Good stuff.

Then we all went for a ride on the new trails they've built. They've taken some of those old ATV trails and made them into bike trails. These trails are characterized by steep ups and downs, technical drops, and trailer parks. They're brave, that land very well could have a pot grove on it. But the trails are fun, and they'll get better as those guys ride them.



One of many jumps.



One of the many (steep) climbs in the woods around Barbourville.



Brad after hitting a jump too fast and going into the bushes. Split his ear. Nice.

Well the real fun began that night. 6 of us loaded up and went to Barbourville's finest eating establishment. Pizza Hut. Nice. We demolished 3 pounds of pasta, a large pizza, and 20 chicken wings. Excellent.

Then we went down to the local supermarket. Perfectly normal, right? hehehe...
People here in Barbourville LOVE to cruise. Every Friday and Saturday night, they cruise from the supermarket to the town municipal building (right in front of the cops) and then back. 30-40 times in a night. At least. Over and over and over. Doing burnouts and drifting as much as possible, of course. It's not enough to waste gas by cruising, they also have to floor it every couple of minutes. These people are crazy. Actually, a better word is stupid. The people are so stupid they are entertaining. Incredibly so. Well, we watched these people cruise for a while, then we headed back to the apartment. One of the coolest things about the apartment is that it overlooks the town square, right there where everyone cruises. So we got out of the cars and chilled there and watched the people some more. The next logical step was to get the bikes out and do a lap ourselves. When we jumped on the bikes and started our lap, the people didn't know what to think. The locals started calling out at us unintelligible things so redneck I wasn't able to understand them. I did hear one guy tell me to change the fluid in my bike because my "light was blinking". Whatever that means hahah... This little trip turned into an urban assault session where we jumped around ledges and curbs and stuff. It was good fun, it lasted till 11:30 at night.

The next morning we woke up and went to the trails in Daniel Boone National Forest. Lots of pisgah-like trails, with less climbing and a little more hike-a-bike. Still they were a heckuva lot of fun. I'm getting kind of sleepy, so maybe I'll talk about it a little later, but for now I'll just appease you crazy blog-readers with pictures. Enjoy:



I actually rode down this later.



German Leonardo Bermudez, aka Nano railing the corner.



Yours truly riding up and out of one of the many creek crossing. The Union guys gave me a jersey to wear for the day. Hopefully I'll be able to wear it a lot come next fall.



I was not, unfortunately, able to ride this little segment. That would make for a neat picture though.


Peace out guys. Don't do drugs.

I'm definitely just using this to save my German translations. Yuck.. But I will have a post about my interesting weekend in Barbourville, KY, aka redneckville, soon

In einem Tal bei armen Hirten
Erschien mit jedem jungen Jahr,
Sobald die ersten Lerchen schwirrten,
Ein Mädchen schön und wunderbar.

Sie war nicht in dem Tal geboren
Man wusste nicht, woher sie kam,
Und schnell war ihre Spur verloren,
Sobald das Mädchen Abschied nahm

Beseligend warihre Nähe,
Und alle Herzen wurden weit,
Doch eine Wüde, eine Höhe
Entfernte die Vertraulichkeit.

Sie brachte Blumen mit und Früchte,
Gereifet auf einer andern Flur,
In einem andern Sonnenlichte,
In der glücklichern Natur.

Und teilte jedem eine Gabe,
Dem Früchte, jenem Blumen aus,
Der Jüngling und der Greis am Stabe,
Ein jeder ging beschenkt nach Haus.

Willkommen waren alle Gäste,
Doch nahte sich ein liebend Paar,
Dem reichte sie der Gaben beste,
Der Blumen allerschönste dar.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Ofu9YEzyiEoC&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=In+einem+Tal+bei+armen+Hirten+Erschien+mit+jedem+jungen+Jahr+Sobald+die+ersten+Lerchen+schwirrten&source=bl&ots=TluF6jgxqA&sig=tjTrq5OCUzjOqhDwxcfSuUVLkH0&hl=en&ei=iXW2SbLrI-PetgfskKGmCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA38,M1

Playing Catch-Up

Yeah, so I pretty much suck at this. But I will try to make it up to you. Only I probably won't. But you don't have to grieve any longer, because I will now present you with my thoughts.

Hmmm... well a couple weekends ago was the Icycle. I hooked up with Brandon at 6 in the morning and we loaded up and headed towards Fontana. We got there and he registered, and then we went up to the cabin with Brandon's friends from Virginia Tech. We sat around for a while and chit chatted, and then everyone started getting dressed for the XC race. I wasn't planning on racing the XC, only the night DH, but I had some training to do. So I got suited up to, and I planned to ride all day until the night downhill, then race it. Everyone loaded up in cars and headed down to the race start. I got on my bike and headed up the mountain. I was riding the Jamis Dakar XLT, so I was struggling to stay in my zones as I headed up the really steep hill. I got to the top of the downhill, and proceeded (preceded?? uh oh haha) to rip down the mountain. The course was super fun, really fast with some cool jumps and two hard switchbacks at the end. I enjoyed it a lot, and I looked forward to racing it.

I went back up to the venue to watch the start. They weren't ready to go yet, so I decided to ride a little of the course backwards. As I went down the grassy hill at the start, my tire buzzed against my frame. Ooh... that's not good. I got down and looked at the bike, and realized. OH CRAP.

The chainstay of the Jamis was snapped completely in half. Right at the weld. I was PRETTY sure a little spit and duck tape wasn't going to fix this little mechanical. I walked back up the top, and showed the chainstay to everyone clustered around. There were plenty of jokes to go around, people calling it "an extra pivot point" and "a kickstand". Hahah well that wasn't going to help me for my downhill race. Brandon VERY kindly proposed that I ride his bike after his XC race. I was VERY thankful he was going to let me do that. See, Brandon has this awesome Santa Cruz Heckler. When he got done with his XC race he swapped shoes with me and I was off. The saddle height was perfect, the shocks were set up beautifully. All I had to do was drop the air pressure in the tires just a little bit. His bike climbed better than any full suspension 30lb bike should. I was impressed.

The rest of the day I continued to ride either the trails or the road up to the top of the DH course, then I would bomb down it. I was getting a little faster every time, and I was really starting to get my line choices figured out. My max speed kept creeping up, and I finally hit 32 mph on this singletrack downhill. It was so much fun. I kept riding and riding, only stopping to eat a peanut and honey sandwich or some chili every now and then. It finally started getting dark, so I put on my lights and headed up to the top to do a light-check. The deal was, every racer had to come through and do a practice run with lights on. I went for my first run, everything went smoothly, but I needed to re-position my helmet light. Once that was done, I went up for one more practice run before the final. As I was going down the trail, there was this big sweeping left hand turn, and the ground dropped off on the right. As I was going around the turn, I was going too fast, so the bike kept drifting to the outside. It finally went to far, and the front wheel started to slip over the edge of the trail. As I realized I was going down, I looked ahead and saw I was heading right towards a tree about 3 inches in diameter. oh crap. I jumped off the bike and went tumbling down the trail, as the bike slammed handlebar-first into this tree at 25 mph. As I stood up, dazed, I expected to look back up the trail and see Brandon's carbon handlebar shattered, the bar light smashed into a million pieces, and the wheels mangled. Instead I saw the tiniest little scratch, and his remote lockout lever had broken off. That is a 20 dollar fix, not a 200 dollar fix. I was thanking my lucky stars at that point.

I still had a race run to do, however. I jumped on the bike, and caught the last shuttle up before they started sending riders off. I got to the top and sat there for about 45 minutes as rider after rider went off. Finally, they came to the sport class racers. I lined up, and got ready to go. When the clock struck 38:00, I took off down the mountain. It was a beautiful run, I felt great, and I was absolutely flying. The way the course ended was really neat. You were flying by yourself through the woods, and its dark, with only your lights to guide you. All of the sudden, you make a left hand turn and hit a BIG jump. This sends you flying into the air, and all of the sudden there are people screaming, camera flashes going off, and you can see the finish line down in a grassy area below the woods. It was a cool effect. If only that was the end. After the jump you had a berm, then the first and trickier of the two switchbacks. I came into the switchback WAY too hot, and endoed right in the middle of it. I jumped up, grabbed my bike, and then used my cyclocross skills to jump back on and sprint back up to speed. I sprinted all the way across the line, and just hoped for the best.

When results got posted, I was 4th. less than 3 seconds behind 1st place. Dangit. I learned my lesson about taking chances during a race. Oh well, it was one of the most fun weekends I've had in a while. I came away with a bloody knee and a bruised thigh, not too bad for the crashes I took. It was fun.

The next day I hooked up with a group of guys including Alan, Rob, and Duckman, who were all going to do a ride from ETSU out to Spivey Gap and back. We headed out with about 12 or so people, and people dropped off, and dropped off, and dropped off, and dropped off, until it was just me and Rob heading back from Erwin to ETSU, with both of us extremely tired and me about to bonk. Fun stuff. We finally made it back, with either for 4 hours or 4.5 hours of ride time and almost 70 miles. I was le tired. Good weekend.

Today was another interesting road ride. I rode home from school, over Buffalo to Limestone. About 24 miles, its a really nice ride, I saw maybe 15 cars the whole time (once I got out of Johnson City of course). While I was in Johnson City, I had some interesting first-time experiences. As I was rolling through the VA, I had my first near-death experience when a lady opened her car door in front of me. I swerved to avoid that, and my mountain biking skills came in handy when I ran through a pothole. Not 2 minutes later, a really stupid young-looking girl misjudged my speed (i was going about 20mph) and pulled out in front of me. I slammed on my brakes and almost went through her rear window. Fun. As I passed by where the Thursday night ride starts, I reached down to get a drink, then started to put the bottle back and I dropped it. I thought this only happened to noobs, but I was wrong. I laughed at myself, then realized that my only water was probably about to get run over. The bottle sat in the middle of the road for about 3-4 minutes as 30+ cars came by, narrowly missing my valuable water supply. I was super lucky and got a chance to dash out and grab it and then got back on my way. Shew. Dodged a bullet there.

When I got over the backside of buffalo I noticed something. It seemed like someone had put an I9 wheel out by their mailbox!



I really want one. That's sweet!

Yep, it was a good day. I also hadn't eaten lunch, so I was bonking. I came home and ate a metric crapton. Granola, rolls, hamburgers, veggibles, sweet potato fries. Yum. Good stuff.

Well faithful readers, it is time for me to head to bed.
By my troth, I am off.
Wes

Normal Buffalo ride...

Tonight was a pretty normal buffalo mountain wednesday night ride, so you all know what that means... its not my place to tell you what happened, so I'll let the suspense eat at you for a day or two. Its really late so that's all she wrote. Sorry.

Ich kann mit kein Handgriffstab mein Rad fahren

Today was an awesome day. One heck of a lot of fun. Michael Ritter, Ben (sorry don't know your last name, bmapple on ntmba forums), my dad and my mom went out to Pisgah to do an epic ride. I had never been to this part of pisgah, so I was excited about riding some new trails. We left the house around 7am. That is way to freaking early, but its all good I guess since we were going to ride some new trails. I hopped in the car with Michael and off we went. About 30 minutes after we left it started to drizzle. Now I really don't mind it raining while I ride, but I hate it when it rains while you are getting dressed. That is just demoralizing, not to mention really cold! By the time we got to Asheville, the rain was gone, but it was still really overcast.



Better, but I was hoping for sun!

As we pulled into the parking lot, the sun kind of started to pop out. Yes! I was pretty happy about that.


The bike is happy too. Plus she likes to be ridden.

We all got suited up and got ready to ride. Ben seemed to be carrying a small child in his camelback, but assured us that if any near-fatal injuries were to happen, we would not find ourselves lacking supplies. I believed him haha...

We started up the singletrack, and of course I immediately had to shed my jacket. I know the saying is to be a little chilly in the parking lot, but I have a really hard time doing that. I like being comfortable. I guess its better than starting to ride and finding out that you need more clothes but don't have them. We went up a long singletrack climb with some evil little bridges on them, and then popped out on some fire road. It was then fire road up up up for a while.



I like fire roads. Notice the mud beneath my eye. The trails were a little muddy and slick. Also notice that my dad seems to be dropped. He was talking a lot of smack. Owned. He isn't happy about it either (see bottom pic). In the picture on the top you can catch a glimpse of Ben's huge camelback.

We turned onto another fire road, and headed towards what Michael assured me was a sweet downhill. We get to the top, where the trail turned off to the left.



His majesty the ride leader.

We turned down some super sweet downhill singletrack that popped us out on another road. There was this frozen waterfall that was beautiful. I took a picture of it. But then closed my phone without saving it, so I don't have it. Take my word for it, it was awesome. Our whole ride was full of cool ice formations. 6 foot long icycles, massive ice slabs, ice covering the trail in 50 degree weather.

We went up this super nasty fire road that was really steep, really long, and apparently was full of quicksand. When you climb 1200 feet in 3 miles of fire road, the last thing you want is to feel like you have a flat tire the whole time. We got to the top and I crammed a peanut butter and honey sandwich down my gob and threw a jacket on before we started to head down the mountain. Haha.. what a joke! Down the mountain, oh I crack myself up. It was supposedly downhill, but it ended up being about 2 miles of false flat with more quicksand-type dirt. Its ok, there was some cool fire road we got to come down. It reminded me of the never-ending road on the ORAMM. It was still cool. We came out on a fire road that we had been on earlier and then took some singletrack down to the fish hatchery. There was some really fun technical singletrack at the bottom where you could get a ton of speed up and hop off of these 1ft ledges one after another. The hikers were staring at us funny as we hooped and hollered.

We took the last fire road up, and started to come down the singletrack we went up at first. We were all getting really tired and making silly mistakes. I galaxed going into a creek/bridge crossing. (first person to find out what galaxing is gets a prize). We got about 100 yards from the car, and I reached back and realized my phone wasn't in my pocket. OH CRAP!!!! Everyone else went to the cars, as I started to head back up the trail, hoping to see it. I remembered galaxing, so I knew that had to have been where I had dropped the phone. I started up the trail, came to one creek crossing and thought "dang it I thought this was the right one". I had already come that far, so I figured I'd keep going till I found it. It was a lot further up the trail than I remembered it being. At this point I had already done 5 hours of riding, so I was super tired and bonking. I spent 28 minutes climbing back up and found the phone right were I had fallen. Great! I was glad I had found it, but I was tired! I rushed back down the trail, jumping everything in my path, logs, rocks, and small children included. I got back down to the car, did a couple awesome berms near the car, and pulled into the parking lot with 5 hours 38 minutes of ride time, 42 miles. HUGE day! I was happy, but tired. I needed a BOOST!



I got one.. but it's backwards!!

You know, I now declare this national BOOST! eve. BOOST! eve was quite an exciting day... I'm pretty durn tired. I can't wait to sleep as late as I want yesterday. I have all my hours in for this week, so I just have to do a recovery ride tomorrow. Gonna calibrate my iBike.

Have a good BOOST! day tomorrow!
Wes

Daily log - 5:38, 42 miles

First Time's a Charm...

Yeah, so I figure I'll skip all the first time blog stuff, yaddah yaddah, I hope someone reads my blog, yaddah yaddah, I'll see if I stick with it blah blah. Lets get down to the good stuff.

As long as I stay on topic and my ADHD doesn't take over, my plan is for this blog to be about biking, my training/training log, and my racing. Hopefully this season I'm gonna have some cool stories to tell. Hopefully you'll have fun reading and I can take you some places you might not get to go otherwise.

Well, training is back into full swing. After a brief respite to go walk for a while in California, I'm back and itching for some racing. There should be some good racing this year, I have some big big BIG plans for this season. More on that later. Its not time for that though, its time to ride the trainer because its too darn cold to ride outside. I got a new rock and roll trainer, and it is sweet! The bike moves pretty similar to how it would on the road, it definitely feels more natural than a normal trainer. I had a nice little mental toughness workout for today, some tempo riding. Its not that hard physically, but on a trainer it is hard to force yourself to ride at that pace for 30-40 minutes. And you get really sweaty. I had forgotten how sweaty the trainer makes you. I had a puddle of sweat on the tile at the end of the ride... I need to remember a fan or something next time.



Believe it or not, I'm enjoying myself. Notice the unused treadmill in the background, and my mom's bike on the other trainer. Our family really has a one-track mind...

It was a great night for the trainer, we just got a new movie in from Netflix.



American Flyers. Good movie about a couple of brothers who race their bikes in the Hell of the West race back in the eighties. Kevin Costner is da man, he wins a sprint and he almost made the Olympic team. I'm pretty proud of him. But its a good movie, nice little plot twist. Entertaining and long enough to keep you on the trainer for the full duration of your workout. I would definitely recommend it. There aren't that many good biking movies out there, and this one is pretty good. Oh, I almost forgot, a little disclaimer. There is a tid bit of nudity. But what good bike ride doesn't have a tid bit, you know? Its all good. Next on the menu is Breaking Away. I can't believe I still haven't seen it. Tell me if you know of any others. Oh and the other thing, does anyone have a copy of Off Road to Athens I could borrow/get a copy of?

Peace out.

Daily Log: 1:30 - trainer