halfway through #30daysofbiking and getting "harder, better, faster, stronger..."

the days: april 15-17, good friday, saturday, and easter sunday. temps varied, but somewhere between 35 and 45. on friday it did sneak up into the 50s. mostly cloudy, with the sun shining shining, only on friday--oh and sunday after we got home. it also snowed! dry~ish on the rides, at least in the sky. wind everyday, but it never blew me/us off the bike. strongest on friday.

the adventures: biking 3 of the '5 towns' with a side trip into lyme: solo, canaan and enfield; with skip lyme and canaan; with skip, simon, and sawyer, canaan and grafton.

friday, went to the school and then around mascoma lake to stop at the shop where brendon and dustin taught me how to bleed a hydraulic brake and replace the pads. saturday, skip took me on a loop past the skiway and back through north canaan. then on easter sunday with the big groupo, a quick out to grafton pond and back, to get everybody 'hhome' for various eating engagements.

the memories: 

• fixing the rear brake on the addict was fun to learn and fairly straight forward. brendon and dustin both said my shimano brakes were much easier--and less toxic--than sram. 
• baker hill in lyme still had a section closed from mud. there was plenty, but only one section was it a struggle. 
• to grafton pond and back was quick with simon setting the pace, spinning at high rpms.

notes:

• bike repair is good to know, and with the right tools & equipment, not crazy hard
• mud can still be deep~ish in the super shady, cold spots
• riding with other bikers is much faster than riding solo--especially if they are their thirties 
• happy easter
  

go outside and play! (just don't get caught...)

more #30daysofbiking, hiking, with trail & brush work as well

the days: april 3-14. a few days cold ~ish, a few days warm ~ish, a bunch of days in between. the few sunny days coincided with the warm ones. some days wet, some days dry, and some, moist. again, those few sunshiny days correspond to the dry ones. windy days were equally mixed as well. basically, april weather--all over the map and somewhat unpredictable.

the adventures: hiking, biking--it's #30daysofbiking, trail & brush work, here, there, but not everywhere... definitely all the usual spots, and a few exotics on a couple of longer bike rides.

the memories: 

• doing some rerouting down on the school cross country trail on the 4th, i  heard quackers--wood frogs--for the first time. 
• got rained on my ride into the dentist on the 8th--the hygienist was wondering why her chair was so wet and gritty. 
• there was a sudden burst of hail on the 10th. fortunately it was lunch o'clock at the pendletons--linda's squash soup was very tasty! 
• pam hiked and i biked over town hill on the 12th, and we heard the season's first peepers--tree frogs--down at the marsh.  we also 'ran into' two snakes--one of them was "very aggressive--it's sidewinding me!"
• i had been stopping and snapping pictures when i saw significant ice on hidden little ponds tucked into the shady parts of the woods. 
• today, the 14th, skip let out a holler, "there's still ice" when we went by tewksbury pond.

notes:

• april may be the cruelest month, especially if you don't like mud season
• climate change may be making april less cruel--maybe
• skip doesn't like hills--up or down--but he keeps going strong
• ticks are out! found a deer tick latched onto my upper arm in the middle of the night on the 13th
• ice is nice--it will make you smile

go outside and play!

#30daysofbiking

the days: april 1st & 2nd. a beautiful blue bird day! made the mid 40s with a steady stiff wind out of the northwest almost feel warm ~ish. a lot different than fool's day's cloudy, off and on rain/sleet/hail. same 40s with a good stiff wind, but damn it was almost freezing ~ish.

the adventures: out on the bike for #30daysofbiking. at the moment, mostly on the pavement, as a lot of dirt roads are slowly getting over a wicked mud season and deeply rutted. on the 1st, i rode into school, to cut the timber frame for the outdoor classroom at evs, and then onto drummond's, for friday's sweep. today, the 2nd, i rode toward skip's to meet him, simon, and tom. we were headed for mascoma lake again, but this time we went all the way around it in the opposite direction from last saturday. maybe that wasn't the smartest as the wind was in our face the whole of the west side of the lake.  we kept tight to each other's rear wheels. we also kept our smiles!

or at least everybody was smiling when i cut off the rail trail at perry lane. from simon's picture, it looks like they found some ice further on and had to walk a bit. it's pretty though.

the memories: the weather in new hampshire is always sketchy in april, at least if you are trying to ride a bike everyday of the month. for example, with temps and winds about equal, yesterday's precip was fairly uncomfortable, even when it was a light drizzle. today's bright sunshine was maybe a little warm on the long uphills, but never unwelcome. the other thing i will remember is riding in a group of four today vs solo yesterday. maybe that was because no one else was wishing to be a 'fool'.

notes:

• mascoma lake is still ~80% ice covered south of the bridge, and maybe 50% to the north--i.e. it's cold with a strong wind blowing off that surface
• my front tire--not the wheel--looks awfully 'woobly'
• again, riding in a group offers 'drafting' opportunities--take advantage of them
  
• remember to grab the camera off the kitchen table where you put it so you would remember it
• a linda cookie from "the magicly refilling box" is a real treat at ~20 miles

go outside and play!

out on the bikes in march

the days: march 18th, 25th, and 26th. the 18th was by far the warmest, up in the 50s, and the windiest, with a steady blow of around 20mph. it was also sunny. the 25th & 26th were both somewhere in the 40s, not too windy, nor all that sunny. i'm pretty sure i felt a couple of drops today, the 26th, but rain was at best, a low risk.

the adventures: on a bike! and except for one time today, going out to rt 4 on the dirt half of our road, riding pavement in canaan and enfield. if you are a map nerd, we snuck into lebanon for about a mile.

the memories: fridays are my 'sweep the shop' days over at drummond custom cycles. the last two were pleasant enough to ride over. after the recent rains washed most of the salt off the roads, and the warm~ish weather has melted most of the snow, my thought was basically, get the bikes out pump up the tires, and start pedaling.

today's ride was a bit longer, with a couple of good hills thrown in for good measure. skip and tom were also game to come along. i rode over to meet them at tom's and we took off. about an hour and two good hills later, we went by laura's house and saw her out burning brush. we took a bit of a break before looping back around mascoma lake, at least the half of it with the paved road.

my first three rides of the season! may they all be at least that good. 

notes:

• be prepared for it feeling really cold with a strong wind blows off a frozen lake
• if your bike is tuned up at the end of last season, it rides really nicely in the beginning of this one
• riding in a group offers 'drafting' opportunities--take advantage of them
• start remembering to keep a camera in the frame bag

go outside and play!

playing the edges, before it got sticky

the day: march 14, early~ish . getting sunny with temps rising through the 20s heading toward 40°F --warm, too warm for still being winter. no wind. and a big flake snow drifting down for the last couple hours, as blue sky pushed out the clouds.  6-8" of fluffy snow on the trail, except where yesterday's sun and last night's cold combined to leave a bit of crust 2 inches down.

the adventure: skip picked me up around 8:30 and we headed up to moose mtn and our secret stash. since nobody else goes there--yet--i figured it would be in really good shape for a couple of morning runs--before today's sun got on it and made it sticky.

the memories: and in fine shape it was! even better than what i thought it would be!! skinning up through a fresh couple of inches, plus friday's storm below that, was like heaven. at least such fluff under the skis is how i envision terrain behind the pearly gates. as we gained elevation the coverage got even better and i started eyeing some of the special features along the edges, a couple of big rocks to launch off, a few small hemlocks to scoot around... we hit it right.

notes:

-  skip got us going in plenty of time for two runs (before i had to get to an 11:30 mtg)
-  it was warm enough to keep skip's hands warm but not so warm that our skis were clumping (until the very end heading back to the truck)
-  the whole day made skip smile (not unusual. always fun.)

go outside and play!