September rides

[Aromig]

We have decided to invest in spot tracker, this part of the desert is so remote it would be a challenge for someone to find us if something went wrong. Happy to say my Surly ECR performed the best.

I own a spot that I use when hiking/hanging out around Moab, and I will take it on long bike rides in Southern Indiana where cell phone reception might be spotty. I've owned mine for 4 years now, and never needed it but it is reassuring to look at the blinking lights knowing its transmitting somewhere when I send a message (mine you can only send a preprogrammed message, but I do that to save GPS coordinates).

I've had one friend (not bikers) use theirs for rescue when they got lost and had no water and then it's worth every single penny. I also pay for the optional (its not very expensive) insurance where they'll pay for the charge of emergency services if you're billed for them.

The device and the annual service is totally worth the peace of mind.

North Woods Gal - I think they have new spot devices that may communicate with your phone, I'm not sure, but I have an older device that doesn't help me get home, but can signal that I need help and can send signals to family about where I'm located. I also use my Garmin Edge 800 and it's helped me find my way home when I've taken a wrong turn, but I didn't quite need to call for help yet :-)

[north woods gal]

Thanks' girls.

Speaking of GPS units, what is everyone using? I'm not digitally challenged, but I don't want anything complicated and loaded with options I won't use. Just need something to track my movements, save way points and so on. Just hate that "I'm lost" feeling. Very rewarding when I come out on the good end of things, but really takes away from enjoying my ride. Thanks.

[Blueberry]

The Wahoo Elemnt was recommended to me recently. Curious to hear what others have to say!

[Crankin]

I finally rode today, but a number of things conspired to make me wait until after lunch, when it was 88 degrees and humid. I am happy with the 12 miles I did, but it made me realize how much I hate the heat, and humidity even more. The most exciting thing that happened is that they are filming a movie on the trail DH and I hike on, about a mile from my house, and we saw all of the signs, pointing the crew down the dirt road to get there.

[ny biker]

I rode almost 20 miles after work last night. Was hoping to ride Wednesday but we had thunderstorms so I had to postpone to Thursday. It was hot, I was dripping sweat at the end, but I'll take a September heat wave over winter cold any day.

Last Saturday I did 41 miles in Virginia, in a rural area around Warrenton. It was a nice route, some roads I'd ridden before and some that were new to me. The ride leader says he likes to do variations of it in the winter, so I'll keep an eye out from them. Afterwards we had lunch near the ride start. There's a cluster of buildings on land that was purchased by federal government back around WWII and used by cryptographers (or something like that), and now they're a brew pub, small cafe, produce market and museum about the Cold War. We got food from the cafe and brought it to the brew pub for a nice post-ride lunch.

Then on Monday our bike club had our annual century ride. I helped at a couple of rest stops, taking leftovers from one that closed early to another one that was open later, then driving to a third stop to help out until it closed, then driving back to the ride start by way of the final rest stop while picking up route-marking signs along the way. It was a long day but perfect weather and lots of fun. We did run out of food at one rest stop, and at the post-ride picnic were already talking about how to keep that from happening in the future. The ride is in an area that is not close to any grocery stores so it's not easy to get things on the fly when you start to run out.

Tomorrow is one of my favorite rides of the year, the Civil War Century. I'm doing the metric as usual. I'll be riding with someone from work and will be on the lookout for some bike club friends who will be doing a longer route. The food is always great at this ride, fresh fruit from local orchards and ice cream from a local dairy. I'm looking forward to it.

[Crankin]

I am getting a bit nervous about going to the ghost bike memorial service tomorrow. I did not know the man that was killed, but feel compelled to join the huge group of cyclists that are attending. This accident occured just about 5 miles from where I live. Glad I will be surrounded by people I know.

[north woods gal]

Crankin, by all means go if you feel you should. Can't imagine there would be any problems with that many people. No guarantee, of course, but seems unlikely.

As for me, doing 4 or 5 hours of heavy physical labor on the trails around our house and then finish the day with about hour of riding on them. That usually nets me about a humble 5 miles, but I'd estimate about 70% as being up and down with a fair number of steeps and humps that require me to stand on the pedals to crest, plus the trail is rough enough to require standing on the pedals to absorb the shock or risk having my teeth shake loose. Lots of quick braking and hard accelerating. The see saw ride, tight turns, tricky spots and hills take their toll. Very physical type of riding. Has me wheezing and panting for air when I push hard. Very few catch my breath kind of spots along the way. In other words, typical mountain biking for our area.

Hope to work up to two hour workouts when I'm done with the trail work. Lots of work for sure, but the trails will be doing double duty for my cross country skiing in winter.