November Rides

[Crankin]

Ha, ha, Northwoods. Skiing in New England is almost always like that. Metal edges, and good grooming help. No such thing as powder
nordic skiing!
We did a quick 11 mile hilly ride before heading out for western MA. It was 36 degrees and cloudy. Glad I went, but I am still discouraged with my foot. Riding is fine, but walking/hiking not so much.

[north woods gal]

Yeah, we just ski out our back door, so we have to break our own trails, sometimes over rough country, just like the MTB riding. Nope, no groomed trails for us and no skinny trail skis, either. We use wide, true backcountry wilderness type skis with metal edges. Not super fast, but great for climbing and breaking trail, and strong enough for walking over logs and rocks and so on. Once in awhile, after the lake has frozen enough, a neighbor will be out on his snowmobile. Those tracks make a nice, do-it-yourself groomed trail, for the skis or the fat bikes.



More work with this kind of skiing, but most days, have the woods and lake to myself. Pretty much a wilderness experience, right out my back door. Doesn't get any better than this.

[north woods gal]

Rebecca, all always, great pics. What part of Michigan is that?

[Crankin]

My skis are about half way between true nordic and back country. They are not super wide, in that they fit in the tracks, but I truly had never seen or used really skinny nordic skis until we went to the Methow Valley.

[emily_in_nc]

Rebecca, lovely pics!

NWG, yes, I remember your riding the trail here and how hot/humid it was and that you had issues (understandably!) Those conditions would be very tough for me too. It is gorgeous here right now, though. We rode again today same route (Winter Garden to Apopka and back, 32 miles), and the temp was in the 70s the entire time. Humidity is not noticeable. We haven't done the Winter Garden west into Lake County stretch of trail yet as it is hillier, and we'd ridden so little this month (just three rides in NC) that we wanted to do the easier eastern route three times before heading west. One more time to go!

Today there were so many people out -- guess all the schools and most businesses are closed. We saw recumbents, trikes, no tandems, though. Dog walkers, runners, etc. The trail is nice and wide so only a couple of times did we have any issues with too much trail traffic. The cutest thing we saw was a Boston Terrier with one blue eye (we have a Boston also but no blue eyes) riding in a trailer behind his owner's bike, with his head out the top looking around. Just too adorable! One of these days we really have to get a trailer for Paisley.

[emily_in_nc]

Glad I went, but I am still discouraged with my foot. Riding is fine, but walking/hiking not so much.

So sorry your foot is still not right, Crankin!

[Crankin]

It *is* better, but but the recovery is not fast enough for me. Of course, I have not taken a lot of rest. Yes, this is the first hike I have done in 4.5 weeks, since the first aborted one, after a week, but I have been riding, both indoors and out (which doesn't cause a lot of problems) and doing both power class and tabata. I skipped one week of tabata and modified the next, but last week I felt good and did too much. It's on Thursday, so no class on Thanksgiving. Power class is weight lifting, so the only thing I modify are the lunges on my left foot. I keep my foot flat, so there's no pressure on it. One consequence of this injury is I have been favoring the other side of my foot, and that's where I have a bunion, which is now bothering me. And my balance on this side is really off, not in normal activities, but doing any one legged stretch. I worked on using all parts of my foot today, while hiking, and I hope that helps.
Well, it is OK now. I am home and now the other parts of my body are recovering.

[rebeccaC]

NWG…about 40 miles north of Lansing. It’s Alex’s ex (now best friend) from grad school who's teaching at Michigan State…..and I thought of your riding as we rode the dirt side roads and trails on Thursday.

Emily….Paisley deserves coming along in a trailer

we're at the lansing airport now....hoping chicago is an easy transfer today....

[Sky King]

Hey ALL - we are giving away two fun prizes on Monday - just post a photo of you, your bike or something you've done outside this Thanksgiving Weekend on Instagram and use the hashtag #optoutsidebtn You'll be entered in for the prizes. We have impartial judging on Monday. Grand Prize is a Surly Wool Sweatshirt and runner up wins a BTN water bottle a Surly T-shirt of their choice, socks of their choice and whatever else I can fit into the bottle.

North Woods Gal - I had a border collie that really looked like yours He was so good on the trail, we used the command "bike back" when a bike was coming and he'd get right behind me and not move until I told him to release.

[north woods gal]

Rebecca, we're up north, just south of the U.P. border in Wisconsin.

Sky, this is our first Border Collie, but have had other types of Collies, too. We researched the breed, thoroughly, so we knew exactly what we were getting. Very active dogs that need lots of play and work time and generally regarded as one of then most intelligent breeds. That can actually be a challenge, at times, but we wouldn't have it any other way.

[emily_in_nc]

Finished up the week with another lovely ride on the West Orange Trail. A beautiful, cooler day, temps in 60s to 70s, breezy, sunny. LOTS of folks out today but no problems as the trail is wide and most are very polite. The funniest thing I saw was a petite woman with a bike trail hauling a LARGE dog behind her. Not sure how she was going to manage that on the lightly rolling hills! She was just starting out in a very flat area. It was a cute sight, though. Saw two tandems as well. 32.2 miles.

[ny biker]

Hey ALL - we are giving away two fun prizes on Monday - just post a photo of you, your bike or something you've done outside this Thanksgiving Weekend on Instagram and use the hashtag #optoutsidebtn You'll be entered in for the prizes. We have impartial judging on Monday. Grand Prize is a Surly Wool Sweatshirt and runner up wins a BTN water bottle a Surly T-shirt of their choice, socks of their choice and whatever else I can fit into the bottle.

North Woods Gal - I had a border collie that really looked like yours He was so good on the trail, we used the command "bike back" when a bike was coming and he'd get right behind me and not move until I told him to release.

Now I'm wishing we had taken some photos on our bike ride yesterday!

I got back home around 2:30 am on Sunday morning after being in NY with family for the holiday. Ordinarily I would have done an afternoon bike ride after getting back so late but was worried about getting stuck in afternoon holiday traffic. So I contacted a friend who always prefers to ride early and made plans to join her and another friend for a 10 am ride. Of course I did not do my usual prep before going to sleep (fill water bottles, get snacks, etc) so I had to get up early for that. Bottom line, I got four hours of sleep. Not ideal but I've done more than a few summer rides after only 4 hours of sleep so I knew I'd be okay once I got going.

There was a bit of a cold breeze but it was in the low 50s and the sun was out so we were comfortable except for when we stopped at a convenience store near the bay. It was breezier there. There was a picnic table next to the store where a guy on a motorcycle was meeting a friend so they could go for a ride. They had nice bikes -- an orange Harley and a very shiny and well-cared-for Indian. We had a nice chat with them while we had our snacks. In all we rode 46 miles. It was generally uphill into the wind for the last 20, so I was pretty tired by the end.

Afterwards I went to the LBS. I wanted to look for fleecy mid-weight tights, since my Sugoi Subzeros (yes for me they are "mid-weight" not heavy weight) are looking kinda ragged. They didn't have anything fleecy enough in stock but I also wanted to look at saddles, since the padding in my Bontrager Affinity is wearing out. I ended up having a long chat with the manager and will be going back later this week to try a new saddle. Then on the way home I hit up REI to see if they had any tights in stock. Sure enough they had some Novarra tights that felt cozy and fit really well, with good reflective accents and a nice comfortable yoga-type waistband to boot. And they were on sale. The waistband is purple but that's okay, it won't be visible under my jackets and jerseys anyway.

[north woods gal]

Crazy weather! Almost an inch of RAIN??? last night, so my trails are almost back to snow free and normal to ride. Hit them hard, right after breakfast. Then more RAIN??? this afternoon. Not complaining, mind you, because it is nice to have my trails back to where I can climb those steeps and make those tricky maneuvers. Makes me a bit nervous, though, because this is definitely not the norm for late November, this far north.