Building Trails In New Jersey

Oct 9 : IMBA Trail Care Crew visit to Ringwood State Park and Sterling Forest hosted by Jorba.

I would like to extend a big thanks to all the volunteers that took the time to come out to attend this seminar. It was really inspiring to see so many enthusiastic trail builders in attendance on a beautiful fall day. Yes, we all want more trails, but those that take the time to come out and get in the know, make the difference between good trails and great trails. Thank you!


A large group of enthusiastic trail builders piled into the Sterling Forest Visitors Center for a very detailed classroom presentation about building sustainable trails. In that group were mountain bike trail builders from parks such as: Ringwood, Ramapo, Wawayanda, Jungle Habitat, Sourlands, Allamuchy, Allaire, Highbridge NYC and Grahm Hills to name a few.


Seminar presented by Chris and Leslie Kehmeier of IMBA.


Chris and Leslie's traveling home, that brings trail knowledge to people around the world.


In the afternoon, volunteers went out into the woods of Ringwood to work on a trail in need of love....


and put their new found knowledge to use, by re-routing an eroded section of fall line trail.


By the end of the day, the old trail was reclaimed. Can you find the old trail?


... and the new trail was complete.


We all had a great time as well.

Monkeys, Acorns and Traumeel

Last weekend the H2H series race took place at Jungle Habitat. The once defunct safari theme park in the 70’s, now bike specific park is built and maintained by Jorba mountain bikers and Team Town Cycle. Town Cycle trail builders pride them selves in building the toughest, rockiest and in my opinion the least flowing trails on the race circuit. This race is known for being a bike handler’s course and not a racers course, all good to me, by the way.

The promoters granted us 40+ women our own start, so Campmor filled the entire line-up. After a good start, I got a little bogged down through the Warthog trail, but did not worry because the race is plenty long to settle in and sort out before the end of three laps. After the Fence Line descent, I cut back through the fence into the cages and miscued on a slightly upward tight turn. I applied some torque to the pedals to pull me out of the stall and as I reached the top, my bike was pulled out from under me, and I was on the ground with my hand screaming at me. I sat myself up slowly, with all attention to my hand stinger. I made a fist and opened and closed my fingers and although it hurt, I could move everything. Realizing I was still in one piece, I picked myself up and assessed the damage. After a brief go over, I saw that I had no gaping holes with blood gushing out and I decided it was ok to proceed with my race.

Within 50 feet, I noticed that rear braking and holding the handle bar was painful and for some strange reason, someone was throwing acorns at me. I adjusted my grip, and was doing ok through Tiger, but wondered how I would fare the Goat Trail. The first turn in Goat went well, and I managed to get over the big rock and through the nasty boney part, but I soon had a racer bearing down on me that did not offer any communication. I tried to speed up a tad, but went down in the next turn. He ran by, and although I was a little frustrated, I felt better that he was in front of me, so that I could figure out if I could finish this race or not.

I had a good clean ride up chute, and not being a quitter, I opted to try 2 more laps in hopes that endorphins would set in, and I could find out who the heck was throwing acorns at me. About one lap later, the endorphins finally set in, and I had a decent last lap, where I bridged back up to the women’s field to finish as the fourth overall woman. This was probably not a top finish, but considering the circumstances, I was happy to finish and take the NJ champion title for Campmor. As for the acorns, it is a mystery to me. I heard rumors that ghosts of monkeys exist in the Jungle, but that sounds like a chapter in “Weird New Jersey”. I think you may need to go up there and find out for yourself.

As for Traumeel, that stuff is great! http://www.traumeel.com/
I am back on the bike today, and my bruised hand has healed nicely.

Colors and Textures on a Bike Ride

909 Wake up Call

photo by GTLuke

909 wake up call at 2:03 a.m.: stomach cramps. Later in the morning I had them as well. I thought things were under control, so with no food eaten since my 5:30 breakfast, I lined up to race at 1:00 p.m. Start got delayed, and I may have cooled down too much. Sounds familiar, right? I got dropped off the start and by the time I caught back up to the last rider, stomach cramps set in again. I do get them on occasion, and I back off a tad and they go away in 5 minutes. I catch back, no problem. Unfortunately, This time they went for 15 minutes and got really bad. Plus some of the ladies are getting stronger, and pixy is getting older, so catching back up is getting harder.

I was backed off to a crawl in the twisty single track after the road climb. The twists nearly made me dizzy. Then everyone was out of site, and I was by myself … the last rider. This was not a new feeling, as I spent the first 3 years as a Cat 1 racer being the last rider on course. I just had not been there in awhile.

I had a moment of feeling sorry for myself and wanted to stop, but I thought about the ladies that were not lucky enough to race that day: Jocelyn, Stacey and Rebecca, and I found the will to pedal through some stomach cramps, even if it was slow. My thinking is: a slow day on the bike is way better than a day on the couch. Then I hit a fast downhill and spotted the first photographer, Luke and I felt distracted enough from the pain to let it go from my mind. The drops were next, with all their excitement and some much appreciated cheering, and I was able to regain my composure on the big climb. The descent that followed was amazing fun and seemed to go on forever. By the time I got to the anthills (yes the course wound through a series of anthills), the cramps were gone, and I reeled in my first rider. From there on, the race went well and I passed 4-5 more riders and pulled myself up to 4th place.

I am so pleased with my new Titus X. This is my second race on her, and the suspension is slightly more active than the Racer-X, and allows the rear tire to hug the ground in the most technical terrain. The Fox 15mm fork is also another big improvement. I did not think I would notice these upgrades, but they are instantly noticeable. I don’t know if I could have sailed down those rutted descents with such ease on the old bike. The bike rides like a rocket ship. I also really like the Sram XX 2x10 drive train. Besides dropping a pound off my bike, the stuff works flawlessly and seems to have all the gears you need. I find, I can stay in the big ring for much of the races, but may need to rethink my shifting rhythms. The X is now my favorite bike in the stable, and a great all around XC bike.


An uncommon site to see a smile on pixy's face when there is air under the tires. I must really be trusting my bike these days, rolling a 6 ft drop without even a finger on the brake lever. ...photo by John Coog

Day One of Sell My Life

Art and I arrive at the warehouse and open up the garage door. We proceed to clean up and price the last few pieces of furniture for our experimental going out of business/estate sale across from the farmers market. I call it experimental because the farmers market is opposite our warehouse and there will be a captive audience outside our door every Saturday. We really have no idea how to have a garage sale or estate sale, and we are not looking to make any big dollars at this, we just want to recycle what we can. So here begins day one of trying to unload 130 years of family stuff...

I drag some stuff onto the loading dock and stage an attraction: an old trunk, an antique typewriter, old basket, Chinese rug draped over the edge and a cattle skull. Art drags out a stereo, also for sale, to get some tunes going. We are noticed for sure. People start walking in yet I feel a bit uncomfortable with this whole thing. Art talks to a few people but no sales with the first few browsers. Then the cattle skull does it job and draws in the first potential buyer. An Antique typewriter and a wagon wheel are sold.

While Art is busy setting up a windsurfing sail for additional affect, I start filling in the history behind pieces to potential buyers. I tell them I am closing my family business dating back 130 years, selling a family estate and I realized I was selling a life-time of family stuff and all the memories that came with them as well. Every piece had a story, some accurate and some that may have been a tad fantasy enhanced dating back to my childhood. As soon as I told people where stuff came from, and the history behind it, they started buying stuff.

The skull sold too fast and I had to pull a broken stuffed fish out of the garbage can to replace the hook. Even the broken fish had a story: Citation king fish caught in the Florida Keys by my little brother in the 60’s on a family fishing excursion.

In a few hours, we recycled some stuff, made a few dollars and a lifetime of stories spilled out of my head. Day one as I sell my life was a good one. A lot of stuff still left to recycle, so I may do this again.

Eat Green ...Kale

sausage, mushroom and kale over pasta

With the middle of summer, comes a wide array of readily available fresh fruits and vegetables. I try to get the most bang out each bite, by eating dark green leafy vegetables like Kale. Kale is considered to be a highly nutritious vegetable with powerful antioxidant properties and is considered to be an anti-inflammatory. It is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and reasonably rich in calcium. Kale also contains sulforaphane (particularly when chopped or minced), a chemical believed to have potent anti-cancer properties.

Lacinato Kale: Cooked above with chicken sausage, leek, mushrooms, sherry and butter and then served over pasta with grated cheese and fresh basil. Tomato salad on the side makes a nice after ride meal on a summers night.


tomatoes, arugula and basil with olive oil

Out

High Sierra Bound

The woods were scorched by heat and nearly a month had gone by with very little rain. The trees on the tops of the mountains were dropping leaves in July. Finally, the day we leave, rain finds it’s way home. We go from stop and go traffic on New Jersey’s I 80 to a plane where we are delivered to stop and go traffic on California’s I 80. Too many cars in the world for sure, but I can forget the traffic for a moment because I am very glad to soon be visiting and riding my bike with an old friend in the Sierra mountains.

We drive up long winding roads that twist through the foothills to arrive at Debra’s house where we are greeted by a lizard on her back porch. Tall pines and manzanita surround her home, and it smells somewhat like the drought in New Jersey, but much more floral. I know instantly why she loves her home, as it is beautiful in her yard with a view east towards Donner Pass.


not too much luggage, just bikes





Day 1 : Pioneer Trail. We opt to ride local on the Pioneer trail just outside of Nevada City. Debra and her high school team helped build some of this trail several years back, so it was nice to ride with someone who’s signature was embedded in our day’s adventure. The trail followed a historic irrigation ditch. Often trail builders adopt old ditches and make them into mountain bike trails. They have little elevation gain and make easy use of steep terrain and already existing benching. I have ridden places where flowers or plants line the trail leaving a narrow path, but this trail had sections of pinecones covering the ground, leaving the dirt trail exposed. This is big pine tree land.













Day 2 : Lake Tahoe Epic. Debra hooked us up with Mario, a Tahoe local for somewhat of an epic ride. Mario arranged a shuttle run for us on the Tyrolean downhill. Our run got off to a shaky start when Mario slipped while walking on a berm and dislocated his shoulder. Being the closest to him, I was instructed to pull it back in, which made me a bit nervous, but did the job. He then went off his jumps as usual, and we caught our shuttle back up to Mt Rose. Not sure who this Mario guy is, but my guess is that he is some sort of local hard core mythological hero.

From there we rode south on the Rim trail to Marlette Lake and down Chimney Beach trail. The rim trail is very spectacular with numerous views of Lake Tahoe and snow tipped mountains. A heavy snowfall year made for incredible wild flowers along the trail. There was also quite a bit of climbing before reaching the highest point just over Marlette Lake. Five hours later, we finally arrived at the highway near dark for a five mile ride on the road back to Incline Village. As I rode, I watched the sun set over the lake. It was a spectacular and full day.









Day 3: Forest City. Lucky for us all, Art, while packing in the dark, forgot his helmet at Mario’s house, 100 miles from where we were the next day. Debra scored a loaner from Tom, who offered to show us around Forest City. Tom is not only a friend of Debra’s, but one of the trail builders at Forest City, who happens to be riding that day with another local trail builder and dirt expert “Fish”. We show up at the trailhead a little late, but find a helmet on the hood of car, grab it and head out onto the trail. We run into Tom and Fish sitting at the first intersection, and proceed to get the full history of the place.

After some history, we bombed down a forest service road together, and made an uphill turn, while being prompted by our leaders, onto a narrow, wall lined trail, which led us across an arched bridge. This was no ordinary trail bridge. It looked like a bridge that a troll would live under in an enchanted forest. Apparently, Zachi their trail building leader had quite an eye for beautiful stone work. From there we rode up several miles of 5% grade switchbacks made by machine. Not only was Zachi talented, but Fish was pretty amazing with his machine excavating. We finished up riding down Highgrade trail, which had a bit of a Kingdom Trails flavor. This trail was really fun. We all came out of the woods laughing.

When in the Downiville area, this place is worth checking out. Maps can be found here: http://www.mtbsingletrack.com/














Day 4: Spaulding Lake. Lake Tahoe is not the only beautiful lake in the area, they all are beautiful. Debra took us to Spaulding Lake for a short out and back to the waterfall. This trail was a bit more technical and rocky, and much more like home, even to the point of having more fall line hiking style trails. The trail varied from deep forest to rocky view points. This whole area was really special. We rode about five miles in to the secluded waterfall that spanned 60 feet across and 20 feet high. I stuck my feet in the stream and the water was COLD, like take your foot out soon because it hurts cold. So no swim for me that day, only a foot dabble.




Chimney Beach


more rim trail

Day 4: Rim Trail Monday, we headed back to Tahoe to visit with Sean and Georgette, and pick up Art's helmet along the way. We made a quick stop at Chimney Beach for a swim and then rode the southern section of the rim trail towards Heavenly. The flowers were amazing. It was uphill all the way, but well worth it for the return, downhill of course.


knightmares of Mt Snow


man in a tree


Art and Sean


last chance before Mr Toads (photo by Sean)


more big trees

Day 6: Mr Toads Wild Ride .... Need I say more? Rode with Sean.

Check out video here: http://gallery.me.com/ellenandart#100354