Muy Caliente!

Okay so its not so hot temperature wise. But the Wednesday night ride left from Rick's house and went out Rock Run Creek and down the I&M and back through Joliet via the Junction. The wind blowing due west made the ride down the I&M tough. That paired with soggy gravel made for a good bit of training for later.
Sunday- Cascade Mountain was taken over by Reckless. Stan, Betsy, Burak, Ed, Victor, Tim, John and Tony made the trip up. Friday Night they got 9" of fresh stuff so conditions were damn good. There were the usual harrassing of children and hooting and hollering. Drinking and riding. Burak, Ed and Tim fresh off the Colorado trip were moving a little slow but fun was had by all.

MMBF and The reckless Sally super bowl Sunday ride

Well the Midwest Mountain Bike Fest is the first weekend in April. Its in Missouri and between us and the Peoria Boys we have 7 sites reserved at Klondike. Its sponsored by Kona and we'll bike and destory all weekend. (as usual)
Super Bowl Sunday was to be The Sally's and reckless hooking up for a day of fun in the snow and singletrack. But Eric only showed from Team Sally. Rick, Stan, and Tony showed from reckless. Ed, Burak, and Tim are out west Skiing/and boarding. Beth is recovering from treatments for her siatica(sp). God only knows about the rest of us. Team Sally had really no good excuses. Oh wait except for Camo Matt. He has a broken arm. But it was a good ride Eric and I did the cemetary hill loop instead of waiting for Stan and Rick and freezing in the lot. We then all tookoff toward Gravity went down to Surreal East- to the end and then back via the South Canal. To dynamite up to Psycho Path down to Turf -Paved road to Stair Steps to Big Grassy. Things were getting a bit muddy by the time we finished Turf.
Rick, Stan and I went out last night from Kean. Down to Dynamite. To Three Ravines down across the road and hit the first section of Surreal. Then back. Sweet. The ravines are rutted pretty bad. Two reasons....First ATV's have invaded Palos. Second people riding when its too wet. My rear Tire got sucked in to one of these ruts going through the third ravine. which pretty much had me planing with my front tire and could not steer. So I hit a tree. Pretty cool. My arm has a purple lump on it. Even with Studs it was hard to stop. But I was kind of out of control and lauched the ravine anyway. I'll chill on the crap til the ground is a little less frozen it really hurts when you fall right now. Later.

What to bring on a Wednesday

Salt Creek is a Creek. Filled with dookie colored water. Next to the creek is singletrack. Mostly dry suprisingly. To make things more fun there is a paved trail that runs from Oak Brook to Brookfield.
So there is talk of a tunnel that goes under 294. We tried to find it last night but it didn't happen. We rode aimlessly through the woods exploring new trails (well new to me). Typical of a ride where conversations start out as I think its over here. No No-I think I know where it is. Lets go this way. Blah Blah we've all been on those rides before. But last night was beautiful. You would never believe it was February 1st. Lower 40's and every time we saw a piece of off road trail we'd take it. It was almost completely ridable. Except when Burak sent Stan under one of the bridges and it was thick mud with pointy Rebarr sticking up from it. Hilarious. Rick, John and I climbed the guard rails and missed the muddy fun.
All in all good fun and mostly singletrack/dirt trail ride. Not to bad for February.
I told Burak I'd post a list of things to bring on Wednesday so here it is...

1. A Light. Preferrably something bright.

2. Water. Preferrably clean in a camel back or water bottle.

3. A bike. Well Duh.

4. A helmet. Double Duh.

5. Riding shoes.

Okay I'll stop there I think you get the picture. Water and Lights are important. So don't forget anymore.

Wednesday Nights

Well the snow is gone and the road rides have begun. Singletrack is pretty much out so we've been finding different stuff to go ride. Last night started out harmless enough... Salt Creek is where we've been riding. But yesterday we went west to find something else. We found an overpass over 294 and rode over to Graue Mill. If anyone doesn't know-There are a bunch of well kept gravel trails all over the place just off Odgen and York. Rd. That and a nature center with a bunch of cool terrain to jump off and play around. Rick caught a pinch flat. We made it out west to Oak Brook and found a little bit of semi-okay singletrack to ride. Well that and a quick tour of a bunch of towns in DuPage county. Somehow we decided to head north up York Rd. and found ourselves on Cermak Rd. heading towards Westchester which was real sketchy riding back over 294. There are no sidewalks and at night with the construction and it down to one lane in each direction made for some serious heart rate changes in all of us. Then we snuck thru a bunch of subdivsions and past Scotts Pet Shop in Westchester and back to the Salt Creek trail. Then back to LaGrange. It was good. We rode until 9:30. F-U-N

Christmas Party and xc skiing

Thanks to Marco for throwing a sweet Christmas party. He is leaving us and trying something else other than cooking. Virginia is where he is going and damn I envy him. Well if things work out for him there maybe we'll all go to visit.
With all this snow many of us have been doing lots of X-C skiing. Rick and I were out last night and Swallow Cliff is great for the skiing. The route back from the stairs is the best time and makes it all worth it. Nice gentle rollers and plenty of snow make for excellent conditions. Even at 14 degrees it was great.

Sweet Woods/Turkey Day

Saturday Stan, Matt, Burak, Ed, Rick, Beth, Cyndi, Terry, John from Team Sally, and I rode Sweet Woods, Brunnell, North Creek, and the A frame trail. There is a bunch of fun new stuff that has been built out there. The trails were in damn fine shape a little sloppy in a couple of places but otherwise a beautiful day with the temps almost 50 it really couldn't get much better for late November.
Thursday John, Rick, Roger, Anne, Cyndi, Beth, Marco and I Rode in the 12 degree cold. What a huge difference from Saturday. Everything was frozen and we did a nice loop. Thanks to Marco for the wonderful Breakfast after the ride. I know you all know that it was fantastic. GO TEAM AMERICA! DERKA-DERKA!

24-9

Looks like it will be a bit crowded this year. But as Burak pointed out there will be more women. Ha! check it out...

http://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=1996


This is the 2nd best reason to stay up all night.... Some motto. Ol well its damn good fun. We'll have to get our applications in as soon as they are accepting them.

Poker Ride fun

The Poker Ride went off without a hitch it was good fun. It rained like crazy the day before which along with the leaves made things sketchy at best. But we took the usual route down the grass hill thru the old staging area. Thru bad ass hill and over to the Stair Steps. Down Dynamite to the canal. Up the Road to Burrito. To the Out and Back. The Out and Back was in great shape. Down the pipeline to Four Corners and right back out to the Multi. Back to the Pavillion for some fresh grub. Thanks to Marco and Ray for bringing out the good chow. There were 3 groups and no one was hurt. It was a great turnout for what might have been a Craptastic Sunday. The sun came out in the afternoon it was actually damn nice.

Da Poker Ride

Lucky number 13. Looks like 57 and cloudy is the forecast. Not too shabby. Hopefully it won't rain like some are predicting. Just like all the other ones-Lets take people on a ride to remember. This thing happens once a year. Lets do it right. Have fun and don't drop anyone. Bring them all back.

Peoria

Peoria- Farmdale Fest & rope jumping

PAMBA hosted a wonderfully entertaining event. Red Bull sponsered it and the very down to earth-Shaums March came out to show how cool of a guy he is. Friday night was the night ride. The downhill and mountain cross was on Saturday. Saturday night we found a new night time activity- Jumping Rope. Glow sticks attached to the middle of the rope made for an interesting sight I'm sure. We made it up to 13 and out before the game was called. The Cross Country Race was on Sunday. They ran the course in reverse of the August race. Which felt a bit odd for me on my first lap. Getting a tooth pulled the day before and part of my jaw filed down so the gum would grow over didn't help much with my balance. But I needed it. I just had to race. So did everyone else. Burak placed 2nd in his division and Beth took 2nd and Anne 3rd. You guys rock. Ed, Rick, Roger and John also raced this weekend. Cyndi, Koko, Pam and Paul also hung out. A very nice turnout indeed. Thanks.

Check out

the photo album. We'll see how long before MSN tosses it again. But we'll use it for now. http://groups.msn.com/teamreckless/fattirefest2005.msnw

View from the top of Bruce.

Another from the saddle at the Mound.

Bruce Mound Group Shot

Ohjibwe Group shot.

Bruce Mound, Chequamegon and Bag Slappin...

Reckless went to the Northwoods for the Chequamegan Fat Tire Fest. Pictures will be up later. Here is the Write up.
For results and stuff go here- http://cheqfattire.com/

We stayed Thursday night in Black River Falls and took over the jaccuzzi- for the Super 8's pool area is open til 2am. Sweet.
Next day we woke to Stan showing a group of older gals on their way to a quilting convention how to use the Waffle Maker in the lobby. He had the whole group of them giggling. It just made my day. After we ate we headed out for Bruce Mound.
At this point Burak, Stan, Beth, Marco, Ed, Cyndi, Tony, Dustin, and Gee were in full effect.
I hadn't been to the place since Pedros. This place is just Beautiful. The Hermosas, Yellowjacket, Toad Road, Cliffhanger, Porcupine peak, Dead Turkey and of course Goat Dance just got the juices going enough to realize that we were'nt going back to Ill noize with out 80-100 miles of riding some of the sweetest trails in the midwest. The bicycle smiles were on everyones faces as we got back to the lot for some quick rehydration and to hook up with Rick who took "a short cut" which almost always gets him in trouble.
On the road again to the Cabin in Cable. Stopped off to grab food for the team and dropped like 200 bucks on two cartloads of food. Then another 100 or so in the liquor dept. The supermarket looked happy to see us. We made sure as to buy the food and stuff from Hayward. To help support their economy. This fest is important to them and theres nothing better than to spread a little love to those folks who close off their Streets, Trails and Volunteer a weekend to us so we can have a good time.
Big ol thanks to the towns of Hayward, Seeley, and Cable.
Friday Night was a party. Marco fed us. Marco is one Fantastic man. He always does the cooking. He just rocks. Here's to you Marco.
There was Bag slappin and stupid human tricks and well what happens in Wisconsin will stay in Wisconsin. Ann and Roger made it. They were on tour for a few weeks-Some of their stops included Fruita, Durango, Moab, Tour De Fat and Crusty Butt. Sounds like they had a blast, those two are very thoughtful. They brought back a little piece of their trip for all that made it to CFTF. A BIG THANK YOU TO ROGER AND ANNIE FOR ALL THE GIFTS. Okay on to the races-
Uh well people were moving a little slow. Imagine that. We had Rick, Ed, and Tony doing the Forty- We made it there 10 minutes to 10. Which means we'll be starting behind 1700 people. Fun. But it was still a blast. Thanks for getting us there in time.
Beth, Cyndi, Marco, Roger and Anne doing the Short and Fat. There were no mechanicals and everyone was smiling when it was over. We sat on the side of the ski hill for a while a visited with friends and others.
Anne got the podium for 3rd in the Womens Singlespeed in her Division. Congratulations.
That evening went by kind of in uneventful. The rest of the crew rode Rock Lake. So they were equally worn out. Marco made some delicious pasta and sausage and took it easy. The two kids Dustin and Gee did go and find an adventure tho. Ask one of us about it some day. It was BEARLY believable. (YES THATS A PUN)
Sunday everyone headed to Telemark for the Ohjibwe trail and some did the rough cut rendevous. I think Anne got 3rd and Roger 4th. Congratulations. The rest went and rode what IMBA has tagged one of the best in the Midwest. It was truly a great singletrack trail. If you love singletrack you would love it. We got back from riding and the Telemark was almost empty. We hung out and talked about what to do for dinner and made fun of Cooter Bones. (don't ask) What a wonderfully relaxing day for the group. We ended up going to Lakewoods for a feast. That place rocks.
Woke up on Monday with plans for riding on the way home but rain had invaded the North. So we just headed back home.
Well another Fat Tire Fest has come and gone. Next big outing for the team I think will be Farmdale Fest in Peoria. If any one is interested -Sunburst Showdown is this weekend. Check the WORS site for details. Thanks to everyone who pitched in and made this trip so enjoyable. Can't wait til next year.

Kewaunee and stuff

Okay I've decided that "sweet singletrack" is a relative term. Can anyone say bumpy ass cow field mowed to make singletrack that bakes in the hot sun with 2-3 miles of okay singletrack. Well some of the whoopdees were fun but they were linked by crappy atv trails and wasn't worth the drive. Oh well. Note to self- skip kewaunee next year. Sounds like John S. pulled enough rock out of stone temple for some of the armoring of the new trails. Word has it that there was a road trip down to Bloomington where I hear some singletrack with 20 or so jumps exist.
Chequamegon is 6 days away. Is everyone going to make it up by Friday for an afternoon ride somewhere? New singletrack maybe.

Pando and Workday

Well Rich and Al did Pando a few weeks ago. Rich's eleventh year doing it.
Here is what Rich had to say:
AL was 13th and Rich was 12th, 19 total in are age group, 30-49.4.2 mile laps, we both did 14 laps each....yeah I know, bunch ofpanisies....really great time though.

There is also a workday on the 11th. So again-too many frickin options.

Are you a DORC?

The DORC race is 9/11 in Naperville. We could have a good showing for this one. Its always good to support the local race. Whos in?