Reckless Sally Ride at Farmdale Park Peoria

It looked bad when Friday it rained like crazy. But the trails at Farmdale weren't wet. We had Steve out riding Independence and he said it was wet over there. But Beth and Rick were at Farmdale on Saturday and said it was a go.
Rick, Stan, Matt, Ed, Beth, Ryan, Russ, Tony and many many others made it out to Farmdale Park for some fun... We had 18(I think) total for the ride. Including most of the Sally Riders. Mike, Matt, Nick, Coop, John, Kevin and some names I'm sure I'm forgetting. It was a good group. Thanks to Dan or Paul or Mike for taking us around. I don't think any of us really figured out what his name was. For me he was the Kid in the Red Shirt.
Some of us came down for the day and others spent the night at the motel 6. I'm sure that the Team Sally website will have pictures from the downhill section of Farmdale. Anyway next years Midwest Mountain Bike Festival will be here. Ya Hoo. Peoria rocks.

Poker Ride

Palos poker ride was early this year.. The weather was actually worse than in previous years.. We all collected swag for slaving out on the Palos trail system.. Ha Ha- Awesome job by Sram to hook up all of us. There were others but I would prefer to just mention the super hookup... Well okay Richards is cool too. They always take care of us too. Thanks to all the sponsors who help out CAMBr every year. All of us have spent hundreds of hours helping maintain trails in the Palos area and its great that CAMBr can figure a way to "repay" their workers with awesome bike parts... The ride was wet but we were able to ride and have some fun. Derby and bike toss and then Bike Fire! I love Bike Fire.

Blue Mounds

Burak, Stan, Tim, Tony and Bruce headed to Blue Mounds and it was fantastic. We all met at Woodfield Mall and traveled together. Grabbed some grub at Subway in Madison and went for a ride.. Blue Mound is a technical riders dream. Rocks and roots everywhere. With a cool grown over downhill course. The new side of Blue Mound (overload) was not so much fun-lots of climbs with not much fun downhills. Its a work still in progress. I guess maybe going the other direction would have been a little more fun. The traffic getting back was awful but what are you going to do.

Chequamegon

By far this years trip up to the Cable/Hayward area was the nicest. The cabin was so nice great view of the lake. Levis Mound had new super sweet singletrack. Rock lake did too. Both had new awesome bridges. Bridging ridiculous shit. Like if you fell off you would be in the deepest shit. I was the only racer in the 40 out of us and I was fine with that. Annie and Roger did the short and fat. Annie got 3rd singlespeed in her age. During my race I rode for most of it with the 2nd place singlespeed woman. She was on a 29'er and A ridgid carbon fork. She was badass. Ojibwe was cool too. Its getting smoother and smoother. It flows better than the last time I was there. Jannie, Beth, Rick, Burak, Ed, and Jason also made the trip. Jason had just returned from the army a few days before. Its good to see he made it back after two tours in Iraq. I'm sure he will be catching up on all the riding he's been missing. So there it is Levis, Ojibwa, Rock Lake and the race. We need to get to LaCrosse. I hear good things about the human powered trails.

Top 5 Devils Drop Downhill.

Devils Head and Stuff

Matt, Beth, Rick, Jannie and Tony went to Devils Head for the world famous Subaru Cup. Matt was 10th in the super "D" and came back the same day to score a 3rd in the Pro/Open Devils Drop Downhill race. I was 3rd in the Super "D" and 4th in the XC race which made it 3rd for the cup. Rick raced the xc race for 10th out of like 20. Which might I add he finshed 2 minutes faster than me. Jannie and Beth harrassed racers and took some pictures. Beth also served up some lunch and threw down on some awesome marinated chicken. Camo Matt (TEAM SALLY) hung out and ate after a long day of snapping pictures of the downhill race. Congratulations to everyone.
Rich and the Fattys went to Pando. Check out this. It apparently rained tons and he did finish 8th. Rich promised to do more than just this event next year.

Podium shot.

Here it is top of the podium at 24/9. Hell Yeah.

24/9 and rain and thunder and podiums

We went out and won the Clydesdale Championship at the 24 hours of Nine Mile National Race. Burak got 14th in the 12 hour solo out of 54 racers. This race started off with rain and ended with more rain. It was a good time except for the crappy weather. Good Job everyone. Thanks to Beth with had some good food and cover from the sun and rain. Thanks to Eddie B. for the fine camping spot he scored for us.
Camping in Michigan in two weeks. Ft. Custer. See you there.

24/9 and Stuff

Okay its been a while a lot has happened but not many races for any of us. With this summer maturing into a busy ass piece of shit. The Tour da Palos went very well. Hell it was damn good. It wasn't super hot and we had a great turnout for alleycat meets mountain bikes.
This weekend its time once again for 24/9. Burak is going solo for 12 and Ed Tim Rick and I are going for the Clyde crown on the national stage. I have enough weight for two people right now. Beth is going to help out with things and it'll be a blast.
If we get on the podium I'm doing the robot. Oh yeah thats right Roger. Top that one.
Peace and I'll post up some pictures of our fun from 24/9. Later.

Nine Mile Big Ring

Right outside the Pine Forest Singletrack. Going for another lap.

24/9

Alright we have our teams nailed down and Burak is going solo for 12 and Rick, Ed, Tim and I are on a team. Its the nationals so it'll be crazy. Ed Bartunek will get us a spot. I think Annie, Roger and Beth will probably be some sort of support. Sympathy goes out to Roger. Hope everything works out with the passing of your Father.

Memorial Weekend

Burak, Ed, Mike, and Stan went to Peoria for a ride and camp. Stan fell and hurt his hip. Came back late Saturday to miss the Nikl Slik show. Monday most of us some how or another found our way to Palos to ride before the Thunderstorms hit. I think we've figured out our team for 24/9. Ed says he'll send it in today. Thanks Ed.

Alpine Valley and Marco and other junk

Alpine was great. First year in the three I've gone that the course was actually all rideable. Skinny's armored all the creek crossings. They were sweet. No knee deep mud anymore. Yahoo!
Marco came to town for a limited engagement. One day and or night. We visited with him on Friday. It was good to see him. Well and everyone else for that matter.
Saturday night Nikl Sikl is playing at Seamus's again. Good shit. Downtown Lemont You know the place.
Big Ring Classic is June 4th. Nine Mile Forest. My favorite place to ride in the Midwest. I can't wait. I'm going on Saturday to Preride and set up camp.
Later

Jaymies wedding and stuff

Was a blast. Good times were had by all. Good Luck Jaymie. We all love you. Thanks for the killer shindig! Next weekend a batch of us are going to Kettle. Then on Sunday Alpine Valley. Hopefully it won't suck like last year. We'll see. Saturday Night the Trail Care Crew is coming in to town. We'll be going to Seamus's in Lemont to check out Nikl Silk-they are real good. Wednesday night the TCC will be meeting at Falco's on 83 just South of 55 for grub and beverages. We are all invited. BB is trying to make it so we can crash at his house on Saturday night. See ya.

Missouri

Rocks.

Literally. Lots of glorious climbs and sweet downhills. Brakes are good. Chubb was fantastic. Greensfield was good. Klondike had three really nice trails. The weather was beautiful. The camping was good too. We camped overlooking the back waters of the Missouri River. Up on top of one of the bluffs above The Katy Trail.

Roger, Anne, Beth, John, Burak, Tim, Ed, Paul, Pam, Rick, Mike and I had a blast. Marv and Mary was in attendance but not with us. I even caught a Large Mouth out of the small lake in Klondike park. (Sorry you couldn't get off work Stan). But you missed it.

Midwest Mountain Bike Fest

This weekend. It'll be a Dom-Free Zone.

Last years Peoria Fest....

Your Mom's Singletrack

The canal is good to go- the MX track is dusty. Sureal is still drying out but not too bad. Definitely ridable. Some of it is soft. But not soft enough to leave permanent damage. Burak, Rick, Stan and Myself rode on the nicest night we've seen for a long time. We moved tons of downed shit. Broken trees were everywhere-thank lots of hard wind for that. Beth and Jason (yes- Oh Shit Jason) rode some pavement.
Jaymie's getting married. Whooo hoo Jaymie has taken care of most of us for years. She has always been there for us when we would road trip to Colorado-Condos in Silverthorne. Her place in Littleton. Damn shes been good to us. Congratulations!

Work Days and MMBF

Sunday was a work day. We worked for a while. Then we ate. The Out and Back isn't as bad as I had heard. I repeat- this type of shit happens every year. Jeez....

More importantly the turnout was good. John, Roger, Anne, Tim, Rick, and well Beth showed up then got lost.... Well we talked about the Midwest Mountain Bike Fest... Heres some good news.. Uncle Ron is coming! Whooo Hooo! We have a total of 5 sites with Roger and Anne-Tony and Tim. We'll find places for everyone.. Roger took it upon himself to come up with some contest for crazy hats. We'll give out a prize for the most ridiculous hat. Or not. Ha!

Tim has offered up his crib for the urban bike ride to the show and stuff. Thanks Tim.
Later.

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