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

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