Yesterday was another monster drive day broken by a hot humid ride @ Lake Wilson. Sweated just pushing the diesel pedal. Hot but quiet night @ state hwy garage off I-70 East of Wilson. Time & miles aligned for a ride @ Lake Wilson and still make PUSH @ Loveland Thurs night. Made Lake Wilson SP and Switchgrass trail system. Started just after 12:00 local time which is Central time. Will continue to rave about this hand built trail in Kansas, just well conceived & built, and enjoyable & challenging to ride. GPS reported 16.39 miles in ride time of 2:06 & climbed 1664 feet. Really, honest to GPS data. I stopped 2X briefly for gel squirt. Out in sunshine almost entire ride. Builder used climbing switchbacks to make elevation change, many of them were double: 1 way followed by turn in other direction. Even had several short rock gardens and tech features. trail ran along edge of lake a la Gooseberry Mesa albeit consequences were a swim vs a splatter on the rocks. Pay attention. Worth stopping here on your travels. Spoke w/ Grace yesterday, she and Mike Pace are working their way to CO and they are planning on riding here. Look forward to sharing our experience on a Kansas ride. While Kansas lacks mountains it is not flat, maybe that honor lies w/ NE corner of CO.

Trail design is cool in that if a trail is stacked it takes a long time to return on lower or upper trail. Looking from above seeing a lower trail and hoping that I don’t have to drop down and ride lower trail because of amount of climbing. Google directions reported 1300 miles from Mansfield to Loveland. @ 60 mph that’s 20 some hours of monotonous interstate driving. Hot, high humidity. Drank several quarts of h2o by peed so little. Arrived in PUSH parking lot around 12:00 now mtn time zone. I am gaining hours going west but increasing total hours per day. Elevation is 5000′ w/ high heat but low humidity. Checked weather data for Mansfield & Loveland, same time: Mansfield 81 degrees and 49% humidity; Loveland 98 degrees and 12% humidity. It’s a dry kind of heat. Sweat at least evaporates. Slept well as temp was below 60. PUSH opened @ 9:00 and I was at their door. Their philosophy is making the ride better for you. They engineered improvements to the likes of FOX and Rockshox forks & shocks by making their own internal parts customized to your unique values. Result costs some $ but the results put a Cheshire cat smile on your face and joy in your booty. Again, Darren, owner & big brains spent time w/ me explaining what and how they do their magic. I am impressed w/ what they do such that i could go to work here. Lots of Lean mfg application. My Rockshox Revelation fork has now been tuned to  my bike, weight, & riding style. Darren is in tight w/ Dave Turner & helped w/ suspension design for new DW Spot that both of us are riding. Chris Lesser had some input also in design. I am traveling in the inner circle. Fridge is flat out warm. I threw out all the sensitive food. I bought a cooler. Tuesday I have another appointment to address the fridge. Thurs. I have a Sprinter service to change oil, air & fuel filters. That’s all needed for 70,000 mile service. Will need a second set of tires soon, 70,000 plus on a set: pretty good. Darren invited me on a ride Sunday. Late afternoon started heading west up into mtns when I spotted a cloud of smoke from a forest fire. Stayed in town, found a parking lot under a tree for shade. Need to find a ride for tomorrow. Fireworks are legal in CO and the stands show it. Right along w/ the liquor stores. Left PUSH seeking a shaded level parking spot. Found 1 under elm trees in school parking lot. Working away when i here a voice call out. Guy about my age in an older car asks me how long I have been on road. I answered. He asked when i showered last. yesterday I said and I am good today. He invited me to park @ his house. I declined. A few minutes he returns on the other side of parking lot. Started another conversation that joined. He is a Harley rider. i go over to his car. He offers a Mikes lemonade. Illegal to drink outside. He offers me his car seat. We chat about our different ride experiences. He said he hit an elk at night @ 55. His bike fairing dropped under belly of elk and he grabbed it as he went under. The smashed elk saved his life. Interesting conversation from unexpected source. I bid adieu and returned to van. As I drove off a police car pulled up to intersection. What was he after? Drove back to PUSH parking lot for night. Tomorrow is FT Collins & Soapstone natural area trails. Read a reviewer’s comment that Tony Boone built the single track. I shared Bill Victor’s environs w/ him during the IMBA summit. Cool. Ride Tony Boone’s trails. Trails are on treeless plateau. Need to ride early tomorrow. Funny. The Rocky Mtns are out on the sky line. Many patches of snow are on peaks. Seeing them again is so like “ho hum”. Not the same awe I experienced first time. True, i have not been up into the mtns yet. Perhaps I am just so hot down here I am too baked to plan a mtn trip. Tomorrow is the plateau w/ view to mtns, Sunday will be Horsetooth hopefully w/ Darren. Grace called. Wilson Lake was too hot to ride so they swan in the lake. She and Mike are bound for Winter Park, Mountain Bike capital of America, then to Leadville to preride some of the race course. We plan on meeting Thurs near Breckenridge.

Tuesday bid my 85 yo dad goodbye and hit the interstates to Indianapolis and Scott’s shop Indy Cycle Specialists. I71 to I70.  IN received mass rain, Scott said 6″ above for June. Arrived @ 2:30. Night ride is way south, almost to Louisville to get out of wet. Luckily I arrived early or I would have missed out. Left after 3. Chris came along and guided the 3 of us. Hot & humid, but that is most normal for this time of year.

Long drive to Obannon Woods SP outside Corydon, IN. Geared up which included a light strapped to my helmet. A night ride w/ a good light. Took off in setting sun which cast some incredible red shafts of life on dark green of leaves. Rode mtn biker made trail to fire tower out & back just b4 light turn on.  Rideable trails. Turned on lights during return ride which makes the trail different. I held my head high to focus the light beam about 20′ in front. The aiming of the light seemed to correct my biggest fault of looking down to the left when I get into trouble. Ticks picked off and ;poison ivy walked thru around mud bogs created by horses.

Back @ TH just after 10:30PM, park closes @ 11:00. Stripped off wet miracle fabric clothes. Humidity too hi to dry off. Scott keyed me into a shower to poach & a place to stay. Took a shower, the temp setting was fixed and was too warm as it put heat into me. I was hotter after the shower. Drove to sleep spot, outside temp was 75 all night.

fridge is not working! The freezer is frozen but the frige is warm. Issue to be worked.

Slept in a bit but just too hot. Back on I-70. Drove thru rest of IN, across MO. In eastern KS I drove into a severe t-storm. Wipers couldn’t keep up. Blinded. Rigs were stopped all along. I managed to get off on an exit and drove to shoulder of road and waited it out. Hard rain, high winds. Rain blew in under the open awning window vents. Temp went fro 93 to 68 degrees but climbed back into hi 70s.

Drove to exit 328 & parked in a highway maintenance shop parking lot. Still 75 & humid.

Tomorrow I plan on riding Wilson lake then driving rest of way to PUSH.

Interstate driving Blahs.

Time zone change. Fall back

So many days have gone by spent visiting w/ my now 85 yo dad and (2) 50 something yo sisters. eating great food, splurging on calories, and a bit of scotch & beer. My ride yesterday @ Mohican manifested the results of my choices.

Last Tues i rode that horribly muddy West Branch SP. I stopped @ Eddy’s in Stow, OH for shop to remove cassette from freewheel. Curt did. I spun my freewheel and it spun as freely as my slow uphills. Determined that hub needed to be serviced. negotiated schedule for Fri @ 4:00. Stow is about 80 mins away via interstate and thru Akron during what is left of a rush hour. Arrived @ shop. Long time for shop to report on status of bike which was not in the form of my bike being pushed out from behind closed doors. Report was my bearings were toast caused my my lack of maintenance. New bearings were ordered for free from Chris King in Portland, OR, guess on delivery was this Mon or Tues. I was pissed, I wanted my bike back so i could continue westward. I was not a happy camper as my schedule had been derailed. The hub was a bunch of parts in a baggie, it could not be reassembled w/o replacement bearings. Shit. I vented my frustration on not being called when the issue was discovered. To the shop’s credit they focused on fixing my bike. I left w/ plan of them replacing bearings on either Mon or Tues. Sat afternoon I received a call from the wrench who worked on my bike. He apologized for not calling me. He said my bike was ready as he pulled the bearings from his King hub and installed them in mine! Wow! What looked like a shitty deal turned smiley face again. Shop really stepped up. Sunday AM I drove back up to Stow, picked up sweet spinning rear wheel and drove back down to Mohican for a ride. Plans are now back on track.

Tues afternoon I will visit Indy cycles and go on a shop night ride on Brown County trails. Visit w/ owner Scott whom I met in Brevard during winter of 08-09. Need to be PUSH in Loveland, CO on Fri AM. I would like to ride Wilson, KS b4 PUSH. It’s 1300 miles from Mansfield, OH to Loveland, CO.

Spoke w/ Grace this AM. She will be around Breckenridge, CO on Fri for a bunch of days. I am a Grace groupie but in her inner circle.

Toured the family aluminum foundry run by middle sister Lynn and sort of overseen by our dad. Lynn’s son is showing interest in foundry and might stay after school to become the 4th generation in the business. He is sharp but then aren’t most college kids? I sense he is above the normal.

Ohio is hot & humid, albeit not always hot & humid. Have had several sweltering days and some pleasant ones. My guess is I am better acclimated to the heat and humidity which really extract energy. Quit complaining. By Fri i will be out of the plains and into the CO mountains for the higher elevation and dry summer heat. My frige has trouble keeping daytime temps low. CO elevation sometimes prevents the automatic burn start. I’ll take the mountains.