Clipper on a Bicycle

Monday, October 18, 2010

DuPont Big Ride

Saturday we did a big DuPont ride. Just under 30 miles with a group of 11. Jay Smelser led us on what he called the full chicken biscuit with extra jelly.

We rode some popular trails and a few that see very little traffic. I still say Ridgeline is one of my most favorite downhills anywhere. It just flows and flows and you go as fast as you dare.

Cedar Rock is always cool but I don't reccomend using the climb up as a warm up.

Thanks to Jay for leading. Monty, Allen, Jaques, Keith, Larry, Garrett, Joel, Jason and Kaycee kept the ride fun.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

School, work, work, play, play....

I finished my certificate GIS program. I managed to get the GIS Student of the Year. WooHoo! I started working for Mobley Engineering this spring. My old friends Mark and Susan Mobley put me to work. I have been able to use my new GIS skills to put together some bathymetry (I didn't know what that was either). Basically I am using GPS and depth readings to map the lake bottoms in order to locate oxygen differ systems in the most productive place.

So far we have worked in Fla, Maine, PA and S Carolina. I produced maps for Fla, ME and SC. This map is of the SC job.

One of the perks of the job is that Mark is a mountain bike and road bike rider. I had the opportunity to ride in Florida at Alafia River State Park. It was actually pretty nice. Lots of good singletrack in and around an old quarry.

In Maine I rode at Bradbury Mtn. State Park. It was, well, different. Maine is in need of some flow. Some of the trails were pretty nice and some, like the "O" Trail were not. Lots of round rocks in Maine. I also rode at Mt Apatite in Auburn, A new(?) state park just north of town and just across the river from where we were working and at Sunday River Ski Resort. At Sunday River they have lifts to the top of the mountain for downhillers. I rode up then down. The big hill was fun but a little sketchy on my hardtail XC bike.

The best mountain bikeing was in South Carolina. We stayed about 7 or 8 miles from the FATS Trail system. FATS was a blast. Fast, curvey, up and down and as hard as you want to make it. Sorry, no pics. I broke my camera. It would be worth the travel to get a trip together to ride all the trails down there. One of the locals told me there are over 100 miles of trails within 20 miles of this place. The house we stayed in was something else.