Awsome Amigos at Walden Ridge

Wednesday afternoon BHann broght his group of Awsome Amigos to Walden Ridge for some trail crewing.


BHann looking all spiffy in his bee slayer outfit. Maybe I should have had one also. 17 stings...


Louisana Lou, Jeff Harkleroad, Jay Basile and I worked on the trail along with the Crew.
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Jeff and Lou

One year AMBC Anniversary

Monday we had our one year anniversary party/ride/meeting for AMBC. I can't believe it's been a year already. We were able to achieve some of our goals and not some others. One goal was to get membership up to 50. I think we have surpassed that. Thanks to Jimi and SORBA for securring us grants to be able to buy tools and still have a little money in our account. We were able to secure permission and construct just under 2 miles of trail at Hastie Natural area. This winter I think we can ad 2 1/2 or 3 miles to that total.



We were not very good at supporting the Windrock project. I applaud the downhill guys for taking the iniative to build XC trails there. I hope to get some shovel time in soon and help with the connector trail for the 100 mile race.

From towards the top at Windrock

Looking the other way up the mountain at Keith

One disappointing thing for me is that the same 10 or 12 people seem to be at the meetings and doing the work. I've not been doing a good job getting the word out I guess. I am proud of what we have accomplished and feel good about the future of mountain biking in the Knoxville area.

If you missed the meeting Monday you missed the fireworks. On our ride we got bombarded with thunder, lightning and very heavy rain. I told Smap on the way back in the storm that there is nothing in the world that will make you feel more alive than being out when the weather is breaking like that. I believe that was the fastest run I ever made from one end of the park to the other.

Defeated Creek Ride

Last week I was in West Tennessee. My racing buddy Stanley Wills had been telling me about Tuesday evening rides at the new trails they had built at Defeated Creek. Since I was passing by Carthage, TN at the right time, I stopped to hook up with them.

There are about 8 miles of trail with more in the works.

Stanley leading the ride. I never get to see him from the front at a race!










Andy the giant


Andy was nice enough to send me a GPS file overlaid on a map but I had trouble with the file. I'll try to get him to resend.

As you can see, Stanley had been refining the trails some just before we rode.

The trail winds back and forth acroos a ridge gradually climbing until it dumps you onto the ridgecrest. Once it hits the ridgecrest the real climb starts. There is a great reward though, a 2 mile downhill at the end. These guys have built a great trail and it is getting better.

I'm not sure this is a destination ride yet with only 8 miles of trail but, if you are heading to Nashville it would make a nice stop. If you do a couple of laps you'll get all you want.

http://sorbachattanooga.org/trails/trail_guide.php?state=TN&trail=162

No racin happening

I have missed a couple of races in the last couple of weeks. I missed the Hamilton Creek Race with a bad back. The Raccoon Mountain Race happened on a weekend that I spent with Ginger at her Aunt's birthday party in Greensboro, NC. Ham Creek was somewhat planned. It is a TBRA race and I have been chasing points all year. So far I am ahead in the clydesdale class and Daniel Spann is a close 2nd. I had enough of a lead that I could miss one race and keep a slim lead over Daniel so I thought it would be prudent to rest the back rather than ride the rocky trails at Hammy.

The AMBC Summer Time Trial Series is at it's midpoint. Racer turnout was very slim the 1st week but really picked up for the 2nd race. So far we have signed up 5 new members who have shown up to race. Hastie is in great shape and the limited amount of trail lends itself to the time trial format. Times so far have been as fast as 10 and 1/2 minutes. most times are in the 11 to 12 1/2 minute time. I would like to see more women show up. So far we have had only 2.

Finally, I got to spend some time with my ole buddy Joe Cross this week. He invited us up to ride at Big South Fork. We rode and cleared trail on the Grand Gap Loop. My neighbor Jaques rode with his hand in a cast and did just fine. Also along was Margo Carrol. Margo is a former expert level racer and currently works as a sales rep for Jamis Bicycles. It rained the night before and quit just in time for us to ride. The trail surface was perfect and the few sandy spots were packed down from the rain. As we pulled up to the first overlook, I stopped to have a look. I soon discovered neither Jaques or Margo care for heights. Margo fought looking over the bluffs the whole ride. She did tough it out and we had a great ride. I really felt for Joe. He was pulling a Bob Trailer with several tools including a big Stihl chainsaw. By the finish the trailer was taking it's toll on Joe and he was feeling it.

Dirty Urban South Ride

Saturday, Mudgobbler, None, BurritoBeau, Phil and I did a dirty urban south ride. We started at the old BiLo with everyone on mountain bikes but most had more road worthy tires than knobbies. The plan was to go towards town on the greenway. Go across the new Alcoa Hwy Bridge and ride up Cherokee Bluff. Then the plan changed when Beau blew a tire. When he inflated it he tore the stem out. New plan...swing by TN Valley Bikes for a couple of tubes.

While we were there we enjoyed the services of the bar next door while Beau worked on his tire. This picture was shot on the back patio of TVB.

We decided it would be a good idea to go up Sharp's Ridge before we turned south again.





On top of the ridge we found a shady spot on an access road.

It was pretty cool to look out at Knoxville below and see where we were headed across town to Hastie.
We made Hastie (after another flat and loseing None and Phil to time). To get to Hastie we rode up Redbud at entered at Post Oak. We did all the new trail and then swung out by IJAMs and back down the greenway. A post ride meal at the new Mexican resturant with some cold cervesas hit the spot.

Got a New Neighbor Who Rides

Jaques and his wife Fran moved in next door a couple of weeks ago. It didn't take long to figure out we both rode mountain bikes regularly. After a couple of hectic weeks for me we finally got to plan a ride together.

Jaques has a beautiful Titus Racer Carbon. We decided to do a Wed. ride at Haw Ridge. We got on the trail a little before 6:00. We took off on a spirited loop around the west end along the lake. We buzzed thru Twister, barrelled down Red Shore, across the concrete bags and made our way to the Briar Loop. On the big dip on Briar there is a new rut I think. It seems that Jaques edged off the trail at the rut onto a soft shoulder. Then he picked up a stick in his front spokes. Then he tried to dig a tater patch with his face!


He must have planted very hard. All I heard was an oomph and then it was quiet. I stopped and ran back. Jaques was still on the ground. When he looked up there was a big hole on the bridge of his nose. He looked pretty stunned and out of it. We tried to clean him up a little and stop the bleeding. The blood was pouring off his nose like a faucet.

After a few minutes we got him together enough to try to get him out of the woods. We rode very slowly. After a couple hundred yards he stopped. His vision was not just right. We went on. He asked me what happened about 6 or 7 times before we got back. At that point even this dumb ole country boy knew he banged his head pretty good.

I loaded my stuff up in my car and drove him to St. Mary's in his. We walked in and as soon as we said head trauma they whisked him back to ckeck him out. Turns out he broke his nose, has a mild concussion (I'm sure he doesn't think it's mild) and some torn up lips both inside and outside his mouth.


Other than felling pretty bruised and battered and somewhat skinned and scrapped I think he is going to be fine. I'm just not sure if his wife is going to let him go riding with me again.

Ramblings

I raced the Bump and Grind in Birmingham last weekend. 500 racers turned out for a pretty cool race. Sport class did one big 17 mile loop. Highlights included some swoopy single track, a two mile climb and a descent of about 2 miles including the famous "Blood Rock!".

Blood rock was a section about 75 feet long that dropped 25 or 30 feet. It was like riding off a desk and landing on another, then off it to another and so on, all the while dodging the cracks in the rocks, baby heads and the creek running through the middle of the trail.

I met Kevin who is now living in Mobile and we camped in my tent affectionately known as "the condo. I swear it is as big as a house. The weather was hot and dry the whole weekend until we were breaking camp and the sky opened up. All we could do was pack up wet stuff. Since I have been on the road all week, I just spread the tent out on the back deck to dry a few minutes ago.

The race went OK. I started off 4th in the largest Clydesdale class I've seen in a long time. On the first little descent 200 yards in I dropped my chain. I let out a loud F bomb only to look up and see about 25 people lining the sides of the trail. After engaging my chain and apologizing to the mostly women watching, I chased. I moved from last to about 10th by sprinting through the mile or so before we hit the single track. I lost all contact with the leaders. I hate that because I always think I can ride with them at least for a while. I kept moving through traffic all day and had no idea where I stood until they posted results showing a 5th place finish.

One thing that helped me some was turning the Salsa into a 1 X 9 on Sat night. I prerode the course Sat in SS mode and saw 4 or 5 long fast sections where the SS would be spun out and slow. The course was not a particularly good track to ride rigid. My arms got pretty pumped up and towards the end I had to really concentrate on holding on to the bars. Roots and rocks, roots and rocks and more roots and rocks...ouch.

Kudos to the staff for a VERY smooth event. Lots of staff, water station on course, marshalls at almost all turns and road crossings and a couple of women at the top of the climb with a cowbell beating out a climbing rhythm!

Next week the Mouse Tail Challenge in Linden, TN. then Haw Ridge the week after.