Showing posts with label SMART. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SMART. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

IT'S SHOE SUCKING MUD...

    Sorry for the delay with the postings. I know my avid readers, all 3 of you have been patiently waiting for a posting. But was consumed with job hunting and finally landed a new job. I had dedicated 9 years to 1 place and I had to move on, it was definitely hard to do considering I lost my 6 weeks vacation in the process but I gained a commute closer to home (25 minutes) and a chance to work in a growing company. In a matter of 2 weeks, I'm starting to see my desk again. I have had a 2" pile of work sitting on my desk and maybe by Friday, I will see the fake wood grain of my desk.
    Anyway, to more important things... I have been riding, which is good. I rode just right up till we had our first and second snow fall. But I have been patiently waiting for the snow and mud to dry up a bit to ride again. It's funny how things change, when I was younger, I would think of nothing better to do than ride in the mud. The muddier the better but now if it's muddy, i think twice about riding. I really think that comes from all the trail maintenance I have been doing lately.
    So a week ago, I volunteered my time to ATUG, Allaire Trail Users Group. 8 am was the start time, so that meant I was up at 6:45 on a Sunday, so I can get a bagel for breakfast and be on the road by 7:15. There were about 20 people waiting in a circle in the parking lot. Hikers, bikers and horse owners were there to help, a great crowd for most places. We ended up splitting into 3 groups, the horse people went somewhere, the bike people rode off to re-route a trail and we stayed near the entrance to fix the muddy areas. it certainly was a learning experience and I learned a lot that day but it was a long day. We wrapped up at 11:30, i figured people would ride afterwards but everyone left, i stood around and talked to a new friend and left to go ride at Mercer.
    I was at Mercer this past Saturday doing TM. Filling in the trail with much needed wood chippings. The mud in some areas was as deep as 4", shoe sucking mud is what it is. I spent a lot of time there 9:30 till 12:30 full of fun. I didn't care it was a good time and I'm hoping this year we get to ride after TM and enjoy what we did.

Happy Trails
~dirty bert

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Last Ride of 2006

    So I tried to make plans to ride with a few people today, but that fell thru today, no biggie. So instead, I rode at Mercer by myself knowing that I won't be the only person out there, trying to squeeze one last ride in for 2006.

    It was brisk out today, partly sunny because I had gone out so late in the day. I wore shorts with my De Feet wool Kneekers on and 2 long sleeve shirts, one which was my new Hoss freeride shirt and a bike jacket over that. On my feet, i had my regular bike socks on and over that was my WoolEator bike socks, on my hands, were my full finger Fox gloves and under my helmet was my skull cap.

    I met someone doing some trail maintenance to the area where the bmx jumps were. That guy told me a bunch people had actually put together some CAD drawings and wanted to build skinnies in that area. I told him good luck with that idea, because I doubt the park rangers would allow something like that and that they should first get in touch with SMART first. Imagine all the hard work and effort put into something like that and is ripped down quicker than it was put up?

    I also saw the new mini bridges put up along the back-end of Quaker Bridge Rd. Nice stuff but you can tell they weren't built by SMART. SMART builds there bridges solid and big, unlike the some of the few skinny bridges that were in there. It's a great effort by whoever took the time to do them but it would have been a greater team effort if it was done thru SMART and more recognizable thru the parks. Anyway, nice work, whoever did them.

    So I rode for a short 2 hours and had a great time. I was sad that it was getting dark, pretty quickly but that was my fault for being so lazy and not going earlier. I'm glad I got to ride and was planning to go tomorrow, but I see on the TV, it's suppose to rain tomorrow. Hopefully it will stop at some point and I'll be able to squeeze in another 2 hr short ride.

    See you next year!

~dirty bert