HHH 2009

Before we headed to Wichita Falls Bobby and I got in our usual weekday sail, this time we went on Wednesday night and became the spectator fleet for the Night races. You can see the fishing rod in the picture and when the drag started screaming my hands were full trimming sails and steering while reeling in a nice Hybrid Striper about 19 inches long, it worked out well as Bobby came up from a project he was working on in the cabin and took control of the boat.

Michele and I had another good ride at this years HHH, thanks to Paul on his bent for taking this picture of us as he caught and passed us, we of course were reunited at the 98 mile outlaw beer stop. The rally set an attendance record with over 14,000 riders and the Tandems had to start with the mass start, which got us off to a slow start. The temperature was 64 at the start and all went well until just after the 80 mile mark when the front tire developed a blister and would thump on every revolution. I had to reduce the pressure down to about 35 lbs to smooth it out and nor wear a hole in the blistered spot on the tire. We also slowed down and limped the last 20 miles and still averaged 18.8 for 103.51 miles. With a failing tire there were no more 35 mph descents.

We took our camping trailer and camped with a group of friends at the rv lot close to all the activities and had a great time there, kind of a rally the wagons atmosphere.

We watched a lot of races and my friend Aaron took 2nd place in the cat 2 mountain bike race, he then took me out Sunday and we rode the very technical course along the river and greenbelt. This is a nice mountain bike trail and also has a multipurpose trail, I think we might go back and camp and ride this again.

The grass is indeed greener on the other side of the fence but I think I am finally halfway up the fence and closer to crossing over. Hey Gary enjoy New Mexico!!!

Dennis

TGIF

The last 2 Fridays have been really nice for me thanks to my friend Bobby and his nice sailboat the Bobcat. We have met at Lake Ray Hubbard in the mornings and prepared the boat while taking short breaks to fish the docks and I caught bass each time. Gentle breezes, dead down wind wing on wing, notice the rod and holder

This was an unusual sight, from a distance it looked like a man walking on the water, jibe to starboard tack and sheet the sails and on closer inspection it looks like a paddle board of some sort.

This Friday we sailed into a giant school of surfacing sand (white) bass and I was catching a fish every cast for a while. When I had no fish for 3 consecutive casts we moved on and left them biting.

On the cycling front I have been getting in my basic 100 miles a week, consisting of 2 club rides and usually a ride with just Michele and Me. Other than The Tuesday evening ride which has been really hot we roll out at about 7:30 am to beat the heat. We have got to get at least one long ride of at around 70 miles soon because the Hotter Than Hell Hundred is just around the corner and we are not well prepared.

Team off the back

Dennis

Lake Mineral Wells Trailway

With the news of cooler weather over the weekend Michele and I loaded up the camping trailer and headed off to Mineral Wells State Park for the weekend. While there we off course rode the 20 mile (one way) trailway which is the bed of the old railroad that served Mineral Wells in its days as a big player in the mineral water business. Riding from our campsite to the trail head and both ends of the Trail and back was about 45 miles for us, also all of the roads in the park were new ashpalt, none of that chip seal stuff, very nice.This trailway is in good conditioning and is a great ride, no steep hills or descents, just slight grades and smooth crushed and screened limestone. It does cross several small country roads and there is a trail bridge over highway 180 near Mineral Wells. At the Weatherford end there is only a parking lot, around halfway in the Town of Garner is a country store, but it is closed on Sunday.

After the bridge is a memorial park with several exhibits and this helicopter, it seems that a lot of the State Park land was used to train helicopter pilots for the military, before it was a park.

We saw few riders on our ride, maybe 5 bikes, 5 hikers and 1 horse along with a few deer and a good number of birds. I got this deer picture from the bicycle.

The camping at the State Park is also nice and there is a nice sized lake I caught a few bass out of. The mountain bike trails in the park are very hard since they are mostly shared with horses that turn the soil into soft sand.

Dennis

Peach Pedal Bicycle Rally

Ive wanted to do the Peach Pedal Rally for a while, last year I was going and then my back went out so I couldn't ride. This year the temperature was predicted to be 104 or 105, but we decided to go anyway since the start time is 7:30 am. We loaded up the tandem and headed for Weatherford and the Outback Building at the new high school.

The tandem in the mini van

Michele and I rode our Treck Tandem 64 miles in about 3.5 hours with 2 quick rest stops, this was a nice rally with back roads and decent rest stops and they had a good turnout I would guess was several thousand riders.

Since it is the peach festival I had homemade peach ice cream and cobbler made with Parker County peaches. Michele passed on the cobbler and had other festival food but she did not pass up the homemade ice cream.

I was washing the Tandem after the ride and noticed a blister forming on the rear tire and that spot was worn very thin, it's unsafe to ride now so I will get a new tire, we were very lucky we didn't have a blowout on a high speed downhill. Our top speed was 38 miles an hour and we averaged over 18 mph for the ride.

No sailing due to the extreme heat we have had, I have a chance to go on a 9 day coastal sailing trip on the 17th, but with work that's not going to happen and it would be hot sleeping on the boat on the south Texas coast.

Dennis

MS 150 and other stuff

I have been lax in posting as I just haven't felt creative or like writing and then the heat set in. There have been lots of rides and some sailing since the last post.

I was lucky enough to be given a pre-paid spot to ride in the MS 150 and was riding for a large team called The Feisty Devils. I got as close to the start as I could get and rode the 80 or so miles from Frisco to the Texas Motor Speedway. this shows my spot in the mass start

I rode my but off with one very short stop for the rr, when I arrived at the bike lot to walk to the team tents not many people had arrived.

The Feisty Devils had a nice tent with all the food and drink you could ask for. I was looking forward to riding a lap around the Speedway on Sunday but Saturday night they cancelled the Sunday ride due to severe weather. It was a good call as severe weather did come in and the area suffered a lot of damage.

The near empty parking lot with my steed #121







We have also been camping at Bastrop State Park and rode the hilly Park Road One route several times and went on a nice 8.5 mile hike with the dog Sprocket.



Michele and Sprocket ride through the Lost Pines At Bastrop State Park
(sorry for the blurred picture and no brain bucket on Michele)




I have still been doing two club rides a week and felt like I was in a rut so this Saturday Michele and I went to Ray Roberts State Park and rode the Dorba trail and the 20 mile greenbelt trail for a nice change of pace and 40 miles on another 100+ day.

Today we went to the Summer Bash our bike club puts on (http://www.gdbclub.com/ ) and rode our tandem a little over 30 miles and had a great lunch catered by Freebird's.

My friend Bobby took me sailing again and I hooked another nice fish but this one got off as I attempted to lift it over the transom while sailing at 5 knots. This picture was supposed to be a short video but I guess I need to do some work to get that to happen.

Michele and I have also been going to Lambert's Fitness Boot Camp for a six week course and we are both down over 5 pounds and this really concentrates on the body core. Heath is a good friend and the Coach, they can be found on Face book

It appears we are in for a really hot summer as it was over 100 all this week. This will limit the rides and eliminate the camping for now, but we are planning more adventures.

Next time will come sooner

Dennis

Copper Breaks rides

The bicycle rally our local bike club puts on was a success. The Lancaster Country Ride had great weather and about 1200 or so riders, always nice to pull that off.

After we both worked at parking and registration we then rode the rally route on our Tandem and visited the rest stops. We also acted as unofficial sweeps asking any stopped riders if they needed help and encouraging those that were struggling. Some of the porto's were overwhelmed, but you do the best you can, if the weather had been bad like 2 years ago only a few hundred riderw would have showed up

No sailing to report on but planning to correct that little problem soon.

We took a trip to Copper Breaks State Park for a long weekend, we drove through a lot of rain and arrived to find the park only got a little rain so the mountain bike trails and especially the roads were fine.

This park is nice, clean and has a limited number of campsites, it only

has 24 sites for R V hookups. This weekend was quiet and we hiked and biked a lot. The rain had brought this arid country to life although the lakes are very low, they need rain.

In this case I made it a point to stop and let the traffic slither on by, this rattlesnake was only about a foot long but thats enough to make for a really bad day.

The trails range from nice easy doubletrack to the rocky ledges trail which I didn't even try to ride we hiked it and either climbed or slid down the ledges.

We plan on riding the Germanfest Metric Century in Muenster next Saturday on the tandem.

Finally sailing

My good friend Bobby and I finally got to get out on his boat. We had a great day with clear sky and good wind, Bobby and I have sailed together for years cruising and racing.Bobby
We even dusted off the spinnaker and took off on a couple of long reaches, perfect.

I almost always carry a fishing pole when near the water and in my ditty bag I carry a piece of PVC pipe and a couple of short lines to set up a rod holder for trolling, it was a good day to fish too.

Leading the peloton

The bicycle rides have been hard to get in but we had a good 67 mile ride with the club last Saturday, we broke out the tandem and had a fast hard ride. We rode part of the Bluebonnet trail and the flowers were starting to look good. This is part of the ride our bicycle club puts on each year called The Lancaster Country Ride.

Tonight is the clubs fast ride, last week it was 34 miles at a 20.7 true average, I haven't been on the bike since then and I hope I can still hang in towards the front. It gets harder to stay in decent shape every year.

I just returned yesterday from an overnight backpacking trip on the Cross Timbers Trail where I camped at the 5 mile trail campsite, great time but my legs are pretty sore.

Dennis