down into the cave.

work to do.

vibes

good ones are good to come across.
energies. traveling, intersecting.
dig into the quantemness, and it
all sort of becomes one. energetic
waves of vibrating mass that sometimes
sync up, sometimes don't. sympathetic,
amplifying rythmns that carry from one
day to the next.

my face feels sunburnt, from plenty of
relaxed smiling lounging today. One
day to the next, pedaling on a chill go
get 'em vibe. Super steady tempo gunnin',
sometimes finding that bit of extra.
When you ride, you ride. period.
When you stop, you stop, period.
And you may as well soak it all in.
ya know?

Soak in the thankfulness to be able to
make to the most of a 56 deg bluebird
late November day. No raw brisk chill
on the wind, just a low angle December
Sun piercing the nakid trees. The Sun,
creating the mesmerizing tree enscribed
shadow backdrop for that dastardly road
climb. x2, lots of hammers dropped, ouch.

Into the woods and it's Manuchurinan
Zoolander strobe programming. On
off, on off, on off, on on offoffonon
onoffonfoffoffonoffonononooffon, now
you see it now you don't at some sort
of biologicaly defined tree growth
placement wavelength that you just
get in tune with. Damn, it's only like
this for the next few weeks? Carve,
zip! Carve, ZOOM! Ski season can wait?
Fuckin' hunters.

You feed on the awakening good vibes
and just roll that Charlie Brown snowball
down the hill until we reach critical mass.
Ride thru flashing CIA Hollywood lights,
and absorb the programming and tap into
the sense of cycliste'. Become young Jedi ninja
Jabberfixy pedaling trail rider, on it and
flowing through the woods. Nooo brakessss,
all feedback and input, that taste of purity
that's part of the answer to 'why?'.

Look for the bright spots, ride the highhh
line and stay out of troughy trouble rut and
float on that energetic vibrant uptick and
try to be nice, try to be respectful to those
behind and not let that gap grow always
always always trying to at least keep the next
wheel in sight, no matter how much double
visioned blur, out of body sketched remote
instinct pedaling it takes.
.

It was a rippin good end to a rippin awesome
wknd, thank's to Mr Jay the Man for pulling it
all together. Get it while you can!

Heal up Cupcakes!
Thinking of all ya'll.

peace.

turning on...

sent an email out
last week...made the
call for 6-8" in Canaan
by the end of the wknd.

WhiteGrass shows 5" @ 4k,
7pm last night, call it a hunch.
woulda been sweet to chase it,
staying close to home instead,
taking one for the team.

Yesterday felt like early
spring, lack of motivation
to get behind the wheel
for any reason plus a lack
of all day ride to the trail
& back motivation found
me down in the shop for
a qwik road bike tune.
Found the creak in the
stem, suit up extra warm
and out to battle that chill
breeze of 15-20 out of the
west/north west.

Raw scene out there, when
not head down grimace into
the moving air. Dense cloud
streets rolling a mid level steel
ceiling with pockets of blue
giving a smidge of hope. But
always the wind. Experience
it this way, then chase it later
to higher elevations, keep the
motor humming.

Novemebr riding.

It was a bit more dysfunctional
then usual, but it's late fall,
it was beautiful out,
and everybody seemed
ok with that.

Get it while you can,
before it's not quite there
like it is now, it's good again.

uh huh, uh huh.

the quiver

bored and rainy out, procrastinating cog
time in the workshop, sometimes folks
come to visit, 'Jesus that's a lot of skis...'
so, snap a pic for those that haven't been
here...this is the view one step thru the door:

the what & the why, L to R:

old Karhu Jaks, 180 w/ O1's. picked these up off of TTips for a bargain last month, always wanted to try these skis, bindings are low use, so will find life once these skis are rocked out, if I like 'em that is. Will probably be the second ski in line on any given day, backup to the Works under the lifts or back up to the Bro's for touring when the snow is worth it.

K2 Work Stinx, 180, G3 Targa. Really dig this ski as my new goto for the lift served, had about a month-ish on it end of last year. Big enough platform to not get tossed in the chop at 88mm underfoot, but not too fat to not be able to zip down thru the bumps. Holds a sweet edge on the firm stuff too, an easy to ski ski.

PM Gear Bro's, 179 soft flex, G3 Ascent. If there's a turnable natural snow base, these are the goto skinnin' ski. Nice and soft and flexy for crankin' tight turns in the snow, but get wicked chattery bounce on the harder of the cured hardpack. The edge will stick underfoot, but that big old tip flops around a good bit out there, not exactly confidence inspiring on piste. But awesome to tour on and chase driftlines with, light, free pivot binder, perfect for taking full advantage of the lake effect love.

Atomic TeleDaddys, 183, Cobra R8 yet to be mounted. Another Ttips bargain this year, what the hell. I know what a soft fat ski can do in the Bro. Curious to see what a stiffer fat ski of similar shape can do. And woh baby, do these things have some backbone, 'a man's ski' Stubbie says, should be interesting. Got skins with 'em, but between the Bro's and the Jaks, I'm not seeing these things venturing beyond the lifts, at least for my off-piste tastes and our local environment, don't see these as being 'qwik turners'. Skins will fit the Jaks no problem though once I trim 'em, so there's a loaner set.

Karhu Guides, 185, G3 Targa, soon to be swapped with either the O1's on the Jaks or the Ascents that are on the way via Brown Santa. Waxless beater ski, have skins for 'em too for chasin' vert. Light, go anywhere, do anything ski. See's a lot of thin conditions.

Atomic TM-RX, Voile plate on CRB release. NASTAR gate ski, big riser w/ the release plate makes it feel like you're skiing on a barstool. Keep these puppies on edge, don't ski these too much nowadays.

Fisher Outtbounds, no bindings currently. Reserve backup waxless, should put an NNN-bc on these...

Karhu XCD-GTx, 20?, nnn-bc. Skinny edged xc skis, fun for beating around the local forest, kick n glide at WG. Get's really interesting when you try to ride lifts with 'em, edges need cleaned up a bit...

Movement Freeheels, 174, G3 Targa. Rippin' carvin' hardpack and bumps ski. For when the Works just don't cut it or in the mood for short poppy turns. Previously the goto lift serve ski, replaced by the Works last year. They started to feel small underfoot, and a bit short.

Boots, new for this year EnerG's, feeding the power addiction. Replace the shwooped out SynerG's w/ the bigger boot for the bigger skis. Keep the SynerG's for WG and Denton Touring, but retire 'em from the on piste. Also a pair of NNN-bc boots, for the kick n glide days.

Yeah, I know, lots of skis. Here's the theory. I wanna find a good all around 95-100ish waisted ski for everyday use, have my eye on a few, but no chances to demo anything of the like. Sooo, pick up some decent used skis of differing personality and see which one suits, then pull the trigger on something fresh and new and thin out the quiver. I've read and heard a lot of good things about the Jaks over the years. This pair has quite few days on 'em, but aren't dead yet, I think. At least it's a baseline for figuring out likes and dislikes, interpolate from there. Also read good things about the TD's, and I know the Bro's pretty well by now....so who know's, all I can do is wait for the snow, and then ski.

skiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiski.
skiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiski.
skiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiski.
skiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiski.
skiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiski.

ski.

I can't wait to schuss down ze mountain.

last blast.

actually diggin' this warm blast of air
and high pressures. leaves have been
down for that just enough spell of time
to allow for other traffic at the popular
spots to tamp it down. local woods are
still sometimes follow your nose instinct
thru the wind blown stashes, slow going
at times.

but get onto the beaten path, and trails
are primo, just dank enough to allow raw
roots to keep you honest, the rocks get
tacky as they dry in the sun, nice. day 5
of successive time in the saddle, those
nighttime suburb spins have helped bring
the system back online, the legs are looser,
the techy fixed Saturday cruisin' tuning up
the balancing act.

Good flow early in the woods of Lykens
but no legs or willingness to exert on the
road climbs, cruise control off the back,
save it for in the woods and then get in
a good ripper chasing Buck & OMW down
the trail. Lost Buddy just before the payoff
single, bad luck with a tire vs rock challenge,
bummer. Found some end of ride legs and
happily ventured into that dizzy focused pace
trying to reel in Buck, again & again & again.

A most excellent time of rippin' thu the woods,
retarted fast carving on mini berms and lofting
into no consequence rock gardens with that
levitated stoopid grin plastered across your face.
oh yeah, oh. yeah! braaaaaaP! hopefully sneak in
a couple more before the guns come out.

shiney!

diggin' it, AK styley.

the itch.

deep into fall.
leaves in the yard need raked,
but still plenty in the trees, hmmm.

riding went from worst to better.
recognize the bottom of the
curve and accept it. all uphill
from now 'til June/July.

Back on a program though?
puhleeze. goal right now is
to simply not. get. any. fatter.
hold steady and start making
an effort to actually turn the
pedals during the week, and
clean up the diet...always a
battle.

another 3, 4? weeks, then there
should be reliable snow on the
ground of some sort. either out
of the gun or carried up from
the Erie Lake by Ullr's cool breath.

been watching the weather again,
I love the weather, recognizing
patterns, feeling the shifts, micro,
macro sized timeframes. reading
forum discussions, weather sites,
consensus seems to tilt towards a
favorable local ski season, trending
cooler temps, sweet looking storm
track if the Jet keeps cooperating
this year. Move that October Noreaster
into mid-December and it's game
on fo shizzle!

fingers crossed as always, seems like
recent Octobers have always trended
to a nice pattern, then the patterns
and tracks shift come real winter.

Maybe it's all about conservation of
energy, matter. I mean, it all balances
out over time right? We had a real sweet
spell there in late Sept thru Oct, lots of
energy transferring thru the atmosphere,
lots of stormy weather, wind, rain, loads
of energy expended...and then it calmed
down here over the last couple weeks.

Like things played themselves out,
and are now recharging for round two?
Forecast looks pretty mild for the next
10-ish days, then we're pretty much on
top of Turkey Day with a cooling trend.

I know what I'd be thankful for.


go here, levitation project, for full screen.

riding along

call was out, Elk is getting older,
just like the rest of us. Gonna
celebrate 43 years on the big
blue marble, Jim Thorpe style.

In.

Pick up Buck, meet at a new to
me spot and concentrate on the
Broad. Good times were had.
Perfect mid-hi 60's in and out
of the hollers. Try to hold pace
until blinking, the turn the pedals
tempo grupetto just off the back,
listen to stories from the legend,
the Dutch Eagle himself. Great trail,
everything you'd want out of a suck
ass Peeyay ride, mildly bermed and
shwoopy and sometimes chunky and
overly oomphy primitive benched
love into and out of creekside rhodo
dankness, yeah, nothing to see here,
please move along...

ole Dutch, man, that dude reminds
me a bit of Dirtball, similar cloth,
ya know? It was good riding, good
friends, insane weather and lots of
flowing groove despite the fresh
layer of leaves. Compared to Saturday's
spin in Meeshow, Thorpe is tamped
down perfect right now, that seasonal
week makes a difference.

Getting back out on the Jabberfixy.
A nice spin Saturday, layzzeeee soak
it all in pace, wearing the bright
orange T-town jersey for safety, saw
minimal trail head parking thru the
afternoon, felt pretty safe.

Nice to feel a groove coming back
to the riding. Motor definitely isn't
tuned like it was thru the season,
accept it and just do what the mind
can handle and enjoy, square one.
Feeling ok and relaxed and eager
for the ski season, duh. But also
accepting that turns might not
come until mid December, but
hoping for a Turkey day repeat of
last year. please.

So, square one, here we are again.
Bit earlier than last year, but it is
what it is. Time to not sink any
lower, tread water for a bit then
start swimming against the current.
4ish weeks 'til the snow flies for
realz, gotta keep the knees happy,
and strong knees are happy knees..

suffering.

Eric said it best, 'bike racing is suffering.'

Never more so apparent then last weekend.
Keeferkeefer's brainstorm CrankFestival in
backyard Meeshow. Was gonna run support,
then it turned into a local's match shakedown
with the Mouth calling everybody out.

Fine, double check with el Directour, pump
up and dust off the road bike for Saturday.
Great.

Friday prologue, fun loop up on Piney, niche
local knowledge played a role, especially tackling
it in the dark. Found total JabberJediFixyness
rolling up along the ridge, didn't mind missing
the turn at all, in the floooowwwwwwwww.

Campfire, celebrations, stories, catching up
with the family. Stumble into bed and sense the
skinny tired beast snearing at me from its spot
along the wall. Old girl hasn't been saddled
in 6 or so weeks, since before Teaberry, neat.

Saturday's route, finished at 75mile w/ 6800ish
of climbing, and a headwind that flipped as the rain
came later in the day, awesome. I slummed, it felt
like early March all over again. I had no legs for
the gear, for the continual head against a wall of
wind over those damn orchard rollers churning,
watching the group disappear over the next knoll,
solo, dropped.

Dropped over and over and over and over again,
I had nothing. Tinge of cramps on Mt Carmel,
climbing Staley to Snowy was lots of quiet time,
just churning it over, bonked on the verge of
locking up. Just get over this fucking thing, keep
it upright on the descent then settle into that
survival cadence...what month is this?

Then the breeze turned and a cold pissin' rain
started dropping out of the clouds at Caledonia,
making for a wonderful run back to the cabin.
The descending piece along Graves on the fix is
usually a swell time, made even better by the
50deg rain.

Of course, the sun came out just as we rolled
back into the cabin. Eat, drink, campfire and
9 o'clock feels like midnight, toasted. Passed
out log like sleep, don't reboot the clocks for
the time change, use that hour in the morning
to strip off the ALfine and do a quick once over
of the Salsa. Decided pretty early on on Saturday
that there was no way I'd be riding the Fixy on
Sunday. We rock a parade on up to the Piney
Ridgetop then over to the Cul de Sac, a decent
enough warming climb, then out to the upper
prologue parallel and link into the BrushExtension
to the first timed section across ShakenBake/Fender/
MoonRocks/MyFavorite. Break for a chilly lunch
stop. I was shelled, my back talked back to me
early. Core has gotten soft, the off season came
early this year. off. the. back.

Soon enough though, most everybody else hears the
slumlord callin'. Sohohhhh..plan is altered, 3 mile
abandoned, Last I heard was LittleCO to Jake's, so
that's where I went, everybody else went to the top
apparently. Well, hope they don't wait too long....
Scraped an arrow on Woodrow and pushed up the
road to the gate, yeah, I pushed. up. Woodrow. I
had nothing, best save what little's left for when it's
best used. Roll over and chill on a rock at the top of
R'snake v2.0, finish off my sandwich, listen to the
wind, trees....then hear riders coming.

Reunited! Everybody is on the same page now for sure,
direct route back. Meeshow cracked us once again, it's
not if, but when, I cracked early. The planned 40 turned
into 30ish, way easy to plan for a bigger bite then you
can chew out in those hills. Tight finish to the day,
maximize the flow down to the snowmobile bridge,
burn that last match before riding protected hinterland
on the way to more eat drink and be merry around a
revived fire. Got a stylin' memento, then home early
before it's too dark out, at 6....winter's coming.
good times.

So. That was a tough wknd, local's out kicking each
other's asses against the clock. Buck says to me,
'Keefer must think that climbing is just good clean fun.'
Yeah, something like that, those were some stout
parcours for sure, bit of tweaking, refining...I guess
you'd call it a trial run of sorts with the mostly local
peleton, a bit of beta testing route expectations,
logistics dialing. Venue at the cabin rocks, great
terrain out the door for two or three, four solid days with
minimal overlap. Apres' chatter was leaning towards
a flip to a spring time date, early mid-April, a little
early season sufferfest to see how the winter treated
ya? stay tuned.

beyond all that, thanks to Mike for putting it all
together and hosting and all that, well done. The
wknd was a wake up call for my slack ass for sure.
I need to get back in the saddle, less lazy wknd
warriorish, more steady gunning, harden the fuck
up and get back out in it. Rode the wave and I'm
now officially washed up on the beach. I'm sure
this Sunday will be a rightous Thorpe beatdown
with Elk. Just what I need, another slap to the
face reminder to keep the knees strong and tight
for a winter full of crankin' turns.

so I say bring it Ullr, bring it you fuckin' pussy!
I ain't skeered. Don't think you need to be nice cuz
we're gettin' soft down here. Fuckin' bring it and
remind everybody what it's like to have a real winter
'round here. Fuckin'g bring it you pussy, bury us
under all that terrible, awful, awful snow and turn
down the thermostat and keep a real chill in the air.
Fuckin' bring it, show us what you got. I dare you.






please.