Fall! And a post

Well summer has turned to fall and I’ve decided I'm well behind in writing a blog post. Been a busy summer but sadly not enough trips to the woods it seems. Never enough I suppose. From mid July into August it got plenty hot and humid and I’m never motivated to go climbing in that weather. Have to carry too much water and fight off the deerflies and it all just seems like a chore. Instead it was easier to get out the road bike (and sometimes the mtnbike) and ride close to home. A lot of trips away but more often than not they involved sitting in stands and watching others exert themselves. Always fun but starting to pay for it now as dryland work starts in preparation for the ski season ahead.
A day at the races in Watkins GlenA little cardio to climb the grandstands… and I was weighted down with a beer or two so maybe I can put this in my training log? A set of photos here from race weekend

Good to get out to the Ball yardHmmm, field boxes and they bring the beers to you…. Cardio today = 0

The pro peleton on the Camelien HoudeFollowing the pro peleton at the Montreal GP counts as a workout. They wait for no one and a 12km walk around the circuit was a beautiful fall day out. Waaaay too many pictures here.

Trail crews debating which trees to clearI did get out over Labour day weekend to do … well some labour. After Irene swept through, the Adirondack park suffered some significant damage. More of a rain event than a wind storm (like Floyd in ‘99) the high peaks got over a foot of rainfall in a 10 hour span! The result was new landslides (great for the skiers this winter) and overflowing brooks. John’s Brook rose 10 feet during the storm and washed out bridges , roads and flooded homes in the the Keene Valley. Quite a storm indeed! Labour Day had been a scheduled work day on the Mt Adams firetower but our crewleader offered us up to the DEC for trailwork. In the end they put us to work on… the Mt Adams trail clearing blowdown and inspecting for damage. Turns out with our “Adopt a natural resource” paperwork already in place they felt it best to stick to our area rather than head into some of the hardest affected areas. Not that the Adams/Allen trail was unaffected as we cleared a fair amount of debris. A pretty big crew was raised and it was a treat to be allowed into the high peaks as the rangers had closed all the trailheads for the long weekend except for trail crews.
High Peaks closed - on a long weekend. You won't see that very often

It was a good example of many hands make light work as we swept up the trail in pretty short order and the firetower showed no signs of distress after the storm. Sadly the bridge across the Hudson, which had washed out this spring -and just been replaced a week before - washed out again!! Not sure when that will be fixed as there are many (many) bridges in the peaks that washed out so the rangers will be busy replacing/repairing a lot of trail infrastructure.
The bridge is down again!
Today - with the start of fall - I headed off to ride the Wakefield triangle out of P17. Not an overly long route but it has a wide variety of trail including some pavement through the campground, wide woods roads and then some steep grinders and fast single track on trail 52. A bit of everything to satisfy.
Fall Mtnbiking - no bugs, no heat....perfect!
I noted the NCC trail crews have been working out here… and as always I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with them. From the looks of it several big storms brought down a lot of lumber in the forests along my route today – and the crews have done a good job clearing them up (love it!) Alas they are also doing some “trail improvement” – particularly along trail 52. Sadly their idea of a good mtnbike track is piling a lot of loose sand and gravel over an otherwise excellent base (HATE IT!!). The loose material acts as a sand trap and the tires auger in and fishtale around trying to launch me off my bike. Booo! Ah well, if other parts of the park are any example the loose stuff washes away with the spring runoff (making one question why they do it) so next spring should be back to good trail beds. Onwards into fall now with more riding, trail running and rollerskiing and hopefully a little hiking in the mountains. First snow is still a ways off but I want to be ready when it gets here.
Rolling along Lac Phillippe