Sorry about the lack of updates. Lots of riding, eating, sleeping not leaving much energy for writing. Sunday was a nice shake down ride in Lost Lakes. Monday a death march, perhaps not of epic proportions, but it was DM ranked. All day ride on river runs thought it and bunches of other trails ending in Moose Knuckles and a road ride back
Tuesday a nice loosen up the legs fun ride back in the list lakes area.
On tap for today is the Top of the World trail downhill!
Flight on Friday was uneventful. Drive from Bellingham was nice. We did get held up in Vancouver navigating the streets and the heavy Saturday traffic. There was some street festival going closing one street. Saw some Shingeki no Kyojin cosplay walking through the streets, presumably on their way to the convention center for the Vancouver anime con happening the weekend. Continue reading ‘Whistle Sunday’
Wednesday, 13 August 2014
Wednesday looked as ugly as Monday, but I got off my sorry ass and went riding even though I felt lazy. Tried out some of Chris’ Chamois Butter. Can’t really say it’s better than talcum powder. Two different theories, I guess. I must have been really tired, as I knocked out pretty early and was still tired the following morning. Wonder if I can get in another ride on Friday before I pack up the bike?
D = 10.4 km, Vavr = 14.7 km/h, Vmax = 35.8 km/h, T = 42-minutes, A/D = 152 m
Sunday, 10 August 2014
Since the rain that arrived with Tropical Storm Iselle rendered the trails too wet to ride, we went on a brief wander around the Lanai lookout. The original idea was to look at the mountainside “natural archâ€, but that is more on the Blowhole parking lot side. The weather was blazing hot and cloudless, leaving little hint that there was a tropical cyclone in the neighborhood less than a day ago.
D = 7.00 km, Vavr = 3.5 km/h, Vmax = 9.6 km/h, T = 2-hours (total trail time about three hours), A/D = 292 m
Grabbed a sixer of this years SA Oktoberfest. Pours a clear medium dark amber with medium head. A bit of the floral and bitterness of hops, but its not out there prominent. A nice medium roasty and very nice nutty finish. A medium thick mouthfeel without a whole lot of carbonation to lighten it.
A nice brew, an easy 3 out 4 oompha monkeys.
Now that’s a mouthful, and my retention of German from high school consists of the word “pavian”. So what is the title about? It’s a mountain bike tire. Schwalbe, the company, explains that Hans Dampf is German for what we call Jack of all Trades, so this tire is supposed to be their good all arounder. I was in need of new tires and with the new bike decided to try out the tubless thing. I actually got my old Panaracer Fire FR’s to work tubeless, but the “new” one I put on was in storage so long that the rubber was cracked. The Fire FR is the tire that I’ve been running for w while so a lot of this review will be in comparison. The Hans Dampf version I got was the high zoot, tubeless ready, lighter sidewall version, harder wearing and faster rolling compound. 26×2.35 size.
With the weekends before the Whistler trip dwindling, we have not one but two tropical cyclones on the way to ruin the prospects for riding this coming weekend. At this time, it looks like Iselle will pass to the South, and in a couple of days, Julio will pass to the North. Iselle hasn’t made landfall on the Big Island just yet, but it was just downgraded to a tropical storm. Julio was upgraded to a category 3, but is expected to weaken to tropical storm strength before skirting the state. Genevieve that gave us bad weather a couple of weeks ago when it passed far South of us as a tropical depression is currently heading toward Japan as a category 5 super typhoon.
Monday, 04 August 2014
I was pretty beat down from Sunday and had no intention of riding today, so I didn’t really do anything proactive recovery-wise yesterday in anticipation of getting on a bike today. The weather wasn’t perfect when I got home, but there appeared to be little chance of rain. This and the probability of deteriorating conditions starting midweek from approaching hurricanes motivated me to climb back aboard the pain machine. Needless to say, the ischial arches were sore from yesterday’s extended saddle time, and the pedaling muscle groups caught the burn almost instantly, but putting on distance loosened things up.
D = 9.19 km, Vavr = 15.7 km/h, Vmax = 36.0 km/h, T = 35-minutes, A/D = 135 m
Sunday, 03 August 2014
Only Root and I were open for a trail ride on Sunday, so we headed out to Sunset Hills to take advantage of the good weather. The ride started out somewhat normally, climbing up to the agricultural facility, dropping down to Lilikoi Junction, then climbing up to the plateau to drop Deadwood to the bunker. Then things got a little convoluted. Continue reading ‘Sunset Mystery Tour’
Picked 
up this ridiculously expensive beer at liquor collection a couple months ago and been saving it for my B-day. Cracked it open tonight to see what it’s about. Pours opaque black with barely any head. The moment I cracked open the cap the smokey casky aroma is detectable. It carries over into a smooth almost like bittersweet chocolate flavor and picks up some of the whiskey peat. Interestingly I find it to be pretty balanced and even on the bitterness, but then I’m a dark chocolate lover. Fairly thick mouthfeel. This is no “session” beer at 8% ABV, it’s one to be savored, but I find it surprisingly easy drinking if you are a fan of dark beers.
Worth the price of admission as a treat for my birthday, 4 out of 4 oily monkeys.