New Year's Eve ride

Well, it's New Year's Eve today, and what better way to say good-bye to 2009 than one last bike ride.  Last weekend I was hiking out at Poto and it was very icy, so I figured I would stay around town and have the option of riding neighborhood roads if trail conditions have not changed.

I did a little exploration today instead of riding the usual city trails.  There were no great trail discoveries (not that I expected there would be), but I did find a few little hidden pockets of woods and trails.

Across Packard from my house is Brown Park, and the city recently made a fancy new storm water retention system that doubles as a wetlands area for various critters.  Ducks and geese have really taken a shine to it and they were out in force, hanging out in the water, on the spillway, and tromping around on the grass and pathway.  Judging from the size of those tracks, that was the handiwork of a nice, fat goose.

From Brown Park I took a pedestrian bridge over I-94.  I-94 offers non-stop cruising from Port Huron, Michigan, to Billings, Montana.  This particular bridge is between Stone School Road and Platt.  In the distance the Platt Road bridge is just barely visible.

On a hidden-away drainage channel near Varsity Drive more ducks were enjoying the frigid water, but decided they were not going to stick around to see what this human riding his metal horse was going to do.

Just past the ducks was this big ol' tree.  Not sure what kind it is, but the trunk was about four feet in diameter.  It is pretty cool to see the occasional survivor like this, that somehow missed being logged in the past couple hundred years.

These railroad tracks that look like they have not seen any trains in quite a while.  They end a couple hundred yards behind me at a building called the University of Michigan Herbarium. Not really sure why a railroad might be needed for storing a bunch of dried plant specimens...maybe the building was once used for something more substantial.

Continuing on, I found Car & Driver Magazine's new home.  They did not have too much interesting in the parking lot today other than a beat up European spec BMW 635csi with some not-so-good-looking aftermarket wheels.  As much as I like 1980's BMW's, this one did not have too many redeeming photo qualities.

I am also a bit of a "car guy," and for some strange reason I have taken a liking to 1980's European cars, in particular the smaller models from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Saab, and Volvo.  My first reaction to this Saab 900 was that it is not old enough to be getting overgrown with bushes and slowly reclaimed by mom nature.  But at the ripe old age of 25 or so I guess it is plenty old enough to be here.

So that concludes my bike riding for 2009.  Maybe I will set a goal of riding the first day of every month in 2010.  I was just looking at my ride log for 2009 and see that I have ridden on the first day of the past four months.

Happy New Year!

Canoe

As promised a while back, here is some more detail about the canoe I am building.

Sometime around September of 2008 my brother-in-law, Jeff, brought up the idea of building canoes.  Now, this was not quite as "out of the blue" as it initially seems, as I built a kayak in 2001/2002 and have occasionally brought up the idea of building another boat.  So it didn't take much prodding on his part to get me to agree that building canoes together would be a good idea.  After spending some time looking at different plans, we settled on the 15'7" Raven plan from Selway-Fisher.  It is a stitch and glue plywood design that seemed like a good balance between Jeff wanting something stable to paddle with his two young boys, and me wanting something somewhat sleek for solo paddling or canoeing with Grace.

There is not much exciting to report on for the first month or two, as at first Jeff and I just got together a few times to discuss the details of building a drink some beer.  Or maybe we got together to drink some beer and happened to talk about canoe building.  Anyway, we eventually came up with some good ideas, bought some wood, and started to lay out the plans onto wood.

By January of 2009 we were cutting out the plywood.  We cut one of each piece very carefully and sanded the shape to the exact shape, then duplicated them with a router.  This brilliant idea was from Jeff's dad and saved use countless hours of tedious cutting.  Thanks, Robert!  That is me hunched over the router, and Jeff is supporting the plywood.

Things progressed along nicely throughout the winter, and by mid February we had stained and fiberglassed the 8' pieces together to create the 16' long pieces needed for nearly 16' long canoes.  Jeff's pieces are the lighter color, and mine are the darker color.  He chose to stain both sides of his canoe in a yellow pine color, and I stained the inside of mine in walnut and left the outside natural.

Here the first pieces are stitched together!  This was late February.  The stitch and glue method of boat building first involves "stitching" the plywood together with copper wire, then gluing the plywood together, or in the case of our canoes, fiberglassing them together.

Here is a little closer picture of the stitches.  All the wire was removed after gluing the wood together.

By March 8, 2009 this is where progress stood.  This is Jeff's canoe completely wired, or "stitched," together.  Even with no bracing the plywood forms to the final canoe shape nicely.  From here we cut the ends even, as you can see that the middle pieces are a little too long and stick out.  Then we began the gluing process, which in our case was putting fiberglass on the inside.  In the background I see the top is down on the Miata...I seem to recall last winter being unseasonably cold.  Maybe we got a little break in the weather in early March?

Here we are in mid-April with my canoe.  It is wired together and ready for some fiberglass.  It is nice to be be working outside!

It's starting to really look like a canoe here, "glued" together with the fiberglass tape done on the inside, the wire removed, and the ends sanded smooth.  At this point both Jeff and I had grand expectations of getting both of our canoes in the water in the summer of 2009.

And then progress came to a screeching halt.  On May 5 I broke my right collar bone, which really cramped my style for a couple months.  Not really the way I wanted to spend part of the summer, but stuff happens.  After about two months I could use my right arm gingerly, but reasonably well again.  Jeff and I had gotten fiberglass on the outside of both of our canoes before The Collar Bone, so the basic structure was complete.  I built the seats with a partially healed collar bone and snapped this picture on July 13.  They are made from 2" seatbelt material woven onto maple frames.

Once my collar bone was healed, I had to make up some lost bike-riding time and the canoe got a rest.  After I found my center with some quality time on the bike, I was ready to get back to the canoe.  It progressed along nicely, but for some reason I did not get any pictures for a while.  By mid-November, the seats, gunwales, thwart, and bulkheads were installed, and the fore and aft decks were made but not yet installed.  There are still several steps before the canoe is done, but at this point it looks nearly finished.

One of my original desires was for a canoe that could be paddled either by two people or solo.  The solo part took some thinking on my part, but I have to say I am pretty pleased with my solution.  I mounted the thwart low, instead of at the gunwales, and made a removable seat that slips over it for solo use.  That way I can have a seat near the middle for solo, and still have two seats in the usual locations for two people to paddle.  It needs a little foam yet, but should do the job quite nicely.

For a little pizazz, I made the fore and aft decks strip-built.  The wood is simply poplar that has been stained different colors, but it really looks nice.

So as of writing this on 12/30/2009 the canoe is not yet done, but I can't complain.  This year has been busy between knee surgery, residency, the collar bone, board exams, and life in general.  It has been a satisfying project and I continue to feel motivated to work on it.  So keep checking in and I will see you on the water in 2010!

Cross Country Ski Headquarters

Yesterday Grace and I took a "micro vacation" up to Cross Country Ski Headquarters near Roscommon, Michigan.  They have over ten miles of cross country ski trails that they keep perfectly groomed, and get regular doses of snow throughout the winter.  Yesterday there was about 10" on the ground, which was plenty to groom into some nice skiing.

We got a leisurely start in the morning and did not get out of the house much before 11am, and along with a lunch break on the way up did not hit the trail until 2:20.  As reported on XCHQ's website, the conditions were great!  Well-groomed trails, the temperature was warm, but not too warm to start melting the snow, and not much wind.  The sky was cloudy, but we are in Michigan during the winter...sunny skies might just be asking too much.

Here's Grace getting warmed up about ten minutes into the trail.  She quickly found that she might have layered up a little too much.  But better to be too warm than too cold!

Here I am, cresting one of the hills in the back loop.  The hills are pretty mild there and neither one of us fell all day.  But that is not to say the trails are boring; they have done a nice job of working with what was available and all the trails have a nice flow.  And of course there are no sticks, logs, branches rocks, roots, or other obstacles waiting to poke you or your skis.

Proof that Bigfoot exists?  And on skis, no less.

Some of the trail is on state land, and other parts are on private land.  At least part of the private land must be owned by logging companies as there are areas where most of the trees are cut down.  In this era of kinder, gentler logging, one of the techniques must be to leave some mature trees to help repopulate the logged area.  There were a few large pines and a few oaks left standing in the cut areas.
This tree did not know which way to grow!  I was right on the edge of the trail towards the end.  Not much else to say about it, other than it was eye-catching.

After we got through the main trails, we played around by the store and day lodge until dark.  They have a couple little practice hills to work on stopping, turning, and climbing; and there are a couple short trails to demo skis or just turn a few hot laps.  I am not sure, but I think they even have snow-making equipment on these trails.

All in all, quite a deal for $6 per person.  We looked around in the store after the sun went down, bought a few items, and hit the road to head home.

Poto Saturday

Well, I was just talking about the ground needing to freeze before the trails were decent again, and what do I see when I got up yesterday (Saturday) morning, but 19 degrees on the thermometer and blue sky!  Time to prep the bike and hit the trail for the first frozen ride on the year.  I thought I would treat myself to a trip out to the Poto.

I got there about 11:30 and found the parking lot surprisingly busy; there mus have been thirty cars there.  Time to roll!

The beginning of the trail was recently rerouted to avoid the old fall line hill.  While I might lament some of the other hills being made easier, I don't miss that one.  A steep, loose hill was a tough way to start the trail.

 At one point the trail overlooks Pickerel Lake, one of the best swimming lakes there is.  Boats must be carried in, so there are no fast boats zooming around to watch out for, and it is a nice size to easily swim across or even swim the length of.  And it has a nice little beach.

About four miles in, the trail crosses Hankard Road, not far from Pickerel Lake.  Right after crossing there is a big boardwalk.  Snow covered.  Gotta watch that icy, snowy wood as it can be mighty slick!  I am a little bit chicken in real slippery conditions, so I took it easy and stayed rubber side down on this one and all the rest of the bridges and boardwalks.

The view through the woods may be better in the winter than it is in the summer.  The leaves are off the trees and the underbrush is down, allowing a much greater range of sight.  This section of trail is in the infamous "Hills of Hell," so named because the hills get a little steep and rugged, and also because the Poto passes through Hell, Michigan.

Just having some fun with the camera in these two pictures.  Some creative shots I take turn out, and more do not.  I thought these two were keepers.

 I am standing on one of the old sections of trail that was routed out a few years ago.  I helped with the reroute and did quite a bit of chainsawing of deadfall, earning the nickname, "Chainsaw Ed" with a few people.  About a year I ago became friends with someone that was out there for the reroute, and she still refers to me as Chainsaw Ed :o)  This was the last tough decent and climb in the Hills of Hell, which is much more tame now.  I miss the challenge, but I do admit that the fall line trail was becoming a washed-out eyesore.  As you can see, it is quickly being reclaimed.

A quick history of the Poto, and its big brother, the Waterloo trail.  I think one point that's missing from the sign is that this is also the grand-daddy of mountain bike trails!  Intimidating to many, and once named in Bicycling Magazine as one of the top ten trails in the nation.

 This grassy section is about 3/4 of the way through the trail, shortly after crossing Patterson Lake Road for the second time.  It's maybe an acre is size and surrounded all around by more typical woods for this area.  This is Grace's favorite part of the trail.

Eighteen miles later I am back at the parking lot.  A great day for a ride, and a great ride today!

Late Fall and a sledgehammer

Well, it's getting to be the time of year when cycling is tough, at least off road riding.  The leaves are off the trees and covering the trails, keeping them wet.  I was out Tuesday and they were a bit sloppy in spots, so they must be a quite a mud-bog now.

I say bring on the cold weather!  Either get the trails frozen so they are not muddy, or get some snow on them and I can get the skis out.  I suspect not everyone shares my opinion of "bring on the cold," but there it is.

I ran across a new workout routine about a month ago.  It involves a sledgehammer.  And not much else.  Check this out: Shovelglove.  Funny name, funny idea for a workout.  At first I thought this guy was a little nuts, but after I thought about it, I realized this guy is brilliant!  He came up with a method for an effective upper body workout that only takes 14 minutes and uses a common device found in many garages or easily purchased from a hardware store.  I use a 12lb hammer as he suggests, and, after Grace got done laughing at me, she now uses an 8lb hammer.  At first I thought the 12lb hammer would be too light, but by the end of 14 minutes my arms and shoulders tell me that 12lb is plenty.  I have come up with a few motions of my own, as  has Grace.  The main advice I have is: be smooth with your movements (no jerky motions) and keep the hammer moving for all 14 minutes.  While it might not be quite as effective as standard weight lifting, I find it much more fun and interesting, and therefore am much more likely to do it.  Give it a try!

Thanksgiving Day ride

For at least the past ten years I have tried to get out for a ride on Thanksgiving Day before doing the turkey thing, weather permitting and assuming I am home.  I guess that makes it a tradition.  Yesterday the weather forecast was not looking good, and sure enough it is wet out this morning with intermittent showers.  I try not to be *too* much of a fair-weather friend when it comes to riding, but 35 degrees and rain is not my idea of fun.  Maybe next year.

So far I have not accomplished much this morning other than pet the cats and surf the internet, but I'm thinking pancakes and a little time working on the canoe will be in order before heading over to my parent's house to stuff myself with turkey.  Grace is off with her sister, Ruth, and her family, and her other sister, Pauline, and her boyfriend, at a rented house in Saugatuck.  I have to work tomorrow and will head out after work.

So, about this canoe? My brother-in-law, Jeff, and I decided about a year ago to build canoes together.  Time constraints being what they are we have not had much time to work on them together lately, but I have kept mine moving along.  I keep saying it's possible mine might get in the water before the end of the year, which is not entirely a pipe dream yet.  Whether it gets wet this year or not is not really a big deal, but it is coming along nicely!

This is where it stands as of November 14, which is the most recent pictures I have.  The strip-built bow and stern decks are just set in place here, but once installed, will make air-tight compartments for buoyancy if the canoe becomes swamped.  There are still several details to tie up, but the final finishing is not too far away anymore.

And if the thwart looked a little low in the previous pictures, here is why!  That is a removable seat that slips over it.  When paddling with two people the middle seat can be removed for more room.  When paddling solo the center seat can be slipped over the thwart and the canoe is paddled the other way; i.e. the bow becomes the stern.  The seat will get some foam before it's done since I don't relish the idea of sitting on a hard piece of plywood for very long.

I will get some more canoe pictures up at some point, but I think it's pancake time!

Two days, two board exams, two bike rides

What a crazy couple days it has been.  Board exam time is here, and maybe, just maybe, I can become a certified prosthetist.  And I am two thirds of the way to finding out if they will let me.  Yesterday was the "written" test, which these days is all computerized.  One hundred and sixty five multiple choice questions.  I am not really a fan of multiple choice because you never have a chance to explain your thinking.  At one time I thought essay exams were my mortal enemy, but as it turns out I don't mind them so much because, as long as you provide a good argument, there is more than one right answer.  Today was the written simulation which is a little better as it allows for more than one right answer, though the answer you might want is not always one of the choices.  Anyway, they are done!  And with a little luck I will even pass them both.

My employer was kind enough to give me both days off which probably benefited them as much as me.  After taking those tests the prosthetic center of my brain was pretty well drained.  Wouldn't want to be interacting with patients in that state!  So I went for a bike ride each day instead.  The city loop called, and I answered.

Yesterday I called my friend, John, who is luxuriously unemployed right now and likely to be available for a weekday ride, gave blood on Monday and was feeling a little spacey in the head.  He figured he might be better off lying low and trying to rehydrate a little more.  So out I went to tour the local trails on my own.   By the time I got home my brains were feeling completely relaxed after the rigors of the morning.

Today John was feeling more normal and was ready to go when I called.  We met up at Mitchell Field as usual and hit the trails for a relaxing Fall ride.  Three hours later I got home and it was liberating to be out for that long without feeling like I should be studying.

We stopped at one point near Black Pond and were noticing how rugged the terrain is there.  With the leaves off the trees the lay of the land can be seen, and I have to say, the glaciers really tore things up when they were here last time!  There is no flat land in those woods, and where we stopped some of the hills were so steep they would be hard to walk straight up.  One of these days I need to dedicate an entry here just on the city loop, as it is truly impressive to have such a trail system throughout town.

So who am I?

My name is Ed and as you may have guessed, I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Some might even call me a "townie" as I have lived here my entire life.  My job is a prosthetist, meaning I make and fit artificial legs and arms.  I finished the classwork for a master's degree in orthotics and prosthetics at Eastern Michigan University in April 2008 and lately have been studying for the board exams so that I will be a certified prosthetist.  Pretty cool...I never thought I would be in health care, and I never thought I would be certified in anything so official.  Before getting into this field I was an engineer for eight years.  So far I don't miss it much.

So I will soon have some fancy letters in my job title, but what have I done outdoors?  I have been playing outdoors my whole life.  My parents took me tent camping when I was three months old and apparently I was not even too much of a pain!  I learned to ride a bicycle at age four and have been hooked ever since.  As I kid I rode all over the neighborhood and on the trails in the fields and woods near my parents' house.  I got my first "real" road bike 21 years ago at age 15 and started mountain biking three years later.  I first rode the Potawatomi (Poto), which is the grand daddy of trails here in southeast Michigan, one year later, in 1992.

Michigan has countless beautiful lakes and rivers which I like to paddle.  I built a kayak a few years ago and am currently building canoes with my brother-in-law.  When we get enough snow around here I like to cross country ski, and have made a few trips to Stokely Creek in Canada.  I still tent camp, though mostly out of a car.  I would like to try some bike touring and canoe/kayak touring, but have not yet made the time.  In general I just really enjoy being out in the natural outdoors and get out as much as I can.

November 8 = 65 degrees!?

So today is November 8, 2009.  November is usually a time to start bundling up, thinking about cooking a whole turkey in the oven, and maybe even start your Christmas list.  Yesterday and today reached a high of about 65 degrees and there was scarcely a cloud in the sky.  Not too shabby for November!

I washed the Miata and mowed up the leaves in the yard, all while wearing a short sleeve tee-shirt (yes, I also wore pants).   And a day like today would not be complete without a little time on the bike.

My wife, Grace, and I called up our friends Nate and Jen and took a mountain bike ride out at the Potawatomi trail (aka Poto, Potto).  I don't think I have ever seen so many other trail users out there, at any time of year.  The loops closer to the main parking lot were busy enough that we did not dare "open it up" as there was sure to be a hiker just around the bend.  Once back away from the inner loops the ranks thinned out a bit but we were enjoying the scenery enough that we never did pick up the pace.  For those not familiar with the Poto, the terrain is constant steep hills, ridges, and valleys, compliments of the last glacier to roll through southeast Michigan.  Sorry, no pictures; next time I will bring my camera.  Anyone doubting whether Michigan can have decent off-road biking only needs to take a ride of the Poto to change their mind.