Drivetrain woes

So the plan tonight was to go out for a dirt road ride after work.

I have two wheelsets for my cyclocross bike; one for road use with appropriately skinny tires and one for dirt use with appropriately non-skinny tires. The 'cross bike had the skinny tires on, since I have been riding some pavement (eek!) lately. I swapped the wheels over and headed out on my merry way.

A few hundred feet from my driveway is a nice little technical uphill singletrack into County Farm Park.

This is a picture from a few years ago and the trail has gotten much more washed out and since then.

Anyway, I started putting a little power down, and...pop! pop! pop! The chain was skipping on the third cog. That was the only gear that skipped, but the top half of the cassette felt pretty gritty. I tried to stick it out for a while, telling myself maybe the shifting was off a little or there was some junk in the cassette, but to no avail. The cassette was buggered up and my ride was not going to be right with only half the gears working.

Oh, did I mention I recently put a new chain on? It was fine on the road wheels, but that cassette has far fewer miles. I finally gave in, went home, and swapped cassettes over. Life was good, and the drivetrain  was again happy.

By then the sun was getting low and it was too late for a "real" ride at that point. I swung by the local auto repair shop to see what interesting was sitting in their lot. Hey... an early Volvo 240 wagon, and BMW 320i. That makes me smile a little bit.

From there I tried to get a look at the new shopping center being built on Washtenaw across from Whole Foods, but the construction area is pretty effectively fenced off and there was not much to see. Hopefully something other than chain restaurants will move in.

Not wanting to have a total loss of a good ride, I headed over to Sylvan Park, not far from home. Sylvan borders US-23 and has a few extra trails running through it that are not on the map. Mind you, this is not really a destination sort of place to bring your mountain bike, but it is some dirt that is close to home for me. I wound my way down to the little creek running through it and was nearly deafened by the frogs/crickets/locusts/critters. I'm not sure who was making all the noise, but they were really going for it. I stuck it out on the trails as long as I could, but daylight was failing quickly and my little commuter light is not very trail-worthy.

I had one last stop over to see the progress on the sidewalk being built on Washtenaw under US-23. It's about time! Ten to twelve years ago I did a group ride that involved riding though that section. Not fun. I have avoided it like the plague since then. So it makes me happy to see that area getting more pedestrian and bicycle friendly.

So not the most exciting ride of the year, but at least I didn't let a mechanical keep me home.

Poto! Poto! Poto!

You guessed it; I rode the Potawatomi trail today. It seems that this year I have not made it out there as often as other years. I might be getting too used to not driving anywhere for my rides. Anyway, I loaded up the bike and headed out.

I put up a post on Poto about three years ago. Take a look if you like.

How about a little background? Pinckney Recreation Area (PRA) is about 11,000 acres, making it the fourth largest Michigan state park, and the second largest in the lower peninsula. First place goes to Porcupine Mountains Wilderness, second is Tahquamenon Falls, and third goes to Pinckney's neighbor, Waterloo. PRA got its start with George Reeves moving to the area in 1830 and purchasing a sawmill and about 1000 acres on Hell Creek in 1841. Over time he added gristmill, distillery, and tavern. The Reeves family sold the property to some investors in 1924. The investors increased the size of the millpond by increasing the size of the dam, creating Hiland Lake, which became a popular resort and vacation destination. Michigan state government set up funding in 1944 for creating state parks, including PRA. Through the 1940's and 1950's more land was acquired, to create the patchwork of property we have today that is PRA.

And a little background on the Potawatomi Trail itself. Mr. Eby seems to have thoroughly researched it so I will let his sign tell the story. You can find it at the top of "The Boy Scout Hill," right where the trail from Camp Munhacke joins in.

 

This year marks 20 years that I have been riding Poto. I still remember feeling a little faint after my first full lap. I passed two people riding a tandem and then had to ride way too hard to stay ahead of them.

The trail has changed quite a bit over the past 20 years and had many rerouted sections. Today I checked out some of those long-lost trails, along with a few other offshoots. I keep thinking that some of these old trails will eventually fade away, but there seems to be just enough traffic on them to keep them alive.

The trail above is pretty faint, but you can see the tread going straight away in the picture. It makes a sharp switchback and leads to where my bike is leaning. It's a great trail; challenging and scenic, but also probably not very sustainable if it received all of Poto's traffic.

Another rerouted section. To the right is a healthy patch of poison ivy. Even poison ivy can have nice fall colors!

In all, I rode 26 miles today. A mile and a quarter on pavement, maybe two miles of dirt road, and the rest singletrack. Not a bad way to spend part of Sunday.

Blog revival

It's alive! My ol' blog has been sitting here, patiently waiting for me to get some inspiration again. I have been feeling like doing a little writing lately, so let's pick right up where I left off a year and a half ago.

The weather report was not great today, at least if you were planning to be outside. The original plan for this weekend was to go camping with my dad at Port Crescent State Park, but the forecast was not great there, either. So we will try again next weekend. But this morning I managed to squeeze in a city ride before the rain started.

A new feature around town for this year is the Argo Cascades on the Huron River. Not surprisingly, it is near Argo Dam on the west side of town.

It has been immensely popular; there are always people walking along it and canoeing, kayaking, or tubing down it. It is certainly more appealing than the old weed-choked backwater that was there before. Somehow I have gone all summer without going down it myself. There is still time...

I rolled on into the Bluffs from there. Wow, I just took a look at the map in that link. Good luck finding your way around in there using that map. Plus, it's not very accurate. On the bright side, maybe that will help keep the Bluffs relatively wild.

From there I took a few passes through Kuebler-Langford. It is possible to link up the trails to make five different passes through it. Ever since I started riding the city loop in 1996 I have said that the Bluffs is the highlight of the loop, but Kuebler-Langford has really developed into a great ride and I think now rivals the Bluffs. The terrain has benefited the last ice age leaving a glacial moraine, specifically the Fort Wayne End Moraine of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine.

 Most of Kuebler-Langford is wooded with large hardwoods, giving the appearance of an old-growth forest. But there is a section that must be too gravely and well-drained for trees to grow. The native grasses seem to like it, growing about four feet tall.

A quick zip through Bandemer Park and I picked up the "M-14 Trail." Part of this area on the east end is Cloverdale park, but I think part of it is just left over from a never-developed ramp onto M-14. Now it is a nice greenway, and a number of years ago the state even made a nice tunnel under M-14, replacing the older, smaller viaduct.

That picture is from a winter ride a couple years ago. The temperature was a little cool today, but no need yet for a jacket and bar mitts.

You probably know that today is the first day of Fall. What does that mean? Aside from the scientific definition, basically saying that daytime and night time are each exactly twelve hours, it means that the trees are starting to change color. This little white oak has really got a jump on the season.

A little further up the trail there is a nice field of goldenrod. When in bloom it makes quite a show, and apparently is not a source of stuffy noses for allergy sufferers such as myself.

 If you look carefully in the background, you can see the sky is starting to look a little ominous. Rain clouds were gathering and I was across town from home. I hit a few other choice trails, but mostly high-tailed it home.

Stay tuned...

Stay tuned...this ol' blog may get some new life.