Active Triangle

We decided to go for the Strava January climbing challenge about a week before Christmas.

On Christmas I bit it hard on our ride and I’ve been off the bike until this last weekend. It sucks. A lot.

So yeah, a whopping 131 meters climbed in a whole month. Thankfully I’m feeling mostly better and went for two bike rides this weekend without any pain or discomfort, so that’s a good sign.

Here’s to February.

My wife wanted to ride today, but my tailbone looks like someone colored it with a Sharpie right now due to my spill on Christmas, and I couldn’t imagine actually getting on the bike right now.  Continue reading “Hammocking in the Park” →

Today is Christmas. We decided to take the bikes out and do the Walnut Creek to Reedy Creek to House Creek to Crabtree Creek greenway circle around Raleigh.

We’ve ridden every section of it in the past, but never all together. We parked at the Poole Rd. parking lot and decided to head down Walnut Creek first, and make the loop that way. The trail was fine until we got past Worthdale Park. When we got to the bottom of the hill, and back near the river I we quickly found that all the rain we had earlier in the week had made the river spill it’s banks, and deposited sand, mud, and muck all up and down the trail. Right past Rose Lane the trail starts up again with a boardwalk. Today, the boardwalk was wet, and covered in muck. I downshifted a couple gears and before I knew it, I was being SLAMMED into the boardwalk HARD. Apparently my rear tire decided it wanted to be in front, and tried it’s best to come around in the muck. Continue reading “Merry Mudmas Bike Ride” →

A couple weeks ago we were stopped on the side of the trail adjusting the limit screw on my wife’s front derailleur after it had thrown the chain off early on a foggy weekend morning.

As we were standing there on the side of the trail an older gentleman cruised by on his bike, slowed down and asked “You guys okay?”  Continue reading “Have Tools. Use ’em and Share ’em” →

We did a 30 mile ride today and explored most of the Walnut Creek Trail for the first time. We had a great time, and really enjoyed most of the ride, except for the middle.

We got all the way out to Lake Johnson, and decided since we rode all the way there, we might as well ride around the lake and see the park for the first time, and then head back home.

Neither of us had been to Lake Johnson park before, so we hit the greenway and started riding around. A few hundred yards in: unleashed dogs, dogs on 50′ long leashes, people walking 4 wide taking up the entire pathway, dog poop ON THE CONCRETE, I could go on.  Continue reading “There Are Some Places You Just Shouldn’t Ride…” →

So we’re about 30 miles into our ride today (Poole Rd. park to Lake Johnson and back on the Walnut Creek Trail) when I made a shift from the little ring to the big ring. The chain went too far, and I didn’t notice and apparently rotated the crank another time after the chain was off.  Continue reading “Thank God for Quick Disconnect Chain Links” →

On Sunday we had some time to head out on the bikes. We’ve been wanting to try out the Crabtree Creek Trail for a while, so that’s exactly what we did.

The trail is pretty great, although I do have a couple gripes that could be remedied fairly easily: The trail will abruptly end in a couple different places, and there isn’t any signage telling you where it picks up again. Once you’ve ridden it once, you’ll know the trail good enough for the next time, but I would imagine that this turns some people off from riding this trail. Continue reading “40 Miles on Crabtree Creek” →