Happy belated Turkey Day!

Hope you are all recovering from your Turkey hangover!  I know it's pointless because it was yesterday, but there was a great underground cyclocross race out at Clayton Middle school.

Officially dubbed the Turkey Slaughter race, it was an all classes affair with beginners riding right up with (ok...way behind) the experts.  It was unofficial, but I believe Noah won top honers for the men and Erica took first place for the women.  Beyond that everyone else won, because Ron Patch's wife had homemade pumpkin pie for all and several folks has cases of quality american lagers that were quickly passes around!  I hope your Thanksgiving day was just as rewarding!

Not Alone!

As many of you bike commuters out there might know....as the weather slowly gets colder and colder you start to feel slightly alone.  Even the homeless contingent seems to fade from the bike lanes and bike paths. 

Now this isn't a totally bad thing!  With all those lanes to myself, I begin to think of them as "mine"!  Don't get me wrong, I love to see commuters out there using the infrastructure, but you get spoiled by riding through the winters. 

I also feel a bit this way, because I'm pretty much the only one who bike commutes here at my office (other than wifey) and a couple guys who will ride in occasionally (if pressured during bike to work week).  So, I was pleasantly surprised when one of our contract guys showed up on bike this morning!

Here's a picture of his ride....just for proof!

Kinda nice to know that my bike has company today!

You're all wet.

No biking in this post.  Don't ask me why, but I was trolling the schedule over at the NW Pool and notice they have a roll session on Monday nights.  Hmmm...I have a truck load of kayak stuff.  Hmmm...it hasn't been out in a while.  Perhaps I should go!?

Boat, Paddle, and Gear bag.  Rather hastily thrown in the truck camper.

And off to the pool we go.

 For the record, while it has been a bit since I kayaked....it has been a really long time since I went to a pool to kayak.  In fact, the last time I went was at the Moana Pool, if that clues you in.  Anyway, I haven't ever been to the NW Pool and I have been thinking about getting back into some swimming.

The place is literally a classic.  It has the same glass work on the front that my high school pool had (circa 1970?).  However, even my high school pool was rebuilt in the 1990's!  But hey, in Reno pools are definitely not all the rage, and this one is pretty well maintained inside. 

So if you like to kayak and you're bored come on down some time.  It definitely wasn't crowded (3 people)!

This years Sagebrush Cyclocross videos (updated with more videos)!

Just happened across these.  They gives a great feel for the course and the fun of the night ride.  Remember there's one more race next at the end of next week (12/7) out at Davis Creek Park.  Come join the fun!

I don't know the videographer, but thanks Rick.  I even got to see myself a few times!


Sagebrush CX #4 -- Dorothy McAlinden Park, Reno from Rick Guevel on Vimeo.



Sagebrush CX3 Lap 1 -- October 26, 2013 from Rick Guevel on Vimeo.



Sagebrush CX #2 Lap 1 --- October 13, 2013 from Rick Guevel on Vimeo.

Just a tad crisp on those moring rides.

Yeah....just a tad.  There was riding this weekend too.  Late at night after Backwash....that was also a bit crisp, especially toes and hands.  For those of you not familiar with this particular event in local beer drinking.  Backwash is a homebrew competition / charity event that raises money to get disadvantaged kids out and about in nature.  Basically, you pay to get in the door (and it sells out fast) and they have 30+ different home brews for you to try.  Then there is an official judging and a peoples choice winner.  These brews often find their way to production over at Silver Peak brewery.

As you can see....there are also raffle prizes and a band.

Our regular crew...minus the Preacher and his wifey.  The Preacher is a previous winner of this event....and the reason you can get Reddy Eddy at Silver Peak now and again.

The better looking portion of our group.

Anyway....for the event we rode down a friends house who lives nearby in Mid-town.  The crew then walked over to the event which was at the Sienna.  This turned out to be very convenient since the entire crew wobbled over to Nobel Pie afterwards to soak up some of the beverages that were still sloshing around inside us.

To make an increasingly long story short....when rode home later, wifey was not amused at the temperatures or the lack of feeling in her fingers or toes.

This would be because we were wearing relatively light (but wind proof) gloves.  Stupid, because we do both have much heavier gloves.  Even after years of getting around this way, it still seems I have to learn this lesson over each year!

So this morning I grabbed the heavier gloves and some new equipment to help the toes.

Neoprene toe covers for the cycling shoes.  I bought these for Cycle Oregon and they never even left the gear bag.  But man, oh man....they sure to make a difference on the cold mornings with well ventilated bike shows.  I can't believe I didn't get these sooner.

So anyway, bundle up and keep riding.  You might just generate your own rambling pointless story!

Cyclist killed in Tahoe.....be safe out there this weekend!

Just saw this over at RGJ:

A Big Bike Trip....???

**Warning**

 This is likely to be long winded, rambling, slightly on and off topic....actually, it's probably a lot like talking to me.  Anyway, you've been warned. 

I have this idea in my head....a big (big for me) bike trip.  The thing is I don't seem to make it happen.  I kinda know why.  I like things to be just right.  You know, good route, nice campsites, enjoyable trip.  Problem is that to get that type of trip, you need to plan and I don't seem to take the time to commit to this.  Or perhaps I don't feel like I can get enough information to make it happen just so.  Anyway, I hunt around for this type of thing occasionally and today I found a Tour Divide clip that got me thinking about this type of trip again.



Jay Petervary Tour Divide Record Ride from Fisher Creative on Vimeo.

Don't get me wrong...while the Tour Divide is awesome, this isn't the type of trip I'm envisioning.  But seeing guys like this sure makes my little idea seem insignificant and that probably I should just give it a try.  I did come across something that sounded a bit more my speed.

A ride like this might be the right way to get myself kicked into gear.  First off, it has a date and time and a route that someone actually planned and then test rode.  So in fact, they did what I envision as a great planned route (and it's done for me).  Now they're making it public and saying hey....come do this with like minded people.  To top it all off it's free.  It's also unsupported....they just give you the route and let you know when a group is going to start it.  Then you're on your own.  So there is still planning and some feeling of having done it yourself.

The route looks like this:

Basically, Klamath Falls to Deschutes.  Mostly gravel (75%) and rural or middle of nowhere.  Kind of how I envision a tour since I do own the bike for it (Salsa's Fargo).  Anyway, that's what I've been mulling on lately.  Hopefully a firm date and a planned route will make it happen next year.