" if i had a million dollars . . . . . . .

. . . of course i would first buy gretchen a new fur coat ( but not a real fur coat that's cruel ). and if it is true like danny sez below that SurfnTurf's bowls are destroyed - i wonder if i would do what local ski-philanthropist TP does with that kinda money-to-burn. i ran out to check out some rumours i heard about ongoing work at cherry hills nordic. CHN is actually a one-man private ski area. dude owns a sizable chunk of woods, and has recently addded a derelict hilly orchard. he has a gigantic pole-barn, and a series of tents which house enough earth moving equipment to start a medium sized road contractor business. he has enuf state of the art xc-ski grooming equipment to supply a true destination resort. he has a staff of groundskeepers. he will groom nite and day when the snow flies, and will not stop until it is the best it can be.

all for fun, i guess. no idea. all i know is we can go ski for free on one the best ( maybe one of two best ) groomed trails in the state whenever we want. you can, too.

anyway, above we see is a nice newly constructed sweeping corner showing some of the already pool-table-like grassy trails, with the new section awaiting seed. the perfection of these trails is such that instead of needing my mtn bike i could ride the whole system in 2nd and 3rd gear on this:



if you are riding a XC ski trail in 3rd gear on a naked sport bike with wide road rubber for tires . . . . . . . that is a pretty goddam nicely built xc-ski trail !!

moving up a few years . . . . .

i did manageto get a ride in this decade. it's been a while since i rode at winter park in kewaunee. at one time, trailbuilding genius jonathon V had an almost 8 mile loop out there, with another 3.5 miles a short 3/4 miles away, and plans to connect the two with a magical ribbon of imaginative singletrack that is/was his trademark.

but, political and redtape problems ended that. dark-souled dirtbag that i am, i knew it was too good to last - and i have been there only a handful of times since the demise of that stellar, if largely unknown trail system.

sucked for me, because i forgot if you wish to ride kewaunee, you gotta let the dew dry off the trail first. full-on granny-gear climbs and slick clay make for some tricky riding. add in the extra mass i am lugging around these days, no fitness, and a couple extra layers of blaze orange clothing and it made for a ridiculous display of profuse sweating, floundering, and a guiness book of world records-level effort for breathing hard.

still, my trusty steel steed with its super-trick component exotica from the nineties still rocking made it fun, and hi-lighted the fact that it was me, not the bike. some guys might think suntour XC-pro toeclip pedals and derailleur, flexy ti bar, and 8 speed era XTR ( complete with SRP Ti bolt kits thruoghout ) less than ideal by today's standards . . . . . but they were the hi-water mark for geared mtn bike parts, if ya ask me.

80's horror redemption

just so we're clear. the 80's were not a complete embarrassment. behold !! there may have been a skateboard bowl or three created on this earth as good as this one, but there has never been one better.

as i alluded once before, this piece of heaven on earth is rumoured to still exist. legend has it the thing is intact, albeit filled with gravel and covered with a false floor inside its original building near the corner of loomis road and 8-94 in MKE. when i wasn't riding around in neon on my pink ibis, this was the place to be back then.

a rich dude is out there somplace who could do this right - buy the joint and get it dug back out, for god's sake. like when the sword excaliber was stuck in the stone awaiting Arthur, this world and existance is in a State of Darkness so long as this bowl remains buried.

speaking of neon . . .

and youthful stupidity. here's a sweet shot of me and a single-malt fueled buddy riding in an undisclosed stretch of forest someplace in scotland from the mid-80's. rocking the fanny pack, lime green socks, and little plastic madonna bracelets, even. that is some viscious-hard smack to be laying down, and believe me when i say the scotsmen had no answer for it - plus, we had women-folk with us that could ride as well as any of em, and hold their own in the pub !! this may have one of the first itmes i could lay down the most excellent line of: "let's see if you can outride and outdrink our women, and then maybe we'll bother with ya".

if i can recapture one half of the skillz most mad that i possessed then . . . . . and can get within 20 odd lbs lo these 20 odd years later - look the fook out !!

bulletin board motivation

right then. keeping in the theme of an attempt to drag my most sorry ass into some manner of shape before i hit 50, i thought maybe if i go back 25 years or so i could recapture that bounding spirit of the young and stupid. i never did lose the stupid part, but i could do with a little youthful motivation.

to that end, my bulletin board motivational poster looks something like this. a decent sized mtn bike race, at a venue most surprising. note the classy mode of strating, singlespeed style with no waves or classes, just one big neon coloured and lycra-helmet-covered mass.

name the venue and i will let you sit on russell's wheel for perhaps 10 miles at the upcoming Door County Century - Winter Edition

on like donkey kong

right then. i held a little formal introduction today:

Mr Road, please allow me to introduce Mr. Rubber. Mr. Rubber, it is my pleasure to present Mr. Road.

it has been too long since these two hit it off in my presence, but that's all over now. with rubber meeting road, all i gotta do is join in. tripled up today,with a roller ski in the AM, ride mid day, and run in the eve. here comes the pain.

8th wonder of the world

you know, while overdone, the taj mahal appears a right fine buidling. love the relecting pools. and, not having a green thumb at all, the hanging gardens of babylon have got to impress. but, as you can see in the pic, i am less impressed with those egyptian cats and their pyramids. no indeed. every year i create this monument to rival the pyramids in my front yard.

not only that, this year i did it in time to also bag a sweet ride at the stump farm on my ultrasweet strong SS, with my ultrafine wife. for that, i say the leafpile should bump into that 7th spot from the pryramids.

in other news. the WI mtn bike heisman trophy has got to go to none other than my man rick walls. not content to launch his stubby-legged most excellent self into the top ten of all WORS comps, he threw down HARD agin' those michiganders at iceman in the hyper-competitive middle-age-guys-who-ride-bikes-too-much class and went wire to wire for the V. crazy hell win. special mention to the Don. i am gonna take both as my inspiration back ta racin starting . . . . . . . let's say today. waytogo, fellas, and thanx mucho.

friendly hint tho - you can ride bikes, it is true - but do not mess with me when it comes to leaf rakin.

TdTosa and tactics, tactics

back when the kids were young, they would on occasion participate in a thing called Destination Imagination. it is a deal where a group of kids put on a creative skit to meet a theme. they need to be clever, and funny, be creative and so forth.

anyway, unbekownst to them, the preferred placement/finishing spot that any not-insane parent/advisor would shoot for was the coveted 2nd place. ya wanted to make a good showing ( and maybe even grumble about the bad judging and how you were robbed ), but by all means you did NOT wish to win, and have to keep doing it and go on to all the finals and nationals and worlds, etc etc. no indeed - 2nd was the spot to aim for.

so it was with our killer TdT team, led again by rick W. we had everything in place. not one but two overly skinny fast/cool guys. a fat old guy, a hot female, a local color guy, and of course super local mo-fo team captain. we would not be denied, and we were not. when it appeared we might be bordering on trying too hard, the team pulled together and dug deep to find the inner strength to sit in the sun and eat grocery store sushi, in a hard-won effort to not win. and, we even had some last second heroics when, in the closing seconds where all would be decided, our playmaker rose to the occasion by sittting down and declaring we were done - and she wanted to eat some damn candy.

final place: 6th, with the top-5 sucker teams above us having to keep riding while we moved to superfan mode. a win for the ages.