Berryman to Council bluff and back.

As part of the building process for wanting to do the Ozark trail from the North past Berryman down to probably the end of middle fork and back. This was a section I have been wanting to try for a while. I rode the single speed again for this one decked out with my own custom bar mitts ( a must for below freezing weather) fully wind and waterproof with a fleece lining, I don't know how I ever rode in the winter without them! Knowing that I would be 25 to 30 miles out I brought the big camelback loaded with enough stuff to last a couple of days just in case things went really bad. I started off at 6am with the lights, I am hooked on that and would really love to get out earlier but the hour drive makes it tough. Anyway the ride went great it ended up being about 27.5 to the CB connector instead of the 25.5 I thought. I was hoping to do the CB loop but I had a flat on the way down that cost me a little bit of time, frozen ice covered stem from the big creek crossing, very cool stuff! Most of the small ones I hiked a bike just because you couldn't tell if they were froze solid enough to ride across and I didn't really want to take any chances. Anyway if I would of added in Council bluff it would of been another 13 miles that I didn't have time for. I was planning on 62 for the day and still got in 55 so that was cool. I wished I would of had a easier gear on the SS I ended up hiking up a lot of hills. Kind of a mix of a lot of leaves being on the trails and having the heavy backpack on that slowed me down a bit. The good thing is the backpack felt great the whole time and I pretty much had in it everything I will use for doing the big Ozark trail ride. I had my camera but the batteries died so I missed out on some pretty killer pictures so you will have to take my word on how good of a ride this is. Here is the Garmin Link. Also BIG thanks to these guys for making my riding experience on this trail that much better.



The Rig set up for the big winter ride.

5am

5am on a Sunday morning most people are sleeping or wish they were sleeping. I slide out of bed leaving my wife and son who joins us so often in the middle of the night there sleeping so peacefully, that is the only thing that makes getting up hard but the trail is calling my name as it does so often. The drive to Berryman usually takes about a solid hour and having everything ready the night before makes getting started that much easier. I only needed the lights for about 1/2 hour but that was still fun, next time I would like to get a triple in with one lap in the dark I think that would be a blast. So anyway the single speed is still the #1 choice for the MTB and I have to admit I didn't think I would love it this much! The trail was amazing with the fool moon shining thru the trees and my lights reflecting the ice off of the leaves. The trail was a little slick in spots but stayed pretty solid until about the last half of the second lap when it started thawing out. Added in a few more miles to get a solid 50 for the day. The legs felt great the whole ride hope this is a sign of good things to come. First loop, Second loop. Made it home in time for a late lunch and a nice walk with the family. what a perfect day.

Saturday Lucas had his first swim class without me or Bettina being in the water with him, I have to admit I was kind of worried how he would do without us but he did awesome. Bettina put some pics on her site.

2009

So I finished up the last mtb ride of 08 taking a little swim in a creek in 30 degree weather, that wasn't to bad it was the stomach flue that had kicked in full force on the drive down that was making me think twice about riding at all. But hey once your there you got to at least try. Lucky for me I wasn't that for in so the ride back to the car wasn't that bad. The last time I can remember having to cut a ride that short was maybe two years ago when I got caught out on a road ride in 30 degree weather in a downpour, that sucked a whole lot worse! So what will 09 bring, hopefully some beat yourself down to nothing death marches with Jim. A 200 mile monster ride with Mitch, you know the ride I am talking about! 5 counties with another 30 miles of hills added in for fun!! It has to be done. And after doing the Breck 100, My own personal two ways to Hell ride, and the 24 along with all the other stuff on the MTB last year it might be kind of hard to beat, but I already have some good ideas.

Last year was pretty incredible with Lucas, I can only imagine what this year will bring. enjoy the video it was a ton of fun to make.

Happy New Year!

Our little drummer boy bringing in the New Year. It also wouldn't be the same without Bettina's Danish tradition of Dinner for One. I think you should have a few drinks to truly enjoy It!!

Merry Christmas

We took Lucas to see Santa at Santa's Magical Kingdom. This place was pretty incredible.
We have attended the Bethany Lutheran Church in Webster Groves the last couple of years. The Danish club host its Christmas party here every year and outside of our house its the closest Bettina gets to a Danish Christmas. The church has a nice atmosphere with a strong Danish background. We always have family over for Christmas Eve for a nice dinner and man do Jeg elsker Danske mad!

What do I got.

So it started out like this, I got a single speed at the beginning of the month. The perfect thing about a single speed is you don't have to do anything but ride it. I took the single speed to the chubb for a nice triple in 20 degree weather. 37 miles later and I realized why people love riding single speeds. For myself I love riding because its pretty much the only time I can relax and only think about one thing instead of twenty different things. Riding a single speed makes riding bikes that much easier. The next weekend I was wanting to see how the single speed would treat me at Berryman. Things started off great I got there just before the sun came up and actually used the stella 200 for the first couple of miles. The first loop went good and only having one gear didn't hurt to bad at least not as bad as chubb. The second loop went really good, I actually finished faster than I did the first loop. With the Berryman being about 23 miles for the loop it was kind of weird not seeing one other person on the trail the whole time and that is kind of a shame for this great trail.

Yesterday was cool getting back to the Big ride with Jim, well kind of anyway. With all of the riding that I have gotten in this month I was pretty much ready for a break. In Jim's mind that doesn't exist and with him having his brand new Scott addict he was ready to ride. So of course i was buying into it! I could go into detail about how bad this ride hurt and how the road was eating our bikes with every peddle stroke or at one point climbing a hill at 85 miles when I heard my bike telling me I was embarrassing it and could I please give it to somebody that knows how to ride! does your bike ever talk to you! Lucky for me Jim was feeling as bad as me so I wasn't holding him up to much. As bad as this ride was it still got my brain were it needed to be by the time it was done. So within the last 4 weeks I managed to do the Trifecta, tripple chubb, Double Berryman and two Big rides along with the usual during the week stuff. So I guess when I ask myself what do I got, I got nothing.

4:48

I couldn't resist building Lucas his first skateboard ramp, brings back a lot of memories when I was young. The hard part was trying to keep him from bomb dropping off of the 4' stepladder.

With me and Jim there is hard and harder and since nobody else was going on the big ride (aka the Washington state park ride, the Dave Pratt ride) with us I knew it was going to be a fast one. It has been a long time since its just been the two of us on this ride. We made it out to the park in under 3hrs and that is 58 miles in. We have never done that before. My fastest solo effort on this course was 4 53 and Jim's was about 40 seconds faster and that was last spring in pretty much perfect conditions. So we finished up the ride at 4 48 and pretty much stomped or best time together, I don't think we had ever been under 5hrs. Still cant believe how good I felt especially after doing the West County Trifecta ride on Wednesday with Mitch and Jeremy. We did Chubb, Greensfelder and Castlewood all by Mountain bike from Mitch's house, very fun ride. I guess it was all of the turkey I ate on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun with the family, we went out to my parents house and as everybody does we ate way to much but you just got to do that sometimes.