So, winter is basically here

It's cold out and it's been forcing my asthma to give me more trouble. I finally had to set this up. I'll probably be using it a lot for a while.

It's a biking weekend!

I did the lightweight 20 miler With the Iro on Friday night, got to hang out and get dirt all over my brand new PBP tshirt on Saturday, then did another 20 on the JTS today. I'm all smiles. Thanks go out to Baudler for loaning me a ride since I left my bike at home on Saturday.

Well, mostly smiles, I've got a couple of bruises too.

I topped it off by watching Star Wars cartoons with the lil' guy tonight. I've got to get him off the training wheels and out to do the pump track.

My legs are tired

Our IPP/FRT ride last night and then a quick trip out to Silver Springs at lunch today has worn out my legs. I skipped riding in the evening and had a family night.

We went over to my brother-in-law's place for dinner. An old family friend of my wife/in-laws is in town so we all hung out at caught up on old times. Everyone reminiced about old times and caught each other up on the happening of their respective families. I just hung out.

I found this cool web comic tonight while I was catching up on email and my internet bike porn addiction this evening. It's about a couple of bike geeks who work in a shop somewhere. I read through the entire series in one sitting.

It ain't raining, but it sure ain't dry yet

The rain came, and it kept coming, and coming some more. Everything is soaking wet and flooded around here. I see no hope of riding on dirt until the end of the week at best. A lot of the Fox River Trail is under water too. I'll be riding a lot of limestone this week.

So what's a guy to do? Grab the gearie and go ride some limestone of course! I did a couple of laps at Springbrook and marveled at how nice it is to not have limestone dust all over your water bottles. The rain is good for something after all. There are a lot of rough spots where run-off from the rain took a lot of rocks with it. There's also a good sized "puddle" at the low spot where trail users who connect at Modaff come under Naperville/Plainfield Rd to the big loop at the forest preserve.

Something cool happened on Saturday. I had a chance to attend a community workshop that was put on by the Naperville Park District. They are working on a master plan for the bikeway and walking trails in Naperville. I was pleased to see that they're working with other municipalities and governmental agencies in order to connect trails in Naperville out to other trails in the region. This bodes well for my hope of finding a safe cycling route out west toward the office. I also liked that they recognize dirt trails as a legitimate type of trail in their future plans. I hope that they'll build more mtn bike friendly trails in Naperville in the future.

There will be one more meeting at The Barn in Naperville tonight at 6:30. Click here for more info. Go out and let the park district know what you are looking for in a trail. Mention that you want more natural surface trails too. :D