SMNDFBR - You've Got A Little Pooh On Your Head

Boogied on down to Lincoln for the Saturday Morning No Drop Fat Bike Ride but got there a little bit earlier than usual so that I could get a few photos of the awesome cycling caps that Walz Caps sent us for Global Fat Bike Day.


As you might imagine, there isn't a whole lotta money in the photography budget of a bicycle shop so it was our luck that the models worked for cheap. A little coffee and a pastry or two and the shoot was on, thankfully the bikes worked for free because our coffee budget for the year was completely shot after the two coffees.


Before the flash on the camera even had a chance to cool we had to shove it into the camera pack and jet over to Cycle Works and get ready for the ride. Jamie had a little pooh on her head but try as we might we couldn't convince her to let us get it out of her hair.


Decided to push the ride back by a half hour to let it warm up a little bit more before the start, with the awesome weather that we have been having it's hard to tell if the later start worked or it was just more the unseasonably warm weather. What ever it was, temps were very pleasant at ride time.






Not only has it been warm but it's also been dry which made the ribbon of dirt in Wilderness fast and flowy.


Made a pit stop at the new bridge, we were supposed to rendezvous with a couple more riders but it seemed like we got there a tad early so I decided to take the opportunity to get a group photo and while I was up there I decided to do my best Leonardo DiCaprio.


No, seriously... Leonardo y'all... king of the world and all that fancy Titanic stuff. Seemed like the right thing to do at the time but despite my best effort, no Kate Winslet came running out of the bushes to confess her love to me. Movies, can't believe everything you see on that moving picture screen.


After waiting a few minutes we received a text that our rendezvous riders would be later than expected. As Mr. T says, "I pity the fool that don't show on time" so it was time to bounce and perhaps meet up later because when Mr. T tells you it's time to leave, you don't argue, you just leave.


Had a really good group again for the ride, had a new rider join us as well who was not familiar with Wilderness so the regroups were a bit more often to make sure that everyone took the same route.



You might be saying to yourself that it seems like we regroup a lot at, on or under bridges and you'd be right. With so many bridges spread out throughout the park it just makes sense to use them as landmarks to meet up at when the groups stretches out, easy to miss a turn sometimes but pretty hard to miss a huge steel, cement or wooden structure.


They might have lots of bridges but you might be amazed to find out they don't have a single bathroom, yep, 12+ miles of trails and not a single place to visit the loo. I have "lost my keys" more than a few times while in the park however and finding those suckers often takes you to secluded spots, far away from the rest of the group... thankfully I've been able to find my "keys" every time I've lost them.


All the lost keys were found and all the trolls were vanquished from under the bridge so it was time to mount up and head on back.


To the victors go the spoils and MG busted out his victory dance.


Did I mention that the weather was fantastic, by the time we had our final regroup, almost everyone had stripped off any additional layers they had on from earlier.


It was so nice out we even ran into a high school gym teacher doing a few of his calisthenics right there on the trail, for the whole world to see. You go with those short man shorts.


Speaking of odd things seen on the trails, Ed found himself a pair of nice pink, bedazzled sunglasses on our ride. I'm not saying I'm jealous but I'm not saying I'm not... well, OK, I'm not but somehow Ed just makes them work.


With another SMNDFBR in the books on another gorgeous autumn day, there was nothing left to do but ride off into the sunset and prepare for the next one. If you prefer to ride into that sunset on one wheel or two, it doesn't much matter to us because on the SMNDFBR it's always dealers choice.

Just Like A Lowenbrau Commercial... Tonight Is Kind Of Special

With the Omaha Jackrabbit on the schedule for Saturday I wanted to get down to Cycle Works and pick up some nutrition for the race in hopes of having a stronger showing than what I had at Gravel Worlds. Since I was going to be in Lincoln anyway I decided to bring a bike along for the ride and get a group together for a spin through Wilderness Park, it turned out to be a perfect night for riding. Vince brought out his new Fatty for the ride.


Since my Highball single speed hasn't seen much love, I decided to go the other way and went skinnier. While the bike is much quicker and more playful, those skinny tires with the Small Block 8s were a bit on the sketchy side cruising around leaf covered corners. Took a little bit to get used to the rear end sliding out a little bit around some of the corners again... not something you generally have to worry about on a Fat Bike with a 4" contact patch.


It's been a minute since I last rode with these two as well, so it was good that they were able to make it out.




The Park was in perfect shape, flew through it and had a little refreshment session before heading back in, in the opposite direction. What is fall riding without a little mid ride soda stop.

There was supposed to be a second group coming out around 7 so we high tailed it to the bridge but we either had the wrong bridge or they couldn't make it... it's all good either way, there is always next time.


With a perfect night for riding and views like this, you'd be hard pressed to find much to complain about. A night on the bike in Wilderness during fall is a perfect ending to any evening.


Harvest time is upon us, not the best picture in the world because it was getting pretty dark by this time but the line of 18 wheelers waiting to drop off at the elevators was pretty impressive none the less. 

A little bonus for those of you who might not remember Lowenbrau and their cheesy commercials int he 70s and 80s, this will help put the title into reference. Enjoy!

Native American Rock Depression State Park

Took a drive out to Indian Cave State Park yesterday to do a little hiking, since we live in a time of utmost political correctness I will refer to Indian Cave as Native American Rock Depression because apparently there are no Indians and technically the "Caves" are not caves but more carved out slight depressions into the rock. Luckily hiking can still be called hiking so we are good on that aspect.


Native American Rock Depression State Park is a bit of a trek from Omaha, depending on traffic it is at least a good solid hour and forty five minute drive but in the fall all the different colors from the leaves make it more than worth the drive. Problem is the window is pretty small if you want to nail it exactly when all the leaves are changing but most of them are still on the trees. As you can see there was still a lot of green out there but a fair amount of other colors mixed in there as well, another month from now and my guess would be all the trees will be mostly bare making this view much less impressive in it's drabness.

I can't imagine what this wall must have looked like decades ago before nature and vandals wore down the existing carvings or added their own scribblings to the wall making it difficult to spot the actual rock depression drawings done by the Native Americans.


It's kind of a good thing that we don't really build anything permanent anymore, otherwise generations from now would have nothing but  "money shot" drawings and others like this to judge us on and think we were a bunch of sex deprived perverts trying to suppress our homosexual desires. I guess that might be an accurate depiction of our current generations though so maybe it would be an appropriate drawing to leave behind.

Lots of construction going on out there right now as well as a ton of people due to the absolutely perfect weather. Looks like they are building a man made lake area currently, not sure if the intended purpose is to incorporate swimming activities into the park or to help with flood control when the Missouri River gets high but it should be a nice addition to the park either way.

I knew that they had/allowed horses in the park but to be honest this was the first time I've seen someone riding them in the park, beautiful animals.


The GPS is an awesome invention but it often routes you toward the more beaten path and away from the path less traveled, luckily I had an idea on the way I wanted to go to get there that was not I-29 and it turned out that setting the GPS to shortest rather than fastest followed that route exactly. You just won't see things like this on the interstate.

At the same time you won't have to worry about these kinds of traffic jams either but since there were no other plans for the day it didn't really seem to be that much of an inconvenience and allowed more time to look around.


Wouldn't have driven by the Cooper Nuclear Station either had we followed the fastest route, I knew it was in the area but had never actually been by it until now.

Chuck Norris apparently has a security company in Missouri as well, didn't actually see Chuck but really, who else would call their security company Delta Force?

I'm not much of a hiker but with weather like we are having lately and views like you get from the top of the bluff it was well worth the trip down. Might have to make at least one more down there before the snow and cold settles in.

40 Tons of Rolling Canvas

Took the Cog out to Wilderness Park for a little more dirt this holiday weekend, it did not disappointed. Trails are in some of the best shape of the year.


I wasn't the only one out there riding today but with the temp at 61 who could resist.


The wheels on the train go round and round, round and round.


I know it probably drives the railroad companies nuts but I love seeing graffiti on the sides of railroad cars as they roll past at the crossings, might be the only thing that keeps people from putting the car in drive and ramming into the train as they sit and wait.

Love it or hate it, you have to admit it takes talent and a bit of Ninja skills to paint these and not get caught. It's not like you can take it off the track and hide it or have the train wait until you're finished.

Saturday is for Spelunking

Twas an awesome November morning, that didn't feel at all like a November morning 50s at 8 am.


Just look at how gorgeous it was, not sure if it was dew or if it sprinkled last night but the cement was a bit wet this morning but nothing too bad.


Headed out to Meadowlark Coffee at 8 to meet up with M.G., haven't been out on much more than solo rides since the group rides stopped for the season so the company was going to be nice.




Got there a bit early, had no idea how long it was going to take to ride there for sure and figured early was better than late. Was a bit of a busy morning in the five minutes I sat there waiting, had two fire trucks go by with full sirens and lights and the life flight helicopter lifted off. It's kind of a shame a few somebodies were have crappy days already on such a beautiful autumn day.


Headed straight into a pretty brutal headwind on the way to Cortland, winds started out at 16 mph and just kept getting stronger. Riding into a wind that strong is like riding uphill for the 25 miles out and I was definitely feeling it today.


My view for a lot of the ride, it's pretty humbling when you're deep, deep in your pain cave, your legs are on fire, your lungs are screaming, you'd probably be screaming as well if you could spare the oxygen, it's all you can do to muster up the will to go on... and you look over at the guy you're riding with knowing that he could ride away from you like you were standing still any time he wanted to. Don't get me wrong it's definitely a very humbling experience but it's also the only way you get better at anything, getting your ass handed to you every once in awhile, while it sucks, also helps you improve in ways you never could on your own. There's always going to be someone faster, better, stronger than you are at whatever you do, that's just a fact of life but it's how you respond to the situation that either builds you up or knocks you down. The pain you feel today is the strength you'll feel tomorrow.