TALES: Getting spoiled

The Ride
Terrific ride this morning -- same 20-mile, spider-from-hell route as last Saturday, sans the drama (see July 22 entry) or photos. Lance, "Big Jimmy," newcomer Doug and I hit it for just about three hours (two Camelbaks attached this time) and never once hit a spider larger than a quarter. Thanks to Tom for clearing Spiders & Pipes Friday (of brush and eight-legged monsters)!

The berms on the La Luge downhill are getting smoothed out perfectly, and you don't even notice the burn in your fingers and forearms until the ride's over (death grip required due to the humidity).

Other News
Shock is the only word to describe what I felt as I spied current issues of "Bike" and "Mountain Bike Action" magazines on the Marine Corps base newstand today! For the past two years, "Bicycling" has been the only distantly-related useful magazine available here for singletrackers. I guess we finally realized that 14 muscle magazines, 62 magazines with scantily clad women on the covers, "Knitting World" and "Gamer" don't really cover the gamut of U.S. servicemembers' interests. Now we just need to get "Dirt Rag" on the shelves.

Sounds like Craig picked up a new KHS frame to replace what used to be a his beautiful, carbon GT All Terra that gave out last week, so we're looking forward to seeing him on the trail again soon.

Happy trails!

TALES: Arachnaphobics beware
Did 20-24 miles today with Lance, Nick and newcomers Zack and Craig: Chibana Market Trail, Spiders & Pipes, Mad Hatter, Mudrock and La Luge.
Saw the absolute, no-holds-barred, just-ate-an-entire cat, this-is-my-trail banana spider ever sent upon the earth to inject utter fear into riders that could ever be imagined (Being the first summer I've ridden the trail, discovered how aptly named "Spiders & Pipes" is: all trails have spiders, but not this big and not this many).
Heard the sweet sounds of air swishing quickly from Nick's tire and air being sucked through my Camelbak midway through the ride.
Watched Craig's grimacing inspection of the splintered carbon frame of his GT All Terra as far from the cars as we could get (and his big grin when a taxi ride got him back 30 minutes before us).
All-in-all, a perfect morning (except that Craig needs another bike).

TRIPS: South Kii Peninsula, Japan
A nice walk, but leave the bike at the bath house
BikeMag’s got an interesting read for those of us in Japan wondering where NOT to ride with a related article for those gear heads who want to know about Shimano’s latest (the reason the magazine guys were invited across the Pacific in the first place). Gotta say though, despite the comments, it still sounds like a tempting ride to try! BikeMag photo.

TALES: Friendly faces from SoCal & Hawaii

The riders
I get this e-mail about a week ago from a woman who wants to hook her visiting son up with our group for a ride, so Nick showed up yesterday to ride with us; definitely not the 16-year-old I was expecting. Instead, this NORBA-experienced, 20-something dude from Southern California shows up on his hardtail, singlespeed Bontrager and really impresses us by negotiating some pretty decent uphill switchbacks on the High Road. Gotta say I was hurtin’ with gears! Also on the ride was Chris and old friend, Steve, from Hawaii.

The ride
It was hands down the best ride down the Mother of all Downhills that I’ve experienced since the trail was bone dry for the first time I can remember. It’s a perfect time for riders to take advantage of the conditions. Nick tried to get the upper hand by eating some fence and bloodying his knee about 10 minutes into the ride, took the lead to eat a few spiders and lent a much appreciated hand in clearing the trail. I tried to top him in the wreckage department at the bottom of the Mother by flying over Steve, but have to submit to defeat since a bush on the other side broke my fall, leaving me only with a small scuff.

12 hours on the trail?
There are still a few surprises left over from Typhoon Ewiniar, but we’re pretty close to rideable on most of the major Yomitan and Chibana trails at this point (until the next typhoon, that is). We plan on gleaning some of Nick’s experience to plan a low-key 12-hour race later this year.

Healing (again)
Ran into Tom going for a hike while we headed home, still nursing a broken hand from the last group ride. Good to see him out on the trail, even if he was sans wheels.

LOCAL TIP: The best mini-loop on Spider

Headed out this morning to take a few runs down The Chute, what I think is the most fun, moderate downhill off-shoot Spider Loop has to offer. The uphill climb (about halfway to HLZ) is rutted double track that’s fairly easy to negotiate, and the ride down is a twisting, thickly forested three-foot-wide trail with a jump, multiple drop offs and some very narrow squeezes through trees. From the end, you can loop around and be back at the trail entrance (or continuing on to greater Spider Loop ventures) with about 10 minutes of moderate climbing.

Spent the first run clearing Typhoon Ewiniar leftovers and most of the trail guardians (Banana Spiders), and a second run just enjoying the ride. Only ate one spider in the process; luckily most were hanging low and enjoyed the Ferris wheel ride on the front spokes.

It’s been good to see more and more new riders on the trails as the weather’s improved overall. Ran into Rudy, a guys who’s been riding here for years, leading a group up Spider Loop.

TALES: Clearing Chibana & planning Korea

It’s been a while, but got out to do some maintenance today, with my daughter’s help. Did a bit of basic clean up on the Chibana Market Trail and Cement Factory run, but could probably use a few more hours on the rest of the Eastern trail network. In the wake of Typhoon Ewiniar, I’m sure a lot of the trails could use some help.

Of course, it’s always enjoyable to clear trails because you’re still enjoying the outdoors, and you know the next ride will be that much better. Had a great time hanging with my not-so-young-anymore little girl.

Ona separate note, Gary called today from Korea and said he’d scoped some pretty decent riding there. Looking forward to the details and perhaps a quick trip there this year to check out the goods!

TALES: Storm God says “No riding this weekend”

Typhoon Ewiniar ("storm god" in the Chuuk language of Micronesia) paid us a visit this weekend with its 100 mph winds, and although no cows whizzed by the window, everything left outside miraculously found new homes many blocks away.

If the Storm God demands our sacrifice of weekend riding, at least he provided the consolation of the World Cup and the Tour d’ France on television to watch while his anger raged outside!

TALES: Vacation, morning rides & the World Cup
Well, thanks to staying up late watching the World Cup I've overslept three morning group rides in the past five days -- fortunately, only one of them was one I set up! Nonetheless, the riding's never been better (or drier) for a guy on vacation for a week, and the spiders are still small enough to swallow whole without missing a beat. It was a great exploration ride, with a small detour down The Mother of All Downhills, today followed by an unintentional tour of some well-marked tombs in Yomitan with a beuatiful view of Maeda Point, a popular local dive spot.

Tom led the group ride this morning with a few new folks coming out. Its always good to get some fresh legs on the trails. While already nursing a broken finger from a ride last week, Tom decided today that he wanted the entire hand broken -- unfortunately, he got the other hand instead! I'm considering sending him one of those "Drink Milk" posters to look at while he nurses himself back to health.

TIPS: Got it in print
Some great news for singletrackers new to Okinawa is a nice feature last month in the annual Okinawa Outdoors magazine that covers all of the adventure sports here. It includes a brief history of the hardcore MTB group that originally cut the trails and started the Okinawa Mountain Bike Association. I was a bit embarrassed that, out of 40 photos provided to the magazine, they used two pictures with me vice our many other riders, but at least the info's out there for those dirt heads new to Okinawa. It's not online so there's a quick look below.