Ice Man Update

Congrats to the Dirt Dads for completing another IceMan Cometh Challenge!

Bob - 2:07:57

Brian - 2:10:57

Marc - 2:14:37

Tim - 2:20:16

J.P. - 2:49:56

Brad is a true Dirt Dad!

Congratulations to Brad & Niki on the birth of their daughter Micaela Lee, born October 14 at 8 lbs 5 oz. She is one cute baby!

Moving on locally, for now.

Unfortunately, the Moab trip was called off for various reasons. We hope this can be a reality for the Dirt Dads again soon.

So, we ride on. Here's a photo of Dirt Dads Marc, JP, Brian, Brad, and HP (taking photo) at Yankee Springs State Park on September 22. Another great day for a bike ride.

Get ready for Moab & Fruita

Marc, Rusty, Tim, and Harv, get ready for epic mountain biking on some of the best trails in the world. See camping options on the left. The photo should get you excited.

Winners at Pando!

The race day was great at the 6 & 12 Hours of Pando mountain bike race on Saturday, August 16. It was hot but a cool breeze came along once in a while. The trail was very dry & dusty. The 4.2 mile course was shortened slightly by removing the tubing hill descent and the hilltop singletrack next to the parking lot. Family & friends came out for support, including Senior Dirt Dad JP. Thank-you!
Rusty & son RJ raced for 6 hours to grab 2nd place in their catagory. Great job, Team Powers!
Dirt Dads One hammered out 34 laps in 12 hours to take FIRST place in the Veterans catagory! Congrats to Marc, Brian VanDirt, Tim, & Bob. They won huge customized gear bags from Fun Promotions. Lucky dog Bob also won a new NiteRider MiNewt lighting system in the raffle drawing. More bling for the Bob! Thanks for damaging our retinas. And did I hear that Brian S. won the new NiteRider bike computer? We're jealous!
Dirt Dads Two blazed 32 laps to take 4th place in the sport catagory. Great job, Harv, Brad, Brian S., & Nathan.
Check out the photos link on the left.

P.S. If you are new to this blog, the photo above is, top row, Rusty, Tim, Nathan, Brian "VanDirt", Bob, & Marc. Bottom row is RJ, Harv, Brian S., & Brad.

Prepare for Pando!

The 12 Hours of Pando is this Saturday, August 16! This will be our best Dirt Dads teams showing yet. Dirt Dads One is Marc, Brian VR, Bob, & Tim. Dirt Dads Two is Harv, Brad, Nathan, & Brian S. And Rusty and son RJ (team name?) are competing in the 2-man catagory. Tim C & ? (team name?) are also competing as a 2-man team. Senior Dirt Dad JP will be there to tell us that we should be faster for our age!

Riders should be there no later than 11am for a meeting. Others, come on out to witness the fun and suffering. Bring food & drink! We'll try for the usual spot to the right of the entrance.

I, Harv, looking like the oldest rider of the bunch and probably not having the stamina to drive home after the race, will have a tent there for crashing til morning. I have room for at most 3 more guys. I'll also set up a screen room if there's room for it.

Charge up the batteries for the night portion. Check out photos of previous Pandos on the left. Good times. Nutty crazy.

Holland Hundred, July 19, 2008

Dirt Dads Harv, Tim, Bob, & Brian rode 100 miles in the annual Holland Hundred bicycle tour. See the link at the left for more info on this ride. We rode with friends Gene & Tom. I don't have any photos to prove it but 80-90% of the tour was in the rain. Bob flatted once but congratulations goes to Tim for having to change out 3 flats, 2 of them at the same time! Tim, maybe you can submit a photo of the 3 flat tubes.

Thanks, JP, for loan of the helmet!

Fort Custer, Saturday, July 12

It was a gloomy start of the day but we (Tim, Brad, Harv, & JP) somehow talked ourselves into believing that the rain would stay south of our Fort Custer ride. But the rain came down hard as we drove south in Harv's manly Mazda minivan. Again, we hoped the rain would miss Fort Custer and kept driving. We were encouraged that the rain did stop and, upon arriving at the trailhead parking lot, unloaded and looked forward to a great morning of mountain biking.

The rain started slowly after about 10 minutes of riding and continued for most of the morning. Even when the rain stopped, you can see from the photos that the trail ride was a slickfest. Can you name those legs? When will we grow up? Lunch at Nina's in Augusta was great, as usual.

For more photos, click on PHOTOS link on the left and look for the Fort Custer 2008 album.

Eric & Jamie are married Saturday, July 5

Eric & Jamie were married at Above & Beyond in Muskegon in a awesome outdoor ceremony with beautiful weather. The reception was great. The food was great, too. Thanks for a great time. It was a lot of fun considering no bikes were involved!

Eric & Jamie, we wish you the best in your new life together. We'll miss you. Eric, join us for a couple more rides before heading to Florida.

More photos of the wedding & reception will soon be at the PHOTOS link to the left.

CSGA, June 30, 2008

It was a great ride on Cannonsburg State Game Area (Egypt Valley) this past Monday. It was Eric's last ride as a single Dirt"Dad". We celebrated with a cookout of brats, chicken, and hot dogs. Senior Dirt Dad JP at the grill. At left is Josh, Bob, Brad, JP, Harv, Eric, Brian, & Tim.

North Carolina 2008 Trip

And so it begins... 5 men ( Rusty, Bob, Brad, Tim and Eric), 5 bikes, and one ever-so-soft purple velvety liberator pillow. Heading to Pisgah NF and Dupont SF in Brevard, NC for some killer mountain biking, beautiful scenery, relaxation and good times. Arriving on 4.24.08 we set up camp and rode Cove Creek (Caney Bottoms) trail then had lunch and rode Black Mountain. For Day 2 we spent the entire day riding Dupont and rode MANY trails. On Saturday we rode Daniel Ridge (minus Bob for bike repairs). Daniel Ridge was a blast with an amazing waterfall at the end. On Sat. afternoon Bob, Tim, and Rusty took an extended tour of Black Mountain, Shelter Ridge and Avery Creek which we have video from. Over 90 miles total with lots of elevation climbs and crazy downhills. Rusty coined the catch phrase of the trip "Nuggets Down, Nuts Up." Check the photos out here.

Test time

Take this test: http://video.bicycling.com/item/PDTY62LZ7LXFMLBJ

Comments & Spam

The Biking Flurries post below was posted yesterday (with a photo) but I deleted and re-entered it today. I'll add the photo back in tonight from my home computer. Why did I do this? Because somebody apparently attached a comment which started a "virus scan" program. Even if it was legitimate, we don't need random advertisements attached to post comments. I upped the security level on the blog settings and turned on a code verification to block automatic spam. If you have a problem, leave a message at dirtdads@yahoo.com or at my personal email (you probably know it).
Dirt Dad HP

Biking Flurries

Tim & I took a 21-mile spin Sunday afternoon in the cloudy, 20-something temperatures. We had a few snow flurries during the ride, too. The joints were stiff and I'm not talking about the bikes. Toes & fingertips started to freeze but was a good way to beat back some winter blahs. Tell us about your recent ride. We all need the encouragement, right?
Dirt Dad HP

No ICEMAN? Doh!

As VanDirt was first to point out, NONE of the Dirt Dads made it into the 2008 Iceman lottery registration (http://www.iceman.com/). So what's the alternative? More local (free) rides or race alternative(s)?

There's Chain Drive (www.chaindrive.org) at my college alma mater. See Houghton city & MTU photo below. There's a Moab opportunity in October, right, Marc? See Fun Promotions at the left, too. Submit your ideas & choices.

Dirt Dad Jr. (HP)

Rolling in the Snow...

Hey! The past couple of "warm-ish" days have been kinda nice to get out between the precipitation and tool around a bit. Here are my tracks this morning coming out of the garage.

Did that darn groundhog see his shadow this year?!

No biking? Snow biking!

Yesterday after shoveling the ice berm that the county snow plows formed at the base of my driveway, I contemplated what JP told me just a few hours earlier: that the ski was clear & crisp and about a year ago he enjoyed a winter ride on some snow-packed gravel road. I suppose since JP is still getting around on crutches after his hip surgery, he's especially thinking about the joy of riding again as soon as possible. It will be awhile for him to ride but the thought stayed with me, too. Yesterday evening was a carbon copy of that evening so after the driveway was chipped and cleared I pulled the Rockhopper from its hook in the garage and ventured out on the almost deserted streets of my neighborhood. It felt good to pedal again. Just to prove I was really out there I rode over to Tim's even though it was only about a mile to his condo and back. I announced to a surprised Tim that "Biking season is officially open!" I cranked out an impressive 2 miles or so total, somewhat timid to go much farther since I didn't have a single light or reflector on me or the bike.

Come on guys, top this! It shouldn't be too hard. Just some encouragement for you. And, yes, spring is coming but ride now, even if it's inside.

HP

sick of winter

I was looking at some old North Carolina pictures to take my mind off the fact that I have to shovel my driveway for the third time today. Does anyone besides me want to go? We should have a get together to make some plans.

VANDIRT

p.s. Bob and I were thinking about a ski day if any dirtdads would like to be a snowdad for a day let me know

JP gets new hardware!

I think most of you know that Dirt Dad Sr. (JP) just had hip surgery. It took longer than planned but was a success. Contact JP or HP for details.

It will be a few months before JP can hit the trails again. Probably about the time the rest of us get out there, right?

Dirt Dad Jr. (HP)