I Bet You Don't Have One of These

Its a vampire penguin dinosaur snowman. He's a piece of custom, handcrafted snow badness brought to you by Allie and Dad Productions.



You wanna know why his head is so small? I'll tell ya why, - 'cuz its a penguin, that's why. Yeah, and we didn't have a carrot, so a wedge of cheddar cheese happens to look more like a beak than a nose, so.....penguin.



Oh and the vampire/dinosaur inspiration came from trying to secure black olives in place with toothpicks for a more traditional looking snowman mouth, but it didn't work so we were left with toothpick fangs and horns.





Attention all wanna-be's and posers: our snowman kicks your snowman's frosty behind.



Brrrr Out.

Bears Can Hibernate If They Want

I'm gonna hike and bike all winter. Well, at least I can talk tough as long as it stays above 10 degrees.

Currently I've got a pretty good streak going for getting out into the great outdoors. I rode Tuesday at the Center and Wednesday at Ahquabi. Even though I didn't make it out to the Turkey Day Ride I did manage a jaunt around Easter on Thanksgiving and on Friday I made it back out to Center.

On the flipside of my good streak I've been having a bad run of mechanical problems. Tuesday I rode my cross bike at the Center. Toward the end of my ride I ran across Squirrel who took me on a tour of his new accoutrements in the aptly named Squirrel's Nest trail. We parted ways after our loop and I decided to do a quick loop of the Rhythm trail. Barely 100 yards into it a stick got jammed into the rear derailleur, shearing it off and bending the hanger. Since its not a replaceable hanger I'm going to need some bike wizardry outta Rassy's to fix it. I'm pretty confident it can be done, but a bent hanger is just a sick thing. I had kinda decided I was going to sell the Poprad in favor of another cross bike with a smaller frame, more friendly gearing and disc brakes. Now, its definitely going to go.

The other problems pale in comparison but I had a flat at Ahquabi and had a stick knock the Trek's rear brakes completely off kilter on Friday. I had to finish the ride sans rear brakes - you really kinda need those. Biking, as with most things I guess, is something you occasionally have to remind yourself this is fun.

Saturday I decided to give my poor bikes a break and take Trail Dog on another snowy adventure. We went to Yellow Banks Park just outside of Runnells. This is a interesting little park I first discovered early last spring. It sits on some bluffs above the Des Moines River. There are several short hiking trails. Its too bad they don't connect to give you any good distance, but the topography is pretty awesome. There's lots of ravines and creekbeds to cross, with plenty of good opportunities to bushwhack and scramble.



My camera didn't have much of a charge and I took way too many pictures early in the trip so when I got to some more interesting stuff the batteries were dead.





Trail Dog found a couple of spots that smelled so dern gude he had to just lay down and roll in it. It was probably deer pee or something.









I'm working on a little training with Capt'n. I will drop the leash and let him wander just a little but if he gets too far from me I can step on the leash or get him to stop with my Big Bad Dad voice (it is a powerful weapon). He's actually doing really well. Its funny, he's so excited he wants to go-go-go but he's also soooo happy to be out he'll do whatever you want. I don't think I'll ever be to the point where I would trust him off leash, but it would be nice to feel confident he won't bolt at the first opening.



The soaking we were getting ended our day a little prematurely. I'm going to have to start taking a pack for longer hikes. Only 2.8 miles, although it seemed like more. There's some big ravines out dar, trust me.

We'll be back. I might need snowshoes next time.

Trail Dog Visits Brown's Woods

Many moons ago, when I first started mountain biking, we liked our music dark and grungy, our beer cheap and plentiful and our women......well, you just nevermind about that.

We also liked to roll our knobby tires through Brown's Woods. Then one day mountain bikers weren't welcome there anymore; it seems the soil was "sensitive to erosion". I suppose erosion might be the issue but I've always suspected it might also have something to do with the Geritol Nation users having their delicate sensibilities disturbed by our two wheeled abhorations.

Trail Dog in transit



I hadn't been back there since being banished. It started snowing just as we arrived. How great is that?



I have found that if I walk slow enough to take a picture Trail Dog tends to pee on things, If I wanted to I could start a separate "Things I've Peed On" blog for Captain sometime...yeah, or maybe not.



We did a little off trail creek crossing and bushwhacking too 'cuz we're bad like-that.



Trail dog drank from the creek because that's what rugged beasts do.



After hiking and some light trail running we came across the only other user I would see all day, an older lady with a bushy little lap dog.



When she saw us she stopped to put a leash on her dog. I approached very slowly to let her get it on, but she was struggling quite a bit with it. "Is your dog friendly?" She suddenly screeched, her shrillness shattering the snowy silence (alliteration - sahweet).

"Yep, he's fine" I raised my hand - palm forward - in the international "it's cool, so chill" sign.

As we near she raises the terror alert to orange, "Are you sure he's friendly?!" "Ah, yeah, I am."

She got the leash on her furball right when the dogs got nose-to-nose. The bushy little spaz chuffed and spun away and the lady immediately dropped the leash. "Oh, well, my dog is a little afraid..."
"Okay, sorry"

Thanks for the drama, Shrilly McClain, but we'll be movin' on now, you're killin' our nature buzz. As I continued up the trail I thought to myself, "Oh yeah, now I remember why mountain bikers are not out here anymore."

Anywho, the hiking was still a barrel o' fun. There's a short front loop and a longer back loop, we did both twice, so I figgerin' it was about 4 miles.





Its pretty hilly and so it was a good workout too. Trail Dog was so wiped he needed a boost to get his leadbutt in the SUV.

It was awesome. It won't be 20 years before I go back again.