Team Ride

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Sunday I pedaled out with the Bicycle Team I joined in January.  It was the first time I rolled out with the other members.  There were about 12 of us riding two by two for most of the ride up to Highland Park.  All of the riders met at the Damen Brown Line stop around 9:15am.  After we decided that we had everyone that was coming we hit the road cruising north up Damen towards Evanston where we met up to Sherridan Rd and hit that up to Green Bay Rd where a group of us including me got on it for a sprint into Highland Park.  The route ended at Perfect Blend Coffee where another crew of cyclists were already hanging out.  It must be a popular route because there were plenty of cyclists riding through town.  We didn't stay long before we were back on the pedal monsters heading back to Chicago.  I was on my "Go Fast" bike which is what I call my Specialized Allez Pro from the late 90's.  Mine was certainly the oldest bike there and I knew it would be so I dolled it up the night before with some fresh grip tape, tires and a new saddle I'd been meaning to swap for some time now.  There was a brand spanking new Giant in the mix and the rear wheel got up close and personal to a pothole on the way back.  The pothole won.  Not only did the rider get a flat but she broke a spoke too.  By the end of the ride the rear wheel had a nice little wobble.  The plan was to head right back to the shop she purchased it at to warranty it out.  I hope it all goes smoothly for her.  What a bummer.  On a positive note the weather was great, around 45°, and the crew was topps.  The ride was pretty social.  There was talk about racing but it wasn't too technical.  It was more on the theme of what races and in what towns everyone was interested in.  Shop talk was minimal.  Don't get me wrong I like talking "bikes" but if that is all we have in common it could get old quick and that was really not the case.  The route wrapped up around 1:15pm with about 40 miles behind us and I felt great by the end.  Oh and I think there was a football game on later that night.     

The Versatile Blogger

So there is a little award thing going around that has found it way to me. Its called The Versatile Blogger and as far back as I have traced it I don't see too many other dudes who have received it so consider me flattered two times.  I have made two friends that started with brief in-person interaction and carried on ten fold by way of writing.  A pen pal you could say.  My Kiwi friend Susie whose emails brought me to England and New Zealand to visit.  I was also able to show her Chicago a few times.  The other keeps the blog Existimatio which I link to off to the side of this site.  Her comments are always welcome surprises and they encourage me to write more often.  She has tossed the nomination to Medio-Core Chicago.  Apparently there are rules involved such as 7 things about me and nomination to other blogs.  Its a little like those "forward this to a million people" things but Ill bite.

Thanks Theresa.

These are the rules:

1. Nominate 15 bloggers for the award.  
2.  In the same post, add the award.
3. Thank the blogger that nominated you, and give the link back to their blog.
4. Share 7 random things about yourself.
5. Include the rules in the post.
6. Inform every blogger that you nominated of their nomination by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. At nine years old I flew over my bicycle handle bars and chipped my two front teeth.
2. I still want to be an Astronaut.
3. Airport bars are my favorite. 
4. I pinned a microphone on George Lucas.
5. In the summer of 2004 I was in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, by way of land, within 7 days.
6. I love a good junk yard.
7. I used to drive a John Deere Tractor for a living.

The whole 15 blogs thing aint gonna happen. My variation:  These are the newest blogs I'm paying attention to.

Biking in Tandem 
Schwartzography
Semi-Rad.com

Snow Shoe Action at LaBagh Froest Preserve.

The snow started falling Friday morning and there was about a 8-10 inches by the time it was all done with about 6 of that on the streets by the time I got out of work.  My bike ride to the happy hour at the Empty Bottle was quite the journey.  Milwaukee Ave which is one of main routes to the north western neighborhoods was jam packed with cars and my bike was fishtailing like crazy.  Once I got to the intersection of Ogden and Milwaukee the cars were gridlocked.  I maneuvered my bike through and it was a beautiful sight.  For a mile and a half to Augusta st. not one car came up behind me I had the road all to myself.  Quite the experience.  The night ended at the California Clipper which was a nice respite from the Alberta Clipper which gave us the snow and biting cold.

With a bit of a late start and a gift certificate to REI burning a hole in my pocket I headed out to purchase some snow shoes to have some fun in the powder that had fallen.  I had rented the MSR EVOs a year or two back to hike the Indiana Dunes and had a blast.  However I ended up going with the Atlas Snowfall.   The EVOs have some really heavy duty crampons and serrated edges which make them more suited for glacier summits.  Well I don't know if you noticed but the glaciers left the Midwest at the end of the Ice Age.  I'm a big fan of buying gear for what you do not what you want to do.  These Atlas shoes are light and ridiculously simple.  There is no hinge just a piece of thick vinyl that flexes with your foot.  K2 is the parent company and not over engineering the shoe let them drop money on a great binding system.  Any how they are cheap and light and perfect for what you can get into on the occasional snow dump in the flat-lands.


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I tried them out at LaBagh Forest Preserve. I took my mountain bike out there this summer and it lends itself to snowshoeing and cross country skiing perfectly.  By the time I got there the sun was setting and the snow was still fluffy.  It made for some great pictures of the Chicago River.  I rode the bike there with the shoes hanging out of my panniers.  I love the fact that I was able to do the whole day on two wheels.  Enjoy the pics.

This whole family was CC Skiing.  I got to get in on that next time.

 

Of Beer and Bikes

A few years back when my brother was getting hitched I phoned up a local brewery, Half Acre Beer Co., to give us and his buddies a tour.  They had just opened up in the neighborhood of North Center and didn't even have an official tour but they were happy to pour us some brews and give us a spiel.  Having been on a number of brew tours this one stands out as one of the best.  One of the owners led the tour and it was mostly about how they run a small business.  It was a nice break from the old standby of ingredients and process talk.  The beer was great and the dudes working there were super cool.   Immediately I knew that I wanted to live within walking distance and that this was going to be my new neighborhood.  When my lease was up later that year that's exactly what happened.  Breweries and churches used to be town anchors in fact North Center was originally called St. Ben's due to the huge church in town.  Prohibition put a stop to the brewery and it seems that only now the local brewery is coming back to communities.  I mean it when I say communities too.  When I fill up my growler I ride my bike though the bay door and rest it against a wall of the inside of the brewery and I might hang out for a while before pedaling off.  Much to my excitement I found out they sponsor a bicycle team.  With my bicycle crew no longer in Chicago I was in dyer need for people to ride with, so when my friend Laurie from work said she joined Half Acre Cycling, I asked her to put in a good word for me.  Much to my surprise she sponsored me to join.   Within a month I became a member.  I have raced in exactly one criterium and that is the extent of my competitive cycling.  I have now committed myself to 7 races this year.  I figured a few road, mountain, and possibly cyclo-cross too should make for a fun year.   Hitching my wagon to this brewery has been coming up aces for sure. 

Cascade Mountain Dec 31-Jan 1

Jenny, Me, Colleen, Rachelle, Steve.  Taking some turns at Cascade.

Seven of the last ten years I have brought in the new year by skiing.  It started as my first introduction to my career as a ski bum when I rang in the new century.  Since resort life meant work would be mandatory on the 1st, getting blotto drunk was out of the question.  This has led to a sober start to the upcoming 365 as a byproduct.  Now I can't imagine a better way to start the year.  I get the holiday off now and I commit myself to something physical as a celebration of the new year, to start things off right so to say.  I figure I'd rather look forward to the new year instead of hating life nursing a hangover all day.  The years that I couldn't get out to the mountains I dragged out the mountain bike and got in some single track.  Some years, just as this year, I drove up to Wisconsin to enjoy the Midwest's down hill skiing.  The crew this time around were my friends Steve and Rachelle. Rachelle was learning to ski for their upcoming Colorado ski trip (which makes me infinitely jealous).  Along with two other gals, Colleen and Jenny.  We chose Cascade Mountain which is in Portage, WI. within 3hrs of driving its the best skiing option in my opinion.  They had plenty of man made snow.  Talking to some of the folks on the chairlift they said it is the best snow of all the Wisconsin resorts.  Cascade had fireworks at 8pm on New Years Eve so we stuck around to see them, then headed into town for dinner and drinks.  The bar we chose to countdown to midnight was a local hang out for sure, it was clear that none of us graduated from the local high school.  The night was spent at a Super 8 off the highway and they had a gangbusters continental breakfast for getting us ready to ski a second day.  My buddy's wife really picked up the two sticks on her feet by the end of the second day and we hit the road early enough to get back to Chicago by 7pm.       

Rachelle, Steve and Me

I took the opportunity to see how the helmet cam works in the snow. Enjoy!

Timothy H. O'Sullivan: The King Survey Photographs

Currently on view at the Art Institute of Chicago is the exhibit of Timothy H. O'Sullivan: The King Survey Photographs.  O'Sullivan cut his teeth in photography by documenting the civil war for Mathew Brady.  After the war his field photography skills led him to succeed outside the studio and naturally he became a Survey Photographer.  Never again will the intersection of adventure, science, art, and naturalist meet so symbiotically.  Such is the life of of the westward expansion era survey photographer.  These photographs were taken at the same time as John Muir's first visit to the Sierra Nevada. Some even predate Muir's exit from the Midwest.  O'Sullivan was brought to the Fortieth Parallel by Clarence King to survey the area for industrial development.  Gritty views of Mono Lake, Donner Pass, Pyramid Lake, and the Wasatch Mountains hang on the gallery walls alongside images of the mining and railroad industry and geothermal formations.  These photographs captivate the eye as much as the imagination.

 

 

The exhibit is on view until Jan, 15 2012.

Highlights of 2011

The year is just about in the books and it was so full of change it made my head spin.  Lousy PHD programs took another one of my closest friends across the country.  So there was one less number to call for last minute trips which led to a lot of solo mountain bike rides and tamer outings.  I hit up the Honky Tonk Happy Hour after work on Fridays like it was my job and found a whole new family of Honky Tonkers.  When I needed a break from it all there was always the baseball diamond.  I went to more baseball games than I ever have in a single season in 2011, and had a winning streak that lasted until the final game I went to.  My record of attended White Sox games ended at 6-1.

Opportunity came knocking more than once, I climbed Camel Back Mountain at dawn outside of Phoenix, AZ.  There was more climbing with the Chicago Mountaineering Club, I went to Devils lake 3 times, my cousin invited me on a 4 day fishing trip to Lake Clinton (I still have never caught a fish) and took a trip out to Yosemite that really got my head right.   I saw the sun rise and set all over the country.  My GoPro Hero Helmet Camera became my favorite piece of gear.  I documented my morning commute, cross country mountain biking, rock climbing and anything else that caught my eye.  I saw some amazing art and some great rock shows.  

By the numbers I spent a total of 11 days sleeping with my head in the dirt, climbed 30 pitches with 5 days on the rock,  3 days of skiing, 0 powder days.   I was on a bike around 300 days this year with an estimated 5500 miles of pavement behind me. 7 White Sox games and 2 Cubs games.

The year started off with a blizzard that shut down the whole city.

Lake Michigan right after the blizzard.

This sunset photo took me so far from my back porch where it was taken.

A happy day with Dr. Vincent Pham who was bound for sunny California.

One of many Chicago White Sox winners including my first Opening Day.

A fog on the lakefront path.

Go Go White Sox.

My Go Pro helmet camera mounted on my touring bike.

May Arizona trip to visit with Chris and his wife Kassie. 

Top of Camel Back Mt. AZ.

The "L" ride home on the Orange Line.  The end of my AZ. trip.

Go Pro Rig on my MTB.

4th of July with Melissa. 
I took this picture after every White Sox winner it was my good luck charm.
Ozzie would leave the team come the season's end.

The Beer and Crew for Tour de Fat.
 I love it when the mountain culture comes to me.

The Bikes.

The Ballyhoo.

Devils lake.  One of many trips.

Brendan leading my first multi-pitch climb in Yosemite National Park.

Atop Tenaya Peak in Tuolomne Meadows in Yosemite National Park.

California Sunset.

Brendan and me atop Cathedral Peak.  It was bad ass.

The Honky Tonkers got out of the bar and went on the road to the Homer days Harvest Festival.

At summers end this sunset appeared over the Yorkville Days festival grounds.

A day a of hiking at Devils Lake Wisconsin.

I never quite saw the park like this before.

Magic Hour atop the East Bluff Trail.

Wisconsin Dells.

Best Halloween costume ever.  Aron Ralston anyone?

 

The best Thanksgiving turkey fry in all of Chicago had me keeping the beat into the night with Steve and Jonathan. 

I did a lot of living this year. Here's to next year's adventures.