The rain and storms have wrecked our trail. We fought it for a while, but now we have lost the handle on the trail completely. There are dozens of trees down, lots of water damage and all kinds of overgrowth. I was so excited to move to a house along the trail where I could literally ride ride out of my door and straight to the trail, but so far I have been able to ride the trail only once in the two months we have lived here. The neighbor that owns most of the land the trail is on has been talking about logging his property. Logging always makes a mess, so I'm not excited for that to begin. About five weeks ago he told me it was set to begin in a few days, but nothing has happened yet so I'm hoping he changed his mind.
The garden has been weird this year, but we have fought hard and are starting to see some results from that hard work and determination. It was dry when we planted our already weak plants after they were raised in small containers for far too long during the move. The dry made transplanting and seeding difficult. Then it rained like mad, washing away some of the seeds and small plants, water logging others and providing plenty of grow juice for the weeds. It's been such a weird spring and summer. We are trying out some plants this year like Swiss chard, habanero peppers and Chinese cabbage. The cabbage has been coming in faster than we can eat it. It's a longer walk up a hill to get to the garden now, but at least we have plenty of nice flowers to look at along the way.
Head of Chinese cabbage, also called Napa cabbage
We have not let the move and the weather change our plans though. I have been giving away much of our produce over the past three years. People love it and many have said we should open up our own farm to sell veggies. After a lot of thinking about it, we decided this year was as good a time as any to do just that. As of July 1, Sweetwater Farms is open. Our goal is to provide homegrown veggies at a reasonable price. I'm only going to sell my extras as the main goal of the garden is to feed our family. I love giving away our veggies too, so I'm not sure how much I will really sell. Maybe none. I will give my family, friends and neighbors anything they need. If anything, I hope to make enough money to pay for seeds and plants for next year's harden. It can be quite expensive to get some good varieties. We have a Blogger site at sweetwaterfarmstn.blogspot.com and a Facebook page. My plan is to post what is available and people can call, email or message us to claim what they want. I'll pick it when they are ready to pick it up so it's as fresh as possible. Simple as that. If any of my bike friends want anything, I'll even bring it to the race for you. We won't be having a roadside stand as we just don't have the time to do that with our regular jobs and all the weekends we are traveling.
As for the name, it comes from a place in Wyoming Shannon and I liked during our trip last year. We were already planning the farm and thinking about names. We liked the area and the name, so we brought it home with us. There is a Sweetwater, TN, but it is far away from here, so no connection there if you east Tennesseans were wondering.
In addition to veggies we have herbs and Black Soldier Fly Grubs. You are probably wondering what the heck Black Soldier Fly Grubs are and why I would have them. The grubs are eating machines, which makes them great for compost. That's what I use them for. They form compost about as fast as I can put my food scraps into the barrel. And they greatly reduce the smell of rotting compost without the need to turn it. They are also very rich in calcium and protein, making them perfect for feeding reptiles and birds. If you have ever owned a lizard for a pet, you know how important calcium is in their diet. The grubs also make excellent fish bait. I caught a lot of fish on them last year.
We discovered the grubs by accident when we left a bowl of blackberries I had just picked on the counter on a weekend we were traveling. When we came home, the blackberries were moving with worms. I tossed them in the compost and in a few weeks we had hundreds of the little guys and discovered they can be quite helpful. Most people think they are gross, but I don't mind them. They do a great job with the compost and need no maintenance other than you to keep adding food scraps to the compost pile. The grubs have two life stages. They start as "immature grubs" which are in what is called the eating phase where all they do is eat and grow. Once they are fully grown, they become "mature grubs" and stop eating. They start "wandering," which is basically looking for a place to safely turn into a fly. They lose their mouth parts and replace them with suckers that allow them to climb. Once they find a suitable place to lay, they morph inside their skin into a Black Soldier Fly, sort of like a caterpillar changes into a butterfly inside a cocoon. The goal as a fly is to mate and lay eggs, usually returning to the same compost pile where they were born to lay their own eggs. Basically, they keep replenishing the colony without you having to do anything! That's what I'm talking about! Anyway, I will sell some of mine to anyone that wants them as I have literally thousands in my compost pile right now, making me some nice, rich dirt for next year's garden. You can use them to start your own compost, feed your pets or go fishing. The choice is yours.
Cup of Black Soldier Fly Grubs
I was to end my June with a trip to Cincinnati for the Hyde Park Blast weekend, but I felt I needed training instead as I still have not been getting to ride much since the move. I honestly have not had a good week of training since Chickasaw. That was in March! It's amazing that I have ridden so well and continue to get faster. I spent the weekend and a few more days putting in some big miles. I had a seven day block of some tough road rides. Six of those days were by myself. I tried to ride them at race pace with some speed, long efforts and accelerations on climbs. At the end of the week of training, I did a group ride to really hurt my legs and then a time trial the final day. We called it my "Home Giro." I had a lot of fun doing it and was surprised to feel so good every day. I explored some new roads in the southern part of Cheatham County where I found some new climbs that made me hurt. I got rained on two days, but it felt good on the hot days so I didn't mind too much other than it killed my Praxis bottom bracket in the Jamis.
Storms clouds rolling in on my toughest day. I got soaked for the last 20 miles.
We also spent some time on the house during this off weekend. We have lived here two months now and renovation is still underway. It has slowed dramatically since we moved in. We were getting sort of burned out by the time the move was over and the help we did have has pretty much disappeared as they are afraid they will be in our way now that we live in the house. We are still changing over wall sockets and light switches, and are in the middle of painting the kitchen cabinets and drawers. After we get the cabinets done, we are replacing some doors, putting in a new water heater and a new floor in the kitchen. So much to do, so little time.
I've started on the outside as the roof and gutters need to be cleaned. I don't think they have been cleaned in several years and are stopped up in places which has not been good considering how much rain we have had lately. But it has been storming so often that I have not had much time to actually get on the roof and get the job done. I did fix a set of stepping stones around the back of the house. There was a set that went to nowhere, so I moved them all over to line up with the back stairs and then redid the landscaping. I used plants from the woods to give it a touch of a mountain bike theme, then surrounded the stones with some fresh wood chips I found piled up behind the garage.
Our new home, a work in progress
We have had more animals here than we ever did on the Clark Farm. Being more in the woods opens the door for lost of new animal life. I have seen the biggest spiders here that I have seen in my entire life. We have seen three that were the size of my open hand. I did not know Tennessee had such creatures. There's plenty of frogs and lizards which don't bother anything and are helping to keep the bug population in check. The neighbor has a nice pond next to us, but with a pond comes mosquitoes. Luckily, there are plenty of bats to eat them up. The squirrels have been the most problematic. At first we had one, then two, then three. They discovered our bird feeder and figured out how to do some acrobatics to get to the feed despite it hanging off a slick metal pole. They are smart, but very annoying. They ate our bird feeders, ran off all the birds and now are eating my strawberries. Not just the berries, but the whole plants.
Dang squirrels
We had no plans for the July 4th weekend, but I was itching to race somewhere after the off weekend. After scouring the internet for an event, I found that the DINO Series in Indiana was having a weekend of racing in North Vernon, IN at Muscatatuck Park. I have never raced a DINO Series event and have heard good things about the series. Now seemed like a good time to try it out.
There was racing both days of the weekend. Saturday started with the DINO Challenge Short Track, which was the Indiana Short Track State Championship. Later in the afternoon was a Downhill competition, also the Indiana State Championship. Sunday was an XC race. I finally found a new carbon seatpost to replace the Specialized post I now despise. After some research, I decided on getting the Ritchey WCS Carbon Trail post. Ritchey components are always good quality. I run a carbon WCS seatpost on my road bike right now. This post is actually lighter than the stock Specialized post, so I'm also trimming some weight. Ricthey claims World Champion Nino Schurter uses this post. If it's good enough for Nino, it's good enough for me!
When the post arrived, I was skeptical. The mount was not like what I was expecting. I guess I didn't look at the photo very good. It did not look much better than the Specialized style of clamp. It has a curved top on the post that has a sliding clamp attached to it. I tried to make it move in my warm-up, but was unable to get any movement out of it. I guess it's stronger than it looks.
I signed up for all three events, bringing only my Epic. I figured it would be sufficient for the Downhill. I was expecting a course similar to the Air Downhill at BUMP. The Short Track was first on the agenda. It was a good mountain bike course, offering both singletrack and open grass track. It started on a flat grass section that made a 180-degree left turn into the singletrack. After a short descent, the trail made a hard, off-camber left followed by a steep climb back up to the grass for a brief open section before more singletrack. This piece of trail was longer and more technical with two rooty sections before it dumped you back out into the grass with a sweeping 180-degree left. Then came a long straight in the grass with multiple lines options around a few trees. Two turns and a couple of small ditches came just before the tight finish chute. It was a fast, but tough course.
Here's a few pictures from the early races:
Race distance for the Pro/Expert Men's race was 30 minutes plus two laps. That is pretty long for a short track these days, but a good length for Pro/Expert in my opinion. It was a really fast race and the course provided little time for recovery. I got the hole-shot out of a group of eight starters. I led for a lap before the first real attack of the race. I followed the move, but then had my seat tilt down in the first turn of the second lap. That was probably the closest to me screaming out a bunch of expletives during a race as you will ever get with me. I could not believe this brand new, world champion post that refused to move during my warm-up was moving!
Took the hole-shot and led lap 1
Two laps later, Upland Brewing's Alek Minkis hit the front and cut the front group down to just four of us. Alek put in a second attack that saw him get a gap off the front. He put in several really fast laps and quickly had a 20 second gap. The three of us in the chase group then took turns attacking each other. My seat was getting worse. It was not only tilting up and down, but the post itself came loose and it began to swivel side to side and then slowly started to drop into the frame. Despite the distraction of the post, I put in two big attacks, but couldn't shake my two companions. By the time we hit the final four laps, my seatpost had dropped about a foot. I felt like I was riding a child's bike. I had to stand to put down any good effort as the seat was so low I didn't have enough leg extension to do anything seated.
Alek Minkis on the attack
My first attack to try to bridge to Minkis. Seatpost is getting lower here.
On the attack again
The other two riders began attacking each other in the final three laps and I started to slip back, finally coming off the back just before one lap to go. I finished 4th in what was the hardest short track race I have ever done. The race time was done correctly too, it was truly 30 minutes plus two laps. They did not give us two laps to go until the leader completed a lap after the 30-minute mark. That's the way it is supposed to be. Minkis hung on to his 20-second gap the rest of the race to take the win.
Seatpost is super low now with two laps to go
1 lap to go
Minkis wins
Crossing the line for 4th on a low seat that is turned off to the right. Unbelievable.
Here's a little video from the Pro/Expert Short Track:
Video: DINO Challenge Short Track
Immediately following the Short Track was Downhill practice. I went straight to the car, chunked that seatpost and put the Thomson one back in that had led me to two wins in the last two races. That was one ride too many on the Ritchey POS. The seat clamp bolt was tight and yet the seat was tilting. I guess I've just been eating too many muffins for Nino's post. The seatpost bolt had backed out some, but a little dab of loc-tite solved that problem and I had no further issues the rest of the weekend.
The Downhill course was a strange one. It was really short with the two ends of the course being polar opposites. The top was smooth and almost too easy, while the bottom was steep, nasty rock garden with a difficult drop to the finish line. They actually had two courses, one for Experts and one for everyone else. The bottom half of both were about the same. I love a good challenge, but the rocks at the bottom were an ambulance ride in the making. It was definitely not a good course for the Epic. I knew I would launch those rocks in a race situation and either me or my bike would not handle the landing. It was the first time I ever did this, but I decided not to start. I had a bad feeling about it so I listening to my gut and went for a pre-ride lap on the XC course with Shannon instead. Apparently, I was not the only one that made that decision as only one Expert rider decided to start the race, and he had a full downhill rig. Everyone else on XC bikes knew better.
The rock section that caused me to skip the Downhill.
Shannon and I had a good time on our lap. The course was very dry and very fast. It had good flow with a decent amount of climbing in the first half of the loop. The forecast was for rain on Sunday, but a little bit was not going to hurt this course. It was dusty on the descents.
The XC course included this tunnel under the road
Marshy pond along the XC course
We did some hiking along the Muscatatuck River, where there is an old rock quarry that has exposed some cliffs and other interesting rock formations. I had heard there were some fossils along the river bank. After some searching, Shannon and I found several fossils, several which appear to me to be trilobites. It was something I would never think of finding in a park in the middle of Indiana. There were also some other fish-like fossils in the loose rocks along the bank.
The Vinegar Mill area, which is where the old quarry was located.
Overlooking the Muscatatuck River
Now looking up at the Vinegar Mill. This park was originally called Vinegar Mill State Park, but then lost it's state park status and was renamed Muscatatuck Park by the city of North Vernon.
Trail by some of the rock cliffs left from the quarry work.
First fossil we found. Looks like a trilobite to me.
Small fish fossil on a rock
Almost missed this trilobite as it was partially filled in with mud
Muscatatuck River
The park also features a very old one-room schoolhouse.
We camped at the race site in our tent. I bought some sealant after the tent leaked on us at BUMP. It has been a few years since we sealed the tent, so we sprayed the entire outside and also coated the seams with a separate seam sealant. The rain arrived earlier than expected and tested our tent throughout the night. It rained lightly from dusk until the early morning hours, then changed to a full-on downpour that continued through the race. The tent leaked, but it was not any more than it did at BUMP and this rain was much harder. I'm usually super excited for a muddy race, but this one had the potential to be a survival run in deep mud as a lot of rain had come down by the time we lined up for the start. I was not happy about putting my Epic through this. So much for the dry, dusty course we rode on Saturday.
Our setup for the night
This stray cat hung out with us until the rain came
There were four Pro riders on hand. Our race was originally scheduled for four laps on the six-mile course, but we were reduced to three laps for obvious reasons. I was not feeling great after the short track, still feeling the effects of my 21-hour training week. I started slow and was last into the woods. After the first descent, I was in the groove. I realized everyone was struggling around me and that I could have a good ride without feeling spectacular.
The course had most of the hills in the first section. Then it flattened out before some small rollers and then a couple of bigger climbs to the finish. There are many road crossings and spots where the trails are close together, making it a good place for spectators. And there were many on course despite the terrible conditions.
I moved up to third in the hilly sections and was about 15 seconds behind the two leaders, Tomasz Golas and Rick Mezo. I pushed hard on the twisting trails around the campground, but couldn't get them in sight. I saw Shannon at the halfway mark of the first lap. She seemed confused when I asked her how far ahead the leaders were, which made me a little frustrated. I was riding like a maniac and I could not believe that they were still out of sight. I kept pushing, but never saw anybody the rest of the lap. As I came through the finish to complete lap 1, I heard the announcer say I was the leader. Now I understood why Shannon was confused. But how did I get the lead? It turns out the two leaders had turned right at the second road crossing instead of left. They got it figured out quickly, but I went flying by in the meantime and was 15 seconds ahead of them. The whole time I was riding my guts out thinking I was behind! I'm not sure how they missed the turn as the course was very well marked.
In front, but I had no idea at this point
I backed off starting lap 2. I knew I couldn't hold that pace for two more laps, so I took advantage of having a bit of a cushion and back off. Golas and Mezo caught me about halfway through lap 2. I felt I was climbing like a stone, but I was still able to hold them off in the hills. Golas attacked me immediately, with Mezo coming by as well. They really upped the pace, but I was able to hang with them until the final climb on the loop when we got into lapped traffic. We caught three Cat. 2 women on the hill in a rooty section. Golas wasted no time in passing them, not giving them much room as he flew past. They were wobbly when Mezo came by and then fell in front of me. I had to pick my way through the bodies of upset riders. Golas was on the gas at this point and really gapped both Mezo and myself.
A rider on lap 2
The rain was really coming down as we started lap 3. Golas had 15 seconds over Mezo, with me at 25 seconds. I thought I was done. I had been riding off their wheel on the climbs and with nothing to pace off of now, I did not think I could still ride at that pace. But I caught Mezo on the first downhill and then passed him at the top of the second climb, getting a nice gap on the next descent. I then set out for Golas who was now up 40 seconds. Passing Mezo gave me a spike in confidence and put me back on rails. At first I was trying to secure 2nd place, but then I got a time check of 30 seconds. I was gaining on the leader. I had a lot of traffic to deal with, but I kept pushing hard and kept eating up that gap. I could see Golas on the final climb, but just ran out of time. I would have to settle for 2nd just 11 seconds behind. Mezo faded the final lap, but held on for 3rd place. Our lap times were very fast for such a muddy race. The first lap I completed in under 30 minutes, which was faster than most of the locals expected us to run in the dry. This course is fast, even when wet!
Golas leads with 1/4 of a lap to go
I gave it all I had to pull Golas back
Half a mile to go for me
Post-race mud beard
The DINO Series does their awards by age group, but payout is for the overall, like most running events do their cash prizes. The Series pays well, is very organized and had good turnout. I was very pleased with my first DINO experience and am sure I will be back for more very soon. We have some video footage of the XC below if you want to see a little muddy action.
Men's Overall podium
Video: Muddy day at DINO North Vernon
On the way home, the weather cleared up and we took the long route home to explore some new areas and enjoy the beautiful day. We stopped by Nolin Lake & Dam in Kentucky. We attempted to drive across Mammoth Cave National Park, but got stopped at a ferry crossing over the Green River. Our car was too low with the bike rack sticking out of the back and we could not clear the steep transition on and off of the ferry, so we had to backtrack back by Nolin Lake. We didn't get to see as much scenery as we hoped, but we did find a nice mom & pop ice cream shop between there and home which made everything better. Now it's time to go clean every nook of my bike, see how many bearings the mud has destroyed and set the tent up again so it can dry out. It's been a rough year of camping thus far.
Nolin Lake from Moutardier Recreation area
Nolin Lake Dam off Hwy 728
Pontoon party in the cove
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