I am glad to hear jimmmuller is back in the saddle again!
I was out playing in the woods for a couple of hours today
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...d/P1010207.jpg
…with these mud puppies
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+1 Wow, northbend! Great pics and ride in Maui. Spectacular!

Variant of an old joke:
How do you recognize a happy mtb'er?
By the mud in his teeth.

An absolutely stunning day! I rode 70 miles, lazily, taking a lot of long breaks, just to watch the day go by.
http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/...astride007.jpg
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mango tree in bloom

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Looks like a great day seedsbelize. I'd love to ride there someday

Yup, you know it's a good day when you have to use the garden hose to wash off afterwards. pretty darn cold though..

Last day in Napa before the rains came...
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...9/P1010591.jpg
A photo op if ever there was one, the celeste gate at Pope Valley school.
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...9/P1010596.jpg

November to March is perfect, almost every day. That was my first longish ride in over a month, so was more special. Let me know when you're coming down.

Jim, you best get well soon. That's an order!! :) Pass on my greetings to your sweetie, from both me and my better half.

Looks like some pretty country out there w1xq!

Well, given I've not been in this thread for a couple weeks, it is great to see lots of activity still going on. :) Keep 'em rolling folks!

I had the day off today, so in between getting my hair cut and some christmas errands I was able to get a 33 mile ride in on the Cinellli.

It was warm at about 48 degrees and foggy with some drizzle.

http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/...ps93390054.jpg

confluence of two streams

http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/...psf41d2a39.jpg

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I haven't ridden the Cinelli in a few months, man it rides nice! I need to treat it to a new pair of tires.

I got a flat about 10 miles in out in Scituate and picked out a big chunk of glass. I was glad I wasn't on the De Rosa I would have wrecked my tubular for sure. A cop stopped and asked me if I was ok while I was fixing the flat which I thought was pretty cool.

It's been kind of rainy over the last week or so, but it was a beautiful day today so I left work early to put in about 30 miles on my drop-bar mtb.

Cabrillo National Monument:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8214/8...46ae42f4_b.jpg

Sunset Cliffs:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8082/8...5cf4b7c0_b.jpg

Ocean Beach:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8493/8...6d5e5892_b.jpg

Beautiful December day in Tennesse today. I took advantage of an unseasonably warm day and cranked in a bit over 32 miles on the old Fuji. That may not seem like a lot for some of you, but my previous longest ride was 21 miles. I've only been road biking for about 4 months now and my conditioning has really improved. I'm down 30 lbs since then and am feeling great and really prowd of myself. This loop was something I'd been pushing myself toward since I started. Here is the ride from my cell.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=289224

R88, nicely done!

Well, this isn't the Pacific coast nor even Tennessee, but it's what I've got. I did get to ride yesterday over lunch, about 45 minutes on the Blackstone Bikeway. Cold, windy, cloudy. Nice. A few pics. First some ducks and atmosphere:

http://users.rcn.com/jimmuller/pics/...Blackstone.jpg

And this little guy, an eastern ribbon snake. I've seen larger ones in about the same place. He was probably wondering what happened to the sun:

http://users.rcn.com/jimmuller/pics/snake.jpg

Today I got in about 35 miles, closer to home.

mainstreetexile thanks so much for posting these beautiful pics of OB and Sunset Cliffs. I lived on Sunset Cliffs Blvd. just a few blocks north of your vantage point for a couple of years way back when.

I took the new ride out for its shakedown spin. 36 km. I had high expectations for the ride quality, but those expectations were exceeded.

I did one of my common day-off rides into the city, in this case a 30 miler on my rehabbed Raleigh DL-1. Stopped at the bake shop

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...21185927_n.jpg

for a small snack

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A quick stop at the downtown Christmas tree

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On the way back, noticed the new food park is open

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And by then, it was lunch time.

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Another man with his priorities straight! Ride (and eat) on!

I'm actually getting through the holiday season reasonably flat (weight wise). Riding just enough to exercise off all those holiday treats.

A quick 10 mile loop up n over Cougar Mtn Friday after work on the Merckx. Had to get one last ride in before the Mayan doomsday end of the world.
Woke up this morning and we're still here!
whew! that was close.
Better start making ride plans for 2013 then...
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...d/P1010218.jpg

Nothing to see, just taking the 79 KIA roadbike that I've been refurbishing for a friend out on a road test to the LBS for a couple spokes for my FELT....always need some little bit here or there, only broke ONE spoke....but when ONE breaks....(this one had corrosion IN the nipple....weird!) Saw a FIBERFIX, string emergency spoke there....anyone ever try one of those? Crazy!
http://www.jensonusa.com/!9mBRy0G6wC...eplacement-Kit

In the Woods
 

Allaire State Park, a hidden treasure at the Jersey Shore. (Crappy iPhone pics). The Trails took a beating from Sandy as well.

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A Mayan drink at the end. Or for the end.

Is that the park at the end of that rails to trails path (felix...?) that starts in Mansaquan? I was on that this summer when the family was vacationing in Lavalette. Surprisingly cool area (the spur up to the area with the athletic fields was the highlight).

When I was at the park, I met a very very cool older gentleman who was a volunteer at the railroad museum there. He had a custom serrotta and something else in the back of his honda fit sized car. He went on to tell me he picked up a european racing bike when he was in europe for the war. He also mentioned his 1938 paramount track bike. The next day he was leading a group ride with the... new jersey wheelmen maybe? Anyone know who I'm talking about? I've been trying to reconnect with him, but the internet is only so useful for things like this.

If I'm back down there next summer, which is pretty unlikely considering the state of the rental houses, I'll be sure to hang out with that guy, seems like a true C&V nut- just as C&V himself as his rides.

Yes, I know the gentleman you are talking about. i believe his name is Pete and he hangs out at Brick Bikes in my home town of Brick,NJ. He helped me take off a pair of Zeus cranks, he was nice enough to grind down one of his own sockets to fit the cranks. he shared the same war stories, spoke of the Paramount and buying his first bike in England. He had the Serotta with him when I met him, facinating and nice gentleman.

As far as the park you visited, yes that was Allaire, however the good mountain bike trails are on the other side of the River from the Historic village that you probably visited. the Bike path is nice, however to short.

I did the Saturday breakfast ride this morning.

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...95778122_n.jpg

That's BFer nkfrench at the front of the pack in the pic above

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...20860436_n.jpg

We ended up in downtown Fort Worth

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The young man on the right rode with us for the first time in several years. He started his riding career with us when he was 11 on a Wal-Mart Schwinn his grandma bought for him. He's now 17 and riding with the Garmin Junior team.

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...67462982_n.jpg

He said he didn't want to take his helmet off because he had a terrible case of helmet hair. :roflmao2:

I ended up with 43 miles for the day. Everyone else was in their spandex riding geared bikes. I was in jeans, riding my fixie.

We did 36 miles on the tandem today. Temps in the mid to upper 30's, partly cloudy skies, light traffic. My sweetie/stoker ordered some new wind and rain shells for us, and they sure kept us warm! The bike looks a lot smaller when we're wearing yellow.

http://users.rcn.com/jimmuller/pics/on_the_bridge.jpg

One of the seasonal sights on the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail:

http://users.rcn.com/jimmuller/pics/Sharon_and_tree.jpg

Today I rode a variation of the annual Phoenix Turkey Day Ride. This ride starts at Camelback and Central in Phoenix and goes straight through downtown ending on the summit of South Mountain. We added the San Juan Lookout excursion bringing the total ride mileage to 47 miles with 2,461 feet of ascent. Perfect weather.

I have to add this ride absolutely crushed me! Very strenuous with the combination of distance and climbing. I had to take a short nap to recover when I got home! Here are some pic's from the ride:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8354/8...ba0d5d3c_b.jpg

The ramada at San Juan Lookout


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8363/8...656077f5_b.jpg

The long slog up South Mountain. The television towers in the distance is where I'm heading.


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8360/8...021d182b_b.jpg

Getting closer, the end is in sight.


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8223/8...b33c256c_b.jpg

Success! The last section of the road to the towers steepens just as you're running out of gas. Brutal.


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8354/8...a6697798_b.jpg

The view of metropolitan Phoenix from the summit. That's Camelback Mountain in the distance.


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8493/8...2e7724e8_b.jpg

My bike.


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8213/8...117de49d_b.jpg

Weird smoke on the north side of South Mountain.

Looks as though you had some strength left for some celebratory donuts in the parking lot :) Good show - the pics convey the steepness at the very end of the ride only too well - now I'm a little scared!

What did I do today? Recovery-slept from 1100 to 2300; I had a long rainy and sometimes snowy drive down from WA.

I'll be posting pics on the "Diego Garcia" thread for those interested.

DD