Build it and they will...

...Ride! Yeah, how 'bout that? a 2-fer. Enough questionable music discussions for now. Yesterday I met up with G, a rider with similar proclivities as me and we headed up to the Mineral Virginia area which is about halfway between Richmond and Charlottesville right next to the middle of nowhere. According to the map in the above link its actually near the bustling metros of Bumpass, Trevilians and Beaverdam. Anyway, a rider who goes by the handle BCG (Bike Crazy Guy) owns a nice swath of property with a great house and nearly 4 miles of hand built trails peppered with stunts throughout the back portion of his land. There is something for any rider up there with great single track, man-made and natural jumps, bridge skinnies, drop-offs and two dirt jump rhthym lines. Everything has ride-arounds and the group of riders consisted of a pretty broad base of styles. Those in attendance included myself, G, Petrol, Trail Lummox, Chris and BCG with every kind of bike from a speed single 29-er to a DH/Freeride rig represented. BCG has mad riding skills and he makes all of the lines around his digs look easy...they aren't. Some of the lines are as nutty as anything this side of the northshore of Vancouver, BC including a double skinny drop step-down into a creek gap jump. There are elevated bridges and log rides that are all pretty impressive too. I stayed clear of the hairier stuff, but still had a blast on some of the more tame log rides and jumps. BCG's riding skills are only eclipsed by his hospitality as he whipped up grilled burgers and brats for the whole crew and we all enjoyed some tasty beverages to wash 'em down with. Sadly, BCG has the property for sale as with the arrival of his new baby boy modern ammenities like grocery stores, schools and medical care have become important. Maybe a right of passage could be written into their sales agreement to allow use of the trails ad infinitum for the previous owner. A great fall Sunday afternoon was had by all without a single minute of watching a football game.

Guilty Pleasures; part 2

Some years back whilst I was still living in the ATL a friend of mine who was ridiculously hip, fashionable, my hair-stylist and gay in fact, turned me on to the band/music collective Gus Gus (myspace page). Dance and disco music have long been the butt of many jokes in the rock'n'roll world. Combine this with an electronic techno group from Iceland and it starts to seem like you are conjuring up an old SNL skit. Nonetheless, I recall being at this guy's salon listening to assorted songs from Gus Gus that blasted from his iPod (he was the first person I knew that had one) that he had wired into the stereo. I guess what caught my attention was that it did not seem like background music, but instead commanded yr attention with its heavy beats and in-yr-face sound. The first release that I heard by them was "Attention" . Its still my favorite although I also really like "This is Normal". The sound is pounding yet melodic with crystaline haunting vocals and it makes you wanna move yr ass even if you might be otherwised embarassed to do so. I began putting selections from it into playlists that I would bring to my office. I always received compliments from everyone including this statement from one of my assistants: "That music's gay, but I like it" as she sashayed around the office. Below are a few videos which are at least a representation of their sound. Esthetically, they are kinda obtuse, but what would you expect from an Icelandic techno group?








I guess it is kinda gay (whatever that means) but I too like it.

Can you hear the drums...

...Sherando?!? Ah, how I love a hideous pun. The lowest form of humor. Oddly, even though I have an encyclopedic knowledge of pop music and often have an iPod blaring out whatever noisy crap shows up in one of my playlists, I still fall victim to having some terrible pop song getting stuck in my noodle. Thus the mental audio pun of hearing the first few lines of Abba's Fernando rattled in my head intermittantly whilst riding up at Sherando Lake on Sunday.

I left my cozy environs before dawn (note my zombie-like palor) to head up to RVa to meet my old pal DJ and his pal Ross shown giving me the stinkeye.

DJ graciously offered to drive the rest of the way from Richmond which seemed like a pretty short drive maybe an hour or so. We met up with their friend from Snowshoe, Darrel who was a good rider and pretty amusing. Although Ross had rode here before and DJ had hiked it nobody was exactly sure of the route.

A few false starts and we finally got into the thick of the riding which consists of mostly bench cut ridge line single track up the mountain side. The first word for the day was rocks and the second was leaves; tons of both. There are very few sections of the ride that are smooth and did not require yr undivided attention. The bulk of it is rideable although a few really steep (up and down) or messy parts require a hike-a-bike. The fall colors are in full swing and that made the views rather nice. I found all of the climbs pretty mild and thats saying something since I was on the biggest bike and probably weigh more than anyone else.

Call me a sicko, but I do not think it becomes a real, epic or great ride until someone wipes out or bike parts break. We avoided the former but came away with my rear tire's sidewall getting slashed open early on one of the descents (not so bad) and Ross's front brake dying (not so good). I was able to change the tube and rig the inner sidewall with duck tape to finish the ride. Ross had to hang back and walk some of the hairy sections. Overall it was still a blast, even with our bike's getting a little banged up (its mountain biking, dammit, not bird watching).

I look forward to checking out more of the rides throughout the Blue Ridge corridor including Doughthat, Massanutten and of course Snowshoe. I leave you with another Swedish nugget that I hope gets caught in yr noodle. Ha!