wolves in Gambrilll State Park!!! (or maybey german sheppards)

Went for a night ride last night and at Gambrill state park @ about 6:30 … I was on one of the dirt roads that go through the park and I saw a silhouette of what I thought was a deer… it was frozen just looking at me… it had four legs and was kind of shaped like a deer… it wasn’t till I was pretty close about 100 ft away did I realize it was a big dog... it looked like a German Sheppard...and as I got even closer (20ft away) I noticed another German Sheppard just off the road also frozen looking at me… no tail wagging or barking just a blank stare.

I was moving along @ about 17mph and it was pitch black so from the time I noticed it wasn’t a deer to the time I noticed I was next to a couple of big dogs was only a few seconds....At this point I was a little freaked out as the thought crossed my mind that these might be wolves...

I didn’t see any collars, …I hadn’t seen any a possible owner… no people or vehicles parked on the side of the road … and they looked identical…either I saw two stray German Sheppards or a pack of wolfs.

thought about turning around to get a better look… after all they didn’t show any sign of aggression …but then I reconsidered realizing that that would be kind of stupid… if they were wild animals why risk getting bit.

because I didn’t have a tail light i couldn’t see anything behind me … then I thought to myself... Are they chasing after me right now!?! Could I stay upright if one of them got a hold of my leg!?!?... being alone in the dark was making me more paranoid than I would normally be…instead of riding fast to get away i decided to keep the same speed that I passed them at not wanting them to think I was panicking… if you don’t want be treated like a victim don’t act like a victim ( I leant that from watching Opera but i'm not sure if it applys to dealing with wolves)

I left the park and took the road around back to my car to avoid having to ride through the wolf gantlet again.

When I got back to my apartment I goggled to see what kind of wolf lives in this area…could have been red wolf

my possible wolf experience reminded me of this t-shirt that team mate Sean Daley had told me about…

tall bike

yeaa!!!

Mountain biking for fun and relief? Or not?

Mountain biking for fun and relief? Or not?

Like other hobby’s and sports mountain biking is a good way to relive the stress of your work and life issues…

The more mountain biking in your life the greater the relief… to a certain point… because when you get more involved and serious about mountain biking you become more likely to have your emotions involved…Getting worried about races…being angry if races don’t turn out well… feeling the needing to have the newest and best technology all the time… needing to ride a least x amount of miles a week to stay fast… ect ect ect

So instead of being a way to relive stress and the burdens of life, cycling can cause stress if ambitions to achieve mountain biking goals go beyond a certain point...Its hard to point out exactly where that point is...Its probably different for different people... but a possible indicator is if when trying to achieve mountain biking goals it feels stressful like a job… when you feel your worth is directly linked to how well you perform on a bike… when in the pursuit of accomplishing your goals leads to neglecting other aspects of your life…when worrying and nit picking details about riding takes up an obsessively large portion of your days…

Its just like the guys who get too serious about world of war craft...

The reasons why you are doing the activity in the first place can become lost… clouded by the blind motivation to accomplish goals (or in the case of world for war craft… the need to complete quests).

My conclusion… I believe less emphasis should be on accomplishing specific goals and more should be put on fulfilling the reasons you started started riding in the first place... for me that's fun and relief (sometimes transportation and/or socializing) could be different for others.

weekend group ride

Gambrill/Watershed
9:45, Sunday

Another group ride… there was a group of 15 of us…we split in to two groups; A and B… I was designated to lead the A group… im ok with getting my self lost but i was a bit worried that I might get my whole group lost… i took them on trails that Anna Kelso had shown e on another group ride the week before… there were a lot of turns involved to retrace the same loop we did… I remembered some portions but about half of the time I just guessed… so I was amazed that we were able to retrace the same route with out taking a wrong turn…i was also amazed that none of us had a flat tire... with so many sharp racks and so many riders i would have put money down that at least one person would have a flat...

the route is a particularly technical … I was planning ion bringing my camera with to capture just how technical they are… but I forgot… I will try to remember for next time.



We all ate at place to the left of “If The Show Fits “ shoe store (I don’t remember and I cant read the sign) after the ride.

ride and trail maintenance

On Saturday some riding @ my new local trail network Gambrill park and the watershed… starting to find my way around a bit better… I rode with Jeff Dicky (also a UNH alumni) and some of his riding buddies… I think there was 7 of us and between all of us there was 5 flats and two torn off derailleurs. there is a lot of sharp rocky sections that cause flats. I think every other ride I have been on up there so far I have got a flat tire... so the day before are ride I went to the local bike shop here in town Wheel Base to pick up some extra tubes and a mini-pump. I bought this topeak pump…

It was a petty reasonably priced pump and it was put through the test last weekend… It seems to work really well… I am happy with the investment

Then on Sunday I did some trial maintenance in Gambrill park. It was nice to meet some people. Their seems to be a pretty passionate group of mountain bikers in the area.