January 30, 2003: Laundromat, Study Butte, TX

Well, the IMBA visit ended well, with GHORBA putting on the Fat Tire Festival. Plenty of group rides and even more revelry was had by all. We roasted donuts, and rode stunts all weekend. I (Ryan) even broke a bike! Local Kona rep, Paul Chandler was nice enough to let people test ride this year's line, and I miscalculated one of the stunts and snapped the derailleur hanger like a twig. (Other than that it was a great ride!)

After a couple days off and a couple days of catching up on office business, we headed to Denver for Subaru training. Subaru partners from all over came to learn more about Subaru USA, Inc. and their way of doing things. We now know all kinds of really cool stuff about our Schwagon. Someone at the festival called it a "Schwag Wagon", which quickly got shortened to the Schwagon! After a long day of flying and schooling, we headed home.

The next night, a very good friend of mine got married, so we ventured to San Antonio for that and spent the night in Junction. The state park there has a wildlife management area with 18 miles of trails, although most are double track. This is some of the most challenging double track I've ridden. Some is loose, some is steep, but it's all scenic. There are three miles of single track that we couldn't get to. The area is a nesting ground for wild turkeys during this time of year, and is closed off to the public. We got to see about 30 turkeys in all. If you're thinking of stopping by on your way somewhere, it's a great chance to get on your bike - just call ahead first so that you can make sure they're going to be open.

Our days off this week were spent exploring parts of Big Bend National Park that we had never been to.

Next we met up with the crew from Desert Sports in Terlingua. One of their most exciting projects right now is the opening of Big Bend Ranch State Park for mountain bike use. They have gotten 18 miles of trail approved on what used to be the roads through the area. It's going to make for some nice single and double track. We spent 5 hours out on the property looking at intersections and potential problems, while formulating a plan of attack for Friday's workday.

Thursday was spent cleaning up some of the Expert Time Trail loop on the Lajitas trails. Mainly raking, remarking, and trimming, but we went through about 2 miles of trail with only 4 people! Unfortunately, Mike Long had to leave us this day to go get a work vehicle repaired in San Angelo.

Susan and I rode a loaner tandem on that afternoon. This was Susan's third time on a tandem and my second. I was captaining since Susan's hand is still recovering from a crash a few weeks ago. I even managed not to dump us, but chose the shorter of two routes due to my arms being tired from steering.

Friday's workday saw eight volunteers and two TPWD staffers tackle a 4-mile section of the new trail. Most of the work was just clearing brush since this was an abandoned roadbed, but we did a 20-foot long bench cut near a washed out area. We also built a reinforced rock ramp in one section of washout. Saturday, Mike Long and I rode some of the less used Lajitas trails from Desert Sports. If you're ever there when they're not busy putting on the race, get one of the shop people to take you on the "Cake Walk"; trust me, it's anything but that!

We surveyed a few culverts that they are concerned about, and one place where a culvert was taken out by a storm, trying to determine what can be done to save the remaining ones.

In all, Desert Sports showed us a good time, taught us some things and hopefully learned some things in the process. As Mike put it, "If nothing else we got a good couple of day's work out of both of you!"