ceMental sampler

Play Song

part a breakfast
part b International Space Station Commander
part c ring tone for Bill

Quincy MA Local ride

A bit cold out, but felt warm after a few minutes of spinning along Quincy Shore Drive.

Did a few miles today. Glad I got up and rode today.

lights from years ago

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Leg Stretch Quincy Ride

It's been too long since my last bike ride. I needed a get back in shape ride. So instead of riding the trails, I rode the local roads and parks. I always wanted to check out Squantum Point Park So this is where my first destination was. Squantum Point Park is a great place to visit. Amazing views of the harbor, Boston Skyline, and navigational aides. Also its a great place to watch planes approaching and departing Boston Logan Airport. Oh and a very close view of the Boston Gas Tank that's next to 93.

My next destination was the trails around Black Creak. So I road Quincy Shore Drive back to to these trails. After looping around Black Creak it was time to return home.

less light

Georges Island Boston Harbor, originally uploaded by rungoogle.

with the shorter days here, i want to go back inside my cave.

DSC01932

DSC01932, originally uploaded by rungoogle.

wompachuck

Too bad i had to bail out early. oh well. it was great to meet some new people today. Good ride!

Buck Hill Blue Hills Mountain Bike Ride

I wish I could write that I rode to the summit of Buck Hill (496'), but I had to stop several times to rest. I can say that I did not walk up Buck Hill. I had some good practice slamming down the crack to go from a full stop to hill climbing again.

The summit was beautiful at 7:45 AM. The clouds were clearing, so quite, i could see the ocean, and the Boston Sky line in the morning light.

I started today's ride on the intermediate loop, at marker 2160 I left this loop and rode the trail to the summit at 2165.

I had to ride the same trail back down, (other trails to the summit are marked no bikes). The plan was to bail out and not complete the intermediate loop after the summit. I tried to pick up the 2153, but lost the trail and turned back to the loop. I then bailed at 2151 then to 2130 (nice downhill here). Then got lost again and ended up on the green trail at 2112. In good time i found where i should be and rode some good stuff back to the parking lot. I was thinking at the time, I'm going this way next time.

APRS map: You can see me at the summit, and you may see where i had to turn around near the road. This map is not accurate to the exact path I rode. The trick is to get your signal out the whole time. Tough to do with the leaves still on the trees.

10.5 miles Blue Hills Mountain bike ride

FlatChuck and myself had a great awesome ride today in the Blue Hills. The map shown here is an APRS report, showing our locations when my HT was able to hit a digipeater.

The Weather was awesome, cool, and partly sunny. We did the advanced loop first, then Flat was like, "what's next". So we rode the intermediate loop next. After that it looked like Flat could do another 12 miles. But I was done. :)

Blue hills is a fun place to ride. I enjoy their 4 digit number system at trail intersections. All you need to do is take along one of their current maps and a compass with you. With their numbering system, it's easy to get a handle on where you are.

Great ride. Thanks Flat for letting me show off the trails here.

Hope more riders can join in for the next one.

Chia!

video filter

me, originally uploaded by rungoogle.

i wish i was in a david lynch film.

Kevin do you have any leads for me?

Blue Hills Milton MA Ride Advanced Loop (Breakneck Ledge)

This was my first try at riding Advanced Loop. 4.5 miles in 44 minutes. Lot's of steep climbing on lose trail. No single track, but the double track was still fun with bumps, erosion bars, twist and turns. Some of the downhills were challenging due to sand, run out, rocks, ruts. These sections reminded me of the power line trails. Replace broken glass and shotgun shells with pine needles and pine cones, but add the rocks, ruts and some sand.

Started the ride at 7 AM. The temp was in the seventies. I still used every drop of the 50 Fl. Oz. of water that was in my pack. I'm looking forward to my next ride here. I will know what to expect, and i will ease off the breaks on the descents next time. I also hope to make it up all the hills. I stalled on two hills today.

This loop is very well marked with yellow triangles. I never had to guess where to go. If I were to miss a turn there is always the Blue Hills Grid system and my map to get me back on the correct trail.

Blue Hills Milton MA Ride

Had a good ride today at the Blue Hills. The temp was in the 70s, partly sunny, with a light breeze.

I rode the 6 mile multi use trail. It's a 6 mile loop. Most of it double track, and up hill.

I completed the ride in 40 minutes.

I did not use cytoMax this time. Just water. My legs feel fine and i did not have any energy issues.

rut ride

same ride as last week. glad to have some trails nearby. it's good to get some quick rides in. Noticed these last few weeks, more broken glass on the trails.

Nice wx. Temps in the 70s, breezy.

ceMental Rain Swoon mix

This track may lower your blood presure.


Rain Swoon



enjoy!


ceMental

Another Local Ride

Having to stay close to the home, i hit the local trails this morning.
Good ride. Did the same loops as last week.

I did learn quickly that the roots were quite greasy from last nights rain. I was going around the bend, when i hit the roots. The bike went down, but i landed on my feet standing up.

The tree that was down across the trail last week has been all ready removed!

The wx was a nice summer dewy morning.

Yay, another quick spin on the local trails

temp in the 90s. Same ride as last week. Storm for this week blew down a large tree across the trail. Tree down was in the Furnace Brook Road section. Too large to remove without power tools.

Black's Creek Quincy, Massachusetts Bike Ride

Same ride as last post.

Black's Creek Quincy, Massachusetts Bike Ride

As of 10:00 AM I was no longer on call. After a week of vacation and being on call right after, it's been a while since I got on a bike. So after some yard work, I went for a ride on the trails near my house at:
Black's Creek Quincy MA

Today the temp was in the 90s, sunny and a light breeze. I rode a loop twice from the trail behind Furnace Brook Road, to the trails that go behind the Treatment Plant and the Stadium. Glad I got to ride today. I ran into no dog shit or broken glass. Also no one was using the trails today.

While riding i focused on switching gears every 10 seconds or so. This was recommended in a New En glad Mountain Biking Article.

For an urban ride, the Black Creek trails are scenic.

TV update

There was a TV in the room where we stayed.

Myth busters:

They count 3 2 1 many times and then something blows up.
Movie myths? Come on.


Dual Survival:

was fun to watch for most part.
Never knew I would hear swears on the Discovery channel.

TLC:

Yuck.

Monster River Fish:

Keep playing that same clips over again. Stall Stall Stall.

Start Trek Next Generation:

Hey some station was still airing this.
Riker with no beard: No Balls.

The Blue Hills Quincy MA Solo Ride

Did the multi use trail today. Looks like i may have beat the rain. Good riding conditions, nice cloud cover keep things cool. I did the loop that starts on bugabee road. I completed the loop in good time, and will very little break time. I was tempted to do the loop twice, but i called it a day instead.

Here is the DCR MB map:
Multi Use Trails at Blue Hills

Nicknames for a Person Named Jay

Jay Jay
Jaye
Jay Bird
J2
J1
Double J
J-Hole (thanks to the wise ass Steve Meuse for this one)
jason (hate this one, prefer J-Hole over this)

Ames Nowell Ride Abington MA

It's a foggy AM. En route to Wompy, Pete calls: "We've hit a snag!"
There was a crew setting up for a large bike race today at Wompy. Both parking lots for the most part reserved off. Also large sound system being set up. This is what Pete reported to me. I was almost at wompy, so I suggested i meet him there, and we go to Ames instead. Sure! So that's were we rode today.

Got to Ames at 6:30am. Wx was cloudy but warm, no wind.

So we are setting up getting ready to ride, when this person says: "Excuse me"...
"Where are you riding, because my dog does not like people on bikes" or something around these lines. I was a bit shocked at the strangeness of how this conversation was going. But Pete was right there and replied to her: "Over there, going to visit the place where I crashed." She seemed happy that we would not interfere with her vicious dog and then informed us that her dog would like us if we were not on bikes. What ever happen to 'Share the trails'? Oh well, as we figured we would never run into them again, since we were headed for way out. Witch we did. Crissed crossed the blue power lines several times, over to the other side, where we found some dead end single track. We then proceeded to what was a few years ago a new development, but now it was all blocked off.
At some point in the ride, we came to a low area with may boards to cross over the swamp. Too many bugs to continue, so we agreed to check that out when it's more dry and less bugs.
So we crossed over again, and found some new what seems to be fresh cut single track. This was a fun section. Looks like it did split off at one point, some exploring to do next time.

About 6 miles today, fun ride, it was great to be back on the trails after a few weeks of not riding.

Wildlife: One Snapping turtle (Womba 2),a deer spinal cord hanging from a tree and many super killer mosquitoes. We think the deer was killed by these mosquitoes.

Solo ride Wompatuck State Park Hingham MA

Sir BAMalot could not ride today because of a bike crash he had early in the week.

Good recovery to you Pete.

Today it was sunny and warm. Ride started at 8:35 and was over at 10:50.

Started on the NW trails, that are near HQ. Here is were there was the worst flooding. The rest of the trails that I rode today were dry. I took S1 up Prospect Hill, then down Prospect Hill on S6. Took Right on the pavement, straight up hill on dirt road, back on pavement, then took first left, then next right, then a right onto the dirt road and then a sharp right onto S18. S18 is a sweet short fast section.
Now onto S16 going past Holly pond. Across pavement on to: S23, S25, S27. Here I was looking to cross the field,but I looped back too soon, and ended up back to the pavement. I road pavement back to Union Street, Then North on Union Street and a right onto S19. Picked up E2 to E12, and then onto E18. I managed to get on E16. E16 leads to a dead end due to washed out foot bridges. I backtracked to E18 and followed it all the way to the paved bike path C10. I crossed over C10 and on to the trails:
C5 to C4 to then right onto paved path C6 then left onto trail C7, and a sharp left onto N13. At end of N13 took pavement back to parking lot.

Interesting ruins along the C trails. I saw two railroad car shelters. Two deep cement walls about 20 feet apart and very long.

In a lighting storm they would move the rail cars into these shelters. If a lighting strike had caused the explosives on a rail car to blow up, the explosion would be forced upwards. Thus causing less damage to the surrounding area.

I think today was a good ride. I took it easy through most of the ride. I would like to try this loop again. There is some stuff like sharp hills that I was unprepared for.

paths cross for Team Chuck again!

That's right, Team Chuck riders met today for a Wompy ride!
TacoChuck, ChuckWiser, FlatChuck and UpChuck.

The wx was cold and windy for a spring day, at last once on the trails things got warm.

Bam! Taco snapped flipped over the bars, and the bike smacked him in the head, also bad injury to wrist. After a walk off, we resumed ridding.

about 10 miles and the ride ended for Taco and Flat. Wiser and myself did another 3 mile. Did some scouting for more trails.

One dangerous and strange thing, there was about 7 cars on the "closed to motor traffic" fire road. They almost crashed head on into Wiser. Good think Wiser was not hit by a car.

Besides Tacos injury and Wisers run in with a car that should have not been there in the first place; today was a great ride!

Help me Womba! Wompa + other park ride

Great ride today. Wx was perfect! Pete and I rode about 10 miles, in the higher dryer parts of Wompy and Whitney. Some good challenging hills as well. Pete made it up all of them, i stalled on the last one.

We saw one cool snapping turtle. Womba.

Wompa, Whitney, Turkey Hill and back

Riders: Pete and Jay
miles: +8
wx: mid to high 60s, light wind, sunny.

This being my first ride of the season, we set out at a very easy pace.

Our goal was to explore some of the ruins on the newly opened part of Wompa and find some dry trails on the North section of the park.

The ruins are amazing. Old what's left of what seems to be steam plants. We noticed giant poles that surrounded the buildings. We think these may have supported camouflage netting over some of the huge buildings.

Inspired by a fresh idea, we had a few ceMental recording sessions. I'll explain that in a later blog.

We wound up along Rt. 3A at one point. We turned back and found the trail leading up to Turkey Hill. This was a tough climb for so early in the season, but worth it. There are viws of the Boston Skyline, and Water views up there. Also the descent was the best part of the whole ride. My wildlife spotting skills are lacking. I mistakened rags and shrits for birds. Thanks to Pete for a great tour. Today we had a blast!

A Fine Travel 2m HT The Alinco DJ-S11

I find this is a handy radio to bring with me on trips. Above, The DJ-S11 while on vacation in Houston, TX.

It's small, discrete, simple, good audio, low power consumption, and since it takes 3 regular AA batteries, you don't have to pack a separate battery charger. Also if the repeater is near by, the radio still receives great with the unique folding antenna folded down, out of the way.

73
jay / ab1ii