Getting a little crazier

With the rise of confidence daring may follow, and it sure did today.

Spreading like a virus, the fun of mountain biking at Fountainhead was again had by myself and Moe, with Peter joining us for his first trip there.

The temperatures were hot, reaching 80 degrees on this sunny day. We were ready for it, with extra amounts of water being carried. And I was wearing a knee brace for my left knee, to help until it fully heals.

Moe and I took a much quicker pace than we ever had, with Peter following us as closely as he could. He stepped up to the challenge, especially with encountering everything for a first time. The heat took its toll on our group, with more water breaks having to be made and Peter sharing part of his lunch with the woods early on in the trip. Farther along the trip, my left knee started to act up a little bit, and Peter’s left hamstring started giving him some trouble. But we kept on.

Getting to the “playground”, we decided to try everything out and add a little of our own to the mix. Peter learned to do the teeter-totters with the rest of us, and we had some fun. I turned my attention to the 40 foot log that had been too difficult to cross with determination. The log was between 6 and 8 inches in width that you could bike on, with diagonal ramps leading up to and from it. I got a good amount of speed and tried it, kept my balance, nearly fell off near the end, but made it! I felt so accomplished that we made a video of my second crossing of it. Then Moe built his own jump using a few logs and pieces of wood and tried it with success. Then I tried it. I forgot to pull up on the front and nearly flipped forward, doing an unexpected balance on my front tire with my back side almost coming over the top of me for a quick second! That was a quick lesson on taking jumps.

We came across a casualty along the path, with a man having to walk his bike back to the start after having broken off the part connecting his left pedal to the rest of the bike. People are really tough on their bikes, including myself.

Also along the trail we came across an obviously Washington Capitals bird, whose chirping was reminiscent of the “Let’s Go Caps!” cheer. We may not be in the playoffs anymore, but it’s clear there are some hockey fans in nature!

Among other random things, the lesson of wearing gloves was learned first-hand by Moe, whose hands fared much, much better through the trip than did mine or Peter’s. The frequent bumpiness was quite hard on the hands and wrists, so I will be using gloves next time I venture out on a mountain bike trail.

Having infected another person to Fountainhead’s greatness, I think it’s time to try another mountain bike trail, at least to mix things up a bit. There’s plenty out there, and we’re ready for everything that can be thrown at us!

Fountainhead: Round Two

Wow, what a difference some experience on a trail makes!

Having had so much fun the first time around and having spread the word about how awesome Fountainhead’s mountain bike trail was, I returned to the trail with friend Moe.

The weather was a bit warmer, with the sun having decided to come out and the temperature in the low 70s.

So, we got our bikes and equipment all set and headed to the trailhead, when we noticed Moe had forgotten his helmet. Helmets being required, and the trail being difficult, we set out to get another helmet…

…(series of events unrelated to mountain biking)…

…a few hours later, we were back at the trailhead, Moe sporting his new helmet. And we were off.

I noticed right off the bat that things were easier. My experience of having been there along with the trail being dry (as opposed to the moist first trip of mine) made getting around a lot quicker. I also quickly noticed that my bike ride of 48 miles not too long before had affected my left knee more than I originally thought, and it acted up. Going uphill became much harder since my left knee was still recovering from a strain, so there was a lot of walking up the hills.

It was Moe’s first experience on the trail, and he loved every minute of it. When we got to an area (I call it the “playground”) with teeter-totters and a 40 foot log you had to try and bike across without falling off, we decided to try going on them. Moe started us off by making it through both teeter-totters eventually. I was too scared my first time to try going on them, but after a few practice runs of almost falling off, I made it over both teeter-totters eventually. Basically you had to bike up one side, get past the midpoint, then keep your balance as gravity took over and set you to the ground so you could ride forward and off. The first teeter-totter was 1.5 feet wide, and the second was 1 foot wide with a steeper angle. The log was a different story, with neither of us being able to make it more than a few feet before bailing. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time playing here.

Back onto the trail, we ran into a couple of other bikers on the trail, all much more experienced than we were. Haha, we had to stop many times while watching them pass through the most difficult parts without a sweat!

With Moe having gone fast through a certain part, I stopped to take a leaf out of my back tire. Suddenly I heard rustling in the leaves a few feet from me and looked up to see a black snake move at a speed of 10 mph away from me along the trail! I shouted out to Moe to get his camera, and he started inching closer to it to get a picture. As he got closer, the snake started shaking its tail just like a rattlesnake, showing it’s discontent. I’m thinking the entire time of all the times I’ve watched shows like “When Animals Attack” as Moe inches closer for a better picture, when the snake decides to move away from both of us at its same quick pace! We found out after our trip that the snake was a black rat snake, a non-poisonous snake that mimics a rattlesnake with its tail for self-defense.

Still paranoid about seeing the snake, every time we ran over a stick that rustled some leaves we thought of it. It still didn’t stop us from having a good time, though. Getting near the end, we pedaled non-stop through the finish and were proud of ourselves. Fountainhead was still a challenge, but I’m much more confident about it.

Bat Ranch: Caver’s Paradise

I’m sore, tired, relaxed, sunburned, and have a 2 foot long gash on my back. What a weekend!

This weekend I joined fellow cavers from the Madison University Student Grotto, Virginia Tech Grotto, and even a few from the Front Royal Grotto and Athens Speleological Society (from Georgia) for Spring Fling at the beloved Bat Ranch in the southwestern part of Virginia. The Bat Ranch, in short, is a guy named Mike’s home in the mountains that cavers love to visit, thus the name. There are 3 caves on the property, a field for camping, a fire pit, and even a stream that runs around the property.

I can’t say everything of what went down (haha, you’ll have to go there to find out!), but I’ll try and organize it into a few categories: caving (duh), camping, labor, tubing, and the fire pit.

Upon each person’s arrival, another tent was built. Eventually we covered most of the field in at least 20 tents of different shapes and sizes (even a few that you could stand up in!). It was a city set up in an instant! Most were staked down, as it would be windy from time to time, though one actually ended up rotating itself! Would’ve been a kite had a sleeping bag not been inside to weigh it down.

The fire pit was constantly swarmed with people. The menu of the weekend tended to fall under the choices of hot dogs and smores. Many were eaten of each, and let me tell you, you need a full day for your digestive system to recover after that! Since the stream was close to the fire pit, many (including myself) chose to jump into the cold mountain water, as was the custom. It’s quite exhilarating, I must tell you! Oh, and we also burned a chair, which was remarkably well-built to still stay standing until the very last of its frame fell apart.

As a show of good faith and thanks for letting us stay for free, we did some labor for Mike. It involved gathering logs and cutting down a few trees (on Mike’s property) to prepare for the next few months of firewood. We made short work of a couple of trees, sawing, breaking branches off, carrying the sticks and log pieces and throwing it all into a pile to dry out. This type of group effort is one of the factors in the Bat Ranch continually being a great place to visit.

While some went hiking, and others went caving, another group (including myself) went tubing down the stream. Luckily it was only a 5 minute walk to get to the upper part of the stream that would take us to the Bat Ranch in just under an hour. Talk about convenient! A fleet of inner tubes and people entered the water, at the mercy of the stream’s ever-changing currents. The stream had a few tricks up its sleeve, with shallow waters that caused you to scratch your back, rocks and logs almost hidden until you came right up to them, natural dams from fallen trees, and branches sticking out that had to be circumnavigated. I thought I made it out okay, until others saw the 2 foot long cut that I had gotten from one of the branches. I didn’t feel it since the water was cold, but it was definitely there!

And not to be forgotten, the caving! And of all places, I got to go see my favorite room in any cave, the Moon Room in Tawney Cave! Getting permission from Mike to go along with the key required to unlock the gate at the entrance, myself and 7 others (Lee and Kelton from M.U.S.G., Will and J-Watt from A.S.S., and Jeremy, Remington, and Chelsea) proceeded into the cave. Upon entering, we were met with a large room covered in flowstone, stalagmites and stalactites. After finding a fun 20 foot climb and subsequent tube slide that was very steep, we proceeded to follow the stream to my beloved Moon Room. Standing in the middle of the room and looking up, there was a round dome cutout from the ceiling at least 80 feet above. The room also echoed very well and standing in it would make one feel as if they were in some underground temple. There were interesting formations to look at everywhere in that room. After enjoying the scenery and seeing Jeremy fall victim to an all-versus-one mud fight, we decided to find the other entrance to the cave, a sinkhole! Climbing over a bunch of breakdown, then to the bottom of a hole, we found a stream passage that stretched a long way. Along that walk, Will looked up at the ceiling and noticed a portion of it that reminded him of the Cathedral Room from Pettijohn’s Cave in TAG (Tennessee-Alabama-Georgia caving region). It stretched up 100 feet from us, and looked like the inside of a Gothic cathedral with the lines of flowstone. Truly amazing! After continuing for a little longer, we came across a pole that was probably drilled by someone making a well. After going past that for a little bit, we decided to turn around and leave the cave to join everyone back at the campfire.

Sunday morning was bittersweet, as we had to take our tent city down and clean up after ourselves. A lot of us, including myself, had sunburns from both the sun and being in front of the fire for too long. I found a few more cuts and bruises, but that’s the name of the game. I’ve now been to the Bat Ranch 6 times, and don’t think I’ll ever stop going!

48 miles… woah

That certainly wasn’t the plan when I started!

As an after-work bike ride, I originally decided to go 30 miles along the Washington & Old Dominion Trail (thank you Rails to Trails!). The weather was great, both sunny and in the high 60s (nearly 70). I set out at 5 p.m.

After breezing through the first 10 miles that I’ve covered many, many times in my life without so much as a hesitation to speed, I decided to continue going forward until I reached the 2 hour mark. There were plenty of people on the trail, from fellow bikers to joggers, runners, walkers sometimes with dogs, and families with their strollers. Something amazing also happened: every time the trail crossed a street, the drivers were much more polite and would slow to a halt to let me and other trail-goers pass. In all my experience on the trail, I’ve never witnessed so much politeness!

The entire time I was biking the first half, I only had to stop maybe twice. I’ve never had to stop so little number of times before, so that gives credit to my improved fitness (good thing I started this blog!). Eventually the sky started turning to dusk, and I was glad that I was going to turn around. At 7 p.m. I stopped at mile marker #27 and took a break.

Whew! It’s starting to get a little colder, hmmm, good thing I brought my long-sleeved workout shirt. I knew getting back would take longer, as was the usual for my long distance bike trips. And it did take longer.

My initial energy started to wane by the time I was heading back. At least I knew I had a hot dinner waiting for me (to cook, no easy way here) at the other end of my trip. I had to stop quite an extra number of times on my way back. Also as the sky turned to night, I had to turn on my bike lights in order to see and be seen. With my 4 granola bars and bottle of water, I was going to have to make things work so I’d return in one piece. I made plans to stop by my friends Mig and Peter’s house since they live even closer than I do to the trail.

With the advent of the night, the trail became almost deserted. Only a few courageous enough still remained on the trail, most smart enough to go with some sort of reflective gear or lights. For the ones who chose to wear dark colors and nothing to be seen, I almost hit a few of you! Don’t be so stupid next time!

Once I got to Mig and Peter’s, I took a quick break and chatted a bit. It was all I needed to complete the final few miles of the journey. I counted down the mile markers (set every half-mile) until I finally hit Bluemont Park, just 2 blocks from my house. Ascending the final hill to my house, I gave a very excited fist pump and knew I had completed my challenge.

Here are the stats for the ride:

Number of miles originally planned: 30
Number of miles actually done: 48
Time for 1^st half: 2 hours
Time for 2^nd half: 3 hours
Average speed (1^st half): 12 mph
Average speed (2^nd half): 8 mph
Number of granola bars eaten: 4

I’ve basically grown up on the Washington & Old Dominion Trail. Heck, you might even find my birthplace there (though my parents are adamant it’s Georgetown Hospital)!

Today was the 3^rd longest bike ride I’ve ever taken at 48 miles. The 2^nd longest was 50 miles at the Shenandoah Bike Festival in summer 2007. The longest was a 66 mile bike ride from Harrisonburg to Charlottesville with my roommate Colin in spring 2007.

Fountainhead: A Kick in the Pants

Feeling motivated this morning, I decided to head down to Fountainhead Regional Park (part of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority) to try out their famed mountain biking trail. This trail was made exclusively for mountain biking, and no hikers/equestrians/anyone else are allowed to use the trail. So that meant it had to be good, right?

Absolutely!

My expectations were more than surpassed when I started the trail itself. I found the very first part to be a sudden jump forward into a technical ride, made more difficult since everything was a little moist from the previous rain.

I found that the trail was very well made, with the path using every feature of the terrain surrounding it to provide a network of loops, giving the rider the option to turn back many times. I decided to do every loop that was thrown at me, and that proved to be quite a task! There were countless tree roots to run over, along with rocks and the occasional strategically placed bridge, though even the bridges had little parts to watch out for, like drops on the other end. Every now and then I’d come across a fallen log, etched out to give just enough clearance for those able to lift their bike tires up high enough. I found myself passing these particular obstacles with a 50% success rate. Partway through the trail, I came across a little “playground” of sorts, with a seesaw, a bike-jump bar, and even a log with the top flattened to see how long you could stay on it without falling off.

I, of course, being my beginner self, crashed a few times. The first crash was when I was going down a hill that seemed to slope diagonally to the right and I felt my back tire give out, then the rest of me gave out. Was quite a surprise, but as you can tell, I survived. The rest of the crashes mostly were me coming to a quick stop and having to jump off the bike almost. The only casualty I faced was the snapping of the wire for my bike speedometer, so I’ll have to replace that. My front fender, shaky on my first outing with it, stayed intact and didn’t fall off, even when I crashed.

I was the only person on the trail, and with the sky being overcast time seemingly stood still for me. The only sounds other than the splashing of my tires as I passed through a puddle or the metallic sounds of my bike going over multiple bumps were those of a few birds, including a woodpecker, and a squirrel that decided to run within 2 feet of my front tire (must be an adrenaline-junky).

All in all, once I had made it to the finish, I had gone about 7.78 miles of trail. My favorite part of the trail might be the fact that there were few parts to “rest” so the entire trip kept me on my toes, holding onto my handlebars ready to brake at any surprise.

I do not recommend this for someone who is just getting into the sport of mountain biking, but if you can get a few good rides in, definitely try this trail out. I can’t wait to return and see if I can get some revenge on this behemoth!

A Bit of Clean-up

Wow, what a glorious day! In the course of 24 hours, the weather prediction for this morning went from the predicted 60s and thunderstorms to the actual 70s and partly cloudy.

I participated in the Potomac River Watershed Clean Up through REI at Pohick Bay Regional Park (part of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority) with friends Moe and Johnny.

We got there around 9 in the morning, and found that there were 12 other people there (15 total). After meeting up with everyone and doing the usual paperwork (waivers, stuff just in case we die or something, etc.), we were given our equipment. The equipment I speak of is a pair of gloves, a blue trash bag, an orange trash bag, and a grabber. Recyclables go in one, trash in the other. Our main goal was to clear out a few acres of land along the shoreline where winds along with high tide would wash up a lot of trash.

We started at a place off one of the trails near Pohick Bay and worked our way along the shore, picking up trash as we came to it. One of the most common items we found were tennis balls. I suspect there are a lot of dogs out there wondering where their favorite fetch-ball went! There was much trash to be found, in every nook and cranny of exposed tree roots, covered by driftwood, and more. I dared to enter a bramble patch wearing my shorts and long sleeved shirt, which ended up being quite the ordeal. I won’t make that mistake ever again, I assure you! As the bags filled up, we would take them back to go get empty ones.

When all was said and done, we were quite satisfied with our results. We collected more than 30 bags of recyclables, 25 bags of trash, 4 tires, and much more that totaled more than a ton of stuff! And the area that we cleared out was visibly improved, so much so in some parts that you wouldn’t have even known there used to be trash there.

It was a fun way to spend a morning off work and get outside. I’m glad I participated in this event as it was very fulfilling to give back to the environment. I will try to do this again next year.

Extra Lake Trips and a Dark Ride

Wow, what a fun ride that was! Mountain biking is back on my repertoire of outdoor activities as of Tuesday!

Accompanying me on this adventure were friends Moe and Peter.

The weather turned out excellent, turning from a cloudy 50 degree morning to a nearly clear 70 degree afternoon and mild evening.

First stop was Wakefield Park to travel around Lake Accotink. Along the way, we tested out many different off-road trails, some even ending in small ponds! After exploring a bit, we headed to Lake Accotink to loop around the lake. The ground was still moist after the previous day’s rain, so there were plenty of puddles with which to test out my new front and back wheel fenders. The back fender, which is also a frame for storage, worked wonderfully. The same could not be said for the front fender, which popped off the front fork numerous times until I just stored it in my backpack. Looping around to the beach/recreation area, we checked out the dam that was there.

Upon reaching the dam, I realized that I had forgotten my sunglasses whilst taking a picture earlier on the trail! I quickly biked around a third of the lake back to find it, then caught up with Moe and Peter to retrace our steps to the dam. Once again at the dam, our next task was to tackle a really steep hill on the trail going up from the left side of the dam. Switching into a lower gear and building a lot of momentum won the day for me with the hill. Peter and I took a water break while Moe checked out the train bridge in front of the dam. After joining back up, we saw some fun little paths that posed a few challenges for my novice self, with me having to take a few “second looks” before trying them. All in all, it was a good time, and we played around in a creek for a bit before deciding to head back to the car to drive up to Great Falls.

After taking a little break to drive up to Great Falls, we set out on our next ride. At the visitor’s center, we decided to “get some water” from the falls. This meant climbing down on the rocks to get water from the flowing water, risking falling into the water and drowning (7 people each year drown at Great Falls). With Moe there, this wasn’t a problem. We climbed our way out to the side of one of the massive waterfalls, and you could see how great the volume of water was being moved through that area. After getting some water and posing for pictures, we headed onto the trail.

The sun was setting around this time, but we decided to keep pushing forward. We saw many, many deer along the trail. Each time we would spot one, then another would show its white tail, then another until we would see up to 8 of them at once! Our goal was to travel along part of Difficult Run, aptly named. In order to get there, we had to push up a long, arduous hill that got even the best of me, though I was disappointed that I was only 100 feet from the top when I had to stop to catch my breath. After reaching the top, we headed down the other side and reached a road that we would have to travel on for about a quarter of a mile. At this time it was dark enough to warrant use of our lights. Luckily I had both my bike light and my caving headlamp, and Moe had his own headlamp. Entering the road, I stayed last since I had a good taillight, for good reason too. After going around a somewhat blind curve, we were about to be passed by a few cars when the first one didn’t notice we were on the road and we heard a bit of a skid and were glad no one came any closer to being hit.

Getting off the road, we made our way onto the Difficult Run trail. Visibility was severely limited to our lights, and finding the correct path became harder amongst the network of paths that all led the same way. We stopped because we saw some toads hopping around in the mud (their camouflage worked pretty well), then passed under a bridge as the darkness covered everything around us except for the dimming sky. Legs feeling weaker, we took a break at the top of a hill and bore witness to a pretty amazing view of the Potomac River as it was flowing towards the capital. Also, the picnic table we sat at featured a Stick Death drawing showing the use of a rocket launcher. We decided to head back along the horse trail since Difficult Run would live up to its name and be difficult to navigate back on. After some seemingly endless uphills, we reached the hill that I could not reach the top of without a break, but luckily we would be going down it this time. A very fun dark flight down the hill ensued, with us going just fast enough to be able to still react to the intricacies of the slope. Luckily it was actually very smooth so it was fairly straightforward. I made sure to hit the last few long puddles before we returned to the visitor’s center and the car.

I will surely be sore on Wednesday, but at least I have made my first trip to Great Falls Park and my first time mountain biking in a few years. Can’t wait for the next trip!

A fun new idea

Hi. My name is Bob Svercl, and I decided to start this new blog for all the outdoor things that I love to do.

I've mostly gone road biking, caving, camping, and hiking, but would like to add more experience in other outdoor realms such as rock-climbing, mountain biking, and even trail running.

I never found getting exercise indoors to be any fun. I mean, if you had the choice between biking 10 miles sitting in an air-conditioned room and had to see the same old stuff around you or biking 10 miles outdoors and seeing lots of wildlife, trails, and breathing the fresh air, wouldn't you choose the outdoors?

Hopefully I'll also have pictures from each of my trips to better record these adventures.