• Category Archives the sporting life

  • Biking, running, weights, yoga…

  • High Summer Rides

    Posted on by Don

    I got out with Renee for a ride in Jim Thorpe on the 3rd. It was a bit disappointing (OK, that was an understatement — it was devastating) when we discovered that a lot of the area around the trailhead had been logged off. I wanted to do the Deer Path but it was literally gone, and we ended up doing the Uranium Road and the Pine Tar Trail. By and large the ride was fun, but it was hard to see what they’ve done to that place, especially right at the entrance. Some pictures:

    New Game Lands Parking
    Logging In The Game Lands
    Logging In The Game Lands
    Logged Off Game Lands
    Monarchs on Milkweed
    Monarchs On Milkweed
    Mountain Laurel
    Mountain Laurel
    Where The Deer Path Was

    I did get to see some mountain laurel blossoms before they passed, but I could tell the main part of the season was long over. Maybe next year…

    On the Fourth I went over to Greg & Judy’s to do their annual ride, a little mellower version than in previous years — which is good because I don’t think I could have handled one of those old-school rides… An awesome morning on the road bike through, with friends I just don’t see often enough. I didn’t stick around for the post-ride BBQ — I just came home, showered & napped, and then that night we watched the fireworks from our porch.

    Doug and I did Jacobsburg in the heat yesterday, about 15 miles including some new rail-trail:

    And Anne and I got out this morning and sneaked in a quick 25 miles before the rains came. Not a bad week!

    It’s pouring now, on and off as storm cells blow through, and we’re just hanging out listening to jazz. Emmi & Kyle are coming over for dinner tonight (with Iris of course). Tomorrow is more rain.


    the sporting life 📎and tagged

  • Jacobsburg Ride

    Posted on by Don

    I got out for a mountain bike ride Saturday at Jacobsburg, just a chance to tool around and clear my head after some difficult days. It turned out to be one of the best things I’ve done in quite a while…

    The day was beautiful, sunny with blue skies and a few puffy clouds, and the trees were all greened up and the fields were full of flowers — mostly the pretty but invasive Dame’s Rocket, but I didn’t care.

    I parked at the main lot, which was only about a third full, and didn’t see too many people out on the trails (though I did run into Sean C walking his dog). I had the trails mostly to myself, except..

    Jacobsburg these days is pleasant enough, but it’s kind of tame compared to its old self. Much of it is smooth doubletrack over rolling hills, but there are a few places left with true singletrack, and even some rocky, rooty sections. One short rooty climb is a real challenge (it’s on the trail where we put in bridges, lo those 28 years ago), and I was looking forward to giving it a try when I came around the bend and saw two other cyclists resting at the top. Oh no, an audience! Well I gave it my all, and made it up pretty smartly I thought, and so did those other bikers, who were amazed that the little climb was even doable. The honest truth is that I’m not the mountain biker I once was, but in that moment — yeah, I still got it.

    I talked with those guys for a bit, then I went on my way, and in the end I probably rode for about two hours, getting in maybe fifteen miles.

    That evening we went to the Rose Garden, watched a couple of bands (we ran into Sarah & Marc there, and sat with them for a bit), then met up with Doug & Lori for some drinks downtown. Just what the doctor ordered!


    the sporting life 📎and tagged

  • Road Scholar Recap

    Posted on by Don

    Here are some photos of March’s Road Scholar ride:

    A Selfie In The Van
    Road Scholars: Freemansburg
    Road Scholars At Lock 22
    Buttermilk Falls
    Eating Lunch Along The Lehigh
    Road Scholars On The Nesquehoning Trestle

    The ride doesn’t seem that long ago, but it’s amazing to see how wintry it looked compared to now.

    Here is one last photo; I just liked the looks of this tree at Shawnee:

    A Tree At Shawnee

    the sporting life 📎and tagged

  • Another Green Cusp

    Posted on by Don

    Happy Spring! It’s raining right now, like early April Showers rain, but yesterday was really nice and I got in a decent ride through Cherry Valley.

    This was the third of my four reconnaissance rides to be ready for next week’s Road Scholar program; we’ll be doing this as a point-to-point ride, Cherry Valley Winery to the Water Gap bakery, but I got in double the miles to get back to my car. The ride was super pleasant, especially the outbound loop — when I turned around I found myself riding into a slight headwind the whole way back, but even with the wind it was a beautiful day on the bike.

    Today is more Road Scholar prep, tonight is nothing in particular, and tomorrow is more prep, getting any last-minute items like tubes or zip-ties etc. I’d like to ride the Lehigh Gorge trail this Saturday, I’m hoping but we’ll see.


    day by day the sporting life

  • Getting Ready For Spring

    Posted on by Don

    I’m prepping for the upcoming Road Scholar rides later this month, and part of that means getting the Iguana back in shape. There’s not much to do really, but I did replace the handlebar grips and the chain. (As an aside: when did quick links — excuse me, “power links” — become so hard to use?) The chain was “stretched” (i.e. worn) a bit but not too much, so I did not expect to need to change out any more of the drivetrain — the wear manifested mostly as a bit of lateral flex, which I suspect messes with shifting. Chain and new grips took me maybe a half hour or so to replace; I did it about a week ago and took it on a few short test rides, and everything seemed in order. Sweet!

    Fast forward to last Monday, when I went out with Anne to do a reconnaissance of the Allamuchy RS route. We didn’t quite prepare ahead of time: I wanted to bring the Kona but couldn’t fit it either on the roof rack (not without an adapter I couldn’t find), or on the rear rack with Anne’s touring bike. D’oh! I put the Kona away and put the newly-refurbished Iguana on the roof rack, and off we went, only 45 minutes late…

    We got to the start and got riding, and within a mile I had issues with the chain skipping on the rear cogs — a sure sign that I should have replaced the cassette. No matter, I was able to find some gear combinations that worked, and the ride itself was very enjoyable — Anne had never done this ride, and I was glad to see she really liked it.

    Our ride:

    As soon as we got home I ordered new chain rings and a new cassette. They arrived Friday and I put them on yesterday — after running over to Doug’s, to borrow some tools I could not find in the basement mess, and today I rode it over to the Museum of Industrial History on Southside to watch them run their steam engines.

    But that’s for another post. For now I think the Iguana is running great.


    tech talk the sporting life

  • A Christmas Ride

    Posted on by Don

    Merry Christmas, Everybody! There’s no snow on the ground (yet), but it’s beginning to look like the season:

    an outdoor Christmas tree at night
    The town Christmas Tree at Payrow Plaza

    We did the CAT Annual Holiday Lights Ride this past Saturday. What a great time! We did a slightly different route this year, passing through some different neighborhoods (and also the Historic District) because it was also Luminaria Night, and everyone had their luminaria out — we didn’t do any this year, but our neighborhood was pretty lit up.

    (We’d also heard that the crazy super-decorated house in the back of our neighborhood was not lit up this year, and in fact had been damaged in a fire, so we skipped our usual highlight street. What a bummer! I sure hope it wasn’t because of their decorations, but I have my suspicions — these guys put the Griswolds to shame.)

    Anyway, we had 22 riders, probably a record, and did about 8 miles. Here are some photos, of our stop at the town Christmas Tree:

    outdoor Christmas tree with bicyclists
    CAT Christmas Ride visits Payrow Plaza
    bicycle riders on plaza with Christmasdecorations
    CAT Christmas Cyclists at Payrow Plaza.
    cyclists on a Christmas ride
    Christmas riders regrouping at Payrow Plaza.
    Looking Out Over The City

    Yesterday was a hike along the Monocacy to Iliick’s Mill, and today is probably a road ride, after some maintenance — I haven’t been giving my road bike the love it needs for months.


    day by day the sporting life

  • Autumn Leaves

    Posted on by Don

    Nothing much to say here, I just thought I’d drop a few photos from the last day or so to show the fall colors. Last night our neighbors had a “roasted root” party, cooking potatoes, parsnips etc in their backyard fire pit, and today is the Halloween Parade; we’ll be doing a bike ride in costume beforehand. Fall is definitely here…

    In The Backyard
    Norfolk Southern
    Autumn Still Waters
    Lehigh Canal And Leaves
    Lehigh River Near Northampton
    The D&L Near Northampton
    Lehigh River Scene
    On The D&L Near Northampton

    nature journal the sporting life 📎and tagged

  • Kinda Sad Like the Autumn I Found, You See An Old Part Of Me’s Not Around

    Posted on by Don

    Happy Fall, everybody!

    I went out for a ride on Tuesday, heading west/north along the towpath but only going as far as the Taylor House brewpub in Catasauqua — I wanted to check out the new section of improved trail.

    This was one of the few sections of trail left that had been open but unimproved (there is/was another one immediately north of this section, between Catty and Northampton, that also got fixed up recently), passable but still fun on a mountain bike. Much of the Lehigh Towpath was like this when I first started riding it, lo those many years ago. The trail is a pleasure to ride now, sure, but I miss those old days and the rougher, more “singletrack-ey” towpath. I only started riding this section north of Allentown maybe two years ago, and really enjoyed the feeling of being on “real trails” again, but hey that’s progress, and the new sections are actually pretty sweet. I believe the official ribbon cutting is today.

    Meanwhile, same as it ever was: my bottom bracket developed a creak again (this is the Santa Cruz), and so I took a look and found that both the crank bolt and the right bearing housing had loosened. I cleaned and greased and tightened them down pretty hard yesterday and did another towpath ride (towards Easton this time), and I think I got it solved. For now.

    When Daniel Boone goes by, at night,

    The phantom deer arise

    And all lost, wild America

    Is burning in their eyes.

    Stephen Vincent Benét, “Daniel Boone”

    day by day the sporting life 📎and tagged

  • Meniolagomeka

    Posted on by Don
    Meniolagomeka Memorial Stone

    Meniolagomeka (“fat land in the midst of scarcity”) was a small Lenape village near what is now Kunkletown, on the banks of the Aquashikola Creek just north of Blue Mountain at Smith’s Gap. The Moravians had converted many in the village, and eventually founded a mission station there, but some time after the Walking Purchase the natives were evicted by the colonial authorities, and the Moravians relocated them to Gnadenhuetten (Lehighton). The actual location was pretty much forgotten for a century, until the Moravian Historical Society rediscovered it and put up this memorial marker.

    The village is not far off the route of one of the more iconic local bike rides — among my crowd anyway; it’s part of the old Gap Gallop century ride, crossing Blue Mountain at Little Gap and returning via Wind Gap a dozen or so miles further down the ridge — but I had no idea anything like this was here until recently. After the week of kitchen disasters we just had, Anne and I both needed a big ride, so even though the Blue Mountain route doesn’t really follow many native paths, and the Meniolagomeka site does not figure prominently in my Native Paths project, I thought it would be neat to do the ride, and make an effort to find the old memorial stone.

    So that was the ride we did on Friday, with our friend Dwight H.

    Our ride took us up Township Line Road, through Bath and Moore Township, and out to Danielsville via the little roads that run south of the mountain. Blue Mountain Drive was being repaved and was down to one lane the whole way to the top, but the construction guys gave us some traffic assistance (and an audience) for the climb. We regrouped at the top, then bombed down the hill, past the ski resort and made the right onto Smith Gap Road.

    The memorial is on a road called Chestnut Ridge Road, a turn off Smith Gap Road (and pretty much at Smith Gap). We turned off our route, spent some time admiring Aquashikola Creek, and then rode a few hundred yards up the hill and found the stone — it was at the edge of a field, on what looked like private property but close to and easily visible from the road. We stopped, took some pictures and paid our respects, and then continued on our way. (We heard thunder so we weren’t sticking around.)

    The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, though we did get caught in a storm cell (a little cold rain actually felt good), and we also stopped at the “Snoopy Barn,” where Dwight took a few selfies. All told, we got in about 67 miles in just over seven hours. (I took about a mile off the beginning and end of the ride on my map, to preserve some privacy.)


    looking back the sporting life 📎and tagged