ALL TRAILS LEAD TO ICE CREAM

Three days into my summer vacation I found myself pedaling in the North Carolina town of Corolla with my wife, Robin.  This week long trip to the Outer Banks was my wife's idea.  She rented an amazing beach house on the ocean side of Corolla...big enough for everyone in the family.   I've always been more of a mountain than a beach kind of guy...but a week of beach, ocean, and good food with the family was a really nice change of pace. Yes...this is a serious change of pace for me. -- June 13, 2019 There really was no agenda for the week except that we would all have dinner together each night.  To make things fair, each couple was responsible for dinner each night we were in North Carolina.  We had some amazing pulled pork...we had a taco night...a spaghetti night...and beef brisket.  Robin and I decided...since we were on vacation...that we would host a steamed crab and pizza feast. Robin and I went out looking for fresh crabs for di...

A  huge smile came across my face as I was sitting in the passenger's seat of Ben Kelly's car.  The previous day was the last day of the school year (yep...year 24 of 8th grade is in the books) and the two of us, with our mountain bikes secured to the top of Ben's car, were headed to Michaux State Forest .  All winter long I had been studying the big map of Michaux that Jay Zech keeps under the counter at the bike shop looking new-to-me routes through the forest...and today, Ben and I were going to put that map to good use.  I couldn't think of a better way to officially kick off the summer of 2019! Yes!  On the first day of my summer break I made it to my favorite vista in Michaux State Forest. -- June 6, 2019 Even after more than a dozen years of mountain biking in Michaux State Forest, it never ceases to amaze me how many trails and vistas and  super cool places are hidden in the forest that I've never been to.  They aren't, per se, ne...

It's impossible for me to forget my first camping trip.  I mean, it's literally impossible...I still have the scar on my left ankle where I embedded my father's hatchet when I was 8 years old!  Yeah...irresponsible, eight-year-old, me missed the log my dad told I could practice on and gave my ankle a pretty good whack.  I waited almost two hours until my mother went up the the bathhouse to tell my dad out of concern that both he, and I, would get in trouble!  As much as I like to tease my dad about that incident...I have a lot of memories of those first camping trips to Rocky Gap State Park, which include a lot of firsts:  my first time sleeping in a tent, my first mountain pie, my first canoe ride, my first evening campfires...and yes, my first "hatchet incident." One of our first camping trips to Rocky Gap State Park.  My father enjoying some dinner with my brother, Jacob, and I in the background. -- 1981 Taking a canoe ride on Lake Habeeb with ...