ALL TRAILS LEAD TO ICE CREAM

The moment you get on your bicycle it becomes an extension of your body.  It becomes a natural part of you...and you a part of it.  A connection and a bond is formed.  Your bike personifies your personality and becomes part of your identity.  Heck, most of us even  name our bikes.  Which is why it feels so incredibly weird, awkward, and foreign when you, for one reason or another, ride someone else's bike.  I accidentally rode Mark's bike once.  We had matching 2006 Stumpjumpers.  His was a small frame and mine a large.  We didn't make it more than ten feet down the trail before realizing the switch...and sharing a laugh. Dave Raymond, Mark Lentz, and our matching Stumpjumpers after the Terror At Teaberry Race -- September 2006 There have been times when I've been "between bikes" and needed to borrow someone else's bike for an event (thank you, Billy & Kevin!).  Once I even rode my son's bike in an adventure race becau...

Sometimes the ride gets tough...and often virtually impossible.  Mark often says that it's not a ride unless there's at least one "hike-a-bike."  Yeah...that part of the trail that just can't be ridden (well...at least by me!)  That part of the trail that requires you to get out of the saddle and push.  Over the years, as my skill level has improved, the trails have to be more steep and more difficult to coax me off of my bike...but, sometimes it just can't be avoided.   On our annual Columbus Day " exploration ride,"  Mark and I rode some pretty awesome stuff.  We also hiked quite a few hills...like the one behind me! -- October 10, 2016 Often, the hike-a-bike isn't caused by some obnoxious hill...but instead, it's the result of the unexpected obstacles thrown into our path.  It could be debris from a storm, a rock garden that just CANNOT be navigated, or mud pits that sink your bike "bottom bracket deep."  It's obst...

It's a term that Mark and I use when the trails get sloppy, muddy, mucky, or just all around difficult.  It's a term I also use on the road when I have to ride straight into a head wind.  "It's like pedaling through peanut butter!"  I can remember a ride, probably back in '08 or '09, when Mark, Glenn, Mikey, and I went to Blue Marsh Lake on a January morning...a morning that was so damn cold we really had no good reason to be there.  The temps were in the low teens when we started out.  It was so cold that I couldn't talk....I mean it...my jaw was so frozen I couldn't form words!  Funny thing about that day was, by the the time we were two-thirds of our way through the 30 mile loop, the temps had risen to a balmy 40 degrees.  Those trails that were frozen solid at the beginning of our ride were now a melted muddy mess. There's no such thing as a bad mountain bike ride...but I look back on the end of that ride and all I can think of is that, f...

I've been pushing my luck on my road rides the past week.  After a string of flat tires I found myself completely out of spare tubes.  I figured that, until I could get to the bike shop, I would just ride and, if I  got a flat, I would either walk home or call my wife or son to come pick me up (which is kind of unfair to them).  So today, after school, my bike ride took me down the Susquehanna Trail to Gung Ho Bikes .  I figured that if I was going to ride...I'd ride there to get what I needed.   Gung Ho Bikes in York, PA.  I took this pick the day I purchased my 2016 Specialized Stumpjumper. -- March 2016 I've first walked into Gung Ho in 1995 and I've never considered going to another bike shop.  Since then, I've bought 10 mountain bikes, 3 road bikes, a bike for my wife, and a BMX bike for my son. (After writing that last sentence I'm kind of amazed.  That's a lot of bikes!) The owner, Jay, is my longest continuous friend since ...

 With my new found sense of self worth, and a new sense of confidence in myself , White Squirrel emerged again in the fall of 2010.   The team; however, had a much different make up, which, over the next three years, would evolve and change even more.   Between 2010 & 2013, Billy Graves, Pete Lobianco, Chris Keller, Tim Sindlinger, Kevin Hardy, and Dave Raymond were, at one point, members of Team White Squirrel -- French Creek State Park, July of 2010 In September of 2010, I entered Team White Squirrel in the Wildlands Adventure Race at Blue Marsh Lake with the expectation of having fun...and winning the race.   We had five experienced mountain bikers and an accomplished marathon runner on our team.   I realized in earlier races, that just having a team of good mountain bikers was not going to win the race...we needed runner.  Pete was that guy.  Two of my former brother-in-laws, Kevin & Billy, were with me...and so was Chris Kelle...