ALL TRAILS LEAD TO ICE CREAM

There wasn't anything normal about 2018. It's been a year of extreme humidity, single digit temperatures, and more rainy days than I can remember in my lifetime.  Even on the "dry" days riding conditions were challenging,  at best.   Mud and water and more mud seemed to be the recurring theme of the the past year.  With the exception of a ride I took in Mesa, Arizona, I don't recall a single time this year when the trails were dry and dusty.   Regardless, the conditions didn't stop me (or my riding partners) opting outside to turn some pedals.  As a matter of fact, I rode (and cleaned my drive train) quite regularly and quite often. My Stumpjumper nestled in low hanging clouds and resting on the sign in Michaux State Forest marking the border of Cumberland and Adams Counties. -- July 31, 2018 Throughout the course of 2018, I rode my mountain bike in, at least, sixteen different places...making my normal trips to places like Mich...

There is a folder on my computer titled PICTURES. Currently, it contains (as of this writing) 1,919 sub folders which house (again...as of this writing) a total of 41,307 photographs...the oldest of which are some old family photos that I'd inherited from my mother.  Heck...just in the sub folder named 2018 there are 6,049 pictures! I love pictures and the memories that they contain.  Cell phones and muliple gig memory cards have made capturing memories easier than it has ever been.  Every once in a while, I'll manage to take a picture that really resonates with me. Not that I think that any of my photos are worthy of winning any photo contest...but because, by blind luck, I managed to do justice to what I was actually seeing, and feeling, in that moment as I pulled out the cell phone to capture the beauty surrounding me.  So...out of the over 6,000 pictures I took this past year...I think I found the twenty best from the past twelve months. Only one of the pics fea...

The "Month of Gray" (formerly known here in south central Pennsylvania as the month of May) has finally come and gone.  The end of yet another successful school year has ushered in my unofficial start of summer, and along with it, a string of nice weather.  Actually, we've had some amazingly nice weather...low humidity, blue skies, and high temps around 80 degrees.  I couldn't have asked for conditions to be any more perfect for my first summer ride in Michaux State Forest . On our first Michaux ride of the summer, Tim and I headed to my favorite vista to catch the amazing view of the forest below. -- June 12, 2018 Tim's bike (you can also see mine leaning on the rock in the distance) resting along the trail a few feet away from the vista.  The mountain laurel, Pennsylvania's State Flower, is in full bloom on the left of the trail. -- June 12, 2018 A perfect day for a ride in Michaux State Forest. -- June 12, 2018 Enjoying the cool waters ...