Mountain top view at Jones Valley
There are places, times of the year, events, activities, family, friends, and a limitless array of life influences that can put a smile on your face. When all of those converge at a point in time a person knows that all is well with the world for the moment regardless of what else may happen. Continue reading
This is one of them. I’ve never seen a flash mob in real life — and now I really want to. Continue reading
I was always (semi) amused when daughter Melissa would ask how something was in the “olden days.” I would tell her “well, I’ve read about that and . . . .” Here is a tidbit that has run around the internet a few times that tells how it was. Continue reading
This is just too good. Continue. Continue reading
As long as you can sneak in between the little cold fronts that start whipping down this way, October in Central Texas is a month during which you can do just about anything outdoors you think you’re big enough to do. Well, maybe not a lot of swimming. Like yard work (yuk!), motorcycling, fishing, running, and today it was perfect for a bike ride on a new route. Continue reading
Another goodie snatched from the bits and bytes that survive the nether of cyberspace, this one having been forwarded by Pat P. And, yes,
it’s another Dr. Pepper Warning moment. Continue reading
This piece is shamelessly purloined from one of the dozens of email forwards that I get daily. It’s funny, but not if you fancy yourself a liberal. If so, then don’t read it. My apologies in advance to my liberal friends — you know who you are. This may warrant another
Dr. Pepper warning: Don’t read while drinking a Dr. Pepper at the risk of blowing it out your nose whilst convulsively laughing. Continue reading
This file Texas Pleading, shows that lawyers do have a sense of humor. You may have heard about the lawyer who sought a continuance so he could see the Rangers in the World Series. This is the motion filed by the lawyer. Dr. Pepper warning: you don’t want to be drinking a Dr. Pepper or other carbonated beverage while you read this lest you snort beverage all over your keyboard! A teaser:
And the motion goes on, and on, and .. ..
This proceeding also demonstrates that some judges, some, have compassion. He got the continuance.
My good friend Don Bynum continues to organize bicycle rides that are hard to pass up. One might think that if you had a 12 day layoff from workouts, you might, or might not, be up for a 36 miles ride … over hills. Or, on the other hand, you might glibly minimize the situation then facing your 66 year old body. Taking the latter approach, and with excitement as Ralph and Sherry picked me up early on Saturday morning (10/23) there was nothing that could hold me back.
About a dozen of us gathered at the Castell General Store and were greeted by the bard thereof, the famous (in his own mind) Randy Leifeste. Check Don’s ride report for a starting group picture. Don also has some sobering thoughts and suggestions at the end of his report about the exercise and health issues facing all of us. My own starting photo was thus:
In front of the Castell General Store
Note the proper equipment is in place, I’m nattily attired, and obviously ready to go. I’m on the trusty Peugeot Triathon bike, Osprey Raptor-14 hydration pack on my back with my Garmin Forerunner 305 sportwatch, and the Garmin Oregon GPS on the handlebars. The Oregon is easier for getting a quick peek at the trip data or map. Both the Forerunner and Oregon read my heart rate from the HR strap around my chest. All of that results in a potpourri of statistics to later be recorded and analyzed in the SportTracks program.
The group was immediately strung out and I’m always impressed with this bunch of riders in the way they ride single-file. I see so many groups with riders two and three-abreast which is rude and dangerous. The round-trip route ending up back in Castell was chosen for very clever and quite obvious reasons: that’s where the BBQ and beer would be at the end of the ride! After all, this IS the Tour de Longneques — October edition. Don’s wife Peggy was there driving SAG as usual along with his wonderful mother Ann. I think Mrs. Bynum comes along simply to marvel at her plausibly foolish son and his classmate since not only is she Don’s mother, but was an English teacher when we were in high school and although (unfortunately) I did not have her as a teacher, I suspect I was a known quantity to her from “back then.” The route lays mainly East-West (a fact which will later come to be important):
Bike route in Yellow, old kayak route in Blue
The temperature was about 74 degrees, a bit of cloud cover, a very light breeze, and just overall great conditions. We did encounter a bit more traffic than usual — it’s almost deer season and those camps and deer blinds are being spruced up for the impending season. It’s a good road, 152, with a decent surface although the rock-seal is sometimes rough. The ride to Llano was uneventful for me. In fact, it seemed easy. Overall it is downhill but only by about 250 feet total change in elevation. The rhythm of the pedals going round and round was punctuated by the nylon shorts I had on top of my natty bicycling shorts. Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh, over and over again. The cadence was steady and strong. My Osprey pack with three liters of water gave me a steady and safe swallow of water and contained the goodies I would enjoy at the rest stop in Llano.
Photo by Peggy Bynum catches me and Sherry Macfarlane just a few miles outside of Castell
Peggy Bynum did her usual “race ahead to a photo opportunity” routine to catch good photos of the riders. She manages to get some of everyone and is always there in case someone crashes: either their bike or their body. Don’s ride report has a lot of good photos posted within it.
I made a mental note (one of a series) to get Mike McKenna (of MikesBikes) to do that conversion to put my shifters up on the handlebars. Every time I reached down to shift I would wobble a bit and each reach carries the possibility of getting my fingers into the spokes of the front wheel. Gotta get that done.
In front of Llano courthouse
I wound up in Llano in pretty good time (1:19:03) and not too beat — notwithstanding the helmet-hair (non-hair?) shown in this self-portrait (sure wish the DROID X had a front-facing camera — the only thing of which I’m jealous of the iPhone). After a banana, some nuts, a few good swigs of water and brief enjoying of the band that was playing some nice country in the gazebo on the courthouse lawn, I was ready to go. Sherry made fun of my pack with all of the stuff I was pulling from it. A few riders had already taken off, and others were just arriving as I slipped my feet into the pedal baskets. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh as the nylon shorts again counted out the cadence. I rotated the crank pretty briskly all the way to the city park/fair grounds thinking I would overtake one of the clusters of riders, but they were nowhere in sight.
At about 5 miles out, after several short but steep climbs I was getting some leg fatigue and stopped for a couple of minutes but was able to strike out again at a decent clip. Another 3 miles and I needed a rest and then another 2 miles after that I was beginning to get cramps in the left leg. Over the next 4 miles my average speed was steadily dropping as I just did not have full power with the left leg. At about 32 miles Peggy was sitting at a turnout and I seized the opportunity to get a ride the rest of the way. I felt like I could struggle through it but decided that brains needed to trump testosterone!
The wind was predicted to be out of the SSE. Turns out that on the way back toward Castell — a predominantly East-to-West route — it was more like out of the SSW which put it more into our faces. Everyone struggled with the wind which was both strong and gusty. One gust almost put me into the weeds off the edge of the road. 
Added to the hills as shown in the elevation profile from the Garmin Oregon GPS device, the wind just added too much for me.
The group still let me have a beer and the always delicious BBQ! That came after the ribbing and the pointer that I should have had Peggy drop me just outside of town, around the bend out of sight and then ride in 
A fun day and thanks again to Don for trying to kill me! And as always, the vital stats:
Total distance: 31.1 miles in 2:28 (time moving), total 2:48. Moving average speed just under 13mph. Heart rate avg/max: 130/160I think that maximum heart rate is probably my target max for training purposes. For running, it’s 200. Interesting (at least to me).
The SportTracks program shows total 3:08 moving, but that includes the Llano stop which was recorded as a lap. Here is the documentation output from SportTracks, which gives a huge amount of analytical power to what the Garmin Forerunner gathers:
SportTracks (via an optional plug-in) produces a really detailed summary plus details of the entire workout. On the left you see the overall summary plus the splits, and on the right you see the heart rate plotted with speed. The last page, below right, has the elevation. Those three charts can be used to show what runs up the heart rate, how you are doing on climbs, and along with the split times and data, can tell you even more than I know how to interpret. 
After the “full body workout” from the mountain-biking on Saturday, bro-in-law Bill and I decided a stroll in the woods would be a nice outing. We strategically picked the Little Missouri Trail because it had been one of the candidates for mountain-biking that had been passed up in favor of the Lake Ouachita Vistas Trail.
The Little Missouri River at the Albert Pike Recreation Area
Example of flood damage at Albert Pike
We had gone the previous day to the Albert Pike Recreation Area, the site of the devastatng flood on June 11, 2010. Our hike would be on the trail from the Little Missouri Falls to Albert Pike. That trek gave us a good understanding of how devastating the flood damage was, and why so many people were unable to escape the torrent of water that washed down the canyon in the wee hours of that morning.
High water mark
High water on the bulletin board
The photograph on the left is of a U.S. Geologic Survey high water mark on a sign post in the parking lot. The photo on the right is a high water placard on the bulletin board in the same lot.
Just 50 yards away is another parking lot overlooking the river in a way
River view
that allowed getting a perspective of how high the rise of the water really was. In this photo, the camera is being held level, even with the high-water placard, looking straight across the river.
I’m guessing it’s at least a 25 foot rise. The area across the river in this shot is typical of where people were camped and you can see how they would have been under many feet of water.
On Sunday we drove to the Little Missouri Falls to hike a small portion of a trail that is over 20 miles in total length. The trail in this section goes 6.3 miles to Albert Pike. Interestingly, by road it is eight miles. This section of the trail begins at the overlook at the Falls. It follows the river through the pine and hardwood forest that populates the river canyon.
That's Bill at the start of the Little Missouri Trail -- this view is typical of the trail environment.
Typical view of the river in this section.
We had a round trip planned because we had not dropped a car at the other end. So it would be about a three mile hike, or 12.6 if we did the full length and back. Hiking with a day pack (with 2 liters of water) a 3 mph average is the best pace likely for us old geezers. We decided to strike out and see how it went. We were in no hurry and wanted time to take pictures and soak up the delicious ambiance of the forest.
The trail occasionally opens up to allow a peek at the adjacent mountains that tower over the river canyon. In spite of the appearance of lush green, the area is actually as dry as we’ve been in Central Texas. Along the way we talked to a group of three young guys who were on their third day of hiking and who would finish that afternoon by completing the entire trail combined with two other trails for a total of about 26 miles. One of them had hiked in Colorado, Idaho and Alaska and said the upper section had 70 degree climbs and was harder than anything he had encountered before.
A gulley to the river
Boulders at one of the crossings
The photo at left doesn’t adequately demonstrate it, but it’s a steep drop to the river and indicative of some of the ups and downs of the trail. It also crosses the river at several places such as what you see at the right with giant boulders enabling a dry crossing. Dry if you don’t stumble, that is! Here is another example of the trail rising well above the river.
Gil on the trail well above the river
We stopped at about 3 miles, had lunch, and started back. Of course, it was generally uphill at that point since we were then traveling upstream. Back at the Falls parking area, we were treated with one of the more interesting ATVers. They come to the Little Missouri Falls parking area to rendezvous and recuperate.
We’ve challenged ourselves to do the full trail one day. That’s going to require a lot of additional conditioning and equipping. We’ll see.
And what does all of this have to do with fishing? On Monday afternoon cousin Larry and I headed down to the Caddo River to see about finding some bass. We were determined to use plastic worms which I’ve used in Central Texas lakes a lot, but which we had not used in the Caddo. On about my 5th cast, which was just a little wrist flick near a downed tree which lay on top of a pile of limbs in about two feet of water, my green Wave worm was viciously attacked by a really (really!) nice “Brownie” bass that I’m guessing would weigh four pounds and was about 22 inches long. That’s a bass that’s built like a largemouth black bass but without the black stripe. And would you know? Me, the consummate photographer, without a camera. We were wading and I had been afraid of slipping and drowning my camera! But Larry was there so at least I have a witness. Larry has fished that river all his life and declared that to be the biggest fish he had ever seen taken from that river. That big dude is back in the river to be caught another day.
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