build it bigger

We've decided that the 180 "S" berms needed to be built taller and steeper. The second berm is done and packed. It's as high as the bottom of my rib cage. The first berm is as tall as the middle of my rib cage. The berms are almost identical, but opposite directions, obviously.

Here's a pic of the first berm from above.



Same berm, just from standing behind the second berm.

getting there

We're getting some good progress where the 2 new lines meet up. Just shaving out a berm INSIDE another berm, think of slalom skiing, and the rest is easy. I stacked up the landing that Garrison never finished. It still needs another foot in height, some from the pit and some added to the top. We think that this will be the ONLY jump in the line. Right now the landing is collar bone height when you stand at the bottom of the pit.

"Triple Step" at some trails near you.

Pete's New Barcode.























The newest stuff at the end of the line after the step up with the pallet in the landing.

almost 4 weeks? not the most yet.

It's been almost 4 weeks since I've written anything. We've done some digging and started some new stuff since then. It doesn't seem like we've done much in the amount of time, however, for as little time as Pete and I've been out there due to final coming up, we've got a good amount done. We've started some new stuff that links into the new line that is not finished. However, the entrance to that stuff is not done yet either. We've done something strange and started from where it links up and are digging backwards to the beginning of the line (strange).

I'll do my best to take pics tomorrow and post them. However, there is no promise that this will get done. We received more rain over that past couple of days which is good for digging, but bad for riding.

Also, we had not hit ANY type of root or rock until the new line was started up at the top. We have now hit 3 really sandy/rocky spots. The dirt is amazing, but the rocks slow us down on digging and building. It's like digging at 9th once we find some rocks.

digger?

Who says, "I'll come out and dig now that it's getting cool outside."? I've heard some crazy stuff in my short time on earth, but this confuses me.

rain, rain and more rain

I'm not complaining about the rain, but if it could hold off for 7 days so the line could dry out enough to make it past the 5 set, I would be happy. I want to try and get through the new stuff. We started a new line this week. It branches off of the first set. It's a right hip step-up to roller to racer step up to roller to BIG left hand berm that drops back down about 6+ feet. Hopefully the berm will get finished today. Pics soon.

possibility to ride

Today we were able to do some work on the last jump in the line. Last week we finished out a berm to get you back to the line, as well as the 4 rollers after the berm, an "S" berm to roller to a "dirt/street/side step" spine.....it's hard to explain. We are not expecting ANY rain until possibly Thursday, so we should be able to get through a couple of sets tomorrow and maybe even the rest of the line by Wednesday. I'm just glad I don't have any tests this week. Oh, and if you do "stumbleupon" our spot please send me an email. It's not a big deal if you find it, but please don't just show up and decide to ride, regardless of if we're there or not. IF it is possible to if and when you show up, please do any kind of prep work and fix ANYTHING that doesn't look right BEFORE or AFTER you leave. There is NOOOOO excuse for a trail mooch.

Clean Shavin'

We cleaned the pits and shaved the lips. Nope, not talking about taking a shower and shaving my face. After the rain we let it dry up a little and made an attempt to go back and asses the damage and deliver the carpet from my living room to cover the rest of the jumps and the jumps to come. We drove the carpet down to the river but had to turn around because the river actually has water in it. We were forced to dump the carpet next to the bridge on the other side of the river. We had to walk over there and carry the carpet on my back through the woods where there is no real trail, other than not trying to hit a tree.

The first sets lip was washed out pretty bad and the transition was more mellow than before. We've been wanting to make it a lot steeper for a while, so we dug out the transition and shaved out the lip. The dirt we dug out we just through on the back of the landing to make it taller and steeper. The set is now a step-hip, and has grown about a foot in height.

After that we raked all of the leaves out of the damp pits, shaved the pits a little deeper and got rid of any flat space and shaved out the transitions on a couple other sets. So everything's a little steeper and deeper, except for the tree jump, which I feel needs to grow in height about a foot or more. I guess we'll see if I am correct when we get to ride it. Hopefully that's this weekend.

With the step-hip as the first set and not just a hip anymore we'll be flying to the set up set for the tree jump.

Out of Town, Busy.....but back

I went out of town last weekend with Turbo TNT up to DeSoto for the Texas State Championships for the A.B.A. It was a good time to be up there and remind myself why I don't race anymore.

I tried to race in the 19-27 Intermediate class, but they would not let me. Tim said if I got a 30 membership he would pay for my race entry fee. I tried, I tried, but they would not let me get a 30 day membership to race the race. So I decided that I would cut loose for the day and heckle different racers and people sitting in the stands. Good times!

The trails aren't in terrible shape. Pete and I went out there yesterday to move the tree, but decided that it can stay and we'll just jump over it. It'll make it a little more intimidating for people that haven't jumped it yet.

Anyways.....

Destroying Property

forget about it

So after the last post I went out to see what kind of "damage" the rain had done. It was a slop fest getting to the river. This gave me happy thoughts. However, once I got to the tree line and started my hike back there it was wet, but not very wet. I got out the shovel and was checking to see how far down the water had soaked. It was moist for about 2 inches......and then DRY! It did get the much needed water on the jumps though, so that made some clean up work very, very easy.

I shaved out a lip and presoaked it so I could pack it the next day. Well, last night I realized that I never went back. Instead of going back to finish packing the lip I went and played 18 holes of golf. So besides shaving a lip out I cleaned up all of the pits and shaved them a little deeper as well. The big event of the day was removing the "tree" that had begun to grow up out of a landing. I'm not sure how the roots got so thick so quick without any rain, but it did. So this put a hole in a landing that I had to patch up.

Summer school started yesterday, so that means that I will have even less time to even think about trying to get out there if the weather ever cools down. It's so hot and dry that the builder of our house just told me that we will not have any grass when we move in due to the lack of rain. They are going to leave the dirt and put the grass in when we get some rain.

Also, I think Pete will be back in a month. That will get me back out there for sure.

Water Drops

Last night I was woken up around 4am by this strange noise. I began checking the internet to see if I could figure out what makes this noise. Apparently there is this stuff called "rain" that falls out of the sky to help put moisture back in the earth. I somewhat remember seeing this "rain" before, but it's been a really long time. If I remember correctly it makes stacking and packing dirt jumps easier. The only problem is that I don't think it rained long enough for me to bother going down to the trails to SWEAT so much that I almost pass out.

Who knows, maybe, just maybe I'll go down there.

So this past weekend we went up to Capitol City BMX for their state qualifier race to vend some product and watch Turbo TNT race. He won some ca$h, so that's cool. Maybe he can get a paint job put on his green racing machine.

I have an awesome photo of the dude with his bike and his Chuck Liddell haircut after one of his races, but I just can't bring myself to post it up. That's what friends do. The haircut really wasn't that bad.

GOOD STUFF.

S...SL...SLA...SLAC...SLACK...SLACKE...SLACKER

Nothing new going on here. I've only been to the trails a couple of times since my last post. It's soooooo hot down there that you can barely make it an hour before you get light headed. I am not kidding. In about 45 minutes I drink 3 liters of water and soak up two bandanas and half of a t-shirt. I've smoothed out the pit before the new set that Pete and I were working on before he left. I also finished stacking the landing and smoothed out the transition to the 160 berm after it. I plan on making a trip out there tomorrow for an hour or so to start the A.B.A. rhythm section back "up" the hill. I think it'll be some rollers to get some pump before a couple of doubles to a big hit hip. I don't think it'll be that big of a hip, but about the size of the tree hip at 9th street.

Since I've been slacking at the trails and not working very much I have been able to get some much needed time in at the golf course. I'm not very good, but I do play 18 holes in less than 100. Today I hit 94 on 18. I think that's ok for somebody who has not played more than twice every 2 years in the past 8 years. Sometime I went like 4 years not playing. So all I can say is, "thank 'Turbo Tim' for letting me use your clubs".

I've got to quit slacking. I start summer school in less than a month. Nawww mean?! Trilla.

New Dudes + a bench

So we "built" a new bench before Peter left for Canada for the summer.


I had some dudes come down from Dallas and ride with me for a couple of hours this past weekend. Well I was expecting some loose riding to happen, but I didn't expect 2 dudes to hit their shoulders on the tree next to the lip of the tree jump. It was fun to watch them get really close and say "OH MAN! THAT WAS CLOSE!". Here is a picture of Chad after hitting the tree with his left shoulder and getting tangled with his bike. (It's that big tree in the background, it doesn't move when you make contact with it)



He went down really hard and ended up slamming his back into lip of the long/low set. I think he was done riding for the day after the crash. His shoulder was scraped and swollen. He was made designated photographer after that. I had a good time with some new dudes but will definitely be bummed riding/digging by myself the rest of the summer.

But I won't have much time for any of that once our house is finished and summer school starts.

potentiallity

So I think I might potentially have some photos but am not really positive on that. All I know is that I am tired and have had to buy a new tire for my bike. Actual "work" that pays has been keeping me from doing much work at the trails. I did get up to Walnut Creek to ride their pump track with Turbo Tim TNT Kneip this past Thursday only to have him make fun of my stem some more. He also thinks that my tire casing tore because I kept casing a step up. But what does he know, his bike is some ugly green color and he has a permanent tramp stamp tattoo on his lower back. I can change my stem at any moment but that tat is a permanent fixture for the rest of his life. He can cover it up but there will still be a tat on his back, and we all know that is "cool". I'm keeping him in my thoughts this weekend since he's in Missouri at a national race and trying to get that cash. Good luck dude!!!! I love that guy (no homo).

More on other stuff later. We're having a house built and they put up the drywall a couple of days ago, so that's exciting. Now they just have to finish out the interior and we'll be moving in about the time I start summer school. Oh boy, that should be fun.

visitation rights

This past Thursday I had a visitor come down and ride with me from Round Rock, Tx and his name is Tim "TNT" Kneip. I think he enjoyed the 1/4 mile walk across the rocky river bed and then through the hot/humid woods. He was pretty much worthless when it came down to prepping the line. He sat there all bummed out that I weigh 15 pounds less then him. I mean he did refill the water jug and hand me the broom if I asked him to, so that was cool. I can't say he didn't try to help, but I wasn't going to bother him with helping me get it going. I mean, you don't invite somebody over to your house and then ask them to cook dinner for you. Not to mention that the line isn't that long right now so it wasn't too much work, but it's beginning to take a lot more water and time to get it ready.

I was kind of proud that he didn't first run the line. It took him 3 runs to get through, and if you know Tim, you know that is one if not two more runs than he would like. He also said that he was "scared" of a set and wanted to know why we didn't make the last couple of landings steeper. I told him that is in the plans but we are just trying to get as much built and running before we perfect stuff that is already running. Little did I know that he was kidding about making them steeper. So today I went out and took advantage of the rain we had yesterday and made the step-up two feet longer. All I did was shave out the pit about another foot and threw all of that dirt onto the face of the landing. I also took about 8 inches off of the face of the lip after the step up and threw that onto the landing as well. Hopefully I won't be able to over jump and flat bottom a landing that is almost 7 feet tall. Needless to say it hurt when I flat bottomed it when it was 6 feet tall.

I didn't get any photos of Timmy riding. He took some photos of my baller stem and of me to post on his blog (www.apachebmx.blogspot.com). He had me take some pics of him flexing, but he wouldn't allow me to click some pics of his tramp stamp =(. He also has one of the ugliest complete bikes that I have ever seen. It looks like a lime green skittle.

Wha Wha Wha Water runs

Well, I tried to take some photos of GGGGG-Unit's lip but it didn't turn out. What is strange is that after I made my remarks about it, CJ went out and turned it into a nice thing. CJ is a hardcore digger when he meets up with us.

But back to me and Pete's thing that we have running. I know that you may have seen some photos of some of these things but whatever.

looking back at the first berm


the "hip" after the first berm


after the "hip", looking down at the roller to set up set to tree jump


tree jump lip


looking over the tree jump landing at the long-low lip


looking back over long-low at the tree jump landing


side view of long-low


looking over the long-low landing at "Get There" lip


looking over the from the side of "Get There"


it's a "waterfall landing" for "get there"


step-up after "get there"




the water source


water barrel(s). I just cut off the top of the blue barrel today.


That's all for now. Hopefully since I had my last final today I'll get some stuff built and be able to ride a little bit. I hear that I might have a visitor come down and ride with me in the next couple of days. If that happens I'll be sure and get a picture of his bowlegged x-up's and turn bars.

flying time machine

I got me some "new" bike parts. Thanks to all of the dudes that hooked me up. Pete gave me a pivotal seat and seat post (but I didn't use the seat), Logan gave me a couple of seats to try out (I went with the thinner padded seat) and I swapped Glen's old front Deore lever that was flipped over for usage on the rear with a XTR lever that has a couple scratches on it. Now I'm just waiting to hear back from Sun Ringle about a cassette cog.

Since it has been over a month with no new post I should have some good photos, but I don't. However I do have some good stories. Since we have had some rain the last couple of weeks Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater and I have put in a little bit of shovel work when we aren't busy with school or he's not flying his plane.

We have finished a set and built the next jump. NO we have not made it over the set we finished successfully, but we have been close. Yesterday I think it was still a little soft in the pit or the the landing before it had some moisture in it because I was leaving ever so small ruts in the landing. I kept coming up about 6 inches short so I decided to lower the landing about 6 inches. This looks better on the approach but of course it looks longer now. I also rolled over the top corner of the landing so it wouldn't jar you so bad if you hung up on it. Honestly I think I could have made it over but I had the wife with me. If we had some 'Off' it would have been ok, but she had to walk around while reading her book so the mosquitoes wouldn't bite her. Since I knew this was bugging her I forced myself to make run after run with no breaks. Plus it was really hot and humid back there since we haven't had any dry heat to kill the built up moisture. Within 7 runs my gloves were useless do to the amount of sweat that had built up. My gloves were so wet that my grip started moving. I also wore the brain bucket since she was there, and with the humidity being almost 100000% by the time I reached the drop in I had sweat falling in my eyes. All of these things together did not create a very fun time to be trying to get over a new jump.

The set we built last week should be really good. It's a short (in length) step up. You jump out about 6ft and up about 3ft to a steep 6 1/2 - 7 ft tall landing. The lip is really wide, thick and squared off. We also have the next lip stacked and semi shaped. I'll try and get some pics of this stuff today and post 'em.

So GGGGG-Unit started his "line". It's pretty cool. I can't even describe how well it's coming. I mean this thing is "sick" looking. I can't wait to post photos of it. The lip is............ I don't even know. I've only ever seen a few lips like this one. The guys at 9th can't even build lips to this caliber. It's so awesome that he even dug a big hole right in the middle of our entrance/walking path to get some more dirt. If I wasn't so tired I'd go out there now just to pop a pic and come home and post it. I guess the only reason he hasn't finished his line in the past month is because he's been putting all of his work into this lip and school. Because you know it's "crunch time" for finals. I don't know how he has put as much work into this lip as he has since we are all busy studying for finals. The guy is AMAZING!

Clocking in some ride time

Pete making a run through the berm


Pete's 325 over the hip


set up set before the tree jump


Fist PUMP!


Pete's Monkey t-bog


super case


Photos of yours truly




This jump is really good since it's packed. No work required. It sets you up good for the long low after it.