James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead

Norm said:
December 15: Berm Update

It was a splendid late fall day today, and instead of riding my bike somewhere I spent some time working on the outline of the wooden berm. Since the last picture, I've actually done nothing at all. I adjusted the angles of all 8 pairs and added some string to give a visual on how it'll line up. I don't really like how it's coming together so far. It's close, but something doesn't work for me with this - yet. I intended to angle the boards at 30-35-40-45 then 45-40-35-30 but when I tried to fix the 45 degree angles, it started to topple over. So I made the inner 6 all 35 degrees and the ends just 30. It sort of lays out ok, but I'm not sure what I'll end up doing here. I knew I needed to move the 8x8s, but I think I need to do that sooner than later. This is all a bit more of an enigma than I suspected, but I'm taking the long road to get there.

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After seeing the design for this berm, I actually had to apologize to @UtahJoe for questioning his driveway ramp design.

I was curious where this design came from and found a video and assume it is this:
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The issue as i see it is this design is essentially framing “tic tac toe” boxes and playing with the angle. The high side and low side are what actually supports the top boards. Your design appears to have nothing than will support weight.

Possibly re-start by building 4’ x 4’ “tic tac toe” frames, for every other section snd then connect those with an offset board.
 
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December 16: 50 & 100 (Tourne)

Today marks an accomplishment of not only one but two different goals I had for the year. The first of which is the number 50. We rode the Tourne today which is the 50th different park I've ridden in 2023. 100 is the total number of mountain bike rides I've done. I may end the year at 50 and 100. Or I may end the year at 50 and 101, or 102, or whatever. I really don't know. But I've hit these fabricated lines in the sand that I wanted to hit. The past few years I've been trying to keep track of how many different parks I ride (like Robin) just because I want to ride as many different parks as I can. The total number of mountain bike rides could certainly be higher. Earlier this year I did two total rides in the first three months. So in reality it's probably not as impressive as it could be. Certainly not as impressive as Pete. For those of you who follow along even casually I would ask this question. What are the four parks I have ridden the most in the year 2023?

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Jeremy got 2 of 4. Patrick has 1 but like Trebek would say: can you be more specific?
 
rottin' said:
KT? not sure of specific trail doe
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KT it is!

Top 4 are CR (22), Vietnam (9), RV (8), and KT (4). TF counts all the Sedona areas individually, otherwise that would be 4th with 7. LewMo is actually 5th with 3. Our group ride plus 2 NICA rides would account for that. CR would be way higher if we had to ride to do TM. I may have 20 days of TM there at this point.

TF also gives you all-time stats, which for me go back to 2013. I have an idea for January to incorporate that in my daily post.
 
December 17: Cromwell with Kirt & Iggy

Today I spent the morning at Camp Cromwell with birthday boy Kirt (happy 30th my friend) and not-birthday boy Iggy. We spent a considerable amount of time planning out how we're going to use the coming week to machine rebuild some existing trails as well as adding a substantial amount in the process. Last week, the JORBA Board approved an $8000 trail build that involves 1, perhaps 2, machines as well as some paid workers to help finish up the work, in addition to various other projects in the park. If you're wondering where your JORBA money goes, this is one of the places. And if you're a local to the park, expect big ass changes for the better. If you're been over there lately you probably see the work - it's not insignificant. In the coming weeks we hope to expand a lot on that momentum. Before long, the park will be officially open and we can do more official rides and TM events. Lots of good stuff to come. Keep an eye out for it.

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December 18: Cheesecake

Last week, when I was traveling for work, I got this bug in my ear about cheesecake. The hotel we stayed at had a sports bar where we ate dinner twice, and I overheard a guy order cheesecake. The next day, we went out to dinner elsewhere and I said we had to have it for dessert. Alas, they didn't have any. Truth be told, I was plenty full at that point and I didn't need to eat any more. I get home to NJ, and a few days later Glenn talks about getting it at Shop Rite. Yesterday we went food shopping, and lo & behold they have Junior's cheesecake there. I deliberated original versus raspberry for a minute, and went with what you see below. I had a slice last night, and 1 today. It's very good, well worth the wait. Some Mondays, all you have to look forward to is cheesecake. And some days, that's enough. I think some of us would be well-served to look for the small things in life to make you happy, and not worry too much about the things that make you unhappy. Now excuse me while I have my cake and eat it too, at least for a few more days.

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Norm said:
December 18: Cheesecake

Last week, cheesecake. The next day, dessert. Alas, a few days later have Junior's cheesecake.
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Norm said:
Some Mondays, all you have to look forward to is cheesecake. And some days, that's enough. I think some of us would be well-served to look for the small things in life to make you happy, and not worry too much about the things that make you unhappy. Now excuse me while I have my cake and eat it too, at least for a few more days.
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Both equally insightful!


Great to check in and find that the 'everything everywhere all at once' complexities of life have in no way diminished your ability to find that happiness is understanding the necessity of simplicity.

This guy gets it...



Cheers!
 
Quarter slices. Seems legit.

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December 19: Machine Build

Today we started day 1 of the Cromwell project. What you see here is a small bit of what we have going on at the camp. In all there are 2 major sections which will have machine work done. This should end up being some pretty unique trail compared to what you normally ride at CR/WVP. To say we're excited about this is a major understatement. Tomorrow the crew comes in to start the finishing work, in addition to making some hand-cut trails that don't warrant a machine. In all, in this upper section we're going to be building, moving, or rebuilding almost half a mile of trail. We anticipate having the machine part of this done tomorrow, and a good portion of the finishing work done as well. We plan to be out there through Friday, maybe into Saturday, and perhaps even into next week. Hopefully we'll be able to open this section up before too long, and hopefully people are as excited about it as we are.

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