OMBA Caramba race info

I rode the OMBA Caramba race course at the Sac River trails today. I did 2 laps and here's the info from my bike computer

Lap 1
Time 44:03
Distance 6.98
Average 9.5
Max 21.9

Lap 2
Time 48:18
Distance 6.97
Average 8.6
Max 19.4

The first lap I rode pretty hard; there was only one really tough section. By the time I got to the top of the hill I was really dipping into my tank. There was one other hill that was fairly hard but it was much shorter and followed by a lengthy downhill section so I was able to recover pretty quickly. There's also a really long and fast downhill section that will be pretty hairy during the race. It ends with a sharp left turn whereas the trail itself keeps going so there's no bank to help with the turn. I knew the turn was coming up and I still had to lock up my rear brakes to make the turn. I expect someone will go down or fly through the ribbon during the race. There's one other hairy downhill that ends with a sharp left turn in a creek so that could be an issue as well. For the most part the course is well laid out and utilizes the majority of the trails at the park. There aren't any overlapping sections but most of the trails are pretty narrow so passes will be tricky.

I was pretty winded after the first lap so I took it much easier on the second lap. With those two times I wouldn't make the 1:30 cutoff (if that's what it is) to do 3 laps. But I know I could have pushed myself and trimmed a couple minutes off that second lap.

All and all I'm pretty pumped about the race and I'm really looking forward to it. It'll be exciting.

Pic from today:

Mountain Bike Racing

Yesterday evening I went out to the sac river trails for a ride and noticed there were lots of directional markers posted to trees like they do when they designate a course for a race. After my fist lap around the park I followed the markers and it was a pretty good course. It was getting pretty dark and I wasn't wearing my headlight but it took me about 45 to complete the lap.

It got me wondering what the signs were for since I haven't heard anything about a race out there and there's no way the race could have already happened because many of the trails had grass growing on them which means there hasn't been much traffic on the trails and there weren't any tail-tale ribbons tied to any trees around the markers. My only clue were the words OMBA Caramba that was on every sign.

When I got home I did a little googling and found out there's going to be a race on July 12 and it's part of the midwest fat tire series. Their website doesn't have many details about the race yet but here's a link to the series rulebook that has some good info. I think the entry fee for the beginner and sport classes are $25. For the expert and marathon class it's $30.

Judging from the other races I expect there to be a 1 hour 30 minute cutoff for beginner, sport and expert classes and 3 hour cutoff for marathon; so you complete as many laps as you can in that time. As long as you start your last lap prior to the cutoff then you're allowed to finish that lap.

I want to do this race, the question is; what class? Technically I'd be either a beginner or sport based on my limited racing experience, but since I've been mountian biking for a while and I know the Sac River trails like the back of my hand, I should stay out of the beginner group. But then when I consider what my strenghts are and endurance is at the top of the list. That makes me lean toward the marathon class since I think a longer race helps me (granted I'd be racing against better riders).

I don't know which class to pick, I think I'll wait until more infomation is published on the race. I do know one thing; I'll be out there riding the course tomorrow!

Running with water

I went for a ride out at little sac yesterday after work, and about 20 minutes into the ride I noticed my rear tire was nearly flat. That's pretty odd because since I've started running tubeless I haven't had a single flat. While looking for the source of the leak I realized that I've somehow worn the sidewalls of the rear tire almost all the way through. The steel (I guess) belting was actually showing all the way around the tire and the stans sealant was seeping through the side of the tire. I can't figure out what caused it to wear like that because it's on both sides of the tire. All I can think of is that at some point mud has gotten packed around the chain stays and when it dried it had to have been up against the sides of the tires and worn them down. I do run a fairly low tire pressure but I don't think normal flexing of the tire would cause it to wear like that.

Anyway, I ended up walking the bike back to the trail head because even though the tire wasn't completely flat it was low enough that I could've damaged my rims which would have REALLY sucked. Then I decided to go for a run so it wouldn't be a completely wasted trip. I swapped my biking shoes for running shoes, left my camelbak on and headed out. I normally don't run with water since I'm usually running around my neighborhood and since my runs don't last more than an hour I don't really need it. But I was already sweating quite a bit and figured having the water handy would be a good idea. Almost immediatly the backpack style started bothering me because it was bouncing on my back. I tighened the shoulder straps down where the pack stayed in place but after about 15 minutes it was riding up on my back and the straps were rubbing on my neck. I ended up loosening the straps a little and holding them in my hands as I ran so I could hold it flat against my back. That worked well enough and I ended up running for a little over an hour. It was a pain to have to hold onto the pack to keep it steady though so last night I started doing some research on a better hydration pack for running. I had a lot of fun running the trails (turns out running in the shade is pretty nice) and plan to do more of it this summer so a good stable pack would be nice to have. I think I'm going to check out the Camelbak flashflo. I read some good reviews about it online and it looks like it would work. I've got a $40 gift card to Dynamic Earth that my sister got me for my birthday, I need to head out there and see what they've got. I love that place.

I think my next rear tire is going to be the Specialized Chunder. It looks like it would provide pretty good traction. Hopefully A&B Cycle carries it.

Little Sac trail conditions

I rode little sac this evening and thought I'd make a trail report. Overall the trail is in good riding shape. There isn't any reall mud; only a few soft spots. Many of the trails are pretty overgrown, but that's normal for this time of the year. I imagine with the warmer weather the trail maintenance folks will be out there to get it trimmed back pretty soon.

There were several trees down from the storms a couple weeks ago, but only one that made me get off the bike to go over it. I REALLY wish they would turn some of the downed trees into obstacles instead of just cutting them up and removing them from the trail. My favorite place to ride is the roller coaster trail in Castlewood State park at Ballwin MO. It's a fast, swooping trail that's a blast to ride going either directon. When I first started riding at Castlewood there were lots of logs that crossed the trail on roller coaster and getting to jump them during the ride was a blast. Unfortunately all the logs were removed from the trail and while it's still a lot of fun it just isn't the same; not nearly as challenging. I love obstacles and developing the skills it takes to maintan momentum when going over them. I realize that some people don't want to jump logs, but having logs on one trail in a park is not too much to ask for. The people that don't like them can just skip that trail or get off their bike when they get to the logs.

If anyone has been holding off from going to Little Sac due to worry about poor trail conditions, I encourage you to go. It's ready for you.

OJT Sayersbrook Bison Ranch Recap (Part 2)

Saturday morning was the epitome of camping for me. I got up around 6:30 which is VERY early for me, but I felt rested and excited about the day of wheeling. I set up my (sisters) handy coleman propane grill, fried some scrambled eggs with sausages and started percolating a pot of coffee. Turns out that coffee percolation isn't very efficient and it took over 30 minutes before the coffee had any taste, but the eggs/sausage were delicious and it was a great start to the day.


At about 9 everyone gathered with their jeeps in the big parking lot near the campground and discussed the plan for the day. We decided to break up into small groups of 5 or so jeeps and explore the park. Then we'd meet back at the pavilion for lunch where we could talk about the best places and head back out for the afternoon. I ended up joining a small group with Herb and Matt with Herb in the lead. Our goal was to hit the hardest trails first (marked as red on the maps we were given) because that's how we roll....

The only problem was finding the hardest trails. It turns out that there hasn't been anyone fourwheeling at the ranch for the last couple years so the trails were very overgrown. There is a nice paved/gravel road system that runs throughout the ranch and the trails all branch off this road system. We spent about an hour driving these roads looking for the trails, stopping every once in a while to try to figure out where we were and scratching our heads. Finally we decided that if we saw a break in the tree's then it must be a trail and that worked. We did end up going down a motorcycle trail once which was interesting. Luckily Herb was in front so he took out all the small trees that were in the way.

We also met with another group on the best trail we found during our morning session. They were coming from the opposite direction while we were driving down a shallow creek bed. Adam, a member of that group, had a small problem negotiating a turn while trying to avoid a tree (that he hit on his first attempt).


After Adam was winched back to level ground we did an out and back on that trail and had a great time. Plus I got to use my winch for the first time when Matt got stuck between 2 logs in a fairly muddy section of the trail. After pulling him back off the logs he made it over them just fine.

Next up was lunch back at the campground pavilion; which consisted of PB&J sandwiches for me with Diet Dr. Pepper to wash them down. Others ate better. For the afternoon trip we picked up another jeep in our group (Tony) and I was drafted to lead since I'd had a little success deciphering the map during the morning adventure. We took the original red trail that we had intended to take in the morning and we spent all afternoon on it. The first major obstacle was called "the waterfall" and it was crazy. A very steep, muddy, rocky hill with a ledge and sharp turn at the top. When we arrived there was already a group of about 6 jeeps playing around on the hill so we got to watch them attempt it before it was our turn. Rodger was the first person I saw go up and at first he tried to crawl it but with the mud and rocks he didn't make it very far. He ended up getting a run at it and used the momentum and lots of throttle to make it to the top. Here's a video of Rodger making the run:



Here a passenger view from Matt's jeep (might be NSFW due to language):



Unfortunately there's not a video of my run (I'm sure it just happened to quickly), but here's one of Tony at the top of the hill:



My only carnage of the trip happened on that hill. I made it to the top but it was a crazy bumpy ride. The steering wheel was bouncing all over the place an I managed to turn on my windshield wipers and headlights somewhere on the way up. Then when I tried to make the ledge at the top I needed to back up for a different approach. While backing up I put my foot on the brake and felt the jeep surge a little, that made me press harder on the brake which caused me to go back even faster. Then I hit a tree. Turns out I had my foot about half on the brake and half on the gas. Luckily the tree just dented the rear fender well a little but nothing broke. I hit it in the optimal spot, if there is an optimal spot to hit a tree. For the environmentalists, there was no damage to the tree that I could tell. I was a little embarrassed by the mishap so I put my jeep in drive, mashed on the gas and popped right up on the ledge like I knew what I was doing. The turn to go back down the hill was pretty scary because it felt like I was going to go rolling down the hill, but my spotter got me through it without incident. Ross was not quite so lucky (didn't break anything):



There were lots of good places on that section of trail, one was a hill that only the JK's could climb, there was a nice drop off that I accidentally jumped and a slab that turned out to be fairly challenging. During that time Jay broke a u-joint, Ross had to change a flat tire, and we spent a lot of time watching each other climb stuff so the afternoon went by very quickly and we headed back to camp for dinner around 5:30.

I want to get this posted up so I guess this trip is going to have a part 3.

OJT Sayersbrook Bison Ranch Recap (Part 1)

This past weekend was the Ozarks Jeepthing members-only trail run at the Sayersbrook Bison Ranch. The event was organized by past club president and current club vice-president Aaron LaRose and it completely exceeded all expectations.

Unfortunately for me the event got off on a shaky start when Thursday, the evening before the trip after I re-spooled my winch, I (for some reason) flipped my differential locker switch as I was pulling my jeep back in the carport. But nothing happened. No "axle locked" lights on the dash. I then put the jeep in 4-lo and hit the switch again; nothing. That's when panic started to set in. I hurried to the house, got my tools and immediately took the dash apart so I could inspect the wiring. Everything looked fine. About a month earlier I had done the "locker bypass mod" which enables the use of the lockers in 2wd hi and 4wd hi, so I removed the jumper cables I'd installed and still, no lockers. I spent the rest of the evening until about 1 am tinkering with everything I could think to tinker with and nothing worked. So I looked on-line and found out that the Youngblood Jeep service department opens at 7 am so I went to bed, tried to sleep and got up at 6:15am so I'd be the first in line when they opened. Turns out they don't acutally start servicing vehicles until 8 am and after twiddling my thumbs for a few hours they told me the switch was bad and that the replacement would be $211 (installed) and they'd have one by Monday (the closest one was in St. Louis). I told them not to order one, paid them $85 for looking at my jeep and went home. I then took my dash apart, removed the switch and drove to work so I could test the switch in my co-worker Chad's rubicon. Turns out the switch WAS dead, and when I put his switch in my jeep it worked! Luckily Chad is a great guy and he let me borrow his locker switch for the weekend so my crisis was over and everything was back on track. And I needed to be at the group staging point in an hour; so I hurried home to pack and load the jeep for the weekend. I'm not sure what caused the switch to go bad, but I probably shorted it out with the bypass mod. Since it's not really necessary for me to lock the diffs in 2wd or 4hi, I'll keep my switch in stock mode when I replace it. Here's the $211 part:

My sister Tina loaned me a TON of camping gear that I loaded into 2 large tubs that fit perfectly in the back of my jeep. I ended up taking more stuff than I needed, but I didn't know what the accomidations were going to be like so I erred on the side of needing everything.

I planned to drive up with the first group and met everyone at the T/A truck stop in Strafford at 2 pm. about half the people had their jeeps on trailers and the other half are like me and are too cheap/poor to afford a jeep, trailer and a tow rig. We headed out at 2:30 and as soon as we got on the interstate discovered that Matt had a problem because his trailer was whipping around like crazy once he got above 60 mph. We pulled over on the shoulder of I44 (which is never a fun experience) and moved Matt's jeep to the front of the trailer and strapped it down really well. That fixed the problem and the rest of the trip was uneventful. It turns out that keeping a lifted jeep at 70 mph is no easy task and I burned about half a tank between Springfield and Cuba where we turned off on the way to Potosi.

The road between Cuba and Potosi was very hilly and twisty so I had trouble keeping up with the more powerful tow rigs, but we made it to the ranch a little before 6 and it was much nicer than I expected. They do indeed have lots of Bison and you drive over several cattle grates on the way back to the camping area. Next to the camping area is a nice sized private lake and a very nice covered pavillion/dock area. There was a large parking lot for the motor homes to set up, a clean restroom facility with running water, a huge fire pit for grilling, a cool circular pit with benches and tables for evening bon-fires, a small sandy beach and a neat little amphitheater facing the lake. All in all I was very impressed.

I quickly set up my tent (with help from Casey) about 6 feet from the lake, set up my sisters Coleman grill and cooked an 8oz filet for dinner. People were arriving most of the evening and since I'd had a very rough time the previous 24 hours, I went to bed around 9:30 and slept like a baby; even with the pooring rain that apparently kept several people up most of the night.

By morning the rain had stopped, but unfortunately my iPhone was a casualty since I hung it in a pocket on the wall of the tent and it ended up getting very wet. I tried to turn it on but the screen just went white and then wouldn't turn on the rest of the weekend. Luckily I took a few pics friday evening before it died:





This is turning into a pretty long post and I've got lots more to talk about so I think I'm going to split this up into 2 parts. More to come....

Sayersbrook Bison Ranch trail ride

This weekend the ozarks jeepthing club will be at the Sayersbrook Bison Ranch in potosi mo for a club-only trail run. We are expecting about 23 jeeps to participate so it should be a great time. The plan is to head up Friday afternoon, camp that evening, wheel all day Saturday, camp Saturday night and head home Sunday morning.

There is rain in the forecast (surprise!) but I doubt it will put a damper on everyone's enthusiasm. It just makes things more challenging. Besides, I have a winch so no worries.

I've been working on my jeep in preparation for the run; I changed the engine oil and filter, transmission oil and filter, transfer case oil and the differential fluids, topped off the steering and brake fluids and re-torqued all the suspension bolts to make sure nothing comes loose. I also changed my differential covers to a set of RockCrushers (I seem to bang the diffs a lot) and those things are beefy. I also scored a craigslist hard top for the jeep last week. It's a little scratched up (as is everything else on the jeep) but it's structurally sound and I got a really good deal.

Those of you that read the blog might remember that I was planning on participating in the Ozark Greenways adventure race this weekend. Well, one of my teammates has had a foot problem for the last month and hasn't been able to train so I decided to skip the race this year. It kind of sucks because I've been running at least 5 miles every day for the last couple months and feel like I'm in pretty good shape. I guess if I can maintan the fitness over the summer I'll see if I can win the Sac River 12 Hour good time race this year. I came in second in the solo category last year (due to my headlamp running out of jucie) but this year I'll have a second battery on hand. I haven't been riding much lately due to all the rain but when summer hits I'll transition from running to riding. Running in 90 degree heat isn't nearly as fun as flying down the trails.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend, hopefully it lives up to expectations.