Florida here we come...a little late....

I normally like to get some sun therapy in January and February by heading to Florida for a long weekend.  But this year we needed to go in March, so we sucked it up through the cold months and packed up for a much anticipated long weekend.

San Felasco first.  Great times on rolling easy trails.  My legs always vibrate after FL trails, because there is no rest.  No climbing, but no rest.  You pedal constantly.  The sun hit the pine trees and it smelled great!  The trails were in the best condition I have ever seen.  No wild pig carnage, no armadillo holes, no mud.

Of course, as soon as I stepped out of the car, I got stung on the neck.  Floridian bastage bugs!

Outside Steak n Shake we saw this little jewel.  The perfect way to attach your light.

Sweet ride.

Camping at Santos.  The campground is now a State Park, so they are following rules about not camping in the tent area.  Also, no camping around the Vortex.  We got a site, no prob.

Shey eating his noodles.  He's a little addicted to FriendFace.

A long ride at Santos brought me to this dip.  This is where I fell and hit my head during the Huracan ride.  Totally recognized it.

I came across Shey on the trails every day.  Pretty cool.

We start early, so it's cool to see someone on the trail.  (he clears the spider webs for me)

Ice Cream after a long ride.  Yumm!  LOVE the bike shop across from Santos.  I hope they forever have ice cream and beer for me.

Shey before the ice cream.

At the campground, these guys were falling out of the trees and were everywhere.  Several stowed away in our car and we found them when we got home.

Pick out the critters.

Red head

Bike art at Greenway Bicycles

After our ride, I wanted to go for a hike.  Shey said "Sure!"

Then he said, "Wait, how long is this hike going to be?"  Ah, he has caught on. 

He encouraged me to walk up to this coral snake and take a picture.

Now he's eating MY noodles.

Next it was on to the Croom trails.  I thought this was a parking lot.  Sun reflecting off the water.

Cool swampy area.

Croom.

My steady eddie Blue!  This has been an awesome bike!

Dusty trails, means they were dry.  It was raining at home.

I went for a short run after riding Croom and came across more swamp.

We had a great time and the weather was perfect for riding.  Not too hot and cool enough to sleep well in the tent at night.
**

More March Hiking

Lots of short hikes in March.  The weather has been great!

The boys do this thing I like to call "standing on a rock".

They have always done it.

I'm not sure why.  They stand on rocks in every state we have been to.  They actually get out of our raft/canoe/kayak to stand on rocks when we are paddling.  There is something about medium to big rocks that beckons those two.

Shey raced a Chain Buster race.  Jansen and I were riding the Hard Labor trails, but stopped by his race on our way home and caught his last lap.

Lamar was there.  Looking quite dapper in black.  I'm sure he crushed the masters field.

Shey's pit crew.

The damage done to the IHP area after the Spartan running race was pretty intense.  The Spartan race was held just prior to the Chainbuster XC race.  They must have had a lot of runners and vehicles out there to tear up the land like that.  

I picked up a good bit of trash, after their 'cleanup', in the field, too.

This was filled in and IHP will probably reseed.

Warning to locals.  The Spartan guys put gravel in the turns prior to the Power Line Climb.  Yep, gravel.


**

Jerky and Faster Mustache! So similar....

Glenn sent a box of jerky and Jansen is addicted.  I have yet to see him without a piece in his hand. 

(On a side note; Shey's dog jumped on the counter and totally bypassed the box of jerky, but ate the neoprene handles off of my lunch bag.  WTH???)

THEN it was time for Faster Mustache's WTF ride.  Woods to Farm is an in-town stage race the FM guys came up with to celebrate 10 years of bikes and beer together.

Loose Nuts Cycles got a fire going.  Leftover scraps, not ghetto at all and keeping it warm in February.

Then WOOD arrived!!!  He's like a super hero in plaid with a really cool dog. (oh, and his van runs, mine doesn't, so bonus points for that)

Registration was at Loose Nuts.  This was very early.

Within and hour the line was around the block and Eric was cackling insanely at the stress of it all and Chris wouldn't give up his tape and one of the Ramptons kept saying No More Day Of Race Registration, but there WAS MORE and muffins and coffee were hastily inhaled by others and the bathroom line was sketchy, so I held it.

                                                                     Photo:  Ed Frayer

Then we were off.  Alex and I were in charge of the scoring.  Alex is really into high tech cycling clothing and backpacks made out of that crazy expensive interstellar material, as seen in photo.

Then we hit the dirt.

This view was pretty amazing.  The train of riders was long and giddy.

The first stage was in a cool wooded area where is looked like bodies had been dumped after being mugged.  The race went off without a hitch.  I worked scoring with a great guy, Kevin?  The course looked very cool and the racers had a blast.

Photo Credit: Yoni Pollak

The second stage started near this train trestle.  It was awesome.  Tough course with burritos waiting for all at the end.  I'm sure there was a mobile beer keg, too.

Ooooh, trains!

                                                                               Photo:  Wayne Whitesides

                                                                                 Photo:  Rusty Barlow
                           
The last stage was through some pretty cool singletrack, then it was back to the Trailer Park for the party!

                                                                         Photo:  Wayne Whitesides
Trailer Park backyard fun!

                                                                           Photo:  Rob Giersch
I took off as soon as we tallied up the stages and before the party kicked off.  Great day with lots of great people on wheels!

HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY FASTER MUSTACHE!!!!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1484072675182203/

http://www.fastermustache.org/events/?category=FM%3AATL

**