Could Have Used Santa's Sleigh

   My apologies to my brother if he goes to read a new blog entry, only to find this is pretty much taken directly from the long email I sent to him this morning, detailing my recent ordeal.

   The Cycle Tech "Ride With Santa" went off without a hitch last Saturday, and it was enjoyed by all, including a first time attendee, my brother-in-law Jay. He actually put us all to shame in the decorating department, stringing lights through his reindeer-antler-equipped helmet and wearing a Santa-inspired tee shirt overtop of his cycling jacket.

   The only letdown for me was that the lights I had wound around my frame stopped functioning about halfway through the route. Strangely, they clicked back on shortly before we finished, when climbing up Main Street in Royersford. Not that I felt cheated of being able to put my lights to full use, but I like to get out a few times at night during the holidays (if it's not brutally cold), riding area trails and neighborhood streets to take in the home light shows.
   There is a new trail nearby that runs west-east, taking advantage of an existing power line corridor to connect a few housing developments in Limerick. I was on that route last night when I hit a low spot with poor drainage, and because the black asphalt there was so new, I couldn't tell it had frozen over. I went down hard!
   Granted, it has been 30 years since I was skating regularly, keeping in shape for hockey games, but I have taken a spill on ice hundreds of times (with and without protective equipment), and that repetition is surely an advantage when knowing how to fall - keep arms in and roll into the hit, letting the big bones/muscles absorb the smackdown. I also have it drilled into my head to stay with the bike when you crash, as it can often take the brunt of the impact, saving you from worse damage/pain down the road.
   When I slid to a stop, I was a little shaken, but I had no clothing tears, and my bike showed only a twisted left brake/shift lever. I brushed some slush clear of my legs and jacket, banged the lever back into alignment and walked about 50 yards just to assess my body's condition. Really, I didn't feel any different than the countless times I've caught a rut when skating on a pond or area rink and gone down, so I just jumped on the bike and continued for another 20 miles!
   I don't know if it was the adrenaline or the cold keeping any pain or swelling at bay, but I didn't feel any discomfort until I was pedaling the homestretch back to our house, and that sensation was more of a hip flexor strain. Well, when I stopped in our driveway, I could barely get off of my saddle, having to tilt the bike at an extreme angle in order to sling my left leg over the top tube.
   A few minutes later I was shivering uncontrollably at our walk-in closet, not only because my body temperature was dropping as I struggled to get out of the sweaty/wet cycling clothes, but I was in a bit of shock from the agony I experienced when dragging my left leg upstairs to hopefully take a hot shower. Seriously, I was nearly in tears, it was so bad - I just wanted to get warm and stop shaking, but I could barely move!
   Sue had yet to come home, so I just sucked it up, managed the excruciating pain to remove my socks and thermal tights, then somehow lifted my leg over the tub edge to enjoy a few moments of warmth under the hot water. The shaking began again when I dried myself off, but I could now hear Sue coming in the door downstairs.
   I felt really bad putting her through an emergency room visit until 3:00 am, especially because I am the KING of tests that show absolutely nothing wrong, despite my apparent issues. Since 2008, I have had every gastroenterological test and scan out there, attempting to diagnose a chronic digestion issue, only to find out I have Celiac, which was a totally unrelated "gift", and the mystery goes on. Anyway, in this case, no breaks or obvious damage in the X-ray or CAT scan!
   The doctor assumes I have some swelling/fluid in my old person hip joint that is pushing on nerves, but there could be a small hip flexor tear - most likely I'll be doing an orthopedic follow-up after the holidays. I'm feeling reasonably well now, loaded up on Percocet and trying to stay off my feet as much as possible.
   It's funny that what I am thinking about most is how great I felt out on the ride, despite only having put in a handful of miles the past week or so, due to some recent shaky weather and a couple family events in between. I was closing in on 5000 miles for the year and HATE it when my fitness drops off. Now it looks like a couple of weeks completely off the bike is in the cards...rats!

   Using a good number of the parts left over from the conversion of my Bianchi Camaleonte from a 9-speed, hydraulic brake flat-bar bicycle to an 11-speed, cable-activated hydraulic drop-bar machine and filling in the gaps with other components, I finished building up the Felt F65 frame I had purchased before the Turkey Trek. It currently has a pair of 38mm tires installed, which would provide a plush gravel ride, but you could simply swap in a 32-33mm 

set to make it an excellent cyclocross racer!

Hope you and those close to you have a safe and Merry Christmas, plus a fantastic New Year!

Pleasant Valley Friday

   Another music reference in the title - this time, courtesy of The Monkees, and I'm swapping in a different day of the week (for Sunday).

   Yesterday I had the opportunity to check out some Lehigh Valley trails out in the northern reaches of Northampton and Lehigh Counties. There was a warm sun shining when I started out from Slatington, and I may have let my enthusiasm get the better of me, as I shed some of the layers I had put on that crisp morning and wondered if I might be paying for it later.

   I was starting out in a westerly direction on the Slate Heritage Trail (photo left), which winds along Trout Creek. There were many remnants of the once-flourishing slate industry along the way with some historical markers to give information about some of the locations

   I pedaled out into some open farmland, and in the abundant sunshine, I was working up a decent sweat. The terrain was becoming incredibly hilly, and I opened up the front of my jacket, knowing that, if I didn't stay fairly dry and cool, when the sun started to get low I was going to be wet and cold.

   Going up a particularly brutal incline on County Bridge Road, I crossed through an unmarked intersection and waved to a car passing by for some I.D. help. She could tell that her answer wasn't the one I wanted to hear, meaning I'd have to continue up the nasty climb, but she wished me a pleasant ride anyway.

   Finally over the top of the hill, I turned onto Best Station Road and soon connected to Route 873. I made my way over gently-rolling terrain to the village of Neffs, veered onto Route 329, then headed south on Mauch Chunk Road to reach the Ironton Trail. I had been on this wonderfully-done path years ago with my father, but we were only on the the main 5-mile loop that encircles the borough of Coplay, as well as the communities of Stiles and Hokendauqua.

   I was on a three-mile extension of the trail, out to the village of Ironton itself, and the paved course is lined with ruins and historical markers that give visual evidence of the iron ore mining industry that once dominated the region. The trail is on the roadbed of the former Ironton Railroad, which transported the iron ore to blast furnaces that lined the Lehigh River. In later years the area was dominated by cement mills, and some of those still remain, though much of the transport is now done by trucks.
   There are many railroad remnants along the trail as well, including a nicely-restored caboose, a passenger car (which needed some work) and a concrete telephone booth (photo below).

   As I neared the river, I could see the landmark red brick Coplay Cement Company kilns looming in the distance. Built in the late 19th century, the kilns and surrounding land were donated to the county to become an open-air museum.

   I turned onto 2nd Street before reaching the kilns, so that I could head across the Chestnut Street bridge into Northampton. I made a left onto Main to meet the 10th Street trailhead of the Nor-Bath Trail which runs about six miles between its namesake boroughs. There had been many improvements to the trail since I last visited here years ago, and new bridges had been recently constructed over the busier roads that intersect the trail. Maybe the local parks department was feeling pressured by the quality of the Ironton Trail on the other side of the river?

   The trail climbs rather quickly away from the river, but not too steeply, as this was the roadbed of the Northampton and Bath Railroad. The shortline primarily served the many area cement mills (the high school nickname is the Koncrete Kids, after all) to interchange with the New Jersey Central in Northampton.

   I was aware of the lowering sun and definitely didn't want to get caught riding in the dark. I still had over ten miles to ride up the D&L Trail to return to Slatington, so I only rode half of the Nor-Bath Trail, doing a U-turn at the Bicentennial Park sports complex. Eventually heading through Canal Park, which is a short segment of the trail route on the east bank of the Lehigh River, I was disappointed by the condition of the asphalt surface, but I suppose with its proximity to the river, exposure to flooding is a frequent issue.

   I crossed back over the river on the Woodward Bridge at 21st Street and continued up along the D&L Trail towards the community of Laurys Station. The bluffs on the west side of the river become higher as you near Lehigh Gap, so I was in a cold shadow for the rest of the ride back to Slatington. I jumped out of the saddle a few times, not only to keep up a pace, but to try to generate some warmth from the effort.

   I was generally happy with the performance of the new Bianchi, though I'm not sold on the wider 38mm tires. I expected a lack of nimbleness on the streets, compared to the 30mm versions I have been riding on in the past, but I'm not sure what to think about their performance on unpaved paths. The surface of the D&L Trail is very fine cinder - though it doesn't puddle, it does hold water and becomes rather mushy, and like the Perkiomen Trail near my home, because it receives very little winter sun, it is rarely dry after the month of November. Both trails are constantly going through a freezing-overnight/thawing-during-daylight process.

   Now, physics would tell me that I was actually better off with the wider tires on the soft path, as their greater surface area would keep the tires from cutting into the mush and sinking. I also noticed a more comfortable ride on some of the more coarse or broken surfaces.

   I certainly don't feel the need to keep two wheelsets on hand for changing terrain, like a pro cyclocross racer might. I prefer not to ride in the wet, so I'm leaning towards trying a 32- or 34-millimeter tire and leaving it at that.

   So I'm now selling my 2006 Cross Concept - it served me well for nearly eight years, and I hope someone else can enjoy a few more years of off-road adventures on it. The bike has been cleaned and tuned-up, so it's ready to ride!