5/30/14

Dos trakk chi lok0 "Thee Lœko"

the lower connecticut river valley has been my summer home since i first moved to this country back in may of 1958.  its an odd place to be #21&horni, but for all of its shortcomings in party zones, it does have some of the best, if not thee best, dos trakk cycling i've ever put the supple rubber to.  a seemingly endless network of olde carriage paths winding aimlessly through a canopy of semi-mid olde growth deciduous forests past 400 year olde farmhouses, long forgotten in the green velvet cloak of hi-spring.  its no surprise that frame building legends j.p. weigle and richard sachs (until a few years ago) call the lower valley their home.  

i've spent 3.623 lifetimes linking all this dos loko trakk together, and have still fallen short of the royal perfection this region deserves... until last fall during maximum nuke foliage fall out, a vision came to me in the form of connecticut state hero, nathan hale.  he told me about THEEE lœko.  60 miles out the front door, 45 of them "wakked out".  we then got wicked fäjked and tripped watermelons on nutmeg before he vanished into a technicolor maple grove leaving nothing behind but a dog eared parchment map of the route, and his gold's gym membership.

flash forward to memorial day, nutmeg country 2014.  in nathan's honor i decided to enlist some brave locals to attempt and quilt thee lœko together with me.  we met up at malone's coffee shoppe in the olde library building of downtown clinton, and sipped espresso out of styrofoam cups (its clinton...).  5-6 hours later we had completed the best dos trakk ride imaginable, right from our front doors.  enjoi!
           
canadian marc and american marc


poppi finds a "hen of the woods" for tonight's pizza! (canadian marc photo)

can't have swamp yankees without swamps

aaaaaaand there were plenty of them!  will probably dry up in a month or 2 (game camera photo)

marc on marc romance betwixt a classic connecticut stone wall

i was on my 650bx42 raliegh international, marc and marc opted for cross bikes with 33.333's (canadian marc photo)

we licked this turtle and saw nathan hale again for advice at a wrong turn


Jøtul's Quinetucket Traditions from Jamie Murrett on Vimeo.

many of the roads, pre-lœko vision, were featured in the above video a few years back in time.  all of this face melting quaint is easily accecable from NYC via the metro north-shoreline east for about $15 each way.  the nutmeg county pedalers chapter of thee hott bod random boiyz will be hosting a proper lœko this fall, amidst peak nukerz.

5/28/14

Nutmeg Outback


  was bumming that i was not on the latitudinal opposite side of the country for the oregon outback this past weekend.  it wasn't really even the ride i was sorry on missing (looked a bit windy), but the rented amtrak packed with bikes and chiller camper bikers, all partying and arm wrestling...etc.... but im currently working hard with the board of tourism promoting the lower connecticut river valley, and a trip to oregon would be highly unfashionable in my position.

being recently seasonally domesticated naturally leads me to a hi-risk deficiency in fire and both open air sleeping and pooping.  also missing the slow squirm of a heavy bike on the road/trail.  So my mom called up marc's (@xlevelbossx) mom and got him to go on a sleep over with me.  innnnn the #nutmegoutback  

 









5/24/14

Ol' Brændi, my olde friend

 Ol' Brændi (@brendanoshafer) is a classical renaissance MAN.  We grew up together in #nutmegcountry, and met when he was just a we 12 year olde trying to make an honest buck vacuuming floors at the famed Cycles of Madison, of where i (poppi) was employed as a hi-pressure Ibis (pre ugly carbon) salesman.  in the mid 90's, his father was the liaison in bringing the local, Richard Sachs, and Dario Pegoretti together in the first ever meeting.  Dario stayed at Brændi's house and eventually got kicked out after a week for not abiding by his mothers farcical rules of no smoking in the house, and for getting his father drunk too much.  you can't make this stuff up.  I've seen the pictures.

years later, i moved from the shoreline and attended college in Durango, CO.  I would come home for the holidays and summers to recount the wakkiness of the southern colorado 1-trakk.  ol' Brænt would wide-eyed listen to these tales of lettuce chopping brown pow, and get all jazzy.  a month after i had graduated and left, Brændi moved out their with nothing but one of his father's Steelman MTBs and a pillowcase full of Cliff bars.  And so his life began as a Durango legend...

2011 MTB cat 1 national champ
2011 MTB cat 1 colorado state champ
Makes his own fiddles and banjos
banjo and vocals Six Dollar String Band
Durango Devo head coach
theeee most wakked out MTB style with the fluidity of the most fluid fluids
proud owner of a Fat Chance Yo Eddy mouse pad

here are a few pictures taken this spring in durango at our special meadow hott spot.  enjoi!!