Old news, but you must check this out.

Head on over to Mitch Kline's site to check out the rest of the 12 photo set of pics from one of his visits to the pasture last year.

Last Week in Review

Last week there was a bit of action at the pasture. Too much riding, not enough time for blogging.

On Tuesday, Paul borrowed a Grasshopper mower and cleared a swath through the jungle in the valley. I hit some areas with a weed whacker, but Paul did most of the work. If you see Paul say thanks. Also, we need to take up a collection to help pay for fixing the mower.

On Thursday, Chad worked the pit crew for the "pasture shuttle"after I hit the upturned cattle guard on the north side of the gate. We met up with Kristy Holland (thanks again for the use of the vice grips) who was passing through on the way to an adventure race in Fairbury. Kristy rode a couple of loops and did some GPS mapping for a national magazine.

OK, so this pic is about 60% of what I was going for . . . ah the life of an amateur photographer.

More Grass

The rains keep coming and the grass keeps growing.

Can you see the stock tank directly in front of the vehicle?

We ended up moving to higher ground away from the saturated valleys and did some trail work on "Horsehoe Canyon" The cordless sawzall made tree work much faster.

The newly cleared section on "Horseshoe Canyon". This new route extends the trail by following the edge of the canyon and flowing more with the contour of the land.

Eastern Nebraska

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to hit Platte River State Park with distance rider extraordinaire, Matt Gersib, and the 26th most popular cyclist on the web, Guitar Ted. Guitar Ted has an excellent write up on his blog, just follow the link above.

My perspective is from someone who rides in the dry, open, West. It's amazing how much of a difference there is between, Eastern Nebraska and Western Nebraska trails. Platte is a tight, foliage enclosed roller coaster. It's a blast, but was I ever slow. No spring training will do that, I suppose. At Platte, you have to remain focussed since the trail is always changing directions. They really made use of a tight space - very efficient trail design. I think we could take some cues from Platte in the new extension of Cedar Ridge and the new festival camp loop.

Sorry for the lack of pics, nothing from the camera turned out . . . it's time to ditch the little P&S, blow the dust of what I learned in college photojournalism, and take some real pics . . . right after I finish these summer classes, mow the lawn, bleed a pesky rear brake, paint the living room, housebreak the monkey . . . you know, the usual stuff.

I the rain holds off today, a fast loop at Potter's may be on order.

Grass

A few weeks of wet weather + sunshine and warm days in between = GRASS!

The green stuff has been growing like the Federal Budget Deficit. The cows are not yet in the pasture, so their consumption has not had the usual mitigating effect. The mower will be coming out soon. If you are riding at the pasture, be prepared for some overgrowth.

If you look closely, you can see CQ disappearing into the sea of green.

He's still there . . .