This past week I finally spent some time dedicated to biking. It started on Saturday last weekend when I spent a few hours helping out with some Rosaryville trail work, though no actual riding. Tuesday I made it out for the Rosie night ride which Eric generously stuck around to lead (despite having put in at least 32 hours of trail work over the previous 4 days including all day Tuesday.
The ride was great and the new Light and Motion Stella 200N worked out perfectly for the end of the ride when we finally needed to turn the lights on. Performs way better then even the combo of the Night Rider Road Rat and performance brand 10 watt light taped to the helmet... Yeah, I don't have much to compare it too of course.
Thursday I took the day off work to get some things looked at on the truck and then went back to Rosie for some more trail work mixed with some riding. Both were great and riding a final lap after the days work was done I could tell the trail was in way better condition then before hand. Paul and Eric put in some ridiculous amounts of time out there every year and I think everyone who rides there owes them a great big thank you for such a great place to ride.
This morning I got out for a few hours of Patrol riding at Black Hill Regional Park followed by a two and a half hour ride at Schaefer Farms with Brian. It was my first time at both places and each impressed me in their own ways. Black Hill is huge with a lot going on. Very nice park with some good easier rolling single track all around the park. Schaefer on the other hand was ridiculously fun. Lots of up and downs and some incredibly twisty and windy trails. Lots of logs and other play ground equipment add plenty of fun and challenge for everyone.
I also rode both endsof the Hoyles Mill connector trail today. The end at Black Hill on patrol and Brian and I crossed over for a few miles down the trail from Schaefer. Now just to put it all together.
Showing posts with label Volunteering Opps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Volunteering Opps. Show all posts
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
A couple of things
Brian wrote a personal letter to Lance Armstrong with some words of "condolence" and "encouragement". Hopefully Lance gets a chance to see it and it helps cheer him up about his outlook on the whole thing.
Jenny answered the call and enjoyed the beautiful day (and dodged some traffic) yesterday with Brian out in Sligo Creek.
I did my first patrol for the Volunteer Park Patrol, rode my "single speed" cross bike with rusting chain, forgot my id badge, and drank too much coffee and had pee in the woods (indecent exposure anyone). Great start to a promising career of kicking the bad guys' butts!
Afterwards Aimee and I spent some time outside with the dogs, getting Cass some good swimming time and homer some sprint drills mixed with some carbo loading. Afterwards I took Cass off with me to get in an 8 miler out through some of the dirt road back around the Ag Center and then back down around the Greenbelt Lake.
Felt great and running on the dirt roads was a lot of fun. The birds and other noisey wildlife were out in abundance making an entertaining racket. I felt like I could run forever on those roads, if only they just went forever. I'm really feeling great running right now and think I may start trying to bump up the mileage and see what kind of distance I can start getting in. Possibly aiming for something 26.2+...
Jenny answered the call and enjoyed the beautiful day (and dodged some traffic) yesterday with Brian out in Sligo Creek.
I did my first patrol for the Volunteer Park Patrol, rode my "single speed" cross bike with rusting chain, forgot my id badge, and drank too much coffee and had pee in the woods (indecent exposure anyone). Great start to a promising career of kicking the bad guys' butts!
Afterwards Aimee and I spent some time outside with the dogs, getting Cass some good swimming time and homer some sprint drills mixed with some carbo loading. Afterwards I took Cass off with me to get in an 8 miler out through some of the dirt road back around the Ag Center and then back down around the Greenbelt Lake.
Felt great and running on the dirt roads was a lot of fun. The birds and other noisey wildlife were out in abundance making an entertaining racket. I felt like I could run forever on those roads, if only they just went forever. I'm really feeling great running right now and think I may start trying to bump up the mileage and see what kind of distance I can start getting in. Possibly aiming for something 26.2+...
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Karma building
Yesterday was the final Rosaryville State Park trail work event for the season. I managed to drag bro-in-law Brian out to help even though he's only been mountain biking once during the demo day at Rosaryville. A bit of pay it forward action never hurt anyone and you can always use good karma!
It's amazing how easy and simple little things can be that help the trails immensely. Paul, Eric, Tommy and the rest of the folks who've been busting their tails out at Rosaryville have done an amazing job on those trails. So much so that they were actually ride-able despite the loads of rain the previous two days. Well drained trails mean much faster drying and more riding time. Very cool.
Afterwards Brian and I came back to my place to put a new chain on his old Raleigh "mountain bike". I was amazed at how well the rusty grip shifters and derailleurs still worked with the new chain. The seat post was a bit seized but we let some lubricant seep in, took a few smacks with a hammer and got it moving again. Had to do some sanding and some serious greasing before putting it back in but everything seemed pretty good after that. Even managed to true the wheels to where they weren't rubbing 90% of the time on the brakes!
All great, except now Bri just wants to keep the raleigh instead of selling it for whatever he can get and using the $700 he saved up along with that for a newer, nicer (lighter) bike. A well I guess I can't live my "dreams" of newer and better through him all the time.
I've got to get better at remembering to pull out the camera so I can show off some pics. Maybe today I'll grab some shots of whatever it is I end up doing. For now I hope you enjoy Homer's (or homeslice as he is commonly reffered to as) morning face.
It's amazing how easy and simple little things can be that help the trails immensely. Paul, Eric, Tommy and the rest of the folks who've been busting their tails out at Rosaryville have done an amazing job on those trails. So much so that they were actually ride-able despite the loads of rain the previous two days. Well drained trails mean much faster drying and more riding time. Very cool.
Afterwards Brian and I came back to my place to put a new chain on his old Raleigh "mountain bike". I was amazed at how well the rusty grip shifters and derailleurs still worked with the new chain. The seat post was a bit seized but we let some lubricant seep in, took a few smacks with a hammer and got it moving again. Had to do some sanding and some serious greasing before putting it back in but everything seemed pretty good after that. Even managed to true the wheels to where they weren't rubbing 90% of the time on the brakes!
All great, except now Bri just wants to keep the raleigh instead of selling it for whatever he can get and using the $700 he saved up along with that for a newer, nicer (lighter) bike. A well I guess I can't live my "dreams" of newer and better through him all the time.
I've got to get better at remembering to pull out the camera so I can show off some pics. Maybe today I'll grab some shots of whatever it is I end up doing. For now I hope you enjoy Homer's (or homeslice as he is commonly reffered to as) morning face.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Dreaming of greener "cube walls"
Over the past few months I've been questioning my current career path and looking into possible alternatives. Sometimes being a cubicle monkey feels like just the most depressing way to spend my career and I can't imagine doing it for the rest of my life. Others, especially when things are fairly busy around the office I feel like I could be totally content to continue a career here as a government employee.
One of the most appealing alternative careers I've been considering is a move to the National Park Service or something in the Bureau of Land Management as a Ranger. I always promised myself when I was younger I'd never work in a cubicle and that desire still glows deep in my heart. Everything about sitting couped up in front of a computer for 8+ hours a day goes against my grain and I don't believe there are many office jobs out there that would really leave me excited eager to go to work on a regular basis. A Ranger position on the otherhand has along with it's certain and serious downsides, all of the up sides I could ever want.
While I'll be the first to admit this is a total pipe dream, especially at this point in my life, with no relevant experience, a house I owe more on then is worth, next to zero in savings and no real easy way to go about getting certification for the type of work involved, it is still there. MY American dream if you will. (No, I know, it seems wrong that my american dream has nothing to do with making millions of dollars... crazy right?)
I've looked fairly extensively into what it would take to make this change and at this point it looks like sacrifice is the big winner. One thing I can and really ought to be doing anyway over the next few years is volunteering in the local parks. Whether it be clean up days, trail maintenance or some sort of awareness program this type of experience is a must is probably some of the easiest resume building I can do right now.
Maybe it's an omen or something; this morning I stumbled across a post on the MORE-mtb.org site for Park Police Volunteers for the Montgomery County Park service. I know Maryland has a similar volunteer ranger program but it's apparently a fairly extensive process that is fairly hard to get in to. This opportunity on the other hand includes about 18 hours of classroom training, and a required 15 hours of field experience to become a certified Park Police Volunteer. After that there is a 15 hour quarterly time requirement including 8 hours of detail work which I take it is specified time for park events. The remainder is simply spent patrolling the park and trails, on bike while radioing issues and working as essentially an "informational" officer.
Sounds ideal to me; assuming I can pass their background check faster then the 3+ years I've been waiting on the one here from GSA. To be fair, OHR here at Labor lost my original paper work and only informed me a year + later when I called to find out about the progress...
Who knows, once I have a few years under my belt of this type of volunteer work I could actually get my butt in gear and head down to Southwestern Community College in North Carolina for a month and get my seasonal park ranger certification. It may be a pipe dream, but maybe it's a bit less potent then I thought...
One of the most appealing alternative careers I've been considering is a move to the National Park Service or something in the Bureau of Land Management as a Ranger. I always promised myself when I was younger I'd never work in a cubicle and that desire still glows deep in my heart. Everything about sitting couped up in front of a computer for 8+ hours a day goes against my grain and I don't believe there are many office jobs out there that would really leave me excited eager to go to work on a regular basis. A Ranger position on the otherhand has along with it's certain and serious downsides, all of the up sides I could ever want.
While I'll be the first to admit this is a total pipe dream, especially at this point in my life, with no relevant experience, a house I owe more on then is worth, next to zero in savings and no real easy way to go about getting certification for the type of work involved, it is still there. MY American dream if you will. (No, I know, it seems wrong that my american dream has nothing to do with making millions of dollars... crazy right?)
I've looked fairly extensively into what it would take to make this change and at this point it looks like sacrifice is the big winner. One thing I can and really ought to be doing anyway over the next few years is volunteering in the local parks. Whether it be clean up days, trail maintenance or some sort of awareness program this type of experience is a must is probably some of the easiest resume building I can do right now.
Maybe it's an omen or something; this morning I stumbled across a post on the MORE-mtb.org site for Park Police Volunteers for the Montgomery County Park service. I know Maryland has a similar volunteer ranger program but it's apparently a fairly extensive process that is fairly hard to get in to. This opportunity on the other hand includes about 18 hours of classroom training, and a required 15 hours of field experience to become a certified Park Police Volunteer. After that there is a 15 hour quarterly time requirement including 8 hours of detail work which I take it is specified time for park events. The remainder is simply spent patrolling the park and trails, on bike while radioing issues and working as essentially an "informational" officer.
Sounds ideal to me; assuming I can pass their background check faster then the 3+ years I've been waiting on the one here from GSA. To be fair, OHR here at Labor lost my original paper work and only informed me a year + later when I called to find out about the progress...
Who knows, once I have a few years under my belt of this type of volunteer work I could actually get my butt in gear and head down to Southwestern Community College in North Carolina for a month and get my seasonal park ranger certification. It may be a pipe dream, but maybe it's a bit less potent then I thought...
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Good news and a GREAT cause
A couple of things today; first, I got my new bike last night! I got the call around 2:30 yesterday that it was ready and headed out a little early to try and get it so I could race it at Greenbelt. Unfortunately Greenbelt was soon after canceled, though with the storms that rolled through last night I am grateful for that. Wouldn’t want to get the new bike all wet or anything now would I?
I spent some extra time picking out a replacement seat and fitting everything to my liking before heading to hains to break it in with Chris. It rides like a dream and is so stiff and responsive; I absolutely love it! I can’t wait to get out during lunch today for the noon ride.
Second in today’s topic is an excellent opportunity to get involved and help out the local community that someone passed along to me. The organization is called Trips for Kids: Metro DC and actually hosts mountain bike classes and rides for kids living in the city. From the website:
This sounds like something I would definitely be able and interested in getting into so I’ll probably try and get out and volunteer for some of these events. Getting more people on bikes, whether mountain, road or hybrid is always good in my eyes and teaching inner city kids to love mountain biking seems like such a great idea. Got a hankering to get some time in volunteering but not sure what you want to do? Get outside and help some kids who may not have that many places to turn for positive encouragement. Got a passion for some mountain trails? Why not share that passion with folks who have never had the opportunity to experience the joy of ripping up some sweet single track and the accomplishment of cleaning that technical S.O.B. of a trail that that you’ve tried so hard on for so long.
Another great thing about this organization is the “earn-a-bike” program where kids with no bike to call their own can earn one through community service and participation in the organization’s events. If you ever have an old bike that you no longer need, please don’t throw it away. There are so many deserving causes that bikes can be donated to, both domestically and internationally and it would be such a waste for a bike to rot away in a dump. If you want to make sure your bike is put to good use and want to help out the local community all at once, send your old bikes this way and help get even more people on bikes.
Go HERE to volunteer for the next event!
I spent some extra time picking out a replacement seat and fitting everything to my liking before heading to hains to break it in with Chris. It rides like a dream and is so stiff and responsive; I absolutely love it! I can’t wait to get out during lunch today for the noon ride.
Second in today’s topic is an excellent opportunity to get involved and help out the local community that someone passed along to me. The organization is called Trips for Kids: Metro DC and actually hosts mountain bike classes and rides for kids living in the city. From the website:
Kids Metro DC (TFK Metro DC) is a non-profit 501c(3) organization that helps
disadvantaged youth in the Metropolitan DC area. We provide important life
lessons through fun and educational mountain bike excursions into Virginia,
Maryland, and DC parks and nature areas.
This sounds like something I would definitely be able and interested in getting into so I’ll probably try and get out and volunteer for some of these events. Getting more people on bikes, whether mountain, road or hybrid is always good in my eyes and teaching inner city kids to love mountain biking seems like such a great idea. Got a hankering to get some time in volunteering but not sure what you want to do? Get outside and help some kids who may not have that many places to turn for positive encouragement. Got a passion for some mountain trails? Why not share that passion with folks who have never had the opportunity to experience the joy of ripping up some sweet single track and the accomplishment of cleaning that technical S.O.B. of a trail that that you’ve tried so hard on for so long.
Another great thing about this organization is the “earn-a-bike” program where kids with no bike to call their own can earn one through community service and participation in the organization’s events. If you ever have an old bike that you no longer need, please don’t throw it away. There are so many deserving causes that bikes can be donated to, both domestically and internationally and it would be such a waste for a bike to rot away in a dump. If you want to make sure your bike is put to good use and want to help out the local community all at once, send your old bikes this way and help get even more people on bikes.
Go HERE to volunteer for the next event!
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