A couple of good loops

I just thought I would post links to a couple of good road rides that I have done recently. The first one is from the bike shop. It is a good 20 miler on some less traveled roads in the Sebastopol hills. Here is the link.

This next loop starts out in Forestville and finds lots and lots of hills as it heads out towards Occidental and then into the Sebastopol hills again. Here is the link to the ride.


- Posted by Chaz

Drying the hops

Well, after three days of drying, the garbage bag full of hops condensed down to 13 one ounce bags. I had been a little concerned about the lack of a real pungent "hoppy" smell, but after stuffing the sandwich bags full, the aroma of fresh hops filled the basement.

I plan on using at least half of the hops in the next batch of beer. Probably start out with some Magnum hops for bittering and then distribute the Cascade hops thru out the rest of the boil.




- Posted by Chaz

Homegrown Hops

Bag of Cascade Hops

So we were greeted with a nice little surprise from one of our customers when we returned to work on Thursday.  A customer of ours had grown his own hops, and knowing of my interest in beer making, brought by a bag full.  

This is my first experience with raw hops, so I did a little research and set up a "drying table" in the basement using an old screen door.  I set up a dehumidifier next to the hops and have been stirring them every 12 hours or so. 

Cascade hops drying in the basement

One of my favorite loops

This ride is definitely an adventure.  It is perfect for a cross bike, or if you want to ride your mountain bike, pump the tires way up or get some narrower tires.  I did this ride yesterday with Bill, and thank goodness he rode his mountain bike.  The ride is probably around 80% on road, but it has some great singletrack in the middle which is relatively smooth compared to Annadel State Park.  Make sure you are prepared for anything out there, because it is quite remote.  Last time Aaron and I did this loop, he managed to rip his rear derailleur off part way through and we had to cut his chain and he rode home on a singlespeed.  We met Claire in Guerneville for some great Mexican food.

April Fools Ride

This was an "organized" ride that attempted to do all of the single track on San Pedro Ridge in one day.  There were around a 100 folks doing it.  I rode with Handsome Jeff on our single speeds.  We did accidentally cut off around 5 miles and 500 feet of climbing at the end, but both of us agreed that we could live with that.  I came away with some bruised ribs and a couple of scrapes here and there from an "ass over teakettle" fall.  The last 15 miles were quite difficult since it hurt quite a bit to pull up on the handlebars and when I hit bumps.  Here is a link to the course.

Cross loop with Aaron

Aaron and I went our on Monday and did this great 50 mile loop up through Willow Creek State Park. We managed to do plenty of climbing before we got there and the ride through the park was spectacular. According to Aaron's Garmin, we were on the dirt for over 40 minutes and most of it was single track. We took turns falling off our bikes as we pushed it a little too fast on our 35mm tires.
The final climb up Duncan Road was very humorous as we both were laughing out loud, since, sometimes it hurts so bad you just have to laugh.

- Posted by Chaz

Old Caz Grasshopper 2012

Here is a link to a YouTube video I made of this years Old Caz Grasshopper race.  It was a borrowed camera that I had never used before, and I managed to turn it off during some of the more exciting points of the race.  I have divided the video into 3 parts as it is quite long.  I did edit out quite a bit because there was a bunch of dirt on the lens and you couldn't see much.  Here is a link to my Garmin data for the day.

As far as the race went, it was a great time as usual.  Aaron, Handsome Jeff, and Eric the Fireman were out there representing Team Hub along with myself, of course.  We split up pretty early on and didn't see much of each other even though we all finished within a few minutes of each other.  Our plan was to roll out like a carpet, but as usual, we all suffered considerably on the final climb up Willow Creek Road.  At one point climbing Willow Creek I started chuckling to myself (since sometimes it hurts so bad, you just have to laugh), a rider next to me gave me a good scowl, so I explained I was only laughing at the feeling of golf balls rolling up and down under my calf muscles.

Part 2
Part 3