The trail in question

Rode this last night like six times, I think it rides better now then before.
The total amount of trail with chips is like 50 ft so it not like the hole thing.
Hoyt to hwy 100 is in prime shape, grass is a little long but all in all its in fine shape.
A lot of riders on the trail,I think last night I passed like 12 riders.
Trek 100 this weekend, I get to turn a wrench at one of the pit stops and in hopes to see the big man on his way though (Lance that is).
See YAAAAAAAAAAAA

Part two

E-mail #3

If you think you're somehow better than me as a person, or more important within the sport or MTB community, you're dead wrong. You're just more experienced, but no more dedicated. You could drop me in seconds out on any trail I'm sure, but it's not real wise to hold it against me that I'm new
There's no place in any avocational club for that.

-
Reply

Well then you should have started out your e-mail post wording that, instead you start out trying to call out someone and end up going after the club that is trying to get more trails and do better things for the trails we already have. You may not have thought you wrote it like that but I will bet thats how a lot of people took it.
You say your not trying to burn me and then you pull that line about my e-mail address, think about it, its a play on words, I'm a mountain biker and I'm sorry you can't figure out the play on words but if you would just lighten up a little you might.
You must think you know who I am because I AM the one who brought up the idea of wood chips ( the guy sitting behind you at the meeting with the little girl) I hate to tell you but no place anywhere in METRO dose it say we have to vote before anything gets done, if trails work needs to be done it gets done point blank.Wood chips were the best thing for the trail, they break down overtime unlike gravel and it helps with getting the water away from the trail.
You may love to mountain bike and thats great, its always great to get more people in to the sport and I applaud you for that but thats it for some thats all it is, a sport. For others like me it is a life style, I've been where you are now, digging around to find the best price or cutting corners to buy cheaper things and if thats what you want to do thats great, because for some people it comes down to money and don't get me wrong I have been there but you have to understand where we come from also.
For most of the guys you see at the meeting we race every weekend, our helmets cost what some peoples bikes do, we ride in planed rides, not a e-mail 20min before you hit the door. We keep up the trails so we have a place to ride, it just so happens it works in the other peoples favor.
Ask Marty sometime how these trails got there? They were always there, I have ridden those trails since I was like eight years old so I guess I'm kind of spoiled with the trails but you need to understand we try to do what is best for the trail.

E-mail #4 (and I hope the last)


"it just so happens that it works out in other people's favor"--Huh??? these trails, even Alpha and to some extent Crystal, are completely on public land and open to the public. No one's ever said any trail pass is necessary to ride in MKE County. And, to ride at Kettle Moraine and other State Forest trails you get the trail pass from the DNR, not you."

Reply

Just because they are on public land dose not mean you can just go ride and cut trails where ever you want, the ridge and the tosa trails are the ONLY LEGAL mountain bike trails in Milwaukee, ask Marty, yes you can go ride many other trails but it has taken along time to get these trails to be legal to all riders.
Nate you read way to much into what I write, I try to be honest with you on how I feel and once again you fire back with shit, relax and don't read so much into what people write. I try to let you know the other side of things and you still sit with a fixed view on things. Try to look from the outside in, not everything that people write is meant to be pointed at one person but a view from the edge.
Dude take a chill and have some fun with life, its not who you know or what you do, but what you do with your own life.
Life is short and I have been to the edge and back, yes I take it to heart when some one tries to call me out on the web (and no matter what you say you did try to call me out), I look at it as I would never fire off a e-mail about you and send it to the hole METRO group, I sent it to you straight up with no bull shit. You may feel you did what you needed to do and say but you should be the one to go back and read what you typed, in the end I wrote you to set things straight and to tell you how i felt.
In the end none of this means anything but a bunch of words and peoples thoughts on things, I tried to show you how other people see things so you can take it or leave it.
Spinninmud

I'm Back

Well I know its been awhile but I've been busy. Things have been going well lately except for the riding thing, the last time I was on the bike I was at the ridge last Wed. and once again I go down.The difference this time was it hurt, hit the dirt on the 90deg coming into Kevin's heaven and went down once again like a bag of shit, wow thats something new.
So the weekend was good, got to spend a lot of time with Tess and Erica, Sat took Tess to get her ears pierced and it went better then i figured it would, a little fuss and muss but in the end it was all good.
Sat. night we had some peeps over (the sug and his lady friend) had some drinks and food then oldnslow showed for awhile then his lady and one of their offspring, so all and all it worked out to be a good night.
Sunday we decided to drive to Cabela's in richfield, that place is huge, did some lookin around, the waterfall and the stuffed elk and deer are cool. Found some new paw covers for Max for like 10 bucks, good price and there good and heavy duty.
So enough about me and lets get to some good stuff, I open my e-mail yesterday and I get a post from Metro, some guy slamin me for my idea of putting wood chips over the glass in hoyt part, he calls me out like I was the one to fill up the back of my van and lay them out, so I figure I would drop him a line to let him know it was not me and I figure you guys would get a good laugh at it.
E-mail #1

Club Message from:Metro Mountain Bikers

If it's who I think it is, we did NOT agree to that during the last
meeting, and for good reason.
I've ridden that section at least 30 times without a puncture, and
despite being a new rider, have actually railed it the last 6 or 7 times.
That was fun, and boosted my confidence a lot that I could do all the
necessary weight shifting and whatnot quick enough for the turns.

Now I can't do that. Ya wanna know why? BECAUSE I CAN NO LONGER SEE MY
LINE THROUGH THE MULTIPLE ROOTS, ROCKS, AND STUMPS THAT MADE THAT THE
CHALLENGING BUT RIDEABLE SPOT THAT IT WAS.

The glass is just a "cosmetic defect," dude. It's all flattened down
flush with the level of the soil, if you actually looked at it before you
dumped that stuff. Now it's slippery, and people will crash there as the
woodchips slide out of the way and they hit one of the aforementioned
obstacles that they can no longer see.

If this was who I think it is, not only have I never seen you ride the
trail, --and I'm out there alot--I don't remember you being at any of the
work days.
Maybe you were at some that I missed, but that was very few.

Well, I guess it helps that you put them on the sand sort of, but leave
well enough alone when the trail just looks, but isn't really, bad in a
given spot.

My Reply:
Lets see..... If it was put down it was Ok'ed though Metro and I don't know about you but I think its sweet, yes it will need to get some good rides on it but it was done to better the trail.
I have been riding those trails for over fifteen years and the glass has always sucked but since Metro turned them around we now have to think more about others and not so much about our selfs. The chips will also help walkers with kids and pets not to get hurt. Don't take this the wrong way but this is about everyone not just you, as soon as it sees more riders it will get better.
Spinninmud
P.S. My trail day is everyday(but not as much as of late) I am on that trail, I pick up garbage, help move fallen trees and help out anyway I can. Some of us have to work on weekends but we do what we can during the week.

****If your going to try to burn someone with a post you should really know what and who your talking about.

E-mail#2(And the last line about my e-mail address is the best)

Hey. One of the Trocadero guys wrote me about this--and in polite fashion, by the way. Let me copy and paste what I wrote to him on why I think the woodchips are a detriment, not an asset, to the trail:

Well, perhaps from a hardnose rider's perspective, that would seem like a better setup, but one thing I didn't mention in my little "rant & rave," that I fully stand behind, is that if you've ever walked or worked on the trail there, you'd notice why the glass isn't really a problem.

Unlike most of the trail that's the nice low-erosion fast-drying hard clay, that section is all loose fill. Marty Weigel explained to me that parts of that Hoyt forested area were an actual landfill years ago and that's why you can dig up some crazy stuff out there. The dirt is almost like fluffy topsoil and the glass simply gets compressed in every time you ride there, and even in a fall, you wouldn't notice it.

The wood chips are actually gonna be giving people more trail rash, and possibly splinters too.

Ride it a few more times and I think you'll see why it was better just left alone.

--Nate

Oh--and lastly, if you crash there, you're probably gonna hit a tree before you hit the ground--the trees make it the narrow corksrew-type deal that it is, and they're all big....that's another reason why I want the chance to see what my front tire is up against. See your line, ride your line, and you won't crash. Plain and simp.:)

That's what I wrote to Casey Masterson, who had a Trocadero e-mail address. He signed his e-mail with his name.

It wasn't approved at the Metro May meeting--I specifically remember that. Normally when changes are made outside the meeting, someone uses a ClubMTB group message to inform people, and I didn't get any message.

I also have yet to get the May minutes, but Harold is very thorough and accurate and I'm sure will document the discussion and decision made.

A couple final thoughts: after reading what I wrote to Casey, do you really think this is somehow "all about me?" I don't know where you get that idea. That's great that you have 15 years in on this trail, but when I started into MTBing a year ago, having had to abandon other sports due to hip trouble, after 12 years off a bike, I dove in headfirst, gave it my all, and continue to, doing many trail days, setting up a project you hopefully will soon read/see more about to get action photos for our website and the kiosks, talking to the kids at the BMX "park" to make them feel less threatened and hopefully thus reduce the vandalism, informing other users of the reason for opposing direction for bikers and walkers, etc... Basically, following Marty & Harold's lead, as they're the guys who've been most welcoming to me and shown why they're very respected and positive in their involvement with the scene.

I always love it when someone says, "don't take this the wrong way" and then uses it to take a free shot at somebody. As I mentioned, Casey was all-class in his reply in favor of the wood chips and I truly believe I was in my reply to him.

Lastly, a little thing to think about: Unless you're into mud bog buggy & truck racing, your e-mail address could tend to lead some to believe you think it's OK to ride and rut-up rain soaked trails even though you probably don't, so you might wanna change that to give yourself more credibility as a by-the-book responsible singletrack user....just a thought

I will post more of the mail response later
See Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

A ride in the woods with fools

Finally had a good trail ride, hit up Hoyt and the connector and back for some good old trail riding and saw some really funny stuff.
First I saw mister Tony G. and we shot the shit for awhile then I was back on my way, came though the opening at center and saw Tommy S. and Coops main lady on the road, now after that it gets weird funny.
I get to the sh*t stink river and I stop to answer the phone(The wife) and I watch a lady pick-up her 75lbs dog and carry it over the water(if that really is water). Then I see a another girl walk right though the deepest past, sh*t mud right up to her shins, I just had to look and laugh.
I get to the golf course just in time to watch some guy rail his head on the bridge and girl friend laughing so hard see fell in the water, And its not over yet.
Get though the golf course and make it to Hoyt, roll into the BMX track and there are two thirty year old guys smoking dope while sitting on their bikes, I roll though and again just have to laugh. Get to the hill of glass then the river and I almost get T-bones by someone coming down from the tracks. So I ride the river side, in very good shape I must say and head back to the BMX track when I hear a loud crash, when I come up on the track the two dope smokers are both laying in the middle of the track bikes twisted together and moaning in pain, seems they both wanted to hit the middle jump but didn't let each other know about it. One came from the top of the hill and the other from the bottom, by the time they saw each other it was to late.Man I wish I could have seen it. For what I did see it looked like the hit each other mid air, Fu*k that had to hurt, asked if they were ok even know I really didn't care and they both were, Dam.
The rest of the ride was good, saw Mr. TonyG again on the way back , hit the folks house on the way home and then had me a god home cooked meal.
SEE YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Crash

Well I hit the time trials and when I say hit I mean hit. Felt good all day, well except for the headache but I popped some FRS chews and it was all good. Got to the ridge around 5:30 whit the wife and the little one and was still feeling good. Did a little ride with Greg D. and I was good to go.
Small group for the field as it was the first race.Gooooooooooo comes out of Al's mouth and we were off but no one went anywhere, so what the hell I'm going, Off I go (My first mistake).
Off the road and onto the grass and I'm in the lead and still push'n hard, a gut from Crank Daddy's comes on the inside and I figure I'll let him pull, ya , I take my eyes off the trail for a split second and I miss the new turn but its OK I'll just go wide. Tire grabs the grove of the old trail, I try to pull and turn and the next thing I know my bars are pointing to the left but my wheel is still going straight.
That's all I see is ground "Shit" this is going to hurt, the bars hit the ground along with me and that's all I can think is cover you head cause I can hear the bike bouncing, well I thought I did.
Hit the grass like a sack of shit, the bike is like 6 feet behind me and I jump to my feet "I'm OK".
Well I thought I was, twist the bars back and try to get my pace going, ya like that's going to work. Called it after a lap and a half, knee was all puffed up and the neck was a little stiff but I figured it was OK, wrong.
Get up this morning and I can't look to the left, everything is sore down to my shoulder. The thing i figured would hurt the must, my knee feels OK. So I figure I try to get to snap and pop Doc. today to see if he can help a little cause I want to ride tonight.

See YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA