Sunday, September 27, 2009

Ode to Abandoned Refrigerator


You, container of all that sustained us,
who bravely defended the fortitude
of frozen meat, sensitive dairy,
favorite leftovers,
forgotten pickles,
found yourself doorlessly
exposed
in ditch marsh mockery
of those who cling narrowly
to singletrack above.

We excavate you
from the bowels of Ipswitch,
parading your rust,
and your inability to contain
anything more
than honorary title:
"Frige Bridge,"
from under which you died
a trash troll.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

It ain't sexy but--

IPSWITCH clean up/ trail maintenance: Saturday, Sept 26, 12 NOON. Meet at Rokeby Entrance on corner of Rokeby Ave. and Main St. RSVP to me lizschleeper[at]yahoomail.com. If you can bring a truck, let me know.

Guilt is a big motivator for me. I have said for years that I will start doing trail maintenance with EVMA, yet I have not contributed to the peninsula trails since before Hurricane Floyd. I think I can be more committed if I localize my efforts and focus on Ipswitch (aka Indian River Park) in Chesapeake, College Park section. See my previous commentary on Ipswitch.





Wes and I have the blessing of EVMA president Kirk Moore for this day, so this is an official EVMA maintenance event. The majority of the work will involve hiking with trash bags, and we plan to fill in some holes in the singletrack and mark/ cut some trail.

Ipswitch has the only real singletrack on southside Hampton Roads. It is also filled with BMX jumps. We are working with Chesapeake to have EVMA become the "adopt a park" caretakers, but as Kirk said, we will need to enlist the help of our BMX brothers and sisters for any real progress. It's pretty clear that much of the trash is left there by them since it's concentrated in the areas where they hang out.




However, we can't blame the kids for some of the severe litter. There are cars that have been retired to the middle of the park like this one, and Wes told me there is a refrigerator in the field that connects the trail systems. I have seen countless piles of household trash, including the pile of sh-- that someone had dumped there after picking up after a dog for a couple of weeks.


The place is a singletrack jewel but a disaster in terms of trash. Hope the mountain bikers can help Sept 26, and we can start discussing how to communicate with the BMXers, the community AND the darn city about maintaining it better. Gotta start somewhere.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Base jumping

The so-called Virginia Beach curse struck again. I spoke to Elliot Craddock, 18, who launched from the Pungo Ferry Bridge this morning after touching wheels with another cyclist. According to Virginia Beach Firefighters, Elliot fell approximately 50-60 feet. The doctors at VB General told Elliot that a fall 20 feet is considered critical, so his even surviving a 20x3 fall is incredible. Two sets of cat scans confirmed that his helmet did its job today.

Elliot is an experienced Cat 2 racer, a reiteration that the occurrence of cycling crashes over the past two years is due, in my opinion, to simply more riders participating and therefore more chances of incident rather than the makings of a curse. I hope Elliot's broken shoulder heals soon, and I join many others in being very glad it was not worse. See the rescue video.

Elliot told me that his group of about 7 had just started the descent when one rider got a case of speed wobble. Elliot's front wheel hooked into the guy's rear, and they danced a bit to keep the rubber side down. But Elliot ran out of room and was boxed in on the right, and the 30 mph speed sent him into the barrier. He has concrete marks on his calves from trying to catch himself as he and, yes his bike also, launched over the side. He blacked out when he hit, but his mind buzzed into action immediately despite his blurry vision. He did a mental self check before pulling himself onto the concrete slab holding up one of the bridge pillars. He landed in a bed of Spartina Alterniflora and 3 inches of water.

Check out the barriers on the Pungo Ferry Bridge compared to those on Campostella Bridge over Elizabeth River in Norfolk which is a bridge similar in height. I have searched lots and cannot find the heights of either bridge published--does anyone know? Firefighters told Elliot they estimate the peak height at 80 feet on Pungo Ferry. I speculate that Campostella, Pungo Ferry and Mills Godwin Bridge in Suffolk are the 3 tallest bridges on the secondary roads in South Hampton Roads.

Here is a view of the railings at top of Campostella Bridge which is also probably about 80 feet high. Notice that there is a concrete slab between the railing and road shoulder.

The slab could serve to slow down a cyclist or motorist crashing toward the railing. From roadway to top of railing appears to be over 100 cm. I could see going over this railing, but it would take some work. The blood on Robert's arm here is unrelated to any bridge crashes!








Here is a view of Jeff climbing up Pungo Ferry Bridge. Such a low wall pretty much nullifies the extra space the shoulder gives us on the roadway.















Here is a better look at how low the wall is a the top of Pungo Ferry. There is also no concrete slab between shoulder and the barrier, which is essentially a Jersey Wall. As I recall, the Mills Godwin Bridge in Suffolk has the same type of low barrier.










I found this photo on line. That bike next to this guy looks to be about a 56 which means the wall is approximately 65 cm high. It's easy to see how a cyclist could be launched from here. This guy looks as if he could fall just standing there.


Campostella's design, therefore, seems safer than Pungo Ferry or Mills Godwin for both motorists and cyclists, and I wonder who makes bridge wall decisions in the designs.






Here's a water view of the bridge--yikes! The rescue crews actually lowered themselves from the bridge to Elliot rather than marsh muck from the shore to rescue him. It took more than 30 min for rescue crews to make it on site and he was not out of the marsh for more than an hour. Reiterates the fact that riding in Pungo is tantamount to riding in a wilderness setting. A wilderness setting is one in which definitive care is an hour or more away.

All of Pungo Ferry Road was closed as the rescue took place, and word has it that the only person who made it past the police barrier was Elliot's father, Jeff, who put out "some serious watts" to reach his son by bike according to Elliot.




Elliot just won last Wednesday's very competitive local criterium at the Virginia Beach Amphitheater. He competed against about 30 of the area's racers, mostly category 1-3.


Monday, September 07, 2009

To see and be seen



Steph's friend Molly once said that people who don't ride have a hard time understanding what we see up close on a daily basis. I do feel as if I see and find things I would not otherwise experience off the bike.

Just yesterday I found this awesome rock in creeds in Va Beach. >>>>









I found this typo in a Norfolk cemetary >>>>














Sally and I relocated a stray box turtle on the trail at Freedom Park. >>>>












I never get tired of the revolving sunsets over Granby Street Bridge, Norfolk. I am not going to say who that is on the bike because she will kill me if her identity is known. >>>>>


















Freebies everywhere >>>>>













Mature corn in James City County blocks the wind very well. Around here, most corn is used for feed, so it browns and dies first before harvested. >>>>>