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sasquatch69

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Everything posted by sasquatch69

  1. Do you think Mellow Johnny's will start carrying more than just Trek and Cannondale? Did they ever carry much of a MTB selection anyway, or mostly road bikes?
  2. Did just over 10 miles in two hours at Big Cedar just now and it was sublime. Great weather, some chunk, some hero dirt, some grass trails (because everyone likes a little grass every once in a while), lots of elevation and some beautiful views by Dallas standards. Best ride I've had in a while. Even had to walk some of the hills but I ain't mad. And at the end, there's a pavilion the church that hosts the trails built with clean restrooms - a rarity. Sorry not sorry for the photo dump, but I stopped along the way to take it in and snap a few shots, and I had to share.
  3. Tried a few new (to me) trails in DFW the past few weeks. Did Katie Jackson (which I'd ridden briefly a while ago but wanted to explore further) after a very light rain, hit a slick leafy patch right off the bat, and my rear tire caught a big root and slid sideways fast. I went down hard and wrenched my left arm back to avoid landing my full weight on it. It's been pretty sore on and off since. I finished a couple laps on the red/blue trails but that was all I could muster. Also rode Arbor Hills for the first time, which was meh due to number of people and the fact it's crammed into such a relatively small area - but I give DORBA props for their efforts there as it's got some decent TTF. The best first visits were Erwin up in McKinney, which has been covered here in previous posts and really held my interest, and Horseshoe, which was right in the sweet spot of my ability level right now (except for the "Sorry" loop which I had to walk). I rode Horseshoe today which was a welcome return to riding after a week off due to rain (thus trail closures) and cold. Hoping to get some rides in this weekend back at Big Cedar and RCP if they reopen and weather continues to hold up.
  4. Question for the mortgage folks here: We're currently just over a year into a 20yr fixed (refi) on our D/FW-area house at 3.65%. LTV ratio is 75%. We've been in the house eight years, and have good credit. I'm currently seeing online rates as low as 2.5% on 20yr right now; I wouldn't mind losing a year of progress if it means a decent monthly savings. So, my questions: - Is it worth it to do anything right now given our position? - How realistic would it be to add 20k to the loan for home improvements? Is that even a thing? I'm no expert on all this, so any advice would be appreciated.
  5. Trails all over the eastern half of Texas this weekend.
  6. I've been reading through threads on the Big Cedar and DORBA FB groups, and apparently the church is super-supportive and is fine with widespread trail use, but adjacent landowners and ONCOR have been really difficult. And there are rumors that the section of trail north of Camp Wisdom (the Highway Rim loop) is on land that has now been sold.
  7. I saw the reply to my post above and felt better about sticking with my vintage bike - until I saw this. This seems like a really great bike for $1100 if you don't need dual suspension. https://www.velonews.com/gear/mountain-gear/canyon-stoic-hardtail-an-affordable-trail-mtb-entry/
  8. Apologies in advance for my shitty graphic, but hopefully this helps. - After a few hours exploring the property, I've found a good approach for newbies like me is to start by getting on the purple fire road RIGHT at the entrance to the parking lot off Isom Drive (red arrow below), which takes you to the first green trail, Dragonfly (yellow circle). That bypasses the path to Dragonfly from the actual trailhead, which is a major drop right at the beginning. - Dragonfly spits out on the fire road, and from there turn right and go up to I Can, the next green trail (orange circle) - When you get done with that, go back south on the purple fire road to pick up Ranger (blue) just north of Dragonfly and head east - it takes you around the edge of the housing development up into the eastern part of the property (just don't take the fork for Copperhead Ridge). Some fun downhills and beautiful scenery along Ranger there, but be sure to take the green bypass (purple arrow) back to take Ranger southbound back into the heart of the property. Otherwise, Ranger keeps going northwest and spits you out on the easement where the trails have been erased (red X). (Map source: https://www.trailforks.com/region/big-cedar-wilderness-trails/)
  9. Spent a couple hours at Big Cedar yesterday, and did the northern part of Ranger Loop for the first time. It may be the hardest but most enjoyable trail I've ever ridden in Texas (on admittedly limited experience, since I don't do the really challenging stuff) - some absolutely beautiful stretches and speedy downhills, but brutal climbs as well. I had to get off the bike and walk it several times. The biggest issue out there right now is that Oncor just came in and clearcut the whole utility easement that several trails run through, so when you get to the part of Ranger that crosses the easement you lose track of where the trail is and end up in a rutted mess of dozer tracks. I ended up having to jump a fence and ride along Camp Wisdom and Eagle Ford back to the church trailhead entrance, which sucked. If you're going to do the loop, make sure you take the "Ranger Bypass" a bit after you pass the fork for the Man Bites Dog loop - otherwise you'll end up lost on the easement. Overall, I still got ~8mi of mostly enjoyable riding in on a beautiful afternoon.
  10. Yet there is a whole board full of TToms over at TexAgs.
  11. Apparently Flynn is retweeting a rather infamous poster from TexAgs. https://texags.com/forums/16/topics/3162271
  12. Yeah, I've thought about that. Our little neighborhood shop has some older stuff laying around (or knows where to find it) and they've assured me I'm good for a while. I do worry about how long the shocks will hold out. The front fork is probably fairly easy to replace, but the rear suspension is unique and wasn't all that common even back then. As for the brakes, if I ever have a catastrophic failure I'll probably try going from cantilever to V-brakes, but I don't think disc would work on this bike.
  13. Just found this thread. Life changes brought about by the pandemic (mainly, WFH and a lot more free time) brought me back to mountain biking here in D/FW after years of very little activity. In the past few months, I've spent a lot of time riding at Rowlett Preserve (close to home), and decent rides at Katie Jackson, Boulder Park, Northshore and a couple state parks east of town. Last weekend I discovered Big Cedar and loved it, although I'm very much a green/blue trail kind of guy (I like more distance riding with turns and a few *little* hills/jumps now and then, but the really challenging stuff is right out for me and my early-40s dad bod). I'm still riding the dual-suspension GT RTS-3 I got in college - got it worked on earlier this year (full tuneup, new front derailleur, etc.) which really made a difference. Given the advancements in bike tech since the mid-90s, though, am I really missing out by not having a newer bike? Or will this continue to be sufficient for my needs? I do enjoy riding it.
  14. I begin to feel despondent when I start thinking about the millions of folks who honestly feel the way a lot of TexAgs posters do (e.g. the constant drumbeat that all people with liberal views are liars, they cannot be trusted, they hate our country and must be stopped, etc.) How do we change that course and restore *any* kind of unity as a nation when we have so many people who feel such hatred towards a majority of fellow citizens - and a whole media ecosystem that makes money off stoking that hatred, and just wants to keep expanding it?
  15. Not bad. Good if you like Hatch Chile flavor. Not something I'd want to buy regularly. (And now I likely won't be able to ever again anyway...)
  16. Crazy story. I just recently finished off a six-pack of their Hatch Me If You Can kolsch, so this one hits close to home.
  17. This is quite a read: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1327253991936454663.html
  18. This may be pretty close to reality. Hicks Equity Partners (owned by former Rangers/Stars owner and UT grad Tom Hicks) is exploring a majority stake; his son Tommy Hicks is RNC chair and close with DTJ. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-real-reason-fox-news-needs-trump-to-win/2020/11/03/909b6400-1de2-11eb-ad53-4c1fda49907d_story.html
  19. Beto on with the LP folks today, discussing Texas: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/state-of-the-vote-why-texas-is-a-toss-up/id1514968525?i=1000494447109
  20. After years on Surly/Shag/Hornfans, I never knew there was a scouting thread until I happened to run across it tonight. Excellent. My journey to scouting was unconventional, as I was never involved as a kid. My eldest got roped in by friends in 1st grade, so we joined our school's pack. He took to it like a duck to water, and we had a solid den leader with a pretty large/active pack, so we got involved pretty quickly. Fast forward two years and the outgoing committee chair pleaded and begged for me to take over - I finally said yes after 3-4 nos. The incoming cubmaster ghosted us right before the new school year, so I ended up doing both jobs for 18 months until we finally found a new cubmaster (thank heavens). In the meantime, our youngest had gotten involved too and ended up in a den that grew to 16 boys. I still sort of kept BSA/scouting culture at arm's length (simply because I only knew the Cub Scouts side of things) until our oldest crossed over and joined a troop. He's in a great medium-sized troop (about 35 boys with a co-chartered girls troop of 12 girls) with strong scout and adult leadership. In the three years we've been involved, I ended up doing IOLS and other trainings, taught a couple merit badges and have chaperoned too many campouts to count - and loved every minute. It's really gotten me into camping in a big way, too - much to my wife's chagrin since her interest in camping has really waned since our pre-kid days. Bpth our boys are in the troop now and I've just accepted the committee chair position beginning next school year, so I'll be kinda shadowing our current CC (the same guy I succeeded as CC in the pack) this coming spring. Our oldest just did his OA ordeal this past weekend and we've both signed up for Philmont this coming summer, so I guess we're really in it for the long haul now. Glad this thread is here - I look forward to reading more!
  21. We had a Facebook group like that pop up in our district at the beginning of the year. They pushed all their folks to submit comments to the school board to be read at their meeting when reopening plans were discussed; most of them were along the lines of "if you don't reopen immediately I'm pulling my kids out and so are my friends in our neighborhood, and you can't afford to lose us." They weren't approving requests, so a friend who was in the group already let me in. It was pretty toxic. I looked around but never posted anything, and then an admin kicked me out a few hours later - I guess I didn't live in the right part of the district (or was friends with the right people) to be a part of their club.
  22. It was blatantly obvious this was coming. They're going to railroad this through, despite all the hopes/prayers/dreams otherwise. And honestly, if the whole situation were reversed - a conservative judge dying, but with Dems having the majority in the Senate as well as the presidency (but with pres running behind in polls against a strong R challenger) - they'd probably do the exact same thing. "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." - Plato
  23. EDIT: Now I see this was already posted above. I'll leave this here since the NBC story linked in this post goes into a little more detail. TL;DR - Looks like they want to identify Democratic Party-led cities and withhold federal funding as punishment. Also seems like a pretext to mess with voting in said cities on Nov. 3. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/justice-dept-deems-new-york-city-portland-seattle-anarchist-jurisdictions-n1240600
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