{"id":2934,"date":"2010-11-11T22:24:31","date_gmt":"2010-11-12T03:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/?p=2934"},"modified":"2010-11-11T22:43:50","modified_gmt":"2010-11-12T03:43:50","slug":"special-mud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/2010\/11\/11\/special-mud\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Mud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><\/p>\n<table cellpadding=1>\n<tr>\n<td bgcolor=\"black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/gallery\/v\/travel\/local_places\/biking\/PB111127.jpg.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/gallery\/d\/95463-2\/PB111127.jpg\" height=480 width=640 border=0 title=\"Remains of some special mud (feces) picked up somewhere on the LOHS or Bald Mountain South Unit trails that I picked out of my fork crown thinking it was something else.\"><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p>This evening I met up with a coworker (Doug) and a friend (Jon) to ride the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lakeorion.k12.mi.us\/lohs\/\">Lake Orion High School<\/a> (LOHS) mountain bike trails. After running into the trail builder, <a href=\"http:\/\/stevekinley.blogspot.com\/\">M. C. Escher himself<\/a>, in the parking lot and talking for a few we headed out. While brutal compared to most other local <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cross-country_cycling\">XC<\/a> trails, the LOHS trails are in great shape and after a slow ride around there took connector trails into to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dnr.state.mi.us\/parksandtrails\/Details.aspx?id=324&#038;type=SPTR\">Bald Mountain South Unit<\/a> where we were able to ride the flowing, fast two track for a while before heading back to the parking lot.<\/p>\n<p>Since we we weren&#8217;t in <a href=\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/2010\/11\/11\/pea-soup\/\">super-thick fog<\/a> the new headlight worked wonderfully, and using both elements (spot and wide) it throws light far enough that I could comfortable ride at full speed. A bar light still would be nice to create some shadows<sup>\u2020<\/sup>, but I think this setup will serve me really well.<\/p>\n<p>Back at the parking lot I noticed a bit more mud on my bike, which surprised me since the LOHS trail was dry and packed hard, and I didn&#8217;t recall any mud in Bald Mountain. Not thinking right I grabbed a pinch of the mud to see if it was actually just a different colored piece that landed on my bike last night I realized my mistake: it was not mud. This is not the first time I&#8217;ve ended up with trail feces on my bike, but normally I notice it before I touch it and can then wash it off later.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully the school was open for a band concert and I had some <a href=\"http:\/\/www.drbronner.com\/DBMS\/PEP.htm\">Dr. Bronner&#8217;s Peppermint Soap<\/a> in the car, so I was able to visit the bathroom and wash the soiled hand (and a key) before changing. At least I managed to only contaminate one hand and a small metal object, and the doors to the school were propped open. The clump shown above in my fork crown is only the little bit that remained after the 1&#8243; clump I&#8217;d originally removed with my fingers. That bit of filth ended up in the grass just before I tried to wipe my hands (somewhat) clean on the damp blades of green.<\/p>\n<p><sup>\u2020<\/sup> Riding with just a headlight generally eliminates shadows, as having the light nearly on-axis with your eyes keeps one from seeing shadows. Adding another light located elsewhere, such as down on the handlebars, creates just enough shadow on objects  that it&#8217;s almost as easy as riding in daytime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This evening I met up with a coworker (Doug) and a friend (Jon) to ride the Lake Orion High School (LOHS) mountain bike trails. After&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/2010\/11\/11\/special-mud\/\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Special Mud<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cycling","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2934"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2939,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2934\/revisions\/2939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}