100 Day Challenge and the miracle of merino

Anybody that knows me knows that I am a merino wool fanboy.  Ever since buying a, long discontinued, Giro New Roads polo bike shirt on closeout, and then another, and then another, back in 2016 I have been trying to accumulate as much merino as possible.  I have 2 of the Giro shirts that I wear commuting every day for a week or more without washing and they are incredible.  I can hang them in the locker room for the day and they just don't stink.  A normal bike shirt would be too ripe to do that from the moment I turned out of my driveway. 

Day 7 - Ice Fishing

Since then I have been looking for deals on merino clothing wherever I can.  Ebay, AliExpress, Amazon, Icebreaker, SmartWool, Minus33, LL Bean, Showers Pass.  (I'd give you links but I am too lazy) Anywhere I could find a shirt for a good deal I would buy it. What I have found is that 100% merino is the only way to go for me.  I had some great luck at AliExpress with some T-Shirts that were very reasonably priced, fit well and passed the test.  I also had some AliExpress merino shirts that were "100 % merino" that stunk after 2 days of wear. If you don't know what AliExpress is, stay away, it's addictive.  You end up getting packages in the mail that you forgot ordering.  And how can they ship a $5 product all the way from China for free when it costs me at least $12 to ship ANYTHING through the post office?  But I digress. 

Day 20 - Dog photo bomb

Fast forward to 2024.  I decided to try to extend my merino passion beyond workout and casual clothes.  My search for, um, economy merino dress shirts came up short so I expanded my range to the "you want how much for a shirt!?" range.  I know that people pay decent money for shirts out there but I am cheap and shop sales and at goodwill (Ok, my wife does that for me). My upper end for a shirt has always been about $50.  And that better be a damn nice shirt.  Actually, I did buy a very nice Icebreaker(?) button-down shirt a few years ago on closeout that I have used every year for traveling.  But the theme here is that I don't pay $138.00 for shirts.  

Day 32 - Who can guess?

My search for a nice dress shirt ended at Wool & Prince, a brand that had never even entered my radar.  They have quite a few styles and both tall and slim options.  After a little hemming and hawing I decided to try one.  I think the 100 Day Challenge was actually part of my decision.  I figured if a shirt was good enough for people to wear 100 days in a row it might actually be worth the money.  Even though I am a little fatter than I want to be right now, I went for a large slim instead of a medium tall.  I also went for the heaviest weight fabric that they had the 210 button-down.

Day 90 - Home Sweet Home

I actually waited a month from when I received the shirt until I started the challenge. This was both to see if I liked it enough to wear 100 days and because I had a trip to St Martin planned and a heavy weight long sleeve shirt was not in the daily wardrobe down there.  Although I did wear it on my travel days.  The challenge started in earnest on  Feb 12. The hardest requirement other than wearing the shirt every day was to take a picture of yourself in the shirt.  Boy did I get some lousy pictures! And a few good ones.  

Day 1 - Lousy Pic (but the shirt looks good)

Because I bike commute to work there were some logistics to work out to make sure the shirt always ended up in the right place every day.  My commute is substantial enough that the shirt ends up soaked by the end of the ride, winter or summer.  Other than that wearing the same shirt was no big deal.  I think I flew mostly under the radar of most of the people at work.  You can do the challenge with or without washing the shirt.  I probably washed it 4-5 times in 100 days.  Usually because it picked up smoke or cooking smells.  Sometimes just because a load was going and the shirt was, you know, dirty. I wore it faithfully almost all the days, although I did change out of it on days that involved working on a tractor or doing some other task that might get a shirt dirty or possibly ruined.  I'm sure my average was well over 8 hours/day.  

Day 53 - April Snowstorm

Day 100! I'm not sure what to wear tomorrow.  Actually it will probably be a different shirt because this one is at work and I will be driving off-site from home in the morning. I won't miss the shirt shuffle or the daily photo. Indecently, I bought a different Wool & Prince shirt off ebay during the challenge and am looking forward to wearing it.  I do think that I will try to pare down my wardrobe of dress shirts.  Realizing that you can wear one shirt for months is definitely eye opening. 

Day 57 - Total Eclipse

The Review: Honestly, this is a great shirt.  Considering that if I wore another shirt 1 day/week it would take 2 years to put this much wear on a shirt and this one still looks pretty new.  I really like the feel of the heavyweight, 210, wool.  I never thought I would mention the "drape" of a garment but this shirt hangs very well.  The fabric has enough stretch to make it very comfortable. 

Day 100 - That's a wrap

Now to get a different color and destroy 100 selfies, once I get my free shirt that is. 

I now know for sure that a fatbike can be used as a flotation device in the case of a water landing.

I will say one thing.  If you fall through the ice on your bike there are a lot of potential options to name your Strava ride. 

• Fatbikes Float
• I cannot claim that I have never fallen through the ice on my bike anymore
• Ice fishing and I'm the bait.
• Testing out the new waterproof camera case.
• Fatty Dipping 
  

I know, I know.  Don't tell my mom.  

So there is this one section of lake where it narrows and there is water flow.  It is notoriously thin when the rest of the lake is fine.  To make matters worse, there is a dock that sticks out so a land traverse is not (really) possible. Well, today this particular section of lake looked pretty sketchy even though it was fine a few days ago. Even still I thought, "What the heck?" and went for it.  At 2:45 in this video you can see what problems that caused.

In my favor, I knew I was close to shore and the temp was only about 28F degrees so not too cold.  I think I almost expected to go through. Once I did, I realized how handy it was that fatbikes do float.  Indecently, my coffee mug also floated.  I'm not exactly sure if I floated or was standing on the bottom but I was only in to my chest.  I may have been floating on some ice in the hole.  In any case I didn't take a lot of time evaluating the situation.  I was able to pretty easily slide my bike back up onto the ice, coffee cup too, and then me. If anything didn't float it is at the bottom of the lake but I'm pretty sure I came out with everything I want in with. (Me, Bike, Coffee, Camera, Lights, Bike Computer, Tools, Wallet, Car Keys...all accounted for)

Somehow it seemed like I didn't get too wet.  I'm not sure how that is possible but it is true, trust me. I was a little worried that the rest of the ride would be miserable but it really wasn't that bad.  I hadn't tried to use my brakes for a few miles but when I did need them they were nowhere to be found but they came back after a few good squeezes. Shifting was a little, um, less than perfect once the cables froze.

On the plus side my bike, and my shoes, did need a good wash.  And now I have the experience of going through the ice.

Cyclebot GPT

So it has been a while since I posted.  I should endeavor to do better.  In the mean time, I have been interested in this whole Chatbot GPT thing.  Out of curiosity I asked it to write a poem about "The Candid Cyclist"

The Candid Cyclist takes to the road, 

Pedaling hard with each new episode. 

Sharing their journey with each turn of the wheel, 

With insights and wisdom that's simply unreal.

 

With each new adventure, they tell us their tale, 

Of the mountains they climb and the hills they assail. 

Of the wind in their face and the sun on their back, 

Of the joy of the ride and the moments they track.

 

The Candid Cyclist's words ring true, 

A testament to the passion they pursue. 

For each ride is a journey, a story to be told, 

Of the joys and the challenges that make them bold.

 

And so we follow, with each new post, 

As The Candid Cyclist shares what they love the most. 

For their words inspire us to take to the road, 

And to cycle with courage and grace as our code.

                                                                    by: ChatGPT (A language model)

The Dempsey Challenge 2022

It is almost (probably is by the time I get this out) September which means that The Dempsey Challenge is this month. Which means that once again Team Edwards is asking for your help. This will be our 14th year doing the challenge. It all started because Kelly wanted to run a 5K and she said they have a biking event too. It was the first year the challenge happened and we just kept doing it. Since then we have met several different people who have personally used and appreciated The Dempsey Center.

 

Team Edwards

I'd say I'm more unprepared than ever. Even though I ride back and forth to work almost every day, my longest ride this year has been less than 50 miles. The Dempsey challenge is going to be a real, not virtual, ride this year and we plan on riding the 100 mile route. (Gotta get our money's worth). This will also serve as a training ride for Kelly for when she competes in the Half Iron Man World Championships in Utah this October! Go Kelly!!!

So without further ado, here are the donation links.  We both have a donation minimum of $250 so the goal is to try to get us both to that level.  We have joined the Bilodeau Insurance Agency team again, a great group of people that we started hanging out with after the challenge for years now.   

Donate To Brian's Page

Donate To Kelly's Page

I've lost track of how much money Kelly and I have raised over the years but I know it is well over $15,000, so thank you!

GMGG is Fine with Me

Brewery #1 Lawson's Finest Liquids

When friends we had barely met before asked us to join them on an epic journey into the the mountains of Vermont to ride bikes on questionable roads and drink beer we thought: "Why Not?".  Besides, they are planning all the logistics of the trip and all we had to do is ride. 

Previewing part of the route on Google, Thumbs Up!

The GMGG (Green Mountain Gravel Growler) is a bikepacking route that connects dozens of breweries in Vermont with a mix of paved roads, gravel roads, bike paths, single tracks, and a few streams.

Not a paved road.

We ultimately ended up with a version that spanned 3 days and about 160 miles starting and ending in Montpelier.  The first day which consisted of a late start, the Lincoln gap, 60+ miles and a trail section was definitely the hardest. 

This is at the top of the "Dead End"

But enough with the dramatic hype of the difficulty of this trip let's get on with the fun stuff.

Typical Vermont Gravel

We got rolling about noon and had over 25 miles before our first brew stop.  The route started out interesting with some gravel roads that turned to trail that resulted in our first wrong turn of many.  Fast forward 20 miles and we took another wrong turn looking for Lawson's Finest Liquids. Fear not, we found it.  The taproom alone is worth the visit.

I'm not really sure about the order of these beautiful views but I know this was on the first day.

The next stretch included the Lincoln Gap.  It has the notoriety of being the steepest paved mile in the US.   It is no joke.  

Anybody up for a quick side hike?

This is the first time (that I can remember) that I have had to walk part of a hill.  Our friend that had done this route before dubbed it demoralizing.  I think I might call it more Mortal-izing.  Our group consisted of a lot of strong riders and nobody did the whole thing without getting off the bike at some point. (I'll stop short of saying "walking").  Even though my heart felt like it was ready to pop, for some reason I want to give it another crack when I am not hauling extra clothes and tools. 

Everybody made it to the top in decent time.

The trip down the back side was part gravel and better for people with wider tires and disk breaks.  This is the point where I'll mention that one of our group was doing this route on a road bike with 28C tires.  There were times, like this, when he was at a disadvantage but for the most part he made it look pretty easy.  (We're not talking about the pickup truck incident) 

 

I think this was still the first day

After Lincoln gap everybody was a little worn down and there was still one pretty big climb before we got to Middlebury.  We rolled into town around 6:00 to find that one of the breweries we were targeting closed at 5:00, What? Isn't that when people get out of work and might want to get a beer.  We checked the second brewery.  Closed at 6:00. Ummm. OK, we'll try the "Mad Taco".  Good luck finding it, I'm going to keep it the secret that it apparently is.  When we finally did find it, there was an hour wait to get a taco and they couldn't serve beer before the food was ready. FAIL. We ultimately found The Two Brother's Tavern which required hungry puppy dog eyes to get a table, but they had plenty of beer and food. 

Food & Beer

The group is happy.  From here we rode a few miles to an Air B&B which was a great way to wind down after a long day.  They even had laundry!

Breakfast in Bristol

The next day started with coffee, like they all do.  We rode about 10 miles to Bristol for a nice breakfast outside.

Happy Birthday Girl

A breakdown with a view

From there we started our trip toward Hinesburg.  The trip was interrupted when somebody lost a shift cable.  Problem? No. Between the group we had 2 spares. 

Pit Crew

 When we got to Hinesburg we found 2 breweries that were actually open. Frost & Foam.  

Thirsty

Frost had quite a line waiting or beer.

Foam was more of a warehouse with no sign. (Notice the lack of shoe, "foreshadowing")

Sidewalk cobbler service.

We sat outside in the park alongside the brewery and enjoyed the weather.  This was another one of the points in our trip that I thought that I could be content to just stop riding for the day.

Gorilla Glue and Saran Wrap to the rescue.

From Frost and Foam we mad our way to Fiddlehead...Fantastic. We stopped, drank beer and ordered pizzas. 

Not Thirsty

The trip from Fiddlehead into Burlington was mostly on the Burlington bike path which was busy but pleasant.

Waterfront Park, Maybe we can just stay here.

The trip from Burlington to Wiliston was the most unpleasant leg of the trip filled with rush hour traffic and a few assholes.  A small price to pay for the quality of roads to so far.  We got to the hotel which cost about as much as an all inclusive long weekend in Cancun, but they did have "breakfast".

The bikes are in for the night and we went out for Sushi

Saturday, our third and final day was my favorite as far as terrain goes.  The route started through a subdivision, found its way to some gravel road and then dropped into a trail all in the first 10 miles. 

Emerging from the first trail section of the day

From there we were on country roads with excursions into a magical piece of singletrack called the river trail that I could have been happy on all day long.

River Trail

But it didn't last all day.  Eventually we ended up on a quiet gravel road running parallel to the river that would get us to Waterbury and The Prohibition Pig.  

This is the prohibition deer, unfazed by our proximity and public drinking.

Except the pig was (supposedly) closed so we ended up at The Blackback Pub.  It was not a bad choice.  The beer selection was huge and the food was excellent. 

Good Lunch Spot

This was the last stop for beer on this version of our trip.

Good Beer Spot

Wait, not it wasn't.  Prohibition Pig was actually open.  But we didn't go there.  We got some beers at the store across the street and drank them in the park.

Louts Mode: Namaste

This was the last stop for beer on this version of the trip. We crossed back over the river and made our way back to the Dog River park and ride.

 

I will replace this with a cooler video if it becomes available. 

Takeaways / Unofficial TripAdvisor Review of the GMGG:

• I would do it again.  Preferably the northern loop that we missed with some river trail.
  
• I liked the 3 day format. Plenty of riding including a full day of riding but not a huge commitment away from home or work.
  
• I liked the minimal packing, air B&B, hotel version.  Nobody needs to pedal a bunch of crap over the Lincoln Gap.
  
• Less is more.  We had a group of pretty strong riders and we were still using up the whole day.  If you aren't the kind of rider that could do a road century at a moment's notice, consider keeping the daily mileage below 50.
  
• The beer to riding ratio was well spread out.
• Check the brewery hours before you go.  There isn't much rhyme or reason to when they are open. 
• Don't miss the river trail. 
• Try not to be sick! My wife was brewing some kind of cold on the first day and had to drag herself through the last 20 miles.  She was down for over a week after the trip. (It wasn't COVID) Luckily none of the rest of us got it even though we were sharing a lot of space.
  
• Make sure your route includes the breweries so you don't spend too much time searching for them once you get to a town. 
• Book your hotel room early, or better yet, find an Air B&B or VRBO
• Go with the flow, it is an adventure! 

 

Rides / Routes

Collective effervescence, GMGG Day 1

Ethan's theory of serendipity, GMGG day 2

Going with the flow, and some flowy river trail it was. GMGG day 3

Questions? Leave them in the comments section or leave a comment on one of my rides.

 

Early Morning Cyclist Inspiration

It has been a while but it is winter. And winter is all about sunrises, isn't it. So let's get to it.

The lake finally (already?) froze.

This picture must have been before Christmas because there is a lot of snow.

These last 2 pictures show the infamous tree from my Winter Morning Series in it's final resting spot.

The rest of these are in no particular order.

Sunrises are good

Trail conditions are good

This is the last picture in this series.

Acadia And Schoodic...And we didn't even bring bikes!

This post will start out with a big thank you to or friends who invited us to hang out, cook and play for a few days. One of our friends had a conference in the area which ended up turning virtual but they decided to keep the trip planned. Yay! 

I had a plan to do a pre-sunrise hike to a spot with less people than Cadillac Mountain. The trouble was, we had to find the right mountain.  I did my homework and at sunrise, 6:58AM,  the sun's angle would be at 104 degrees.  I found a spot near our house that would give us a view of the sunrise between the islands, perfecto!

It doesn't get any better than that.

 

Instead of getting up there in the dark and trying to figure out  what roads were closed due to COVID, where to park, what trail to take and if there were trees in the way we did a recon hike.  We actually encountered all of those things but found a clearing not far off the trail with some ledges that would be a great spot.  The trail we took was the Sluiceway trail to the Bernard Mountain Trail.  

This dog is not mine and not off-leash   (Photo by Warren E.)

The bottom is a little plain but the top is a magical ribbon of dirt through a thick moss covered forest floor.  Recon accomplished.

After our hike we took a side trip to smell the ocean air. 

When we got back we all took a drive to the top of Cadillac. I've been to the top of this mountain many times but rarely by car.  We didn't plan to stay until sunset because it gets so busy and even started driving away.  As we were passing the parking lot I said we should just turn in and look...

We were actually about 40 minutes early for the big event and it was getting chilly

But we stuck it out.

And it was worth it.

From here, the plan was to go home, eat, drink, be merry and then wake up at 5:00 to catch the next glimpse of the sun.  I wish all days could be that simple. 

O-Dark thirty (Photo by Warren E.)

Well, the getting up at 5:00 part came as a little shock to the system after the drinking and being merry part, but it was worth it too.

The moment before

If you have never done a hike in the night with lights, it is worth a try.  The woods are totally different at night.  Pro-tip, bring an extra light.   Because woods are really really dark if the one you have dies.

Hello Again

We got there in plenty of time to get in our spot and see the sun peak above the horizon.  As it turns out there was only a thin clearing at the horizon and then it turned to clouds.  This only made things more dramatic!

Spectacular!

Eme Approved (Photo by Warren E.)

 
OK!  Sun's up...Off to the next adventure!  We grabbed a quick shower and then it was off to Schoodic to meet my daughter for more hiking around.  

About as close to being swallowed up by the sea as I need.

We hiked from Schoodic point around the coast and out onto Little Moose Island. There she showed us a sea chasm that puts "Thunder Hole" to shame.

Attempt # 237 to get this shot with the wave. (Photo by Rose Edwards)

We ate lunch and played around the rocks a little longer before going on our hike.

Rose showed us a really big rock

And took our picture there (Photo by Rose Edwards)

We tried to put it back into place with no luck. (Photo by Rose Edwards)

From there it was off to hike to Shcoodic Head up the Anvil and back down Alder.  My daughter surprised me because the last I knew she kind of hated hiking.  Yet this was a pretty rugged trail.  It was a really great day of hiking that was capped off with some great food at Serendib.

The fall colors on the island were really amazing. (Photo by Rose Edwards)

As you can see, we didn't have time to miss having bikes.