winter break

haven't been doing much riding at all, other than a 50 miler that ben mccall and I did a couple weekends ago through the northland. we even hit cornfield!

i'm gonna go for an exploration ride after writing this, stay tuned :)

here's the race schedule that kansas citians should look to do next year. no conflicting dates and all within 3 hours of the city. enjoy.

UFD-United Federation of Dirt
MWFTS-Midwest Fat Tire Series

3-28 Lawrence river Trails, UFD
4-11 God's Country Duathlon @ Lawrence River Trails
4-18 BoneBender 3/6 Hour Endurance, UFD
4-25 Neosho, MWFTS
5-1 Clinton Lake 3/6 hour endurance, MWFTS
5-8 St Joe, UFD
5-16 Columbia, MWTFS
6-6 Warsaw, UFD
6-12 Missouri States, UFD
6-20 Emporia, UFD
6-27 Perry, UFD
7-11 Springfield, MWFTS
7-25 Sunflower/Show-Me Games
8-8 Spanish Lake, UFD
8-14 Rapture in Misery 6/12 hour endurance, UFD
8-22 Crankfest, UFD
8-28 Cruise the Blues 5 hour endurance
9-4 Jeff City 3/6 hour endurance, MWFTS
9-12 Ark City, UFD
9-19 KC Cup, UFD
9-26 Knob Noster, MWFTS
10-19 Burning at the Bluff 3/6 hour endurance, UFD
10-23 Berryman Epic, MWFTS

lots of racing fairly close next year.

also, made a log of my work days/hours put in over the past couple years for ERTA...here is where I stand through today:

11-16-08 Kill Creek 3 hours
12-6-08 Stocksdale 4 hours
1-3-09 Landahl 4 hours
1-31-09 Blue River 4 hours
6-20-09 Blue-Swope Connector 5 hours
6-26-09 SMP-horse trail 4 hours
10-3-09 Blue-Swope Connector 4 hours
11-7-09 Swope 4 hours
11-8-09 Blue-Swope Connector 4 hours
11-21-09 WyCo 4 hours
12-6-09 Swope 3 hours
12-17-09 Swope 2 hours
12-18-09 Swope 3 hours

48 hours total at 8 different locations. And I don't own a car. get out and build trails that you like to ride, so you have more to ride!

peace and dirt!

United Federation of Dirt!

Official press release:

2010 United Federation of Dirt [UFD] Race Calendar
by scapstack on Fri Dec 18, 2009 10:41 am

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2009

2010 United Federation of Dirt [UFD] Race Calendar

KANSAS CITY, MO: We are thrilled to announce the 2010 United Federation of Dirt [UFD] race calendar. The UFD consists of a collective group of promoters, trail builders and racers unified in the goal of bringing dirt lovin’ good times to the Missouri and Kansas region.

For 2010, we are promoting 17 traditional cross country mountain bike races divided into two leagues. The Eastern League is comprised of 8 races and the Western League will be hosting 9 races. The Endurance League brings together 4 races focused on long distance and the ability for the human spirit to suffer. The events will take place on some the best singletrack that the region has to offer, including the ever popular Castlewood State Park, Spanish Lake, Wilson Lake, KS and newly minted Swope Park.

In addition to the 17 cross country races and 4 endurance races, we are pleased to announce the return of the Short Track Dirt Crit Series to the St. Louis area and the Kansas City region. These weekly training races will be the perfect way to keep the legs a moving and the body acclimated to racing on dirt.

And lastly, the UFD is proud to announce that these events will be under the sanctioning of USA Cycling. This is just the beginning of many exciting things to come for the 2010 season. We are still in the early planning stages and working to get all the pieces in place to bring you the best racing experience around. Look for more announcements soon…fun in the dirt is what it is all about.

United Federation of Dirt [UFD]

Contact: If you are interested in more dirt or would like to be a part of the federation, email us at: unitedindirt@gmail.com

Web: http://www.unitedindirt.com
Facebook: United Federation of Dirt
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/unitedindirt

2010 United Federation of Dirt [UFD] Race Calendar

Eastern League XC races:

March 14: Leadbelt XC. St. Joe Park (Mark Grumke)
March 28: Mesa Lost Valley Luau (Matt James)
May 8: *Greensfelder ( (DRJ Racing)
June 12: *Missouri State Championship. Castlewood (Big Shark/Pfoodman)
June 27: St.Charles County Parks (Ghisallo Sports)
Aug 8: Trailblazer Blitz. Spanish Lake. (Trailblazer Bikes)
Aug 22: Cyclewerx Crankfest. Cape Girardeau, MO (Cyclewerx)
Sept 25: *Council Bluffs (ICCC)

Alpine Shop Short Track Dirt Crit Series– 7/1, 7/8, 7/15, 7/22, 7/29. Dirt Crit Final Blowout XC race - 8/1

Western League XC races:

March 28: Lawrence River Trails. Lawrence, KS (Curtis Martell/Free State Racing)
May 1/2: Wilson Lake Fat Tire Festival. Wilson Lake, KS. (Doug Chambers/Golden Belt)
May 8: *Robidoux Roundup. Krug Park. St. Joseph, MO. (Randy Tracy/Craig Hoppe)
June 6: The Down and Dirty. Warsaw, MO (Mac Vorce)
June 20: Cramp Alexander. Emporia. KS. (Matt Brown/High Gear)
June 27: Crocodile Rock. Perry Lake State Park. Perry, KS. (Lyle Reidy/HSP/Bad Goat Racing)
July 25: Sunflower State Games (Curtis Martell/Free State Racing)
Sept 12: Tour De Lizard. Arkansas City, KS (Bobby Smith)
Sept 19: Kansas City Cup (Federation Championship). Swope Park. Kansas City, MO. (Ron Acklin/HSP)

Short Track Dirt Crit Training Series –Thursday Nite Throwdown: June-August Timeframe

Endurance League ( Dirt Lovin Good Times style format ):

April 18: Bone Bender 3/6 MTB Odyssey. Smithville Lake. Smithville, MO (Chris Locke/Cow Town Cycling)
June 5: *Dirty Kanza 200 [DK200]. Emporia, KS (Jim Cummins/HSP)
Aug 14: *Rapture In Misery [RIM] 6/12. Crowder State Park. Trenton, MO (Doug Long/HSP)
Oct 9: *Burning at the Bluff (Mesa Cycles)
* Saturday race date
**The above dates and venues are subject to change due to events beyond our control.
** In addition to the dates listed above, we are also working on scheduling apx 2-3 rain dates into the calendar.

2010 race season coming together real nicely...

here's some events already on tap for next year:

Chuckies Challenge Gravel Grinder
Saturday-February 6th-Jamesport. Missouri

HIlls of Hell--Lawton, OK
March 6 & 7

Oauchita Challenge
March 28 & 29

24 Hours of Syllamo-Ozark National Forest
April 10 & 11

8th Annual God's Country Off-Road Duathlon
April 11, 2010
Lawrence River Trails, Lawrence, Kansas
2 Mile Trail Run
12-14 Mile Mountain Bike (depends on course conditions if we get to use the full loop).
2 Mile Trail Run

Bone Bender 3/6 Hour MTB Odyssey
April 18, 2010
Smithville, Missouri
Rain date (May 15, 2010)

2010 MidWest Fat Tire Series Schedule
April 25th - Tour de Tick, Neosho MO
May 1st - Ride with the Devil 3/6 hour race, Clinton Lake KS
May 16th - Rhett's Run, Columbia MO
July 11th - OMBA Caramba, Springfield MO
July 25th - Show Me State Games, Columbia MO
September 4th - Tall Oak 3/6 hour race, Jefferson City MO
September 26th - Possum Hollow Trail, Knob Noster State Park MO
October 23rd - Berryman Epic, Steelville MO

:) more to come...

more riding on tap

last week was pretty much a wash for riding, considering it was the last week of the semester, and it decided to snow and be like 5*. Mason still came up this weekend again though.

Saturday we opted for stocksdale, to avoid the thawing southside and miss the slippery rocks/roots of other trails. Great time riding everything they had, first one way, then the other. 2 laps in about an hour, not the greatest, but considering the conditions (sloppy/melty snow) we were tearing pretty good.

sunday we were gonna freeride, then we decided that road riding with the colavita team at 1 pm might be fun. so we chilled until then and showed up about 20 min early. 4 other fellas showed up, all sporting the carbon fully-geared roadsters, while mason and i were on the single speed mtb's. needless to say, we folled them literally 4 blocks then veered to mccoys for about a 3 hour beer detour. whiskey shots and pitchers were had and a good swervy ride home. very nice.

i just took my middle american geography final. have a women's studies final in about an hour to take. already done with spanish and environmental conservation. statistics final thursday morning. I'm gonna go to l-town tonight with mason and stay there until wednesday evening to do some river trail riding/chill at home.

Mason and I have decided that we want to be highly competitive in the racing next season, so more rides at higher intensity are on tap. shit.

and new BB7's are on their way for my rasta 29r. thank god! i need new brakes horribly bad. the duct tape just isn't cutting it anymore.

peace and dirt!!!

blowing off school

as I sit here and type this I have the following to do: 5 page research paper for Middle American Geography, which I haven't started research on, a hw assignment due at 2 pm for stats, a 13 minute spanish skit tonight, a 4 page analysis for women's studies due tomorrow morning, a 4 page spanish composition due wednesday, spanish grammer homework and my spanish final is wednesday evening.

so....what did I do this weekend instead of being smart? I rode of course :)

saturday, Mason and I hit up Landahl again. Tasty all the way down, then the lollipop, then doubletrack all the way through the scoutcamp/west side back to Argo, where we met up with Phil, Ben, Matt and Matt. Dropped back in, did Will's out, Dave's up to family, family/offshoots back to Rim job, rim job back to the argo trail head. doesn't seem like a lot, but we stopped a few times to play on obstacles/watch people fall down. good ride with good people.

sunday Mason and I were both feeling the day before so we opted for trail work then a ride. got out to swope phase 3 and did some fine bench cutting and crib walling, then rode everything at swope for around an hour before the rain came when we were back on 8 pins. needless to day, 30* rain will get you moving pretty quick, so we hightailed it back to the car. we ended up riding all the phase 3 stuff that's been worked on, some hiking trail, wudchuck run/8 pins/rancho deluxe, then doubletrack through the top of the camp back to the car. basically the KC Cup race loop in reverse with a couple secret spots I can't mention.

now I'm writing this instead of doing the prior list of schoolwork. procrastination at its finest :)

peace and dirt!!!