Took almost until May, but Level 5 is attained! Five hundred miles and fifteen thousand feet of climb to Level 6…

Here’s IOZ putting two fastballs right over the middle of the plate: ffffffwap!, ffffffwap!

Here’s some images from the weekend’s bike camping expedition up the C&O Canal Towpath.

It was a great trip. We loaded up both longtails and Clovis with 3 adults, 3 kids, gear, water and food. Then we rode about 7-ish miles through DC, another 16 and change up the path to the campground at Swain’s Lock, stopping at several amazingly beautiful spots on the Potomac along the way.

The campground was great, nestled between a canal lock and the river with a rushing waterfall nearby. There were about 60 Boy Scouts and parents next to us with their tents and bikes, they’d gotten on the trail about 18 miles north and were headed the rest of the way to Georgetown.

There’s much more to be written about the experience, we had a great time, it was a great shake out for our gear and an opportunity to see how the kids would handle a longer ride. But I’m busy. Busy, busy, busy. So for now, grab some popcorn, enjoy the slide show, and I’ll share more impressions when I get a moment to breathe and blog.

Here’s two downhill fiends shooting the A-Line at Whistler, shot from a helmet cam. It’s awesome.

Brian Lopes railing it down A-line at Whistler… from GoPro on Vimeo.

This comes by way of a guest post at FatCyclist from Scot Nicol of Ibis, makers of the Mojo, that sweet-ass orange rocketship in the video. They’re raffling one off to benefit the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship, who do an amazing job of building and maintaining trails, community outreach, involving kids, and wringing every single inch of trail possible for every dollar they receive. Five dollars American buys you a chance to win a Mojo, five more buys you another, and so on.

I mean, I’m gonna win it, I already know that, because I really, really want it. And that’s how you win raffles, you just have to want it more than everyone else, and I want this bike way more than you’re capable of wanting it. But why not throw $5 in the pot and see if you can beat me at raffle?

There aren’t words to describe what an incredible freak of bad-assedness Danny MacAskill is. Fortunately, there’s video. If you move your mousepad under your chin, it won’t hurt as bad when your jaw slams into your desk.

(Many thanks to Stevil for getting Monday off on the good foot.)

What a glorious, beautiful day it is! Spring has its chest puffed out and is positively strutting around D.C. like a proud poppa. There were a couple soakings earlier this week, but it’s as perfect a day today as it can be: sunny and seventy with just enough breeze to get the leaves lightly fluttering.

The fine weather brings about a generally pleasant demeanor in Washingtonians (at least the ones I saw and greeted on bikes and sidewalks, the motorists are still angry, but I understand). Besides the ambient happiness, this has been a pretty knock-out week. Allow me to report, in no particular chronological order, all the goodness.

There are no disc golf courses in D.C. proper, and one would think that living in a dense metropolitan region would make it difficult to find a good field to practice airing out one’s plastic. Unless, of course, you live in Northeast. You see, our neighborhood is home not only to Catholic University of America, but also to a couple handfuls of abbeys, monasteries, convents, and other religious institutions. Many of them have large, lovely grounds, but most are inaccessible to the public.

Howard University’s Divinity School, however, has great big beautiful publicly accessible estate right at the corner of Taylor and 14th St NE, just a couple blocks from my house. Here’s a look from the hill top down at 14th, a gentle but narrow slope about 600 feet down to the lamp post by the street, with 3 big beautiful trees spaced evenly right down the middle. About a par 4 I’d say.

This is one part of the front grounds. The other side of the driveway is another 600 foot strip going uphill with scrub and thorns on the left, and there’s another flatter meadow beyond that. It’s beautifully taken care of, has lots of targets, some rough, and just enough well-placed concrete to provide some OB. As far as practice fields go, it really doesn’t get much better than this.

Last night, after I got home from work, I grabbed a bag of drivers and headed up the street to practice. I’d been wanting to work on an aspect of my throwing based on a tip I’d picked up (I won’t bother going into it, ask me in comments if you’re interested), and almost from the get-go I felt like my throw had clicked and gone up another level and a half. Everything I threw went straighter and farther than I’m used to, and with less effort.

It seems like a stupid thing to include in a list of wonderful things from the week gone by, I realize, but it really felt that much better, the way I’ve been trying to get it to feel for almost 4 years. Pennsylvania State Championships at Codorus State Park in two weeks, woo!

This morning’s commute was a practically perfect ride on Nigel to drop the girl at school, then across Mt. Pleasant to Rock Creek Park, then up Virginia Ave. to downtown. I had a grin plastered on my face the whole way. It was sad pulling into my building’s garage, it felt like a descent into the underworld, dark cool and echoing the screeches of SUV’s trying to negotiate the tight corkscrews that take them to the deeper levels. But I picked up 9ish miles of the sweetest, loveliest part of the morning, and upon logging the ride realized that I crossed the thousand mile mark for the year!

(For BikeGame! fans keeping track at home, I’ve got 26 points, two points shy of Level 5. Woo!)

So far this year, I’ve only ridden Clovis twice for a little under 19 miles, which is a shame, but trails just haven’t been a priority thus far. It’s not a totally sad story, as our roommate has taken a shine to him (and will probably end up becoming his proud owner), and she takes him down some muddy trails on the way to and from work. I’m always happy to come home and find fresh mud and grass stuck to his downtube.

Sylvie’s been my ride ten times for a little under 90 miles, mostly on weekends since she has the double-kid seat and Mrs. Higgins prefers the springy Brooks city-bike saddle. Cledus, my thoroughbred, my poor Long Haul Trucker, dreams of touring the continent while he performs the chores of a city bike with dignity and aplomb. Cledus got out 48 times for a little over 370 miles, every one of them a delight.

But no one else in the stable is within reach of Nigel’s 81 rides for almost 530 miles. Over half the miles I’ve consumed this year have been chewed up by Nigel’s creamy Fat Franks, often carrying Ruby on his sheepskin-covered snapdeck, or filled on both sides with anything from a piece of stump to a whole butchered lamb. I’m an incredibly lucky man, woo!

Finally, after two months, the last of the lovely and charming spouse’s birthday presents came to fruition. Monday night we dropped the kids with friends for a children’s movie festival, took advantage of a rare opportunity to hop the Red Line downtown, and walked hand-in-hand to Constitution Hall to see these guys, and they were really, really funny.

Lord-uh-mighty, I could get used to spending time with my wife, sans kids, checking out music and theater and comedy, live performances, motion pictures, lectures, cultural events that don’t involve puppets or cartoons. Unless they’re dirty cartoons and puppets. I’d go out for that.

Oh, umm right… woo!

This weekend, we’re gonna pile a bunch of gear on the longtails, head up the C&O Canal a ways with the kids, and see if we can spend a night out on the trail. Granted, it’s a flat, beautifully manicured trail, but at this point I see that as a big plus. We’re a long, long way from lightweight touring, but fat tires, Albatross bars, and big huge bags have been really good to me this year. At least so far. I’ll bring back pictures, I think it’s gonna be pretty fun.

Here’s hopin’ your week was good, your weekend will be better, and you’re sprangin’ out of the snow and mud and rain and into some good times. Have a great weekend!

Little Red Riding Hood as you’ve never seen her before, including key nutritional data about Grandmas.

(h/t straight at Camp Heatwole.)

Seriously.