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[color=green:21hmy853]I would love to see the ring snake, sounds beautiful. And I am quite impressed, not many care enough to pick one up and move it to a safer place. The picture I tried to send is the one I changed my profile pic to, so you can see one of my all time favorite photos.
I picked up my old Nishiki mountain bike from the bike shop the other day, I’ve been rebuilding it for my son. I retired it a couple years ago but it has a great frame for what it was. My son is wanting to start riding again and used to love that bike so I installed several upgrades. I have not bought the new tool for the Octalink bottom brackets (gonna have to because my Scale 50 has it also) so I got the shop to install a new bottom bracket and crankset for me. I got up early this morning to go ride because it was supposed to start raining and get cold, probable snow tonight. Went out to the deck to install the pedals and found the crank arm not threaded. I thought this odd but who knows what they’re doing these days. So I decided to see if the pedal would easily cut its own threads. Might have done it but not easily. I went inside none too happy. A while later I decided to take another look, one rain shower had passed and more coming later. I tried again to cut threads to no avail. So I spun the bike around, the left crank arm WAS threaded. Bike shop’s open now so I called them. First time in the 12 years the son of the owner has ever seen an unthreaded crankarm. And quess what, he only stocks one so Wednesday is the best I can hope for. My son is coming from TX for Thanksgiving and will take the bike back with him. And here I’m robbed of a weekend in the rain and snow to try out the old girl. C’est la vie![/color:21hmy853]
[color=green:g2no7il0]I tried to send an image as a private message so let me know if you didn’t get it. It is a rattler I saw while working at the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge in eastern WA. It makes a wicked picture but I am less than 16" from his fangs. BUT he is less than a foot long, I used zoom.
I will admit lack of experience with easterns and appreciate your advice. I would no doubt have gotten too close because in my experiences with other species, i.e. the Great Basin subspecies of the western rattler (not western diamondback) timber rattlers both in British Columbia and in Tennessee, etc. I have become comfortable enough to get within half their length. What is so interesting is how much it typically takes to provoke the species I have dealt with. I know there are many species that are much more aggressive than these. I love them all. I hope to soon move to southern Utah, they have even more very diverse, and some very aggressive, species.
Thanks for taking the posting as it was meant. And thanks again for sharing concerning easterns.
Still, I will always stay farther from moccasins!![/color:g2no7il0][color=green:g2no7il0] Oh, and thanks for respecting and appreciating them rather than hating and killing them like SOOO many people.[/color:g2no7il0][color=green:1dx7sk3u]Good morning Mongoose,
Forgive me but I must reply. In my past life I was a Wildlife Biologist and one of my favorite subjects of study was rattlesnakes and later I volunteered at a city owned wildlife park herpetarium where we kept three adult rattlers.
The length of rattlesnakes’ rattles are determined ONLY by the number of times they have shed their skin. Each time they shed, which depending on weather and environmental conditions can be up to 4 times per year, a new rattle button is produced. But also keep in mind that they do get buttons torn off sometimes so in the wild it is practically impossible to tell even age by the size and length of a rattle. One thing you can tell, and you have to see, or at least hear, a lot of snakes to know this, is how big the rattle is by the sound. I’ve seen them around a week old and I’ve seen them with many rattles and the older snakes with larger rattles have a much deeper, more resilient sound. Very cool to hear the difference though.
As far as strike distance, typically, and I do not recommend testing this to closely, is half the length of the snake, and to achieve full strike distance yes they have to be coiled. They can strike from a crawling posture but it will be quite limited in distance. So for a snake to have a six foot strike distance it would have to be near 12′ long. I know easterns have grown to 8+ feet but not sure if a 12 footer has ever been recorded.
Either way, love them, appreciate them, but whatever you do respect their space for your safety and simply because they deserve to be respected.
I will agree with you wholeheartedly on moccasins though. They are THE MOST aggressive species I’ve encountered. I actually had a front tire flattened by one about a half mile into a ride on the SAC River Trail in Springfield, MO, the only chance I’ve had to ride that trail. And I had to leave town just a couple hours later. I’ll be back.
I have seen a bear on a trail in east TN and many snakes while riding in the desert in eastern WA state and in British Columbia, Canada, but I guess the craziest thing I’ve seen was a mating pair of deer, in middle TN. And believe me a 6 point buck is NOT a happy camper when you interrupt him and his doe. I honestly thought I was going to be speared by antlers! The same day, about a mile and a half down the trail I saw the most aggressive moccasin I’ve ever encountered.
I’ve seen signs of cougar in WA but never seen one on the trail. [/color:1dx7sk3u][color=green:3g1grdc5]Scott hasn’t become really well known yet, but I definitely recommend taking a look at them. I bought a Scale 50 a few months ago and LOVE it. If that price is out of your range look at the Ascent frame. It is a well built, great quality frame that can be upgraded as you see fit.
Good luck.
[/color:3g1grdc5][color=green:1n787z2b]My recommendation for a bike in that price range would be a Scott Ascent 50. Scott makes a wonderful frame so as you want to progress you can improve components. I bought a Trek 4300 to do the same with but was HIGHLY disappointed with the frame AND shock. My wife rides an Ascent 50 and has been thrilled with it. I finally graduated to a Scott Scale 50 but it is in the $1200 price range. FANTASTIC bike though. I do kind of wish I had gone on up to the $1500 price range and gotten a 40 rather than a 50. The 40 has a Fox shock and Juicy 5.0 disc brakes.
Look at many different brands and see what feels best to you. And of course Scott isn’t as available as some brands.
Good luck.[/color:1n787z2b][color=green:25u05ho3]I’m in the process of building a bike to ride with my wife on greenbelts, etc. I hate to waste my Scott on those kinds of rides. I’m using my old Nishiki frame.
Mud huh?? It’s so dry here that probably won’t be a problem for a while. I haven’t ridden off road in weeks. I miss it but we’ve been WAY too busy lately.
Be careful on the techy stuff out there.[/color:25u05ho3]Evening CCR. I came across Scott back in about August when visiting different bike shops just to see what was out there since I hadn’t shopped in a couple years. We bought my wife’s Aspect 50 first because she needed one to go on our New England trip. She LOVES it. I blogged and blogged and blogged hers before we bought it. I could find no reason not to try Scott. I was reluctant, but the piece of equipment I was selling at the time was new to the US also, made and much more popular in Europe. Then when I got ready to buy my Scale 50 I blogged it at least 10 times as much as I did for hers. I found many blogs bragging on the frame and the ONLY negative I ever found was that the Tora 302 is not the best shock out there. But now that I’ve ridden it I’m quite pleased with the shock. The rest of the bike, I wouldn’t trade for anything I’ve ever sat on anywhere near the same price range. Yes they are both hardtails. I am still a big fan of hardtails. What does your wife ride, hardtail?
Not at all familiar with SC so I Googled the Blur, NICE!!! My wife had ridden a men’s bike before, KONA, and liked it but the new Scale I got for her before our 25th anniversary trip is a women’s bike, the PERFECT size for her and the components to match her riding style. She loves it!
I used to be in the equipment business, horse people never seem to run out of money, but the fact that they did not show for trail building!! Been there seen that too.
CCR, sounds like you’re exactly right. What do you guys ride? What kind of bikes I mean. We rode about 15 miles on a greenbelt today. HOT but a good ride.
The new trail system sounds sweet! I have never been able to figure out where horse people get all their money!!![color=green:f7txer5v]Good morning. My son is going to college in Springfield and we were there to visit him. I’m afraid the only off-road I got to try was the Sac River Trail system just north of I44 on MO13. As seems to be typical of Springfield there was a big storm coming so I only had a few minutes, but what I saw makes me want to go back. I also did a short section of an urban trail on which you have to ride through a viaduct under 5 lanes of traffic in about a foot of water. That was different.
I’m afraid I haven’t ridden near the Ocoee. I have rafted and canoed there but never ridden. This site has some info about rides in the area. I’m up in extreme northeast TN in the Johnson City/Kingsport area.
Enjoy. It looks like you’re going to have nice weather for the trip. It is supposed to cool down some and less rain, at least early in the week.[/color:f7txer5v]Back country riding is my favorite though I don’t get to do it as often as I would like. My wife enjoys trails such as The VA Creeper Trail, New River Trail, etc. And she doesn’t mind if it is a LITTLE more technical than that. She does ride clipless and is a good rider, but she doesn’t enjoy the beatings I tend to put myself through nor has she developed the skills for it. I will definitely take you up on a tour. I’ll contact you well in advance so we can coordinate something. Thanks for the offer.
Thanks for the welcome CCR, it’s very nice to be here. My wife and I do travel a lot and I like to take my bike with me wherever I go. I just added MO over Memorial Day Weekend because my son is going to college there and we went to visit. Stormed a lot so I didn’t get to ride much but I did a short "greenbelt" section and then started an off road trail but my front tire got flattened by a snakebite. NOT the pinch called snakebite, a REAL snakebite. Then it stormed again. I lived in WA state from ;98 – ’05 and rode all the time out there. That added Idaho as well. And I forgot to mention British Columbia. My wife and I took our 25th anniversary trip to New England in Oct and added ME and NH to the list. We rode some of the "Carriage Trails" in Acadia Nat’l Park. The rest of the rides have been done on day or weekend trips from TN.
So I see you’ve ridden around Roanoke, is that where you live? My wife and I have ridden part of the greenbelt there and want to come back up soon and do it again. We love that area. The International Market downtown is great.If you’re like I was your confidence in your skill level will return very quickly and you will learn to have more confidence because of the better control. I will never consider going back to flats. I firmly agree with your "grass" advice, I wish I had followed that good advice when I first went clipless. It would have saved a good bit of trail rash.
I started mountain biking with toe-clips then went to straps, but when I went clipless it was like a whole new world of riding opened up. I mounted M520’s on my new ride (Scott Scale 50) and love them. Yes, I’ve applied my share of Neosporin and bandaids and put up with many bruises because I don’t always get out on a technical crash, but it’s worth it!! I climb so much better with the clipless and they just help me feel like an extension of the bike. Or vice versa, or whatever.
