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MONKEYFEST!!!! 2006 ! ( dial, ups it will be a few days! )

TreeSaw

Mama Monkey
Oct 30, 2003
17,670
1,855
Dancin' over rocks n' roots!
What an AWESOME time! I can honestly say that monkeyfest is one of the best times and I look forward to it every year. Great people, great beers, great trails...what more could we ask for! The lodge was a great place to stay too and we'll definitely try to have it reserved again next year!!!

I am still amazed that 1) Don didn't die after his "fall", 2) Sq-Earl barfing before we actually hit the trail, 3) Singlespeeders are fast even after 22 miles (Echo, Sq-Earl and BikeGeek) and 4) I was ahead of Sq-Earl for most of the ride and almost kept up with the pack!

The trails were a little slick on Sunday after the rain, but still fun!

The tire wasn't brand new, but I did take care to clean it well...can you name the tire?

So....how many of you want in on a fall monkeyfest :sneaky:
 

Tweek

I Love Cheap Beer!
It was great to meet and ride with some new (to me) monkeys this year at the 4th annual 'fest, not to mention "the regulars." I will try to get on and post more often.
Thanks to:
  • Treesaw for getting the place and bringing and cooking the grub for our smelly asses.
  • Brungeman for the excellent shirts
  • Bikegeek for the homebrew (and Brungeman brought some too?)
Props to:
  • All you singlespeeders (esp. the rigids!)
  • Pigboy for making a one-night appearance all the way from HI!
  • Anyone who stayed up after 2am and lived (?) to ride the next day. :looney:
:thumb: to all!

Jozz -- Are you using your bike? Can I have it? :D
 

McGRP01

beer and bikes
Feb 6, 2003
7,793
0
Portland, OR
Ok...I think I've sobered up a bit now... ;)

What an awesome weekend! An extra special thanks to Treesaw of course!!! :thumb: You rock girl!!! :D

It was great meeting so many new people. Brunge, BikeGeek, GumbaFish, BadDNA, etc.... You're all bad@ss mofo's, and ripped it up! Great riding with familiar faces as well. Treesaw, Echo, Crashby, Tweek, JRogers, JBP, Splat, Douglas, Berkshire, etc.... You guys get faster every year, I've got a lot of work to do if I'm going to hang with the pack next year! :dead:

And of course our Canadian friends, Deyv, Isa, Jozz, etc. who are ALL fast as hell, super nice, drank copious amounts of beer and kept me in stitches the whole weekend!! You guys are impressive and I look forward to many future rides with you! :thumb:

Hope to see many of you in 2 weeks at DeckParty! :devil:
 

berkshire_rider

Growler
Feb 5, 2003
2,552
10
The Blackstone Valley
I Are Baboon said:
Did anyone get over to the Trout Brook Brewery?
Yep. On the way to Monkeycamp on Friday. We sampled Hoppin' Mad Trout, Altered Trout, Nitro Stout, and Chocolate Oatmeal Stout. Badna and I purchased growlers of Altered Trout and Hoppin' Mad. Too bad they weren't open Sunday so we could have gotten refills to take home.

More Altered Trout please. :drool:
 

Squeak

Get your pork here.
Sep 26, 2001
1,546
0
COlo style
:( I miss you guys! Wish I could have gone, it was a blast the year I got to go.

Some good times for sure, and its always good when the monkies get together!

BTW did I start the Drunk night ride???
 

splat

Nam I am
Squeak said:
:( I miss you guys! Wish I could have gone, it was a blast the year I got to go.

Some good times for sure, and its always good when the monkies get together!

BTW did I start the Drunk night ride???
Nope we did that Right from the beggining at the first Monkey fest. but we could have used you to put the smack down on Doug and Deyv as they rocketed up the hills.
 

Echo

crooked smile
Jul 10, 2002
11,819
15
Slacking at work
What an awesome weekend. There are so many thanks to hand out and I'm sure I'll miss some.

Treesaw discovered the awesome new official monkeyfest location for years to come. It's still not quite up to NEGladeRider's old place, but it was AWESOME!

And let it be known that the two guys who drove the furthest, BikeGeek and brungeman, were the ones bringing the homebrews. It's impossible to describe the feeling of pulling into the monkey compound, with monkeys and bikes everywhere, people throwing together a makeshift little jump, etc, and all the sudden I've got a choice of FOUR homebrews in front of me. At that point it was already a weekend to remember, but it was only getting started.

We decided to do a "quick" night ride, up Pinkham Rd and down Moose Alley. Well Jozz was voted to be the trail guide, and apparently he was not satisfied with a "quick" ride, so we ended up going for about 3 hours and by the end several light batteries were drained. It was an awesome ride and those trails are perfect for night riding. I don't know where we got the energy to drink after that but we did.

Saturday morning we awoke to the sounds and smells of Treesaw making blueberry pancakes. I did a pretty good job of staying hydrated the night before but I was really glad to have some good food for the long Saturday ride ahead.

As is the monkeyfest tradition, we did a monster ride Saturday, and this year we added about 4 miles to the previous years rides. We started up Darling Hill Road and I managed to open up a good gap on everyone just because it's either haul ass or walk on a singlespeed. About halfway up Doug passed me so I grabbed his wheel for a bit. He pulled away a little towards the top, but on the last steep section I almost got him again. KOM just because he heard me coming! :D Splat's ride pics pretty much sum up that ride, nothing I can add to that.

Saturday night, once again logic says we should have been drained, but we managed to party at a level generally not possible. Pigboy made an appearance with his cute sister, and Woody and Sandwich showed up after a day of riding at Bromont and brought some memorable tunes:

In heaven there is no beer
That's why we drink it here
And when we're no longer here
Our friends will be drinking our beer!

Sunday morning was the usual process of eating breakfast, packing everything up, and squeezing in a ride just to cover a couple of trails we missed on Saturday. I'll try to list the special thanks:

Treesaw: the lodge and of course the FOOD! Without Treesaw there is no monkeyfest.
brungeman: T-shirts and homebrew
BikeGeek: homebrew, and represented full rigid singlespeed 29er
Tweek: got us a AAA route map
Jozz: brought me some awesome and very rare beers for bringing his new frame
Deyv and Isa: brought a bunch of fast Canadians that kicked our asses
Splat: brought his camera and actually used it :D
Jozz: approaching JollyTime in Kingdom Trail guide skills
johnbryanpeters: brought a cute relative (pigboy is HAWT!), but the JBP clan didn't provide us any broken bone stories this year thankfully.
Berkshire_rider: let me use his bike for the little jump :p

I'm sure there's more... awesome weekend all :thumb:
 

Echo

crooked smile
Jul 10, 2002
11,819
15
Slacking at work
Squeak said:
:( I miss you guys! Wish I could have gone, it was a blast the year I got to go.

Some good times for sure, and its always good when the monkies get together!

BTW did I start the Drunk night ride???
Brian you were quoted at least 20 times over the weekend, every time there was a question of whether to ride or not, your famous "IS THIS A MOUNTAIN BIKE GATHERING OR WHAT?!" was heard :thumb:
 

Sorgie

Monkey
May 20, 2005
263
77
Rochester
:mumble: I wish I could have made it. Instead I worked 21 hours of overtime. Glad to see the rain stayed away, it poured in Rochester all day Saturday. Count me in for a fall Monkeyfest! I haven't even touched my bike since the 24 hour race.:looney:
 

Evil Sylvain

Monkey
Feb 27, 2006
181
1
Montreal, QC, Canada
Hello people,

It was great fun meeting you for the first time. As I've been telling everyone since I started moutain biking a few years ago, mountain bikers are cool and down to earth people and that's one reason (the other being the beer) why I enjoy the sport. I've been proven right again thanks to you!

Thanks to Santa Cruz for the cracked frame, otherwise without Jozz ordering a new bike and inviting us to Monkeyfest, I may have missed that event!

Many thanks to Treesaw for the great pancakes that kept me going during Saturday's ride and all her hard work :thumb:

Cheers,
S. (IronHorse Mk.III)
 

TreeSaw

Mama Monkey
Oct 30, 2003
17,670
1,855
Dancin' over rocks n' roots!
Evil Sylvain said:
Hello people,

It was great fun meeting you for the first time. As I've been telling everyone since I started moutain biking a few years ago, mountain bikers are cool and down to earth people and that's one reason (the other being the beer) why I enjoy the sport. I've been proven right again thanks to you!

Thanks to Santa Cruz for the cracked frame, otherwise without Jozz ordering a new bike and inviting us to Monkeyfest, I may have missed that event!

Many thanks to Treesaw for the great pancakes that kept me going during Saturday's ride and all her hard work :thumb:

Cheers,
S. (IronHorse Mk.III)
It was great meeting all of you and we hope to ride with you all again soon!
 

McGRP01

beer and bikes
Feb 6, 2003
7,793
0
Portland, OR
I anxiously await the handing out of any new custom titles...surely some were earned over the weekend! Echo, JBP...thoughts?
 

GumbaFish

Turbo Monkey
Oct 5, 2004
1,747
0
Rochester N.Y.
I decided to weigh my bike after monkeyfest just because I was curious. It was like 38lbs! So I just cleaned the whole thing, threw on some different tires I had around and decided to put on my old clipless pedals I haven't ridden in a year. I dropped it down to like 36.5ish and within 5 minutes I crashed doing bunny hops in my driveway lol. I think I remember why I stopped riding clipless, but I will give it a couple of rides and see if I like them.
 

Echo

crooked smile
Jul 10, 2002
11,819
15
Slacking at work
Definitely some custom titles were earned over the weekend. PM ideas to me and I will ignore/modify/outright plagerize as appropriate :p
 

TreeSaw

Mama Monkey
Oct 30, 2003
17,670
1,855
Dancin' over rocks n' roots!
GumbaFish said:
I decided to weigh my bike after monkeyfest just because I was curious. It was like 38lbs! So I just cleaned the whole thing, threw on some different tires I had around and decided to put on my old clipless pedals I haven't ridden in a year. I dropped it down to like 36.5ish and within 5 minutes I crashed doing bunny hops in my driveway lol. I think I remember why I stopped riding clipless, but I will give it a couple of rides and see if I like them.
:thumb: I have been riding clipless for 3 years now and I still manage to fall down because I forget to unclip! :D
 

berkshire_rider

Growler
Feb 5, 2003
2,552
10
The Blackstone Valley
For the record, I'm still on Sidewinder, Herb's, Webs, and Tody's mentally. :cool:

My digi was basically added weight to my camelback most of the weekend, but here's the few I took.


Friday evening at Monkeycamp:



Splat after some Captain's:



The group getting ready Saturday AM:



Classic Vermont views:




Singletrack thru the flowers:


Riding on the connector from West Branch:





The group at the bottom of Old Webs:



Sunday - Top of the Kingdom:



:thumb: :monkey:
 
Only a few photos, no action - I guess I'm a parking lot photographer.

Friday - Getting started

Back from the Moose Alley Tour

We're not going to starve...

The heroine

Arrivals

First things first...

Brungoid, A.K.A. Mr. T-Shirt!

McGrp01 practicing survival skills

You paya me or I breaka you knees!


Saturday

The build: Jozz's Joy!

splat: Mr. Bike Photo

Technical conference
 

brungeman

I give a shirt
Jan 17, 2006
5,170
0
da Burgh
First off I want to thank each and every one that was in attendance at NE-Monkeyfest '06. I have never fealt so welcomed by a group of people.

I have to thank TreeSaw for all the hard groundwork getting the lodge squared away, and planning a great dinner Friday (I wish I was feeling better, cause the little bit of the Mac'n'cheese that I did finally eat was Killer!!!) and the breakfast on Sat. and Sunday.

I have about a million thank you notes to each and every one of you, but if I were to list them it would take pages.

Special thanks to TreeSaw, The French Connection (you folks ROCK!), Splat for taking all the pics (it will help me remember the great time I had with all of you) Echo, for reminding me just how small the world is (for knowing a friend of mine whose name I randomly threw out on our ride on Sunday), and Squirrel, for not only providing a serious scar in my visual recall (I had a perfect view, not that I wanted it, of you throwing up at .002miles into the ride), but for the save of the day Sunday (he ran and got more TP when the lodge was picked clean!)

Again thank you all for making my First Monkeyfest a truly memorable one!
 

JRogers

talks too much
Mar 19, 2002
3,785
1
Claremont, CA
Yeah, Monkeyfest was awesome. Riding was great, food was great and the lodge and, of course, the company was excellent. I didn't have time on this borrowed computer to check out all the comments, but I sure will later.

I am in Colorado right now. I got in around 11:30pm local time, which is pretty ridiculous. I left Burke at around 1:45pm Sunday EST and got to Colorado Springs at 11:30 pm MST. So, about 5-6 hours of sleep, almost 2100 miles of driving and a lot of NPR in that time. Sucked, but at least I'm here.