I’m going to begin a new series of long overdue posts which will contain as historically accurate information about the Upper Perkiomen Valley and the three towns that were the stomping grounds of my youth: East Greenville, Pennsburg, and Red Hill. These will be categorized in a new group of posts called the Upper Perkiomen …
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The Big Six!
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It’s Spring and that has me thinking of Track Days
Every spring, without fail, that crisp air and clear blue skies and the smell of fresh cut grass instantly transport’s me back in time to afternoons spent on the Upper Perkiomen High School’s track. For a passing moment, I’m struck by how my senses are alerted and my mind is filled with memories from days …
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How NOT to Cook a Corner
When I first started mountain biking in 1989, I was continually scouring for information on “how-to’s”. How could I climb better? How could I corner better? How could I tackle tech better? Magazines were THE source for all that intel since it wasn’t like East Greenville, PA was the mountain bike mecca of the world …
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Lyme Literate
Somewhere in 2012, I contracted two lyme co-infections. However, I did not get any of the known initial tell tale symptoms: Bullseye rash or high fever to name two. If I was bitten by a tick, I did not catch it in my usual tick-check post ride. I pull so many ticks off myself throughout …
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Not just ANY Old Merlin
Back in 1999, I was between a few things. Working at a bike shop in Quakertown, PA and had just sent out my application to the design school RISD, when I bumped into the then Design Director at Bicycling Magazine Chris Neyen while on a day off mountain biking in Emmaus, PA on South Mountain …
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A time to get political…
Like many of you, I’m a fierce advocate of conservation and preservation of our natural world. I volunteer a lot of my time and expertise to local conservation efforts and projects right here in my little corner of New Hampshire. It’s something small I do and I help where I can on a local level. …
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Sunsets and Basketballs
When I was home over the holidays, I was reminded of just how sweet the sunsets are at good old 138 Jefferson Street. Being in town has it’s negatives compared to living off the beaten path (it does have some benefits too) but one of the perks of growing up where I did was the …
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My First Precision Tool
The year was 1996. I was a student at Penn State University. I had recently been given permission to access a machine shop across the street from my studio on campus. I was turning and machining my own bicycle hubs and I needed my own dial caliper. The cheap one I had purchased from a …
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Thoughts on Soil…
I feel really lucky to have grown up in the Upper Perkiomen Valley. There’s a strong Pennsylvania Dutch heritage there (of which I share) and as a youngster, my grandparents would share lots of stories, their stories, that painted a picture of times long gone. Part of those stories were a fondness for that “simple …
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What Season? Hunting Season!
Every year, with the coming of fall I’m looking to the state’s resources on when one particular season starts: Hunting Season. And we’ve got our fair share of seasons up here in the Great State of New Hampshire. It runs the gamut with Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, but then there’s those pesky intermediate seasons …
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