Road Trip 2011

Tues June 28, 2011

I'm hanging out at Tom Andersen's place in Bellingham tinkering around and fixing my bike (again). I've been off work for just over two months at this point. I worked most of 9 months or so in Port Angeles at OMC while living in my dream home complete with hot tub and views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Victoria/Vancouver Island. The trip started out with a 10 day visit from my mama. We toured around the peninsula, and even got to stay at Leif and Jim Whitaker's cabin on the coast. It was constructed in the 60's and is RIGHT on the coast. There is no electricity or running water and the feeling is one of remote wilderness. We explored around the beach and gazed longingly at an island just off shore that is reported to be a sacred burial ground for the local tribe. We stopped at Ruby Beach, checked out old growth cedars, wandered around the Hoh Rainforest, and watched herds of elk prance away gracefully.
Next, Lily and I headed to the McKenzie River Trail between Eugene and Bend late on a Friday night and arrived around bar closing time. The next day we did a nearly 40 mile ride along the river and through lava flows. It rained on us most of the day. Nevertheless we braved the elements and put our heads down, riding into the wind. When I sensed the urgency to turn back due to light constraints we retraced our steps and held on through the technical lava flow sections. Pretty cold and haggard the next day we drove to the Cougar hot springs and soaked our weary bones for nearly 6 HOURS!! That is where we met James Scott. I found myself engaged in an "everything extreme" conversation ranging from skiing to base jumping, to sports cars, and everything in between. He invited us to come stay with him in Bend and we ended up staying for a week. We went to Smith Rocks, Mt Bachelor, Cline Butte, explored downtown, and rode the infamous Phil's Trail. I was pleasantly surprised by the sheer quantity and quality of a number of jump parks in the same area. There was The Lair, the dual slalom zone, and a huge pump track. It IS rather dusty there though, as I'm used to the loam of the PNW. I hurt my hand while riding with Jamie Goldman (pro MTB) at Cline Butte, but also hit some of the nicest jumps I've seen. Geoff Gullevich was there shooting vids and pics w/ Harkooz. I felt very overmatched with the crew riding, but enjoyed myself nonetheless. We met the husband and wife doing Projekt Roam, and I gave out some PT advice while hanging out in their huge RV. We spent a rest day helping Aubrey clean out James' garage full of boxes of clothes and stuff that he never unloaded after moving from Berkeley, CA. I scored a few new clothes items out of the deal. We headed down to California next to hang out w/ Daron Huck.
It was once again storming heavily in the spring around Truckee and we were lured from Bend on the premise that there was 18" of new snow and a forecasted 8" per night for the next few days. What transpired was some of the best turns of the year while hiking our old haunt- Sugarbowl Ski Area on Donner Summit. We got so many face shots that it almost froze my face off a few runs!!! Our legs gave out well before our desire to ride the light fluffy powder did each day. We averaged 3 laps top to bottom (nearly 8000' of climbing/descending each day). When the temps warmed we split for Bishop, CA. Ironically, my longtime friend Dave Melchoir lived near Tom's Place (in Sunny Slopes) where we were planning to ride Lower Rock Creek Springs. We shuttled a couple laps each day, while Daron went exploring on his "new" WR450F. Lily and I went and clipped bolts in Owen's River Gorge a couple afternoons and hit some fun 9's and 10's, including a very cool arete. We also went with Dave's GF climbing at a local crag where Daron and I led dueling cracks next to each other. Man, trad climbing is MUCH scarier when you're relying solely on YOUR gear placements, and whatever features the rock relinquishes. Lily had to be back to work so we packed up the van at the last moment and headed straight back home via Truckee where we had to pick up our stored DH bikes.
After spending one whole night in my own bed I felt the tug of the road, so I packed up a few things, and headed back out the door with two bikes hanging off the back of the trusty Sienna.
I believe in fate, because there is no other way to describe what transpired. EB invited me on a trip to the Sunshine Coast with Matt Duran, Bill Hawk, Matty Shelton, and himself. We met up with Jared who was living in Vancouver for work, but lived in this incredibly cool "co-housing" in Robert's Creek. We took the ferry around the corner from Horseshoe Bay and met his wonderful wife and two adorable children. The co-housing was too cool for words. 30 acres, 20 houses, a community center with guest suite, a huge community greenhouse, a wood shop, etc. There was designated parking on one side and predominately foot traffic elsewhere. It was not cheap as the 3 BR house they were in went for 450k. We rode Robert's Creek- both sides of the road- Mach Chicken on one side, and the techy skinnies and FR moves on the other. My Enduro got put through the ringer for 3 days. It was not always happy as I rolled the rear tire off the rim 3x in a row at Sprock-kids park. The park was built by students of the local trail building school. There were also trails above that zone which were raw and primitive but climbed endlessly. We had an epic one day and found ourselves pushing up a ravine with our bikes on our backs for nearly 1500'. BUT we got to ride the aptly named Wildman Loop. The nights usually ended down on the beach a mere 5 min bike ride from their pad. Sunshine Coast- I could live there without a doubt!!
Upon returning from the dream that was the SS coast, I found myself in a dilemma. Where to ride?!! The answer was easy as I met Smokey from Whistler, BC. I took him out to Glacier and after one muddy day of riding he immediately made plans to head out for a more in-depth tour. We did 2 rounds of duty in Glacier, riding and building with the local woods gnomes that make dirt into magic carpet rides for our bikes. Smokey's wife Kari, and her friend Katherine Short came down and visited/rode too. Katherine is a pro DH rider for Cove Bikes and was probably one of the best women riders I've ever seen. I rode Glacier so much that I practically knew every rock on the trails. We rode 6 mile and the Varsity Entrance first as the snow slowly receeded. Lily and I made it up to Whistler for 3 days as well. She is riding amazingly well and rode a couple new double black diamonds- Schleyer, and U/L Whistler DH. She cleared Schleyer on day 2 by finding lines to roll in the drop sections. Pretty impressive to see her flow confidently through sections where throngs of riders are stopped trying to figure out a safe line.
After a few more days in Glacier hanging out with Woods, Will, Cory, Jason (building a new 4 mi with his dog Hueco), Eric, and Ben I realized I needed to expand my horizons a bit, so I packed up and headed back up to Bellingham. Smokey and I ended up riding with Victor, Mason, and Becca on a new jump trail next to the hike a bike on the Snake, and it set off a chain of events. We got invited down to ride w/ Vic and Mason at Cultus seeing as it's about to be logged. It has a jump trail that has been in multiple movies, and slammed me to the ground with a TKO in the 3rd round last time I rode it. Having someone to follow makes all the difference and I was able to clear all the jumps following Mason as Victor's shock blew after we rode the upper "new" trails.
That would not be the last meeting with them, as they drove straight up to me as I was putting on my pads in the Whistler parking lot, going up there for round 2. I also rode with the local Simon, who showed me a sweet stealthy in town camp spot and hot tubs to poach. Locals rule!!
We all rode together and put in some fun days. Simon showed us Stop Drop n Roll off of the lower mountain, seeing as the upper mountain still had a ton of snow on it. I also drug Victor on his birthday up the road 25 min to ride Trespasser (another first descent for the year)!!! We rode everything but the first move which had snow on it!! I ran into a TON of friends at Whistler- Brett Tippie, the Transition boys- Kyle, Kevin, Sam, Scooch, Jason Porter, Brittany White, Julie, Mike Metzger, etc. What a melting pot of radness!!!
Now I'm back in Bham again after my fork seals blew. Got to see Lily for a day after she returned from a Tahoe cousin wedding. We had dinner w/ Mike and Rose, and stopped by to give Lars Sternberg some PT for his broken Fibula.
Today I've run around getting supplies to fix my bike, drank a couple espressos, and contemplated where to travel next. Also how to move back to Bellingham, and how to start my own practice around here and/or work in a non-traditional setting. Not that I have anything against PA, but both Lily and I love it here, and she may even go to PTA school at Whatcom next fall. Lots of stuff up in the air (as usual), but lots of exciting potential on the horizon. Stay tuned!!!!

Jackson Hole-January 22nd-Feb 1, 2011

So we decided to drive to Jackson Hole, WY for my birthday this year. With 10 days to play we agreed to the 16 hr drive as opposed to a 500$ flight with extra charges for 2 snowboards each. The drive went OK....I started it off in Port Angeles at ~6 and made it over Snoqualmie Pass (which was raining cats and dogs and was hydroplane central), and well along I-90. Lily took over until around 2am, then I drove one more rest area before calling it at 3:30am. We crashed out at the rest area and slept ~6 hrs. We cruised into Missoula, MT for breakfast at a pub that was tasty, then back on the road. We arrived in Jackson around 7PM. We found Brady and Lily's house (which is in a gravel quarry) and settled in. We then cruised down to The Cadillac and caught up with Brady at work. After a couple beers we called it good and headed back to get some Z's.

Next day Brady, Lily H, and I went to the Village and I bought a ticket for the day (92$.....ouch!!!). We rode the Tram up, which hold 100 people at a time. It's kinda crazy how they load it. You basically start moshing until everyone is in!! Just when you think you can't fit one more person, 10 more push in!! I could see a powder day being a bit of a gong show!! We ended up getting a tour and still hiking for some pow. We did The Crags twice and Four Pines once. It's kinda cool that there is boot pack everywhere around the side-country off the resort.....even skiers rock the bootpack for the most part. We had beers and watched some football before heading back to the house for dinner # 2!! Brady has a LOT of Elk meat and did up some tenderloin for us...with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies....pretty dank b-day dinner!!

The next day (Mon, Jan 24th) we rallied up to Teton Pass and hiked the Glory Peak (3) times!! It's a solid 2000 ft bootpack and a really fun descent!! We did the shoulder and bowl the first lap, 3rd turn (further than we meant to go) the second lap and then first turn the last lap. There were a good number of people hiking it and most were in pretty damn good shape!! Some girl passed Brady and I, stripped down to her sports bra in 30 sec and was GONE!! Pretty impressive!!

On Tues, Jan 25th we decided to head over to Grand Teton National Park and do some touring. We set our sights on Mt. Albright which was 10,252'. It was over 2500' of elevation gain and took us ~4hrs of HARD WORK to get up it!! From the top we looked up at the actual summit of Albright and decided against it (it was wind loaded as hell, and looked like a death wish). The run we did was called Wimpy's Shoulder and I would beg to differ with the name!! It was really fun and long with some treed shoulder skiing that opened up into a couple of large faces of fresh snow!! We took some vids and pics of the lower pow face and lavished in our efforts. Afterwards we cruised to Dornan's for pizza and some tasty beers. It had an amazing view of the Tetons and we stared at our line on Albright for a couple hrs. Wahooo!!

Wed. we "slept in" until 9:30, made a phat breakfast and headed off for the Village again. Brady got me the Cadillac's transferrable pass and we headed for Cody Peak off the Tram. It was actually a pretty gnarly hike. We wove our way through different rock and cliff bands and across the ridge. The wind picked up and we were buffeted around as we made our way up to the summit. We passed a group that was scared silly. Lily dropped in first and rallied No Shadows. I hiked up a bit more and dropped into a steeper entrance. The snow was pretty good and we traversed out right after dropping Cody. We bootpacked back up the shoulder of Cody and around No Name Peak. It was quite the cirque traverse and I even had some snow peel off the cliffs overhead and tinkle down over my head. That made me pick up the pace a bit!! I was b-lining towards a larger face, but Lily convinced me to drop in early since the snow looked better. I watched her drop the line, then I started to traverse back towards her start spot. After a few seconds of traversing back, I turned it down slope and made a couple turns before realizing I was about to air off a cliff. Without thinking I straight lined it and sent it right off the cliff!!! I was surprised by the size of it, and took a pretty good sized impact, but hung on!!! I had to take a couple look backs to make sure I did what I thought!! From there we ended up doing Pinedale which was the next peak over from Four Pines. It was pretty tracked out, but I found some descent snow in the trees before doing the mandatory long ass traverse back to the resort (to Union Pass). We were close to calling it good, but decided to go for one more lap. We rode the Tram back up, then headed out to Four Pines. Another good bootpack and some last turns of the day. By the time we got out of the traverse the lift was closed and we had to hike up a groomer before gaining enough elevation to descend to the base. We hit up the Red Line bus back to Brady's house, changed, and went to the Cadillac for a beer and appetizer. We walked over to Thai Me Up and had another drink and some tasty Thai food before heading back to the crib and chilaxing for a bit. Halfway through the trip and we've already done quite a bit!! The legs go to bed worked every night and surprisingly have popped back to life the next morning!! We may end up going to a hotspring in Yellowstone as a reprieve from the bootpack and skin track, but then again, we might have to use the free passes and go tear up the mtn some more!! Stay tuned!!!