The Adventures of Seth Orion Piper Burke....

Road Trip 2011

2011-06-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

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

2011-01-27T09:04:00.000-08:00

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!!!

Smithers!!!

2010-09-08T12:31:00.000-07:00

Woke up to Gus rocking the van. It was 9....I had managed to sleep in a bit....even though it was a late-ish night. We got to have dinner at Pat and Patty's on a sweet lake. We had ribs, salad, potatoes, etc. We met them at the high school at 4pm. Patty gave us shuttles on When Pigs Fly (Crank it up w/ less brake bumps), Charolette's (wicked flowy long DH run....did I mention flowy?!!), and Full Bore (more full on DH run w/ some steeps and some loose rocks)....wow!! Stuff sure has been working out in our favor lately!! We had also ridden some wood to wood stuff in Piderny w/ Simon, and Briget. There's free camping at Kager Lake, and the fire squad has been putting a LOT of work into the area. There are 10 walk in campgrounds around the lake, plans for car camping areas, and the trails are wicked!!! Gravity Logic did the trails here, and it was quite amazing to be standing there on a run that belongs at Whistler, but instead it's out in the middle of nowhere in BC!! The town and community have totally embraced the sport and are making things happen. There has been over 400k dumped into trails in the past year alone!! We met an Austrian group of three- Armen, Mariam, and Young Boy. They are on a 5 month BC bike trip, and have already been on Vancouver Island, Whistler, Squamish, etc. They only have one working bike right now, so we have been lucky and have had Mariam shuttle us. We rode 2 laps this AM- Full Bore, and Charlets, then sessioned the Bike Park trails- Smells Like Bacon and it's hard ass skinny that I finally got after a good number of tries. There were wallrides in both directions, a bunch of medium jumps, etc. Squeelin Wheels was a bit jenky, and Gus and I had to hit the moves a few times to hit them smooth.

The last night in Burn's Lake we got together with a couple of the rec rangers, and had some beers by the lake at one of their wicked camp sites. The next AM we got the Rec Rangers to shuttle us on Charolette's Web once more, then we bailed to Smither's. We stopped at COB bike shop where one of the owners is hopping around with a broken leg, got some work done (new cable/housing- blew). Gus and I rode Huckin Eh (sweet flowy trail w/ one bigish drop and a cool rock roll), then Piperdown (the DH race course)- complete w/ off camber rock drop to fast choppy run out, an off camber rock roll w/ fencing to stop you if you fall (I guess there's a CRAZY 60' cliff), and the plane wreckage gap. It was a good run, except I ate shit twice on stupid stuff. Then we finished w/ Backdoor which required a 15 minute push uphill in a gauntlet of black flies. Not cool. The run was super fun and LONG, plus had a 15' high logride, and a ton of flowy logrides in the trail, as well as the log to drop section. We met up w/ Christian and had dinner w/ the WORST service I've ever had (at Boston Pizza- only thing open at 10pm), and ended up crashing at his place. We'll see what happens from here......

Quesnal and PG- July 5-6, 2010

2010-07-06T00:41:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we drove from William's Lake after a nice breakfast that Gus made (eggs and cheese topped w/ chives and tomatoes- all cooked together. Nice presentation and not overcooked. We drove to meet Mario in Quesnal. After driving around a little bit we found a short shuttle run that turned interesting really quick. After making it about 2 "clicks" I came upon the first mud hole. I punched it into the mass of water and came out laughing. Then I stopped. There were more. Lots more. I weaved and drifted my way through sure doom. I stopped after one crux and decided to pull the plug. I turned around (barely) and got us back through the same mudholes/troughs/gnar. The van violently bounced a couple of times, but nothing fatal. We had actually passed the trail and none of it was really necessary. Nice. we rode a short trail, w/ some quad track into the field below. We met the landowner and he seemed really nice. We then drove to Dragon Mt. It was a gloomy morning and there had been patches of downpour on the way to the trails. Sure enough, it started to rain. Gus decided to ride the "hardest if it's wet" trail first. WOW. That was interesting!! It was really gnarly and had supposedly been there for ~15 years, making it way ahead of its time. There were rock slabs, off-camber rock outcroppings, the works. Then we rode the DH course and its plethora of steep, loamy goodness. At the bottom, there was a stepdown to this crazy stunt. You had to slide down a steep section, then let off the brakes and hit a small jump onto a platform that then sends you off a HUGE air. I really didn't want any part of it at first to be honest. Gus hit it twice in a row, and I decided to get a little more serious. I took one run into the move, then pushed back up and HIT IT!! It was HUGE!! I was really stoked and let out a bunch of screams of joy!! Then it finishes off with a 25-30' stepdown to a huge table top w/ a super steep landing. What a run!!

Second lap, and the rain mellows out. Everything was still damp, but the sun was shining. Ah yes, BC!! We reset the shuttle and rode the "new trail." It was right off the tower and had some sweet boulders that were strewn together with wood ladder bridges. Of course, the mandatory drops and rolls were there. As well, the trail in between was kick ass. Fresh and loamy it was like riding powder. We dipped in and out of trees and up and down steep terrain features. All three trails share the same bottom section. It is super long and fun, with tons of natural flowy sections and jumps. There was a cool step up to step down that I guinea'd. We sessioned the huge stunt at the bottom a few times and got some great footage!! We had a beer and some yummy leftovers and watched some videos while getting devoured by mosquitos. We drove for a while and ended up crashing off the highway a bit. Gus in the tent and me in the van. I barely even noticed that I parked on a slant.

Rolled into PG- Prince George- and headed over to some of Gus's friends house. We had coffee and refreshments, and ended up building the 9 yr old, Simon a little stunt course in the backyard, complete w/ table, 2x4 ride, then berm, and two rollers to pump. It was awesome watching him rip it over and over again!!

Then we rolled to Cranbrook and drove up the rather short road. We parked in the middle of a corner off to the side and dropped in. There was a sign that said park along the road, not in the corner. Whoops!! We dropped in and immediately there were a bunch of doubles. We were just COOKING along through the forest hitting jump after jump. After a bit we came to a double stepdown section that also had an even bigger jump OVER this trail. WICKED!! We sessioned the double stepdown a couple of times, then pushed up the big line. We dropped in and were HAULING at this long wood takeoff. I came up a touch shy and kind of cased it, but not too bad. A little scary though, as it was probably 30' out. I chased Gus through a couple more jumps, then backed off on another big stepdown that used to be an A-frame. We pushed back up and hit it again- this time I REALLy hit it hard, and flew like a birdie!! Yeehaw!!!

We kept on hooking up rides back up super easy, and ended up riding ~9 laps, including the last one that his buddy Rob built. He joined us for a lap on that trail- Holy- with Canadian touch- more like Hole-ee. We rallied back to his friends house for dinner.

Looks like we're off to Burn's Lake tomorrow to meet a guy at 4 for some laps- his wife is shuttling!!! We're going to go rip up Cranbrook some more tomorrow too!! Wahoooooooooooooooo!!!!

Sat. June 27th, 2010- Elbow tweeker and ripping w/ Ben and Gus

2010-06-28T00:32:00.000-07:00

Sat. June 26th, 2010. Riding bikes again in WL. Gus and I ripped a morning lap on Fox Mt. before hooking up w/ the 13 yr old up and comer, Ben. We went and rallied Snakes and Ladders into Dead Sailor proper off the radio tower (nice xc pedal to get there). I tweeked my deraileur on a skinny and had to do some trail side tweeking. The DH was loose and a bit sketchy. I took one tumble and bumped my shoulder into a tree. Ben and Gus went down once apiece as well. Then we went to Fox and rode Gus's trail AgentSkully. We were having sessions on the various moves in the beginning- the step up, then the gap through the trees which I didn't think was possible. I ended up blowing the berm the first go, then sticking it second go. We got some cool pics!! Then we moved on to the 2 DJ's. Ben was casing the second one pretty good but was still given'r pretty good for being only 13!! Then the downturn of the day occurred. I followed Gus off the 3-pack that leads into a stepdown hip into a gully. I got kicked a little weird on the last set-up jump and sent the step down HUGE. I realized in the air that I was screwed. I got kicked a little weird and landed tipping over to my L side. I let out a huge HUUUUUUUUUUUUH when I landed. I luckily landed on the bike, which slowed me down a bit, but I landed awkwardly on my L elbow, then I smacked my head HARD. I was sooooooooo lucky that there wasn't a rock, root, stump, or any other hard object where my head smacked because I was at the full mercy of the wreck. I rolled over onto all fours once I realized I wasn't knocked out, and shook out the cobwebs. Ben stood on the jump and asked if I was alright. I got up and dusted myself off (I landed in a pile of duff). My head was ringing a bit, but my elbow seemed to turn into the main problem. I took my time shaking it off, then turned into photographer for a bit as Ben and Gus worked the gap into the massive, natural gap (35'). Ben was the only one who went for it. He knuckled it hard twice (I was kind of shocked the first time, and didn't even get a pick since I was standing there slack jawed w/ my camera in my hands), and barely road away. He did the classic both feet off pedals, ass on seat out of control exit move. I pulled it together after getting photos of Gus hitting the pit gap at the end, and hit it myself a couple of times. We ended up hanging out at the house that evening- Megan was busy making granola and energy bars, I made some baked tofu. I did some good MFR/body work on Gus for a good hour and a half. He is all gnarly from tree planting. Off to the good bed again!!

June 25th, 2010 Mega Sesh w/ Gus- WL

2010-06-28T00:14:00.001-07:00

I'm Chilling at Gustav and Megan's cozy basement apartment in William's Lake, BC. I've been here for one week on the nose now. It has been an awesome mix of cool town, tons of riders, and open arms and hearts. Since linking up w/ Gus a few days ago for some riding, we've been at it all day, often sessioning stunts and jumps numerous times. Two days ago now, Friday the 25th, we had an awesome day that started on Shuttle Bunny. I had never ridden the whole trail, and it was super cool. After getting through the tree slalom course w/ my wide bars, it opened up into some stepdowns and jumps, including the mega sniper road gap. I was happy to hit it smooth on my first go, and I happily took pics of Gus sessioning it. We ripped a super high speed gully at the bottom which was a hoot, then took the connector back over to Hillbilly Deluxe's exit. Then we cruised back into town on the road, swooping through a park and hitting a few jumps before making our way to the Gecko Tree Cafe for breakfast w/ Megan. After breakfast we boogied back up, got my van off Fox Mt. and headed over to Slater Mt. We rode Clean Slate, which is the ridge above Gutterball. It was a bit pedaly at the start and after ducking under a barbed wire fence we were off to the races. It was pretty fun with some jumps and flowy sidehill sections. Gus and I made short work of it. At the end it tied into Gutterball and we picked our way through the gnar. It's tight w/ boulders and drops in various situations and at different angles. It's also loose and dusty w/ rocks regularly flying in all directions as you pass through the walls of rock. We reset the shuttle situation and rallied onto Gutterball. We hit the opening flowy berm section into the 3-pack of 15' gaps a couple of times and set the precedent for the day- lots of sessioning. We hit up the hip over the stump stepdown, the wood drop/stepdown into the gully of 2 jumps. The DH log ride into the gap over the barbed wire fence, and then into the newest feature- a berm that turns uphill and into a hip jump that you hit over the usual step up hip line to the R of it. The landing was a tangle of logs and sticks that did not invite the would-be sender. We cleared the landing after Gus was first to hit it- sans helmet on a "run in." He nearly flew into a pile of logs downhill from the landing. After stomping down the pillowed dirt (which actually had some moisture in it), I decided to hit it. I ended up hitting the ground after 50/50ing the landing and taking the tumble. We got it dialed- a combination of railing the berm at mach 9 speeds and holding it together, combined w/ timing the pop and making sure to send it over the other jump w/o eating it. We then pushed back up, climbing under the barbed wire fence, and hit the whole line, then into the next set up double and then the big hip. It's hard to sprint, hit moves, sprint, hit moves, and keep it all super precise, which is what is needed for success. We hit the whole thing a bunch of times. I was really starting to get worked so we "hit it and quit it." We sessioned the next 3-pack of DJ's, then the step down, step up. Near the bottom, Gus hit the super sniper turn under tree to hip transfer. I didn't even think about trying it. That kid is an animal!! He didn't even have a sip of water the whole 3.5 hrs of sprinting at jumps, then pushing back uphill for another go. We then did something silly. We enlisted Megan to drive us 30+ minutes to do a Godspeed on Desous Mt's backside- at 8:30PM!! Once onto the trail Gus got an immediate flat. I gave him shit (and rightfully so) for not carrying a pack w/ all the necessary tools. Once he got it fixed up we were ripping some of the most fun, flowy trails around. We railed corner after corner on perfect dirt. No I wasn't dreaming. Then came a steep trough of gnar that claimed Gus. I went by him and rode the "not as gnarly as I thought it was going to be" section. I rode it slow and cautiously. If it was super dry it would be SKETCHY!! It opened back up and I blindly hit a 20' creek gap. Then I waited for Gus for w bit. He was getting worked on his small bike. The bottom rode through a creek bed of Soapstone, and unfortunately had been subjected to a recent mud slide. It was definitely the gnarliest stuff that I've ridden in William's Lake. A couple of times I was getting bounced around HARD- one leg flapping in the breeze trying to keep up some sort of balance as I desperately pin-balled through the creek bed. The bottom opened up for a bit before dumping us onto the road w/ the late evening sun shining down on us. Oh glorious day!! We went back to Gus and Megan's house, and sipped some organic beers before wandering around a small bit of woods nearby their house. I'm back out of the van and back into a comfy bed in a spare bedroom. SCORE!!

Thurs June 24th- Ripping w/ Gus and Kyle- WL

2010-06-28T00:13:00.001-07:00

Today was sick as hell!! After having a great dinner at David and Juana's last night, then working on David until 1am, I slept like a baby at the trail head for Mitch's Brew on Fox Mtn. I woke up around 9am (sleeping in for me these daze), and cruised in to the Gecko (my normal routine now) for breakfast. I ordered the Hungry Hippy- 3 eggs, tofu, veggies, cheese, and other goodness scrambled up together and topped w/ avocado, tomato, and sour cream. I stuggled to put it down, but it ended keeping me going ALL DAY!! I sipped coffee and perused the internet for a bit before heading over to Red Shreds. Once there I phoned Gus who promptly came over. We went to the Southside and rode Dirty Branches to Rad Bits. It was super fun and flowy w/ lots of corners to "roost" out of. Gus is a total ripper and has been riding a Specialized Pitch (with the P covered in a B) ever since he broke his Bottlerocket. Scary thought!! We rallied back to the shop and met up w/ Kyle who had recruited his mom for shuttle duties. We rallied to Desous after picking her up and rode Prime and Endless. It was super fun and flowy up top, ripping through fir forest, then got super steep with a ton of challenging corners to negotiate (in a bit of a scree field). It finished off w/ some jumps and more steeps, my brakes making a horrendous noise by the end of it (also moving to the two fingers per brake for short bits). We sessioned one hip jump into a loamy corner that you could brap. I got a couple cool pics of Gus on this section. While waiting for Kyle's mom at the bottom I couldn't help but notice that the terrain across the valley looked prime for a HUGE jump. Well, Kyle pointed me to a huge cheese wedge at the top where James Doerfling had build just that. There was also a road gap and jump to natural wallride in the same zone. Hmmmmmm.........might have to send it to the moon!!

We couldn't convince Kyle's mom for another lap, so we dropped her off and headed over to the Rad Bits zone and onto Freshly Trimmed, one of James' trails. It had a cool step down to hip to double to step up (wood to dirt). Then another jump, before a couple corners and a big wood step down followed by another wood hip. There was also a hip step down to step up that we timed just right and actually got a shot of both of us in the air at the same time. It was really fun to sesh some jumps w/ Gus and Kyle. The trail ended on some really ripping trail, complete w/ a good few brapper berms. Kyle had to bail, but Gus and I shuttled back up and rode Bell-E. It was really fun and flowy up top w/ some pedaling, then gave away to some jumps through the trees (and a couple bigger trannied stepdowns). We veered over and hit the Westsyde Road gap- probably the biggest jump I've hit here in William's Lake. Then we trained into the rest of the jumps on the trail (me hitting them blindly). THEN we veered over and hit Sick and Nasty- named after two lines down a super steep gully, into a g-out, then off a step up hip that is a bit of a lofter. It was "adrenalizing" to say the least!! We finished the ride off w/ some pedaling and ran into Masters and Nelly who were off on a xc ride. There was some talk of Smithers, which is north of Prince George, and their crazy amount of trails that they've been building w/ grant money. I hear there's really good food in town and they love to take in out of towner. Sounds pretty damn cool!! Now if only we can get Gus a big bike, which he says is mandatory (wow- he sent everything on his Bitch today- including some BIG stuff- Smithers must be bigger!!). Now I'm chilling at the laundromat after mowing a 1/2# burger, fries, a salad, and a margarita. I'm gonna go to David's and get a massage later, then will hopefully repeat the amazing day I had!!!

William's Lake Day 3- Sun. June 21st, 2010

2010-06-24T11:10:00.001-07:00

The next morning I stumbled into Mark and Jucinda's and had a espresso w/ them before heading to town and the Gecko Cafe (hands down the best food in WL). I met Kari and Lacey as well as Cory. We got out and rode a couple A Flo Daddy laps, then a Dog Bone w/ Colin, Kailem, and Laura. I almost died on the 40' gap jump. I had hit it previously w/ the youngsters on day 1, coming up just a touch short (no really defined landing), so I really charged off it second go. Probably a bit too hard. I got a little funky in the air and landed off the trail in some weeds. I was in the air for a LONG time!! I really wanted to grab the brakes and freak out, but I tried to hold it together as long as possible. I landed really hard, bottomed the bike out, and somehow rode away unscathed. I'll never hit it again!! Dog Bone was a crazy steep switch back trail. Kailem told me to "let it go off the wallride" in one section. I got going way too fast, pinned it through some gnar, and had to jump off the bike before flying off the trail into some rocks. Hehe!! Cory and I tried to do Snakes and Ladders, but after changing my brake pads on the top of the trail, my brake never pumped back up!! I rode most of the stunts (that were left) and all of the trail, but it was sketchy when the front tire started to push!! Out to Mark's for a sweat lodge session!! I met David and Juana (who cooks at the Gecko), another Veterinarian, Jessie, Laura, and a few others who's name evade me right now. It was the first sweat I've ever been to where they pile ALL the stones it at once (25!!!). The lodge was built underground right on the water!! Between doors we got out and jumped in the lake!! It was AWESOME!!!! We sung and meditated, and SWEATED!! Afterwards we had strawberry crisp around the fire. Then a long, deep sleep that didn't feel long enough (the sun is up EARLY, and so am I these daze!!).

William's Lake Day 2- Sun. June 20th, 2010

2010-06-24T11:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to Desous Mtn to hook up w/ some locals. It didn't start off as planned- getting lost, then getting eaten by a swarm of mosquitos at the bottom waiting for someone- anyone to show up!! After a while of getting eaten by the voracious bugs I decided to pedal up the 5.5 KM myself. It was hot and took ~45-60 minutes. I got passed by an older couple on an enduro which only added to my misery. I made it to the top and wandered around looking for the various trails. The "frontside" trails included Sunset Blvd- which I rode first- BIG mistake. The only "double black" it was NOT. Pedaly and torn down stunts everywhere......was this some sort of sick joke?!! I ended up on some random overgrown road and picked my way though some decrepit jumps, around a house on a lake, and FINALLY back to my van. I ate a sandwich stewing for a bit, all the while getting my blood extracted by the vicious bugs. They forced me into the van. Lucky for me I ran into some local kids on DJ's and they were nice enough to drop me off on top again!! I rode Oosue, which had a cool rock drop reminiscent of Tower Of Lies, a "triple black diamond" cliff section w/ a tricky off camber root move (w/ some decent exposure), and some flowy jumps (and of course the obligatory pedal at the bottom on the xc trail). I decided to bail, but ran into a group of bikers pulling in. I turned around and met Cory (and his micro van) and a bunch of locals. They incorporated me into the back (returning from a backside lap on Soo Long) and I got to ride the Original Desous DH. It was fun, but not as good as Oosue in my opinion. I finished there w/ one more lap on Oosue w/ one other guy from up north. Afterwards, a couple of the guys took me and rode Gutterball on Slater Mtn. It was the best trail yet overall for huck factor. It had a 3 pack of jumps to start, some flowy trail, then about 15 more jumps in various configurations. There was a cool downhill log ride to gap jump over a barbed wire fence, a few cool hip jumps (I was the only one to hit the biggest one), a sweet step down to step up that was big, but easy to overshoot, and a blind 20' + step-down over a bunch of foliage. It ended in a gnarly, rocky, tight, loose gully. The dude in front of me took a good digger and scraped up his arm pretty good. Pretty damn cool trail!! Afterwards I was asking where to camp when it was suggested that I cruise out to Mark's House, the owner of Red Shred's. Seeing as I've never met him I felt a little weird, but I was assured that it was fine. I cruised out toward Chimney Lake and accidentally drove past his house (looking for a paddle on the fence). After passing all the houses and hitting dirt road I turned around and asked a couple guys working on their fence if they knew where Mark lived. One of them drove down the road to show me. I rolled up and met Jucinda, Mark's GF (?). Just then, ???? showed up and swept me away to the golf course where Mark and Kailem where swatting balls around a small local course. They were just finishing up and we went back to Mark's. It was super fun hanging out w/ this group.....they had hilarious stories of sledding, boarding, biking, life, etc. We jumped in the hot tub and had a few party appetizers to boot. I had a great chat w/ Maggie from Kimberly who was a holistic practitioner and had a bunch of interesting views on health and natural medicine. Trish had a super happy baby girl floating around the party. I retired to the van and had a good snooze. What a life!!

Kamloops wrap-up and William's Lake Day 1

2010-06-24T11:08:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm sitting at the trailhead of Hillbilly Deluxe- a trail in William's Lake, BC. I pulled in around 4:30 this afternoon after dragging myself away from Jay and Marcie's super crib. I made them a veggie scramble for breakfast and we sat around shooting the wad for a while before peeling out at ~12:30. They are some of the coolest people I've had the pleasure of getting to know better in a while!! We rode everyday- 3 laps on Rio w/ Michelle and Toby, then 3 laps of Harper w/ Ja on Tuesday. Some trail building on Jameison w/ Ja on Wed- built a sweet jump and berm on the more established trail, then ripped it. Ja was all flustered since he was late for beer bottling and ate it into the hole we dug from!! I overshot it the first go, then hit it perfect the second time. I hit the road gap solo at the bottom (smooth), then hung out at the bottom near the stream for lunch. We were supposed to get together and ride Greenstone that evening, but Ja tried to call me (I turned it off at border), so I ended up hanging out solo for a bit at the house, jumping on their trampoline w/ the tramp bike (trying no foot cans, bar spins, and one footed flatties to both sides). Thursday we rode some more Harper (thanks for the shuttles Marcie) and got some pretty killer photos of Pimpernaut (me jumping over Marcie drinking a beer, and a sweet one of me on the wood to dirt kicker). We finished off the evening by riding w/ Metro on their trail on Greenstone. It was super fun w/ lots of berm work and flowy jumps that used the natural terrain extremely well. Only one move needed some more loving (in my opinion)- the wood to dirt hip- which seemed to have logs in the wrong part of the tranny. I ended up hitting it third lap and almost eating it off the high side of the tranny. Friday I tried to leave, but just as I was saying my goodbyes, Matt Hunter called Ja to see if he wanted to ride. He didn't, but I sure jumped on the opportunity to ride again w/ Matt. He had a bunch of buddies in town- Jon-O and Michelle from Nelson, Ben (his cousin), his GF Nikki, and another buddy from Victoria. We ripped 3 laps, the last of which they ended at a sweet camp site w/ a view of the whole valley below. I sat around w/ them for a while sipping on a beer and eating chips as they cooked some "smokies" on the grill. Just before dark I peeled out and ripped the rest of Nate's Woody. Unfortunately I mistimed my braking after hitting a wood booter and ended up stacking it into a berm below. I kind of tweeked my thumb and scraped up my shoulder and back a bit. I finished off the trail a bit more reserved and headed back to Ja's where they were having a bit of a party. I choked down a couple of cold burgers and some potato salad while hanging out w/ another Ben and his wife, plus a dude I met last year at Smoke's May Long Weekend Jam. It was a glorious week full of bike talk, bike riding, good food, and great company. Thanks guys!!

Today I timed it out pretty good. I stopped at the Laughing Loon to try to find people to shuttle w/ but no luck. Then I went to the bottom of Hillbilly Stunts and ended up running into a family that was shuttling for a couple of birthday boys!! I got 3 laps out of the deal!! We rode HS, then onto Mitch's ?, and A Flo Daddy. I hit the A Flo road gap (pretty solid) and then onto the 40 footer (probably a bit less) which I aborted on the first go (decided to actually LOOK at it a bit too late and had to launch the bike off the wood kicker and jump off, deeply bruising and cutting the back of my leg (f'n ow!!). All in all a good bit of riding for the first day- not too gnarly, but still hit a couple solid moves. Their trails seem to be a bit over-rated w/ regards to difficulty (Mitch's was fun w/ some medium tabletops and was labeled expert- so was HS?!). I ate at the Laughing Loon while talking to my mama on Skype (pretty damn cool!!!), then drove around looking for a spot to camp. No real luck, plus one aborted mission down a dirt road that turned gnarly, forcing me to turn around in a bunch of bushes/high grasses. That pretty much brings me back to where I sit, typing in the dark w/ the sounds of some birds and frogs in the background. Hopefully Gustav calls me for some ripping tomorrow!! Otherwise I think I'm off to check out Desous Mtn. and/or the Westside Trails (Snakes and Ladders, plus a number of "extreme" steep stunted trails w/ "expert" jumps. I also want to try to hook up w/ James Doerfling while I'm here so he can show me how to ride a bike!! OK.....off to bed!! I'm beat!!

Kamloops-Rio and Jameson; June 15th, 2010

2010-06-15T23:58:00.002-07:00

I slept like crap last night, even though I was in the most comfy bed I've slept in in a while. One part new house, one part excitement to ride new trails, one part early ass sun rise!! I was up for a while, went back to sleep, and then woke back up and was sure it was time to go, but no, it was 6:20AM. Jay and Marcie were gone already, and Ja and I munched granola and sipped coffee on his patio. We met up w/ Toby and Michelle (who I guess was a man at one point?), who was celebrating her 40th birthday. We jumped in her crazy rack having, lifted Tundra and crept a slow, steep 4x4 road up to Rio. We unloaded and I jumped on my bike to bounce around for a second. Only problem was that my chain was stuck on the frame and my forceful pedal stroke broke my chain and sent me to the ground, complete w/ gouges in the back of my leg. Great!! I put in a quick link and we took off down the trail. A couple nice lofter jumps got me going, and we stopped to session a step down road gap to hip road gap. I cased the second jump pretty bad, so I pushed back up and hit it again more smoothly (w/ some style). Then I hit it a third time behind Ja (for the camera) and totally knuckled the landing still hipped out. I over corrected and went cart wheeling into Ja. Nice. More bumps and bruises coming. The lower bit was super fun, and rocketed back and forth along a gully, with wallrides abound. We got a second run via Marcie shuttling us, and the rain picked up its intensity. We basically ripped it top to bottom. My face was super splattered w/ mud (I need some goggles!!), and my shorts were soaked w/ mud and water. We took a lunch break over at Frick and Frack's (Tandoori Chicken Wrap and Greek Salad), then chilled at Ja and Marcie's for a bit before getting really stoked (thanks Follow Me) and heading over for a night capper at Jamison. Ja was gracious enough to shuttle us, and Marcie tested out her sprained ankle for the first time (that girl can RIDE!!!). The first lap was super thin single track, slightly overgrown, and super fun. The bottom steep section was a little greasy and we both slid down the steeps w/ one foot flapping just in case. We rallied for a second lap and it was even more fun!! A little more rocky and rooty w/ a fun 20' stepdown that I hit. We passed a group filming that included the dude third in the Canadian DH series this year. We rallied back to the house, I worked on Marcie's ankle a little, and Ja and I took turns sharing pics, vids, and stories. I can't believe I've only hung out w/ these guys once....I feel like I've known them both for years!! I hope to sleep a bit better tonight, and I hope the rain chills for a bit, EH?!!

Kamloops!! (June 14th, 2010)

2010-06-15T23:58:00.001-07:00

I left Bham at ~ 1:30 PM after packing, buying groceries, and helping Tom ship his door. I made it through the border with only a 2 car wait and no hassling. I took a new road (Road 0) which traversed along the border and actually popped you out past the Sumas crossing. Then I made my way onto Hwy 1 (Trans Canadian Hwy) and took it past Hope, and Merrit, then onto Hwy 3 and finally 5 N. I crossed some big mountain passes, complete w/ snow and incredible looking ski terrain. The blue skies started to hint of some rain and eventually it opened up on one of the last mountain passes. I pulled up at the Bike Cafe at ~5PM (an hour early!!). I ran into Dylan Sherrard and he somehow remembered me. He gave me some directions to Harper Mountain and the Bike Ranch. I decided to go to Harper. I got lost a couple times (went the wrong way on 1, then missed the exit and had to ask for directions). FINALLY I drove out the right road. Dylan spoke of mass shuttling, but only 1 guy was in the parking lot and only 2 cars. I introduced myself, and he told me a couple buddies were going to show up and rip. One of those buddies is the legendary Kamloops local, Matt Hunter (Roam, etc). I tried not to act star struck as we bounced up the road in his Tacoma. He showed me some pics from the cabin they're building (past Whistler). It looked RAD!! We ripped a super fast flowy bit of trail, then onto some jumps. I overshot the shit out of the first one and had to E-brake before the second. I pushed back up and cased them both second go. Oh well!! We ripped a bunch more flowy trail w/ great dirt, and a few stunts that I onsighted. We loaded up my van after a round of high fives and rallied her up some semi-rough roads. We got stopped on a steep section right before the top and unloaded. We ripped some more flowy stuff (I was trying my best to keep up w/ Matt) and then onto Pimper-naut. Matt described the jumps- a 20+ footer w/ wood lip and dirt trannie, then a wood roller to gap, then some berms and a bigger 20+ ft gap w/ a slight L hip. I on-sighted all but the last big gap. I ran back up hill and hit the last 2 features smooth to the hoots of the crew. I rallied on and we rode something-wood named trail. The dirt was amazing the whole time (I always pictured arid terrain, HUGE jumps, and lots of DUST). I guess I'll have to re-think a lot of that!! I got a hold of Ja and Marcie and got directed to Frick and Frack for dinner. I mowed down a wrap, salad, and some fries before heading over to the Westsyde and their Sage St "mansion." We hung out w/ another Jay from Vancouver Island and had a great time chatting it up about various BC hot spots and crazy adventures. Sounds like a full day tomorrow full of Greenstone, Rio, and whatever else comes our way!! SUPER STOKED!! Stay tuned!!

Sedona Wrap up and MOAB!!

2010-06-15T23:56:00.001-07:00

Catch-up:

Sedona:

Checked out Beaverhead Flats w/ Jason and Kenny. Pretty gnarly stunts (mainly jumps and stepdowns) w/ some steep natural lines. We only saw a glimpse of the total area b/c of time limitations (Jason had to go grab his girl). I hit the two upper jumps and the first 2 of the four pack, but the wind was pushing me around a lot and I wasn't feeling great on the big bike (weird going from xc to jumps). I guess Kranked 5 was filmed a little bit out in this zone.

Rode Highline w/ Kenny and Lily- still really windy, but a fun flowy trail that rose from the Red Agave resort. We ended up riding it both ways since you would have to climb out of the switchbacks on the side of Cathederal Peak. Finished up riding at Jason's with the foam pit.

Rode Flagstaff (Mt. Elden)- 2 laps down Wasabe, Prom Night (w/ Happy Ending), and Private Reserve w/ Kenny and Jason. Very fun place w/ some chunky rock gnar abound, as well as a cool step down on Wasabe, a really cool step down to step up on Private Reserve, and of course the 60' rock face that is Happy Ending. We got some pretty good shots too.....

The shuttle road is brutal and takes longer to ride down in the car than on the bike......

Drove from Sedona right to the Grand Canyon for a sunset hike along the N. Rim (away from all the tourists). There were a ton of wildflowers and some crazy looking trees. I snapped away to my hearts content and got some pretty cool shots. We jumped back in the car and headed for MOAB!!

Moab:

Rolled up and camped on the LaSal Mtn Loop Rd. Pulled off some random dirt road and crashed. Woke up to a truck and trailer approaching. I jumped up front and still half asleep drove into Moab. We stopped at Poison Spider Mesa and tried to pull some of the droves of people away from the pay shuttle and into our van. No luck. Then onto the Moab Cyclery. Super cool shop that has a TON of solar panels on the roof. We got some Hammer Gels, a map, and lucked out w/ Nat and Aaron (from Whistler). Aaron wanted to ride, but Nat wasn't up for Porcupine Rim. Lily and I rode 2.5 miles out and back on the Slickrock trail while they did the practice loop. Then we rallied down to 191 and dropped the car off at the bottom, and back up Sand Flats Rd to LPS. I hadn't ridden this trail and within 10 minutes Aaron and I lost Lily- we checked out The Notch (a techy section up high) while Lily plunged herself down LPS. Aaron and I waited for Lily but she never showed. By the time we realized what had happened we took off to catch her. We never caught a glimpse of her. I had a flat that took 2 tries to fix, but other than that we ripped the trail hard. And were still 1.5 hrs behind her!! We rallied back to town after Nat picked us up, and ate some yummy food at the Moab Brewery. The 3.2 beer actually got me a buzz (just add in dehydration and empty stomach). We got dropped off at LPS, hung out for a while, then they took off and we jumped in the back of the van.

Next day we went to Chile Pepper bike shop, ran into Wendy (whom I had ridden with ~8yrs ago), and met Dan and Dallas. Dan and I chatted about doing Hazard County, Kokopelli, UPS, and LPS. He was a little concerned about Dallas whom had only ridden a mountain bike a couple times in his life. Dallas decided to go for it. We dropped the bottom car on 191 again, and the two Utah boys piled into the back of the van. Hazard County took an hour to get to. We drove down Spanish Valley Hwy, watched the shuttle van behind us get pulled over for passing a slow car that we passed too, and wound our way up the LaSal mtns. There were patches of Aspen trees, wildflowers, and various plant life as we ascended away from the red sandstone cliffs of Moab.

We clamored out of the van, got on our bikes and did the initial climb up to the top of Hazard. I thought we were screwed when Dallas ate shit within a few minutes of the DH. But he kept plugging away, dirt stripes and all. Believe it or not, he smoked his MTB buddy the WHOLE DAY. I cringed as he inched his way down gnarly slickrock sections......somehow finding the correct balance of brakes and body position. Kokopelli was a wide open ripper 2 track w/ some water bar jumps and LOTS of wildflowers. UPS and LPS were just AWESOME......winding along the edge of a mesa with a very precipitous drop off.......sometimes the trail would get within a couple feet of the edge....just long enough for you to force yourself NOT to look. There was a little grinding up the ridge of Porcupine Rim and this is where Dallas showed his first weakness, but only momentarily. We ripped down Porcupine Rim....pounding through the never ending rock ledges and loose baby heads. It never seemed to end....always wrapping around another corner, exposing a ribbon of red rock and dirt that kept putting a smile on your face. We finished up and headed into town to grub at Zak's. Lily and I ate the pizza buffet and stacked a mound of pizza crusts worthy of a day of riding that we had just finished. The boys gave us a ride back to the top and we ended up crashing out high in the LaSal mtns.

Next, Lily and I rode Amasa Back. We drove out Kane Creek and parked 1/2 mile from the trailhead. We rallied up the road for a second and onto the trail. It opened up with a waterfall rock section and then across a sandy wash and then gradually climbed up through sheer rock walls before topping out on the mesa. We rode along the rim for a bit, then got onto Rockstacker near the power lines. We started to ride it, realizing we were going the wrong way, but it was cool and had a number of moves that were probably better to preview. We backtracked on Rockstacker and then onto Jackson's trail (previously unnamed) which wrapped us along the edge of a cliff on flowy trail. We got some great pics. Unfortunately the creek was flooded at the bottom and we had to do a harrowing hike-a-bike to make it back to the parking lot. We finished the day off by driving down 191 to the Big Bend boulders and poking around. We were both pretty spaked and didn't really have much mojo for the rock.

We ended up eating at the pasta joint (delish) and crashing back out in the LaSals.

Lily was kind enough to allow me the honors of Hazard County solo, and I ended up rallying it HARD with only a couple of quick sops (once to help a guy out w/ his blown shock). I dropped 5k ft in just under 2 hrs. I was in the zone!!

We rallied over to the Wall St. zone on Potash Rd and met up w/ Julia and Leah. I led up the 5.8 classic "30 seconds over Potash," to start with and it definitely was a little funky with my sweaty, greasy, out-of-the-car self wigging out on my crappy gear placements. Thankfully I wasn't the only one to find it hard. Next, I led a 5.10c sport route- "Nervous in Suburbia," and walked it compared to the much "easier" 5.8 we "warmed up" on. The girls got a little worked on the long moves between holds, and I ended up cleaning it. Next I led the 5.9 Little Thailand on the road cut. It looked super easy from the ground, but all the holds were slopey, and pointed in the wrong direction. Still, you never really had to pull all that hard.

Then we caught a family with a bunch of routes on TR and I did a 5.10 slab that was pretty sparse. Lily did a 5.8 and was glad to go out on a send.

Next day we headed over to the "secret" swimming hole. Well, actually we tried to spend the night there, but that only lasted until 1 am when a sheriff clicked every light he had on our van. We tried to play dead, but he demanded someone out of the car. He let us go after running my license. We drove out and crashed past Porcupine Rim trail again. The swimming hole was PACKED (even w/ a 25 min approach and multiple stream crossings). There was a waterfall that you could jump off of, and a stream with mini waterfalls to relax in- if cold water is your thing. We lounged around for a while in the shade, then I finally convinced Lily to jump off the cliff- even if it was the small part. I went off the larger drop a couple of times- barely touching the bottom each time.

Afterwards, we decided to go to Arches National Park and climb Owl Rock (5.8). Lily had a hard time with it, and had to take off the pack with our sunset beers. I watched as the sun sunk behind the rock, spectators and all, as Lily made her way to the top. In my haste to get down I neglected to retrieve a cam that Lily couldn't get out. I remembered this when I was back in town. DOH!! I know what we're doing in the AM!! We drove out Potash Rd and camped in a legit campground (pay?!!).

Well.....we still haven't paid for housing/camping. Lily got up at 5:45 and woke me up. We quickly jumped up front and peeled out before anyone could demand our money!! Off to owl rock!! We ate granola and sipped french press coffee as the sun came up. Then onto the "juggy" and weird 5.8. I think I need to have a little "gear removal clinic" with Lily b/c the piece came out w/o a fight!! We finished it off and decided to go climb Corkscrew Summit at Fisher Towers. We met a few people from Brazil and one woman from Argentina who had just finished it up. "Classic" was all they had to offer. We hiked up and realized a couple was just starting up the climb. I chatted w/ Brian as he made his way up the first pitch. Then I met Christina at the first belay. They were from NY and were out for a few daze. They planned to climb Fine Jade the next day. We met back up at the top of the chimney pitch and I watched as they reached the summit one at a time. They were funny (Bronx humor I guess) and were comically elbowing each other as they climbed. It was fun to overhear. They offered to wait for us to summit so we could be sure to reach the ground w/ only 1 rope (no mention to the contrary in the guide book). They napped on the sunny ledge as Lily and I took turns wigging out on the sidewalk to belly flop. Basically, you walk unprotected from the belay along a narrow sidewalk until you run into the "diving board." Brian wiggled under the diving board and didn't do the belly flop, but Christina, Lily, and I did the committing flop onto the rock protrusion. After wiggling awkwardly to get on top of this rock anomaly we worked our way around the delicate rock peak, clipping a few pitons along the way. The summit is probably one of the most unique anywhere. Just enough room to stand up and maybe turn around.....with hundreds of feet of exposure on each side. Wahooooo!!!

Ledge-and-Airy

2010-06-02T10:53:00.001-07:00

Woke up early again (7am) as Tex was heading off to work. Lounged on the luxurious back deck, gazing longingly at the amazing cliffs, spires, and towers that seem close enough to touch. Ended up staying there for a number of hours- catching up on writing, sipping coffee, and looking through pics from recent adventures. We finally motivated to do something and that was go get some ice cream!! We shoved down a HUGE amount of cold stone each, reeled for a minute, then headed over to MTBH to suit up for another ride. This time it was Ledge-and-airy. We pedaled from the shop down 89a until we hit the cultural center. Immediately climbing up and over the small retaining wall yielded us our trail. We followed it for a while before dead ending into the gnar. We took a R and immediately it WAS ON!! Techy climbing up and over a TON of rocks- most off-camber. The only time you got a break was when you were ripping down some steep and techy chute. It wrapped back and forth, following the contour of the dry creek below. Lily got bouted pretty good. It is a very challenging skill to climb steep tech gnar, and there was lots of it on this trail. She still had a smile on her face most times she popped around the corner. One last steep downhill and we were back on the Girdner trail which wrapped back around to the cultural center. We stopped and got some shots in the last glimpses of light. Afterwards we headed back to Tex's and made some yummy Mac n Cheese w/ broccoli, and corn on the cob. Tex and I shot the shit on the deck for a while over a fire while Lily lounged inside reading a book. Another day in paradise!!

HOGS!!!!

2010-06-02T10:52:00.001-07:00

Woke up at 6:15 the first time, then realized that Tex wasn't even up for work yet. The sun makes me think I've slept in, but I haven't. I finally wake up around 7:15 and eat some granola and have some dank coffee thanks to Tex's stove-top espresso maker. We hit up MTBH by 8:30 for the Wed Group Ride. Only Johnny and Julia show up, and along w/ Lily, Rama, and I, we rocked out to some trails off the map (of course) near the shop. We chilled out at a couple of sick viewpoints and rode some really fun, flowy trails at a much more leisurely pace than usual. We cruised back to shop after emerging near the high school. Lily and I got some lunch at another vegetarian place- D'lish. It was good and the tempeh pineapple jerk burger, salad, and smoothie put me in the happy place!! We drove down Chavez Creek road and found the local swimming hole- near Buddah Beach. A rope swing greeted us and Lily guinea-d it. She hit bottom, so I changed trajectories and did a sweet inverted swing, except I slapped my nuts on the water when I landed and had to wait out the horrid pains that go w/ a good ball schwap. We got the therma-rests out of the van and took a power nap on the some rock slabs briefly before heading back to MTBH to meet up w/ Tex at ~3. I was under the impression that we were going to go to Beaver Flats to check out their jump park, but instead we suited up to do another pedal. We shuttled w/ Mark (who I rode w/ before during my first tour of duty in Sedona) over to the Broken Arrow zone (but parked at Pine-?) and met up w/ Dennis (long haired Asian). We rode up some newish climb and onto the Hog Trails. They were more techy than I remembered and Lily had a hell of a time on some sections (and rightfully so!!). We hit up Sub Rock and impressed some tourists with some steep slickrock antics. I even manned up and rode a steep line w/ some ledges in the fast runout. Lily got some videos and I took some pics. Then we climbed up higher and did High On The Hog which got even techier. There were a ton of cool moves that involved techy pedaling and utter commitment. Steep rocky DH sections inevitably had a steep, just as techy climb immediately afterwards. These trails are a clinic in tech. We finished on Szechwan Chicken which had a sweet swooping section up top, then it turned into some jumps and flow before spitting you out back where we parked. We rallied back to the top for another lap- the turnoff on the climb was just two rocks on the side of the trail and barely a hint of traffic on it. We finished up the ride and then back to MTBH. We went shopping and got some dank turkey and chicken brats, corn on the cob, and tasty beers. Kevin made a big salad and we feasted!! It was amazing- something about riding hard that makes food orgasmic. We hung out outside for a while, then bailed back to Tex's crib where Lily passed out on the floor after a massage, and I jumped in the shower before passing out around 10. What a day!!

Thunder Mtn to Chuck Wagon (Sedona)

2010-06-02T10:51:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 18th

We rallied back into town, picking up a hitch hiker named Steve along the dirt road. We dropped him off at a coffee shop, and proceeded to Mountain Bike Heaven (MTBH). I got a new saddle (WTB Pure V) since my stock Specialized one was a taint torture device, and a new chain (that would be less than 10 rides in to the new bike folks!!). If only there were some Odi Rogue lock on grips I'd be really stoked. We rode from MTBH up to the Thunder Mountain trailhead, got a little mixed up (too many trails here!!), and eventually found Dry Creek Road. Thunder Mountain had a lot of steep techy uphill sections!! Good interval training!! We next hit up Lost Watch which dropped for a while through tight turns between oak trees and into some washes. This is a decidedly Sedona trait- riding through what most people would call a dried up creek bed- they call them washes. Your vision never wanders far on these sections- negotiating boulders and sand. Lots of power and finesse- requiring the complete package. We kept following trails and ended up on a small ridge top- way up high and past the pimples of land that were visible from the saddle that we dropped over initially. Then onto a rocky butte southwest of the ridge. I started to get a little worried about light and how far out we were so I called Tex. I tried to explain to him where I was- a fun task in Sedona- by that one wash with that rocky outcropping. We realized that we might have ridden the trail backwards when we had to hike a bike up some stuff w/ tracks signifying the trail flowing in the opposite direction. Undeterred we continued along some discontinuous rock bands and finally got turned downhill. It definitely wasn't a long DH and were back in the wash before we knew it. We hit the dirt road instead of climbing trail back out and were back at MTBH with a little light to spare. We made some yummy wraps w/ veggies and sipped a cold beer on the back deck as the sun faded. Exhausted we sat in complete bliss. Tex showed up and offered up his place. We followed him through "uptown" and onto 929 Circle street. We were delightfully surprised to see that he lived in a PHAT crib w/ a SICK view!! He and a girl got the place together but it didn't work out between them and she lives in CA, so he has the place for 800$/mo and she only shows up one weekend a month. We crashed in the back bedroom on a huge mat he supposedly slept on for months before getting a bed. When we woke up the next morning the views were STUNNING!! A huge rock outcropping w/ benches and jagged peaks and towers. Only some rooftops lower down among the trees hint at the settling of the land. I love the twists and turns of roadtrips!!

Sedona Day 1!!

2010-06-02T10:50:00.000-07:00

The first morning we rolled over to the shop just in time to catch George opening up. Luckily we waited around for a few minutes because Rama showed up in his drop top Miata w/ Max living a dog's dream in the passenger seat. He remembered me and we shot the shit as he scurried around the shop. We had to buy a couple Slime tubes each to resist all the cactus spines. We rode from the shop and hit Airport to Bandit to Ridge Trail, then over to Buddah Beach, across the Red Rock Crossing, along Oak Creek and then climbed the switchbacks up to the slickrock bench at the base of the massive rock formation. We rode along it for a while, then dropped across the highway and onto Bell Rock Trail. We pedaled to the Bike and Bean and met up w/ Tex (Jeff Harris- Kevin's landscaping boss). Chewy was working and we caught up for a minute and exchanged numbers. We ate some lunch at Desert Flour (yummy chicken sandwich and salad) and took off up to ride Slim Shady. We originally were going to ride Highline, but it required climbing the switchbacks again. Slim was super fun and swoopy. We climbed back to Bike and Bean. We jumped in his truck and rallied over to MTBH and up to Skid Mark. The climbing was fun for a while, then we got onto some exposed slick rock benches and some seriously techy moves started appearing- riding onto steep off-camber rocks slabs, wallride climbs, etc. We stopped at the boulder below Tea Pot Rock and got safe before watching Tex style out Skid Mark. I scoped it, tried to commit, but after crawling across the slick rock I couldn't commit to the stair step transition into the steep sliding section w/ a "mandatory" hard R. It continued w/ a steep rock waterfall line and more steeps before spitting you out below. I chickened out on most of the whole line, but my new bike and the stock 2.3 inch single-ply tires weren't inspiring the most confidence!! I would have done it on the Sunday, but the climb was prohibitive of that idea. We rode some really fun stuff, then detoured off to check out the step-down to natural wall-ride move which I chickened on again (an emerging theme here). Wrong bike set-up. Need DH tires and plushness, not a glorified xc bike. Then we hit another trail which had a "short and long" crux section. I chickened on the short line- a drop to steep rock chunder, but rode the long line- another crawling move out some slickrock before doing a small drop, negotiating some steep rock terrain, then I accidentally aired a roller section, and had to immediately drop again- to flat this time- and "shut er down" since there was a small cliff below. Tex was pretty stoked an I was relieved to have ridden a section that I deemed slightly over my head (or my bikes head, or both). We rallied back to MTBH along a maze of trails that seemed longer than they should have been. Lily and I hit up a delicious vegetarian restaurant a few doors down from MTBH and threw down. Spring rolls, I got a falafel platter, some ginger lemonade, and a piece of chocolate ganache for dessert. She even brought us a sample of their hot chocolate which has coconut milk and honey as well as raw cacao. Off to 525, but this time across the street and down along the creek (thanks Kev!!) to crash for the night.

Vegas to AZ

2010-06-02T10:49:00.000-07:00

Catch-up again........

Left Vegas on Friday May 14th. Went to Bootleg for some riding while Bowman finished up w/ work. Rode 3 laps- once down Armageddon to warm-up (w/ Snakeback all the way down to Reaper). It was actually flowy and I didn't have to dab or get off once. Then I tried Ginger. Still having a couple of spots that I can't "man up" on. One is a steep chute w/ multiple ledges, and the other is a steep, multi-tiered rock section w/ mega consequences. I'd need full body armor and another buddy that was talking shit to me to try those sections!! Finished the day off w/ Snakeback to Kevorkian and hit the 30' gap, then into the Love Channel (rock wash that swoops back and forth). Lily took a couple of runs and cleared more stuff w/o any carnage this time (she had a lot of bruises from not making a switchback corner). We jumped back in the van and zoomed across Hoover Dam. They're making a separate bridge through the area so you won't drive across the actual dam anymore, and traffic was a bit of an annoyance.

Once into AZ the traffic moved a bit better, and we charged along onto Hwy 40 towards Flagstaff. Near the town of Williams we made a turn north and drove some FSR's for a bit until we found Brian off to the L of the road past the normal parking area for the Paradise Forks. We hung out for a bit, then crashed in the back of the van. Woke up and headed out from the campsite to the climbing directly after some granola and coffee. You had to hike through a couple of dried up waterfalls and along the top of the cliff band. A canyon w/ basalt columns/cracks emerged from within the ground and split in two different directions up the valley. We rappelled in off a tree and began "warming up" on 5.10+ cracks- Torpedo, Retard's Recess, and another one that Lily scraped her way up (you had to climb out) that had a ledge half way up. I fell at the very top of that one- trying to make a move on face holds instead of staying in the crack- that's what I get. I made a prayer of a send on RR- a bulge at the top that required some flaring hands- Brian grunted his way through it so I knew I was in for some business. Sandra cruised all of them w/ grace, style, and barely a huff or puff. Then we moved over to the Prow area. Brian set me up so I could solo climb w/ his Mini Traxion device. You just had to use that and some "shock cord" that you looped through the device and put around your neck. The only caveat was that you couldn't lower yourself down- at all. I tested it out on the Prow-11a. There was some super solid crack climbing down low, then it turned into "ring locks" where you couldn't slide your hands in the crack, but it was too small to use fingers. You had to counter-oppose thumb and ring/middle fingers- making an A-OK sort of sign. It felt really insecure and I peeled off a couple of times. The feet were really small and required smearing along the lip of the crack- which was super polished. It was really strenuous and I was grunting, sweating, and cursing my way up it- but I made it!! Then as Brian was working his project I moved the rope over and did Jolly Roger (5.10). It was really cool- had some roof moves on big face holds, some pure hand jams, some stemming, and topped out on broken blocks. I was pretty happy to end the day on a send. Lily split out early after her rappel meltdown and working over on the one climb she got on. She graciously made a huge veggie saute, pasta, and red sauce and greeted us w/ a big salad too. We partied down for a while, then the girls crashed and Brian and I stumbled around in the dark for a while before returning to camp and crashing.

The next morning (Sun. May 16th) I felt like someone ran me over. Full body edition. Getting into all those awkward, contorted positions took its toll on my weak, unconditioned body. Everything hurt. I limped around getting breakfast, slugging down coffee as fast as I could. We made our way back to the first zone again, and Brian was already sussing out the moves on Paradise Lost (5.12a) when we finally staggered up. Lily and I sat on the other side of the canyon in a daze for a while. I was going to get some shots of Brian on rappel but he was too amped to send and charged up it before I could set up. He sent and we moved back over to the Prow area. I set Jolly Roger back up and he set up next to Mayflower. Lily and I rapped in and I went up first. I struggled a lot more than the day before- probably b/c I was climbing at my limit for a warm-up. The bulge resisted me mightily, but I found the key foot and pulled through the crux before finally scraping myself over the blocky exit moves. Lily took a LONG time on the climb and finally resorted to jugging her way up the rope. She was rightfully frustrated and gave back up on climbing at the Forks. I lowered myself back in to the climb next to it. It had a brutal roof boulder problem at the bottom that I wasn't prepared for. I struggled and had some laughable (later) moments since I couldn't lower myself down- dangling a few feet above the ground while a couple other parties sorted gear nearby and looked back occasionally. Finally I pulled through it and the climbing relented back to a reasonable level. We called it a day after Brian sent his project (I got some video on Lily's camera b/c mine died). We said our goodbyes and packed up the van- heading to Sedona next. We cruised to the 89a exit off of 17 and wound our way down Oak Creek Canyon- the red and white spires and rock bands unfolding before us like the pages of a familiar book. We passed Red Rock Slide State Park and then onto the tourist mecca that is Sedona. They changed the roads up a bit and now have roond-a-boots (round-a-bouts in Canadian) that are more easily managed. We rolled up to Mountain Bike Heaven at around 6PM and ran into George who hurriedly sold us a one page map for 6$ and shooed us out the door. We went a few doors down and ran into Kevin who had a lady friend over (he got divorced and didn't have the now 10 year old daughter around). We had some Sangria and some laughs before jumping in the van and cruising out to FSR 525 where we found a spot to crash for the night. SEDONA!!!

VEGAS!! Chilling w/ Brian Bowman and Sandra

2010-05-11T11:50:00.000-07:00

Vegas

Let's see here.....we drove from Bishop to LV through Pahrump. We randomly stopped to gape at Mt. Whitney (highest point in the lower 48) and I had to use the bathroom, so I stumbled into a museum that commemorated all of the movies filmed in the area. It was mind blowing. They had a car that had coins all over it w/ guns mounted all over it w/ spurs on the mirrors. Other random stuff.....kind of cool actually. We also pulled over at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, and it had some amazing land formations (would have passed it if we didn't have to pee!!). We drove in from 160 along Black Velvet Canyon and the front side of the majestic mountain range that is Red Rock Canyon. It is 4-5 IMMENSE mountains w/ a ton of facets and walls on each mountain. We drove the loop rode and climbed at the Magic Bus (classic 5.8) as the sun was dropping. We woke Brian up (at ~9:00 PM) and shot the shit for a while (it was his first day back to work the next day after a month off) before he went back to bed. We also met Sandra, his Chilean GF. She's super nice and looks like a gymnast (small little thing that looks like she could pick you up over her head).

Next day went to the Black Corridor in the second pullout. Warmed up on a 10b w/ a cruxy little boulder problem (two crimps to a toss to a jug), then a couple more 10's on the top wall. Then we climbed a 9 on the lower wall, then I climbed another 10 on lead before finally falling on a top-rope 10b on the steeper side of the canyon. We finished the day back at the Magic Bus for some sunset action.

Tues. May 4th

Went to Bootleg Canyon today. Last time I was there I left at ~9AM for the hospital w/ two gashes around my eye from eating it into a rock. This time I was back on the Iron Horse Sunday. I studied the map and decided I wasn't going to warm-up on Ginger since it was the only triple black diamond rated trail there. Well guess what? I ended up on it. It was STEEP w/ loose rocks ON the rock slabs w/ mandatory corners on loose dust/sand/rock. Oh and there was never a continuous line. There was always something that just didn't seem right about "the line." Maybe something to hook a pedal on, or a gnarly G-out, or it appeared that you would pick up too much speed on a steep section and come into the next section w/ WAY too much speed. I walked more on that trail than probably any other trail I've ridden in the past few years!! I felt like a total GAPER!! Lily and I took turns shuttling each other and she picked off some of the blue squares and single black diamonds (w/ one wreck in a rocky swithback). I checked out Snakeback to Kevorkian (double black- had to dab/walk one or two sections), then checked out but didn't ride the Poop Chute (WAY steep w/ jagged rock and pedal catching zones). The Love Channel was a cool small canyon that you could swoop through, riding up on the walls, w/ one steep move to a hard G-out that I talked myself into riding. I also hit the 30' gap a couple times (w/ a loud creak out of the bike every time). Last lap I rode Armageddon, then only trail I on-sight cleaned. It had some cool moves- a turn w/ a rock steepie immediately, a cool rock garden, and unfortunately some chunder that claimed my first flat on the DH bike since I can remember. At the bottom I stuck the road gap a couple of times for the camera. Besides coming out way down the road from the van a couple of times this place was a fun, but humbling encounter. I'd have to get some more armor and get more aggro before sending it all here!!

Wed. May 5th

Climbed Frogland (5.8- 6 pitches- ~800'). Rallied the Toyota Sienna back on some GNARLY dirt road w/ lots of rocks and some steep ups and downs- a lot gnarlier than I remembered it. Grabbed way too much stuff, and waddled off into the desert. We hiked and stashed the packs after ~25 min. I harnessed up and hiked the steep part up to the base of the climb w/ all the gear clanging around w/ each movement. There was a party on the first pitch and they looked kind of slow. We started up the climb and caught them at the second pitch. I goofed up and stopped at a rappel station where I should have kept climbing another ~50' to another small blocky stance. Lily had a little trouble w/ her huge pack on and some solid climbing on exposed moves, but she worked through it. I ran the next two pitches together and had a little mini-epic trying to finagle gear for a belay (forgot my cordolette). It had a sweet move where you had to chimney through this big boulder chockstone that is wedged up in this slot. You get on top of it and set up another belay (super wild belay stance w/ a CRAZY view of the mountains and Vegas). Lily had her second mini-epic while trying to chimney through w/ the pack on. She got stuck a couple of times and I tried to talk her through it. Finally she just unbuckled the pack, got an arm out and put it in front of her while grunting and squirming her way up the last 10 feet. She threw down the pack in disgust and had a few choice words to say to it (she was fired up!!). She mentioned "surreal" a few times while describing the views and the stance that we were now chilling at. I finished up the last pitch on some RUNOUT slab climbing. I almost went the wrong way a couple times because there were a bunch of ways that you could go. It topped out and I set up a belay near some blocky terrain. She finished out the last pitch and we spent the next ~40 min steeply descending a gully w/ lots of sharp, pointy vegetation. Thankfully we didn't have to hike back to the base for our packs!! We wandered out amongst the yellow, red, blue, white, and purple flowers that turned the harsh environment into an "as far as the eyes could see" blanket of color. We finished off the night w/ some turkey burgers, a cold beer, and THE COUCH!! YEEEEEES!!

Thurs. May 6th

Went climbing at the Black Corridor and Sweet Pain Wall. Stuck a 10a, b, and c on lead, then got goofy on a 5.9+ TR and had to take a fall. Undeterred, I went and led another 5.9 on the lower wall, before heading over to Sweet Pain. There was the Nova Scotia group (Sam, and Jeff from Vancouver) working on Sweet Pain. I got geared up and BARELY made it up Glitter Gulch (11a). First good pump of the trip!! There was a horn at the lip of the last bulge that I wrapped my whole hand around (thankfully because I couldn't hold onto anything other than a horn!!). Lily got to the first bolt but didn't get the love from the steeps. Next I went next door and TR'd an 11b that a girl had just lead w/ one hang. I made it but had to utilize the "saddle up" rest where you literally straddle a large feature. It was desperate and there was no way that I could have led it!! We bailed and got Brian off the couch for an evening lap on the Cottonwood Trails (rode from Black Velvet across the street, then DH back to the parking lot, then Little Viagra across the street- a never ending ribbon of flowy trail at the base of the Red Rocks Range. A short climb led us back to the car. What a great day!!!

Fri- May 7th- rest day in preparation for Epinephrine!!

Sat. May 8th

Woke up at 5:15 to get breakfast going. Today was going to be a BIG day.......finishing some business left over from 1997 when Rondo, Bowman, and I tried Epinephrine. We were in Bowman's 4-runner at 6AM and bouncing down Black Velvet's approach road before we knew it. The hike in was fast (trying to keep up w/ Brian). When we got to the base we were dismayed to find a guide and client in front of us (still on the first pitch) and then a very amped group behind us. The group behind us ended up passing us (the leader passed us while Brian was on lead)- they linked a few pitches together that we didn't. The guide group hung us up for a little while and Brian comically climbed RIGHT behind the second, occasionally offering up advice of where to go, or which direction to point. After the second pitch we started hauling the two mini haulbags that we were toting. Brian would lead w/ two ropes, then once at the belay he would have me clip the haulbags on a butterfly knot. When that rope came taught to me I would start climbing (as would Lily). It worked well, and we were in the chimneys before I knew it. The 3 chimney pitches were a mix of funky, strenuous, and tricky. I had to employ chicken-wings, fist jams, foot jams, and lots of "shimmying." Both feet on one wall; one foot on each- lots of weird body positions. Then we were on top of the Black Tower. From there 6 pitches of beautiful climbing led to the top of Black Velvet Canyon Buttress. We started climbing w/ the packs again. At the "top" there was still a 10 minute hike up to the true summit, where we filled out the summit log and reflected on the magical day that had just unfolded. From there, we could look DOWN on the Frogland summit (a good 1000' below). There was one sketchy spot of scrambling that Brain roped us up for. It was a "sidewalk" that was ~1' wide and had over 1500' of exposure. You had to make a few high step moves on less that perfect feet and although Brian only put in one cam, it made or a "piece of mind." We both moved through it w/o any problems- just between our ears!! We hiked along the ride for a while, seemingly on 3 separated summits. Then it got turned downward and we steeply scrambled for a good 90 minutes straight. After ~1 hr we were at the descent for Frogland. By then we were in cruise control and went through the motions of down climbing and scrambling, the ground slowly getting closer. The cars still looked a LONG ways away!! Eventually we found ourselves back at the car and giving out some serious high fives!! We made some pesto pasta, asparagus, corn on the cob, and garlic bread for a worthy feast!! What a day!!!!

Sunday, May 9th.

Official rest day after the full body soreness from Epinephrine. We hung around, made a phat breakfast, and watched the Cavs get dismantled by the Celtics to even their series at 2 apiece. We went to a camera shop in town and I scored a Tamron 18-200mm lens, so that my zoom is much more substantiated!! We went back to the house and caught Brian coming back from the "secret 13's" crag where he got 2 5.13 climbs w/ one hang each. We mowed down some left-over turkey burgers and collapse BACK into the couch!! Rest days rule!!

Monday, May 10th

Rallied out to Pine Creek around 12:30 for a early afternoon ascent of Olive Oil (700' 5.7). The hike took a little longer than I remembered and was very close to the surreal Crimson Crysalis which I had done previously w/ Bowman and Andy (party of 3 epic story for another time). The first pitch (a slabby "rib") was a bit runout, then a quick crux over a bulge and onto the "sandy alcove" where I skipped the first belay point in order to make it to the semi-hanging belay of pitch 2. The second pitch ran up a corner for a while then to a perch off to the R where we could stretch out a little more. Pitch 3 traversed up and R before terminating at the base of the 190' varnished black corner that summits the Rose Tower. I ran the rope out and set up a belay just below the finishing ledge. Lily brought up the last of the gear, I belayed her to the last ledge, then we both untied and scrambled another few hundred feet to the top. There weren't any cairns so we loped along the ridge for a second before plunging ourselves down yet another STEEP hike off. It only took ~30 min to get off a 700' climb!! Before I knew it we were back at the base, retrieving my pack from under a big boulder. The wind picked up pretty good and some gnarly black clouds rolled over the Red Rocks Range as we finished out the hike in near darkness. Back to the car at ~8:15. We stopped by the grocery and made some chicken burritos and corn on the cob before settling into the couch for the end of Silence of the Lambs.

Sun. May 1st, 2010- Buttermilks and Lower Rock Creek DH

2010-05-09T19:09:00.000-07:00

Woke up around 8:30- sun blazing and the wind gently rocking the van back and forth. We made coffee, ate some granola, then had a dip in the best pool there. My hip is absolutely killing me. I did a TON of accupressure and myofascial release on myself. We had another gentleman named Joe join us w/ his dog Maggie. He was remembering a friend of his that had passed a year before. He told us a few stories and had some interesting body language w/ clenched fists and contorted hand posturing. I didn't feel intimidated by his presence, but you could tell he'd make a LOT of people uncomfortable. We rallied back to Lower Rock Creek for another round of DH. Lily rallied the first lap and got to ride the bottom section (the best part in my opinion). I surprisingly feel good and charge the run at nearly full force. The trail takes ~45 min at full clip. We pack back up and drove into Bishop. We hit up a coffee shop for a quick turbo boost and then wander around town (Wilson's Sports). Then we rallied the van out to the Buttermilk's. Let's just say that the van in its currently loaded down state isn't a gnarly dirt road destroyer. I had to gingerly drive it around rocks and holes. I would have loved to have a truck at that point!! I thought we were going for a joyride since the road we were driving down was stunning visually, but not panning out for the Buttermilk Boulder search. Then we rounded a small mountain and BOOM there they were. We hiked around for a good few hours- mainly just gawking, but we did throw on the shoes and got on top of Green Wall and a couple others. My hip wouldn't let me get rowdy and I felt pretty worked in general. I need to stretch and do some yoga!! We watched the sun go behind the surrounding mountain range from on top of a cool scramble/climb that we did (I actually got nervous watching Lily free climb it from below, so I charged up it in my Chaco's). We scrambled down, then headed back into town and hit the Upper Crust for a huge pizza and yummy salad. We lucked out and got to watch most of the 4th quarter of the Cav's game 1 series w/ the Celtics!! We waddled out of the pizza joint and out to the hot springs camp. We got to soak for about 20 minutes before we got invaded by 10 young teenagers who I wanted to slap each and every one of. They were rude, stupid, and LOUD. We tried to block it out for a while but succumb to the wrath of the teenager. With all the bodywork I did on my hip it actually felt better and I was able to sleep soundly on it. California dirtbaggin it!!

April 30, 2010- Driving to Bishop/Hotsprings

2010-05-09T19:08:00.001-07:00

Woke up to Delheimer getting ready for a day of skiing. Got moving since today was the day that we had chose to bail from Truckee. Luckily my transceiver turned up in Delheimer's toy bin in the basement, and we lugged all our stuff up his steep set of steps (his house is on a steep hillside). Lily has a little system for the packing that makes it pretty easy. We headed over to Nate Dawg's house to retrieve our bikes and got a pretty legit lock and cable at the hardware store. We changed our oil (the Sienna takes 5 quarts I found out), and had the unfortunate task of taking back the wrong oil filter once I had already changed the oil out. We got on the road and made our way to Lake Tahoe. We stopped at T's Burritos on the way through Incline Village and munched on some of the best burritos anywhere. We stopped along the drive around the Lake for some photo op's (crazy blue/green water and huge snow capped mountains in contrast w/ one another). We got onto 395 and took it along Bridgeport and into the Eastern Sierras. One amazing view after another for hours. A funny thing happened along the way. I called Brian Bowman on a whim and found out that we were nearby a kick ass downhill mountain bike trail- off Lower Rock Creek Rd. We stopped and I jumped on the Enduro and sped off down the trail. The first couple sections were fun and flowy and followed a creek bed w/ HUGE snow capped peaks off to the right and a rocky canyon w/ crazy fingers of rock on the other side. I was pretty much content to call it good at that point, but Lily spurred me on to ride the next section. The road peeled away immediately and climbed way up w/ no idea of where it goes in relation to the trail. "Oh well" I said as I ripped off down the trail. It wove through boulders near the creek and had lots of flowy sections w/ some sandy corners sprinkled in to keep you honest. I honestly started to panic when the trail turned upwards into the talus field above. I pictured myself hiking my bike out after dark because I foolishly thought I could milk some more vertical pleasure. But it quickly turned downhill again and I rode on with purposeful quickness. It got a little more tech-gnar at the bottom and had some slow rocky tech sections. I almost ate it a couple of times trying to clear stuff w/ my xc bike and clipless pedals. When I ran into a jogger going the same way I was pretty stoked to know I wasn't going to be spending the night spooning my bike!! I finally popped out onto LRC Rd. in the middle of a hairpin corner. I only had to wait 5ish minutes until Lily rounded the corner. She had been waiting down below but decided to make a couple of sweeps. We quickly returned her to the top and she rode the first two sections. She was pretty stoked on the trails (not SUPER gnarly and no BONKER climb). We rallied back into Bishop and did some shopping at Von's (the only grocery store in town was of course in a strip mall w/ K-mart). We then headed out to the Kenoi Hotsprings which Daron recommended. Sure enought- there was a stream that came down the mountain and filled numerous pools. We had to poke around a bit to find one w/o people in it (It was Fri night). We soaked in a couple of different pools- the first one was NOT hot- and finally found a nice temped pool. In a daze we stumbled back to the van and crashed nearby the only vegetation in the whole place- a tree that shaded us a bit from the wind/sun. A weird thing happened that night. My hip just absolutely KILLED ME every time I moved and especially if I rolled onto it. Hmmmmmm....maybe those couple of days of feverish skinning caught up with me?!! I'm definitely getting older!! Snore!!

Aug 28th- POW at the Closed Bowl w/ Daron, Dawg, and Lily

2010-04-28T20:28:00.001-07:00

Woke up in Matt Delheimer's bed this morning (w/ Lily not Matt!!- he's at work all week). Still snowing hard. Daron was up getting breakfast ready at 6:30 am. I could barely move for another 20-30 min. Finally I got up. We made some oatmeal and coffee, then I went up and slapped the chains on the Sienna. We drove over to the old neighborhood and set the lake run with Daron and Nate Dawg. Nate and Daron scissored in the back (a bed) while we drove across 80 (40 was closed), through Soda Springs, and on to "The Bowl." We skinned up the Judah chair and over to the Lake Run. It was a bit scrapy in places, but once we got on the backside it was much more filled in (windy as hell!!). We dropped the first 1/2 of the Lake Run, then skinned back up to Trestle Peak. This was a great call as the run was nice and fall line as well as being very well filled in!! We launched off a bunch of little rocks towards the bottom. I stuck all my airs (rarity!!). We then loaded up Daron's "new" Subaru and "rallied" back up to "the bowl." It sucked getting out of his car all warm and wet, and into the blowing sideways snow w/ howling winds. We got on the move and rallied over to Disney. There was a HUGE path of snow that had been cleared by some HUGE equipment- and it snaked half the way up the mtn. We struggled getting over the far side and I nearly ate it hard when I got disoriented and pointed it off the 3+' wall (luckily landing on my skis). I set the skin track all the way up the mountain and was blinded by the fog on my goggles for most of it. I could have run straight into a wall w/o realizing it!! It took a bit longer than I thought (and more effort). 1200' and probably 1 hour and change and we were on top. We dropped Nancy's Couloir and shot out near the bottom of Lincoln. We decided to "sack up" and go for a lap on Lincoln. It wasn't as steep for most of it, but still got me sweating pretty good. The wind and snow were absolutely blinding. I passed Dawg and almost caught Daron. Then I watched both of them bail while I waited on Lily. She's a trooper and pushes herself beyond what most people would tolerate on a rather consistent basis. We dropped down Fuller's Folly (double diamond) into the Sister's, then Rockgarden. The visibility crapped out on us a couple of times on the last run, but the snow was SOOOOO deep!! Super light and deep. Hip wiggle was all that was needed to ride it!! We got back to the parking lot and Daron/Dawg were already gone. Lucky for us a front end loader pulled in and started plowing the lot right as we were taking off our soaked gear. Later on we would find out that Daron and his 4wd Subaru had fits getting out of the lot, but our Sienna w/ chains got lucky and backed out w/ barely any hesitation. We drove back to town, got a bunch of veggies from New Moon, and made a yummy veggie pasta dish w/ Thai peanut sauce. Daron baked up some chocolate chip cookies, stoked the fire so I'm sweating while writing this, and Lily and I are chilling on a COUCH!! Life is good!! We're meeting the Dawg at 7:30 AM for some more Lake Runs. Definitely getting to bed at a reasonable time tonight!! Snore!!

4-26-10 Auburn w/ Daron, Stubby, and Aaron

2010-04-27T10:54:00.001-07:00

Monday morning Dawg rolls out at the usual 7:30 AM, and I reluctantly get up and start drinking coffee in order to prepare myself for another day of punishment (biking). Nate let me take his front wheel off his bike (he had to clean carpets at Sugarbowl w/ Socko), and borrow his Jeep to rally to Auburn. I swung by the Backcountry and met up w/ Aaron, Stubby, and Daron who were hanging out in the parking lot dialing in their bikes. Daron jumped in w/ me and we rallied down 80 towards Auburn. One cup of coffee later and we're sweating profusely driving down the highway immersed in conversation. We dropped Stubby's rig at the bottom of the Confluence trail and drove all the way up to Forest Hill. We parked the Jeep in the back corner of a grocery parking lot and soaked in some sweet views of the backside of Desolation Wilderness. We jumped on the road for a few minutes, then dropped into the Western States Trail (w/ a no biking sign) that was right next door to a lone house and didn't really seem like a trail at first. But damn was it fun right off the bat!! We dropped over a thousand feet, swooping in and out of creek crossings, while riding a serpentine-like ribbon of dirt. After a while the trail leveled out and the water bar jumps slowed down. Then we ran into the first "headwall" that got us all huffing and puffing. It seemed like the temp rose about 20 degrees on that stretch of painful road climbing. Thankfully the four members of the ride didn't want to make it race pace (for once), and we all stuck together. Then we rode some sidehill that was mega exposed and had views all the way down to the river rushing below (1-2k ft below). The trails just begged you to ride faster, daring you to push through that blind corner harder. While the focus was mostly on the trail, you had to have one eye glimpsing at the poison oak (po-yo) which was dripping w/ oils. We rinsed off a few times throughout the ride to limit our chances of itching for days to come. We climbed the Connector Trail to the Confluence Trail, then onto the Flume trail. I stopped and had a look at the jump that tossed me over-the-bars (OTB) last year and cost me 17 stitches and 3400$. Daron hit them both right in front of me. I probably could have as well, but I was in no shape to try stupid stuff (no health insurance). It's funny....the smaller jumps are usually built like crap and are contrived whereas the larger, big air, high consequence moves are usually designed more thoughtfully. There were a bunch of small doubles scattered throughout the descent, some of which hipped you onto the hillside. We got to the bottom, laughing and grinning from ear to ear. We immediately dove into beers and headed for the beach. The river was flowing strong and one by one we all made the plunge (except Stubby who splashed off w/o full submersion). I am admittedly not a cold water fan, and boy did it take just about all I had to commit to laying down in the frigid water. Being numb from a 32 mile ride and a quick beer helped out tremendously. Stubby and I retrieved the shuttle vehicle and when I got back Chef Greg and Jen were handing over the Subaru Loyale (w/ Cheese) to Daron. They sped away in their "new" 1998 subaru outback, Jen expecting their first child in a month and change. Greg's bachelor party is this weekend in Reno. We'll see if I make it to that (could be trouble!!). Currently it's snowing/slushing here in Truckee. Lily is in Santa Cruz visiting her mama, and I hope she makes it back over the pass before the snow gets too disorderly. We didn't get any chains w/ the Sienna!! Looks like it's going to be a pow day later this afternoon up high and definitely tomorrow!! Then off to Vegas to kick it w/ Bowman!! Wahoo!!!!!

I'd also like to give a big shout out to the best mom in the world......MINE!! She had her birthday yesterday (I won't add a number to please her!!). HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA!!

Downieville Round 2

2010-04-25T21:23:00.001-07:00

Yesterday (Sat) we rode in Downieville again. We were joined by Socko, Delheimer, Daron, Nate, and Natalie. We slept overnight at Nate's and made the journey over to Downieville Outfitter's where Nate was putting on his 4th 2-step fork on his bike. I got a pair of gloves (somehow forgot my 2 pairs in WA). We stashed some beers in the river and took off on the River Trail. We rode the new section all the way down to Rocky Rest campground. It's a pretty techy ride with a pretty solid ~2k ft climb. Then we hit the N. Yuba trail for 10 miles. It's a beautiful ride w/ some suffering thrown in for good measure. At the end of the trail there was a huge mound of shale/rock that Daron was standing on. He did a chute that looked cool, and I climbed up to the top w/ my bike. Just about that time a Sheriff drives by then turns around just as another one coming the other direction pulls in. Both want to watch me hit it, not bitch at me. I hit a little drop to steep tranny a couple times. We then hit the road for 7-8 miles. Lily did a great job at keeping up and drafting and we broke off w/ Nate Dawg for a while. Then we dropped back into the New trail from the opposite direction. Natalie bailed, but Lily decided to hang it out. She made it about 1/2-2/3 of the way up and started to get pretty worked. I stuck back with her to keep her encouraged. We ended up popping out at 7:30!! 30 miles and 5+ thousand feet of climbing!! Daron, Socko, and Delheimer had already bailed, so Nate, Natalie, Lily, and I bailed back to Rocky Rest to make some food and hang out at camp. We had a yummy tortellini and salad dinner w/ tasty beers. We played a game of Yahtzee which I won, then retired to our minivan for the evening.

Nevada City Goose Egg Hunt (Sun April 25th)

2010-04-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

We awoke to the sound of Nate tapping on our window.....again. It's 8am and he's already firing it up. We jump in the truck and head to Convict Flat day-use area to make breakfast (and wake up). It's nice and sunny and we lavish in it while making a yummy veggie omelette, bacon, and coffee. We shared the spot w/ some raft guides that were blowing up their rafts and getting ready for a day on the river which was roaring behind us. We then got Lily to shuttle us up Hwy 20 off 49 to Skillman Camp. Within 100 yards there is snow and downed trees. We hike for a few minutes through snow, then get going again. I got a stick jammed in my tire and I used my foot to try to kick it away, but instead I stuffed my foot into my front tire. Immediately I took the long arcing over-the-bars, and landed with a thud in the small stream that was running in the middle of the trail. I hit some baby heads w/ my forearm and it swelled up super quick. It was a text book goose egg and had my attention for a few minutes to make sure it didn't burst or make my hand go numb. Then I realized that by front rim was taco'd and I had ripped a line of 4-5 spokes out of one side of my rim. Nate Dawg came back up trail and helped me transplant some spokes to the problem area. About 45 min after the wreck I was riding again. I felt every single bump on the trail. We rode Hallelujah (which was pretty beat up w/ branches down and clutter all over the trail), to Pioneer (~15 mi), to Miner's (the finish trail). We ended w/ just under 20 miles. We jumped in the Jeep and headed back to Truckee where Natalie made some yummy bean dip and enchiladas. The Cavs won game 4 vs. the Bulls, and I got to take an amazing shower (and clean up my wounds). Looks like riding in Auburn w/ Daron tomorrow (he's supposed to get a Subaru from Chef Greg, who inadvertently is getting married and having a baby very soon). I dodged a bullet today and didn't have to go to the ER. Let's keep it that way!!!

April 22, 2010- More Pow in Truckee

2010-04-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

Slept in Matt Delheimer's basement last night after boarding/partying down. We made a yummy pasta w/ veggies and garlic bread. I fumbled around a couple times trying to find the stairs to the bathroom in the middle of the night....it was pretty funny. We woke up at 6:45, ate granola and drank some strong coffee, and jammed out the door to set a lake run and hit Sugarbowl again. We didn't have enough spare passes to go around, so Matt Caracoglia had to sneak on the lift all day. I had some pass w/ a dude that had a big beard and dark hair....good thing it's late season and nobody cares. We rode a couple laps on Disney, then ran over to Lincoln. Everything was wind hammered and made all kinds of crazy shapes across the slopes. It was pretty foggy up top and we had to stick to the trees for the pockets of pow and visibility. Then we headed back to the trucks and grabbed our avy gear. We ended up doing two laps off Andersen ridge, then hiking to the top of Mt Judah. We dropped back inbounds on one lap then off the back side on our way to the lake run. It was pretty bad visibility and kinda heavy snow, but was fun as hell at the same time. The lake run turned out to be really heavy, but that didn't stop us from hucking off all kinds of rocks. I took a good tumble when my board stuck in the snow on a steep shot. Other than that no real carnage and lots of good times!! We rallied the troops and went to the Blue Coyote to eat and watch the Cavs LOSE!! DOH!! To make matters worse, we decided to go shoot some pool. I walk into the bar, grab a pool stick then get asked for my ID. Can't find it (probably in my snowboarding gear)....so they made me leave. Really?!! I was admittedly pissed, but left w/o being an character. We went to another bar, the Tourist Trap, but the tables were taken and the place reminded me of a stinky college bar. So I drank the beer Daron slid me and grabbed Lily, heading to the Holiday Inn's hot tub!! We soaked our weary bones, then back to Matt's house. Everyone is still at the bar, so Lily and I grabbed a shower and ate some really yummy strawberries. Looks like we're headed to Reno to do some mountain biking tomorrow........Snore!!

April 19-20th (Rest day then pow day)

2010-04-23T11:58:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, we woke up around 9:00 AM in Greg's big cozy bed. It's dark and although I've heard the rain pattering on the windows all night, I can't get myself stoked to make the early AM plunge over the pass to Truckee just yet. We went upstairs and made a super yummy breakfast- strawberry pancakes, a veggie scramble, soysauges, and coffee. Oh yeah!! Then the inevitable occurred, mine and Greg's annual political summit. We talked politics for about 2 hours. Lily finished eating, cleaned the dishes, then the kitchen, and still it went on. She eventually disappeared downstairs out of the politically charged atmosphere. It's funny because Greg is a helluva standup guy, parties, rips mountain bikes, barely even works, but is a fox news watching conservative....and proud of it. I try not to engage in the usual rhetoric, rather I always try to discuss the actual issues involved, rather than where the mainstream news media tries to take it. He is always thankful to have someone to talk to and unfortunately it tends to be a bit over the top. No harm taken. We ran up the road to Bassett's and were originally going to go up towards the Buttes, but Daniel's sled blew-up and he only had one running. That would have involved doubling and towing the third. Instead Greg sent us across the street on his sled to go riding by ourselves. Lily got sick of riding on the back in less than 2 minutes, and promptly got off and happily declined a ride back to the van. She told me to go ride as much as I wanted, so I took it on a 30 min ride up some forest service roads and ventured into some small fields (the snow wasn't too deep, but I was still scared of getting it stuck). The bottom was really rough and bumpy, but the top was untouched fresh snow on a really solid base. My thumb really didn't like the position it had to stay in to run the throttle the whole time. Towards the end I searched unsuccessfully for a different position by which to run the sled. We headed into Truckee with some snow falling in the middle valley section of the ride. We pulled up right in front of Casa Baeza and had the obligatory pitcher of their amazing margaritas. Buzzing quite well we went over to Nate Dawg's house where they made us dinner (yummy fajitas), before sipping some brews and watching The Big Lebowski.

Wednesday (April 21st)

Woke up and rallied to make a huge scramble that we used for breakfast burritos. Headed out the door and up to the bowl w/ Nate and Natalie in the good ol' Jeep. The bowl was pretty empty and we rallied the usual Disney and Lincoln chairs. It was 4-6" of fresh over some chunder and ice, but also some soft spots. We still managed to rally some really good laps- all the different sides of Disney and the Silver Belt zone as well. We then rallied a couple of laps on Andersen and Judah before hitting up a "welcome back" lake run. It was really fresh and fun. Much more smooth and consistent surface to float on. We rallied through the train trestle and Lily went down hard on the ice- bashing her knuckles between the board and the ice, as well as slamming her tibial tuberosity. Tough girl didn't even barely whimper about it. We hit up the second door and dropped the various tiers w/ many little drops to choose from. I stuck a bunch and ate it a couple times as well. Once I dropped this boulder, landed, the snow pushed off the top of the next rock drop and I got plunked down right on my butt!! Pretty funny, but the snow is peeling away from the rocks and I surely don't want to get swallowed in some chasm!! We make it down to the bottom and the awaiting vehicle to drive us back up to the top. We got a ride back to Nate Dawg's w/ Justin (the Mountain Hardware rep who lives in Glenshire) in his badass Chevy diesel (2006). He hauls a camper in the back on big trips (it has a bathroom too). We jump in the shower at Dawg's and gather up our stuff before heading over to Daron's/Matt's house. We partied down and made some yummy food. The wood stove made the place super toasty and I felt like I had a glow going the whole night. Good times!!

Mon. April 19th, 2010-Nevada City Group Ride

2010-04-23T11:57:00.000-07:00

I woke up again at 7:30 w/o an alarm (2 days in a row!!). My R side of my low back was still angry at me and I ended up taking a rare Motrin to loosen up before the ride. We decided to forgo the 7:30 meet up and go to breakfast plan that the rest of the group was on in favor of making our own breakfast. We loaded up the van and Greg's little Toyota and took off for Nevada City. We got there a bit late and the group had already split. We drove up and met up w/ them. That's where I realized I didn't have my riding shoes. DOH!! I forgot them at the campground the night before and luckily Aaron grabbed them and brought them along. I jumped in the van and booked it back down to the bottom and retrieved my shoes. The trails were fun- a lot more undulating than Downieville. There was the fun gully jump line that we hit 3x throughout the day. We rode the downhill switchback trail, then chilled out (and I left my freakin sunglasses.....doh!!). We finished off by climbing gravel road for a good long time, then getting some fun flowy trail w/ a couple of grunts. Two 30 mile days in a row. At this pace I should be back in good shape in no time!! We went to a local burger joint and mowed down a bunch of beer and burgers. We also watched the Cavs win game 2 of the first round of the NBA playoffs. We decided for a second straight night to head back to Greg's along the uber-windy rt. 49 that cruised past Grass Valley, Nevada City, Downieville and Sierra City. Looks like there might be some precipitation rolling in at which time our splitboards will be coming out with a quicknes!! Stay tuned!!

Sun. April 18th, 2010- Downieville!! N. Yuba/Hall's Ranch-Fiddle Creek Bonk-a-thon

2010-04-23T11:55:00.000-07:00

We arrived at Greg's house around dinner time and nobody was home. My bike was sitting partially assembled in his kitchen. I started building it in anticipation of the 420 ride. We watched some basketball and lounged in his comfy house. Lily made a yummy quinoa stir-fry and we sipped a couple brewskies. The bed was nice and comfy and we zonked out early (9:30). I woke up at 7:30 w/o an alarm (surprised myself) in anticipation of the day ahead. I started making coffee and breakfast and Greg and Lily slowly started moving around. Greg informed us he wasn't going to ride, so after breakfast Lily and I went and met the group at the local N. Yuba trailhead near the Town Hall. We dialed in our bikes and got ready for a long day.

We started off w/ a 1100' climb that was pretty damn steep and being in the middle of the pack I felt inclined to push it pretty hard. We then rode a 10 mile section of the N. Yuba trail that had some pretty solid exposure and a few extra techy sections (like right off the bat!!). We re-grouped at a camp site and filled up on water for round 2 of the day. This included a rode ride/climb to the trailhead of Hall's Ranch which threw 15 switchbacks and over 1500' in 2 miles (steep!!). Lily's legs cramped up after 5 switchbacks and she turned back. I suffered my ass up to the top w/o a glimpse of life the whole time. Just more uphill. When I finally met up w/ the group they were ready to go again and after a short break we pushed off along the ridge (Fiddle Creek). It was fun, but there were still a handful more climbs and a few "headwalls." I was at the brink of cardiac failure most of the time. When it finally let go and was consistent downhill I was overjoyed. At the bottom we drank a beer and I jumped in w/ Nate Dawg and went back to Rocky Rest campground to wait for pizza. I was pretty delirious at this point, and my head felt like it was going to pop from a combination of physical exertion, dehydration, and a lot of sun. We got 120$ worth of pizza and ate it all in one sitting (15+ people). Everyone was pretty much in a coma at that point and we made a fire and laughed for a while before we decided to head back to Greg's (all of our bathroom stuff was there, showers, bed, etc). We conked out around 9:30 again. What a day!! I think I burned around 10,000 calories!!

Sat. April 17, 2010

2010-04-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

Well, after finishing work last Friday at OMC in Port Angeles, and staying at Dick and Vicki Vancalcar's amazing house for the week, we packed up the third and last load of stuff into the Yota and peeled out for Bellingham. We stuffed all our stuff in Tom Andersen's extra bedroom in his shop and spent a couple of nights at Dana's house (well, actually we slept in the garage). We hit up our favorite haunts- Boundary Bay Brewery for a yummy dinner and their legendary IPA. We had sushi at the Public Market, got fresh produce as well and made up a couple of yummy stir-fries and soup. Crash and LA made us dinner one night which was awesome. We rode at the North Fork- Deadfall was sooo muddy I felt bad riding it the one lap that I did, but Skullduggery was riding suuuuuper as they say in France. I took two laps and hit all the jumps both laps. Todd Z. has done an amazing job of building some steep loamy trails with jumps to keep you honest. Lily rode 2 laps on Dirt Renyolds and one on Moto. We had a couple of photo shoots along the way. Lily rode the steep exit move on DR.

We also rode Galbraith (Ridge to SST to mud bog to lower SST). Can't wait to have the new bikes on Galby!! The dirt jumps at Puget St were beckoning me so I hit them up a few different days. I even worked on linking up the BIG line one day and was able to rip off a bunch of consecutive laps for the camera!! In sad news, this was the last place my helmet camera was seen. I freaked out when we were all packed up and I couldn't locate my helmet cam. We ended up spending an extra 2 hours looking through stuff with no luck. WHAT A BUMMER!!! I'm hoping that it snuck its way into one of my bags that I didn't double check!! Speaking of being packed up.....I bought a 2001 Toyota Sienna mini-van!! It had 83k miles and was the base model. I paid 5700$ Drove sweet. New tires and brakes. We got a hitch mounted, shoved the bike rack in the back, and decided to take the Iron Horse Sunday. Got out of town late (2PM) and caught Everett/Seattle traffic on our way to Lily's grandma's house. We had dinner, chatted for a few, and got back on the road. Here's where issue #1 arose: the van started shimmying when braking over 60 MPH. I was about to turn around and drive it right back to Bellingham, but it started raining, stopped doing the shimmy, and has been doing fine ever since (did I imaging the shimmy?!!). Issue #2 Check engine light pops on about 10:30 at night!! WTF!!! Am I jinxed with toyota vans? Then the tire pressure gauge pops on. My van is self imploding?!!! I check the fluids and tires. Nothing. Oh well.....keep driving. Lily drove for a couple hours and I crawled in the back and passed out!! She drove until 1 AM, then pulled into a rest area where we crashed.

Woke up at 7:30....stumbled into the rest area. On the road again w/ some crappy coffee down the gullet. Check engine light is still on. Tire lights are on and off throughout the morning. So here we are.....driving 65 MPH, passing exit 729 in California. Headed to Downieville, CA to pick up our new Specialized Enduros from Greg Long. There's also the 420 ride(s) Sun-Mon that we're going to get get punished on!! Speaking of 420, we just left Weed, CA.....a "sleepy" little town right at the base of Mt. Shasta. Just absolutely jaw dropping views of the remnants of a ancient volcano. The van seems to have moods. Sometimes the brakes feel great at any speed and then occasionally it will shudder while trying to brake.......hmmmmmmmmmm........BEHAVE VAN!!!

Here We Go Again!!

2010-04-13T08:53:00.000-07:00

Well, it sure has been a long time since I've kept up on my blog......seems the last post was while I was in Nelson, BC last Oct (09). Let's see......since then I lived in Port Angeles (at "The Fortress") w/ Benjamin, Lily, Emily (oh man), and Kent. It worked out well enough w/ 220$ rent. I worked at OMC again and even got my act together enough to do The Core Workout w/ Lily ~3-4x/wk. Got into pretty good shape doing cardio, stretching, movement drills, and weights!! Too bad Lily tweeked her back reaching into the back seat of the truck while at the DJ's. We've been off the Core for almost a month now.......In that time we packed our stuff up, moved it into a room at Tom's house in Bellingham, ordered two new Specialized Enduro's, and have been trying to find an ideal roadtripping mobile. We're actually going to look at an awfully tempting '94 Toyota p/u w/ 130k and pretty cherry looking..... Might have the successor to the wildly famous "Blue Bomber" that is my '87 toyota p/u. The plan is something like this right now....... Back to Truckee, CA for a week or two to pick up the bikes and do some backcountry snowboarding w/ Daron (maybe some Eastern Sierras?!!). Then off to Vegas to climb some rocks w/ Bowman (been a while!!) followed by Sedona for some of that oh so good riding lurking amongst the striped towers. Then onto the biking mecca that is Moab!! Can't forget about Fruita while you're there!! Then maybe Sun Valley for some hot tubs and endless singletrack. Finishing up w/ the monster drive back up to Kelowna, BC for the "Girls Got Skills" camp for Lily's birthday present. THEN Lily starts back up at Olympic National Park as a backcountry ranger in early June. I'm going to try to keep up w/ my writing b/c adventures pile up fast when you're on the road!!

Speaking of which.....We stayed at my co-workers (the VanCalcar's) house for a week of lavish views and a hot tub on the back deck overlooking Port Angeles, the Straight of Juan de Fuca, and Victoria. They even had a elk and mountain goat mounted on the wall in the living room!! From there we loaded the truck FULL and waddled it into Seattle to pick up a DW link for my downhill bike (SUPER hard to find part that he charged me 100$ instead of 300$ for!!). Then onto the Ham. Pulled out the dirt jumper and hit up the Puget St. DJ's!! Got spunky and even gave'r on the BIG line. Took a good few goes to hit the second gap just right, before sending it skyward for ~15-20' off the mega-vert lips. I got the line about 5x that day (and was able to whip and table my way through the next biggest line a bunch). We then rode at Galby (up the Ridge on techy singletrack climbing) and across Cedar Dust to SST. Rallied that swoopy ripping goodness to the bottom, then down a creek bed of a "trail" that I thought was a short cut to Lakeway Dr. Crashed at Dana's house (in the garage) for a couple of nights. Even got in on a makeshift sweatlodge in a tent the first night!!

Monday, March 12th we got in another sweet DJ session (before breakfast), then over to Tom's for some breakfast (and DANK espresso). Got the Sunday going again (finally!!)- after nearly a month long ordeal of trying to get bearings, and replacement parts to make my bike stop sounding like all the bolts were loose!! Slapped it together at DNZ w/ Matt then took off to the NORTH FORK!! WAHOO!! Rode a very sloppy Deadfall (wished I could've turned around it was soooo muddy), then 2 laps on Skullduggery/Dirt Renyolds. Lily rode Moto, then DR twice. The last lap ended just as the rain began to fall (supposed to have all day!!). We rallied back into town and right over to Boundary Bay for some yummy food/beer. Finished it off at Cap's w/ a couple more Stone IPA's. Back to Tom's to digest the helmet cam footage/pics.

Well....gonna go sip another espresso and look at Craigslist for cars!! Stay tuned!!

Oct. 25-26, Snow and Slabalanche

2010-01-31T12:54:00.001-08:00

Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009

Well, it snowed a solid couple inches here in Nelson yesterday, effectively ending my MTB riding plans. It came down in big heavy flakes that seemed suspended for an inordinate amount of time. I didn't do much yesterday but entertain the house inspector and potential buyers of the home on Cottonwood where we're staying. I managed to head over to Josh's house to see how his shoulder was doing and realized that the yota is driving really rough!! It may have been the cold, wet weather, but she was misfiring and stalled a couple times while idling at lights!! Uh-oh!! Just as we're about to get ready to drive 10 hrs+ over potentially snowy passes!! I also hit up the lovely co-op that they have on Baker St. I won't ever complain about organic prices back in the states!! Everything is so expensive up here and the exchange rate is on par!! The girls showed up from yoga around 6 and they made a tofu steak (on the grill) and rice/veggie dish w/ mayo herb sauce (the French love mayo as I'm told). Then we made some granola before retiring to bed. I emailed Ken Berkes about starting back up at OMC and am waiting to hear back from him. This morning the internet won't work and the other house mate showed back up from his 3 wk trip to Australia. Change is sure on the horizon (in all directions!!). I guess the last few remaining daze will be spent packing, poking around town a bit more (haven't really done much of that!!), working on my dilapidated bike, and check out what's up w/ the truck. There was a chance of boogieing up to Kamloops for some desert riding, but that's in doubt now that the truck is running a bit rough. I feel like I'm in a bit of an in-between zone, not sure where to go for more long-term work/play, how to invest, how to better myself as a PT/human, how to resist the urge for delicious deserts that have been my downfall since leaving Richland (where I was hard-core healthy 98% of the time), and the like.

I do know that I'm glad I checked out Slabalanche on Sunday (25th). I had that "better go before the snow" feel. I went solo (as per usual in Nelson fall riding), and tried to find the B&B that was scribbled onto my map....only there's a TON of them on both sides of the road. Just as I was going to give up I hit "the fast straight away" he used to describe the location. I turned up and parked by the gate. 7 switch backs is what he told me to do. I hit one, then headed Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay across the mountain the other way and began to think the spur road I had passed after the first switchback was possibly the road I needed to take. I turned around (sweaty already, even though it was in the low 40's) and charged up the spur road. I had to cross a few logs and there were some chain ring marks alright!! The spur road dead-ended me into the trail!! Now for the fun part, right. The description said 1-1.5 hr push/bike up the road. I've been at it 20+ min. So I started pushing up the trail. There were a bunch of sweet rock slabs (some steeper than I've seen, but I usually don't WALK up the trail either though!!), and some steepie sections that were especially fun to grunt my way up. Add to that the fact that my front brake was pumping up and not really working (I usually use it to help me up steep spots and on rocks, etc). I wanted to turn around a few times, but each time I'd push through another section, I'd find a sweet log ride, or another rock face, or a sweet flowing DH section that would re-invigorate me and push me to trudge further. Finally I spotted a ladder bridge that looked like it started from a road. Sure enough I had pushed up the whole trail!! The funniest part was that the entrance was VERY well hidden and was NOT where the douche at the bike shop said it would be. It was "supposed" to be at the apex of the 7th switchback, but instead was on a long straight away that I'm not sure was even on the main road!! I hiked in both directions and didn't find any connector roads!! Chuckling to myself that this was probably the only way I would have found it anyways I suited up for battle and turned on the helmet cam (whose batteries died before I even hit the trail.....boohoo!!). The trail felt totally different riding down!! I was amazed by how steep it was overall and I found myself questioning that fact that I had really pushed up it!! There were a few sections that I wasn't SUPER sure of......1. A spine line on the L of this large boulder......had to point it down the chunky, discontinuous ridge and make a soft L at the bottom through some chunky blocks typical of Nelson. I got into a track stand w/ my tire pointing to the L while eyeing the line. Finally I committed and pointed it. Wahooo!!! That is a great feeling to nail a techy move by yourself! Now it was on!! 2. A long, meandering waterfall of a rock line that had some mud in the worst spot possible (before the last roll that shot you into a hard L berm). I just crept along slowly and stuck it just fine. Kind of reminded me of the Snake in a way. 3. A steeeep rock roll that had a small boulder in the run-out then another one a bike and a half away. Didn't want to pile up into the second rock, and didn't. It was just a matter of braking hard, soaking it up, then pushing it down before soaking another hit up......rodeo style!! Those were the cruxes for me....... but I like techy log rides and there were a few of them which I stuck first go!! The trail dumped out onto a dirt road and I thought it was done, but then I poked around and found another section that once I started down (and wasn't hiking back up) had a bunch of No Trespassing signs plastered all over the trees. There were a bunch of broken ladder bridges and I poked through a bunch of boulder fields on faint trail that eventually dumped out onto Hwy 3A. I rode the road back towards town for 5 min and retrieved my truck from the B&B driveway.

The 4th annual Taster's Cup was also going on and I thought I'd try to hit both in one day, so I boogied out to Blewett. I picked up a woman hitch-hiker on the way and she talked me into going the back way to the trails so I could drop her off. No problems!!! It didn't matter anyways b/c nobody was at the trails (3PM by now). I poked around and found a bunch of moto trails that I mistook for bike trails and then headed back to town. I still wanted to ride some more, so I went and hit up the DJ's by the hostel that I stayed at last time I was in town. They were beautifully covered in yellow and red hued leaves and I spent a few minutes kicking them off the lips of the jumps. It was a pretty tight line in a little ravine area. From the start platform you hit a hard R berm then immediately into the first jump that I cased the first time I tried it. Determined to hit the whole line, I began CHARGING the berm and realized that's how hard I need to hit it on my 8.5" travel DH bike. The next jump was a bit of a shooter-style step-down, then into the biggest gap of the line, followed by an all-out charge into a big step-up up the hillside. This turned out to be the hardest jump to hit!! I sessioned the jumps for a while then after hitting them the smoothest yet, I bailed. Good times!! I sure do love the feeling of nailing jumps!! Maybe I can take my jumping to the next level w/ that sweet little TOP sitting in PA!! Hopefully 31 isn't too old to get into DJ'ing!!

Well.....I guess I'm going to eat some granola and go stick my head under the hood of the Yota to see what's up w/ her!! Ciao!!

"Winter" 2009/2010

2010-01-09T11:48:00.000-08:00

Well, I made it through the holiday season again. Went over to Seattle, WA to hang out with Lily's folks for Turkey Day and Christmas. Even managed to sneak away to Steven's Pass w/ good friend Daron Huck the weekend before Thanksgiving for my first (and only) turns of the year thus far. It's certainly been a bitter sweet season for me so far. My truck started acting iffy in October when finishing up my 1 month stay in Nelson, BC while Lily was doing her yoga teacher training. It stalled a couple of times when cold and I started to dread the 10 hr drive back to Port Angeles, but she made it just fine. Then the battery died the day after I showed back up in WA (lucky!!). Then it got worse....not holding an idle, dying, and generally lacking power. I did a tune-up, changed the fuel filter, and checked other systems w/o any change in her symptoms. Finally I drove it at 25mph max to the mechanic and found out my auxiliary accelerator pump diaphragm was shot and my NAPA wires were not making good contact. A battery change and some more tinkering later she is back to running decent. That being said I have spent the last few weeks stuck in Port Angeles during some weekends I would have loved to have been enjoying the unseasonably dry weather ripping loam in Bham, or BC. It's certainly been a trying time figuring out why my recreational life has come to a screeching halt. This time last year Daron, Lily, and I were out boarding from bell to bell everyday, cavorting around Truckee, CA, and meeting a ton of cool cats in the area. My DH bike is all clapped out (bushings, bearings, rims, rotors, brakes, tires, shock, etc) and needs a ton of work. My XC bikes shock died and I was taken back by the 210$ price tag that I got after thinking I would be cool and let the LBS (local bike shop) replace what I thought was just going to be the seals (100>$). Hurricane Ridge is close enough to lay eyes on, but is only open on the weekends, weather permitting (meaning if the plows can handle the new snow)- ie. new dumps should equal pow riding, but usually means you have to go somewhere else (4-5 hrs min). SO I have been riding my DJ hardtail predominately (jumping onto/off of walls, riding skinnies, and hitting the skatepark). It's no where near what my heart wants/needs, but has kept me riding a bike. I feel SO FAR removed from Bellingham and all of my friends, Daron and the Truckee crew, Sterling and my BC buddies, and snowboarding (was <10 min from the slopes last winter). I've been saving my money thinking I have to buy a new truck and it's been stressing me out. Cars are soo much money and in my mind a big waste of time and money. BUT to get to all the badass places that I've discovered ya just gotta have a reliable rig. Life certainly is full of ups and downs and for some reason I feel like I've definitely been in a lull of sorts. I keep telling myself it's only temporary (living w/ 5 people- some of them rather type A, being removed from the outdoor scene, etc). I've been reading a lot of PT books, trying to improve my skills so that some day I can open my dream clinic to help others get healthy (especially the hard core athletes like myself). I would love to be accepted into a mountain town as a "go to" healer. Just have to find the right spot!! I've also been doing a lot of cross-training from a book called Core Performance by Mark Verstegen that is freaking gnarly!! I feel really limber and have balanced. Now if I could only get out of town and shred it up I'll be all set. Speaking of which....it's supposed to be rainy all weekend throughout the entire PNW. Maybe I'll wait for better conditions before heading 4-6 hrs out of town. Maybe I'll get some powder for my birthday here in a couple weeks!! I'm staying optimistic and actually taking it easy for once....it's harder than you'd think!!

Friday Oct. 23, 2009- Taster's Choice and 49er (Blewett, BC

2009-10-23T15:23:00.001-07:00

Friday Oct. 23, 2009- Taster's Choice and 49er (Blewett, BC)

Taking another leisurely morning to get going here in Nelson, BC. We had an impromptu dinner party last night w/ Leslie and Stephanie showing up after the girls yoga practice ended. Vince and I whipped up a bomber veggie lasagna w/ some unwieldy noodles that did not want to cook. Al dente!! Yesterday Vince was gracious enough to shuttle me up the Blewett area. I got 2 laps on Taster's Choice (once from the top top), and 1 lap on 49er. Both were fun and pedaly in sections. Taster's had a really smooth FSR to drive up on (bonus!!). We went up 11k and then I pushed my bike through a short road section that had a TON of fallen logs on it. I angled towards the edge of the clearing and sure enough, there was a sign on the tree....."Taster's Choice." I'll be damned!! BIking is crazy like that......where else do you wander aimlessly up FSR's in search of a little parting of the bushes on the side of the road?!! It started out fun w/ some pedaly sections. Once it got ripping I had the funniest thing happen.....Kinda......2 snarling good sized dogs came leaping out of a blind corner!! They scared the shit out of me!! And they weren't going away easily!! I was screaming at the top of my lungs..."GET BACK!!" over and over. The gray one was taking some snaps at me!! I'm trying to ride my bike AND fend off these dogs!! Then I heard a silent whistle blow and they abated for a moment before resuming their snarling chase of me. After a few more snaps I heard the whistle again and they circled back. My adrenaline was pumping HARD!! For a moment I was disoriented and thought I had passed my intended trail. Then I kept riding and found the next spur. There were some wide open jumps made of wood (shooters) that were pretty fun (I was surprised to see built stuff this far up in the mountains!!). After a multitude of false summit climbing I crested out and began descending for a LONG time!! There were a few hairy sections and one zone that I had to go around completely!! It looked like a rock drop into some loose crappy runout that I almost onsighted. Then I got off the bike and went over and actually looked at it. It was an easy 10+' drop into some roots and loose rocks. I didn't want it that bad (especially by myself!!). I did hit everything else on the trail onsight. Then it got steeper and rockier and crossed the road a few times. I thought it was done. Nope!! Keep going.....taking a L or R when you hit a road, then back into the trail- sometimes very nondescript. THEN I went back up again- this time only to the 8k marker for the "all down" ride. I rode the second lap a lot faster and more confidently- and still didn't do the rock drop move!! 3rd move here that I haven't done (The crack on Paperbag, Kinrade's carazy hip jump on Pulmonary, and this). It was still light out and I talked Vince into taking a drive up Copper Mountain to check out 49er. The road wound through some old farms and then onto a road w/ a TON of No Trespassing signs. It had to be the right road so we kept going. An older man and a dog were walking and we came to a stop. The man turned out to be friendly and told us "don't cut any firewood!!". No worries!!

About half of a mile later the road turned nasty. Waterbars, huge puddles, rocks, washed out veins in the road, etc. You know what? The 'yota rallied to the occasion and we were able to make it all the way up!! There was substantial damage to the bumper in the way of a flapper of metal (it's pretty rusty) that was pointing out ruthlessly....watch those shins!! What a beast!!

The trail was really fun w/ a bunch of log ride stunts that were pretty well built. I was pretty amazed that there were that many stunts out in the middle of frickin nowhere!! The run was divided into 3 sections and ended at a spur road that I climbed up and met Vince. That trail was really well maintained and had a BUNCH of trees cut out (lots of downfall!!). It was a lot of side-hilling, but had a good flow. Then there were the obligatory steepies that define the Kootenay riding!! We ended the day by the above mentioned dinner party!! Life is good!!

Monday Oct. 19th- N. Shore Trails (Nelson) and Goldmember

2009-10-23T15:22:00.001-07:00

Monday Oct. 19th Lily was gracious enough to play shuttle driver. We rallied up to Giveout Creek FSR then onto Gold Creek FSR and up to Goldmember (I had tried to get up there previously but it was too icy). We bailed on Upper Goldmember and I dropped in. It was a really fun trail, faster than most in Nelson. A few logrides for good measure. I beat Lily back down!! Then Lily decided to bail on the afternoon yoga class (anatomy) and cruise over to the N. Shore w/ me. We stopped at North Shore Naturals shop and bought a couple of turkey paninis that were dank. The woman and her little girl were just chilling out at the shop. Looked like a cozy gig!!

We rallied up Kokanee Glacier Road, then onto Benson Creek FSR and over to Newtsac. Again the yota rallied hard, but I still hiked it up past a good number of menacing waterbars. The trail was fun and not quite as crazy as I remembered it. The top was a little "slidey" and loose w/ a good number of rock slabs to negotiate. There were also a good few sections of woodwork and logrides. All in all a great trail!! Then it was onto Shitaker!! It started off w/ a cool rock roll then into a burnt, hollow 1/2 log that was pretty steep!! A sharp berm was built out of it, then a little transfer jump, berm, stepdown, then hip jump. Lily took a few pics that came out great!! The next move was a stepdown that went under a downed tree, into a nice step-up. I overshot it the first time and landed on the log lining the trail!! I jumped off the bike seamlessly and ran it out!! Great crash when you don't crash!! I went back up and did the whole line again. It had another few rock slabs and some flowy sections before hitting the ending section shared by the other two trails in the area- Nooner and Morning Sickness. It had a super fun logride that went for a ways into a drop then a steepish section into a brapper of a L (uphill). Pretty cool!! Then there was a steep finishing section that I triple dropped and got a little buckwild on (into a prayer of a R corner that I somehow made!!). Lily dropped me back off on Morning Sickness and I rallied the series of sweet, slightly overgrown rock roll features that defined the trail. I really liked the moves and was stoked that I rode it!! It ended on the same lower trail. One more time back up to the top and finished off w/ Nooner which had a bunch of steepies and a few log rides and rock faces. WOW what a day!! As always a delicious dinner back at the Cottonwood Ave residence to cap off the night!!

Awakener (Oct. 16th, 2009)

2009-10-23T15:21:00.001-07:00

Friday Oct. 16th, 2009

Met up w/ Mia, Mark (owner of Sacred Ride), and Simon (Devinci rep) for a morning lap. We rode "middle" Highballer to Placenta Descenta to the Rise and Fry to Wake and Bake to the "old" Pulmonary to complete the old school morning according to Mark. I followed Mia for a while and at 40 she was RIPPING!! Good to see!! We pedaled back to the shop a few kilometers and I got some new pedals and brake levers since my carbon ones finally got smashed. Bill- 179$. Who said freeriding was free?!! Got in touch w/ Simon who was headed out to Castelgar. He phoned up Trent Z. and I picked up Josh and we headed to Robson and up Rialto FSR 9k. We dropped into the trail and immediately there was a 5, 10, 15, 20, then 25' wood to dirt jump line- shooters more than booters. We checked em oot then sessioned them up proper like a few times. There were a few sweet DH sections that were fast and flowy w/ nice berms. In no specific order we rode the huge step-up (new) line off to the R, then there was the nice rock gap (15+') that flowed into an uphill wood roller onto a huge log-ride (elevated) section that ends up going out straight for a while, then off a nice 8'+ drop into a 15' creek gap that I onsighted. Pretty stoked on that line!! Nobody else tried it. Same went for a long logride section that was kind of slick looking but was fine, I just took it rather slow. There was then another uphill logride onto a log that had a turn then another lobber off wood onto a steep wooden landing- super rad. We hit that a couple times. Then there was the fateful gap transfer line that didn't go well for Josh. He got buckwild and landed hard on his shoulder sustaining a serious AC separation. I took him to the hospital and drove him back to his house, bought pizza and had a few beers w/ him. I knew he was bummed but we laughed about the day and traded stories over some bomb ass Mediterranian 57 Pizza. "Some times you summit, sometimes you plummet!!" Awakener was by far my overall favorite trail so far this trip. Super fun freeride line w/ some nice jumps and amazingly solid construction. Gonna have to flow the whole trail before I split out of town!!

RIP Pat Dolan

2009-10-23T15:20:00.001-07:00

RIP Pat Dolan

I was informed that a close friend has passed on. Pat Dolan fought a long and courageous fight with breast cancer. Her will was strong and her heart sure of its love. She will be missed. I can remember a lot of stories...... Like putting my arm through her glass door and getting stitches. Late night parties as a child....mingling w/ tons of people and crashing out w/ the action still swinging strong. Beating on her drums on the Friday ritual w/ my mama. Going to Dolan's and then onto the W. 25th St. market.....back then an open aired multi-lingual intermingling of many walks of life. Sampling various flavors and aromas. She received an obvious outpouring of love and friendship for which I'm sure she was grateful. You will forever be in our thoughts and souls Dolan.

2009-10-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

Pics of "Balls Deep"- Nelson, BC

Tues. Oct. 13, 2009- Paper Bag and Bedframe

2009-10-14T09:36:00.000-07:00

Woke up at a leisurely 10:30 today, and greeted Lily who was finishing up her morning session of yoga. She gave me a ride up Svoboda Rd as far as possible before the gate. I then pushed and rode up for another 30 min to the top of Paper Bag. Hailed as one of Nelson's best rides I didn't quite know what to expect seeing as the other black diamonds have been pretty damn techy!! It turned out to be a bit "pedaly" with techy rock moves in between. There was one move that I didn't do. It was an alternate line off to the L that I started down. Then it rode out a very exposed ridge of rock into a small drop in steep terrain then pinning it out in a tight rock section w/ a stump right in the middle. It was burly!! The trail had a few good steep sections and lots of rock rolls/slabs. A very cool trail indeed. Definitely not my favorite, but good nonetheless. I'd come back w/ a group and hit that one move (can you say photogenic line?!!!). Then I pedaled back 5-6k along the railroad grade. I was way past the orange bridge that takes you across the Kootenay Lake to the N. Shore of Nelson. I pedaled back to the house and grabbed the truck. I wanted to get one more run in since the weather was definitely rolling in and my knee felt great!! I drove up hwy 6 to Giveout Creek FSR, then to Gold Creek FSR. I was looking to do Goldmember. I was going to pedal back to town and get a ride up from Vince. Then it started to get icy. There was steep section after steep section on the fire road and it was white. Luckily there was still gravel sticking up enough to give ample traction. I still backed off after a few too many steep frosty sections to negotiate. Plus I didn't want to ride a frozen trail the whole time!! I drove back up Giveout Creek FSR up to 7K mark. I called Vince and arranged a pick-up at the bottom of Pulmonary on Hwy 3 at Grohnan Narrows Park. I then proceeded to rip Bedframe. What a fun trail!! Steep and rocky w/ tons of rock rolls and flowy DH sections. I crossed the road and rode Pulmonary (the "short" version this time). Another unique trail that rolls down rock slab after rock slab. I ran into Mike Kinrade's hip jump and just shook my head in amazement. Just when you think you can hit jumps you run into something like this. You roll down a rock face then start back up another one, then hit a hip booster built of wood off the top of the rock. The landing is around 25-30' away and is on the same rock formation that you take off of!! It was silly. I rode the remaining slabs to the bottom which had a sweet exit move into the abandoned construction zone. I pushed back up the road for a second and hit the end move on another trail. Short roll, track stand tight corner, roll down some rocks piled up w/ mega exposure, track stand, turn L, rock slab chute. A very cool move indeed!!

Vince then graciously picked me up and gave me a ride back up to my truck. We both met back at the house and we made turkey tacos w/ Vince's fresh peach, avocado, tomato salsa. Vince and I then worked on the girls (they owe us for another time since they're beat from yoga!!) w/ thai yoga in the living room. That stuff is cool and delivers great results. I wish more people knew about thai yoga massage because it kicks ass!! Looks like rain and snow tonight and tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get some more good days to ride this trip!!

NELSON!!

2009-10-11T10:24:00.000-07:00

Oct. 10th, 2009

Today I woke up at 510 Cottonwood Ave. in Nelson, BC!! The bed was comfy and larger than we've been used to. Lily was awake early, obviously excited to start yoga teacher training. I slept a little while longer, then got up and had delicious coffee and french toast. We hung out w/ our new roomies Vince and Marie and had good conversation before they went for a morning walk. Lily shuttled me up Giveout Creek FSR to Bedframe. The road was pretty mellow and we were able to make it up 7-8K quick. Lily walked down to the lookout and we hung out for a minute before parting ways. The trail was more techy than I remember and I had to negotiate a number of steep rock moves. It was a super fun trail and I rallied out onto the road and tried to find Pulmonary. Instead I got going down Skier's Right and was wondering when the steep slabs were going to show up. Instead it was fun and flowy w/ a number of transfer moves onto woodwork. I came out at the bottom and luckily ran into a group of 3 riders that were setting a shuttle. Jeff and his buddies were cool and we rode up a gnarly 4x4 road to get to lower Powerslave. It was a super wicked trail that was slightly frosty/snowy but hooked up great. It had a number of steep wooden whoopdies that were pretty tall!! A couple of them were off-camber. We blazed out of that trail and down to Placenta Descenta that passes nearby Blewitt Ski Area. It was fun and had a good number of rock gardens to negotiate. It definitely wasn't as steep as Bedframe!! It came out across from Pulmonary. This time we actually got on the right trail. Momentarily. The sign reads "long L and short R." I'm thinking longer is better and blaze L. Too bad it was a completely different trail!! It traversed back and forth and back and forth......

It was really cool because it milked the hell out of the terrain and was mostly mossy rock slabs (low angle). We came out down the road from the exit of Pulmonary and pedaled back to the bottom truck. I milked another ride up and rode The Gimp for the grand finale. I was riding along thinking how sweet it was, loamy top section through some larger trees, steep but fun, surfy. Then it just turned much more gnarly all of a sudden. I was super stoked to ride it all, minus that one instance where I got flung off the bike. I slammed my R tibial tuberosity and it hurt pretty bad even w/ the pads on!! There were a few logrides that I nailed. Super rad trail overall. Definitely the gnarliest trail I've ridden here so far. I rode back to the house, and Lily and Marie made a super yummy tofu veggie stir-fry w/ quinoa. I think I can get used to this........Except for that R knee pain!!

Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009

2009-10-11T10:23:00.000-07:00

Driving to Tonasket WA after spending this morning in Vancouver at Leslie and John's house. Saturday I drove up to Vancouver and crashed at John's. We hooked up w/ Colin, Steve (from Cove Bike Shop), and ?? who also rode a Cove STD. We rode a couple of CBC to Pangor/Pingu and Boogieman laps. I started off feeling strong but quickly fell into survival mode. John was ripping and I let him lead most of the time. I took a couple of diggers on those laps- one off the waterfall at the bottom of Empress (hesitated then got tangled up w/ bike in the air). The other one was after the logride to wheeliedrop then hard R. I crossed up the bars and took a nice charliehorse to the leg. THEN we rode Hangman. I forgot how gnarly that trail is!! The other times I rode it w/ Brad I felt solid but not this time!! I rode well, then wasn't feeling one of the rock drops. John hit it (for the first time) and after a couple of aborted run-ins I sent it.......right into a tree (got bucked when I landed). I jumped off the bike JUST in time!! Then I fell boosting off a log after a super gnarly chute. I was laughing before I even skidded out. I hit the new-ish trail off to the R w/ the couple jumps, and John went straight. We didn't run into each other for a few minutes as I started climbing out when he wasn't there. I felt WRECKED after that day. Probably b/c of the events from the past Wednesday (Lily shuttling me at N. Fork solo w/ helmet cam), and Friday (riding w/ Owen, Woods, and ??). That was the nearly fateful day where we got the pleasure to ride upper Dirt Renyold and the unfortunate finding of two trees down on the landing of Hell's Kitchen (8' drop to 20-25' stepdown). We were in a train w/ Owen up front, me behind him filming, and Woods behind me. Owen is charging out in front and IN THE AIR I hear a "oh shit!!!" To my horror I look up and see the trees in the landing just as he crashed through some branches and starts tumbling. I come in hot and crash through the limbs, get squirrely, then run over owen and his bike and wreck. Woods somehow landed, and was able to avoid us!! I walked away w/ the worst of it.....a gnarly gash on my L shin. I think it was either a pointy branch, pedal, or rock. We walked around stunned and x'd off the drop/jump so nobody repeated the feat. We split out after cleaning out our pants. I went back to Tom's house and cleaned out my leg. Nothing to butterfly or stitch. Just a big gouge. I wrapped it up and put on some antibiotic stuff. Gonna have to keep that one clean!!!

Fast forward back to Monday- John, Lily, Christiaan, and I head up to Whistler. I felt like death warmed over and wasn't even sure I was gonna ride. Lily didn't have a bike since Woods stiffed her on a bike loaner. Turned out to be a kick ass day regardless. Lily rented a Rocky Mountain Flatline and we raged it pretty hard for 5 hrs. I got Lily on helmet cam ripping it hard on Ninja Cougar and Angry Pirate as well as A line. I also got a good few of John ripping the trails up. We also ran into Boomer and Julie and took a few laps w/ them. Julie was a ripper and was 2 seconds behind on A line hot laps....impressive indeed seeing as she was less than a year out of a broken neck. Boomer was ripping it hard as usual, especially for a 51 yr old!! John and Christiaan bailed back to Vancouver and Lily and I chilled at Boomer's w/ Julie- had pesto pasta and watched bike porn- and ate local Gelatto. We camped out at the usual chill camp spot toward Pemberton.

The next morning we woke up, had coffee at camp, then cruised to Pemberton and had breakfast at the Wildwood Cafe after checking in at the LBS (local bike shop). Lily and I devoured lumberjack breakfasts complete w/ sausage AND bacon (surely not vegan or vegetarian!!). Funny how I can eat like an angel for months then break into full "whatever" mode on a dime (just add road trip and bikes). We then drove over to the Mackenzie Trails (the local gnar gnar zone). I drove the 'Yota up some gnarly fire roads and water bars until it didn't seem smart to have it in the current predicament. I turned it around on an uphill w/o a turnaround (which is a feat in my truck). I then grabbed my bike, said goodbye to Lily and pushed up for another 30 minutes to the cell phone towers (after making a few good choices on road splits). After poking around I found a trail but it went uphill. I called the shop and found the trail back down the road a bit. Gravitron started w/ a gap jump, then went right into the business......mega loose steepies between trees. It was certainly epic. I was given all that I could handle a few times but didn't wreck or walk anything. I was pretty stoked, but didn't find Bob Gnarly and ended up riding Overnight Sensation to Blood Sweat and Fear. Both of those were single blacks but were still steep and rocky. Lily shuttled me back up to the hang glider launch which had stelar views of the valley and local jagged snow-capped mountain peaks. I then rode Cop Killer which started off w/ steep loose sections, then had a dead tree climb-over section, then rock rolls, steep off camber loose chutes, and a WTF rock chute move that I almost blindly rolled into. You started off on top of a cliff band, skidded around a steep corner, then plunged into a narrow chute w/ rock on both side and a root weave through the middle with a microwave sized rock in the worst position possible at the bottom- into a loose steepie then a loose rock built up berm. Contestant for "gnarliest move ever seen!!!" It then traversed the mountain in a talus field w/ exposed off camber rock slabs and generally uber-techical moves strung together. Quite the riding experience!! It dropped out on an empty road that I pedaled back past a old cabin and along the river to the truck. I finished off the day shuttling Lily on Over Night Sensation and BSnF. She had a little trouble finding the entrance and I waited mid-way for a bit taking pictures of the amazing mountain ranges that permeate throughout the valley. We rolled back into town and got a six pack, then progressed to chug 2 each before dinner......ahhhhh!! We ate at The Pony- shwanky pub kinda gig. I had an organic burger that I didn't even need ketchup for (first?!). We rolled back to the camp spot and passed out in a state of bliss.

It was cold the next AM and we didn't really want to get out of the back of the truck. We finally got motivated and went to Creekside for some Southside Diner action. They have great coffee (fair trade, organic). We then swooped by Boomer's and hung out for a bit. Lily rented a Specialized Demo 8 and we ripped the park for 5-6 hrs. It was fun as usual and we met up w/ Boomer later in the day for some dueling helmet cams. He got some sweet footie of me doing A-line, Dirt Merchant, and Schleyer. I rode South of Heaven w/ Lily (she rode most of it, minus the rock roll to hole to chunder). Another brilliant day at Whistler!! We swung through the skate park, had a beer, and ran into the local BMX hook up, Dave. Then to the grocery store, and Boomers for Turkey burgers. We pulled out kind of late, but made it back to Vancouver by 11. Woke up to the in-house vacuum at J n Leslie's. Hung out for a bit, messed w/ Lily's Nova which didn't want to start, then drove to Bellingham. We re-packed the truck at Tom's, I worked on Lily and Tom's backs, we pounded a bunch of espresso, ate and got groceries at the Public Market, dropped the car off at Dana's (on Electric Ave- sweet house), and started yet another driving mission. This one to Tonasket (where Lily grew up), where they're holding the Barter Fair this weekend. Then off to Nelson in the AM!! Lily starts yoga teacher training on Saturday. I get the distinct honor of hanging out, reading, riding my bike, doing yoga, and CHILLIN!! Should be a fun few weeks!! Then it looks like back to Port Angeles to work at OMC for a little while!! Stay tuned!!

Ohio Visit!!

2009-10-11T10:21:00.000-07:00

Sept. 28th, 2009

Just sitting in the airport terminal....early this time since my trip here almost didn't happen due to tardiness. Had a nice lunch w/ my Mama, Gramps, and Phyllis today in N. Olmsted. We chatted about various trips we had taken and what we've been up to. I'm happy for Gramps since he is more active than ever recently, although Grammy can never be replaced. I got to see Dale and Patricia first after getting off the plane. They had accrued a good amount of the China cabinets and various antiques from the house on Cottonwood Trail. Their house was beautifully adorned with woodworking, artwork, and old pictures from the family. I showed them a bunch of pics and the couple short vids I have (biking, boarding). Dale said he wanted to change jobs if he could, but wasn't in a position to, and was currently unable to think about college (and didn't know what he wanted to study if he could anyways). He always says things like "nothing exciting" when I ask him what he's been up to lately. It's funny because it seems like he thinks I live on the edge of a cliff the whole time or something!! I then hung out with my mom for a few days....first night at Chris's house....on his birthday. I made them a cous cous tempeh veggie dish, then we chowed some cake and ice cream later that night. Next we went into Lakewood to get some Phoenix coffee. As a bonus to the Mexican mocha which was decadent, I got to see my cousin Joe. He was doing various contractor pieces- tile, HVAC, framing, etc. He seemed to be doing well and we shared some laughs. I guess James is in Europe traveling around solo style since he got laid off. After that, on the way home, we hiked for a little bit on the edge of a huge lake. Later that night I gave mumsley a 2 hr Thai Yoga Massage which she liked overall, but probably not while I was doing it for some gnarly spots she had. She made me some late night pasta w/ veggies in a homemade tomato-veggie sauce (w/ buckwheat noodles). We woke up the next, ate some zucchini bread and drank some dank ass Phoenix coffee. We then proceeded to the garage where we took on the task of rearranging one side of the garage. We checked out some doors and moved some wood and marble to make a direct path to the "door pile." We also made some room to get right to her tools, which may or may not stay around (she offered them to a friend so they can both use them). It was a bit emotional, but I can imagined how difficult it is to look at a garage full of various tasks and jobs that feel overwhelming. Nonetheless, we made a pretty solid dent in the garage and for that I felt really good walking away from it. We showered up and went to Laura and Marks to have some dinner and visit. Laura laid out a huge dinner of mostly vegan dishes, w/ the exception of a chicken noodle soup that was delicious. I was surprised that Kirby looks like he started shooting steroids (bigger than Benjamin), and Sam is the tallest one in the family now!! Claire was bossing Laura around like it was her job and I chuckled at the family dynamic throughout the night. Gramps and Phyllis were there and we made them stay out so late (10ish) that Phyllis's daughter called to make sure they were alright!! We had a great time chatting it up on the "as usual" diverse range of topics, most of them spinning out of control into chuckling chaos. We cruised back to Daddy-o's after dinner and two delicious pies- one of which I was shocked to hear had a "true Oreo crust" on it!! My how times have changed.....my mom is smoking hand rolled "organic as she might point out" cigarettes, and Laura is now using Oreos in her cooking.......shocking!! We got into N. Olmsted kind of late, but my dad and I ended up chatting until 3:30 am!! We got up around 10ish (at least I did), and goofed around the house most of the day, we played w/ the motorcycles a bit (mine had all the plastics off of it...even the front which I never took off). I guess the carbs were not quite right, and we got it started a few times, but it never really wanted to stayed running. Daddy called Mark Parkinson from Cadiz and he decided to come up and give us a hand. He figured out that the alcohol that they used to clean out the gas tank leaked down into the crank case and was being slowly expelled through the air box. It was basically choking itself out. Mark removed the gas tank most of the way and let the bike run (which it did!!) for a while to burn off the alcohol. They also drained the oil, then put it all back together as I visited w/ Corrie. She is doing well, now with a little boy (Jared) on top of Madeline, who is now a sassy young girl. Wonder how she got to be THAT way?!! We caught up for a while outside as Mark lounged inside around their big screen TV that Corrie states is her favorite thing to do while chowing some Doritos. My my!! Got the quick Berea update- Glen Caddell- married w/ a kid now. Nicole is in N. Carolina. Kate is married and already found out that she was getting cheated on.....oh and she's pregnant?!!! Nicole Stakowsky married Nate Sol. Married and kids it is.....including Andy-man who now has TWO. YIKES!! I volunteered to cook and made up some fresh pesto from the garden (that is taking over the back yard!!!), then mixed it w/ chicken, and veggies I got from the Amish veggie stand. Mark stayed over and we didn't burn the midnight oil too much (1am).

The next day Daddy, Mark, and I ate a an omelette, then I went and got the license plate and tags from the DMV. Now the bike was go time!! Mark and Daddy took it around the block a couple of times to make sure it was safe. Then I cruised it around the block.....man what a sweet feeling!! Mark bailed and daddy and I went to On The Edge Motorsports (formerly Penton's). Dale is still owner and busy man, even w/ the market sucking as he put it. The plan was to get a loaner helmet so I didn't have to rock the American flag helmet that almost got tossed out a few different times. Dale pulled out a Shoei helmet w/ Goldwing on the side and I immediately made my dad try it on. It fit like a glove. He told me he'd give it to me for a hundred bucks. I didn't hesitate in taking it!! It said 450$ on the box!!! We poked around the upstairs antique bike gallery and then caught up w/ Aaron McDermitt (now Baldizzi). He's about the same w/ a few more gray hairs poking out. He's running his own trucking business and seems to be doing alright. He told me he had a Buell 1200 for the past few yrs, but is now down to a CRF400 and a couple of 50's. Daddy and I cruised around for a bit (about 55 miles in all), and ended up over at Jim and Eileen's. Got to visit w/ the Waite's for a bit- Jim just got a full dresser HD, Eileen is working at Safeway b/c she got laid off from GM, Jimmy (21 yo) is tall and Michael is still pretty chilled out. The girls are in HS and are still rascals.

The next morning Daddy O and I went to Athens. It was rainy and windy for sections of the drive. The leaves were just starting to change colors and there wasn't a ton of bright colors (which I miss about Ohio). We showed up and got in touch w/ Jeroch and James. Jeroch is doing a wedding (is a Reverend) at the Fur Peace Ranch (first wedding there). He did the floral arrangement, and got a great response from the couple, Jorma, and everyone else- including a few hundred dollar tip!! We chowed some lunch at Casa as he finished up the ceremonies and had a beer at The Pub (watching college FB). We dropped in at Jeroch's place and was surprisingly refreshed at how badass of a place they have up on Fairview near the old Highland abode. They're "taking care of it for friends for a year." We then boogied out to James's house where things really haven't changed much. We did some work on each other (James pelvis is all jacked up and Curina's back wanted to arch on ab exercises, even though she teaches pilates). Jeroch ended up working on my dad, and Curina gave me a cold stone neck massage which reminded me of what I do to myself when I dig into my own neck. Daddy and I then went back to Jeroch's for a while until it was time to go uptown. There was supposed to be a funky band but it was mistakenly the night before. We checked out Jackie-O's (O'hooley's took over the restaurant next door and connected the back decks). It was a cool scene, but the music sucked, so we just strolled around and got our buzz on!! I was whooped (not used to the Athens way of life) and ended up passing out on the most comfortable futon of the trip at Jeroch's. Mark slept outside in the hammock, even w/ it raining and chilly!! We woke up (early as usual when I'm w/ the old foggies), and wandered into town to get some Casa b-fast. I had the usual Veggie Rancheros and homefries, and LOTS of coffee to offset the night before. We went out to Jame's house again and played pinball and hung out for a few. We then went to Jame's pilates studio next to family oxygen. It was lime green and full of interesting equipment, most of which we all made fools of ourselves on. James and Curina are a classic couple and both had their own ways of looking at things/teaching. Curina taught me a few moves, but was a touch to impatient w/ me, but undoubtedly b/c it was my first time and she was throwing all the advanced stuff at me!! I realized how much I favor my R side. It was cool to see my dad getting worked out by James!! We then went Paw Paw hunting until dark and checked out James's house (undergoing major work- has a basement now, expanding off the back side of the house and putting in stairs to the basement). It was a quick visit but meant a lot to me. I love that town and the remaining few people I know!! I even ran into Marissa my old neighbor who is just finishing up PT school and wants to become a traveler. Definitely a "meant to be" trip!! I slept the whole way home!!!

Got in bed at around 1:30.....feel bad for my daddy!! Got woken up at 7:30 by my mama. She came and got me, then we walked in the woods for a minute before joining Gramps and Phyllis at Ruby Tuesdays. We finished off the visit w/ some more wandering and chatting in the Metroparks. I got my plane early (no line at all), and made it to Houston w/o a problem. Now I'm finishing off the day w/ a 4 hr flight to Seattle from a lightning storm in Houston. Another chapter in life.....written......

So great to see the family and get a good dose of love infusion. Can't wait to charge into this next phase....re-invigorated!! Nelson w/ Lily? PA w/ myself? Traveling some more?!! We'll see!!

Richland Wrap-up

2009-10-11T10:20:00.001-07:00

Well......I completed the Richland, WA assignment. The last week of work was a blur, seeing as I got back in semi-late (as usual) on Monday and never really felt like I caught up on sleep. I also did a poor job of packing right up to the last minute. Luckily for me I took a load to Port Angeles (PA) last weekend, b/c it was a 2/3-3/4 load again this time. I never seem to realize how much stuff I have until I try to pack it into my truck. Living w/ Faith Martin was nice and she gave me lots of space (was at her BF Bobby's a lot). I never really hung out with anyone during the week, usually spending time after work plucking around on the computer trying to chart my next move, watching bike movies to keep myself stoked, or doing the Core Performance workout (which I gained a new respect for- if I could keep it up for the full 13 weeks I would be a BEAST!!). I managed to not eat out once during the whole 13 weeks in the Tri-Cities. I only went to the health food store for a frozen burrito or almond butter and jam the few times I didn't have left-overs or garden burgers to eat. I was proud of myself for keeping up with cooking and eating mainly vegan and not packing on the pounds during a semi-sedentary spell (I was boarding and biking for 7 months before this gig!!). It was kind of a bummer being hurt the past few weeks. I nailed a tree on "Mechanical Tragedy" at the North Fork doing my fourth top-to-bottom run of the day. I was really in the zone and just took my eye off the trail for a SPLIT second which was long enough to drift towards a tree, nail it with my fist first, then my shoulder, then my head. It sucked!! Three weeks later it still hurts. I was silly enough to NOT go and get an x-ray. Probably ligamentous damage anyways (fifth carpal metacarpal joint). I needed a moment off the bike anyways as I was getting WAY too comfortable and riding faster than ever. Something was bound to take me out and this is pretty minor compared to all the other injuries sustained by my friends this year- John Cooley- femur fx, Seth Esterby- collar bone fracture, Spencer- radius and ulna, Sam Burkhart- T6 fracture, Brad- wrist on GMG, Seth's GF Sherry- dislocated shoulder at Galbraith. We do some pretty gnarly stuff!!

Richland Nearly Done!!

2009-09-05T16:50:00.000-07:00

Well, such as life, my time is nearing its end here in Richland, WA. I have 2 weeks of work left (8 actual days of work) then ????. I at least know that I'm flying home for a week to visit w/ the family, and hopefully getting to ride my MC a little bit (been YEARS!!). I feel like I just unpacked my stuff after a mid-job housing change (for the much better) after my old roomie revealed her true colors. That's another whole story, but to make it short.....I was forced out of the house (thankfully) by a vote while I was out enjoying myself over a weekend in Bham. I was told to move out at 11PM after driving 5-6 hrs back "home." I went to work the next day, tried to find a place to stay on "short-term" notice, was unsuccessful, went back, packed my stuff in a hostile environment, and ended up sleeping on top of a bunch of boxes in the hospital parking lot!! Funniest part of that story is that my alarm went off while trying to sneak out of the van amongst all the people showing up for work!! Luckily, I found a place to stay the next day w/ a news anchor woman named Faith Martin. Super nice woman who plays in a band, has horses, and a nice house to herself. What a change for the better that was!! She's healthy, doesn't smoke, and doesn't have a mystery side to her!! I spent one weekend unpacking and taking care of odds and ends that I normally shirk. It's a good feeling to get caught up on stuff that you've put off forever!! Now I'm looking at the pile of boxes in the corner of my room and wondering why I've been dragging around a bunch of stuff that I REALLY don't need. I think the plan is to take that stuff up to Tonasket and store it at Lily's dad's house. I really need to make that happen so that it isn't such a cluster to move every time!! Plus I can sneak up to Kelowna and ride a bit!! Speaking of which.....I'm not riding right now!! I hurt my hand a couple of weeks back after having the Bham gnar-fecta (Tower of Lies on Sat, 4 Deadfall and 2 Dirt Renyolds on Sun, and 2 6-mile top to bottom laps on Monday, plus trail building on Lower Sasquatch w/ Ben and Woods). On Sunday I was RAGING on Mechanical Tragedy (the bermy section) and happened to glance up for a millisecond. That glance sent me into a tree next to the trail which I punched w/ the outside of my fist, shoulder checked, then slammed my head into it too!! It stunned me pretty good, but I pushed back up and rallied through the rest of the run (including 10% right away!!). I kept riding the rest of the day and the next day, but that next week it really started to hurt, especially in the AM. I did some mobs on it and it started to feel better. Then I went and rode Eagle Mtn in BC w/ Brad Walton to shred some of the best trails around and shoot photos. We KILLED IT!! Funny thing....as we were dropping into Massage Therapy we ran into a group of two guys and a gal that did NOT look like they belonged riding what they were about to!! We hung out and enjoyed some parking lot finds, and then progressed to rip MT a new one!! That trail is super tech and fun!! We stopped and shot the rock roll to off camber techy log ride to step up onto the rock which has been broke all the other times we were there. It was still broke, but we propped the step-up enough to hit it!! Brad gave it first, then set up the remote flashes. I hit it 3x, the last of which was a bit sketchy (leg flapping in the breeze). I rallied through the next section pretty fast and forgot how gnarly it really is!! We charged the whole first lap like it was our business, then pushed back up the gnarly jeep road (that had fresh tracks!!!!) and got ready for round 2. Lots of skinnies and tech riding brought us tons of joy and smiles!! We were riding really well!! We pushed back up and found the move Brad REALLY wanted to shoot (a rock face that you roll down, then drop 10+ ft off of). I hit it three times and he hit it once. We got some pretty cool pics!! I think it had been hit once before. We finished off the lap and made it back to the truck in one sweaty piece!! We rolled back to Bham and threw down at Boundary Bay before crashing across the street from Brad's (w/ Lily who showed up late). The next day I blew off riding The Towers to try to let my hand start healing. I think it was the right move b/c it hurt ALL WEEK LONG (more than the first week). We spent the day roaming around Bham (had breakfast at Mike and Meredith's, espresso at Tom's, shopped at the co-op), then out to Glacier to hang out w/ Jerry for a minute. He's building a nice deck off the back of his house. We then booked it to the "coal pad" to check out Jack and some kids tearing up the skatepark. We then spent the night up at Artist Point after mowing down like royalty at Grahams. We ran around on top of the world and took some pretty sweet slow shutter speed pics. We woke up the next AM and went on a hike toward Table Mtn before being engrossed in blueberries. We picked 1.5 liters worth before heading back down to the truck. We booked it back to the Ham and had some lunch at the Public Market before heading over to Brad's where we split up our stuff and switched vehicles (the Previa stalled at a light a couple of times which it had never done). It was kind of weird getting back in the ol' Yota and driving her a good distance (it's been a bit!!). It was a good thing though b/c the Previa started to give Lily fits after getting off the ferry. She got pulled over by the hwy patrol for doing 40 in a 60 and driving over the white line. She said it sounded like it was running on 2 cylinders. It BARELY made it to PA......therefore I would have been stuck hours from home!! Man......things DO work out for a reason sometimes!! Now just to find that elusive, cheap, well maintained used rig that has 4wd/AWD!!! That's my mission today after sleeping in to 11am for the first time in ages!! I guess I did stay up late last night talking to Laura at work. She has some amazing insight and helped me make some professional goals. I have a lot of work to do!! Clear up my tarnished credit, pay off my medical bills, pay off my student loans, try to buy a house since the market is crazy low right now, try to open my own practice, try to get more credentials so that I have a more solid referral base, etc, etc, etc. Man!! Life is complicated!! And I have it pretty easy!!

Richland update

2009-08-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been quite a while since my last post. Life is....as usual...crazy. I've been working here for nearly 8.5 weeks and time sure does fly!! I've been back to Bellingham most weekends w/ some trips into BC as well. Brad, Lindsay, Chris (from Bend, OR), Lily and I went up and rode Mt. Fromme and Mt. Seymour a few weeks back. We did Upper Oilcan (haven't been on that in a while!!), then we split up and Brad, Chris, and I went up and rode GMG (first time!!). It was indeed gnarly!! Super fun steep natural terrain for the first bit, then into the stunts that characterize the trail. Some were broken, including the super steep staircase and a logride to drop, but we were still able to squeek in most of the moves. I hit the skinny to teeter to boulder to drop move first go (Brad got a sweet pic of me), then fell off the skinny second go (for more pics), and finally got it again the third go. The skinny was shaky even to walk on!! We rode the long log ride to drop, the skinny to turn to skinny drop to steepie ledges (Brad hooked his front tire on a big rock and went down pretty hard.....sustaining a broken wrist?!!). We even ran into some hikers towards the end!! They were as surprised as we were to see each other!! We got down a bit late as the ladies were waiting around a bit (whoops!!). We then hit up Seymour and rode CBC to corkscrew to Pangor/Pingu. Fun as usual. Brad and I were just absolutely CHARGING that lap!! Brad and I got shuttled up again and rode some "Darkside trails" that just RULED!! We rode Hangman and a new loamy-ass bottom trail that made us laugh out loud and high five each other a LOT!! Man if only I had a helmet cam!! We went to the Raven's Den for some pub food and beers (well deserved!!). What a day!!!

Lily and I also went to Whistler last weekend and checked out Crankworx (kick off). It was a hoot and my bike didn't blow up this time!! We made it to Bham on Friday, met up w/ Steve-O, and rallied to BC the next morning-ish. That was after Daron f'd up my bike late-night style in Seattle. I showed up in Bham at nearly 2am!! Tom got us all jacked up on amazing espresso the next morning and we buzzed our way through the border and up Rt 99. The two lane expansion made the drive fly by!!! We ripped the park up pretty good the first day, checked out some skatepark action that night (ran into David Toutain again....killing it on his board as usual!!). The next day Lily had a serious break out day and warmed up on No Joke (double black from the TOP), and didn't stop all day. She wasn't just making it through, she was KILLING IT!! I ran into Chris from London and we did a few hot laps together. Steve-0 and I snuck off and rode Trespasser (WOW!!), and we both had a few hoots!! It rained Sunday night and Lily and I bailed back to Bham on Monday, and chilled out that night and Tues AM. I made it back to Pasco (after moving out of psych Tracy's house the week before....whole other story!!) at a reasonable time (for once). Ahhhh yes......only 5 more weeks to go before.....??????

2009-07-07T21:18:00.000-07:00

Thurs June 25th, 2009

Did the "stop by the old jobs" day....first to Excel PT (and the walk in clinic on the first floor....too bad the bitchy front office princess was rude enough that I decided to go somewhere else). Then I did a bunch of housekeeping duties (paperwork for this next travel assignment). I finished up the evening by meeting w/ Brian Weeda for some beers at Boundary Bay (mmmmm....IPA). Good rest day.....got some work done....also ran into Bob Curtis, DC at his clinic which is around the corner from J St. He's a cool dude and has a good thing going on- working up at Baker teaching skiing and maintaining a practice.

Friday June 26th, 2009

Woke up and ate granola and had a soy latte. Headed over to St Joe's for a walk in physical and found out that they are only a walk in clinic on the weekends. Over to the Guide Meridian and the Care Medical Group. I had a young PA who did a very minimal physical and filled in my paperwork for a mere 105$ I hung out w/ Clayton for a few then went over to Fanatik for some chain lube and ran into EB who proposed working on Scorpion and then riding/shuttling Galbraith. Shawn jumped in and we threw down on totally overhauling a berm on the trail. I wish I had a before and after. We really moved a lot of dirt. Shawn and I did a run down Scorpion which has a bunch of new jumps. Then we rode the luge. A new jump on the trail claimed Shawn's shins....when he cased the jump he took the pedals into the shins....bad. He took a few minutes to smart, then we kept going. Eric met us at the bottom and we rallied back up for another lap on Evolution. I'll tell you what....drinking a beer before riding isn't such a great idea. I was not feeling super dialed and definitely didn't set any personal records on the trails....but I DID have lots of fun. We retrieved his Subaru w/ the Previa and I was again pleasantly surprised by the ability of the Previa to billy goat up some water bars.

Saturday June 27th, 2009

Rode the Snake w/ Joel. Ate shite often and early. Stuck the hip stepdown over the stump at the bottom w/o looking at it. Had a good time chatting it up w/ Joel. He's a really nice guy once he opens up. It was cool getting to see a slightly different side of him. Too bad I was a walking shit show on the first trail. Oh yeah.....my elbow hurts!! Hello Lily!!

Sunday June 28, 2009

Woke up in Bham on J st w/ Lily. Ate a dank breakfast and cruised by Dana and Monica's (watched some soccer) and then cruised out to Woods' house. Shuttled Woods and Lily on Thompson Creek, then twice on 3 mile. Met Wood, Wood's brother and his daughter. Stopped by Luca and Jimmy's house and did a little work trade w/ Luca (ankle neuroma or bursitis). Made my elbow feel much better (between that and Lily working on it for a while).

Monday June 29th, 2009

Woke up leisurely w/ Lily around 9:30 and began the packing process. It took a bit longer than anticipated (as usual), and I was out of Bham by 3:00. We pitched a bunch of old clothes and I took a snowboard jacket to the consignment shop where he gave me 30$ of credit and I got a pair of sunglasses with it. I chatted w/ my mom and dad and Dolan on the way to Richland. Funny thing....the time flew by!! It surely didn't seem like a 5 hour drive!! I did get stuck briefly in Seattle rush hour which sucked (glad I'm not THERE full time!!) but smooth sailing the rest of the way. I had a really powerful conversation w/ Dolan, who told me that she's getting very weak and is dealing w/ a lot of pain from the cancer. She told me it's tiring to bend over and pet her dog/water the garden/drive. She said it's very hard to swallow food and she gags a lot while trying to eat. She lost 10# since her last check up. She lives alone and just recently got power (still no cell service/high speed internet). She sounded really strong in spirit and we reminisced a lot on old memories. She told me how proud she was that I became a doctor of PT (not her first guess!!). We also talked a lot about traveling and how you choose to live your life. She convinced me that my travels/goofing off really helps build my spirit and that I should continue to follow my heart. I asked her if she had any revelations about things she wanted to do before she died....she stated that she wanted to help more people out who are dealing w/ similar circumstances/ less fortunate people. It's amazing to be self-less when as she described it "her mortality has been so close that it's been on the tip of her nose a couple of times recently." She is hoping that Cynthia can get out and visit her (a few of her friends had talked about doing a roadtrip to NM). She told me that New Mexico is so special to her that it's the first place she's been truly homesick from. Cleveland "scared her." She thinks she would have passed on by now if it wasn't from the natural beauty right out her back door, the strength the land gives her to continue on. It was a very beautiful conversation. I told her how much we (my family) loves her and how we're totally behind her. I also told her to keep strong and try to juice as much as she can!!! She sounded intrigued by the PH Miracle book and I'm sending her a copy as soon as I unpack. Speaking of which......I'm at my new home.......4820 Holly Way, W. Richland, WA.....98353. Living with a woman named Tracy. She wasn't home tonight and I unpacked in her neat and comfy home. The biggest bummer today......seeing a nice puddle of oil under the van where I had parked it on her driveway. Must have done a little damage yesterday when I shuttled Lily and Woods up Thompson Creek Trail in Glacier. Neither the 87 yota or the 92 Previa seem totally dialed right now. Might be the time to finally buy another rig?!! Going to crash out now so that I can be rested for the orientation day at Kadlec Medical Center. Haven't had to get up at 7 AM for a while!! Or work for that matter....hope I can hold it together!!!

Tues June 30, 2009

Woke up a bunch of times (as usual in a new place w/ first day of work on the mind) before 7 am. The daybed my roomie Tracy was nice enough to supply was comfy but did not have an inch to spare in length!! I drank a cup of coffee that was luke warm (pulled the kettle too early) and scarfed some semi-stale granola. Headed off to Kadlec Medical Center through the back streets (Bombing Range Rd...yikes!!) to 240 to 224 and into the city of Richland. Found the HR building and got there a bit early. Began taking the very boring modules (safety, fire, workplace violence, infection control, etc) and the tests that ended each section. Passed them all first go and proceeded to get my badge. Over to Anovaworks for a mask fit (in case an outbreak of TB etc was to occur). Checked out the PT clinic afterwards......quite a contrast to all the places I've worked so far. Maybe 3 treatment rooms and a gym area. Speech, OT, PT, and Massage all under one roof. Should be interesting to work in such a hustle bustle clinic. They have around 30 PT's on board!!! I will likely have to cover some inpatient days (never have since I graduated)....should be interesting to rehab stroke patients, TBI, SCI, etc. Might be able to get out of it though as 2 more travelers are due to show up on the 10th of July. So much for me getting relieved early and moving back towards Seattle as John Burke, CEO/VP had promised me. Everyone seemed nice (as usual in this field) and I didn't have too much apprehension about working there. Hit up the grocery on the way back home and bought myself a bunch of good food to keep me rolling. Then I went home and checked my balance online.......93 cents!!! YIKES!! Doesn't look like I'll be going anywhere until I get paid!! Took a leisurely afternoon nap, then chatted w/ the neighbors Bettie and John. We hung out in the front yard and talked some shop, crawled under the Previa and found the oil pan leak, washed car/bike, and just kicked it suburbia style. Made a delicious pizza and began converting Tracy to the healthy side of things (unlike this AM when she had a Pepsi zero and 2 smokes before I finished breakfast). Did some internet surfing and began unpacking my stuff in my BR. Day one of "real work" tomorrow......told it'll be a couple of days of orientation in inpatient (which I'm hoping I won't have to do!!). Stay tuned folks.......

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

Well, inpatient rehab it was......all week....and you know what?! It was actually pretty cool. I like helping people out and boy do they need it!! There's something about being really jacked up that makes people appreciate things a bit more. And surprisingly the pace is not as break neck as outpatient orthopedics can be. Maybe the occasional inpatient stint won't be so bad!!

June 22, 2009

2009-06-23T00:17:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 22, 2009

After realizing riding bikes was a wash again (rain), Lily and I made our way from Woods house (Quantum Solace, omlettes, and Graham's coffee). We stopped by Jerry's house but nobody was home. We hung out at Mike's house in Bham for a few (he was actually there). It sounds like he's going to move in w/ his GF (Rose) in a month or so. He's pretty stoked to be changing it up a bit (instead of construction he's going to do EMT courses and accupuncture school in the fall). We busted over to the public market for sushi and ran into Jeff Counts. He looked a lot different from the last time I saw him (went w/ Jerry to S. America and had a vision quest, etc). Now he's getting into reflexology and has a client base around Bham. After a brief chat it's discovered that he's going to a sweat lodge tonight. Seeing as I've been having a lot of challenges lately making up my mind as to my best course of action I thought it would be a good time to get inside my own head and let out some impurities. And it was just what the doctor ordered. Meeting lots of nice people, learning about their intentional community and huge gardens/shared housing. Then we sweated our asses off!! Adam, a local native american directed the sweat and did a great job of inspiring song, prayer, and a sense of wellness and connectedness. It got pretty intense a few times and I had to get as close to the ground as possible a few times (we were squished in the lodge like sardines!!). Nita, 73, was the elder in the lodge, and did a much more brave job of taking the heat than myself who had to get out at the optional intermission twice to pour cold water over my throbbing head. What an incredibly brave woman!! I put out a lot of intention and prayer into the atmosphere so I hope you all felt it!! We all went inside Mike's house (owner of 4 loaves pizza in the public market) and had miso soup w/ greens and rice, strawberries, salad, delicious homemade cookies and lots of water!! I spoke w/ Deena about rolfing as she is starting the program early in July!! She had a few leads for continuing ed (Mike in Bham and Russ). I'll try to follow up with those guys, but first things first. Tomorrow I get to deal with a urinalysis and a pile of paperwork so I can start this travel job in Richland, WA on time next Monday. Should be fun....stay tuned!!

2009-06-19T10:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was pretty crazy. Here are some pics to prove it. New trail called Sonar....get it....so....gnar!! Only one good crash (on last move....overshot and landed in soft dirt that tossed me over the bars (OTB).

Catch up (again!!)

2009-06-17T16:18:00.000-07:00

Where to begin? Rode Glacier and the N. Fork w/ Andy. We met Woods at Grahams after running into Jerry on the way to the trails who warned me about him. Andy and I went and played frisbee golf with Woods until near dark. We stumbled into a BBQ at his neighbors Jidiaa. Andy took off back to Vancouver and I ended up staying at Woods and Jack's place in Glacier on Check Rd for the past week. Lily came down last weekend and rode Deadfall for the first time on Sunday. She really liked the Iron Horse Sunday, and because I banged myself up on Sasquatch she was able to rip on it most of both days. Jen and Pete from Mammoth bumped into us at the top of 6 mile (how random is that?!!). We ripped and they ended up hanging out and riding the N. Fork the next day after I took them down Sasquatch at the end of the day. We had a ripping time at the Fork and ran into Cam from Transition, Jessie Emery (and his Toyota monster truck), Thad, Brad, Linsey, Sam and his GF, and a couple from Idaho (Britney and John). Good laps were had by all. Brad, Sam, and I took a raging fast lap down Deadfall, and Brad followed me into all the new gap jumps before 10%. We had a raging good time!! Woods, Andy, and I went and did the Tower of Lies on Lookout Mtn from the T-O-P!! It required a solid 2 hr bushwhack through gnarly vegetation, plant tunnels, and lots of log clamoring. Woods bitched a good amount of the time how we were TOTALLY off the trail and how we were going in the wrong direction even after we had the towers in plain sight. Andy almost tried to turn back since he had his truck at Les Schwab and need to be back before six (yeah right!!). Luckily for all of us we hung it out and got the goods!! It was as rad as I had remembered and had the extra top part that we bushwhacked through w/ chainsaws previously. It turned out great and had a few distinct steepie sections. Then came the jumps, drops, etc. What a great trail!! We pushed back up and did Retarded Awesome, the Snake, and the rad jumps at the bottom. I even hit Medusa second go (crazy tech woodwork into drop off logride). I thought I was on a roll, then I stepped up to the 30' hip stepdown over the stump. First go......funky in the air and had the bike wash out when I landed. I jumped up and realized I was alright and progressed to hit it 3 more times. Forgot you had to really hip it out to hit it smoothly.

We then hit up the Woodlot the next day. Woods got a little spooked on the Gate and had to get his flow going on Crazy Carpenter. He made it through the stump move after the woodwork corkscrew although he couldn't linked the whole move. Then we went to Blood Donor and I had a look at the road gap. It looked more do-able then ever and I had a go at it. From the top of the short trail I pedaled to get my speed going, scooted up onto the platform, then at the moment of truth I gave it another solid pedal stroke and launched off the end of the ramp.....18'ish out and 18'ish down. It felt bigger once I got into the air!! Thankfully I landed smoothly and had plenty of time to slow down before the berm that I was worried about. I ran through the woods to give Woods a high five and fell over a log. I didn't care......I couldn't stop laughing!! We progressed onto the next hip jump and Woods went OTB pretty good right in front of me. He popped up screaming about a torn shoulder but was just talking smack, and pushed back up to hit it again. He got a sick pic of me on it. We raged Platinum and Heckle and Jeckyll. I nailed everything and Woods had a good show as well seeing as it was all new to him. No getting searched going into the US on the way home (just going into Canada).

Rest day yet? Nope. Just more riding Glacier, partying, and hanging out w/ all the local yocals- Robby and Ben, Dan, Matt-squatch, Jidiaa, Toch, Tucker, Randy, etc. A constant turnstile of locals rolling through to say wud up and chat for a few. It was harder than you'd think to drive 3 minutes away and go riding!! We fell into the nearing biking phase around 12 or 1. And that was getting up around 9 or so!! Some days we didn't get to the trails until 5!! One morning we went over to the blue barn on the property and realized there is one of the sickest skate bowls I've ever seen at a private residence. We rode Wood's yellow dirt jump bike and it was a HOOT!! You could get going soooooo fast just by pumping the bike up and down around the berms. Lily even got in on the madness and before long was raging around the bowl w/ the fooomp foooomp that emanates as a rider gets going fast. I even built a new jump at the base of Glacier w/ help from Woods and a couple of the local kids who had built the previous structure in its place. The day before I had hit the step-up to step-down a few times and knew it was rickety. Then it nearly fell over one of the goes and I promptly pushed it over. Then I felt compelled to put something back up so I went off piling up logs and dialing in the angles and distances. The next day we came back thinking that 30-40 min of digging would complete the project. Try a couple more hours. We put a LOT of primo dirt on the run in, takeoff, and landing. It came out sweet if you ask me. I hit it a bunch of times and walked away happy w/ my work.

Over the past weekend (13th through the 15th) Lily joined Woods and I in Glacier. We rallied Glacier on Sat/Sun and N. Fork on Monday. Lily stepped up her game big time and rode the daunting 6 mile trail in Glacier. It's basically a free fall of steep loamy trails for a LONG time, with the occasional devious tight corner thrown in for amusement. Fortunately (or unfortunately) she didn't have a bad wreck the first time, so she felt a bit more confident trying it for a second time with less hesitation. This meant two things: 1. She's going a LOT faster and 2. She tried some of my "lines." I heard a good huh-uhhhhhhhh, thump, thump, groan. I leap back up the trail to find Lily tangled in her bike face down on the steep "hill" side. She took a good over the bars (OTB), landed on her chest straight from a steep root ball roll in, and tumbled a couple of times before stopping (thankfully b/c the terrain got a LOT um.......cliffier below). She shook it off after a few minutes (one tough chick) and we continued down (85% of the trail to go!!). One more bike skidding sideways over a steep rock wreck and she rode the rest of the trail smooth. It's tough mentally AND physically to get right back up after a gnarly wreck with pains everywhere and get into the mindset that you're going to try EVEN harder, flow EVEN smoother, and NOT wreck again. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Monday was a great day at the Fork. Lily rode Deadfall a good few times (the top steepest trail there) and Woods followed me off some HUGE jumps. We rallied Moto a couple of times to finish- including Woods blind descent onsight of Happy Ending, the new jump trail. We went to the N. Fork Brewery/Pizzaria and threw down on some delicious pie and pints!!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Ramble into Bellingham from my stay in Glacier. Life is good. Things are simple. Then I call my recruiter to try to work out a new traveling position in the Seattle area (which has been ongoing for the last few months). With a smoothie in my hand and a smile on my face I'm told that I was mistaken about the location and that I'm ACTUALLY 5 hrs east of Seattle in the middle of the desert!! No wonder nobody wants to take a permanent position there!! As I speak to her about the miscommunication she starts getting all emotional and basically gives me the ultimatum that I have to take that position or we can no longer work together and that the company would black list me. Not one to be threatened I calmly make my case to undoubtedly blind ears. I know she's under a ton of pressure to fulfill her duties, but I got the bait and switch-arooni!! I said screw it and went and rode one of my favorite trails of all time- the Snake!! Woods and I charged up to the towers and rode from the top down!! We rallied the trail and took a couple of schweet pics!! Then we got all Retarded Awesome and Woods followed me down the vaunted Wood-rock-wood move that rolls STEEP and you have to thread the proverbial needle in order to ride away in one piece. We both rolled the steep stump roll into the 25' road gap. Woods was jumping up and down and hugging me after we stopped!! What a line!! Then came the Snake proper and we got all wild on the steep, sometimes off camber rock rolls. I nailed the Headwall (my nemesis on the Snake) again w/o too much terror. Then we rallied the Ridge trail and both Woods and I hit the Chief....a 60' rock face that ends into a steep runout, then a jump, fast berm, and onto a woodork stunt that has some skinnies on it. Ace move overall!! We rallied into the 30'+ hip stepdown and I rolled in. Too bad I turned my bar the wrong way in the air because I got all out of balance and ended up sticking my R foot into the ground straight and away, then to my R side for the rest of the energy dissipation. Worst part was that I slammed my shin again (deep bone bruise), and scuffed up my R side. We kept going then I tried Medusa the silly techy woodwork stunt that distorts reality. I fell off mid-way and my bike ended up in some 8' deep hole hidden in the bushes. And I jacked my shin again. I got kind of pissed, stormed back up to the trail and rolled down the trail. The last trail is just an amazingly flowy jump trail w/ jumps into and out of huge berms, hips, whips, step ups, downs, and a creek gap to boot at the end. It goes by effortlessly (a nice change seeing as how the last couples zones went) and we're pedaling back to the van before we know it. That's the way freeride mountain biking compares eerily to life- a fury of commotion then it's over- left wondering if that just happened!! We get back to the van at 9 PM (started at 4). We hit up the grocery, make some food at my old house on J Street, and I crash out happily as Woods and Meredith chat it up until 3 am.

Wed, June 17th, 2009

First good night of sleep in a while. It rained last night and I sunk into deeper sleep than I've had in a while. Riding the Snake the day before probably didn't hurt....or the couple Sierra Nevadas. I call Ardor Health to straighten out the whole "starting work on Monday in EBF" gig. Got Craig (my agents boss) and he turned out to be an incredibly understanding brother who agreed the mix up was fair and we should find a way to CONSTRUCTIVELY work it out (not get all emotional). That left me with a sense of fulfillment again and no imminent life decisions need to be made today. I cleaned up the van (which reeks of sweaty bike gear) and caught up writing (hence this jibber jabber). Time to rouse Woods from the couch (now 4:17 PM) and make something of this day.

2009-06-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

After the horror of losing our FR bikes in Kelowna we headed back to Tonasket and spent a couple of days climbing w/ Pablo, and company. I nearly had a mid 10 onsight but blew a clip and had to briefly grab a quickdraw. I think that I need to get back into climbing because it definitely pushes you in ways that not many other endeavors do. We packed up our stuff and headed back to Bellingham. Nate and a very pregnant Tanya let us crash at their place the first night. The next day we went to Glacier and had at the steep gnarly trails. 6 mile was soupy and scary and I was thankful when 3 mile was dry and you could actually ride the lines without flapping one of your legs around for balance/kicking off stuff to stay up. Nate took a couple diggers and I waited for a short period of time before pinning it to the bottom. Lily was surprised when I showed up so quickly. We went back up and did a new trail called Sasquatch. It started out similar to other trails at Glacier.....namely steep and gnarly w/ tons of exposure. They did an amazing job of chopping out enough roots to make it doable but not much more than that. I got bounced around a bit but seemed to find the flow. Next zone was the stunted zone that Ben showed us last year- roll to double to hip stepdown to roller coaster (which HAD gaps last year, but got changed), to the crazy step up onto the platform. I took a look at that move and nailed it pretty clean first go. It was kind of funky because you have to scrub all of your speed and basically crawl off a 8+' drop. I nailed it and was surprised by how much speed I picked up immediately. The next move was riding across a 60' log that was shaved on top. I freaked out when my brakes kicked me sideways. I jumped off the bike and tumbled through the forest, but not to bad all things considered. I got back on the bike and rode (not out of control this time) across the log and hit the stepdown blindly. I could tell you had to go L off it, but I still drifted too far R and landed on (thankfully) a cut out stump. It then went into 3 bigger doubles (20ish ft). Next came an uphill skinny logride that fanned out and ended with a 8' slow-tech wheelie drop. I scoped it and sent it. SUPER COOL move!! Next was a X shaped move that had two different sized drops that crossed each other before take-off. I sent the big one onsight. Next move claimed Nate Jorgenesen. Short steepish wood roll into a long, high logride (6' +). I nailed it onsight and waited for Nate to catch up. He came into it, stopped above the roll in, then decided to give it a go, rolled in too fast, grabbed a ton of back brake, and promptly slid his back tire off the log. Before he could say "oh crap" he flew towards the ground and landed HARD onto two logs on the ground with little nubbins- right to the RIBS. He was writhing for a good 30 seconds before coming to his feet. Besides the obvious guttoral sounds he was able to muster a FUCK!! Then more moans. After a few minutes he says "lets go." He walks and somehow rides down the rest of the trail. We rush him to the ER. He ends us w/ good bruised ribs, but got the full work-up (CT scan, etc). An expensive 12 Percocets is his take on the whole ordeal.

The next day, Lily borrowed Nate's bike and we rode the Fork. Things worked out perfectly. Right as we were loading up the 2 bikes we met John one of the builders (10%, and now.....Happy Ending). I didn't know this and started expounding how I'm itching to hit the new trails. Then he breaks me the news. We're going to rip it THIS LAP!! Yeeeeeehaw!! We rage Deadfall and Widowmaker. Neck in neck. Sweet. Then we peel off and make it over to his trail. Immediate step up onto a logride that's planked. Then into a BUNCH of big jumps that I follow him off of. What a blur of radness!! It culminated in a 30+' roadgap called the fortune cookie. So rad!! John bailed and I ran into Spencer, Colin, PB, Pat, Thad, and EB. We ripped another Deadfall and did a bunch of work armoring some of the soup pits that form. We moved some HUGE rocks (2 men grunting to ROLL them). Then we went and worked on a still yet to be completed trail called Shake and Bake. We rode the top part- flowy loam and natural terrain. Then we worked on a ladder section that circumnavigated an impassable zone. We lugged some slats and stringers up the mountain (hard work and lots of sweat!!). Lily even threw down?!! After getting a couple hours in we blazed down the rest of the trail and Lily shuttled me up to do Dirt Renyolds- Todd's pride and joy. I even ran into him coming down off of it. He has put even MORE work into the already SICK trail. A few more jumps were added, and they hit really well. One came out of a berm and looked very challenging but proved to hit really smoothly. I hit it a couple times since it was soooo cool. Then I sessioned the drop to stepdown and nailed the hip afterwards at FULL speed (first time I cleared it smoothly- although it was re-shaped since the last time I tried it). WHAT A DAY!!! We all went to Casa and had less than amazing burritos. Lily and I crashed at Mike's house (who doesn't live there anymore due to his new woman friend Rose). We knocked lightly since there were lights on and Meredith came to the door. She was stoked to see us and we chatted for a bit before pulling the twin mattress out of the van and putting it on mikes wooden platform (he took his mattress). The next day we re-arranged the truck and van to accommodate me bailing like a crazy kid to go ride my bike in Canada. It took a solid 90 minutes. I jumped in the van and headed to Vancouver (Leslie and John's house). I've never went through the Peace Arch, and made it through w/o any problems. Then I got lost and ended up 2 cities away in Burnaby. DOH!! I called Leslie and got directions. Finally I showed up and of course Sterling is still working on his bike. I flip him some grief and then we went and rode Cypress Mtn. We hit up Sexgirl to SOB, to Tall Can. Then we got a ride back up and hit up Wild Cherry. I was stoked to see the opening moves again b/c last time I looked at it I thought it was one of the craziest things ever!! I hit two different lines and was super stoked. John also hit the riders L line (I dropped off a 5+' rock and he gracefully placed his tire in the right spot and rolled it). What a hoot!! We go back to the resort-de-Leslie and I whip up my famous organic turkey burgers w/ pesto. Life is good!!

Sometimes you summit, sometimes you plummit!!

2009-05-30T01:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday, May 23rd.

Woke up and had coffee w/ Barb, Chiovan, and Smoke. Had a couple of chores to bang out today. #1- figure out the loud, high pitched noise coming from the van, and #2 get my brake bled. We hit up Big O in Kelowna and they were nice enough to tell me that it was just my front brake pads. Best news I've heard in a long time!! I buy some pads and head back to Smoke's to do a brake job. It went smoothly and we headed to the bike shop around 4PM. We went to Outbound Cycle and they were nice enough to have it banged out in less than a half hour. Lily and I wandered over to Il Mercato, the locally owned Italian bakery/shop. The owners were super cool and we chatted our way through the huge selection of fine meats and cheeses. He grilled them up and fixed them to perfection. We walked back to the bike shop immersed in the delectable Paninis. I grabbed the bike, flipped them 15$ and we headed to Postill for a group ride. Lily and I headed up and met up with Andrew where he was working on finishing a huge section of woodwork. His trail starts with a small hip to the R, then onto a wood wallride-like entrance onto a ladder that steps down 8'. Then where he was working will be a huge wall ride then hip up over a boulder onto another ladder that does a steeper step down to step up. Another 8' drop (still in progress) will lead into a road gap which takes you into an uphill corkscrew that will drop off into a step up wallride. Just CRAZY!! We carry some wood for him, then jump on our bikes and rip out of there. Addiction is just as ripper as I remembered and I actually hit the first step down the smoothest yet. I railed the ski jump and Lily got a cool video of it. We had a little difficulty getting back to our cars and a mix of less than stellar dudes left Andrew and I jogging a K and a half to retrieve the vehicles. French Johnny jumped on board and we did a Technical Difficulty (TD) lap while Lily did a solo Addiction lap. TD was awesome and they let me jump out in front to get full on-sight value. Some steep rock moves led to a sweeping wallride L which had mass exposure (as I found when I looked back up), and finished with a 5 stage rock roll to the road. We hustled back up and did a HOT LAP down Addiction (hitting every move) that left me speechless and out of breath. Another great day of riding!!! We took Andrew out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant that loaded us up w/ the dinner for 3. After dropping him off we went back to Smoke's house. This is where we made the worst decision of the trip (and overall worst decision in a long time). We left the bikes on the van (locked up) instead of taking them into Smokes yard/house. When we woke up the next AM Lily went out to the van to get something and came back in tears. Our bikes were gone. The cable lock on the ground next to the van, and two pairs of loppers in the bushes next to the van. Noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!! We looked around the neighborhood and in the woods nearby but no dice. We put out the APB and filed a police report. We have a lot of people looking for our bikes, but they are likely gone. Super bummer. Won't make that mistake again!!!! We headed back the next day (after hitting the Italian Bakery again where they gave us some free delectable coffees. There was some talk of a couple of heli missions this summer on the way out the door which makes me get butterflies just thinking of it!! Ah the ups and downs of life, EH?!!

Kelowna Round 2

2009-05-30T01:10:00.002-07:00

Staying in the states didn't last long. I got Lily stoked enough to be on the road back to Kelowna by 11:30 the next morning. We got to Smokes house by 1:30 and hooked up w/ Andy for a couple of laps on Powers. We hit Big Money (3.5) first and I sessioned the step down to gap right off the bat. The rest of that trail was mainly natural and had some standing water. It also had some insane views of the canyon we're riding on the edge of as well as a big waterfall on the opposite side of the canyon. We ripped the rest of the 2.5KM trail (which was denoted by a really cool bike art mask on the tree). Lily got the feel for steep wooden wallrides and I sessioned the Shennanigan's road gap. We ripped another 2.5KM lap and I linked the whole KBR trail (wallrides to step up wallride to Shennanigans). Wahoo!! Barb was nice enough to make us dinner and we enjoyed the food w/ great stories of biking heroism by Smoke.

Wednesday was Andy's last day in Kelowna and we decided on riding Gillard. We got dialed in at Kelowna Cycles with Ryan Schnepf (builder). We ended up doing 4 laps in total (Andrew showed up for the last). First Andy, Lily, and I hit up Nip and Tuck (fun smaller stunts) to Snakes Back (lots of woodwork) to Fist First (jumps w/ funky wood booter to sniper rock lander; met French Johnny working on logride to stepdown gap) to Dirty Sanchez. At the bottom we met Jeff (another builder that I met on Sunday at Oliver) and he gave us a ride up in his Dodge 4x4. He was describing how to hit Dr. No (hard to find entrance) then decided he'd drive up a gnarly 4x4 road (and over fallen trees in his truck) to show us EXACTLY where the trail started. Super cool dude!! We rode Yo Mama (jumps) to Dr. NO (super tech rocky trail w/ some mini-canyons to drop in to as well as some rock rolls w/ ladders in between. A very unique trail to say the least!!! Lily really gave the crux a good go, and is starting to come into her own on the steep natural gnar- keep it up girl!!)

to Boss Hog (cool roll in to crazy step up feature- used to have a teeter into the move!!!). Too bad most of the other stunts were wrecked. Got to see the crazy funky looking drop/stepdown that Brad made famous by overshooting and SOMEHOW not blowing the berm on one of Smoke's videos). There was a drop to wall ride to gap to step up to step down that still went. I also rode the rock face next to that silly drop. Andy then dropped us on top of Kerplop (tons of woodwork between boulders, some jumps, and rock rolls/drops). We raged that to Hucking Grasshole (purported to have the biggest move around). We found the trail (kinda tricky) and rolled down it.....unsure what was going to pop out. I knew it immediately when I saw it. A huge wooden structure out in the distance w/ a big jump into it. The heartbeat quickens. I ran down and took a look at it. A big wood to wood double led to a step up onto a platform that was ~12-15' off the deck. It split and had two lines. The first rolled steep on wood and went into a ski jump that landed on the same wood tranny as the huge move. Here's where things kinda got sketchy. My brakes (specifically the rear) had been acting funky (pulling all the way to the bar without actually slowing me down) for most of the day. The way I could circumnavigate this was by pumping it up and holding it slightly on. That way they were there for me and would work. If I let go though....well then that whole "to the bar" thing applied. Fast forward back to Hucking Grasshole. I'm lining up the series of moves in front of me as I always do. Pedal, pedal, pedal, 12' booter, step up onto 12' tall platform (~40" wide), pedal, pedal, get my shit together, boost huge air (25' + out, 20' down), soak it up, BRAKE hard, flow the fast berm and don't go off into the woods where there are lots of fallen trees, rocks, snakes, etc. I hit the jump.....smooth, vwoooomp up onto the elevated ladder.....smooth. "Hey, I better check my brakes." Nothing. I get stopped on front brakes alone. The structure was kinda sketchy and I wanted off of it fast so I rolled in on the ski jump. I hit it a bit faster than needed and landed on the dirt below the tranny. I really wanted to hit the big move and I pumped up the brake again at the top. I dropped in again and was at the moment of reckoning again. I gave my brake a test and there it was. I took off pedaling and shot off the end. Phweeeeeeeeeeeeeewphump!!!! I soak up the huge concussion and rocket out of the bottom. When I realize what just happened I let out a long drawn out scream of joy and fear all in one. I rail the berm and ghost ride my bike, falling back onto the forest floor, laughing and screaming. H-O-L-Y!!!! Lily runs down and we share some exuberant laughs and high fives. I want to hit it again (this time involving the actual landing), but I don't bother. I railed Dirty Sanchez top to bottom without hesitation, the foreign jumps seeming oh so familiar after surmounting the Hucking Grasshole. I'm still laughing and way too hyped up when I run into Andrew McIntosh at the bottom. We load up and rally to the top for one more lap. I let them decide which trail because I was enjoying a potent cocktail of supercharged adrenaline and figured everything was just a bonus after the last lap. We did Kerplop (Lily liked the woodwork and rock gnar) to RubHerDown (play on words) which I followed Andrew off a long series of jumps that were fairly sizable. It was awesome. We nailed the Three Bears jump line and rally over to Wobbly Pop, a trail that had lots of small-medium sized jumps and stunts. There was a long stunt that had roller coasters and then finished up high on ladders to a 6'+ drop. Oh, and there's a tree that will grab your hoody and try to pull you off a high stunt as I learned. I somehow didn't fall off and still nailed the drop. Now my favorite hoody has a huge rip on the back of the arm. Lily and I bail and grab some food to cook up at the house. We made Barb and Smoke pesto pasta w/ grilled chicken and pinenuts, grilled corn on the cob, and garlic bread. We drank a bottle of wine and had great stories tossed around the table. Just another day in heaven........

Kelowna!!

2009-05-30T01:10:00.001-07:00

Where to start?!! Last Wednesday we showed up in Tonasket and went climbing on Thursday at Burge Mtn (an area Lily's dad has been developing) and a half day Friday (w/ Dana and Monica as well). Great times were had by all. Lily even did her first lead on a 5.7. I climbed a 2 pitch "cliff dweller" w/ Gary and also got turned back on "Savor the Sweetness," which Gary later made the second ascent of (solid 5.11). After a half day on Friday I had the uncontrollable urge to head north to beautiful BC (Kelowna). Johnny Smoke was having an early season bike party since it was a long weekend in Canada (Victoria Day). There were a LOT of people there when I showed up (20+) with tents sprawled across the nice sized back yard. I was hoping to have caught a ride, but customs had different plans for me (unkept guy driving a van registered to a Lily going BIKING in BC?!!). An hour later w/ the van ripped apart they "let" me continue on my way. Too bad the last shuttle went out before I arrived. We partied down and BBQ'd (and I got a fast ride to the store in Dan Barham's new VW GTI). Woke up the next AM and ripped a lap on Builder's Only w/ Colin and John. Super fun trail w/ 3 stunted zones w/ woodwork in between. The first had a fast medium sized double then another jump before stepping up onto a platform (which I almost didn't make the crux corner on) then stepping down then riding a curvy bridge the shot across the road and into a jump over a boulder (table). The second zone was Crazy Train- steep A frame to wooden table to stepdown to steep A frame to step up to double stepdown. Great feature (and not stupid big). The last zone split off R with a fast natural hip stepup to wooden double to drop to L hip (w/ HUGE landing). We ripped a few laps on that throughout the day (as well as riding at _________ Creek where we had 20+ people pedaling their big bikes UP hill before raging a super fun, smooth, DH peppered w/ smaller jumps). Good times were had by all. I got some good shots of Brett Tippie, Smoke, Andy, etc. Andy tried to get me drunk (as usual) but that didn't work----too determined to shred the gnar. Sunday was off to Oliver (1 hr away) and I piled into Colin's truck. The first lap dropped ~4000 ft w/ the top being loamy turns and half sketchy logrides/woodwork. Then it dropped through fields of sage and Balsams (yellow flowers) before getting "spiny" and skidder trail towards the bottom. You could even choose your own adventure at one point, raging through the sage. Unfortunately Sarah, Brett Tippie's partner took a digger and broke/tore the ligaments in her thumb. I played field doc and splinted her up. Then we reset the shuttle (and chowed at the bottom in an ant farm). Second lap was on TKO. Should have known by the name it was going to be gnarly. Smoke got the van momentarily stuck, but Ryan Hayes and his jacked up 4 runner pulled him out without complaint. We trudged up a bit (and held onto the Yota) until we hit solid snow. We pushed and pedaled as best as we could through the snow before finally hitting the trail head. It opened up with some fast dreamy loamy turns that I could take for years before turning back R and dropping in steep. We spaced out a bit and the precession dropped into the gnar. First move- steep off camber sidehill with a wet rock that you had to ride over into steep chute and HARD L corner. The dude in front of me froze up and I had to coax him along as I'm trying to negotiate the moves as well as not stop. I quickly put the pass on him ASAP. The trail disappeared before my very eyes at every corner. You had to commit to a move before you could even see what was coming. IT WAS AWESOME!!! And it went on for nearly 4000'!!! There were soooooo many techy sections, lots of loose pointy rocks, and some cliff edge moves to keep you honest (and your eyes on the trail). At one point I came out of the woods and there was the group checking out a jump. "Hit it!!" I heard so I charged into it and sent it. Happy to be out in front i kept charging until I ran into some trail debris (which I cleared). Still no bike sounds so I kept going. I finally FORCED myself to stop and take some pics on one steep zone. After a bit we ran into a road gap that didn't give a lot of pop, but you had to hit it MOVING and then it kept going steep after the landing with moondust into a FAST R hander that went off a 3' drop then back into the steep rock gnar. Cam stepped up and just sent it at mach 10 (pedaling?!!) and was GONE into a trail of dust. WOW was the collective thought. A few more people stepped up and hit it (including Marcie). I gave it a go and was surprised by just how poor of traction the moondust provides. I was hauling ass out the bottom with a huge grin on my face. A few fast corners spat us out into a pasture where we all let out a collective exhale. Ahhhhhhhhhh!!! High fives abound we were ALL charged up!! What a rip!! We coasted downhill to the winery where we parked the cars. We all stood around chatting an laughing it up until our stomachs forced us to load up and head for food!! Back at Smoke's there were fixings for everybody (meat pie, salad, etc) brought by somebody in the group. Free is for me!! We hung out and partied down with Ryan, Ja Smith, Marcie, Julie, etc crashing overnight as well. Great group of people!! We planned on hitting Postill the next AM before the planned Naramata riding (Airawanna).

I got up at 6:45 AM and rustled Colin and Ryan out of bed. We headed to Postill and met up with Andrew McIntosh (Inferno builder). We checked out his trail-in-progress and wow did it impress. LOTS of well thought out woodwork stunts and a cool trail section down low. We hit 3 moves that had never been ridden by anyone and got some shots. I cased the third move pretty bad and called it good (double step up to bowl stepdown). Ryan and Andrew nailed it pretty smooth w/ some serious body english. Then we raged on to Addiction, the showpiece of the area. It stared out mellow enough w/ some up and down to a hike-a-bike. Then it got into the business.....first moves were: getting going as fast as you could through a sweeping R w/ embedded rocks into a ~20-25' stepdown to immediate step up (15' out, 6' up) to quick turn and off a 8-10' drop (I overshot it). Then you gap over a ridge, hit a small hip, then charge onto the woodwork with a step up gap, turn, small stepdown, into the SKI BOOTER. I was a little nervous and hit it WAY too fast the fist time, landing front tire on flat dirt and my back tire grazed the tranny. We moved on and hit the Addiction drop (blind 6' drop) into a stepdown table into downhill ramp and into a 120' wallride!!!!!! It was H-u-g-e!!! The movies don't do it justice!! We sessioned it a bit and watched Julie come unglued and launch her bike off the top of the wallride while sliding UP the move. Her pads got caught and she was dangling by her arm 6-10' off the ground. Luckily she immediately shouted "I'm OK!!" and dislodged her arm. I was up on the ladder behind the wallride and was in awe as to what I just experienced. What a trooper!!! She tried to get the nerve up to hit it again but was noticeably spooked. The last zone on Addiction gets fast and A-line like w/ jumps abound (and the ATV booter) as well as the 25-30 footer off to the R of the trail. I followed Ryan off the big jump and overshot it by a good bit!! Nothing quite like a 30' jump to flat I tell ya!! There was one last techy jump section to finish that had a steep short double into a R hip into a hip stepdown to the road. Wahoo!!! Andrew was nice enough to give us one more lift up before he had to go to work. WICKED!!!

We charged back to Smoke's to try to catch them before they left but were too late. I broke down the tent as fast as possible and jumped in the van (as did Andy in his van) and we sped off to catch the group outside of Penticton at Naramata. We missed the first lap which was Airawanna (and had the separator drop) but hung out by the beach w/ Barb and Chiovan until the group got back. We jumped on for the second lap and had a good rip through a maze of trails that led into the Boneyard (rock garden). Lots of fun swoopy trail dropped us out on the road and we immediately headed for the closest winery. Still sweating and permeating funk we meandered into a swanky winery and got lined up for some tasting. Trying to act interested in the flavors and notes I gulped down 6 different kinds of wine and felt a little buzz coming on before I realized that I had to cross the border in an hour or two. I bought a bottle of their reserve pinot gris and loaded up for the drive back to the states. I arrived just in time to have some left over ribs and salad before passing out. Ahhhhhhh...life IS good!!

Hood River!!

2009-05-16T07:17:00.000-07:00

Woke up w/ Ariel's 6" kitten happily snoozing between me and Lily. That little kitten has some rotten butt (see last post)!! Looking at the weather again I realized that Hood River was actually going to be rain-free today and I excitedly talked Lily into going. A couple of bowls of granola and some crappy coffee later we were heading down Hwy 84 towards Hood. We stopped at Multnomah Falls and took a couple pics/ got pastries. Beautiful waterfall fo sho!! After arriving in Hood we immediately went to Post Canyon Drive w/ the hopes of hooking up w/ somebody to trade shuttle runs. We lucked out. I parked and saw a guy poke his head out of his car. I went right over to Paul and introduced myself. A couple minutes later we were driving the WAY overstuffed Previa up the mountain. We did the usual lap (for me)- 2 chair 2 to Chorus X to FMX to Egg Hunt (the jump is now decommissioned....boohoo) to 8 track (totally different ending since they clear cut the heck out of that slope.....boohoo) to Frankenstein (why did I take Lily and Paul down this?!!). Sweet new turtle shell opening stepdown, but the rest of the trail is pretty jacked right now (had to get off my bike 2-3 times). Lily and Paul had a helluva time scrambling down the hillside w/ their bikes. For some reason I remembered that trail being more tech (probably b/c I onsighted it last time). With a little love that trail will be riding superb. Between laps Paul took me to the Farm Stand- a newly opened health food store that his best friend opened in October. We met Rob the owner and played w/ a volcano. We then shot back to Hood to retrieve the Previa. Paul and Lily were done, but I hit another lap. How could I resist another lap being ON TOP?!! I'll admit though....I bonked pretty bad at the bottom (trying to race pace it for too long without any food all afternoon). Still a great day. We then met those guys at Full Sail Brewery and ended up meeting another local trailbuilder, Mark. He was super cool and gave us all kinds of ideas of the possibilities around the area. I definitely want to get back there and ride w/ this guy!! After Mark bailed we hung out w/ Paul and Rob and they started buying us beers. One thing led to another and we closed the place down, then started partying at the Previa (bubbler x 3). We luckily only had to drive right back up the gravel mountain road and find a flat spot to camp. We pitched the tent just in time and listened to the sound of heavy rain most of the night. We were pretty soggy the next AM, and even got snowed on briefly while packing up the van. After stopping back by the Fruit Stand for a volcano-to-go we headed to Seattle and Lily's G-ma's house. On to the next adventure!!

Blackrock Round 2

2009-05-16T07:16:00.000-07:00

Stayed 2 nights at Lily's folks house in N. Bend, OR. Rallied in around 2:30 AM after deciding to take our time in Ashland (Brewery for dinner....yum, and checking out the fire dancing going on in the town square....complete w/ a DJ bumping it at around 8/10. Pretty wild scene and cool vibe in Ashland.......lots of parks, public parking.....just a well though out green town). Slept in to 10:30 when the neighbor started banging on the door.....excited to see someone I guess. We hung out and played house, complete w/ lawn mowing and weed whipping. Then we drank some ESB's and watched the Cavs whoop up on Atlanta (again)....3-0 good guys. The next day we get all loaded up and the van won't start....of course. I lost my cool and gave the van a good round-house kick to the gut. Then I realized I was probably being watched by the whole neighborhood. Finally she started and we roared off to Black Rock, taking the mellow way.....101 along the Oregon coast. Tons of beaches and neat little nooks along the way. We got to BR at around 4:30 and raged a couple of laps. We climbed up then split up.....I rode Granny's Kitchen.....logride to wallride and cheese grater, to Granny's doubles. Couldn't get the right flow for 2 doubles on the trail. The first is a short gap but super vert and a hip. I knew I could hit that one, but then it set you up for a 20+' hip double that had more case marks on it than just about any other jump I've seen in years. The first time I thought I had enough speed I washed my back tire in some slick mud mid-berm. Undeterred I rallied back up for another couple goes, but something in the back of my head wouldn't let me pull the trigger. No worries. I raged the ET Booter and ended up between Basic Training (BT) and the Brake Check Jumps. I climbed back up to the top and ran into a couple dudes getting safe. Nice. They peeled and did Bonzai. I of course had to charge down Grannies. The top of that trail is rad. Some rock tech, a couple drops, and a gap followed by the huge wallride (starts w/ a downhill logride....soooo rad). There was a trail building day the day before and they surely put in some cool new features on Bonzai DH. Nothing monstrous but super cool. I also heard they're building another huge wallride and some jumps deep in the woods somewhere. From Grannies I pushed back up from the roadgap and charged Sunday Stroll to Brake Check. There were a couple of trees down and I couldn't understand why they weren't chopped out the day before?!! Nothing like hitting 15' jumps then skidding to a stop when there's a tree on the next takeoff/landing. I went across the street and nailed the skinny feature 2nd go. I kept on Stickter Gnar which basically side-hilled for a while xc style before dumping me out at BT (tons of logrides and skinnies to practice on). I ran into a father son group that was going out for a night ride (way under gunned if you ask me) and we rapped for a bit (waiting for Lily). They split and I went up and sessioned the drop to stepdown move called "Showtime" because Cam McCaul did a backflip off the stepdown in a flick this past year. Probably one of my favorite moves at Blackrock. I decided to head to the car since it was almost dark, even though there was no Lily yet. I started to get a little worried when she wasn't there and it was rapidly getting dark. Just at the point of rescue initiation she comes out of the woods. She had been practicing drops and took a good ol' face plant. Banged up but not too bad (she's tough!!) we loaded up the bikes and headed for some much deserved food. We ended up crashing at my friend Ariel's house (OU girl) in Portland. She had 3 dogs and a small kitten that we had the pleasure of sleeping with (kinda). It took the nastiest dump in the middle of the night and we had a hard time getting back to sleep/fending it off the bed. I think I slept.......maybe!!

Truckee after thoughts

2009-05-09T16:14:00.000-07:00

We finally pulled out of Truckee after two more days of Martis. We crashed at Nate and Natalie's house for a couple of nights after calling it good at 14926 S. Shore Drive. What a experience!! I feel like I've grown a lot, especially in the mountains during the winter. What a good group of rippers.......Kevin, Charlie, Peolie, Brian Bozak and Emily, Tommy, Rob Anthony, Noah, Jessie Whitecap, Warren, Nicole, Sarah, Glen Paulsen, and the list goes on. It went by soooo fast. 5 months. Done and gone. It snowed, then it cleared off and became sunny. There were long stretches of sun without snow. It taught patience, and the fact that there are LOTS of things to do, even if the conditions aren't perfect. You just have to make the extra effort. Get up early. Fight through sore muscles and doubt. Get out of the warm bed and put on the same clothes you know so well. Get the coffee going, even if it 4:30 AM. Some of the days we probably should have got up earliier......Pyramid Peak comes to mind with the death slog and thin coverage down low which slowed us to a crawl. Then there were the multiple Desolation trips. And Bridgeport with the Hulk Couloirs still smirking at the ass whooping it delivered to me multiple times. But it also taught me that anything less than SIX hours of skinning on firm sidehill conditions isn't to be complained about. Perspectives shift, and boy did they this winter. What is too steep or gnarly on a snowboard? 40 degrees? 50? Bulletproof ice or breakable crust?

Now we've stowed away the boards amidst the pile of gear packed carefully into the Toyota Previa (which still has a blown head gasket).

Daron, Lily and I rode Animal, Lloyd's, and even Martis before we bailed. Jessie Whitecap took us around to the snow-free trails- mainly Pinworm and Bear Market. He even showed us Coudegrais which had a techy uphill climb over rock to a hard R corner with seemingly strategically placed rocks in the worst spots possible. Then there was a snow patch which shut me down (until I sent it when the snow melted a few days later) to a steep rock chute, a L corner, then up onto an off-camber rock to diving board drop. The trail got a little wild after that with some blind jumps over rocks and logs. They needed some work and later that week ran into a guy fixing and cleaning the line (I was able to hit the step down to 2 new berms). Lily started throwing down on the creek gaps one day and had some ups and downs in her quest for airtime. Way to go girl!! Nate Dawg thought about some of the jumps more than Lily!! On Wed we rode with Nate again and had a funny string of events lead to us riding w/ Cameron Zink, the super badass biker. Nate's Jeep broke down, we ran into town to close the PO box, and then to Nate's for lunch. When we hit the top of the shuttle we ran into Jim (Hacksaw), Zink, and a buddy on a Sunday. We had a beer and bubbler and started to ride. I tried to get out ahead and get a few pics of the group and ended up munching my deraileur into my spokes off a 2' drop (WTF?!!!). Noooooooooooooo!!!!!! I knew what to do. Go chainless. I actually rode really fast and hit all the jumps on the trail each lap. It was a great experience to run into those guys. I gave Cam a good amount of PT ideas for his knee (which has had 5 surgeries) and even did some MET in the parking lot. We swapped numbers and I'd be stoked to work with him more in the future. We hit the road on Thursday morning-ish and drove to Ashland, OR after gaping at Mt Shasta (next time). We stopped by a shop that was really helpful and got lost momentarily before parking on Park St and riding up the paved/gravel road. Luckily we ran into Cliff who came up behind us. I caught up to him after eating a Gu, and was lucky enough to get a lot of good beta from him. We hit up Toothpick and climbed up Catwalk (pretty brutal singletrack climb) to Four Corners where we met Fish who was doing some trail work. We raged down Marty's trail which had a few nice jumps on it (I hit the last stepdown on my xc bike) then cut over to Catwalk, to Toothpick, then Caterpillar, and White Rabbit (which we skirted up to the fence trail). There was a HUGE sinkhole and a couple of gap jumps over it (b-i-g) which looked like they hadn't been hit in years. We grabbed some delicious dinner at the Standing Stone Brewery and drove back up the shuttle road to camp for the night. Today (Fri) we traded shuttles (I went first and hit Jabberwalkee), then went by the bike shop and fixed my rear der (w/ a used xo for 100$). On the way to the skatepark to meet up w/ the shuttle driver we pulled up next to Shawn D who had a cruiser bike on the back of a jacked up Jeep. We exchanged some glances then chatted a little while driving. He offered to shuttle us up in 20-30 minutes. We met up w/ him and Chase, Jason, and John and did a lap on the usual, but did BMI at the bottom. We packed up the rig, said some goodbyes, and went to the brewery for one last grub session. To North Bend, OR and Lily's folks house, then possibly to Blackrock or Post Canyon, then Marblemount, and up to Tonasket. THEN possibly to kamloops/Kelowna for some FR before that dreaded "W" word. Stay tuned.......

Pic descriptions:

1. Mt Shasta

2. Lily and Cam Zink

3. The Crib

4. Some of the fine beverages enjoyed this winter

5. Fireworks over our house courtesy of Kevin and Charle

Freeriding BIKES (not boards!!)

2009-05-03T15:37:00.000-07:00

Some of the first mountain BIKE freeriding of the year......Lily decided to step up her game and start hitting gap jumps (most of them over creeks). Fun was had by all and we charged the trails three days in a row. Nathan Arnold (Nate Dawg) stepped it up and showed us the pufferfish look over the gap(s). Nice job Dawg. The second pic is a alternate techy rock line that I got second day of trying. Uphill rocky tech climb....had to place front wheel on chair seat sized rock....hop back wheel onto funky placement, then pedal kick over the roll. Nobody else even tried it.

Mt Tam Ride w/ Daron, Chef Greg, Will, Lily, Nate, Natalie, and myself

2009-04-28T12:11:00.000-07:00

More Pacifica Shots

2009-04-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

Surfing in Santa Cruz/ Pacifica DH

2009-04-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

Thursday (22nd?) we loaded up the van with 5 bikes (Lily and I had 2 each and Daron brought his new Enduro), a crashpad for bouldering, and a bunch of clothes/food/etc. Then we tried to start it. DOH!! Took 10+ minutes of cranking it over to get it to roar to life. We were just about to move everything over to Daron's truck and have the 3rd smooshed in the back of his pickup. We cruised to Castle Rock, CA for a brief but fun boulder sesh. I hit most of the moderates that Eric had showed me previously. Lily walked a problem that got Daron to sweat a little bit!! We packed back up and rolled on to Santa Cruz where we were going to try to SURF!!! We rented wet suits and long boards~ 9' 6". We cruised across the street and watched good sized waves breaking (point break vs beach break). Funny enough....by the time we got paddled out there and all the waves had diminished and the locals were scattered about in the waves zone. It had to have been a funny scene.....I could barely stay up on the board- sitting or lying on my stomach. NOT even trying to ride a wave!! Didn't get a wave on day one. We went to the Seabright Brewery for dinner. The next day we tried again, but this time went to "The Hook," which was a little more serious. But that's OK since I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing. We paddled out (not quite as far this time), and began to get pummeled by the sets of waves crashing in. It was actually kind of fun, minus the one time I started to get drug by the rip curl out towards a rocky point where I watched the waves crashing into the rocks with a LOT of force. I started paddling with a LOT more seriousness and was able to make it back around the corner to where I belonged. Whew!! I DID catch a wave- even if it was on my stomach!! It was a rush nonetheless. From there we headed to Pacifica, CA and rode some freeride bikes. We climbed up from Higgins road (off Adobe and the 1). It had a lot of nice views of the beaches and mountains. When I thought we were 1/2 way up it was found out that we were on top. The trails were very indistinguishable. The Crack started off pretty techy with some jagged rock rolls with loose rocks thrown in for extra pleasure. It was fast but rutted and loose. The trail was one which begged you to go faster but might slam you without notice. I pushed the front wheel into the ditch a couple of times at various rates of speed and fear. We rode the Crack to the Mile to Boyscout. There were some small-medium jumps down low and a set of bigger jumps followed by some flowy medium sized hips. We sessioned them for a little while, then busted over to Chef Greg's house for a cookout. He cooked tri-tips and roasted veggies. I loved it but Dawg got food poisoning (?) and ended up puking all night- keeping Daron and Natalie up as well. We got up and met Dirtbag Matt and a CREW of dudes at Pacifica for a second ride. There were 17 of us in all. Funny thing.....I was trying to link up w/ Matt (and ready to leave my group if needed to make it happen), but in reality Nika knew them all and everyone was laughing when we found out we were all waiting on each other. We made the same climb up fire road for a while then made a strategic error and hike-a-biked up the gnarliest, steepest trail there called "911." It required stemming and solid footwork while keeping your bike up in front of you. Lily took a tumble DOWN the climb and did not look happy when we met back up. The crew laughed when we emerged from the climb (we beat everyone up somehow?). We kept on climbing up to "The Cave," the newest DH run out there. We had a little safety meeting at the top (they brought Sparks (?!) and beer). We began to shred the DH......ruts and rocks w/ steep fast sections and delicate berms to negotiate. There were a few waterfall moves and it kept me smiling the whole time. I got some good shots of the group on a couple berms, plus some ocean shots. One of the gang took a gnarly digger right in front of me and I watched his bike turn perpendicular to the trail before ejecto-matic-ing him to the ground. I feel bad now (because he chunked up his lip) but I passed him in the heat of the moment (kinda hard to stop). We hit up this moderately techy 4x4 DH section that had some hilarious moments (Mick getting squirrely a number of times to the roars of the crowd only to pull it out then stuff it OTB right in front of the group at the bottom!!). We climbed up again (3300' of climbing by this point on the big bike) to the Crack. There were some more photo op moments as the top had a couple of distinguished crux sections- steep w/ rocks and ruts. After raging the Crack, we hit up the Mile which had another good grunt to get on top. Daron and Will were the only people crazy enough to climb it. We rallied that to Boyscout and sessioned the jumps a bunch of times. The last/newest jump was still really loose (not packed) and required an abrupt berm corner into a double. I kinda cased it first go and had a hilarious (kinda) wreck second go (jumped out to the side once I knew I wasn't going to clear it.....the loose dirt stopped me and tossed me OTB.....only my legs got wrapped up in the frame as I attempted to eject. I ended up on all fours. Just as I was about to lift my head up to get up my bike did a tail whip on the front tire and clocked me in the back of the head HARD. Good thing I had my big helmet on!! We pulled a train all the way to the bottom through the couple remaining jumps/hips/berms to the cars. Mitch's mom (SF Dirtlab) hosted a BBQ just a block away and had great food and drinks much to our delight!! Thanks Mitch and possee!! Back to Chef Greg's for another night of improv stand-up from the man of the house.

Andersen Peak and Benson Hut Tour w/ Daron and Lily

2009-04-21T10:16:00.000-07:00

Motocross Shoot

2009-04-19T12:32:00.000-07:00

After hitting Lloyd's Trail we went over to the Prosser Pit for motocross. Immediately upon walking up with my camera a rider came over to me and told me a couple of spots to shoot if I wanted to. He gave me a ride to the far end of the track and I started shooting. Here are a few of my favorites from the ~15 minute shoot......

Catch up

2009-04-19T11:12:00.000-07:00

On Monday April 13th Matt Delheimer, Lily, and I went out and rode Lloyd's Trail outside of Truckee. It's low enough that it has started to melt out. There are a couple of jumps that I wanted to hit (the last time I hit them was over 5 yrs ago and I was on my Enduro.....and it was the biggest jump of my life). We warmed up by hackey sacking and riding a LONG wall ride along the dam. Matt needs to work on his wheelie drops (crunch). We proceeded to pedal the Dirtbag's up to the jumps. They were dilapidated!! We spent an hour and change fixing them structurally and adding dirt to the lips. They came out great and I hit each of them 3x. We kept cruising to the top and rode the fun swoopy trails w/ logrides abound. Lily stepped up her game and crushed almost every logride on the mountain.....even one Matt couldn't do!! You go girl!!

Wed April 15th- Epic backcountry XC w/ Daron, Nate Dog, Socko, and Lily in Downieville, CA. Halls Ranch to Fiddle Creek to N. Yuba. 20+ miles of uber tech gnar. TONS of exposure, steep techy rock climbs with lots of do-not-fall zones. I was pretty gripped. Worst part- I put in new cleats on my shoes, and the release point was WAY farther out than my last pair-sketchy!! I tipped over a few times, luckily to the uphill side of the "trail." I need to get a smaller camera or just lug my big SLR b/c I could have had some SICK pics!! Halls ranch is a 2k' climb over 2 miles on trail. It was relentless. To make matters worse, a dirtbiker had roosted a ditch through each tight switchback. I could feel my heartbeat in my head for most of the climb and I had to delineate gnats from my blood pressure peaking creating spotty vision- but no- they were gnats!! We got some fun ridgetop singletrack that ended with a ripper 4 mile DH. We then climbed up N Yuba which was intense to say the least!! More exposure, then some gnar, then more exposure. I prayed that Lily was walking her bike. She was!! We finished up with grub and beer at Trout Creek in Downieville. What a day!! XC epic in Downieville.......CHECK!!

RIP Uncle Tim

2009-04-19T10:21:00.000-07:00

Lots has happened over the past few days......mostly good w/ a good dose of reality thrown in. I found out that one of my closest uncles was very sick (on Easter of all things). My dad and aunt had been trying to coax him into seeking treatment, but true to his character he had refused. But now it seemed like things were more at a tipping point. I was shocked seeing as this was the first I'd heard of any problem at all. I talked to Stella first, then called over to aunt Ann's house where they were staying. I talked to her briefly, then to my dad for a few minutes. He then handed the phone to Tim. We spoke for around a minute or two. He sounded very raspy and short of breath. I told him that I loved him and was pulling for him. Our call ended with "Ok, I've got to go." There was a rustle and then my dad again. I was more in shock than anything. I did not grasp the scope or magnitude of the actual situation. I was in a daze driving back from Santa Cruz. We had spent soooo much time together as I grew up in Berea. His house (and grandma's) were right around the corner on Fowles Rd. Our visits had to be in the thousands. I can remember times of Russ, James, and I pulling all sorts of shennanigans with Tim just shaking his head, trying to keep us under control and the cops away. Then there was the infamous Browns trying to get to the superbowl, playing the broncos. Up and down game with us driving around in the old Lemans- to Pat and Margaret's. Every time we'd leave, they'd go up. So we kept driving around. Lots of laughs and stories. I have so many memories......snowmobiling, watching him dump the Goldwing coming out of the barn. Roofing jobs- countless shingle humping hours and stress. And him laying down shingles faster than I could feed him. It's really a shame that Tim did not get out more in the past number of years. He was an amazing chatter and could surprisingly talk about any current issue in the world with a good amount of information and down home analysis. Or course over a ice cold beer. The Burke's can definitely drink when they want to. But honestly looking back I can't remember a time when he couldn't play hoops, softball, or ride a motorcycle after a whole day of tossing them back. When he put in a nice half-court slab of concrete on the otherwise gravel and pothole driveway it spawned a whole new direction for the house. The family would always stop by sporadically to say hi or party down a bit (usually both). Games of hoops would always spring up. And although Tim's drive left a little bit to be desired his jumper was deadly accurate. He would shake the rim with his patented jumper. We played BB a LOT. He was also the uncle who would buy sweet toys (motorcycles mostly). I remember the first time I really got to ride a MC was around the yard at Tim's on a road bike that he was watching. Then there were the ride the lawn tractor through the woods like a dirtbike until Tim would trick me into helping him around the yard as trade for driving it. This later progressed to a mini bike, then the 78' Kawasaki KL 250 and all the fun times that it lead to. Then came the 2 strokes- my RM 100 and 125. Ian rode there a lot as did the local kids- Eric and his brother. He used to kick my ass all the time. Passing me all over the place. No matter how hard I tried!! Before that Russ and I used to ride our BMX bikes from Lakewood to Berea just to drop in on Tim because we always had fun hanging out with him. I commend him for taking care of Grandma all those years. He single-handedly kept her out of the nursing home (along w/ the help of the whole family). He also helped my dad for years on a wide array of construction jobs- the largest of which might be Dorthea's sheep farm. My dad got the ball rolling and Tim joined the team to help a 90 yr old woman who lived alone on a farm with tons of sheep stay in her home and happy. Even after a whole wing of the house burned down. They spent countless hours and money out of their own pockets to make it happen. Genuinely good souls!!

Fast forward to Tuesday April 14th 2009. Tim reluctantly agreed to seek medical attention and was admitted to the ICU. He was found to have a football sized tumor in his chest that was collapsing his lungs, and shutting down liver and kidney function. Super sad revelation. I'm still in shock that he passed away on Thursday April 16th, 2009. He was 52. RIP Uncle Tim!! I love you buddy!!

2009-04-13T10:42:00.000-07:00

Pic Descriptions:

1. Looking back up The Cross (Mt Tallac).

2. Looking back up the main gut of The Cross

3. Lily milking the end of the gut (untouched!?!)

4. Lily loving the gut

5. Lily tip-toeing through the first crux (which I ripped out after her....whoops!!).....solid 50+ deg!!

We had horrible visibility the whole climb, then the mountain gods smiled and the sun came out just in time to rip the uber classic Cross......thanks mountain gods!!

Mt Tallac and Zakir Hussein!!

2009-04-11T10:31:00.000-07:00

This past week was a mixed bag of fun.......rode at Peavine w/ Nate, Natalie, Daron, and Lily. Nate forgot Natalie's shoes and drove an extra hour plus!! DOH!! The trails are fun but definitely a barren desert environment!! We climbed "Bacon Strip" and descended the backside. One problem..... torrential winds!! It blew soooo hard that it would push you around at the worst times (charging a rock garden or catching some mini air). On the brief road ride back it had to have been 50+ MPH winds (steady). There was tumble weeds flying down the highway, and cinders pelted us non-stop. Then there was the challenge of force production....... We got a little surprise in the way of a mostly powder day (~4" of dust on crust). We were planning on hiking the whole day but ended up charging a bunch of runs on the 58's (1000' fall line runs). It got better as the day went on which is always cool. The next day (Fri the 10th?) we decided on Mt Tallac since neither Lily nor I had done it, and it was likely to have pow after another 3-5" overnight. We got up at 5:45 and were on the road at 7 (w/ a 5-10 min start the van side note....@%!*&!!). We had an unexpected guest in the way of our newby-ish buddy Nate Dawg. He's climbed Mt Rose twice....... I guess Tallac is only 3x as big w/ more commitment?!! We started out by hiking Rt 89 North to a gated road that led back into some cabins and dead-ended into the woods. The visibility was low and you couldn't even see the top of the climb!! I tossed on my ski crampons early and was glad. We climbed the ridge with a few high-exposure firm snow kick turns that I was glad to have some crampons digging in on. The climb took 2.5 hrs (full on grunting). We got passed by Glen Paulson (40-50 something bad ass) and his partner, and passed a splitboarder w/o poles (?!!) who was getting worked hard, and a group of 3 on the last snowfield (2 guys easily in their late 50's and a woman in her early 40's who had set the skin track the whole way!!). Funny enough....Daron had rented them all their gear the day before!! We waited a little while for Nate to catch up then wrapped around the back side and clambered over some rocks to the summit. Daron poked around above the Cross where Glen had gone and declared that Lily and I should ride it. He bit the bullet and rode the mellower line w/ Dawg. He gave us the directions...... Drop into this first pitch but don't break off any cornice and make your turns cautiously. Then you'll see a clump of trees in the middle of the chute. Stay above it and go R. That will drop you into the main chute followed by a large apron. At that point start cutting down and L, cross over two ridges and then finish the descent as per the way we started. The initial roll in was the crux and I unknowingly sent Lily in first. She butt checked once and was visibly scared as she cautiously disappeared out of sight. I got a few good pics and spotted her cut R above the trees. I dropped in, made a jump turn that got me sliding DH faster than I imagined and accidentally broke off a 6-8" wind slab. I darted L fast while yelling "slide!!!" Lily was just out of the way as the wet slide ripped past her into the next chute. "Do you think this is a good idea?!!" The quote of the day by Lily. Not ready to climb back up a 50+ deg chute I rolled into the next chute. It was magic. Untouched. I ripped it without regard of the dangers we had faced on the first crux. The turns were effortless and silent. I stopped and got pics of Lily riding it. We then proceeded to milk the apron (and catch a little air) before traversing L. We encountered some burnt off bushes and velcro snow near the bottom. We were down and done before we knew it. Whew!! And to think that we got a weather window when it appeared the whole run would be under cloud cover. We beat Nate and Daron down, loaded up the van and drove Hwy 50 past Lover's Leap and a bunch of other amazing mountains/towns (Strawberry, etc). Going to see Zakir Hussein at the Rio in Santa Cruz!! We showed up at 6:30, realized we were locked out of Lily's mom's house (guess no shower), changed in the backyard and proceeded downtown. There was a large line up already!! I stood in line at this "fast" noodle place which was at a standstill and Lily got in and reserved a couple seats. The show was an amazing collection of classical Indian music with a traditional hammer dulcimer like instrument with a TON of strings and of course the Tablas Zakir played. The sellout crowd was in awe the whole time as were we. They got standing O's every time there was a break after a crescendo. They played 4 compositions with a good amount of improv (which you couldn't tell). Soooooo tight!! A true world music experience. I didn't want it to end!! They both made enough tones/sounds to feel like there were 10 people playing at once. Hands of Fury!! We walked out stunned.

2009-04-04T08:33:00.000-07:00

Car trouble, Lily's B-day, Eric Arvai lives, I boulder?

2009-04-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

Monday I find out that the van broke down again as it came out of the bay after getting 2 new tires and a new distributor (more on that later). Bummage seeing as it's Lily's birthday on Tues (March 31st) and we had planned on going to the eastern Sierra's for the week. I made my way to Santa Cruz via a loaner car and got to spend time w/ Lily on her birthday. She scored a new Camp ice axe via yours truly. We spent a good part of the day trying to get the van fixed and/or look for new cars. We end up getting a new air box hose (200$) and that was after getting hooked up w/ no labor!! He got all matter-of-a-fact on us as we rolled up to pick up our "done" car. They couldn't get it started after the repair and were trying to figure out WTF was up just as we rolled up. Classic timing saved us 200$$ in labor. I'm all "well the blown head gasket could be contributing, eh? He's all "what did you just say?!!" "If I would have known that I wouldn't have fixed this thing!!" "I'm not going to charge you labor, but you should get it somewhere safe while it's running!!" No problemo!! Just 4 hrs back home, then on various road trips deep in the mountains, then back to WA!! We go to get our spare key from Auto Shop #1 (Fidelity...don't go there in SC!!) where I find out that they didn't even put a new distributor in it, but still managed to charge Lily 340$ for a cap, rotor, and plugs. OUCH!! I had to remove myself from the shop voluntarily because I wanted to drop kick him. To vent my frustration I cooked Lily one hell of a dinner AND a birthday cake (from scratch). We sipped champagne and ate strawberries. It was grand. The next day we met up w/ long time friend Eric Arvai at Castle Rocks for a boulder sesh. And what a sesh it was!! I climbed harder than I thought my sorry off-the-couch self would. Lily cranked out some good problems, and Arvai was on fire for most of the day (climbing every other day will do that!!). We made our way back up to Truckee yesterday (Apr 2nd) w/o any van issues. We stopped at a rad fruit and nut stand on the side of the hwy that had crazy deals. Today we went to Mt Rose, NV and did some backcountry boarding (Hourglass and Prolateriat Bowl). It was kind of dust on crust, but at least 2-4" of dust!! Mark Parkinson is coming to visit for the weekend and will be in for one helluva adventure seeing as we have a rental splitboard sitting in the garage waiting for him!!

Rest day finally, then onto the bike?!!

2009-03-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

Finally took a rest day on Friday. My knee was very unhappy about getting slammed straight onto a rock without any save attempt. It was one of the most painful knee schwaps I've ever taken.....and that's something to say seeing as I got 6 stitches across it in December. I worked on Warren's knee ironically- he's slated for meniscus surgery in a couple weeks. He let me borrow a car while Lily's finishing up the WFR course in Santa Cruz. Word is that the van is back in operation after having the distributor ($500) replaced and a flat tire fixed. I got invited to go to UT and CO w/ Kevin, Charlie, Rob, and Bozak but am going to hold off and hopefully take a E. Side trip to the Sierra's w/ the birthday girl (Lily's 27 on Tues). Daron and Lindsey just took off for a week long trip to Bishop, Mammoth, Bridgeport, etc. With climbing, big tours, and hot springs w/ camping abound it sounds like the economy special. After 4 months without work I have to take money into account a little more these days!! I got some really nice shots of Donner Lake; it really is an amazing place to live. I have to soak it in seeing as the end is starting to approach the horizon (1 month). Yesterday (Sat. the 28th) I rode XC w/ Nate Dawg down in the Reno area. We rode up to the snow line on some buffy buff singletrack. It was pretty busy being a Saturday, not to mention we were riding the loop backwards since he thought the older more beat down trail would be better to descend....and he was right!! The DH was fast and flowy.....but also loose in sections. Every time I tried to catch a little air there would be a funky rock in the landing or a tight corner. I still had a blast.....especially since Daron just freshened up the ol' Enduro- new XTR front der, Easton EA50 bar, Truvativ stem (shorter w/ more rise), and all new housing and cables. It looked brand new. Too bad it's only worth a G and I have around 3g's into it. Probably a keeper!! I ate the rare fast food and my belly suffered for a while!! I had to go to the health food store and stock up after that!! There were some good BB games on (march madness), and we watched it between Dawg's house and Blue Coyote where we ran into Daron and Lindsey. I ended up renting some movies and vegging at the house after that. Today I've tried to get packed for a big backcountry adventure which is imminent and get ahold of Lily who's supposed to be back today (?). Mich State is leading Louisville at the half and I'm sipping a latte writing this blog. Time to upload some pics......... Descriptions: 1,2,4,5- Donner Lake- I live in the middle of the panoramic pic (2nd one down). Pic 3- my leg modeling career is clearly over!!

Rest day......tomorrow!!

2009-03-26T21:43:00.000-07:00

As I was going to bed last night Daron came home w/ Greg Long so I knew I wasn't going to get any rest today. We went to the Bowl...no shocker there. Daron had grabbed a split board for Greg and he was stoked to get a crack at riding one. Except it was really windy and still rather cold out when we got there after a luxurious morning of sipping strong coffee and eating a huge scramble and banana/blueberry pancakes. We rode some groomers off Disney- Marketstreet and some East face of Lincoln. Then we went for a trial Patrol Run to see if the snow had softened. It had and we dropped in, except Greg didn't see where we went and went back in bounds so as not to get lost. Daron and I waited for a bit on the side of the slope poking around calling his name. As we were hiking out I had the most unfortunate experience of schwapping my knee REALLY freakin hard on a rock. I took a step and sunk unexpectedly up to my groin very quick and forcefully while my R knee bent and slammed straight on into a very pointy rock. I almost got sick it hurt so bad. WAY worse than when I got the 6 stitches not to long ago. It hurt a 9 3/4 out of 10 for a solid 60-90 sec. It felt like eternity. I gingerly make my way to my feet and test it out. It's throbbing but I can tell my body has kicked in the pain relievers. I take 800mg of Ibuprofen to combat the inflammation. We finished the hike and rallied down to meet up with Greg. Instead of calling it a day I do a FULL PR lap w/ Daron and Greg. But it was worth it. We got good snow and Daron and I took a totally different line riders R of the usual run. It looked really good and it was. There was a good cliff band that we had to negotiate, but it worked out fine. Good exciting aesthetic line. We skinned back up to Cornice bowl/W Palisades. Greg entertained us with first time skinning antics which involved trying to RUN down a small slope like he was still on snowshoes. He ended up doing a home plate slide right in front of me. His hands collapsed and were under his chest when he landed. I laughed myself silly. He was a good sport and did a great job as a rookie slit boarder. We rocked out of the bowl and checked out some march madness at the Blue Coyote. I got to meed Daniel, Greg's son who I hadn't seen since the day he took off the training wheels on his bike. We watched Pitt, Villanova, UConn and Missouri win exciting games. I'm taking a rest day tomorrow, no questions asked. My knee scrape/gouge needs some TLC and so does the rest of my poor aching body!!

More Diamond Ridge Pics

2009-03-25T22:54:00.001-07:00

you can see my diving board drop up and L in the pic below

Diamond Ridge Tour w/ Tommy and Charlie

2009-03-25T22:03:00.000-07:00

Today I was awoke by the sound of the phone ringing. I had called a few people the night before trying to hook something up so I knew this was my chance. It was Charlie....I thought it was going to be Rob trying to find a partner for his great ski hunt (lost the day before on the Lake Run). He wanted to go back out to the Cat Skiing zone/Diamond Ridge (where they had been the day before while we were tagging Andersen Ridge). I said "yes" immediately and he came and picked me up. Tommy called while Charlie was on his way and joined the team. We headed out Andersen Ridge which was very firm and shaped by the wind. We scoped a number of lines as we skinned past General Principle and up over the next point on the ridge. From there we got great views of Andersen Peak and the tracks down it looked very nice. I have to get out to the Sierra Club hut at the base of the peak. There is some PRIME terrain right out the back door!! We dropped the first line of the day which was short but had great POW!! I made some deep turns then rode a spine and had a sweet air off a diving board (~12') into some more milky turns. Tommy did some slalom turns through the rocks and Charlie rode a steep spine to a sweet air off a snow pyramid. We skinned right back up their skin track from the day before which was steep and below some convex rollovers. Tommy almost hit me with a huge "cinnamon bun" that developed from some snow he kicked off inadvertently (the snow was already getting sticky). We kept skinning out the ridge to the furthest hight point just below Andersen Peak and dropped a few different lines again. I had another great run with some nice turns and a good sized air off the left of the main cliff band. I stopped 3/4 of the way down and got pics of Tommy slashing the wall and a GREAT pic of him doing a grab off a rock drop. We rode as far as we could and then skinned the rest of the way to the top of Diamond Ridge. We got into radio contact w/ Brian Bozak, the 2 Noah's, and Emily who were doing some snowmobile recon in the area. We dropped in on some amazing terrain which unfortunately was a little past its prime. We set off lots of wet slides and sent roller balls flying all over the slope. It was fun but kind of sloppy/sketchy too. We skinned out past a few ponds, some small lakes, and right along a creek for a bit (no fall zone!!). The sleds caught up with us and Tommy got pulled out by Bozak. Charlie and I decided to skate out (since he made it seem like we were close to it all being downhill). Well, it was far from being over. It took a solid 30+ min of skating, mostly with only one skin on my L ski so I could kick off w/ the L and glide on the R ski. We were pretty worked over by the time Tommy showed back up w/ his truck (and some beers). We cruised back up to Sugarbowl to retrieve our other vehicles and share some laughs over a nice cold beer. Life is grand!! One of these days I'm going to take a rest day........ but maybe not tomorrow. Tommy wants to go to Auburn and ride some XC. Daron just pimped out my bike w/ some new bars, stem, front deraileur, and all new cables/housing w/ my used/new XT shifters. The snow is pretty heavy and there's only sun on the forecast. I guess spring is here.......

Pic descriptions: 1. Tommy charging Diamond Ridge (notice the manky snow) 2-3. Tommy airing it out!! 4. Charlie airing out the pyramid 5. Tommy doing his slalom turns

More Trifecta Pics

2009-03-24T20:14:00.001-07:00

Pic descriptions: 1. Tommy nailing the Sneaker Chute 2. Tommy raging The Wart 3-4. Tommy making "the" move on The Wart 5. Rob dropping off Mt Judah

Trifecta w/ Rob Anthony and Tommy Beckering

2009-03-24T19:01:00.000-07:00

This morning Rob called and had a few plans.....Maggie's, Tallac, or a Trifecta (Andersen, Judah, Trestle). Once Tommy was in the Trifecta was served up cold and fresh. We rolled out the Lincoln chair on some of the best groomers possible....cold and smooth as a babies butt. We almost did another "warm up" lap on the groomers then quickly decided to go OB. We rolled out and checked out the Burbolator shoulder before continuing on to General Principle (GP). Tommy set up a shot and Rob dropped in. He popped out the bottom hooting and hollering with joy. I dropped in and got beautiful pow turns into the bottleneck of the chute then laid a sweet slash off the R wall before pointing it out the bottom. We radioed up to Tom to do the "sneaker chute," off to the lookers R of GP. He obliged and got arguably the sickest line in that zone. And I got some sweet pics of it!! We skinned right back up across the bottom on Andersen and back on top. This time Rob dropped in on one of the faces to riders L of the Burb face. He negotiated some less than ideal snow and a big wind lip before getting into the sweet sweet powder. I dropped into the Burb shoulder but was quickly sliding on my butt after attempting a turn on the first rollover. I quickly changed plans and dropped into the Burb where there was ample powder to slash up. Nice run. Then Tommy nailed the WART!! I've only seen Jeremy Jones do that line this year!! I got a nice sequence of him charging the line. We skinned up to Roller Pass, then onto Lunch Rock and the top of Judah. We decided to do the other Judah Bowl since the usual run got chowed up by us and some others the day before. It was a sweet run and I got some good turns and a pointer at the bottom. Then we boot packed over to Trestle Peak where we met up w/ Cory and his dog. We all dropped in a little more hastily since Tommy had to work. It was amazing up top and we all got nice turns and some airs. We dropped all the way down and to the L where we skirted the trestle before hitting up the Boneyard. That's where Rob's day took a turn for the worse. He went off a drop and had his new ski eject on him. He searched for a while to no avail. I got his truck and brought it back down while he searched more...again to no avail. He's ready to get back out there tomorrow and find it!! What a few days it has been!! My body is worked over!! If it snows a little bit on Wed night we might hit the Violet Couloir at the Buttes on Thursday. Stay tuned!!

Pic descriptions: 1. Tommy on The Wart 2. Rob riding L of the Burb 3. Tommy skinning below the monster cornice!! 4&5- Tommy getting the Sneaker Chute next to General Principle (our tracks).