Richland Nearly Done!!

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

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.....??????

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

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!!

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!!)

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.  

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!!