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

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

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

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

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!!

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

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

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!!