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.
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