Zips Spot

Winter

2012-01-16T22:15:00.002-05:00

Wanted: Framebag

2011-11-21T13:46:00.004-05:00

Wilderness 101

2011-08-01T16:01:00.003-04:00

I wanted to do a full writeup on this event, but just don't have the time.

We went, we saw, we were crushed. In a good way.

Third time doing the event and rolled my best time for the course: 10hr 22min. Ran out of water once and had a hard time coming back from that, as it was pretty hot in the afternoon.

The rock gardens and trails were uber fun, the rocky 'roads'- not so much.

Sorry, no pics either.

The end.

Paleo Ponderings...

2011-07-16T10:23:00.003-04:00

Thanks to the Gooney Riders blog, I've been recently enlightened to coconut flour. This stuff has great potential for constructing vehicles for all that stuff that's fun to eat, like salsa, but lacks that certain something needed for consumption. Think: chips, tortillas, pancakes, crepes, bread, etc. All the stuff that's pretty much a no-no if you've given up grains. Here's a quick rundown on some veggie pancake-ish things I plagaristically modified. Open the door to a whole new era of taste-bud tantalizing trial and error.

Routin' and Scoutin'

2011-07-03T16:32:00.002-04:00

Since my NCT track is slightly wonky around the Giem Road section and I don't have all the parts to finish off the 'Michigan' road bike as of yet, I decided to do a short overnighter to test my fatigue, disseminate my track and prepare for a possible Labor Day run of the TransMichigan.

I dunno what's worse, desiccating to a crisp hiking rubbly trails in the desert or sweating in the humidity while being hacked apart and feasted upon by the nettle/pricker/black fly/mosquito Manistee mayhem.

The Grand Loop

2011-06-19T20:31:00.068-04:00

/* Note - the pic slideshows are not auto play, click each to begin. */

Kokopelli - Paradox - Tabegauche

I've attempted this route five times. And failed. This is one hard ass loop, bar none. You'll be pushing your bike on seemingly ride-able roads. You'll wonder why to hell you even have your bike at times. Bushwacking because there is no trail? Yep, that too. You'll be cursing out loud for something to end. Be it the climbing, pushing, scrambling, moo poo or the orb. Water? Yep, you'll think about that a lot too. And you'll also cover some of the most scenic desert and alpine backcountry the west has to offer, over some very demanding and technical terrain. All self supported. The simple life- eat, sleep, ride and grin. Follow your track, trust what you know, improvise what you don't. Just keep moving. And stop thinking about your car being there (or not), damn it! I'll skip plagiarizing the requisite lore for this monster, which you can read here: 'Mile for mile...'. I'm also intentionally leaving out details, for obvious reasons. Do yer homework, 'come to ride it and don't worry about how long it takes' - you won't be disappointed. The silly little slideshows below only betray a fraction of the landscape expanse.

Oooh... I'm gettin' giddy again just writing this.

Prologue -

After feeling like shit and rolling around with the cold sweats at Westwater last fall, but doing some (as I sit here now - crucial) scouting on the Uncompaghre Plateau, the plan was to make another fall attempt in '11. Breaking tradition with a Westwater start, this would put two/three possible supply points along the route - Bedrock, Nucla/Naturita and Grand Junction/Fruita - and split the usually brutally hot Kokopelli section in two. Not that it really mattered in the end anyway.

Breaking my finger and missing out on the AZT300 earlier this year, it was all antsy pants wanting to ride some trails and wander around in the wilderness for a spell. ADD fueled weather watching and NFS/BLM report reading seemed to point to a mid June start, so that became my target range. June 9th ended up being that day.

Day/Night 1 - Dewey Bridge to Hideout Canyon

As I rolled down Westwater Road towards the ranger station, it wasn't a mirage I was seeing, but a real stream running across the road along with 'Enter at your own risk' signs on the approach. Err... Welp, not to put the auto under unnecessary stress, I u-turned and drove out to Dewey Bridge.

Geared up, I was on the bike at 7:05 pm and headed up the shandys with the idea of making it to Hideout campground before deciding to sleep or not. Over hill and dale the shandys were, as usual, quite the slog. I reached the top about 10 and looked forward to Rose Garden Hill and some easy spinning through Fisher Valley. By midnight I was nearing Hideout and decided to call it a night, eat some dinner and roll out the bivy, knowing the next day would bring higher altitudes, cooler temps and shade.

Day 2 - Hideout Canyon to Spring Creek Mesa

Almost immediately after rolling from camp, on the little rise coming around Cowhead Hill, I spot the first (of five) bear. A small little chubby thing, it scurries off as soon as it spots me. Here in the desert? Strange. Good spinning today as the trail climbs to North Beaver Mesa and finally turning onto the Paradox trail. Skirting the La Sals and cruising Taylor Flat, I made my way to Buckeye Reservoir and filtered again before the drop into the heat of the Paradox Valley and the Bedrock store. The descent off Carpenter Ridge is steep and twisty, dropping ~2000' in ~3-1/3 miles. So you can imagine my ire when realizing my Spot has disappeared... And I blow at least an hour walking back up and down to retrieve it. Meh. As a consolation, nice tailwinds pushed me across the Paradox Valley and through the canyon carved out by the Delores and San Miguel rivers into Uravan. After the short climb up from the highway, I decided to bivy before it got dark as it was a pia to find some place besides the middle of the road that wasn't covered in either moo poo or cacti. I found a nice flat piece of rock.

Day 3 - Spring Creek Mesa to Naturita

After a good morning of climbing and dropping to Tabegauche Creek, the trail becomes a bit more challenging as it traverses Coal Canyon before allowing the option to go off course to Nucla and/or Naturita, if desired. And I did to both, hitting the grocer and a motel- for a shower and a nap. This section surely tested my mettle. The sun on the hike-a-bike sections was scorching and the shade hopping was on in earnest until the descent into town. I spent quite some time screwing around and eating in the shade on the sidewalk in Nucla as I waffled about going to Naturita or not. Absolutely worth the bonus of adding in the extra miles was the hot and ready food section at the Naturita grocer. Here I was able to net a rotisserie chicken, double cheese burger, two breakfast mc muffin style gut busters and a host of other goodies including more fresh fruit. And more butter. ;)

Day 4 - Naturita to the Uncompaghre Plateau

Today consisted of mainly a ~5600', 32 mile long climb from town to the top of the plateau followed by a route finding hike-a-bike in the woods through snow fields and fording cold high running creeks. Hello waterproof socks. And without my scouting track from last fall, today would have brought my ride to a halt. There was no way to get through the snowy Pool Creek section without it. More mettle mashing here. It was slow but sure as I could recall sections from my pre-ride. Especially while dragging my boat anchor, err... bike down and back up through a snow covered canyon. But before all that, I actually had to make it out of town. Thinking I had enough food already, the warm smells from the Nucla cafe had me sitting down to more coffee, a mega omelet and two double bacon cheeseburgers to go. Next time I'm getting four burgers, they hit the spot after hiking through the snow.

Day 5 - Pool Creek to Divide Road via the Roubideau Trail

I'll have to admit, I wasn't all that speedy in getting going in the mornings and today was no exception. Probably the coldest it got of the nights on the trail, in the low forties with a nice breeze come day break. That surely had me moving a bit more slowly. As did the impending continuation of walking through the snow fields and route finding. After slicing and dicing my track, the 7 miles of Pool Creek took me ~ 3-3/4 hours to get through. Hahaha. Though there is quite a bit of pushing on the Rooby, I was only too happy to return to the bombing downhills and pleasant flat riding between the drainages. The climb up and across Love Mesa to Divide Road put the cap on the day and I rolled out the bivy just off the side of the road on a little flat section. A few sprinkles this night as the moon peeked out of the holes in the clouds.

Day 6 - Divide Road to Grand Junction

A long day in the saddle traversing the last of the plateau, descending to Dominguez Canyon, a push of ~ 6 hours at the end to go 23 miles from 141 in Whitewater to the Lunch Loops trailhead to finish out the Tabegauche at 11:12 pm and finally roll into a motel in Grand Junction around midnight. Of course I had to hit the first gas station I came to for some quick food, as I was starved and on my last leg of edibles. After procuring the room, I hit the all night grocer across the street for some fried chicken, sushi, juice and loads more fruit. The Lunch Loop appetizer had to be my most excruciating time on the loop, the climbing/hiking was non-stop. Even after the sun went down the agony didn't lessen. I must have looked the part as well, since both the gas station attendant and the motel clerk remarked of my stature.

Day 7 - Grand Junction to Dewey Bridge

Latest morning getting rolling thus far, but I went to bed too late cleaning all my stuff and organizing. Plus, I was pretty tapped when I hit town. I felt awesome after the nap and solid food, ready to put in the final push no matter what time I got back to my car. I wanted to be done. Rode C-340 right into Fruita for a Wendy's grease blob (again, should have gotten two) and then to the bike shop for some chammy cream, as I'd used my allotment. 5 miles of nice tailwinds on the e-way and at 11:51 am I was rolling out of the pavilion towards Mary's Loop. Luckily the wind made the Salt and Bitter Creek climbs tolerable, albeit a bit heady on the flats of Rabbit Valley and Cisco. Made the trek off course to Westwater for a water fill since I was down to 1/2 of a bottle at that point. By the time I was making the turn to Fish Ford the come and go gusts were accompanied by slight showers and frequent lightening. McGraw bottom is actually the section that was on my mind the entire ride. I had recurring thoughts of the trail being washed out or under water, due to the late snowpack and how high the Colorado river was. Luckily, the trail was only muddy in a few sections and required easy scrambling/pushing around the sides of the goo. Yellowjacket went smoothly, I crossed the bridge and rolled up to my car at 1:19 am.

Done. And toast.

Epilogue -

Ok, so the speed (or lack there of) and motel stops (used inefficiently) surely indicates more of a 'touring' gist to this run. However, other than the Kokopelli, I wanted to ride all the sections in the daylight so I could see the sights and have my bearings for a faster time in the future. Probably when they fix the access issues in Spradlin Park. The first moto is always practice anyway.

Obsession tempered.

Random Notes-

- Saw 5 bears in 4 encounters. One just past Hideout, one climbing up Spring Creek Mesa, one near the 'Bear Pen Gulch' trail and two bathing in a pond on the Glencoe Bench. Also saw one cat (it bolted before I could tell what it was), numerous elk, deer and various other little critters. The chipmunks in the desert were interesting. The bear near Bear Pen was the largest I'd ever encountered, easily towering over me as it stood on it's hind legs in the middle of the trail before bolting off.

- Chased by one dog in Paradox Valley, luckily going downhill.

- Lots of deer and cat tracks in the snow.

- One jeep convoy (poker run) on my way to Tabegauche Creek.

- The Bedrock store is still closed.

- Only thing lost was my bear bell. Tether. Heh.

- It took me ~three days to traverse the Uncompaghre Plateau, from the low points of Naturita and Grand Junction. Crazy.

- Took an iPod but never used it. I was too worried about zoning out since I was alone and thought it wiser to keep my wits. Never chewed any of my gum either.

Stats - after cleaning out erroneous track points- changing batteries resulted in 'first points' being way off as the gps 'relocated', skewing the initial track and on screen numbers.

Also did the advised detour to avoid private property, adding ~5 miles and 200' of additional elevation. And unfortunately, probably subtracting some brutality.

Total Miles: 399.79
Total Elevation Gain: 50,291'
Total ITT Time (including prologue): 6 days, 6 hours and 14 mins
Total On Course Time (no prologue): 5 days, 17 hours and 34 mins

Course Profile (click/enlarge)

Course Landsat (click/enlarge)

Acknowledgments -

Where to begin... MikeC for dreaming and scheming this cocktail, all the bp.net folks who's trip reports yield valuable information (you know who you are :), Trails-Edge for keeping the wheels rolling, LW Coaching for their training plans, all people who make the gear that worked flawlessly (list pending) and last but not least, my family for putting up with the self-centered, sometimes over-lived well past the point of grumpiness and the hermitistic eccentricity of lifestyle that this biking stuff encroaches. Love you guys.

/* edit: and TopoFusion software, which I used to create my tracks from the map descriptions. */

Peace.

El Grande - The Short

2011-06-17T16:44:00.005-04:00

Wow, what a blowout ride. I finally finished this beast. More to come once I decompress and drive home. The initial quick rundown over here.

Spring Fling

2011-05-22T20:58:00.002-04:00

GPS Info

Summer Plans

2011-02-14T13:04:00.006-05:00

TransMichigan - Lower Peninsula

Winter '11 Update

2011-02-04T15:37:00.003-05:00

Base training almost complete. Ready to tackle new adventures...

Fall on the Tab

2010-10-03T09:17:00.004-04:00

Check.

Welp, another nice bike ride in the woods, here's the pictostory. They're in reverse order due to my erroneous upload, so first is last.

Bikepacking the NCT in the LP of MI

2010-07-30T17:49:00.007-04:00

After Lumbo I was feeling another westward journey and put in a good three weeks of work/taper on the power monkey prepping for the Breck100. In the back of my mind I also had this urge to return to some loaded touring and thought in lieu of an entry fee, I could drive the additional distance and give the Dixie Lite route a roll. Fueled by an ADD rush of exploratory research and constant weather watching I decided to bail on Breck, ditch the Dixie and head to the North Country, Trail that is.

The reality is, it took two back to back weekends to clear the route, six days in total.

The slideshow paints a better picture than I have time for words right now. There are 244 photos in there, so be patient. The previous post has a map of the route. If you're interested in touring this route and need more info, want gps tracks, etc., please leave a comment and I'll get in touch with you. Enjoy.

The final totals for this cleaned up track are:

332 Miles
28378' Climbing (gps screen read always seems a bit off?)

NCT - Quick Overview

2010-07-29T11:45:00.006-04:00

Just a quick note on my recent North Country Trail outing. Dirty details coming soon.

GPS Totals (including going off route)

378mi
46hr 25min moving time
21654' climbing

NCT MI

Lumbo Race Report

2010-06-20T13:10:00.004-04:00

Wow, great day, great course. I liked the three lap format better than four. More of an 'out there' kinda feeling. And a foray into doing self-support at a commercial event.

Started with the customary 200oz, too much food and waaay too hard. :) It was a blast keeping speed through the rolling sections and chatting with people but alarms were going off all over. All my water blown out by 50 miles in, I took a 10 minute break to eat some solid chow, suck down 75% of my soda and as much water as I could. But at that point the damage was done. Resorted to 'forward movement' mode the rest of the ride.

Well, this is still a learning process. What's up next? Breck might make a nice long weekend road trip. But fully supported.

GLA '10

2010-06-09T06:42:00.010-04:00

Another adventure trip out to the dry and hot. Verbiage here, pics below.

All my junk. Notice not much Blokage, but still started with slightly too much food. The rain pants and jacket stayed behind too. Not pictured are the pizza, burritos and sodas.

Rolling I-70 out to Loma with Scotty. He helped me coordinate logistics and came along to ride the prologue and Mary's with me before bailing back to Fruita.

The orb looms somewhere around the Fish Ford section.

It's gonna be a hot one. Cresting the ridge of the McGraw Bottom section.

Shadin' it out somewhere on the shandies.

Miles and miles of shadeless rocky trails.

Nothing but clear blue and probably near 100 degrees.

Cheq100

2010-05-24T10:08:00.007-04:00

Another great day in the saddle on never ridden before terrain. Well ok, I'd done the Cheq40 before and was hoping this was more technical than wide open grassy fields with one single track line down the middle.

And deliver it did. The singletrack was fantastic. Twisty, swoopy and awesome flow. A bit of road and some of those nordic ski trails thrown in for good measure. 109 miles on the day, including ~2 miles to and from the motel. Course time of 11:30:13. Started the day with 200oz and tons of food but still found myself wanting something I didn't have at the end. Hmm...

Thanks to JoeM and TimK for putting this together and inviting everyone out to run the course.

JoeM giving the lowdown at the start.

'10 Spring Update

2010-04-06T20:10:00.004-04:00

Nothing like starting the year off with a bang and heading west to the desert for a spring near-hundred miler. Other than only getting ~3-1/2 hours of sleep the night before the ride, this was the smoothest trip yet. Sans the accidents due to weather on the e-way through the mountains.

After rolling solo to Denver, I met Scott and Shawn for the drive out to Moab. Slight delays had us rolling into town at 11pm and staring down a 4am alarm.

The route is one big loop- heading west out of town on the 'old highway' and returning to town on Potash Road. Rolling out the group split with Shawn in the lead group and Scott and I falling into much more 'tourly' paced group. Scott's leaky bladder happening while it was still dark about an hour in ensured he would be having a solo ride. On the Bar-M trails we picked up Shawn after he fell off the lead group due to lighting. Up and down the lumpy and bumpy of Sovereign, Seven Mile Rim, Deal Breaker and Gemini Bridges, we went for quite some time until Shawn decided to test his restless legs and motor off the front of the group somewhere on Metal Masher. We never saw him again. Gold Bar was a slow creep to get to the top, setting up a bit of hike-a-bike across some sections traversing Poison Spider Mesa. A quick drop down off the mesa to Potash Road and we were pacelining back to town but still not making it before dark.

Ahh, it felt good to stretch the legs, ride some trails and redeem a failed effort to complete the loop last year.

The group I would finish with- Marko, Fred and Jim.

View from Seven Mile Rim. The route touches all the rims you can see on the right side of the picture as we head back toward town.

Looking west from Gold Bar Rim. You can see the 'old highway' path we started out on next to the highway below.

Almost to town, somewhere along Poison Spider Mesa.

14:30.

Sunday we hit up Amasa Back.

Awesome view from the rim.

Shawn back-dropped by desert and alpine. Too bad my bike was in the way.

Scotty enjoys the view from the top.

Granny grind back to the car.

Well, not much more to report. Next up some TT/XC action, gearing up for the Cheq100 and probably a s24o or two thrown in for good measure.

More Crime - Less Time

2009-12-11T06:32:00.012-05:00

So I've been relegated to this:

Which is a crime, since this is really all about 'bike riding'.

Fake Miles... Power Monkey... I've heard a few.

Although the power tests suck, it's pretty much- get on, hit your numbers, get off. No guestimating if you're going too hard or easy. Hopefully less burning out before the wheels hit the trails in the spring. :)

Luckily though, plenty of jra hours outside on the weekends. Here's a recent view from the cockpit:

So what's in for '10? Only thing on tap so far is lining up for another GLITT in May / June, but I'm quite sure there will be plenty of happenings working up to that.

Better. Worse. No Plateau.

Pics and Profiles

2009-09-16T19:49:00.057-04:00

Due to time, I'll keep the verbiage terse. Only big issues were Scott losing his keys and mucho flat action on the Enchilada... Things rolled pretty smooth.

Ride 1 - Kokopelli's Trail - Loma -> Westwater

Overall, we tried to ride all of the trail in 2-3 days. The reality is we got in two good rides and drove into camp both days. Ahh the joys of support. :)

Chris and Bern pushing the pace.

Scott tackles the Salt Creek descent.

What 7hrs looks like.

Ride 2 - Kokopelli's Trail - Dewey -> Hideout Canyon

After driving from Westwater to camp at Dewey, it was a fun day climbing and bombing through some canyons.

Wide open views climbing the shandy Entrada section.

Bernie, Scott and Chris catch some shade before descending Rose Garden Hill.

Camping out near the Sovereign Trail.

Looking down the barrel of 6:42. These climbs always crush the crap out of me.

After departing from our Kokopelli support crew (Thanks guys!), Scott and I hightailed it to Durango and took two rest days to life stuff it up with things like laundry and bike cleaning.

View from the campground at Little Molas Lake

Ride 3 - San Juan Nat'l Forest - Colorado Trail -> Engineer Mt Trail

This was supposed to go from Molas to Durango, but once the weather moved in we cut the ride at the CT/Engineer junction and had a wicked time going downhill. It was a double dnf since we also hitched a ride about 6 miles from the campground.

Looking at Engineer Mt to the south.

Hike-a-bike was common at this altitude with the rocky terrain.

Sweet alpine singletrack.

At the base of the peak.

Valley view from the Eng. Mt. descent.

6:14 on this thin air day.

Ride 4 - Poison Spider Mesa

The day after the CT fiasco, we hightailed it back to Moab for an afternoon bakeout in the sun coupled with some interesting weather patterns, including serious lightning. Nothing like being the tallest object on a slickrock dome.

Scotty grinds up the sandy and rocky.

Vast openness of slickrock.

2:28 today.

Ride 5 - The Whole Enchilada

This was another big loop courtesy of FredW, but we ran out of daylight, cut the trip short and barreled down Sand Flats Road completing 60 of the 70-75 miles. Thanks for putting up with the seemingly incessant flats Fred!

Grinding up Flats Pass Rd.

Climb climb climb... La Sals looming in the background.

Another spectacular desert sunrise- looking west toward Moab.

Some pavement, but not much.

Still grinding.

Hike-a-bike sprinkled generously.

Looking back at the Hazard Co. TH.

Finally on the rim, Castle Valley below.

The look of 15 hrs.

Ride 6 - Eagle

We rolled out of Moab after sleeping in a bit from the mexican mambo of the day before to hit up the trails we were trying to find in Eagle on last year's trip. True to fashion, we rode up most of the downhill we were looking for, but coming back down was a blast. No pics this day.

Long time, short ride- 1:40. Eek.

Well, another good trip out west. Now to hunker down for r&r and look forward to some winter riding.

Mercury Retrograde

2009-09-16T06:54:00.003-04:00

Marshal has a nice wrap-up of a ride from my recent road trip here.

I'll post up again with all the other stuff when I get a chance.

Ride Reports

2009-06-07T08:02:00.026-04:00

Like Alex, I finally did a few rides worth blogging about. So let's get started shall we?

So it's no big secret that I'm shooting for a completion of the Grand Loop route, but again- no go. You can read my report over on bikepacking.net, so I'll pop up a few pics and add some additional notes.

The Bad

Not taking a sleeping bag but more importantly, not taking my rain pants. Seeing those storms and knowing that w/o those pants, my legs would shrivel off w/o the vapor barrier to keep them warm and me moving. Still learning the weather patterns and such for this area. Not my experience for storms to 'hang out and brew' as such seems to happen in the higher altitudes.

Taking too many of those Bloks. The final weight to calorie ratio was not in my favor. After collecting all my food and stuff and finally weighing it (by putting the pack on), ugh. But from experience, it wasn't worth getting all hopped up about to scramble and make last minute changes.

Taking too much simple sugar carbs (read: Bloks. Heh.) that turned my stomach into a little ball that felt like it was swinging around on the end of my intestines like a flail.

The Good

Body (other than stomach) felt great. I wasn't moving fast, but I was able to maintain a steady pace. I cramped a bit from the pushing/walking, but upping the eating/drinking and taking short 'take your pack off for 5 mins and sit every 1 -> 1-1/2 hours' breaks alleviated that.

Seems like all my gear is set, still learning on when to take what and what to take when.

All my junk.

Checking out the clouds from Little Park Road.

Prologue miles from the Lunch Loops to Kokopelli's. L -> R: Jefe, Matt and Cat. Jefe's rocking the 29'er SS with platforms!

Firsts for the year: Blood and a trail night ride. Best to pay attention to the trail and not be looking around at all the cool shadows the moon makes in the desert.

Another rider! ScottM out on the course between Westwater and Dewey. Actually, Chad was there too, but he took off too quick after chatting to get his pic. Funny when Chad said 'You look like you're traveling light'.

Like a good cup of coffee- storms brewing over the La Sals.

Slickrock in the Yellowjacket section.

Weird tree remnant in one of the Cottonwood Canyons.

So with rain and cold pretty much the forecast for the period after returning to Scotty's pad in Denver, I hightailed it home to blue skies, nice temps and a ride on the North Country Trail. This was something I'd wanted to do before the GL attempt, but the incessant rain on the weekends killed it.

Even being prepacked, It was still a rush to resort my junk and make a few diet/kit changes. With the plan of getting out early Thursday a.m. blown, I finally started out at Noon from the M-20 trailhead in White Cloud.

Running the same basic kit: Jandd seatpack - windshield pad - sleep kit in dry bag

Not much to say other than miles and miles of sweet tree covered rippin' singletrack from M-20 -> Nichols Lake North.

Small stream crossing.

Magical forests...

Ribbons of singletrack...

Until...

Which necessitates...

So from North Nichols to the Bowman Lake Trailhead, is quite a few miles of dirt and paved roads to skirt a 'hiker only' section. After which you return to more miles of sweet sweet singletrack.

Sun setting on the trail.

As the sun started going down, I realized I'd not make the next water stop off before the sun was too low to see the trail. Not being reflectively blazed, I rode up to 8th Street in 'Segment C' and turned around to start looking for a 'wet' place to camp. After checking out Timber Creek Campground and the Upper Branch Access point, I decided to ride for a bit more knowing I'd make the Bowman Bridge Campground before dark.

Taking bivy at the Bowman Bridge Campground. That little blue bottle on the right of the picnic table was probably the most important addition to the kit: bug spray.

Last pic before passing out.

Friday morning was more road to hook back up to the trail at Nichols Lake and then a ribbon all the way back to the car.

Quite a few marshy sections.

Fin.

So what changes will we see for this next round? Definitely looking at getting some of the weight off my back and on the bike. Dietary too, but I won't give up the beer. And that 29'er thing? Interesting for sure.

So no HIP100 for me this year, but I'm ready to start thinking about (what I figure to be the out and back distance) NCT160: M-20 <-> Marilla or M-20 -> Mackinaw one way (320 miles?).

Anybody ready for some bikepacking? Summer is here!

Camp Scotty - Route Track

2009-04-02T09:32:00.003-04:00

From my gps track, it's easy to see where I got off track. That little error was probably my 4pm cut off blowout.

Camp Scotty - Spring '09

2009-04-01T09:11:00.015-04:00

Wow, where to begin. Nothing like testing out lots of stuff you didn't know needed testing.

So a few years ago, I'd heard of an event connecting some of the classic trails in Moab in one big loop. As usual, some ferret action on the net and a few emails set the stones for giving the route a tackle. Execution would be an entirely different matter.

I left on Thursday morning last week thinking I would easily be able to hit Denver by early Friday morning and then take in some sleep before driving out to Moab with Scott.

Pretty much coasting along until reaching the border of Nebraska/Colorado, I seemed on track to make Denver by midnight/1am Friday morning. Until the car started making these weird noises like when you run over rumble strips, but there were none in the middle of the lane. I could see what looked like rough patch here and there scattered across the roadway, seemingly intensifying as the miles rolled on until it started snowing. Meh. Ice. When I was only able to do ~45 mph, I hit the sidelines for a motel, hoping the roads would clear by morning and if not, at least it would be light enough to see the road better. At the start, it was marginally better, but the roads improved the closer I got to Denver.

Starting out wasn't so bad.

Until the left lane cleared and the right lane was solid ice.

Dear, I'm going to be a little late for dinner.

I made it to Denver about 10 am and after a quick stop at the auto parts store for some wiper blades and Breakfast King for some grub, it was on to pick up Scott and continue on an uneventful drive to Moab, stopping for dinner and a bike shop run in Fruita.

Up at 4am on Saturday to make the 5am pre-ride meeting, we were eventually rolling out of town ~5:45am. Wow, was it cold. Even with my mittens on my fingers were frozen to the bone and I was slightly shaking as we motored up the pavement.

Taking the Old Highway up to the Bar-M trails we tackled Rockin' A and Circle O trails first. In the dark, with painted stencils marking the route on the slickrock, I was sure to keep up with Fred who has experience navigating the area. Once the sun came up, I stopped for a bit to take off my mittens and get a bite to eat. By now it was easier to make out the painted line to follow and I felt better about doing my pace and not getting lost in the dark.

Sunrise on Circle O.

Next up was the Sovereign singletrack. This was a mixture of rough and sand with a good amount of slickrock thrown in for good measure. Here I also started to yo yo with Matt and Cat who had done the ride before. There are a myriad of turns to be taken in this area, so it was nice to have a more guided tour and the opportunity to chat. But that wouldn't last long. Near the end of this section, I had stopped to check out my squeaking front brake as the others rode away. This would be the last time I would see any other riders out on the course.

Going under highway 191 I stopped to remove the rest of my layers and eat a bit more. This is where things went slightly awry. The next section of the course follows Cottermine Road but at the intersections after the highway, I went the wrong way and ended up going ~5 miles and 1500' of climbing on the wrong trail. Heh. I realized this when I reached the peak of the climb and started to head down around the other side of a butte. Finally, I sat down and pulled out my map for the first time. Yep, off course. I could see by my map and gps track where I'd gone. Turning around and heading back, I finally made it to the right road and up to the next section, Seven Mile Rim Rd. Whew, she was a grinder but had nice views from the rim.

Looking at 191.

Where I'm headed, off in the distance: Monitor and Merrimac Buttes

Riding between the buttes. A small sampling of typical trail conditions.

After riding through the buttes, you end up on steep side-angled slickrock and down into Wipe Out Hill, which is also very steep. While still on the slickrock, I decided to finally sit for a few minutes, take a short break and eat some solid food. After getting rolling again, I made another route finding error, which pitted me out at the same area at the end, but I'm sure the normal route was much faster than what I rode/walked through. There were some tire tracks in this section, so I'm sure a few other riders ahead of me made the same mistake or were lucky enough to be riding the same trail that day. I was all too happy to see the pavement at the end of this section, but it was over in a flash as about 50 yards or so up the road was the next turnoff onto more sandy/rocky jeep road. Amazingly my legs were holding strong so far but this section really wore on me mentally. It was really rather grueling as each time you cornered a ridge or reached a crest, there was only more of the same. Looking back, this was my least favorite section.

After finally reaching Gemini Bridges Rd., I was all too happy to let the legs rest as it was a fast downhill into the next section: Metal Masher Jeep Rd. Wow Metal Masher was rough. I don't know if it was from the previous bumpy miles or what, but my wrists started feeling it here. Somewhere along this section I happened to look at my watch- 3:30pm. Hmm... I decided to skip pulling out the map and continued on, knowing eventually I would hit Gemini Bridges Rd. again and could assess the time situation there. I'm bummed I didn't take any pictures from the rim on this section.

Looking back at Monitor and Merrimac somewhere in the Gemini Bridges / Metal Masher area.

After finally reaching Gemini Bridges Road again, I looked at my watch. It was after 4pm, so I decided to take a short break and mull over what was to come: the already passed 4pm cut off and heading up Gold Bar Rim and onto the final section of the course traversing Poison Spider Mesa. After more solid fueling, I loaded up my pack and put it in the big ring.

The final drop to the Gold Bar Rim turnoff is gnarly. Not to say anything less about any of the other sections I'd previously ridden or walked on the course. At 5pm I sat and thought for a minute. But gentleman's rules dictated I continue down (and more up) Gemini Bridges Road and take the bailout route back to town.

Views from Gemini Bridges Road

If I remember correctly, I rolled into town and got to the finish about 7pm or so and let Fred know I'd made it off the course but had skipped the Poison Spider section. I chatted for a few minutes but the downhill back to town had already started the downward burning up/shiver spiral and without warm enough clothes on, I wanted a warm shower.

Ride Stats (from gps): 87.5 miles - 11hr 25min moving ridetime - 8145' ascent

Ride Profile (that bump between mile 30 and 35 is the off course error)

Not too bad for my first mountain bike ride of the year.

Thanks Fred for putting on a great event!

Sunday we had planned on checking out some of the White Rim, but it was too windy. Scotty decided to tackle Gold Bar Rim and Poison Spider Mesa. I was reluctant due to not knowing the weather patterns for the area other than hot, sunny and dry. 15-20 mph winds are one thing, gusts of 50 are another. So I rode him partway out and then did a loop through and around checking out town and up Sand Flats Road for a bit. Scotty got back after dark after getting lost in the cold, dust and wind without a light or cold weather clothes. We started riding at 11am. Crazy shit for sure.

High winds on the pedestrian path across the Colorado River. Those ripples are going against the flow.

Going up Sand Flats Road. Dust starting to billow up.

Monday morning we packed up, hit the gas station and rolled out of town. Stopping for breakfast in Fruita, Scott notices he can't pay for his food because he doesn't have his wallet. It's ~2hrs away at the gas station back in Moab. Welcome to Camp Scotty.

After driving back to Moab to get the wallet, we were met with serious windy blizzard trucks need chains type action over Vail and Loveland passes. After getting through the mountains and dropping off Scott in Denver, I hightailed it out of town hoping to make good time in the light traffic. The wind was really strong blowing across the road and by the time I was in Nebraska, the semi's were jackknifing all over the e-way once again. One more motel and I was finally home at 1am today, Wed.

Random Observation: Weird, I really love those Clif Bloks. I reached for those first until they were all gone. They need to make one that is 500 calories for one cube. PIA opening those wrappers all the time.

12 Weeks in Review

2009-02-15T07:08:00.015-05:00

So here's a quick rundown on the LWCoaching 'Winter Training Plan for Endurance Distance Mountain Bikers'. I'll attempt to describe my experience w/o giving too many details about the workouts. If you want that, buy the plan. :)

Disclaimer to Effectiveness: I do these intervals using perceived effort. I foresee going to power sometime in '09.

General stuff:

- The plan consists of three periods: Long Anaerobic Endurance, Muscular Endurance, and Short Anaerobic Endurance.

- Each period had core, weight lifting and skill work interleaved with the limiter that is being worked on for such period.

- Three weeks on / one week off is the schedule.

- I didn't do any of the power tests, instead riding outside those days.

- Spinervals were used to time the intervals when on the trainer. It's easy to match the interval length to a portion of one of the workouts on the DVDs. Troy screams and yells, I put my head down and pedal.

- Outside riding was done on a singlespeed. 2-1 gearing on 26".

- Most of this plan is just as much the physical work as it is mentally hanging on at the end each rep. No matter if the interval were 30 seconds or 30 minutes, they each had their own twisted way of making sure both bases were covered.

- Each week has a long endurance ride, which ended up being Sunday for me.

I start my 'year' in December, so that's when I started the plan.

It starts out with long anaerobic endurance intervals- 'max effort' seated for a few minutes at a crack. Lung and leg searing stuff for sure. The first week I found it hard to hold the 'max effort' w/o falling off the edge into power loss. Weeks two and three were more consistent staying right on the edge, keeping a consistent rhythm throughout each interval. Not to say that I didn't want to quit on some of 'em.

Luckily, the rest week was Xmas week, so there was minimal interference between life and getting the workouts in. We made an impromptu decision to hit up Kalahari on Xmas day. They have a swim up bar. :)

New Years week was the start of the muscular endurance phase. I like to call these the 'bring the legs to a simmer and ride it out' intervals, lasting up to 30 mins per repetition. Not so much about the lung burn but at the end of the three weeks, my legs were cooked.

After a rest week, the last week in January started more anaerobic intervals. Shorter than the first round back in December, these were all standing and under a minute. These continued for the first two weeks into February. With the standing up, it was easy to go too hard at the onset of each rep. It took some doing to control the early pace.

With two rest weeks to cash out February, my miles are tanked, but March is starting with the opportunity to try another plan and redeem myself.

All in all, I think this plan does what it's supposed to- give you a structure for building a solid foundation to build your endurance base on by building anaerobic and muscular fitness. Does it work? I'll find out soon.

So saying goodbye to 'training to train'- spring training is in session. Say hello to another round of crispy.

Flat. Windy.

2009-01-11T22:20:00.000-05:00

You know the drill. Add some cold and snow and you've got the fever for the flavor.

Well, another winter of midweek 'racing' indoors and 'recovery' rides outside on the weekends.

The dirt roads are truly in winter shape now. Sugary snow covered with an icy base. Perfect for working on that shoulder/hip disconnect as you slip slide all over the crowned surface.

Interestingly enough, I've never sensed a deviance of 'experience' from the trainer. I'm certain, if there are bike rides in purgatory, they all involve intervals on the trainer.

So another year has passed and things are switching up and refining again on the biking front. Thanks to this post, '08 was the initial switch to the 'more intervals and core' plan. This equated to feeling great at higher intensities but slightly lacking in base due to not enough time/miles during the mid week go til ya blow trainer sessions. Although I would hit good hours with my outside riding, the intervals were not structured at all, just pick a Spinervals vid and go. And once the summer hit, they lost out to nice weather outside.

For '09, things are starting out a little different. By:

- following a structured base interval plan from the Mistress of Pain
- using my rollers for all indoor aerobic riding
- being consistent with stretching, foam rolling and core work

How's this all going to work out? I have no idea.

Thanks to Danielle for spreading the good word about the rollers and providing some laughs. The totally squirrely riding after pumping your body full of lactic acid and being tiredly tense is interesting for sure. Funny, seems if you're bored on the trainer, you're not doing it right.

Luckily today, like yesterday, was a day for riding outside! Nice temps and some light snow in a partially sunny-foggy air to start the day. 5:05 later I had a nice winterbike art form.

It's amazing, the crazy stuff you do riding your bike just so you can ride your bike.

So what else is on the plate for '09? Unfinished business for sure, plus a small slew of interesting events and some standard local fanfares.

KittyPower

2008-11-06T17:55:00.006-05:00

This is what happens when furry creatures stalk your kids all the way home on Halloween night...

Welcome to our new cat: 'Nightmare'

Camp Scotty Continuted...

2008-10-04T11:23:00.005-04:00

Well, time to wrap up this Colorado report.

First off I'd like to apologize to Shawn for not getting in touch with him once I found out Scotty didn't get him the ride plans list for the week. Bah. Well, then again it was 'Camp Scotty' so, I should have anticipated a more anomalistic adventure. Kind of like wishing I would have taken my light the day we rode in Eagle.

Day 4 - Tuesday - Minturn

Two Elks and Commando Run, coupled with some paved and dirt road climbs, it makes a good loop right from town. First day of getting up high. Yowza. If the altitude wasn't enough, the steep pitches cresting the top really put the scream on things. WFO bombing singletrack? Mmm... Baby you know it! :)

Ride Profile

Stats: 4 hr 6 min - 30.2 miles - 4480' of ascent

Day 5 - Wednesday - Eagle

After another good night of star gazing on the mountain, we packed up the bikes and headed to Eagle. Unfortunately, today we didn't ride any singletrack, since we got lost trying to find the top of the hill where they started. This day consisted of the most climbing of the trip. Almost 16 miles in, I had clocked almost 5k in ascent as daylight was waning. A hop, skip, and a jump and we were u-turning to a blazing fast two track downhill, making the parking lot in the twilight.

This is also the loop where we saw a bear. Adam and Scott were making fun of me because I wanted to get to hell out of there and they wanted to sit and chill while the bear roamed around the area. Sorry, call me a puss, but I'm not one to mess with potentially dangerous wild animals, especially with a backpack of yummy (to the bear) food. And most likely, the bear wouldn't discriminate enough to avoid stick boy and go after healthier vittles. heh.

Ride Profile

Stats: 4 hrs 23 mins - 26.5 miles - 5209' of ascent

Day 6 - Rest Day

After a final night of camping, we packed up all our crap and bee-lined through Leadville, where we stopped for lunch, to Salida. A nice trip to Absolute bikes netted a map of the Monarch Crest trail and a route to ride to the top if we so desired. We moteled it this night, nice to take a hot shower after living in the woods for a few days.

Day 7 - Monarch Crest

After rescanning the maps the night before, we decided to shuttle up to the top of the hill and skip the 4 hour climb by bike. After almost a week of chasing Adam around, it was Scotty's turn to lead the pack as he hightailed it to get ahead of everyone in the shuttle group so we wouldn't have to slow down on the downhills. And the downhills were aplenty. More WFO nutty downhill rock gardens than you can shake a stick at. And the pitches on some of the climbs above 11k'? Priceless.

Today was my only crash of the trip, falling down a ravine off the side of the road while battling the uncontrollable urge to discharge my post ride margaritas on our drive back to Denver.

Ride Profile

Ride Stats: 3hr 32mins - 34.8 miles - 2573' of ascent

Day 8 - Denver

Just a simple bikepath ride today, Adam got in his 'required' daily intervals, Scott chased him around and I just chilled at a smell the flowers pace.

Epiloge

It was an awesome trip, though way too short. We got in some great rides, missed seeing all the people I had planned to see with our screwing around and basic obliviousness to the real world going on around us.

So to get everyone on the same page on tentative plans for the next 'Camp Scotty': end of March '09 for Riding some Rims in Moab. Stay tuned for details.

CoTripPix

2008-09-05T17:35:00.003-04:00

Courtesy of SoFauxAtom.

Camp Scotty

2008-08-31T11:27:00.034-04:00

Ahh... finally something to write about other than riding out my driveway on the flat windy roads around Lansing.

Since I'm short on time, I'll be posting stages of this trip over the next few days.

After a failed attempt at the GLR, I was ready for another trip out west to check out some trails, do more riding at altitude, and bake in the sun. With Scotty chomping at the bit for us to come out and spend some time riding in the Denver-ish area since his move there over 3 years ago, the coals were hot for partaking of his generosity. Adam was also ready to experience some asthmatic breathing and with that, Camp Scotty was born.

Per usual, it was the (same old)^2 with the pre-trip freakoutoverlivingliferushpackinggettotheairport plan. After an uneventful flight, other than the lady next to Adam ordering a Bloody Mary on the 6:40 a.m.-er, we arrived in Denver, assembled our stuff, and began our journey...

Adam readies his gear on the lawn.

Day 1 - Saturday - Waterton Canyon

This is where the CT starts. Wow. After a gentle introduction of a gentle dirt road climb to the singletrack, it was promptly anaerobic into some serious steep granny-gear grade climbs, as would be the theme for the remainder of the trip.

No trail pics this day.

Ride Profile

Stats for the day: 2hr 55min - 26.4 miles - 2934' of ascent

Day 2 - Sunday - Buffalo Creek

Today we meet up with Scott's friend Bernie for a ride through an area that has been hit by 3 fires from a period between 1996 through 2002, the last of which was Colorado's largest fire in history, the Hayman Fire.

Warming up on the dirt road climb to the singletrack.

Adam hits the first break spot.

Bernie packing away some grub as we wait for Scott.

Scott rounds out the first singletrack climb.

Bernie grunts his SS up a pitch.

Ride Profile

Ride Stats: 2 hr 28 mins - 22.4 miles - 2569' of ascent

Day 3 - Monday - Rest

We spent Monday getting our camping gear in order with a trip through suburban Denver to the army/navy surplus store and REI. On the road by late afternoon, we were off to Minturn and the long bumpy Tigiwon Road up the side of a mountain where we would set up our base for the next few days. Unfortunately, I have no pics of today or for the remainder of the trip.

GLR 08

2008-06-09T08:06:00.003-04:00

So what's wrong with this picture? It pretty much spells out the error of my ways...

Although the focus is misdirected, it's a picture from the top of the rollers at the end of the McGraw Bottom section of the Kokopelli Trail, looking at the climb into Yellowjacket Canyon. Clear blue skies, 90+ degrees and a nice headwind- a good spring day for riding.

Not. It's the recipe for a human cookout.

Traversing the canyon took about 2 hours. After flopping around on the ground for an hour or so at the Dewey Bridge campground and not feeling any better, I DNF'd by asking for and accepting a can of sugar water from a rafter. Insert mental note here. Heh.

Centralized riding out of Moab was the theme for the remainder of my trip. Plenty of time to think about the next run at this monster.

Or maybe a slightly supported shakedown run of the Paradox and/or Tabegauche in the fall.

Feeding Time

2008-05-19T10:47:00.002-04:00

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

13666

2008-03-31T15:20:00.003-04:00

Not often the Devil's lucky numbers come up in the ride stats lottery, but that was my ascent for the month of March.

I'm sick of riding on the road- bring on the trails!

Retro Ride - ToorDayTwa

2008-02-26T20:49:00.015-05:00

A warmer days pictorial.

Cruising Woodward

Locking down for a stay.

Mmm... Breakfast.

Group Hug.

Lookin' for Rosa.

Loop de Loop.

Sensory Overload.

Work that pump, funky white boy.

True...

2008-02-26T19:47:00.003-05:00

to 'fall off the face of the earth' fashion, my appearances to the outside world have been lacking. Ride, life, rinse, repeat. Kinda like the showergasm girl.

Mixing it up a bit this winter with outside riding on the weekends and the trainer during the week. It's going to be interesting to see how this translates on the trails.

So what's coming in '08. Hmm... Only time will tell. The groundhog has spoken in unrelenting ways thus far. Will the snow be gone by June? Surely by July. Hopefully by April.

Out.

Pre-Labor Day Cookout and Amatuer Video Shoot

2007-09-04T10:17:00.000-04:00

yea, that time of year kids, where the heart is stronger than the legs. once again, i'm cooked. 2 hrs is pretty much my hammerfest pop zone these days and it showed at both ore 2 shore and the maybury xc. good thing i didn't go to the s&m100, it would have been a very long day in the saddle.

so it's back to longer endurance rides and some much needed skill building! check out these vids of the labor day ride out at holdridge.

adam and jim on the tech loop drop:

the adam, alex and jim on the tech loop log run:

and of course, it wouldn't be complete without at least one crash video:

booze, pimps, pump tracks and red lights

2007-07-08T18:48:00.000-04:00

well, since the last time i've:

- gotten the x ray - no clean breaks.
- had some chiro get all gumby on my ribcage - to no avail.
- ridden from royal oak to st johns for a nice 110 miler - after a late night of deviances. ouch.
- pimp'd out the 140 with alex and co. - awesome ride!

wow, talk about a killer week. the ro -> sj route and the poto <-> ilake <-> plake tour were both dnf's from previous years. attempted, but not completed. crossing those two off my list, along with all the sections of the kokopelli, and this is looking to be a very redeeming year.

unfortunately, that week came a week before the boyne marathon... here's the recap:

boyne is without question, from my limited view, the best venue in the state. awesome climbs, swoopy flowing singletrack, bombing downhills and sand pits. :) the swoopy singletrack is so cool to pump through, you can do quite a few long sections w/o having to pedal at all, just pump the little dips and turns and rail through the bermed sections.

race started out seemingly as usual with the 'xc' group breaking off from the 'enduro' group right at the start. i stuck with the xc guys and we were running a four man 'break', just scooting right along.

pumping through the section just before the long planked bridge, i notice my rear shock is bottoming out. wow. now i'm low riding this chopper with a super low bottom bracket. the livliness of the bike was totally gone and with the new geometry and bottoming out shock i couldn't keep up. by the time i was in the last part of the singletrack climb at the top of the ski hill, the enduro group cleaned me and i was off the back of the whole class.

it took me a bit to finish the first lap since i couldn't keep my momentum- ended up grunting up a few sections and going slow down the hills. a quick pit to my car to pump up my shock and i was off again.

on the second loop, by the time i made it to the 'climb time' section, my shock was once again flat. luckily, i put the shock pump in my camelbak and pulled off the trail just in time for the 50+ guys to roll by. hmm...

after that fill, my shock remained inflated for the rest of the race but i was so far back and so frazzled at that point it became just a race for survival and finish.

laps three and four were a repeating occurrence of hot climbing and cool downhilling with a nice amount of come and go cramping, probably from the fatigue of too many miles without enough rest. same old, same old.

so i took the red light position and came in last. tough breaks for sure but it's better than a dnf.

fruita singletrack: 1

2007-06-06T10:41:00.000-04:00

me: 1

clink clink clink...

yep, there it is... busted 7th rib on the left side. sorry, no cool x-rays, i just visited my dr. neighbor for the diagnosis. note to self: don't overextend your welcome speeding down trails you've never ridden before.

then again, they (the trails) also gave me an awesome ride, so we're even. :)

looks like lots of road miles for a bit until things heal inside. (or some gentle trail miles... shhh!)

well, more thoughts about the trip has revealed my favorite quote from alex, while i was taking a shade break on the entrada bluffs section-

'man, those flies were all over my $hit before i even got my shorts up!'

here's a few more pictures

- on mary's loop

- mmm... a shade break is good!

- more views from amasa back

- you can see the moisture vaporators down in the valley here. wonder if luke is home... didn't see him on the landspeeder. :)

Grand Loop Tour

2007-06-01T11:06:00.000-04:00

hmm... where to begin?

after heading out to utah last year for the ktr with alex, the seeds were set for a return to finish riding all the trails that were missed due to dnf-ing the race ~110 miles in. yuk. so in the usual fashion of setting out to take a bigger bite than you can chew and suffering the choke-fest along the way, the 'grand loop tour' was born.

the grand loop consists of 3 trails- the kokopelli, the paradox and the tabeguache, plus a short paved 'prologue' section from the tabegauche trailhead near grand junction out to kokopelli's trailhead in loma. 340 miles of trail, 20 miles of prologue, all above ~3800'. one store on the route, in bedrock, so either you have it with you at the start or didn't need it in the first place. unless, you're willing go off course to a larger town with more services. :)

the plan was to do ~4 days of riding to cover the 360 miles with a 5th spillover day just in case. the reality was that we rode for 5 consecutive days, didn't cover the whole loop, met some old friends, made some new ones, got in some good miles and lots of awesome technical riding!

day 1 - travel day

flew into slc and drove to grand junction in the pfadt-mobile. thanks again for the hookup guys! rei, grocer, dinner, pre-pack, etc. and it was anxious lids in anticipation of the sun.

day 2 - start

rolled out of the motel early for the 20 mile trek out to kokopelli's trailhead in loma. easy pace with a tailwind, a great way to start the day. with the plan of getting breakfast in loma derailed and a quick regrouping/status check at the trailhead, we ascended the first ridge and were quickly on the singletrack of mary's loop. over hill and dale, we encountered the first bit of hike-a-bike as the trail descends, crosses and ascends the salt creek section.

after this, the trail smooths out a bit into rabbit valley with a sandy coating over areas of slickrock, onward into a few small canyons and into westwater, where i didn't feel so great. i dawdled a bit to eat and drink water as we were set for the next leg of flat, sandy and windy over to cisco landing.

a few hike a bike sections along the colorado river and we were finally nearing the final section for the day, yellowjacket canyon. normal long ass sandy, rocky climb up to the ridge, then descend into the canyon for more ups and downs and climb back out the other side. luckily one of my straps wrapped around my rear hub and snapped, which necessitated stopping to fix. in the onslaught of darkness, we descended the far side, rolled across dewey bridge and into the campground. the view of the stars and moon was really cool. no pollution and no humidity. :)

- starting out in grand junction, leaving civilization behind

- alex rides the singletrack on mary's loop

- serious hike-a-bike on the salt creek section

- lowest part of the trail along the colorado river - mcgraw bottom

day 3 - climb-o-rama

thump thump thump...

yep, there it is. the ol' heart beating like crazy all night long from the altitude. been here before it seems...?

today the climbs get serious. the previous day was as flat and speedy as i-96 at 2am compared to what's coming. they call it 'shandy'. rocky, sandy, ledgy, you name it, it's got it. including having lots of spots of walking/pushing. at least for me. mr. rock star just powered up the climbs. this section also contains two canyons to traverse and a long climb from fisher valley up to beaver mesa, where the paradox turnoff is. the terrain here varies from sandy desert and shrubs at the bottom to grassy fields and trees at the top. lots of blue skies and exposure.

a slight dnf-ish left my penance as filtering out of a mucky livestock pond at the top of the day's final climb and then it was all downhill to the rock castle campground right off the trail. the sunset was awesome and the stars/moon as bright as the night before.

- rise and shine! - starting out day two at the dewey bridge campground

- the entrada bluffs section

- standard wide open views - nowhere near the top yet

- riding through fisher valley

- looking down at fisher valley as the climbing continues

day 3 - riders split

thump thump thump...

yep, there it is again. with un-restful sleep, i was feeling rather flat-ish. i told alex i would filter upstream at the creek and then descend the alternate route, 30-ish road miles down castle valley road to 128 along the colorado and into moab. i gave him the gps, maps and the camera and wished him luck. he continued on back up the climb and onto the paradox trail over to bedrock.

it was a strange experience, going from seeing very few people over the past few days to an ever increasing flow of autos-along-the-bahn the closer i got to moab. i strolled into town on sensory overload with all the goings on and finally stopped at micky's for some serious grease and sugar water. seeing myself in the mirror for the first time in 3-ish days was scary!

another hour of wandering around motel to motel, i finally had a room and a shower. alex rode in from bedrock that evening and it was eat/tv/sleep. mmm, a nice comfy bed!

pics here courtesy of alex.

- the back side of the la sals on the paradox trail

- the dolppinator, touching the clouds high above the paradox valley.

day 4 - amasa back

after a lazy breakfast and a trip to the laundromat, i spent a better part of the late morning/early afternoon at the bikeshop to get some stuff fixed up and worn parts replaced. we finally went for a ride about 4pm, an out and back from town to amasa back. it was a fun ride, only a few jeeps and motorcycles. one kid, who looked to be about 10 yrs old, was whooping it up on a tiny 80!

a quick post-ride cleanup and our 'cab' was waiting at the door. our friend scotty picked us up and took us to the final leg of the tour, where we bivy'd again before our last day of riding.

- alex starts the climb up the slickrock ledges

- more views on the way up

- spectacular views from the top

day 5 - fruita singletrack

our final day of riding put us on some sweet singletrack in fruita. with names like zippity-do-da and chutes-and-ladders, i knew we would be in for an exciting ride. funny, the ledges and cliffs of the canyons aren't as scary as spine riding. fall either way and you're going way, way, way down...

after the ride we packed up our crap, got the car from grand junction, split ways with our crew for the 4hr drive back to slc and packed the bikes for the flight back home.

- the wreaking crew attacks the singletrack of fruita
l->r: scott, chris, alex and randy

- scotty shows off the effects of sunscreen avoidance in the high desert

- how high is this hill? here randy takes 2nd wheel as chris is a speck near the center of the pic.

- and then you see him ant sized way down the spine as alex prepares for takeoff

day 6-7 - travel days

after getting blown out of the airport with delays in denver, we spent another night in slc before finally flying back to dtw, a day later than anticipated.

epilogue

wow, another great trip out west. too bad i wasn't more prepared for the altitude (lungs) as i was for the climbing (legs). i cramped a bit the 2nd day and was able to stave that off but not the heavy breathing. going slow and sucking wind, well... sucks!

so now that i've *cough* ridden the kokopelli in both directions, i would have to say that going west to east is much easier as you get the high elevations out of the way first. at least for a lifelong flatlander like me.

well, more time to practice and think about the next move up the training ladder. the trails are way too much fun to stop trying until i can complete the loop.

anyone wanna go bike-packing?

Oops...

2007-03-15T22:55:00.000-04:00

hmm, wonder if i can fix the ol' indy with a hose clamp or such? or maybe i can get shawn to let me use his welder!

Catching Up

2007-03-12T09:43:00.000-04:00

not much going here except the ridin' lifestyle. ride, rinse, repeat. what lap am i on again? oh yea, seven. since january 20th, i have religiously (sic) ridden four days a week with only three times on the trainer. today, i'll break that stride and only be doing a three day week with two- 'two consecutive days off'. so much for the eighth loop but fatigue has tightened it's grip on my legs.

here's a short synopsis of my last few week(end)s...

- kicking off the lansing brewfest with a nice 50 mile blood sugar depleting ride with paula and setting the encore with a double buy in on beer chips and heading straight for the double ipa-s.

- severe droppage on 'the way home uphill tempo-sprint repeats'. reminder to self: low cadence hill repeats are only a mid-ride appetizer for the real meal of the day- sprinting home for beer and food!

- doing my long mid-mich pub n' grub route. hmm... having to walk a few 50-100 yard stretches of glacial icepack on an exposed, crowned road is not that fun. especially shuffling along into a 15mph steady head wind. two shuffles forward, one slide back.

firsts for the year:
- 100 miler / 7+ hr ride
- 200+ mile week
- ride w/o studs
- week as the father of a teenager :)

Are You a Slacker Mom?

2007-02-22T19:14:00.000-05:00

so i'm doing the usual web loop- click, click, click and i end up at mike c's blog, where after reading about his 'newborn' adventures, i find myself clicking through to this quiz of sorts. sucker. ;)

click, click, click- in no time at all you can lie like hell and get a quick little ego boost in the mom-ability department.

Your quiz score makes you: Zen Mom

How do you do it? Even when explosions are all around, you are able to take a deep cleansing breath and chant your mantra "this too shall pass." You are a calming influence on your kids in a hectic world.

now i wonder where that test is for slacker dads...

serious training on the liver tonight in anticipation of the lansing brewfest this saturday. takers report 9am, old town lansing parking lot. it's amazing how those little beers can put the spin on quick after a nice ride. unfortunately, scotty moved to colorado so the front row seats to the wwf after the brew gig will be sorely missed.

now for the retroride report...

01.10.07 - blue diamond, nv.

well, since i now have a bikebox for traveling, i figure i would put it to fair use and ride the trails outside vegas, since i'd never done so. in the 30 days prior, i had ridden 710 miles, so i figured i would have a good day of training in the warm weather. i took two days off prior, pack day and travel day. usual fanfare of work til last minute pack crap get to airport sit on runway for an hour fly cab hotel assemble bike sort clothes buy/copy/outline route maps eat dinner sleep. whew.

up early and out on the road, the village of blue diamond was ~18 miles from my hotel. a quick stop at the bike shop to orient myself and i hit the trails. it was fun, quite a bit of gradual climbing and some fun bombing downhills. i was out for about an hour and a half when i decided i'd better get back to town and thinking of my return trip to the hotel. a quick chat with the mechanic back in town revealed that he rode from vegas and back every day on his 'trail bike'. 36 miles on the computer and the rush of a redbull later i was turning left and heading the long way around back to vegas.

riding on the road through the canyon was fun. unlike the trail, which was lined by cacti so i had to pay attention, i could look off at all the scenery. including the scene of a roadie trying to catch me as i rounded about the entrance to the 'pierce stocking drive' of red rock canyon- a supposedly hilly 13 mile paved loop. he gave up just as i peaked the last climb before the long downhill back into town. another-different shop stop on the way back for some 'official' trail maps and a way too much traffic wigout missed a turn action type moment put me missing the strip and rolling about 2-3ish miles out of the way. i could have made it shorter but this being a virginal run, i was reluctant to cut through the neighborhoods. a loop around later, i was rolling full lane down the strip taking in the sights. it was sweet! what a way to see the show! it was a great training ride: 71 mi - 5 hr 11 mins.

epilogue

hotel shower dinner ugh. i couldn't eat. drank quite a bit of water and sugar rushed myself with some chocolate sweets and a warm cup of coffee. next morning i was spiraled down into the flu from hell.

looking northwest from the top of badger pass into north cottonwood valley and the wilson cliffs. i think the sign at the top said 4600+'.

the entrance to the canyon on blue diamond highway, just west of the village.

Appetite Normal

2007-02-19T07:50:00.000-05:00

ahh, after having that flu thing for about 7 bedridden days in early january (losing ~7lbs in the process and all my legs from december), i think my appetite has caught back up to my training regimen. here's a breakdown of all the food i've eaten since about 10am sunday morning until about noon monday:

1/2 pot of coffee + 1 cup at rest stop
1 huge bowl granola w/milk
1 turkey melt
2 24oz guinness'
1 sm bag chips
1 sm-med-ish frozen pepperoni pie
1 box family sized kraft m&c
1.28 lbs ground beef
1/2 jar spaghetti sauce
1 pkg (15 count) marshmallow peeps
2 huge bowls of frosty coated sugar bombs cereal w/milk
2 two-liters of water + a few water bottles + 1 glass at rest stop
4 scoops powerbar recovery drink (ride waterbottle)

wow, i feel spectacularly normal today! let the recovery begin!

so now, let's turn to the weekend ride report...

wrcs of 74mi / 5ish on saturday. yep, we was movin' in some spots.

lansing pub 'n grub route on sunday for 3hr 30mins / 50 mi. the tailwind on the way down was nice, but the headwind on the way back... good thing those guinness' kicked in nicely.

and right now i just had one of those, gotta roll close the browser wanna save no... ok, yes, moments. gotta love people who choose exchange. yep, i'll exchange your money for my new bike part!

"I'll have...

2007-02-12T10:09:00.000-05:00

a hostess display rack and a bottle of hershey's syrup to wash it down." i think i heard that in a david lee roth video a long time ago.

man, i'm so hungry today. even sitting here at work, all i can think of is food. i can even imagine these backup tapes being nice big chunks of rich dark chocolate! mmm...

so after pulling my usual 'fall off the face of the earth' routine, i'm making my return here to blogdom. since my last post, the routine of sleep, eat, drink, ride and life stuff hasn't really changed so i won't bore you with those mundane details and we'll get right to the weekend ride report.

an awesome weekend at alex's for double wrcs duty! saturday was 5hr/70ish with a nice hilly route chosen by special guest ride leader- 'mr. x'. sunday was the davisburg hammerfest out to the mmba annual meeting for a 5-1/2hr/80ish ride.

whew, i'm pooped today, even with a 40 mile tailwind all the way back from davisburg. looks like the monday recovery ride will be a ride where i'm actually recovering from something!

Fall Colors

2006-10-09T09:45:00.000-04:00

not much of a story, just the usual stuff. 75 miles on saturday rounding out an ilake <-> poto loop, 50 miles of flat and windy around lansing on sunday. ahh, the spirit of an indian summer weekend, just enough to give you that 'hit by a truck' feeling for work on monday.

i finally found my camera and took some pics to spice the place up a bit. :)

adam spreads the love for bringing him out to the ride.

once alex shaves the sides of his head, he'll be ready to start a new technopunk band!

86'd in '06

2006-08-14T09:28:00.000-04:00

at least that's what it feels like. full on speed-whapped by life's adventure.

i've finally concluded that this is not my year. way too much going on, not enough rest. mentally, i feel much better than i did at this point last year, but the body just doesn't have the high top end that is needed in a 3 hr time trial. which brings us to the o2s race report.

after taking 3-ish days to recover from a 'reunion drinking session' last year on my leadville week, i skipped this years' 're-reunion pool party' on friday in hopes of retaining some sort of stabilty for the race. ha, like that was going to do any good. my legs were feeling fatigued on my warmup down the first section of the course before the dusty and dirty started. which after the start, is exactly where i sat up and kicked it down to the 100 mile pace. if i didn't, the legs wouldn't have carried the day for sure.

i forgot how much of a rush it is to bomb the downhills on this course and the ledges in the rocky 'powerline' section were fun to wheelie drop down at speed, seeing as i wasn't all spaced out 'racing'. definitely had me thinking about riding in utah again.

chatted with a few people i knew along the way and had a nice fast cruise, getting some help here and there with some paceline action. i wasn't going so hard on the easy stuff that i was blowing myself out when i needed to climb, so it was easy to have some fun and put the hurt on a few unsuspecting souls who blew themselves up trying to maintain pace. probably bad karma for sure, but i'll take my knocks for a little bit of pleasure. i'll chalk it up as 'schooling the schooled'.

after a little hike up 'boyscout hill' (shredded wood-o-rama) it was pretty much an all out sprint for the finish as i could feel the heat coming up from behind. i layed down the gas and kept some roadie from wisconsin from beating me to the line. yay! a sprint finish at the end! couldn't quite catch the guy in front of me. ahh, it was fun and i wasn't all cramped up and puking at the end. good, fun race!

a quick hitch from the tour bus, car back for shower/bike/fam hookup and it was all pub-crawl-window-shop-downtown-grub-a-thon until it was way to late too hit the awards. how can it be that a place named flanigans doesn't have an i.v. to the guinness factory? tsk. tsk. i had a blue moon. well, flat and windy as does belgium and michigan. must be an omen.

lights out at midnight and i had my 2nd 8hr sleep night in a row. now if i can only maintain the pace. ;)

'Hac on the Attack

2006-08-06T09:57:00.000-04:00

Don't you hate when you have those nagging pains that you can never quite pinpoint? the story of my life since april-ish, when the hac4 decided to go belly up. one ride fine- next, dead. what a pain.

so finally i get the thing back from the shop last thursday. whole new 'plus' unit with all the extra goodies (cadence, uber-stylish watch band, etc.). it was sort-of worth the wait. next time, i'll send it right to the company and skip the shop/rep middle man.

ahh, so this is what i've been missing- nice pretty graphs and statistics!

what a great ride through 'the o.c.'- little bit of this, little bit of that and great company of shawn and alex to keep the pace in check!

i wonder which bump on that graph is the 'switchback climb' at bloomer? ;)

Shortest Ride of the Year

2006-07-18T09:12:00.000-04:00

wind and a wee hint of dark clouds on the horizon were not of concern as i rolled out for my monday evening ride. 20 minutes later i was in the midst of lightning-o-rama as that speck of dark clouds was now covering most of the sky. yuk. a quick u-turn and i was barreling down the road with a 20mph gusty tailwind. so much for my planned 2 hrs.

didn't get rained on but the lighting and wind were pretty intense.

ride stats:

30 mins (and some odd seconds)
8.6 miles

whew, i was bushed. ;)

here's a short list of things i've done since the last post:

- dnf'd the brighton brushbuster (paid for that with a rash of ivy)
- rode to owosso to pay homage at the tomac shrine (bask in the magic and aura?)
- raced at the boyne mt marathon (great course, crummy legs)
- rode a lot right out my driveway (simple yet effective)

Palindrome

2006-06-24T19:33:00.000-04:00

today's ride all started with a visit to the bikeshop on friday. i ran into my friend wade and he asked if i was doing the pando 8hr on saturday, as he was going out for the loop-a-thon. nope, not going racing, but i was planning on doing a long ride to test out some new strategies and see some new sights.

so i spent friday night screwing around and staying up until 1am flip-flopping around about my route and getting things ready for the morning. *shrug*

up at 8, out the door by 9:30 and en route to ionia, which is about 2hrs due west of where i live. ~4hr later, i was rolling into pando. 60 miles, with a nice tailwind all the way.

i spectated the race for a bit and stole some shade from steve kinley and the scurr's. thanks guys! wade rolled thru the pit and had 10 laps done at the 1/2 way point. go wade go! i skipped a loop on the trail and hit the road back to home.

nice headwind the whole way. ugh. i also missed a turn and ended up riding down m-21 for about 10 miles. double nickel yukky. at least when the semi's rolled by, i would get a little boost from their wind.

finally i was counting down the roads that i was familiar with. as i neared home, i realized that if i would go just a little farther, i would end up with 121 miles, which would provide me with an apt title for my blog. 8 hrs of riding, 9 hrs total time. it was a great day riding in the big ring! ;)

North to the High Country

2006-06-12T14:21:00.000-04:00

ahh, another classic weekend of road tripping and biking. a week after going to the mohican 100, alex and i loaded the bus and ventured up to the hcp summer solstice ride for a go at some trails less traveled. less traveled indeed. although we only did the 45 miler, it was a rough and generally unimproved trail. we're not at island lake anymore toto...

saturday started off with the gentle pace of sleeping in and missing the 80 milers start off at 6:30am (so we heard). after getting ready and driving to the start, we were off!

the start was twisty, muddy and fairly flat with a few wooden planked bridges thrown in for good measure. we yo-yo'd along with the group for the first hour or so until everyone started getting warmed up and people started going off the front here and there.

after a quick stop and regrouping at one of the aid stations, where i was disqualified for accepting pretzels from another rider, the climbing started and the pace hastened. two other riders, doug and todd, came riding up behind us and with gusto, todd took the lead. oops. the chase was on with alex riding his wheel and me deciding to hold my pace. in short order, they were out of sight.

by the rattlesnake aid station, i finally latched back on. after a quick bite to eat we were back on the gas. it was at this point that the climbing really came on strong and it was all alex leading the way back to the finish line at the campground. he even lead out his own sprint down m-33!

some pizza, some beers, a fairly mellow campfire party later and i was all lids until sunday morning.

my ability to ride again on sunday was deterred by the wrath of the hcp upon my rear derailleur. it's amazing that the ability to shift is severely hampered by losing part of one of those little pulleys and twisting the cage all to hell. oh well, i waited until i got home and then went out on the road bike (hardtail).

next up: the lumberjack. wow, three road tripping party-down biker weekends in a row! pretty soon i'm going to need a vacation from my vacations.

Krushed by the Kokopelli

2006-05-16T10:26:00.000-04:00

well, now i'm up to four dnf's in my riding/racing career.

real epic mountian bike riding here folks. the trails were awesome, the sun was brutal and until the start there always seemed to be some sort of scramble to keep things on track- pack the crap/bike, drive to alex's, make it to metro for the flight to slc, get bike fixed up after flight, pre-ride in slc, drive to moab, more pre-riding on porcupine rim, pre-race prep and nap before the 12:01am start, etc, etc, etc, hence, so forth and so on... you get the idea.

finally the hour had arrived and we were off to the start at the slickrock trailhead, being privvy to the sight of the entire lot filled with cars and people. it was surreal. '15 minutes', '5 minutes', 'go' and we were off into the night, starting right off with a long gradual 4000' climb into the la sal mountains. a 2000' decent (35+mph in the dark!) and another long gradual 2000' climb that put us onto the summit and into a long fast sandy rocky decent into fisher valley.

at this point the sun was creating an ever increasing halo of light on the horizon.

two canyons (the cottonwoods), the famous 'rose garden hill' and a fast gravel road decent later i arrived at dewey bridge for my first attempt at pumping water from the colorado river. this went well and after a short breakfast i left dewey and made my way up the climb into yellow jacket canyon.

this is where things started to get a bit more tedious. the sun was now high in the sky and w/o clouds, baked me to a crisp over the next 20-ish miles, passing through yellow jacket, mcgraw bottom and fish ford. this stretch also conceded a 100oz bladder of water. i was only too happy to see the cisco boat launch, have the ability to ladle myself with cool water from the river and once again, fill my bladder.

from cisco to westwater was fairly uneventul, sans the incessant headwind along the fairly flat sandy desert prarie. as i arrived at westwater road, i decided that i still had enough water to skip going the extra 4ish miles round trip to the ranger station and forge on with the next fill being at salt creek at the beginning of the final 11 mile singletrack section.

unfortunately this was not going to be the case. after riding the pavement to the trail cutoff and ascending more rocky sandy jeep road, my body would not go anymore. it's wierd how in as little as 5 minutes you can go from 'i feel pretty good' to 'i feel like total shit'. i was totally cooked and was having those 'chasing the white bunny' flashes in my eyes. i was ready to pass out after dismounting and plopping down on the side of the trail. about 15 minutes passed until two four wheelers (atv type things) rolled up and asked how i was doing. after i explained my situation they agreed to assist me in taking me all the way back to westwater where i puked all over my shoes and found more assistance in getting me a car ride to the finish at the loma trailhead.

a quick chat with mr. curiak to inform of my drop out and we headed for the motel in fruita for a hot shower and some chinese grub. amazingly, i only ate about half my food and drank one beer.

all in all, it was a hell of a trip and an truly epic bike ride, i just wish i could have finished the entire trail. well, that will have to wait until next year or maybe i just need more practice in the art perseverance (ie: not puss out until i'm totally unconcious) in light of extreme circumstances during these virgin runs.

ahh, so much to learn, so little time. at least i didn't jump in salt creek with my ipod and camera!

results and more stories here.

map to follow my course story here.

finally, here are a few pics from the trip:

1) alex is happy to be in utah and stopping for lunch!

2) looking at the la sals from sand flats road. yea buddy, we're going over those!

3) dewey bridge. behind those rocky ridges in the background is yellow jacket canyon.

4) cisco boat landing on the colorado river, the la sals peeking over the red rock canyons in the background. you'll have to click the pic and zoom to see them. also, those trees are about the only shade from the mts to cisco. yuk.

5) fairly typical views in this part of the country. these are taken on 128 along the colorado river.

koko.conf

2006-05-09T13:26:00.000-04:00

well, not too much time for words, but here are a few pics of my gear and bike setup for the ktr.

Mission: Accomplished!

2006-03-26T19:34:00.000-05:00

what a great weekend of riding and working out on the *cough* road bike (hardtail). with all the crappy weather the training gods have been instigating, i'm sure the racing weather is going to be great this year.

saturday started out great: drive to alex's, suit up and hit the road for a little jaunt through suburbia over to island lake. ~45 minutes into the rather incessant headwind, the snow/rain started. that's when it turned into one of those 'why to hell didn't i hit the dive shop and get those gloves' moments. in hindsight, this turned out to be a blessing as we didn't stop for more than a total of 15 minutes during the ride. good race practice though it was shitty- wet and cold. good to get in the miles motor pacing alex to and fro across 'the o.c.' though. a hot shower and yummy thai finished out the day. thanks again for the hospitality alex!

sunday started out just as good. sky was clear and the temps were climbing nicely, so i hit the dirt roads for a ride to lansing. after about 1-1/2 hours it was basically overcast, well not really, just big dark fluffy clouds that interlocked such that the sun was sparse although there were lots of blue 'holes'. without the sun it got cold quick. yuk. should have taken that wind vest...

so i've been doing some reading (and panic-ing!) about this kokopelli thing and get to thinking: well shit, can i even ride 140 miles right now? here in the flat lowlands of michigan? even combining 2 consecutive days of riding? hmmm... after a 5hr/80 mile sufferfest on saturday, sunday's 4-1/2 hr/69 miles shot me well clear of the 140 goal!

now for a few days of active recovery (and eating!!!) and hopefully get in a good hard training session on wednesday. 7 weeks left of training before weaknesses are evidenced! :)

Yankee Doodle Dandy

2006-03-13T09:34:00.000-05:00

ahh, who would have thought that the middle of march would find shorts/jersey temps and yankee springs wfo.

1/2 way around the third loop i came across a rider crumpled up on the trail who was like- 'man, i was going down that hill, something grabbed my front wheel and next thing i know i'm laying on the ground'. yea, with a separated shoulder. not good. his friend, who was ahead of him, returned and we walked the guys stuff to a not so near gravel road. good thing it wasn't overgrown, we would have been walking for quite awhile. a quick ride back to the trailhead and i was done for the day.

2006-03-05T15:23:00.000-05:00

well, although today didn't work out as planned, i still got in 55 miles in 3 hours thanks to the local band of lansing roadies. good thing i didn't ride to the ride, i was shot when we got back to the shop. the ol' fixie was topped out for more than one extended period. 39x17-700c isn't very appropriate to sustain 20+, especially with the moonboots.

I'm in!

2006-03-02T21:03:00.000-05:00

well, as committed as i am to being as non-committal as possible, i've purchased my plane ticket to salt lake city for the kokopelli trail race in may! i'm tingling with delight as i write, it's going to be such an awesome ride! alex and i will be flying out on the wednesday before the race to scout some the night riding sections at the start and make any last minute adjustments. like finding the nearest superbestwallymartycostconglomo and wandering aimlessly looking for that one essential item that got left behind. like a spare drivetrain and some sanity. haha. hmm... too many likes in there methinks. somewhere i'm sure, an old english teacher is crawling her grave.

this is definitely going to be one of those: 'i'll have a hostess display rack and a bottle of hershey's syrup to wash it down' type races. :) i doubt i'll get to have any hot food like this guy did, but he has a good story about riding the trail.

Felt Like Spring!

2006-02-13T08:45:00.000-05:00

although it was a bit nippy at the start, the sun shone brightly for another fun day out on the bike.

originally it seemed to be four riders were going to be heading out of davisburg with the idea of going to pontiac lake for a loop and then heading back. the ride quickly transmigrated into a dual effort of paula and i trying to make it out to bham and hook up with some people riding back to dburg. ahh, but that was not to be had. the sirens song of the caribou locked with an imaginary grip on our senses and lured us in. on the return trip, getting smacked in the face with the blunt force of a headwind and slightly sogging dirtroads was not so imaginary.

3 hrs and 42 miles were the stats for the day. paula was a trooper and survived my incessant banter, commentary and possibly annoying pavement riding behavior. shhh... i know the flowers on her bike were happy to see the sun and play in the mud. :)

after hanging out at the mmba expo for a bit, doug and i went over to las piramidas for a super burrito attack and a few sodas to wash them down.

did you know that torino/turin, where the winter olympics are being held, is the 'motor city' of italy? i believe i read that fiat was founded there. wonder if drivers over there are as uptight as in metro detroit?

Ride Stats

2006-02-07T20:32:00.000-05:00

from the times of calls on my phone, i can trace out a semi-accurate picture of the total ride time: 7 hrs (9am -> 4pm). i probably stopped for a total of 30 minutes for lunch/flopping around on the pavement and phone/gel/bar breaks.

from the map, i'm estimating the trip was ~80 miles. i couldn't cross i-69 where i had planned and probably rode 5 miles out of the way to get over and back on track.

time to hit the dive shop and check out the deep sea diving dry gloves. :)

WRCS XL aka Down on the Dirty River

2006-02-06T10:52:00.000-05:00

what a great ride, at least on the way down to detroit on woodward. could you imagine that a group of riders could take up a whole lane on woodward ave. and not get run over? must've been pete's horn that scared them away. :) the ride back was hell. straight into the wind. cold. wet. good thing those guys decided to hammer, i was off the back in about 2 seconds. no cops, no stops. note to self: not good to take a 30 lb pack and a rack of about 15 more lbs of gear on these rides.

so what's with that pack and rack you must be wondering? ahh... that's the xl part. the toor day twa. riding from lansing to detroit. and back. riding to the ride. well almost. my plan for the superbowl weekend was to ride to alex's place saturday, do part of the wrcs on sunday and weave my way over to my friend joe's in dexter, then back home on monday.

well that was the plan, until about 5 minutes into the ride and i was soaked to the bone. after about 4-5 hours of riding i was finally crossing under us-23. (my computer died at some point, so i was clueless as to time and didn't pay attention when i used the phone.) stopped for some lunch and called alex to meet me in highland, where my route crossed m-59, which was still about an hour or so of muddy wet backroad riding away. i sure was glad to see alex at the gas station. thanks for picking me up alex! and thanks for having those sweet ass heated seats in your car! saturday night, alex, his friend jamie and i went to salvatore scalopini's in birmingham to eat, then to the party store to pick up some beers and head back to his condo to relax and watch the trans-alp video. the condo is sweet! lots of big windows and high ceilings. loft style living. thanks for the accomodations and hospitality alex! it was then that i decided to cancel riding to ann arbor on sunday, do the wrcs ride from bham -> dtw to check out the superbowl festivities and have my wife pick me up at her sisters in berkeley sunday evening.

i'm pooped today and i didn't make the whole ride. now i'm up to 3 loose ends (rides i've started but not completely finished): pip140, mohican 100, toor day twa. due to technical difficulties, i couldn't tell you how long or how far i rode over the last two days, but it was great to be back out on the bike again, it was a great workout.

anyway, here are the pics that alex took with my camera downtown. if you click and zoom in on the third pic, you can see pete's car horn rigged up to the handlebar. powered by his light battery!

me:

alex:

wrcs crew:

2006-01-23T12:17:00.000-05:00

and a clear reminder of why i didn't sign up for that iowa race.

PAVEMENT ENDS

2006-01-23T09:27:00.000-05:00

those guys at the road commision must have their caps locks on all the time. they're always yelling, but no one is paying attention...

sunday's high 30's and muddy/icy/snowy 'two tracked' dirt roads kicked off a few firsts for '06:

- outside ride of the year, 2hrs. (been running, weights and trainer.)
- canine chase (big german shepherd. damn pesky germans... ;)
- ride with new rack/fender on the bike. (note to self: need to add more fenders.)

quest for the week: find someplace in lansing that sells scrapped-end plastic for making some ad-hoc fenders or plan a drive to ain plastics in troy, which i hope to not have to do.

prepare for possible ride and brew: http://www.michiganbrewersguild.org/festinfo.asp

racing schedule!

2006-01-20T10:55:00.000-05:00

well, i finally wrote down my racing schedule for the year, you can check it out on the right. list subject to change.

whew... tired today. 8 consecutive days of training has left me feeling like a sluggish rubbery blob. hr was a little high this morning when i got up, so no training today! or training proper that is. probably still stress the liver a bit processing some carbs. gotta work on that energy processing efficiency. :)

well, it's about fsck-ing time!

2006-01-18T20:20:00.000-05:00

so i decide not to renew my domain, save the $, and put my little gig over here on blogspot. not that i had a gig over there, but it was nice to have my own little portal of sorts along with email. hopefully you'll be seeing all facets of my life on here. welcome and enjoy!