Six for Six

HA!  You guys thought I would be writing up the 24 Hours of Georgia Mountain Bike Race!  Nope!  I'm so far behind that you get a re-cap of what I wrote back in September and just now got around to publishing!

The Six Gap Century!

For the sixth year in a row, I headed up to Dahlonega Georgia to ride some of my favorite roads.  The thing about having a nasty long ride with loads of steep mountain roads at the end of the season is that it gives me an excuse to ride more.

"I have to go out and ride or Six Gap is going to be more of a suffer-fest than normal!", I'll say.


"Aawww...he just HAS to go out and ride.  Poooor baby." Brenna must be thinking.

It's true though, Six Gap is always painful.  It's always hard.

And it's fun.  

I've ridden this course in pouring rain more than once, searing 90+ degree heat that brought me to my knees in a 7+ hour dehydrated disaster, and then there are years like this year.  Perfect in almost every way.

It was a fun weekend.  I went up to the ride Saturday morning after spending Friday night camping with 200 noisy marshmallow and soda powered Cub Scouts.  We didn't get away until 11am since I was attending a flag football game where Bryce made a couple of good plays and the team won for the first time this season.

I love the drama of football even if it's little kids.  The joy on their faces when they won after a late game "pick-six" interception was contagious.

Brian Toone and I were going to carpool up to the ride and he was going to race the Saturday Pro-Am Criterium around downtown Dahlonega.  This was the first year they have organized the Criterium races, and it was a big success from what I could tell.  Normally, I will get up to town to register, get all the race numbers for the Sunday morning Six Gap ride, and then go watch College Football at the lake house, but this time there was racing to watch too, so we hung out.  I did get to watch the Clemson v FSU game thanks to a massive screen TV in the commons for the North Georgia College just off the downtown race course.  We hung out there and drank coffee until it was time for Brian to start his warmup and I went up to catch the Women's race before the Men's Pro-Am.

I feel like I'm a pretty strong rider until I watch these people race.  It's amazing how fast and strong they are.  They are just a different breed.  It's fantastic to see...

Brian's race started at 8:30pm and went well for him.  He won a couple of Primes, which are cash or prize awards given out during a race for being the first to cross the line on a designated lap, but there was a real powerhouse rider that ended up lapping the field for the overall win.  That kid is going to be a decent pro rider someday if he keeps that up.

We got back to the lake house at around 11:30pm, and were back in the car at 5:30am.  We didn't even get to catch up with Blake or Jess since we were there such a short time.  Thanks for the beds guys!

The ride started in mid 50 degree dry weather with the promise of a sunny mid 70's day.  The thousands of riders lined up excited for the effort and challenge...and some not so excited but resigned to completing the difficult task for whatever motivation they had.

Events like this are interesting because it brings out everyone from all walks of life.  People trying to get in shape, Ultra-fit bike racers, People with a dream to be able to complete a distance like this just one time in their lives, People who know they can ride it but want to do better than last time.  There is the social rider that will take 10 hours to finish, and the suffer enthusiasts that want to go as fast as they can the whole time.  It's a great mix.

I had a goal of getting the 104 miles and 11,000 feet of climbing done in 6.5 hours of saddle time or better, so I probably fall into the suffer-enthusiast category mentioned above.  I'm not really fast but I can keep it going for a fair distance.

Brian ready to roll out...

Brian and I shook hands, wished each other luck, and went our separate ways.  In other words he went and lined up with the horses up front that expected to complete the course in less than 6 hours total...including any stops at the aid stations.  An impressive goal no matter who you are.

The mass of riders began the slow roll-out after the gun went off and threaded its way past the local shops and off into the back roads of northern Georgia.  I love sights and sounds of the ride, of any ride for that matter, with the bright jerseys flying by and the click and buzz of the bicycles.

At least I love that stuff at the beginning of the ride.  Later on, when the world is filled with sore muscles and aching joints, I'm less inclined to say I love much of anything except getting off the bike.

I found a fast group and with their help flew through the first 20 miles, and the climb up Neels Gap came and went relatively easily.  The sun was out and the arm warmers came off quickly.  I stopped at the top for some food which wasn't really the plan, but as I had reached the top, an impatient 18-wheeler had passed me.  I knew I could descend the gap at 40+ and the truck would do it at less than half that speed, but I would never find a gap long enough to pass it without killing myself.  Waiting at the top for a few minutes was the prudent move to keep the downhill I had earned fun...and fast.

I was riding pretty well and made good time through the next two mountains.  The twisting descent down Unicoi was as wonderful as ever and passing cars on a bicycle is fun every time.

The 4th mountain was the toughest challenge.  Hogpen Gap.  7 miles of sheer nasty steep.  This is the place where you begin to see people walking the bikes and "delivering the mail".

(i.e. weaving back and forth across the road from "mailbox to mailbox".)

I know my ride is going to go well or completely fall apart on that climb.  Things went well.  I got up the climb in 43 minutes.  Note: Brian rode it in 32 minutes and yet didn't finish 1st on the climb...only 2nd.  Sheesh...

Holy cow some people can go uphill fast.  My combined Wolfpen gap and Hogpen gap times netted me 154th place out of 1000 riders, so I'll count my performance as a pretty good effort but nothing spectacular.

Looking down Unicoi Gap

I took off down Hogpen knowing that the ride was shaping up to be one of my faster times.  I began to have thoughts of finishing in 6 hours or 6:15.  I passed several people on my descent.  It is so much fun to go 50+ on a bicycle.  I was a little more reserved with the other riders and still managed 51 miles an hour on the long steep section.  I hit 57 mph a few weeks earlier and decided then an there to never ride that fast on that road again.  There is only so much the poor brakes on a bicycle can do if you miss a turn at speeds like that.  It's funny how I can be confident and in complete control to make any and all the turns on that descent at 51 but just 6 mph faster makes the safety factor evaporate.

I topped Wolfpen gap, the long winding set of switchback roads feeling tired, but I still had gas in the tank.  I had been making sure to stuff food in my mouth whenever I thought about it and to drink as much as possible on this ride.  Normally, I start to feel a little gross after 80 miles, but since I had been eating already, it seemed like I had unlocked something.  I was actually hungry and could process the food rather than having my body in complete revolt over it.  I need to remember that in the future...

I had one more climb and the rolling hills back to the highschool from that point, and I really started to turn on the effort since I knew the ride was in the bag.  Woody gap flew by and the final 15 mile stretch lay out in front.  I kept the pace as high as I could get the body to go after 85 miles.  I began to cramp up on the last 7 miles and couldn't get out of the saddle to power up hills.  I was working with a strong rider and whenever the road pitched uphill we would stand to power over the rise.  My quads would immediately lock into knots like someone hit me in the legs with a hammer.

I had the energy to push harder, but the body was beginning to fail me.  I had to sit and down shift to get over the small steep hills.  I watched as the potential goal for 6 hours ticked by and I couldn't go any faster.

6:15 passed by as well, but I did accomplish the fastest time I have done on the longer course version of Six gap.  I left everything I had on the course.  I couldn't have gone faster with what the day gave me, so I am happy.  I was laid out on the pavement by the car and queazy with the effort for a few minutes, but the feeling didn't last too long.  Brian rolled up (well rested looking) and we headed over to get some post ride food.

I asked how he did and he said he finished first.  In my semi-functioning brain I thought he meant first up Hogpen Gap, but realized he meant the whole thing.

He had finished the ride with another rider in first place.  5 hours 7 minutes.  I'm simply amazed at how fast that is.

In summary, the ride was great and we all had a good time.  I can't ask for much more than that.  I'm not sure if I'll ride it again.  Which is always the case after riding that course.  We will see come July or so if I feel like riding all out for a few months to get ready.

Have a great week everyone.

The Fridge Zombie

I rode the bike a lot this weekend. Thanks to my patient wife for sure.

It wasn't a lot in the terms of miles for some folks, so I'll be reminded by real cyclists that my workout time and miles spent riding was kind of "not really anything to write home about."

Really, the 110 miles and 7.5 hours of ride time over two days really isn't much more than using "training" as an excuse to go on a riding bender. Which is fun. It makes me stronger (allegedly), lighter (doubtful), but basically it's just plain old fun.

But there is a downside -- And that downside is pure evil.

When you come off a weekend cycling bender you are hungry. Your brain is telling you that you have a chance to drop some pounds because you are in such calorie debt that if you just eat normally you will shed pounds in the next few days.

But then eating normally becomes..."Well I'll have a snack too. Just not too much."

Then eating normally and snacking...some...awakens something awful. Especially when one is trying to lose some pounds. The Fridge Zombie. There is the metaphorical blood in the water. You have shown it food, and food it will have!

Over the past 24 hours, I have found myself taken over by the Calorie Monster or Fridge Zombie or whatever you would like to call it. I wander around the kitchen without any hint or hope of willpower. My brain is screaming, "Don't waste all that effort and not lose any weight after all that work!" While the body is standing zombie like with the pantry or fridge door open stuffing any and all food in to satisfy the need for calories.

Ah, there is nothing like the foolish regret of eating 5,000 calories in a day after burning less than that on the bike over the weekend. All that work undone (and probably then some) in one mighty collapse of willpower.

Ah, at least I had a diet coke with all that food...that'll take the curse right off of it...

A real JEM -- not apologizing for that one...

Ah, the final Utah mountain bike video that you have been waiting for, or quietly wishing I would accidentally forget about editing...

I can't tell you how much footage that Nathan and I took over the course of the trip to Utah.  The number of hours of video was a little over the top, but it has been loads of fun re-watching some of this stuff and trying my hand at editing together questionably interesting videos for others.  I do like to share these videos because it lets other people see some of the views that we got to see.  Bikes are great in the sense that they are quiet, you still can appreciate the views without the confinement of a car, you connect with the outdoors, and you can ride out into places that it would take many hours of walking and overnight camping to see.  Plus, it's a heck of a fun hobby.

I wanted to ride this loop from the first day we got there, but the rains kept us away and the trail a mess, so I had to wait until the last day before we were going to head up to Bryce Canyon.  Nathan opted to ride part of the ride with me, but wasn't in the mood to put up with the first half which included some grueling uphills to get to the top of the JEM trail.  Hurricane Rim was the first segment and it skirted the edge of the Virgin river and offered up some great views.  This ride also pointed out that I am totally directionally impaired.  I had a map and the map said that the trail turned to the right.  The trouble being that out in the wide open area, there were multiple jeep trails and other random single-track looking trails that were probably cut by animals walking through the tumbleweeds.

I ended up taking the wrong track and heading down into the canyon by the river at one point.  At another offshoot, I found that I was off in no man's land trying to follow the rim of the canyon around.  After about 45 minutes of riding, hiking, and fussing at myself liberally, a vulture flew close over my head.  It wasn't just cruising, it was checking me out.  I decided that was a sign to just find my way back to the original trail and head up a different direction.  I was furious.  I could still even see the house where we stayed out in the distance, but I couldn't get there because of a canyon in the way.  Nor could I call Brenna and say my ride plans had changed because cell service in the middle of the desert is sketchy at best.  I was officially not having any fun, so bailing out and just riding up part of the loop and coming back down seemed like the best way to salvage what was supposed to be a fun ride.

I rode up the JEM trail about a mile and magically found (drumroll please) the rest of the Hurricane Rim trail.  I don't know if that didn't tick me off even more because the map didn't say that the Hurricane Rim and the JEM were the same trail for any length of time.  I can't really blame the map.  I'm a little thick headed sometimes and probably just didn't read the map right.  Anyway, I was off again and had only wasted an hour wandering in the wilderness.  A true Moses ride -- thank goodness it wasn't 40 years of wandering, even though it was beginning to feel like it.

I found Brenna and Nathan an hour later in a parking lot looking worried.  I was after all, pretty late in my estimates of when I would meet them there.  The Goulds climb was looming across the road where I would head up a steep road for quite a distance before linking up with the Goulds trail and then the top of the JEM.  Nathan wisely opted to meet me on a side road where he didn't have to put up with the climb.  I being a little thick headed, as I stated before, wanted to ride up the thing.  The effort is cathartic in a way.

The ride was definitely better once I had a buddy with me.  It meant we could at least laugh at each other if we managed to get lost again.  The Goulds trail wound around the colorful reds, whites and even green looking sand/clay at the base of Gooseberry Mesa, and it was fun, but not the main event.  We were ready for the 8 mile downhill where we had seen signs that bike traffic was one way, and that bikes achieved "dangerous speeds" so to be careful.  That's a great advertisement for mountain biking if ever there was one.  Besides, there was nobody around for miles and we could enjoy the expansive desert views whilst tearing around as fast as we could get the bikes to go.

That's enough typing about a subject that most of you couldn't care less about.  I'll let the video show you more of the ride instead.  I hooked my camera on facing backwards and it worked pretty well, but it worked its way loose on the way down, so the video gets a little floppy in places.  I need to build a better mounting system, but the rear facing view was perfect.  We would get footage of both of us as we went flying through the tumbleweeds.

Enjoy.

Gooseberry Mesa - On and Off the Bike

That poor rental car.  There was a "graded road" that we had to drive to get to the top of the mesa.  I'll assume that when one grades a road, one doesn't grade the parts that seem straight up over rocks.  After finding the road that would get us up on top of Gooseberry Mesa at a non-descript turn off in Rockville, UT.  (pop 247), the dirt road climbs 1,000 feet in a few miles on some pitches where we were questioning the ability of the little red Corolla loaded with 3 huge mountain bikes hanging from the trunk to make it. We were creeping like one of those rock crawling jeeps to keep from bottoming out the car and tearing parts off. 


* Note: Not us -- this is just an example of what people do with their off road vehicles in Utah.  Interesting passtime.  I like the idea but wish they wouldn't tear the whole place up.  It's a free country though, so go for it.

A couple of times people would come down the road past us in their huge pickups with lift packages and they would hang out the windows cheering our progress.  It was slow.  Really slow.  Picking our way over rocks in a car that really only was designed to putter along on properly paved roads in suburbia.

The little car scraped and banged and bounced it's way up and up and up and eventually arrived at a parking lot where we gave it a rest as the sickly-sweet stink of an overworked motor wafted around.

We unloaded the bikes and decided to ride to the "practice loop".  Brenna was going to try her hand at riding the petrified sand dunes, but this was a big mesa and she wisely decided she shouldn't ride some of the trails.

The practice loop, it turns out, wasn't easy.

I keep telling Brenna that guys dig chicks with bike related scrapes and bruises! Well...with those battle scars, she is Ms. USA!

After a few swoops up and down the sandstone, crashing and generally feeling like she was over her skill level, Brenna decided to let us go on and we would meet up later.  There was enough to explore using some of the easier trails and the rutted dirt road down the middle of the mesa that she would be happily occupied without being terrified the whole time. Plus, up on the mesa top, our phones had service, so we weren't out of touch if something should happen!  Having functioning phones was pretty unusual since we spent the week having to drive to Hurricane or Springdale to get a cell signal.

We did meet up again out on the North Rim trail at an overlook, after our own crashing entertainment. Oddly, women don't think guys with bike related scrapes and bruises are quite as cool as we think they are.  They just think we are 8 year old idiots...  Oh well...at least I married the attractively bruised Ms. USA.  She is legally bound to hang out with me, even if I act like I'm 8 and ride bikes around all day.

Successfully avoiding the #1 reason why people fall off cliffs.  Posing for pictures...  The other reasons are listed in this post here.

Group photo - smile everyone!

The bands and layers in the mesa's edges would give you a weird vertigo sensation when you looked at them from a high point.  At varying times this area has been an ocean (and at one point part of the gulf of Mexico...sort of). Layers of sediment that were put down with different chemical compositions create the colors in the rock. 

Glad that Nathan joined me in getting more video than we can possibly watch.  I know the cameras are goofy, but it allows me to waste time and share our rides with people from our point of view.  Besides, we look goofy anyway, so the cameras on our heads don't impact a thing.

The elevation changes were dramatic, and worked us over pretty well.  Especially with the distinctly thinner air than we are used to at home.  I took this picture from the trail so you can see how much the trail would climb, descend, and twist around.

Riding home.

Nathan kept trying to bunny hop the cattle grate, and I kept missing the shot.  The camera wouldn't fire fast enough when he jumped, but I figured I would show this great picture of the grate.  Nathan cleared it and was just out of the shot to the right.  It would certainly be more interesting with him in the picture, but after making him do wind sprints 2-3 times to try to capture him mid jump, I guess we need to show something for his efforts.  Just imagine him there doing something X-games-awesome-super-cool in mid air in the middle of the photo...

A thunderstorm started popping lighting around us at the end of our ride, so we re-grouped and headed for home after spending about 6 hours riding.  On the way down, Nathan decided to descend the "road" we came in on by bicycle vs praying the brakes wouldn't catch fire in the Toyota.  He had more fun I'm sure, and even driving with the car in 1st gear the whole way down the road, the brakes smelled like they were hot enough to roast marshmallows over them.  Very nasty tasting marshmallows, but roasted nonetheless.

I'll save you any more of my long winded descriptions of bike riding among the rocks and ancient sand dunes, and let the video give you an idea of how cool it is to ride in places like this.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!  I'm heading to the beach and then to the lake!  It's a tough life...I know...


Gooseberry Mesa from Brad on Vimeo.

Brenna and the Church Rocks

I had planned on a big lyrical post about the joy of bikes and how wonderful it is to do something you love to do and introduce others to it as well.  But...sometimes ideas and events don't quite present themselves in a good form to write like that.  Instead, I'll limit my rambling prose to at least say that I was really proud of Brenna for coming with us on the ride.  I could tell she was nervous.  Mostly because she told me as much.  "Brad, I'm nervous about this ride."  It's kinda hard to miss that.  I did my best to tell her that this ride was really "mellow" and that she would have no problems with it.  Everyone said it was pretty laid back and just a fun cruising through the desert with a little fun on slickrock.

We packed the 3 bikes on the back of the Corolla and rolled out into the "industrial section" of St. George.  It seemed an odd place to find a cool trail, but after driving off the main road behind several warehouses, and then driving through a narrow tunnel under I-15, we did in fact find the trailhead.  A few minutes later Monte and his lovely bride, Bonnie, drove up and we took off into the red sands and tumbleweeds.

Nathan and the rest of the group rode on ahead and I rode with Brenna giving her calming advice that she probably didn't want, hear, or even comprehend as the trail soon took a very steep and loose descent into a wash.  She rode it perfectly, and I thought she would be happy, even though I was a little worried that she (and I) were realizing that this trail might have some obstacles that were a bit above her skill level.

This concern of mine was confirmed soon thereafter when she stated in no uncertain terms, "I'm almost too scared to enjoy this."  Woops...In my defense, I did try to come up with a good ride for her, and it was good for the most part.  There were just some scary sections for her to navigate.  Go figure...it's Utah mountain biking.

She did ride well and the trail had a few surprises but generally these surprises were items that even the most experienced among us hiked down.  There's nothing like a "mellow" Utah trail to make you think...what the heck is "intense"???

We rode through the sandy desert and along rock ledges until we reached what I'll guess was Church rocks.  Large rounded red sandstone features reached up out of the tumbleweeds a fine tribute to the power of water and erosion at work on and around them.  The formations were the size of a city block and probably a 100 feet high in places. It could have been bigger and higher, but we didn't explore the whole area of course.  You could see holes and pockets where weaker sandstone was eroding faster than the rocks around it.  There were some really steep sections that were great fun to ride down.  One of the nice things about slickrock is that you have almost infinite traction on a bike.  You ride at impossible angles and just stick...until, of course, you don't.  Then sandstone really extracts some tolls on ones knees and elbows as you slide to the bottom of things.  We got through the ride without an incident like last Nathan's slickrock incident last year in Moab.  He looked like he had taken on a belt sander and lost.

Now that I think about that last sentence...honestly, when does one "take on" a belt sander and win?  Secondly, would a ninja be able to win against an angry belt sander?  A question for the ages there folks.  You know you come to this blog for deep insights and questions like that...

We rode around lumps and ledges, steadily climbing up the rocks through a winding trail and found a slickrock playground with some drops and jumps to play on.

We hung out there until the storm we were watching develop over Zion looked like it was creeping our way.  We bolted back for the safety of the cars with blurry gray columns of rain drenching the desert in the distance.  Being up high on slickrock with bicycles isn't a good thing to do with lightning in the area.

A great afternoon was had, and I hope that Brenna will continue riding with me even though she knows the rule that even "mellow" sometimes is terrifying in Utah.

The video.  It is becoming apparent that my YouTube and Vimeo channels are becoming somewhat one sided in video selections.  It's not like I don't have a bunch of other stuff going on in life to share.  I guess  riding motorcycles and mountain bikes lend themselves to recording somewhat better.



Next: Angels Landing -- the hike we managed to do after riding all morning and into the afternoon.  Why stay home and relax?  We were on vacation and climbing to the top of sheer cliffs was right around the corner!  What else do you do on vacation?

Riding the Sidewinder

We have so much video.  Perhaps too much?  Nah!  Thanks to Nathan joining me in looking really foolish with a helmet camera during all of our rides, we have hours of footage to pour through.  But for you, my tens of loyal readers, I will get through it all and put together poorly filmed, shaky, and over produced videos for you to enjoy along with my witty prose.

The OTE - Hurricane

We headed with Monte over to the shop to pick up the bikes for the first day, and as we sorted out the shock pressures on these bikes the “Over the Edge Sports Mascot Pooch” flopped on our feet repeatedly looking to be scratched.  That was a really cool dog and it almost makes me wish I had a pet.  Almost…until I think of all the other responsibilities I have going and the urge passes…

The bikes were great and the staff at OTE got us set up and ready to go quickly.  I’ll shamelessly plug them for any of your trips out to Fruita, CO or Hurricane, UT.

The rain clouds were roiling over the mesas and canyons in Zion, so we headed the other (much dryer) direction to go ride the bikes and ended up at the Santa Clara River Preserve trail system near St. George.  The Sidewinder trail actually is part of a pretty large network of trails that run all over the area, and from what I could tell, we covered almost all of them including illusion and the precipice trails.  

The Sidewinder trail is an out-and-back that snakes around the hills and has a turn-around loop at the end before you descend back down at high speed giving it a look of a snake with a head when seen from above, hence the name.  It’s a pretty mellow trail and was a great warm-up for the week.  There were some technical sections with some rocks and a brief bit of cliff exposure, but not too much complicated stuff which was good since we were getting used to our bikes and what they would do.

The views were great and we learned an essential bit of trivia as we were riding around and yakking about everything from geology, to politics, to the merits of bicycles and not crashing.  Heady stuff folks…

That riveting piece of trivia?

The top three reasons tourists and hikers fall off high cliffs:

1. Posing for Pictures on the cliff edge
2. Acting like they are about to fall off the cliff
3. Urinating off cliffs – in the dark.  (I think I’m close enough to the edge…maybe one more step…)

(I’m going to guess that intoxication is also commonly involved in both #2 and #3)

I have no idea if this list is truly accurate because I’m lazy and don’t want to Google it, but they sound pretty dang plausible, so there you have it.  It’s gospel now.  

My advice on this pressing matter you ask?  Sure, I’ll be happy to tell you as I know some of you really wanted to read my words of wisdom.  

First, look at where the edge is, gauge how windy it is and where good footing would be among other conditions, before posing for photographs.  

Second, don’t be a drunken idiot (or just a plain old normal one for that matter) near cliff edges by wildly flailing your arms around and yelling “AAAAaaaaaaahhhhh!”  to try to get a giggle out of your fellow hikers or that cute blond Park Ranger with braids you just saw.  (It's not like the Sasquatch or the chupacabra, she does really exist...  No, of course I don't have pictures...)  

Oh, I digressed a little there.  To the point of acting like you are falling, your friends won’t be impressed, and she really doesn’t care.  Plus, being all mangled and dead at the bottom of the cliff isn’t a good look for a first date anyway.

Finally, if you feel the urge after an evening of imbibing around the campfire…well…whatever…do what you want in that case…Darwin’s theories do have some validity.

We would yell out the appropriate number whenever we saw someone near a precipice throughout the rest of the week, and quite fortunately, I don’t recall yelling #3 at anyone.  Mainly I because I wasn’t looking for people urinating in the dark.  That would be really weird, and I was tired from all the riding.

Some fine examples of posing on high rock outcrops without dying.  A cool set of surroundings to ride bikes if I do say so myself.  We had a ball. 

To close this knowledge packed post, I present you with the first of several videos from the trip.  Riding the Sidewinder, enjoy.  


Filmed entirely with GoPro cameras including the time lapse shots at the opening.

Next post, Zion National Park does its best impression of the Pacific Northwest rain forests. Albeit with Desert Juniper and Pinyon Pine Trees and really big rocks.

Counting the Days -- Utah 2011

7 Days, 7 days, 7 days -- It echos around in my head. I find it hard to think about other obviously more important things as we prep for the second trip to Utah. There are tons of things to do and take care of before we catch the flight back out into the canyon lands.  Kids, clean the house, make sure the basement doesn't flood, packing, don't forget helmets... 

But it's far more fun to think of the rides on mountain bikes with rocks and dust flying, avoiding cactus and cliff edges.  Then there will be the days spent hiking, exploring narrow canyons, and climbing to high places.  The image below is one of the mountain biking destinations we will get to explore called Gooseberry Mesa, and it's going to be hard to not just stop and stare. 

 

Pretty much the same thing happened last year in Moab. Amazing rides where every turn or obstacle got better than the last would also just come to a halt from because the view wasn't something to just ride by in the pursuit of more singletrack.

This year we will be in Virgin, Utah with a staggering population of 394 people.  We picked this place because of a really great rental house that we came across and the proximity to bike trails (out the back door) and Zion National Park which is about 20-30 minutes away.


View Larger Map

The St. George/Hurricane/Springdale Utah, area is quickly becoming another major destination for mountain biking.  I am seriously excited by the prospects of riding these bikes in desolate places that would take days to reach by foot but can be navigated on a bike in hours. It's like Christmas every day when you get to ride bikes in country this beautiful. 

People I have talked to have mentioned that riding in this area is great and "much less crowded" than Moab. 

Uhmmm...I remember rides in Moab in the peak season where I didn't see another soul and was basically alone in the wilderness.  I can't imagine a place being "much less crowded" than that.  Yeah, the slickrock trail in Moab was packed, but it's a classic ride that is a mile out of town practically, and packed was relative to seeing nobody else for miles. 

Our bikes for this adventure rented from the good people at Over the Edge Sports in Hurricane Utah.

 



Rocky Mountain Altitude 29r



 



Felt compulsion 26



Mmmm...two wheeled goodness.


We are actually planning on a couple days by foot only on this trip in Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon, which is a "heck" of a place to lose a cow I hear. 

What I'm not riding bikes every day until I fall over...repeatedly?  Yeah, I know...totally insane idea, right?

The National Park Service, in all their wisdom, doesn't allow bikes for one, secondly, there are too many places that are just impossible to get to by bike.  I'll post pictures of as much as possible when we are out there through various forms of time-wasting social media, and once we are back, you can count on endless gushing and long winded tangents into the history and geology on this blog.  I just can't not babble on about the place. 

Hey, in another life I may have been on the Utah tourist board...who knows.

I love this sign.  Don't be that guy. 

Apparently the guy below didn't look at the aforementioned sign. 



If you see a picture of me pulling a downhill / freeride stunt like that, trust that I didn't get gutsy and go for it after downing a 6 pack of Red Bull.  Something has gone HORRIBLY horribly wrong, and please make sure to chisel something nice about me on my headstone. 

Examples:

1. A Devoted Husband, Father, and Friend who liked to bike A LOT...
2. An all around awesome guy that died waaaay too soon.

Or depending on how you actually feel about me:

3. He wasn't too much of a dork...often.

Heck, what do I care is on my headstone?  I'm the dead one in that scenario.  Have fun with it people...

Seriously, we will be having as much fun as we can without hurting ourselves.  I can't promise that we come away without bruises, lingering cactus thorns and less skin, but it is an adventure and not a cruise on a ship to some sanitized tourist trap.  (That's not a knock on the Cozumel trip...the SCUBA diving there is awesome and my friends lost skin and shattered iPhones renting scooters in Mexico... That takes some serious guts to ride scooters there.  I'm still in awe of your display of badassery.)

This trip is going to be great including all the unplanned stuff that we can't possibly think of in our preparatory lists of stuff to do.

I promise Mom, we won't forget our helmets...

A new Bike and an old Rant...

Most of you have probably seen the bike through my other post, or listened to me rave about it well before I even got around to buying it.  I did finally get it done this past week, and after quite a number of years of fits and starts about buying a new mountain bike, I got it to the house and then took it to the trails as fast as I could possibly get it there.

I videoed the inaugural ride...which most of you have also already witnessed via some social meida outlet.

I will take this moment to:

1. test out embedding a Vimeo video into this blog.
2. rant about digital rights management in my stupid videos.


deep breath aaaannd...  Rant away!

YouTube, where I have posted most of my stupid video concoctions blocked my mountain bike video from the whole planet.  Yes!  I guess I have enough viewership to warrant their censorship from the whole of the 7 friggin' billion people that live on this little blue/white/brown-ish orb.  The most hits a video of mine has ever garnered was about 100 hits and it didn't even have music!  We aren't talking millions, or hundreds of thousands or really even multiple hundreds of hits.

Now, it's not YouTube's fault.  They got sued so now they are gun-shy of people using copyrighted material, so I won't really rip on them.  It's the music recording industry that I'm ranting about.  I bought a song legally through iTunes.  I put it on a dumb video that about 30 people will watch in it's entire viewing history, and 10 of those hits will be me...'cause the bike is awesome and I need to see it sometimes when I'm not home...

The video has my credits and a link to iTunes and Amazon where you can buy the song if you liked it.  Those links for purchasing the song were even put there automatically by YouTube aside from my crediting the artist and naming them on my own.  That comes down to FREE ADVERTISING for the record company and the band!  Very few people on the planet will be intentionally playing YouTube over and over again instead of buying a song that will play on their iPods, so that can't be the reason for blocking the video.  I just don't understand the concept of not allowing small time people to use music they have legally paid for and credited to the artist.  If I were getting millions of hits on a video, or if I was somehow profiting from the playing of their song or my video with their music, I can start to get the idea that I probably should have asked permission over and above buying the music, but for 30-50 views on a video?  Come on people...  Free Advertising...where probably 1 person would go and buy the song after watching my admittedly awesome video...

Anyway, as a result, I am trying out Vimeo, where the company doesn't mess with their users.  Probably because they don't have the traffic a YouTube does...yet.

Enjoy.  The trail and the new bike are awesome...even if I might have used purchased music as a lame soundtrack.


Ride of the Niner from Brad on Vimeo.

It's here -- let the riding begin...in a few days

No, I didn't take the time to photoshop this together.  It's an ad that I pilfered from the net. 

I finally got it.  The new mountain bike that I have been talking about for years, wishing for quite a while, dreaming about while trying out different kinds of bikes, and now own.  A Niner Jet 9 in a delicious Tang Orange color.  I'm sure it's delicious, and tangy, but I won't lick it to find out for sure...maybe. 

I even lucked out and ended up with a color matched fork that made even the bike mechanics that were assembling it drool. 

Cahaba Cycles called yesterday while I was on a one day 500 mile motorcycle journey, which may or may not be a topic of another post, to say that it was done.  When I called this morning to see how much cash I needed to bring to settle the bill, they jokingly said $10-Grand because so many people had wanted to buy this bike they had to pay for shop damage and some injury claims during the ensuing melee. 

It is pretty.  I'm almost afraid to take it out, dirty it up, and most likely crash it...almost afraid that is.  Since it will be filthy (certainly) and scratched (probably) after the first ride, I'll offer up a few pictures in its pristine state to record how awesome it looks for posterity.

 Ah, the motivational speech that will somehow inspire me when I'm about to throw up and walk during some endurance race this year?

Outside the shop in Homewood with the tag still on it.  Things don't get much newer than that.

Here it is ready to go home in it's luxurious transport accommodations. Yeah, perhaps I need to clean some biking stuff out of the truck?  Nah...



Do you like the blue tarp protecting the car interior? While it does serve to protect the interior from typical biking oil and filth, there are unintended consequences to its use.  I don't think I'll ever be able to vacuum out all the little blue bits that have accumulated, so just as a note to all my readers, don't use blue tarp in your vehicle.  Find something else that won't make it look like a smurf exploded in the back seat.



 Once home, I fiddled with the air shocks and hydraulic disk brakes to get some items squared away for whenever I actually get to ride it on real trails.

Ah, the beauty of shiny clean rear suspension.  This will never look the same after the first ride, and that is how it should be.

Naturally a line of storms is coming through today that will make a mess of the trails, and I also have stuff to do with the kids since I haven't seen them in a few days.  The new bike will just have to be patient while I take care of the things that actually matter.

The first ride image while out with Bryce.  Soon he will be on the trails with me, and probably sooner than later will be faster and stronger than I am too.

I'm planning on Thursday to take the inaugural ride on it, and I hope it's as good as I have imagined it to be.  Also, we will see if I can shock my body back into healthy sleep, eating, and workout patterns after being up to all hours for the past few days at Leesburg BikeFest. 

Lake Lurleen Hammock Camping and Mountain Biking

On the last weekend of the kids' Spring Break I took the Hammock Tent out to Lake Lurleen State park.  This was probably my last moment alone to do exactly what I wanted, when I wanted, for the year, so it was important to take advantage of the time.  Brenna and the kids were in Tampa with family and I stayed behind to work the week.  Once I got the forecast done I scrambled south to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and then to the park which is a few miles outside of town.

I am not much on sleeping on the ground and bringing along heavy inflatable mattresses (Yes, I'm a wus...I admit it) but the remedy to this is the Hennessey Hammock.

You sleep comfortably in the tent with it's rain flap and bug net, and the best part is with this kind of hammock, you can sleep diagonally in the tent and the sleeping surface is flat.  You can roll over, sleep on your side, and whatever other position makes you happy.  Its rare to find a 3lb camping shelter that takes up barely any room the backpack, sets up that easily and allows comfort when out in the woods.

Enough with the gear review.  Its awesome.  Period.

I did get ribbed by the ranger at the park though.  She was asking "Where's your tent?"  To which I replied, "It's hanging from the tree over there."  She countered eloquently, "That's not a tent, it's a hammock with a doohicky over it.  We usually don't let people without tents stay in the campgrounds but I'll let it slide tonight."

I queried as to why there was a Campers-Must-Have-A-Tent rule the next day.  (Nope, I didn't push my luck debating campground policy prior to spending the night there.)  She said that people without tents tend to "do things out in the open" with all the other campers able to see.  I can only imagine...  The policy isn't for the privacy of the people in the "non-tent" category, it's for the protection of the other campers there and their kids since some people are morons.  (My words not the rangers) After that explanation, I half-understand the policy, but I guess since I didn't look like a drunken idiot, the ranger made a judgement call that my one person campsite wasn't going to be a problem.

The next morning, I cooked up a fine breakfast of tea, eggs and toast on the camp stove and got ready to hit the trails.  Lake Lurleen has about 19 miles of trails available, and I figured I would ride them twice on the rented Gary Fisher 29r rig that I had borrowed from Cahaba Cycles.  A side story is that I had this demo bike because I had broken my current bike frame earlier in the week.  So sad to see the old Ionic fail due to all the miles and splashing around in creeks I have done over the years.

I took out the Gary Fisher Xcaliber 29r and enjoyed it thoroughly.  It's a hard tail aluminum frame with monster truck wheels.  I'm pretty well sold on the big wheeled bikes now although my video doesn't look as smooth as some other ones, the ride was pretty good.

The bike itself was fun and feels really smooth over smaller bumps.  It also climbs really well and I find it rolls downhill faster than my former Ionic.  I figured a good 40 miles of riding on one would seal the deal on a 29r, and it has.  It has also sealed the deal on getting a 29r with full suspension.  Forget all the standing and getting kicked all over the bike when you hit rocks.  I'm going plush on the next ride.  I might even name it, "The Couch".  We will see when I actually get around to picking up a bike.

I flatted 3 tires in 60 miles of riding and that was the only drawback to the two rides I had with this bike that week.  One particularly nasty flat was a front tire blowout as I bombed down a hill and had to make a sharp left at the bottom.  The front tire just rolled under and sent me flying a la Superman.  Glad I didn't hurt too much at the time, but I am still sore two weeks after the fact from that crash where the bike flipped up behind me and hit me somehow.

The trails there were fun and had loads of switchbacks but lacked something.  They would be great to bring a beginning rider that wanted to spend a couple hours covering all the different loops.  There isn't anything that created white knuckle sensations aside from my own ineptitude at staying upright on a bike and inner-tube failures.  One thing I thought was interesting was how the lower into the gullies you rode, the vegetation would change to a lush green, and up on the ridges the trees still look bare and wintry.  

Anyway.  That's a lot of outdoor gear and trail review for one post.  I will sign off with a short video of the trip.  

Or directly to the YouTube HD 1080p version: Here

The Bike Project - Monster truck wheels

I ride and race bikes as a hobby, and if you hadn't figured that out, you probably don't know me, haven't been around me as I babble incessantly on about them, and probably haven't read much of this blog.  The blog isn't entirely about bikes, but somehow my hobby has found a way to take up 2/3rds of the posts I have written.  When I come to think of it, I guess I'll take this moment to apologize to my friends that sit listening to my inane stories, and I must say that, at least most of the time, it looks like you are half way interested in whatever cycling related nonsense I am spouting.  If you are, good, I feel better subjecting you to my one sided discussions of bicycle related stuff.  If you aren't, you should seriously take up acting as a career.  You are good...Keanu Reeves ain't got nuthin' on you talent wise...  In fact...I'm pretty sure you are like way better 'cause Keanu couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag and yet he makes A-list money for his movies, and I am somehow compelled to watch them all...Whoah ...

Some fine examples of Keanu's acting.

And here...




Ok, I really didn't mean to get off on how much I love to watch Keanu Reeves movies and still bash on his questionable acting.  I really wanted to talk about bikes! 

Yeah. I know...now you're just dying with excitement...

I, for whatever reason find myself in need of a new bike, and yes, I use the word "need" quite liberally here.  Like I need a new bike like I need to breathe or I need food or something of that ilk.  Ok Ok it's, semantics people!  I WANT a new bike...Happy now?!?  sigh...

Let the butchery of the English language continue.

I decided to try out some huge wheeled mountain bikes before I actually purchased something and burned through the family's savings as a result.  See, how thoughtful of me considering that the family might actually need a place to live and food to eat vs me needing a bike.

Ok, I'm running off topic again.  The point of this was the size of the wheels on this particular bike were going to be significantly larger than my current mountain bike.  This would allow me to take my mediocre downhill and technical abilities to another level without actually getting better.  Big wheels don't get stuck in ruts, roots, and rocks as easily as smaller ones.  Note the fine example of alliteration in that last sentence.  Plus big wheels on bicycles are just like totally waaay cool.  You know...like me...sometimes.

I picked up a demo bike from Cahaba Cycles that would be a good test for 29r wheels.  It's a Niner S.I.R 9.  Now you might think that the cycling industry would have some heavy technical jargon that the S.I.R. stands for, so I asked one of the staff there.  "Steel Is Real" was the answer.  High intelligence and engineering jargon coming from the bike manufacturing industry? -- nope.

I took the bike out for a long 35 mile ride around Oak Mountain, and it felt completely different.  This thing would monster truck over obstacles and rocks that rattled my teeth loose on my current mountain bike.  It was a much smoother ride as well, and that simply came from the size difference of the wheels.

The one big drawback I noted was going uphill.  My current bike definitely climbed better due to the smaller wheels.  There is a trade-off in everything it seems.  The big wheels weigh more and have more mass so making them spin takes much more effort to get going or, in this case, keep going up a hill.  Still it was worth it for the enjoyment of the ride, and fortunately, as I was struggling up steep pitches of fire trail, I could look down at the top tube and read the handy little reminder that Niner Bikes gave me.

 

Thanks guys.  I nearly forgot. 

 

I would have had video of the new ridge line trail to post with this high end cycling analysis, but the GoPro rattled loose and it rendered a beautiful bluebird day filled with scenes of the bike bounding over dirt and rocks completely unwatchable.  Looks like you guys, my loyal readers, dodged a bullet on that one.  Count yourselves as lucky.

 

I'm off to demo a full suspension 29r this weekend which would allow for the rear wheel to absorb some of the shocks as well as the front.  That should be a fun ride, and maybe I'll get the video this time.

 

Have a great weekend everyone.