Ski Whitefish Video!

Finally, Timewaster Studios has come through with another amazingly-awesomely-mega-super-fantastic video.  ah...yes, I'm somewhat biased about Timewaster Studio projects being awesome and all. 

I was only slightly bummed that I was sitting on the couch with a shattered leg and unable to actually get footage of the guys myself.  (Not that I would have been any better at praying to get a good shot as I hurtled down the slopes than the rest of the crew...but it would have been more fun for me.)  Yeah, I'm selfish I guess.

Never fear though my loyal readers and fans of Timewaster Studio projects!  I had my friends go out and ski with cameras strapped to them in my stead, and they filmed everything they could until the cold zapped the batteries.

Admittedly, it took me a while to give a rip about editing the video what with the accident and all, but there was some great stuff on there when I got around to editing!  Several hours worth of stuff actually.  As is the norm for most of my vacations, we had the GoPro's running constantly and the footage adds up.

Well, it's spring now so I'm positive it's the ideal time to get a bunch of hits on a winter ski trip video!

Enough with the rambling intro to this video.  I'm sure the gang has been looking forward to it, or they have all forgotten about it due to the length of time that has lapsed.  I just hope they didn't fall asleep reading the opening remarks here.

There...I'm done yammering...for now...

Enjoy everyone, and thanks to my good friends for the support!

The Leaves

Every fall the trees around my house conspire to hide my lawn from me and to create a whole bunch of work.  The question is how do I make this entertaining?  Because it's not...  No matter what your Dad told you about raking being good for you.

One thing about our years in Florida is that I never had to rake anything.  The odd palm frond would fall, but that's about it.  A single 10lb frond is much easier to manage when compared to an endless supply of biomass falling from the old oaks around our house.

Well, in an attempt to entertain myself, goof off with the kids, AND rake this year, I decided to make a video.  We discovered the joys of back-yard bobsledding with a kids scooter toy a while back, and coupling that with a leaf pile seemed like a fine idea.

As a side note, me falling down in the leaves is not graceful, but hardly something that I wouldn't post.  In slow-motion no less.  Because, that's what this blog is about; entertaining my friends and family.  Of course, the reality is that my audience is probably getting smaller after my inconsistent posting and silly videos.

Space Camp

Bryce finally got his birthday present, and he has been really patient in waiting for it.  It was a trip to space camp in Huntsville, Alabama.  The testing grounds and construction site for the Saturn V rocket that took us to the moon.  The U.S. Space and Rocket Center has one of the Saturn V’s upright and on display out front and the scale is really astonishing.  However did we get something so large, wildly explosive and complex to work at all?  It’s beyond me and my feeble mathematical skills to comprehend what it took to design and get the vehicle off the ground.  

Like they say…  “Hey, it’s not like its Rocket Science.  Oh wait…yes it is.”

Bryce had an absolute ball at the center.  We were housed in bunk rooms that were designed so that they would fit into the Shuttle cargo bay to further give the sense of how small the spaces are that are required for space travel.  

Each one of the tubes in the background had an entire floor of rooms in it.  

We are so spoiled here on Earth with our expansive land and easy access to anything and everything.  All space crews exist in are little tubes (even on the relatively massive ISS) and the overlap of items required to stay alive makes the entire layout look like something out of an episode of hoarders.  Laptops, wires, clothes, food, several people, life support, and science equipment are everywhere.  Actually it kind of looks like my office a bit. Hmmm…time to clean up perhaps.

There were several simulators that the astronauts used to learn how to move and operate various pieces of machinery in space, and we got to play on them.  You can see them in action...poorly on my part...at the end of this post.

1/6^th chair:  Since the human body only weighs 1/6^th it’s Earthly weight on the moon, somebody had to practice how to move around, and this is what they used.  Even so, if you are used to a 170lb body here, it’s a bit awkward when you find yourself only weighing in at 28lbs.  Every push with a foot launches you 4 feet in the air and spinning.  

A highlight for me was that we got a chance to speak with Robert “Hoot” Gibson who may have the most impressive resume I have ever seen.  

Aeronautical Engineer from Cal Poly, First in his class at the Naval Academy, Top Gun graduate, 14,000 hours of flight time in literally hundreds of different aircraft, 300+ carrier landings, years as a Navy Test pilot, and a 5 time shuttle astronaut.  He was the pilot that docked with the Russian Mir and shook hands in the historic photograph with the Russian Astronaut through the airlock…  Sheesh…

Perhaps this handshake will be equally impressive in years to come...

Mr. Gibson spoke with the group for an hour and answered every question the kids could come up with.  It’s really wonderful to see brilliant people come and speak with kids and motivate them to work hard and study hard to achieve success.  The message was vastly better than ESPN’s version of success, and for most of us, more probable.  

Space Camp was loaded with smart people.  I felt a touch out of my league, but Bryce and I fit in well personality wise.  It’s a place that reveres and promotes unabashed geekdom.  It was unusual.  For instance, when kids were asked "What are you going to be?" they wouldn't just say a race car driver.  They rattled off careers like a Cardio Vascular Surgeon.  (and can pronounce it correctly) You may think that Ocho Cinco, or Dirk Nowitsky are cool, but they can’t do orbital mechanics…

Bryce couldn't wait to fly the MMU (Manned Maneuvering Unit) simulator.  Which, by the way, is a nifty little hovercraft contraption that floats across the concrete floor.  It was designed to teach shuttle astronauts how to fly the un-tethered propelled backpack.  (Untethered = Scary at 17,500 mph with no air and that whole fiery death thing)

Oh, you've seen this picture before?  

Guess who took the shot?  

Yep, Capt. Robert Gibson on the STS-41...

In a shuttle Science Mission Specialist simulation.  Bryce was the specialist...I was merely simulating special...

Bryce and I got to go through a few different space shuttle launch, mission and landing simulations, which were remarkably real.  Covering ground control, checking pressures in tanks and O2 supplies, while paying attention to about 20 different indicators, switches and mission clocks was actually somewhat difficult.  I can only imagine when one is dealing with actual launch and landing type conditions.  My hat is off to the men and women that run the programs at NASA.

Our days at Space Camp were filled with activities.  The day started at 6:30am with someone calling wake up from the door and we would work/play until 9:30 at night.  It was very much the way the actual astronauts live with specific timetables, but the benefit of having late nights at the Camp was we had the run of the place for an hour or so, and this included the massive Saturn V building.  

The museum had a full Saturn V rocket split into it's stages horizontally across several football fields of space.  At the end of this monstrous room, was the payload.  The Apollo capsule.  The photograph above is the Apollo 16 capsule that was used a few months before I was born.  April 1972.  We pulled this amazing technological feat off multiple times (including our greatest failure) with a mere 166KB of computing power.  Yep.  Your phone sneezes out more than that when it re-boots...

As to the space program now that the Shuttle program is discontinued, we don’t have a goal anymore.  Or more precisely, we don’t have an achievable goal.  We as a species have reached the end of what we can do practically.  We have learned so much and now are realizing that with our abilities to travel, we may have reached the achievable limits of humankind.  

Going to Mars is an achievable goal, but with the 5 years away from the earth to make the flight there and back plus the time in orbit and on the surface, I have a feeling that this would be a one way mission.  If we got the astronauts back, they would not live long due to radiation exposure in space, muscular atrophy, and bone decalcification in microgravity, never mind the mental impacts of being confined in a small tube for several years.  Anything further out from where we are, when it comes to manned spaceflight, is impossible.  And I mean impossible.  

Even if we find the elusive engine that will propel us 90-95% of light speed we are talking at least hundreds of years of mere travel time in an environment in which it is impossible for us to survive.  A one way trip in other words.  We as a world do not have the money or desire, or need to do something like that.  I say need loosely there.  Of course we have a need to try because, by definition of what we know, our time on this planet is limited.  We have a need to survive, but the attempt will most likely fail due to our frail bodies and our unfortunate lack of understanding.  There is an idea that it may save the species at some point, but we would need many generations of people during the transportation segment of getting to a new world and then the difficulties of setting up a base there would merely extend the human race a short time rather than save it.  


That fate coming true or not is up to the smarter kids of future generations that will follow well behind our short years on this planet.  The most amazing and comforting thing to me is that, above and beyond all that we have achieved thus far, it has been proven over and over again, that with determination and need, we humans have made some formerly impossible things...possible.

Enjoy the video.  Bryce's head is going to spin when he sees it... "Where are the light sabers!" he will say...  Heh Heh...

Inland Surfing

A short post and a video.

I have seen this trend around the lake in the past couple of years.  Especially with the change in how every 15 year old kid on the lake seems to have an 80k wake board specific boat these days.  These heavy boats cast off fantastic wakes.

Eventually someone came up with the idea to overload the boat with water, create the biggest wake possible and then surf it. There seems to always be some really large ski boat toiling along at an incredibly slow speed with a skier mere feet from the back ski platform.

NOTE: Do not do this behind anything other than an inboard boat!  The pictures of hands and feet mangled by surfing behind an I\O (Inboard Outboard) are out there and horrible.  Just google it if you need proof.  If you see someone surfing behind an I/O boat, tell them to stop and let them ride your boat. Inboard boats have the propeller up under the hull and behind feet of wood and fiberglass where you can't hit it if you fall off.

 Rick and I have pitched in on new toys to keep the Master Craft interesting to the old and young in the past.  A couple years ago, we split possibly the most successful toy so far, the barefoot boom.  This year we picked up on inland surfing, and I see why it's growing in popularity.

After some "engineering" to get 500 lbs of water in a water bed mattress in the ski well, and then a few plastic storage bins of at least 300lbs more on the sides, we loaded up the people.  Kids, adults, kids acting adult, adults acting like kids, heck anyone we could find.  The more weight and the more people to view the spectacle the better right?

Of course the fine ladies we had volunteer to go along actually detracted from the weight with their ethereal daintiness, but we couldn't say, "Nope, we need all the weight we can, you can't come because you make the boat lighter!"  That would have been quite poor form on our part...  ahem...

In the end, with all the water loaded, the boat pilot had to sit up on his knees to see over the bow since we were plowing through so aft heavy, and to get the surfer to match the speed of the boat we ran at about 2,000 rpm.  The speedometer wouldn't even register it was so slow.

We struggled with learning the speeds and how to coast down the wave.  Well, at least I did, but we had a boat load of fun surfing in a lake all weekend long.

It's not my best video edit, but the subject is really fun and we had fun filming it.

Inland Surfing, enjoy.

Beware the Land Shark

Brenna was off watching some over hyped pop starlet in Atlanta last night and smartly stayed there overnight.  I, on the other hand, was here holding down the fort.  Which Brenna does a great job of handling every day, so her day/night out to catch a concert was well deserved.

We woke on Sunday morning.  Well, I woke on Sunday, with Aiden poking me in the nose saying, "I want to play with you...after you get me a waffle 'cause I can't reach them." I looked at the clock.

6:13 a.m.

Ugh...

The rest of the kids woke eventually.  By saying that, I mean that Bryce was up shortly after Aiden and Ansley dragged herself out of bed sometime around nine...uh...thirty.  Yep, she is a carbon copy of her Mom as a teen...already.

Once they were all up and semi-functional, I made Sunday morning pancakes, and began thinking, what in the heck am I going to do with these little people?  They were scarfing down the pancakes at an alarming pace, and I was quickly running out of time on my first plan for entertaining them.  Food.  I was going to be chased down with the same enthusiasm as they were eating breakfast, if I didn't come up with something fast.

I shouted over the breakfast time din. (Honestly, does anyone know how kids eat, shout, fight, hurt themselves while sitting in a simple chair, and breathe at the same time?  I don't know, but there must be some scientific study on it by now...I'll google it later.)

Anyhoo...I shouted, let's play a game outside before it gets hot.  Yes, I knew it was already too late for the hot part.  I swear I saw a bird on the bird feeder burst into flame a moment before, but I had to do something though.

What do you want to do?  Play knights, kings and pirates?  "Yeeufff!" they replied with mouths full of jelly covered pancakes, and then Aiden said, "and there should be a shark!"

Ok...why not!

They gathered up their shoes, put on swimsuits and got some ideas together on what to do.  Bryce said something about sliding away out of a castle on the zip line and crashing into a wall or something.  I figured, what better than to smash stuff while on a zip line.  Yes, I am a guy and assuredly my poor wife's 4th child.  The next 20 minutes were spent finding capes, swords and a shark costume...naturally.  We also spent a few minutes gathering up all the plastic blocks in the basement that we could load into the wagon in order to build a target...uh...castle.

When I saw how excited they were, I pulled out the GoPro.  Nothing that silly and playful should go undocumented.  Not with today's technology.  Right?

Well whether you agree or not that we should, as a society, spend lots of our time making dumb movies with GoPro cameras, we did it anyway.  And we had a blast!

Enjoy and happy Sunday!

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.

Barber Track Day 2011

I had a group of friends come up to visit Alabama for a weekend of motorcycle riding a few weeks ago.  I'm not sure how the "a few weeks ago" part happened, but time is flying by it seems.  I can't hope to write an account of all the fun we had that weekend, but I did want to write up something about my experience. 

The purpose of the visit (aside from hanging out and constantly needling each other) was to venture out to Barber Motorsports Park and watch the guys do a Track Day.  Rick has been pestering me for quite some time to come out and ride, and I have always said no due to quite a number of reasons, but I was more than happy to go and watch and try to video some of the spectacle.

The guys rolled up with an enormous Ford F-250,000,000 Diesel and an even more enormous trailer loaded with track bikes.  Shortly followed by a Mini Cooper...LOL.  What a combo of vehicles to have arrive late at night...

Saturday was to be spent at the track, and the day was beautiful.  I rode the VFR over to the track with cameras and all for the days festivities.  Little did I know that I was going to get an offer I couldn't refuse.  As the rest of the gang was going through tech (to make sure stuff like oil and parts weren't going to fall of their bikes at high speeds), I talked with one of the guys from NESBA.  The NESBA group was putting on the track day and there happened to be a free "intro" class where I would be able to follow a control rider ( in essence the track referees/coaches) around Barber's track.  I figured Brenna wouldn't totally kill me for doing that since it would be controlled and just a fun loop or two around the track.  I signed up and sprinted back up to the pits to tape up and get my bike to tech.  Steve helped me strip off the mirrors, zip tie the rear foot pegs and tape up the bike in record time.  Seriously, we did it so fast an F1 pit crew would be impressed.  I bummed a track suit and helmet just to get through the inspection process and got the bike cleared with only a couple of minutes to spare. 

Once I went to the morning rider meeting to discuss track rules, I found that my controlled lap would actually be 3 full track sessions of 20 minutes each.  I was going to get a half day of riding for free!  Now the nerves set in, and my fear of keeping the bike upright, and more importantly my body un-broken, in a situation where I had very little experience was in the forefront of my mind. 

When my group was announced over the P.A., I donned my borrowed track suit and helmet, fired up the bike, and rolled to meet up with the control rider in the pit lane.  He was really a good guy, and there were a few other novice riders that were going to be towed around behind him.  When it was finally our time to go, we eased on out onto the track...  I almost turned on the signal to merge.  I guess proper driving habits die hard.  We eased around a few turns at what felt like a snails pace and then the roar of engines behind could be heard.  The rest of the group had already caught us and we began to turn up the pace. 

The first session was a study in sensory overload.  There was just too much to pay attention to and too much going on, so it was nerve wracking to the point of almost not being fun.  It seemed like an endless parade of shifting weight, turning, wild accelerations, hard braking, and bikes flying all around.  (The sensation of overload reminded me of my first 10 second delay while learning to skydive all those years ago.)  

The second session was better, and by the third and final session, I let the control rider go.  Note that I said I let him go.  That is code for I'm slow, and with the VFR being the least powerful bike on the track, I couldn't keep up.  That sounds funny since my bike is hardly slow or lacking power by most standards.  It's just that all the true sport bikes like CBR's, Ducati's, Suzuki's, and whatever else that came roaring around were so strong that I couldn't even get close to their accelerations in the straights, so I got passed a lot.  I would catch up with people in the turns, but in the straights with my throttle pinned, they would just pull away with an unearthly whine punctuated by shifting gears.

One of the main rules for the novice division, was that we could absolutely not pass in the turns, only in the straights, which made for quite a few traffic jams in the turns as I caught up and then couldn't get by any one when the road straightened out again.  As wild and out of control as my discription seems, everyone was really quite safe in their passes, and the only issues I saw were people that missed a turn and ran off into the grass unharmed.  Out of all the groups out on the track over the weekend, I think the worst that happened was a few scratched up bikes and some bruises, which is a testament to how controlled the environment was considering the speeds some of these guys were able to run.

The third and last session was much more fun as I knew the course, understood what people were doing (i.e. passing me regularly) and knew what my VFR would do in turns a little better.  I had several laps where there wasn't much traffic.  I finally felt like I could get into a rhythm, accelerate out of turns, and confidently enter turns without feeling like I was going to get mowed down from behind by another rider.  I finally saw how the sport could be really fun.  I also put on the GoPro for the final laps, and I'm glad I did.  The first two sessions wouldn't have been fun to watch anyway, and I didn't want to think about anything other than the bike, the course, and traffic, so I didn't carry the camera on purpose.

I have to thank Rick, Steve, and Dave for heckling me and getting me to sign up for the experience, and most importantly, I need to thank Brenna for not killing me for doing it.  I do feel like I "got away with it" that day, so I'm sure I won't be back on the track, but I wouldn't trade the experience of the perfect day and the beautiful track for anything.

The final session edited for your viewing enjoyment. 

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

Reef Diving in Cozumel Mexico

To follow up with my last post, we had a second dive on the outing while we were in Cozumel.  It's the little island in the map below, and if you use the little plus sign on the embedded image, you can even zoom in to see a few cruise ships.  Kind of a cool technology...I wonder if the satellites know where I put the TV remote?


View Larger Map

For those of you that are non-divers, you will generally do a 2 tank dive during the course of an outing.  I'm sure that you can do more, and the guides we were using there stated that they usually did 4-5 dives in a day.

Part of the process is you will do the deeper dive first and then follow up with a more shallow dive after a period of rest on the surface.  I won't go into the details of why this is the sequence, but it has to do with the body absorbing Nitrogen gas in the blood at depth and expelling it through spending time on the surface.  If you get too much Nitrogen gas in your blood and surface, you can certainly hurt yourself since it will form air bubbles in your blood and joints called decompression sickness or "The Bends".  At best, this condition really hurts, and at worst, can kill you.  Hence the very conservative rest period and a shallow dive following a deep one. On a side note, my ever so perfect wife is sure that she can actually get the bends by getting up out of bed too early.  I don't think I have seen good scientific evidence of this being actually dangerous, but what do I know, though?

The video attached is the shallow dive of our two dives of the day.  The water was in the upper 70's and very clear, but after a bit of soaking in that temperature, it definitely produced some pretty good chatters.  It's absolutely worth it to see the marine life though.  On this trip, we encountered large coral heads, but not quite as massive as further down the wall in the earlier in the day.  If you missed the last post, it's here.

I should know what the reef name is, but due to some really strange and unusual factors...like me not paying attention, I can only recall something like.  "And for the second dive we will be diving on the mumble mumble blah blah mumble Reef.", and thusly, I have taken my amazing ability of creativity and  named it "The Reef Dive".  Yep.  REALLY descriptive there, but it has a good ring to it, so I think it will stick...

Seriously people, cut me some slack, and if you know what the reef name was through some random tidbit of knowledge, send me a note in the comments section and tell me.  Yeah, I know I'm typing to myself again, and since I'm probably the only person reading this blog, I will guess the odds of me sending myself the correct information in the comments section are slim to nil.  Whatever...


On with the video, and as always, have a wonderful and safe week.  Get outside and enjoy, you can find the TV remote later!



And, the HD version is linked here, but you will have to go to the YouTube site to see it.  Just click below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdlcpqfq70U&hd=1