The North Shore: Fromme

I got into Vancouver yesterday around 2 after writing all those blog updates.  I went to the Cove Bicycle Co shop on main street in North Vancouver to seek riding advice.  I also got to look at some Cove bikes, a North Shore classic.  They have an interesting lineup, including the STD, the hummer, the dirty sanchez...you get the picture.  I noticed their bikes seemed on the burly side.  A little sign of what was to come.

I'm really skipping over my riding at Galbraith, which was great, but the North Shore outshined Glabraith.  There were some nice gaps and drops at Galbraith, some very tight xc trails, and some good woodwork, but my hands weren't feeling great and I was riding a little sketch probably for that reason.  Don't get me wrong--it'd be a great local mountain but it was outshined.

An xc ladder at Galbraith:

Flowy:

Holy technical steeps and woodwork!  Yesterday may be my best ride ever!  It was hard to take pictures because the forest is dim, but I tried.  To ride Fromme you have to park on the street in the residential area below the hill.  As you enter the woods you see this sign:

You can't actually shuttle up Fromme, but you can shuttle a little ways up.  I rode up for a bit, then took a blue/black trail for a north shore warmup.  It was fun, with lots of ladders and some rooty, rocky, wet stuff.  Then I rode/pushed my Perp up to a triple black diamond, Air Time, just to look.  Air time was filled with rotting wooden kickers to relatively flat landings with 15-20 foot gaps.  There were some kickers to nowhere--the trail seemed beat and not cared for.  This is due (I hypothesize) to the fact that you have to hike Fromme, so many 'freeriders' have moved on to Seymour I think.

A kicker (oof on the landing):

A drop, about 15x15 feet, with a pretty skinny landing.  I'd ride it if there were other folks around:

from the ladder:

I also took a look at Espresso, a single black diamond:  Here's the entrance.

After checking out Air Time and Espresso I hiked to the top of Seventh Secret, a trail recommended by Cove.  As I was mentally preparing for my ride down, a group of three Vancouver riders lined up at the same trailhead.  One prepared with me, we talked, I asked if I could ride with them, and we were off.

Seventh Secret was a great advanced level warmup trail.  There were steep pitches (nothing I found scary), some moderately wide skinnies, and some fun drop options.  At the end there was a HUGE log ride option.  It looked like it cut out a lot of trail so I passed it.  We popped out on the road, and took Pipeline, a fun, faster, recently cared for, intermediate level trail.  After Pipeline we rode the hiking trail for a bit to a hidden trail near Ladies Only.  The drop in was sketch.  I was trying to follow the locals ahead of me, but I had to stop to look at a few sections before I rode them (after nearly going over the bars on one wicked steep roller to sharp left hand rock turn).  This trail was the technical crux of our ride.  After bombing through a gnarly section without stopping to pick a line, I stopped to take a picture.

First you ride this wooden turn:

Then you drop through this chute of roots:

GNAR!  A little fuzzy on the picture but at least you can get a sense of the terrain.  I haven't seen anything this steep since Plattekill in the Catskills.  Thank heavens I've ridden Plattekill, else I would have surely pood my pants and crashed.

The secret trail joined Ladies Only and we cruised out to the road on some techy steepness with skinnies.  I love techy steepness AND skinnies.  From there we hiked up for five/ten minutes, and took a new trail, Natural High, down to the neighborhood road.  Natural High was a nutty built trail with many optional skinny/roller/teeter totter lines.  There was one teeter-totter that went sideways.  You get on, get past the fulcrum, and it pivots right and down to drop you into a transition that's about 45 degrees off from where you were when you got on.  I tried to spot my landing as soon as I got on, and successfully rode the weird teeter.  Sweet!  I gotta build one.

I was very thankful that I have ridden trails this steep at Plattekill and skinnies at Shindagin.  Without that I would have been far less prepared.  As a trailbuilder these trails were inspiring, but I could also see how much work some sections must have taken.  The rock armoring is bomber and must be difficult especially with as little soil as there is.  Galbraith had great, plentiful dirt that made me jones for a mcleod.  

I got food at a grocery store and drove to Deep Cove where my new riding buddies recommended I park to sleep and have breakfast in the morning.  Good recommendation!  I was not harassed and my breakfast was great!  This is a picture I took this morning on my way to the breakfast place (where I am now).

I dunno what I'll do today.  Khaled (one of the guys I met) may be headed to Whistler on Wednesday, so I think I want to do Wed/Thurs for Whistler.  I will either take today off, do another North Shore ride, or go ride Squamish.  I think I'll go ride Squamish, but I'm worried if I plan to ride Squamish, then I'll do two days at Whistler, and I'll definitely want to do another day at the North Shore...too much riding....

NW trip!

I am in Canada now.  I rode Galbraith mountain near Bellingham, WA yesterday.  Today I ride Vancouver's North Shore.  Tomorrow I ride near Squamish, and then I ride Whistler and the nearby area on Wed/Thurs or Friday.  Then I head south back to Seattle to hang with Jeff, then I head south to Portland to hang with Brittany, then I ride the McKenzie river trail, Black Rock, and hit the Boise bike park on my way back to Driggs.

Gotta go ride!  I'll post up with pictures and such later.

metal!

I often surprise people by my fondness for heavy metal, Mastodon in particular.  This summer I didn't watch much tv, but when I did it was Adult Swim on cartoon network.  I've always liked cartoons.  One of my favorites was a show called Metalocalypse, which follows the life and times of a hugely popular, powerful, and wealthy band called Dethklok.  There are five band members in the show (only four in the real band I found out two nights ago).  They are goofy, childish characters that play violent music to adoring fans that are often left dead or maimed by the band's mishaps and performances.  My favorite part of the show was almost always the music.  Here's an example.

Cartoon Network told me that Dethklok and Mastodon were touring, but I had no internet and was slow to check tour dates.  I found out a few days ago that they were playing in Portland on the 2nd and Seattle on the 3rd.  I couldn't make the Portland show, but I could make the Seattle show.  Then I could also ride the NW which I have wanted to do for an honest 6 years.  The trip also gives me the chance to visit Jeff and Brittany in Seattle and Portland, respectively.  Lots of driving, a little more expense than I'd like, but an opportunity to do a lot of stuff I want to do.

After driving through Seattle traffic to Jeff's and taking the bus from there I made it with perfect timing.  The show opened with High on Fire (not so good) and Converge.  Converge may have been ok if the lead "singer" would quit yelling randomly over the band's otherwise good instrumentals.  Most metal I just don't understand...

I was stoked for Mastodon, but when they started, I didn't recognize the tunes.  I asked a fellow fan next to me, "Did they come out with a new album?"  He said, "yeah, Crack the Skye, where have you been?"  oops.  Thats what I get for living in Driggs and having no internet.

Their new stuff was ok, but lacked the energy of their classics.  I thought maybe it was just because I didn't know the music (which is very important), but the crowd just wasn't as excited as they should have been...was anyone moshing?  It seemed like Mastodon band members were taking voice lessons--moving away from the rough, gravely vocals of their past to some crazy new harmonizations.  That's cool and all, but they didn't really do a great job.  As one of my favorite bands I hope they figure out where they're headed.  They did play some classics, and the crowd responded appropriately.  The vocalist/bassist seemed pleased and a little relieved by the crowd's response.  My neck was sore from snowboarding, so I had to kind of take it easy, which sucked, but I managed to have fun regardless and got to the front-ish.  This did mean I had to charge through the moshing crowd and kind of hug the front line.  I only got knocked over once, and was immediately picked up.  The crowd was still kind of lame.  At the Atlanta show everyone was dancing and moshing and having fun.  Here it seemed that folks were more fearful and some people at the edge of the pit were throwing defensive punches.  I called one guy out on it after he got me near the kidney.  Running into people, pushing, and dancing is totally cool with me, but if you're standing on the edge of the mosh pit hitting people that are getting shoved into you then you're a tool.  If you don't like people running into you then move back.

Fearing I would surely worsen my sore neck if I were to continue my shenanigans for Dethklok, I took a seat.  Their performance, matched with video from the show and some original, was stellar.  Bummer about the sore neck.  I'll look for dethklok and mastodon's future tours.  

Day 1

The next time I would hike the 'ghee, I'd be carrying a snowboard.

On September 29th, Chris and I had a great ride out Teton Canyon to the boy scouts camp.  We were just dorking around, and it was a great ride on which to finish the riding season (in the valley at least).  On September 30th, it started to snow.  

This is the morning of October 1st.

Michael's house and backyard (the pump track is back there).

The valley, with the big holes in the distance.

I wondered how much it snowed at the 'ghee, but I had no snowboarding gear so i didn't care that much.  I was hanging out at the coffee shop doing stuff on the internet when I overheard someone say "20 inches" talking about Targhee.  I clarified that they meant that Targhee had 20 some inches of snow.  They did.  I texted friends to inform them.  

Then Chris called, said that he and Dino were headed up to go snowboarding and that he had extra gear for me.  SCORE!  I hauled over to Dino's place.

On the drive up the hill, we noticed increasing snow depth.

Oh SNAP!

We were prepared to dork around, but not to do legit hiking, lacking primarily in board carrying backpacks and water/beer.  We got three half-mountain runs.  The first was rough.  I was borrowing a 156, the shortest board I've ever ridden, and it was a powder day with no base.  I hit lots of rocks and fell over a lot.  The subsequent runs were much better.  We stayed on better pitches and I had the hang of the little board.  All in all, a fun day 1, but I'm not ready to stop riding my bike!

Chris and Dino

Dino (a wind and geothermal energy entrepreneur)

hiking

The next day:

Chris texted me today (October 5th) to let me know it was still snowing.  Indeed, snow is in the forecast for every day forecasted.  shit!

hiking the 'ghee

I didn't know how behind I was...

I still need to at least put up pictures from hiking Targhee for mountain biking, pictures for day 1 of ski season (hiking Targhee for snowboarding), talk about the metal concert, Seattle, and riding in Bellingham.

I hiked Targhee with a mountain bike on two occasions after the lifts closed.  The first was with Chris, and we wanted to ride the new sticks and stones which I had gone through after the last rain and tamped, smoothed, and perfected.  I knew it was going to be prime, and it was.  

Here's Chris hiking up the connector with the Tetons in the background.

This is Mary's Nipple to the left (also visible above), Mary's Saddle in the middle, and then Peaked mountain (pronounced Peak-Ed) on the right.  The mountain bike trails are in the basin between me and the base of Mary's or so.

Here I am coming down the rock turn about 1/3 down the new Sticks 'n Stones.

Here's Chris leaning into the biggest, baddest berm on the mountain (I'm proud of our work on this one):

Here's another view of the berm.  It ends in a lip that transfers you down the hill.  Much to my pleasure, it rides nice.  This was the first time I built a lip on the end of a berm, and I was worried it wasn't going to work out right, but I stuck with my gut instinct on the line and BAM!

It's amazing how much I learned about building trails from the practice I got this summer.  I see trails completely differently now.  I understand how the bike interacts with the trail much, much better, and I know what is needed to build sustainable trails.  I also know how important it is to do things like remove vegetation BEFORE you build a feature (something the crew was not good at and made more work for me).  In my spare time I think I'm going to sit down with a pencil and a piece of paper and try to come up with a more scientific approach to modeling mountain bike trails.  I think by treating the tread surface as a tube (inspired by mariocart for Wii) you can get a good idea of what sort of trail/berm lines will ride with flow.  There have to be a lot of variables, too: rider velocity, line selection, other trail features, and personal preference all play a big role in trail flow, but there has to be an underlying principle that makes a trail flow, where in this case we're talking Andy Williams style lines (lots of turns).  What I want to know is this:  can I mathematically back up what I believe makes the perfect entrance and exit (allowing the rider to carry speed) for an Andy Williams style bermed turn?

Uh...tangent.

Here's chris hitting another feature I'm proud of, but this is part of the reason my finger joints hurt.  It's a rock lip that steps up over a bunch of rock pavers.  You can go around to the left, ride straight over the lip, or hit the jump.  So far the gap is good.  It's totally case friendly as long as you don't plow your nose into it, and if you hit it just right the landing is mostly rock.  The gap is about 8 feet at the most.

Basically we ended trailbuilding on a high note for me at least--building a fun intermediate level feature filled trail.

OK moving on.  About a week later we hiked with just about the whole crew: Me, Chris, Zach, Taylor, Dippy, and Michael.  Fall colors!

Taking a break at the top of the trails with Mary's in the background.

Dippy coming into the berm:

Chris airing it out

I dunno why everything is underlined... It's bugging me, and I can't figure out how to turn it off.  You'd think I'd know this by now...

We had a great run, and it would be our last.

canyon adventures

The other night Zach expressed a desire to shoot his guns.  We weren't sure where to go, but decided to go into the canyon with some rice and shoot some dinner (Zach was to shoot the dinner).  Chris came over, and, despite a foot injury from bike jousting, decided to come along.  I brought the air rifle.

We parked at the end of teton canyon road, and the lot was crammed.  A bride walked by, and we asked where they intended to be wed.  As if they were afraid we might try to join them, the wedding goers replied "up the trail somewhere."

Chris, Zach, and Indica.  

We walked in a couple of miles, found a suitable marmot hunting ground (far enough away from the wedding) and a suitable campsite, and then saw something big moving on the far hillside.  It was brown, and appeared quite large.  We all believed it to be moving.  Chris declared, "Damn, that's a big bear."  I thought it looked like a moose.  Zach didn't have his glasses and couldn't really weigh in, but he strapped his .45 to his belt regardless.

Filled with excitement of the possibility of a good large animal sighting, we hugged the creek to move out of the wind path to the creature, then came up the hill to get a visual.  It was a rather large stump.

Disappointed, we went back to camp, set up, and went hunting.  Zach walked silently ahead of me as I jumped around on rocks.  I heard no marmots, but something was squeaking uphill--likely a ground squirrel.  We were not opposed to eating such small rodents (I need to build on my chipmunk story anyway).  Zach, hearing the squeaks, carefully unholstered his revolver and took aim at an opening in the rock pile.

He motioned to me that there was a critter, and stood silently for some time.  Eventually, something squeaked above him, and he relocated.  This time he was quick to the draw, and took one shot before collecting his prey--a squirrel.

Zach headed down to clean the squirrel in the creek, and Chris and I followed at our own pace.  We reached Zach to learn that the squirrel had weird white specks on his abdomen--a diseased squirrel would not make a healthy snack.  We buried the squirrel, and moved on to fishing.

I have always wondered if Teton Creek had fish this high up in the mountains.  Today we found out that it does!  Chris spotted fish, I saw them too, and Zach took aim.  He missed a couple of times, missed again with the .45, and Chris and I left to build a fire.  As we walked away we heard him unload three rounds into the creek.  Despite semi-automatic weaponry, Zach came back empty handed from fishing.

We had a nice fire, ate lots of rice, and crammed into a tent when it started to rain at 3 in the morning.  I was pleased that there were no rangers waiting for us at the trailhead.  I felt conspicuous with an air rifle strapped on my pack after a night of shooting handguns in a wilderness area.  I'll be sure to check the wilderness regulations before we go shooting in the canyon again...

downhill race!

Before I agreed to work trail crew this summer, I told Andy (my boss) that it would mean a lot to have the day off for the downhill race planned for the end of the season.  As it was, I had to work for Targhee's first ever downhill race, but it was pretty relaxed and Andy let me get my race runs in (thanks!).

The downhill course starts at the top of our advanced trail, Buffalo Drop, where the expert riders have the option of hitting the "big" drop on the mountain--a 6 to 15 foot drop depending on how you hit it.  The landing is great, and there's no gap to clear, so it's a pretty safe drop, I've been hitting it all year, even on the hard tail once.  Buffalo drop ends at a mid-mountain junction of all the trails.  It used to continue, but the lower section was and remains closed by the forest service due to nothing in particular except a power grabbing forest representative.  Technically it's a drainage, but there's no water (ever) and the trail surface is rock (most durable surface out there).  So at the juncture you hop on the lower section of Sticks 'n Stones, about half of which we built this season.  The lower section is very rocky, has some great off camber rocky sections, good slow technical spots, some fun gaps, and finishes with a fast jumpy section.  It's a great trail.  Then you have about a mile of fast drifty road to crank out before you hit the finish.

My hands have been hurting, and I tried to take it easy as best I could before the race.  They didn't feel great but were good enough to hold on.  I took a pre-race run for course inspection after practice was done, and i was riding well even with 30 pounds on my back.  

I intended to set a solid first run without crashing.  Ride the way I always do, pedal when I can and be smooth.  Buffalo drop was smooth.  I started losing my front tire coming into the drop (never come in so fast or had such a loose entrance), but managed to get the bike under me before I went off.  On Sticks I dropped my chain a couple of times, but recovered without losing more than a couple of pedal strokes.  Kept it together, pounded out the road as best I could, finished, and lay down.  On the loudspeaker Andy announced the fastest time so far-- 7:19.

My fastest time held up through all the first laps in my category.  Ed posted a faster time in his category (older) and really good bicycle designer Lance Canfield posted a 7:10 in his category which would remain as the fastest time of the day.  My second run was not so good.  I blew one corner and dropped a chain in a major way (I really need a chainguide to race...).  I posted a 7:25, and was edged to third by a 7:15 and a 7:10.  It's my best result ever, and I'm stoked just to have avoided crashing.  I'm historically quite bad at not crashing in dh races, but managed two crash free runs!  I got a summer season pass for my efforts.

epic xc ride

So a few weeks ago Michael from Peaked Sports (pronounced Peak-id) told me he was going for an epic xc ride from pole canyon to Mike Harris campground.  I said I was down, but I ended up missing their start from the Victor Velopark.  I decided to go do my own ride, starting at Mike Harris, meandering around, going over to and up Pole Canyon, and then back to Mike Harris via a trail on my map.  I wasn't planning more than three or four hours.  

Near the top of Pole Canyon I was coming around a corner after climbing for 45 minutes, saw a steep, rocky, loose ascent, and loudly exclaimed "aw, shit!"  To which Mike responded, "that's right you caught us!"  We finished up the climb and stopped at the top to get ready for the next leg.  Mike proposed we take this "other trail" on the map, one that he hasn't taken before.  He told us about the sheep herders out here in the Snake River range, and how he's run into them before and they are always happy to see people, because they herd their sheep into the middle of the range and don't see many folks...

So after a little more prep for the downhill we started on the "other" trail.  It was rough, but fun, and we descended for a half an hour or so.  Other trails split off, we passed horse and stock camps that were empty, and the trail began to degrade.  We hiked more, and soon enough our only trail indicators were an intermittent singletrack and yellow forest service signs that said "Stock driveway boundary" on either side of us.  We were on the sheep herder trails.  

We kept following the stock driveway, going in kind of the right direction we thought.  Mike admitted he wasn't really sure where we were...but we decided to get to a high spot, look at the map, and figure things out.  

The Snake River range, is composed primarily of stacked, well forested steep peaks with small open canyons.  Here's a picture from a different part of the range (this looks like the beginning of the ride but with no snow and taller grasses).  the picture is a lot more open than where we were when we got lost.  

So we got to our high spot around 4, and it is dark at 9.  No one has camping gear, lights, or a compass.  The sun isn't quite in a spot where we can use it for navigation.  Mike thinks we are here, pointing to the map, and that we need to go this way.  I take a look at the map, trying to fit the landscape to some contours, but it's a pretty rough map.  I do my best, and come up with the same conclusion as Mike.  We continue on.  

We reach the top of one of the ridgelines, and see nothing but more stacked ridgelines.  I think I see the Gros Ventre range in the distance, but Mike says that's unlikely.  No road, no trails, no water.  Mark is starting to get nervous, but Mike remains confident and that's enough for me to be pretty calm about the whole thing.  It's probably 5:30.  

We get to the next ridgeline following the intermittent trail of the stock driveway.  When there is trail we feel ok, when there isn't Mark gets real nervous.  By 6 Mark is convinced we need to turn around (we're 5 or 6 miles into the range following intermittent trail at this point, have no lights, no gear, so if we turn around we'll end up crazy lost deep in the Snake River range).  He proposes we stop here and get ready to spend the night.  uh...no thanks, Mike and I agree.  It gets cold at night, and if we have to we could camp, but with three more hours of daylight I sure wasn't about to stop and get ready to cuddle up around a fire with two other dudes.  Mark's parents are in town (he may be 30), and he calls them, tells them not to call Search and Rescue YET but we're lost and we'll probably spend the night.  Mike scoffs.

So Mark is losing his cool, Mike says we go that way, and I say OK.  We get the next ridgeline.  From here I see mountains that look a whole lot like the Gros Ventre range which surrounds Jackson.  We see a town (must be Wilson at the base of the pass on the Jackson side), and a big U shaped valley that looks like it drains down to Mosquito creek.  For sure we have gone way too far East.  From here we know where we need to go.  We turn a little more North, and continue.  By 7:30 we hit a trail, we pass a sign for the Mike Harris trail (we are in the clear).  We book it West along the ridge trail that parallels the pass road from trail creek to mike harris ( a ride I've done before).  We make it to Mike Harris by 8:30, down in very dim light by 9.

What an adventure!  Next time I'll have a compass, more water, more food, and an emergency blanket.  

and now I'm riding my bike to Victor to hand out some resumes and get myself a job.  My buddy from school, Colin, visited this weekend from Salt Lake.  He had two good days of riding at Targhee despite some mechanical issues, and we got to ride the pass yesterday.  I had some folks over on Saturday night (landlord was out of town, but I think I should have folks over more often anyway).  I cooked hamburgers on my camping grill, everyone had a good time.  

im alive

Wow it's been nearly a month? I'm a flake.

I'm alive, although I almost spent an unplanned night in the woods yesterday. fun! no time now...

aint over till its over

I'll keep updating irregularly.  Inga had this to say about not blogging:

Please don't stop writing blog entries.  How am I going to know where the

hell you are and if you broke both of your legs in a biking accident?

Fair enough.

Rebecca is in town as I write.  We're at the coffee shop because she has some work to do, and then it's off to the pass to ride Black Canyon.  We've had one good ride, one bad ride, and one good hike.  The bad ride was an epic hike-a-bike followed by a mediocre descent where we got caught in a thunderstorm only to climb back up some more and descend a ridiculously muddy double track to the truck.  Poor planning on my part.  It was a ride I've wanted to do but I think I should have saved it for another time.  I thought my crew-mate, Dave, recommended it, but it turns out he was talking about something else...

We hiked yesterday up to the top of Table Mountain.  It was about a 9 mile hike with 4100 feet of elevation gain and a gorgeous view of the tetons from the top.  Total time was about 8 hours I think.  Rebecca has some pictures, I'll steal some and post them.  We saw a total of three moose, lots of marmots, and a snake.  No bears. :(

Weather is good, more rain than we've had for a little while which is great.  Dryness is bad for trails and trail building.

is this the end?

living without internet may be the end of the blog.  it's hard to say.  Perhaps I'll take initiative, write blog entries offline and upload them later.  however, after 10 hours of trailwork I dont have much initiative, and on my days off I usually just want to go fishing and biking.

Rebecca is coming soon.  I'm excited to see her and I think I can shift my work schedule so I don't miss too many days.  I can't exactly afford to miss out on 10 or 20 hours of work for a week, so it's important that I can shift my schedule.  I have been thinking about where we will ride...hopefully the weather cooperates and we can play outside, but I think we'll manage regardless.  

I'm trying to use my oven more.  I had a fantastic meal last night after playing frisbee golf until late.  I covered a thawed frozen salmon filet with lime juice, lemon juice, onions, a chopped tomato, some generic poultry/fish seasoning, and tossed it in the oven.  Then I started a rice side dish (like backpacker food), jumped in the shower, then (after the shower) sauteed mushrooms, garlic, and onions to top it all off.  Everything finished at about the same time, it didnt take long to prepare, and it was delicious.  I finished it off with a bowl of cereal with a nectarine.  Tonight I'm cooking some chicken drumsticks, but probably not in the oven because I did that two nights ago.

Tonight is the Tetonia Rodeo, which I'd like to go to but I have to eat and I stayed up late last night talking with my neighbor Hailey and a visiting friend of hers.  I'd like to have some energy after work tomorrow for whatever comes my way.  I think I have plans for frisbee golf and then I've heard some rumors of cheap food somewhere and fireworks.  I get to work a cross country bike race tomorrow.  It will be interesting to be on the other side of the event...

Hunger wins, later!

fishing and sunshine

Work this week was pretty good.  We got to work on some more trails, and started building the skills park on Saturday.  We have shifted to a Wed-Sat schedule, and working on Saturday feels weird, but having Monday and Tuesday off means that the trails and the rivers are much more empty!

The skills park is going to be super fun and flowy.  It won't be dangerous, but I think we'll be able to incorporate some great challenge with low, skinny skinnies and fun long log ride/skinny/ladder/rock combos.  I took some pictures of the big entrance boardwalk we started on Saturday, but I forgot to bring my camera to the coffee shop.

I dig not having internet.  It's been such a big part of my life for the past five years, and it's nice to be disconnected.  If only I didn't have a TV...  Fortunately I'm too busy to watch it much, and I despise television for how easy it is to burn time.

I had to send a fork back to the manufacturer for some service, so I only have my rigid and my road bike that are rideable right now.  I may try to ride my big bike on the pass today, but I'm missing a front derailleur so if my chain falls off I have to stop to put it back on...which may be too much of a hassle to make riding it any fun, but I miss riding the pass.  

Soon my parts will come in, and I'll try to sell my perp so I can tear apart my Bitch to build up a full suspension: the Transition Bottlerocket.  This will be a fun, low, jumpy bike with six inches of travel in the back.  BUT I gotta sell my perp first...which may be hard in these times.

The weather has turned!  It's supposed to be warm and sunny ALL WEEK!!  CRAP!  We may be able to ride DH trails at the 'ghee next weekend!!  SWEEET!  free riding!

On Saturday we got stormed off the mountain with very close lightning and hail.  Nellie (my (family) little dog) and I share a healthy respect for thunderstorms.  The difference being that she shows it by hiding under the couch when it rains, while I simply get anxious and try not to get caught in an exposed place or anywhere outside when there's frequent close cloud to ground lightning.  I don't understand people who are willing to be exposed in thunderstorms.  It's reckless and unnecessary.

Pete and I went fishing yesterday.  We drove 50 miles to Warm River, up near Ashton, ID.  It was great.  I pulled a bunch of nice browns on a massive stonefly nymph thanks to advice from a local fly shop.  The nice ones (16") were hiding under undercut banks.  Around 6 pm a Caddis hatch started, and fish started to rise, but I kept fishing my nymph.  Soon after, a storm rolled in and we left.  I was wet wading and surprised I didn't get unbearably cold.  Pete is new to fly fishing, and has a lot to learn.  The first is to practice casting on a grassy yard, then learning about bugs and trout water will help a lot.  I'll loan him my Fly Fishing for Dummies which is a good, simple resource.

Oh and my mom was nice enough to overnight my fiddle to me!  Thanks again!!!  It sounds great with new strings, and is so much nicer to play than the electric.

It's so nice outside I don't know what to do with myself...not sit in here anymore thats for sure!

catching up....

Here are some pictures from my drive through Colorado.  

The bear:

This is the view from the entrance to Teton Canyon, the place where I camped for a couple of weeks:

Work is going well.  About half the mountain has melted so we have been able to do some trailwork--mostly rebuilding berms, buffing trail, etc.  The black (difficult) trail should melt out fairly soon and I'm pretty excited to see what that's like.  I hear good things from the local riders I've met.

In addition to trailwork at the 'ghee, I've been getting involved with the trailwork up on Teton Pass.  Surely I've mentioned it...this is where folks are building legal trails with big jumps and such.  A few days ago I got Harlan's number, who I found out later is basically "the man" when it comes to trailbuilding.  He, I think, got the ball rolling on the stuff out on the pass.  

So yesterday I joined Harlan and some other folks to continue working on a big jump line off of the Parallel trail.  We worked on cutting the lip for a step up after a 35 foot gap/step up jump.  Some folks hit it, and it looked great.  

From the lip:

Airborne:

I've had a bunch of days off as we switch from Mon-Thurs schedule to Wed-Sat.  I thought maybe I'd skip out of town (constantly raining) for Moab, but decided that I ought to save the money.  I got a bunch of riding in on Friday and Saturday, got caught in hail and lightning on Sunday, did trailwork yesterday, played a bunch of fiddle, and today I'm using the internet!

I am now living in employee housing.  I pay $175 a month and get a brand new fully furnished really nice apartment to myself.  I dig it.  I bought a slow cooker at the thrift store for 4 bucks, which I am enjoying immensely.

There's a fiddle contest on July 5th.  I think I'll enter if I can get off from work.  I've been practicing for it, cranking my way through a book of Cajun tunes, and working through all the old classics.  I look forward to playing my acoustic!

I'll try to stay better updated...it's tough to catch up on a weeks worth...

vandalism?

Yesterday I parked on Kelly St, in front of my buddy's place in Jackson around 4.  I went for a road ride, 'cause the weather cleared up nicely.  I had a cool ride up this switchbacked road that went on for way longer than I thought.  I raced the rain to the top, bombed back down, and cleaned myself up.  Then, while packing up my truck, I noticed that one of my cap windows was shattered all over.  There was a small hole, and a tear in the upholstery of the cap on the inside.  Someone shot out my window!  

I'm annoyed at the expense and primarily the trouble that it will cause me to get it fixed, but I'm a little miffed at who would run around taking pleasure in causing other people hassle and expense.  Weird.  I'm not totally surprised...it's an expensive truck, and has Georgia plates...but I did think Jackson was a pretty safe place.  The neighbor said that it's not the first car on that street to have a window shot out.  So now I get to ride around with cardboard over it.  sweet.  Fortunately it was during the daytime and I wasn't sleeping in it!

Today we got to work on trails!  We started at the bottom of the beginner dh trail, called Sidewinder.  It needed some drainage work, some snow shoveling, lots of general raking and smoothing, and I did a little "extra" work--made a rock roller feature, and built a little tiny high speed hip jump (shhhh).  I was stoked to work on trails, but nasty weather (hail/snow) rolled in after lunch and we called it a day at 1.  I suggested we wait it out, but folks were eager to bail, I guess.  I'm eager to get these trails in good shape so we can build some more.  I hope the rest of the crew catches my excitement...they didn't seem too excited about working on trails, but I know what I'm doing.  I tried to teach/show folks proper ways to make trails, how to use the dirt, etc.  I think Mike thought I was being an ass, which I tried really hard not to.  We need to talk over trail construction BEFORE we go out into the field, else I'll just teach by correcting mistakes, which of course makes me feel like an ass.

Fellow crewman Dave has an extra room in his house, rented by his fellow housemate Dave.  If I were to take it, three Daves could live under one roof.  The room was tiny and didn't have a bed, but other than that it was ok.  The garage was spacious and had a bike stand, a tool that holds the bike so you can work on it.  The house is also next door to a city park, where, rumor has it, a pump track and dirt jump park will soon be built.  That's the kind of backyard I want.  If the landlord goes down on rent (from $400) I may consider it.  Aside from that there's a place in Drictor (the space between Driggs and Victor) that is cheap (300) and the housemates want a musician.

Off to the grocery store (exciting!).  Fellow crewman Pete just walked by the coffee shop, and I think I'll join him, Sarah, and Jackie to watch a hockey game.  I'll probably use their kitchen too...

past week

Work was good.  We got around to felling and cutting trees for our skills area on Thursday, and even started clearing the area in preparation for trail building.  This got me excited to build some trails, which I think we'll start tomorrow.

The weather has been rough, especially for camping.  It rains every day, and the last three days or so have been much wetter.  It's sleeting now. 

After work I went to an open mic at the Knotty Pine in Victor with a crew member, Pete, his girlfriend Sarah, and her friend and co-worker Jackie.  Sarah and Jackie work the front desk at Targhee.  I played some tunes, and then joined a drummer and a dude rapping.  I like being the only instrument that plays notes...it lets me choose my key freely.  The dudes were stoked and made me commit to coming back next Thursday.

On Friday, I ordered $300 worth of bike parts at cost.  This will get my dh bike running with a chainguide and some grips, a more appropriate cockpit on my Bitch with wide oversized bars and a shorter stem, a new brake caliper, new grips for my Fango, clipless platform pedals for either my Perp (dh bike) or my Bitch.  Aside from my recent fork purchase, I haven't bought new bike parts for a while, relying instead on used/free/broken parts from friends.  

After ordering, I took my bikes out of storage at Habitat and drove across Teton Valley to the Big Holes.  I rode for about an hour and a half on my Fango before weather (and unfamiliarity with the area) encouraged me to get back to the truck.  I drove up to Targhee in a downpour, cleaned, lubed, and stashed two bikes at Targhee, and then headed over the pass to Jackson, intent on doing some trailwork Saturday morning.  

Doug and John, and their housemates, were happy to let me share their living space (thanks!).  I went to a movie with John and some dudes, and helped pick up some folks afterwards that had racked up a $1000 bar tab.  It was some girl's 21st birthday...but $1000?  gosh...  I hung out with folks for a while, but felt totally out of place.  This weekend I confirmed how I don't want to spend my nights off.  Hopefully I can find someone to do some backpacking with, as unfortunately John and my days off don't line up at all.  

I didn't wake up for the Cache Creek trailwork, and the weather was dismal.  I visited John at work, planning on heading back over the pass, but found out later that there was a Teton Freedom Riders trailwork day up on the pass.  John offered his shower, so I went, which was a great decision.  I got there late, but Anne Marie was there taking down the tent, and gave me a ride up the pass to where folks were working.  I got to work on the biggest hip jump I've ever seen.  I'll probably hit it, but not until the landing is dialed and I get used to my big bike again.  We widened and smoothed the trail above the hip and improved a small gap into the hip section, filled in and lengthened a small double after the hip, reinforced the trail with rock, and much improved a large double with more dirt--bringing the landing higher and closer, and shaping the lip nicely.  

The Teton Freedom Riders are a very well established group of riders and builders.  All of their trails on the pass are legal and nothing is hidden from the forest service, which is remarkable.  Legal 40 foot gaps on forest service land?  I think that's unheard of.  They had a crew of maybe 10/15 folks, as well as lots of beer, a box of free burritos, and buckets of tram bar nuggets (think candy bar).  They had a raffle of swag from some of their sponsors, and had enough swag for every person to win something.  I won the grand prize--a helmet, but I just bought an identical helmet, so I traded for a shirt and a hat.  We worked until 6:30 or 7, and then I hiked the trail to check out all the features.  I know I can ride them all, but I have to look first to know what to expect.  It was very helpful.

I'm jonesing to ride, big time, but like I said, it's sleeting and raining and generally disgusting outside.  Snow is in the forecast for Driggs tonight.  Cutting trail may have to wait.  I got my fix, blisters, and soreness yesterday, so I may be okay with that.

Early last week, spurred by the lack of bike storage at the 'ghee, I started looking for a place to live.  I looked at a place later in the week, but declined (there is storage at the 'ghee).  As I was looking, I thought about falling asleep and waking up to the songbirds, the gentle gurgle of the creek, the incredible views of the tetons, and the conveniently short drive to work.  I'm going to keep camping at least for a bit.  I like living outside.  It makes going inside really special.  Besides, after a day of work, all I really want to do is eat a lot, read, play my fiddle, and go to sleep.  The difficulty lies in keeping my stuff clean and organized (very important), especially when it's raining all the time.

I got new batteries for my camera, so pictures will be coming.

teton pass, first day o work, camping

I had a great, although unexpected day of riding on Teton Pass the day before yesterday.  I went to Wilson, a small town at the base of the pass, looking for an arts show.  While I found no arts show, I did find a bunch of mountain bikers shuttling the pass.  The trails off the pass are well known for their quality, difficulty, and the fact that they are actually legal.

The Parallel trail was dry, as were the powerline (or Palmer) jumps.  Both were super fun, well built, and had stuff big enough that I passed it up on my hardtail.  I met some cool folks and did 3 laps.  Fun!

Today was my first day of work.  It was short due to rain, and the fact that the mountain is still covered in snow, but we went over chainsaw maintenance and operation, did paperwork, and talked about plans.  The crew seems like a good group of guys, and I like our boss, Andy.  

I dunno about the plan of camping for 6 months.  While I would really enjoy camping, I have a lot of stuff, and four bikes.  It would simplify things and I think facilitate my days off to have a place where I could keep my stuff.  I thought I might feel this way.  I'm looking for a room in Driggs, or at least close to Driggs.  We'll see what turns up.  Until then most of my bikes are stashed at a local shop.  I don't want to have to drive 40 minutes each way to work, and I don't want to pay 600 bucks for rent, so my options are limited.

back in Wyoming

Utah was awesome, as was the drive into Wyoming.

I first drove about an hour east to Fruita, fruitlessly, where I was too sore to ride.  I packed up and drove out of Fruita on Thursday.  The Colorado portion of the drive was gorgeous.  I got a nice up-close view of a brown bear, who posed nicely for a picture.  I'll put it up eventually, but I don't have my camera on me.  Then I went through Utah on 191, through a mining area which was pretty neat, and then into Wyoming.  

I'll try to describe some portion of the first 50 miles of 191 in Wyoming, because it was spectacular.  I was driving on what appeared to be relatively flat plain land, when an enormous canyon opened up to my left.  Soon, a similarly enormous canyon opened on my right.  The canyon walls, while not too steep, were probably about 2500 feet, and the canyons were maybe 40 miles across in the middle portion.  About 100 miles beyond the end of the canyons (to the North, my direction of travel) were snowy peaks.  As I drove, the canyons met, and the highway rode the rim between the two for a mile or so before dropping down into the flats below.  Eventually I would parallel the snowy peaks, but I forget which they were.  Oh yeah, the canyons were empty.  The town of Rock Springs lay on the plains after the canyon, and nothing much lay between the highway and the mountains to the east.  Wyoming is a crazy state.

So I remembered why it was that I was coming back to Wyoming.  I'm also lucky enough to be camping all summer in one of the most beautiful valleys I've ever seen.  It's called Teton Canyon.  Here are a couple of pictures I found on the internet.  

Yeah it's pretty awesome.  I'll be camping on campsites accessible by 4wd roads.  They're about a 10 minute drive from Targhee, which is about as close to the 'ghee as you can get...

Today I bought a map.  I'll probably try to get a hike in tomorrow.  I'd really like to do some backpacking but I'm a little hesitant to do it on my own, especially when I'm camping on my own and who can ensure my safe return?  

I'm a little worried about getting lonely camping by myself in the middle of nowhere.  We'll see how it goes.  Fortunately I'll be working long, long days that will probably leave me exhausted and Jackson is 45 minutes away should I need some sort of social life--plus there are things like open mics and good music on the Idaho side, too.  Realistically I'll probably be fine, although I do talk to myself constantly.  I think I always have, but I stopped for a while during school.  I actually find it extremely helpful to talk to myself.  I'm able to clarify and organize my thoughts, figure out how to tell stories effectively, and sometimes I say funny things that I try to remember.

Don't expect frequent blog updates.  I will probably not have wireless internet in Teton Canyon, but I will probably go somewhere with wireless internet about once a week or so.  I think I have phone service in the canyon, which is good.

Folks I met and Porcupine

I ran out of water at the Juniper site, which I used as an excuse to meet some folks.  A few sites over there was a group of young people...the exact age I'm not sure.  There were five people total, and they looked like high school age to out of college age, but I could be wrong.  The filled my growler jug for me, and we chatted for a bit around their fire.  They were all from the Fruita/Grand Junction area, camping out somewhere new for the extended holiday weekend.  We talked about riding, I told some stories from the past few days (I thought I told them okay, too, I was pleased), and they agreed that I should come to Fruita to ride.  I'm in Fruita now, but haven't been able to get in touch with Matt, who gave me his number.  I'm mad sore from the past few days, so maybe no riding is ok.

Yesterday I rode the famous Porcupine Rim route.  I've been waiting for the trails to dry before I fork over the 20 bucks for the shuttle ride.  They drive you up to the top, which yesterday was truly the highest drop off point, and you ride down.  This means 27 miles of 95% downhill.  It was great, and exhausting, and beat the crap out of me and my bike.  It's not a thing to do on a hardtail, but hey...

Hazard was as close as you can get here to high alpine singletrack.  It's been a little wet so Hazard was a little rutted and had a lot of brake bumps.  I thought it was ok, but not as good as many had told me.  There were some sketchy rock gap jumps that I avoided...maybe on a big bike.

Then the trail opened up into fast fast doubletrack.  Flowy and fun, much better on my bike and body.  Then, for the next 20 miles, I rode primarily rocky, technical downhill trail.  I walked maybe three sections, dabbed only a couple of times.  The best section was the last--a singletrack bicycle section with great flow and technical difficulty.  The middle portion of the ride had some great exposed sections with awesome views.  All in all, a great ride, but I am really sore now.

The very top, near La Plata mountains:

Views from the  middle section:

Ha I impressed some folks by riding some super techy rock lines that they called unrideable (and I'm on a hardtail, which is considered quite a feat out here, especially on porcupine).  I dabbed, though.  (dabbing is when you put a foot down to prevent a fall).

So I cleaned up from the ride, ate at the brewery, packed up my bikes, and headed for Fruita.  I parked at a scenic trailhead, read some Dune, and went to sleep at like 9:30.  I awoke at 7, found a little coffee place, and that's where I am now.  I'll go talk to the folks at the bike shop next door, but I think I may just jet for Wyoming, crash at a friend's place in Jackson tonight, and find a good campsite tomorrow/get in touch with my boss, Andy.  I wish I had more time in the desert.  It was an incredible, incredible place with amazing scenery, great terrain, and more riding than you can shake a spoke at.  I would really like to do some backpacking in the desert, find some places off the beaten path.  Fortunately the Juniper site was pretty far out there.  I like the desert around here, it's awesome.

Moab 5/26

I’m writing from the last campsite on Sandy Flats Road, the Juniper site—recommended by the ranger as the best campsite, primarily because it’s 7 miles down the road and not as many people use it.

I camped last night on the first campsite on Sandy Flats, right by the Slickrock trail.  It was nice—lots of cool rock stuff to play on.  After the rain quit (it rained super hard), and as the sun set there were some folks 4 wheelin’ near the campsite.  I envied their ability to climb with ease to high points, but realized that I, too, could climb the rocks with relative ease.  I grabbed the camera and ran into the desert. [uh, it's not letting me copy these pictures, sorry]

I stayed out until it got reasonably dark, hoping to see some critters, but every time a truck or a motorcycle would make a racket the wildlife got quiet.  One Wheeler carried a gang of what sounded like young-ish girls.  They screamed and whooped and hollered and shouted as the 4-wheeler inched its way up a rock.  The absurdly slow movement of the truck coupled with the excited and sometimes fearful screams was actually pretty funny.

So I imagine tonight will be much quieter, and perhaps I will get to see some coyotes and whatever else is out here. 

Today I ran some errands—bought sunscreen, fixed bike, bought helmet, and headed up towards my campsite.  I was planning on a hike, but as I passed the trailhead for the infamous Slickrock trail, I had to pull in.  It was a good choice, too. The ride was about 15 miles, and took maybe 3 hours including a really long stop to help someone with a broken chain, or rather, to wait for them to finish using my tool to fix his chain.  He seemed to be having difficulty, so I offered an extra SRAM powerlink.  It’s like a chain link but can be attached without a tool.  We chatted, and it was a pleasant, although long, break.  In the end he handed me a dollar bill of some sort.  I refused but he insisted, and I’m not going to refuse money more than two or three times.  I didn’t look at the bill then, but turns out it was 10 bucks!  Sweet.

Ha, one dude told me they knew I had a chain tool when I pumped my way half way up the hill.  Pumping is when you gain speed by pumping the terrain, and the slickrock is prime for it.  I was flattered.  Good pumping is key to going fast with minimal effort, which I enjoy.

After the ride I reorganized my truck bed, then headed up here, and that’s where I am now.  (I’ll publish this later)

(added later:)

I didn't see any coyotes, but it was an awesome campsite.  I did a little riding nearby, explored the rocks, explored the desert.  There were canyons everywhere, lots of cool plants, and awesome lichen.  Here are pictures:

The Juniper site:

Storm developing:

pretty canyon:

juniper bush

Pretty sun: