Moab

yesterday:

Got into town around 1, checked in to a local shop and got a map and ride suggestions.  I headed out to Amasa Back, with the intention of riding Amasa Back (a jeep road) to some other (bike specific I think) trails.  I chickened out when confronted with a lightning/wind storm, so I only got to ride Amasa Back.  It was fun, totally different terrain and trail than I've ridden, and had nice views:

I drove back into town and grabbed a shower at the Poison  Spider shop.  Then I looked fruitlessly for a campsite, and ended up parking at a boat take-out on the Colorado river.  When I got there I saw some dudes pulling out with their rafts.  I started making dinner, and they rolled back around.  The driver hopped out and explained that they were looking for their buddy, who was an excellent kayaker but seemed to have disappeared.  He thought that perhaps his friend, Mark, paddled into town (long way...), and asked that if he show up I let him know his buddies were in town.

After dinner I was taking out my contacts in the cab of my truck when I heard some rustling in the bushes.  It was dark, and I shined my headlight over towards the noise.  A dude in paddling gear said hi, and I said, "oh, you're Mark."  

I gave Mark a ride into town, for which he was extremely grateful.  Mark spent the early part of his life in Decatur (near Atlanta), before moving to West Virginia, where he learned to paddle.  Last night he apparently waited for a long time for his buddies to catch up but they never did...I'm not clear on what happened, but they let me park at the rafting depot, and I called it a night.

Today:

I cleverly have adapted my sleeping schedule very well to Western time.  My 2 to 10 sleep schedule in Atlanta is now about a 12 to 8, although I think it'll be closer to 11 to 7 soon.  So I woke up today around 7:30.  Mark bought me some coffee, and I made some oatmeal, said my goodbyes to the rafting folks, and split for the trailhead.  

My plan, as described at Poison Spider shop, was to ride the Poison Spider trail to the Portal trail.  Sounds simple, eh?  right.

In the desert there are tracks all over the place.  The Poison Spider trail is a jeep trail.  Sometimes it's marked, sometimes there are side trails...and on a bike you can ride pretty much wherever you want on the rock/sand terrain--so it's easy to get off the trail if it's not marked.  I spent a good 6 miles doing unmapped loops on the Poison Spider trail.  It was good riding, but frustrating to go in unplanned circles.  I began to have images of myself, camelback empty, crawling around the desert in severe dehydration until some jeep happened upon me.  Just about then I found the trail that would not go in a circle, so I checked my water supply (kinda low), ate my one powerbar, and continued my ride.

Up to this point I had done lots and lots of climbing.  I was ready to go down, but knew that the point of the climbing was for the singletrack descent at the end, the Portal trail.  I asked some jeepers (including a guide) earlier if they knew how to get to the portal trail but they did not (I actually feel that the guide, either an asshole or an idiot, led me in the wrong direction (this was when I was doing circles)).  The guide said the trail was marked with skulls and warning signs, and that the exposure was so severe that you had to walk uphill of your bike and should it slip you have to throw it off the cliff and get it later.  The kid riding with them looked at me and said, "you're really going to ride that?"  I said hell yeah I was going to ride that.

So I finally made it to the Portal trail, much to my relief.  There were no skulls, but there were signs that told me to dismount and walk (hahaha).  To be serious it also said that three folks had died there from the exposure (like falling off the cliff).  It wasnt nearly that bad, but there were sections where if you crashed towards the exposure you would probably fall.  I didn't crash, which wasn't difficult, and I did walk some exposed technical sections.  

The portal trail hugs this cliff line:

My hands burned, the trail was super technical and rocky, and it was great!  Alas it was over too soon and I spun up the road back to the car.  I went back to town, ate a couple of pbjs, and paid 3 bucks for access to the public pool and showers and stuff.  It was awesome.

Here are some pictures:

a vista

a jeep trail on slickrock, identifiable by the black rubber:

And here are some from my ride in Arkansas:

Now off to the shop to get a ride suggestion for tomorrow.  I need something with little climbing, my hindside is sore from slickrock+hardtail+seated climbing.  A shuttle sure would be nice...

rained out

Drive went well--made it to Durango at about 6 pm last night.  Since it's been raining off and on, so I'm about to skip town and head for moab.  It may be hard to find somewhere to camp tonight, but we'll see.

Had a good ride in Arkansas, but I gotta run now to make it to moab in time for a ride.

Atlanta

I drove back to Atlanta last weekend, arriving just in time to sing a song and go out to dinner for Mother's day.  Since there's been a good amount of bike riding, family and friend seeing, and fiddle and frisbee playing.  

I went to a good show at Eddie's attic last night with my Dad, Sister, and one of her friends.  While the music wasn't what I usually listen to, it was good.   I especially liked Carolyn Aiken's style, and I thought Jeff Talmadge's tunes, while excellent, sure were sad.  I talked to the opener--Rachel Farley, cause I thought she and my friend Kyle ought to play together.

I am held in town (I don't mind, but I am itching to go to Utah) until my new fork arrives (a used Magura Wotan).  I expect to leave next Wednesday.  That doesnt leave me much time.  We'll see if I make it to Utah or if I take a leisurely drive and just head straight to WY. 

I gotta run, got frisbee plans.

I'm a slacker

Yeah it's been over a week since my last post.  I accepted the job at Targhee.  

I've been busy, but it's hard to say doing what...some painting here, some cleaning, some bike maintenance, some (lots of?) riding, some trail work.  We had a trail work day at Shindagin recently.  That was fun, check it out here.

Yesterday Steve did some filming while I did some riding.  He's putting together a video highlighting some of the local riding spots and folks, and my little dirt jump spot is one of them.

The 5" fork I ran on my Bitch (the bike i ride 95% of the time) has a crack in the steerer tube, at the base by the crown.  See below.  This is an area of high stress, it's an old fork, and I beat on it pretty hard.  I'm sad to see it go, and replacing it will probably cost me >=$300.  So it goes.  I'd like a new rockshox..maybe a domain or a lyrik, but that can be serious $$...and I am wary of buying used on the internet where I can't inspect the fork...

 Busted fork aside, bikes are working okay.  I'd like a fork for my Castellano (xc bike).  I'm running it rigid right now and I'm watching a ton of stuff on ebay, but it also needs a derailleur...  Road bike needs general inspection and maintenance.  My big rig is working great, but I need to make some sort of chain guide, or figure out how to run a front derailleur with the tensioner I have on there now.

So I gotta get to it, get this stuff done.  Today I'll finish my painting job, get payed for some stuff, work on bikes, go to bike shop, maybe make it to a local Ithaca jam.  I also would like to make it down to Elmira again before my mom leaves.  We will see...

summer job offer no 1

Targhee offered me the foreman position on their trail crew!!

an update

I'm still in Ithaca.  

I picked up some work through my biking/engineering friend Tim.  We met through mountain biking, I think I even remember the day I met Tim.  We were riding in the same car to some mountain bike race.  We lived together the summer after my Freshman year, he hooked me up with work with Garcia, and he lived at 120 Wait last summer.  Tim's been in Ithaca for 10 years, I think, I can never quite remember...but he's an old timer.  He's finishing up this semester and headed to Chicago (Northwestern) for his post doc after he gets married in Arizona this summer.  I was recently invited to his wedding, and I hope I can make it...

I have also arranged to do some painting for pay for my landlord, Pat.  Hopefully I can knock that out in the next couple of days.  Painting by yourself is slow, as I learned yesterday.  Just means more $$...  It's also pretty satisfying, although tedious.

We got some rain during this past week, so I set out to brush up the dirt jump trails I built last fall.  These trails kick ass because they're fun and rideable for ANY skill level.  Here's some footage from a day of riding last fall with Connor and Alex (thats me in the blue striped shirt).

So I made a few changes and patched up the eroded spots while it was wet out.  Then it went from wet to dusty in two days, and I've been itching to ride them.  I finally got out today with Andrew (I don't ride them, with enthusiasm, by myself) and we rode for a bit.  It took a few runs to get the rhythm back, but man they felt good!  We were both able to nail both the left handed and right handed hip lines, although Andrew was getting a little sketch--early season.  Andrew rips, I hope we get to ride trails soon and maybe this summer.  I love this little spot, though, it's my pride and joy, and digging kept me sane during the semester.  For the lawyer in the crowd, it's not my land, I don't know who's it is, but no one seems to care!

My Bitch is out of commission for the moment.  I won't go into details but I think all I need is a new headset, as the old one broke off inside the frame (weird and kind of sketchy).  The bike's kind of a mixture of secondhand parts, and the fork makes me a little nervous (I thought that was the issue) but I love the way it rides.  With my bike busted I got to ride Alan's Specialized P series bike, which was set up more for dirt jumping/urban riding than my Bitch.  The bike felt awesome and was noticeably lighter than mine.  His stem was shorter and his bars wider, which felt great.  He offered it for anytime this week...

So while I was digging last week I got a call from Grand Targhee's trail crew leader dude.  We talked for a while about my building experience and their plans.  It sounds pretty awesome, although it also sounds like a lot of work.  4 10 hour days building mountain bike trails?  sheesh...  BUT they are building mountain bike specific trails, which is what I love to do and I think I'm half decent at building fun trails.  Plus I'd get super strong super fast, although I think I'd have to train up for it a bit.

I should hear back from Targhee early this week, hopefully tomorrow.  The work wouldn't start until June 1st, so I'd even have time to check out some epic riding spots after I get my bikes working!

Today was riding with Andrew and then a road bike ride with housemate and friend Leo.  Leo either loves or hates hills, because he cranked up all of them.  I think we were about equally spent by the end of the ride.

It's definitely bike season now!

the tumbler

I spent a fair amount of time last semester working on the tumbler:

PICTURE REMOVED FOR LEGAL REASONS...

 It shakes up shredded medical waste with some special gasses and spits it out below when finished.  It's premise built on premise built on premise, none of which we actually know will work.  

For some reason, it doesn't work, although I don't know exactly why (I'm not involved with the project).  So much for the tumbler.  Next time I'll ensure that things get tested from the bottom up.