Catch Me If You Can

It has been a long time……over 2 years since I posted. Why come back to this platform? I’ve been wanting to write, podcast, youtube…….you know….all the things. I need to get things documented just to keep memories straight in my busy little brain.

To keep it brief….my son and I had an awesome summer ’20 adventure, and in the middle of it I matched up online with an amazing woman who, after living with her Fall ’20 and teaching remotely from her front room, gave me the impetus to quit my teaching career, sell my house, and relocate to Moab. I’m now full(ish) time with Nuke Sunrise and it’s growing at a rate I’m comfortable with. I also started guiding for Rim Tours as my girlfriend has been the queen bee there for over 30 years. Guiding was an easy choice as teaching is a form of customer service, I’ve got gobs of years of mountain bike experience, and my military years make the logistics of everything quite easy. Things like packing a truck for 15 people, shopping with a giant shopping list, constantly doing something that needs to be done without asking and not really worrying about whether or not you’re doing it with proper timing or position or whatever, isn’t a tough move for me. Just getting whatever going…..moving things forward so the work is easier later. I really enjoy it. Being outdoors is as much refreshing as it is challenging. Clients are always interesting….even the ones who are reserved and seem boring at first. There’s always a story in there somewhere.

After finalizing my move to Moab June of ’21, I worked a North Rim Grand Canyon trip out of a van and trailer. The work was ridiculously hard for me as I had been fairly sedentary for a couple of months (relatively speaking) due to packing, moving, and travel. Getting water jugs, the large Camp Chef stove, gargantuan griddle, and over-stuffed luggage out of a trailer is a pain in the ass. I tweaked my back so many times I lost count. I was pretty much crippled for about a week after that. Into the fall I started some day guiding. Small groups where bikes can be loaded on a Velocirax, I enjoyed. Large groups where bikes were loaded onto a roof, and again, my back had difficulties managing the loads. I did a family-ish trip into the Maze with a support truck and that seemed more appealing. Everything right there on the truck, easier to access. I didn’t really have to work that trip, but it filled me in on the system.

Winter came and I wanted to be in ski shape and be stronger for lifting bikes and stuff, so I hit the gym. I was probably a bit conservative and didn’t go enough, but I felt like I was getting stronger. I unsuccessfully tried to do more yoga, but only did short 5 to 10 minute sessions at the end of my weight lifting session. I did my best with my background knowledge of resistance training and was happy with my time spent in the gym. It was less than what I wanted, but I’m beyond the point of killing myself to get more workouts in and stuff like that.

Spring ’22 rolled up on me like a locomotive without a train. I picked up day tours when Rim needed guides and I found two employees to help on Thursdays and Fridays in the sweatshop basement that is Nuclear Sunrise Stitchworks. A cylinder head machine, programmable bar tacker, and another Juki 1541s were purchaced and they’ve been getting plenty of use. Seeing that a regular schedule can be more productive due to improved planning and predictability, I made myself available for M, T, and W day tours and one multi-day trip a month. Most afternoons and all day Thursday and Friday I’m in the sweat shop with the boys. This May I’m scheduled for two multi-day trips….a Kokopelli support trip and another North Rim trailer trip which I’m not too stoked on. And….since I just finished my first White Rim trip the first week of May, I guess I’m doing 3 multi-day trips this month.

Speaking of first North Rim trip, I did 4 days with Dave Bagley and I had the time of my life. It was so good, I’ll do a separate write-up on it.

So……to wrap it up. I’m in Moab!!! I’m crazy in love with a Moab rockstar. I ride rad trails whenever I want/can…..trying to ride everyday but we all know how that goes. I’m learning new stuff, making new friends (they seem like old friends), I’m a voting member of Trail Mix, and I’m listening to more music. I ride a big boy Moab bike now and like to send it. My kiddo just turned 12 and he likes to send it too. I’m only about a 4 hour drive from visiting him….way better than 14 hours. I’m looking forward to getting more words on this platform and hope to have a podcast going soon. I hope you’ll tune in. If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you probably will.



The Noises

El Paso is on a “stay at home directive”.  Yesterday I got out for a real mountain bike ride by myself from my house.  I rode over the Mundy’s Gap to the west side, a little extra on Lower Sunset, and back on Transmountain.  It’s been several years since I’ve done that.  I saw about 8 or 10 other people on the trails including a family of 5 which received a little clinic on the rock garden on the west side.  It’s like I had ridden it the day before and the day before that.  Big wheels and tires didn’t quite make it effortless, but almost.

The air is cleaner.  Traffic doesn’t seem like it’s that much better, but Transmountain felt a little more like it did in the early 2000’s.  The sounds are what I’m noticing more.  This spring has been epic with poppies, but it’s the birds I seem to notice more.

On both sides of the Mundy’s Gap, there are several cliffy canyons.  This one is my favorite as it can be seen as you round the point before climbing the last long stretch to the gap…..where you have the option to head to the top of North Franklin Peak.

I sat here for several minutes listening to the song of a canyon wren.  Catherpes mexicanus.  It’s a tiny little bird with a loud and distinctive song.  Their songs differ in different locations…..like a southern accent….which can be different in South Carolina compared to what you would hear in east Tennessee which would be different compared to what you would hear in Houston, TX.  Linguistics.  There are ornithologists that study these differences in song amongst the same species of birds.

The canyon wrens in the Franklins start at a slightly lower pitch and a slower pace than what you hear in this video.  The Franklin wrens also don’t end with the shrill bark.  They seem to go to an even lower pitch and with a slower roll down the scale.

While I enjoyed a seemingly endless view to the east, where I’m pretty sure I was able to see the Cornudas Mountains that lie between El Paso and Dell City, I heard the steps of a runner.  I figured I’d wait and share the song of the canyon wren with this person who was also enjoying the beautiful day in the Franklins.  As he got close, I heard something else.  His phone or a bluetooth speakers was pumping out death metal.  A middle aged Hispanic guy, knee braces, and his phone strapped to his arm like a sorority girl on an elliptical was “gettin’ it” up the mountain.  His music drowned out even the sound of the breeze.  He was about 50 yards from me, waved, and kept heading up to the peak.  I wasn’t sure what to think.  The old guy athlete in me was like, “Yeah buddy.  Git it!  Keep pounding up that mountain!”  The nature lover in me felt sorry for him and was a little angry.  I could no longer hear the wren. 

Never Take a Bikepacking Trip Lightly

Especially in the desert.

The Adventure

For the past couple of months, Selena has been hounding me to do some sort of self powered overnight trip.  We had been scheming a backpacking trip to Jordan Hot Springs in the Gila, but with her bad ankle and my old knees, I had been putting it off.  We considered a round trip run into the springs but figured at 16 miles total with many river crossings, it would end up not being fun at all.  I realized I hadn’t been on an overnight bikepacking trip in well over two years.

Yes.

2……years.

No bueno.

The weather on the border was finally cooling off a little and a full-ish moon was still lingering.  Clear skies and a lack of wind made me think that maybe I could pull off something local.  I had yet to give any of the Monumental Loop a go other than short sections ridden in few hours.  I emailed route creator Matt Mason, then noticed that Ray Molina, inventor of the fat bike, was hosting a party at Hunt’s Hole, so I decided to give it a go.

Friday I had jury duty and I was sent home early.  Yay!  So I quickly made a frame bag for the “girlfriend” bike, a Giant Anthem 29er that I scored super cheap and have upgraded judiciously, and gathered together all of my gear.  Combing through the crap, I selected a set up that would keep Selena light on the bike knowing there would be a ton of sandy roads that we would be navigating.

The Gear

If you’re not a gear weanie, you might want to skip this.

Selena’s set up:

• Medium Giant Anthem 29er total weight with water 46 lbs
  • Shimano 1×11….34 t up front, 11-46 rear.
  • Magura MT 8 fork
  • Light Bicycle carbon wheels with 30 mm inside width with Maxxis Icon 2.35 tires.
• Nuclear Sunrise Stitchworks frame bag
  • 100 oz Camelbak bladder w/ quick disconnect hose
  • sack of almonds
  • dehydrated pineapple
  • other random food stuffs
• Nuclear Sunrise Stitchworks Little Boy seat bag
  • Montbell 20 deg sleeping bag
  • Inflatable pillow
  • Spare shorts
  • long sleeve tech tee
  • Marmot rain jacket
  • hiking skirt
• Titan Nuclear Sunrise Stitchworks Titan tank
  • Spoon
  • sunscreen
  • headband
  • hippie crackers
  • ziploc bag of Scratch drink mix
  • Toothbrush
• Nuclear Sunrise Stitchworks Trinity Tank
  • ID, credit card, $20 cash
  • energy bars
  • gels
• 2- Nuclear Sunrise Stitchworks Silo feed bag
  • large insulated camelbak bottle
  • Food
• Handlebar mounted light with battery mounted under the down tube.

My set up:

• Surly Ice Cream Truck XXL (total weight with water….70 lbs)
  • 29+ wheels with Ranger TCS Light FR 29″ x 3.0 front, Minion-DHF K DH tire, 29 x 3.0″ 3C/EXO/TR rear
  • Old Man Mountain rear rack
• Nuclear Sunrise Stitchworks frame bag
  • 100 oz camelback bladder with quick disconnect hose
  • Pur/Katadyn water filter
  • White Lightning chain lube
  • 3 CO2 cartridges and inflator
  • 29″ tube wrapped in Tyvek
  • Blackburn Mammoth pump
  • 2 small bottles of sealant
  • Dity bag
    • Park tool
    • plug kit
    • stitch kit
    • patch kit
    • Leatherman micro
    • Pedro’s tire lever
    • chain quick links
  • 2 cans of tuna
  • small container of 50 block sunscreen
  • Ziploc bag of drink mix
  • Baby wipes (never used)
  • Stickers  (guerrilla marketing)
  • Cell phone
  • Exposure Diablo 1st generation with helmet mount
• Nuclear Sunrise Stitchworks Fat Man Seat bag (mounted to rack)
  • Mountain Hardware 2 person tent (main tent, poles, 4 stakes, and Tyvek ground cloth….no fly)
  • 2 Mountain House dinners
  • 2 Mountain House breakfast skillet
  • 12 oz bottle of alcohol fuel
  • Cookset
    • 2 titanium sauce pans with lid
    • 2 stainless cups
    • Spice
    • 2-MRE toilet paper packs
    • mayo pack
    • relish pack
    • Bic lighter
    • DIY beer can alcohol stove
  • Boonie hat
• Nuclear Sunrise Stitchworks Titan tank
  • car keys
  • 2-AA batteries
  • Business cards
  • $25 cash
  • credit card
  • ID
  • toothbrush
  • toothpaste
  • Energy bars
  • spoon
• 2-Nuclear Sunrise Stitchworks Silo feed bags
  • Insulated water bottle in one
  • Ziploc bag full of almonds and raisins, 4 packs of Honey Stinger chews in the other
• Nuclear Sunrise Stitchworks Handlebar Pouch
  • spare bike shorts
  • long sleeve tech tee
  • swim trunks
  • spare sunglasses with soft case
• Stuff sack mounted on top of seat bag
  • 30 deg Montbell sleeping bag
  • Thermarest Neoair Xtralight long pad
  • REI Flash sleeping pad
• Garmin eTrex 20 on handlebars
• Amazon light on handlebars with battery under the down tube

The Route

We took our time packing Friday evening and Saturday morning with the intention of riding to Ray’s place/Hunt’s Hole that afternoon. I loaded the gps file for the Monumental Loop onto my Garmin….with the intention of riding from a friend’s house in the Upper Valley area of El Paso to the Santa Theresa Airport/Union Pacific Maintenance area to connect with the Monumental Loop heading out to Cone and Crater Country.  Before Kilbourne Hole, we would detour south to Ray’s place, party a bit, then ride back to the route and camp somewhere.  Sunday we planned to ride the rest of the southwest portion of the Monumental Loop and finish in Mesilla, NM….then either ride back to the Upper Valley or have a friend fetch us.

Day 1

At 4:30 pm, we started a little later than we probably should have, and didn’t get to Ray’s until about an hour after sunset.  Selena had never ridden in the dark before and the moon wasn’t out yet, so luckily we were on soft roads that made cruising fun with our lights working great on the low setting.  Of course, there had to be a major issue and it was all me.  I loaded the gps track using Topofusion, but failed to check to see if the entire route was actually on my gps. This is something I’ve done before and I should have known better….but it’s been awhile…..2 years.  Tracks need to be no greater than 10,000 points to fit on the gps. How it is possible to be under 10,000 points for the Tour Divide route blows my mind.  Instead of freaking out, I quickly uploaded RideWithGPS onto my phone and downloaded the course using a 1-week subscription at $3.99.

Cruising the route, we stopped at a solar powered well early in the ride and tried unsuccessfully to get it to work.  Oh well.  We both had plenty of water to at least make it to Ray’s.  An hour or so later we saw one large group of ATVers, side-by-sides, and two jeeps…one being towed.  After turning south off route, we passed another tank but didn’t stop. After getting on the road that would take us to Ray’s, we saw headlights behind us and they guy pulled up next to us asking if we were going to Ray’s.  The only “normal” vehicle we see on the road and of course it’s some dude headed to Ray’s.  About 20 minutes later we hear voices and see bike lights and knew we’d reach at least one of our destinations.  This was all before the moon came up and it was dark AF.  Ray and his buddy escorted us to the compound for the party where Ray skittered all over the place trying to be an excellent host.  It was getting pretty cold and neither of us packed anything to cover our legs and I only packed a long sleeve tech tee.  Selena had her long sleeve tee and a rain jacket which she quickly donned.  I forgot how cold the desert can get on a clear night.  After eating some pork tacos and our Mountain House meals, we loaded up with water and headed out to get back on the Monumental Loop and find a place to camp before Ray and any of his friends decided to break out any firearms or incendiary devices.

We rode about 5 more miles on some nice roads before pulling off to camp.  We set up the tent in a couple of minutes and leaned bikes against creosote bushes to prevent rats from chewing on sweat soaked items and Camelbak nipples.  It was probably in the 40’s so sleeping in our sleeping bags (I used the 40 deg but carried the 30 deg) was fairly comfortable. The moon blazed like a spotlight into the tent the entire night.

Day 2

Soon after taking off, we passed a muddy cattle tank and I foolishly decided to pump filter some water.  It instantly clogged my filter.  I got worried.  We continued on route and noticed that the roads were a little sandier.  There had been plenty of rain the previous week, so there were spots that were still moist, but with some of these roads getting a little bit of ATV traffic, there were some soft spots.  Nothing bad enough to air down, but we definitely had to pick our line.

The route took us north of Riley Peak, west of it, then south…where I took the only photo of the ride.

The freshly graded road was pretty fast heading south, then we headed west again and it was more of a trail.  I saw a hose leading up to a tank and found the tank.  It was not the source of the hose, but the tank being filled by the well……a mile or so back.  Luckily there was a pretty clean, accessible tank being fed by this system.  I tried pumping again but it was difficult and slow.  I filled a quart saucepan with water and had to fill my stove twice to bring the water to a full rolling boil.  After a slow boil of around 5 minutes, I decided to pour some into a Mountain House meal, let the rest hit a rolling boil, then  dumped the rest in my bottle and bladder.

The route ended up in a wash for quite awhile and I guess we were on and off what was supposed to be a jeep road until we hit a fence line…..the most southwestern portion of the Monumental Loop.  After looking at my gps and checking my phone which was down to about 27% battery, we decided to head more northeast and try to hook up with the course again.  We passed another solar well with wires that had been disconnected.  I attempted to make contact with the bare wires from the pump to the plug hanging off the panels, but couldn’t get them in.  While milling around some shade, I saw a bat go into a mesquite tree.  This is the only picture Selena took.

A few hundred yards away was another muddy tank and we attempted to filter and I gave up at just over half a bladder.  We continued on and came upon a guy tending cattle.  Not really needing water at the time, we continued on until we came upon a beautiful tank being filled by a working solar well.  It was pumping gloriously clear water.  At this point I looked at my phone and saw that we were closer to the popsicle stick of our ride as opposed the the route that would take us to Mesilla.  Not wanting to risk running dry, not knowing how sandy the route might be, and not seeing a way to link up to the main course without killing my phone, we decided to link up with our entrance route and ride the section we skipped in order to get to Ray’s place.  It was pretty sandy so we aired down our tires.  We passed Kilbourne Hole and another large tank full of water, and then we were back tracking our tracks from the upper valley of El Paso to finish our 111 mile adventure just before sunset.  While we were on dirt, we saw 3 vehicles plus the party of ATVers/Jeepers.

Lessons Learned

• Always check your gps file and make sure the entire thing shows up on your device.
• Always carry backup water treatment options.  Tablets of some sort would have been fine for this entire trip as we found several sediment free sources that would have been fine after treating with tablets.
• Research the route better.  I definitely did not research this route enough and ended up only riding about half of the section we wanted to ride.  We were bummed not to finish in Mesilla as we were hoping for some deliciousness from one of the many restaurants in town.
• Wait to ride this route when the daytime highs are no more than about 85 degrees.  It was forecasted at 89 in El Paso/Las Cruces on Friday and I never checked it after.  Nor did I check the lows.  Assume it will be about 5 degrees hotter around the craters and on the lava strewn sections of the route and assume it will be 10 degrees cooler at night than what is forecasted in El Paso/Las Cruces.  We got lucky with winds and stronger winds prevailed on Sunday when we were heading back….tailwinds!  If it had been a headwind, we would have finished well after dark.
• Bike choice.  You’ve got some options that should all have their pros and cons.  Fat bikes will be awesome on the sandy roads especially if it’s been a few weeks since rain.  No bigger than a 4.0 though.  There are a few rocky sections with rocks that could cut sidewalls, but mostly it was just rounded but rough lava rock.  This section of the route is plus bike heaven.  Keep in mind that Selena did great with wider 29er rims and the fast rolling Ikon 2.35.  Her total setup was a very respectable 46 pounds and she is a fly-weight.  I know plenty of really fast guys who start races with about that weight.  My rig was way too heavy for my personal tastes, but I got a great weekend of “resistance” training and at a comfortable pace, Selena was comfortable and not killing herself.

Next Time

I would like to at least complete this section of the Monumental Loop before the end of the year.  If I do, I’m going to consider using Fargazmo …my custom Walt Works Fargo copy.  I’ll run it with 2.5 or maybe even a 3.0 tire up front and the 2.35 Ikon…or if I can get it to fit….a 2.5 Schwable or Maxxis 2.5 tire….on my 30mm inside width carbon race wheels with my dyno hub. I’ll rig my light to the dyno, make sure I’ve got the correct gps file, start my ride early in the am in Vinton, and crank it all out.

If you were to do the perfect build for this section, I’d say a Salsa Deadwood or a Mone Bikes El Continente would be choice.  This is drop bar country….lots of fast roads and you could easily find yourself in a decently evil headwind.  I’d pass on the filter and carry at least 2 bottles in addition to a 100oz bladder, relying on the big tanks and wells for water that only needs a tablet to treat.  As for the rest of the loop, I know most of the area south of the Organ Mountains, the Sierra Vista Trail into the Franklin Mountain State Park, is true mountain bike terrain except for the long stretch of deep sand that is present before you cross over the range before Hwy 404.  That stretch in itself justifies plus sized tires and maybe a real fat bike if it hasn’t rained in more than a week.  As for the area north of Cruces….I know nothing about it and need to do more research.

Matt Mason is planning to do a mass start event on this route on Halloween weekend.  I may have to get my shit together and give it or another section of it a go.

Death…..in the cycling world

It happens.  People die.  We’ll all be dead….eventually.  Cyclists live a dangerous life.  When we ride recreationally, we take risks either with traffic and other road hazards, or with risky moves on trails lined with rocks, trees, cactus, etc.

This week the cycling world lost two good ones.  World record holding “professional bikepacker” Mike Hall was killed by a vehicle while he was racing in Down Under.  I never met Mike, but I have a lot of friends who did.  Friends who actually hung out and traveled with him……not just lining up at a race and seeing him for a brief period of time.  He seemed like a great guy…..humble.  He pushed the limits and set records causing many others to do the same.  I’m bummed I never got to meet him.  Not sure if he was into Guinness, but I’m going to drink one this weekend for him.  Seems like the right “tip of the hat” for a guy from the UK.

The other one we lost this week was Steve Tilford.  Steve was a daily blogger.  He delved into the world of doping and seemed to know that our clowns at USAC were quite guilty of keeping that dark culture alive.  I actually met Steve.  Just casually….a couple of times.  Sea Otter and a couple of National XC events.  He was a fellow “tall guy”.  Rode custom ti bikes like me.  He was also a van guy.  And he was killed last night on I-70 in one of my favorite places in the country….the border region between Utah and Colorado.  You can read about it all here.  I can’t write about it and his buddy’s pics that were posted are haunting.

Steve’s death is freaking me out a bit because I lost another friend from my youth in a similar manner.  Julie Hamilton was the older sister of a long-time classmate of mine.  She was a ridiculously good basketball player and very pretty.  I had a pretty solid crush on her, but since she was older, I never knew how to express it and feared rejection.  Julie headed off to college on a basketball scholarship.  She attended a small college in upstate South Carolina.  Early in the season, her team was traveling by van when everything in it cut off.  They limped to the shoulder of the freeway.  I never heard a timeline, but since they didn’t have any lights, an 18 wheeler drifted onto the shoulder at the wrong time and plowed into them.  Julie and a couple other teammates were killed.  At the funeral, there were several girls in wheelchairs.  It was devastating.

So…. first to the van safety thing….Steve had exited the vehicle with no major injuries and was walking around the scene when another 18 wheeler crashed into him and killed him.  Please keep these safety tips in mind.  Always have a kit with flares.  If you are on the side of the road doing a repair or attending to a crash, make sure those flares are HUNDREDS of meters up the road from the crash.  Walking 20 steps behind your vehicle is a joke.  Get way back.  It takes a LONG time for trucks to stop.  Whether Steve and his buddy had time to do that, I’m not sure.  They had time to take pics.  I would have acted much more quickly to secure the scene first and make sure nobody else wound up in that crash.  Get away from the vehicles and move off of the pavement….a long way off.  Have a flash light in your kit with extra batteries.  Turn it on and point it at oncoming traffic.  Our freeways are stupid.  While convenient, more people die there than pretty much anywhere else in America…..our freeways.

As for riding in traffic……what can I say.  It sucks out there.  Make yourself visible as possible.  Today’s LED lights are ridiculously bright.  Use them.  Have people pray for you.  Use a camera if you commute in a hostile area.  Try to stay off crazy roads at night….like the interstate I rode on a rainy night when I did the Palmetto Trail.  That was stupid.  Don’t be stupid.

Be safe out there.

Reconnecting Road Trip Pt. 3

After a quick trip to Reno, Truckee was the next stop where my friend Hayley who lives in El Paso was visiting her parents.  Both of her parents are avid skiers with season passes to Northstar.  I skied a day with Hayley who did some knuckle dragging around the icy slopes.  This part of the trip is where the REAL van incidents occurred.

Before our day on the slopes, I went to her parent’s place and was told to “get a run at the driveway”.  That driveway was steep and with my half-way worn El Paso tires I only made it half way up….and then slid backwards….into the ditch….about a foot from the telephone pole.  A board, a jack, and some salt got me out no problem.  I weaseled my way into their neighbor’s driveway and slept kind of crooked that night.  The next day, while unloading the neighbor’s driveway, the van suddenly started sliding backwards.  I just stood there and watched as it finally came to rest about 3 feet from a planter and a tree.

That evening I busted over Donner Pass to visit my old friend and former REI employee Chris McGovern.  He’s now building gorgeous carbon bikes under the McGovern name and he is the US national cyclocross coach.  I wanted to visit him because he had a Quadvan conversion done on his Ford Transit.  The first big atmospheric river (Pineapple Express) was rolling in and traffic was bumper to bumper from the bay area to Reno.  Google sent me over old Donner Pass (Hwy 140) and I beat the snow.  Then I met the traffic – and it was slow.  By the time I pulled off I-80 to head to Nevada City, plows were everywhere and snow was accumulating quickly.  About a half mile off the interstate lights were flashing and the chain monkeys were working hard.  I blew through it….and barely made it.  Lots of fishtailing ensued but I let traction control do its thing and eventually I was at a lower elevation and rolled into Chris’s place well before bedtime.  Quick tours of vans and work space happened and I really wish I had taken some pics, because Chris is getting kind of famous. Soon after I was back on the road to Georgetown where I made it to my brother’s place after bedtime but before the snow accumulated too much in his area.

My plan was to spend a day at my bro’s, then head to Kirkwood for what was guaranteed to be a giant powder day.  That meant that I needed to figure out my chains.  And sure enough, they didn’t fit.  New chains were purchased as well as rubber tensioners (never use chains without tensioners and never buy chains from Amazon).  A day was spent with one of his friends driving to a hill to do some sledding….a lot of work when there is a couple of feet of powder.

The next day I left for Kirkwood slightly behind schedule when about an hour or so away from the resort, I ran into this.

Notice how clear the road is up until this point.  I didn’t have cell service in that location, so I looked at my atlas and picked a route back and around.  I ended up having to chain up and didn’t get to the resort until noon.  It was all good though as there was plenty of powder to be had and I needed to pay some dues in the chopped up stuff anyway.

Leaving Kirkwood I pulled a total Texan move and lost control of the van, sliding into a mount of snow and taking out a pole of some sort.  A minute or two of shoveling and I was back at it.  Plows and blowers were everywhere.

I needed to get to Bridgeport to meet my friend Tim.  I knew he was tired and waiting for me and I drove as fast as I could (like 30 mph in chains).

 

Reconnecting Road Trip Pt. 2

The entire week after Christmas was spent skiing with my little guy and his mom.  They have been best ski buddies for for well over 70 days in the past year.  I skied with him Thanksgiving 2015 and he was just learning.  I was prepared to step up my game, but I wasn’t sure how much.  It was much greater than I anticipated.  He’s a fast and slightly reckless little dude.  His mom was right there with him and even blasting tree pow and gnarly rock outcroppings on her ridiculously fat Big Joy Head skis.  If they weren’t ripping down the blues, they were dicing their way through manked out trees searching for powder.  My new skis were perfect for all that, but my skills lacked.  By Thursday I was keeping up….for the most part (I’m wary around lots of people).  My knees didn’t hurt and I was able to do some good yoga at my old roommate’s house as they were out of town and I did a bit of dog sitting in exchange for an electrical outlet to keep the van the perfect sleeping temp.  His driveway was immaculately groomed.

I’m sure it’s much different at the time of this writing considering they’ve had more snow,  rain, ice, and as much weather well above freezing as they’ve had below in the past couple weeks.

On my last day in Utah, I finally tried skate skiing.  Connor and Jen have XC gear, so we went to Solitude Nordic Center.  REI had skate gear that fit me like a glove.  I fell a few times leaving what I called a butt hole in the track.  I think I left 3 butt holes in the track.  What a great workout and a fun way to get away from the crowds….though the Big Cottonwood traffic snake loomed just above us for about an hour.

Connor taking a break coming up the hill. Lots of breaks get taken when skiing with groms.

That Friday afternoon I headed out of the Salt Lake valley’s fog and pollution to Wells, NV to bum an electrical outlet from Adriana W. (former Franklin Mountains State Park ranger) and her boyfriend Jeremy.  It was in the single digits out there and the campground they’re in was like a gnarly ice rink with tire tracks making it ridiculously hard to navigate.

I’d never spent time with Jeremy, and it ends up we’re like brothers from different mothers…..and he’s hella shorter.  I’m glad I stopped by and glad they were there.  I was tired of driving and needed a warm place to sleep.

Breakfast was consumed and I hauled it across Nevada to Reno to catch up with the Yackle Bros, shop at the REI garage sale (big gear scores there), then head to Truckee were I was to rendezvous with my friend Hayley….yeah….the one that was taking care of my dog.  The dog got passed to another friend.  Her parents live in Truckee so I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to have a place to park and ski a resort I’ve never skied.

My only “creepy” incident of the trip happened on my drive to Reno.  Some old guy in an older pickup stayed next to me for several miles on the interstate.  I did my best to ignore him.  He kept placing his Veteran’s hat (this guy claimed 3 wars….WW2, Korea, and Vietnam) in the window so I’d have no choice but to see it.  The only other guy I’ve seen with a hat like that was at the VA hospital in El Paso and that guy looked eons older than this creepy dude so I’m in doubt that he was a 3 war vet. I have a neighbor who served in Vietnam only and he looks eons older than this creep. I wasn’t sure what kind of point he was trying to make and why.  I did have to accelerate around him before entering the freeway because I was in the wrong lane, but I definitely did not cut him off.  I turned off my cruise control and made sure he stayed in front of me.  I drove much slower than I ever wanted to drive on this trip just to keep this creep in front of me.  He finally pulled away and eventually I went back to driving 75 mph and never caught up to him.

 

Reconnecting Road Trip Pt. 1

After my divorce, I downsized from a huge truck and slide-on camper to a van.  I got a decent trade in and picked up a brand new Ford Transit 260 medium height medium length with the Ecoboost twin turbo (trouble in the making).  2 years later I have a rig that I can pretty much live in.  I still want to do a few more things to it, but for now, it’s pretty stellar.  Two of the things it lacks is a heater (I do have a propane “little buddy” heater but it consumes A LOT of propane) and a shower.  People asked how I’d cope and my response has always been,  “I have lots of friends.”   Many of those friendships have been neglected.  When I joined the army in 2000, I cut myself off from way too many friends.  That was a huge mistake and over the past few years, I’ve decided to reconnect with as many friends as I can.

For winter break 16/17, I decided to road trip to ski country.  My son and his mom only had a 9-day break.  With two weeks on tap for me, I figured I could get in plenty of skiing in Utah with the little ripper, meet up with some old friends, and maybe do some riding.  I’d have more than a couple of driveways with nearby electrical hookups and showers at my disposal.   My brother recently moved into a place in California not too far from ski country.  So plans came together after Thanksgiving to do a 3,000 mile loop….Utah, across Nevada, California, back down through Nevada, Arizona, and back home.

That month before the trip would include recovering from a week in Moab at Thanksgiving, riding as much as I could (but I ended up with a pretty severe respiratory illness which knocked me on my ass), getting my classes ready for final exams, finishing a van project so I could have some more storage space and actually be able to get into my bed without killing myself, doing as much yoga and dry land ski training as possible, and making all the bags that had been ordered.  Unbelievably, I was able to do everything I needed to do.

The van came together exactly like I wanted.  (Pics)

Smooth as silk.

Four layers of bar-top epoxy and this is a beauty.

Epoxied back splash so things will stop rolling into the garage.

Storage areas under the giant 12v refrigerator.

My first drawer!!

Just enough room for wheels underneath and 100 lb sliders.

Installed a “face” and a top.

Leftover oak trim from a kitchen remodel. I hate miter cuts…..so confusing.

More epoxy on the top so I can use it to step up onto the fridge then into the bed.

A cabinet door for the portatoilet, first aid kit, toilet paper, and baby wipes. I plan to make some sort of cushion so I can take an extra passenger in a pinch and also have another place to sit when hanging out.

Shanti Yoga near the airport offered 4 classes a week free to dudes during December.  I think I went to 11 classes.  They were either hot Vinyasa or hot 26.  The Vinyasa classes helped a whole bunch since my dry land ski training consisted of doing hundreds of downhill lunges with a 30 pound backpack, running up and down steep and rocky hills, and a few thousand heel raises.  I was sore from day one and never took a break until I got in the van on December 23rd to head north.

And……. I made a bunch of great bags for customers.  Thank you customers.

On the 22nd, I got this message from Jen.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-elXN-2vqK0

Crap.  That meant no riding in Moab, but that was a mute point as a thin layer of snow and ice blanketed the trails.  I would be hustling to get through that storm before it got too bad.  I had contemplated purchasing snow tires….at least on the rear…but nobody would sell me non-commercial rated tires.  The current tires are perfect for dry street, but they are E load rated commercial vehicle tires and they ride rough as crap as my van sits at about 6,200 lbs curb weight.  They are through about 2/3rds of their life, so I decided to go forth on those and hope that I’d be fine with the cable chains I bought a year earlier.

I also had Jen (yeah….I have my ex doing errands.  Baller!)  grab these at 2nd Tracks in Salt Lake.

Surface Walk Free 186 skis….Made in Utah

I have old but reliable tele gear –  T1 boots with Rainey bindings mounted on Rotefella releases.  Using that stuff would be like running a 3×9 drive-train on a 27+ bike.  Apparently those skis aren’t cheap, but I scored them on a sick sale price of $240 with tax.

After dropping off my dog with my friend Hayley, I was on the road by 3 pm on Friday the 23rd and made it all the way to Farmington, NM where I stealth camped in the Walmart parking lot.  The next morning I continued my cannonball trajectory through Cortez and across snow covered farmland and desert all the way to Moab…..which was cold and snowy.  So onward to Salt Lake I drove.  Just above Price, I blew through a jam packed chain-up area and spun tires up through about 15 miles of snow covered roads.

I don’t need no stinking chains!

Soon the road became 4 lanes again before Soldier Summit and there was no falling snow and the roads were clear!  Yay yay yay!!!!  I made it through the first small part of this HUGE incoming storm without having to chain up and only fish-tailing about 5 times.

After arriving in Salt Lake, it started to snow.  BIG TIME.  On Christmas day, Connor and Jen XC skied to church.  I borrowed Jen’s truck and tried to go to Brighton….at lunch time.

Wasatch Dr and Big Cottonwood Canyon.

I sat in that same spot for 7 light changes before I bailed and went to my friend Ann’s place just west of there.

Ann’s porch..that’s well over a foot in less than 24 hours.

After catching up, I finally got up to Brighton to try out my new skis….which were awesome.  If I had a Santa suit, I would have skied for free.  Mental note for next year….bring Santa suit.   It was an excellent way to spend Christmas day.

 

Big Agnes Stuff

For the first time ever, I participated in a sponsored trip.  Local mountain bike guide (Geobetty Tours) and publicity honch Don Baumgardt brought together El Paso riders along with the Ride For Reading crew and film makers to ride 70 miles across the high plains east of El Paso to Dell City, TX to deliver books to their school.  Hot shot photographer Devon Balet and his numerous connections for sponsorship had us sleeping in some Big Agnes products which I feel very compelled to review.  Note that we did not get to keep these products.  I think we were all given the same sleeping bag…the Cross Mountain 45 with synthetic fill.  We had a variety of sleeping pads and a couple different tents.  I chose to not sleep in a tent.  It was just too nice outside.  I did help set some up and I can tell you that they are extremely light and easy to set up. They came with really nice stakes and lots of reflective cord.

The sleeping bags were perfect for our cool nights and I heard few complaints.  These are the bags with the sleeve for the sleeping pad.  They don’t have insulation on the bottom relying on the pad to provide an insulating barrier between your body and the ground.  I’ve always wanted to check one of these out and was excited to destroy the inside of one with my sweaty, dirty, and sunscreen caked naked body for two nights.

I was given the Green Ridge sleeping pad which I believe is their lightest pad….and weirdest.  Weird in color and texture…like a dry condom.  I didn’t slip it into the sleeping bag sleeve the first night, and being a restless sleeper, I found myself struggling to roll over and move around since my body was sticking to the rubber material.  At only 20″ wide, the pad did not provide enough width for me.  From the comments from the other party goers, none of the pads were wide enough for them either.  All the provided pads were 20″ wide, but varied in material, weight, style, thickness, and length.  A perfect rectangle, mine was 78″ long and 3.75″ thick….totally sufficient in those dimensions but barely wide enough for my shoulders.   The pad was a bit noisy as well.  Not as noisy as the Mylar lined Thermarest NeoAir Xlite, but quite squeaky when you moved around on it….even when it was in the sleeping bag sleeve.

In the middle of our first night, I decided to stuff the pad into the sleeve of the sleeping bag. This made things a bit quieter, but I noticed some air pockets.  On the edges of the pad, the bag did not insulate well and at the top opening, there was no way to cover your head and shoulders since the opening was flat with no mummy hood or tapered closure.  Air snuck in around my head and onto my shoulders.  As a naked sleeper, this was no good.  There was plenty of room at the foot of the bag and it extended off the end of the pad making it perfect for my size 15 feet.

In the morning I left the pad in the sleeve, unscrewed the valve on the pad, and compressed it into the stuff sack of sleeping bag.  There was plenty of room for everything including my 7′ long Cuben fiber bivy.  The next evening, inflating the pad took a couple of minutes and everything was ready for sleeping…no fighting the pad to get it into the bag’s sleeve.  This could prove a time advantage for someone racing the clock.

Would I buy either of these products?  Even with a discount, I would not buy these.  The pad is not wide enough at all.  The bag is a clever idea and someone who sleeps in a t-shirt may like the bag.  I’m more of a mummy guy and like to be able to roll over with the bag staying with me when I move.   I am impressed with the compressed size of the kit and the weight isn’t terrible.  I think this would be a great bag for someone who regularly uses a tent since the tent would cut down on drafts experienced through the neck opening.

Embrace the Heat

In the heat, I suffer.  At 6’5″ and almost 200 pounds, I’ve got a lot of surface area and my heart has to work harder than an average 5’8″ rider in order to get blood to all my appendages.  I’ve found myself suffering in the heat to the point where I thought that if someone were to hand me a gun, I’d blow my head off.  My first AZT 300 was like that.  My final day found me in the hot box between the Gila and Picket Post.  Temps were in the 90’s.  I know because I use one of these.  I remember running low on water with about 18 miles left (at least 2 hours), and passing a Polish guy who was out of water.  I just stared at him as I kept moving by.  No way was I going to risk running out of water in that desert.

In grad school I was the only test subject to complete all three trials of a heat study.  Ride in a small room filled with heaters and hot plates with boiling water for 3 hours at 50% max VO2.  Esophageal  temp probed shoved up my nose and down my throat, blood draws every hour, and 5 minutes in the mask every 20 minutes.  The seat killed my prostate and if I had to pee, I had to do it on the bike into a graduated cylinder….once with a boner…very difficult and a tad bit embarrassing with more than a few coeds checking things out.  The fridge holding the blood samples lost electricity for a weekend and all the samples were lost.

My third AZT 300 found me early into day 1 with a missing chainring bolt.  I rode really fast trying to catch up to people who were a good 20 to 30 minutes ahead of me after that.  I blew up in the heat a couple of hours before Kentucky Camp.  Hiding under a tree trying to escape the heat, I quickly realized my attempt at a 3rd consecutive finish was done.  Day 2 found me going through so much water there was no way I’d make it to the next water source before running out.  I turned around on Reddington Rd., spent an hour at a Safeway, then took the road to Oracle eventually being swept up by my ride.

Tour Divide found me in some heat too.  I went north opting to take the heat early.  Near the end of Day 1 I rolled out of Silver City with a full bag of ice on my back.  I really didn’t see heat like that again until Canada.  Yeah.  92 degrees just north of Butts Cabin.  Luckily there were clean water sources everywhere.  Since my 2014 Divide Ride, I haven’t done much serious riding other than the Puzzler 50.

I have a neighbor that is into hot yoga.  She convinced me to do a Bikram class with her….in her little yoga room with a enough heaters to keep a public housing complex comfortable during the worst El Paso winter day.  An hour and a half listening to some Indian dickhead that calls(ed) himself a Yogi bark instructions and insults putting me into positions I’d never been in before.  I was pretty sore the next day despite doing many of those poses on a daily basis under my own terms for several years.  I wasn’t sure what to think.  I later attempted an Ashtanga class….normal temps….but the video instruction we watched just went on and on with the guy basically showing off how awesome he was at doing handstands.

Still not a fan of a structured yoga class and much less a fan of doing it in a room that is 100 degrees, I was convinced to go to a real hot yoga class as part of my neighbor’s yoga training certification process.  It was pretty good…only an hour.  It wasn’t that hot, but hot enough to get me really loose and into some good poses.  The scenery was really good so I decided to tag along with her to some other classes eventually winding up in a studio in Las Cruces for a hot flow class (some call it Bikyasa) that lasted 2 hours.  The temp hit 102 and the humidity was at 57%.  I would have made it all the way through if I didn’t have to pee.  It was by far the hottest thing I’ve ever done.  Kuwait in full battle rattle had nothing on this.  Sweat dripped onto my towel covered mat sounding like the rain in that section of Forrest Gump when he was in Vietnam.

I was getting most of the poses and trying not to pass out every time I stood up and reached upward…..toward the heater just above my head.  Seeing the rock bodied and tattooed Meg to my right and the creamy skinned Maria to my left kept me motivated.  I thought about my hottest bike races and they didn’t come close to this horror.  People were dropping out left and right.  Child’s pose was being practiced by more than a couple folks as the rest plowed on.  Warrior 1 to warrior 2, eagle, warrior 2, warrior 1, foward fold, flow high to low, downward dog, yada yada yada, more flows, sweat, drink water, wipe sweat off of hands, focus man.  Focus!

The next day I injured myself doing a not so heavy lift of an empty shelf and my weekend went to shit after that.  Three days later I was still guzzling water, hitting the foam roller, and doing several drugs.  I started thinking about why so many people are doing this crazy shit.  I remember when Willow Koerber (Rockwell)….damn she’s still so fucking hot… was trying to continue racing after having her first baby (I think she has 2 kids now) and she blogged a bit about doing Bikram.  It sounded like a surreal experience for her.  Kind of like going into an opium den and participating in whatever craziness happens in an opium den.  I also thought she was a wack job searching for answers. Recently I started to wonder if maybe there was something more to this.  Maybe there was something that could be applied to my competitive mindset.  Maybe there is a physiological training advantage happening.

I won’t get nerdy with Aldosterone, but it’s the “sweat hormone”.  It controls internal temps by causing you to sweat.  It’s affected by hydration status and whether or not you are “heat trained”.   I can tell you right now, I sweat more than anyone in those classes.  You can hear my mat…it sounds like a rain storm.   You don’t hear it from the others.  They don’t have the surface area I have.  Maybe this is a “fun(ner)” way to build that tolerance to heat – lots of hot girls sweating and bending their bodies into all kinds of fascinating positions.  Maybe the mental aspect of pushing your body to complete all the flows is a great form of mental training.  Maybe it can translate to someone’s ability to make it through the hot parts of the day during a race. Maybe hot yoga stimulates the production of Aldosterone.  I really hated doing research when I was in grad school, so I’ll just speculate and let you do whatever research you want to do.  If nobody has done any research on this stuff, here you go.

I do know that anything that flips a switch in your brain causing you to push yourself harder, focus more intently, and drive yourself to complete a difficult task is something that will help you be a better athlete.  I’m still not convinced that hot yoga is safe or even that awesome, but it is surreal and it does weird things to your brain.  I’m always down for stuff like that.

Puzzler 2016 – Under Pressured

Wider is better

This year’s Puzzler was in my mind since April when Brent asked me to loop the new direction for GPS verification and provide him with affirmation.  Running it counter clockwise was definitely going to make things a bit different for everyone, especially me on the single speed.  Climbing up Mundy’s from the west side is MUCH steeper, yet the rest of the course had much gentler overall climbing and more descending….at least in my view.  I never looked at any gps data.  I stopped doing that long ago.

I tried to ride this new loop as much as I could without wearing myself completely down.  I dropped a bit of weight after the Chupacabras and kept myself under 195 through the holidays.  I didn’t ride as much as I would have liked to, but I still got in some fun days of riding leading up to the race.  Spending time exploring new places with my son has taken priority over killing myself on the bike.

I must admit there was a bit of pressure leading up to this year’s race.  Last year’s 3rd overall was a bit of a fluke.  Not a lot of fast guys showed up.  Mo Frias, who cracked on the last 15 mile stretch, was just figuring out the long stuff and Jerry Garcia had crashed his road bike a few days before the race.  I was definitely hoping to be in the top 5 again, but top 10 would be more realistic considering I don’t train anymore.

I made a few changes to my ride.  Dirty Girl, the Titus Ti frame got put away after last year’s when I noticed a crack in it.  The Spot BE Trophy Bike handles a bit better since I can run a shorter stem on it, so I stuck with it for most of the year’s single speed duties.  With the main climb being steeper this year, I went with a taller gear since I knew I’d be walking up it and the rest of the course would need something slightly bigger.  I ran a 30×19 and it kicked my butt on the lower part of the Mundy’s climb which caused me to lose touch with 6-8th place.  I ran MUCH wider bars this year.  Crank Brother’s 780’s.  They were incredibly perfect.  Combined with an 80mm stem, this bike is insane on the descents.  I also have wider rims…30mm inside width Light Bicycle carbon rims.  They’ve been awesome.  I mounted up a new Maxxis Icon 2.35 on the front and a Kenda Nevegal X Pro on the rear.  However, I completely failed in regards to setting good tire pressure.  Somewhere in the race, I let a little out of the front.  It wasn’t enough and was bouncing off rocks way more than I wanted to and I felt like I was riding very poorly on the technical stuff.  Then I let out too much and rode from somewhere around Mule Shoe to the finish with about 10 psi in the front tire.  It made Sotol super fun, but it was still just a bit too low for me.

I also finally used a “finish” bottle.  I haven’t really used one since my shorter XC days and back then they’d make my heart do funky stuff so I was afraid to use one again.  This year I filled a bottle with dark green tea, a scoop of Cytomax, 2 Sportslegs, and 2 Traumeel’s.  Traumeel is an herbal anti-inflammatory.  This was nice to have since my knees were bugging me most of the race.  I stayed quite hydrated the entire race.  I had to pee around mile 25….a lot.  I didn’t lose a place but I was in 8th at the time and 9th almost caught me.  At the end of the race, I had to rush off to the porto toilet to pee again.  That never happens.  I drank about 3 bottles with one scoop Gatorade and one scoop Cytomax and ate a 2 bags of Honey Stinger Chews as well as a Clif Z bar, a regular Clif bar, and 4 organic newtons from Costco.  I also carried a full 100 oz bladder of water in my frame bag and that was about 1/3 full when I finished.

I went into the last 13 miles nervous about the finish bottle.  When I finally took a swig, I was reassured with a desirable flavor and a couple of minutes later, no leg and knee pain.  I made sure it was all gone about half way through Sotol Forest for the last climb.  That was an amazing stretch.  I have never finished a race that long with that little cramping.  Usually I’m fighting for my life at that point.  I held my position and ended up 8th since the guy ahead of me took a wrong turn on the last 13 miles.

Overall I was just kind of meh about the result.  I knew it would be tough to get up Mundy’s, but I totally cracked there.  The rest of the race was really fun and it was great to go back and forth with some people in the first half.

Big thanks to Greg at Truckerco.com for keeping me rolling with Tire Cream and making sure I can stop with new finned pads for the XO brakes.  I also use alloy Speed Evolution valve stems and ESI grips which he distributes.

I’d also like to mention the movie night we had before the race…..which only 22 people attended.  I worked really hard with my buddy Victor from Velo Paso and George from Geo Geske’s to set up a great venue.  We had a TON of prizes from Truckerco, Magura, Endlessbikes.com, Geobetty, and Nukesunrise.com.  The movies were great and we actually went through about half a keg of Lagunitas IPA.