iRide

I took Thursday and Friday off work and we had a party for Spencer and I on Saturday (since it was his birthday too). The party was fun and I got some cool presents. Sunday, Tonya and I went out for an early dinner and then went to see Iron Man. Wow–that is an awesome movie. I give it 2 thumbs up. I HIGHLY recommend seeing it.

Monday I met up with a few of the guys and busted out an awesome ride at Daley Ranch. For whatever reason, I hadn’t ridden there since January. I almost forgot how much fun it is. I need to ride there more often.

After my ride at Daley, we went over to Jen and Matt’s for a little shin-dig. It was a Memorial Day BBQ sure, but mostly a going away party since they are moving back to South Carolina in a month or so. I really enjoy hanging out with Jen–I have always felt fortunate that we have such a close relationship (a lot of brothers and sisters aren’t close). Matt is a cool guy too and I’m going to miss them when they move. Plus, with little Vinny really starting to show his own unique personality, seeing them go is going to be hard.

My sister’s friends are really cool too. It sucks that I only just met them back in March and have only hung out with them a few times. They are really nice and chillin’ with them is always fun. My sis’s friend Anglea in particular is really funny. She is very quick witted and my boys like to hang out with her kids, so that’s a plus too.

Also, I have mentioned before that my sis is friends with Pauley Perrette, who plays Abby Sciuto on the CBS TV show NCIS (see post from March 2). Well, when we met Pauley the first time, I had never seen an episode of NCIS (I don’t watch much TV) so I wasn’t starstruck by any stretch, but I did think it was cool. Since we met Pauley then, Tonya and I decided to start watching the show.

We were both immediately hooked. I am a HUGE fan. It is an extremely well written show and the cast is amazing. I truly think it’s one of the best shows on TV–EVER!! So, Pauley was able to come to the get together yesterday and I was pretty excited this time. I didn’t want to smother her with questions, but hey–I’m a huge fan of the show now. Just like last time, she was very nice and very accomodating of all of our questions. She’s a fan of the show herself and watches it every week too, so she enjoys talking about it–but not in a conceited way at all. She told us some really cool behind the scenes info and answered all of our questions for quite a long time. I don’t know, it’s hard to describe. It was just too cool.

Anyway, she gave me a signed photo of her for my birthday (one of the high quality, studio publicity 8×10’s). Later, she mentioned she had a bunch of stuff from her set trailer in the back of her car since they just wrapped shooting for the season. We all went out to her car and she was showing us some pretty cool stuff. She also gave Tonya and I an actual complete script from the show, from this past season. She signed it and everything. I thought that was just too awesome for words.

Before she left, she was also kind enough to take a picture with Tonya, Sydney and I.

All in all it was a really fun 5 day weekend. I have to work next weekend but have several rides planned over the next week. Plus, the weather is finally getting nice again and is forecasted to keep getting better. I tell ya, life is good.

Ride lots…

Yessiree, the weather is warming up–FINALLY!!! If you know me at all, you know I love the heat. Gimme gimme gimme. I hate the cold, which is one of the reasons I live here in good ol’ SoCal. It makes rides nicer, in my opinion anyway. I mean, of course you can’t go out for an all day Suffer-fest when it’s pushing 95 outside, but you can work around it easily enough.

A few of us are going up to the San Bernadino mountains to ride SART tomorrow. I can’t wait!! I haven’t ridden there since last August. It’s a 32 mile ride and about 29 miles of that is sweet, sweet singletrack. It’ll be just what the doctor ordered to help me shake the post-Moab blues. I don’t know why, but it’s hitting me hard this year. I crave technical singletrack like never before and most of the trails around here just don’t deliver.

Thank heavens for the Tunnels at LPQ–especially the new, secret Tunnel we found a few weeks back. I know it’s not really a secret. I didn’t build it and I’ve seen lots of tire tracks, but it it is still a very lightly traveled trail compared to the rest of the stuff in the area. I had a good ride at LPQ today. I rocked the SS since it’s been awhile and it was awesome. I nailed all the climbs pretty good and felt strong the whole ride–even though my legs were WORKED from Taekwondo this week (more on that later). After the ride, I stopped by Beyond and got a red seat post collar to match the headset and brake levers. It looks pretty tight!!

I love sitting here at the computer, typing all this out with the SS and the Yeti sitting right next to me. They are 2 opposites in just about every way. The SS is a HardTail that is simple and efficient and the Yeti has 6″ of plush Full Suspension goodness front and rear, with all sorts of mechanical goodies to make the most of every ride. The SS is dirty from today’s ride and the Yeti is all clean and ready to go for tomorrow’s epic. B-E-A-Utiful

As for Taekwondo, wow this week kicked my butt!! I ended up assisting Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for the second week in a row. We worked the legs more than usual and I am still feeling it. Consider that each day, I did all the exercises, drills and routines 3 times instead of just once because I was teaching. It’s great extra practice for me and I know it’s helping me a lot. However, spending 3 days a week there from 4-8PM is taking its toll. I guess I never realized how hard assisiting would be. I mean, after getting up at 4:30AM and working a full day at work and then going to Taekwondo and putting in 4 hours, it’s getting to be a bit much.

I was talking to one of my instructors (who I respect a great deal and is probably my favorite instructor for many reasons) about how I was afraid I may be starting to get burned out a little bit. She agreed that I might want to consider dropping a day and only go twice a week. She said she’d hate to see my burn myself out by being there too much. All I know, is I still love being there, but that super strong passion I have for it is starting to diminish slightly and I don’t like that at all.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no intention of dropping out by any means. I just think I may want to cut back a little. It’s also frustrating right now to be so close, yet still so far away from earning my Black Belt. I’m already up to Brown Belt, with only Red Belt and Recommended Black Belt standing in between me and 1st Degree Black Belt. But with the way the system is set up, I’m still nearly a whole year away from being ready to test for 1st degree. We’ve had a lot of people test for 1st degree lately and I’m finding myself being jealous of them–and I don’t like that either.

I think it also may be the past 15 months of hard work just all catching up with me at once. Anyway, all those things are really making need to give where I stand and how I feel a lot of thought so I can make the best choice for myself and the school. Dropping 1 day a week to be down to going just 2 days is probably the best answer.

Anyway, I need to get to bed. I gotta get up in about 5 hours to head out for SART. I should’ve been in bed 2 hours ago. UGH!! Oh well. Until then, seek your bliss.

Ride lots…

So it has been a week since we got back from Moab and I miss it like crazy. I wish California had awesome trails like that. Most of the trails out here suck. They are built for “multi-use”, meaning they are made with hikers and equestrians in mind primarily. This means they are lame. Generally flat and straight with no technical features of any kind.

<sigh>

On a positive note, I got in a good late night ride at LPQ tonight with Sean and Evan. Sean worked out a cool new loop that I liked a lot better than our old one. Sean has some really good thoughts and ideas for new routes and loops and stuff. He’s a cool guy and I’m glad he’s my friend. I got to know him a lot better during the Moab trip and super stoked for that.

I feel very fortunate to have the group of riding buds that I have now. I started riding about 4 years ago and I wanted so much to have a group of friends like the ones I have now. I was thinking about it in Moab how that wish has finally come true. Like I said, I feel very fortunate.

A few of us are planning on riding SART next Saturday. It should be a good time. Our SART loop is about 32 miles and all but 3-4 of those are sweet, blessed singletrack. Just the thing to cure the post-Moab blues. Until then, seek your bliss.

Ride lots…

I had arranged for Coyote Shuttle to pick us up for the Porcupine Rim shuttle. Pick up time was 8AM. It was early and cold!!

Getting dropped off at the top:

I’m not sure of the exact temperature at the top, but it was COLD!!! There was snow on the ground and the puddles were frozen over:

A short regroup at the beginning by the closed UPS trailhead. We rode on and picked up LPS later:

Great views are everywhere:

Passing the bikes down Hang Nail:

On trail:

Wow, what a ride and what a trip. Tomorrow we load up and head back to Cali’. I can’t believe it’s already over. Six of the best riding days of my entire life!! A close knit group of friends, encouraging each other on, offering encouragement on the tough stuff. Helping each other push are own personal limits. I’ve ridden tech features on this trip I never dreamed I would be riding.

The rides, the trails, the camaraderie, the sketch, the fun, the laughs, the jokes, but most of all–the friends!! Thanks Jeremy, Ben, Sean, Mark, Evan, Mark and John for one of the best weeks of my life!! It was a blast.

Our second road trip of the road trip was today. I knew the Lunch Loops trails in Grand Junction wouldn’t disappoint. I rode the Holy Cross trail last year and knew the guys would love it:

First order of business was to drop Sladnas off at the Grand Junction airport. He had to head back early to be at his sister’s wedding. What a jerk, choosing family over friends.

Sladnas gets voted off the island:

We were a bit worried about the weather. The temps were in the low 40’s and we could see snowfall on the other side of I-70.

At the trailhead, snowing in the distance:

Climbing up the Tabegauche Trail enroute to Holy Cross:

After knocking out the climb, we finally arrived at the entrance to the Holy Cross Trail:

Holy Cross is just a big bunch of fun. Rollers and drops and technical features are what this trail is all about. All of it is very doable and well designed. The flow you can easily fall into is unreal:

S.D. Train:

Heading back:

The weather was kind to us and it didn’t start to snow on us until we arrived back at the van and were loading up the bikes and gear. It only dusted for a few minutes at that and none of it stuck.

Everyone was very stoked on the trail and was glad we made the trip to Grand Junction. If you’re ever in the area, definitely check out the Lunch Loops trails and Holy Cross in particular.

Tomorrow: Porcupine Rim–last ride of the trip!!

I had originally planned to have today be a rest day, so Bartlett Wash was on tap. It’s a fun slick rock playground and I’ve always wanted to go there. We were all feeling pretty good, so we were going to hit up the Baby Steps trail after.

First things first–BJammin’s leg, day 4:

Bartlett Wash starts with an incredibly steep “ramp up” that was a bit too steep for anyone to ride up (more on that later):

Luckily there’s an easy way around as it is nearly impossible to walk up as well, although Mark/Sladnas was able to run up it:

We set out to explore the area. It was pretty cool. Miles of petrified sand dunes made for some fun exploring and playing around:

Sean/GP Pilot:

Break Time:

Sean/GP Pilot, Evan/Evdog and Mark/Offroadie found the “Toilet Bowl” and lead the rest of us to it after our mini-break. It’s basically a super steep halfpipe-ish formation that drops you down into a bowl. The pics do no justice to how insanely steep it really is.

Yes, that’s the drop-in on the right side of the pic:

We shot some cool video of several of us dropping in from 3 different camera angles. Once we get it all edited and spliced together, we’ll post it.

After playing around in the ol’ Toilet Bowl, we decided to head back. When we got to the crazy steep “Ramp Up” at the beginning of the trail, we started to toss around the idea of descending it. It was tricky because of the REALLY steep slope, plus the fact that it dropped into a really soft pocket of sand. We talked Mark/Sladnas into being our Guinea Pig for this experiment. As with the “Toilet Bowl”, these pics don’t do the “steepness” justice:

Mark nailed it just fine, so we all decided to give it a go as well.

BJammin:

GP Pilot (as some hikers pass through, now we have an audience):

Pac Man:

Evdog:

OffRoadie:

What a rush!! We had planned on hitting up the Baby Steps trail afterwards, but a thunderstorm rolled in and squashed those plans. Oh well, that’s Moab.

Tomorrow: Grand Junction, CO—Lunch Loops Trails/Holy Cross