Western Slope Exile

The Last Ride?

2011-11-09T20:17:00.001-08:00

This was possibly the last ride of the season. South facing trails are turning into the kind of mud that takes a rut rather than an imprint. All other aspects have a glazed snowy covering. My muscles are starting to remember the bite of a scraper on storage wax, the meditative groove of the skin track, the V2's rhythmic pendulum and resulting glide - but it's hard to let go of that single track.

Lions and Tigers and Bears....

2011-10-11T19:30:00.000-07:00

When you're riding down the bike path and some lady across the street is yelling at you, it's probably smart to give her the benefit of the doubt rather than thinking to yourself "crazy lady, I wish she'd be quiet". There may be a pair of bears 300 feet away.

Coloradical 2

2011-10-02T22:16:00.000-07:00

This is getting posted long after the fact, but nonetheless is documentation of one very exceptional ride. I know that sometimes I'm secretive about locations, but even if I explained how to get to this ride there is a very high likelihood of getting lost on the way to the trailhead; it makes a stronger impression on the memory than it does on a map.

No dogs were harmed in the making of this video. They loved every minute of it.

Summer 11

2011-10-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

It's been so long since I've posted that I had forgot my password and had to do a password recovery. It may appear that I was living under a rock this summer, but it was actually very active. Summer is hard won around here, but the payoff is long dry days with lots of sunshine and light until 9 or 10 pm. No one wants to be inside and there is a manic urgency to be outside and wear flip flops.

A great night of BBQing and riding ill-equipped at the BMX track. I can't say it's the first time for an Xtracycle to take on the track, but likely the first race between an Xtracycle, a Surley Long Haul Trucker, a bike pulling a dog in a trailer, and a tandem. I love it when things are used for unintended purposes.

It was also the summer of experimenting with the capacity of both bike and car. This couch took two tries and some serious shoving to go through my front door, but it went effortlessly into the Element. The Element sat lonely for days at a time though upon the arrival of the Ute. If it wasn't for weekend road trips, one could go completely carless in this town with a bike like this. I actually catch myself saying things like "cars are stupid" and feeling extremely self-righteous. Expect the massive sideburns and Cars-R-Coffins t-shirt any day now. I already bought a pair of black tall-socks.

The other end of Bangtail Divide. This is one of the greatest rides anywhere. Lots of climbing at the edge of redline through loamy forests with the reward of ridge top single track and views of the Bridgers and Crazies. This one is a gem.

Hardscrabble Peak with Dr. Dave. This is about a half hour out of Bozetowne up in the Bridgers, but it feels like the top of the world. It's neighbor, Sacajawea gets a lot of attention and draws a bit of a crowd- but we didn't see a soul after taking a right turn at the saddle between the two.

Another great hike with Dave up a drainage on the back side of the Madisons, under Fan Peak and Lone Peak

More Reasons to Love Bozeman

2011-08-25T13:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/education/article_839f5f5c-ceac-11e0-b41d-001cc4c002e0.html

Check out this great article from the Chronicle. Two things I find very cool about it:
1. An incoming MSU freshman moved into his dorm using bike power.
2. You gotta love a place where skis are considered a necessity! "Freshman begins hauling skis and other necessities into his room"

Who needs a Fedex Pickup?

2011-07-28T16:58:00.000-07:00

I made a trip to FedEx with 4 shipments - totalling 18 pair of shoes. The bags swallowed the smaller boxes, and the bigger boxes went on top without any shifting or swaying.No sweat. Well, a little sweat. Super stable load, although things get a little squirly if you stand up and pedal. I felt like I stuck out a bit until I saw three horses and a dog walking down Olive St.

Newest Addition

2011-07-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

I experienced my first police auction today. It's strange the things that get left behind. How do 70 bikes just go unclaimed? I want to know the stories. I imagine that the previous owner of my new-to-me Ute is a fugitive, or in witness protection, or joined the circus - because why would you not claim this thing? I don't know, but it's mine now. I'm keeping a photocopy of the receipt with the bike in case I get accosted by some dude with black socks, a "cars r coffins" t-shirt, and large sideburns who thinks I swiped his bike. I know I stereotype a lot, but sometimes I can't resist. I won a fierce bidding war between a few other sandaled, bearded dudes and rolled away on my new Ute.

"Summer"

2011-07-23T20:56:00.001-07:00

Ummm, there might still be snow on the ground when winter rolls around. It's a little silly. There is plenty of hiking to be had, but ran into 3 feet of snow in Hyalite in the middle of July.

Grassy Mountain

2011-07-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

I was driving back from CO and got a message from my buddy Nick that he was passing through town. Perfect timing. He hung out for a couple of days and we headed up Bridger Canyon to ride in the Bangtails (the range on the opposite side of the canyon from the Bridgers). Great ride. We climbed a road for a long time, took some manky semi single track and topped out. Then hold on to your visors - descended for a very long distance on sickety-sick singletrack through BIG trees. The switch backs are built just-so and rocket you out the backside...you can actually lean and steer with your feet and flow through them. I found myself wanting to sit down just to give my calves a rest.

I find myself saying "well, in Colorado we"....fill in the blank..."can ride 100 miles of singletrack right from the doorstep, have sick flowy trails, have a better bike culture, more trail building organizations, etc etc etc". I must annoy everyone around me because I annoy myself. It's not fair to compare. It's just different. In MT you just get a different experience; you have to work much harder for it and sometimes the reward is amazing, flowing trails. Sometimes the reward is a good day with good people exploring a serious backcountry experience. Either way, it's good to be on a bike.

Coloradical

2011-07-10T21:18:00.001-07:00

I know I promised more detail on the CO Trip. Life, work, and recreating have been taking precedence. The trip was awesome. Saw a lot of great people and missed a lot of great people. I came down from Idaho into the Flaming Gorge and Vernal. The plan was to ride Vernal but it was pouring rain. I came down CO139 over Douglas pass - which is a totally new place for me. I though I knew CO pretty well, but this was a surprise. Pretty awesome drive and scenery. Rode at Tabaguache, P-Towne secret trails (not really secret anymore after the Mountain Flyer article, but I still didn't see a soul in three hours), The Butte, Salida super secret trails, Buena Vista super secreter trails, and then busted home. It was a lot of single track for one week and I was thoroughly beat on returning to Bozeman. A worthy trip for sure.

Idaho? Udaho.

2011-06-20T10:37:00.000-07:00

Life brings you to some weird places and you get to just roll with it. A 22,000 acre private cattle ranch in Nowhere, ID was the last stop. And it was brilliant.

No Idaho visit would be complete without a cabinent of ammo and an AR-15. While the AR-15 was pretty impressive, I much preferred the cowboy action Colt .45, shooting clay pidgoens with an over-under, and a really fun .25 Auto Pistola.

You think that I have a thing for mountain biking and Nordic skiing? When I was a kid I was obsessed with horses. I begged my mom and dad for one. I would spend nights awake, concentrating all my energy on willing a horse into my life. Somewhere along the way I moved on to other obsessions: girls, punk rock, caring about my GPA, and a career. Bulls Eye the horse re-introduced me to the 11 year old Dave. Smiling, connected, living completely in the moment. This was no nose-to-butt guest ranch ride on "safe" overly broken horses. This was a full on into-the-sunset, across the range ride on an extremely capable horse. Every time I slowed down to a walk or gallop to try to regain my composure he would snort and throw his head. This horse wanted to go. Bulls Eye and I came to a power-sharing agreement - I suggested some direction and kept a stern grasp on the reigns, and he got his yayas out and was twitchy without being scary. I smiled so much my face hurt.

Helena, How Do I Love Thee

2011-05-15T21:25:00.000-07:00

Helena. I'd made assumptions about Helena. I'm suspicious of any mountain town that doesn't have its own ski area. How exciting could it be? A couple of my fit testers from work kept mentioning the trails in Helena and how awesome they are. I didn't expect that the trails are bona fide ride from town single-track. You could theoretically introduce some unconstitutional legislation or squander tax payer money with some foolish branding iron veto sideshow in the morning and then ride straight up into a patchwork of city land, BLM, and Forest Service in the afternoon.

Municipalities around the Mountain West listen up: Helena is your public recreation archetype. The quality is incredibly high and the access is as good as it gets. I stopped in Big Sky Cyclery for some good, friendly advice. I know the dance well - ask about the trails and where to eat, then buy a tube or a map. I'll tell you, skip the map (unless you're a mapophile) and spend the eight bucks on tacos or something. There's been a lot of trail construction since it was published, and it's tough to get lost. Head out of downtown a few blocks on Davis or East Main and you'll see trails. Start riding up. Generally ride in a clockwise direction. Even with the map I kept dumping out a little farther up or down the road than I expected. A few of the intersection are marked. The system has three sections: Mount Ascension City Park, Rodney Ridge, and Mount Helena City Park, each divided by a major drainage and road. Ascension and Rodney are fairly uncrowded (even on a beautiful, warm Saturday), and Mount Helena has a few more hikers and dogs. There is plenty of room to spread out. I only saw about a dozen riders and 5 or 6 hikers. Almost every group of riders stopped to say hello and chat. I met a lot of very friendly folks from Helena and a couple groups of riders who made the trek from Bozeman (and who were nearly speechless on one of the descents). Thanks to all for the advice, conversation, and company.

The trails are mostly single track and run through timber and meadows. There are great 360 degree views. Good, stiff climbs no matter where you go. I was off my bike a bit but nothing obnoxious. I rode for 3.5 hours without doing much retracing of trails. The Entertainment Trail was a spectacular descent. There is a lot of ground to cover. I imagine that if you lived there and rode 3-4 days a week you might be itching for some variety toward the end of the season, but at times I lost sense of time and geography. It was just ridiculously good riding.

Go Pro

2011-05-09T21:48:00.001-07:00

Happy Spring everyone. I hope that your neck of the woods has a bit more sunshine than Bozemanistan. We have rain. Lots of it; but everything is starting to green up as a result.

For some reason I never fixed up my blog settings to display comments. Not sure why. I do see them and it's crazy sometimes to know that people actually read this stuff; and there are some of you from other continents that read this. Weird. Cool that the Google leads you to this very small corner of the internet. The biggest source of comments was the very brief mention of a Yeti Bigtop. That bike has a rabid following. I wish I would have written a more comprehensive review of it. The other request that I get is for information on the video on the site and what I use to get it (anonymous responder from today, I hope you come back to read this). I bought a GoPro HD at a tradeshow about 18 months ago. It was too good of an offer to pass up. Here's some basic info:

1. You can get a lot more out of the camera than I do. My use is very rudimentary and I use a low quality setting. I do this for a couple of reasons, primarily that I can't be bothered with changing the settings and I have a smaller SD card; secondarily, Blogger.com has limits on the size and resolution for video. If I shot in true HD it doesn't really make that much of a difference in the blog-sized format. I promise to explore the issue this summer and see if I can milk a bit better resolution out of the process. Also, using a bigger, HD specific SD card will remove the glitches and herky-jerkiness; and it will record a massive amount of footage.
2. All that being said, the camera is amazing. It charges quickly on a USB connection; has a million different secure mounting options (though I think I would get more use out of a chest harness and handle bar mount); takes a lot of abuse; has a built in battery heater for cold weather; is fun; and can be set up to take a pic every few seconds; is a lot of product for the money; waterproof casing.
3. The downsides: can be obtrusive; can make people nervous when you're cruising around with it sticking off the top of your head (or can make people ride fast); isn't equipped with a standard LCD screen (you can buy an attachment), so I'm never quite sure if I'm shooting a good angle or not. My best advice with that is to just use it a lot. You'll throw out a lot of footage, but eventually you'll get it. Even so, I still get it too vertical sometimes. It's not as sleek as a Contour but I was surprised at how much it "disappeared" given its size.
4. I've ridden with this thing a lot and I tend to not be affected by it - the weight is pretty insignificant. I don't ski with it as much - I'm a pretty slow skier on the uphill and down and I feel like it makes me even slower; it's hard to remember to take off my skins, switch my bindings to downhill mode, lock my boot cuff, adjust my poles, close all the zippers, buckle my waist belt, take a pee, and get the camera ready. Half of the time I'm skiing with my boots in walk mode on the downhills because there's just too much to remember. If you're a bit faster on the uptake than me then you should be fine. Most of my skiing this season was squeezing in a few hours on a powder day before work so that caused me to leave the camera behind in favor of streamlining the morning routine.

I edit in iMovie which is ridiculously easy (though I still can't figure out how to fade music). The footage that you get is the footage that you get. iMovie will let you zoom in on the frames a bit, which helps, but generally what I post on the site is fairly raw. Like I said, I could definitely be getting more out of it. Questions? Fire away. Hope this is helpful.

Lewis and Clark Caverns Mountain Biking

2011-04-18T21:33:00.000-07:00

I certainly didn't expect to do much riding on dirt this early in the Spring. It's been warmish here but two weekends ago brought a fresh 2 feet up high and we just had a 5" shot of wet, heavy snow in town. Folk keep telling me about Pipestone which is about 45 minutes west of Bozeman and a lot drier, but last weekend there was a huge MX race happening out there; so I decided to check out Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park instead. The Caverns themselves aren't quite open yet, but the park is open for riding and hiking and has about 10 miles of single track. I decided to make the 45 minute drive to check it out. The drive alone is completely worth it - along the Jefferson River, through wheat fields, with the Madison mountains in full view. I stopped in at the visitor center and they gave me a trails map and a bit of advice. Apparently some hikers are sensitive to mountain bikes so I was cautioned to take it easy and be polite. I started at the lower visitor center and mostly climbed for 45 minutes up the east side and topped out at the upper visitor center and cavern entrance. It's a lung-burner this early in the season, but nice and steady. Then I pointed pointed it west for the downhill back (you can ride it clockwise or anticlockwise - I like the wide open, fast descent on the West side). The trail had a few squishy spots but was 95% dry; it's a mixture of wide open, twisty single track and side-hill bench cut (yes, with the cactus and the bench cut I had to actively remind myself I was not riding SMT - the similarities are eery). The grades are nice for climbing and descending; could be single speedable if you have iron lungs; very nicely built with a backslope that's not too obnoxious and with nice grade reversals. Mostly smooth with a couple rock features - one in particular on the West side that is really fun and rewarding. Folks put some time, love, and thought into the design and layout. The only bummer to report is the switchback construction. They are tight. I pride myself on being able to get around the tightest switchbacks even on a 29er, but I could only make a couple of these on my 26" bike. It really interupts the flow of the trails - but, they are beautiful trails in a beautiful spot that was ice/snow free...so thumbs up. I can't wait to go back. The park gets great southern exposure and I actually climbed in short sleeves!I saw some bike tracks, two hikers on the way up, and three hikers and a dog on they way down. Not too crowded for a Saturday.

YNP Road Ride

2011-04-17T20:53:00.000-07:00

Yellowstone National Park does a really cool thing for cyclists during the transition from Winter to Spring. While the road crews are out plowing to allow for maintenance and supply vehicles to get in, they let folks run, skate, ride, roller ski (or whatever form of human powered transportation you choose) while the roads are closed to cars. We had a lot of snow, cold temps, and generally unsettled weather during this time. I kept chickening out when I saw snow/rain in the forecast or temps below 40 degrees. The magic time period came and went but I did get the consolation of riding on the first day the Park was open for the "summer" season. It was on a Friday so the traffic was minimal. I saw maybe 30 cars, most of them pretty friendly; I sensed that they were employees getting to their seasonal posts.

I parked in Gardiner and climbed up to Mammoth Hot Springs, then on to Swan Lake Flats toward Old Faithful. It's a steady climb that took a few hours with lots of stops along the way for pics. The ground and road were clear all the way until Swan Lake Flats, where there is a definite snow line around 6500 ft. It was a pretty special experience. What an amazing way to see YNP. No Bison jams or half-mile lines of RV's. Just lots of solitude and scenery, miles of good road, and tolerable temps.

2011-04-07T16:35:00.000-07:00

You may be admiring dogwood flowers or watching little green shoots pop out of the ground; I think I'm a long way out from that, but the consolation has been blower pow.

First Ride

2011-04-06T16:53:00.000-07:00

Got on the bike for the first time since November. All systems go. Made it home 10 minutes before a torrential storm. The roads around town have been mostly dry for a week or so, but the temps aren't always cooperative. The Bridgers have a ton of snow. Full coverage at the ski area with nearly continual snowfall above 7,000 feet for the past few weeks

MOA Inspired Shot

Snow!

2011-04-06T16:42:00.000-07:00

This is what an inch in a half hour looks like. The flakes are quarter size. Tomorrow morning is going to be sick!

Color

2011-03-03T17:19:00.001-08:00

There are a few key elements to making footwear - research and development, project management, fit/wear testing, color, calendar - and I love them all. Each one fulfils an emotional or personal need for me, draws on a strength and offers an incredible challenge. This week we've been reviewing color-ups for an upcoming season. We start with about 6 colors from our colorist and work down to 2. Sometimes it's an obvious process and sometimes there is some effort. The cool thing about the current situation is that everyone in the building participates. It doesn't matter if you do customer service, marketing, or are the President or CEO - you sit in on color reviews and offer your opinion. Being small opens up some great opportunities for level of involvement. At other companies the interns always construct the physical color palette - pulling the chips out of a book and glueing them to the paper. Today I got to do it and this seemingly mundane task took on a new meaning and I felt really connected to the palette; I started noticing associations; I thought about each color, it's name, it's Pantone number - turning the words and digits over in my head. All while listening to Joni Mitchell's Hejira. It was really calming. No, I wasn't stoned.

41 for 41...Maybe Next Time

2011-03-01T16:39:00.000-08:00

Setting a goal and not reaching it just plain stinks. I'm not a very destination oriented person, but I do sometimes set ridiculous goals so that I'll get myself motivated to accomplish something rather than just sitting in my comfy chair eating chocolate covered pretzels all day. 41k did not happen. More and louder Fugazi cannot always overcome a lack of preparation. There are all kinds of factors - my lack of any real training; my ratio of fast twitch to slow twitch muscle fibers, didn't eat/drink enough, whatever...but one legitimate factor was the cold. When the temp drops near or below the 0 degree Fahrenheit mark things begin to get very slow. The rudimentary physics go something like this - when your ski base runs over the snow there is a very subtle melting process that occurs. It's a blink of an eye type thing. The ski runs on these momentarily transformed molecules. Too little melting (cold temps)and everything gets static-y and goes into slow motion. It becomes a time to shift expectations or continue on in frustration. It becomes a good day to bundle up, take things easy, and enjoy the view; or kick really hard and drive yourself utterly into the ground; or go inside and make soup. I definitely saw my expectations shift as the day developed. I remember the first few hours being borderline OCD, seeing my goal slip away from me. It took most of the day to realize that it's really just about having fun. If I wanted to accomplish something I could always go to the office and switch on my computer. All that being said, a really fit, talented skier could tick off 40 or 50k on a day like that. So, it was a tough day on the emotions. I keep coming back to the fun factor. It's gotta be fun. Don't get me wrong, there is a time to push and train - but not when it makes me feel like a gerbil on a wheel. I had a job as a deckhand on a boat. When I first started I struggled with the lines making these ugly coils while coming perilously close to catching and breaking my ankles. That's when a fellow (female) deckhand told me to handle the lines like I would handle a woman. In other words, stop struggling. "My yoke is easy and my burden is light".

41K

2011-02-25T13:28:00.001-08:00

I'm getting psyched up to ski 41K for my "41nth" b-day. It was -26 degrees at Bohart this morning, so I hope that things improve by Saturday morning. I'm skiing in a fund-raiser for the Galatin Valley Land Trust and thought it would be a good opportunity for a birthday challenge. They do great things for trails and access around the valley. I'm all for that. I don't usually wear an ipod when riding/skiing/etc., but I may need a bit of motivation. I'm going for a mid-tempo playlist. Something that will keep me rocking steady without spiking the adrenaline for about 3-4 hours. Here is a snapshot of what my day could feel like.

Freelance Whales: Generator
The Rural Albreta Advantage: Eye of the Tiger
Afro Celt Sound System: Release
And So I Watch You From Afar: A little bit of solidarity goes a long way
Arcade Fire: No Cars Go
Au: rr vs. d
Band of Horses: Is There a Ghost
The Beatles: Here Comes the Sun
Ben Harper: Gold to Me
Bob Marley: Could You Be Loved
Cake: Short Skirt, Long Jacket
Built To Spill: Temporarily Blind
Deer Tick: Straight Into a Storm
The Black Crowes: Hard To Handle
The Black Keys: Tighten Up
The Big Sleep: You can't touch the untouchable
Broken Social Scene: Pacific Them
Bombay Rockers: Ari Ari
Bruce Springsteen: Born To Run
Built To Spill: Hindsight
Calexico: Ballad of Cable Mogue
The Cure: Close to Me
The Dead Milk Men: Punk Rock Girl
Explosions In The Sky: Snow and Lights
The Flaming Lips: Turn it On
Flobots: Handlebars
Bee Gees: Stayin' Alive (obligatory inclusion)
From Good Homes: Cool Me Down
The Fugees: Vocab
Husker Du: Eiffel Tower High
Iron and Wine: Bird Stealing Bread
Isis: Backlit
Luna: 23 Minutes in Brussels
Jaco Pastorius: Come On, Come Over
Jazzanova: No Use
Lauryn Hill: Doo Wop
The Raconteurs: Level
My Morning Jacket: Gideon
New Order: Age of Consent
Old Crow Medicine Show: Wagon Wheel
Public Enemy: Give the peeps what they need
Screaming Trees: Nearly Lost You
Son Volt: Picking up the signal
Steve Earle: The Revolustion Starts...
Sugar: If I Can't Change Your Mind
Talking Heads: Girlfriend is Better
Sun Kil Moon: Salvador Sanchez
Wilco: Too Far Apart
Tortoise: Djed
Trampled By Turtles: Help You
Wilco and Billy Bragg: Airline to Heaven
Yo La Tengo: Here to Fall

Breathe, eat my Clif Blocks, stay warm, keep moving. Full, but concise report to follow.

And We're Back

2011-01-15T18:45:00.000-08:00

I'm in Montana. I'm not going anywhere. But I'm back to WesternSlopeExile.blogspot.com. It felt unnatural to move away from this blog. It's like my brand name or identity or something. The other blog isn't working. So I'm going to try to merge my CO past with my MT future, and this is the place to do it. There is some good history here and I can't archive it away to some dusty corner of the internet.

It's been above 40F Degrees for three days; not even freezing at night. Total Junuary. Like Mud Season without the mud. There was a line at the car wash today and if it keeps up I'm going to pull out my road bike. The Nordic trails in town have turned to mush. But, oh how nice it is to walk around in a fleece vest and no down jacket.

Tele Boot History

2011-01-15T18:33:00.001-08:00

You're looking at a Garmont Triple G circa 1999. I bought these used in 2000 from Tele Movie Star Luke Miller. They served me well over the years with countless vertical feet of climbing around Camp Hale, Waist Deep Days at Steamboat, and wind-scoured days at Eldorko. I always kept these as a "backup" and because they fit like a glove. I've been through a couple of pair of various boots since then so I figured it was time to send these out into the world. I took them to the ski swap and no-one there could appreciate them; so off to Craigslist they went as I mouthed a prayer that they would go to some deserving soul who would appreciate them and would use them to launch into a lifetime of Tele turns. A week went by and my phone rang with a second season Tele skier from Big Sky. He swings chairs for a living in the winter and manages Appalachian huts in New Hampshire in the summer. The boots fit him like a glove and got him out of his mis-fit garage sale tanks. Many happy turns to him and my old Triple G's.

The Cobbler's Son...

2011-01-15T18:29:00.001-08:00

The old adage is that the cobbler's son has no shoes. What about the footwear developer? I take more shoes to the thrift store than many people will ever own in their lives. I used to have giant bins of every shoe I've ever worked on. Before the big move I cut it down to only the significant stuff - like successes (Tech Amphib), learning experiences (PI Octane), and weird stuff (a Salomon Creek Boating boot) and only in half pairs.

Footwear procurement for me breaks down into three categories: the crap that doesn't fit me but I wear because it's free or because I need to fly the brand flag; the stuff that fits but was miraculously still free and has the right logo on it to allow me from getting hassled at trade shows (Chaco Flips and PI Seeks); and the hard hard earned stuff that I've banged my head against the wall for - tele and AT boots with liners that have been baked two times to take the shape of my foot, Sidi Dominators that have stretched and molded to my feet through hundreds of creek crossings, Classic Nordic boots that can only be found on obscure websites. You see, I have a weird foot. The majority of footwear developers come into the profession through involvement in wear testing networks - you have a nice, sample size foot, you test for a company, get to know them, and work your way up. That was the route for me as well, except that I don't have the perfect sample size foot. The width of my foot is ridiculously disproportionate to the length, leaving me with few options. Ski boots work because of the moldable liners. Sidi offers an extra wide version of the Dominator (the Mega), and PI used to have a couple of sloppy-wide cycling shoes (of which I snapped up multiple pairs that are sitting in my storage unit waiting for the inevitable delamination or crash-induced failure of my current pairs). My latest interest is skate skiing and it's proving to be a massive challenge. Not only is it technique intensive and favorable to fast-twitch skinny guys with big watches (I'm the only "husky" guy I know who skate skis), it has some serious footwear challenges. The paradigm is that a tight fit equals performance. There are also very limited options for outsoles. Salomon has a couple of sole units that they use or license and Rotefella offers a few New Nordic Norm outsoles. The shape and the width of the outsole limit what you can do with fit, flex and performance. Most companies use a stock Salomon or NNN sole because it costs too much to open their own molds. There is just not enough money in Nordic skiing to work in the cost of a unique outsole - and the outsole has to be compatible with one of two bindings. The Nordic ski market is driven by European brands and end users; Euros wear their shoes tight (if you're interested I can share stats and anecdotal feedback from measuring US feet and Euro feet and comparing the measured size to the size that people actually buy) - so that tight fit doesn't translate well to the typical US end user or someone who values comfort and performance. Salomon is offering heat moldable foam in their boots, taking a cue from moldable alpine and tele liners, giving a slight nod to the US market and the broader trend toward comfort. I'll let you know how it works out as soon as I take a hair dryer to mine.

CO Visit

2011-01-15T18:09:00.000-08:00

I've been up to my old tricks. I'll be switching back to WesternSlopeExile mode for this post as I've had some great adventures in the Colorado end of the Rockies. I linked Denver to Crested Butte via bus and bummed rides (connecting with my inner dirt bag), ate road kill (I am not kidding), met my new friends Pekoe the dog and Mama the Hen, skied some new CB Nordic trails, and felt my muscle memory take over when I would walk into the back of the bike shop or reach for a light switch. So familiar. It's hard to shake a near lifetime of Colorado. I sure do miss the sand and sage, the 14,000 foot peaks, knowing and being known. But, there is Cold Smoke to be schralped, the Greater Yellowstone to be explored, Grizzlies to be avoided, and vast wilderness to be experienced here in Montana. On tap: an Alpine Ski skills clinic series at Bridger, skating at Bohart, the NCAA Nordic regionals, a broadened footwear testing network, Moonlight Basin, and the new Sushi place. More to follow.

Avalanche Course

2011-01-15T18:06:00.000-08:00

Practice, dig, think, speak up.

Morning Commute

2011-01-15T18:03:00.000-08:00

I posted this back in October. Had to repost with Jake's painting based on one of the photographs from Cottonwood Road. Thanks for the best Christmas Gift!

This morning I took the "long" way to work, adding about 5 minutes to my 20 minute commute. For the time being I'm staying with an old friend in Gallatin Gateway until my apartment downtown is available. The drive to work passes a couple of huge ranches, wheat farms, and ranchettes. A lot of these larger parcels are in jeopardy right now. Property values have skyrocketed, even in the recession, and land owners are getting taxed off of their properties. The choices are tough - sell out to the developers and watch generations-old ranches get sliced into ranchettes and Louisville/Erie/Superior-like subdivisions, or sign the land over to the state in a conservation easement. On the surface the easement looks like a great choice. The state owns the land to be forever preserved as ranch land, habitat, or open space and your family gets to live there and continue to ranch. I like the permanent protection (the ranch-land equivalent to wilderness designation), but to me it sounds a bit too much like serfdom. Tough choices.

Moving On

2010-10-10T16:45:00.000-07:00

I'm definitely not on the Western Slope anymore, so WesternSlopeExile is going to go dormant. You can still follow all the transitions, observations, season changes, and discoveries. Change those bookmarks to:

www.bozemanographer.blogspot.com

My three years of western slope life were amazing. It's hard to even remember life before the move. Colorado has been home for most of my life. I try to leave but can never find a place as good. How can you top the scale of Crested Butte, the high desert and orchards of Paonia, the vibe of Fort Collins, Denver's proximity to the goods? Montana is a very close rival, and has it's own twist. Nature is a conduit for the connection between God and man, and presents a unique interface as the geography and culture changes. Montana is vast, rugged, wild, and a little unnerving.

I am always investigating the question, how important is our geography to our happiness? Why do I need open space and topography? I don't know why it's important, I just know that it is. And, how important is career? Is it crazy to leave family and friends behind to make a living? I feel like my adult life is a pie cut into thirds. One piece is career/purpose, another place/adventure/discovery/recreation, and the third is family/friends/relationship. The three share mutual exclusivity as well as some interdependence and commonality - meaning that I can get two of them down at one time, but I've never been able to get three. When my career is on fire, it's not always in the place I want to live; sometimes I'm in a place I want to live and my career is going, but then I'm isolated from friends and family. I spent a lot of years being bitter about all of this, anxiously wondering where and when it all comes together. I've said that I'm more about the question than the answer. I don't always live that, but lately it's coming true. Bozeman is not about fixing problems. I reluctantly admit that there is no perfect place. It's about experiencing a beautiful, wild place; taking an active role in a company that strives to be different; righting my career; schralping some fatpow. Here's the real deal (and pardon me for getting all spiritual, my roots are showing):

Jeremiah 29:7 "seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."

Move on over to the new blog.

Pump It Up

2010-10-08T19:56:00.000-07:00

So I'm driving to REI to look at collar heights on Backpacking boots - I know, who really does that on a Friday night besides footwear developers - and I see an Indian restaurant. One of the hardest things about living in places like Paonia, Crested Butte, and Salida is the absence of Indian food. So I'm stoked. I'm smiling really big and I turn to drive past it just to make sure I remember where it is. I circle around the block to get back onto N. 19th street, headed toward the highway exit and big box stores and I catch a flash out of the corner of my eye. It's a kid launching himself into the air on a dirt-jumper. Not only did I find Indian food, I found a cultural center of bike sub-culture. I walk up and start talking to the riders who are MSU students. I figured they'd either brush me off or wonder what the old guy is doing at the pump track without a bike; but, as people who ride bikes generally are, they were all super friendly. They asked me where I'm from and I said Crested Butte and had instant credibility and was granted temporary, peripheral bro-ness. These guys were destroying it with a really fluid style - tail whips, creative lines, and soft landings. They told me about some downhill trails outside of town. It's a scenario that is universal to mountain towns where the guy starts talking and all the other guys looks at him like he's crazy to give away the goods. He hesitates, sizes me up, and offers up the name of a trail - Leverage Canyon - and then stops short after saying something like "there's some other cool stuff around if you look for it". I'll have to spend some time here before they tell me where the real goods are. All the way to REI I envisioned a pump track session followed by some Tikka Masala, then spinning home on a Shonky in a ridiculously low gear with the saddle all the way down.

I get to REI and spend some time scoping out shoes. It's funny how all the brands "borrow" from each other. Not a lot of innovation out there. I did see some very interesting stuff though. Teva has some beautiful women's autumn boots - calf high, nice full grain leathers, beautiful patterns. Something about them felt very familiar when I realized they were almost identical to what we were doing at Ulu before they got bought out - with the cork/EVA midsole even. Hmmm. TNF has a shoe called the Snow Sneaker that is very cool. The upper is similar to a standard 5.10 or Patagonia causual/outdoor upper, but it has aggressive, spike like outsole lugs (without being clunky), a burly textured toe bumper, and 100g Primaloft insulation - all without being bulky. It looks like a normal shoe, but it's a winterized tenni. On top of it all the quarter has a beautifully executed way of incorporating a pattern split (pattern splits are used to reduce material usage but are often hidden under other pieces or are just exposed and look ugly). Man, I try to hate that brand, but with products like that it's difficult.

This Is Fun

2010-09-30T19:16:00.000-07:00

http://obozfootwear.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/meet-oboz-abby-and-dave/

Here's a little write-up from the Oboz publicist. I'm a pretty big on the world wide web these days.

2010-09-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

Hi. I'm in Bozeman. Wish I had some great pictures of the mountains, sunrise, sunset, and cool town - but I've spent most of my time staring at this monitor, setting up my work computer, and figuring out how to transfer email from macmail to Outlook. All is well. We reviewed Spring 2012 color this afternoon and made some decision about what needs changed, and what gets sampled. Bozeman is pretty awesome. I haven't had much time to explore...the extent of my recreation has been watching the sun come up on a nice morning run and getting a food coop membership. My stoke is masked by fatigue. I hope all is well in your corner of the universe. I'll get pics and thoughts up this weekend.

Homeward Bound

2010-09-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to Bruce Springsteen and craving a cheeseburger. It's time to come home. China is a trip. The level of progress, growth, and change is staggering. Start brushing up on your Mandarin because you might need it. I can't even explain how different things are. Have to catch a flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco. Looking forward to getting back, spending a few days in Denver, then off to Bozeman. At this point though I just want a nap. Then some endless single track and some nachos would be sweet.

Exit from The Exit

2010-09-03T18:30:00.001-07:00

I left Salida today. Very bittersweet to leave my Crested Butte/Salida life. I took one last ride on the SMT trails, said goodbye to friends at the bike shop, and tore myself away from the river. Made an overnight stop at the Rice Peeps cabin...they live completely off the grid at 10,000 feet, a couple miles off of a county road, with a humongous panorama view of the Buffalo Peaks. On to Summit County tomorrow, then Denver, then China, then Bozeman. Not much else to share, just that packing usually takes twice as long as expected.

When the Circus Comes to Town

2010-09-03T18:12:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege of being in temporary possession of a Yeti Big Top. They were kind enough to drop a demo off at the shop for employees and friends. The Big Top is a big deal - Yeti has been resistant to building a 29" wheel bike and this is their first crack at it. I was concerned that they would be behind the curve, but they've done a beautiful job - it descends like a dream. I forgot I was riding a hardtail and was ripping through corners and taking step-downs and ledges very confidently. Oh, and it goes up too. Very efficiently. My new dream is to have a Big Top and an ASr-7 - I think that would cover every riding situation I could ever think of from X/C racing to lift served.

Movin' to Montana Soon...

2010-08-29T20:15:00.000-07:00

It's true. I've accepted a position with a very cool company in a very cool place. I am Bozeman bound. Packing, moving, settling up, and closure have all prevented me from getting time to post all the details here. So much to share, so many things have happened. I move in October, with a trip to the PRC in mid september to visit a factory. Stay tuned.

Matty, I have no email address for you. Send me a note: ddolph at hotmail dot com. I was at the Y Yesterday! Weird to be back there.

2010-08-01T18:38:00.000-07:00

It was a nice weekend in the Exit. Fred and Heidi tied the knot (and what a beautiful knot they've managed to fashion) - in a meadow, in the forest, with dogs playing, kids laughing, and everyone smiling. The rain held off long enough to finish the service and then we huddled under tents and easy-ups and had a beautiful time. Thunder pealed in the place of bells and we even saw a through-hiker pass on the Colorado Trail.

The Omnium brought in a ton of folks for a good weekend of home-grown racing...a time trial in torrential rain Friday, big Crit around downtown Saturday, and a 74 mile road circuit Sunday. I worked a really fun corner on the circuit - the riders crested a big climb, hit downhill on broken pavement, rounded a 90 degree dirt corner, then picked up the pavement again at the beginning of a 40+mph descent. Some very sweet road racing.

Crest II

2010-07-25T17:42:00.000-07:00

Here's an alternate way down from the Crest. It's not as blocky and steep as Silver Creek and is more flowing.

Happiness By the Pound

2010-07-17T11:31:00.000-07:00

Hotchkiss cherries showed up at the farmer's market today. It doesn't take much more than that to make me very happy.

Here's some more homegrown goodness. I crashed and broke the tab that holds my brake lever to the reservoir body. The shop called Shimano to get a replacement and they don't stock the parts. Shame on Shimano, not only does the M575 provide weak power and no modulation, you can't get parts. Are they trying to create a throw-away product? I showed Anton and I could sense the wheels turning in his head. He took a hacksaw and notched the body, looped a wire around the lever to hold the lever bushing in the correct position, and then made a groove in the bar side of the clamp to pass the wire through for the right pull angle and so the clamp can sit flush on the bar. Brilliant! It was supposed to get me a couple of days until I could order a new assembly from a shop in New Hampshire, but I figure if it can survive 5,000 feet of descending on the Crest I'm going to just continue to roll with it.

[Update: Shimano sent a new lever assembly about 2-3 weeks after this. Thanks, Shimano. I'm still riding the wired lever that Anton fixed as it works just as well and am waiting until I need a brake bleed to install the new one]

Speaking of the Crest...I finally rode it yesterday. It's a pretty amazing ride with some big scenery and big descents. But I was surprised to be climbing on single track and descending on double track and fire roads. Something about it feels very backwards. I think there are endless opportunities though to turn that single track to downhill - a 6-10 mile out and back from the tram; or a ride up Marshall Pass road to link up with the Silver Creek section; or just bomb down Fooses or Greens from the top. Any thoughts, ideas, or experiences?

The Pumpfarm

2010-06-25T13:52:00.000-07:00

Pump tracks are all the rage in The Exit. There is one public track and 4 or 5 private tracks. The tracks are fun; a great core and cardio workout - seriously, I know it doesn't look like it because you don't really pedal much but your heart rate tops out quickly; a safe way to learn advanced skills (sort of); and 4 year olds and their parents can ride at the same place at the same time. I was really intimidated by these things at first but then my buddy Brendan spent about an hour with me at the town track a few weeks ago breaking it down step by step...how to get my whole body into it, look down the track, commit to and rail corners. Centrifugal force is your friend. It's the closest thing I've seen to perpetual motion. Here's a little video from the Pump Farm track.

Tour Divide

2010-06-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

The Tour Divide race covers 2700 miles of dirt roads, byways, old rail beds, and trails from Canada to Mexico. Racers travel solo, border to border, at their own pace over the course of about 3 weeks; they carry everything they need, sleep in the open, under bridges and in doorways, and resupply in the small towns along the way. Salida is the last major stop and last bike shop on the route before riders hit the New Mexico desert. This brings them through the shop for service, parts, and a lot of Clif Bars. We saw the race leaders trickle through on Tuesday.

Scot helping Matt Lee with a freewheel overhaul, shifting setup, and brake bleed...all in about 45 minutes. Matt came in about 7 hours ahead of the other riders. I'm learning that the longer the race, the mellower the racer. All these guys are kind, personable, and unpretentious.

Matt's bike with 3 weeks of camping gear and some food weighing in at 31 pounds. That's not much more than the bike you're riding this weekend!

Here is Blaine Nester getting ready to head out after some shifting work and a massive meal at the cafe next door. Again, calm, calculated, unhurried.

Erik Lobeck's Moots YBB loaded and waiting. He had some major drivetrain issues in Montana that sidelined him for 36 hours. I can't imagine what that would do to a person mentally. Even so, the guy has made up ground and is back in the running. Note that the three leaders in the race are all on Cannondale Lefty forks. Lefty domination!

Follow their progress here: www.tourdivide.org/leaderboard

FIBark Boater X

2010-06-25T12:43:00.000-07:00

Nick and I headed up to Pine Creek north of BV to check out the FIBark Boater X. The paddlers race through class V holes in sets of 3 or 4; pine creek has about 7 massive, powerful holes and a nice rock garden. The action was amazing and really fun to watch. One particular hole kept swallowing people. The video shows a guy get surfed, enveloped, and spit out. FIBark was fun to experience and I'm glad that it happened...but I was also glad when it was over as the festival headquarters was literally across the street from my apartment raging until 2:00am for three nights.

Post #100!

2010-05-20T13:26:00.001-07:00

Here's a bunch of random crap:

Working at a bike shop has some perks...the discounts and prodeals, shop tools, meeting people to ride with, etc. But this gig has a benefit that is unique: the shop is in an old feed store with a 3 story grain elevator that we occasionally get to throw stuff off of. The gig is a nice supplement to the contract work. I'm learning a ton and even got to rebuild my rear shock!

Sad and happy news for the bike. I had it in the stand to do a few adjustments and found a good size crack in the head tube. Then started looking around and found another in the bottom bracket shell. Sad to see it go. Now, I'm not posting this as a dig on a certain manufacturer out of Colorado; to the contrary, they stood behind it and had a replacement waiting for me the next day. It's a wonder that the poor frame lasted that long under my 190 pounds.

The finished product, good as new:

When I went to pick up the new frame I was met by this view. Holy Shmoley.

Made another trip to the Front Side for Mother's Day. Mom had another top done. It's not quilted yet...you have to contruct the blocks, sew them together, and then start quilting the top. Most sewers would take 9-12 months to do a project like this but she pumps out 3-4 a year. She's ridiculously talented.

Incredulous that I was actually imbibing, Matt snapped a photo during the first backyard BBQ of the year. You may know that I don't drink much - after living with gout for 15 years I'm always careful no matter how well the gout meds work.

Sam looking formidable. Wish that came in an adult size.

I made a quick trip to CB to say hello and check the PO Box...and revisit the winter that won't go away. 5" of snow in mid-May in town. Here's a pic of John, fully upright and mobile after a successful disc fusion surgery.

So there's some randomness for post #100. Time marches on. All is well. I have a bed to sleep in, a roof over my head (even if the landlord shut off the pilot light on the furnace), a sandwich and some grapenuts in my belly, trails to ride on, family and friends. I just finished a book set during the Great Depression and my perspective right now is one of gratitude. Times are thin for all of us, but it's also beautiful to see people spending less time stressing out about buying needless crap and spending time BBQ-ing, quilting, recreating, living, and loving. We're all going to make it...and we might just reconnect with our souls in the meantime!

Fruita

2010-04-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

Sunrise, Sunset, Fruita... sure as shootin, the sage wakes up, the hillsides turn green, and little desert flowers come out of the ground. The single track is payoff for a winter of down coats, snow shoveling, mud trudging, and tourist dodging.

I ran into some complications driving out of The Exit; Monarch pass was closed with a foot of snow at the top. I finally slipped through and was Fruita bound. Fell asleep in my tent Friday night to the sound of pattering rain and woke up Saturday morning to sunshine, no wind, and a perfect 70 degrees. Short sleeve jerseys, shorts, sunscreen, and a world of trails beckoning. The ex-Pearl crew and Summit County/Chaffee County hut trip crew merged and we proceeded to eat us up some desert singletrack. My cameras both crapped out so there's very little photo documentation. You'll have to take my word for it. It was fun.

Boulder County Open Space and Mountain Parks should annex 18 Road as there were lots of team kits, scowls, and race bikes. We did our best to make up for it by smiling, giggling, and wearing thrift store and hand-me-down jerseys. The Horsethief Bench side was a little less crowded as there is more room to spread out. I think next time a weekday trip will be a good idea. Weekends are getting a bit nuts there lately. Not like I should have a reason to complain - Fruita is one big bliss nugget. At one point I caught myself riding along with a big stupid grin on my face thinking about....absolutely nothing.

The Backyard

2010-04-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

The Backyard has abundant recreational opportunities. There's a sweet trail network that starts about a block from downtown. Some folks here had the foresight to get these things built and the network is growing weekly.

Andy, Rebecca, and I went out to explore. We ran into Wes, the mountain bike Welcome Wagon, who showed us some fun stuff to ride.

A few days later, Kelly made it down from BV for a nice hike. We followed a faint trail into an arroyo; the trail faded in and out as the route wound its way up the drainage to connect with some more established trails. We looped around on the SMT network and back to the river.

Pulling Down the Sick Gnar.

2010-04-16T14:53:00.000-07:00

Jake, Courtney and I were having dinner with friends the other night when someone asked "why do you guys take such risks?" After exchanging puzzled looks, Jake's response was pretty smart...the risk is only perceived: working your way up a route, placing nuts and cams along the way, with a (hopefully) reliable belayer working the other end of the rope can't be that different than buckling a seat belt and turning the ignition. You can look at life as having danger lurking around every corner or you can take reasonable precautions and let it unfold.

I'm not much of a climber. I have the vertical reach of a hobbit, an even shorter attention span, and I can't fit into 90% of what Prahna manufactures. The only reason I know anything about climbing is from living 10 years in Boulder. I learned terms such as "pulling down" and "nasty flapper" so I could mock the annoying rock jocks surrounding me. But lately I've been thinking about climbing. I'm not under the illusion that climbing is without serious risks and consequences, though it is a progression of calculated risks, moving from protection piece to protection piece. You're as likely to see an engine fall off an aeroplane onto your house or to be struck by lightening before you were involved in a serious climbing related incident. I feel like life lately has been comprised of moving from cam to cam. Sometimes the run-outs are long. But I'm clipped in along the way. The belayer is attentive, relaxed, but ready. These are the realities that I have to remind myself of when I feel too far off the ground, when the bank account is low and why the hell does it take a client 8 weeks to pay an invoice, when I walk around a new town feeling strange like a stranger. That's when the connection points are nice. So thanks, all you nuts and cams. And The Belayer.

Spring, Sprang, Sprung

2010-03-29T15:52:00.001-07:00

Guess who skate skied in short sleeves this afternoon!

Looking back at posts it seems that Western Slope Exile exists to document the changing, passing seasons as much as anything else. Spring is here in the figurative sense. Flowers are still germinating underground. Torrents of chocolate brown runoff are still locked up in the snowpack; but I showed up this morning at the Magic Meadows trailhead to catch one of the Nordic regulars in a tank top and see chunks of ice floating down the free-flowing creek; my tele boots are covered in mud from hiking through a half mile of muck on Brush Creek road; a winter's worth of dog poo is thawing in the alley. Close enough - spring has sprung.

Change is coming...and not just switching wax from extra blue to klister. I've just begun the reflection and processing that comes from the transition of one season to the next. What was this winter all about? Chasing that elusive storm cycle, finding the rhythm of a double pole kick, going from shuffling around the pancake flat Poop Loop on skate skis to pumping out a respectable V2 on The Bench, skiing Hard Slab and Hawks Nest without peeing my pants; watching the Alley Loop and Grand Traverse flow by from a volunteer's viewpoint; slinging rentals, waxing advice, and trail recommendations at the Nordic Center; my first consulting check from that big ski company....many goals accomplished. My current state of Adult Onset Adolescence makes introspection of the existential variety more difficult. It's a sad cliche of ski town life to tick off the ski resume accomplishments and ignore the stuff that really matters. Thankfully I have people close who push me, ask the difficult questions, and gently expose my inclinations toward mediocrity; people who support my desire to be more assertive and honest in my relationships. Big changes indeed.

Western Slope Exile. Well, "Western Slope" is soon to be an inaccurate geographical descriptor. I'm relocating to the east side of the Great Divide. I'll still be at 7,000 feet, under the watchful gaze of the 14,000 foot peaks of the Sawatch, but without the real and perceived isolation of being on the West Side. Most CB folks have responded to this change with a big "WHY?". Why leave paradise to live in a valley that is being encroached upon from the East Infection of the Front Range? My heart has been headed in the direction of the Arkansas Valley for over a decade. So I'm going to try it out for a season with full intention of returning to the the snow globe (CB) next ski season. I'll never know if the Ark Valley can be home until I try.

"Exile" no longer seems to be an accurate descriptor as well. I've grown so comfortable with Western Slope life, running along at a nice lope with an unplugged power cord trailing behind me. But I have the URL and I don't want to make my dozen or so faithful readers have to change their browser bookmarks. WesternSlopeExile stands for now.

Here are some photos of winter from the start to almost the finish:

Timber

2010-03-29T15:47:00.001-07:00

Boyd, Dena, Rigal, and Ohana lost Timber to cancer last night. Rest in peace my furry buddy. When we're both on the other side we'll go for a good long run.

Spring

2010-03-14T22:10:00.001-07:00

What do you do with the tons of snow that are left over from a winter of snow plowing? Make a 30 foot jump downtown. Colorado Freeskier revived Big Air On Elk this year. It works like this: dump a bunch of snow onto the main street in town, push it into a pile, and tow in skiers and riders at a bizillion miles per hour with snowmobiles. It's like watching airplanes take off and land on an air craft carrier. The riders went huge. These aren't the best pics, but they show the scale. It seems like the whole town turned out and it was shoulder to shoulder on both sides of the street for two blocks. Every shop and restaurant was full and it was a brilliant way to kick off spring.

Earlier in the day I took a tour up Slate River Road and the Oh Be Joyful trail. It was overcast but really warm. So warm, in fact, that I punched through knee deep into slush a couple of times. It made the creek crossings interesting, not knowing if the snow-bridges would hold or not. I ran into a couple of groups coming down from the north side of Mt. Emmons, training for The Grand Traverse (Crested Butte to Aspen backcountry race). My trip was much less ambitious. I wanted to see if the snow is setting up, what different aspects are skiing like, and how prevalent the suncrust is. It's still going to be another week or two before things set up and we have corn. Spring is in the air.

Will I remember how to ride a bike?

2010-03-14T22:04:00.000-07:00

Temperatures have been in the upper 40's and the snow is turning to mush. There's still a lot of skiing to be had and the yard is covered in 4 feet of snow...but remember mountain biking?

oie de canard de canard

2010-03-10T21:13:00.000-08:00

Hut Trip 2010

2010-03-03T22:07:00.001-08:00

A full moon, my 40th birthday, widespread natural avalanches, sunshine, clouds, snow, new friends, old friends, curry, chocolate, bacon and eggs....a great hut trip. 11 came from the Front Side and SumCo. We made a trip to the Gothic town site to the Maroon Hut. The snow was cooked and crusty; slides were coming down on nearly every slope on every aspect, but we managed to find some pockets of gladed goodness to ski where the snow was stable and buttery. The skin in was pretty easy so we loaded down with lots of luxuries and ate like kings. No major mishaps except for Ruth's broken binding for which Mike had a handy fix. I spent the beginning of my 40th year on this earth with some good friends making good turns in a place that makes me very happy. It was a good time and place to reflect. I'm pretty excited about 40. I can sport mismatched socks, wear the same pants two days in a row, get orange juice instead of an $8 martini, and smoke a pipe. I'm twice as fast and can go twice as far as when I was 20. I'm more interested in the question than the answer. My life has history full of adventure and friends. Gauging from the past 40 I'm definitely stoked for the next 40.

Mordor

2010-02-15T22:17:00.001-08:00

Saturday was the perfect day to ski Mordor, a very unique trail on the Crested Butte Nordic system. It may sound counter-intuitive to pick a grey, snowy day with a couple of inches in the tracks, but I wanted slow conditions. There are a couple of hills on Mordor that are comparable to a steep blue run at the ski area. Doing the trail on skinny skis can be intimidating, and having the extra drag and cushion of the new snow helped. It was a beautiful day in the woods. The route roughly follows the summer single track of Tony's Trail and Upper Loop. Here's a video of the ride. If you get motion sickness you may want to skip it as the footage is from a head cam and I apparently swing a bit when I'm classic skiing.

Red Lady Glades

2010-02-09T23:24:00.000-08:00

Mt. Emmons sits prominently above CB. From town you can see tracks and slides down the east facing Red Lady bowl. Mt. Emmons' south flank holds Red Lady glades which is a much mellower alternative to the bowl. I got up there for the first time yesterday. The views and terrain are pretty sweet. I was told that the glades hold some nice snow that doesn't get baked in spite of a south facing aspect....well, that's not entirely true. At tree line the snow was sugary but provided a few good turns. The quality definitely dropped off as we lost elevation and soon turned into survival skiing. I don't say this to jump on the tele-bashing band wagon, but I'm really, really glad that I was on AT skis. That blower snow in the video was the broken crust flying up. I think the Red Lady glades are best visited after a storm or when the corn sets up. Still great to be out!

Finally, Snow

2010-01-29T16:04:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since my last blog. Here's some pics of the snow in CB. Keep in mind that a lot of this depth is from snow that's slid off the roof, but it's starting to get deep. After 4 weeks of anemic snowfall we finally got back to back storms that brought about 2.5 feet. The North Face and High lifts opened up to access some deep but bony terrain. I spent about 45 minutes with a stone and file on my ski edges as the result of some rock-strewn runs down Tower 11, but it was certainly worth it. The backcountry is a bit frightening at the moment. You can see slides above the west side of the valley that all released without triggers. It's tender out there. At the Nordic Center we're ready to fully enter into Alley Loop race mode - organizing volunteers, running the hot box 24/7, and getting ready to wax 50 pair of skis next Friday night for the junior team fundraiser. Life is good in the Butte. In my alter-ego entrepreneurial life I'm working on some ski pole straps, costing out some clogs for a start-up, and getting ready to start development on some sick cycling shoes. Details to follow. I hope that you're all enjoying winter in your own way and playing in the snow if you have it.

More Art in Paris

2010-01-10T21:10:00.001-08:00

I've never been into galleries, so finding the outdoor Photoquai exhibit on The Seine was perfect. There was a lot to digest. Among some powerful political photos I found Mouna Karray. She photographs a subject then inserts herself into the scene to try to replicate the original photo exactly. I was kind of crazy about the idea.

One of the most moving and memorable experiences that I had in Paris was visiting Centre Georges Pompidou, France's national museum of contemporary art. I walked into an exhibit of Pierre Soulages paintings and was nearly floored - in the literal sense. I had to steady myself. It's tough to communicate what he does without seeing his paintings, which are enormous and all black. The combination of black paint and heavy texture captures and reflects light to create purples, yellows, and silvers. The effect is beautiful.

More Paris

2010-01-05T23:44:00.001-08:00

This is one of Salvador Dali's elephants that rests in his former studio in Paris.

The main door of La Petit Palace. The stained glass ceiling of the palace throws colored light onto the clear glass of the door.

Snodgrass II

2010-01-04T18:49:00.000-08:00

Farrah tearing it up on Snodgrass. The snow was really skiable but sugary and glazed with hoar frost. Hopefully it will support the next snowfall. Lots of up for a little bit of down but it was a really fun trip out in the woods.

Easy Does It

2010-01-04T18:44:00.000-08:00

This resulted in a trip to the emergency room for Lantz. What the heck, bud? First Tyler breaks his collar bone and then Lantz gets a concussion. Take it easy out there y'all.

Eiffel Tower High

2009-12-30T22:14:00.000-08:00

Snodgrass

2009-12-14T17:52:00.000-08:00

I feel sadness that I don't have better photo documentation of the past week. It's been dumping - 1-2 feet, some sunshine, 1-2 feet more. I've been too busy getting knee deep turns and digging out the cabin and cars to pull out the camera. I finally put my camera case on my backpack shoulder strap and intended to snap some shots of Mark and Janelle making nice arcs through knee deep snow on Snodgrass this afternoon - but those two are way too fast to catch on film.

This afternoon we skinned up Snodgrass, taking a turn off of the snowcat path onto a nice skin-track through the aspens. It's my second winter trip up Snodgrass. If you don't live here on the West Side you may not know the current controversy. CBMR wants to put lifts on Snodgrass and develop the base of the mountain. I understand CBMR's drive to do this as Mount Crested Butte doesn't have a lot of terrain to offer to beginners....it's not an easy mountain to learn to ski, or to ski period. Snodgrass lives across the valley from CBMR and offers some beautiful low-angle gladed skiing at the top and mellow turns toward the bottom. The base is wide open and the views are nuts. It's a gem. I've been opposed to lifts on Snodgrass, but only from a theoretical standpoint. Wild places are disappearing and I feel like we need to be protective of what's left. I grew up in Fort Collins and I remember when Harmony and Timberline roads had unpaved sections. I also remember when the only thing between Boulder and Broomfield was Storage Tech tucked behind a hill off of US 36, and a gas station at the McCaslin exit (McCaslin was dirt south of US 36 and we used to target shoot where cookie cutter developments, condos, and malls now sit). Old Timers talk about forearm-length trout choking the streams above Denver before WWII. I've witnessed things go in a bad direction all over this state. The Western Slope is not immune. Anyway, my Snodgrass opposition was, as I stated, theoretical; a matter of personal policy. Then I got up on that mountain. I've been up there in the summer to ride and it's incredible - but winter, my friends, winter. Silent. Deep. Vibrant. It's place that brings deep peace. Sure, there are a lot of places in the valley that are equally amazing, but isn't the preservation of them all at least worth a shot? Am I expecting this blog to change opinions? You know what will? Skin up Snodgrass in the late afternoon under peaks pink with alpenglow, watch ermin pop out of the snow and run by, smile with your friends or enjoy the beautiful melancholy of solitude, rip those skins and float down through the aspens, pat some dogs on the head on the access road, make some new friends in the parking lot. Minds might get changed.

Full Moon

2009-12-03T12:37:00.000-08:00

I've been cruising the same strip of hard packed, man made snow at CBMR for the last week in the name of getting my legs under me and getting used to new equipment. Bad skiing is usually better than no skiing at all (with the exception of windy days at Eldorko); but lapping 900 vertical feet shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of park rats and jibbers isn't ideal. We need snow. So, take that same length of styrofoam, add friends with big smiles on their faces, a full moon, and a pair of climbing skins...well, those runs are transformed into little bliss nuggets.

The moon was so bright that what I thought was a big rock poking through the snow was the shadow of the silent chair lift above me. The snowmaking crew and snowcat drivers would occasionally cruise by and give a quiet nod and a wide berth, neither surprised nor bothered.

Random Stuff

2009-12-01T09:19:00.000-08:00

It's dry and cold in the Butte right now. There's enough snow to play on and hold my interest but I sure would dig a a little snow to freshen things up.

Thanksgiving was pretty sweet. Martin and Lisa came up for a weekend that we all agreed may have been too relaxing.

Martin and I found some snow on Ohio Pass below the Anthracites and made an attempt at a pre-emptive strike on the holiday gluttony.

More food than you can shake a fork at.

The Nordic Center opened up for the Thanksgiving Training Camp. The clinics were amazing. I took a classic clinic as well as skate. They did video analysis; it's amazing to see yourself ski. I learned a ton. The rest of the weekend was filled with friends, sweet potato pie, more skiing, and cherry wine. J-rod got out for his first time ever on the hill. It's fun to watch someone discover the joy of winter although it physically hurts to watch people fall when they are learning to snowboard. You'll be shredding in no time, brah.

Pie!

2009-11-24T21:52:00.001-08:00

I've never made pie before. I called my mom, consulted three websites and gathered about 5 recipes. I was told by a couple of folks that it's hard to pull off. Like my mom says, it's not that tough, it's just time consuming. A nice exercise in patience. It turned out well and I'm really glad that I did a little practice before trying to pull it off for Thanksgiving.

I got up on Kebler Pass today for my first day of the season on the Nordic trails. It was great to get out and do a little kick-and-glide, especially after all the pie. There's not quite enough snow in town and in the valley to set tracks yet so the Nordic Center did a little early season grooming with snow mobiles up high on the pass. I've never seen grooming that good with a snow mobile - nice tracks and full width skate lane.

The mountain opens in the morning!

Skis!

2009-11-15T14:21:00.000-08:00

Had my first day of the season on skis yesterday. Nothing special at all and just enough snow to glide on, but pretty cool to finally be out there.

Assumption of Risk

2009-11-09T22:04:00.000-08:00

I spent the day in self-imposed house arrest: downloading and learning new software, trying to find a factory that can produce an unnecessarily overly engineered part, and watching the Broncos (I know, WTF?). I finally made it farther than the end of the porch into a clear, cold, starry night. Elk Ave. is quiet. Even some of the bars are shut down for off season. I picked up a copy of Mountain Gazette from the news bins in front of the post office. I just finished reading Dick Dorworth's article "Of Troglodytes and Technology". It resonated not with the frequency of a bell or chime, but with the vibration that I feel from rivers and swaying trees...foundational. I'd like to post the whole text of the article here but it hasn't been published on-line yet. Here are a few quotes:

"Spatial variability in the snowpack is as real as the differences between every snowflake that has ever fallen or ever will."

"The security of wearing a transceiver in an avalanche is insurance that one's companions will be able to find and dig out that tranceiver, but it does not mean that what the transceiver is attached to will survive."

"In my view the only attitude and intention to take into the backcountry is that if you are caught in an avalanche you are completely f*****. F*****. F******. F*****."

I don't think he's ranting against technology. It's important to have backcountry tools and to know how to use them. A breathing apparatus is a great thing to have, but it's even greater to avoid having to use it. Digging a pit yields valuable information, but the snow pack will vary from where you dig the pit to where you drop into your line. You have to be able to feel it. You have to be able to say "no".

Last season at the request of my parents I bought an Avalung. I finally purchased a digital beacon after some soul searching over whether I could really find the people I love with an analog beacon on a grid search. And, after one of my most frequent ski partners questioned the true functionality of my ski poles that convert, in a geologic timeframe, to an inadequately short probe, I plunked down some cash for a Quickdraw probe. Do these things make me feel any safer in the backcountry? No. I imagine that they garner a bit more confidence from my ski partners, but they haven't changed my habits; they haven't caused me to charge harder, ski steeper, or let my guard down. Have I missed some really sick lines in the backcountry? Has it caused me to be left behind by the harder charging skiers in my social circle? Yes. But we all have our own ideas of what is an acceptable level of risk. I know smart, experienced people - people who I ultimately respect and have a lot of trust in - who will ski stuff in the BC that I won't even touch; and they feel safe doing it; and they probably are. I've been blessed to find a handful of people who ski a little harder than I do, who can lay uphill track like human snowcats, and who are completely satisfied skiing mellow -30 degree lines in widely spaced trees.

What's my point? I'm not really sure other than to encourage us all to carry the best gear we can afford; to practice using it; to learn everything we can about traveling on snow; to talk to each other about what makes us feel comfortable and uncomfortable; to feel ok with saying "no"; and to enjoy the process of traveling on snow as much as the accomplishment and elation of skiing something challenging.

Get Ready....

2009-10-18T22:52:00.001-07:00

it's coming! Opening Day for the mountain is Nov. 25. Nordic Center is TBD but we're hoping for Thanksgiving weekend. This pic was taken today after 2 days of 50+ temps. Saw some snowboard tracks today above Emerald/below Schofield Pass. Looked like a recipe for core shots but at least they got some turns.

Fall Foliage Tour 2009

2009-09-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

Teocalli Ridge and Strand Hill. Good weekend.

Vegas, Baby

2009-09-25T22:47:00.000-07:00

How to get to Vegas? Pay the up charge to fly from Gunni to Denver and deal with multiple connections? Drive to Denver and get on a plane? Get in the car and drive across the desert, have your radiator freak out and find out your engine is burning oil? No good choices. CB is a tough place to do business and travel from but it's also a pretty great place to live so it all works out in the end. I loaded up the Subi and made a very quick trip to Interbike. Next year I'm going to work it out where I have a week to get out there and back. It was heart breaking to pass up the exits for Moab, Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, Great Basin, Capital Reef, Escalante, et al, but I was on a mission. Good trip. Hard trip. My car was overheating most of the way out so I had to drive with the heat on to keep from cooking the engine. Got to Vegas and there was a shop right across the street from the hotel. I thought it would be the thermostat or the water pump but in the end the fan was unplugged. The guy at the shop said that less reputable oil change outfits will do that to make your car overheat so you'll bring it back to get the cooling system worked on. Hmmm. This guy could have taken me for a ride but he didn't. In a town that is designed to take advantage of you here is this guy showing the love and making sure folks get taken care of. If you're in Vegas and need your car fixed go to One Stop Auto. They are honest, fast, and really nice.

More guys in man-pris with shaved legs than you can shake a carbon seat-post at. The coolest stuff at the show? Gyroscopic wheels for kids bikes (gives an advantage when weening off of training wheels), Boo Bikes bamboo/carbon frames, Clif Rocs, www.extremesportsid.com, and the Bianchi Dolomiti with hand cut, chromed lugs. Looks just like the classic late 70's/early 80's frames.

Nice sunsets out there in the desert.

Cross Vegas! There's an amazing cyclocross race that happens in conjunction with the show. Great course with a field of heavy hitters. Met up with Matt and Sean from bIKE cLUB to shake some cowbells. Moots made cowbells out of the cutting scrap from their top tubes...the most expensive cowbell you'll ever rattle. Had fun catching up with the PI guys and watching people ride bikes really fast.

More Snow

2009-09-25T22:39:00.000-07:00

I'm getting these up after the fact, but we finally had snow in town on Monday.

Kelly and Michah braved the storm to come over from BV and Taylor Park for the Notorious F.I.G. and to walk around in snow flurries.

Snow

2009-09-17T00:15:00.000-07:00

I'm getting these up a little late. First snow of the season on Sunday. It looked like it was above 13,000 feet and was just a very light dusting. I was driving from CB to Denver and snapped a few pics along the way. CB was socked in when I left, so no official report from there since I couldn't see much above 9,500 feet. Last Sat/Sun the Aspens in CB were full on gold on north and west facing slopes and are still fairly green on east and south facing aspects. I just rolled into Denver from Portland after being away for a few days. l'll be able to snap some more pics and give a full autumnal assessment after the drive home to CB tomorrow.

My South Park geography isn't strong...I think this is between the Buffalo Peaks and Weston Pass

Antero and Shavano? You can barely see snow on the ridge top.

I think this is the south side of Shavano from the top of Monarch Pass

Labor Day

2009-09-11T10:52:00.001-07:00

Labor Day brought a trip to the glitzier side of the Elk Range for Jazz Aspen Snowmass. What the Drive-By Truckers, Doobie Brothers, and Allman Brothers have to do with a jazz fest...well, who cares, it was awesome. I've wanted to see DBT for a long time and have heard legendary tales of their shows. Solid, fun, heartfelt. It's easy to connect with them. They make me want to get up and yell "hell yeah". The Doobie Bro's were flawless. The Doobies have always been imprinted on my subconcsious; seeing them though bought to light that they have more recognizable songs than almost anyone else - and the tightest vocals you'll ever hear live. Their stage presence can be described as joyful. The Allman Brothers had that look that you see on accountants who've sat in the same cubicle for years plugging away at a job that they are confident and competent at but brings them little joy.

We headed into Aspen for some quality shopping...and went straight to the thrift store. I scored an awesome "extreme" one-piece suit, circa 1991; why Johnny didn't get this one - well, he had a momentary lapse in reason.

Off to P-towne for the first visit since my lay-off from the shoe mine. I got to pick 15 pounds of the last peach crop. Rode on the super-secret trails...it was like being on a horse that knew its way home without any input from the reigns. My bike just went and I was along for the ride, in and out of arroyos, flying down ridge lines, and swooping through tight pinyon tree lines. I forgot how much I was in love with those trails and how much they saved me during exile there. Some of the best riding anywhere.

Alpine Tunnel

2009-09-02T22:13:00.001-07:00

I had an awesome trip to Buena Vista to ride the old Denver and South Park Railroad grade up to the Alpine Tunnel. The tracks have been removed and the tunnel has collapsed, but some of the ties are still there as well as other remnants of the old narrow gauge. Dave came over from P-towne; we camped out on Cottonwood Pass and then drove up to the start of the ride near the ghost town of St. Elmo. The ride is mostly double track under massive 14,000 ft. peaks and scarp ridges. The rail grade provides a gentle but steady climb. One weird thing about riding rail grade up to a pass is that there are very few flat spots....it's not particularly difficult climbing but it keeps going without a break. The trip felt like a mini vacation; being above 10,000 feet seems to eliminate stress. Soaking at Mt. Princeton Hot Springs helps too.

It Has Begun

2009-08-31T22:45:00.000-07:00

More Gold

2009-08-28T17:12:00.001-07:00

8/28 At the entrance to Lower Loop. A few yellow leaves on a baby aspen.

Look What I Found

2009-08-28T15:06:00.001-07:00

I came across this around 9000 feet on Aug. 26. Just a few spots of yellow leaves near the ground, in the shade. An anomaly really, but Autumnal Bliss will arrive soon.

24 Hours in the Sage Report

2009-08-18T17:16:00.000-07:00

Hi. 48 hours later and I'm just finishing unpacking the car and doing one of the foulest loads of laundry ever. Before I get into the details I want to say thanks to some folks:

John and Jake: for spending 24 hours setting up, tearing down, feeding, maintaining, and supporting. John for pacing me on some very difficult laps. Would have been impossible without those guys.

Courtney and Jared: for the moral support and for coming down to hang out only to drive back to CB at 1am.

Zach, Mallory, and Sarah: for seeing me off and the high fives

Rachel: for being at the finish line

The Alpineer crew: for helping with my last minute chainring bolt crisis and the encouragement

Kay Lynn and Trent: for the pop-up camper.

Ellen at Cateye: batteries!

All went very well. There was some weirdness but that's expected. I had some slow times on my night laps because of some serious light issues. My Cateye Double Shot was flawless. I was so grateful for it because my HID light from another company would not turn on. My backup light from that same manufacturer went dead after five minutes. I rode two laps with just the Double Shot and took my time on the descents. A guy in the campsite next to us graciously loaned me his helmet light. Thanks man! Having a second light took about 15 minutes off of my last night lap.

Jake and John took turns staying up to help me out between laps. Things get confusing in the middle of the night but those guys were there to keep things straight, keep my bike running, and make sure that I was eating and drinking. I started falling behind on food and decided to catch up by drinking an Ensure and eating pretzels, clif bloks, a turkey sandwich, and a banana in the span of 5 minutes. It was all I could do to keep all that stuff in my stomach on the first climb of the 4th lap. I had to get off and walk to keep myself from hurling. I got back to the start/finish and couldn't eat a thing. Miraculously I was able to drink some coca cola mixed 1:1 with water. I didn't eat much after that; I'd take some clifbloks every once in a while and let them dissolve in my mouth while riding. Not recommended unless absolutely necessary because it leaves a disgusting film on your teeth.

My bike hung in there. I blew a fork seal and my crankset came loose, but it didn't cause massive complications.

I was extremely tense and nervous in the hours leading up to the start. I tried to lay down, I tried to walk around. The only thing that worked was fiddling with gear and being kind of a butt-hole. As soon as I started riding I felt awesome....totally having fun, enjoying being on the trail, enjoying the people around me. The course was outstanding. The conditions were perfect. It had rained a bit the day before which kept the dust down and the trails from getting too loose, but not enough rain to allow the surface to get churned up. I was able to keep going through the whole race, getting off the bike to make some adjustments and eat a little. I spent a few minutes stretching before the final lap, but the time in the pits was minimal. I didn't have to stop to sleep!

The absolute highlight was watching the sky getting pink around 5:30. I had an overwhelming sense of gratitude and hope. Other fun stuff: threading my way through The Notch in the dark was a welcome diversion; getting a "good job" from the passing riders; long, steady climbs up The Luge with no one around; having John help me break the course down into sections; watching people having fun even though they were suffering; the volunteers and KOA staff giving high fives, staying up all night, yelling encouragement; for the first time in my adult life...not finishing last.

I'm pretty tired. My head hurts and I don't have much energy, but my legs actually feel fine. I don't feel the need to be on my bike for a while. I dropped it off at the Alpineer to get the fork seals fixed and told them to take their time; I'd rather have it there so I'm not lulled into riding it.

You can still donate to ERDF. Never too late. There's a link to the right of this post toward the top of the page.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and support.

It is Over

2009-08-16T16:27:00.000-07:00

6 laps
12.5 hours
83 miles

More to follow.

26 Hours To Go

2009-08-14T22:00:00.001-07:00

It's coming. I wasn't nervous until I went to pick up my packet. I'm exhausted and hope that means a great night of sleep is in store.

Someone asked today if it's too late to make a donation. Nope. You can donate to ERDF before, during, or after the race. www.er-d.org will ask you for a total donation amount, not the number of laps or amount per lap. Your donation amount per lap is up to you and is a very loose, informal thing.

I'm shooting for 5 laps. If all goes really well then I hope for 6. If I'm on fire then I'm hoping for 7.

Had a wonderful day with the Copes sharing pastry, paddling Blue Mesa, swimming, and sitting by the fire. Thank you, thank you for a relaxing, supportive day to calm my nerves.

Goodnight moon, goodnight stars, goodnight piles of gear and bins of food.

Mountains of Stuff

2009-08-13T22:45:00.001-07:00

Piles of gear are everywhere around the cabin. I made it about halfway through my prep-list. Still need to do a solid once-over on both bikes, make oatmeal cookies, and do a bit of food shopping. 48 hours to go!

Did you know that one box of clifbloks contains 3600 calories? Man can not live on clifbloks alone. My grocery list includes Barbara's Bakery natural pop-tarts, boulder canyon potato chips, chicken strips (seriously, I ate 3 before I went out for a ride the other night and they were awesome), honey stinger bars, bananas, oranges, peaches, coca cola, chai, bagels with turkey, hot chocolate, yerba mate, ginger beer, instant oatmeal, ensure, and a bunch of treats for the crew. I need to ingest 300 calories an hour for 12 hours. It's usually pretty easy to do on 3-6 hour rides - a bottle of accelerade and a package of clifbloks or a bar every hour....but then sometimes my stomach doesn't feel good about anything. A friend told me that practicing eating while riding is as important as practicing riding. Sometimes it takes a lot of discipline to get stuff in your stomach and hold it down. It's never happened to me on long rides but the fact is that if you fall behind on calories your race is over. Hopefully no worries there; I love to eat and am hauling a bit of reserve.

Ok, off to sleep.

Don't Forget To Tighten Your Chainring Bolts

2009-08-11T23:31:00.000-07:00

Trial Run

2009-08-10T23:46:00.000-07:00

I just got back from pre-riding the 24 Hours in the Sage Course. I took a lap in the day light this afternoon. It took about 1:50 but I was stopping to pull out the map to make sure I was getting the course straight, and chatted with a couple at the Sea of Sage/Rocky Ridge intersection. It was tough to figure out all the turns. I'm somewhat familiar with the Rocky Ridge/Sea/Broken Shovel/Becks side of Hartman but had never ridden Behind the Rocks and Alonzo's. I felt pretty good.

I waited for the sun to go down. Had a snack and a good chat with a couple of riders in the parking lot. My lighting strategy involves using a Cateye LED light on my bars and an HID on my helmet. LED lights have ridiculously long burn times with a good quality spot. HID lights burn extremely bright but don't have the long burn times. I planned to use the LED on climbs and switch on the HID only on downhills. Maximum light and battery life. So I'm riding along, enjoying solitude and the meditative sounds of tires on dirt, a whirirng chain, the occasional kurchunk of a derailleur, and long, slow breaths. I don't have a lot of experience with the HID light and learned the hard way that it has to go through 10 charge/discharge cycles before the battery is conditioned to take a full charge (I just learned this by using the google). About 3 miles from the trailhead the HID completely shut down. I say to myself "no problem" because I've been riding with just the Cateye light alone for about 4 years. Then that light starts to flicker because I'd neglected to fully charge it after my last ride. I had a lot of thoughts flash through my head: how would my parents take hearing that their son was eaten by a mountain lion, how many people would tell me that I'm foolish for riding alone/at night/alone at night, I was cold, it was too dark to find my way back, etc. But then the only thought that I could think was "I am going to make it back to the car". And I did. And it was close. I don't always go around calling God by his first name but this time I gave a personal parking lot prayer of thanks.

So I need to keep refining the lighting strategy. I wish that I could give you a solid estimate for an average lap time. My daylight lap was skewed. My night time lap needs to get thrown out because I was crawling along on a dying light and I took a wrong turn earlier in the ride (and bumbled into some poor guy's campsite and freaked out his poor dogs). 1.5-2 hours is my best guess.

I'm off to keep myself awake for as long as possible. I'm trying to fall into an extremely irregular sleep pattern to try to be ready for an all-nighter.

24 Hours in the Sage

2009-08-09T23:15:00.000-07:00

24 Hours in the Sage is 6 days away. I'm registered for the 12 hour solo category. Stoked. The longest I've been on a bike is 8 hours. We'll see how this goes.

Just got in from my first night ride in a while. Wanted to check lighting systems, placement, and batteries. It's always spooky out there at night for me. Tonight I saw porcupines, deer, and cows. It's what I don't see that freaks me out. I also got to witness a very beautiful moon-rise over Mount Crested Butte. Sweet.

I start racing at 12:00am on Sunday August 16 and ride through until 12:00pm of the same day. The event is a 24 hour race but I've chosen to race the 12 hour option. I'm not sure if I aspire to ride a full 24 hour event. I'll have a better idea at noon on Sunday.

I've also chosen to ride for the Episcopal Relief and Development Fund. If you're reading this, you likely received the details. I'm asking friends to choose an amount to donate for each 13 mile lap completed. ERDF is a very cool organization. I struggled about the decision to ask my friends to donate to a faith-based organization but I'm confident in ERDF's work and their goals are solid. You can check them out here:

www.er-d.org

Donate here:

www.er-d.org/donate-select.php

There are several funds you can donate to. They range from HIV/AIDS, specific regions, Women's Development, Clean Water, or Greatest Need. After you select the fund, you'll click through and enter your information. Please select the option to give in honor of someone and enter "Dave Dolph" in the boxes provided. This will help us keep track of how much money is raised from the race. After the race I'll post on this blog the number of completed laps.

24 Hours in the Sage isn't connected to ERDF. My fund raising is something I decided to do independently.

Please keep visiting the site for updated info. We're going to try to do live updates through the night and morning of the race...depending on how coherent Jake and John are in the pits. I'll try to write a few words between laps while we're switching batteries and water bottles. Thanks for your support.

2009-07-24T17:32:00.000-07:00

It's been a nice week of riding the classics. Teocali, 401, 403, and Snodgrass. Who gets to do that? Unemployment has it's benefits. Today was a nice journey up 403. Lots of riding on the road for a little bit of trail but worth it...an unbelievable descent. Very steep, very technical. Steep enough, in fact, that my brakes got hot enough to melt a retaining spring. No kidding.

I don't want a pickle...

2009-07-21T13:54:00.000-07:00

I just want to ride my motorsickle

Ok, they are loud, obnoxious, and stinky...but so fun. I had the first ride since my cousin put me on a 50cc bike when I was about 9 and nearly killed me. It feels like a really huge mountain bike with an excessive amount of power. It has the ability to bring elation or destruction, all dependent on skill, awareness, and fate. It brings such a unique feeling of freedom. It's certainly different than a bicycle...a bicycle is about challenge, roaming, getting somewhere under your own power in a manner fast enough to feel a sense of accomplishment but slow enough to notice things along the way. A motorcycle is a different feeling. Such a sense of independence...like it could be ridden until there's nothing left to ride. Like you could go anywhere.

Jared put me on his bike and showed me clutch, throttle, front brake, rear brake and sent me off. Brave.

It was a nice night too.

Wildflowers!

2009-07-11T22:49:00.000-07:00

Fat Tire 40

2009-07-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

The Fat Tire 40 is in the bag. Andy and Rebecca made the trip and John grabbed a spot. We lined up at 7:45am knowing there would be a long day ahead of us. It was pretty hard and I was on my bike for a long time. I had a good day mentally but not the best physically. The course was about 70% single track and we were only on pavement for a quarter of a mile. It had a great grass roots/local feel and an all-mountain type course. Big climbs, big descents; technical sections and buff single track; huge vistas; knee deep stream crossings. More camelbaks and 5" trail bikes than team kits and hardtails; more joking and smiles at the starting line than poker faces. The organizers put a lot of love into this thing and it turned out beautifully. I think this is the new CB classic.

Bridges of the Butte

2009-06-26T10:56:00.000-07:00

Jake, Trent, and John put in some long nights making Bridges of the Butte trophies out of 100% bike parts. They came out great. The Bridges ride is a benefit for Crested Butte's Adaptive Sports Center. 24 hours on a townie, solo or team. It's nuts.

A Good Ride

2009-06-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

A few years back I came to CB to ride for the first time. I pulled in the Visitor Center parking and a couple guys came over to talk and ask where I was riding. They spread a map out on the hood of my car and showed me great places to ride and gave some good advice. This is a very different experience than most mountain towns where locals are fiercely protective of their natural resources, not wanting their trails populated by wankers from the front range. Not so in CB. Information flows freely....except that I think there is some funny business going on with a certain trail. In ride descriptions it's tagged as "too much uphill for the amount of downhill", "filled with black flies", "a muddy slog", "off camber, braided game trails", "littered with cow patties", etc. Locals have told me that it sucks and is not worth doing. Why would I go do it anyway? Skepticism. It was one of the coolest rides and longest downhills I've ever done. Total single track joy. A classic. How do you find it? Look for the swarms of black flies, rotting cow carcasses, neck deep stream crossings, hour long hike-a-bikes, and impassable cliff bands. Don't bother. Go ride Breckenridge.

Gunnison River Gorge

2009-06-24T07:06:00.000-07:00

Howdy. I was feeling a little cooped up and soggy last week in the rain so I hopped on the opportunity to go over the hills to the North Fork Valley for some +70 temps and sunshine. We ended up in the Gunnison River Gorge. It's down-river from P-towne and up-river from where previous rafting photos were taken. This is the tail end of the Black Canyon before it meets the North Fork. It did my heart good to see some adobe hills and sage brush. Jake was trying to hit the stonefly hatch. They hatch and hang out for a couple of days and then start getting busy (if you know what I mean) and then they land on the water to lay eggs a few days later. If you get the hatch or the egg laying, the trout are like sharks in a feeding frenzy. I've heard that trout will eat stoneflies until their gills are packed with them. We got there right between the hatch and the egg laying and missed the bulk of the drama but it was still a nice day to get outside, stretch the legs, take a nap under a pinon tree, and watch the desert unfold itself.

Fun With the Smileys

2009-06-14T22:19:00.000-07:00

Found some pics of my little buddy Rigal taken from this past Spring. We had good times eating Cheerios, painting the deck, driving the lawnmower, and sitting under the apple tree.

Daisy Pass

2009-06-14T21:43:00.000-07:00

Had a nice Sunday afternoon stroll up Daisy Pass. The wildflowers are starting to show.

Trail Building

2009-06-11T11:33:00.001-07:00

I had a nice day helping put in new trail at Crested Butte. CBMR staff, USFS staff, CBMBA, and over 80 volunteers showed up to build about 3 miles of new trail to re-route some badly rutted existing trails. The recent rain and snow made the trail easy to work. Hopefully the new section will be ready to ride for Wildflower Rush and Fat Tire 40. The new trail works up from the West Wall through open meadows, a huge aspen stand, then climbs through a loamy forest with big pines. It's going to be a beautiful middle chain ring climb and a fun, twisty descent.

Snow in June

2009-06-11T11:24:00.000-07:00

For Real. Snow on June 7. The real deal.

Monday Night Lights

2009-06-02T23:33:00.000-07:00

Every moment here seems to drip with purpose, refraction, emotion, and color. Work is imminent so play comes with a sense of urgency.

Riding at night is a little creepy. Sound is amplified. Reflections in the forest send electricity into my limbs; cows become mountain lions; the creek rushing under the bridge sounds like a moose crashing out of the willows; off camber turns feel like falling off the edge of the world; picking lines is mentally taxing. How can something that scares the s*** out of me be so meaningful and enjoyable? Because night riding is cheating time. It feels like being 11 years old on a summer night playing with my brother, sister, and cousin out of the yard, a little farther from the house than my grandma was comfortable with; like sneaking out in high school to TP that bratty bully's house.

As my lights reflect off wet sage I realize that every day here is precious.

Spot?

2009-06-02T23:26:00.000-07:00

I'm selling the Spot. It was a tough decision...trying to raise funds for a Cannondale Rize. You can search for the details on Boulder Craigslist. The AS-R will be up for grabs too if the Rize thing pans out. Spread the word.

Rainy Day Activities

2009-06-02T23:10:00.001-07:00

It's been pouring in CB since I got here Saturday. The upside is that everything is green, lush, and misty; and the trails drain and dry quickly. I've been able to time some rides between downpours. After the torrents, Tony's and Upper Upper were in good enough condition to proceed cautiously and tread lightly. I had to break out the trainer during the storms so I could get my yah-yahs out. Riding stationary on the porch watching the rain fall is kind of fun...for about 30 minutes. I also went for round 4 of naan experimentation. Previous versions have ranged from the consistency of tough pancakes to fluffy focaccia. I let the dough rise for about an hour, punched it down and gave it another 30-45 minutes before frying it up. And I only kneeded for a couple of minutes instead of the 6-8 minutes that the recipe calls for. That made all the difference. This time it resembled naan and had a great consistency. I was super stoked. We mowed it down at John's b-day party.

2009-06-02T22:54:00.000-07:00

Brad and Jess got married. It was a touching expression of relationship and community. The ceremony was simple and gorgeous (yay for simple). The rain stopped long enough to do the ceremony outside. It started pouring torrentially during the inside dinner which made things cozy by the fire. Everyone looked like a million bucks. It was really fun to see everyone in dresses and suits on Friday night and then speckled with mud on Saturday after riding Tipperary Creek.

Catching Up

2009-04-05T23:07:00.000-07:00

Back in CB to close out the season. The last day has been pretty cool. Lots of costumes from the played out/obvious to the absurd. Some guys were shooting fireworks from the Paradise Hut deck. It was the perfect day to cruise around (while mindfully dodging the drunks), say hi to people, and enjoy the mellowness and sincerity that oozes out of this town.

I got chastised for not blogging so keep reading on below for a summary of the past 8 weeks. I still can't believe this life that I lead. I look back at pics of friends, milestones, red rock, blue skies, and new lives.

What happens from here? Still not sure. Work appears eminent. I had a solid interview with one company and another interview coming up. The thought of work actually excites me (and tires me). There's so much up in the air. For now I'm content and relaxed. I'll keep you updated.

Moab

2009-04-05T22:35:00.000-07:00

The Front Range got slammed with a foot +/- of snow. Kate and I thought we were avoiding the nastier side of winter by escaping to the desert. We arrived in Moab and were greeted by howling winds and a bit of snow. Spent some cold nights in the tent and colder mornings struggling with the elements and a supposedly "four season" Jet Boil fuel mixture. I fought a cold as hard as I could and finally succumbed to congestion and hacking fits. Not really fun in a tent. To cap it all off the 5 gallon water jug had a bad valve that leaked out onto our sleeping bags and pads and we spent most of a night drying the bags over a fire; it's tough to find that perfect distance from the fire that will dry the bag without melting it. We still managed to get in some great hiking and sight-seeing before I spent a day sleeping at the hostel (more of a flop-house than a hostel really, but at least it was out of the wind). The hike to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park is phenomenal. I scoffed at the sign that suggested planning 4 hours to do a three mile hike but I think it took about 5. So much to look at from an old sod roof cabin to petroglyphs, canyons, the arch, and general desert-ness. When I was a kid I had a teacher say that the way to remember the difference in spelling between desert and dessert is that dessert has two 's's, like how you would want two desserts...but I think I'd rather have two deserts.

Hut Trip!

2009-04-05T22:26:00.001-07:00

Got to go on the annual hut trip with friends new and old. We had a good crew but sorely missed the Rices (both sides of the family) and Tim. Skinned into Sangree Froelicher Hut. It's "only" 3 miles so we loaded ourselves down quite heavily and I certainly suffered for it. Sangree was a staff sergeant in WWII; he led his battalion even though he was wounded and bleeding. He managed to secure a victory, take prisoners, and knock out an artillery station all on his own before receiving a fatal gunshot. His family and the 10th Mountain Division built a hut to honor him. What a way to be remembered, at the foot of Buckeye Peak, surrounded by quiet wildness. We did our best to do him right.