07/06/15 - Biking North Lake Tahoe

Marlette Lake (left) and Lake Tahoe (right)

To see the GoPro video of the trails click here:  Adventure 2015: Episode 7: North Lake Tahoe

I can honestly say that Lake Tahoe has been my favorite place to ride so far on this journey.  There are so many trails, and they are all high quality.  The North side of Lake Tahoe was no exception.  The Flume trail is widely known, and despite its intermediate ranking I had to give it a go.  I have to say that the Flume trail itself was pretty boring.  The views, however, were excellent.  I rode to the Flume trail from Tahoe Meadows on the Tahoe Rim Trail and all of that was some excellent and fun trail riding.  The next stop was Northstar California ski resort.  I knew they had a bike park and I really wanted to give it a try as well as explore another of Vail Resorts' properties.  After getting shut down by a couple days of rain I woke up to blue skies on the 5th.  Rather than ride up to the

Sand Harbor, NV from the Tahoe Rim Trail

summit and maybe get to sample a couple of the trails I decided to buy a lift pass for $52 (no discount, by the way, for Vail Resorts employees, lame).  The purchase of the lift pass was well worth it.  I was able to ride all the double black and black trails and some of the blue trails.  There were so many excellent descents I managed to use up all of the battery on my GoPro for the first time this trip.  Unfortunately some of the best trails I rode came after the battery died, but I think I got some good footage none-the-less.  My favorite trails there are Sticks and Stones, Gypsy, and Boondocks.  Sticks and Stones and Boondocks are full of rock drops, jumps, super techy sections, and super smooth berms.  Gypsy is full of jumps and wooden bridges and ramps to drops that got my adrenaline pumping.  Unfortunately my GoPro battery had died before I rode Boondocks or Gypsy.  I managed to wreck myself pretty hard once (also no footage), and less hard a bunch of other times.  Thanks to Drew Barber for loaning me some Kali knee pads so I didn't destroy my legs too much!  I am most definitely planning on going back to Lake Tahoe some day, and riding at Northstar again is high on my list of to-do's!  I finished up my time at

Nearly ripped my nose off at Northstar

Lake Tahoe by meeting up with a friend from Vail (Kim aka Thunder Bunny aka Honey Badger) who is hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and just so happened to be arriving in Lake Tahoe on the 6th.  Since I was wrecked by all my crashes at Northstar, and she had hiked 1,200 miles in the last few months we decided to make it a beach day.  We jumped off the dock a couple of times in Emerald Bay (beautiful) and finished the day by watching the sunset from Regan Beach (more beautiful) and falling asleep under the stars (my heart is breaking from all the beauty!)

Sun over the sand at Regan Beach

Sunset from Regan Beach (thanks to Kim for the photo!)

05/30/15 - Biking Virgin, UT

To see the video of the trip click here: Adventure 2015: Episode 3, Virgin, UT
Or to see Drew's (better) video click here: Virgin Rampage

Looking toward Zion NP from campsite

When I left Green River I was feeling pretty good about my freeride capabilities.  I had done the biggest drops ever in my life, hadn't gotten injured, and had a ton of fun!  My bike needed some new parts and pieces, but I knew it wouldn't be much.  So I loaded up the car and headed out.  I stopped for gas and grub along the way and noticed my bike was leaning on the roof rack ridiculously.  Like at a 45° angle.  Upon inspection I noticed that my Thule crossbar had rusted out and snapped in half!  I shifted the bike mount over to span the break, moved my bike over to the other mount, and prayed that it would hold the rest of the way to Virgin.  With yet another item on the shopping list, and a long delay, I ended up in Virgin.  The next day Drew and I headed to Zion Cycles in nearby Springdale.  It was a tiny little shop and I was worried that they would not have all the parts I needed.  Despite the size, however, we had hit the jackpot.  I replaced my three broken spokes, got a new rear derailleur shifter, new cables and housing, and a new crossbar for the roof rack!  With my bike once again in working order we headed to the old Red Bull Rampage site to scope some lines and maybe do a little bit of riding.  After hiking around the site for about two hours my confidence in my freeride abilities dwindled substantially.  I would guess that 80% of the terrain there was totally unrideable for me.  Drew and I rode down the easiest route, but only from about half way up.  The

Old Red Bull Rampage site

jumps and drops and gaps of this place are seriously intimidating.  I have been watching the Rampage competitions for years, but watching this stuff on TV does nothing to impress the true scale on the viewer.  The pros make it look so effortless that the 20' drop over a 10' gap onto a 5' wide, two bike length landing looks rideable for mere mortals.  As daunted as I felt, and with minor healing wounds from Green River, I decided to spend the next few days doing some small jumps, but mostly just reading.  Once my body felt closer to 100% I decided to start to try to conquer some of the less intimidating features.  We found some super fun spine and jump lines that I warmed up on and started to get in the groove again.  I noticed that I just have no stomach for gaps.  I can only bring myself to do a 6' gap, max.  Drew had lined up some sizeable ones, especially one in nearby Gershon that crossed a road.  One day he had finally screwed up the courage enough to give it a go.  He parked his car right in the middle of the gap and hiked up to the top.  After a couple run-ins to gauge speed he was ready to go.  He started dropping in, he speed looked good, but about 20' from the lip he lost his nerve and hit the brakes.  Unfortunately, 20' was not quite long enough to stop.  His front wheel went off the lip and he nearly tumbled the 15' down to the road below, but managed to hold on!  After he took a few

minutes to regroup he hiked back up to the top.  Resolved this time, Drew took off the lip, soared about 20' through the air, over his truck, and landed perfectly on the far side!  Initially Drew was thinking he might give the jump a few tries, but after the one successful attempt, adrenaline pumping, relief mounting, he decided one was enough!  Back at the Rampage site we found a couple new lines that we could ride and had a ton of fun.  The more I explored the area, and the more pro lines we found, the more respect and sheer awe I am of what the pros are riding.  It absolutely blew my mind more than once.  The biggest drop I managed to do was about 15' and had a perfect landing, wide and without any gap to clear.  Feeling now like we had scouted all the lines we were going to be able to actually ride we got to the "serious" work of filming.  Drew is a videographer.  He is always thinking about the light and camera angles to try and make the best video possible.  Prior to this trip I had just strapped my GoPro to my helmet mount and rode off.  But after watching Drew's footage from Green River I knew I needed to step up my game.  I traded Drew some pain killers for his GoPro chesty mount and a unicorn helmet mount that sat out in front of my face and looked backward.  The unicorn mount was really awkward and

distracting.  The minor weight of the GoPro felt abnormally heavy on my head sitting 18" in front of my face.  But I gave it a try on one line and liked the footage.  I loved the chesty mount though.  Even a standard helmet mount feels awkwardly heavy, but the chesty has no such drawback.  There was one hip jump that Drew and I had hit quite a few times.  I felt really comfortable on it, and I started getting more air than I ever had before.  After filming the jump with the chesty, tripod, and pole mounts I decided to give the unicorn mount a try.  On my first attempt I landed very heavy on the front wheel, but managed to ride away.  I knew I could do better and I also wanted to whip my bike a little.  The second attempt seemed like it was going much like the first.  I knew I was going to land heavy on my front wheel again, but I thought I was going to ride away.  I was wrong.  After my front wheel hit I immediately went over the handlebars and straight toward the ground.  Having endo'd hundreds of times in my life I have learned how to land without hurting myself, but the unicorn mount caused me concern.  Idiotically enough, I tried to modify my crash landing procedure by going more to the side than straight over in order not to snap the mount.  My right shoulder slammed into the ground hard.  Way too hard.  I rolled through on to my feet and started trying to walk it off.  The pain in my right shoulder and clavicle region was only getting worse.  I felt

along the clavicle, hoping it wasn't broken.  To my intense relief, everything felt connected.  I continued to walk, feeling relieved that I wasn't seriously injured.  As the pain mounted, however, I started to move my right arm around and the sickening feeling of bone rubbing on bone was apparent.  My right clavicle had dislocated from my sternum and every time I moved my arm it would slide and rotate around.  Since I had done this exact thing to my left clavicle in high school I knew three things.  First, it was going to be excruciatingly painful.  Second, there was no surgery, so there was no reason to go to the hospital.  Third, I was going to be shelved for about a month.  Drew had run back to the car for a minute so I laid on the ground and waited for him to come back.  As soon as he saw me he knew something was wrong.  I was lying on the ground about 20' away from my bike.  I quickly told him what had happened and that I needed a sling.  He grabbed my bike for me, we walked back to the

campsite.  Drew generously gave me a couple of the painkillers I had traded to him just a few days before.  The pain was so bad that I couldn't breath properly.  The thought raced through my mind that I might have punctured a lung.  I knew that was one of the dangers of a dislocated collarbone.  Since I had also punctured a lung before I knew that the only cure was rest and that a hospital visit was still not necessary.  Of course I was gambling a lot here that there were no other internal injuries, but since I don't have health insurance, I decided to risk it.  Luckily the market in La Verkin had a sling so we didn't have to drive all the way to Hurricane.  As the painkillers started to take effect I was able to breath more normally and my worries about severe internal injuries started to subside.  Luckily I caught the crash on video!  After a day of nothing but sitting and reading and healing, Drew and I took a drive through Zion National Park.  The park is dramatic and beautiful.  We also saw, and got really close to, a herd of big horn sheep.  The next day I was feeling well enough to do a bit of hiking.  We jumped on the canyon shuttle and explored the Narrows, Weeping Rock, and the Emerald Pools.  The more we explored the more disappointed I became.  My original plan was to spend the next week rock climbing in this canyon with my friend Andy.  That dream will have to happen another time.  After another day of sitting around and reading I decided that my arm had healed enough that I would be able to make the 8 hour drive back to Vail.  Drew and I parted ways, hopefully to meet up again somewhere in Washington or British Columbia later this summer.  I was heading back to Vail for a week of rest and healing before spending a week as a counselor at a middle school Christian camp.

05/15/15 - Biking Green River, Utah

You can check out the Youtube video of the trip here:  Adventure 2015: Episode 2: Green River, UT or see Drew Barber's much more professional video here:  GreenRiverFreeride

After leaving Moab I headed to #GreenRiver and met up with Drew Barber to try our hands at some downhill freeriding.  Neither Drew nor I have any real experience with this style of riding so the first day involved a lot of crashes and a lot of real slow lines.  The more comfortable we got the bigger the lines we tried and the faster we rode.  For Drew, this meant some really sick, clean lines.  For me this meant a couple sick, clean lines, but mostly this meant a lot of really big crashes!  For so long the only big drops

I have done have had pretty flat landings.  This even resulted in me having to buy a new fork in Moab!  The habit I have of really bunny hopping and keeping my bike flat in the air was a big problem on these big drops with nice, steep landings.  I took a couple really hard spills on my butt, but nothing too painful at first.  I have to say, I was a little nervous about how the new #Rockshox #Lyric fork I bought in Moab was going to handle everything.  I have to say, though, that it crushed everything I threw at it!  Every day we explored more of this outrageous zone and found more and more lines to try and ride.  I definitely improved on my jumps and big drops during the four days of riding.  One of our biggest goals of the stay was to attempt a rock drop that involved about a four foot gap jump on to the rock and then a twelve foot drop off the rock to a nice steep landing.  My first attempt I landed way on my bike tire and went straight down to my butt.  The second attempt I overcompensated and landed slightly on my front wheel, but not so much that I wasn't able to ride away.  Unfortunately, as I was riding away my weight was a little too far forward and my front tire dug in to the dirt a little and I started to drift to the right.  Of course the right side of the landing had a jumble of rocks that I headed straight for!  I smashed into the rocks which tore three spokes out of my front wheel and badly damaged my right knee.  Luckily I have been borrowing some knee pads from Drew or else my knee would be in much worse shape than it is!  I took the day off riding yesterday and just tried to recover. Drew, on the other hand, rocked everything all week.  I think that he only had one small lay down and otherwise stomped every drop and jump that we attempted. I really need to step up my game.

 Today we are driving down to #Virgin, #Utah for the next leg of the trip.  There is no part of my body right now that isn't at least a little banged up, but I don't think it is going to hold me back from starting to explore the #freeride mecca that is Virgin tomorrow!  I am hoping to redeem myself and start stomping everything too!  Shoutouts to #TrekBicycles, #Giro, #KaliProtectives, and #PearlIzumi, for all the gear that kept me safe and styling!

05/10/15 - Biking Moab, UT

For the Youtube video of the trip click here: Adventure 2015: Episode 1: Moab, Utah

After a long, very busy, and very successful winter it is time for another summer adventure!  This summer I have decided to focus on my mountain biking skills since last summer I focused on my climbing skills.  I am planning on driving to all the top mountain biking destinations in the Western US and exploring all the best trails this region has to offer!  The trip started off in a very familiar destination, Moab, UT.  I have been traveling to Moab twice a year for about 15 years now, and there are still new trails to explore!  This trip I checked three new trails off the list.  I rode the Pothole Arch, Rockstacker, and Jackson trails in the Amasa Back system, the Klonzo trail system, and the Mag 7 trail.  The Rockstacker and Jackson trails are super fun.  There are about two super technical sections on each that were some of the most challenging I have ever ridden.  Cleaning those on the first try left me very stoked for the rest of the week!

Pothole Arch

Jeremy at the Captain Ahab Overlook

 My friends Hailee, Jenn, and Kari arrived from Vail on Thursday night so the next day we started with a much more mellow ride at the Klonzo trail system.  The Klonzo system is a great place to take someone who is a beginner mountain biker.  There aren't any technical sections or steep climbs so it is a great area to build your confidence and get ready for some of the more difficult trails that Moab has to offer.  After Klonze we headed back to camp and awaited the arrival of Candice and Jeremy before we started the second ride of the day.  For our second ride we returned back to the Amasa Back trail system to ride the Hymasa and Captain Ahab trails, a group favorite.  With nasty looking rain clouds on the horizon we packed up our rain gear and rode out from camp.  About 3/4's of the way to the top Kari and Hailee decided to turn at the Lower Ahab cutoff while Jeremy and I continued on to the top.  The rain began right at about the same time we began our descent, but it was only a drizzle.  I think we had ridden down about 200 yards when Jeremy had one of the biggest endo's I have ever seen!  We sat down for about five minutes while he composed himself and then continued on; a little dazed and bruised, but otherwise intact.  We continued to descend while the rain continued to increase in intensity.  About 3/4's of the way down the lightning really started in earnest.  I spotted a little alcove and parked there while I waited for Jeremy to catch up.  We sat there protected from the rain and lightning and debated whether we should try to wait out the storm or just go for it.  Looking at the clouds it didn't seem to me like the storm was going to end any time soon so I told Jeremy we should probably just go for it.  The rest of the descent just got muddier and wetter and my confidence in the traction on the sandstone really began to waver.  I was still able to ride everything, but I approached all off camber sections with much more caution than usual.  Luckily we made it down to camp, soaking wet, but with no further incident.  The girls, however, were mildly panicked by how long it took us to make it back and were starting to make plans on organizing a search party!  The rest of the MMS crew arrived later that night and we made plans to ride the Mag 7 trail

Breaking my fork on the Mag 7

the next day.  The Mag 7 trail starts at the top of the Gemini Bridges road and connects seven singletrack trails along the NW rim of Moab and finishes with the Portal Trail down to the Colorado River.  The start of the Mag 7 is pretty mellow Moab singletrack.  Just some fun and flowy singletrack.  I saw a big toilet bowl drop and decided to break up the monotony and go for it.  Unfortunately I managed to break my fork on the landing of the drop and had to ride the rest of the trail without front suspension!  Once we got on to the Gold Bar trail the action really got started.  The Gold Bar 4x4 road and Gold Bar rim singletrack were chock full of super technical drops and climbs.  I absolutely loved every minute of it, even without front

suspension, but some of our group really had their hands full.  At this point we had been riding for about 16 miles and were about an hour behind schedule so we decided to split up into a fast and slow group so the fast group could get to the bottom and let the shuttle drivers know that we were all OK.  I stayed with the slower group, which I think helped me stay fresh for the uber technical Portal trail.  I had ridden the Portal trail once before but it was about seven years ago.  I had some vague impressions of walking a lot of the trail, but nothing specific.  Once we got on the Portal though, I just kept riding and riding and waiting for the part where

Gnarly Exposure on the Portal Trail

I was going to get super sketched out by the exposure and the technical challenge!  Once I got to the sign that says, "DISMOUNT NOW! DO NOT TRY TO RIDE OVER THIS ROCK!  RIDERS HAVE DIED HERE! 200 FOOT FALL!" I remembered that I was going to be walking for the next 100 yards or so.  But after going over the rock and looking at the trail I just climbed right back on the saddle and kept going!  Through the bottom section the exposure goes away but the trail gets much rockier.  I managed to ride the whole thing while only putting my foot down a couple times so I have either gotten a lot better at riding since my first attempt at the trail, or my head was just more in the game.  Either way, I absolutely love the Mag 7 trail and now want to do it every time I am in Moab!  I dropped my bike off at the #ChiliPepperBikeShop to see if they could rebuild my fork while the rest of the crew rode the Bar M loops.  The next day I rented a bike and we headed up to Porcupine Rim.  In all the years that we have been coming to Moab, somehow Jenn had never ridden

Porcupine Rim Start Group (Me, Hailee, Kari, Jenn)

Porcupine!  I am not sure exactly how that is possible, but today that was going to change!  Hailee was coming to exorcise some demons since the last time she rode this trail she ended up with a 4" gash on her shin.  The weather was very chilly and looked like it might rain so we bundled up and headed down the Upper singletrack section.  There is one really tech double switchback in this section that I have never rode cleanly on the first try, but today that changed!  I managed to clean the first switchback and, while I can't ride the second switchback clean, I managed to ride the drop afterwards on the

first try!  Jenn had somehow, I don't know how this is possible, but somehow had never gotten a flat tire on a trail before.  After riding a mile or two of Porcupine her front tire went flat!  After bagging her first ever flat tire I think Jenn really started to feel like a mountain biker.  She was riding all the drops and technical sections on the trail!  After riding another couple of miles she was charging so hard she got her second flat tire!  The rear one went flat this time, so another quick tube change and we made it the rest of the way down with no incidents and some really solid riding from everyone in the group.  Hailee rode past her demon rock with nary a flinch!  Somehow I managed to snap my rear derailleur cable, but I had gotten the damage waiver on the rental bike so I didn't have to worry about it.  After a successful day on Porcupine I headed to the bike shop to discover that they could not rebuild my fork, however they did have a brand new fork that they would sell to me for 40% off, which I had no other option but to accept.  So $750 later I now have a brand new fork on my once again fully functioning bike and I am headed to Green River, Utah to ride some natural dirt spines!  I have never really done this style of riding before so I am mostly excited, but a little bit nervous.  Next update to follow in about a week!