Month: August 2011

West Clear Creek

/ chollaball / 3 Comments

Dara invited us to join her, Troy and James for camping and hiking. The camping was too much effort, but we got up early and deep into Rim Country by 9:15. Dara said it would be a hike down to a river with friends, dogs, and ‘a few steep spots‘.   If Facebook only had a icon, it would have been all over her message. No worries, none at all — the Cballs represent. Beckie hauled Alana in the carrier, along with Dara hauling her 3-yr old McKenna. G hiked all 45 minutes and ~600 feet down, through rockfall and broken trees, along the river, and back up again. After two times freelancing and thumping herself on rocks, she began listening to exactly what i said and followed my path precisely. She dropped into steep down-climbs saying to herself ‘just like rock climbing class…just like rock climbing class‘. If I wasn’t proud enough of her strength and saavy when we got down to the river, I was blown away when she swam behind me through a 10 yard pool along the trail. The way out I could hardly pace her, her fatigue offset by excitement and empowerment rocketing back up the wall.



Alana and McKenna almost thinking about being friends

stupid slow-focusing auto-focus, this pic was so kewl

dogs can’t walk on skinny log crossings

back up the wall!

kids passing out allowed adult time

Man in Black

More awesome pics over on James’ site.

XC Day in Flagpole

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James, Doug, Dara and I, with guest appearances along the mountain by probably 10 Phoenix peeps. Getting up at 5 sucked, but the family outta town meant I had the whole day to enjoy with my friends.

Schultz-> Dogfood-> Pipeline-> Yo Moma’s Secret-> Secret-> Supermoto-> AZT-> Schultz-> Lil’Gnarly-> Brookbank-> Sunset-> Lil’Gnarly-> Jedi-> Schultz-> Be​er and pizza from Fratelli’s.

4 hrs riding, 25 miles, 4k vf. Beautiful weather, no traffic, the only bummer was Doug crashing on Jedi and needing 10 stitches at Urgent Care. It didn’t phase him, which is why we love Dougmore. Meanwhile we hung out at Erik’s awesome house in downtown Flag – thanks Erik great to see you again.

i have no clue what this is, but it gave me a break on the HAB up Brookbank

top of Sunset

Dry Lake Hills

Jedi

Go see some far better pics over on Maad’s site.

ThNR

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The title is kinda poaching, but I can’t be blamed if its licensed users bail and leave me with the intellectual property rights.   John joined James and I out in east Mesa, that makes the copyright infringement ok.   The route was Fenceline->Power Road->Phon D to the River, then the back way along the canal into TRW, to the Red Mtn Ranch golf course. I can’t believe i never thought up this route before, chasing eachother crit-style sprints for 20 miles. This route needs to be hit more than once every 11 years. John did it all on his CX bike, my suspension was locked out the entire time. It was all about sunsets and water, fast rolling on easy terrain during another 100 degree evening, sailing in shadows through sand and sprinklers.

tinyShredder McPumps

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GrowAZ is a newish grassrootsy collective of bike geeks who think acting with one voice might get us somewhere. Black Power and whatnot. The park manager of McDowell Mtn Park is extremely bike friendly, recognizing the majority of daily traffic in the park are bikes. The PT got built last year, tucked into a corner where no one but other bikers go. Ahh…fences make for good neighbors, even the equestrians kvelled when i paraded G out at a planning meeting and said how free-riding is family-friendly. Props to LateDropBob and others who have been working hard to make things happen with powers-that-be.   Today was our first rebuild workday, and hopefully the first of several cool features added to the Park. The Park matched our 20 volunteers with a water supply and a loader.

First samples on the backside were gnariffic. I can’t wait to try the jump line after it dries.

Kiefer and G alternated riding and DVDs. Somewhere is Kila who wandered around and about and under the EZup for 4 hrs. and look, its my laptop sitting right where i left it! Thanks KennyB for saving it, and building your S-curve.

KIDDIE BIKE PORN BELOW!
you’ve been warned…

SummerCave

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This summer has been the hardest i know. So many large projects and siteeations, no willpower to get up or get out. The only place I refused to yield is getting the kids to the pool.This likely contributes to my beatendownednessocity.

Its like this: we are soon heading to my nephew’s bar mitzvah, and G asked if we would go talk to god. No baby, no. I don’t want you   to ruin the service, or it to ruin you. You and Alana and Mommy will dress up and give hugs pre-service, then vanish to the playroom for 1.5 hours while Daddy takes 4 slugs of God to the chest for the family.*

That is like taking kids to the pool.

I enter my zen, my dragon, my prePainCave, getting ready for clawing and ripping and 4-footed kicks in the junk, meatbombs crashing from out of the sky, kickboards cracking me under the chin.

Its amazing i haven’t bitten my tongue or had a seizure this summer.

I love my kids. really. keep repeating

We play fighting games, wrestling, basketball and racing. G is a long-haired dress-wearing tomboy. She took out 4 boys at a Pump It Up party, 3 of them twice. Each day she asks to do laps, cause she likes ice cream, and she likes challenging herself, and seeing her progress.   I know this about her, she does not yet.

Alana is a completely different swimmer from barely a month ago. No fear of the water, comfortable under the surface for 5 seconds at a time in ways G never was. She   discovered goggles. The first time she freaked out and howled til i stuffed her under water and screamed ‘LOOK!!!!’ Two eyes were full moons, trying to find teenytiny words to describe what she saw. On the way home i bought her a pair of her own. Now she can’t jump in fast enough, learning to cannonball, and yesterday for the first time embracing the autonomy of water wings. I embraced the 20% fresh bandwidth in my throughput.

They usually crap out after about an hour. So I can timebox my suffering, and force myself to keep smiling and playing their games. I get raked down the back, a knotted quad, and choke held. How the fuck did that only take a minute and a half!!!! A minute and a fucking half! Its like sex-time.

*no offense to my religious friends, who if you are reading know and respect our differences