two handbrakes, rear deraileur, squishy and too long. A dirt ride covered in her bigger bad-ass pads and new jersey allowed saddle time and gentle falls. G did so well already!!!
Month: December 2011
Xmas Eve on the 50
Last day of 10 to enjoy the family outta town, i headed to Tuxson to ride something new and pretty with a new friend who offered to show me around.
I made brownies.
so psyched was i
What a POS is my camera. but if trends continue, one of my kids will break it within 6 months. You’ll just have to use better imaginations to appreciate all the lush chunky violence of the terrain. The backside of the Catalinas is dense, bouldery and tight. Thicker with cactus than anything here in the Valley.
The loamy soil was still moist, and offered outstanding grip even in the many transitions from rockface and back. Flowy traverses, bermed descents, and punchy climbs kept the ride exciting and the heart rate up. Any bike will handle this trail, but stoked for techy opportunities, the Bird was the perfect choice for me.
i gots da last Rage DH jersey, suckas!
lots of b-lines. we were having too much flowy fun on the Lower and Upper Chutes to take many pics. I hit most of the alternate trials and jumps, but not this one.
wadding…
wadding…
booyah! wadded up!
So tell me people, what is the right technique for these long steeps?? I managed on 3-4 other ones out there by creeping in gently and massaging the rear brake down. I just didn’t want to try this without watching someone else go first…twas the night before xmas, I’m not going to the ER. :nono::yesnod:
Bump a knuckle, brobra
Three guys who really really like beer and were really really thirsty all paused in the ice-covered parking lot of the Pagosa Brewery to listen to the end of this song. Then we crammed into the restaurant-nee-quonsetHut, celebrated 2 perfect powder days, and watched all health violations freeze to death as the waitstaff walked meals across the yard from the kitchen in a nearby trailer. whatevah… I wash my hands and drink liquor from a flask, I’m anti-Vail, i’d eat Cliff bars for 48 hrs if the lifts kept running. Even vigorous sex is second to a sunny, 25 degree day of fresh powder. gliding through the trees, floating on pillows. i’m still in post-coital bliss.
moonshine and bluebird
Here’s a new way to do Wolf Creek: leave comfortably after work, drive through the night, and nap in the car. 3 is the perfect number, enough to split the gas but not offset the single hotel room, leave spaces in the car and the conversation. Is it a coincidence the lifts at Wolf Creek are mostly triples? We 3 sluffed into Pagosa Springs at 4:30am, bought coffee at the only open gas station so we could gear up in the baffroom. Then we passed out for 2 hours in front of a ski shop. Snow cred for guys who average 3.7 houses having-owned.
The shop mechanic rolled up at 7:30am on a Turner DHR, and left it unlocked out front while JB dropped off his new powder planks. It was still out front that afternoon.
Us: nice $4k bike
Brobra: this is the safest town in the world, i haven’t seen my house key in 12 years
Us: We lock our bikes in our garage, to a gigantic deadly python. and worry if the humidity is right. For the hand-made tire sealant…not the python.
These are first-world problems. Midweek early-season dumps puff them softly away, leaving us in the ecstasy of the moment. So rare for me to simply be, in the exquisite simplicity of inner and outer peace. Everyone here feels it and is so hopelessly nice. We left all our gear in the back of the F150, and contemplated uprooting and moving to a mountain town.
i filled my 6oz flask with 12 yr old rum. We had half left at the end of each day. Who wants to give up their balance after driving all night and inflicting chiropractic chaos sleeping in a jump seat? The warm nips are something i hope to never be without again. Next trip will be butterscotch schnapps.
my brobras
First run of the first day was sketchy, alien, stance too tight and edges waaaaaaaaaaay tighter. I wadded up, knocked it out, got skeered, got comfy, and somehow got to the bottom thinking ‘its just a board…ride it.’
So James and I hiked up Alberta Peak, to hit the fresh 35 degree pitch. First time hiking from the Treasure lift, which is much gentler than up the Alberta lift side, except for 350 wheezing steps at the end. James slid up mild grades, then nimbly dropped his skis into his pack and trotted up the approach. i took back all the nasty stuff i said about boarders crushing skiers in the sprint tris. This was my secret plan all along to encourage him to take more stunning pics.
The Artist
that is a long fucking short walk
~17 minutes of crucifixtion. We did it 3x. pic courtesy of James
I dropped Alberta face on the 2nd run of the day, of the season, ever on my new board. The rockered design ate up the pow, I’ve never been so at-ease on a steep&deep. and it was way more stable – albeit a bit slower – on the cat tracks. I can’t elucidate the details, but i know it when i see it. Buyer’s remorse and trepidation transition to tickled tenacity. its just a board…ride it.
So we did for 2 more days, and by the next lunch I had surpassed what I could do on the old board.
new FB profile pic courtesy of James, i’m going to have to start paying royalties. More pics on James’ blog
James coming down Alberta
on top of me
oww. my boot hurts my shin. and the farmer’s mart was out of organic arugula. i have first world problems.
Bony conditions, bruises, and Lindsey-Vonn-shin put us on the road instead of the slope the next morning, with time to enjoy Durango. I connected with a buddy from high school i hadn’t seen in 20 years. Thanks Adam! James got a pair of boots that will rock Mardis Gras. We took my bud’s recommendation and enjoyed stellar food at Gazpacho’s.
enchilada with xmastree salsa and posole on the side
bueno.
Is Anyone Else Fired Up?!!
sitting in your own shit is not necessarily bad parenting
let’s be Utilitarians: my daughter gets candy corn every time she deuces in the bowl. We have not been able to see the candy corn. Truth is, i’m disappointed, it would make this foulness more interesting.
There is a candy conspiracy! Bags of delicious candy corn have been getting simultaneously smaller and more expensive and harder to find off-season, which can not be explained by increasing demand, as there is no barrier to supply. Fat-ass ‘mericans would eat candy-corn or candy-combo or candy-kibble 24/7 if you kept the food coloring interesting. So why the shortage?!?!? Why is there only 1 kind of peanut butter cup? Who wouldn’t buy a bigger, cheaper Baby Roth bar? ipso facto, conspiracy!
Alana eats candy. I am still eating their Halloween candy. She is in a netherworld between diapers and Dora underpants and crisis!
Best candy-coated way to start the day: have your toddler pee herself while dropping the other kid off for school, then have a yard full of teachers and parents smugly judge how you handle it. Not one of you has a damn babywipe handy? A-holes.
Anyone got some candy? Mongo like candy.
RP Tday
Every day in Rocky Point is a holiday.
run to the grocery stoh for last minute items
the non-swimming windy-beach game became building a firepit
collections
pteranadon mountain, complete with baby nest
pteranadon tracks
backyard firepit in progress
hey muthafugga, i live in this hole!
pre-dinner beach walk
another night of excellent cold indoor gamery
firepit and marshmallows
equestrian trail-sharing
so ironic that its the one who kicked her last year
I Planted a Tree
I could not bear to put the Heckler in the recycle bin, we’d been through too much together. So I took it out to the desert and gave it a proper burial.
with a great view
rain brought out all the ghetto-tubeless residue, and set the tone for ceremony
bottle opener on the frame still works
i made a toast
and poured some out for my homey
The Northern Quadruple Bypass of Awesomesauce
All killer, no filler.
Up Bell from the Scottsdale side, down Bell and Windgate to East End, up East End to Tom’s Thumb, down TT to Windgate, back up and over Windgate to Bell, down Bell to Parasdise. No HOAs fencing off their connector roads, no dodging herds of hikers around Sunrise and Lost Dog, no horrible dirt road, no push up Sonoran Trail to give back 500 vf coming down a sidewalk.
Nowhere as bad as one might think. There was 15 min of HAB near the top of Bell, and 25 HAB to get up East End. We relaxed and took pictures.
up Bell?
drizzly day in the Valley
the fountain is still shooting in Fountain Hills
up East End let us study all the switchbacks for the next descent
we hid from a snow flurry inside the oft-photographed boulders atop Tom’s Thumb
Maad caught in the act of blogging about his radness
The rain made for hero-dirt, I dabbed once on the descent. Maad also nailed switchbacks better than any prior run
20 miles, 3.5 moving time, and my best time ever down Paradise Wash 7:53! Stats show almost 5500 vf.
More pics on James’ site.