Trans What???

OK...Is it insane to ride a loop around Iowa in April = Rain + Mud Yuk for 300 miles? I've had some weird thoughts that this could be "fun" but I am not sure I want to drive all the way to Iowa just to ride in potential bad weather. Hmmm...maybe we (that really means me and my continuously talking inner-self) should make an unsupported off-road ride across Washington at the same time as the 2007 Trans-Iowa III (a show of solidarity if nothing else). It could be called the TWA. It could be a race, a challenge, or a just a damn long ride. The John-Wayne Trail could be a good option since it theoretically spans the state. But I am not yet clear on whether it can be ridden the whole way. Just a thought...and yes you have to take into account that this thought from an insane, bike obsessed geek.

Riding the Cave

I knew I would have a wee bit of spare time today (like half the day) so I packed Baloo (that's my Lenz Sport Leviathan 29er - a true mountain bike to you) in the Subaru this morning. After working half the day doing more orientation yuk at Gritman Medical Center (a fabulous place to work) I cruised up to the Pond-9 area on Moscow Mountain for some delicious singletrack riding...talk about attitude adjustment - there is nothing better than riding singletrack under a canopy of pines. Lately I've been doing some road-toad stuff for some quick stress relief, but all between the cars driving too close, the (cough, cough) SUV exhaust, and the lovely carcinogenic smells (which I'm told smells like money) from our neighborly, sharing, stinky-assed pulp mill....oh yeah the point - well between all that bunk I sometimes think road riding is more stressful than stress relief.

Up on Moscow Mtn. I took Headwaters Trail up and headed for the Cave Trail on the backside for some real fun.

Getting there...

Cave Trail...
The singletrack was soooo good I decided to ride it all again in reverse (which made for 20+ miles total)....

I got home and for some reason thought it would be fun to do a club time trial on my old road bike. It turned into a real fiasco...in the order of occurrence - rain, lightning, major gusty winds (of course it was totally calm when I started then 100 yards after the start I got blasted), a sticky front shifter (I was stuck in the small ring for about 2-miles spinning real fast), and finally a tumbleweed decided to commit suicide in my rear derailleur (that means I had to stop and pull it out...yeah it was dead). The overall idea of a time trial is not to stop but go as fast and as hard as you possible can to improve your time - it's only you (me that is) against the clock...needless to say I was a bit crabby after the tumbleweed incident...I finished in 25:40 not bad considering all the time sucking events that happened in that 10-mile stretch...my starting goal was to be in the 24-minute range...maybe next time...

Salute to Adam Lisonbee

Adam Lisonbee (a mountainbike endurance athlete) has said it all with this extraordinary writing about the "you's and me's of the world." Dang, his words hit my biking soul down deep.

He's right that we spend too much effort putting pro athletes aloft when it is ourselves we should be admiring - to heck with those drug infested, cheating pros and the crappy fiefdom they have built for all of us to both love and hate.

It's not about them anymore - it's really about you and me, the lowly want-to-be-fast cyclists...those of us with a real passion to ride just to ride and be a bit better tomorrow...where winning or placing is glory and loosing is inspiration to fight harder...Thanks for the redirection, Adam.

Headwaters Love

Donna (that's the love of my life, my soul-mate, my best friend...)
got back from a family/friend visit in Michigan late Saturday. I always miss her dearly when we're apart, but it is very therapeutic for our relationship to have time apart...when we get back together we seem to appreciate each other more and express more love toward each other than ever. I'm always amazed that we have more to give each other - just when it seems we have reached the highest plateau of love we find one higher. Now I'm thinking that these plateaus will end only if we put limits on them.

Sunday afternoon we spend hiking the Headwaters Trail up on Moscow Mountain. It was a super warm day and up on the mountain was the best place to be with my best friend.

Huckleberry 100

Ahhh...the Huckleberry, the fruit-of-fruits, the fruit I will go to extremes to taste. In it's raw form there is nothing more tasty...in a "properly" made pie it is worth the extra mile(s) to have just one bite. Just imagine what I would do for a full slice of Huckleberry pie topped with Huckleberry ice-cream...YUM!!!

On Sunday the SeanMan and I rode over 100 miles just for this tasty treat (at least that was my motivation).

And I must say that it was worth every pedal stroke to get to Elk River Idaho's Huckeberry Haven. It was so good that I'm thinking about riding up there again.
It is hard to have any facial expression with a mouth full of pie.

Riding Hot

It is done - I have completed my BSN (that's a highly respected nursing degree to you). Oddly enough I received my "post-dated" diploma and grades before I was done...what's up with that??? Oh well I'm not going to worry about it any. To celebrate I decided to ride my bike (gasp!) - yeah it's been some time since I've put some serious miles on, except those infrequent times I rode to work in Pullman at B&L Bicycles only to have the SeanMan pull my fat ass nearly all the way. Thanks SeanMan, so what if you've shot my ego all to hell, I really appreciated the wheel, the pain, and the reminder that mortality happens when you don't ride for a month (that's a lame excuse).

So I did a hill climbing road ride rode late yesterday afternoon for about 2 hours in scorching heat (101-106F according to my fancy bike computer). The pavement was like riding on Rice Crispys (air bubbles seem to form in boiling tar). OK the ride was good and I thought I was ready for what I really like - a long dirt-road MTB ride. This morning I took off planning to do a loop up the South Fork around to George Creek (I estimated it to be 80-100 miles), but I got 30+ miles into it and decided no way was I going to make it - I could feel early signs of heat exhaustion setting in and even though I was slugging down the water I was becoming dehydrated (hard to imagine that 100-degree temps can do that). So nearly at the top of the climbing I turned it around and headed home. That's when the real problem presented in the form a 15-20mph headwind making the lower canyon like standing in front of a blast furnace (which means it was dehydrating me much quicker than before). I stopped several times and jumped into Asotin Creek just to cool off. By the time I reached Asotin (56 miles down, 5 more to home) I was very well done, miserable, and had to stop in the park and just cool down for an hour or so. The place looked like Gehenna (that's Hades or Hell to you)... ...and it smelled like it too with the spew of that stinky-assed Lewiston pulpmill drifting in the winds...enough to make me puke! And I did (another sign of heat exhaustion) - Hello partially digested peanut butter! It tastes almost as good coming up as it did going down - YUM!

I limped the last 5 miles home, took a cold bath to cool off, took a 8 oz. dose of the miracle drug for exhaustion & nausea (Coke), then layed around waiting for my stomach to settle so I could rehydrate. Oh yeah, Donna (that's the love of my life) was not happy with my condition either...I got a well deserved ass-chewing for my Hot ride - there's more than one way to get rid of my fat ass I guess.

SS and Toads

Went for a ride today on the new SS, a rigid (as in no suspension) Gary Fisher Rig. This bike is sweet on the long back-road rides I like to do.

It was a nice morning for ride up both the North and South forks of Asotin Creek by way of Cloverland Road. I even took in some wildlife viewing along the way...

No Control

I have no control over boxes showing up at my house with bike parts in them. I have no self control over seeking out and buying new bikes. I'm beyond addicted to say the least.

For some reason another Gary Fisher Rig SS (that's a single speed) showed up at my doorstep. This one is being built up rigid (as in no suspension) just so I could punish myself for buying it. Now if only I had time to ride...I'm finishing my last 160 hours of clinical requirements for my nursing degree. The goal is to have these hours done by the end of June, which means I have little to no time to ride...this means I have no control of my life yet either...

Gears & Suspension = Weird

I was up in Moscow for a job interview at Gritman Medical Center. Wow, what an awesome place and to say the very least I decided that this was a place on the top of my list to work in the future. After a most outstanding interview I decided to shed my tie and slacks for some bike shorts and jersey for some pure single track bliss on Moscow Mountain. Baloo, my new Lenz Sport geared, full suspension bike was in the back of the Subaru waiting patiently. First though I unwound after my interview with a super yummy (extra large) cinnamon roll and coffee at the Moscow Food Co-op . Soon after I hit the trail and found that gears and full suspesion felt really weird after my 24-rh race event riding single speeds the previous weekend. It felt much harder to pedal and it was way too cushy it seemed. Baloo needed some riding (besides my SS bikes are still trashed with mud-yuk from the race).

Since I had never done a full loop on the Headwaters trail I decided it would be fun to do it in one complete run. Zoom-Zoom...Fun is an understatement for this trail and after 5-miles I was spit out where I started with a big smile. The Moscow Area Mountain Bikes Assn (MAMBA) deserves huge kudos for making and maintaining these super awesome trails. I ventured back up and did Cave Trail and several others before I jumped back onto Headwaters for my final decent back- yes, it was another thrilling twisting ride down. By the end of the ride some 30 miles later the suspension still felt weird, but much appreciated. The gears were still odd though.

The interview - let's just say that the following day I got a phone call and Moscow is definately in my future...