Up 10K

On a recent manic day at play I ventured out with no plan...just a bike, some hydration, a water filter, a bit of food (never enough it seems) and a smile. I ended up carelessly wandering around the Umatilla National Forest with no destination in mind. I found a new and very rewarding route around Cape Horn. Up on top ventured down to Charley Creek, Donaldson Creek, then onto the headwaters of the Tucannon River and beyond. The entire trip was full of scenic awe and questions of "Where to now?" at every junction. Only a few others (cough, cough...SeanMan) I know would ever appreciate a sub-epic mountain bike venture like this. Just a few pics of the trip...

The way down to meet Charley....Charley Creek that is...one of my watering holes along the way...

Every week it seems there are a different set of flowers to see...these pics are nothing compared to seeing them in person...


That's a super cool Trek Fuel EX-9 - my butt-lovin, super squish, endurance ride...

...more flowers ...

...a view towards Oregon of the canyons guarding the Grand Ronde River several thousand feet down from this view point at 6000 feet...

...the headwaters of Asotin Creek...

...behind NerdBoy here is the valley that holds the golden headwaters of the Tucannon River...

...Dang this is the good life!!!

Below is an elevation profile...all total it was good ride with 10,000+ feet of total climbing over 96.3 miles in 7-hrs 25-minutes.

Just for the locals...for your perspective the little bumps on either end of the profile above is the Critchfield grade.

Cape Horn Epic

Well it wasn't an epic by my "normal" standards (it was only 70 miles of riding), but it became one since I decided to explore a new route to the top (I usually take a rather steep gravel/dirt forest road up) and it only became epic because I had to friggin bush-whack through several areas of small trees growing in my trail (I guess I was in a forest). In the end, after bush-whacking my ass off, I think I found a potential second passage that will need exploring some more.

This trip was in real Cape Horn tradition - The real Cape Horn, at the tip of South America, was and still is an epic maritime adventure and the "original" passage of Cape Horn was part of an exploration for a new route to some highly sought after goods (at least that's what I recall). I wasn't after goods though - I actually don't know why I wanted to go there other than to find out why it was named Cape Horn.

After slogging through countless little pine groves and kicking out several elk and bears (really...I saw quite a few up there) I made it to an old burn that provided a huge open expanse...and a rather grassy old road (it was like an interstate highway to me). From there it was a rather easy ride to Cape Horn Ridge. The final climb up was very a steep rocky wall (rather fun to ride)...After I got there I still couldn't figure out why it was named Cape Horn...I was expecting some hellish ride to get there but it was stoopidly easy (if you took the forest road that is). There were some cool views and I lounged up there for a bit, enjoying the sun and snacking.

After that I was off to try and find and explore another trail I have outlined on an old map...after finding the trail and loosing it several times I decided I just did not have enough time to complete that task so I bailed off and raced down the mountain home.
Truly amazing what you see when you're looking. I see so many cool things out-and-about but I rarely take the time to dig out my camera...today I seemed to be in less of a hurry I guess...click in the image to see the real beauty...

Welcome to Cape Horn - Now go home!

Just over the immediate hill horizon it dropped off very steeply down to the ridge seen below...Fun!

Easterly view with Idaho (yawn) in the background...

Westerly view up Lick Creek (much more pleasing don't you think?)...

Can you see the trail? It runs straight through that fence...

Dang...2-blog postings in 2-days...what's wrong with me?

Trek Fuel 69er???

I made my newish Trek Fuel EX-9 into a Trek Fuel EX-69 with some "spare" parts I had laying around.

What is a 69er??? Well it's a sort of a Frankenstein bike that pieces together a 29er fork and front wheel (29" wheel) to a 26" wheeled frame and rear-end...69er! Trek has been developing just such a bike and I am anticipating that I could like it...so I made my own just to quell my own curiosity. My 69er version is missing a few of the Trek refinements such as a rear rocker arm that is tuned for a 69er, a lower front end (they used an integrated headset and a prototype Fox 29er fork with a different offset...blah, blah, blah), but I think I got some feel for the 69er idea with my setup.

There are many naysayers out there on the idea of a 69er (just like there was with the origin of 29ers)...I personally think these individuals are a bit narrow in the head.

The setup I did put the front of the bike equivalent to running the height adjustable 26" Fox fork (original equipment) at 130mm (it's tallest, longest travel setting). I have found that the 130mm setting is essentially only good for rapidly decending down bumpy hills...it is not very good for climbing or technical stuff on the flat or going up. The best all-around setting is at 110mm. That said, I was already anticipating that the 69er setup would not be my favorite since the front-end would be sketchy over technical stuff. I took it out for a test ride and put a couple of miles (...uhhmm 97-miles to be exact) on this setup before I put my original 26" Fox fork back on.

What I found was that this thing was an incredibly fast and stable downhill thrill ride. On the flats and non-technical climbs it was good too, but as I thought it really sucked on the technical, rock-infested, tight turns going up-hill...one of my more favorite "local" single track climbs (Foredyce Trail) proved to be way more difficult than usual...I struggled through sections of the trail that are typically fun.

Assuming that Trek brings the front-end into "compliance" on it's new 69er, this bike could be a seriously fun, fast enduro-machine...hmmm

165-mile Maiden Voyage???

Yep the title is right...I shamelessly thrashed ("gently broke-in") a new, just-out-of-the-box mountain bike on it's first ride over 165-miles of bone-jarring trails in a single 24-hr event. My actual intent was to ride it more like 300-miles during that event but my hydration/nutrition plan failed me (again) and eventually made me stop due to physiolgical race stoppers (i.e. bonk, puking, and dehydration).

The bike was a new Trek Fuel EX-9 (now it's a used bike) with 5-inches of butt cushioning suspension front and back purchased from the ultimate local bike shop, B & L Bicycles. Believe me, my butt was appreciative of the cushy suspension during this "test" ride. I changed a few things on the bike right out of the box including setting up the Bontrager wheels and tires tubeless (super easy with a floor pump - impressive), changing out the Avid Juicy-7 disc brakes for my much preferred Magura Marta disc brakes, swapping out the Bontrager saddle for my supreme butt-saving Koobi AU-Enduro saddle, and installing Ergon's ultra comfy grips.

But it's not a 29er!!! Yes, I know this is a 26-inch and not a 29-inch (29er) wheeled bike. Let me say that I have been very apprehensive about buying a 26-inch wheeled bike after riding 29ers for the last 4-years, but after this maiden ride on the Fuel EX-9 I have found nearly complete satisfaction. The ride is smooth and everything I wanted in a full-suspension bike - quick, nimble, squishy/plush, pedals efficiently, no frame flex, and it eats up the bumps. I did notice some disadvantages in sand and rolling over "some" rocky sections compared to 29ers - both of which I had to learn to compensate for (a minor detail overall - much less so than I thought it would be). I also noticed some advantage over my 29ers (gasp!!! Say it isn't so!!!) - most noteable was momentum up hills. My 29ers seem to go from having momentum to grunt mode (no smooth transition in between), whereas the Fuel EX-9 would smoothly transition from high momentum to easier pedaling options - never directly to the ultra grunt mode I find with the 29ers.

I took the bike to Spokane for the 24-Hrs Round the Clock race thinking I would use it for my back-up bike and ended up using it as my primary ride because it was so smooth on the butt and pedaled well over the bumpy yuk. I was on par for a 18-20 laps around the 15-mile course but on lap-8 (120-miles into the event) I was experiencing effects of dehydration, nausea, and I finally puked. So I sat out for a while and rehydrated. After a few hours I started feeling much better so I jumped on the bike with renewed energy and blew through another few laps before it happened again (puke), but this time I could not keep down fluids or foods and eventually was zapped of energy completely...at this point I decided to save my body for another day.

Someday I will figure out a race nutrition/hydration plan that actually works in both training and races. The same thing happened last year at the same race. So far my plans work well in all of my extreme training and in short races. The only exception I have found is that during long high intensity rides on super hot days I tend to be unable to hydrate enough no matter what. This year and last I trained with and used Hammer Nutrition products (which are designed for this kind of endurance event), but I am nearly convinced that they are partially the problem. I am debating several issues right now including 1) Hammer products (used as recommended) are not allowing me to hydrate properly and may even be contributing to dehydration by pulling body fluids into my intestinal tract - maybe I need to use less??, 2) I am not getting enough sodium with the Hammer products even though I am taking their recommended usage (low body sodium will contribute to all my problems), 3) Maybe I need to prehydrate more - hard to believe since I was peeing frequently and clear just before the race, and 4) I need to find a way to take in (absorb) more fluid faster...according to all the research out there I was drinking the maximal amount my body should be able to take in per hour, yet I was thirsty feeling (a very bad sign) within 4-hours. I never felt I really caught up on the hydration. If I ever get this figured out I will be competitive in these events.

Moab - The End

Moab was such a fun adventure that I thought I would put out a few more pics of the many I have.



Ahhh...Springtime in the desert...a few desert bouquets...





This is Ray...the ultra-cool guy that invited me down. I owe him many thanks for this motivating little tour...













This is part of the gang I rode with down there (part of Rays group)...all were super fun to ride with...













More Slickrock...this stuff was so much fun to ride and on the Single-Speed it was awesome...









Johnny found some wildlife in the middle of the desert...every person I met down there was friendly...something of a rarity in many places it seems...













The country around Moab was so enormous that you can not imagine it from these pics. This is from the top of Amasa Back...













Jackson's Hole as viewed from Amasa Back...That is a huge butte in the middle of a hole it seems...very cool to see from this viewpoint...








Yes...I was there....and so was my bike...












Now off to something new...











Since Moab I've been goofing off (...that really means riding and dabbling into new adventures)...

This is 35-miles into a loop (all uphill to this point). A few months ago I tried to make a loop up here but...









If you remember...it was impassible due to knee-deep snow fields. Not this time though...I found it to be a cool 70-mile loop. I've got a few more adventures in the works to be shared as soon as they happen...

Moab Day 2...The Adventure Continues

Porcupine Rim Trail

We (Ray, a good friend, and I) started out doing what no one else wanted to do...ride the pave and gravel road up to the trailhead. Everyone else evidently pays a shuttle to take them and their bikes up....For me it is a normal warm-up to ride 10.5 miles up 1200 feet, but it turned out to be a hurried warm-up since we had a smokin headwind going uphill. So it ended up being a leg burner...Training at its best --- singlespeed, up a long hill, into a stiff headwind...

From the trailhead we climbed up solid rock with continuous stair-step ledges for another 980 feet to the top.

Porcupine Rim Trail is one trail that everyone warned me about taking a hartail, SS bike on. "They" all seemed to think that this trail was a full-suspension, geared bike only trail. I found the Porcupine to be a small bit challenging but perfectly suited for my SS 29er. I had a blast on this one...so much so that I hated to stop and take pictures, but I did get a few.



The top was at the rim edge overlooking the Castle Valley with more of those open-jawed, I-can't-believe-this-view kind of scenery...
Wow is all I could say...





















This is Ray...the only other person with the ambition, heart, and true biking soul to skip the wimp-out shuttle to the top...a true biking adventurist...

Did I mention that after climbing up to the top that the trail is nearly all downhill back? There were a few hike-a-bike sections like this one where the rim above decided to drop down...look closely and you can see Ray standing by one of the smaller rocks that is part of a monster piece that came down here...and yes there really is a rideable trail along this edge (click on the pic for a larger verson - see if you can find the trail).

After Porcupine I went out and did some more trails (alone...it seems that others were a bit pooped) and ended up venturing into Arches National Park...another cool place to see. I finished my ride at near dark with a huge smile on...How can life get better than this?

Moab on a Single-Speed

Moab: Day-1

Against advice from numerous other "experts" I took my single-speed (SS) Gary Fisher Ferrous to Moab.

The experts said it would be futile to ride a SS in lumpy, bumpy Moab and that I would need to either take or rent a super-duper-boingy-full-squish-bike with lots of granny gears for climbing those leg-burning steep hills.

After riding in Moab I have 3 things to say:

1) Gears are over-rated and truly shifting gears is a waste of time and effort.

2) Full suspension bikes are over-rated...such a waste of effort to have to push all that extra junk up a hill.

3) 29-inch wheels rule! I have been "thinking" about getting a standard 26" wheeled bike again, but I must say that Moab truly renewed my faith in the advantage 29ers have in riding over obstacles and on rough terrain.

One more thing...I used some Ergon grips for the first time down in Moab and must say I am way beyond sold on the comfort they provide. After a few hundred miles of riding the roughest desert trails my hands felt fresh and ready for more. The Ergon grips on a Bontrager 12-degree Big-Sweep handlebar was heavenly everyday.

The weather was spectacular as was the scenery...every day on every ride I was awed by the views...I truly could not get enough...

The Way to Moab...

This is the way to Moab...

Simply put it was full of breath-taking views...

(click on the pics for a larger image)

Restless

Every spring I get extremely restless...which makes me aggitated...which makes me rather untolerable to be around. I seem to have some ancestoral migration gene that pushes me to move to a new landscape in the spring....in the past I did just that, but moving has become a bit more complicated these days (moving is becoming way to expensive and it seems to be harder to dig out the roots). But this year I seem worse than ever so I've tried to subdue these feeling with some longer back-road rides around home...










Resistance is futile....

Over the last several weeks of riding I have come to realize that I must view some new distant lands in order to settle my stir-crazy feelings. During all my rides the winds seem to be carrying a very faint whisper that sound like knobby tires rolling on slick-rock, dirt, and sand. After several hundred miles of listening to this whisper I finally realized it was one musical word played over and over again....

....Moab...Moab...Moab...Moab...Moab...Moab...Moab...Moab...Moab......