The Fat Adventures Begin Again!

There has been a classic fall cooling trend here around the inland northwest, which has peaked my motivation meter to ride a bike again. Since it's been kind of rainy out there's not much in my mind that can be completed outside beyond bike riding...the chores around home can eternally wait for another day and the crisp morning temperatures have me itching to get the Fatbacks out for more Fat Adventures...so it began.



There is something to be said about riding in a misty on-off rain with temps in the 40's...most people would not find comfort or pleasure in this, but I'm different. The forest is once a again breathing a sight of relief from the season of fire potential. The roads and trails are dust free and the forest floor is no longer a volatile, crispy fire tender waiting for some idiot to light it up. The forest feels happy, the trees are waving, rain is gently pattering all around, everything is quiet except for the sound of a breeze through the pines.



I spent a few days climbing around the mountains in my back yard, never seeing another being, enjoying the peace and soul reviving solitude all around me. Yes, this is my mental therapy.



I put some serious miles on the Fatback which also entailed many thousands of feet of climbing and descending. I did not even notice that I am out of shape, the bike just kept going forward.

Pathetic!

Yep that's the way my summer riding season has been - Pathetic! It's the end of summer and the only way I know is that the mountain flora is rather dead...



I just feel that I lost the entire summer to work at "work" and work on our place. I love where I live, but loathe the work it has taken to bring this place up to "my standards" which is, by my own fault, rather lofty in the perfectionism realm. There is actually a lot of factors involved here that have kept my cycling to once or twice a week, if that.





I've become so pathetic about my cycling that the last time someone asked me how many bikes I owned that I could not remember completely until I was on my way home some time later - Pathetic!

I then read an article on vanity which, in combination with the aforementioned issues of memory loss regarding my bikes and lack of riding, made me a tad bit disgruntled (well actually I was in a raging disgruntled state to say the least). So in my highly disgruntled state I started selling off all my bikes and bike related parts (which it seems I have accumulated so much that I did not even know half of what I had in my shop)...Cyclocross bikes down to one and the last one is for sale, mountain bikes down to one, everything else is still on the chopping block including my Volagi, the only thing spared were the Fatbacks. You could say that I'm getting back down to the basics.

People who found out what I was doing thought I was insane. Personally I'm starting to feel better about having less to maintain and deal with or to decide what to ride for the day. I'm not totally off my rocker since I do have a plan that involves simplifying my bike life and it has already been set into action...



Unfortunately I'm in no shape for cyclocross this year and I'm not happy about missing these ultra fun competitions, but I feel that I would be wasting money and time in a futile effort to compete once again. I'm happy about just riding up in my "back yard" mountain park once or twice a week exploring new areas and finding new loops to ride. I have my own network of trails and roads to ride up there...it keeps me sane.



I also hinted in my last post (yes, it was long ago) that there were changes in the wind for me and those changes are chugging right along at a snail's pace. The changes involve relocating to a new area for new adventures in exploration of the local mountainous backwoods...hopefully better schools for my kids, smaller town living, SNOW, green grass all summer, Mount Idaho in the back yard...hmmm.



If everything goes right, this coming year I will be moving to Idaho. I was born there so I guess my destiny is to die there...but then again one never really knows their end destiny. Man that Lynskey is a sweet riding bike...WHOOOHOOO!!!!

Huckleberry Riding

The 100+ degree temps have me wishing for something white, cold, and fluffy. Yep, I'd take snow any day over the century mark temps. So in thought coolness, I started riding my Fatback again.



Something changed when I started riding those big monster tires, I felt cooler. And once again I had a goofy grin that can only come from riding monster tires over fallen trees, on cow trails (which is my only buff singletrack around), and on dirt in general. I love my fat bikes even if they are a little slower at climbing hills.

Along the way I found some of nature's finest fruits, which made me come to a screeching halt and promptly gorged on....



Huckleberries are ripe and very sweet this year. I'll be back out later this week to pick a winter's supply for my waffles, pancakes, muffins. Yum!



There are some winds of change blowing around here...I'll know more by the end of August, so until then I'm just waiting for some snow!

Summer Fun...

Hmmm...been busy with nearly every thing lately...

Ringing Rocks outside of Pipestone, MT (a must go to place - it's awesome):

Exploring in the Subaru:

Explorin' too far into the woods:



Gold panning with the kids and in-laws (outlaws):


Firewood cutting for the upcoming winter's warmth:



And enjoying nature while riding my bikes when ever I can:





I ride my bikes as much as possible, but not nearly as much as I'd like since I now have other priorities (they're called kids). I'm not getting fat, but I have lost much of my bike endurance and power, so now is the time for nearly anyone to kick my butt on a bike (and I will not even care). I'm sure I will gain back my fitness, however I am not really worried about it too much since I have so much fun just exploring and riding for fun at this time (racing is on the back burner for now).

I hope your summer is as good as mine!

Gravel Grinding

Due to local global warming I was forced to abandon snow riding because there is no more snow to speak of - it all melted. Rats! So I've geared up for the next best thing - gravel grinding on the local back roads.



My favorite riding in warm weather is exploring the endless local forest roads on a bike. I seem to find an inner peace up on the mountain amongst all the trees and flowers...well for the most part, there is always someone around riding a motorized thing that shreds my flowery little bubble. The motorheads are typically quite nice though and I enjoy talking to them.



Right now the forest is turning rather crispy since we seem to have instantly gone from a dry spring into sweltering hot temps in the last few weeks. At my house we have not had moisture since the end of February and my fields are looking like the end of July right now - not good.



The mountains are about the same, snow is essentially gone (I'm riding stuff that is usually snow bound until mid or late June on a normal year), the roads are dusty, and the forest floor it getting rather crisp. Hopefully we'll get some substantial moisture soon or it could be a banner fire season.



My Volagi has become an awesome gravel grinder bike, I'm quite impressed with the ride comfort to say the least. I'm still playing with position and components to make it fit me and my goals for this bike. So far I've put nearly a thousand miles on it and love riding it each time. It's a keeper! (which is something you never hear me say about a bike)

Transition Time - Spring Crust to Gravel Grinding

Yep, still here, still riding fat on the last of this season's snow. I'm a little sad that the snow is nearly gone now, all I have left is some supreme crust riding up on the tops and shady sides. It's still totally worth the extra effort to get up there and play in these spring conditions.





There are some huge rolling drifts up on top that are so much fun to play on....it's like a fatbike pump track and then some. This another awesome thing I never would have imagined without having a fatbike.





Well as the snow fades away I'm starting to transition into my summer mode of Gravel Grinding. It seems that another new bike has "appeared" in my evil bike laboratory. This one (a Volagi Viaje) is one I've set up just for gravel grinding and to conquer the oh-so-steep climbs up in my mountainous playground. I also have some intentions of using this bike for bike packing with Relevate Design packs that I've been using for some time now. So far the Volagi is quite comfy.

I have also begun experimenting with a Salsa Woodchiper dirt dropbar and Retroshift brake/shifter setup. I use Retroshift with my cyclocross bikes so I know how durable and good it is. The Salsa bars thus far are very impressive on the Volagi. I'm still experimenting with stem rise and length as well as bar tilt. My hands are happy, which is what matters most to me, plus I have great control with these bars. I will continue experimenting some I'm sure.



My heart is still dreaming of snow and I can not wait until next fall when I get to start playing on the Fatback in the snow once again. In the mean time, as my snow fades I'll just have to put up with riding the fattie on dirt and playing in the gravel.

Slush, Mush, and Crust

I've been experiencing a local, global warming trend here lately, which makes riding conditions change with both elevation and time of day. Early in the morning there is a nice crust that I can typically ride on top of nearly anywhere. As the temps rise to above freezing the crust turns to mushy snow, and finally a bit slush at lower elevations. At higher elevations it only gets a soft and mushy.



There are lessons to be learned with all this local climate change going on. For example a few days ago I rode a beautiful crust to a new destination that was very cool, but on my return trip I had to slog through (post-hole) knee deep mush for 2-miles. The crust had warmed just enough that it would no longer support the bike or me so I sank. Oh well, it was still fun...I smiled through it all.




These snow condition changes are also a small challenge with riding, since in the crust I have what seems to be unending traction, whereas in the mush and slush I slip-n-slide quite a bit. I have definitely increased my riding skills this winter.



This is awesome!!!

The Super Fatback Bowl

It seems that over the last week we've had an attack of Global Warming here. I was trudging through knee-deep new snow last week praying for some for some of my snowmobile friends to make a track for me (which never happened that particular day). Today all that snow seems to be gone, the lower part of the mountain is soft and mushy (no to be confused with slushy, which is wasn't) whereas the top was better but still soft-ish feeling. The good part was that the snow was well tracked, which made forward momentum easier for the most part...whoohooo!



It was also a beautiful day, but something odd about the whole situation...I was all alone. This was very peculiar since I usually run across many snowmobiles on Sundays, especially on clear, windless days like it was today. Hmmm...It took me a while to figure out, not that I was really too concerned, that today was Stupid Bowl Sinday. I have no love for watching sports on the TV and I'm quite certain that my little fans screaming in my brain celebrating my new world record time trial climbing the Fatback up 2000-ft was louder than any crowd on TV watching a football game (in which the whole thing is more hype than sport). I win!

No Fat Momentum Today

Today was an odd day weather-wise, kinda warm, kinda cold, dark ominous clouds, sun, and new snow.




Thankfully there was no wind to drift the snow any deeper. I had enough of a workout climbing 2500-ft today. Of course as I increased elevation the snow only got deeper as I would expect.



The hard part was that the base under the new snow was not its typical crusty self, which made tires sink a tad more, creating more resistance, thus making forward momentum much more difficult, making pedalling harder, making my legs works more than normal, giving me one heck of a workout over my short 14-mile ride today.



I was disappointed that I had to turn around but I was trudging (walking the bike more than riding) through knee-deep new snow. Just a few days ago this same area was like a super-highway, nicely packed by snowmobilers (love those guys). The snow looked like it was only going to get deeper up further, so after deciding to turn it around, I sat on the ridge overlooking Oregon and the Grande Ronde River Gorge, enjoyed this beauty all around while eating some snacks.