Life does have its moments, sometimes....

this trip started out cool as hell, quentin hooked me up on the yeti again and let me take it for 5 days, and to california to boot, damn dude thanks a lot, i need to find a way to show how much it means to me that quentin and dj have had my back these past months, good people, every one reading this go now to "over the edge sports" in hurricane utah and buy a bike, thanks.
so this is a picture of the skull right before i headed out on the blue diamond trails on the west side of the lost wages, as you can see i put the night rider on and i rode up the single track until i had to use the light to see, then went back the way i came in, not the most exciting trail ever, totally buffed single track, maybe 10 places to catch any air, but hey, it was single track and it was night and it was the second time that day, in two different states, that i rode mountain bikes, before i left utah i went over to the ZEN and railed it then hit the freeway. so here i was in vegas riding at night the same day, man i love the desert..

this is a picture of the view from the front room of the apartment that KJ set me up in, see the waves ? hes so cool, what a hook up, right on the strand in oceanside, he knows this guy that owns the place and in the off season there are like 4 tenants in 12 units, so dude just let me crash in one of the empties, his name is randy and he was really hospitable, thanks a lot randy, look forward to seeing you again...

bottom that you can see, and if you look close you can see cataleana island in the left top, we went up just over 4200 feet, from here it was about 10 or 15 miles to where the race was, you can see chris' leg in this shot, i got a text that chris was still firmly in the elephant this is the top of palomar mountain, we came from the bottom, you can see a school we parked at, and if you look close at the top left you can see cataleena island, we rode up just over 4200 feet, from this spot it was about 10 or 15 miles to the race site, you can see chris' leg in this shot, got a text from cali and it said he was still in the elaphant grave yard, more about that later, they will let me know his condition. the climb was a burner for sure, it never got as steep as puke hill in the wasatch but it was about 10 miles to the top from the school and never let up until right at the very top, you never got a chance to recover, if you wanted to climb with any speed it was an attack the whole time, i kept having to water the road so every time i would catch jordan and kevin J i would have to stop, so i would have to bridge another gap, never failed, every time i caught i had to piss. that climb was brutal though and i want to do it again, SOON !!!

so im back i utah now and i still havent seen my fork and shock, thats a bummer man, i went to the shop to see if it would come today, ups guy came and left, but as i was leaving quentin asked if i wanted to take a bike out and lead the shop ride in the morning, do i want to lead the shop ride in the morning ? does the pope shit in the woods, no wait, does a bear wear a funny hat ? oh hell, you know what i mean, im just excited because i get to go to gooseberry in the morning, hurry, everyone who wants to go we meet at 10 am, so haul ass muthas, woohoo......

Back to california, wait, snow ?

i slept in the desert some where just inside the california border, after riding the blue canyon trails in las vegas with the lights on, i just wanted to get the hell out of the vegas valley. las vegas and i dont always agree with each other, and i always do what i can to avoid actually stopping in town, even when i go to bootleg canyon i take the 215 the other side of town and go straight to boulder, and i gas up on that side of the mountain, eat and whatever then drive straight through town on the way out. so i was just for hauling ass to get away from sin city and when i got to california i found an exit, drove a little found a good spot and burned the pallets i brought, threw the ball a couple hundred times for the skull, drank some good nevada beer and crashed with the stars shinning down. when i woke up the next morning we got loaded up every thing and headed on, when we got to exit 76 off from I15 we went left not right so i could go look at the road the aliens would be climbing, above is a pic of the road two days before the race, they had a bunch of snow fall a couple days before this was taken, but as you can see in the pic below it had mostly melted off. it was really cloudy the last day i was in the sunshine state but nice the rest of the time, the ocean was beautiful as always, however i find it funny that the ocean, which always had such a strong pull for me, has kinda taken second place to the majesty and stillness of the mountains and the desert, and there is just to many freakin people in cali anymore...

this was is the same road in the same place two days later about two hours before the aliens came, we got on the mountain bikes and left a little school a few miles away and headed up a fire road the other side of the mountain. there is a name for it but i cant remember, something grade road, but damn this sucker was steep and it just never gave a break, no recovery time at all, chris had his garmin and it read over 21 % at times, and the ride its self was a bit over 40 miles, i want to go ride it again soon it hurt great !

this is a pic of some of the crazies that we were hanging out with, it was such a cool vibe, and as i said there was an estimated 75,000 people on the mountain that day, if a had remembered the usb cable i could have taken more pictures cuz there was hundreds of people dressed up, what a great atmospher..

this guy took the cake, when the pope is on site you know that its going to be a party, i went riding a couple miles down the road to check out the action and it was a scene all the way down. if you look at the picture of the lead group in the other post you can see the pope standing a couple miles down blessing the riders, it was classic, man i cant wait until next year...

"OH GOD, THE ALIENS ARE COMING"

we knew they were coming and that there was a break with at least one schlect brother in it, but that was all we knew, some one was saying that floyd was in there but that turned out to be wrong, the picture above is the second time we could see them coming up the mountain and the picture turned out cool, it was a rush to see these guys making their way towards us after waiting but there was a lot of entertainment to keep us busy thats for sure, i will get some of the pictures that jordan took, he got pictures of some of the crazies slapping yellow chaulk hand prints on people riding by and then started doing it to some motor cycle cops, it was classic and will make sure to post them. where they are here on the course is about 2 miles from the top and about 12 miles into the climb, the time it took them to get to us was faster than you can imagine, and when they came around the corner below us i had no idea who was in this break group...

so when they came flying at us i snaped the picture above, if you will click on it and make it larger you can see that i captured levi in the yellow, hes the second on wheel. i jumped down to the road and they came right past and i will never forget the look on levis face, pure concentration my friends, he was so focused i bet he barely knew there were thousands of people around screaming his name, well, what do you think, do you think that they thought it was cool to have that scene ? i thought it was the shit myself, this was a very cool happening for the standing of cycling in the states, we did our selves proud that day on that mountain, california put on a kickass event...

it wasnt only about 30 or 40 seconds after the break went by that all of a sudden here came the chase and there was this rush through the air as everyone was sceaming lances name, as the group came closer so did the noise, so i pushed through the crowd and snapped this one, damnit, i was that close, well i got a leg and part of his head, oh and the black bike, still, it was a very cool experience and the speed they came by us was amazing, im definatly coming to palomar mtn again next year...

here comes tyler hamilton, he was a little behind and looked like there was some pain involved, but the guy was charging and he had a pretty good race all together...

theres the horn guy, kinda weird huh ? but hes been doing it evey year now and i gotta give it up to him, he ran a number of times and for a good distance. it was all such a rush to watch this parade come through, i have never been to race of this caliber, all in all i didnt get to see the riders much, jeez i got to see lance all of 7 seconds, but the caliber of the people that i was on this trip with is what made it that much more. i bet very few of what was estimated at 75,000 people on the mountain that day had as much fun as we did ! kevin, jordan, chris, thank you my new tribal friends we got some serious riding to do this year, everyone get yer legs and bring tq cuz we goin down out here in the state of mecca in '09 ........

Through the madness on to the beach, into the tunnels...

i dont have time to write anything, from the moment i left i have been driving or riding, rode the "ZEN" before i left town, then drove to vegas got off the freeway went right to the canyon trails and rode till it was dark enough to turn the night rider on , turned around and went back to the truck, where the skull was so patient and waiting, hes cool like that, he gets that i need to do what i do and i get that he needs to chase the ball 400 times a day. anyway, i then left vegas and drove into the desert until i found an exit to get off the interstate and found a place to kick it and have a fire and throw the ball 400 times for you know who. i woke up and headed on to california, i arrived at the oceanside exit but turned left to the palomar mountain roads to see the climb that the aliens will be making. not bad, a great road to run a professional bike race on, it goes through a number of eco systems and is really cool with all the switchbacks at the top, im really looking forward to seeing this. when i got to oceanside i hooked up with kj, jordan ell, and junior T , and they took me on a poach session that was a gas, i cant tell you the name because this trail was closed to mountain bikes only a few weeks ago so we had too poach it with the lights on, what a shame they took this trail away from the tribe, it was like going through a "TUNNEL" at times. also a big shout out to "Randy" for the accommodations, more about that and all else later i gosta ride..

today chrisper and i are riding down the coast on the road bikes and then when kj gets off work we will hook up to go ride "elfin forrest", sounds fun huh ? i dont have pics yet because, well, you know how when you go road trippin you always leave at least one thing behind ? i left the usb hook up to the camera so i will be adding pics later. ok i gotta get out of here, im late, oh look , pretty ocean !!!!

Utah proud !!

today was the 3rd road stage of the tour of california and for the third day in a row these guys had to race over 100 miles in the rain, the stage started out in san jose and went over the mountain to modesto. it was only a few moments out of the neutral area that a 4 man break started and in this break was our very own jeff louder, winner of the tour of utah last year. we are well represented in this race of international super stars, dave zabriski, and burke swindlehurst are also there, dave is currently in the 4th position and with the solvang time trial coming up who knows maybe the kid will surprize some people.

today was louders though, no he didnt win the stage, thor hushovd of Norway took the win in a sprint finish, but jeff was on the break all the way to the circuit around town when the peloton finally swept them up, im taking a lowder sign to palomar for sure. the picture above is the break with lowder in the lead.

thor is one of the fastest bike racers in the world with multiple stage wins in all three grand tours and a number of wins in the classics, hes one of the guys i pull for when it comes down to a sprint finish. above is a picture of thor after getting cut, by of all things a sign some one was holding out at a stage during the tour of france a couple of years ago, as you can see he was wearing the yellow jersey when it happened. ever notice that a non french man wearing yellow at their superbowl seems to always be in jeopardy some way or another. the french, oohh lala..

above is the race coming across the golde gate bridge, pretty cool picture, ive been on the bridge a couple of times and its funny as shit, there are these phones every so often that connect directly to suicide prevention operators, i guess that would be one way to go eh ?
so it looks like i will be making it to oceanside friday to hang with my friends and watch the aliens climb palomar on sunday, seems kj has me in a place right on the beach, at the end of the strand in oceanside, however.... for some reason my fork and shock will not be back from push until next week some time, talked to ote and found this out, im not sure what the hell is going on but quentin is stepping up again and letting me take the pivot mach five with me from the shop, i dont know what i would do if they hadnt let me ride some bikes lately, not being able to mountain bike is starting to drive me mad !!!

thats pua sawicki, the national 24 hr champion, i met her and ron (husband) at the stage race in brianhead that i won last summer. i showed them my story and they invited me in their trailer and after talking for a while we became quick friends, theyre great people, we hung out again the next week at the national finals and again at interbike. well i received an email last night and i have been invited to her birthday ride and bash in fullerton california and its this saturday. i love it when things come together like this. i cant wait to see them and this will be a great trip to cal, i need to get away, hang with good people drink good beer and play with my dog on the beach. i should have lots to blog about so stay tuned, oh yeah i rode the ibis today, intervals, fuck , they are painful !!!

2009 Tour of California....

think this old fart can win a professional bike race again ? three years out of the peloton, 37 years old, just kind of hung around at the tour down under, then BLAM, yesterday at the tour of california he gets a top 10 in the prologue, today he spends most of the stage leading the chase group trying to run down mancebo, ( rock racing, winner of today ) and keeping levi out of the shit as it was a horrible day in northern california. lance has proclaimed that he will dedicate this race to levi and be the domestique extraordinaire that gets him to the finish at the end of the week with the yellow jersey on his back.

levi is the 2 time defending tour of california champion and is the odds on to win this year also, and with team astana bringing the strongest team to the race all the experts are picking levi. i think that lance doesnt have a problem backing levi, after all levi backed him for a few years during his winning streak, however i truly believe that lance may have issue backing contador in the big stage races coming up this summer. johan bruyneel was smart not bringing contador to california and i think the coolest thing to do is let lance try to win the giro ( tour of italy )and let contador try to win the tour of france. i think lance should snub the french, screw em, then lance could be ready for the velta ( tour of spain ) which is widely considered a much tougher race. it should get interesting, i think there will be some in house fighting at astana this year. myself i think its great lance came back, lets face it the guy is an animal on a bike, he can suffer like no other bike racer, and more times than not thats what wins. i read in one of his books that most times he is on his bike he is in a rage ( his own words ) and ever since reading that i related to him, its the way i get rid of anger or keep it at bay, im stoked hes back, i hope he kicks those punk euro bitches asses !

been a little cold and ive been a litle lazy, but my mountain bike will back on the trail soon and i will hopefully be headed to california to ride with kj, chris, jordan and junior T this weekend, we are going to palomar mountain to watch the last stage of the tour of california, i cant wait to see the aliens climb that road, and not to many people have actually seen lance race in this country. oh i also was invited to pua sawicki' birth day ride and party on saturday, also in socal, (shes the national 24hr champion ) come on unemployment office wheres my damn money !!!!!!!

Gotsta be mo careful !

no riding today, weather sucks, so i thought i would post this as i have been watching closely... ok you all know i understand, in my opinion this is not a big deal, ok , kellogs drops some huge contract, well if they thought they could sell cereal they would put cheech and chong on the box smoking a big fatty, they would probably sell more cereal than they could make. but what i dont understand is how could this kid be so stupid as to let anyone know, and a picture, holy shit michael, what the hell were you thinking ?

i feel bad for the kid, sounds like the cops in south carolina are going to try to build a case against him, thats a joke in its self, little kids are being abused and molested out there and they want to make some example of a guy who kicked the shit out of the world in the swimming pool. i hope things dont go that far, i watched the olympics in amazment, the kid is a monster, good luck michael ... here doobie doobie doobie...

BOING BOING BOING....

off goes my fork and my shock to colorado, oh man am i excited, i will have a mountain bike again and begin the assault on this early season we have here in lizard land, its been difficult to be without my bike this long, i dont have much in this world, and my bikes keep me sane, with out them i fear i would not last long fellow lizards, may all our wheels keep on rollin !!!
so push is the place i guess, every thing i have ever heard about them has been positive, i even have a good friend (jared, "LB", ) in colorado springs that rides with some guys that work there. i need to go see jared, hes always coming to see me and now he lives in a cool place, he told me on the phone the other night that he lives in the shadow of pikes peak and that there is a freakin trail that goes to about 13,000 feet on that big ass mountain, i gotta see this lizards, ya knows i loves to climb!!

so here we go i suppose, i didnt want to race another season on the 575, theres just not much of a choice, no new rigs in the near future i think, i bought the yeti april '07 and its blinged for sure, chris king, xtr, mavic, thompson, wtb, juicy 7 and sram xo ( totaled that one its x9 now) so its a solid ride its just that i have well over 10,000 miles on it, gonna take about a grand to make it race worthy. mia saved the day as far as the fork and shock go, you sure done a good thing today girl friend, thanks much.

it was nice today and i really should have rode the ibis, but all i can think about was the yeti, i even had a dream about riding last night, that happen to anyone else ? i dream about mountain biking a lot, but its been a while so that was a great feeling to wake up to, again thanks to mia. she lives in yucky houston texas, however lately she has been making the better of it, she finally got on a bike again. if you read my posts in january you will remember that mia was run over by a truck in moab on a trip we took together, and its really been since then that you have rode much huh mia ? well you bought that cannondale but you didnt ride it very much.

its supposed to be cold and shitty tomorrow so i dont really think i will be to motivated but lets see, maybe i just wont be able to contain myself, been known to fly off the handle and ride in -2 degree weather before, thank the bike gods i live in the desert, the only place to be a lizard.... here yeti yeti yeti...

"Mountain biking, man i missed you !!!"

thats a beautiful shot of oceanside california huh ? ive spent some time there at different points in my life, mostly in the past when i was a shit head but i did spend a week around thanksgiving '07 with my best friend "flipper lipper", jeff grandy, )come on man, thats a great bike name, hes trying i think im finally wearing on him) and rode the ibis all the way to la jolla on the PCH, i met neil shirley from jittery joes on that ride, he was really cool and i rode with them most of the way until they went off through the college and i was off to the beach. "O" side, yeah its a little rough but the place does have some character.
in december i ran into these guys who were in town riding in the lizards house, hey they seemed cool, they were from cali, and the one dude named kevin knew me from my story in the magazine. like always when i met cool bike riders we exchanged info and we were all on our separate ways. now most times i never hear from these people i meet in my journeys, but some times i get a call or an email to hang with these bike riders and show them things about my beautiful state they didnt know otherwise. some times i get the privilege to ride with people of the tribe, who know and understand why we do this, why we put our bodies through the shit, why we turn our legs into burning jello up challenging technical climbs, why we risk our lifes to fly down a gnarly piece of single track just as fast as we possibly can, why we ride !!!


this is where most of the rides begin here in lizard land, "over the edge sports" in hurricane utah, my bike is still broken and quentin stepped up with a yeti for me to ride, cant say enough about him and dj, they have treated me like family, anyone that ever reads this and comes to southern utah stop in the shop and say hi, get an extra tube and some gu, and they will give you the low down on paradise...
i got a call from california early last week and it was kevin from o'side, they would be here about 7:30 am saturday and want to meet at the village inn. now right away im impressed, these crazy guys are getting in the car and leaving the north county san diego area at midnight friday, they drive straight through, about 7 hours, they arrive here 7:30 saturday morning just like they said, ride bikes all day, drive to cedar city and sleep, get up sunday and ride all day sunday then drive all the way back to california that night. that is fuckin cool, ive done similar things before, got up at 2 in the am left salt lake to drive all the way to telluride, colorado and rode before the sun was down, friends of mine make the drive to moab and to fruita in the same day from salt lake, ive been on that one too, but you dont see it that often. these guys epitomize the sport of mountain biking, its so much beyond a sport if you ask most riders of the tribe, its even beyond a life style, we have to do this, we have to ride our bikes or some thing is not right, it takes stupid amounts of money to travel and ride, for bikes and parts and tools and gear, it cost more money than i usaully have to do what i love the most in this world. it doesnt matter though, we have to do it, and there are those that will never understand, all i say to them is," get the hell out of my way, im coming on the left !!"...

kevin, chris, jordan and junior T, what a great ride that was, eh guys ? large ass thanks to maximus for showing us his route, mark has become a great friend and i really dig riding bikes with the guy. he showed us the "zen" trail, which i feel like an idiot for living here as long as i have and not rode there a least a hundred times, what a fantastic ride, tough technical climbing and straight bombing downs with jumps and pumps. off camber stuff all across the hill, in and out of the gullies, up the wash to the top of the ridge, over the top on top of the cliffs, 30 maybe 35 mph down some of the single track and then back through the mud, ( we had to spend about 45 minutes getting to the trail cleaning the mud out of the bikes to keep riding, yeah it was bad but when you get through the bottom and over to the ridge its almost perfect even in a storm) and it was about 4 hours of blis. ZEN is a 10 !!

so to say that this last weekend was fun is an understatement of proportions. i met and rode with some of the coolest guys ever, they hooped and yelled, they laughed and screamed, and i smiled the whole way ! thanks guys, i needed that, i will do what ever i can to make it to palomar mnt to see lance ride the last stage of the tour of california with you guys, and i meant every thing i said about moab and the wasatch front, so keep in touch my new friends, adopted lizards one and all !!!! here lizard lizard lizard....

FOUND SOME LEGS TODAY...

well when i left today i had no idea the journey i would take, i stopped at the gas station to get some G and when i came out i realized that the tour of st george went right by here, so guess what i did ?
its a haul, at least it was today, been a while since i went over a hundred miles, my coulo' is mad, it was something that i just had to do. ive been in an angry place for the past few days and i just figured it couldnt hurt to punish myself, so off i went. i decided to do it in reverse so i could climb snow canyon instead of decending it, so the map below is opposite the way i went today, but i went ahead and started down town the same place the race starts and went out around the airport and through green valley, up to santa claira, on to ivins and then into the canyon. above is a pic of the road entering snow canyon just after the ranger shack,(3 bucks to ride a bike in there, fuckin stupid!) and it starts to turn up soon after. hits about 12% for about 1k and the road its self is only about 5 or 6 miles so its a mellow climb, its really pretty in there though and the traffic is usually very light, today two cars passed me on the way up and one motorhome going the other way, in fact it was so peaceful today i stopped at the top to soak it all in.
at the top you turn left and head down the highway back towards st george, if you tuck nice and tight you can hit 50 mph going back, when you come to the first stop light thats "red cliffs parkway" you take that road right and head over the top just under the dixie red cliffs. continuing on that road it takes you as a frontage road of the freeway, you pass some stores amd it goes from two lanes to one, then you come to a light where there is a couple of gas stations, go forward and when you get to a four way stop sign you go right. that will take you through a neighborhood to telegraph rd, theres a stop light there, go left and take it all the way to the highway to hurricane, go out to quailcreek reservoir take that left and then you do the hurricane loop. you can read about that ride in my very first post. (jan 2nd '09)
below is another pic of snow, it was a good day, 100 + miles beat me up a little and i still am stressed out to the balls, but for about 5 and a half hours i didnt think about all the shit thats going on, so hey what else can i ask for. tomorrow im going to try and put the yeti together and get it to make it through a weekend on the mesas, hope i dont break some thing else. by the way, does anyone out there know where to find those little fairies that fix shoes ? maybe they can get me some parts, shit..... here fairy fairy fairy........

COMPUTERS HATE ME !!!!!!

i spent hours the last two days writing posts and hit the wrong freakin keys and lost both days, im pissed, i'll be going for a ride now, goodbye.......

MEET MR WEIR.....

this was taken last april'08 at a super secret session with fox and yeti on gooseberry mesa that i found out about and poached, it was a lot of fun the first two days, the yeti guys hooked me up on an '09 575 full xtr with an '09 fox fork attached, it was a sick ride but i felt it handled differently than my 575, they lowered the bottom bracket on the new bikes and i pinged a lot of things that i dont usually hit, however, i did climb some things much earier at the goose on that bike and i cleaned a section that i never had and still havent since. so i would have to say that i would love to get the chance to race that new 575 with all the bling on it... dream on lizard boy, dream on...

anywho, the point of it was getting to ride with weir !

it was funny, i had just pulled up and was getting my gear on and this ford suv comes flying up the road, doing fish tails and bouncing off the rocks. (for those of you who know the goose) the ford came screaming through that last cattle guard at the trail head and slammed on the brakes sliding right in between the fox and yeti trailers with a big cloud of dust. two guys got out laughing their asses off, it was classic, i didnt know who they were at first, then that wtb jersey came out and i knew right away. i was just kinda milling around checking every thing out and getting to know everyone when anthony from yeti came up and said he had a ride for me and "lets set it up", so i went to the trailer and we measured some things and added some air and moved some controlls around and it was off to the south rim. the other guy that came with mark was the photographer " forrest" youve seen his stuff and dont even know it, great day out there and when we got back they all invited me back the next day.

this thing all happened during the week so i had to lie and sluff work, i think i even faked being sick at work, but hey man i wasnt going to miss this for nothing. when i woke up the next day i headed for the mesa and got there about the same time as every body else, mark and forrest asked me to go out with them for a minute and show them some cool places to get pics, i took them to the practice loop because there are some great views of zion and some really cool sections to make style points,( i wanted to show these guys something, who wouldnt on their home turf ?) and i was able to really push the pace, as i was the previous day, cause this is my desert, and my vortex. so we were out for a minute but had to return, after all this is a job for these guys and i guess the boss was coming today, and when we got back there she was, never caught her name, she wasnt very nice for sure, she was the head fox lady, and when she found out i was a nobody she came over to me and said," i dont mean to be a bitch but, WE dont want you here and WE dont want you riding our stuff", it was all i could do not to say something stupid and make a scene, cuz , well thats what i do once in a while, but i didnt, i kept my cool looked at her and said ok.

it was good fortune that i had my bike on top of my truck that day, i mean shit,i had faked being sick to make this thing, so the first thing i thought after her walking away was go sit in the truck untill they leave, she can keep me off their bikes but she cant keep me off MY trails ! so when they rode away i started to get my bike down, anthony (the yeti guy) walked up and asked me what i was doing, i said " you saw (she did this in front of everyone) im not to ride her bikes" he looked at me and said, " go ride that bike i set up for you, just stay away from the tests", what a cool ass mutha, huh ? i went out there and pounded that equipment, i jumped things and rolled off things that i never do to my bikes, it was a gas. when i returned the fox lady had taken part of the group again but weir was in the pit, he took me to the side and told me that no one understood why she did what she did but that she was the boss, you know ? he gave me his email and we have remained in contact since, although its been a while, we hung out at interbike for a while before he had to fly out and i think he is in africa right now, get ahold of me man!!

so im out the door today, i think i will head over to snow canyon, do the climb and maybe head for enterprize, i really want to go into the mountains at pine valley, that road is really pretty, kinda reminds me of the wasatch. maybe thats where i will go, get back to you later, let you know how it goes....here lizard lizard lizard.........

"it was sunset when the drugs began to take hold" wooh, sorry,,, flash back dont you know. it was sunset that much is true, i was just in the truck and headed to the south and to the east, "hey, sometimes my brain goes into different directions" the grand canyon was on the horizon, i was going to ride the roads on the north rim and then go to the south rim the next day. one thing about being me is that plans change by the minute at times, it all kind of goes with the flow dont ya know. so here i am just getting settled in and mark "maximus" calls my phone.. " kevo, whatcha doin, wanna meet in zion in the morning, we're climbing at the big bend ?" a left instead of a right in hurricane gets me to "mosquito cove" just outside of springdale, where the skull and i kicked it by the virgin river for the night. lit up the wooden pallets i found before leaving town and gobbled down the pizza i picked up, washed it down with a couple of beers and proceeded to throw the ball for skully at least 400 times, ( my furry friend has obsessive compulsive ball disorder) and by the time the pallets were all burned it was late and cold so we crashed to the sounds of the water spilling over the rocks, it was a great night...

this is the view from the coffee shop in springdale just before you go throught the ranger station into the park. this is where i met mark and his buddy lyll, they make decent joe here and really good bagel samitches. then we drove up to big bend and they started climbing, those are the pictures in the "MAXIMUS" post, but i didnt stay too long, i had switchbacks to climb...

this is after the last switchback, a few hundred yards before the tunnel (which bikes are not allowed in, you must shuttle, ive also hitched through before) and a big shout out to the park rangers in zion, "ranger pam" snapped this pic for me, she was really nice, " thanks pam". as you can see there was still some snow, one of the things about zion is you go through a number of different eco-zones, so conditions always change, it was only chilly in the shade and all in all it was a beautiful day to ride my bike in the canyon. after the tunnel i went to the ranger station past "checkerboard mesa" and on to mount carmel junction, ate some gu and a pop tart then returned to the park and back to my truck parked on this side of the tunnel where the skull was patiently waiting...

a really nice lady from new hampshire took this pic "post ride", make sure you look me up when you come back to utah phyllis, thanks for the picture !

so i didnt make it to the grand canyon, but thats cool, zion has a vibe that always draws me in and i always feel better because of it. i got to watch mark scale an unbelievable over hang, rode through mars, slept by the river and hung out with the skull, and hell i even saved some gas doin it. my life is weird right now, sure i have no money, and right now i have no job (come on obama) but my life has perks, shit that reminds me, people are rolling in from california (KJ) next week end, that means gooseberry and little creek, yeah baby, perks !!!! it was a good day and thanks to the cute girl at the "lazy LIZARD" boutique, good lookin out, is that a wedding ring on your finger ??? here lizard lizard lizard......

"MARKUS MAXIMUS ARIELIOUS"

this is my friend mark, we ride mountain bikes together, he does other mountain things... crazy bastard, i swear if he could get his bike up that rope he would try to ride down that crack!
lizard ? yeah, we're happy to claim him as one of our own !!