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....
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