"Goose, goose, Skully, Wildrosers, goose, goose goose.. "

meet the "skull", hes about the coolest living thing i ever experienced, he has seen me through some rough shit so far, two relationships, one a whirlwind the other a lesson in brain therapy, and he is by my side while i struggle through this economic melt down. i was looking for a dog in october '06 and i found this guy on " comcast, pets on demand", he was waiting his turn to be put down at the shelter out in west valley city, utah, i decided to go and check him out. when i met him he was being called "duke" because he was a stray, well when we went to the visiting area there was a ball and all he wanted to do was play with that thing, (for those of you that know skully this is how he rolls), i decided to look at a couple of others, (i was looking for a black lab) one was too young and had no idea what was waiting for him, the other one just wasnt very personable, so i wanted to see "duke" again. when i walked up to his cage he went off, barking like mad, this guy was begging me to save him and the rest is history, spending the money to spring him from the joint getting him licenced and his shots IS the best money i ever spent on anything, yes even bikes ! hes such a character, and even when i feel like shit he puts a smile on my face, he never lets a day go by that he doesnt thank me for breaking him out of jail, (wish someone had done that for me), and he LOVES the goose....

amazing what we can ride our bikes through.... i headed up to gooseberry on wednesday afternoon, just wanted to get away and jump start my base miles, plus i finally have a mountain bike to ride when ever i want, that was a hard time for me not having a bike to ride and having to rely on " over the edge" to let me ride something. so this stay was needed and used wisely, i dont know the mileage as i didnt track anything but i went on two a days wed, thurs and sunday, and on fri and sat i went on three a days. wednesday night i set my alarm and got up at 2:30 am cuz i will be racing 18 hrs of fruita in a few weeks and wanted to know how that was going to feel. i beat myself up people, anyone familiar with the goose will tell you that the place can straight rattle your fillings loose, now try 5 days multiple times a day. i honestly feel like i was used as a jackhammer on a construction project, but it was a great 5 days none the less. on friday morning skully and i were headed to the bathrooms and noticed a "pereira" on top of a car, anyone who knows tony periera knows that he is affiliated so i knew right away that there was some wildrosers in town, that could only mean more on the way, they travel in packs dont you know. when they woke up sure enough it was alley and brian, i knew them but not too well so it was cool to hang out and get to know them before dirty and the crew showed up, turns out brian is into something really cool up on gooseberry, the guy got his hands on some property out by the windmill, fucking piece of land has about 100 yards or so of cliffside, so cool ! well he is going to build yerts and start a business and i may get the opportunity to be involved, back to that later. so every one arrived and it was really good to see my friends from salt lake, we rode and drank and laughed and it was good...

first night up i was listening to the stereo in the truck with the doors open, i had most of my food in the front, while i was doing stuff i was robbed, the squirrels jumped in my truck and helped them selves to bagels and bread. this pic and the next are of the little theifs foot prints all over the place, funny huh ?

its just one of the things that endures me to the place, there are deer all over and the crow and hawks are flying all the time, at night there are always coyotes yelping in the canyon, i just love goosebery mesa....

cant say enough about the " push industries" job on my fork and shock, the yeti is plush as hell now, spent a bunch of time with the adjustments clicking knobs and adding air, i think that the biggest reason i was able to clean every climb on south rim was the way the push stuff was working, yes, clean. for the first time ever i was cleaning the entire south rim from the parking lot to the point, nothing can stop me now, i am the master of the universe, today i climb "kolob" no mercy... SDMF !!!

"I HATE SECOND PLACE !"

i was pretty confident going into this race, dont have much fitness yet but the course last year didnt require much pedaling and i won it going away. crash decided to lengthen the super d this year though so i wasnt as ready as i could have been, not that i had a bad run, there was a couple of sections that i lost a little time and one or two places that i rested when i shouldnt have, so losing by four seconds doesnt sit well with me.
about a third of the way down i caught my minute guy and passed him, then i caught his minute guy and he wouldnt let me by, i lost 5 or 10 seconds trying to get past him, now i could be all pissed at that guy but hey its bootleg canyon, if you get off trail most anywhere you are in trouble so im not going to blame him, i could have made those 4 seconds up else where. oh well, i gave it my best shot and i had a blast hanging out with friends that i dont see often, a lot of the reason i enjoy racing so much is the people that you get to meet and hang out with, good times...

this is a picture from interbike last september, there wasnt this many people at the race but there was about 400 racers and 150 camping in the lot all weekend. bootleg has a great vibe, you can feel brent all over that mountain, the time he spent building is hard to fathom, the guy was relentless as there are trails that you dont even know about if all you do is gravity. my buddys from salt lake, mark and brad talked me in to going for a ride after the race, we went and dropped off the top but went down the west side off the mountain on a trail called I>M>B>A> it was a riot, damn thing almost went into henderson then all the way around the south side by the golf course. up and down in and out over and through, cant wait to do it again... zaun you gotta see this place!!!

this is a pic of me during the race, a super fast section but just after this was a huge g' out jump that launched us about 6 feet in the air and about 20 feet to the landing. it freaked me out cuz you were flat hauling ass when you hit the g' out, got squirly a number of times in practice but was really surprized at how my new suspension worked, that push treatment is worth the bucks, my yeti never felt so plush...

ah the podium, like i said, i hate second place, i would rather get a third, i swear, third is like, " cool i made it to the podium", but second is like," damnit i was so close", im getting over it now, in fact after the ride that mark, brad and i went on i drove into town to grab some grub, while there i saw a teenage kid that must have had MS or some thing as he was in a wheel chair, it made me think hard about how lucky i am, some people will never have the opportunity to race a bike on that mountain.

listen up tribal members, we are truly blessed to be able to do what we love, some times im not sure about the god stuff, but others i feel like there is something watching out for me, why me ? i may never know the answer to that, im just going to keep on rolling and try to question nothing, ya know ?

they built this zip line at bootleg last year, looks like a blast, it goes from platform to platform 5 times to get to the bottom, gotta try that some time.

so all in all bootleg was a gas, good friends, good atmosphere, great racing and a memorial for brent. i will always remember this event, i met some new friends (saudu, tex, ken, dave, dana and michael ), and hung with some old, jen came to see me ( lookin good girl ) jay tried to find me, and i made a new friend named erica, she was a so fun to talk to, we had a blast watching the downhill, she is a trail maintenance worker and we talked a lot about brent, she knew him well and shed even more light on the man who will be missed by many, i hope that when i pass people will remember me half as fondly. to all my friends out there, i love you guys, i dont know how i would have made it this far with out each and every one of you, now get your asses to the desert and lets ride our fucking bikes till we colapse, drink some good brew and do it all again..

peace out & rubber down !!!

R.I.P. Brent, you will be missed...

we lost one of the good guys when Brent Thomson passed last month, a memorial will be held with a big ass bonfire at the race this weekend.
this guy invented the trail system at bootleg canyon in las vegas and because of it he has been heralded as a visionary, he turned boulder city into a destination, I.M.B.A even taged it as an epic. i never got to meet the guy, ive been going to bootleg for a couple of years now, i saw him around while there but the guy was always so freakin busy i just let him go about his thing.
last year i went to the st pattys day race and won my class so i will be heading down tomorrow to defend that win..

this is the view from the top of the super d run, when i arrived for the race i was really intimidated by the track, it was the gnarliest super d i had ever seen, the dirt alone at bootleg is a challenge, slick decomposed something over the top of hard pack, super sketchy. so the first few times preriding i was really uncomfortable, as night approached i decided to just chill and set up camp. cool thing about bootleg is you are allowed to camp in the parking lot, they even have showers. so that night when i was kickin it by the fire i decide to put the lights on and climb the road to the top, well when i got to the top i decided to go ahead and do the run, i love riding trail with the lights, i didnt push anything, had a blast as a matter of fact. in the morning when i went up for my first practice run the dirt was no longer sketchy, that night ride brought me a connection with the trail and i simply flew..

this is part of the jump park, the track runs through here at the bottom almost near the end, some really dicey sections and its easy to hit this way to fast, but its crucial to remain controlled here cuz you can definatley loose the race if you dont, off the track ? cant win. picking yourself up ? cant win, ya gotta keep it upright if you wanna step to the podium my friends..

a little taste of the terrain that you encounter on this mountain, super steep and rough as hell, hit the wrong line and these rocks will eat flesh and shread tires, flat tire ? cant win. luckily i havent crashed very bad at bootleg before, oh crap wait a minute while i knock on wood, wooh, almost jinxed myself...

god i love to race, i dont know what it is about competition that rings so strong in me, maybe its the ability to focus, just shut everything out and concentrate only on getting down the mountain as fast as humanly possible, or when i race endurance its that feeling of pushing every cell in your body past what you think its capable of, and i really dig beating people i admit it, so everyone reading this send me some good race vibe and with some big balls and a little luck i shall come away victorious. so peace out and i will get back in a couple of days, rubber side down !

here lizard lizard lizard...

"KOLOB TERRACE, STAIRWAY TO THE BIKE GODS"

kolob terrace is a road bike ride kind of like no other, it is a paved road up the north side of zion national park, if anyone has ever heard of the subway hike in zion this is the way to that trail head, there are a number of options when taking this ride, you can start as far away as you like, once last year i made the trek from st george to the top, just a little over 110 miles, and as you all know i just dont like going that far on the road, so i wont be doing that again, it was a too much of a boring thing, if i aint climbing im bored, well good thing kolob has plenty of that. so for now i usually start at springdale, or if i really just want to grind and nothing else i start in virgin.
the climb its self never looks that ominous, you never get the felling that there is almost 5000 feet of up coming, as you leave virgin its just a nice country road through some farm land and past some small neighborhoods and if you have never rode here before you would swear that this was easy, uumm, dont look now but you just turned a corner and it seems the road turned straight up. the first sign of trouble is a 1/2 mile stretch and about 350 feet gained. nice thing about this ride is it does give you chances to recover, there are a couple of places where it goes flat and even one place before the switchbacks that goes down, but when it turns up, well folks its no joke with its 13 to 15 % pitches...

this is just after left fork trail head, in about one more mile it gets so steep that i have to stand on my pedals to keep going, the only place i have ever rode this steep is brian head with its extended distances of 13 % inclines, get to that one later in the year. just before it lets up you will come by a church on the left side with a bell outside the gate, i dont know what the story is here. as you can see the road is paved red, cool huh, its so fun to ride on.

ive been on some really cool road rides, but i have never seen one as beautiful as this, the scenery is unbelievable, the only place more stunning is the road through the park to mount carmel. if you leave from virgin its going to be about 50 miles to get to the top and back and you will climb over 5000 feet, god i love where i live, this is the middle of winter people !!

one of the amazing features you pass while on the way up, this road will take you in the park then out of the park a number of times up the north side of zion canyon, it also passes to the south of kolob canyon, i always want to stop and just look at stuff, its hard to get a good workout sometimes cuz i want to see everything...

ah, the top... this is kolob reservoir and the road you just climbed ends right here, hard to believe that there is a desert just 25 miles from here. okay, it does get hotter than shit in st george sometimes, but hey look at where you can go if you want, and i can leave the house and be riding my bike at brian head in less than 50 minutes, so the heat, if it is an issue never really has to be.

paradise im telling you... paradise !!!

"Its on like donky kong"

im going to vegas, hell yeah, time to race and kickass !

it would seem after flying in a crew of professional suspension techs to colorado my fork and my shock will be here thursday, jeez guys did it really have to take almost a month ? i know push rules but damn, so i wont have to beg for a bike to race after all, although im pretty confident that quentin would have stepped up, hes been super cool about lending me bikes to ride out of the shop, and tom from team big bear even offered to let me race his kona, team big bear will be doing the timing for the race, it will be good to see tom and the gang, i love those guys and girls, they are whats good about bike racing ! my good friend jared from colorado, who i have yet to blog so far cuz hes hidding in the mountains some where and wont come to the desert for some reason, called after reading and wanted to send me a fork to use for the race, what a great kid he is, more about him when he comes to town. so thanks to everyone who showed concern about getting me to vegas and mucho thanks to the one the only, "mia penelope " for getting me back on the track, love ya babe ! this win will be for all of you...

this is the new pivot i rode up on the goose last weekend, sick efin ride people, this dw link seems to work just a little bit better than any ive rode so far, if i was in the buying zone i think i found my new ride, but the yeti will have to get me through for the time being. if you get a chance to demo a pivot, go for it, what a great balance of stiffness and qiuck handling, and the top tube was spot on for me with a 110 mil stem. i slammed it, i launched it a few times, i pushed it hard into corners and no matter what i threw at it the bike just took it and kept on flying down the trail with as much speed as i could muster, chis really nailed this one !

thats a picture of kathy sherwin racing at sea otter last year, shes forth on wheel..
while up on the goose last weekend we ended up running into kathy and her husband chris, always dug those guys they are great reps for our state in the mountain bike community, kathy has been mixing it up for years on the national and world cup circuits, and chris and i have battled at the super d racing a few times. good luck this year kathy, as always all us utahns will be pulling for you ....

as always the views on sunday were spectacular, i cant wait to get up there and camp for a few days, its time to start the training and its my way to get centered, after this weekend at veagas it will be 6 weeks until 18 hrs of fruita so its time to find myself again, to the goose i must go....

Sometimes shit sucks !

got a call from push today while i was out at the shop, i have ruined my lowers on my fork and they will have to be replaced. i guess that the drop outs have worn thinner than is safe so it will cost another $175 and two more weeks to get this taken care of, im fucking pissed, all i want to do is ride my goddamn mountain bike, fuckin race in las vegas wont happen looks like, how will i start getting ready to race 18 hrs in fruita ? i just want to ride my fucking bike !!!

"Getting loose, on the Goose"

lets face it, there are almost too many places to count when you go through the list of mountain bike spots to hit in the south west. theres so much to ride and experience in states like new mexico, arizona and even the southern part of colorado, however, this could be the crown jewel of it all, and not just because of the mesa its self but because of the opportunities to ride all over the area. i know that i am a bit biased about living in the state of biking mecca, yet i feel that most of that bias is valid as i have rode many places, true there are many more places to go and experience than i have even been too yet, and given enough time and fundage i will visit them all, but you know im no virgin everyone, ive been to new mexico angel fire, went to south mountain in arizona, all over colorado, and i mean every where, wait no crested butte yet, must take care of that one but every where else, i spent the summer of '07 chasing a cat 3 road racer chick from boulder all over the colorado, ive rode in some cool places in nevada not just bootleg, i have been on trails in ely and in elko, i have rode in jackson wyoming and a really cool lake trail by a town called torrington, ive rode some trails in santa cruz, stuff that they are closing right now to bikes, got to ride some cool stuff in southern cal this last week while attending the tour of california. so looking at that list and including a little in oregon and a little in idaho, i think i have enough to form a well rounded oppinion, yes ? UTAH DIRT RULES !!.....so above is a picture of gooseberry mesa from the jem trail below, some day soon we hope to get permission from the BLM to extend the jem up the highway and eventually work its self on to the mesa, we believe that along with a trail head some where by the chevron in apple valley that a trial like that would lessen the impact on the mesa its self by reducing the amount of vehicals that would drive the dirt road into the trail area. how cool would it be to ride on to the mesa any how ? any one interested in helping this project along can do as small a thing as emailing the BLM and expressing your concerns, and i implore you to do so...

this is a picture from the site we always try to camp at, thats where the the true beauty of gooseberry lays, the place has a vibe and when you get the chance to camp there that vibe just kind of consumes you, yes there are limited miles available on the mesa its self but with a little creativity we can link 30 and 40 mile rides together, and if you wanna go hard core you can ride over to little creek and do the trails then ride back, ive even rode off towards the other side into rockville down into virgin up to guacamole rode the trail and then back to the camp site.

january '08 i spent 11 days and nights at this camp spot, it was, i dont know, spiritual i guess, my friend zaun came down from salt lake and then left after a couple of days but i just didnt want to leave, i was really digging being so isolated, so quiet, just me my dog my bikes and myself. after the 7th day i had people coming up to check and make sure i was all right, i get no phone service on the goose, but all in all after zaun left i only talked to two other people that whole time, im going to do it again soon.

thats another shot from the camp spot with the skull, he loves gooseberry, i say " skully, goose ?" and he gets all excited. we were there once and he lost his ball the night before we left, we looked all over for that freakin ball and couldnt find it, it snowed a couple of times before we could get back and by the time we did a number of weeks had gone by. well that crazy dog jumped out of the truck when we pulled up and before i could get the truck situated and unloaded skully had found that damn ball, it was classic, he comes up all happy and shit, "look dad i found it" kind of expression, man i love my furry bud !!

having some fun on the entrance to south rim trail, just after this section you drop into the canyon a little bit, then you dart around the edge and across some slick rock and then its deep into the tech baby. theres a certain flow on gooseberry and sometimes it involves ridding at a certain speed, you need a good degree of momentum to clear the vast amount of obstacles and features, and you can find your own lines at times to get as crazy as you can imagine, its a fine line on the mesa sometimes, you can go out and hit everything well and just fly on the trails, but ive gone out and had south rim eat me in chunks, ive left pieces of the bones out there before, believe me when i say...

this is a really fun high speed run on the road back to the trail head, its called white trail, its a big ring mash all the way back if you want, i hit this jump at about 25 mph and leave the ground back where the sage bush is so its an easy 20 feet, and just down the trail a bit further comes this kickass hip that launches as you brush this big ole tree jumping by.

gooseberry mesa, it really is the magical kingdom for mountain bikes, its saved my sanity at times im sure it will again.

it was a good ride yesterday, a shop ride so it was a mellow pace, but that was cool for me, i was just enjoying being on the goose and hangin with my ridding buddies. peace out lizard lizard lizard....