"A day in the life of a bike bum"

mark gave me a call today and said, " weather sucks man, lets go ride mountain bikes", now most of you will know mark as "maximus " in my posts, hes my insane riding buddy who climbs rocks, theres some cool pics of him climbing in zion in februarys posts..
so yeah, it was pretty crappy out today and to be honest i wasnt into riding that much, but hey im a bike rider and thats what i do damnit ! anyone who knows me knows that i have a serious affliction to cold and snow and shit of that sort, but some times i just gotta ride no matter what so when he called i didnt hesitate..
we discussed heading for gooseberry, but it looked like it was probably snowing, so as responsible mountain bikers we decided to not cause damage to the road getting out there, wish some other people would think that way sometimes, the fucking road gets soo bad when its wet, however , truth be known though gooseberry is really sweet sometimes when its wet. today we decided to hit the west side shit yo, and i will tell you what, the west side trails are just a gas folks, and the stupid thing is i have lived here over a year and still hadnt rode a lot of them, the first time i rode "zen" was last february with the gang from san diego, and until today i hadnt rode "barrel roll" retarded huh ?

this is great pic of the pine valley mountain range, it stands at 10,500 feet, st george sits at about 2800 so the pine valley mountains tower over the land scape. i wish there were trails to ride on them there mountains, but its a wilderness area so you know what that means, yes, horses can go and tear the whole goddamn mountain up and our bikes are considered "mechanical vehicles"banned, what ever, i hate the federal government, can you read that you fuckers spying on us all ? i hate you and i wish you would die, and oh yeah, fuck off !!!!!
im so broke right now that i cant put gas in my truck so i hitched a ride over to santa claira and mark and i sat and watched the weather for awhile, when it was apparent that nothing was going to change and we were going to get wet no matter what we headed out to "zen" and the green valley trails. zen has interesting features, theres a good mix of technical climbs and slick rock, there a lot of good descending too, a few boosters, some good hips and a couple pucker spots, it has a little of every thing, its a must do for anyone road tripping to south west utah..


after ripping the whole green valley system up we needed beer and a little food, that turned into stopping at the grocery store and getting steaks and sweet potatoes and salad for a little feast later, and knowing that im poorer than a broke dick dog mark sprang for the food, fuckin guy even bought us brews, thanks man next time is on me. after getting the food and putting the steaks in some marinade we jumped back in the honda and drove to the "barrel roll" trail, i cant believe that i havent rode "barrel roll" yet, it was a blast, you get some bitchen flowy descending on this trail for what seems like not a lot of climbing. it traverses the hill and switchbacks like mad, i really enjoyed myself on that single track especially after riding for the third time on the day, and its not to far from the green valley stuff so i definitely recommend it while you are over that way..

boomer the trail dog went with us, hes a great dog whos been getting in some trouble lately, hes lucky mark is really patient with him cause hes been chewing up bike clothes and other shit. this is pic of boom looking down "the crack" on "zen" trail. the pic of me at the top of the post is "the crack" also, man i love "zen" !!!

this is a picture looking back at "snow canyon" from "barrel roll", it doesnt matter where you are in this town or riding a trail, the scenery is amazing in nearly every direction. i have some good friends that have moved to other parts of the country and they just dont understand why i stay in scrutah, i try to explain but they just dont get it. see im a bike rider to the very core and ive been lucky to ride in a lot of other states, colorado, nevada, idaho, california, oregon, arizona and wyoming, and i swear to the bike gods above, i wouldnt choose to live any where else, i love utah, the mormon thing doesnt matter to me, you find very few missionaries on the trails, but if you ride bikes and cant get past the weak beer and the LDS church i pitty you, i live in mecca, ha ha ha suckers ! big shout to "maximus" the guy went way above and beyond, youre a good friend boss, i'll ride with you any time... here lizards lizards lizards........

"THERES A BOMB IN MY BRAIN"

hey every body, its been a minute since my last post, even got a couple of emails asking what was up, which is cool cause it means some one other than myself is reading what i have to say.
not that what i have to say is mind boggling or of much meaning at all, but its still cool to see that some one is coming to the site..
the picture above is about how i feel inside at this point in time, things are stalled out big time with the economy which means i am no closer to finding a paying gig right now. i had started to get big miles but shit keeps breaking and i have crap for funds to replace anything, so i have been doing a lot of nothing, well i have been on the ibis a bit but then the headset tightening contraption that easton invented finally failed, what i stupid thing they came up with, to understand it you must look at an easton slx full carbon fork, lets just say that you dont adjust it as a normal headset.
so i had to get that fixed and when i finally got my bike back i was three days behind again, meaning that i have been training for 18 hrs of fruita. got the ibis back yesterday and proceeded to flog myself almost to tears, i went from the washington fields over the top on red cliffs parkway and down to the snow canyon entrance, once there i did the climb on the road twice then on the bike path halfway up once. when i got back it was about 60 miles with around 3000 feet and near 5 hours later...

like i said though things have been breaking, yet that seems to happen when you are spending time on the ground.
the zaun came down from salt lake and we spent four days on the goose, is was good to see zaun, hes probably been my best friend since getting out of prison, at the very least my favorite riding and camping cohort. wish a had some pics from that journey but alas, we had a blast but i ended up on the ground a number of times, the first one ended up breaking my hanger so we had to go down to the shop to fix it because the screws that were put in last time were stripped (whats up with that Q ? ) so when we got that taken care of it was back up to the spot and back on the trails.
that day we rode the new trail and on to the south rim to the point, well on the way back i got lazy and ended up taking a shit line through one of the little canyons, wheel in a big hole, over the fucking bars and into this creek bed about 4 feet off the trail. son of a' that one hurt, big ole' jagged rocks sticking in my back, thank god for my camel back, knocked my melon a bit, ripped the skin off my left knee and tore the left shifter off my handle bars.
so there i am flat on my back with my bike on top of me in this 4 foot deep creek bed, no way i could have gotten out of there with out the zaun, as he rolled up i looked at him and said, "im gonna need some help here bro". we were a long ways from camp so i had to get my bike back well we took some zip ties and zipped the shifter to my break lever and i shook out the cobwebs and damn if we didnt get back and in a hurry if i might add.
here is the problem that was created, we still have one more day to ride but im stuck in the middle ring, i said screw it and single ringed it the rest of the rides ( are you happy dirty ? i singled something ! ) but now ive been waiting for a new shifter, mark let me take an old one off of his turner but i havent been able to get it to work, so its been the ibis...



like i said i am preparing myself for 18 hours of fruita, this will be my first official night time endurance race, its been a long time coming and i am excited to get to it. im really not that fit right now as its still early and im still fat but i feel confident that i can do well in colorado just by shear willpower and anger. i will be racing in the mixed duo class with DJ from over the edge in hurricane and i think we will have a shot at the box, i still have a little time before it happens so i will try to get some more miles in and shed a couple more pounds..

thats DJ, my partner. she can hang with the boys, she was a norba pro a few years ago, but doesnt have the time to race much anymore with running the shop and all. we need to get together and talk some strategy and i need to figure what i need to bring. this one has been comped so i wont really have to worry about anything but showing up to race which will be a breath of fresh air. ive given every thing i have to this sport, ive even given what i dont have, so its cool to have my efforts mean some thing to some one else other than myself and be given a chance to have some stuff paid for. we were talking about putting a team together running out of the shop but its now so late in the season that i dont see that happening this year, but this is an opportunity to show i am worthy..

ive been wanting to be a part of the endurance scene for a long time now, i always wanted to race 24 hours of moab i just havent had the chance, so this race in colorado will be an important weekend for me.

this next week i will be heading up to salty city, its now been over a year, i will be meeting a new friend who happens to be a bad ass elite athlete that has national titles and was second at worlds last year, she will be racing the salt lake marathon and i am looking forward to seeing her kick some ass. i will also try and get as much bike riding in as possible with as many friends as possible. so every body north put the new tires on and apply some chain lub cause next week we ride.......