" This was the place "

if you will recall when i went to california for the tour in february kj set me up in a great place right on the beach, well the boys really out did them selves this time, we stayed just out of town by kens lake in a house that was owned by a friend of a friend, the owners name was ed and i think he owns some restaurants of something like that, anyway what a nice guy huh, hell i never even met him, i dont think they actually spend a ton of time there, i sure wish i was good buddys with ed, i would go and stay until i found a job and then get a place and i would live in moab the rest of my life. hey ed, if you ever read this give it some thought, and brent if you ever read this give it to ed to give it some thought :-)

the guys called it the "the real world mtb house" hey jimmy mac, if you ever read this maybe theres something to that ?

inside the kitchen area, big ol' bar and a hot tub out the back, the dogs were even welcome, it was awesome to leave the "skull" in a nice cool place instead of in the truck, hey ed skully and zaus thanks you too !

this is where i slept the last couple of nights, i sacked out on the couch the others, oh wait i rolled out on the floor cuz the couch was too short, but spent two days in moab by myself after every one else left, i fucking ran out of money and had to wait until i could get my unemployment funds, funny huh, who else would run out of money and get stuck in moab ?

ah the shower, again thanks ed it was one of the coolest trips to mecca ever, and it was made possible by your hospitality, hope to meet you some day ....

"Day two, after poison spider, fisher mesa single track"

when we started out on the spider we had brent and aiden with us, but something happened to aiden' brakes so they turned around before we made it to the top. when we decided to drive to the mesa trail we called them and they had fixed aiden' bike so we met them at the burger joint, scored some food and headed out..
i love to take newbys to this trail, number one because its way out there and they always wonder where the hell i am taking them and will we ever get there. however the real reason i dig going to this trail is that i fucking love riding it ! its my favorite place in moab, it starts at the base of the la sals up in the forest, this day it had been raining and it was kinda cold, everybody was looking for things to wear, luckily jordan had something for me or i would have frozen..
above is a pic of those beautiful fucking mountains, "la sal mountain range" i count at least nine peaks up there with many being over 12,000 feet tall, my favorite mountain range ever..

the trail its self is a nine mile decent to the edge of the mesa where you look directly at the castleton towers, ( pic of them below ) and then you must climb your way out, it travels through no less than four eco zones, from high alpine to red desert on a kick ass flowy single track with some slick rock thrown in for good measure..
this day was above the chart with us getting there after the rain and the hero dirt out and about, it was gas material, cookin with it that is !!!

thats chris, aiden, kj, jordan, me, and brent at the first place you come out of the trees and see down below, its a view to behold, i would love to pack some stuff in here and camp for a night, thats my next plans for the mountain biking, long days on the trails and camping at night carrying every thing you need. the " la sal hut system" has been calling to me...

great pic of the towers, great day on the bikes, started on the other side of town on the poison spider, descended the portal then hauled ass to the la sals and railed the single track. moab was turning out to be a gas lizard fans, and you know what we do with gas.....

the above pic is starting to be a signature pose for me, its fun and there is always the possibility of falling to my death, if i ever want to jump i sure know some bitchin places to do it huh ?

" I have a badass canadian chick hang over "

i returned from the arizona blur, three nights in three different camping spots hanging with the coolest mountain biker chicks ever. i am still going to try to catch up on the posts, i have a couple more days to write about for the moab trip then the goose camping with mia and, well the girls from quebec and markus and jordan and, wait , was anyone else there ? see, its been a whirl wind the last month..
so after catching up i will tell you all who havent yet been to the grand canyon trail (rainbow rim) how freakin cool that place is. i miss the girls badly, waking up day after day and riding with them and truly enjoying their company, now they are just gone, shit i miss my new friends, turns out that they got stuck in chicago with all those flights being cancelled over the weekend because of the weather, i feel bad , it took them almost three days to get back to quebec city..
anyway i will catch up and then get current because there is much news in the bike world for so. utah..

" EMERGENCY MOUNTAIN BIKE TRIP "

these are french canadian mountain bike babes, sophie and julie, we met them at the bike shop in hurricane and talked them into camping and riding with us on the goose, bomb ass chicks for sure, i will get to the story about them as soon as possible but now they have called and want me to meet them in sedona, mark is in california and will hook up with us later. i gotta throw some stuff in the truck and get as far into arizona as possible tonight, wish me luck peeps, woohoo !!

POISON SPIDER MESA, DAY 2.....

hola' lizards, how are we this dreary morn ? cant believe its this cool and dark for this many days in the desert, weird weather here in the state of biking superiority, come on you can admit it, utah has the most of every thing, we even have more coast line than california, yes thats what i said, okay, there is no ocean, and no im not on LSD, not anymore anyway, so what am i talking about ? im talking about lake powell, yep, more coast line than almost the entire west coast, in fact markus and i will be riding a trail at powell on our way to the grand canyon, but thats another story..
above is a pic from across the colorado river, on the way to the poison spider trail head, some day i gotta go up to the moab rim and check out those big ass bubble mountains over there.

the spider is a classic moab ride, it starts at the side of the colorado river and climbs to the back side of the cliffs where "portal trail" starts, which is a sweet piece of single track, for about 250 yards that is, then its , well we will get to that..

this is chris, KJ, and myself starting the climb ( jordan takes great action pics, he likes to hang back and get shots of everyones asses, whats up with that jordan ? ) its a bit of a grunt to get to the top, i think that its a gain of 2500 feet or so, plus throw in taking off and exploring, i never had as much fun as i did this time up the spider, i love riding bikes with these guys...

at the very top of this picture is the poison spider him self, with a better angle you can see the fangs and legs better but you can still see the jist of it. the pic here was taken a little to late, jordan, if it was a poison spider ass im sure you would have nailed it !!!

here is christer tipping it while trying to get up one of the impossible climbs. this is one of many trails shared with 4x4s, and it always blows my mind what those guys crawl over. a lot of people make a big deal over sharing moab with the 4x4s and the atvs and the motos, but i can tell you after being in the mecca a gazillion times i have never had one problem with anyone on any trail, the day we rode the spider we came across a convoy and they let us go ahead of them a number at times. just dont go to town during jeep safari !!

we were almost to the top of the trail when i spied this bubble mountain on the left and i said to myself, " self, you can work your way to the top of that", it took a minute, and it was hairy on the river side with a bad off camber that slid clear to the river hunreds of feet below, but i made it, and the guys followed but had to walk the last part, it was very off camber, those are the jeeps i mentioned.

while we were up there i found a big pit that had been made by the water, it was really deep and on the side of the cliff and i wanted to get into it, not the best idea, i almost fell 90 feet or so feet trying to get into it, and then i couldnt get out, i had to call the guys and they made a mountain biker chain, i had to take off my shoes and socks for traction, but they got me out, " thanks guys !!"

not far from here is the entrance to portal...

" Moab, mecca to the bike gods "

so after we loaded up in bryce we pointed the cars north and ripped down the 89 to the I-70 on ramp and headed east to the land of the gods. i always forget how beautiful this drive is, its just one breath taking view after another, down through the "san rafeal swell" up onto the plateau, past the gray and green mountains surrounding "Green river, utah". finally we get to the exit off I-70 south to moab.
i love taking people here for the first time, the looks on their faces when we start down into the moab basin are priceless, you just cant believe what you are seeing, especially for the first time, the pic above is "slick rock trail" after driving from st george and bryce. we got there just in time to ride under a bitchin sunset, as you can see we threw the lights on and made it to the halfway point without turning them on then made the return trip blazing.
some people dont dig the slick rock trail that much, i on the other hand find that i must ride it every time in mecca, the guys all loved it, and that is one of the things i love about them, no matter what trail they ride or where its at they always make the most out of every ride, its good to be around that enthusiasm that they bring to the table...

just after we got started i had to have jordan snap this pic with the "la sals" in the back ground. i fuckin love that mountain range, its about time that "the zaun" and i go into them there mountains and explore. i have been told there are secret stashes of high alpine single track up there, time to find out ..

this was one of the spots that we had to stop and let the crew soak in what was around them they just had open mouths the whole time, damn it was an honour to be the guide for these guys, i wish i could just get a job doing this, its what i was meant to do. i tried to do some things when i was released from prison, i wanted to work with kids really bad, i even took some courses in the joint to help me go that direction, but when i was in the halfway house i found out that ex-felons arent allowed to work with kids. and i have exhausted myself with trying to get into the prisons to speak, to show that someone can change, that they dont have to get out and do the same fucked up things again, but no one seems interested in helping that get off the ground so it has benn layed by the side for now. see some haters out there who remain anonymous and write shit they know nothing about think that simply getting out of prison and changing my life style isnt enough, some how this nameless person thinks i owe something to someone, well fuck you ! if all i do is ride bikes and never deal or make meth again thats a thousand times better than what i was doing before, so blow me nameless fool you know nothing of my world, im a goddamn miracle you asshole !!!

i dig this shot of kj with the colorado river below, every thing was starting to turn red with the sun going down, this was a hell of a day, i thank god i was given the privilage..

one of the many leg screaming climbs out on the trail, for those of you who have never rode the trail its unbelievable what you can get over with the grip of the stone.

when we rolled back into the parking lot at about 11pm the first day was in the books, for me it started in st george at 6 am but for the cali boys it started at 11 pm the day before, and this was just the start... :-)

"A journey though the outback with damn good friends"

in this time that i havent been posting i have had the opportunity to do a lot of riding, i spent a few days up on the goose with "maximus", ( yo i need those pics man ) and i got to go on a trip to moab with my friends from san diego. these are the guys that i went and watched the tour of california with and rode some interesting stuff to say the least, you can read that post in the february list.

mark and i had a good time on the goose, we did a lot of exploring in those days, found some fun ass lines over on practice loop, and we even found some old red dots and a cool part of trail, i told morgan ( the god father of gooseberry ) when i saw him that we had found red and he told me to keep it under wraps but ride away. so that was a lot of fun but the really good stuff was about to begin..

we had been planning this trip for a couple of months now, and the original plan was to include "maximus" however plans change. 6 days before " kevin, jordan and chris" were to arrive i got a call from mark, " dude, i just got out of the hospital ", excuse me , i said. seems that while in zion climbing a 900 foot wall he had fallen on the decent, well fall isnt quite the correct word, his fucking climbing partner drop him 30 feet on the last pitch, stupid fucker ran out of rope. with out going into too many details lets just say that maximus is one lucky sonofa, he fractured a couple of vertebrae and cracked his melon a little but remarkably escaped unscathed, but his moab trip was history.

the above pic was the first day , we left st george at 6 am and rolled into bryce canyon, we unloaded and started out on what was to be my first time on thunder mountain..


if you havent seen this place or rode the trail yet its a gotta go, i almost fell off the trail a number of times because i couldnt keep my eyes off the scene, who ever ok'ed this trail being built here well, bike god bless them !
this is a picture of kevin j on a section called the spine, its almost near the end, the picture doesnt do it justice though, its a fun ass part of the trail, shit the whole thing was a gas even the bike path was cool with my friends along.
the whole trail is single track, beautiful brilliant red single track and it flows in and out of the coolest hoodoo's youve ever seen..



this is a pic of me and christer on one of the many short abrupt climbs, i was under the impression that it was a down hill trail all descending, not the case we did a bit of climbing on that day..

heres a pic of the crew at one of the many scenic places, as you can see the fun was just beginning, we were on our first day and our first trail of what would be a kickass five day journey through southern utah. i decided not to tell them about all the trails we passed while driving to our spots, this was after all the first deep entry into the bastion of this unbelievable state for the boys . dont worry we will see it all my friends given enough time, on to moab !!!

another pic of the spine, i think thats me, just after this is a canyon that i couldnt fathom completely, i felt compelled to roll some rocks down into the abyss, i know , i know, but sometimes i make a big foot print..

"What a long strange blog its been"

its been a while there fans of the lizard travels, and those of you that are non-fans, seems i have an anonymous hater, some one left a comment with a bunch of nasty things in it. some butt hurt boob i suppose, even called me a "little bitch", made me laugh, thanks who ever you are and oh yeah, call me a bitch to my face and see what happens, anonymous, what a worthless fuck, stand up an say what you wrote, coward.....

when i last left the lizard nation i was headed to salt lake to meet some chick that was running the marathon and to rail the hills with the zaun. well i met christine and it seemed we hit things off well, shows what i know about the all mysterious women as i havent heard shit from her, maybe she knows jackie.. but no matter, what i really went for was to hang with the zaun, and we hung well. two days on the shoreline from rosepark up capital hill then across to the zoo and back, with all the side shit we hit all the time. first day "machine gun troy" rode with us but i think we hurt the guy a little, he didnt want to go back up the west side of city creek and down capital hill, he bailed out and took the road out of city creek. all in all the zuan and i rode about 90 miles and threw in 11,000 feet of climbing, it was the first time i had pointed it up hill like that this year, i needed it !

i have a lot of friends that complain about shoreline and i understand their digs, however that trail will always have a soft spot for me, it was my first, my virgin mountain bike experience it was the place i found out that i am a bike rider and its where i became a total mountain bike junkie...

salt lake city utah, i guess it will always be home, fuck, you dont spend 30 years some where and it not be home. the biking is beyond words, even the road biking, 1000 miles of single track within 45 mins of down town, trails on the best dirt i have rode on, ive tasted dirt in 7 states so far and none as tasty as the wasatch, utah fuckin rules !!!

found this pic of the olympics, see the rings up on the hill ? the shoreline goes right to that spot, the olympics were a lot of fun, at least the events i went to with my hockey buddy " kelly" and the ski race i went to with "jeffro"there was some drama to but thats not important...

so one of the reasons i havent been writing lately is that while i was in salt lake my partner for the 18 hrs of fruita called to tell me that she was bailing out, i got bummed and lost some bike focus, it brought me down and as you all know the lizard is mighty unstable at times so that is where i went... but im back.....

"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.......