Off-Friday

Desert Classic round trip: 17.6miles with 2264ft of climbing



My lungs are still on fire, so I decided to take it easy with respect to long, continuous climbs. Instead, I decided to check out Desert Classic....which strangely, I have never done. I have to say; cutting my teeth on Hawes for the 1st 6 months of mountain biking has paid off. For being a completely new trail for me, I opened it up like I've never done on a new trail before. Granted, it's a cross-country trail with nothing close to techincal, but there are a few rock gardens which will wake your ass up if you're not paying attention. All in all, I really liked it despite the lack of any tech challenge. Carrying mega-speed via my large chainring through the nicely bermed corners was sweet and will bring me back when I'm in the need. I did start to cramp at the end since it was 95 out today and I'm out of my electrolyte drink; so I did what any illegal alien/undocumented worker would do after a day working in the sun....I bought a 24oz Tecate and a pack of saliditos. After ingesting 500% of my daily allowance of sodium via 3 saliditos (yes...only 3) and that nice icy Tecate, I was right as rain.


On another note: The ski movie stoke is in overdrive right now, so for your enjoyment; here are two links to movies which are capturing my imagination right now.

The 1st DVD is called "The Pact" by Powder Whore Productions.....a ski friend from up north turned me on to this. It's a tele ski movie....but that just makes the face-shots look more impressive. Even if you don't carve, the photography will take your breath away on this. Link is attached here. I could have used the youtube imbed video function on this video, but the youtube version was a crappy resolution. The link I provided takes you directly to Powder Whore's website which will give you a nice widescreen, high-rez version of the trailer.

The 2nd one is called "Hand Cut" by Sweetgrass productions. I've watched this several times....and I have the drool stains on my carpet to prove it. In a world of ski-porn going bigger and bigger, It's nice to see an independent film produced with more natural shots, folks earning their turns as opposed to flying off in a helo, photography reminiscent of an Ansel Adams photo spread...well, you get the point. If you feel like watching this one...come on over and bring me some beer.