You're doing it all wrong

I did it all wrong on Saturday.  Muscle memory only goes so far...and mine just ran out.  I was solidly out of endurance shape after a 5 month eschewment (if there were ever a word) of solo riding for days on end.  I'm glad I spent the last 5 months doing what I wanted....but as the first AES event of the season proved....you're only as good as your last ride....and mine sucked.

I knew starting out that I was in for some form of self-flagellation, and I never batted an eyelash at the implication.  I can suck up just about any form of punishment and keep laughing...but do I really want to?  These thoughts were swept into the recesses of my mind as I drove north on I-17 under an awakening sky of peach, vermilion and baby blue.....

Arriving at the start...I was blown away at the parking lot...it was full with racers.  I knew from the night before that this event had hit its max of 74 riders...but it took a while for this to sink in.....just 2 years ago...this event had about 15 folks showing up....another sign of my spanking, just a warm glow on the horizon which represents my peachy and tilted optimism.....

Off the bat, this ride gives you 1,000 vertical feet of spankdown in the first 7 miles....tack on another 13 miles and you've gained 3,000 vertical feet.  As I contemplated this fact against what types of rides I do better at...I started awakening to the fact that it doesn't really matter.....I was sucking because of my gluttony.   Contrasting this were many of the folks that put some good time in since the AZT in the spring....J-Bake all smiles mid-way through the climb....

Topping out at the entrance to Antelope Canyon singletrack....I wanted to puke...and I'm not a puker.  I'm quite certain that it was because I was drinking from a 4-month old bottle of Carbo Rocket Half-Evil which I had left in the back of my fridge....it looked ok to me in the morning when I left.  Too bad I neglected to notice the black slime growing in it until I was deep in the climb....lightheadedness pursued through the rest of the ride....here I was only halfway into the event....and I was doing it all wrong.....lucky for me, the landscape provided a palliative course of action....

...and in this remedy, others shared in the joy of a hard earned descent.....

....a descent that turned former frowns, upside down.....

Many hours later....my upside down frown got turned over again as I found myself in the pain cave....cramping, light-headed, knee aching and bonking.....until I found this gem.  I had been doing math in my head since Bumble Bee Rd....figuring out bail points, mileage, time, elevation gained....all against remaining mileage, water and stats on route.  I hate the term DNF.... because it rhymes with quitter....but I was feeling the sweet relief in the possibility my suffering could end...until I found this.  I quickly bucked up and remembered why I was here.....life sucks....some moments more vidid than others.  The sweet relief and relish comes sometimes in the memory of the beautiful moments; moments which share only a flash within our consciousness as we labor to make it through the day.

The labor is what gets us to memory lane...and as I sit here remembering the ride....the views....the epic descents....and yes, the hell I inflicted upon myself to avoid three letters.....I see clearly in the usual suspects below, the reason we all do it.  Thanks to all my fellow riders for reminding me that joy in the greater things comes in the struggle.  In the vacuum of my nightmare, I had sought the struggle merely out of a sense of purpose.....I had long ago become numb to it and needed a break.  This ride has reminded me that my nightmare is over and that I now seek the struggle for all the right reasons....I want it.....

The good....TheBadAndTheUgly

The Good: Day 2 on snow; beers, burgers, laughs, bluebird, good company....

The BadAndTheUgly: Chollaball on Day 1, drinkin' sport drink, rockin out with no shirt, showing his flair...

This won't be the last of it....check cholla's site as well as U2metoo's site for more info and a video of.....ahem.....whatever that was, which is shown above....

Penny Stove

I was forced to back out of a planned night ride last night.....I hate backing out of rides...more importantly, I hate not riding. I took a digger Tuesday morning on a section of trail that I have not crashed on in over 7 months. I guess that after my very first run down Geronimo last Saturday, my idea of gnar has been elevated and I have been hitting the every day stuff a little harder. Sam posted a great video of last Saturdays ride (check for my nice hair in the credits) found here in HD -(give the link a few minutes to load before it plays). Anyways...On Tuesday, I burped my front tire on some granite steps which sent me OTB...making first contact on terra firma with my left knee....always my knee. I finished the ride, not looking forward to the task of removing 1-hour old scab to tweeze out clasts of feldspar, quartz and mica from deep in the many recesses of my knee. What followed was the same ole-same-ole: cleaning, drying and hoping...hoping that the scab would start to heal enough for the Wednesday night ride. Wednesday night was postponed to Thursday night....did I just blow your mind? Good...lets continue....Thursday night I bailed on my riding buddies. Now I sit here on Friday morning....hoping that it will be good to go for Saturday....the last thing I want to do is sit around and drink beer.

In any event...last night, rather than sulking about not riding...I put my idle hands to work to make my 1st penny stove. I've been intrigued by the bikepacking thing, and since I've proved to myself that I can do 80 miles in a day without my knee leaving me stranded as cougar bait...I'm going to take a run at it. 1st order of business is to lighten my load....so the MSR whisperlite has got to go. At 14.5 oz's dry....add more for fuel and the canister.....it's easily going to be over a 1.5 lbs of stuff that I don't feel like carrying.

Enter....the penny stove. It weighs in at a svelte 2.3 oz's with another 3oz's of "fuel" for an overnighter.....isopropyl alchohol...or my favorite...everclear, since you can drink it, use it as a disinfectant, or fuel your stove. Gotta love multiple use items! Best of all, I get to make it myself...and I have to use beer cans to make it.


Entering the grocery...I could not remember which size Heineken cans I needed, so I bought a case of the 12'oz cans and 2 of the 24oz'ers just to make sure....I hate multiple trips! Upon getting home, I realize that...bummer...I only needed the 12 oz cans. Gee...what am I going to do with the extra 48 oz's of Heineken?????



The tools are ready, the extra beer is being disposed of.

As I started cutting metal with the Dremel, I realized....perhaps I need eye protection. I don't own safety goggles....but my ski goggles might work.....

Safety first kiddos.....the helmet I added just in case the can came up to smite me in the noggin....

After I laid the parts out...I read more of the directions (I hate reading directions)....I realized that I needed another can, smaller than the Heineken....bummer. Guess it's time to fish out that "la bala de plata" I had hidden in the fridge....and drink it. Dang...this is getting hard...what with the 12 page directions I "apparently" should have pre-read and the emptying of the cans....

OK....a few cuts made....two Heines down....working on emptying the Coors....

...and low and behold....after emptying the coors and cutting it....I see it is too small (inside can) for the diameter of the Heineken can(outside can)....guess I need to modify another Heineken can....Crack!

The burner part is all drilled and crimped.....

popping it into the fuel base.....this is the basic assembly...

1st light in the sink for safety reasons.....

and final test to see how it stacks up to the instructions standard burn times and efficiency rating to boil 2 cups of water....

Overall...I feel pretty good about the build. I have noticed that my burner holes are perhaps a bit too large and positioned too close to the outside wall of the fuel cup, leading to a combined ring of flame rather than discrete jets. However the total burn time on 3/4 oz of isopropyl in the test was just 30 seconds less than the standard posted times and I managed to boil 2 cups of water in 6:23....so not too bad. I'll be drinking more Heineken tonight and making another burner part with smaller jets and better crimping to see if I can generate those perfect discrete jets.

4th of July "Out There"

I had a pretty short turnaround from our 4th of July week and my business trip to Monterey, hence the delay in posting the pics from our time up on the rim. The previous week, I scouted out on bike an isolated area off of the eastern portion of the cabin loop trail where we could pitch camp, be isolated from the hoards of idiots lacking any respect for peace and quit, and be close to a fresh water source. The recee trip was worth it.










After setting up camp and kitting out my bike with the requisite refreshments, I promptly saddled up and rode out to the spring to filter some water and to introduce the family to our new neighborhood for the next few days.....

















Judging by their initial reaction, I think I did OK...one note to the Mrs' beverage choice....."Mic-Ultra".....really?






















For every wild rose that I found the week prior, there were 10 more blooming along the spring....






















The wild strawberries were starting to come out as well....we ate two, and left the rest for the birds.....

















Or frogs.....

















The glassy surface of the water reflecting the angled bedding surface of the Coconino Sandstone proved too irresistible for just one picture....

















Or for a German Shepherd dog named Stella Blue......






















....or for that matter, a normally water and camera shy Swedish Vallhund named Graham.






















Noting the growing thunder-bumpers in the sky above and the darkening of the path home, we turned around to avoid the coming deluge.....






















Mo Nature did not disappoint....






















This cycle repeated itself each day, with refreshments taken with a wonderful pairing of the sound of rain, smell of ozone and a good read underneath the day shelter.






















.....just because we shit in the woods, does not mean we have to drink PBR.






















Stella Blue, however, took no part in these daily rituals due to a hatred of rain and thunder....so she beat a hasty retreat each afternoon to the tent vestibule where I had built her a bed of fresh pine needles to avoid the tracked mud and Wookie like odor caused by a wet dog in my tent.

















Some afternoons, I did not feel like filtering water, so I applied the lazy mans technique.






















In typical high-country fashion, the rain stuck around for a few hours and moved on down into the sweltering heat of the low deserts to delight and tease the parched city folk. We, were left with cold temps and tired dogs.

















Mornings were clear and halcyon with the sound of my stove the only man made interruption amongst the wild turkey calls in the canyon to our east and the coyotes in the canyon to the west.






















When I look back at it, I rode every day; with no goal other than to ride, drink and eat. Personal bests were not challenged, and complications were avoided. Lately I've become so fixated at getting miles in that I've nearly forgotten to seek daily, the inner peace which has forced itself upon me at this place. If my sense of complacency and relaxation during this trip could be summed up by one picture, it would be this.

Happy New Year!

Say bye-bye to 2008....these 24 beauties have their own special expiration date I don't want to miss.

Ty Willingham is not a good coach

Granted....OU is a pretty phenomenal team this year compared to the Huskies, but ole' Ty just can't help himself. His guys looked tired the whole time, committing stupid errors and generally looking undisciplined....kind of like his past teams. Maybe I'm being hard on the guy, but not nearly as hard as his AD will be at the end of the season if he keeps this up.

Anyhew, after watching that rout; I was feeling a little....ahem...dehydrated this morning ahead of my ride. At least the temps were down from what they were two weeks ago. However, that did not stop me for exclaiming to myself and the ants I was staring at while catching my breath that "This is f-in hot!" To add insult to injury, I got smoked heading up the hill today by a Lycra clad cardio-freak....I could hear the guy breathing 3 minutes before I even saw him. He sent the hill....I hike-a-biked part of it. This was not the hammer weekend I had anticipated a few days ago. Did just 8 miles with 1070ft of elevation gain this morning before doing some yard work. Damn OU football....too many college football games and good beer, so little time.





I'm off to go do some yard work: Crazy mesquite tree is growing into the neighbor's driveway again and the pool is looking a little swampy after last weeks rain. While I'm choking on the intolerable heat, enjoy this winter stoke from earlier this year.