October storm chasing

Today I awoke to the sound of rain on the roof top. One of my favorite things to wake up to. A friend Kirk and I had been planning for a mountain bike ride today. While making breakfast and watching the rain continue to cascade down, Kirk called, the words "rain-check" were thrown out. I'm not one to twist arms too often, but if it's for a good cause I'm all about it. This storm we're having is a pretty warm one and they only get colder from here on out. I called Kirk and told him what a beautiful day this is in the Pacific Northwest. (He just moved here from Utah, and grew up on the East coast.) I was prepared to throw down the East coast/ West coast poo slingin to seal the deal, but I didn't have to. He got excited about it and we made plans to meet up and ride.

Both of us opted for the full gore-tex suit, the rain was not letting up. I borrowed a 26er stumpjumper fully to try out from the bike shop. I hadn't ridden a full suspendo bike for years and I was stoked to rally this thing around in the mud for a few hours. WOW, it completely rekindled my flame for the 26 inch wheels. There is still a place for them. For sure. The bike just loves to leave the ground when you want it to, but the suspension keeps everything tight and ON the ground when you need it to. I also felt like two wheel drifting was way easier to do with the small wheels. And so much fun! You can do it with the big wheels but it's a bit more dire trying to get them to hook back up, while the 2-6 wheels are incredibly predictable. ok, enough bike gabbin.

The ride was absolutely superb. We headed out to Galbraith Mountain (although it's really a hill by standards of the West). Kirk showed me a super sweet loop that he's been doing. It was so fun, going down trails that I normally come up. The bike absolutely ripped, along with Kirk and myself. We didn't see anyone the whole day! Bummer so many people missed out on the stellar conditions.



Thanks for the ride Kirk!

The highlight of the ride would have to be rolling back down Galbraith lane and seeing a box and apples with a sign above that read, "Free Apples: have one, have some. hand picked. Enjoy!" We were in heaven. Mother nature and some beautiful person decided to share some incredible apples with hungry mountain bikers? Nothing could have been more perfect. The apples were enjoyed thoroughly, seasoned to taste with mud/grit from the surrounding country side.


Wishes granted! We definitely enjoyed some!


Sweet nectar for the tired body

Apple monster?

short track and mountain cross mini-report

quick update before I got to bed and pass out.

Whitney had a solid start until she crashed a few times, and lost enough time that she was pulled just a few laps into the race. Don't know how she placed.

My race started super fast. I was pulled 20ish minutes into the race. don't know placing but somewhere around top 20 or so?

Casey had some rough luck and flatted in his first heat of the 4x.

It was another beautiful day up here. Warm, lots of fresh air, people in speedo's yelling a lot and most others drinking a whole bunch of beer.


Lots of photos of the action but that will have to wait!

Race report

Whitney started out riding a really smart race until she got a huge nail in her tire on the second lap. She replaced the tube, but her co2 only put 10psi in the tire so she nursed it down the finish line where they pulled her because she lost a lot of time. She was in around 12th place when she flatted! They gave her 18th on the day.

I got tangled up with another rider on the first switchback of the climb about 2 minutes into the race and lost a lot of positions. From then on I was passing people for the rest of the race. I felt great all day and worked hard for 11th place.

Stephen Ettinger from Cashmere, WA took 1st in DII men. He's racing for MSU right now. Some tough guys from Union College in Kentucky cleaned up 2nd and 3rd positions. Last years champ Tristan Cowie came in for 5th.

wwu cycling alumni Zach Guy had a stellar showing and I think he took 8th place! He's racing for MSU in bozeman, MT.

Another wwu cycling alumni, Michel got 32nd place out of 57 in DI. Apparently this is his tenth mountain bike RIDE. Freaking awesome.

Here's a post race interview

xc race day

Whitney is on the course right now! Her race started at 8:05am. They even started on-time! Send positive thoughts her way.

My gun goes off at 12:05pm.

Here's a short video of the start of Whitney's race!

Day Two: Or day four?

Yesterday was a nice day in Northstar. The morning was lazy, followed by a nice pedal around the COMPLETE cross-country course. The most memorable, unique? part of the course is an intestine style climb going up the face of the mountain below a lift. It's pretty obvious that they put it there for our race. For once could the nationals course be freaking pro?




Casey hiked the DH course and discovered a couple inches of snow on the top. After a day of practice all the snow should be gone, but they are pretty environmentally savy here so there will be no riding down the course until it's melted. Officials say it should be ridable by tomorrow (saturday).

We met a great guy named Brian from Florida. Funny how the first person we meet is our geographic opposite. He was not used to the lack of O2 and the hills.

Yesterday at the riders meeting the officials informed us that they have added one lap to the xc races. So Whitney now races 3 laps, for a total of 22.5 miles. I'll be racing 4 laps, 30 miles. I'm happy with the change.

weather update

The weather is looking to make for some stellar race conditions this weekend (although, mud would be fine too!) Bellingham, and the rest of western Washington, lower BC, and Oregon getting all the rain, big surprise there.

The forcast for Truckee, CA


ka-pow!


The Polar Jet Stream, like so many animals (birds, whales, caribou, etc, etc) also migrates south for winter.


The most reliable forcast you can get... Go outside!

smacked in the nose, in a good way

I'm down in California right now, nestled in the Sierras. After 9 hours of driving yesterday we were treated to fresh - you smash them yourself with a hammer - walnuts at my Friend Alex's place in Ashland, OR. In the morning the WWU Cycling Mountain Bike team and WWU Cycling Alumni, Deanna, punched the last 6 hours down to Truckee, CA. We're here for 2009 Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals. We've got a small but mighty crew. Casey is here representing the Gravity crew. Whitney and I will be competing in the short-track XC and Cross Country races.

For those of you who don't know, there are four events to be contested here. Two gravity events, Downhill and Mountain Cross. And two endurance events, Cross Country and Short-track Cross Country. The downhill is pretty self explanatory. It's a race downhill, against a clock. The person who gets from the start gate, down the hill, to the finish line fastest, wins. The bikes people use for these tend to be long-travel bikes that can sometimes look more motorcycle then bicycle. Mountain Cross is a pretty exciting event. You race in "heats", four people at a time. The course is usually filled with jumps, tight corners, small drops. It's a total head-game with yourself, every rider trying to be "king of the Mountain". The mountain cross race is on Saturday and the DH finals are on Sunday.

The cross country race is on Friday. This course offers up a 7.5 mile lap with around 800 feet of climbing... That means around 800 feet of descending as well! The ladies do 2 laps while the gents race for 3. Riders need to be fit, but also must have their wits about them, both down the hills, and up. The short-track race is pretty, um, short, typically around a 1/2 mile long and the race is usually ran for no longer then 45 minutes. They are pretty intense and as with any bike race, anything can happen. The short-track is going on Saturday morning.

So after two and a half days of driving we got to ride our bikes around and loosen up the body and mind. The area just received a ton of rain! The trails were in stellar shape and should only get better until race day on Friday. I've got to say that the trails are super fun and perfect for a 2-9er. The climbing is fairly rocky, with some really fun twisty rocky bumps to have a good time on the way down. This race will be super fun. Relating to the title of the post, when we rode into the forest today I was hit in the face by the fantastic smell. I don't know what it is. Sage?

While up on the hill today I stumbled upon, or rather, almost into, a porcupine! Pretty awesome animals.

check back here everyday for new happenings of our adventure. As usual, click on the photos to get a bigger view, and feel free to comment.

Methow Fall Bike Festival

Deanna and I headed over the North Cascades this last weekend to do some Mountain biking in one of our favorite areas of Washington State. Sunday there was an XC race that I participated in. Good friend Logan Wetzel smashed it! The course was different from years past, I'd say this year, a bit more challenging. I gotta say it felt super good to get some race pace in on the legs!

Here's a few photos of the weekend, Thanks to Deanna for taking the photos of the racing.