100,000

Lil' Wayne turned 100,000 miles old today. Congratz tough guy! Damn it feels good to be a gangsta!

Family, Food, XZ-1 Testing

My Parents just stopped into town for a brief visit. They were on a 5 day sail on Schooner Zodiac. We got out for some great food last night, along with a vicious partners cribbage game where the females came from behind and smashed Allen and I! Great to see them, even for a short spell. Kicked them out at the train station today for a cruiser train home to Oregon.

When I was in Olympic National Park a few weeks ago I ruined my little point/shoot camera with condensation it was so wet. After a lot of fussing around about what would be the best replacement, I finally decided on an Olymps XZ-1. It's a beautiful little camera that takes some seriously incredible images for it's size. One of the great features is the lens, it lets in a lot of light and therefore is great for low-light photography - a common theme while mountain biking in the woods of the PNW. Pretty impressed with the results this far. I'm excited to get to know the camera more and see what it can do!

Next on the hit list is Test of Metal in Squamish BC. It's a mass-start, point-to-point mountain bike race. 800 people on the start line! Have been hearing about it for years and this year (special Thanks to Logan for the free entry!) I'm toeing the line! Deanna and I are loading up Lil' Wayne and rolling up for a night or two of camping and then the race Saturday! If you've never ridden a mountain bike in Squamish, you're missing out! There are some pretty great trail up there.

(click on any of the images and they should get bigger for best viewing)

Patrick's Truck v4.0: Lil' Wayne

So by "Check back later in the week," I really meant, "later next month." If you haven't seen the Farewell 4Runner post, please click here before continuing to see what is next in line.

Lil' Wayne is the name of my new truck.

Here's a photo.

Pretty freakin' tough, I know. Doing his best with the stock "grill" and a little body damage out on the Olympic peninsula at La Push. Gangsta!

I've had 4 vehicles total in my life thus far. First, a 1987 fire engine red Toyota 4Runner, 4cylinder. She was a beauty. moon roof, tilt-o-meter, the whole nine yards. Then for a short time I had a 1992 4wd standard cap Toyota Pickup, green. Then the 1991 blue 4Runner, which by now you all know what she looks like. Notice a trend? Yeah, it's safe to say, Toyota-for-life at this point.

The first adventure for Lil' Wizzy and I was a cruise to Oregon with a stop-off at Washington State XC Championships in Wenatchee, WA. It was super fun. We camped out with friends Logan, Whitney, Chris and Courtney. Who all smashed out the racing h-core. It was a tough course and everyone raced hard. What more can you really ask for? Team S&M Alum, Spencer Paxson (Kona Bikes) won the Pro men's race handily. He's on to bigger stages and it's always great to race with him, or mostly, chill after the race, he pretty much races in front of me.

Before the race photo, tent, Lil' Wayne, myself.

Post-race grin because I finished. The week before I'd been kinda sick so I knew the race would be a rough one!

A few photos of Chris, Courtney and Whitney all racing bikes.

The following week in Oregon was awesome. Love it there. Corvallis was beautiful. The weather was 70 plus most of the time, didn't need arm warmers or knee warmers the whole time! Couldn't even believe it. With this being the coldest spring since 1956, my body was in absolute bliss. Then homie Alex NB showed up in Corvallis for the weekend and I knew I was in for some serious miles on the road bike. After that it was back up to Bellingham for me.

I had a couple extra days before I needed to be back at work so I figured I'd rally up to Olympic National Park. Lil' Wayne pulled 100's of miles of back roads and threw down a mean 28.6 miles per gallon!!! All my gear and everything! Olympic National Park is incredible. I barely scraped the surface, one hike in the Hoh rain forest, then another night at Mora campground near Rialto beach. Yet another beautiful piece of Washington State.

Here are a few photos of the Olympic NP camping/hiking. (I recommend hitting the full-screen button on the slideshow)

I ended the trip with a ride up Hurricane ridge from Port

Angeles. That is a spectacular ride if you've never done it, it's a really nice grade too, nothing too crazy steep, unless you like steep...

Hurricane Ridge, 17miles, 5000ft vertical gain, and amazing views! Worth the trip.