breathe

Seasons

2011-11-14T11:12:00.000-08:00

"Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each."
-Henry David Thoreau

Photo taken on 11/4/11

Photo taken on 11/11/11

The Light will Always Shine Brightest for Those that do not Keep

2011-10-24T09:32:00.000-07:00


Share your light.
                           Be open.
to the light of others.

                      If you open that door,
light will shine
                one
          way
                and 
                     maybe
                               the
                                    other 
                                            way  
                                                  too!                     

Acting a fool,
                   is almost always,

 the
     only
           way
                 to
                    go.

Back
On
Top.

Two photos for Thursdays.

2011-10-20T19:45:00.001-07:00

Seldom flying down the stairs of our house in Bellingham.

Seldom-Cat Vacuum cleaner! It works really well when there is food on the ground.

100,000

2011-06-16T13:16:00.000-07:00

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

Family, Food, XZ-1 Testing

2011-06-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-08T19:46:00.000-07:00

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.

Farewell, Sweet 4Runner.

2011-05-11T11:41:00.001-07:00

Farewell, Sweet 4Runner

Farewell, Sweet 4Runner,

Forever will you have place in my heart,

I am excited to pass you on, to a great family's fresh start.

The adventures have been many,

And large and small, warm and cold.

I remember so many good times, many, and quite bold.

I truly love you. You do know that right?

Tis’ why you've been so true, and full, full of might.

I know that you know, exactly what I mean,

We've been together so long, we made such a great team!

I know you'll run strong, with the right TLC,

It's time to make others smile, the way you made me.

I don't like goodbyes, so let's not draw this out.

Farewell, Sweet 4Runner. And on to the next bout!

You (left), Michael (far Right), and I somewhere in the Oregon Cascades. Winter 2006?

Kevin Hall and Matti Howell, about to shred the amazing and beautiful MacKenzie River Trail. Fall 2006

Here you are, kinda broken, but determined to see us home after yet another whirlwind Oregon Mudslinger weekend. How many of those did we make together? Spring 2011

Looking rather majestic aren't ya? Never went to your head though. Hwy 20, Summer 2010.

Guarding camp for us in the Methow Valley, Summer 2010.

Your favorite location: anywhere down a dirt road. Methow Valley, Summer 2010.

This road you know like the back of your windshield wipers. We're on our way to gleefully rally the trails of Marys Peak. Summer 2009.

Loaded! This trip, I remember well. Along with helping us advertise for a naked crit, you also pulled 20+MPG with 4 dudes and camping/bike racing gear! I couldn't have been more proud. Hwy 20, Fall 2006.

Great ass! Here you are faithfully toting around Deanna's bike and mine. Anytime in the last 5yrs? Any location in the Pacific Northwest?

Left to Right, myself, K.Hall. Nancy. Matti.

You're normal Oregon resting place.

Too many trips like this to remember or count them all. This is the start of 2009 summer.

Check back later in the week to learn about "Patrick's Truck: version 4.0"

36hrs of Mudslinger

2011-04-28T09:11:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the 23rd Annual Peak Sports Mudslinger. It's a race I try to never miss if it can be helped. Back in high school the Mudslinger lay dormant for a few years. The promoter lost venue that was currently being used. My Junior and Senior years I put in a lot of hours of trail work out at the current course. And the best part is, at the time, I could ride my mountain bike from my house on Alsea Hwy, over the skirts of Marys Peak and ride the trails that are now used for the course, without ever seeing automobile!

It was a super quick trip. Luckily, three good pals joined me for the weekend! Logan Wetzel, Ben Rathkamp, and Whitney Anderson. It was quite a good bunch. So we all piled in the trusty 4runner and pointed it South.

Well, I won't bore anyone with details, but the 4Runner blew a headgasket and to get back home we had to refill the radiator 3-4times to keep her from over-heating.

Here's the 4Runner all loaded down. I know, she's a beauty in her old age. 277,000ish miles old that is.

But to the really great news, the race was amazing! Conditions were incredible, though not the conditions that the race was named for, it was still a super fun race. Here I must put in a few words about Race Director Mike Ripley. The dude knows how to put on a great race. check out his other races at mudslingerevents.com. The races he promotes are truly all about having a great time racing/riding your bike. Always timely, badass raffles, and it's my opinion that he wouldn't put on a race where the course doesn't kick ass. He's a rider too, and he know what to look for in a great race course. If anyone is curious about the race, there is the Test of Endurance50 miler that is held on the same trails, and then some, on June 19th. Check it out!

Race a good race and you should feel like this.

Results: Logan only won the damn thing, in front of fellow S&M Teammate Sean Babcock (2x Mudslinger champion). A sprint up the finishing hill was the only thing that could separate those two riders. I came in a few minutes behind them and another rider in 4th place. Ben smashed it! Dude came in 10th overall in his first mtb race. Nevermind that he's a super strong road and cyclocross racer. He is strong like buffalo. Whitney finished a super strong race in her large field of lady racers.

Ben shredding up Panama Canal. (Thanks to oregonvelo.com for the photo)

Finding my way down Panama Canal for the last time. (Thanks to oregonvelo.com for the photo)

Logan. shredder. (Thanks to oregonvelo.com for the photo)

http://www.oregonvelo.com/ for more great photos! Although, I couldn't find one of Sean...

Mom and Allen just after the race. They were an amazing support group!

Logan, myself, and Ben; just after finishing.

Tall skinny white dude on the top step!

Since we'd be getting back to Bellingham late no matter what, we decided to enjoy the fruits of our location a bit and stopped in Portland for a beer and burger. It was incredible to say the least. We were beyond hungry, frankly, maybe getting a bit hangry.

Galbraith Public Meeting Today

2011-04-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

For those that don't know, our local mountain biking hotspot here is "under attack" for lack of a better term.

The following is from my friend Mike's blog: http://mountaingoatblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/galbraith-public-meeting-4182011.html

Galbraith Public Meeting 4/18/2011

There is going to be a public forum on 4/18/11 to discuss the current situation on Galbraith. Word is council chambers hold 250 people, so 500 riders should help get the point across. Ride your bike to the event and tell all your friends.

Stay civil and strong - we want to look organized, motivated and respectable. This meeting is a chance for the local riding community to show how valuable Galbraith is to us, as well as demonstrate our sheer numbers.

Galbraith Public Forum
Date: 4/18/2011
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Bellingham City Hall Council Chambers

Time for the post!

2011-03-01T16:37:00.000-08:00

Life is good. Lots of bike riding and coffee making. Not much coffee drinking though. Unless I'm in Oregon with my friend Chris... Then caution is thrown to the wind. I still love riding my bike! I've come to terms with Winter weather, after last weeks multiple sub-20 degree days, 35 degrees and raining feels downright balmy! I took a long weekend trip to Oregon with Chris. He raced Cherry Pie, the OBRA season opener. Crushed it too. He took 2nd place on the day. Hats off to you my friend. Besh wishes for the coming season. The other days we were down there we cruised out some really nice Corvallis pave. Lots of good food and games with family and friends. It was a great trip.

I'll leave you with a couple photos. The first two are from Galbraith Mountain, just outside Bellingham.

Lookout Mountain's svelt curves leading down to Lake Samish.

Looking South at Lake Samish and Blanchard Mountain, the Skagit flats beyond...

Chrisp and I driving back from a great Oregon weekend.

Marys Peak looms over the small town of Philomath, and the even smaller cyclists. The top was our goal this ride but her morning robe of white beauty told us we'd never make it... We barely made it to 1200' feet, until ice and snow turned us around. The top is 4097' respectively.

food essay

2011-02-02T22:37:00.000-08:00

For myself, I know that there are foods that I should not eat. Gluten is one of them. I won't get into specifics, but I generally just feel bad when I eat it. I've never been tested for intolerance, but I don't need to be tested for something that has proved itself again and again is real-world testing.

Then there are foods that I still eat, and I pretty much know I should not consume, or rarely consume. But I love them! Or that's how I feel sometime, but they can be a slippery slope. Here it is, coffee and sweets. They go together like peas in a pod! I love the taste of coffee, but something in it, for sure the caffeine, but maybe something more, does not make me feel good. Caffeine, I know is no good for me. Being an athlete, my adrenal glands are pretty taxed as it is, caffeine on top of this is dangerous. Adrenal fatigue can wreak serious havoc on your mind and body. The list is long, but includes, depression, sensitivity to cold/chills, mental fog, decreased ability to handle stress, decreased ability to recover, muscular weakness, increased food allergy sensitivities, etc. Sweets can be a slippery slope too, the energy you get from them is so instant, you just want more and more (not to mention they freaking taste great). Do I really need to get into reasons why simple sugars are bad for you? Insulin roller-coast, weight gain, cancer feeder, trace-mineral thief, dental-nightmare-bringer, etc. Today, the average American eats about 175 pounds of sugar per year, compared to about 15 pounds per year in 1915.

Breakfast in New York City. Somewhere in Greenwich Village.

Now a short story. This one time, I went off sugar and coffee for 3 months. It was amazing. The first two weeks were almost hell. I had headaches (I was drinking lots of coffee leading into this). I craved sweet stuff ALOT (one must know that I was eating more then my fair share of the zucchini bread from the local coffee shop). But I stuck to my guns, and after that two week period, I didn't even look at the sweets anymore, and when I did, honestly they kinda grossed me out. I knew how they would make me feel. So life is good, it's summer in Bellingham, lots of bicycle riding and rock/mountain climbing that summer. I lost 10lbs, (for me that's huge, I'm already pretty fit and super active) and had all the energy of the world.

From the same New York breakfast.

Today is February 2nd. Let's cut to the chase... I'm giving up, no no, that sounds wrong, because what I'm "giving up" is really just going to make me feel better. I am no longer going to consume coffee and sugar until November 24th. Cause that day my Mom always rolls out a really amazing homemade espresso torte that I plan on enjoying a slice of. After that date, I won't be dogmatic about it anymore, but I believe that my relationship to sweet stuff and caffeine will have changed for the better. I probably wont blog about it after this. But feel free to ask questions in the comment field at any time. What I am doing is bringing about real change in my relationship to food. I know these things don't make me feel "good". Action now.

This is a photo Deanna took of an incredible paella that her and friend Thomas made while I was at work. I was speechless when I came in the door. Tom had harvested the clams down in Skagit even!

My challenge to you. During the coming week, I challenge you to feel/listen/be "in", your body for even a short time (start with 30 seconds) during every meal that you sit down to eat. I'll explain. Our society doesn't believe it's okay to have a "body". Sometimes, a lot of the time, our body knows best. Sometimes it wants to sneeze, fart, cry, scream, laugh, run, or just wiggle and make lots of weird movements. Think of how many places "in" our society that it's OK to do these things?! They are few. We're taught to ignore our body and not listen. I am challenging you to listen. At some point in every meal, just be with your food. Don't read, don't surf the internet, don't talk, don't think about other things that you have to do, just be "in" your body while you eat. Maybe the conversation is boring, or the food is really freaking good, or your eating alone, whatever. Look for subtle reactions your body makes, changes in breath, a tensing or relaxing of different parts of the body, tingling, sensations, etc. Just observe, try not to judge. Take delight in your food! You may find after practicing this for a few days, that you start to prefer less seasonings on your food, because you are actually tasting more of the food! You may find that some foods you thought you liked, really don't appeal to you, and others that you thought maybe were bland or boring, are completely incredible. Have fun with it and enjoy food!

Deanna is quite the cook sometimes. These she busted out, meal for one! Salmon, quinoa, on mustard greens, and a cabbage/carrot salad of some sort. Food is sooo good!

Mountain bicycling is one of my favorite things

2011-01-13T18:49:00.001-08:00

I've been back in Beautiful, Bountiful, Breath-taking, Bellingham, Washington for almost a full two weeks now. It feels good to be back here. It is a place that I love. Not as much the city, but the hills and trails that surround it. I've been on the mountain bike exclusively, taking my camera (almost) every time, planning to get photos of the rad trails that I get to rip. I'm happy to report, the following two photos are literally the only photos that I've taken the time to snap. It's just been so hard to actually premeditate anything when you're stuck in that all-consuming body/mind experience of rallying your bike around in the woods.

Skim the good stuff off the top

2011-01-02T20:06:00.000-08:00

My last full day in Oregon ended with a mid-winter's skim board sesh with my brother Johnny, and brother-from-another-mother, Thomas. Nothing like ice cold water, waves, beautiful scenery, good company, and running around lots in your underwear to light the fire of life and ring in the finish of year Two Thousand and Ten.

I have a debt to even up...

2010-12-18T23:46:00.000-08:00

I've got a debt to even up. One of these years, I'll get back on track. But as it sits right now, I'm down one summer and up one winter... A few years back Deanna and I went to New Zealand. It is a stunningly beautiful country and the people there are equally friendly. It was an amazing trip, and I wouldn't take it back for anything, but I can't tell you how hard it was for me to give up an entire summer, go back to winter just as it's starting to really get into summer weather in the Pacific Northwest. I love the heat. Summer is my favorite season, long days, hot weather. Energy everywhere.

2008 was a wetter, cooler spring then normal in Bellingham, then I left for winter in the Southern Hemisphere. Now, I know people who do this every year, follow the snow to the hemisphere where it's currently the cash crop. I'll be the first to tell you, I'm not and never will be one of those people. I like snow sports, they are fun, but I don't love them. The sports that I love, don't (usually) involve snow.

So I'm down a summer, my body and mind and soul are down on all that expected sunshine and energy that comes with it. En Zed was nice, exciting, new, strange, incredible. But it really made me realize, how badass this land is that I grew up (and continue to grow) in.

Some photos of our trip to En-Zed. It's summer there right now... (click photos, they get big)

We hiked the Abel Tasman track. A stunning hut system on the North tip of the South Island.

Waterfall on the West coast of the South Island.
The Alps of New Zealand.

This is 'merrca. you dunt liik it, you can git out.

2010-12-17T21:02:00.000-08:00

A pool table and beer. The only thing that could have made it better would have been, a couple fingers of scotch, a cigar, tweed suits, some really cool hats, and definitly some badass jazz music in the background. Actually, I would have taken a pipe, but I bet Allen would have chewed the crap out of a cigar. Oh, and switch Allen's glasses for a monocle. Best out of seven. Winner does nothing (aside from talk a bunch of shit until the next round), loser has to harvest the rest of the lavender from the garbage bag of dry stalks that my mom got from a friend. The bar is set. The stage is set.

Welcome to the danger zone.

Highway to the danger zone.

Just found this GF beer in Corvallis. Never seen it before, but I know St. Peter's well. I loved their Porter and Amber back in the day, and this stuff did not disappoint at all.

The games were on fire. Allen started off pretty hot and I was in the hole from the beginning.

I ended up being stripes 5 out of 7 games.

Allen working his 8-ball magic. Final tally, Patrick 3, Allen 4. At least I'll be smelling nice for the next few days.

Talent is Overrated

2010-12-17T00:01:00.001-08:00

Karate used to be a huge part of my life. Sometimes I miss it a lot. It's a beautiful thing, and it takes zero "gear". Cycling is decidedly a gear heavy sport. Karate, Yoga, qi gong, taiji, ki aikido, all are amazing arts to practice, and they require nothing but time.

Karate, the art itself is incredible. But it was these guys (and a couple other guys and gals) who kept me coming back. It was karate that taught me that any super-computer-nerd-engineer with zero coordination, and I mean ZERO, can become incredibly adept athletically. Being relatively coordinated at sports naturally, I've always thought the best were just 'born with it'. Not true. The best work the hardest for it. I watched floppy frogs turn into super badass karate practitioners. This summer this belief was reaffirmed, I read a book called, "Talent is Overrated". It talks about everyone, business people, chess masters, athletes, etc. All the best, Warren Buffet for investing, multiple chess grandmasters, athletes, they all worked with a dogged determination. But it was not just hard work, but a brutal honesty in their assessment of progress along the way, and developing very specific goals to bring about small improvement.

From Left to Right. Teppei, Jacob, Patrick, Andy, Jason, and Tim. Circa 2000.

Five on the 15th

2010-12-15T22:36:00.000-08:00

These photos are from the Mackenzie River Trail in Oregon. For those who have never graced her sweet curves, yeah, you're really not missing anything. Don't bother checking it out. It's a long drive, in the middle of nowhere, I mean, what if something happened and you didn't get cell phone service and you couldn't make a twit on twitter about it right at that time. That would suck. It's really not a great trail anyway, so much hype...

Of the many times I've ridden this trail, the excitement is always the same. hot, cold, sunny, cloudy, raining... That wind in your perma-grinning face of almost 30 miles of whooping, shred-tastic festival single track of what the fuck it is to love mountain biking.

These are from a trip I did with good friends from Bellingham, Matt and Kevin. September, 2006. We rallied the waz out of that trail. (don't miss out, be sure to click on the images to make them bigger.)

Thanks to Matti for this sweet picture of myself - out of mind and body.

Kevin had a few flats on this ride, silly latex tubes...

Matti, cruisin true Oregon forestry. Kevin is fixing another flat, just outside the Right of the picture.

Kevin, trying not to take the big drink.

Matti and his stumpjumper - countless moments of blissful riding.

To see more photos from this ride, click here.

USGP Stanley Cup Photo Albums

2010-12-14T21:47:00.000-08:00

Here are photos from the US Grand Prix of Cyclocross, Stanley Cup, Portland, Oregon. December 4th and 5th. On Saturday I made it out in time for the Elite Men's race, and on Sunday, I made both the Elite Men and Women's races.

Saturday, Elite Men

Sunday, Elite Women and Elite Men

2010 CX Nationals photo albums

2010-12-13T19:00:00.000-08:00

If you want a race report, head to cyclingnews or velonews.com. But I will say this... If Fabian Cancellara is the "Raging Bull" of road racing, Ryan Trebon is the "Charging Bison" of cyclocross. Dude was turning himself inside out trying to pull back Todd Wells. He might be my favorite person to watch race a bicycle.

(hit the expando button in the bottom-right corner of the slideshows to get full screen viewing)

Elite Women

Elite Men

The Gargoyles

2010-12-12T21:50:00.000-08:00

Is your house protected by Gargoyles? (even though, technically, Gargoyles are actually an architectural feature, designed to direct water from a roof, away from the sides of the building. The word originated from the French word, "gargouille" literally meaning "throat" or "gullet". ummm, booorring? In the interest to keep this blog "cool" or "rad" we're going to forget that Gargoyles are actually just fanciful gutters and remember that they actually protect the building (and therefore, the contents there in) from evil spirits.)

Cause my house is.

Meet Seldom.

He's one of our two kitties (his bro Oly will get a post of his own) that roams the house and terrorizes the flys and spiders of the interior, and sometimes birds - but mostly our chickens - of the exterior of the house.

He sometimes posts up and true to gargoyle style, keeps the place safe from evil for us. Here's the typical situation.

He'll start out a little something like this. Pretty chill, just watching, chilling, feeling the vibe.

He's tries one of these on.

A little of this...

Feels pretty good.

Evil spirits beware! I'm coming in HOT and you'd be smart to trot.

Gargoyle Seldom. This gargoyle situation can last up to, I dunno... 5-30min? Deanna, feel free to add your $0.02... But it's really rad.

But this is typically, what the whole situation leads to...
What a rough life. It's tough protecting the homestead. But someone's got to do it.

US Cyclocross National Championships

2010-12-11T20:59:00.000-08:00

I'll be bringing photos from the Elite Women's and Elite Men's races tomorrow. Race times are 12:30 and 2:30, Sunday afternoon.

Stay Tuned...

Fair Warning

2010-12-10T23:22:00.000-08:00

OK everyone. Mark your calendars. This is huge news...

drum roll please.....

Bellingham Mountain Bike Festival - Galbraith Mountain, May 7th and 8th, 2011!!!!!!!!

An honest to god, cross-country mountain bicycle race on Galbraith Mountain. (really it's just a hill, but a very proud hill)

AND!!!!

There is a SUPER D race on Sunday! There are no words to describe the awesomeness, and photos really don't do the place justice but here are some anyway. (if you click on the photos, they will get bigger and you'll see more neat details.)

Mt. Baker and the Twins..

Just let it out...

2010-12-09T23:16:00.000-08:00

This post is about the weather. Not climate, as that's a completely different topic altogether. The weather, is what is happening right now. As climatology an interest of mine that I don't put a whole lot of study into (not anymore anyway), I was extremely happy when this website was passed along the grapevine. Simply put, it's just a super huge radar. But actually, it's a composite image of lots of different radar images, including Canada and the USA, rendering a freaking cool thing. It can rain a lot in the PNW, and sometimes you want to look around and have a laugh at who's being rained on when it's not your turn. Albeit, past few days have been particularly drenching for pretty much the entire Western seaboard.

Here are a few screen shots from the last couple days.

December 7th, 11:18pm

December 9th, 11:25pm

Check it out! ---> http://www.atmos.washington.edu/weather/radar.shtml

Thank you University of Washington for consistently having one of the most badass atmospheric science programs around!

Caveman, Prancer, Stink-eye, Radway, and more!

2010-12-08T15:33:00.000-08:00

Please enjoy this tasty mud bath of photos, made possible by this years Cross Crusade at Portland international Raceway. Featured riders include, Erik "Caveman" Tonkin, Spencer "Prancer" Paxson, Alice "Stink-Eye" Pennington, Scott "Radway" Bradway, and myself.

A huge thanks goes out to Deanna for taking all the rad pictures. I highly recommend clicking the little box in the bottom-right corner of the slideshow to make it all full-screen-extreme.

Time (for) Travel

2010-12-07T10:18:00.001-08:00

I've dove into the archives of photos that I have to bring some gems of days gone by. They are not in order at all. Feel free to comment, jest, rhyme, or just breathe and smile. For a larger view, simply click the photo.

Brother-from-another-Mother, Thomas, checking the map on the summit of Mt. Shucksan. Summer, 2006.

This is one of my most favorite meals that I've ever had. Dining with my Brother, Madrid, Spain, Summer 2005.

Google 'the mud'. nuf said. We were trying to "out-redneck the rednecks." The locals still kicked our asses. Good pal Joe "party-boy" Alonzo, on the right. Spring, 2006. Thanks to Michael Parelskin for the photo.

Italy, Summer 2005. Needless to say, my dinner date kept making stuff up, I stalked off before the main course.

Yours truly, big bike ripping, across the water from Hood River, OR. Spring, 2006.

Up top of Oyster Dome. Catchin' some air. Bellingham, WA. June, 2003.

Eye's on the prize. The summit pyramid looms in the lens. Mt. Shucksan, Summer 2006.

(L to R) Patrick, Kevin Hall, Chris Parrish, Matt Howell. On our way back from some bike racing in the Methow. 2006? And don't forget the mighty 4Runner, loaded to the brim with adventure.

Michael, tearing up the synewy goodness of the Syncline. Oregon, watching us closely across the water.

Spring break, 2006. Smith Rocks. Deanna, looking for a bit of Double Trouble.

Summer, 2005. Italy. My brother Johnny on the left.

2005? Bellingham, WA. The local food culture offers a fairly spectacular array of...

Artist's Point, Mt. Baker National Forest.

Dust of Snow

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a Hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

-Robert Frost

The Daily Five

2010-12-06T19:05:00.000-08:00

A cold day, I take a walk.

Out here, you see, I rarely talk.

wind and water, keeping time.

and now, but wait! I've made a rhyme.

A run, some food, and cheap ski boots.

a little nude, I find my roots.

yin and yang, provide the force.

This world's wind, but love, of course.

(please click on the photos for a larger view, I recommend it.)

details

2010-12-05T23:22:00.000-08:00

Public transport enables a much more relaxing travel experience when in a big city.

Easy to know if you're on the wrong max line, this is the 'yellow' line.

Here is exactly how to amp up the vibe.

please freak out

2010-12-05T01:07:00.000-08:00

Please freak out, when you hear the whyte nynsha's cry. better yet, hit back with your own whyte nysha battle scream.

This might be the maw of some great mystical beast. Peacefully sleeping under a blanket of beautiful trees and moss.

May good fortune be in your heart and may the wind always at your back.

http://www.treeoflifeintuitive.com/

2010-10-16T22:50:00.000-07:00

A friend in Bellingham just got her website going. It's a really beautiful site and everyone could benefit from reading around a bit. Check it out!

http://www.treeoflifeintuitive.com/

Betula lenta

2010-10-15T13:42:00.000-07:00

This Cherry Birch tree in Washington Park in West Portland seriously catches your eye when you might pass by. Enjoy the photos. I highly recommend making the photos full screen, there is just so much to see!

Cobville!

2010-09-27T12:05:00.001-07:00

www.cobcottage.com

http://cobcottagesept2010.blogspot.com/

xc/super d race report

2010-07-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

THE Short:

It was hard. Short, only 4.2 mile laps. My body felt ok. I got lapped by Todd Wells who was absolutely CRUSHING everyone. I didn't get to race my last lap.

THE Long:

I got the very last call-up, so I was the last person out of 50+ to line up. This is because I registered really late (day before) and because I don't have any UCI points (you get these by racing other proxct races and worldcups) The race starts out with a pretty serious climb that you have to ride up. Racing at altitude is incredible, especially when coming from sea-level. You can't really go hard enough to make your muscles hurt. But the lungs and head, holy shit. If you dig too deep for too long you'll find yourself utterly useless for over a minute or two, or more. It's impressive how long it takes to recover from a hard effort.

So here I am, back of the pack and the gun goes off and we start up that hill. I take it easy, relatively, and loose the entire pack on the punchy climb. It's all good, I caught back on pretty quick. I think they were feeling that effort from the climb, and maybe cause the group just hit the first single track section and that pretty much makes for a standstill near the back of the field. Being in exactly last position has its benefits. You don't need to worry about joe racer elbowing his way by you to secure 50th place. One nice thing about racing DFL(dead fucking last) is that you have nowhere to go but up. It was nice, I settled in and started racing my own race. I was passing people every lap and after a couple laps I started to feel pretty good. I was riding pretty conservatively, with the intention of turning on the gas a bit more with 2 laps to go, and opening the throttle for the whole last lap and a half. Then disaster! With 2 laps to go, some spectators yelled at us that Todd Wells was coming up and we should punch it to try and finish our race. (if you get lapped by the leader, they 'pull' you from the race and you are given a prorated time) If this has ever happened to you, then you know what I mean when I say this feels like robbery. You put all the effort (monetary, mental, physical, sacrifice, etc) into showing up to a race and doing your very best. It's the accomplishment, 'always finish what you've started' blah blah blah. It just feels shitty. I guess I'll just have to get faster so this doesn't happen again.

So when Todd passed me I upped the pace and tried to hang with him for a while. It was fun, it didn't last too long, but much longer then I expected, and then after he dropped me I was able to keep it at a pretty serious pace for the rest of the climb. Should have tried that earlier I guess.

Super d

The short: chaos. Why can't mountain bikers have an individual timed event?

The long: A few years ago they started running super d's like they start 24hr mountain bike races. It's called a Lemans start. Everyone lays their bikes down, then the 'start' line is 50-100 yards away and everyone lines up there. When the gun goes off, you run. Great for a day long race when positioning will sort itself out naturally. Not so great for an 11 minute effort, that is mostly singletrack.

The whistle was blown and we all exploded off the line to our bikes and someone promptly pushed me into a tree. I didn't see the event called cutthroat super d, but apparently I had misread, and I was in it. I got to my bike in the middle of the field. I passed some dudes at the top section, before the single track, then busted into the singletrack and almost slammed into a really slow rider. I tried to pass him but I was going to crash so pulled the plug on that idea. I passed a bunch of riders on the uphill section and only one guy passed me on the downhill, he was super d national champ last year, so he gets a free pass. But the crazy start had sealed all our fates from the beginning. How rad would this event be if we were all separated by 30 sec or a minute? Super Rad.

Live from the Rockies

2010-07-16T21:28:00.000-07:00

long day, time is now.

put it down, respect sunrise,

RAGE, I am ready

Toasting up some buckwheat to make energy bars. Alex-super-squirrel-recipe

Before I left I had to say goodbye to the Kitties! Here's Seldom, you can tell he's going to miss me bunches.

Oly can be hard to photograph, being that he absorbs light mostly.

Denver airport this morning

Let's do this!

I'm riding the course in this photo, I can't explain why I thought the venue would look nice with a porta-loo in the foreground. It kinda works though...

Last night I drove down to Redmond and stayed with my step-bro and fam. This is Koa. He got this superman outfit 2 weeks ago and has not taken it off since. Beautiful spirit.

Here he is tormenting a tired Uncle Patti. His finger is actually pretty far into my ear. only gross when your grown up I guess.

Kia and I about to do some drawing.

Spencer and Barry, kickin up some dust.

I wish I could say the course was inspiring. At least the views are.

Here is a link to results, maybe some photos later on. http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/us-mountain-bike-national-championships-cn-1

It appears there might even be a live feed of the action?? https://www.usacycling.org/events/2010/mtbnationals/

Event details: http://www.solvistanationals.com/

I race at 2:30pm tomorrow

Nats lead-up

2010-07-15T11:52:00.000-07:00

oh-alrighty, so USA Cycling Mountain Nationals is this weekend, in Granby, CO, and i've been thoroughly been enjoying my life during the lead up!

Here's a brief recap of... life?

Over the last couple weeks, things have been on the up-and-up. A good friend, Alex, from Oregon came up for about a week and we busted it over to the Methow for 4 big days of riding. both the Road and mtn bikes came along. The photos following are not in order, at all. I'll just say that each ride, without a doubt, included some flashing of the local Methow gang sign. We weren't there to just kick it, crushing it was also on the agenda. Lots of weird faces were made while trying to pedal really hard. LOTS of climbing, altitude, post-ride dips in FREEZING beautiful streams. Quite the life out there! One incredible balsa-wood - uss 747 methow - airplane flight from the (almost) top of a fire lookout at the top of Harts Pass (the highest drivable road in WA state at around ~7500feet?) A really awesome mountain bike ride up Starvation Mountain, lots of stream crossings, climbing. Alex was a great companion to rally with. Alex hung around after the Methow trip to experience some great rides in the Bellingham area, and long enough for me to bust him a pretty dang snazzy 'mr. t' style mohawk.

Tom also came up from Rainier for Last weekend. It was great to kick it with him. He picked a bunch of strawberries and Raspberries and made some bangin strazzleberry jam... To which we answered back by making up some Gluten-Free Sourdough Buckwheat Pancakes! THEN we got some heavy, seriously, really heavy, whipping cream and had a normally amazing morning of watching the tour de france, hitting up the local newyork times crossword puzzle with the pancakes and some tea.

Please feel free to click on any image to see a larger version.

Some of Tom's Strazzleberry Jam

Alex's head shapin

Our place has looks like this on a regular basis.

Methow!

Thanks for the rad photos Alex!

There were a good few of these things on the Starvation mtn ride.

About to close the books on a long, incredible day of riding.

Methow: day 1, tried to hang on Alex's wheel around the switchback up to WA pass, he dispatched me quite easily.

Tuesday this week, one of my favorite views from the Chuckanuts

Sweet singletrack

Frangrance lake

The anthem has been put the ringer lately.

Tom and I interwebbing to the extreme

Gluten-free buckwheat sourdough pancakes, freaking heavy whipping cream, FRESH strazzleberry jam. mmmmmmmm.

Nice evening pedal back home from work. It was a really nice cruise.

Val Badia!

Tom, putting out the vibe in the spando

Cruising up Chuckanut, Alex behind me taking the photo.

One incredible thing about riding in the methow in the summer, each ride is followed up by an incredible ICE cold plunge. It's incredible, if the body has a reset button, this is one of the closest ways to get at it.
Liberty Bell group

Massive waterfall, heading up to WA pass from Methow Valley

tarmac, and tarmac

Methow: Day 4, I hardly ever listen to music when I ride, but when I do it can be really motivating. This is me just finishing a really hard effort on my way up
Methow: day 3, Alex braving a rushing brook, coming down from Starvation mtn.

Methow: day 3, Starvation mountain rally sesh on the back side!

Yeah, you know where we are.

heading up Starvation.

Pretty straight forward ride profile.

Evidence that the ride is near completed and that their may be a river near by...

Happy bicycles!

Methow: Everyday we were treated to stunning views of new and exciting places.

Deanna, we took this photo especially for you!

Methow: Day 2, on a fire look out atop Hart's Pass. The flight was nothing short of world domination.

The view from Hart's Pass, looking Northwest.

Coming down from Hart's Pass.

Alex, our first valley view as we pedaled up to Hart's Pass. Methow!

Destination Spotlight: North Cascades Highway

2010-05-18T08:18:00.000-07:00

This last Sunday, I met up with good friend Chris Parrish in Burlington, WA and we drove up to Diablo Lake in North Cascades National Park. We then donned spandex and pedal bicycles and rode over to Mazama in the Methow Valley, 50 miles away. The ride is nothing short of spectacular. We had great weather to boot. Bare knees and arms were the norm for the ride! After a not-so-quick pit-stop we pedaled back. I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking but, of course, they hardly do the place any justice. It is simply an experience-in-the-flesh type of place.

OK, now, before you check out the photos, to get the full experience, click here --> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126786322

Then click the song on the left side of the page, "Celebrate". This song played on the radio on my way down to meeting up with Chris and it kinda became the mantra of the day.

Here are some photos from Chris's camera: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2232067&id=25901186&l=ab65639dd8

WWU Cycling North Shore Road Race

2010-03-29T23:22:00.000-07:00

Tom and I doing our best to help Logan crush it!

On the chopping block

2010-03-04T09:22:00.001-08:00

Strict testing standards were being observed. From left to right, (all organic) Ruby Red, Rio Star, and Golden something-or-other. Note the varying structures. Ruby seems to have fairly uniform cell sizes, while the other two have more variety, some skinny, some quite large cells. Also, Ruby's rind is quite a bit thinner then the other two. It should also be noted that Ruby was a bit more ripe then the others. In the banana realm, Ruby would have brown skin all around at this point, while the others would be yellow with probably no browning at all.

Ruby

Rio

Golden

The tool: Multiple uses here. Eat cereal, 'spoon' things just like a normal spoon, but when it comes to enjoying a grapefruit, these guys simply pull away from the field. There is no comparison.

Action shot

Don't forget the best part!

As we enjoyed these juicy fruits, Deanna and I said the first word that came to mind regarding each particular fruit. Ruby's words are: sweet and juicy, Rio's are: Classic and firm, Golden's are: Tropical and light.

Come increase Rogue Valley Riding Mojo!

2010-03-01T22:30:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd pass this along the blogosphere! Ashland, Oregon is an incredible place to ride. Mountain bikes and road bikes alike! Click here--> Alex's Blog or keep reading to find out more.

The “Work-a-day nine-to-five”

Coming to the Rogue Valley Riding Mojo, Sunday, April 11th, 2010!

Ashland’s First.

A fun, local, ride, race, goal, motivation to ride, train, and get your legs ready for racing or a Spring and Summer full of riding…

The “Work-a-day nine-to-five”, MTB test of ________ (choose which best applies to you: endurance, masochism, joy, stupidity, lawn-duty avoidance).

Maybe considered a “proto-type” for a future, more organized, local charity ride where people get pledges per a lap.

Meet at Ashland Bicycle Works by 8:30a.m. on Sunday April 11th to get the run down, sign-in, and start promptly 9:00a.m.
If you don’t know where the shop is, a link is here, you can find the address, realize they are moving shop spaces but will still be in the same shopping center so the directions and address are more or less fine. http://ashlandbicycleworks.com/

From the shop a ‘neutral’ ride up to Siskiyou Blvd and then right onto Tolman Creek Rd. Anybody wanting to attack on the wall section of the paved road will be considered, “Boss’ Pet”, and not subject to a pay raise or beer at the end of the ride.

Laps start at intersection of Toothpick and Tolman Creek Rd., climb up Tolman/2080 to Four Corners, descend Catwalk, right on Toothpick and back to road to climb again. Each lap is 7 miles long, 1,100 feet of climbing, the climb is on smooth granite sand fire road, descent is all fun, not too technical single-track. If you have more specific questions on the course just ask!

Laps finish at the intersection of Toothpick and Tolman “once your rubber hits the road”, Laps finished after 5:00 p.m. not counted, (hey, the economy is rough, we just can’t afford to pay you over-time, o.k.?)

There will also be a “1/2 Work-a-day nine-to-one” for juniors following the same start and course.

Donations of random prizes accepted, think “White Elephant” style and what category you want your award to be for.

After 5:00, when you have punched your card, all employees gather back at Ashland Bicycle Works for promotions, retirement, and sick leave pay, and maybe beer or something like that?

Logisitics:
-Honor system to count laps, end time, etc. We’ll put a clock on a tree near the bottom of Toothpick/Tolman and you can synchronize to that and have a tally board.
-Fix your own flat, or get a co-worker to help you.
-Bring a “brown bag lunch”.
-We’ll try to have a vehicle at the Toothpick Trailhead and maybe even Four Corners with a floor pump, water jugs.
-Make it easier by getting a group of people together to park one car at either spot with your own supplies and gear, or stash some goodies the day before somewhere along the route.
-Work starts promptly at 9:00, don’t be late, or like Trump says, “You’re fired!”
-Laps finished after 5:00 p.m. not counted.

For confirmation, questions, etc. comment below or contact me via e-mail: alexnberra (at) hotmail.com

If you are coming from out of town and need help on cheap places to stay, maybe even a host to house you, camping, etc. just ask!

clear skys

2010-02-17T21:28:00.000-08:00

Hello bloggeratti, I do hope you'll take pleasure,

in this photo I snapped while riding North in fine leisure.

"The weather's darn nice," I say with a scuffle,

And should do quite nice to set hair a fluffle!

drop the mouse, drop the cell phone, all those papers and books,

they can't bring you much, save high blood pressure and skooks.

Nothing compares to breathing deep from outside,

but I would recommend, reaching out, far and wide.

Destination Spotlight: Mt. Erie

2010-02-09T10:10:00.001-08:00

48°27'14" N, 122°37'37" W

Mount Erie

1273 feet

Fidalgo Island

Skagit County

Washington State

USA

Mt. Erie's location in relation to Bellingham

The climb from Heart Lake Road to the top of Mount Erie is not very long, about one and a half miles. While the climb only gains 800 feet from the bottom of Erie Mountain Drive to the top, there are some incredibly steep sections. Around half of that elevation is gained in the last half mile, where the grade kicks up to well over 20%. I'd argue the energy to get to the top is well worth it, the view from the top can be quite silencing.

Mt. Erie is the pointy one, seen here just behind Samish Island

A Cat keeping watch over the corn field, Skagit Flats

Comin' round the mountain

The photo above this one was taken from the road at the bottom of this photo

Looking South

Mt. Baker and the Twin Sisters blend together from the view at the top

Trippin up

The first pitch

With the tide out a bit, the oyster beds reveal their man-made structure

Finish it up with a Chuckanut ride, San Juan twilight tide

The end of the beginning?

2010-01-30T14:09:00.000-08:00

How nice of them to wrap my diploma in my student loans letter! As the saying goes, an eye for an eye?

oh yes, it has ended. Or should I say, it has begun?

dry roasted almonds

2010-01-16T20:00:00.001-08:00

A few days ago I was walking into the library here in Bellingham and I walked by a small boy, maybe around 3 years old, who was telling his mother how he wanted to be a lion. The boy was completely serious. It wasn't of the tone, "I wish I could be a Lion." More like, "I want to be a Lion, let's make that happen."

Here a short slideshow of Deanna and I enjoying a nice romp through the forest.

Maui photos are ready for enjoyment!

2010-01-03T14:50:00.001-08:00

Deanna and I were in Maui for about a week in December for the wedding of our good friends. The slideshow includes some of our experiences in Maui, including the wedding talent show and a kite boarding session.

(I reccomend hitting the expand-to-full-screen button to get the full experience!)

Bicycle to Neskowin

2010-01-02T17:11:00.000-08:00

Here are a few photos from a beautiful ride from Philomath, Oregon to Neskowin, Oregon.

The day was cold, crisp and clear,

seriously cover up! or risk loosing an ear!

I stuck to the back roads almost exclusively

The gravel section was sometimes smoother then some of the pavement sections!

This climb was so fun. I'd guess at about 4-5 miles of gravel road.

Fuel station in Siletz, OR.

Unfortunately, this scene was fairly prevalent for much of the ride.

I was super excited when I got to the estuary, signifying the ocean was soon to come.

Anyone eaten here before?

Taking Old Hwy 101 from Lincoln City to Neskowin was amazing. This portion here was still icing in the mid-afternoon twilight.

The view from the last few pedal strokes of the ride. The sun waning East.

Overall, it was a spectacular ride. Very peaceful, aside from the Lincoln City section. The back roads through the Oregon coast range are spectacular as usual.

christmas eve bicycle ride

2009-12-24T22:48:00.001-08:00

Good bye my sweet

2009-12-23T20:51:00.000-08:00

I got back from Maui and instantly found myself working everyday until I left for Oregon six days later. Luckily, being the middle of winter, I was able to scrounge a day off and headed straight for the Chuckanuts. It was a beautiful day to ride.

I highly recommend clicking of a few of these photos for full viewing pleasure.

This is one of my favorite views in the Chuckanuts (pretty sure I say that every time). It only reveals itself during the dormant winter months. I enjoy coming here in the spring/summer/fall and imagining it's splendid layout of branches/islands/water/horizon. Thankfully, it comes just in time for the holidays.

No explanation needed, for this piece of soil.
I am readily here, to take pleasure from toil.

Climbing in the clouds, big smiles all around.
I pretend to fly! while body keeps to the ground.

Above and below clouds

Islands deep, like a full breath noticed;
pleased.

I recommend clicking on this photo for the big picture.

Here's a teaser from the Maui photo archive. I've got some sorting to do still but check back later for a slide show and tales from the island.

days go by

2009-12-04T18:19:00.000-08:00

WA state fire road climbing

Eagles in flight

Early morning fog

Great how the sun elicits the removal of clothing

You don't want this to be your bike

Looking off the point of Alger Alp

No view of mt. baker today

Deanna in peace

As the wisened story teller Bob Dylan says, "It doesn't take a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows."

boostin over water

2009-12-03T16:47:00.000-08:00

20°48'N, 156°20'W

Who's in?

booyah achieved

2009-11-27T15:48:00.000-08:00

I've been racing a bit of the old Cyclocross lately. Last weekend was a particularly awesome set of races. Quite close to home, with a race on Saturday and Sunday. Great! I'll let the photos do the talking...

You can make the slideshow full screen by clicking that box with the arrows in it. Please feel free to comment or silently enjoy.

weather report

2009-11-16T10:13:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been super windy for days now. Here's kinda what we're dealing with.

A low pressure trough is moving Northeast through Vancouver island just Northwest of us.

The the only reliable weather forecast... Seldom and I check the current conditions.

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

2009-11-01T21:19:00.000-08:00

This post got a bit long, there are photos after the words that have captions for the quick readers. click on the photos for a larger view. As usual comments are encouraged and welcomed! Thanks for reading!
____________

I've got an obsession for using holidays as an excuse to get on my bicycle for long periods of time. Oh yes, I'll use any holiday, and it doesn't have to be Ameerrrican! You got a holiday and a bicycle? let's roll.

It started some Wednesday night over three weeks ago! One of my great friends, Matt, was over enjoying a meal and company. We'd both been really busy with different aspects of life and hadn't been riding together in too long! I had a couple races coming up and we set a date for October 31st to get on our bikes and pedal around for a while. We sketched up a "treasure Map", complete with six different inter-locking pieces that we could separate out and distribute to different places for safe keeping.

The routes inception

The route, dubbed "circa the towers", included 5 of the areas biggest climbs, all accessible by some form of trail, gravel road, dirt road, with only minimal pavement work. Up and over Galbraith mountain, then up Lookout Mtn., down Lookout and up Alger Alp, down to Alger, then a quick fuel up at the Shell Station/Blanchard Mountain Coffee Company. Up Barrel springs road to Blanchard Mountain via Lily & Lizard Lake trail, up to Oyster Dome, down British Army Trail and up a gravel road climb called "sick joke" that takes you up behind Pine & Cedar Lakes in the Chuckanuts, then down Hemlock trail, down to Arroyo park and back to Matt's place where we would find a crock-pot of goodness welcoming us upon arrival. We were guessing, over 50 miles and 10,000 feet of climbing? Galbraith, Lookout, Alger Alp, Blanchard, Chuckanut would be the climbs.

The anticipation built up over the weeks and we just talked about how great the ride would be, it was awesome. About a week to go we acquired a worthy accomplice in Chris. Chris and I got to know each other working at the bike shop together, but we spent hours training and racing together on the Western cycling team when he lived in Bellingham. He's since moved to the big city south of here.

The very day before the ride was scheduled, Bellingham was hit with a pretty serious wind storm, followed by torrential rains through the night. I love waking up and hearing the rain on the roof, but I have to admit I was just a little bummed. We were suppose to meet at the local coffee shop at 7am for an twilight departure. The rain was not letting up. Chris and his girlfriend Katja were asleep on the futon downstairs when I got up and called Matt just after 6ish. All I said was, "It's raining hard." We didn't talk much, just mumbled things about pushing back the start time an hour or two, hoping for a break in the rain.

Chris was up shortly after that and we set about making some morning coffee and a larger number of gluten-free pancakes. They were delightful. Between Deanna, Chris, Katja, and myself, we made easy work of the pile.

The rain started to let up and we even started seeing patches of blue! Phoned Matti... Meet at the spot at 10am.

We departed Tony's Coffee shortly after ten o'clock.

Climbed up and over Galbraith to Sudden Valley, then started the 6 miles of climbing to the top of Lookout. About 21-2200 feet of climbing later we emerged on a windy mountain top! We ascended through some clouds on the backside but the there were plenty more above us at the summit!

We set out towards the south tower of Lookout in search of a road (that was marked on a map) that would connect us to another "roadshed" that would save a bunch of time. We reached the South towers and never saw a road or anything! Lemons! Time to try and make some lemonade. We pulled up a satellite image of the area on Chris' iphone, bah, technology saves the day... this time... We saw an impression that looked like a road/trail that was close enough to the road we needed to get to that we could at least trail-blaze our way there. It was perfect! A 5 minute hike-a-bike lead us to another forest-service roadshed which allowed us to save probably 30-45 minutes of descending/traversing. Lemonade!

We ripped the gravel road descent, enjoying the views and skidding a whole bunch, when we ran into a nice Law Enforcement guy. Matt actually knew him, he was up checking out the hunters, making sure things were ok. We rapped for a bit then continued down the hill. At the bottom we emerged from behind a yellow gate, we had been recreating on Trillium Corporation's land. It's private land, but they also own Galbraith Mountain and encourage recreation on their land. (They primarily use the land for timber harvesting, but they also sell small portions to the private home/land owners.

So we cruise around the gate and roll down the hill towards Manley road, a paved road that will see us a mere couple hundred yards to the turn off to Squires Lake and Alger Alp from there. The mood is bright, smiling and warm.
We roll past a compound looking estate, huge white box building, kids kicking a soccer ball at the side of it! Awesome, kids know. We wave, and keep rolling down the hill.

There is a big truck, it looks to be hunters, stopped, talking to a man and a woman who are standing on the side of the road. The mood soon turns to lemons. The lady puts up an aggressive hand movement signaling we should stop. It is instantly clear these people aren't going to invite us cold cyclists in for some hot cider and corn bread with honey. Weak. Sour lemons. We were hit by a barrage of attacks about trespassing, private road this, take us off your websites that. Take us off your websites? We don't even know you. Ego's were so enormous they were clinically psychotic. It's incredible how when this happens, a part of you just wants to engage and become crazy with them. I think we tried to reason with them for about a minute? Maybe more? When the man said with quite venom to Chris, "I'm gonna call you a lier.. You're a lier." It struck me we were wasting our time. Matti had the right idea, he lead the way rolling down the hill saying, "We're leaving, we're sorry."

I'm not going to get into the details, but basically the people had no leg to stand on.

On with the lemonade! We pedaled up the road towards Squires lake, the sound of thousands of big leaf maple leaves rustling quietly under our tires. Aside from winter hibernation I'd like to think that the trees know the amount of joy others get from treading through their fallen leaves and are smiling down on the passers by. Lemonade.

The climb up to Alger Alp is great, first some nice single track courtesy of the Pacific Northwest Trail, then a short but steep pitch up to the top where you're treated to a view of Blanchard Mountain and Skagit Valley.

The next stop was the shell station in Alger and the Blanchard Mountain Coffee Co. Coffee and sea-salt vinegar chips were just what the body needed. More water, some juice and we left towards Blanchard.

It was just after 3pm when we left for Blanchard, Sunset at 5:52 that day we had no choice but to skip big mamma Blanchard. Lemons. We raced up to her foot and motored along stunning gravel roads, so smooth and clean it was as if everything was indeed how it should be. And it was! lemonade!

The last climb of the day is called Sick Joke. It starts out pretty mellow and then steepens gradually, until you reach a pretty tight switchback filled with huge baby head rocks and the grade instantly kicks up to around 25-30% Steep as poo. Lemonade. There is something amazing about digging into the body after 5hrs of pedaling, asking for a bit more - unless you haven't eaten/drank enough.

The twilight cruise down Hemlock trail was icing on the cake. Pedaling into Matt's driveway with the sky burning a brilliant harvest pumpkin orange was the cherry on top! Then the crock-pot surprise at Matt's house was the licking of the icing off the bottom of the cake box. Awesome.

We were treated to stunning fall colors all day long.

Cyclists sure seem to like coffee...

Adam and Audrey saw us off from the shop!

Rolling up to Galbraith

Others have been here, way up on the climb up Lookout. There was little/no water in this stream a couple weeks ago.

gleaming the cube

nice spot for an evening fire pit

Looking out

The hike-a-bike sweet as lemonade

Chris, showing how to properly crawl under a fallen log with bicycle in tow

Hang glider envy

a Matt in the woods

Someone's helping with the route up to Alger Alp.

Looking South-Southwest from the Alp, I-5 snakes into the Skagit flats

Slingerland

Velcro, the doug fir looks small from up here

perfect medium for blissful pedaling

Can anyone name the tree these leaves and cones belong to?

standard americana petrol stop

standard PNW petrol stop

Matti and the stumpy

velcro trying to throw down an spirited attack

a nice view of Alger Alp, from the base of Blanchard. Anderson Mountain is the slope to the left. In nice weather, Mt. Baker and the Twin Sisters are nicely framed by the foothills.

Starting up Sick Joke

Quality air in these parts

it's all downhill from here

three big bike dorks, stoked on life

cameras rarely do nature justice, good thing being there is always the best canvas

about 46 miles and just over 9,000 feet of climbing for the day! Too bad there wasn't daylight for Blanchard. For now, time to rest, lay down roots, energy to the base, then when spring comes again, energies will again rise earlier with the Sun.
___________________
The title of this post is from a fantastic poem, 12 thousand snicker-snacks to who ever knows the name of said poem.

October storm chasing

2009-10-23T16:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-17T20:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-16T21:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-10-15T19:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-15T10:51:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-14T19:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-09T11:01:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-09-27T16:12:00.000-07:00

Click on the photos to make them bigger...

I didn't make the annotation to the sign, but, yeah...

I've been here a few times lately. Here, in the morning sun.

And here, in the evening sunset. Can anyone name the location of this view?

Today's breakfast

The pointy hill dead center is Mt. Erie, a bit o' rock climbing and a redica-steep climb on a bicycle. The Olympic Mountains shadow Island County nicely.

This spider had set up shop on my handlebar over a couple days. I was careful not to disturb him as I set out on my ride. He lasted over an hour of vibrating on the bike before he jumped ship!

sleeping kitty photo of the week

edging to the edgeless

2009-09-17T10:41:00.001-07:00

Some photos from life. Deanna took all the Race photos of the Hill Climb. As usual, click the image to see a bigger version, or go here to see them and more.

View from the top

View from the top

Calm during the storm

Respect

Put out to put in

Can anyone name this temperate Northern hemisphere native?

Velcro's good for 6th

Last Supper

Beauty and Pain, yin and yang

Brother

Needs met

Bon Voyage! Godspeed! have fun! See ya! Keep it Real! Love ya! Peace! Be Safe! Adios! See ya Later Alligator! In a while Crocodile!

2009-08-25T11:54:00.000-07:00

Deanna is on the road! Heading south to San Francisco! She and partner in crime Kristen left Bellingham this morning around 10:26am. May the wind always be at your back, and good food and joy in your stomach and heart.

Remembering Spring

2009-08-22T21:55:00.000-07:00

I was cruising some photos that I took earlier this year for a class and I found these two. Together, they show the explosion of spring. Feel free to click on the images for larger views.

These two photos show a wetland area just South of Bellingham, Washington. The wetland was formed years ago when beavers made a dam that saturated the area with water. The less water tolerant fir trees died off and were replaced with many different wetland species. These images are taken 56 days apart from one another, the former on April 8th, and the latter on June 3rd (17 days until the solstice). Together they show the radical change that spring brings at almost 49 degrees North Latitude in the coastal lowlands of Washington State. When Spring shows up here, it comes on fast. You can see how life is just starting to come out of hibernation in the top photo (the little yellow spots are skunk cabbage, one of my favorite indicators of spring). Then in the bottom photo, spring is fully underway and new growth is everywhere.

The photos were super fun to take, I climbed around 60 feet up in a huge Western Red Cedar each time. The view is great, and the calmness of the mind while swaying high in a tree... hard to describe.

Foggy Dew and Cutthroat Pass

2009-08-07T10:59:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Deanna and I were able to head east to the arid Methow Valley, home to great mountain bicycling, among so many other things. Notably, incredible peaches this time of year.

On Saturday we were heading out to ride Angel's staircase, supposedly one of the best mountain bike rides in Washington state. How disappointed we were when the trail head was closed due to fire danger. We opted to ride Foggy Dew instead, it's right next to Angel's and actually shares a piece of high altitude single track with said trail.

Foggy dew starts at around 3500 feet and climbs up to 8000' in about 8miles. We were semi-disappointed to find the dirt bikes were allowed up there, but hey, they need their fun too, it just meant that we were dealing with a pretty wallowed out trail. The climb took us up to a beautiful lake that was literally jumping with trout. Maybe jumping isn't quite the word, frolicking? flying? Dancing? These trout were trying their best to rid themselves of gravity binding force.

The last 800feet of vertical up to the pass and down into Merchant Basin on the other side was a pretty steep, mandatory hike-a-bike.

Overall, Foggy Dew is a beautiful trail with spectacular views, but if you're looking for a fast flowy descent in reward for the 4500' climb, seek out Angels Staircase, or Starvation Mountain.

Note: the first photo of the slideshow is a bit of a where's Waldo shot. Don't forget to hit the expando button on the slideshows for full screen viewing!

The next day we decided to do a ride that's not in the Methow Mtb book but we've heard so much about. Let me say first, this ride is incredible. It starts just a few miles east of the Liberty Bell group and Washington Pass on Hwy 20. Take the road to Cuttroat lake trail head and then enjoy the perfectly thoughout singletrack trail 6 miles up to about 6800' Cutthroat pass and meet some hikers on the PCT. Stunning views of the surrounding American Alps.

le tour de france

2009-07-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

The tour de france is over. Contador won, Armstrong third. I was seriously rooting for Tyler Farrar to take a stage, but he had some short/stiff competition.

I'll leave you with a photo circa fall 2006, of a cyclocross race at Western Washington University. Tyler showed up for some fun in the mud with skinny tires. A friend of mine (I don't remember which, but I think it was Paul) took the photo.

Scenes of Skagit

2009-07-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

Riding your bicycle is a fantastic way to see the world, as a friend once said, no too fast, but also not too slow.

Skagit county is a place where tail winds (and their counter-parts) are just as plentiful as tractors, and farm fresh eggs. But as with most things special in this world, you may have to work a bit to find them.

lookout!

2009-07-07T10:05:00.001-07:00

It's called, "I've got the Mic." If you've got the mic, no one else can talk.

Words, spoken and written, are extremely powerful tools. But words are only one way to communicate, and sometimes less is more. In the silence of our minds and our environments there is so much to be heard. So much is said in silence.

The climb up lookout mountain just east of Bellingham is brutal, long, steep, and route finding is trial and error when your just figuring it out. The fire roads are desolate, more likely to see a bobcat then another human on the 2100+ foot climb. The view of the San Juan Islands looking over Chuckanut and Blanchard mountains is surreal, every time I see it, it's as if I'm seeing it for first time. A shortness of breath, a calming, but most obviously, no words to speak.

little robin captures big worm!

2009-06-28T19:46:00.001-07:00

My most favorite mountain bike ride, check that, bicycle ride of all time, ever, no contest. The mountain biking on Marys Peak. I have ridden on Marys' needle strewn trails and gravel roads through whatever weather you can dream up. Inches of fresh pow, pouring rain - east ridge trail maybe should have been classified as some level of rapid, maybe a stream quality assessment would have been necessary. Some DO levels, invertebrate index, LWD, you get the picture. whoops, got off track a bit. My first night ride ever was heading up to the top from my home on hwy 34 using all fire roads and trails. Alone. Not a vehicle ever crossed paths with me. It was pretty scary coming down North ridge trail, thinking about cougars, singing some Bob, no woman no cry, as loud as I could, it was more like shouting, thinking back, I'm sure anything living that had the ability was quite far away from me. In fact, I'm quite confident that any cougar would have lost it's appetite. Although, I was a bit more scared when the little indicator light came on that says there's only 20-30 minutes of energy left to light my way, 12 miles of fireroad still to rally. I pedalled really fast. Just one of the countless times I've been up there in spandex on two wheels.

Yesterdays ride was a bit less memorable, possibly, but it put a big smile on my face.

Not a cloud in the sky

2009-06-26T22:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I'll start off by saying that I completely forgot about sunscreen until well in to the ride. ah, what can you do sometimes? I was planning on a long ride today, 5-6 hours or so. I wasn't planning on heading up Marys Peak road again.

I don't know so much what happened, I just came up to the turn off and took a right. It was completely beautiful again, but in a completely different way from yesterday. Not a cloud in the sky. I guess I wanted to see the ocean blue while I was down here and this is a great place to do it if you can't make it out to the water.

Butterflies were everywhere up there! Hundreds of thousands of them.

The Alsea Falls part of the ride is fantastic. A narrow single lane road cruising through coast range hills. Most of the time the trees are so tall and thick that the road is completely shaded, nice feature considering my lack of sun protection. I found an injured butterfly on the road. I was bummed, he seemed fine but was missing some key equipment needed to fly around.

I got caught by an old timer on a tractor sneaking of photo of him after we waved happily at each other. The next guy on a tractor I saw was focused, and he hadn't forgotten his sun-pro.

Two things that I love about where I grew up, and that Bellingham doesn't have, are grand old oak trees, and turkey vultures. Do you ever feel like those guys are following you? They think I'm weak and I am about ready to fall over and gasp for water? Is there a cougar tracking me and they are going to be there to pick up the pieces? Yeah me neither.

Regarding the slideshow, you can hit the button with the four arrows on it and enter full screen mode.

Marys Peak

2009-06-25T18:17:00.000-07:00

Today was great. It started with a healthy dose of sleeping in. Followed by some amazing cereal. Chilled out for a couple good hours, then got on the bicycle and headed down the road towards ol' Mary.

The climbing really starts just about 3 miles from home while still on the Alsea highway. It's another two and a half miles until you get to the Mary's Peak road turn off. From there you've got 10 miles all uphill save for a little descent in the middle of the climb.

The day was overcast and I wondered how soon I'd get into clouds and maybe some rain. Would there be a view?

A bit over half way up I got into some clouds. The temperature dropped a bit, and that beautiful mist rolled in and everything was just as it should be. The road had a nice green tinge to it. Noted. It's smart to remember these things when your traction patches are no larger then the nail on your pinky finger.

When I reached the parking lot up top I was greeted by a nice view of the valley floor below. Clouds cruising by pretty quick kept the view always changing. The gravel trail to the top is stunning. The wild flowers are incredible right now, the pictures below don't do any justice at all.

The descent off the peak is amazing. Fast, flow, smooth, fun, grip, carve. These are some words that come to mind when I think of the trip down, but the feeling isn't something for mere words.

Visual journey through the yard

2009-06-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

My Mother and Step-father Allen are avid gardeners, and by avid, I mean they are really really excited about gardening, nurturing and being nurtured by these plants. We grow the plants and the plants grow us. Here is a tiny bit of what they have done to the piece of land that in 1997 was completely barren.

** I've found that with most Canon cameras, especially the point'n shoot smaller guys, they are over exposed from the stock setting. You get much deeper colors, more contrast, and less 'white-out' by stopping down the exposure 2/3 to a full stop under-exposed. I didn't bring the big-daddy camera with me, but for how tiny this thing is, I'm impressed with the images it captured.

Home Sweet Home

2009-06-24T21:53:00.000-07:00

I'm home in Oregon right now for a much needed break from life in Bellingham. I'm done with school for good and there's nothing like Oregon mountain/road bicycling to detoxify the body/mind of all the stress I've put myself through in the last month.

I left Bellingham early this morning so as to get to Philomath with plenty of time to unwind the legs after 6hrs of driving. Of course, I had to make a quick stop off in Portland at a certain world famous bookstore.

Armed with a new camera I got as a graduation present (Thanks Mom and Allen!) I'm now able to bring photos with me home from the ride. I was greeted by the WARMTH! The bone soaking warmth. The valley holds it just a wee-bit tighter then does the water up north. It is here. This is what I've been looking for... The crazy bugs that always seem to be around on hot days and just buzz, seemingly non-stop, the sheep taking shelter in the shadow of a poplar tree. Raspberries fat on the vine. I am happy to be here.

Hello Mary.

some select photos

2009-06-17T12:05:00.001-07:00

2009-06-14T07:59:00.001-07:00

"Watch the movement of the stars as if you were turning with them." -
Marcus Aurelius

Keep em coming baby!!!!

2009-06-07T14:17:00.000-07:00

More good news for GF people who miss good beer.

gluten-free pizza in Bellingham.... that freaking tastes good!

2009-06-05T21:55:00.001-07:00

Everyone who's into the GF lifestyle, whether by choice or not, should check out this place. good good pizza.

www.fairhaven.com/menus/Fairhaven_Pizza_Menu.pdf

this should put a smile on your face....

2009-06-03T19:44:00.001-07:00

World Naked Bike Ride in Bellingham!!

2009-06-02T22:27:00.001-07:00

From: www.worldnakedbikeride.org

Date: Saturday, June 13, 2009
Time: 5:00
Location: Boundary Bay

That's right! Bellingham is now on the list of cities participating in the upcoming Northern Hemisphere Ride as part of the World Naked Bike Ride. There will be snacks and body painting at the an undisclosed location at 4:00 p.m. and we will plan a tentative route based on weather conditions and other things. Then at 5:00 we'll cruise downtown to Boundary Bay at meet up with any other participants, de-robe, and hit the streets! Because this is our first attempt at this sort of activity, we'll see how we feel after riding around for an hour. Everyone is welcome to a clothing optional dance party after the ride back at location. The ride is welcome to all cyclists; clothed, partially clothed, or daring to bare!

Please call: 509.679.4194 to help organize or for locations of pre/post-parties

Liberation Radio

2009-06-01T19:43:00.001-07:00

Check out this podcast. It's put together by a great fellow human being here in Bellingham. Awesome to listen to while working on bikes all day.

http://liberationradio.blogspot.com/

got my hair did.

2009-05-28T13:45:00.001-07:00

The time has come for a haircut. It feels great to be free of the hair, especially now that my end of the earth has started to warm.

If you haven't seen this yet......

2009-05-16T19:58:00.001-07:00

watch it!

www.thestoryofstuff.com

the forty acre house

2009-05-13T17:17:00.000-07:00

A great quote from the website, www.lifestatement.com

"I live and work in a seventy-square-foot, ten-foot-tall, round cob house with a loft for sleeping. Bathroom facilities are in a separate green house. When people ask how I can live in something so small, I like to tell them that my house is actually 40 acres, it just happens that only parts of it are enclosed. Perhaps we have to narrow a view of the concept of "house"."

WWU Cycling dominates Collegiate Nationals Criterium!!!

2009-05-12T19:56:00.001-07:00

DII Criterium National Champion, Phil Elsasser! Way to go Phil! Daisy Phillips also kicked ass placing 2nd in the Crit!

http://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=4141

PHOTOS!!

2009-05-03T14:55:00.001-07:00

As always, more exciting things happen here! --> http://flickr.com/means

round 2?

2009-05-03T14:53:00.001-07:00

who knows if i'll keep posting here or not.....

check this out while I think about it.... www.thestoryofstuff.com

RESPECT

2008-06-01T22:35:00.001-07:00

You know how the nba used to have players who had class, they respected each other? mj, magic, bird, stockton, drexler, to name a FEW... I've been out of touch with the nba, but the last time I paid much attention Stockton was just about to leave and I was having trouble finding other players that were class acts.

Class seems to be diminishing in sport these days. I've seen it trend that way in professional sports and at the amateur level as well. Have some respect for your competitors, without them you're fucking nothing! Do you want to be nothing! Whats the point in competing in something you're passionate about if you're just going to disrespect the fuck out of your opponents, then they loose respect for you. Treat your opponents as you'd have them treat you. Old rule, needs to be brought back.

one example from the weekend....
I watched a complete stranger after the crit come up to a friend of mine and give him shit (he was polite) for what he felt was sketchy riding. He did it in front of 4 people and 5 minutes went by before he introduced himself. zero class.

respect.

Enumclaw

2008-06-01T00:35:00.000-07:00

Today my head wasn't in race mode. There was no fire at all. In fact, plenty of times during the crit today I was thinking about my soils paper that I should have been writing. To make a long story short I'm not racing the RR tomorrow and I'm staying in Seattle to write this paper. It's actually a relief that I've come to this conclusion, I would much rather race bikes then write a paper of this magnitude in one day, but this will make me feel good under the circumstances.

2008-05-29T01:37:00.001-07:00

School is ridiculous right now. It's 130am and I've still got a couple pages left of a gis lab to finish up and a 3 page paper due at 10am. Thats 8.5 hours away. awesome. It really wouldn't be this bad if I had only started all this crap a couple weeks ago when I was suppose to! Oh Geez!
Just needed a breath of fresh air..... Back I go.

ah, Enumclaw this weekend. 3s should be a jolly good time!

2008-05-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

Today I learned that spinning out like crazy in a 53-12 gearing is slower then 25 people all working together spinning out it their gears going down hill really shitnass fast... who would have guessed? Today i felt like a newb on the bike, not because i couldn't pedal hard, in fact i felt pretty damn good, but when a gap was created between me and the guy in front of me on the top of a hill, i didn't close it right away. And then the accelerations came, and the wind? well it never left. Today it would have been nice to have a freaking 9tooth cog on my cassette. they make that shit for bmx right? So for about 40miles today I was about a minute and a half off of the main field with 3 other good men. It was a sufferfest. the wind was so hard going north that we were pace lining at around 10-13mph and on the back stretch it was pretty steadily at about 38mph. 40th freaking place is disappointing, I know I could have done better. The team omnium is on the line, we're only 9points ahead of 3rd place and 20-28 points off of 1st. Tomorrow will be a good day, REDEMPTION WILL BE MINE!!!

Phil also had an unfortunate race, after the first hill his brake loosened up and started rubbing on his wheel, by the time he had if fixed, the race was long gone.

super props to David, 6th place, and Chris 17th place in the road race. And Meagan 8th place and Tela and Kristen 12th place and Daisy 2oth!!! WWU Cycling kicks ass.

team time trial

2008-05-09T13:53:00.001-07:00

As usual, a bunch more photos are on my flickr site.

WWU Cycling
Girls 2nd place DII
Guys 6th place DII

Despite losing a teammate during the race our western girls rocked the team time trial. There were only off the pace of first by 8 seconds! Awesome job!

Until today, I haven't finished a TTT with the team yet. I've been dropped every time so far. We've only raced 3 times together, whether I've been sick, popped of the back by a hard acceleration or just didn't have the legs, we have never finished all together. One of my problems is poor positioning in the pack, basically, I don't stay close enough to my teammates wheel. It's only the fact that I'm scared to be so close. That's it, so for the last week and a half or so I've been training my mind to be "ok" with being so close to a wheel.

So the TTT has been on my mind a lot lately, and I was definitely nervous for it. I've been reading a book written by the Dalai Lama and last night I was chilling in the room and grabbed the book. I opened the book somewhere in the middle, and it happened to be at the start of a chapter, I didn't really feel like reading at the moment but thought I'd read the intro to the chapter.

"Once there was a disciple of a Greek philosopher who was commanded by his Master for three years to give money to everyone who insulted him. When this period of trial was over the Master said to him, "Now you can go to Athens and learn Wisdom." When the disciple was entering Athens, he met a certain wise man who sat at the gate insulting everybody who came and went. He also insulted the disciple, who burst out laughing. "Why do you laugh when I insult you?" said the wise man. "Because," said the disciple, "for three years I have been paying for this kind of thing and now you give it to me for nothing." "Enter the city," said the wise man, "it is all yours..."

Perspective is an amazing thing. When I read this, I did not worry about the TTT anymore. It just told me that I was ready for a good TTT, I had paid my dues, and it was time to reap the rewards. Today was the best TTT of my life. Its nice when good form lands on a nationals weekend, and even better when your head is in the right place. We rode really fast today, it was awesome. It was a bit of a shock to see that we finished in 6th place. But we rode amazingly well, it was our best TTT of the year.

Road Nationals: Fort Collins

2008-05-07T19:26:00.000-07:00

Some of us trying to figure out food after our afternoon ride.

David about to get high from some glue fumes.

A skip of lightning in a nice storm rolling through Fort Collins.

Another shot from the storm.

Here we are in Fort Collins. After waking up too early and sleeping too little on the plane we arrived in Denver. The driver of our van shuttle to Fort Collins had a heavy foot to put it lightly. I don't think there was any modulation. Either he was all brake or all gas, all the time!! The best part of the drive was this perma-stank smell. It didn't go away, I'd compare it to wet pavement drying fast in the hot sun, with some good old fashion cheese cuttin smeared all over the top.

We checked out the start of the road race course, it's pretty steep and it's going to be fast. Awesome.

More to come later.....

Some photos, Crit in Moscow, ID and mudslinger in OR.

2008-04-29T12:46:00.000-07:00

I have a blog? what?!

2008-04-29T12:32:00.001-07:00

In the attempt to procrastinate more from my studies and create somewhat of an online social life for myself (myface and spacebook just aren't for me), I'm starting up this blog.

We'll keep it short and sweet today, I gotta ease myself into this....