Late season road trip

Yes, it is snowing outside right now.

This is not keeping me from starting to plan a late jaunt down to southern Oregon to hit the trails around Applegate Lake. Could use the break from work. Me thinks skipping work on the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving would be the ticket.

Maybe hit lower NUT sections on the way home.

Later…

More motorcycle stuff

Getting the Bandit prepped to head to Denver and back week after next.  Was trying to figure out how to strap the bike on, but finally gave up.  Will be hard to head through Fruita without hitting the trails.

Since it could be a bit chilly, I wired up a plug for my heated clothing to keep me toasty and put on some Barkbuster Storm S1 handguards to keep the wind off my hands.

The boxes. I ordered the single bar clamp style.

With my throttle lock on one side, I had to bend the brackets a bit in the vise to get them to line up with the grips – not hard to do.

As you can see, not a whole lot of real estate on the straight part of the bars.

I mounted the handguard using the shortest setting – also needed to grind off a little nub on the inside to keep the lever from hitting it.

On the bike…install took all of 15 minutes. They do contact the fairing a bit before full lock, but they flex and it has not been an issue. Now to work on other things, like mounting my camping stove gas canister to my hard bags.

Later…

It does have two wheels

OK, the fitness level is down a bit.  I have found another two wheeled machine to cause myself pain and suffering (and fun at the same time).

Pic is from when I was gearing up to qualify for the Iron Butt Association on a ride up to the Canadian border and the over to Great Falls, MT via Spokane and Butte.  Google it – I am not making it up.

Later…

KMC – Day Of

OK, I suck at keeping this up.

I did end up finishing. Rode the Vulture SS and finished in 16 hours and 53 minutes.

Only the highlights…

First couple pics are from sightseeing the day before – slept in late, drank coffee, read my book, took a conference call, then went cruising around.  Ended up at the North Rim.

Race day pics start with the handful of us ready to go.  If you are wondering why it took me so long to go 130 miles, I will share some of what I was up to.

OK, who the heck did the crappy job of grading the road sections?  There were a few times I was more than ready to shoot them along with Dave.  The whole climb up from Rainbow Rim was loose and sometimes I had to ‘cough, cough’ walk up the road since it was so loose.

Remember – I was in it for fun and to finish.

More delays:

Start of Rainbow Rim – Chatted with some guys from Flagstaff that were escaping a race that day.  They both knew Nathan, but now their names have departed my brain.

Stopping and chatting with the family of five on Rainbow Rim.  They were wondering if I was with those two guys who flew by.  So I explained what was going on and they thought we were all nuts.  I did not disagree.  Their six year old requested that I check on their golden retriever that was tied up to their car.  So I said I would.

As I emerged from the end of the Rainbow Rim trail, hey look a happily wagging golden retriever.  I petted him for a bit, made sure he could reach his water and then played a little fetch with him since he kept bringing me his squeeky toy.

Up, up, up the suckily graded roads.  Me at my most miserable of the day.

Ah, mile 85 and the store (thanks to whoever left the remaining water out front).  I signed up for a Snickers ice cream bar and a great chat with the store managers.  Who knew they (husband and wife team) were out for their first summer gig from New York.  They were a great couple (and they thought we were nuts too).

The stretch back to the start was the best.  If you have a chance to ride this section of the AZ trail, I do recommend it.  More stopping for pictures…you never know if you will make it back.

On to mile 100 – time to break out the canned peaches.  Mmmmmmm

Mile 112 – starting to get dark.  Time to break out the headlamp.  Well lookee there.  You have four identical battery packs with only one bad one and whic one did you grab?  Hmmm, I am an idiot and deserve whatever is coming my way to get back to the finish since I grabbed the ONE bad pack.  Little panic moment.  Thought for a sec about using one of my old tubes for a torch but figured that would not end well.  Dumped out the pack to see what usable things I had and pulled out the spare tail flasher.  Since I was hiking uphill, I started with that.  The bad battery would flash like a strobe light, but it still it up enough for section I could ride.

Up and up.  Sometimes I had to hold the tail flasher in my mouth so I could have both hands on the bike.

OK, finally reached the top of the rim.  The funnest part of this was that I was using the ’strobe’ head lamp.  When I would look at the GPS to make sure I was on course it would give me this great vertigo feeling.  I ended up crashing twice doing this, once ending up in the ditch upside down still clipped in and laughing so hard it was difficult to get back up.

Whew, finally back to the camp.  The strobe light was a big addition to the party.

Then what tops off a great endurance ride?

After taking a 15 minute break, you load in the car and make it back to Bend in time to take the family to dinner by 5 PM.

Thanks to Dave for putting on the show – it was a great time and even better memories.  It was good to see old friends and even meet some new ones.

Later…

Trip to KMC

First of the two part report on the Kaibab Monstercross trip.

After thinking I was going to have to cancel due to work, was actually able to sneak out late Tuesday to start the journey. Ran by the library to grab a couple books on CD to keep me awake and I was off…

First stop, after a couple hour nap, Fish Lake. Like most pictures, they do not do the area justice.

Beautiful area with lots of critters, including some unexpected beavers and pelicans. Who knew…pelicans up at 8,700 feet?

Ride was about 20 miles and ended up topping out at 10,037 feet with some periods of intense weather that made me run for the trees (along with the mosquitoes). The name of the main trail cracked me up (Lakeshore Trail). I don’t think of being 1,300 feet above the lake as being on the “shore”. But things are different in Utah.

Then off to one of my favorite areas on the planet for what has to be one of the best free car camping spots with the best views. You can fill in where it is…

Did not take the camera the next day since I was by myself and I have ridden there before. Ended up getting in 31 miles and then off to AZ.

Later…

Healing thoughts

Seems like a bad year for cyclists I know. Tuesday Andrey, WebCyclery riders, wrench and all around great guy got nailed by a truck going 45-50 mph. Link to story is here. One lucky guy as it looks like his stay in ICU will end today. One of those accident where most would not have survived.

Heal up fast Andrey.

Later…

Training – Miles and Tubes

Got to sneak in an 85 mile ride on the fixie. It is a great workout set up with the current gearing. Took a bit to get used to but I ain’t goin back.

Was shooting for 100-110 but ended up getting 4, yes 4 flats during the ride and my time window closed up. Could not believe it. Ended up being one piece of glass and three metal pieces. Managed to slice up the back tread enough that we will be replacing the tire. Oh well, some days are like that.

Later…

Plans

Firming up for KMC. Looks like it will be a bit more of a challenge than planned as I will not be able to ride this first and then hit trails on the way home as I have to be back on the 14th. Instead, I will be riding on the way down and then cranking out 130 miles before hopping in the car to head for home.

Finally decided to do the Seattle to Portland ride on the Paddy Wagon fixie. The 3:1 gearing, while taking a bit to get used to, has been working well. I think my friends are looking forward to seeing me in a bit of hurt. The plan is to get at least a couple centuries in before then.

Later…

Get out and ride everyone…

You never know when your last ride will be, so go early and often.

RIP to Steve and my thoughts and prayers to his wife and five kids…

Later…

So No Mas.

Geez, that was tough. If you ever have a chance to go ride at Lake Sonoma I recommend it. Bring your legs and lungs though. And try to go when it is a bit cooler.

Some pics from the pre-ride the day before:

Great trails…had to laugh though. The sign had a warning about entering Mountain Lion territory, Tick territory and Poison Oak territory. Had bug spray in the car, but forgot the poison oak and mountain lion repellent at home.

Morning of (suckers):

At 8:00 the people next to me said it was already 84 degrees. After the riders meeting we were off to do this:

Yes, that is right – only one lap. The second one was canceled due to heat. 2/3rds of the way through one of the EMTs said it was 102. Not a whole lot of shade the second half of the route and it was south facing. Toughest 28.82 miles with 6,150 feet of climbing I have done. Could have done it a bit faster, but I was still planning on heading off for another lap and was in third place heading through the start finish area. Can’t say as anyone was too upset about not riding around again – especially with free

Did get to ride the Clickipudi course on the way home – looks like fun.

Later…