Spooning

As part of the festivities in the previous post I was given a new saddle for my trusty steed. My wife has excellent taste and ponied up for the Charge Bikes "Spoon" saddle. It's brown and kinda retro which I dig.




I am sure she was trying to match the ultra groovy and green conscious Bio-Cork Ergon Grips that I have festooned my bars with.



It is substantially more firm than the beat to death, six year old WTB Laser saddle that I had before. I cannot stress to you enough the importance of a saddle that cradles your nethers in just the right way.

Maybe I can get $5 for that WTB on ebay.

40

My birthday arrived this year as it does every year, the march of time is an unstoppable truth attached to this mortal existence. This year I hit one of those big numbers, one of the milestones we think about when we are looking forward to what our lives are going to be like in the future.
I did not bemoan the coming of this day, I have not experienced a midlife crisis, I was not taken up in melancholy, lamenting the loss of my youth.  It was just  another birthday.

In absolute honesty I feel exactly the same today as I did 10 years ago, I truly believe that the brain never catches up the age of the body. In our head we are still that twenty-something person while traipsing around in a body that is beginning to show a little wear and tear.  Joints are a little creaky, wrinkles are showing up, and gray hairs are now visible to the naked eye.

A friend of mine (shout out to you D)  had a big party for his 40th, lots of people, lots of good food and mechanical bull set up in the driveway. It was awesome but not really my style, I spent most of the day on the seat of my bicycle, hanging out with my bride or playing Call of Duty - Black Ops online.....take that 40.

My new reality is that age really is just a number and we can still be the very same person we have always been. Who we are never really changes though my wife is telling me I am becoming more crotchety. I think it's because I have less patience with the inane.


I have some more U2 for you on my way out. The song is called "40" and it's the song that they play to end their show, this one is special though because Adam plays lead guitar and The Edge in on the bass.

Little Purgatory Trail

10 Minutes up I-15 and just outside of the booming metropolis of Leeds Utah there is a newish trail system that I have never ridden. I am always up for exploring new trails especially when they are as close as this.

I found the trail head in the dark with little effort and waited for the sun to come up, I do enjoy the early morning solo rides, running on my own schedule when I don't know where I am going is so much easier and takes the pressure off.

The trail has seen very little traffic that I could tell, there was evidence of horses, hikers and maybe one other bike. Luckily you navigate the beginning of this trail thru a cut in the rock with 3-4 stream crossings so the Texas Wheelchairs (4-wheelers) won't be destroying anything.

Inside the cut you get to see some petroglyph wall art 

Up Close

Backside of the cut,  you can see the trail has seen very few visitors.

 If your headed out there I would recommend riding in a counter clockwise direction, if you ride clockwise you have to climb some steep switchbacks that could best be described as "a good hike ruined by the extra effort of pushing your bike uphill."
At the top of the switchbacks you are rewarded by this view of Pine Valley Mt. I love the snow capped tips above the red rocks. No photo can do this justice.

Part of the trail follows an old pioneer wagon trail, heaven knows why those people needed to get to the top but there is a lot of evidence of their effort along the way. Here they have built a retaining wall to hold the edge; I would bet it's 50' long and averages 4' high.

The totals were 6+ miles and about 1400 ft of climbing, not a bad morning ride with some great views that you can see no other way.  I would definitely ride it again and with some frequent bike traffic it could become a regular route.
Ring me up for a guided tour.

Frog Hollow Redux

A friend of mine found this floating around the web, I am always amazed what a good photographer can do.

25 Hours of Frog Hollow | Brian Leddy Photography Archive

25 Hours of Frog Hollow | Brian Leddy Photography Archive

We might have to do this again next year and defend our 2nd place title, I say that and then part of me thinks I should just go out on top.

I am not getting any younger......or faster.

New blowhorn

You may remember this post from a year ago. Well the Pre held up for exactly one year before the wheels started falling off. Yesterday I caved in to the peer pressure and ridicule of my Bride and traded up to this;

She has been taunting me with the awesomeness of her Droid powered machine and after spending a solid 16 hrs with the new EVO I think she was right. This thing will no doubt increase my efficiency by multiples of ten. When I talk about my efficiency what I am referring to is my new abilities to miss calls and messages while riding, check the weather in multiple locations for riding purposes, check pricing on bike parts, map/track and log my rides, upload pictures of my rides strait to "The Facebook" and contact riding buddies using multiple methods about the next ride.

I am really glad I got this, it's going to be a lifesaver.

Round is a shape

After the holidays I need to get on a program and get myself back in some kind of shape. I have no self control when it comes to Christmas foodstuffs.
I have about 40 days before Old Pueblo and I can use all the saddle time I can get, the problem is the days are short and cold. The ground is still so saturated from the rain/snow we got that my only option is riding when the ground is completely frozen.

I give you a couple of shots of "first tracks" Southern Utah style.

The low 20's is not my idea of ideal riding temps.  Once you are moving it's bearable but getting motivated to get out of the truck takes a near super human effort on my part, or maybe I am just weak sauce.

I am off to eat a salad.

All is quiet on New Years Day.

New Years Day 2011 and I was all alone at the trail head, my friends are cowards, sure it was cold and the ground was frozen but that was the only way we were going to get a ride in after all the rain we have been having.
I barely made it back to the truck before things thawed out and got messy.

A shot of the Virgin River from a week ago, usually this thing is ankle deep and 20 ft wide.

Rattlesnake wash was frozen solid, all I had was my phone for picture documentation.

More U2 for you to celebrate the season. It's good to see that electric instruments still work in the sub-arctic.
Happy New Year everybody, cheers.