Heber ride report

The Heber Valley Century Ride is touted as "the most scenic ride in Utah." I have to say that it did not disapoint. The leaves were changing and the colors are at their most vivid as you can see in the photo below.

This picture not only shows the great colors but a great example of someone who will not finish 100 miles. There is a 50 mile option for those interested, I'm guessing that's this guy.

The first 50 miles were a breeze as I attached myself to this gentlemens back tire and hung on for dear life.

The way you can get all that cool BYU swag is by being very, very fast. I did tell him that I was willing to take my turn pulling for a while but we would have to slow down.......he declined.

We traveled around Heber, by the Homestead Resort and up to the Wasatch State Park before crossing the hiway and making the climb up and over towards Kamas. The views in the park and around Jordanelle Reservoir were stunning.
We rode past Rockport Reservoir and turned around in the lovely town of Coleville. There was supposed to be a rest stop at the Ward House in Coleville but we had got there so fast all they had was tap water, the food truck had not got there yet so we continued on.

The wind had picked up blowing north which had aided our speed on the way out but on the return trip it was right in our faces and it slowed us down considerably. I lost BYU boy and managed about 11 mph for the next 45 miles wanting to throw up the whole way.

I saw the rain coming and quickly called my brother Daniel to come get me in Kamas. He had been in Park City riding the alpine slide with his wife Sarah and my to daughters Megan and Maddie.

They picked me just before the rain so apparently this is a picture of someone who doesn't finish 100 miles either.



Thanks to Zazoosh for being my photographer for the day and to Daniel and Sara for hosting us in their lushly appointed yet not overly ostentatious apt.

Out

He who hesitates is lost.

On august 18th some friends and I headed up to Deer Valley to ride the lifts and ride the mountain. It turned out to be the worst bike trip, nay the worst trip I have ever had.
I will leave out the minutia and focus only on the big disappointments.

We left St. George at 4:30 on friday afternoon and after a multitude of stops, some necessary, some completely useless we arrived at the condo in Park City at 11:15pm. The condo was nice, I ended up with a double bed all to myself. I think the other guys know by now that I am a primadonna about my sleep and were being kind. Over the years I have realized that I need two things to ensure my happiness and overall well being.
1.) Earplugs. Never leave home without them. Some of the "dudes" that I ride with like the TV a little to much. A couple of years ago I had to ask them to turn it off at 2 am. Maybe I am the stick in the mud.
2.) Tylenol PM. Just in case the earplugs aren't enough. I also don't sleep well in strange beds, which is good for Sarah.

I awoke on saturday morning to rain. Lots of rain. The lifts don't open until 10 so we decided to go get breakfast and see if it cleared up. We went to Squatters cafe, I have been there in the past and it was good. This time however was a different story, all six of us were extremely disappointed with out meals. I guess Squatters only knows how to do dinner.
The rain never let up so we decided to go down to Salt Lake and try out a new freeride area on I street in the avenues.

Here is Duane, the birthday boy showing how real men do it.



Me riding Johnson's bike.






And finally the shot that ended all the fun.


In this shot I am going way to slow. He who hesitates is lost. Right below my front tire you can see an area that has been dug out, I failed to clear that area with my rear tire and nearly came to a complete and abrupt stop. My chest pounded into the handlebars knocking the wind out of me and I proceded to fall/plummet down the rest of the decline and wad up at the bottom like a rag doll.

The worst of my numerous nagging injuries is the right knee. It was reconstructed back in 02' and has never really been the same. Two of my compatriots had to nearly carry me back to the truck. I hate hurting myself when I do something stupid.

So, writing this nearly a week later my mt bikes are hung up, my left wrist will be another 2 weeks in healing and my knee still hurts in a very special way.
I don't believe there is any permanent damage and oddly enough it stops hurting when I ride my road bike.
I have no plans at this point to ride dirt any time soon but I added another 100 mile roadie to my list of things to do.

Please no comments about how a 36 year old guy should be more careful or maybe your to old, etc. etc. etc. Sarah has already said it all.

ULCER 100 .................and eleven

August 11th was the ULCER (Utah Lake Century Epic Ride)100. It's a quick jaunt around Utah Lake with 2000 of your closest friends.
There are 7-8 rest stops along the way supplying water, gatorade, advil, and sometimes food. At the midway point in the bustling metropolis of Goshen we were served lunch. On the menu; Build your own hogie sandwich. I passed on the sandwiches as in the past I have learned that there are only a few things I can eat while riding...... ham and cheese is not on the list.

This map will give you a good idea of the route going in a clockwise direction. Starting and ending at Thanksgiving Point.

I tried to stay at the front of the pack so I could "sit the wheel" of the fast guys in order to help my time. I could go on and on about the benefits of drafting and how well it works but it's pretty boring unless you ride.
I had a personal goal to finish in under 5 hrs. They bill the ride as 100 miles but as it turns out it's actually 111. For those of you without a calculator, I had to average 22.2mph to pull it off.
I arrived at the finish with 8 guys snappily dressed in matching kits from the well financed Franklin Covey Team and my Garmin reading 4:53 total ride time.


These are a couple shots I ripped from some guy named Phil's blog. Apparently he had time to take photos and didn't mind the extra weight. He says on his blog that it was his lifelong goal to ride a century. Mission accomplished Phil, you are now prepared to die.

I have a few things that I want to bring to your attention;
First, whoever is in charge of the road maintenance in Lindon, Orem and Provo should be fired. The road conditions on the surface streets of those towns is atrocious. It was like riding thru a mine field trying to dodge the pot holes.

Second, recumbent cycles are not cool. Tricycle recumbent bikes are even worse. Somehow one of these uber-dorks found himself in the lead group at the start of the race and proceeded to raise the anger of everyone by being unable to hold a line around a corner. The owner of one of the bike shops in St. George was cut of by the afore mentioned nimrod and went down at 20 mph instigating a 20 bike pileup, which is funny to every one except 21 people.

Third, why would anyone live in Saratoga Springs? And can someone from Happy Valley tell me what is that smell emanating from the lake?


I understand that a few people managed to stretch their finishing time out to 8 hrs. I wonder if they had fun? Self flagellation is not my idea of a good time.
There are two more century rides before the end of the year. One in Moab and the other is here in San Jorge. Both are absolute killers with a lot of climbing. I will let you know how I fare.

No Burritos

Right on brother.......right on!

El Scorcho's wild ride

I have had a couple of questions about this jump pic from the post titled "Who's a loser" so here is the answer as to how the air is accomplished. The photographer is laying on the ground and the rock right behind the bush is tilted just enough to launch you a looooong way if you are going fast enough.

Here is a couple more with commentary to boot.


This is one of my favorites, photo credit going to Ben Gerhet. This is on a trail we call The Barrels, as we come down this wash we are doing approx warp speed 5 and you can really lean into this corner if you have gumption. I keep hoping Sarah will make a full size poster of this and surprise me with it.



I call this the gap with consequences. No picture on earth will do this stunt justice. You have to come in on the rock you see on to the left but it is not straight entry. In the first pic there is a corner just 4-5 feet before lift off so you come in goofy requiring a mid air tail whip to come down the tilted rock without carnage.


Let me introduce you to "the wall ride" Gooseberry Mesa rules!




This is out in Moab, it's the same stunt from two different angles so you can see the distance required to avoid facial reconstructive surgery. This extra credit line also has a tricky entry, I have it on video some where but I will save for another post.
















The waterfall at Little Creek Mesa. Again a multiple move stunt that is really a lot of fun, I think the multi shot gives you a good idea of what is happening. Photo by a guy that came to ride with us from L.A. named Myl. His buddy David fell of at the top where the guy is standing and piled his head into the tree on the left....he was ok so it was funny, really stupid but funny.

Side note; the guy standing in the pic is Mike Curiak , he comes out to ride with us about twice a year. He is a great guy with an incredible story and an absolute hammer on a bike. Take some time to check him out.

Goodbye and good riddance

So last Friday I finally closed on Lot #74 in The Cliffs at Snow Canyon. I can't say that I'm sad to see it go, it was almost a 2 year project from when we bought the lot until closing. I hate it when things take a long time to complete. My ADD kicks in and I just want to be done and move on to something else.
The buyers needed a little more room for their first child so they upgraded to the lushly appointed yet not overly ostentatious 7800sq. ft. that the new house provides. I hope they have enough room.

I still have a ridiculous house for sale on lot 76, special fourth of July sales price of 3.5 mil. so tell all your friends.
Here are a couple fotos of the love shack.

If you can afford this house you are probably not my friend. Not that your not a cool person but I wouldn't associate with me if I had this kind of dough.

Who's a loser?

Now that my adorable bride has leaked the link to my blog I need to lay down some ground rules.
O.K. only one rule but it's a good one; IF YOU VISIT THIS SITE YOU HAVE TO LEAVE A COMMENT. I don't care if all you do leave your name but that's the rule.

We are living in a society with rules that we all need to follow, if you come and leave nothing you are a loser! I have put a lot into this self agrandizing ME fest and I expect you behave as asked.

In return when I take time out of my busy day to peruse the e-monuments you have made to yourselves I will always leave a comment for you. Fair is fair.

I leave you with a gratuitous bike shot of yours truelly in acknowledgment of Sarah's misguided belief that biking is all I care about.