A Winters Ride

I guess it wouldn’t be winter without at least one snowy ride (now I’m officially looking forward to spring!!). 

Pics by Gregory Luck

REDEMPTION

Andy Dufresne: "Get busy living, or get busy dying"

Horsethief Bench Drop In
2 ½ years ago



Today



It’s been an amazing journey from when I thought there would be no way in Hell I could ever ride down the drop in.  A special thanks to Landon M. for being my Sensei in all things all mountain.

Poison Spider

It is always interesting to ride with a different group of folks and when it’s in Moab, it’s even more interesting.  I’ve ridden with Tyson Swasey a couple of times so I didn’t feel too awkward meeting up with a different crew of folks in Moab for one of my favorite rides.  Tyson is such an amazing rider, I’ve had the opportunity to ride with a lot of very good riders in my lifetime but Tyson has to be at or near the top of the list when it come to just all around bike riding ability.   Tyson is also one of the nicest, humblest guys also and seems more interested in making sure that everyone is having a good time than showing off his ablities.  If you ever make your way to Moab, you should check out the Poison Spider shop and you just might be getting your trail info from one of the best riders around.

Pics from the ride;

Fixing my chain (Photos by Tyson)

IPhone break (photo by Tyson)

Poison Spider

(a pic of Tyson from Poison Spider's site)

Saw these guys (or girls) from the Amasa Back parking lot.  In the shade on a 30's winter day... I think I'll stick with mtbing!

Year End

Looking back, 2011 was a great year!  Lots of good trips and some great times with the people I care about.  Right around the first of the year I came up with my normal list of stuff I would like to do the following year.  I normally do about 2/3 of it or so but its fun to think about and maybe having a little goal out there might help.  But I do despise lists or at least the idea of having stuff on a list that is supposed be fun but you end up wanting them to be over so as soon as possible so you can put a check mark by them.  So this year I’m not going to think about the list at all, going to focus more on the day to day stuff and living each day to the fullest, not waiting for the next thing to happen. 

A couple of pics from today.  I’ve really enjoyed the winter here so far; it’s nice that the trails are all pretty much open but I haven’t ridden a ton.  It’s nice to still have a little down time in the year and look forward to going full bore this spring!!

Some pics from 2011 (kind of an excuse to see how it looks with combining photos) Not sure I’m sold yet??

Phoenix, AZ

After a few years of taking shorter trips down south, we finally made it down to the Phoenix area with the camper and a plan to stay awhile.  The temperatures were amazing to say the least. The combination of short sleaves and the lower elevation acted like a drug and I was charged for some bike rides.  We camped out at Usery Park on the east side of Phoenix where one of my favorite rides is located (Pass Mountain trail) It’s not long, but it’s fun.  The highlight of the riding was a 5 hour ride at South Mountain with most of it being on the National trail.  I'm sure with the population of Phoenix I’m far from the most qualified to give trail advice, but I can tell you that they have far more than their quota of good trails.  If you don’t like really technical stuff you might want to skip the harder trails, I know five or so years ago I would have hated the trails that are now among my favorites down there.

On the way down to AZ

(Pass Mt.) You know a trail is going to be fun with a sign like that!  I'm still a long way off on cleaning it!

Some of the lower land stuff on Pass Mt trail.

Spent!! after 5 hours at South Mt. ... waiting for the wife to pick me up.

Nothing really says southwest like Saguaros.

 The family outings were quite fun also!

Sedona, AZ

I consider myself a very lucky man. I seem to have everything I could ask for - a great family, a good job (hopefully still have it after today’s surprise budget meeting), and I’m able to get away on more than my fair share of mountain biking trips. And when one of those trips includes Sedona, AZ, I feel especially lucky! Sedona is one of those places that has its own charm and you know you’re in a different place than home. The trails seem to be in the same family as the more familiar to me Grand Junction/Fruita/Moab trails, but maybe more like the crazy uncle in the family that you only see a couple of times a year.

 

A little Sedona video;

Sedona 2011 from Westylivin on Vimeo.

What happens when the trailhead also has a skatepark.

(Landon with a little more style than me as the sun is coming up on a perfect day!)

The weekend didn’t disappoint.  It was a great time with Over The Edge Sedona playing host to us northerners. 

(Photos by Landon or at least Landon's camera; commandonlandon.blogspot)

A Dream Lived Ride (for Travis Patriquin)

Travis at work

I’m not one who is really big on doing athletic stuff for a cause.  Maybe it’s my cynical side but I’ve always thought if you wanted to do some big athletic endeavor, do it because you love it.  But in all honesty I’ve never really had a strong feeling about a charity or a cause. 

I guess that brings me to today and this day 5 years ago.  It will be 5 years ago today that my cousin was killed in Iraq. If that was all to the story it would be sad enough and strong enough to make me do something to remember the day but there is so much more to the story.  My cousin, Travis Patriquin, had an almost unbelievable experience in Iraq, and in is life in general.  He was truly an amazing person, but not in the way most people think when someone says something like that.  I sum up his experience in Iraq as someone who went there with the idea of making a small difference with a gun but ended up maybe changing the course of a county with his compassion, curiosity, and his personality.  (You can read about Travis in the book,  A Soldier’sDream, Captain Travis Patriquin and the Awakening of Iraq by William Doyle, CBS news video on Travis video).

So today I’m going on a bike ride like I do almost every day, but this day will be different.  I’m going to pause at an overlook and ponder life in a way I don’t do very often. I’m going to be thankful for my family and being able to spend time with my kids, all the time knowing that Travis cannot.   I’m going to do this ride because I think it’s something Travis would have liked to do.  And although my life dreams are so much smaller than his, and I don’t even know if I’m close to living it, I just feel better knowing that someone out there did.

I’m not going to complain about the cold or the couple of injuries I seem to have acquired over the past week.  I’m going to be thinking about all the people who have paid the ultimate price trying to make the world a better place, all the time living their dream.