Idaho

I spent 6 hours with the bicycle yesterday in the mountains northeast of Franklin.  Two or more of those hours were spent looking for a trail, getting whacked by bushes.  It was a Robert Ride.

High Country News

Don't do it.  Just be patient.  Wait until August.  Don't be like Justin Simoni (he is riding the Tour Divide without any detours, which means he is doing all the high passes in deep snow while everyone else went around).  Yesterday he got lost, went back to the library in Dubois, WY to find a topo map because he could not find the trail in the snow.  He might be a little hardheaded.

I tried to be like Justin today.  He inspired me.  I pedaled up Card Canyon and tried to find the top of the Spring Hollow Trail.  It is covered in 6 feet of snow, more in drifts, up there somewhere, but damned if I could find it.  My feet are frostbitten, and my back is out from lifting the bike up the mountain a few feet, squeezing the brakes, then taking a step forward in the snow, then repeating.  There's no way I'm going to wear sandals without any socks the next time I pedal up to snowline and then start hiking in deep snow.  I am so done.  I was out there from 11 to 6:30.  I got lost, a little, but found the way down.  It was disappointing to go back down the way I came up.  I think I will drink a Summer Honey from Big Sky Brewing Co. and go to sleep now.  Might as well.  My new dog has licked all the blood and mud from my legs as I typed.  I think he likes me now.

Jardine Today

Two road rides this week
Left me with nothing to say
I don't like pavement

Today, different
Juniper trail, resplendent
Penstamon, larkspur

Between purple-blue
Color uncapturable
On canvas or film

Their color surpassed
Only by the cold power
Of the snow melt stream

Knee deep, numbing cold
Both bicycle and human
Nealy swept away

Sherwood Race Update

It tuns out that the posted times for my race last weekend were wrong.  That sure makes me feel better.  1:22 is so much better than 1:34.  It makes sense now, I really did not think I was riding all that slow, but I do feel a little burned out.  I'm not going to do another race until cross season, and I may not even race then.  We'll see.  I just want to ride and have fun.  That's my training plan for the next 6 weeks, just ride and have fun.  I plan on spending most of my rides on the fixed gear cross bike.

I Wore A T-Shirt On The Group Ride Today

Yep. Stay At The Front. What's The Point Of That?

Warm Showers

More than once, Patty and I have talked about signing up for Warm Showers.  No, it's not what you think.  It's a hospitality organization for touring cyclists.  We have befriended people before and invited them home for a good place to sleep and a warm shower.  And, several times while bicycle touring, people have really helped us out.  I remember well, sleeping on the floor of a stranger's beach house on St. George Island, and wading across the muddy neck-deep waters of the Altamaha River to eat hot dogs provided by friendly Georgia rednecks because I was starving to death after a 120 mile day.

On Saturday we met Paul, walking his fully loaded Long Haul Trucker down the sidewalk on Main Street.  He was cooked.  Cracked.  Done.  You could see it in his eyes.  Patty immediately asked if he had a place to stay for the night and invited him to our house.  Tears began flowing from those eyes, and he followed us home.  Paul is leaving in the morning, heading up Logan Canyon to Bear Lake, Montpelier, Alpine, Jackson, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and eventually Glacier and the Pacific Northwest, over the next two months.  Have a great ride, Paul.  My god, I wish I was going with you.

Back On Track

I went for a good ride today.  It made me feel much better about everything.  Renewed, even.  I got back on the fixed gear cyclocross bike.  It really is my favorite bike and my favorite style of riding: trails, gravel, pavement, railroad tracks, pasture, badgers, orioles, ibis, cinnamon teal, and avocet, etc.  It's never dull when you can ride it all and see it all.  I took the canal to Smithfield and then took the gravel roads along the east side of Amalga back to Darrell's and the sewage treatment ponds, over a few fences and through a big cow pasture, around Gossner's, and home.  The things people do to avoid Airport Road.  I may avoid all road rides for a while, particularly the Tuesday Hyde Park ride.  The whole point of that ride for me is proving to myself that I can stay at the front and not get gapped or dropped.  What is the point of that?

Suffer Face

No, that is not a smile.

Stunk It Up Today...

...at the local mountain bike race.  I think I'm all washed up.  Done.  Cooked.  Stick a fork in me.  On June 1 at a practice race on the same course I did three laps in 1:26 with a seat post 6 inches too low riding really slow.  Today I did three laps in 1:34 giving it all I had.  I did stop two times to put my chain back on.  My chain watcher doesn't.  Oh well.  The derailleur, cassette, chain watcher, and shifter are all coming off.  And, I'll work on me too.  At least there are no more races on my calender until cyclocross season.  I'm going for a long ride in the rain in the morning.  Father's day.  River Trail to Jardine to Green.  The whole enchilada, Loganistan style.  I'll have to ride fast because I have to be home for lunch with the family.

How My Grip Got Wet

I Miss Bozeman, Montana

Compiled from the local paper in Bozo:

•A man said his ex-friend dumped sand outside his door.
•A report of a faulty traffic signal at 19th Avenue and Main Street around 5:15 p.m. turned out to be one with “just a really long time between cycles.”
•Just after midnight, a man told police he threw a bottle at a wall on West Koch Street because “his dog was threatened.”
•A caller was concerned for the welfare of a mother duck and her ducklings in his yard on South 13th Avenue.
•A resident near Snapdragon Street complained that a dog runs loose in the neighborhood and “defecates wherever he wants.”
•The driver of a Jeep was stopped on Gallatin Road watching rafts on the river around 11:30 a.m. causing a “major traffic hazard,” according to the truck driver who called the sheriff's office.
•A caller reported that last week someone stole her Harley Davidson piggy bank, which was about half full. She has also noticed that her prescription is missing.
•Around 11:30 a.m. a caller said there was an issue with a baby moose and nearby cow on Bridger Canyon Road.
•Around 3 a.m., police warned a man on South Fourth Avenue cutting wood with a power saw and feeding it into a large fire about the noise.
•A vehicle got stuck on the railroad tracks at Frontage and Thorpe roads around 1:30 a.m. It was moved before a train came by.
•A caller said someone threw “poo” all over his porch on Mactavish Lane.
•A dead horse was reportedly on the Hebgen Lake shoreline near Hebgen Lake Road. It was almost completely submerged, and an eagle was feeding on it.
•911 dispatchers overheard a conversation involving “getting high and drunk and getting tattoos, sitting on the beach, and eating shrimp and crab" when an intoxicated man pocket dialed at 5 a.m.
•The owner of two dogs was apologetic and agreed to pay to replace five chickens the dogs had killed.

9 to 5

I put in a full day of work on Saturday at the 9 to 5 in Idaho.  I fought for a podium spot all day, and rode quite a bit with a really nice guy from Jackson, Paul Nash.  Near the end, after two dozen stream crossings and sixteen mud wallows, my right Oury grip got wet, started to move, and eventually came off.

I rode for a while with it in my hand to get it dry.  Then, I stopped to put it back on.  I fought with it for a while, finally got it on about half way, and started riding again.  My buddy Paul was gone.  So was the podium spot.  But, that's not really all that important.  Overall I think I rode pretty well.  It was good just to be out there, listening to the conversations in my head.  There were quite a few of those.  Here are the results.

Looking at the numbers, it's amazing that four guys could ride for eight hours and all finish less than 16 minutes apart.  What did I really learn from all this?

"We Do More Before 9 AM ..."

...Than Most People Do All Day."  I decided to be all I could be this morning.  I got up before 6 and hit the trail by 6:30.  I went with Tim S. up the River Trail and a good bit of Green Canyon.  There is a first time for everything.  The single track in Green Canyon has a flowing stream beside it and three really big water crossings.  Weird.

Periodization

I began my periodization training for 8-hour endurance racing today.  I rode for nearly 5 hours southwest of Weston Canyon in the Clarkston Mountains on the Caribou National Forest.  No, there are no caribou there.  Periodization training?  It's specific training that usually lasts for about 6 weeks or more leading up to a specific event.  In other words, I need to slowly increase the length of my rides if I'm going to do an 8 hour race.  The event?  It's next Saturday.  So much for periodization training.  It's more like off the couch with no training at all.

Fun Race?

I did a fun race on Wednesday at Sherwood Hills and finished third overall.  Two experts finished in front of me.  I was about 8 minutes behind them after 16 miles and 3000 feet of climbing.  For two laps my seatpost was about 6 inches too low.  Yep, when you build up a new bike things are usually going to move.  It really was no fun sitting on my hamstrings trying to pedal.  Most of the time I just stayed standing, singlespeed style, never sitting down on the long climbs.  Today, Kory found me a Lip Lock.  Problem solved.  I will race again next Wednesday at 6:30.  In the morning I'm doing B.W.'s five-hour off-road tour of Clarkston.  I've threatened to ride the cross bike, but smart folks are telling me to bring the new geared mountain bike.  I'll have some pictures of the new beast posted soon.