Intermission-

We interupt this blog for an important announcement from The Dumb Little Man;

Try living life instead of surviving it. How many of you feel like you just went 12 rounds with the champ at the end of each week? How many of you really need a weekend on the couch just to store up enough energy for Monday? If this sounds familiar then you're not living life, you're surviving it - and that's no way to live.You don't have to fill up your entire day with work to be worth something. I'll tell you right now, for nothing, that you could spend a week earning ten thousand dollars and it wouldn't be worth as much as spending an hour with your kid, your wife, as a Big Brother or Big Sister, or as a volunteer to a family in distress.Leading a rich life has absolutely nothing to do with the amount of money and stuff you leave behind when you're gone - the universe really doesn't care about that. Rather, it's about the effect you had on those around you. That's what lasts and gets passed on forever.

You may now return to your poorly scheduled blog...

Spring Road Trip Pt 3

-aprox. 4-1-08

Following the festival I spent several fantastic days camping out with the cousins near the Red Rocks area. I rode and wrote a trail report for the nearby Badger Pass Lp. We took one day and hiked way up into Ice Box Canyon later to have the kids claim that for sure that was the awesomest hike they had ever done! Ok, it was pretty cool.
I took a day and drove over to Boulder City and rode in the Bootleg Canyon area with my cousin Bill, awesome trail system.
When it was finally time for me to leave I headed W not wanting to repeat the boring route I took down there. W took me to Pahrump and then via some small back roads N to Death Valley, yep, that is some wild looking terrain. Being almost the 1st of April it wasn’t hot yet but one look around and it was obvious this was some pretty merciless country. I stopped at a small store near the middle realizing I probably wont make any effort to get back here again I bought the T shirt and a handful of postcards. That was near the lowest point of the valley at 127 ft below sea level. I turned and headed W up and over one pass and down into another valley only to do the same thing a couple more times. A couple hours and a couple valleys later I was standing in the Owens Valley taking a photo of the E side of Mt Whitney. So in just a few hours I went from the lowest pt in America to the deepest valley (Owens) standing in the shadow of the tallest mountain in the continental US, too cool. Hey, I'm not making this shit up, look it up for yourself…
N on 395 I was getting back into familiar territory, I drove all night until I was within 40 miles of Tahoe and camped near a creek alongside highway 88.

Washing my face in the ice cold water and scraping ice from the windshield was an eye opening reminder of the elevation. Not wasting any time packing up I was soon headed out over Carson Pass and down the W side of the Sierra mountain range. Hitting the brakes a bit too hard I dam near launched everything out of the cargo rack on top of the jeep, including the kayak as I rounded a corner and caught sight of a hundred year old lodge/café nestled between the trees. 2 signs in the front window, one flashed Open, the other one read- Seattle’s Best Coffee…
Life is good.

Spring Road Trip Pt 2

--------------------

The Red Rocks Conservation Area is a magnificent display of mother natures artistic abilities surprisingly close to all the glamour & glitz of the Las Vegas Strip. Take Charleston ave W, which will turn into Red Rocks dr, past the last stoplight and strip mall the surrounding terrain changes drastically. 6 more miles is the Spring Mountain Ranch and the site of the Red Rocks Rendezvous, a 3 day event centered around the sport of Rock Climbing and climbing in general. Mountain Gear puts on the annual event which has gotten larger every year for 6 years running (1100 people for dinner Sat night).
Five tour buses shuttled people from the event to climbing clinics being held a various locations inside the Red Rocks area everyday. With sponsors and booths set up by the likes of Five10, Black Diamond, Outdoor Research, Gregory, Teva, The North Face and New Belgium Beer there was plenty new gear and clothing to ogle over- not to mention a bag load of free swag for the collecting. Several fun competitions such as Human-eering and simulated Alpine Rigging along with a rock wall and slack line set up kept those not out climbing occupied and entertained all day. A very alien looking, solar powered DJ’s booth sat eerily in the corner soaking up the suns rays and storing their energy for the darker hours to come later.
Under a spectacular sunset with the Red Rocks as a back drop an amazing dinner was served to over 1000 people. To sit and socialize with such outgoing group of people was a real treat, everyone had that same ‘lust for life’ personality. Many here were world class adventurer’s with many different countries being represented, the owner of Mountain Gear himself was leaving within a few days for an attempt on Mt Fairweather in AK.
With dozens of items donated from various sponsors there had been a silent auction going all day and a live auction after dinner raised over 20k for charities, most I believe going to the Access Fund, an organization that fights to keep public lands open to, well, the public for many different uses. If you hike, bike, ride atv’s or climb on state or public lands you owe a thanks to the Access Fund Org. After the auction, a few short ‘adrenaline junkie’ films and a couple hours of music/dancing to the solar powered DJ most of the attendee’s camped out right on site.
------

Sunday morning brought lots of free coffee, an instructor leading a Yoga session that went on for a couple hours, blueberry pancakes for several hundred hungry climbers with a pancake eating contest thrown in just for the fun of it.
Specialized bikes had shown up in the middle of the night and the tech was busy fitting people to all different kinds of bikes available for demo rides. A group of road bikers were off and spinning early as the buses filled once again with climbers headed out to the rocks for the days clinics/classes. There were enough of us mountain bikers there that we put together a dozen or more for a morning, ok, like a 10:30 AM ride. A local couple with knowledge of the near by Blue Diamond trail system led us on a ride through some great single track. The wind came up and hammered us pretty good on the way back but everyone had fun regardless.
We put together another group of about 8 people for an afternoon ride and headed out again. I left my bike at camp this time and took one of the Specialized bikes out for a test ride. Within 100 yards I was completely sold on the 29 inch wheels, what an incredible difference over the standard 26’ers. The ‘BRAIN’ suspension system my Stumpjumper was equipped with seemed to work just like they said it would. However I would like some further fine tuning and test riding before my final verdict on that one. The Stumpjumper is an awesome ride, but the $4700 price tag will keep it outta my price range for a while.
Back at the Rendezvous the event was officially over and most of the attendee’s had left for the long drive home to wherever they had traveled from. The Mountain Gear people, event staff and about a hundred volunteers were all that was left. Another awesome dinner and a couple hours of socializing, my cousins, myself and several other people camped there on the grounds one more night.
------
A fantastic event that not only entertained, but informed and also raised a lot of money for worthy causes, it made a big impression on me and also many others that attended I could tell. Schedule permitting, yes I will attend next year, just maybe I’ll even have the time to get in a little climbing myself, stranger things have happened…

an email received today from Mountain Gear;

Special thanks for your help with:
Recycling! This year, the amount of recycled waste far outweighed the amount of garbage. It's a huge step forward, and we really appreciate your efforts to make our event as low-impact as possible.
Service Project! A little community caring goes a long way, and over 60 volunteers made a HUGE impact on cleaning up the area. You guys rock!
Extra activities! The bike rides, trail runs, games and vendor booths were all wildly popular. We love your enthusiasm!
Auction! Your generous bids helped raise a substantial donation for the Access Fund. We, they, and everbody who benefits from Access Fund programs heartily thank you.

Spring Road Trip Pt1

Written 4-2-08

There has been way too much driving and most certainly not enough getting out and playing this trip, I already have 2496 miles for the trip so far. I m beginning to think some self imposed travel rules may be in order, say like no more than 250 miles in a day. And no more than 2 of them in a row.
I find myself back in Yosemite Valley, pulled in this afternoon. God I love it here, and right now I find the place dam near empty of people, spring break is over and its not really spring up this high yet. I'm sitting about 40 yards from where Tenaya cr runs into the Merced rv, the stars shining brightly and the campfire is blazing- but no more on Yosemite until after I catch up on the trip that got me here;

I stayed mid-Oregon the first night and hit a Best Buy in Salem the next morning where I purchased a new camera. A Canon SX1000 w/IS, 8 mega pixel shooter a lot like the camera I have been shooting with the last 18 months just a bit more quality and a few more bells & whistles. However it does not have the scratches across the surface of the lens the old one did, this feature alone I believe shall greatly increase my ability to make a halfway descent photograph, maybe not much but it does have to help a little.
On out to the Oregon coast and south I camped at Cape Blanco, the sign said ‘Lighthouse grounds closed except during tours’. I am pretty sure ‘Tours’ also included the self-guided kind to which I treated myself to and had a wonderfully informative time. I also managed to capture some great pics of the lighthouse against a not so friendly sky. Dinner and to bed only to soon awaken to heavy rain which didn't let up at all the rest of the night. A quick coffee and I packed up, stuffing all the soggy parts of my camp into plastic bags and hauled ass south.
I had intentions of spending time hiking in the Redwoods in N CA but the weather was just not going to cooperate, at all. A few hours later I found myself putting on my sunglasses as I turned onto a very twisty section of highway 1 towards the coast and the community of Fort Bragg. Although the sun was out the campsites were very soggy so dinner in town was a better idea. Things drying out slowly I walked around town the next morning looking for internet access, I stumbled across a small coffee shop in an old building that also contained a photography school and gallery that of course wasn’t open but I spent a generous amount of time gazing through the windows. The coffee shop was full of old black & white photographs that told a history of the once very prosperous fishing community and the enduring people that made it so- another place on the list of places to spend more time in someday.
That afternoon several miles up a backroad near Clearlake I came to Boggs Mountain Forest Service area. I had found info on it and its many miles of singletrack biking trails but it hadn’t been reviewed in a few years so I figured it was my turn. I spent a very awesome couple of hours tearing up the bike trails in the California sunshine, way cool.
Highway 20 all the way across the central valley into the foothills and Nor Cal gold country, up and over the crest of the sierra into Truckee on highway 80 and down into Reno. Arriving pretty late I grabbed a cheap hotel not wanting to spend time shopping around.
-----
More sunshine was definitely helping the situation and coffee with the girls at the Purple Bean and even the Purple Bean Too made the day seem right. I drove past my old apartment to find it empty and a for rent sign stabbed in the lawn; the wheels in my head start to turn slowly as I head out of town and on towards Vegas…
A very long, no, a VERY long and boring drive down 95, Christ! What a bunch of nothing. I stayed just outside of Vegas and drove in the next morning. LV is one of them well designed cities that you can actually drive around without getting sucked into the traffic chaos so around the outside to Red Rocks Dr and I took a right. 6 miles later I arrived at the Spring Mountain Ranch and the Red Rocks Rendezvous. I had pre-registered for the weekend online and was met at the gate by my cousin Eric and his two children who I had never met before. Tor 8 and Emily 9, the next week spent camping and hanging out with them was very memorable, cant wait to do it again.

New Stuff

I remember thinking my front suspension wasn’t being all it could be the last few times I rode the K2, I now wish I had taken it into the shop before I left to have it rebuilt, that hindsight thing ya know-
So after all the fitting and installation I incurred a $300 expense for a new fork I hadn’t planned on. I tried to get one a little heavier duty than the original but like my bike itself they seem to be right on the edge of a price vs. quality break. To get just a little higher quality I will have to pay twice the price, not worth it in my book. Just having the same as the original that works properly will be fantastic. So I will leave the old fork with the bike shop when I leave and have it rebuilt with stronger springs for a fraction of the cost. That just takes time, a luxury I don’t have right now, there is a sunny singletrack somewhere calling my name- Hell, I gottago!

Normal- ?

Over the past few months I have taken quite a break from the blog here, there has been the learning a new position at work along with adjusting to the new schedule and living quarters. But really I have been thinking about which direction this site and my own life in a way should go. There are a lot of issues I am passionate about but really don’t have the time or in some cases the education to address them here in a sufficient manner. As I go through changes myself so shall this page and hopefully it will continue to evolve as I hope to do myself.
And with that I would like to bring attention to one of the RSS feeds that is on the left side of the page here from a site called the Dumb Little Man, I cant say enough good things about this site, except for the name- I'm not sure whats up with that. But give it a look now and then, I guarantee you will find something that is interesting to you.
As I have just packed all my belongings back into a storage unit and am getting ready to board a plane and start another journey spanning the next 3 months and several states quite simply because I cant see any reason to sit still I will post a quote from the afore mentioned Dumb Little Man and hopefully you will read the rest of it-

3. Do not Get Sucked Into Society’s Definition of "Normal": Just because everyone else you know has a house in the suburbs, a fenced yard with a dog, a minivan in the garage, and the requisite two children, do not become pressured into thinking that those things are right for you. If they do make you happy, then that is fantastic – go for it. If not, explore what would give you satisfaction and fulfillment.

If you long for a loft in the city, that is where you should be. Conversely, if you crave solitude and prefer a home in the country, then move out of the city and chase your dream. Do not pass up those things that would provide you with tremendous happiness just because the majority of society feels otherwise. Society’s wants may not be your wants. Society’s needs may not be your needs. As long as you are not harming anyone else, indulge yourself by exploring your differences.

To the Highest Court!

With all the commotion going on in the world today it may seem as though most of the general public has forgotten, after all it has been 19 years. Dare I say that a lot of people now are too young to even remember it. But for one rural Alaskan community and the people there that I have come to love over the years the reminders are present everyday-

* quotes from MSNBC story 2-25-08 *
CORDOVA, Alaska - For many in this coastal town, it is known simply as the Oil Spill, an event so crushing that hard-bitten fishermen still get teary-eyed recalling ruined livelihoods, broken marriages and suicides.
Now the town of 2,200 looks anxiously to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear arguments Wednesday from Exxon on why the company should not have to pay punitive damages at all.
Steve Smith, a 69-year-old Cordova fisherman, worries that big business will prevail.
“I really wonder, what do you do if you don’t get a just decision out of the Supreme Court,” he said on his boat Prince William. “I mean, there’s no other court to take it to. What do you got left, really? Anarchy?”

Perhaps the quote that holds true for so many of Cordova’s residents is the closing lines of the article;

“I find it not only ironic but tragic that the very process that is supposed to resolve the social impacts of the Exxon Valdez spill — that is, litigation — has, over time, become a source of stress and disruption itself,”

Read the full article;
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23338979/