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I’m convinced that when I’m having a good time, so is the little guy. That’s what Sunday was all about. Brendan said I had that ear-to-ear grin the entire time. This was our first time back down Palm Canyon since it’s cooled off and the weather was PERFECT!
We started out at 7:30 (a little later than we intended, but Dave was asleep when he got here anyways.) This big shuttle ride necessitates quite a drive, but we definitely keep the drive/ride time ratio healthy. The rule is that we have to ride for a longer duration than drive. Heading out of Idyllwild, we dropped down into a cottonball blanket of clouds by Garner Valley.
We dropped one of the matching Explorers in Cathedral City and headed back up to the trail.
We started riding at about 9:30 in the sun, but could see Idyllwild, still in the clouds. The start was windy and chilly which helped us to make haste at the car and get on the trail in our efforts to drop down into the canyon. The upper section nearest pinyon has a bit of climbing and some good tech.
The only mechanical of the day was my flat – which Brendan hooked up with some Stans sealant. It was a quick easy fix and somehow the guys had stopped in a place where they don’t normally, which was right where I had the flat. Normally, I fix it myself, but these days, I don’t mind taking help since I’m carrying the extra load for us. The deal is, I carry the kid and he carries the extra tools and takes care of the bikes – not a bad deal on either end.
The lunch spot where we normally sit in the shade. It was chilly enough, though, that we took the sunny side.
Sometimes we take the Art Smith route, which is a bit shorter. Dave and I have cleared the trail that way in 4 and a half hours, but the longer route takes more like 6.
The Art Smith route is nice and techy, but the views on the full-route are very expansive.
(above) The guys are out on the ridge there, but hard to see.
We ended in Cathedral City with Pollo Loco and a chill drive home.
I’d forgotten how much good trail there is on the full route and just how tiring it would be. The worst part, when you’re 6 months pregnant, is that it feels like you’re carrying an extra 20 lbs in your pack – which makes everything harder! Needless to say, I was pretty fatigued by the end. The baby and I slept good Sunday night.
You can also read Brendan’s post about our Vegas/St. George/Hurricane trip but here are some pics from a few days off. We met some pretty cool people, hung out with some old friends and shred some new trails.
It started with Vegas Thursday morning. We helped out a little in the World Bicycle Relief Booth and also met up with many good friends. At the Magura booth, I met Nadine and Martin who are just about finished with their around-the-world ride. They’ve been riding since 2003 and cover between 50 and 80 miles a day. They live off of $3,000 USD per year, camping and cooking on a little stove. Nadine said their gear weighed between 130 and 150 lbs at any point. They’ve seen temps between -1degree and 120degrees F. and ridden between -1,292ft and 17,500ft and canoed about 2,600 miles of the route.
Here’s Nadine and Martin’s website – www.weltenbummler2003.de (click on the british flag for the English site.
I also met up with Tour Divide aficionados Matthew Lee and Jay Petervary at Cross Vegas. Matthew had ridden from Salt Lake to Vegas with a Cannondale crew and a Mercedes Unimog as a sag vehicle. It was good to meet Jay and catch up with Matthew.
Cross-Vegas Craziness – always fun to watch!
The other Vegas Spectacle that we indulged in was a VIP RaceFace party at some beautiful estate north of Vegas. RaceFace is a sponsor of mine, so they sent me an invite. How I got mixed up into this downhill/freeride crowd, is a little of a mystery, but they know how to throw a party. The party was sponsored by pinkbike.com and RaceFace and was hosted by Tippie and Wade Simmons as a preview to the new freeride flic – What’s Next? – a film by Aaron Larocque. There was a waterfall spilling into the pool with a hot tub behind the waterfall and a huge movie screen to watch the premiere. I felt a little old at a party of big-bike guys and gals, but it was a fun scene.
Cameraphone pic, but you get the idea – RaceFace limos out to the premiere
View from the balcony looking down into the pool with palm trees and the big screen.
After LV, we headed to St. George to catch up with our friend and fellow beautiful-bike builder Jon Hanson of Sabrosa Cycles (he models his own softgoods because he and the bikes are beautiful.) Somehow – we’re still not sure how this good fate fell upon us – Jon scored a tour of the supersonic test track on Hurricane Mesa wher Brendan’s great uncle worked in the 50’s. Jack was excited to show us around the largest privately owned test track in the U.S. and they still do ejection seat testing for private companies and the military. Jack said the track is “rated for mach 2, but we try to keep it around mach 1.”
The end of the track – where they used to fire things go off the Mesa (in ejection seats) – including pigs and chimps!
It was great hanging out with Jon, his wife Daleena and daughter Noelle in St. George. Wonderful people with beautiful bikes and VWs, an awesome garden, chickens and pomegranate bushes.
We headed out to Gooseberry Mesa for the night, only to end up back in Hurricane Saturday morning to meet up with friend and divide racer Dave Nice. He works at Over the Edge Sports in Hurricane. He had to work in the morning, but then we were able to get out for a ride on “Guacamole” with a group of good guys.
Need Coffeeee……
Ride leader – Dave Nice – super sweet guy and great rider
Saturday night, Over the Edge hosted “afterbike” which is an annual event with Dave’s chili, beer boiled brats, and lots of locals who brought potluck dishes. I also met Lucy Ormond, a local nurse, at the bbq. Unfortunately, no pic of Lucy, but she just finished riding coast to coast on the northern tier. We talked a little about that readjustment to every day life, which is what she’s going through right now. It was great to hear her stories and there are more to come on her blog “Lucy’s Big Adventures” http://clucygo.blogspot.com I always love meeting Lucy-types. She’s done lots of other long distance tours and has plans for future escapes and is working on a book.
Saturday night we headed back to the mesa for camping. I was feeling a little under the weather, so in the morning, when Brendan met up with a bunch of guys for a ride, I decided to go for a hike instead. I figured it’s good practice for when the baby comes and I’m wearing him around in a sling or backpack. I was also able to get lots of great pics that we normally wisk by when riding.
A little tune-age while you read.
What a great weekend – and right out our back door. Idyllwild and the mountains here never cease to amaze and impress.
This past weekend, Brendan and I headed out to Black Mountain with Dave, Yumi and the kids for a fun weekend and some good exploration. It’s a little warm down here at 5500′ so camping at 8000′ under the stars felt pretty crisp. We even got a little rain.
When we got there Saturday afternoon, the kids already had horse shoes warmed up for us. We had some Sonoran-Style hot dogs, which Dave already had cookin’, then played a few rounds of horseshoes.
Sunday morning we hit the Black Mountain trail – our highest Mountain Bike Trail in these mountains, really. I can’t believe we hadn’t explored this yet. Dave scoped it out the weekend before and informed us that it was kind of like a bobsled chute with a number of waterbars and some soft stuff. It’s a pretty steep techy trail so descending was the way to ride it!
The views were beautiful the entire ride and when it wasn’t expansive, it was lush.
At the bottom of the Black Mountain trail, we headed up towards Pine Cove, exploring along the way. We rode the highway up to the Lawler Alpine Lodge, where we spent a little time.
After exploring around the Lodge (which was actually about 20 cabins connected with singletrack) we headed up the highway to Pine Cove hitting the old highway for a brief spell.
Weekends like that are what keep me going through the week. Thanks guys for a fun weekend!
Dave dog asked me to write this for him since he doesn’t have opposable thumbs and can’t get the space bar too well. He wants to publicly tell Ms. Mackenzie (his Orange County girlfriend) that he loves her. He wants her to know that he’s sorry that he got into her food and left it all over the kitchen floor and also that he’s sorry he stole her big bone. He wants her to know that he was only trying to flirt. Mackenzie is very sick right now so Dave wants to share this pic of him and his girl from earlier this year. She’s a beauty! We love you Mack Dog!
A few photos from our overnight last weekend – what a ride!
We started out from Idyllwild a little later than we wanted, but it was gonna be a scorcher in the desert and we needed to gain some elevation before too late in the day.
As we started climbing up from Yucca Valley, I don’t think the guys were awake yet.
Pulling into Pioneertown is good feeling because we planned to stop for water there before going up Burns Canyon and we’d already had a bit of climbing to this point.
We tried to find cap guns to take with us to p-town for a shootout on Mane Street (seriously spelled that way for the horses), but Idyllwild was fresh out.
Just after P-town, there’s a super cool container house with a big sun room surrounded by Airstreams – pretty hip place.
The Yuccas had some crazy blooms going on.
The big plateau area half way up Burns Canyon looks a bit like Utah, but is filled with huge Joshua Trees alongside huge junipers.
Boys hungry…tired…
At the top of Burns Canyon, there’s one turn that’s crucial. If you miss it, you end up down in that valley, which is BAD. You have to turn left onto 2n02 before 3n03 drops down.
We’re almost there, I promise! 
Campsite!
Is that a gremlin crawling out of the tent for coffee?
Morning pack-up.
There’s also a crazy dirtbike playground back in the canyon.
I think I won the argument about whose handle bar bag is easier to use.
Back in P-town, Pappy and Harriets is a great place to grab a beer and lunch or live music on the weekends.
From there, it was a paved fast descent back to Yucca Valley where we parked at the Water Canyon Coffee Company – great little coffee shop for the refuel for the drive back home.
Thanks to Scott Morris for this updated video of the leaders days 6-11.
more about "TD Race Updates | Tour Divide", posted with vodpod
What an exciting weekend so far. My old teammate, Todd and the other Siren/WBR guys went to the 24 hours of Big Bear in West Virginia. Unfortunately, Todd and Chris both wrecked out late in the day yesterday, but were holding awesome in 5th and 6th at the time. Brad, however, pulled through with 3rd place – Congratulations Brad!
The other excitement this weekend was the beginning of Tour Divide. This will be a fun one to watch and is especially fun for me since I know a lot of what they are facing. Matthew Lee joined the racers and is tearing it up out there.
Also, my bud Cannon is doing superb out there. He’s riding a Siren and a good friend of mine and Brendan’s. There arejust so many people this year including many women and a tandem. Cricket (super cool lady from North Carolina) is currently in the lead for the women. It’s bound to be entertaining! Stay tuned and watch the leaderboard and listen to Joe Polk’s mtbcasts.
http://mtbcast.com/wordpress/
http://tourdivide.org/leaderboard
For my friends who will be starting the Tour Divide soon… and for everyone else, here’s a panoramic I pieced together from the top of the Divide just outside Boulder, Wyoming. The race will be starting soon and it’s an exciting time for us all.
Joshua Tree, to The California Club to the Project Rwanda Ride to Sedona – time to breathe! The past few weekends have been action packed with good trails and good people and just fun times. I’m living life and loving it!
Unfortunately, I’ve been too busy having fun to even write about it.
A couple weekends ago, I wanted to make the most of my weekend and drove to Joshua Tree Friday night so I could try out a couple of bivies and sleep under the stars.
The view on the way down the mountain towards Palm Desert.
Then, I could wake up and make the most out of my Saturday and ride through the park from Cottonwood, on the south end, to Joshua Tree on the NorthWest end and back.
There’s ton of climbing from the bottom end to the top, taking you from the Colorado Desert (a sub system of the Soran) into the Mojave.
In the Sonoran you will find my favorite plant on earth… well so far! The Ocotillo. I saw a few blooming, which is pretty special. They grow and drop leaves as many as 5 times a year and… right after a rain, it puts out the cluster of leaves over top of thorns and at the same time the beautiful red blooms. I hit the ocotillo patch on the right day because there were many blooming shrubs.
Then, you pass through the cholla garden. Alson one of my more favorite plants – these cuddly babies make you want to snuggle up, but you gotta be careful because if you take your eye off ‘em they’ll jump out and prick you in the ass! Really, you just have to look at them wrong and the darn pieces just jump off at ya!
After riding up through the park (approximately 50 miles and climbing from around 2500 feet up to 3500 with lots of undulation) then descending back to the south entrance, I rushed back up to Idyllwild to get things ready for a working Sunday and enjoy this beautiful sunset on the drive.
Sunday, I left early so I could take Dave to stay with his big white girlfriend in Orange County. I knew it would be a late night, so I didn’t want to leave him in Idyllwild. Then, I headed to the California Club for the school’s annual fundraising gala. I was the AV kid (picked up some glasses just for the occaision) and had a fun time working with the AV company to put on a slideshow about the history of the school and another one showing our auction items – like a trip to Italy!
It was fun being a geek for the night (I guess I always am, but I love it) and I also got to have my 15 seconds in the spotlight (in a cute little black dress, I might add) holding the pearl necklace and raffle jar for the raffle.
Then, after a late night at the club, I headed to Carol Ann’s to crash out with Dave and his girl, Mackenzie. I only had a brief time with Carol Ann, but it’s always good – picked up this quote in her kitchen – “We must travel in the direction of our fear.” – John Berryman
Then, last weekend – even more fun! Of course, I try to maximize my weekends, from… say… 4pm on Friday to 8am on Monday. I ended up driving about 1,000 miles all together and riding about 100 (not so balanced on the ride/drive ratio, I know… but it was sooo good!)
I headed down Friday night to Carol Ann’s because we had to get up super early for the Project Rwanda Ride. We had friends visiting, Brett 001 and Pete. Carol Ann and Brett 002 and the other guys had all spent the day riding the Santa Ana River trail and we all met up at her house. I stopped for groceries and was able to cook up a feast for us all. My Japanese friend Junko taught me how to cook some delicious mapo tofu many years ago and I like to bust it out for fun night where we need flavor explosion.
We had a great evening and probably stayed up later than we should have, but again – sooo worth it. Then, we had to wake up at 5am so we could leave for the Project Rwanda Ride at 6am. My good friend Ian also met us at the venue – it would be his first organized mountain bike event, other than the 12 Hours of Temecula (which he did solo of course!) How fun!
It was a slow moving morning, but once we got on the bikes, we all got warmed up. This ride is very social, not a race, which is what makes it such a community event.
The weather was a little gray, but it kept us cool. The ride used to be in December and I have to say that I’m glad they moved it to the Spring – GREEN and FLOWERS!! It was totally appropriate because Brett 002 had proposed to Carol Ann the day before and she was glowing on this ride – what a beautiful thing.
The day was filled with beautiful scenery, 50 good miles of trail, happy people and great company. I had a great time visiting with Ian and #002 especially – these guys are always insightful.
After the ride, they have a barbecue and raffle and good times at Cook’s. I had to cut it short because I needed to maximize my weekend – of course! So, I rushed home, dropped off Dave and headed right back out towards Sedona. I was on a mission to pre-ride for this weekends race. I got a good part of the way there Saturday night then camped in the desert near Phoenix, woke up at 5am and drove on to Sedona.
I’ve never ridden most of these trails and need to be able to figure out the navigation with minimal effort during the race. I don’t want to be that “girl” who comes in 3 hours after the race is over because I took a wrong turn and had to hitchike back to Sedona after ending up in Phoenix.
I took maps and all the cues/beta I could get, but it was still a little confusing. Fortunately, I met up with Johnny when I was loading up in the grocery store parking lot and he offered to show me as much of the trail as he could. We were able to knock out a good portion of the route and I had a great time with him.
One reason I was really happy for a pre-ride was because I now know to change out my darn tires – not Crow-land. This race is sooo technical and pretty scary actually. I thought, during my pre-ride of actually bowing out graciously, before even going. It’s gonna be difficult to even finish this. Not because of all the climbing or hiking. But, because of all the exposure and huge drops – you could kill yourself there! I’ll definitely be going into it with a different mindset, now that I’ve pre-ridden. I’ll be going into it trying to just ride as much of it as I can. I probably wrecked about a dozen times and have bruises on all four quarters of my body. I just want to make it through this craziness.
Johnny was a sport and waited for me on the technical and I waited for him on the climbs – it worked out well for meeting some local in a parking lot and actually being able to ride together. He’s an auto mechanic in Sedona, so I’ve now got a connection should the black duv decide to act up there.
I got home around midnight, with just enough time to get some good sleep before starting another work week – runnin a little low this week, but high on a good life surrounded by wonderful people.
