Summer adventures abound

Where have I been?

A little bit here:














Antelope Island, SLC, UT. I'm quickly developing a fondness for this place, some pretty good ST and beautiful scenery.


And here:




















Yellow Fork Trail, Oquirrh Mountain area UT. Nice and steep. However, it's a shared trail with horses - which combined with rainy weather can lead to copious amounts of horse poop and mud getting jammed in SPD pedals - hence the 'turtle' action in this pic.


And here:




















Peek-a-boo Slot Canyon, Escalante UT. My first attempt at canyoneering. Ever. Gorgeous, but this trip was a bit scary for me. Looking forward to another attempt at climbing around in slot canyons to see how I fare.

And, very briefly, here...




















Another nice shot from Escalante, UT at the Spooky slot canyon entrance...


I do feel compelled to write about my summer adventures, but when it comes to writing my stories, I find myself driven to the outdoors rather than the computer screen. So I give to you the ADHD method of documentation. That's right, PICTURES! And thanks to my good friend, Jared Hargrave, video.

When I take the time to slow down a bit, I'll do a better job of telling you about where the good stuff is; because trust me - I'm finding it. In the meantime, surf my links.

Today's lesson, "B"

It occurred to me this weekend while peddling up switchbacks on Antelope Island, that this season, all my favorite things start with the letter "B."

1. Bikes
2. Beers
3. Boy (Jason, of course!)
4. BBQ
5. Beauty

It makes for a very nice mantra as I'm plodding along through life.

Inspiration from the Sun

A week after being on the White Rim trail, I'm still reminiscing of the sun on my face and the dirt in my teeth. While at times grueling and quite often cold, I would jump at the chance to hop on my bike and do the trip all over again (and again, and again).

I am inspired when I'm in the mountains, but this trip was exceptional. My riding pace often put me in position far behind the rest of my fellow riders, but far enough ahead of the support vehicles, that I was alone to take in the beauty of my surroundings and merge my body and mind into the ride. With skies as far as I could see and snowy mountain tops in the distance, I whispered to myself, "It's good to be alive."

Joy and excitement were accompanied with muscle fatigue and the worst case of ass pain I have ever had to negotiate, but it was all part of the experience. By coaxing myself through the tough stuff, I was able to mark my milestones of accomplishment....Riding a majority of the trip, climbing big hills and weathering the cold.

After four days of being surrounded by amazing friends and making new ones along the way, Matt, Arikka, Jared, Jason and I were all riding in the truck back to our car. We climbed, then coasted the rolling hills with big smiles on our faces while Eddie Vetter sang to us about the "Hard Sun."

At that moment that Jason said, "There are credits rolling behind us right now."

It was perfect. The perfect ending to the perfect trip...which provided me inspiration for this.





Photos Courtesy: Jared Hargrave, Jared Anderton, Adam Tolman, Arikka Fullmer, Matt Walker, Dave Hert.
Music Credit: Into the Wild Soundtrack

Ego is my copilot

Next weekend I'll travel with my bike and gear to tackle the White Rim in Canyonlands National Park.

It has been almost two years since I've seriously ridden a mountain bike. In fact, last weekend I took my new Specialized MTB for its christening run and succeeded in also providing the bike with it's christening crash (my new body mechanics are seriously messing with my center of balance --- clumsiness ensues).

I know my legs are not at peak performance, but I'm going on this trip anyway. I've had a couple of friends ask me how I'm going to ride 100 miles of trail when I am admittedly not quite ready.

The answer is this. I'm counting on my ego to keep my pedals going in circles while we ride along the desert floor.

I live to succeed and am powered by the drive to win. However, if I am not able to ride the entire length of the trail, I will take comfort in the fact that I have challenged myself to ride farther than I've ever ridden before.