Cross Country Downhill

I now understand why downhill mountain bikers wear armour.

So I headed up to Winterpark yesterday with Andy, Jason, Tara and a couple of Jason and Tara's friends, Rex and Courtney. I'm a cross country rider. I have a hardtail bike. This means just a little suspension in the front and none whatsoever in the rear. Did this deter me from hitting the jumps and riding fast? Pfft, of course not! I did, however borrow a full face helmet from Tara. Thank god I did. Well, riding the lift up was a pretty sweet gig, and the trails down are pretty much fast flowy single track. Perfect for a cross country bike. The washboards, jumps and drops, however may have had me wanting a bit of suspension. I road 4 runs with the folks and on the last one, near the bottom I got separated. Took a wrong turn at a road intersection and missed Andy and Tara who had stopped to wait for me. Not knowing if they were in front or behind, I continued on with a stop and wait here and there because they are both faster downhill riders than I. Well, I got to a really nice wall ride and did about half of it. Waited at the bottom for Andy and Tara and decided that if they were at the bottom, they could wait another minute, if not, I would probably run into them here. So I hiked back up and wanted to hit the wall ride all the way. Oh yeah, and it was raining a little bit.

INTERMISSION! (insert Monty Python worthy intermission music. and a llama.)

Well I picked up a bunch of speed and laid into the wall. Everything was going GREAT until I saw the last 1/4 wet with rain. Shit. Well, I was committed so I hit it and, predictably, my bike immediately slid out from under me. I was thrown onto the top of the wall, which had started sloping down, slid on my left hip and knee as my left ribs slammed into a small tree which, thankfully, collapsed under me. This rolled me over and my right arm scraped along something. Probably a tree to judge by the wound. I then slid the rest of the way down the wall on my right hip. Oh, and somewhere along the line, I think my full face helmet contacted a tree, though not hard. Ouch.

I picked up my bike, twisted the handlebars back to the correct orientation, reseated my rear derailleur cable and checked for any additional damage. Slight bend in the saddle, but nothing structural. Whew. All in all, f***ing lucky. With the speed I was carrying and the lack of armour, I would have been heading to the emergency room with broken ribs had it not been for the tree falling over.

I limped my way down and Andy and Tara came down shortly after myself. Luckily it was the last run of the day anyway so I lost nothing and got an interesting story out of the mix.

The moral of the story? Wear armour.

Wakizashi

The Colorado Trail was freaking EPIC!

The short version will follow, if you want the long version, you will have to ask. ; )

Started out at Marshall Pass and immediately hiked 18 miles. I was dying at the end. My body was fully capable of hiking it, but my pack was causing agony. Literally, agony. I was afraid I would have to call the trip. Day two just over 20 miles and far less pain. In fact, my pain receded from them on. The only thing that hurt after was my shoulders from tensing under the weight of the pack. On day 3 I met a thru-hiker who was stopping for some lunch. He and I chatted a bit and as he was trying to open a particularly stubborn bag of crackers, I pulled a knife out so fast he thought it was ninja-like. Seeing as Ninja would be an unimaginative trail name, he though Wakizashi more appropriate (Short sword carried be Samurai). From then on I was Wakizashi. Or more accurately, Waki, since nobody could pronounce Wakizashi... lol. I averaged just over 20 miles a day, I had two days that were just over 30 miles, one just under and a 0 day in Leadville. 10 days solo. After hitting Kenosha Pass, I hitched into Boulder with Andy and picked Dad up at the airport the next day. We headed up to Fort Collins and hiked outside of the Comanche Peak Wilderness and had a couple laid back days. Then headed back into Boulder and spend a couple days day hiking and hanging with Dad. Wonderful! Then back to work.

In other news, I have turned in an application to the Wilderness Medicine Institute to attend their Wilderness First Aid Instructor Training Course. WMI has recently partnered with REI to offer classes which also means a couple REI staff will be trained! Crossing my fingers, I have wanted to work for WMI for awhile now, it could be a bit of a dream come true.

I am working to finish my prerequisites for grad school and our class trip starts in less than 2 weeks. Holy moly I'm going to grad school...

Colorado Trail

Well after quite some time away from blogging a LOT has happened. But more on that later. What really has me going right now is that in just over 24 hours, I will be embarking on a world shaking quest to rid the world of raptors! And no, I'm not talking about birds of prey, I'm talking about dromaeosarurid theropod dinosaurs, sometimes referred to as 'velociraptors.'
How am I going to do this, you may ask? I am going to spend two weeks hiking a long trail and just sort of assume that when I am done, they will be vanquished. Good plan, eh?

Ok, now the serious part for those of you that care. I will be starting my hike between segments 15 and 16 on the Colorado trail. This is at a place called Marshall Pass and is where the CT hits the continental divide. I will then be hiking North and East towards Denver and estimating 20ish miles a day for 11 days. on the 12th day, my father will be arriving from sea level to experience a bit of the Rockies, so I will NOT be doing 20ish miles a day. Though all in all, if my math is correct (insert shudder here) I will be hiking well over 200 miles in the next 17 days... Holy moly guacamole...

Logistically I will be carrying food for the first 9 days and resupplying when Andy comes out on trail and then again when Dad arrives. My pack weight with food and water at the beginning will be about 38.5 lbs. It will never be that heavy again. I will be carrying a SPOT GPS Messenger and updating my location every night when I make camp and every time I hit an official trail segment divider. I am hoping this will be enough information for my roommate and Dad (not to mention Andy) to find me when they come. Good luck guys ; ).

With great anticipation, I am finalizing my pack and my food, getting gear ready for my resupplies. I have not mentioned the emotional and, well, spiritual side of this whole trip, but suffice to say they are there too. I am now beginning a new chapter of my life. This is my first step into a new synergy of my skills, passions and the unknown. I now walk into the Wild. To test myself and forge new memory.

Wish me luck.




My SPOT information will be updated here for anyone to see. I will see some of you tomorrow, and the rest of you sometime after the 15th of July. Farewell!

Magic Carpet Ride ( 9 )

(Not actually me)

So Colorado continues to amaze with its completely random weather patterns. And when I say patterns, I mean it. There is some method to the madness, just not enough to be totally predictable. It may also have something to do with the fact that I rarely bother to check the weather forecasts...

So as you may remember, when I was just finishing the build of my brand-spanking-new mountain bike, the Niner M.C.R.9, Colorado decided to throw some snow at us and make the trails unridable. Stupid Mountain state. Well, I then planned another ride with Andy and yup, Colorado snowed again. Well, Andy and I finally got out on the bikes and missed another snow shower (10ish inches) by about 12 hours.

The ride was AWESOME! It was my inaugural ride on the M.C.R.9 and I am pleased to report the big bag of money-turned-steel-bike-frame rides just as its name implies. Magic Carpet Ride, baby! Though, if you start big, you are bound to crash, sometimes literally. Andy and I put up a pretty big day for early season and 2 miles from the trailhead on the way back, the bike earned its name in another, less expected manner.

Remember Aladin and his pet magic carpet? Yeah, well, his magic carpet had a mind of its own and you could piss it off. Apparently, so does my pet Magic Carpet Ride.

I was tired, not totally focused and yes, getting a bit lazy and I pick ONE bad line and my bike decides its lesson time. In just enough time for me to think "Shit, should have gone left... or right..." I find myself no longer on top of my Magic Carpet, but in front of my Magic Carpet. In the next split second I land on the boulder infested trail and hear the gut retching sound of steel contacting boulder. It takes another second, after I see that my bike is still in one piece, to realize that I hurt. I got some pretty sweet road rash in a couple places and there is a bit of blood making a spider leg pattern down my shin, but all in all, not a bad accident.

I crawl back onto the bike, reorient the handlebars (which were facing the wrong way) and try to clip in through the pain to make it to the non-technical section just ahead. I make it, standing in the pedals and then sit down for a second to relax my not painful leg only to realize my butt is on crooked. Turns out it was just my saddle that had apparently taken quite the hit and now bent at a rather awkward side angle. I limp down the quarter mile to where Andy is just turning back to come find me and we continue our ride with much laughter and a little pain.

AAR (After Action Report)

• Well, I discovered later that night in the shower that my little blood dripping down my leg probably should have had a bout 2-3 stitches, but meh.
• My saddle needs to be replaced, but it was free and pretty mediocre anyway.
• My bike has its first trail scratches, but nothing major wrong.
• I have a wonderfully pleasant ride, got a bit muddy, sunburned, bloodied, and did it all while getting the best workout so far this season.

And now it is supposed to snow again tomorrow.

Naropa University

As many of you know or have perhaps guessed from my facebook updates, I have been pursuing admission to Naropa University for a Graduate program. Naropa is a Buddhist inspired University in the middle of Boulder, CO. It also happens to have a unique program. Transpersonal Counseling Psychology with a concentration in Wilderness Therapy.

As my undergraduate education was coming to a close, I began thinking about moving. More or less on a whim, I moved to Boulder, CO and began working at a Lutheran camp outside Fort Collins. While at Sky Ranch, I received an information packet that I had casually requested some months before from a school called Naropa which, coincidentally, was located in Boulder. This program got me extremely excited and through talking with a friend (who was to become one of my closest) apparently convinced her to also pursue the program.

Nicole was accepted a year ago to Naropa's Wilderness Therapy program while I chose to bide my time. Graduate school, after all, is a big commitment. During the following year I had the opportunity to see Nicole's experience with Naropa, to get an insider perspective from someone I admire greatly. This along with many, many other smaller incidents and experiences have solidified my desire to attend Naropa. With this conviction in mind, I turned in an application in December, was granted an interview at the end of February.

As of the 4th of March, I have been accepted to Naropa University's Transpersonal Counseling Psychology Masters program with a concentration in Wilderness Therapy!

On August 2nd, my cohort (classmates and I) will leave for a 10 day wilderness intensive that precedes the program itself. After that, we have orientation and then classes start around the 22nd of August. The first year has an intense academic focus and the majority of the classroom time will be during this year. The second year is mostly spend in 'the field' on various wilderness trips to learn practical and therapeutic skills. The third and final year consists primarily of an internship working as a therapist.

SO PSYCHED! (get it? psychology - psyched... yeah, I'm done.)

Now to finish the prereq classes and the 2 week wilderness trip (more to come on that in future updates).

Niner M.C.R.9

Well folks, it's finally finished.

Months ago I happened to win a snowboard, completely by chance and through an odd twist of fate. As it so happened, I was (so I thought) entering a drawing for a set of skis. A very nice set of K2 Obsethed skis. I put all my raffle tickets in the drawing and thought nothing more about it until the drawing actually started. Needless to say when my name was pulled out of the drawing for an Arbor Element snowboard, I was understandably shocked... First of all, I have an Arbor snowboard that I love. Secondly, the snowboard I won was much too small for my massive frame. What is a guy to do?

Sell it on Craigslist and buy a bike frame!

Well thats just what I did. I ordered a Large Niner Magic Carpet Ride 9 (M.C.R.9) from Niner Bikes in Cali. I added to that A FoxShox F29 32 front fork with 100mm of travel (thank you REI for a stellar deal on a clearance shock!) and a pretty blue headset by Orbit 8 that matches my fork accents nicely and clashes beautifully with my frame color. Next came the Truvativ AKA stem which happened to come in white (to match the fork, of course) and a Truvativ carbon Noir Race riser bar. REI came through a second time and I found a nice set of Avid Elixir R hydrolic brakes on a great clearance. Add in a Thomson Elite seatpost for some instant elite status. One of my coworkers was kind enough to donate a Shimano XTR front derailleur which happens to be pretty much the ONLY derailleur on the market that fits the frame correctly. Next came the Sram X.9 rear derailleur and shifters along with a Sram chain and cassette. WTB LaserDisc 29" wheel set with Geax Saguaro tires completely the drive train with bright green bar grips, a turtle bike horn squeeker and a Y.A.W.Y.D (you are what you drink, produced by Niner Bikes) headset cap with a Henry Weinhard's root beer bottlecap complete the ensemble.

And now, without further adeiu: The Root Beer Float!






Please also note the snow on the ground. The day I finished assembling the bike was the day winter decided to return to Colorado. Needless to say, the R.B.F. has not yet been ridden anywhere but down my hallway and once on the street in front of my appartment. le sigh.

The Point of Fitness Centers and Parking Lots

Ok, so I get it. Some people are just in a hurry. I understand you only have so much time to get on that treadmill. We are all busy and all want to be 'in shape.' Like I said, I get it.

Story time. So I was driving in to work the other day just rockin' out to a little Owl City bright and early. Beautiful morning. As I pull onto the street leading to our little back parking lot, which by the way has about 4.6 million unused stall EVERY DAY, I am greeted by cars lining both sides of the street right in front of the Lifetime Fitness. I quickly check the 4.6 million stalls and sure enough, empty. Thinking this must just be a unique occurrence, I am surprised when the on street traffic has only increased by the afternoon and is still there when I return the next day! Needless to say this on street traffic causes somewhat of a major blind spot which almost got me run into twice while trying to leave the OTC.

This whole situation begs the question. With 4.6 million open stalls 50-60 feet further from the front doors than the oh-so-dangerous on the street parking, can people who are going to go work out really not walk the extra couple seconds? What's the hurry?