Safe and sound in Seattle

"What do we have here?"

"And you say you really need this?"

Yes, yes I do.

I just can't get over how purdy it is. The bike suffered one badly bent brake rotor during shipping, and all of my spares are the older Avid 165s and don't play nice with the newer 160 setup. Time with the Park DT-2 didn't really help all that much. Other than that, the bike is no worse for the wear and I'm looking forward to getting out there with it.

On a non-bike related note, I'd like to draw your attention to the Christmas stocking disparity in our household. That's how I roll, bitches!

Tree's up.

I heart Heart Lake

Michele and I went up to Anacortes today to check out Heart Lake. It was a beautiful day for it and the trails we hit were a shitload of fun, even if there was a bit of walking involved. I'm going to have to get back up there to check out the rest of the ACFL one of these days.

Dirty bike?

Anacortes put off until tomorrow, leaving me a good opportunity to deal with the mess left behind from the last ride.

The places I have yet to ride

The new issue of Bike hit my mailbox today and got me thinking. Many years ago, when I first started mountain biking, I only rode the trails right out my door in Spokane. I couldn't really see why I would ever need more than what my little park could provide. I occasionally ventured off to do other trails, but never far from home. Mt. Spokane, High Drive, Liberty Lake, Beacon Hill, never anything more than a half hour away and still fairly similar terrain. By the time we left Spokane for Missouri, MTB trail wanderlust had set in completely. I wanted to do it all and was building up a decent little list in my head.

In the last couple of years I've ridden in some amazing places and knocked a few very big trails off of the list. Sedona, National Trail, and MRT come to mind right away.

Here's what's currently on the list, in alphabetical order.

Crested Butte, CO - Twice I've been to CB and the first time Michele and I had bikes with us, at least we did when we started our trip. An unfortunate Yakima failure led to the loss of our bikes and a MTB free stay in CB. Poor and not feeling able to absorb any unplanned expenses, I refused to rent a bike, even with Michele urging me to. I retrospect I really should have gotten a rental, oh well, that's hindsight for you.

Fruita, CO - I spent a couple months in Palisades, just a few miles away from Fruita back in '96. I didn't have my bike with me or any idea of what Fruita had to offer at the time. I was back in Spokane by the time the buzz reached me.

Gallup, NM - Gallup is a recent addition to the list, I heard about what the area had to offer only a couple years ago. The last time I was in Gallup I even had my bike and the option to ride but all I wanted to do was bust-a-move back to the 'nix so I've only got myself to blame that it's still on this list.

Gooseberry Mesa - I don't remember the first time I heard about Gooseberry, but it was a while back. It's a full day's drive from Phoenix and I made plans a couple times to head up there and it never happened. Totally my fault that it never happened.

Grand Canyon North Rim - Again it's a fairly new addition to the list and supposed to be relatively tame, but it's the fucking Grand Canyon. How can it not be on any self respecting mountain biker's list.

Maah Daah Hey Trail - This is the first trail I remember feeling that I really wanted to ride. I read about it in an issue of Bike sometime in the early nineties. It's the first time I ever really thought about riding somewhere other than the trails I already knew.

Moab, UT - Been to Moab, ridden in Moab, but only Slickrock Trail and rumor has it that's just the tip of the iceberg. Not a big priority to get back but it still makes the list.

Mt. St. Helens - Close by and supposed to be fantastic riding. It's my understanding that there are still some access issues due to last winter's storms but still good for multi day riding.

Orcas Island - This is a fairly new addition to the list. My one big plan for '08(not including NAHBS) right now is to make sure that I get up to Orcas for a multi day bike camping/mtb adventure, and that's why I'm now the proud owner of a brand spanking new El Mariachi.

Seven Summits Trail - Heard about the trail in passing a couple years ago but the new issue of Bike is what actually put it on the list. Not too far away from here and a definite candidate for a quicky trip this summer, if I ever get around to getting a new passport anyway.

You'll notice no middle America or right coast trails on this list. Not because I don't have any interest in say Pisgah or State College, but I just don't see traveling that far for a ride. Then again there was a time when I didn't see driving across town so you never know.

Thanksgiving!

Michele had a call shift on Wednesday and she crashed hard yesterday when she got home. We had talked about heading down to Portland to see my extended family or going over to Spokane to see Rachel's people but it just wasn't happening. When she finally got up around six neither of us had much interest in attempting to put something together so we drove out into the night in search of a meal. It took a little while but we found a little Thai place in Fremont that was open and happy to serve us.

Anyway, fast forward to today and our real Thanksgiving dinner. We went over to the house of one of Michele's co-interns and had a real feast laid out for us. In all there were about 12 or 13 people there. Lots of beer, a big ass turkey, green bean casserole, cheese plate, and of course pie.

Tomorrow we're going to head up to Anacortes to do a little riding and work off the meal. Should be a good time, or an outright train wreck.

The rest of the weekend...

Sunday dad and I started moving around the apartment pretty slow. The fact that I had not ridden much the past couple months was pretty obvious by the way I felt in the morning. Achy all over, but not really full on hurting. We finally got around to loading up a little after 9 and headed to the preserves, 32nd St trailhead. Dreamy Draw had been tossed around as a starting point but since it's climbing in every direction I really wasn't feeling it.

We started on Michele's Loop to 40th and up 8 to 8a, over to 1a all the way to DD, side trails to the North end of 220, 220 to conversation point, and down the Zipper back to the truck from there. There were sections of trail that I traveled at greater speeds than I ever have before simply because of the gears, and a couple other sections that were easier due to the larger tires. It was a good ride at a decent pace. Near the end I gave dad the choice of three paths and he of course chose the one with the most hike-a-bike but it did get us back to the top of the zipper and that's always fun.

Post ride we hit Sabuddy for lunch and then dropped the bike off at Rage to be shipped back. It should hit my door sometime early next week. Later we took Char to LGO for dinner and the Gelato Spot for dessert. I went ahead and crashed on her couch last night and she dropped me off at early this morning.

The camera never made it back out after Saturday so no pictures, sorry.