the Emerald City

was lucky enough to be sent out to Seattle for a week of training. I had not been back to Seattle since I moved from there to New Mexico almost 14 years ago.

The Fall Protection training was on Bainbridge Island, which is across Elliot Bay from downtown Seattle. The views from the ferry were nice, especially in the afternoon light.




Bainbridge is a sweet little island, I'm sure you gotta be pretty well-off to live there.



Flowers everywhere...



I had a few hours to check out the city before catching my flight home.
Pike Place Market was the obvious choice.





And then down to Pioneer Square...



Amazingly, I was able to catch this shot of the Space Needle with my arm out the window as I drove by...



It was nice to see Seattle again, it reminded me of all the reasons why I left (traffic, weather, people), and of all the reasons why I love the Southwest (way too numerous to list).

Thanks for looking!

Rancho Viejo

y favorite ride close to Santa Fe is the Rancho Viejo loop. I'm not sure why we call it that - none of the actual trails have that name. But there are some old relics along the way that could be the remnants of an old ranch.



This ride has a lot going for it - six or eight separate climbs and descents, 4K feet of climbing, 20-plus miles, and great Sangre de Cristo scenery.



Much of the riding is on the historic Borrego Trail which connected the northern New Mexico villages of Cordova and Truchas to the town of Santa Fe.





Borrego Trail crosses the rios Pacheco, en Medio, and Nambe, then climbs up and over yet one more ridge to the rio Capulin, follows it downstream, then crosses back over rios Nambe, en Medio, and finally the rio Pacheco.



It is rare to see a hiker or another rider out on these back-country trails. Your only company is the locals.





There is a tribe of Hippies living near the end of the loop that like to build loopy rock stacks. Although I am an avowed hater of rock cairns, I decline deconstruction and let them have their fun.





Good times in the back country.



Thanks for looking!

Life After Gooseberry

rom Gooseberry Mesa / southwest Utah, I drove to California to visit family and friends. And did my first-ever mountain bike ride in the Golden State on the unremarkable San Joaquin River Trail. In a nutshell, the trail went up and over a big ridge, then followed the shoreline of Pine Flat Reservoir forever, so far that I gave up after 11 miles out. The best part was the wildflowers.








Happy to be leaving the Central Valley (sorry Mom), I eagerly headed over to my former college town of San Luis Obispo. I thoroughly enjoyed my 5 years at Cal Poly and the following 3 years that I taught at Cuesta College. Those were the formative years of my life, where I discovered my affinities for both science and art, and equally importantly, learned that even I (who grew up as a fat boy) could enjoy and excel at endurance sports. I became first a runner, then a cyclist, a swimmer, a triathlete, a marathoner, and a USCF Cat 3 bicycle racer. Those were some of the happiest years of my life.

I had done some interwebz searching and knew there was not a lot in the way of trails on the Central Coast but I was determined to ride what I could.

Day 1 was a short ride in the Irish Hills, so named because they are as green as Ireland.



The next day I hooked up with a couple of locals and we rode some stuff on Cuesta Grade above town. A lotta lotta lotta steep climbing.



Damned if I didn't forget both their names already. Sorry.



We rode past some crazy antennas




And through an explosives disposal area...



The we went downhill on some of the crappiest stuff I have ever ridden. A quarter mile of chunky singletrack followed by maybe 5 miles of old reverted doubletrack. These locals kept grinning at me and saying "Isn't this awesome?" And I'm thinking, "NO! this sucks ass!".

But eventually we got onto a singletrack trail that was pretty damn fun, if only for a couple of miles.



We were crossing the creek and saw this scary water bug with her eggs glued onto her back. Ick!



I made sure to go to the beach a few times. I like the ocean, but not as much as I love the mountains.






On my last day on the Central Coast, I rode at Montana de Oro with a cool local guy. His parents named him Taurus, after the car I guess, but he goes by Brown Teeth.



We rode a fun trail up through thickets of poison oak to a peak, then down to the bluffs over the ocean and back. I enjoyed it very much.



A pic from the peak:




Th ride back out went past all these sweet-smelling sage bushes. Not the desert type of sage out here in New Messico, but the kind of sage you would cook with. It smelled heavenly.



So that was my week in California. Then I drove home. I'll tell more about that later.


Thanks for looking!

Gooseberry Mesa, finally....

finally made it to Gooseberry Mesa. In case you're wondering, Gooseberry Mesa is just southeast of Hurricane Utah, east of St. George and just outside of Zion National Park. I've been wanting to ride there since I first heard about it some 8 years ago. The riding there was outstanding - technically challenging and with fantastic scenery. It was an 11-hour drive from Santa Fe and worth every minute of it.

Day 1 was an 18-mile romp along the north rim of the mesa to a huge descent on the Grafton Mesa downhill. Five minutes into the ride, our ride leader Quinton, owner of Over The Edge bike shop in Hurricane, rolled this insanely steep and chunky roller. I was impressed, and resolved not to follow him too closely....


A group shot:


I didn't get any other good pics as I lost my front brake early in the day and was quite focused on not crashing.


Day 2 was more Gooseberry, this time the south rim and the challenging Hidden Creek trail. The South Rim of Gooseberry Mesa was the best riding of the whole week - tricky ups and downs with amazing scenery everywhere. Unfortunately I didn't get any good pics. Dave "Slower than Snot" Nice took some pics for me but they all sucked. Thanks anyway Dave.

Day 3 was Little Creek Mesa, where more sweet scenery and singletrack awaited us.

A rock bridge:


Some vandals preceded us:


Another rock bridge:



It was on Little Creek Mesa that I used up my good luck for the entire decade:

I was just riding along the rim and nicked a little branch. My rear derailler sucked up into the spokes and self-destructed. Big bummer. I was preparing to walk out and was pulling the busted bits off the bike when Steve-O from Canada rolled up and said "I have a spare derailler. Take it".

When does THAT ever happen? In 10 minutes I was riding again. Unbelieveable.


Although I love riding with other mountain bikers, getting everybody geared up and organized and delivered to the trailhead can take a long time. By Day 4 I was ready for an early-morning solo jaunt. Gould's Rim to JEM trail to Hurricane Rim was right outside of town.

A long climb led to some views:


and some flowers:


JEM trail was so fast and flowing and fun I never even considered stopping for photos. It dropped down to the Hurricane Rim trail overlooking the Virgin RIver canyon. Awesome scenery and a fun flowing trail.


I took a day off of riding to explore Zion National Park. It was time well spent. I took a lot of photos but few of them were worth sharing. The Park is so overwhelmingly amazing that you have to see it for yourself to beieve it.


Those that preceded us cut these footsteps into the rock to make it easier to get to the water:


Magnificent!


The trail to Observation Point went through a beautiful slot canyon.



The only thing I saw that day that wasn't beautiful was the gift shop.


On my last day in Utah, some new and old friends and I rode Rockville Bench, also known as Slickrock Swamp.

SteveO flashing the peace sign.


This is me on the edge.


Phil from Canada:


Me again


After riding everything at Rockville, we agreed that we needed more, so we drove over to St. George and hit something called Church Rocks.

As usual, it was steeper than it looks.




I could have stayed and played in southwest Utah for many more days, but my path from there led to family and friends in California. I'll post pics of my riding there in a week or two.

Thanks for looking!