I guided Friday and Saturday. Got home last night about 9pm to put the kids to bed. I pedaled somewhere in the neighbor of 70 miles these last 2 days and I’m guess I did about 3000 feet of climbing.  I got to guide Alpine – Tire Mountain – Cloverpatch on Friday (33 miles). Hopped an afternoon shuttle to drop Larrison Rock… a very short but very fast and fun downhill (4 miles). For Saturday’s ride I was assigned to guide the Middle Fork Willamette trail (30 miles). Middle Fork is usually 25miles but I was assigned the fast or hammer group which does some extra mileage and climbing on the upper section to give the other groups a good head start.

All in all, a very fun weekend. Here are some pics I took along the way. Sorry for the poor quality on the pics, they were taken with my LG Touch.

Carrie is entering the Blue Lake Triathlon.. which is a a sprint triathlon consisting of 1/2 mile swim,  12 mile bike ride,  and a 5k run.  Carrie’s race is in June.

I just started training for the Fat Fifty Five Endurance Race. It’s a 55 mile mountain bike race with 8000′ of climbing. Coming into the new year I had my sights  set on the Cascade Cream Puff (110 miles, 16K feet of climbing), but with work going off the hook and 3 kids under  5, it became apparent very quickly that I just wouldn’t have the time to prepare for a race of that magnitude.  When the Fat Fifty Five came up I jumped on it. I’m also sponsoring the race by providing website hosting and Wordpress CMS  support. My race is in September.

I’m in my second week of training and right now the goal is miles on the legs and lots of climbing.  I haven’t ridden 50 miles in one shot in over 10 years since I was a courier in Chicago. And I might  have only done that a handful of times at best in my 6 month career.  What I do remember is that it took me almost 2 months to get my legs in that kind of shape.

My plan is to start posting weekly training logs to help me keep track of times, distances and elevations etc. Stay Tuned!

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This kid is fucking incredible!

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I got to get out and ride some single track on my single speed. I even got to ride a trail with my wife this past Sunday. We drove over to Brice Creek, which is about 50 minutes or so from the house… about 25 miles or so east of Cottage Grove, OR in the Umpqua National Forest. What a beautiful canyon. Lush dark green forest with a canopy of old grove Douglas Fir.

Something i’ve been wanting to do is mess around with some video editing with mountain bike footage. Being the cheap skate and not wanting to drop the coin on a helmet cam,  I created a quick, cheap and simple mount for my Sony Cool Pix digital camera to shoot some video of our ride up Brice Creek. Once we got home I started messing around with Microsoft Movie Maker and published a quick video with music in under an hour.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Being the camera was mountained on my handle bars… its pretty shaky at some points…. especially when I started going fast.

I don’t know what would be more fun… the mountain bike rides or flying down the ziplines backwards shooting the movie.

Can you tell I’m getting pumped for mountain bike season?

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Click here to view the embedded video.

I was stoked to start riding again once we got to Eugene, OR. I was even more stoked because  Carrie gave me her full suspension GT I-Drive 4.0 in exchange for a buying her a new hardtail. The first group ride I did, I couldn’t believe how many people were riding single speeds.It wasn’t till a few rides later that I realized why. The mud.

I was on a 3 hour tour with a couple of friends and half way through I was starting to have chain suck complications.  I was cursing my way up a climb when my friend Davey said to me, ” I’ve got 2 words for ya… single – speed”. I went home,  and a week later decided to go for it.  I asked for some advice on cog and change wheel sizes from the Disciples of Dirt Yahoo Group and sought the expertise of Sheldon Brown.

For my single speed conversion I went with a 34 tooth Surly stainless steel chain ring, a 20 tooth Surly rear cog, a surly single speed conversion spacer kit, and a Surly Singulator chain tensioner.

I’m looking forward to riding this weekend and taking my newly converted single speed for her maiden voyage. I let you now how it turns out. After testing her out in front of the house I’m a little scared… the gear ratio is higher than I though it would be… but I guess there’s no better way to get my climbing legs back after be on the bench for 5 years.

Republican Senators DeMint and Coburn are calling for the removal of funding for hike and bike trails in the Recovery plan.

On Tuesday, February 2, 2009, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), chair of the Senate Steering Committee, told Newsmax, that the stimulus bill is a “sham” and that “When people see bike trails and hiking trails and golf courses, they know this is not designed to stimulate the economy and create jobs,” DeMint says.

The following is response from Rep. Blumenauer, founder of the Congressional Bike Caucus regarding this issue:

“Republican amendments and assertions that the creation of hike and bike trails in the recovery plan will not create jobs or stimulate the economy shows us just short-sighted and out of touch they are. Investment in bike paths will not only improve our economy, and take our country in the right direction for our future; it is precisely the kind of investment the American people want. American families have indicated time and again in the passage of bond measures across the country that they favor spending on alternative transportation, such as bicycles and mass transit, over spending on more highway capacity. Americans want a real solution to the economic crisis, not just a band-aid fix. These investments will stimulate the economy in the present and point our nation toward the economic and environmental realities of the future.”

Rep. Blumenauer also blogged about this on the Huffington Post.

American families have indicated time and again in the passage of bond measures across the country that they favor spending on alternative transportation, such as bicycles and mass transit, over spending on mere highway capacity. Americans want real solutions to the economic crisis, not just a band-aid fix. These investments will stimulate our economy now – when it counts and point our nation toward the economic and environmental realities of the future.

If you think about.. look at the economic good that came out of the CCC who built trails all accross the country creating thousands if not more jobs during the Great Depression. The CCC in my eyes is one of many factors that helped bring America out of that touch economic time.

If the outdoors and access to it is important to you then write and email or send a letter to your representatives letting them know that you are against the removal of trail building from the latest stimulus package.

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