Taste of CX

 My first Mountain bike rides were on old dirt roads. I loved exploring all the old dirt roads behind Cedar Ridge. Then everywhere we went camping. It wasn't until much later that I discovered single track. I always feel the draw to grind out miles and miles on back roads connecting places you can't with a car. Normally I have trouble suckering participants in these suffer fests. It turns out that there are hundreds of morons that are into this sort of thing and most of them ride a Cyclocross bike, which is basically a dirt road bike. Hear is Sean with his new CX bike, still smiling after 60miles.

I "raced" a monster CXish event today called the Grasshopper in Occidental. Not a true Cyclocross race(no tape, no timing, and way to long) but super fun. 60 miles, 6000ft gain, over 7000 calories. I rode my new Pivot Mach 429 with hybrid tires. Sean and I are prepping ourselves for the High Cascades 100 miler in July, so I think we will be doing more of these type of rides. By the way the only thing that tasted better than the Coke classic they give you at the end is the beer at Laguinitas on the way home and maybe the pulled pork nachos.

Christmas Vacation, Utah style

 We snuck away the day after Christmas to Hurricane Utah for a little family vacation. The views and terrain are out of this world. The boys got snowshoes and new Specialized mountain bikes for Christmas. Hurricane offered excellent places to try out both. Here and above we are playing in the snow in Zion National Park.

 Its hard to beet the orange rocks and white snow.

 I made Eric suffer for about 21 miles outside of St. George.

 Even when he wants to quit he is still smiling.

 Snow Canyon State park. I think Ashton needs sun glasses.

 You have to stop a lot and just look around.

 On the way to Bryce canyon. 9 degrees, but you could see forever.

 We finally got out on some trail that wasn't to slimy. The whole group loved "Barrel Roll". They boys absolutely loved their new bikes. Thank you Dan at Victory Vello. Gage is on a 26" bike now. Jeanie is riding her Knolly.

 Ashton is on 24" wheels and has thumb shifters with his first disk brakes. He couldn't be happier.

 Jeanie concurred the trails namesake on the third try.

 The Bells

 Awesome trail

Boys had a blast

Last rides of the year.

 I think Dave and I got the last runs in Herring creek this year. We had a blast but we could only go up as high as the Gargoyles.

 It was a little swampy, but we couldn't help ourselves.

 Crossing the log was scarier than it looks.

 We made one more run up to Snake dance. Unfortunately I managed to break my Gravity Dropper at the start of the ride. I have two of these posts and they have been bullet proof up to this point, so I can't complain. This post is about 4yrs old, not bad. I managed to climb all the way up to Gargoyles and did the whole ride standing up. Not as hard as I thought it would be. It looks like I can fix this post for about $30.

 Ashton's last ride on his old bike.

Unhappy post.