Fathers Day Weekend

 Jeanie asked what I wanted to do for Fathers Day. I told her I wanted to go camping in Herring Creek and take Gage down PCP. At this point he was more than a little scared but still willing.

 He started to have some fun once he got to ride on some big granite.

 It took him a little while to try more stuff. He started out pretty scared of everything. 

 It rained a little the night before so the conditions couldn't be any better.

 I guess it could have been a little cooler. He wasn't happy that I made him wear all that gear.

 Everybody loves the flowy sidehill part.

 The big granite turned out to be his favorite stuff to ride.

 Got to love "Grizkid"

 He was happy to be done, but he loved it (mostly).

 Later that night Stoker came up and we decided to ride Willow and Dome in the dark. Here you can see Stoker picking himself up after the first endo of the night.

 We spent some time trying to figure out how he crashed. Everything is totally different in the pitch black night. After reenacting his crash until we knew what happened I decided that I had to out do him. I did one of the biggest over the bars get offs I have done on a mountain bike. He got to watch the whole thing. Neither one of got hurt so the crashes became the highlight of our ride.

 Crossing the log in the dark is fun too.

 I owe a beer to whoever dropped this tree.

 Katie had a blast. I'm pretty sure the Bears don't want her to return. Its a little freaky when she barks like mad and chases large animals around you and all you can see is the little cone of light in front of you. One of the best night rides for sure.

 For the actual Fathers Day ride we decided to take the whole troop down Ridge trail.

 Ashton still insists that he is not old enough to ride that trail and that its the longest trail in the world. I caught him giggling and loving it lots of times but he won't admit it.

 It's been a while for Jeanie too. She was more than happy to run sweep.

Christian and Gage were loving the dirt drop at the end.

 They pushed their bikes up to hit it again and again.

You go way faster with your mouth open.

Family Fun

 We had a day of family fun with the Stokes last Sunday. We started out hiking into Waterhouse Lake. The water was swimmable but the mosquitoes were a little crazy.

 We had the lake to ourselves. Lots of jumping and swimming. Kids had a blast. The mosquitoes can't bite you if your in the water.

 The whole troop finding our way down the granite.

 Gage and Christian checking out the view.

 Of course I snuck a ride in as well. There really wasn't any point in Stoker and I driving to the bottom when it's faster to ride down the peak. We actually beat the trucks to the store. 36:16 min from this shot to the river edge. 

 I hooked up with Bobby, Nathan and Mark for some fun in the June snow at the top of Dodge Ridge. 

 Here Nathan is playing in the snow on Lyle

Mark loved the changes to the trail below this one. All swoopy flowy berms that made us all want to climb back up and do it again.

Summer

 Even though we had a weak winter I still had trouble waiting for the snow to melt enough to get to the high country trails. Sean, Bobby and I had a blast on the super flowy downhills of CHS today.

 Oldpa was our hero last Monday when he met Bobby and I at Sandbar to shuttle us out. He had fun throwing bait in the water all morning while we pedaled from my house. 30+ miles 5000+ calories. I couldn't have made the climb out.

 Post crash. 

 Pre crash

 Sandbar is one of my favorite DH trails. You can see Grizz kid did a little improvement here on this rock drop. It used to be straight down off the rock Bobbies back tire is on. I had probably the worst ride on this trail so far. I smacked into everything. I flew off the trail. I had a blast!

I even watched some roadies take off from Sonora. 

More pics

 We bought the professional photos from the Sea Otter. Zazoosh had photographers hidden all over the different courses. These two are of the XC course on Sunday.

 Here I am coming off the only log drop on the DH.

 Gage rolling one of the bigger jumps toward the top of the DH.

 He had good form he just needs more practice.

 I took Brandon out for a "ride" on Crandel Peak. I don't think he appreciated the rocky climb, but he had a blast on the down hill on the other side.

 Gage got clipless pedals and shoes for his birthday. Here he is learning to clip in and out without falling(hopefully).

 Just like regular bike shoes only smaller.

Random shot on the DH. I almost look like I'm going fast, good photographer.

 This is what all the work was for. He finally started getting nervous right before the actual race run. We were only able to get three practice runs in before the race. We spent most of the first two days at Sea Otter standing in line waiting to ride the Downhill course. Gage rode with out to much trouble but the course definitely favored a BMX background. Not really a true DH. He will have to learn how to jump before next year to be competitive.  

 Race over! He was bummed by his result, 6 out of 6. I was just happy he rode well and had fun for his first race and didn't get hurt. The first day we were there somebody broke their neck. Final run 4:54.1

 Hands down Gage has the cutest fans.

 When it was time for my run the trail got a lot more serious at higher speeds. I spent half my practice riding slow with Gage. It was still not what I would consider a proper DH course but it was a lot of fun and would be cool to practice more on. I was also penalized be a lack of jumping skills. Final run 3:11.7

 It was the hottest Sea Otter I have attended. Finding shade was essential. Gage is relaxing now that his race is over.

 The kids had lots of fun playing at the beach after.

She should make an awesome mountain biker, as much as she likes to eat dirt.

Sea Otter Prep

 This whole last month has kept us busy getting ready for the Sea Otter. Gage and I are going to do our first down hill race together on this coming Saturday. Sunday I am racing the XC with Sean. Here Bobby and I tried our hands at MTB hill climbing. Its harder than it looks. He got to watch me flip over and land on my back on my first attempt.  

 Sean and I went to Auburn for 32miles and 4400ft of gain. The plan was to make the Sea Otter course seem easy. We'll see. 

 Bobby and I did 32miles before the snow took out our trails again.

 Jeanie has been shuttling Gage and I every chance we get. He has made huge improvements in both skill and speed.

 He no rides the whole trail non stop and keeps shaving time on every run.

 He is tearing it up.

This was an earlier run were hit hit pretty hard. After this wreck and watching some on line vids on the Sea Otter DH we decided to get him a Leatt neck brace. He still wanted to get back on and ride another lap though. What more could I ask.