Father's Day weekend

 I took the family up to Herring creak to do some Father's Day camping and riding. Gage and Ashton are checking out the "Gargoyles".

 Ashton's first run down Snakedance

 Wouldn't be Father's day without Father Time. You like Biff's custom camo helmet and matching shorts.

 Ashton loves his Kona, it has made his confidence level soar.

 Jeanie got to ride Snakedance for the first time as well. Everybody loved the trail. Thanks to our one man trail designer/builder/maintainer it was better than ever. Gage said it is his favorite trail so far. 

 We hiked the canoe down to the reservoir to paddle around for a while. 

Small lake but worth the hike. Herring creek is always a good trip, close to home, good trails, cooler temps. I wish the keg of home brew would have made it home but it was fun while it lasted. 

Milo's Run

 Despite the look on my face I am very happy to see this sign. I heard about Milo's Run when I first started mountain biking. Every description or story I could find made it sound like it was a super gnarly suffer fest. Any time I mentioned riding it everyone else became really busy all of a sudden. I finally found my victim in Sean. 

 There are more hike a bikes than your average ride, but not out of control.

 The sections we did have to walk gave us a chance to enjoy the amazing views.

 Almost to the top of the hike. The best view of the Dardanells I have seen.

 Huge flowering meadows on the way down to Eagle Meadows. 

Its mostly downhill from here. Unfortunately I ended up taking a dirt sample towards the top of the techy DH section. I swore I wouldn't run the XC tires on my 429 after the last time I rode it. It made for a very painful ride to the bottom. I think I tried to dislocate my shoulder, and ended up with a sprained AC ligament. Despite the pain and the trip to the ER I can't wait to ride Milo's again. Super fun awesome scenery with a side of adventure. It also looks like there might have been some Grizz style trail work done since the last time I rode the DH.  MTB only reroutes down some great big granite slabs.      

More Spring

 Fish and I were playing above Lyons while everything was still green.

 Sea Otter! the official kickoff of MTB season. This years course was the best I have ridden so far. 

 I'm trying out a new type of brake pad. Scrub components makes theses pads with a heat sink bonded to the backing plate. Shimano changed all their brakes to work like this, but if you can't afford to buy new brakes this seemed like a good alternative.

 Here you can see them mounted in the front caliper. They angle out and look to give lots of extra cooling. The only issue with mounting them is making sure the pistons are all the way retracted so you have enough clearance.

 This is on the rear. I decided to swap out the rotors to the next size as well (203mm front, 185mm rear).  I think this will give the best cooling and power. I only have one ride on them (Arnold) but so far I am very happy. After bedding in they had a ton of power and were easy to modulate.  

Bobby and Katie and I made our first run up to PCP. I just rained the day before so the conditions were perfect. Awesome run. Thanks Grizz for repairs and reroutes.

Spring = Downhill

 Spring has sprung and some of the DH trails are clearing up. I took the Family down the DAM trail for the first time this year. Every body loved it.

 Jeanie is getting the hang of her Knolly

 Gage is getting better at switchbacks

 Ashton's first real ride on his Stinky 2-4

 Gage at the bottom

 I think me yelling at Jeanie about her stance is working, perfect form.

 I think the smile says it all

 The only dry way across this stream in Arnold is to set your bike in the water and pedal to the other side. 

 Sean made it

 Bobby didn't. I have Arch to thank for my awesome Mavic Gore tex shoes. I just walked through the water and my feet stayed dry.

 Despite the whole spring thing going on it was cold and raining. I don't think Bobby appreciated the wet feet.

 Sean and went to Auburn on Sunday. The work they have done on the Tunnel trail is incredible. I've been to bike parks that didn't have this good of flow.

Banked turns everywhere. 

Cool XC

 Sunday was the annual Cool XC race. We took the Boys for their first race of the year. It was also their first race on the XC bikes they got for Christmas. Here is Sean about to cross the finish line.

 Gage was super excited when he found out his buddy from last season Anthony (393) was there. Gage decided that if Anthony was going to race the big loop (10 miles) then he was too. He was exhausted but he finished the loops.

 Dan from Victory Vello showed up and won the Tandem class with his son Deven.

 I am finally done. For some reason the PBR I drank halfway through my second lap actually made my lap time shorter? PBR=EPO only legal?

 The Tandem was a hit.

 Gage made it but he was whooped.

 I wish I could afford one of these. Both Boys couldn't stop smiling. 

Perfect weather, good friends, fun race, good way to start the race season.

Not CX

Apparently the  mega suffer road loop that that I have been using is not so friendly for the Cyclocross bikes. I'm glad I know this now because I wanted a CX bike really bad for just this sort of loop. I thought Sean would have a huge advantage with his Felt F3. At the bottom of this hill that I had to wait for him to walk down and I started to realize disk brakes and suspension are pretty cool. I have never had to wait for Sean as much as I did today. Of course he killed me on the climbs, but I'm pretty used to that. We had a great ride over Mt. Elizabeth to Big Hill to Columbia and back Italian Bar rd. I have found a couple trails to spice things up on the way. I think the weather brought out everybody. I have never waved to so many people on this loop before. Usually I might see one or two in Six hours, today lost track. We also finished faster than ever before, sub 6 hrs. not bad for 6000ft of gain in 43 miles. 

159 Days until The Cascade 100 mile!!

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.