Late Night-Hollywood

Monarch Crest Trail Epic - Continental Trail

Monarch Crest Trail



Monarch Crest Trail



Monarch Crest Trail

Crested Butte Report Days 1-3

(Photos uploading)

This report has been a while in coming and for purpose of catching y’all up I have provided a day-by-day account of our adventure so far. If you don’t want to bother with the words and just want to see the photos, click the sub-titles.

Prelude

The first obstacle we faced was simply getting here with our equipment. Brian’s travel saga can be summed up as a comedy of errors. He missed a couple of flights, arriving in Colorado Springs almost 3 hours later than schedule. Up in Denver, Wicked Mike discovered that Southwest had left his gear bag with riding clothes and shoes on the tarmac in Raleigh. It would Mike another two days to be reunited with his kit bag and he did the first couple of rides with flat pedals, sneakers, and gym shots- but I am getting ahead of myself. I arrived with all my things and the extra time allowed me to visit a friend who had recently moved to the Springs with his family to begin a new job at Colorado College. We had a long drive to Crested Butte that night and we arrived past 1 am after Wicked Mike drove 200 miles in 4 hours over the Continental Divide.

Day 1

We awoke on Saturday to behold the amazing views from our lodgings. Mike and I were up early, our body clocks unwilling to compromise their Eastern Standard bearings. Brian, on the other hand, slept like the movie star that he is until 11am. With a late start, we went to town to sort out our bikes and the rides for the next couple of days. Due to a mix up with FedEx, Brian’s Stumpjumper found its way to Salt Lake City and we’re expecting it sometime tomorrow (Tuesday). Making lemonade from lemons, Hollywood rented a Gary Fisher Hi-Fi 29er dualie dubbed Blue Steel from The Alpineer in town. The staff there was busy but made time for us. CB Veteran Wicked Mike was recognized immediately as the “guy with the Moots Rolhoff.” I had my hydraulic lines bleed because the altitude had generated bubbles in the lines and I thought it would be a good idea to have effective braking for the descents here. We were fortunate to have our first taste of the local trails with the Alpineer’s store manager Lisa serving as our guide. We were pleased; we were very pleased. Coming back into town we met Alpineer owner and IF 29er enthusiast Travis Underwood on the trail. We turned around and rode together, but the NC crew let the locals go. We were feeling the first effects of the altitude and they were training for singlespeed worlds this month and La Ruta later this fall. Total miles: 20.

Day 2

We headed out Slate d’Huez, an impressive route climbing almost 2000ft in under 12 miles, to Paradise Divide at over 11,000 ft, after a first stop at the home of Mtn Bike Hall of Fame founder Don Karle. Mike took us over to introduce Brian and I and borrow a set of clip-in pedals and shoes. Don is a mountain bike legend. As he positioned Brian on Blue Steel he mentioned many of the leading lights of mountain biking history by first name in the process of describing the trails around town. As we were chatting, Manitou Suspension founder Doug Bradbury ambled up to the backyard deck Bikes dialed in, we made the leg busting climb up to Trail 403 which descends from almost 11,800ft back down to Mt. Crested Butte where we are staying. 403 is a ribbon of wildflower hemmed trail that winds down the mountain. The descent was fast and fun. Too fun for Brian, who took a tumble when he came upon a large drainage that cut the trail too quickly. We found saw him lying on his back almost 10 feet below the trail, slightly dazed, his helmet cracked. Given his fall, the damage was light: some scrapes and light bruising. We rode home along Gothic Road having experienced on the most difficult 30 mile rides any of us had ever experienced. Total ride time: 5 hours.

Day 3

We headed south of town to hit the Reno Divide-Flag-Bear Creek trails. The ride began with another long 5 mile climb to the summit. This one was easier after the prior day’s climb of Slate. We were rewarded with an indescribably amazing descent down Flag. This trail flows! We have fewer photos from this ride because we were too busy enjoying the ride and trying to out-run the rumbles of an approaching thundershower. We do have a few though. We don’t have a a shot of Brian’s scary fall at the end of Flag. I discovered him lying in a creek bed almost 15 feet below the trail. Again, he was lucky to avoid serious injury. As he said as he scrambled up the embankment, “I’m laughing.” And so we were we. We preserved through two sandy single climbs which robbed our legs of power to enjoy a ripping downhill with 33 switchbacks that brought us to the trailhead. We caught and passed a party of moto-crossers on this downhill, our human-powered bicycles proving more nimble in navigating the tight, rutted, and rocky corners. Total mileage: 17. Total hours: 4. Thanks for reading.

Crested Butte Videos - Day Three (8/4/08)

Video#1 Ali and Ritualistic Black Fly Removal Dance at 10,000+ feet on Day 3




Video #2 Still Battling Black Flys in our Soccer Mom Mountain Bike Transport Vehicle




Video #3 Reno Divide Climb



Video #4 Drive back on Hwy 135

Crested Butte Videos - Day Two (8/2/08)

Approach up the beginning of Slate d'Huez........ seriously.



Gothic Road Ride Home

departures/arrivals

Dear John, The Pirate has left us.

No, he's not dead. He's up and moved to Albany, NY. Could this be a fate worse than death? Only time will tell. He mentioned he found a local skate park and that outdoor temperatures allow water to exist in liquid form, rather than the commonly found solid form. And speaking of solid form, I joined John for one final mtb ride at New Light, preceded by one final Biscuitville breakfast.

I give credit to John for being a powerful motivational force, advocating for dirt. Definitely not dirt on his bicycles, which were always suspiciously clean. But dirt under the wheels. I had mostly stopped mountain biking prior to meeting John, but he was always rallying the troops to hit the trails. And for that, I salute you. Also, he helped convince me that I should get a 29er and a bmx bike. And for that, I salute you. I guess I managed to convince him to do a cyclocross race, which he said was one of the most miserable experiences of his life (at least prior to moving to Albany), so he owes me one there. If anyone is reading this blog in the Albany area, give him some love.

In an unrelated piece of news, the stork delivered this to my doorstep:Just what is the significance of this puffy bike, you might ask yourself. Have I decided to one-up the hipsters with top-tube pads on their fixed-gear bicycles by adding pads to all of my tubes? Did I misinterpret the freeride dudes talking about "full squish" bikes? Are carbon fiber tubes "out" and foam tubes "in" (laterally non-rigid/vertically compliant)? Did my old cyclocross bike go on a Krispy Kreme eating binge? Is this bike psychologically unstable, posing a threat to itself and others, thus requiring padding and restraints? Oh just you wait and see...

Wicked Mike Passed this along........

This will be us next week......

MTBing, injured knees and sore backs...

What up Fella's,

Been a while since my last blog...this working thing is not as cool as everyone keeps saying!

Anyway, Daniel "Dirty Harry" (or Hairy as he should be referred to...)Schurr and I headed out for the first MTB ride since Huck-A-Buck. In case you hadn't heard or didn't read the blog, he and I were pretty beat up as a result of the days escapades. I suffered from back spasms and Daniel got crashed out by another rider on the third lap and suffered a blow to his knee. As a result, he has been hobbling around for the last week.

Nevertheless, fearlessly, we headed to Crabtree to overcome our woes and get some redemption for our misfortune at the race. I led out the race course loop at Crabtree, taking it fairly easy...it was one of those interesting rides where I was feeling pretty good and had to keep telling myself to chill out. You know, coach myself into conserving so that I wouldn't re-injure the back.

I think most of us can understand that if the legs feel good the ego tends to take over and before you know it you are absolutely flying. So, all in all we did ok and took it pretty easy, at least at Crabtree.

Feeling pretty good, we headed over to 286 for a quick loop before we called it quits. Daniel was leading out a solid tempo when I hear the hiss of air rapidly exiting my tubeless tires. I somehow snapped off my valve stem, first time for me with that mechanical mishap. At the same time, it seized the lock ring so I couldn't remove the remainder of the valve stem to put in the antiquated tube into the more sophisticated and refined tubeless rim. It was actually,kinda funny, we were sitting there sweating like crazy fidgeting with this thing for about 20 minutes until another rider stopped by and remedied the situation in about 15 seconds. He looked at us with a smirk and said " You just didn't twist hard enough". My response was.."kinda like the Peanut Butter Jar, huh, we just loosened it up for ya."

We all had a pretty good laugh about it and went our own way. At this point the sun was setting and we still had about 45 minutes left to ride. Daniel dropped the hammer and we kicked it on out...so much for the easy ride.

That being said, the back feels better every day. Hoping to pop off another ride this week.

Until then, thanks for reading.

Ben

I'm so excited that I just can't hide it.....because I'm about to go to Crested Butte, Colorado!!!!

This trip has been in the works for over a year. I am sooooo stoked. Wicked Mike, Ali and myself are going to rip the Rockies for 11 days. The plan is to have daily blog posts, photos, and maybe some video for your viewing enjoyment.

Crested Butte check it out:


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The Genr'l heads to the pump track

As Chris indicated, he and I both recently purchased cruiser BMX bikes (with 24" wheels as opposed to the standard 20" rims). Since BMX bikes are the very pinnacle of cool, and the Dukes of Hazard are like the coolness pinnacle's pinnacle, the DK General Lee in Hazard County Orange was basically the only choice for us.

We've spent some time learning some of the basics on the streets of Durham over the past few weeks. It might be an exaggeration to say that we're masters of the shred at this point, but we're getting better, and by last Thursday we thought it was time to try the Genr'l on the dirt. After a few miles on the mountain bikes with JD, Dave, and Ben, we convinced the guys to head over to Crabtree, where we traded the 29ers for 24s and hit the pump track.

It's safe to say that the experience was (almost) everything that I'd hoped it would be. The Genr'l is undoubtedly faster on the pump track, despite weighing over thirty pounds and sporting tires that could generously be described as sketchy. We weren't able to quite manual the rhythm sections like the pros, but even in our short stay I think we were able to get considerably better.

Of course we insisted that others get in on the action. I wasn't able to get a good picture of Ben on the little bike (it looked like some sort of clown bike, needless to say), but JD was happy to pose with the orange wonder.


We weren't the only ones into bermed track fun: it was a big night at Lake Crabtree, and JD figured out how to use my camera to capture a video of the action. (Note to self: always hand over the hardware to the computer guy.)



So we weren't exactly flying around the track, but after JD and the rest of the crew left Chris and I did stay to work on our skills a little longer, and we were looking a little stronger by the end of the night. Pros? Of course not. As good as most 14-year-olds? No. But closer.

Huck-a-Buck Photo Essay

Daniel's wife Suzanne was nice enough to get some pictures of the BCC crew at yesterday's race, and I've uploaded them into the following slideshow. Unfortunately some of the tastier bits were not memorialized on film (Dave's wreck, Daniel's huck-up-chuck, and Ben lying by the side of the trail), but the rest of the pics are great. Thanks Suzanne!

The Buck, It Has Been Hucked

That's right ladies and gentlemen, the 2008 edition of the Happy Fun Racing's Huck-a-Buck cross-country mountain biking race was this morning at the Lake Crabtree trails. And while the ranks of BCC racers were thinned due to family obligations, working at the jobby-job, and the infamous case of the Mr. Potato-hand injury, there were still five of us able to proudly pull on the yellow of our new kits and give things a go.

I wish I could say that things went off without a hitch. The trails were in good shape, so that was not an excuse, nor was the high heat and swamp-like humidity (really, would you expect anything less from central NC in July?), and the HFR boys always put on a good show, but I think it's safe to say that the BCC racers felt wounds of a thousand paper cuts. (Cue good excuses in 5... 4... )

Brian (aka Hollywood) and Ben (aka B-Swad) lined up for the four laps of the expert race. Brian let us know that he started off the morning by puking before even leaving the house, so he was already in a calorie deficit. True, Brian always throws up at least once on any decent ride, but even so it probably still figures into his performance. Having gotten the stomach problems out of the way early, however, Brian said that he felt as fast today as any day in recent memory, and was pleased with the way that he was able to push the Stumpy around the tight corners of Lake Crabtree. When this man is on, he's on!

Ben, on the other hand, was racing expert against the (semi-)pros for the first time. Still, I have no doubt that he would have acquitted himself handsomely, had he not be waylaid by a shooting back spasm during the race. He said that the twinge was so severe, in fact, that at one point during the race he had to lie down beside the trail for some ten minutes in order to calm his nerves down enough to keep riding. Any lesser man (myself included) would have happily pulled out of the race at this point, but Ben -- masochist that he is -- decided that he would pedal it on home despite the pain. His placing may not end up looking that good, but given that his back was giving him enough pain that he visibly had trouble swinging his leg over the seat at the end, we'll chalk this up as a 'win' anyway.

Daniel was the lone BCCer in a friggin' enormous sport class. This was one of the largest categories I've ever seen at a cross-country race, and I can't imagine how crowded the first lap must have been with all of the lycra-clad bodies rubbing up against one another on the trail. I'm not sure how Daniel's race was, other than the fact that he was the only BCCer to ride hard enough that he had to throw up after the race. Super. Cool. Personally, that's an automatic 'win' in my book, as it shows your capacity to push yourself to your body's very limits, but Daniel's two daughters didn't seem to agree, proclaiming his feat 'gross.' Kids these days, what with their inability to respect the stomach ailments of their elders...

(On a side note, Daniel's daughters were easily the team's loudest fans, and their cheers each lap were a great incentive to keep going. Thanks!)

Dave and I were both in the highly-contested single-speed category. Similar to last year, the HFRers were unable to provide us with mid-race beverages, meaning whatever skills that we'd honed in the bars of Durham (shout out to our sponsors at the Joyce and Alivia's here) was rendered moot. Dave had also done a little extra training the night before while celebrating his girlfriend's impending move to Maryland (congrats on Johns Hopkins Sarah!), meaning that he spent the minutes before the race contemplating a pre-race boot, and -- like me -- swearing off the uncouth practice known as 'warming up.'

However, that didn't stop him from dragging his Bianchi to the front when the gun sounded. Nor did it keep someone from throwing an angry 'bow into his side as he tried to enter the trail. Much to my dismay, the race started with Dave -- certainly one of the best bike handlers in the area -- spread eagle on the turf before me. As if that wasn't enough, not a quarter mile later he went down again when an over-eager racer ran into him from behind (I heard his yelp through the woods). Smarting from the first rather hard fall, and miffed at the discourtesy in what is otherwise a very friendly race, he made up time throughout the next two laps for a respectable finish.

This was to be my last race in the Triangle, and on a course on which I've previously had some success. However, as packing books doesn't count as training, and no amount of dissertating helps you push your bike at high speeds, I had to settle for respectability in my race. I was able to avoid the carnage that engulfed Dave, but the fairy tale win-(or even place)-in-my-last-race was not to be. C'est la vie.

Truly, the Hucking and the Bucking is always a good time. I saw guys out there in jeans (oh, the chafing that must have ensued!), one dude pushing a 42x18 gear (sweartagawd), a great turn out in all of the categories, and another highly impressive performance by Duke alum Alex Hawkins in the single speed category: really, without the absent Chris to give him some competition, the Hawk is putting on a clinic, with the rest of us just spectators.

All things told I think we acquitted the new kits nicely, if perhaps not quite as successfully as we would have like. Next up: the Race at the Reactor for most, and a moving truck north for yours truly.