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 I'm on my second week long business trip since I started this job in September. They send me out for training to get more knowledgeable on firetrucks. First I went to Minneapolis, Minnesota last month. I went to a Waterous  to learn about Fire Pumps.  I tried talking to as many locals as I could, I was really hoping I could engage someone about my love of "The Minneapolis Sound." Alas,  no one I spoke with understood the magnitude of the musical genius that hailed from their town. This was music that had a huge influence on me as I was growing up and help shape the way I am. It would be pretty cool if I meant Prince, but I don't, I am speaking about The Replacements , and to a slightly lesser extent Husker DU .  These are two of the greatest 80's post punk Alt bands that ever existed and they came from the same town! I serious considered buying an Uber ride to go visit an iconic house. But it was raining. Now I am here in the lovely town of Gilbert, Arizona. I ...

 I tease my wife when she commits to self-induced stressful situations. Sometimes she'll volunteer to bake a cake for someone. So she'll  work all day, come home and have to bake and decorate a cake before work the next day. When the flour is flying late at night and the kitchen is destroyed and we can't step too hard on the kitchen floor or make any loud noises, I think, you chose to do this? Now I've done it to myself. I have a half finished novel that sits glaring at me, begging for my attention. Even now I can see the Google Docs tab is right under this one. I have characters and they are doing stuff, I can't leave them hanging forever. It's an obligation that hangs over me at all times. A commitment I need to fulfill and I've completely done it to myself. But, sometimes ya' just gotta blog about biking. I went for a ride this morning. This is the season where I ride for fitness and trail maintenance. With patches of ice scattered on the trails I do...

 I have a special kind of injury right now, it's caused by traumatic impact to the bottom of both feet. I'm trying to think of other ways this injury could occur. The only thing that comes to mind is soldiers in a Humvee when an IED goes off beneath them. I've heard their feet get slammed pretty hard, but also their spines. It's probably not a great idea to  start my post  off with some stolen valor. So let's reset.  I am limping a little, and it's been years since I've done this to myself. I over shot a jump by so far that I fell out of the sky into the flat bottom between jumps. The impact drove my pedals hard into the arches of my feet. Technically I didn't crash, I rode it out. So I made sure to officially crash a short while later. I came up short, cased the landing and went over the bars into the dirt. There's a moment when you know you're going to come up short on a jump. You're left with two choices. One is that you accept your fate a...

The day after my 50th run down Indiana Jones. I met up for some laps with Aki and inevitably, I made lap number 51 down Indy. I just can't get enough of this run.  For me, it takes everything I've learned about climbing and riding single track, stirs it up with everything I've learned about drops, jumps and freeride, and spills it out in one two-minute run down a gully. Aki suggested that I might know the trail better than anyone. I don't know if that's true. I tend to think that when pro racers are blasting down the trail they are seeing details I wouldn't ever consider. The trail must feel completely different at 20 mph compared to 12.  No, I don't know Indy better than anyone, but I know it enough to have my opinions on it. And I know a little history about it's evolution. So let's begin at the beginning. The initial roll-in. I'll just say it, the right side line looks like pure death. The left side is steep and it can be greasy when it's ...

 2024 has been full of great rides. I started the year with a bike trip to Arkansas  . Filled the summer with some great sessions at Valmont . And then got to do another trip with my CB buds. I knew I was creeping up on a big birthday, but more importantly 2024 marks my 30th anniversary with mountain biking. Yes, in 1994 in Lakewood, Colorado I wandered into a Bicycle Village with a wad of cash hard earned from changing oil at the Texaco Express Lube. One thing I remember about the purchase is that there was actually a Trek 810 made of mild steel, and I got the Trek 820 which had a chromoly frame. So I didn't get the cheapest bike. My bike was red, but this was the only one I found with correct brakes Anyway, I've done a lot of riding since that beauty kicked it all off. Sometimes more riding than I remember. This was clear a few weeks ago when I happened to notice that Starva keeps track of your, 'attempts' down a segment. So I looked and saw that I had 32 attempts dow...

 Every year I meet some Crested Butte friends for a weekend of big rides. These are guys I rode with in the 90's when I lived out there. One friend, Chris is the voice of reason, he's sensible and realistic, and he had a legitimate concern about the weather. I was really looking forward to a weekend in the mountains so I waited to hear what my other friend Kevin thought. So I loaded up my van and headed west, the drive started with a strange omen when I followed a guy on a motorcycle down the diagonal.  He popped into a very confident wheelie and then rode it for a solid minute and a half while I filmed him. I kept driving, the domestic clutter of the front range fell away behind me and I knew I was nearing my destination when the aptly named Mt. Massive came into view. Despite my driving while taking photos, I made it to the crest of Monarch pass. There I noticed a police car and a sparkly orange Harley parked facing the wrong way. As I got closer I could see sparkly orange p...