For the 4th of July weekend Dan, NJ and I went up to Kernville to camp with the family.  There are a bunch of things do up there.  Fish, hike, mountain bike, tube, raft, sit, drink beer, etc…  Since there was a descent sized group of us I decided to bring the toyhauler (the camper trailer) so we’d have an extra bathroom and shower for everyone.  My parents bought one after seeing mine.  Fortunately for them its been awesome.  For me, I liked the idea but since I’ve had issues with it I’m not so in love with it anymore.  More on that later.  Dan, NJ and I loaded everything up Thursday afternoon and drove up to Kernville.  It took 6.5 hours to get up there.  Longer than I wanted or estimated but we arrived just before dark.  We got to see my Mom and Ted and have a nice relaxed evening.

Cannell Plunge

Friday morning I walked around Kernville looking to see if I could find some fellow riders who were planning a ride that day.  Walking out the front door of Mountain River Adventures I came across Ryan, Seth and Paige looking like they were getting ready for a ride.  As they say, if you don’t ask the answer is ‘no’ so I approached them and asked if they were going for a ride, and if I could join them.  It turned out, they were trying to figure out logistics on how to get to the top of Sherman Pass with three bikes and two cars that could only carry two bikes each.  I said “I have a truck! If you can give me a ride to it after the ride I can put everyone in the truck.”  And a deal was struck.  I rushed back to the campsite to get my bike and gear.

On the way up to the top of the pass I got to know the gang a bit better.  Seth and Paige were out on vacation from Colorado visiting their daughter in San Diego.  And Ryan is from Lancaster.  It turns out Ryan is an adventure monster.  For fun the guy rides a bicycle from Lancaster to Santa Monica.  At this point I started to think “Oh boy, what have I gotten myself into.”  Paige fortunately informed me that her and Seth were not quite so extreme.

Our ride started at the summit of Sherman Pass at 9200 feet.  The air up that high is pretty thin and I was feeling it on the climbs.  The first 18 miles or so was a bunch of up and down.  Through the forest, meadows and a little bit of fire road.  Its a generally well maintained trail but sandy, kind of like this kitty litter sand.  Going down, not much of a problem.  Its a little squirrely but you get used to it.  But on the flats and climbs it was pretty tiring.  Not all of the trail is like this, but there was a fair amount of it.  We only ran into three other people on the trail.  It was a small group of three guys attempting the same ride we were on.  I didn’t have good hopes for them as one was without a helmet, and another was saying he was toast, just an eighth of the way into the ride.  Not good!

Along the ride we got to see some really neat stuff.  You’ll have to take a look at the pictures to get an idea of it all.  Highlights (and lowlights) were the Cow Poop Swamp, Big Climbing Rock, Lord Seth’s Throne, Sandrock Pile and the Plunge itself of course!  The top part of the ride is in the woods and meadows.  Very green and lush.  Stream crossings every once and a while along with some rocky technical sections.

Once we hit the top of the Cannell Plunge we do a 7000 foot descent in 9 miles.  At two points there are climbs which are very technical and steep.  The second climb I couldn’t even ride it was so steep.  This is what Ryan called “Up-Plunging”  I preferred the term “Suck.”  It is a pretty awesome ride if you are in great shape and like a challenge.  The riding varies significantly and you get to apply your skills and fitness level to the test.   We finished off the day with a BBQ and watching the fire come down the mountain on the southside of the lake.

If you’re in the area, go for the ride.  I recommend taking munchies and plenty of water.  And be physically prepared.

cannell21

For more pictures of the ride: Cannell Trail Photo Album

Tubing and Rafting the Kern River

On Saturday we did some tubing and rafting.  From my prior experience at the Kern River I discovered that tubing and I don’t get along.  Seriously, this is one of the most idiotic things a person can do.  You sit in a tube, which has no directional control other than your futile paddling.  Most people wear no life jacket (myself included) nor a helmet.  You ‘flow’ down a rapid moving river over rocks and logs.  And hope you don’t get tossed.  Everytime I’ve done this, I’ve been tossed.  This time I was cruising down the river trying to avoid the first eddie and I ended up right in it.  There I was, stuck, and trying to figure out how to get unstuck.  I paddle some, try to bounce, and finally I get dislodged and tossed over a rock off of the tube.  Now, I’m being pulled downstream rapidly over rocks and branches trying to figure out how to get back onto the tube before I drown.  At some point, I thought it would be a good idea to try to stop myself with my feet on the rocks.  Bad idea.  I ended up smashing my left big and second toes.  Finally I got to the calmer area with Ted and Danny there and I said “This is just f%$#ing retarded” and stormed out of the river.  I had thought I broke my toe but it just turned out to be jammed badly and the nails were torn off their beds.

Rafting however went much better!  I had be kayaking on the Kern before and enjoyed it alot.  Even though I had be tossed on that trip too.  But, you at least have a paddle and some far fetched notion you are in control. (HAHA!)  This time, I decided to do the raft with the rest of the gang.  Six people + the guide can ride in the raft.  We had eight, so Carmen and Jerry took the inflatable kayak (IK) while the rest of us piled into the raft.  The most important thing they say to do is keep your hand on the T-handle on the paddle.  Apparently having one of those swing around can be very bad and give you summer teeth. (Summer in your mouth, summer in the raft, summer in the water).

They start you out by teaching you how to work together, for about 60 seconds.  Then they just go for it.  For the most part, if you do what he says, and do it together you’re good to go.  Paddle forward three means everyone paddle forward three times.  Paddle back four means paddle backwards four times.  Or, if they just say paddle forward you keep paddling until he says stop.  Along with following the front left persons pace, and some other tips you’re pretty much ready to go down the river.  Until you hit the first rapids.

The first rapids was an entertaining experience.  Jerry and Carmen were ahead of us in the IK.  The guide yelled to them “Follow the other kayak in front of you down!”  The look on Jerry’s face was priceless.  It was the look of “Are you f$%#ing kidding me?!”  They did as told and bounced through the first rapids and pretyt much aced it.  Then, it was our turn… Dan was front left, I was front right.  Behind us were the two boys, Jimmy and NJ.  Then Rob and Norma were in the back.  The first rapids we dipped hard forward and it basically turned into Dan and I paddling with screaming kids on our back and everyone all over the place.  We probably got spun around two to three times as we were pretty much flailing all over the place.  The guide is yelling “Paddle forward!!!! Paddle backward!!!!” Pretty hilarious actually.  After that, it was much easier.  There were a few more rapids but pretty mellow compaired to the first one.  We mastered the “splash your neighbor” skills as well as paddling in unison.

Giant Sequoias

On Sunday we took a short road trip up to see the giant sequoias.  I can’t even explain their magnificence and just encourage you to take a look at the photo album.

You can find more pictures of the forest in the Photo Album

As I mentioned earlier I had brought my trailer.  I wanted to bring it because it has a real bed, a shower, power, a fridge, and some other nice things.  Unfortunately everytime I’ve taken this trailer out I’ve had problems with it.  I’ve reached a point that I just plain done with it.  I bought it for two reasons.  1. Dirt biking in the desert and 2. Alison.  Well, I don’t have dirt bikes anymore and I don’t have Alison.  I can’t see any reason to continue to drop money into it anymore.  This last weekend both the generator failed to work and the fridge died.  These are things that have happened before and cost me a fair sized chunk of money.  Currently its in the shop and its already cost me $350 just to see what’s wrong with.  That’s not even including the cost it will be to fix it.  Like I said, done.  I’m going to get it working and get it sold.

Not to end on a negative note.  I had a good weekend even if I was a little baked from the sun.  At some point Sunday afternoon I decided I was just done with 95 degrees plus temperatures, dust, and the relentless Sun.  With smile and fond farewells we packed up and hit the road to go home.  It only took us five hours to get back home opposed to the six plus it took to get up.  I attribute it to driving ‘down’ the map.

Good weekend, fun adventures, and loving family members.  Love you guys!

Photo Albums:

Mountain Biking Cannell Trail
Giant Sequoias
Danny’s Photos (He has alot)

Over the weekend Alison and I attended the Dirt Series Mountain Bike Camp in Corona CA hosted by JensonUSA and Rocky Mountain Bicycles. The camp is a super skills clinic broken into two days, then further broken down into classes and rides. They limit the number of registrations so there is a healthy balance between the instructors and students. I signed up for the class for a couple of reasons; I’ve had some bad injuries that make me gun shy, I haven’t seriously ridden in five years, and mostly I want to be a better rider! Alison signed up for the class with me to become a better rider herself (She’s one of the best new riders I’ve ever seen. I probably wouldn’t have gone if I hadn’t paid for this a few months ago given current circumstances.

Day 1 – Saturday

We got up early on Saturday and headed up to the Jenson USA Corona store. I had checked the weather and it said it was going to be high 90s for the day. That’s fricken hot! We arrived at the store early and wandered around a little bit. Around 8:30 things started to get in order and we signed our wavers and met a few of the other riders. They announced there was demo equipment available in the back corner. Things like Raceface pads, Crank Brothers pedals, and the coveted Crank Brothers Joplin! I was standing there looking at the seatpost sitting benignly next to the pile and asked Cassandra ‘Is that a demo?’ And she said ‘Why yes it is.’ SCORE! Erik, who we had just been talking to seconds earlier exclaimed ‘GAH! I wanted that!’ (He got to check it out on Sunday) Within five minutes I had the new fancy gadget mounted on my bike and I was ready to go.

Just before departure Candace introduced our coaches. With us we had Penny Cameron, Cassandra Boon, Lorraine Blancher, Tera Card, Andreas ‘Dre’ Hestler & Wade Simmons. I apparently have been living under the mountain biking rock as I had never heard of anyone. (More on this later) Candace then got us all motivated to head out to the training site in Fontana. I think the only complaint I had about the camp was the distance between the shop and the class/riding areas. Oh, and the heat. The training area was a nice grassy park allowing for soft cushy crashing should things go wrong. The morning consisted of four classes. The initial warm up class getting people comfortable on their bikes and emphasizing Bike Body Seperation. Then there were three classes with smaller groups. Mine were; Downhill Braking and Rolloffs, Wheel Lifts & Jumping & Straight Line Riding. (I feel like I’ve forgotten a class, oh well)

The first warm up session was fun. It got everyone into the groove and people comfortable with their bikes in the environment. They emphasized that you are in control of your bike and how good bike body separation gives you more control. (I’m not going to give super details, if you’re interested I highly encourage signing up for one of their courses) Following that we broke into our first smaller groups. The first class my group had was Downhill Braking and Rolloffs. Penny and Dre were our instructors. We were coached on how to control our bikes on downhills and small drop offs. As well as the importance of our brakes and proper brake control. The biggest pearl of wisdom from this class for me was how to get off your bike on a steep descent without become an tangled mess and tumbling down the hill with your bike. I still need to practice that more but its much better than my usual downhill dismount technique typically composed of falling over and my bike beating the crap out of me. Its funny how you can ride for 15+ years and not learn certain things.

The next sessions was wheel lifts and jumps. This was a bunch of fun! Lorraine (our instructor) asked ‘Who here can do a wheel lift?’ I raised my hand, no one else did so I got called out. So, I did what I considered a wheel lift and she said ‘No, that’s a manual, we’ll learn that next.’ Haha, ok. So we learned the difference between simple wheel lifts, manuals, and how to lift our rear wheel. On platforms, that is a challenge. Following this we got to do manuals off of the boxes to practice. I think riding up the 2×6″ plank was harder than dropping off the box. But, as long as you kept looking ahead it was all good! Growing up riding BMX bikes jumping was something programmed into my head from when I was a child. Everything that I could jump, I did. So I was a natural at it. Lorraine asked me to be the demo jumper at the end of the session to show people what it looks like when done correctly. (I know, self promotion, but I am a good jumper when I don’t crash) So far, the day has been awesome!

During our jumping session I was watching what was going on over at the straight line riding course. This is a skill I haven’t worked on much and was a little nervous about. And, it was our next session. Apparently I wasn’t the only one nervous which made me feel a bit better. As it turns out, if you keep your head up and eyes forward, its not as tough as it looks. I think its more of a mental state. We rode planks, then elevated planks, then planks with drops and finally, the teeter-totter plank. I had never ridden one of these, and somehow got to be the first in the group to go over it. Very weird feeling. You’re going up, then you’re going down really fast. Candace coached us on how to manage that. The subsequent runs were far more controlled and way more fun. Then, she made the big teeter-totter which was twice as high off the ground. What was the difference? Nothing really, a bit steeper. Same rules apply, keep your head up and eyes forward and control the rate of the drop using the techniques she showed us. Once again, we were shown some bail out techniques. One of the reasons I would get off and walk some obstacles is because I did not have good bail out skills, nor knew how to develop them. This was my second pearl of wisdom for the day. Knowing and practicing these skills are invaluable. Having this knowledge in your head leads to greater confidence on gnarly terrain.

We broke for a short lunch after these sessions having some tasty food from Qdoba Mexican Grill. After swapping the pedals from the platforms to the clipless we did some socializing and met a few other people who live pretty close to us in San Diego. During lunch they showed us the class options we could sign up for the following day. Basically, you could choose two classes and focus on the skills you wanted to improve on the most. The plan for the afternoon was to break into different groups based on what you wanted to work on. I had signed up for improving my downhill skills. With lunch over, the bikes prepped we headed out.

The afternoon groups were smaller. I think there were just five of us. Tera was our torture master for the ride. She made us tow her up the hills, it was brutal! (Ok, she didn’t, but she’s a prankster so I was trying to perpetuate this lie to harass her) Tera is a spectacular coach. She managed the group very well (As ‘diverse’ as we were) I had decided when I signed up for this course I wasn’t going to chicken out of things. That’s not to say I would do something stupid. But, I would take what I learned, apply it, and improve myself. I feel the biggest improvements I had were during this short ride. We rode some difficult terrain, nothing world class, but difficult for someone just getting back into the sport like myself. I really felt the gained confidence and improvements in my riding having some of the additional knowledge and skills from the prior courses. Most if it, was in my head somewhere, it just needed to be brought back forward and applied.

After we all finished our rides we headed back to the shop for dinner and some bike workshops. I signed up for a bike fit by Wade Simmons (Again, I’m clueless about this guy at this point) and sat in on a suspension clinic by Luis. Alison took the tire changing class (Now she can change my tires!) It turned out, my bike was pretty well setup for me as is. My bars are a bit higher up than Wade would suggest, but otherwise he said I was good to go. Off to sign up for the Sunday classes! I already knew I wanted to do High Speed Cornering but I wasn’t sure what other class I wanted to do. Tera was there taking sign ups and said “Oh, you didn’t get to do the riding over obstacles, you should totally sign up for that!” I figured, sure, what the hell! With that out of the way we had a couple tasty adult beverages, socialized some more, and went off to the hotel for the night. The hotel was marginal. The bed was eh, and the shower had two temperatures. Lava and Magma. After a hot day a super hot shower is not preferred.

Day 2 – Sunday

Alison and I got up early and got breakfast at IHOP. Better for you than a Clif Bar and a Dr Pepper (I still had my Dr Pepper, not much of a coffee drinker). We rolled over to the shop around 8:15 and made sure we were all set to go. We got Lise’s bike loaded up, we had transported her bike on Saturday too. While getting ready to load her bike she had bought a brand new one!!! Congrats! A new Rocky Mountain bike was getting prepped to be sent back to her home in Michigan. Driving to Aliso/Woods was waaaay longer than I expected. We left the shop and arrived at the class location about an hour after we left. Alison wasn’t feeling too well. She had been sick the whole week prior so she did the smart thing and took the day off. I don’t blame her, it was fricken hot. And Sunday was hotter than Saturday was. I wussed out and took the shuttle up. I think the riding group had left already by the time we got to the site anyways.

The Riding Over Obstacles class was actually something I was already generally proficient at. As a matter of fact Candace and Tera gave me a hard time about it. But, I told them I was there because ‘this is where all the pretty women are!’ Which, ensued another round of harassment. I didn’t mind though, it was nice to hone some skills especially on the new bike. (And, I did get to hang out with the pretty women rather than the mob of sweating guys following Wade around)

High Speed Cornering! Wow! What a fricken blast!!! This is one of those things that most people won’t commit to doing because well, its really easy to crash while you’re doing it. Wade and Dre were our instructors (Again, I’m still totally clueless about these guys). They set up some corners using the rope and cones and then demonstrated. Holy crap those guys are good. Then, they demonstrated the turn like you were racing and they both raced through the turn together. Yeah, I’m not worthy, haha! Erik and I were in this class together. After we had a few solo runs at the high speed chicane Dre and Wade told us to pair up with someone and choose alternate lines to see how it feels. We had done our afternoon ride together yesterday and found were pretty compatible. Man, this was probably the most fun I had all weekend. I couldn’t stop smiling. Erik is a good rider, very strong and I had a hard time keeping up with him or not getting passed by him. The next step in the high speed cornering was handling tight turns while coming at them with speed. Wade called it a ‘cutty’. Basically, you come into the turn and use your rear brake and your body to slide the bike around to align for the turn. Again, a total blast! (See picture above)

We broke for lunch and the prize give away. The sponsors for this event are great. There was a prize for everyone. Fox, Sugoi, Dakine, Luna, Kicking Horse Coffee, Brave Soldier, Giro, & Addidas all had stuff for them to give away. The full list of sponsers is on their site. I plan to write a personal letter to each of these sponsors thanking them for supporting the Dirt Series, and encourage them to continue to do so. I can’t express how awesome it was that Rocky Mountain and Jenson USA made this event possible. Thank you!

After lunch we split up into ride groups. My ride leader was Wade with Kurt from Rocky Mountain as our sweep. Riding with Wade was incredible. Well, as much riding with Wade as I could do. He’s just awesome to watch flow through the terrain. If I didn’t know better I’d say that Rocky Mountain added some magical dust to his bike or something.  We rode up the road from Canyon View Park to the top of Cholla.  From there we rode down Lynx.  I have probably doubled my downhill speed using some of the techniques from the two days.  I wouldn’t say I’m blazing fast, but I’m definitely not a total slowpoke now either.  At the bottom of Lynx we climbed back up Chollo.  At this time, I’m wishing I had put my clipless back on the bike.  I made it all the way up with only one spot I had to get off.  There was a 12″ or so lip I just didn’t have enough momentum to make it over.  Awesome trail though!  We headed over to Meadows trail from here passing through some residential areas.  When we got to the trailhead Wade lead out, Kurt followed, and I was right behind them…for a little while anyway.  I didn’t know the trail, and with all the greenery so high it was hard to see where the next turn was.  Eventually the lost me, but the time I got to ride behind them was great!  Meadows dropped us off not too far from the vehicles so we pedaled on over finishing off our ride.

The post ride activities were great.  I’ll refrain from posting any incriminating evidence but lets just say much hilarity ensued.  After an hour or so of socializing with the gang we all had to head our own ways.  Alison and I had dinner with Erik at In and Out (My favorite post ride eatery).

Now, back to me being clueless about our instructors.  Every coach has an awesome and impressive resume.  They are all wonderful people and very talented.  I personally had no idea I was riding with legends.  I have been out of the sport for a few years.  The legends I grew up with like Ned Overend, Tinker, Missy Giove, etc.. are out there but I have no idea where.  Sunday night, Alison and I were flipping through some magazines a local shop had given us and we started reading an article in Decline and there was Wade and Dre!!!  I told a new mtb friend of mine about the class and said who our instructors were and his response was “You rode with Wade f%#&ing Simmons!!!???  And Dre Hestler?!?!?”  Honestly, everyone who coached is now a legend to me.  Thank you all for putting on such an amazing class!  Hopefully see you guys in Blue River!

Note: If you want to improve your riding skills, I highly recommend this course.  I’m already working on getting signed up for a second one later this year.

Today, I slept in!!!! Well, until someone called at 7:30. Gah! It was a recruiter calling about another position which resulted in an interview scheduled for 9 AM Friday. Today, I had another two interviews. The first one was great! I’m actually really excited about it. It is a contract but the timing would work out great as it would be wrapping up right around when I’m looking to take off three weeks. The second interview was a phone interview and it had to be the weirdest interview I’ve had in a long time. I was being asked questions that seem to be from a pre-defined script that the interviewer may or may not know the answers themselves. It was very awkward.

Before all of that I did get to eat lunch with Tim and Chris. Tim has landed himself a contract gig that starts up next week. Sounds like a neat company. They do some stuff with video for the military, and they make a bat-gun. It sounds like a pneumatic gun that fires a grappling hook. I want to see if he can get us one. I don’t know what I’d use it for, but it sounds fun!

Post interviews was Dart Night! Mellow night, had fun. The games are getting closer now instead of one person completely stomping everyone. Makes it far more interesting. But then, winning isn’t the reason we do it. Its an excuse to hang out and spend time together.

As a follow on to the mountain biking death ride into the abyss. I’m worked. Pretty sore but its a good sore.

…except you get to hang around with your workin’ friends!!! We had a great weekend camping in spite of the cold and windy weather. It would have been fantastic had there been no wind. We got packed up and headed up to Laguna Mountain to camp for the weekend on Friday. Getting up there was pretty uneventful other than me forgetting stuff and having to return back into the house oh 5-6 times. Once we were on the road we linked up with Dan and NJ and made our way to the campsite. The site was gorgeous!!! Parking the trailer was a little interesting. I would classify myself as an expert trailer driver (One of the two things I attribute to the Army). It must have taken 15 tries to get the trailer backed into the spot. Once in there leveling the trailer was another challenge. I have these neat Lego like leveling blocks, but apparently not enough. We tried at least five configurations before I got the shovel out and dug out the dirt on the other side of the trailer for the tires to settle into. As the evening came on the rest of the gang showed up. Lasagna, fire, & good friends were the fare for the evening (Don’t use lighter fluid to start a campfire, it sucks. Gasoline is much better)

Saturday morning we woke up to super wind and pretty cold temperatures. Rather than stick with the original menu of cold cereal and fruit, we busted out the pancakes and bacon to warm everyone up. Tim and Tracie showed up finishing off our riding quorum prompting us to get ready to roll. Starting out in the wind and cold made everyone doubtful, but as soon as we pedaled up the hill a little bit the wind was mostly gone. Our campsite was situated at the edge of a meadow just inside the trees. Basically the wind gets funneled from the meadow right into the campsite. Get inside the trees some, and it was beautiful. The trails up there are in pretty good shape and a pleasure to ride. The altitude however, kicked a few people’s butts.

More Photos

My two favorite areas of the ride were Chico Ravine and Gatos Ravine. We rode up Chico Ravine and came down Gatos, but I think most would agree we all would have preferred the other way. Chico Ravine’s trail was just so smooth and nice. We had no major mishaps along the ride and had a total blast. We rolled back into camp, and our spot was still windy. Not as cold, but stupid windy. Fired up the grill and made Carne Asada and Pollo Asado! DELICIOUS!!! While all of us hid in the trailer from the wind we laughed at the kids playing in the tents that looked like they were about to fly off to Oz any moment. Tim and Tracie headed on home and we spent the afternoon playing Uno and Scrabble. It was just too fricken cold to hang around outside.

Alison and I attempted another ride where we would reverse the Gatos/Chico ravine route. But our legs just would not warm up. We started the ascent and it just wasn’t going to happen. We explored some of the flatter areas but kept it a pretty short ride. For dinner we fired up the grill to cook hotdogs and hamburgers. We had to put it on the other side of the trailer to keep the wind from blowing the flames out. It was so cold at that point you could see your breathe when you were talking. With this in mind, Dan & NJ decided to head on home after dinner. Gregg & Amanda were soon to follow. We packed up Vaugh, Jen & the kids in the trailer and crashed out for the night.

Sunday was pretty lazy. We weren’t feeling up for a ride so we cooked a big awesome breakfast and cleaned up the camp. I tried to start another fire but the wood just didn’t want to burn. After packing everything up we scoped out the rest of the campgrounds to find one that would be better to park the trailer in for the future then pointed ourselves home.

Great weekend! Thank you everyone who came along. I’ll be planning another one next month!!!

Here are the current photo albums. I’ll post the other links when I have them

Jason’s Photos Alison’s Photos Paco’s Photos Dan’s Photos

As remarkable as it is, I CAN’T sleep in. I’ve tried all week and no luck. I woke up at 6 AM this morning. Refused to open my eyes in the hopes I’d go back to sleep. After about 30 minutes I gave up and got out of bed. Washed the Nomad so it wouldn’t be all nasty when Morgan at the Bicycle Warehouse in Kearny Mesa tunes it up.

Afterwards I cleaned up and headed on over to DivX to turn in my paperwork, get my stuff, and receive my final check. It was pretty nice to see some of the people I didn’t get to say goodbye to. I’ll miss working with so many people who became my friends, but I won’t miss other things. Someone had already looted my desk, but that’s to be expected. They didn’t take anything that looked personal so that was nice . Of course, they were having Waffle Day, one of my most favorite things about DivX. I was going to take a waffle, but I decided against it as I wasn’t a part of the place anymore.

Got a bagel and read my book some. Then took the bike over to the shop to get its tune up. After leaving there Diane texted me and asked if we could take off Dart Night since she had poured toxic contact cleaner in her eye (In a failed attempt to become a pirate I guess). I offered to drop her off at the doctor’s office on my way to a lunch interview with a familiar recruiter. The irony of the matter, is it was the recruiter that got me a job at the once great DivX. Good thing to keep good relations with people.

From the lunch a few possibilities have rolled in. I don’t think it will take long to find a new job. I’m planning on finding a place that will be fun to go into as well as personally and professionally rewarding. So far so good!

Wrapped up the afternoon by picking Diane back up and getting her home. Visited the ‘new’ Adams Avenue Bicycles. (I worked at the ‘old’ one about 14 years ago as a part time gig) Hit up REI for a few munchies and a really cool Gorilla Pod. Picked up the bike and headed on home. Finally I rolled the trusty Husky out of the Toybox Trailer to make sure she ran before Kevin picks it up tomorrow. Now I’m down to just my BMW and my Nomad in the ‘toy department’. In the last month I’ve sold my 350Z, Three Jetskis, Two Mountainbikes, Xbox, PS2, Wii, Computer & Monitor, and a ton of other things on Ebay.

Tomorrow Kevin and Karen arrive. Perhaps I’ll take a ride out to the mountains to scope out the campspot for next weekend’s trip…

Just some pictures from the fun ride we had last weekend. Chip and Kevin did awesome!  Alison got to ride her new bike.  She’s officially the teams ‘Goater’  She can climb hills mo’ betta than anyone else.

And for your viewing pleasure.  Chip demonstrates effective crashing techniques

Kevin visits the tadpoles!

You can see the rest of the pictures from the day here: 3-29-08

Hope to see some of you out there soon!

Saturday was the first ride on the new bike. What an awesome day! The new bike is great and a blast to ride. It will take me a little bit to get used to the ride but I look forward to riding everyday. Rob and Gregg joined me and we had a great time. Here are a few photos and a map of the route we took.

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I haven’t updated everyone in a while, mostly because I’ve not been doing too much adventurey things! In January Kevin, David, and I ventured to Death Valley.   Death Valley Daze is an informal motorcyclists gathering in Death Valley.   Several different groups come together and have fun riding with each other and meeting new friends. Kevin and I had discussed doing this a few months ago as we now live nearly a 1000 miles from each other. Our last get together was Utah which was unfortunately cut short. Funny thing about that is I wouldn’t have met David if plans hadn’t changed. I talked David into joining us in Death Valley as a shake down ride before he heads south into Mexico. As it got closer to the day of the trip the weather kept getting worse. I figured the worst case we’d hang out around the camp and enjoy each others company. Loading up the truck and trailer the night before I noticed a hissing sound coming from somewhere. After a brief inpsection, I’ve got a dry wall screw in my rear passenger side tire!!! Not much I could do about it at this point so I finished loading and planned to hit the tire shop first thing in the morning.

Thursday I got up early and went directly to the tire shop, and somehow there were three people ahead of me. Three hours later I’m good to go and go to pick up David out in El Cajon. Leaving San Diego it was raining lightly and stayed that way until we reached Cajon Pass north of Riverside. There, it turned into snow. Most Californians have no idea how to drive in the snow so it always makes for an interesting trip. The tire repair set us pretty far behind in schedule and we didn’t arrive until pretty late. Kevin had to entertain himself for about 4 hours, so he was pretty entertaining when we arrived.

Friday morning we got up and decided to set out for Scotty’s Castle and see the Racetrack. It was overcast but generally warm at below sea level.   The ride up to Scotty’s Castle takes you up to about 3000 feet.   Amazing, how in 3000 feet you can go from 60 to 34 degrees.   It was cloudy and cold.   No rain but it looked like it could have.   We got out and looked around for a little bit and went into get some hot chocolate and coffee.   The server said “You guys should be careful of the crows, they’ll get into your stuff.”   Kevin looks outside and sure enough, a big ass crow is on his bike picking at something on his handlebars.   This resulted in guard duty for the bikes so the crows didn’t tear into our bikes (Lotes of shiny stuff).   I asked a few people about the road to the Racetrack and everyone said it was the most terrible road ever!!!   (I should have applied my own experience at this point but failed to.   People said the same thing able the Dalton, and it was a super highway compared to roads in Mexico).   With that, we bailed on the plan to see the Racetrack and head over to Beatty for lunch.   Bad choice, it was cold, straight, and we road through snow.   We thought about stopping at some hotsprings, but we all decided we didn’t want to see each other naked (And the place looked kinda sketchy).   We did pass by Angel’s Landing Brothel!   Um, yeah…   We stopped in Beatty and had some lunch at the Casino and then headed down the road to Rhyolite eventually ending up back at camp. One thing I didn’t mention, is we were eating good.   Tonight, Carne Asada!!!!   Had some awesome dinner, a few beers and wandered around the campground to meet some other riders. (Oh yeah, Kevin is a Pyromaniac, don’t let him tell you otherwise)

Saturday was a much better day.   Much more sun, so we decided to check out the West Side road and see Badwater.   Additionally we planned to take one of the roads up into the mountains but later changed our minds as we’d have to turn around and come back the same way.     Today was a picture fest.   It turns out David is the best photographer of us all.   Most of the pictures I’m featuring here are his!   I must learn his tricks!   We got to see the Artist Loop, Badwater, and some other areas in southern Death Valley.   While looking at the map we met a new friend, George!   He rolls up on his KTM 950 with the biggest grin.   We chat for a few, and he decides he’ll ride with his and we come up with a new route bringing us around through Green Valley giving us pretty much a majority day of off-road riding.   Most of it was fast open stuff but we got to see some good scenary.

As we got closer to the road, it became apparent to me that I needed to find a restroom ASAP.   I guess I had one too many Clif Bars.   DOH!   We hit the road and I hit the throttle, and didn’t let up until we got to Shoshone.     We ate at the Crowbar, pretty typical American fare.   Filling, but generally ordinary.   There were some great stories to read about the place on the walls and in the menu.   From here we headed north along the road until we hit the turn off for Green Valley.   Some more good scenery and laid back riding.   It was a pretty uneventful but pleasant.   Got back to camp and threw the Lasagna in the oven and the four of us enjoyed an evening of good food, beers, and good stories.   George is affiliated with KTM somehow, and a fricken awesome rider.   Talking to him he is quite knowledgeable about Baja California so we picked his brain a little bit.   As we wrapped up the evening Kevin decided to stop enjoying beers early, load up, and head on home.   George said he’d be by in the morning and we’d go hit the Racetrack as he said the road is cake and nothing harder than what we did that day (I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO MY EXPERIENCE!!!)   Later that night the wind kicked up and it looked like a storm was going to roll in.   The trailer got knocked around a bunch by the wind, but eventually we fell asleep.

Badwater, looks like mars!

Sunday morning we woke and it was still wet from the rain the day before and that night.   George was supposed to come by for breakfast and show off his ‘Pancakes in a Can’ but he still hadn’t arrived yet.   I wandered over to his campsite around 9:30 and no George.   I’m guessing he got fed up with the weather and bailed out as well.     David and I lollygagged around and decided to write off riding for the day.   Instead I taught him how to use his GPS software, then we gathered ourselves up and drove up to Scotty’s Castle and actually look around.   Along the way we checked out the west end of Titus Canyon.   I really wanted to ride Titus, but the weather would not permit.   After our tour, we made our way back to the campground, had some delicious Ghetto Mac, and called it a night.   (If you don’t know what Ghetto Mac is, email me and I’ll ‘splain it)

Monday we packed up and drove home.   Most of the night had been very windy and it continued into the day.   There were some areas were the visibility was 100 yards at best.   This caused havoc with my fuel mileage and just outside Barstow I was worried we were gonna run out.   Then! There was a gas station.   I hopped out of the truck while David went to pay for fuel.   I figured I was going to loose my hat so I go to open the door and its locked!   WTF?!   I ran into the gas station to ask if I could use their phone so Onstar could unlock my truck.   That worked like a breeze!   The wind at this point was so bad that if you stood with your back to it, jumped up, you’d go forward about 1.5-2 feet before you landed.   Crazy!   Rest of the trip was ordinary and we rolled back into town around 4PM.

I’m looking forward to going back to DV when the weather is better and seeing more!   For more pictures go check out the album.

CIAO!

Odd title for a post about motorcycles huh? This is actually two rides, with a break in the middle. You’ll get the title as you read along.

San Diego to San Francisco (Via Jalama)

Day 1: Christmas was coming. I’m personally not religious so Christmas is more of a time to go see the family. My family happens to be spread out along the California coast. Saturday morning I loaded the bike up and pointed myself north out of San Diego. Mom & Ted were camping at a beach spot in Jalama Beach, just west of Lompoc CA. The route from San Diego to there was pretty laid back. Unfortuantely there is just a ton of civilization between here and there. I could have gone inland and looped around but I was more keen on spending time with family. So, up the 5, 405, 101, 1, and then down a 14 mile twisty road to the beach. Along the way I tried out my new Spot Messenger. Its a pretty cool device, I think I bought as much for my family as I did for myself. I set it up to track my route sending its location every 10 minutes or so. It worked pretty well! Unfortunately they haven’t setup guest access yet so friends and family can check on it. Better yet would be if they setup an API so you can post the information on a website (I’m working on some php code to check an email address and parse the data).

I arrived at Jalama Beach just before sunset. My mom makes some of the best enchiladas for a gringa. Had an awesome dinner, philosophized about life, and crashed out pretty early. The next morning Ted and I wandered down to the beach. He was hoping to catch some fish, I was hoping to catch some good pictures. I got my pictures, he didn’t have much luck with the fish. (I think the act is more important to him than the catch). Had an awesome breakfast, wished them the best, packed the bike up and headed north to San Francisco.

Day 2: It was chilly along the coast this morning as I headed north. My route took me along the 1 with some intersections with the 101 all the way to Santa Cruz. I saw some new sections of the 1 here but this is a route I have ridden many times before on my way to Monterey. The wind was pretty gusty at times, and to be expected it was chilly along the coast. Around Big Sur I ate the most expensive hamburger I’ve every had. I think I paid $14.95 for it. It was good, but a bit pricey. At the stop I uncovered that shampoo in a not so sealed container can fill up entire open cavities with bubbles! DOH! Once I hit Monterey I realised that I’d have to take the short way into San Fran as following the 1 was going to get me in well after dark. Once I hit the 101 south of SF the traffic was heavy. I started to split lanes but apparently the SF 49er fans weren’t too keen on that. I also saw a couple of other bikes, but they weren’t attempting to split lanes at all. Go figure. Got to Jeremiah’s pretty easy and got to see him, Beatrice, and Carmen.

Day3: Today was chill day. Did some sight seeing around SF. Got groceries for dinner (We did our Xmas dinner on Xmas Eve rather than the day. Have turkey’s alway been that expensive? Spent the day playing with Beatrice, she apparently finds her Uncle Jason pretty cool. (I think she’s pretty cool too) Ate too much, passed out on the couch. A good day!

Day4: Xmas morning. I didn’t take off on Wednesday so I needed to head home today. SF to SD in one day isn’t a big deal. About 600 miles or so. I took a scenic route through Hollister, down the 25 to the 198. The 198 is a great road. That took me over to the 33 and south. At this point I had to put on my rain liners to shield me from the wind. It didn’t get above 40 degrees the entire day. I learned something about CA though. Along the 33 there is a stretch of oil wells about 24 miles long. After a while I turned off on Cerro Noreste. This road is fantastic. But, I advise doing it in the summer or warmer months. I came across snow, ice, and gravel all along this scenic route. At one point it was 35 degrees, brrr. Made it home that night, warmed up, and packed up for Baja!

Viva Mexico! San Diego to San Quintin

I should start this out by covering a few things. Our original plan was; Day 1 – SD to San Quintin via Tecate, Day 2 – San Quintin to Bahia de los Angeles (Bay of Los Angeles), Day 3 – Bay of LA to San Felipe, Day 4 – San Felipe to San Diego. Let me recap the bikes people are riding here so you have an idea of what we’re getting ourselves into. Byron is on a Suzuki DR650. Good bike, sturdy dualsport single cylinder. To most people this looks like any dirt bike. Andres has a Kawasaki KLR650. This bike is considered the poor mans adventure bike. Its a great bike honestly. Morgan is on his KTM 950 Adventure and I am on my BMW R1200GS. Morgan and I have big bikes, and later in the story you’ll see how the big bike affects me.

Day 6: Byron & Morgan came by my place around 8:30. First it was just Morgan. I asked “Where’s Byron?” The night before he decided to change the chain on his new DR650. He had some problems as it wasn’t a master link chain and it required a special tool (or a hammer) to mushroom out the rivets. Byron showed up a few minutes later. Loaded up we headed south to the Tecate Border Crossing. Today was fricken freezing. I was lucky, I have heated grips and a heated jacket. Crossing the border Byron got the Pase, Morgan got the Pase, I get the Regrese! I start to pull over for the inspection and the border guard gives me a wave and says “Pase Amigo!” Just inside Tecate we meet up with a final member Andres. Gas up and head south! About 14 miles south of Tecate we leave the pavement and roll onto the Los Compadres Highway. You can see a picture just above of Morgan on the ‘highway’. As you can see, its not much of a highway, but a dirt road.

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I must first start out with saying what an awesome team Jimmy and Heather have working with them during their Off-road Skill Course. Sean, Scott & Jesse were all outstanding. Heather was fantastic. And Jimmy was just awesome to watch. They all took time to answer questions and help you improve you skill. At the end of Day 2 if it weren’t for Scott, Jesse & Sean I probably wouldn’t have made my way back. Their encouragement of my ‘stupidity’ was very helpful (More on that later). I will admit some of the areas covered in the class were things I already knew, but either got to lazy to do them or just never really put thought into them. I did however learn a few new things which I plan to practice anytime I get a chance. I’d also like to say that my fellow classmates were very upbeat and positive. I think everyone had a blast, even the few that broke their bikes a little (myself included).

My Husky’s engine is still in the shop getting new intake valves so I didn’t get to take the smaller bike. So, I took my BMW R1200GS with knobbies! One of my goals of this class was to learn how to ride my big bike better. I’d like to take it more places, and some of those places require riding through dirt and adverse conditions. What better place to do this, than with the Master of the Big Bike Jimmy Lewis!?

Morgan and I loaded the bikes into the toybox and headed on up to Primm Nevada Friday night. I figured it would take the same amount of diesel to drive with or without the trailer. Additionally lodging would be free, and everything we needed would be right in the trailer. It works really well for any kind of trip really. Personally I’d rather travel on my bike, but since we were taking a class that would be based out of Primm having the trailer as a headquarters is nice.

Day 1

Before the class started we ran into Bob from North County BMW along with Gary from San Diego BMW. I bought my GS from Bob back in June. It was pretty cool running into him up in Nevada taking the same riding class. Today started out with Jimmy telling us about the course, what to expect, and the general code of conduct. I thought it was very wise of him to point out that ‘Yes, you can get hurt doing this course. Its up to you however to make sure that doesn’t happen.’ Something that he said was very true ‘The most important bit of safety gear is yourself, use your head.’ Very sound advice. The format of the class is a show-and-tell where Jimmy shows us, tells use tips and tricks, then we go try it. Heather and the gang then watch us and give us pointers. Everything in Day 1 is about bike control. There are little to no high speed drills. Control of your machine is the priority. If you can control it at low speed, most of it translates into the higher speed actions. I took away a few things which were true pearls. We learned a variety of bike control techniques as well as simulated events that you don’t want to happen, so you’ll know what it feels like when it does and how to react to it. Everything taught through the day lead to another drill that added to your abilities. At the end of the day it finished with a drill that pulled everything together, and was quite a bit of fun. I didn’t get to take a picture of the final drill, its too bad too cause is one of the few times in my life I’ve ever seen Morgan fall over on a motorcycle!

The end of the day brought a sense of accomplishment, a beautiful sunset, and a good dinner. Morgan and I looked forward to tomorrow to really see our our beasts would handle the true off-road experience (and to see how we would handle it as well).

     Day 2

Sunday is the big day. This is where we get to test ourselves and our skills. Jimmy and gang took us on a 100+ mile dual-sport ride through the Nevada desert. The format was basically a ride with a easy and hard route which would intersect bringing the group back together. At these junctions there would be some more instruction and time allowed for us to try what we just learned. After the drill we could choose to go the easy or the hard route. Morgan and I took the hard route all day except for one section where Jimmy basically said “Don’t go this way with the twins, you’ll hurt you, your bike, and probably someone else.” We took his advice, and took the easy way for that section. For the most part the both of us were pretty impressed with how well the bigger bikes could handle the terrain. Most of them morning was spent riding double track, dirt roads, and paved roads. We had one optional section of single track that paralleled a dirt road. That was a little more challenging, but not impossible. We ended the morning with lunch at a nice pizza place in Sand Valley NV. The pizza was great! Heather was the first on there so she got to see the display of public drunkeness by [assuming] one of the locals.

Post lunch took us to the sand dunes. The ride out there was pretty uneventful, more double track but with the added spice of silt! For those of you who don’t know what silt is, its basically the closest thing you can come to fluid dirt. Its soft, it goes all over the place, and hides wicked things. Through the day I found I was generally faster than 60% of the people in the class. So rather than eat their dust I’d wait for a safe time to pass and go around them. As we were heading down the road the two people in front of me started to go really slow. I went to pass them and the front rider turned out to be Heather. Let’s just say I got reprimanded for passing in the silt bed. (DOH!) I have a bunch of pictures of us playing in the sand dunes. I apparently failed the ‘get yourself out of sand’ part of the course. Jimmy had to get me out of the deep sand. (pic) I passed on trying to make it up the big hill as I was having trouble on my bike on the little hills. Here are a few more good pictures from the day.

After the dunes we split back into easy and hard groups. I got myself turned around in the dunes and saw Jimmy’s bike heading out the way we came so I rode down the road to catch up. I realized when I got there that I blew it, and it was Heather on the GS Adventure leading the easy group back out. They got a few bikes caught in the silt bed, so I turned around and rode back to the hard group. At this point Jimmy took us back over the sand dunes (riding his KTM 525, I should have got a hint at this point). I got stuck at nearly the same spot in the deep sand that I got stuck in before. Two of the guys helped me dig out, and I proceeded off the dunes right into sand/silt that was worse than the dunes. I vaguely remember Jimmy telling us ‘Do not ride out past the dunes, you’ll get stuck!’ Then, here we are, riding out past the dunes and I’m getting stuck. If it weren’t for Scott and Sean being positive and encouraging I would have been alot more pissed than I was. I was pretty mad that I couldn’t make my way through this stuff without a great amount of difficulty. I would get stuck, dig in, dig out, repeat. Finally we caught up to the rest of the group and the first thoughts through my head “Ah crap! I’m the only retard on the GS!!!!” And I was…

Morgan had ridden his KTM 950 Adventure through there, and there were two HP2 BMWs. But I was the ONLY GS that attempted this section. On my Husky, this all would have been a breeze. On the GS, you can’t get lazy, you have to maintain control of the bike the entire time. Small mistakes get emphasized, and going done on a 600 pound motorcycle isn’t fun. Not to mention picking it up. So far I had done well as I hadn’t really dumped it. I had gotten stuck, but didn’t actually go down at any point. The ride from this point on was all loose rock. The GS did ok but the lack of a steering damper and the bubbly front tire it made this section very difficult. I did finally eat it on a downhill section. The bike just suddenly decided “I’d like a nap RIGHT HERE!” The crashbars were worth their weight in gold here. I got away with a broken handguard mount, scratched cylinder head, scratched exhaust, and a slightly rashed arm. When I arrived home I also discovered that my Bill Mayers Seat had some unexpected wear. I sent them some pictures and they said ‘We’ve never seen this happen before.’ I guess some of you R1200GS riders needs to do some more off-road riding!!!!

To sum it up. It was a great experience. I absolutely feel I am a better rider now than I was on Friday. If you want to improve your skills and be a better rider then I highly recommend this course. Not only will you ride away with some new skills, but you’ll ride away with some new friends.

For the rest of the pictures you can check out my Flickr Photoalbum.