Hope you are all with friends and family!  Take care and Happy New Year!

(Oh, and blast from the past, the email you posted with is bouncing back)

Hey gang,

Looks like my contract may come to an end sooner than expected.  So, keep your eyes and ears open for me.  If you want to know more about what I do for work you can look at my Hire Me page.

Hope the holidays find you all well!

-J

Its that time again!  Going to reskin the site.  Why? Cause I’m a malcontent and like change.  If I don’t have it updated in the next week I expect you all to chew my ass.

I went to Disneyland yesterday for a little while.  Good times!  Alison and I rode a few rides we wanted to see.  Haunted Mansion a must!  The new Toy Story ride is blast.  Space Mountain, absolutely required.

As we got there we pulled in behind a couple on a motorcycle in full Goth gear.  And then it hit me.  “Oh crap, it must be Bat’s Day, this place is gonna be packed!”  Its was a little more packed, but not too bad.  But, when did Goth’s become Steampunked?

I got sent a wired article today where the superheros are Steampunked?  I knew about Steampunk years ago and really liked the Victorian style with the semi-scifi approach to magic and technology.  A good movie that shows Steampunk is “The Prestige.”  I had no idea Steampunk is making it mainstream.  I guess all things do.  Heck, they have a Goth day at Disneyland with special hats and everything!

Hey gang,
I haven’t updated in a while because I’ve been super busy.  So what’s new?

I’m incorporating!  I’ve got a business name, now I’ve got paperwork in to become an official business entity.  I’ll give you all an update once its all been completed and official.

Launched the Mackenzie Real Estate website!  Its a full real estate website with property listings and other functionality.  They are based out of Portugal but have clients across Europe and Russia.  One of the big deals of the site is it goes between English and Russian with the click of a button.

I’ve taken over responsibility for managing the San Diego Mountain Bike Association (SDMBA) website!  I’ll be adding new features and capabilities to the site over the next few months.  Community, marketing links, membership management, forums, and some other goodies.

I’ve been off the bikes for the last month   Unfortunately I tore a muscle in my back and it went into spasm for 3 weeks.  But this weekend I’ll be getting back into the saddle.

Finally, the Epic Halloween Party!!!!  That deserves its own post so I’ll update this weekend.  Best party of the year!

Take care gang! Hope all is well with you!

I think this is hilarious.  This arrived in the mail today. I ‘was’ pictures from the Dirt Series.  Apparently I had a curse on my or something for that Canada trip.  I mean, why even deliver it?  If I worked at the Post Office, I would have looked at that and said “Uh, might as well trash that.”  Enjoy!

This update is long overdue, but here it is!

Blue River to Whistler

After leaving Blue River BC I headed to Whistler to meet up with Dave, Jody & Nik to do some more riding. Its pretty much a days drive between Blue River and Whistler but there is plenty to see! Nothing really stood out on the drive other than the scenery and I was tired from being “Last Man Standing” Sunday night. My new Canadian friends harassed me all weekend about not being able to party like they do. I can, I just prefer to be in good riding condition!

I arrived in Whistler around 5 PM and parked in front of the condo.  Then, not even 30 seconds later the gang rolls up with huge smiles on their faces after a great day at the park.  This was going to be a great week!  We all got cleaned up and walked over the Splitz Burgers.  Man, those are delicious.  Everything is super fresh.  We ended up eating here twice during the trip it was that good!  The condo is a funny story in itself.  We all thought it was going to be bigger than it was.  But, hey, the price was right and we had a roof over our heads.

The North Shore

Go Nik!

The plan Tuesday was to head down to Mt Seymour on the Vancouver North Shore and do some riding.  I also had to head into Vancouver to drop off my rental so it worked out great!  The North Shore is one of the mountainbike mecca’s in North America. The natural and man made features are outstanding!  It was a completely different riding experience than any of us had ever had.  On the way we stopped by the Cove bike shop.  For some reason bike shops up there carry massive inventory in both bikes and accessories.  It was like being in a candy store.  Once we had directions on where go we parked my rental at the bottom and drove the van with all of us up to the top.  It was maybe a 20 minute drive up for an awesome 2-3 hour down.  My helmet cam was on its last legs but I did get some footage.  I wish I had some of the later stuff we got to ride.  Then you’d get to share the whole experience!!! We got some great pictures as well!  Check out the photoalbum to see them all!

Just incredible riding.  I highly recommend anyone going to Whistler to not miss this place.  I think it was just as good if not better than the park.  During the ride I had another SRAM failure.  The Matchmaker that holds my shifter pod on the bars just snapped off.  No damage, no crashing.  Just snapped off.  So, the last third of the ride I got to do single speed style!  Still a good time none the less.  Afterwards we stopped by the Cove Shop again to see if they had replacement parts, and they did.  But they couldn’t cover it under warrantee since my bike was bought in the USA.  Weird policy.  I’ll send SRAM the bill.

Dropped off the rental car at the airport.  The drive there was entertaining as Vancouver has no belief in highways.  I think there is one.  And half of it is on city streets.  Then, we went on down into downtown Vancouver to see what we could see.  Had some great Schawarma!  Wandered around some.  Interesting street performances.  And even walked into the more seedy part of downtown.  Good times.

Whistler

I was really excited about the bike park.  The rest of the gang had already been a few days prior. So, we started out easy on Crank it Up.  Easy is relative. Haha!  The first run down this trail my jumping muscles were tired!  I had never hit so many consecutive jumps in one run in my entire life.  I know there were more than 30 at least.  By the end of the trip this was my favorite trail.  We did some all mountain exploring.  One run down Freight Train I tried to roll a drop I should have dropped and managed to fall/slide down about 16 feet of ladder ramp and dirt.  Kinda shook me up and pretty much finished my day.

Thursday we took a day off and wandered around and did some window shopping.  Everything up there is way more expensive.  But, they have a ton of stuff in stock which just amazed me.  Bought a few presents.  Got a couple of things for me.  Dinner, drinks etc.  Then off to bed for another day in the park on Friday.

Friday it was spectacular out.  I knew Luis and Gracie from JensonUSA were going to be up riding with Candace so I made plans to join them for a bit in the afternoon.  Dave, Jody, Nik and I got to the park earlier today than we did on Wednesday.  Did a few of our favorite runs and then we made our way to some of the tougher stuff.  Dave picked Dirt Merchant.  I don’t know if this was a black or double-black.  I just know some of the stuff was way over my head.  I got about halfway down and caught up with Dave and Jody and said “Hey guys, this is way over my skill level, I’m gonna find a bail out.”  Apparently I wasn’t the only one.  Nik was behind me and took a pretty bad spill.  We got him down to the bottom but he was done for the day.  Nik headed back to the condo to get some rest and I broke off to meet up with Candace, Luis, and Gracie.

Riding with these guys was much more mellow, at the start   We did a few runs, then at the end we met up with Candace and then she broke off to ride with some friends.  We later rendevouzed with Candace and her friend Jeff for one last run down the mountain.  Jeff is a coach from another mountain bike camp.  At one point they decided they were gonna school me and I was between them going down the trail pretty fast.  Jeff saying “Follow me!” and Candace yelling “GET OFF THE BRAKES!  ROLL THROUGH THE CORNER!”  So, I did!  What a blast!  I said farewell to them and waited at the bottom of the lift for Dave and Jody to do one last run.

After we wrapped up the day we went to check on Nik.  He was pretty stiff and it appeared that his neck took a brunt of the impact.  Kept the evening low key.  Saturday morning Nik headed over to the urgent care to make sure it wasn’t serious.  Fortunately it wasn’t, but its not good either.  (2 weeks later he’s still stiff).  Since Nik was down we took the day off and packed up the bikes and gear.  Did some more bike shop pass throughs and watched the UFC fight that night in a local bar.  I had one last thing to accomplish this trip.  I had to have a Caffrey’s.  The finest Irish cream ale ever made.  You can’t get it in the USA.  So, I sought out the Irish pub and Dave and I shared an awesome beer to cap out and awesome trip.

The Journey Home

I’m not going to elaborate on this much other than to say read my post about the travel industry.  Alison picked me up at the airport in her car, cause she used my truck to Monster Truck Dan’s Accord (Its actually pretty damn funny).  Had a great steak at the Turf Club and got home safely.

Sum it up

I’m pretty glad I took the trip even though it was expensive as hell.  But, already I remember how great the trip was rather than how much it cost me in surprise expenses.  And, I got to practice my newly refreshed skills for nearly a whole week.  Thanks for the good trip guys!

This past week I attended the Dirt Series Mountain Bike Camp at Blue River up in British Columbia, Canada.  This is the second camp I have attended and it rocked!  The first camp I attended was in Corona California and you can read about the adventure if you like.  The Blue River camp was a specialty camp as it had a really neat extra feature.  A helicopter drop into the alpine.  I’ll write more about that later.  I planned this trip back in May and originally was only going to attend the camp, visit Whistler for a day, then fly home.  As it turned out Dave, Nik and Jody were going to be in Whistler all week.  So I extended!

The Journey Up

I flew into Vancouver on Thursday afternoon and picked up my rental car.  This didn’t go so well.  Online I had rented what was supposed to be a Subaru Outback but they had a Toyota Corolla waiting for me.  Big Problem!!!  I had a huge case which contained my mountainbike and there was no way this was going to fit into the Corolla.  I feel the rental company mislead me and was a little pissed.  The only ‘available’ vehicle they had which could carry my bike was an Explorer.  At three times the rate.  I bartered with them and got them down to two times my rate and settled at that.  Just an additional blow to my budget on top of replacing my front fork.

After I got out of the airport with my car I had to decide what to do with my afternoon.  I figured since it wasn’t too far away I would go check out Vancouver Island and the provincial capital of Victoria.  About 20 minutes from the airport I got to the ferry terminal and the attendant said “That’ll be $60.25.”  I thought I misheard her and asked “$6.25?”  She replied with “No, six zero and 25 cents.”  It turns out it is about $60 each way on the ferry.  I opted for the u-turn and headed back to Vancouver.  Now what?

The rental company gives you these coupons for free attractions.  So I looked through the options and decided to check out the aquarium for the afternoon over in Stanley Park.  Its was raining pretty hard so the park and aquarium weren’t crowded.  Fun diversion.  They had giant catfish, sea lions, otters, crocodiles, and beluga whales to name a few.   Walked around until I was soaked.  Then got lost trying to get out of Stanley Park.  Its a big loop and if you miss a turn off you get to drive the whole loop again.  At least its pretty!

Afterwards I debated staying in Vancouver or heading NE to Blue River.  I opted for the later and drop until I was getting tired.  I stopped in Abbotsford and grabbed a hotel room.  I figured getting someplace outside the city would be cheaper.  I was wrong.  Grabbed some food at a restaurant next door to the hotel.  During casual conversation with the bartender I found out that I was hanging out in the third most likely place to be shot as an innocent bystander within Abbotsford.  As I looked around, I had to agree.  There were a bunch of young wannabe gangsters all hanging around.  I figured I’d get out before I increased my odds.

I got up early and hit the road to Blue River.  The drive through this area is beautiful.  I had been through this region on my trip to Alaska last year.  Its a high desert much like inland California with similarities to Colorado.  I stopped in Kamloops to stretch my legs and check out a few of the bike shops.  Really nice shops!  Really expensive prices!  I learned later that bringing some things in from the USA is expensive with all the middle-men.  Unfortunately it makes them price domestic items at the same levels.  Much more expensive than back home.  I arrived into Blue River mid-afternoon after driving most of the day.  Nice village, nice people, nice views!

Friday night we were on our own.  I took a walk around town and ate at the only restaurant I could find.  When I got back to the room I went to put a sandwich in the fridge and it was magically full of beer!  Turns out my cabin mates had arrived fully prepared for a fun weekend.  I met Terry and Colin to be shortly followed by Paul and Ruben.  Candace had specifically put me in this cabin as she thought I would get along with them the best.  I have to agree, I think I’ve made some life long friends. 

Camp – Day 1

Ruben on the Drops

Saturday started with a buffet style breakfast and getting signed into the camp.  This camp was going to be different than the last one.  We had three sessions in the morning then a trail ride in the afternoon.  Sunday would be no sessions and primarily focused on a helicopter drop into the alpine.  I had chosen Braking and Descending, High Speed Corning, and Drops.  I figured all three would be appropriate to refresh and improve my skills for the rides ahead.  (Honestly I took High Speed Cornering because its a blast!)  That afternoon we broke into ride groups.  My group was the downhill group.  Composed of Terry, Colin, Ruben, Amy and I with our instructors being Geoff Gulevich and Lorraine Blancher.

Quick note for those who don’t know our instructors.  Lorraine is an phenomenal rider.  Very skilled, great coach, and she won the Women’s division at Crank Works in Whistler the prior week. (Congrats Lorraine!!!)  Geoff is a very talented young man.  I say young man because he’s 21 and does stuff that is just incredible.  At the same time he’s super cool, very humble, and a blast to hang out with.

The Camel Toe Gang

Now back to the ride.  The downhill ride was the most difficult trail I have ever ridden/walked/slid down in my life.  It was wet, rooty, STEEP and very difficult.  One the way up the hill I was actually getting a little sick after hearing Geoff and Lorraine say how hard and step this trail is.  I thought about chickening out but I knew that Terry and Colin wouldn’t allow it and I’d get endless crap because Amy did it and I didn’t.  So, I was in.  I’m not even sure I can describe the trail other than how I already have.  So, I’ll let you enjoy the helmet cam footage from Terry and I.  (It doesn’t not do a good job of showing how steep it really was.)