Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

Spring was in the air, so time to get some shreddin' done! Hit all the local faves: White Ranch, Bergen Peak, Deer Crik, 3 Sisters and even did the Falcon/LoB loop.

Easter Sunday Singletrack Service

Evergreen Mt is always fun

I had been jonesing badly to ride the big bike, so I decided to make the grunt up Bergen Peak with it. Got almost to the top, but turned around b/c of the snow drift in the final 1/2 mile. Wasn't as horrendous as I was expecting.

Hauled 42# of DH bike up to the top of Bergen Peak

Got to see some good ear-shattering noise to finish April. A friend's band, Accordion Crimes was opening for A Minor Forest, and the 1st band of the night was another I liked, Glass Hits.  All 3 bands were excellent, but AMF blew me away (as well as everyone else there). That was by far, the most wicked drumming I've ever seen! My ears were ringing loudly the next day, it was so good!



Had off the 1st weekend of May, so reserved a campsite & 2 days of shuttles up to Kokopelli to do the (almost) Enchilada. Loaded up the car & the Honzo and took off late Thursday morning for a bike-filled weekend. Decided to take a quick break in GJ & stretch my legs with a quick lunch loop warm-up to begin the weekend. Hopped on the bike & started up and noticed a weird noise when I pedaled, or moved the bars a bit. After being unable to figure out what the noise was, I hopped off & looked around the frame to find...

Yes Virginia, you can love a bike to death, literally.

Sad days in Honzo-land

Sadly, the top tube was cracked from the 2 o'clock to the 10 o'clock position just behind the HT/TT junction. I was gutted! My mostest favorite frame ever was gone, and right before a 2 planned shuttles. The upside, as happened with the Karate Monkey, was that I noticed it soon after rolling out the parking lot, instead of schralping down some rock-infested singletrack. 

Well, my weekend was fucked. The options were a) continue to Moab & rent a bike for the weekend = $$$, or b) load up & head home where I could grab another bike. Renting a bike for 3 days definitely doesn't fit in our budget, so packed up for an instant u-turn home. Got int he garage, stripped down the Honzo, slapped the KS dropper on the Entourage, and voila! The Entourage was transformed into an XC bike.

Time for some consolation rides. I 1st took it to White Ranch to test it out in 'XC' version the next morning. 

Time to get crazy

When I checked my times, I found that I set a few personal PRs - going uphill on a DH bike!! Also bettered my time going down the fun part by 1m15s.  OK, I can dig it. Loaded up & stopped by Pedal Pushers, the local Kona dealer & dropped off the deceased Honzo frame. 
I had all day, so added a Chimney Gulch out-n-back. My 2nd best time going up, then saw some major carnage coming back down.  Some guy went over the edge of the trail, scraping himself up pretty good, and gouging a huge hole in his forearm. Hung out a bit to make sure he was OK, then a hiker helped him & his bike get back down to his car. 

PBRMe wanted to head west, so after chatting w/spike, we decided to get high on Sunday - Kenosha Pass high! Dusted the cobwebs off the Monkey & hit the east side to see what kind of snow we'd see.  Not bad at all, we went as far as Rock Creek Rd, then did a little loop & headed back after a nice early season elevation ride.

Do those mountains make my ass look fat?

J.Pak'd & ready for action

They're all way ahead of me

Since there was a good chance of wet feets, I wore my 303's & noticed that the uppers were trying to separate from the soles. 

Ruh-roh

Got home & shot off an e-mail to Lake to see how to go about getting these pricey boots fixed up. Got word back right away - send my address & new ones will be there right away. They also said to keep the old pair and take them to a cobbler to get the sole stitched/laced to the uppers, or glue'em up w/ShoeGoo. Over the top outstanding customer service!!

Had some more nice weather, so took the Entourage to 3 Sisters 2 days in a row, and again set PRs going uphill! Figured Deer Crik was dry enough, so headed there the next day - going down was reeeeally fun on that bike.

Chillin' on Plymouth Mt

FedEx stopped by early this morning w/something good.

It's X-mas all over!

Hit White Ranch right after work today. Got there & saw only 3 cars in the lot, and thought I might have a good chance of descending pretty unhindered - that didn't happen.  Ran into a young couple w/a broken chain, so instructed them how to repair & got'em back on the trail. Ran into another dude on his 1st ride there, so gave him tips on trails to take, then stopped again coming down to help him out. 
I next encountered a park employee who was searching for a misplaced chainsaw, which I hadn't seen anywhere. Then nearing the bottom, ran into another friend, so stopped & chatted for a bit. 'Twas a nice, relaxing sociable day. Seems everyone had shown up while I was up top, the lot was over 1/2 full when I rolled in at the end.

Also found a replacement hub the DH wheelset for the Entourage. Once that arrives, I can swap out the shredded SunRingle hub that's currently in there & have bomb-proof wheels for the more mountain bikey trails I hope to be hitting very soon. Full-face season is here!