Year In Review

A thread over on UMB  got me thinking about this past year and all the cool people I’ve met,places I’ve ridden, and things I’ve done.  Plus it had been so long since I posted that Fofonov has started filling in for me.

I don’t usually spend a lot of time looking back all misty-eyed at the end of the year.  This however,  has really been the best year in regards to mountain biking that I have ever had.

To start with, it started out with a brand new bike.  That hasn’t happened very often for me in the past.  And this year, it was a quick little carbon fiber number, also the lightest mountain bike I have ever owned.

Don't tell my wife.

Just days after the new bike came in, I loaded it up and headed to Moab for the 4th Annual Bike Peddler Spring trip.  The Porcupine Rim was a blast and we had a huge group.  Also had some beautiful weather. 

Soon after, Riley and I took a little day trip.  Heading down to the Price area to check out the trails.  This would lead to another trip, and another.  I chalk Price up as my major discovery this year.  With a longer riding season and a cool, if also nutty, bike culture.  Fuzzy and the boys know how to build trails, and throw parties.  Plus I got to name a trail so what’s not to like?

This would be me winning the Huffy Toss at Fuzzy's "Trailfest '09"

Another side effect of the Price trips, was the Vernal Trip.  Through campfire associations with a man named Tree Hugger, and following the advice of the BIKE magazine cover story about the area.  I found another very cool place that I had never ridden.  Though with the >3 hour drive time, I haven’t had a chance to head back. I do plan to take another trip and spend some real time out there next year.  Vernal is the opposite of Price in that it has  miserably cold winters, and miserably hot summers. Leaving the shoulder seasons for riding.  What are you doing May-June?

My BIL overlooking Flaming Gorge above Vernal

With the rainiest damn Spring I can ever remember, we suffered through our own seasonal challenges this year.  The rain put a damper on several rides, and expedited wear and tear on the shiny new Cannondale.  I blew through the first chain in under three months, and I am currently too  lazy to install the fourth set of cables and housing that this bike has seen since I’ve had it.  There was at least one plus side to that crazy wet Spring.

Parrish and others navigate the wildflowers on the upper section of Bennie Creek

This is mid-July and the meadow at the top of Mud Springs is lush and green.(This is not normal)

Like the Wizard of Oz

Speaking of beautiful colors.  I also received the most glorious hematoma of my life, courtesy of the jump-line out at the Eagle Mountain Bike Park.

Yes I'm flexing, no I don't shave my legs.

2009 also saw the birth of the Bike Peddler Race Series.  I did manage to weenie out towards the end of the summer, but we had some fun “non-typical” races before that happened.  The series will return next year.  Maybe in a more substantial way.

Several times during the year I managed to get in over my head while following other people.  People who were in much better shape and spirits than me.  Kerry from URMB bushwacked us through his annual R.A.T. Ride.  Which while beautiful, had me whimpering by the end.  And it was less than thirty miles.  A couple months later when Cobourn and Moody decided to try and kill me with the first annual Depic(Dipshit Epic).  This was a 53 mile trail of tears that ran from Alta to Little Dell Reservoir.  Personally, I can’t believe I survived that day.

It's hard to suck in your gut when you are utterly exhausted.

I got a chance to explore the trails around Strawberry Reservoir which were splendid.  This was also one of  the trips where we got to know a few new faces in the group.  Retro Bill and Sally joined us.  Bill is a maniac and an endurance rider of the first order.  He spent the summer asking me why we couldn’t go farther.  Sally was there on the very first group ride of 2009 and most of the rest of them.   She has gone from a timid beginner, to a hard core serious mountain biker, and I don’t think anybody has more fun than she does.  Maybe Nathan “Skid” Clark.  He is another “new this year” rider that became a regular.  What he lacks in grace, he makes up for in enthusiasm.  Even if he does shoot off the trail when encountering 90% of all switchbacks. Paul Zimm-the-man,Tall Steve,Messick,Chad CDY,Oilcan,Cobourn,Spencer the Great,Wes, Nick and DJ Jared,The Nosacks,Chef Bobo, along with a host of “one-and-done” riders that we never saw again(were we that bad Moriah?).  The best part about this little unpaid internship at the bike shop is all the people I have met and ridden with.  And thanks to internet introductions, Ryan Thompson invited me to join him for the mostfrightening downhill of my life, aboard an adult sized Big Wheel at night.

As the season wound down, I got to do something that I have always wanted to do.  In September, I headed to Las Vegas to attend the Interbike international bike convention.   I met tons of cool people, saw tons of cool stuff, and saw Nick Blackburn naked, whoops, wait, what, I don’t know why I said that.

Then in October, I checked off another lifetime “to-do” list item and raced in the 24 hours of Moab.  As a fat-man, racing is not something that normally blows my skirt up.  But the 24 hours of Moab is something that every mountain biker should see,…if not do, once in their life.  It was the most unpleasant good time I’ve ever had.

Speaking of racing, though not technically mountain biking, this was also a big year for me as far as Cyclocross goes.  I dabbled last fall, just enough to get me interested.  Then this year I threw down for a cross bike.  I managed to put together a “team”.  Having just watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer with my kids, I got a little weepy when he got to the Island of Misfit Toys.  It reminded me of Team Clammy Chamois.  A team, not in the interest of winning necessarily, but more to celebrate our lack of serious intent.  We did have our high points.  Sandbaggers, high-profile roster changes, a state champion, and about a dozen pounds of Bratwurst and Sauerkraut.  If people don’t know everything about us, at least they rember us as “oh, those guys”.   We managed a 12th of 25 finish in the team points competitoin, and next year should be even better.

L to R Brad,Wes, Kerry,Ryan, Clay(State Champ),Pat, and me.

And so, with fondness looking back, I salute those that made this year what it was.  It has given me some much needed therapy, and a lot of friends. 

Here’s to next year.