Winter may be over soon...

In late April, it was looking like spring had arrived. Blue skies and corn snow, a perfect day for a trip up Bradley Meadows while the mountains are still fat.

Can you believe the ski area is closed?

At the beginning of the month, we broke out the bikes and rode up to Hyalite Reservoir. The road closes to vehicle traffic for a month starting in mid-April. It was 70 degrees in town that day, but still winter at 7000 ft.

And then things got out of hand, it won't stop raining in town and it won't stop snowing in the mountains. 

Katie seems okay with it.

Works for me, too.

August 19: Hyalite Lake

It seems silly to post (even more) mountain biking photos nearly months after the fact, but this blog is about living in a way that keeps your soul alive. For me, the act of mountain biking -- being in nature, transporting oneself under one's own power and spending time with Katie, sharing the experience and encouraging one another -- does just that.  Howard Zinn said, "The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.” While I recognize that mountain biking is not some noble act, I am writing this from possibly the most stale, soulless, and spiritually lazy place on Earth (a condo complex in the suburbs of Phoenix) and so it kind of feels like it is.

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I wrote the above while stuck in Phoenix for work. Looking back a few weeks later, it still strikes me how dismal that place was. The attitudes that are cultivated and that thrive in such a place are what scared me the most. Anyway, I hope viewing these photos ease your mind as much as it eases mine to post them. Stay useless. 

Yes, these were taken when not just the state but the entire mountain west region was on fire.

 <more after the break>

August 8-12: Bend

Bend was our final destination as we had a wedding to attend there. We did a bunch of riding but only took a few pictures on our early morning North Fork -> Happy Valley -> Farewell loop. Bend has a well-deserved reputation for smooth singletrack, but by this time of year, it's very dry and dusty because unlike Oakridge, it's west of the Cascades. In addition to biking, we got in some rafting and quite a bit of beer tasting. Bend has about a dozen breweries, many of which are excellent. One of the highlights was our visit to the Ale Apothecary, which is an artisanal brewery (for lack of a better term, I'm growing to hate the word "artisanal"). The low point was certainly Cascade Lakes Brewery, which is a complete joke.

Stay on target:

Oh yeah, this trail had a zillion (ok, seven) waterfalls. It also was loaded with cobwebs, we must have been the first people through there that day.

Note the dust cloud. Bend seems to have a lot of twisty, swoopy trails. They also like to go through narrowly spaced trees, which is unnerving. We even found some too narrow for our wide handlebars.

Katie about to run over some stuff with Broken Top in the background.

August 5-6: Oakridge, OR

We arrived after dark the night before and woke up in a National Forest campgorund in an old growth forest. We had reservations for the next two nights at the Oakridge Hostel -- cool owners, great breakfasts, locked shed for bikes, and even a bike stand and tools. The first day we rode/hiked up Lawler and then back down. It was very cool to ride in such a lush dense forest as such things do not exist in Montana. The next day we planned to ride the legendary Alpine trail -- after a shuttle from the nice folks at Oregon Adventures -- except the lower portion of the trail was on fire and we were diverted to the longer and more challenging Alpine->Tire Mountain -> Cloverpatch route. As a reward for the several miles of gravel and pavement that closed the ride, we went the Brewer's Union Local 180 and consumed gigantic burgers, sweet potato fries and seriously delicious cask-conditioned beers.

Lush and dense.

More after the break....

August 4 - Black (Country) Rock

After a long drive from Bozeman the night before, we finished up on Saturday morning to arrive at Black Rock (in  Falls City, OR) on the hottest day of the year -- 100 degrees and humid as hell. We goofed around the practice area jumps and quickly realized that we are not rad freeriders, but we had a great time riding berms (banked corners), smaller jumps and wooden features anyway. We had intended to stay at the campground in Falls City recommended on the BRMBA website but it was beyond sketchy (think people living in dilapidated RVs and trailers...as their permanent residence). Instead, we hit the road towards Oakridge after riding and had an excellent dinner at Venti's Cafe in Salem (extremely delicious sweet potato fries).

First some appropriate tunes, then on to the pictures:

Katie represents:

I love berms:

Katie gets airborne-ish:

Look Ma! I'm freeriding!

Katie is stoked to hit this feature:

One of the weird camera accidents that turns out cool:

Sunset somewhere near Eugene:

July 1: First Yellow Mule

This might be my favorite ride of all time. Alpine meadows give way to pine forest as you descend 3000 feet over seven miles of winding single track. Stunning views and ear-to-ear smiles abound.

Brant: "This one makes it look like you're going really fast."

Katie: "I was going really fast."

But wait, there's more...

Cumulative Update

Many, many things have happened since my last post. Many. We bought a house, moved into it and began filling it with stuff (both ours and some new stuff) and working on it. This is in addition to both us working way too much. I wrote a number of proposals and delivered some hardware to the Air Force. Katie attended some conferences and has been training volunteers all over the place. This is in addition to doing her own thesis research. Somehow we also managed to cook tasty food, ride bikes and even go skiing.

True greatness: Bacon, hamburger, caramelized onions and crimini mushrooms. 

April, 21 - Moab, UT

Yes, Moab really warrants it's own trip, but it's too close to Fruita to pass up. Moab is one of the meccas of mountain biking and is home to many legendary rides. However, it was a Saturday and when we got the Amasa Back trailhead, it was slammed. Bikes and motos (that's dirt bikes, Mom) everywhere, and the vibe was aggressive.

So we bailed, and as it was nearly noon anyway, we hit Milt's Stop and Eat for burgers and fries. Milt's has been around since 1954 and they still peel fresh potatoes and hand-form their own patties every morning. They have also been using the same chili recipe all that time. Comfort food at its finest.

After waiting for the heat of the day to subside, we set out for a different ride and lucked our way into the only empty trailhead in all of Moab. The ensuing slickrock adventure turned out to be our favorite ride. I don't know how many times I said, "This is so awesome" or some variation thereof.

On the way to Moab - La Sal Mountains in the background:

More pics after the jump.

April 20 - Fruita, CO

Having remembered how to ride bikes the day before, we set off to ride the classic Fruita ride Mary's Loop/Horsethief Bench, which offers sweet singletrack, unique terrain and stunning views of the Colorado River. Not that it put a damper on our good times, but we were stunned by how many folks were out riding. At the busiest trailheads in Montana, you might see a dozen cars. Here there were more like 50 and they were all mountain bikers. We followed up the ride with pizza and beer, again. In Fruita, there's really nowhere to go but the Hot Tomato. We mixed things up by getting a salad and calzone. Katie accidentally ordered a large calzone, but we finished it anyway.

More pics after the jump.

April 19 - Fruita, CO

In the interest of avoiding the shoulder season doldrums, we took off for some prime time spring riding in Fruita, CO and Moab, UT. Traveling with mountain bikes is kind of traveling with children. You need to bring all kinds of special equipment with you to take care of them and keep an eye on them at all times. The difference is you can strap the bikes to the back of the car. With kids, you only do that when they misbehave. Anyway, the weather and the scenery were beautiful, and the beer was cold and delicious.

We had spent the night in Green River, UT and drove directly to the trailhead in Fruita that morning.  Our playground for the day -- yeah, it's pretty okay:

More pics after the jump.