Christmas in Montana

Christmas Eve I got up and went right up to Bridger to go snowboarding with Stephanie. I left at 11 to go get Arlo at the airport here in Bozeman. We ended up at a local watering hole and had some celebratory beverages with Steph. Back at my house for dinner: I made Panang Curry Pork Roast with vegetables and rice. Arlo went to bed at 730 pm! He apparently was tired. We woke up on Christmas and got right into the present opening. I got a hockey stick and a nice graphic design book from Steph, I gave Arlo a Robert E Howard Conan book, and I gave Steph and nice picture of the two of us, and a super sweet pair of goggles for snowboarding. Arlo gave me some computer accessories for my recently purchased MacBook.

After breakfast we headed right up to the mountain to go snowboarding. We spent the day cruising around Bridger and had some good runs over on the new Slushmans lift. After we were tired from shredding the gnar we headed back to town. Dinner that night was at Steph's great uncle's place in town, with their kids, us and her other relative Buddy. It was a full on holiday feast with turkey, all the fixins, and much laughter with her boisterous family! We had a really great time and a really great meal.

When we left their house we went out to the car and found a good 3-4 inches of snow with more falling pretty heavily. It was a good sign for the next day's riding.

Waking up on Friday we found nearly a foot of snow outside! Woohoo! We got rolling real early and made it to the mountain at about 930. A really fun day of riding was had in the foot of fresh on top of 5 or 6 inches from the previous few days. Arlo claimed it was the best day ever! We rode all over the mountain and had a great time!

The video below is a from the past few days of riding. Not the best quality but you can get a good idea of the fun time we had.

Notes From Gustav

My roomate Jen has been down in Baton Rouge for two weeks at her family's place. She was supposed to be back yesterday. I got this text.

Got stuk n huricane b bak thurs

Doh!

KLR maintenance day

On Sunday I futzed around with my moto all day with various maintenance tasks. After discovering the running light filament on my taillight was out I read a few msg board posts and headed to the auto parts store. I bought a 1157 bulb for the tailight, and a Sylvania Silverstar halogen headlight bulb....also some blue locktite.

I got back and figured I would try cleaning my air filter, which I have never done before. The mechanic at my recent servicing said I really should clean it regularly....and after I opened the airbox and looked at it I know why!! It was covered in dust. I maybe have 500 or so miles since the service so it must be all the dusty dirt roads I ride. It was pretty easy to clean, I just followed the directions in the manual. I cleaned it with brake cleaner spray, and then washed it with detergent in the sink, and then reoiled it. Took maybe 10 minutes.

Headlight replacement I did because I read all these posts about how if you get this certain bulb that it is like 200% improvement. I always have been unhappy with the stock headlight output so I figured for 20 bucks it was a good idea. I had to mostly unbolt the front cowling and the indicators, and after some swearing finally got the old one out and the new one in.

Tailight swap out was 2 minutes.

A few days ago I relocated my license plate up to right under the license plate light. I saw a great mod on ADVrider where the guy moved the plate up right under the tailight and then got rid of the black subfender underneath. I figured what the hell and went for it. Drilled holes for the new location, loc tited the bolts, and then hacked off the subfender as far up as I could reach with my trim saw.
I think it looks way better now, and the damn plate won't get bent up anymore from big hits. I took the plate light off altogether and just unplugged from the bullet connectors before I cut off the subfender.


Last night I rode the KLR back from my girlfriends house in the dark and got to check out the new bulb. It seemed fine on low beam in town, lots of streetlights and hard to tell, but near my house I turned onto a dark street just to see. I flicked on the high beam and it was like frikking daylight! Holy crap is it better than stock. I am amazed. Best 20 bucks I have spent on that bike besides gas! If you ever ride at night you should get this bulb!

Portal to Porcupine

Last Sunday I went with 3 buddies, Ben , Dan, and Jeff, and did a shuttle ride up Portal Creek trail in the Gallatin Range, across Eagle Head Mtn, and down Porcupine Creek Trail. It was a 4 hour adventure which included some of the most epic single track and views this area has to offer.

We drove all the way to Big Sky and dropped a car at the Porcupine Creek trailhead and then headed back up the canyon to Portal. After bumping up the dirt road for a good 20 minutes we got out, geared up, and hit the trail. After a deceptive downhill and flat part, the trail goes up, steeply and covered in roots and rocks. I did a lot of pushing of the bike through the forested hillside. After about two miles you emerge from the woods and the steepness onto the Gallatin Crest Trail, which runs all the way down the range. This is near Windy Pass.

On top of the ridge it is open meadows, flowers, and huge mountain vistas in all directions. On the left you can see over to the Absarokas, and on the right the Spanish Peaks. It was a perfect day.

Stopping for a break before the final uphill section we surveyed our surroundings, and almost everyone commented, between labored breaths, about how awesome it is to live here and have easy access to such superlative riding. Shortly after our stopping spot is the final ascent to Eagle Head Mtn. It is totally unrideable and you have to push or carry your bike up what seems like a near vertical trail. It's kind of like hiking the ridge at Bridger Bowl, except with a bike instead of a board or skis. I managed about two minute intervals of pushing and then stopping to breath. Its about 9000 ft of elevation here. My legs were killing me, not used to all this hiking! A lot of people don't do this ride because of all the hike-a-bike, but it is totally worth it.

Once on top we again admired views, talked shit, ate clif bars and gu, and finally dropped in for our reward: 10+ miles of Grade A downhill technical singletrack! Woohoo! This downhill is unreal. The trail is so good for so long, and as you get toward the bottom it gets smoother and smoother as it enters sagebrush meadows. This is good because after two thirds of the trail, you are pretty tired. We stopped for some horse folks who had 3 corgis in tow, and claimed they were good trail dogs!! Their legs were like 4 inches long! It was pretty funny. Saw a guy on a XR400 too, who stopped right in the trail at the runout from a really good DH section. Doh! Didn't have any wildlife sightings even though it was prime griz country(did see a bear print in the trail). I ran out of water about halfway down and an hour from the end.

Near the end we hit a Y in the trail and I thought it was right. After going UPHILL a bunch more I realized I went the wrong way, and boy was I pissed! We met another biker who said if we kept going up another half mile, we had a really good downhill section all the way back to the car. We toughed it out and grunted up it, and were rewarded with a good flowy smooth section through the sagebrush all the way down.

Amazingly we made it to the bottom with no mechanicals. Bails are listed here:
Me: running off trail into a tree due to excessive corner entry speed
Jeff: High speed Faceplant to sagebrush-slide. Also mid-creek tipover due to too tight cleats!?!?
Dan: over the bars runout. nice save. also a too fast for corner bail.
Ben: no crash! he must not be going fast enough.....

After loading up the bikes we hit the Half-Moon Saloon for recovery drinks: $1 happy hour PBRs! and many cups of water. Satisfied, we headed back up to Portal Creek to get the other car, and then drove home.

Mission accomplished. Another day in beautiful Southwest Montana. Cheers!

Rainy Lake Trip Part 2

Steph is exuberant upon stepping onto the dock at her cabin! We unloaded the boat, put everything in the cabin, and then got right down to business...The shot below illustrated the Maine-ness of the area. It was quite comforting for me.


After a good round of swimming and sunning on the dock, we geared up and hopped in the boat for a trip to Sha-Sha Resort, which was about 20 min. away. Sha-Sha is pronounced SHAY-SHAY by the way. It was a funny touristy place with a bar and food and huge decks on the waterfront. It was fun pulling up in the boat for dinner! We met up with a whole tableful of Stephs girlfriends who were all having a pretty good time already. I wasn't too talkative as I was pretty tired from travelling still. After lots of trading of stories and a huge burger and some locally important potent drink called a "tea" we got back in the boat and cruised home as the sun was setting.
Going to sleep was wonderful, with almost total silence apart from the lapping of the water at the shore. ...

Rainy Lake Trip Part 1

Thought from Wednesday the 13th at the office:
"Ahh! I can't take it anymore! Must leave work NOW and hit the road! I wish my boss would stop calling me! I gotta get out of here!"

At 1pm I had to leave even though I was supposed to stay till 3. Once home, there were a few last minute calls from the boss and finally it was done. Steph arrived at 330pm and we loaded my stuff into the trunk and both our road bikes into the back seat of the Sunfire, which I quickly dubbed Funfire for the trip. At 410pm we were rolling out of Bozangeles, a mere 10 min. behind schedule!

In the gold Funfire we blasted east on I-90 at 80mph with AC cranked and the tunes cranked from the ipod and ye olde I-trip. The plan was to get to Bismarck ND before midnight and sleep in our reserved hotel room and then hit International Falls, MN the next day around 2pm. I suggested 2 hour shifts at the wheel to break the monotony of Eastern Montana and NoDak interstate droning. It worked well and was a very tolerable interval.

After about 8 hours we made it to Bismarck around midnight and promptly drove right through it past all two exits!!! I thought it was bigger and we were a bit tired and confused. After a quick recon of the mornings route about 15 miles down the highway, we turned around in the Authorized Vehicle Only turnout and went back, found the hotel, and went to bed.

Now, imagine flashing strobe lights and an insanely loud siren. Okay. Next, imagine almost going into cardiac arrest as these two phenomenon erupted simultaneously from the fire alarm on the wall above your bed at 3 am causing you to sit bolt upright believing that the world was ending! This is what happened to us in the middle of "i am really tired from driving for 8 hours" type of sleep.

It was bad.

After a few minutes of this sensory armageddon, someone turned it off and apparently it was a false alarm. Probably some idiot smoking in their room or something....

Back to sleep a bit shaken up. I got up at 6ish and began preparing for leg two of the journey. We were on the road again I think around 7 after loading up plates of free breakfast goodies in the hotel lobby. Just keep the car moving when you can is my philosophy. So over english muffins and peanut butter we continued East in the trusty Funfire.

After navigating through NoDak to Fargo, we crossed into Minnesota which was exciting as it was our Destination State. We still had a lot of hours left though. We headed northeast towards Bemidji and finally there were trees and little hills and lots of lakes and ponds. It actually looked a lot like parts of Maine, and I got excited with the similarity. We were also off the interstate which yielded much more interesting driving.

In Bemidji we found a Village Foods supermarket, and stumbled upon perhaps the best grocery store deli section I have ever seen! We were trying to eat well on the road, with a Subway stop for dinner the night before. After finding good wraps and some other tasty treats the Funfire was steered northward for the last leg of the driving. Bemidji to Int'l Falls was almost totally straight through flat terrain with lots of fields and forests. All young forests mind you, most trees being pretty small around on average. There was evidence of major logging in the past and minor logging at present, with pulp trucks and sawmills every now and then.

Finally at around 2 or 3pm we hit IF with great joy! The funfire stopped at the liquor store (no alcohol sold elsewhere) for some beverages. Steph had told me she knew everyone in town, and after both young men at counter said "Hey Steph!" I realized she was serious! We headed straight for Rainy Lake at this point, driving through International Falls which was very much small town America. Older stores, a Main Street area of a few blocks, and the gigantic Boise Cascade paper mill looming behind it. I think the mill is as big as the town! We drove out of town and down the road to the lake. After a turn down small road, I was reminded intensely of backwoods Maine. Small little roads, trees right to the edge, it was really great. We rolled up to a funny old yellow log cabin type house on the lakeshore, with a houseboat parked nearby, a few cars in the grass, and a dock setup for about a dozen boats. "We're here!" proclaimed Steph with a big smile. We unloaded the car into a Gardenway cart and wheeled it down the dock to the SS Johnson, a 16' Lund Adventurer with a shiny new Suzuki outboard, a trolling motor on the bow and 3 swivel chairs down the middle. There were similar boats docked nearby.

Steph was just about bursting with excitement by this point, running around all smiles and cheery comments about the lake and the whole situation, as she stowed everything on board and got us ready to cast off. She fired up the motor, and we untied and I hopped in. Pulling away from the dock area we came out of a small cove surrounded by rock ledge rolling into the water topped with spiky pine and fir trees. It looked so much like Maine coastline and Maine lakeshores I was astonished. Steph soon cracked the throttle and we zoomed out into the lake along some big islands. There were lake houses along the shore, and other boats here and there. All the other boaters waved, and we waved back as we passed, the same as motorcyclists often do. It was 80 degrees, clear skies, light breeze, and us cruising along the water going what I felt was really fast! I was super happy already. After a few minutes, we came around another island and turned in towards a cove with a long weathered dock and little red house type building on the dock. There was a long low red building hiding in the trees up from the water's edge. This was it! The Amidon family cabin on Stop Island in Rainy Lake Minnesota. And it was ours for the next 3 wonderful days!

Bangtail Divide

Last Sunday I went and rode the Bangtail Divide trail on my mountain bike. 33miles total, with around 25 on singletrack and trail. Badass! It took me 4.5 hours and involved 4600 feet of climbing.

Crazy Ride back in June

Moto Adventure

On Sunday back in June, my buddy Paul and I fired up the KLR 650's and heading for the mountains again. It was a clear sunny day with a few high clouds, but everything was green and lush and it was truly springtime in the Rockies. Up Corbly Gulch we went, up up up on a big wide trail. All of a sudden we were going up a really steep narrow trail, with no turning back! Big rocks and steepness conspired to throw my moto down on top of my leg. Paul was ahead of me and came down to find me dazed sitting next to my bike.



He had fallen off as well higher up. We got me back on my moto and headed down. Going down a steep trail with ruts and rocks on a KLR that can't stop is repeatedly the scariest thing I ever do. You are skidding, and accelerating, and trying to steer and avoid trees, rocks, etc. I hate it. We made it down okay and despite being pretty banged up, decided to go ride Flathead Pass! That was easier than Corbly's top section, but also really knobby trail. We encountered snow at the top.





On the way out the East side I came upon what I thought was a log in the road until I got closer and saw that it was metal. Paul came back from up ahead wondering where his muffler was! Quick ranch repair and off home we went.

Sunday Ride, Montana Style

On Sunday my fellow KLR owner Paul and myself took an afternoon ride. First stop: Ross Pass in the Bridger Range. A pretty knobby doubletrack ending in a real steep section brought us there without incedent. After taking in the view, we came back down and decided to head to Livingston via Brackett Creek Road, which is a great dirt road, wide and smooth through a lush green farming valley. In Livingston we stopped for refreshment at the Slack Knuckle, which included IPA's, nachos and a pork sandwich. Then back over the pass on the frontage road to home.

Blogslack

Haven't had time to post lately. Too busy with work and fun and every other damn thing....
Brief Recap of Recent Events:

Raced the bike leg of the Peaks to Prarie Triathlon.
Super fun. Basically a long slightly downhill time trial.

Rode mtn bikes out in Three Forks with Ciaran and Mike H. Went 38 MPH on the downhill singletrack at one point. Sweet!

Raced my first Tuesday Night Training Series road bike race and got killed.
Ouch. Old men and fast women passed me. Raced from near town to up past Bridger Bowl. Cool to race with a group, or at least for the 20 minutes I stuck with the pack.

Going to race this weekend near Great Falls at the Belt Creek Omnium.
Probably gonna get killed again.

Later,
L train

Employee Ski Day

The boss at work decided that he would take everyone skiing at Bridger Bowl yesterday. I had a great day, and rode more laps that I have in a long time at the hill. I rode from 9 when the lifts opened until 330 I think. One hour break for lunch and the rest was riding time. It was really fun. I spent most of the day with Mark and Miles who I work with. We pretty much stuck to Pierre's Knob and did a lot of cruising in the trees. Pretty mellow and fun. I brought the GPS and got a lot of paths out of it.

Data:
Time: 5:45
Max Speed: 41.9
Total Ascent/Descent: 26197 ft
Distance: 34.25 miles.

No wonder I fell asleep at 7:30!

The Ringing Rocks

For my Easter I went mountain biking. What a surprise! I went solo as all my riding friends were otherwise occupied. I just really needed to get outside for a while, and very often my Sunday routine is a solo pursuit of some sort. It is good to have a break from people and town and just be out in nature for a while. I think it recalibrates my spririt from the hectic workweek down to a more natural relaxed state. The slow rhythms of the wind and the sky and the sun. . .
I cruised around in a new area near Pipestone and explored the whole lower area and ended up at the Ringing Rocks. I didn't ring them but apparently they make a neat sound when you whack them. It was a big pile of red boulders and looked totally manmade but is totally natural.

Ride Data courtesy my Garmin 305. I can export the data to Google Earth, as you can see above. Pretty sweet!

Time: 1:41
Distance: 12.47 miles
Avg HR: 147
Max HR: 173
Total Ascent/Descent: 2268 ft

Athletic Fact of the Day

Miguel Indurain, a cyclist and five times Tour de France winner, had a resting heart rate of 28 beats per minute, one of the lowest ever recorded in a healthy human.

Datafest

I got home today from work and there was a box waiting for me patiently by the front door. I opened it when I got inside and there sat my new Garmin GPS unit. I had to charge it before using it so I plugged it into the wall and then went to pick up my KLR at the motorcycle shop after it's spring service. I got new handlebars to replace the my bent old ones, and Progressive fork springs. Holy crap do those springs make a difference! At the first stop I immediately noticed how I didn't have a ton of fork dive when I used the front brake. The bike for the first time felt balanced front and rear, somewhat firm at each end, instead of being excessively mushy in front. It just stabilized the whole ride, no rocking back and forth, it just felt way more solid on the road. It was cold and windy but I had to go rally around the dirt roads for a bit before going home. For about 100 bucks I don't think there is a better upgrade for that bike.

I got the GPS running and then got myself running, literally, to test it out. A half hour later I plugged the thing into my computer, and got the data into the Garmin program, and saw all kinds of neat stuff: graphs, numbers, little maps, oh boy!! Data: 2.5 miles, Avg heart rate 152, Max HR 178 (I sprinted for a bit to see what would happen), and a cool map of my route. I found an option to export data to Google Earth, but that will have to wait till tomorrow, as I have to go to bed. The damn thing seems to work though!

March 9, Pipestone

The first team mtn bike ride of the season took place last weekend on Sunday. We loaded up the van and headed west to Pipestone. It was super wet but we had a good time anyway especially with our post-ride soak in the Jefferson River hot spring. The whole day made me feel like summer-happy just cruising around in the sun and having a good time. It was also the first day of the time change so we were just hitting sunset around 7:30 in the hot springs. Totally great day. Here are some photos.

Geek Toys

For a long time I have kept records of my activities of all sorts. I have a notebook for weight training, I always write my excercise down on the calendar, and I keep a bike log. I like recording information I guess. So in pursuit of recording information about excercise I just ordered a Garmin Forerunner 305.

I think things are going to go to the next level. I will now have distance, speed, a map of my route, heart rate, and a bunch of other data. Should be pretty fun.

Too Busy

Sorry no posts for a few days. Too busy with a full weekend of riding road, snowboarding, and mtn biking. And this week a lot of work. I'll try and get updates this weekend.

Up at 4:30 am

I woke up at around 4 and couldn't sleep any more for some reason. So I got out of bed and fired up the computer and started importing some cd's to Itunes. I just migrated my entire library from my mac harddrive to my PC (since my mac died). There are a number of discs that I haven't put on there yet so I did some catching up. I had an idea last night that I would get up early and put a batch of chili into the crock pot before I went to work so after some importing I went to the kitchen. Vegetarian chili was prepared and put into the crockpot on high. I will turn it to low before I go to work, and by tonight we will have some tasty business!
My Team Muleterro buddies and I had a meeting with the Gallatin Valley Bike Club last night. We are going to handle PR and advertising for their main fund raising event: The Spring Bike Swap. We just got added as a team to their umbrella nonprofit status so we have to do some work with them. I am heading this up as I did a bunch of event promotion when I was doing movies with my buddy Erik at Stormshadow Productions a few years back.

I love Itunes

Man do I love Itunes! I just rescued my music library from my external hard drive that used to run on my Mac, which crapped out on me two months ago. I found a utility to let me mount the drive on my PC which I did, and copied my itunes library on to my PC. So after a good two or three months of no itunes I am back in business! I also just put some new stereo stuff into my truck which made it about 100 times better to listen to music in. So my daily commute is much more enjoyable. And, after having Itunes since it came out years and years ago, I just figured out how to make smart playlists! What is wrong with me that I didn't know that before!!!! I have been manually adding music to all the playlists I make and it always pissed me off! Now I can easily make a playlist for all one genre, or artist, or whatever and it autofills for me. Wow. I must be getting old that I don't know how to use the features of a computer program that are very basic. hmph.

Last played artists:
Miles Davis
Sebadoh
Folk Implosion
Lou Barlow
DJ Krush
Darkest Hour

In the Dark

Sunset ride tonight out Gooch Hill and back. I didn't get on the road until 5:45 so I put my blinky light on my camelback so I wouldn't get run over when it got dark. I am trying to ride really slow and aerobically the whole time which I gather is known as Base Miles in the proper roadie lingo. Riding road is so different from mountain biking! All I think about the whole time is my pedaling and how it sucks and I want it to be smoother and more even around the stroke.
I have noticed improvement even in the ten hours I have been out this past month. (Lifetime road bike total: 20 hours) I think I had my seat too high as well until yesterday when I lowered it about a half-inch. I was starting to bounce a bit when my cadence got up. It is better after changing the seat height. Now I think I need to either shift the saddle forward more, or tilt it up in the front because I am sliding forward too much and having to really push with my arms to get my butt to the right spot. I will adjust before the next ride.
Looks like big snow on the docket for tomorrow with a winter storm warning for the area. 6-12 inches in the mountains though so I may get to skip work on Wednesday and go ride Bridger and hike the ridge a few times. I would like a few good days on the board yet this winter.

Dogde the Snow Cloud

Today's Road Ride:

Time: 45 min.
Distance: 11.3 miles
Temp: 37
Wind: 10mph

Had to cut today short due to being surrounded by snow clouds in all directions. I was going to drive west of town to ride where it is usually warmer but after I got in the car and started driving I could see it was snowing out there. At my house it was an island of sun, so I came back and rode out from the house. The Gallatin Range to the south was topped with clouds dropping snow and the same with the Bridgers to the north. So I could see a wall of snow creeping out of Gallatin Canyon and I knew my ride may need to get cut short. And it did. I got about 35 minutes out and could see the weather closing in. I got caught in the fall in a total blizzard and do not want to repeat that so I turned around and headed back.
I have been riding on these roads lately that got chip sealed late in the fall and they are extremely rough. I didn't realize how rough until I rode out Stuckey today and it was chip seal halfway, and then turned to good smooth normal pavement, and I started to go WAY faster. It was a big difference.

A short essay on animals and cyclists

This morning I woke up and hit the road on the bicycle for an hour and a half. Same loop I have been doing out Gooch Hill road and coming back on Cottonwood. 20 miles plus or minus depending on how you connect the two roads. Today I was cruising along in ipod-land and was shaken out of my reverie by a barking dog blasting towards me at high speed from a mobile home next to the road. I started yelling at it and pedaling like mad and fortunately he stopped chasing me in short order. Very stimulating though... Then two more ranch dogs were charging across a pasture at me not too far down the road, but a good "NO! GO HOME!" got them squared away. Ranch dogs are trained to herd things, and I am sure they think I am some wierd type of cow moving quickly down the road, obviously escaped from the fence. Livestock also get confused by the me on a bike. One day a herd of cattle started running towards the road as I went by. I don't know what they thought, maybe I had food or something. Then in the same pasture a different day there were yearling cows, younger, and they all ran away when they saw me. Wierd. Today some horses got startled and started running away, until I spoke to them whereby they stopped, realizing I was a human being.

High Country Livin'

It snowed a good three inches two nights ago thereby bagging my riding for a few days until the roads clear. This is the first spring I have ever had a road bike and I really like being able to pedal this early in the season. It should warm up this week and melt out quickly though so hopefully tomorrow I can go post-work for a while. After my three hours on the bike this weekend my shoulder was killing me yesterday. My body still very much dislikes road bike body position. It's hard to get used to being so hunched over after riding upright on mtn bikes for so long. Lower back hurts as well. Hopefully all that will go away once I put some more miles in and my muscles get used to it.

Snow Ride

Yesterday it was cold out, 36 on my thermometer (wireless digital of course). I was inside on the couch watching the Tour of California, and wishing I was out riding my bike. After a while, I thought "It's not much colder than 40, which has been my cutoff. I bet if I dressed a little warmer I would be fine." So I suited up with 2 long sleeve polypro shirts, my windbreaker, tights, hat, snowboarding gloves, and neoprene booties. I plugged in my ipod and selected my Songs Of Freedom playlist which includes the whole Bob Marley box set, and a random sampling of other reggae and dub. Pumped up the tires and off I went. Oh yeah, the forecast was 70% chance of snow. I cruised out Gooch Hill Road which is one of my favorites in Bozeman. It rolls through some wheat fields and you get a nice view of the valley. After about an hour, it of course starts to snow. I was a bit more than halfway in distance and had a mostly gently downhill ride back to the house. Having a hard time with snow hitting me in the eyes because I was wearing my normal glasses, I squinted and pedaled as best I could for another 20 minutes, hoping the snow wasn't going to get heavy and start sticking to me. I made it back, a bit chilly but very pleased that I got a good little ride in. 20 miles or so. It was a good way to end my Sunday.

First Trail Ride

One week ago on Sunday Ciaran and I went on the first trail ride of the year. I have a few pictures here.

First Rides

So I have been able to ride my bike finally, after the depth of winter has passed. I went on my first mtn bike ride last weekend at a secret location with my friend Ciaran. Good singletrack descent, some mud, and much fun. This is the first spring I have ever had a road bike as well, and I have been taking advantage of it. I discovered a good 10 mile loop from my work, with another one that is probably about 25 that I have not done yet. But twice this week I rallied the short one, and was really happy to be out pedalling. Passing cows and potato fields mostly, rural montana at it's best.