the truth hurts

well, I just got back from the un40km time trial championships out in Tenino, Washington. It was warm overcast day with super high humidity. I had no idea of what to expect of myself in this 40km(+) effort but I figured it would be a good gauge to see where my fitness is at. The past is messing with me though because I have high expectations of myself. I have ridden a 50 min 40km before so i felt i could do something good today. I was wrong. The course ended up being over 40kms so the times dont jive in comparison, but I sucked anyway. I was not strong enough to turn the big gear, which is my usual tactic in such a race, and I did not have the leg speed to spin a lower gear at a higher RPM. Result: I sucked! The good news is I know that I have a lot of hard work to do before cross season starts.
In other news, I am taking 6 juniors from the RAD Racing cycling team, of washington to the tour of idaho this week for a 4 day, 5stage race. It should be a good time. We leave wednesday morning.

Props again to mat shriver, www.mattshriver.com he had another good performance in British Columbia again today at the tour of Delta. Nice work my friend.

progress and pain

PROGRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thurston County got our parcel # assigned so we can now file a building permit. Geeeezzzzzzzzz that only took forever. I dont know what they had to do...press the enter key on the computer or something. but anyway, its done. The surveyors have one more day of work to do and they are done, so the site plan can go to septic design and the well location can be proposed!!! How exciting.

PAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am going to inflict some pain on myself this weekend. I plan on doing the Skagit Flat Circuit race up in Gig Harbor on saturday and then the Washington State 40km TT championships on Sunday. Its going to hurt. I just got the TT rig built up...i will post a pick or two. Jim brown loaned me a pair of Mavic Cosmic Carbones so at least I will have some fast wheels, the rest will be up to me!


Shriver!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Matt Shriver rocked the house last weekend up in Canada by winning the Tour De Whiterock. Hats off to Matt. and yes, the new house will have a place for you to stay Matt! www.mattshriver.com


more to come

re boot!

THE NEW VIEW

Well, if you dont know by now, hollie and I have moved to Olympia, Washington. Thats right, the Double Dog Ranch is for sale in Nevada City...and a new ranch will be built . In fact, the picture above will be the view from the east side of the house. And where we are, eastern views mean one thing...Mount Rainer. We have a big 'ol view of the 14,000 foot massif! This pond is about 1 of 4 ponds on our 40 acre tract. The dogs are loving the water right now as it has been a bit warm. The dogs have also had a lot of fun chasing the coyotes, but as the coyotes get bigger I think we are going to have a slight problem on our hands.

LOOK TOWARD THE SITE

Here is a look toward the building site. This pond is very clean and peaceful, I am thinking about building a dock out there for some fun. Right now we are waiting for paper work stuff to be finished. The county is sorting out building permits, the survey company is re-establishing the corners, the well folks are waiting for the septic folks, and the septic folks are waiting for the site plan...i guess this is the building process! In the meantime we have been getting ready to bring power to the site. We have to do some tree removal and dig a ditch for 6/10 's of a mile for the utility company to bury all their wires and cables. Luckily this time I have a backhoe at my disposal to dig the ditch!

The plan right now is to build a house with a detached garage with an apartment upstairs. Big decks and big yard! Even though we have not yet started, I wish it were all done! This is the time of the year up here you can really enjoy the evenings with a little BBQ and some great temps.
Speaking of good times, we went to my Brother in law and future sis in law, April and Rods house last night with Gordon and Beverlee, for some great BBQ. After a scrumptious meal we went out on the Sound on Rod and Aprils boat. It was real nice...I cant wait to go again!
What else, well, with all the waiting I have been doing lately I have been riding the bike a ton...it keeps my mind off the stress of paying for a house you dont live in while you have no job!!!!! Besides that it has been great to get big miles back in the legs. Hollie has been at it too really enjoying this weather. Hollie also starts a part time job today with the Nature Conservancy. I think she will be floating along rivers trying to eradicate weeds that are foreign to natural protected areas...sounds like fun to me!
I will try and get back at posting...I have one more trip down to Nevada City and we should be all out of the house, but it is up for sale...if you know anyone looking send them my way!

cheers

The trip ends!

TIME TO SHAVE

I must say sorry, if anyone was reading, for the long gap between posts. Things got a little hairy after the last mountain bike race in Leavenworth, Washington. For starters, I crashed hard at the race. It was the scariest crash I have ever had. Long story short, I aired out a water bar at about 35mph and landed on the front wheel. That was bad. I bounced off the hard packed trail and flew down a cliff to my left, without my bike. I was grabbing on to tree and earth trying to arrest my fall. Luckily I stopped and i missed the major plunge. It took me a minute to inventory myself and I got back up to the trail. I figured my bike had exploded, but it was fine. I was not. I could not move my left arm and I was pretty sure that I had punctured every organ under and around my rib cage. I got down the rest of the trail and to the medic tent. I was hurting and the helmet was exploded. All i could think about was Hollie...i was hoping she would be safe.
She was smarter than I and got 4th in the pro women category. NICE WORK!
We were supposed to go to the Beer Festival afterwards, but I was not into it. So, we left and went to Olympia, Washington, to Hollies folks houses to try and recover. I am still in a lot of pain. I can use my arm fine, but no laughing, sneezing or coughing PLEASE!

FOXY LIKES OLYMPIA

The dogs found the sleeping space to be a bit nicer than the camper in Olympia! Not only the sleeping, but the playing. 250 acres of wooded land full o f ponds, bunnies, deer and coyotes! The dogs vacation really started in Olympia!

THE SUN SETS ON THE TRIP

So the trip is over, or is a new one just beginning? I think the later. Hollie and I loved the trip and a month was not enough time. We were living. It is so important to find out what is really important. If you (blog reader) have ever wanted to take a trip or an adventure, or learn something new...DO IT ! Life is so short. ENJOY IT. Besides, Life: no one gets out alive!

Upon reflection I have discovered a few things. I love my wife more than I did before we left. Which I could not imagine because she is my world. We are better best friends. We are soul mates for sure. I know that we can do anything together and laugh at struggle instead of stress about it. Hollie makes me so strong I cant imagine life without her. I hope everyone has a Hollie in their lives!

the thrill of the swill

GOOD CLEAN FUN

We are off to Leavenworth, Washington for the thrill of the swill. How much more fun could you have? A great mountain bike race followed by a beer festival with live music!!!!! That just screams to us to come and get it!
hopefully we will have a good race report and some great photos. We have been on the down low since Memorial Day weekend...kind of recharging after all the driving and riding we did. So for the last week its been mostly riding and chilling!

blog log

BLOG LOG

So, its been a few days since we blogged. Well, here it is...the blog log. That tree is a doug fir, I have never seen a doug fir so big. We rode through this big clear cut that made out trail hike back in McCall, Idaho look like a walk in the park. We have found some good riding and conditions lately. We Kind of had to go on the run on Memorial Day Weekend. We have been in 3 states trying to find a spot to settle down for a few. I had no idea Americans camp as much as they do on this Holiday weekend. We could not find a place to stay. Not paid campground, not a state or national campground, no boondocking and not walmarts. its all full! So we had to go to a safe place. I thought about going up to Canada, seeing they dont celebrate Memorial Day, but we did not.

THE UNDERSIDE

This picture gives you a clue as to where we are...That is Hollie and our team mate Luke, from the Sonic Cyclocross team. The weather has been really good and the riding has been GREAT! Yesterday Luke took us on a little journey on some logging roads bisected by single track it was a blast. We could not escape the sound of 2 stroke engines and gun fire. The motos were like swarms of insects and the guns...it was like a bad old western. I guess Alcohol, quads and guns are how a lot of families celebrate the holiday?????? to each is own!
Anywho, we are kind of recovering from our whirlwind last couple of days and settling in for some good times! We will be racing and swilling bavarian beer this weekend in Leavenworth, Washington. Beer and bike racing!

we split boise to Sun Valley...and split again

Was SUN VALLEY SUNNY? NO!

Take a peak at the fresh snow on Borah Peak. We were very cold. We boondocked out on Warm Springs road, which has great Mountain biking right at the doorstep, but Damn it was cold. Snowing everyday...In between riding and sleeping hollie and I did a fair bit of reading, to stay warm and all. I read The Perfect Storm in about 12 hours!

SELF PORTRAIT (no nostrils)

I took this pic where Imperial gulch and green horn gulch meet. It was up a pretty loose moto'ed out single track which took some serious concentration, and traction just to keep moving up. Lucky for me, there was a table and chair at the intersection and it was not snowing.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

This is way out there, I was so happy to take a seat and have hollie snap this photo. But, the wind picked up and the cold poured down the mountain bringing snow. we moved on!

MORNIN'

Hollie getting the dogs food ready before the ride...note the Down Jacket! It was cold!

Boon Docking!

Dont be fooled by the sun light. It was short lived and the flurries of snow followed. It was a great place to camp out though. Just the sound of the river running in front of us...great sleeping...or that might be attributed to the 3 moose drools I had before bed.

Biking

Bundled up in May. We are still having a great time. In fact todays ride was one of my top 3 rides of all time. I have been riding a bike since I was 4 or so, so that is pretty real. It looks like Hollie is having fun here too!

I could stay in Sun Valley for a long time and ride. There is buffed single track in places you cant imagine. The bummer is that Sun Valley is for rich folk who dont liver there. The people who are there, whom might not be rich, have lost sight of the land they live in and kind of focus on "hating the tourist" or "the Californian" Everywhere we have been on our trip so far people have been so cool, especially in Idaho. I think the Hailey, Ketchum, SV crowd need to get back to the goodness of where the are. (RANT)

So, because of the extreme cold and Hollie being miserable we headed out of town today and drove the wrong, long way to Missoula. Wrong and long are accurate, but what a great mistake we made. We drove over some massive 10,000 foot dirt road at 15 miles an hour for 1.5 hours. The road had some crazy "moonshot" exposure to the river floor. It was unreal. It led us down into the Challis National forest, a beauty of a place, that we would have never seen if the GPS had not been so anal about the shortest (line of sight) route! I was stressed out for awhile, but I got over it fast! The country we saw today took my breath away!

So where are we now? Missoula, Montana. I dont think we will be here long. Perhaps one ride and split to Spokane...