Good Bye to my Toyota Tacoma

Our trustworthy Toyota Tacoma is gone. It is now resting peacefully at a farm outside of Mancos, CO. It will spend many years now co-mingling with the chickens and goats that Lottie and Kevin have on their farm. It was time to sell my friend of almost 6 years. We had some great trips and if that truck could talk................it could write a book.

The next vehicle will be profiled soon. If all goes as planned we are traveling to Carbondale, Colorado tonight to pick it up.

We will certainly miss the trusty Tacoma. I did however request visitation rights.

Post Whiskey Ride in Sedona

A portion of the group waiting to regroup. Everyone is really slow a day after a race. Pictured here is Stephanie and David Lind (Left). Cannot remember the dude leaning on the sign post's name.

Oak Creek near Buddha Beach. Running much slower than it was during the Sedona Big Friggin Loop Race.

Laura having a fun easy spin on Cathedral Rock trail. Very green in the Sedona desert.

Whiskey 50

The Whiskey 50 was a throw down. The competition showed up in droves for this one. I will not go into great detail but my placing was suspect and even though I appealed and voiced this to Todd Sadow the race promoter my 7th place out of 44 single speeders will stick. It just seems odd when I pass Tom Ament from Vassago early on and he never passes me again and takes 4th in front of me. He even confirmed he never passed me back up. Very suspect. It is what it is. I ran a great race and couldn't expect more from myself. Epic riding through some awesome terrain. Mike Hileman; my good friend from Vegas took 1st in my class. Nice job to Mike!! He rocked it on a 69er full Ti rigid.
My wife Laura entered the 25 miler race and did great herself. She placed 15th out of 29 female racers to finish in 4 hours and 19 minutes. Awesome job!!! That was a great birthday ride for her. I'm so proud of her. It was not an easy race by any means and probably one of the harder races to do considering the climbing involved and techy terrain.

On the way back from Prescott we hit Sedona with a good post race ride with some old friends and new friends.

Next on tap is possibly the Alien Run XC race in Aztec. After that is the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde on May 8th and on May 14th/15th is the Koko Ride.

Whiskey 50- Prescott AZ

The Whiskey 50 is this weekend. It's going to be a good one.

Epicrides.com

Moab Dirt Time

Moab is great this time of year!!

I took full advantage of a free day to make a day trip to Moab this past Saturday. TR from Montrose came over to stay the weekend in Rico at the Hemperley Casa. Laura was in Albuquerque with her sister on a biking trip so I was on dog duty for us and the Guskea's. Departed Rico @ 5am and met up with Kiviok who drove us three to Moab. It was 60 degrees at 8.30am. It was going to be a beautiful day. I had planned a mini epic route; with TR and Kiv trusting my judgement on the ride. I decided to ride part of the Moab Rim Ride 100 route as TR and Kiv hadn't ridden some of this great Moab terrain. No better way to ride something but with somebody who has. No maps or GPS needed. We parked at the bottom of 313 and 191 and rode over to Willow Springs Road to the Sovereign Trailhead. We rode Sovereign trail system counterclockwise and made our way over to the big green monster and to the pipeline road and underneath highway 191 in Courthouse Wash. Next up was Mill Canyon/Cotttermine Road to 7 Mile Rim . Now this was a climb. We made our way over to Wipeout Hill and onto very sandy hike-a-bike double track to 313. We crossed 313 with more climbing up an area known as Dealbreaker. Lots of roads in here. I followed the markings used for the Moab Rim Ride 100 over to Gemini Bridges Road. Once we arrived at Gemini Bridges we decided time was waning so we bailed on riding Metal/Masher and Little Rim and made the big loop via Gemini Bridges road back to 191 and back to the truck at 313. We ended up with 50 miles and nearly 5000 feet of climbing. What a great ride!!!





Kiviok and TR dicking around with something.

Sovereign Trail.

Kiviok having a great time.

TR enjoying the views.

7 Mile Rim.

Great looking rock formations along 7 mile Rim.

The fun hike-a-bike making our way over to 313 from Wipeout Hill. I think Kiviok and Tr were talking about hunting the whole time.

Nice and smooth down Gemini Bridges Road.

Gemini Bridge.

Kiviok and TR enjoying the view of Gemini Bridge.

Dawn til Dusk 12 Hour Race

What a throw down it was at the 12 Hours of Dawn til Dusk in Gallup, NM. Aside from a bit of wind the weather was perfect and the competition was super high. The trail system was great. A bit loose and silty but in great condition. In previous years 9 laps would be the winning number for a win in the solo single speed class. This year there were 5 solo single speeders that hit the 10 lap mark. I took 3rd with 10 laps behind Matt Turgeon and Dan Durland had the win in front of us. Some close times with any mechanical or cracking of anyone would have made all of the difference in the final outcome. Shawn Gregory won the under 40 class with 10 laps as well. Fellow teammate Lenny Goodell had a great finish this year with 9 laps to take 4th in the single speed masters class.

Me looking fresh!!! Still smiling.

12 Hours of Dawn til Dusk

It's time again for the 12 Hours of Dawn til Dusk in Gallup. Last year was cancelled due to the snow/rain the night before the race that annihilated the trail system. I've done OK here in the past so I'm hoping for another great result. You never know until you start pedalling. Tough competition as usual with fellow BWR teammate Matt Turgeon and Shawn Gregory from Dolores in my class amongst others. Here is a pic from one of my solo efforts previously in Gallup.

Phil's World

The view from one of the overlooks on Stinking Springs loop.

Phil's World in Cortez is in great shape with the exception of Ledges Loop which has some snow patches. The Kokopelli Bike Club discourages anybody from riding the muddy sections to avoid any damage to the trail system. Ledges was closed off on Wednesday to riders. I was guilty on Sunday of riding this loop.

Go away Winter

Winter just will not let go. More snow and wind overnight in my area of the world. I'm ready for spring. After today the weather is looking better. Gallup weather is looking superb for the Dawn til Dusk 12 Hour race this weekend. High 72 or so. I will take it!!