Kokopelli Ride

KTR Redo. After our miserable muddy effort at the KTR on May 15th Shawn Gregory and I decided to give it a go again and ride from Fruita to Moab. This was my 4th Kokopelli effort and now have done it both directions twice. The weather was supremely perfect and the creeks had just enough water to filter from. Laura dropped us off at the Loma trailhead and we started pedaling at midnight on Saturday night. No mechanicals and just great riding.
Stats: 142 (GPS stated 137) miles, 16,300 elevation gain. 18 hours 49 minutes to finish. Bike ridden; single speed 29 with 32x20 gear ratio. Filtered water from 3 creeks.


The morning sun finally after being in the dark for 6 hours.

Shawn refilling his water bottle.

The mighty Colorado.

Where is the trail???

Shawn cruising along the Colorado early in the morning.

Great views in the Yellow Jacket Canyon area on our way to Dewey Bridge.

Yellow Jacket Canyon area.

Dewey Bridge. Gone after a young kid burned it down.

This is the creek we filtered from in Entrada Bluffs.

Entrada Bluffs.

Shawn grinding up the monster climb from Dewey Bridge into the Entrada Bluffs.

The daunting climb out on the Cottonwood Canyon RD area after descending the techy Rose Garden Hill area.

Far away from our goal. La Sal Mountains.

The descent from Rose Garden Hill onto Cottonwood Canyon Rd.

Great views atop the Beaver Mesa area.

Shawn filtering water from Fischer Creek. We still had some monster climbs in front of us before the 20 mile descent into Sand Flats.

Shawn grinding up Castleton Gateway Rd. The climbing seemed to never stop.

View from Castleton Gateway Rd.

Finally downhill to Sandflats Rd. The La Sals now in the background.

Shawn happy to be going downhill for once after the hard effort up the La Sal Loop Road which we both hammered up without stopping at all. Hard on the knees on the singlespeeds.

Two happy riders to see Laura at the Slickrock Trailhead with cold beers and some nice finishing prizes from Gearheads. Thanks honey!!!! Next stop was Moab Brewery.

The bike setup....AY Up lighting system. Garmin 705 GPS system. External battery charger to recharge the GPS. Dual feed bag to make eating easier on the trail. I have this system down to a science and works well on the long enduro stuff.

THE bike....Airborne 29er Titanium single speed. 32x20 gearing.

First time I tried this but McDonald's hamburgers seem to work great for on the trail feeding. Thanks Shawn for the suggestion. We both chowed down three of them during the ride. Could of ate more. The funny thing is I rarely eat fast food but it does seem to have a place in the world; endurance riding.

Garmin Edge 705

Received a Garmin 705 for my birthday. Looking forward to using it. I certainly could have used the assistance of a GPS unit in the past.

Mountain Flyer Palisade Classic Race Report

A great write-up of the Palisade Classic bike race here with great pics..................http://www.mountainflyer.com/news.cfm?itemid=388

Rico Locals Loop

The snow cleared out and the sun shined so it was time to ride the Rico Locals loop on Monday afternoon. It is a nice loop that a few of us locals have put together over time and it has evolved nicely with 1180 feet of climbing and more if you want it. It is about 8-10 miles long and you can always add more mileage along with more climbing. Takes less than an hour if you are moving quick. It is comprised of mostly old mining roads, some private land and some sweet single track through the aspen and spruce. The nice thing about it is it it right outside my door and I hit single track coming back to my house.

The new White Brothers Rock Solid carbon fork rode sweet on its maiden voyage.

Some nice mining roads with casual climbing grades.

The overlook above Rico. To this point I have climbed 820 feet from the house.

Sweet single track going back to my house.

Palisade Race Pics-Finish

Coming in to the finish line after a hard battle to take 1st in the single speed class.




A little road rash on my arm and my hip took a good beating when I hit the asphalt hard in the pea gravel going hot into a corner.

Will, 2nd place, and I chatting about the race.

Will and I happy to be done battling.

Thank you to Jim for the photos.

White Brothers Rock Solid

Here is a pic of my prize for 1st in the Palisade Bike Classic.

Palisade Bike Classic River Crossing

A pic of our river crossing after our big climb. This years crossing wasn't as big but definitely woke you up.

Palisade Bike Classic-1st Single Speeder

It was a battle royal in the single speed class for the overall but I played my cards right and took 1st place over some super strong young competition. And for my efforts I won a White Brothers Rock Solid 29er carbon rigid fork. Score!!!!
The course was a tough one with 35 miles and 4800 feet of climbing and the wind was a constant 30mph through out the course. The climbs suited me more so with the long sustained grinds. It started off with nearly 13-15 miles of uphill and a knarly river crossing at the top. Than a 1/2 mile of a hike-a-bike through some slimy clay and than a few miles of some crazy techy descent. After the descent I lost contact with Will and he was going hard in the flats with the bigger gear. I rode a 32x20 which was a good call as Will in 2nd place was trying to push a 32x18 which took it's toll on him on the last climb over Horse Mtn. and where I caught back on after pushing through the headwinds by myself for nearly an hour. Mentally I could have checked out and just cruised for 2nd but I pushed hard hoping I would be able to reel him in and my perseverance paid off. I took a fall on the asphalt in some pea gravel at the end as I was hauling the mail fast; too fast; and knew I was going down. Jacked up my hand and hip a bit but all is good. 1st is great!!! I felt good the whole time with the legs never feeling tired.
Hopefully I can get some photos of the race.

Phil's World and Snakes, Oh My!!

I had Wednesday off this week and went down to Cortez to ride a bit. This little guy got my attention real quick on the Stinking Springs initial climb. I thought I was about to run over a rattle snake but turned out to be a scary looking bull snake of some sorts. I bunny hopped over him and all I could think of at the time is that I might get bitten. I'm plenty paranoid of rattlers from living in Las Vegas where the deadly Mojave Greens and nasty little Sidewinders are abundant. I have been stricken at twice and seen them too many times to count on the Cottonwood trails out by Blue Diamond.

Laura's New Rap Song

Ahhh phhthh phhthhhh phhhthh.

We broke as a joke, cuz the wife's skills broke;
She a messed up failure, and broke her derailleur;
We done gotta new part, and it broke my heart;
Cuz we gots ta eat cheap for da rest of the week!!

Ahhh phhthh phhhthhh phhhthhh!!

Boggy Draw Riding

After a demoralizing DNF attempt at the KTR I was able to get some good miles in Sunday riding the single speed cross bike from Rico to Boggy Draw located outside of Dolores and jumping on the single speed mountain bike. Laura and Sophia were going riding at Boggy so my bike was transported to the trailhead and I was able to get a ride in with Shawn and bust out 20 miles of sweet singletrack. Wet in a few places but overall great early season riding in the Ponderosa's. Heading down on Wednesday to ride the total loop. Hopefully the weather keeps nice.

Shawn looking perplexed.

My fully rigid Vassago single speed. A carbon Bontrager Switchblade rigid fork up front while my White Brothers Magic is being repaired.

KTR=DNF

No finish this year on the KTR for me and 4 others. 8 started and 3 finished a very tough KTR. 5 of us bailed after the first 20 mile climb up to La Sal Loop Road. It was getting ridiculous in the mud as we were pulling, carrying and dragging our bikes that wouldn't even roll through the mud as it clogged up the tire clearance. We were 30 minutes already off our pace from last year and decided collectively to bail. Looks like I am going to give it another run on May 29th and run it from Fruita to Moab this time. It will be hotter for sure.

12 Hours of Mesa Verde

The 12 Hours of Mesa Verde has come and gone. As expected it was a very tough race. In my opinion it is one of the harder 12 hour races due to it's length of 16 miles each lap and the rockiness of the Stinking Springs section and not to mention the 1500 feet of climbing. My goal was to complete 8 laps but I succumbed after lap 7 and was able to hang onto 4th place after leading for a bit and dropping consistently to 4th in the solo singlespeed class. Not sure if I had went for the 8th lap that I would have been able to take 2nd or 3rd. I was cooked. Shawn Gregory took top honors in the solo singlespeed class. He has had a tremendous year and has done well. Very tough competition. Paul Adams; a local from Cortez took 5th place. Lenny Goodell; my teammate on Big Wheel Racing from Albuquerque took 7th respectively in the solo SS class.
Another BWR member from Durango, Jeni Turgeon, took 5th place in the solo women's class with 6 laps. Very impressive! Jeni stepped in to take Matt's place in a solo spot who is out with an Achilles injury.
Not a huge Big Wheel Racing team turnout as in previous years but at least 2 of us were on the podium.
And yet another noteworthy finish is to my good friend TR Larson, whom competed in his first ever 12 hour race; TR finished 6 laps in the solo singlespeed class. Nice job TR on your first 12 hour race. He may be BWR material.

Next on tap is the Kokopelli Trail Race this Friday starting at midnight. A self supported endurance race. This will be my 4th time to ride this and hope to knock some serious time off of my previous finishes. Local racers joining me on this adventure are Kiviok Hight, Shawn Gregory and Paul Adams. Kiviok and Shawn rode with me last year to finish their first KTR's.

We have a new traveling weekender vehicle. A 2004 Ford E150. I have been wanting a van for traveling to my races, etc. for a few years now and finally found one in mint condition. I had to sacrifice the truck to get it but we still have two 4x4 vehicles for winter driving. Found this van in Carbondale, CO. via Craigslist. Perfect condition inside and outside with only a minor scratch and dent on the rear bumper and never has towed anything. New tires and the Carfax report showed no recalls and routine maintenance performed on it. Taken care of beautifully. A lady in Florida used it for transporting pottery supplies around. She passed away and the niece inherited it. It has 49K miles and runs like a dream. It is the V8 4.6 liter engine with decent gas mileage averaging 19 on the highway which will be most of my miles. Time to deck it out for my bike trips. The bike racks from the Tacoma made it on the 2nd day I had it and I installed a bench seat in the back as well that my brother-in-law Mike has from his 15 passenger van. Good time abound with the new van.