THROWDOWN at the FARM

May be your last chance at XC glory for the year, serious course, friendly club, and all the dirt you can handle. Go To the PAMBA link "ON YER RIGHT" for all the poop...I actually RODE my mountain bike last night, almost forgot how fun that is at night under a full moon in the woods

Cross is Boss...(stole the pics from Moritz)

First race of the 'cross season, yeah I'm hooked. 2007 hasn't been kind to me however, as once AGAIN on the first lap I was trying to snooker everyone in the first corner around a traffic island and hit the curb, DOH!!! After I got back into my pedals I punched it to catch up setting about mid pack now, hard left into the first dismount and run up I'm feeling good, go for the re-mount, stand on the pedals and my chain had come off and twisted itself around my chain stay, DOUBLE DOH!!! Oh well, now I'm dead last and playin catch up. I did manage to catch a few and ran the rest of the race without screwing anything else up. Looking forward to the next one. I like movies, preferrably in the comfort of my living room but every now and again we'll hit up the big screen, BIG MISTAKE, some snot nosed kid behind us had never had the parental instruction to clear his clogged nasal passages, so for the first 45 minutes of "Resident Evil III", snuffaluffagus (which i began to call him) would sniffle up a big wad of snot every 30 seconds, I kid you not, It got so bad we moved over and behind him and could still hear it off in the distance. After watching so much violence and death I began a secret plan to dismember snuffy and stuff his fat ass into my empty popcorn bag...but the better angels of my nature took over and I spared his life (sigh*) Maybe I'll go with romantic comedys from now on.

Yeah thats how I roll...

Before I start whinning I'll let everyone know that the City of Burlington is "on board" with making Dehn's trails a legitimate reality WOO HOO! Sugar Bottom you ask? The FIRST MILE of the race I had already been passed by the single speeders who left 30 seconds behind the experts, at 1.2 miles I had dabbed the ground on two corners and I was coughing up some nastiness I'd rather not describe on this forum. 1.7 Miles and I pulled over to let ALL the sports by, once they had ridden past, I decided it was OK to leave my breakfast (off trail mind you). Being a trooper and knowing that my hacking fit was over, I decided to press on, at a little over mile 2.3 I put the bike down again trying to catch back on, it was about here that I had to walk because I was seriously going to have an accident before I made it back to the port-a-pottie, uh-oh, now that would be embarrassing. and i didn't want to pass out on the trail with my bibs full of ****... afraid to throw a leg back over my seat I weaved my way my way back to the start/finish line and DNF'ed. I had completed 3.2 miles of the 30 mile expert race, but i left everything I had on the field so to speak...I've ridden and raced with a cold before so I thought it would be no big deal, I should have known by the amount of sweating I was doing BEFORE the race even started something was wrong, needless to say I spent the rest of saturday and all sunday on the couch, although I did sneak in a couple miles on my cyclocross bike, maybe I can repair my wounded pride with a couple of CX races that are coming up...c'mon 2008! I'll post up some pics of some local XC hero's WHEN THIS STOOPID COMPUTER STARTS COOPERATING...

Labor Day Fun

ow OOOWWW!!! working the ropes! Camp run-a-muck I HATE camping at public campgrounds, too many people too close, and with the Mississippi at flood stage finding a secluded spot was going to be tuff. We settled on camping at the "primitive" sites in Palisades state park in savanna Illinois. We scored the LAST one available out of the three that they had, primitive means you hike in and carry EVERYTHING you need (including water)with you. If your in Colorado a two mile UPHILL hike is pretty normal, In the midwest its an anomally. 1.7 miles all uphill to campsite "B", actually a VERY nice place. All I could think about is what a cool downhill race this trail would make, especially the last/first 1/4 mile at what I'm guessing is a 12% grade. Also NO BIKES ALLOWED, but still, you could get a good 45 to 50 mph coming down the thing. Three tips; 1)don't forget your sleeping bags on the first hike up to your camp 2) No matter how tempting it may be, don't try to adjust a jet-boil campstove AFTER you've heated it up. 3)Climbing and rope work with three blistered fingers can be painful, however, one MUST NOT LET GO no matter what. Did my fastest lap at Geode for this year sunday, however, I'm still close to five minutes slower than my best ever time, must be gettin older faster than I thought.

Sound Advice

On another note, I'm meeting with the Burlington Parks Dept. next wednesday at Dehn's. Its their intention to do a GPS survey of our little trail, I want to use the opportunity to make the case that these trails are a city ASSET, and should be left AS IS. it would be nice to be able to hold events there, protect the area from developement or destruction from off road vechiles, help the City understand how unique this area really is. Maybe even secure some funding for trail maintenance issues, trail marking signs. We'll see what happens

You love me, you really love me...

I almost won an award Sunday. Unfortunately it would have been a "http://www.darwinawards.com/ "CHARLIE" I was attempting to dislodge approximately 300 feet of nasty hanging vines attached from a rather large branch laying on the trail to the very top of an old Oak 65 feet directly above me. My first attempt did nothing to break it loose, so I tried again, HARDER, maybe another 25 feet of vine and some smaller tree limbs started raining down but the majority of this mess was still sky high above me and I couldn't move it off the trail until I had enough slack in this twisted mess. I "Tazan-ed" again, this third try resulted in a tremendous snap overhead, I had broken the ENTIRE top of this Oak off and it was now accelerating towards me, according to Newton, at 30ft per second squared. Now I'm not the fastest guy in the woods but by the sound of this thing coming down I knew it had to be HUGE, what I ended up with was a pile of dead or dying vine three feet deep and a 30 foot section of dry Oak a foot in diameter to clean off the trail. Thank GOD I had moved my bike or it would have been smashed too, I'm sure I had inches to spare, but I would have been really depressed had I been killed, I can almost read my own nomination for my "Charlie" statue...

Karma and laziness

I'm building an ARK

This is a pic from where I work, after 6 inches of rain overnight we now have a wonderful lake. It didn't take the geese long to find it either. Dehn's is going to be a nightmare after this as well, if it indeed stops raining I'll post up some damage photos as I'm sure its going to nasty down there. Burlington and surrounding areas got some really wicked lightening storms as well, I've rarely seen that much lightning in one storm, kinda freaky

No Sugar

two deaths valley B.O.D (bridge of death) SPASM CHASM Guess where I parked the trail maintenance truck, hint: there used to be a trail here Sugar bottom WAS postponed, now its September 16th. I used 6 hrs saturday to do some much needed chainsawing and weedwacking in Dehn's. The only maintenance remaining is the ladder bridge over the big creek. Sunday I decided to ride 30 miles (Sugar race distance),and with the shortened trail it took 8 laps. ouch...

I bet it rains again

Sweet Butt Its the Sugarbottom Scramble, I know that SOUNDS naughty but its THE XC race in Iowa. Tight and twisty and if the rain holds off it should be decent weather See you there...

Not THULE, its TOOL (again)

This was taken in the La Sal mountains Utah at 11,000 feet up, your looking east into Colorado a good 50 miles or so...i could not see any cornfields, sorry I know, I know the lyrics are SO cliche...But I can't help feeling the same way. For your listening pleasure, here's TOOL's "Right in Two"... Angels on the sideline, Puzzled and amused. Why did Father give these humans free will? Now they're all confused. Don't these talking monkeys know that Eden has enough to go around? Plenty in this holy garden, silly monkeys, Where there's one you're bound to divide it. Right in two. Angels on the sideline, Baffled and confused. Father blessed them all with reason. And this is what they choose. And this is what they choose... Monkey killing monkey killing monkey Over pieces of the ground. Silly monkeys give them thumbs, They forge a blade, And where there's one they're bound to divide it, Right in two. Right in two. Monkey killing monkey killing monkey. Over pieces of the ground. Silly monkeys give them thumbs. They make a club. And beat their brother, down. How they survive so misguided is a mystery. Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven conscious of his fleeting time here. Cut it all right in two [x4] Fight over the clouds, over wind, over sky Fight over life, over blood, over prayer, overhead and light Fight over love, over sun, over another, Fight... Angels on the sideline again. Been soon long with patience and reason. Angels on the sideline again Wondering when this tug of war will end. Cut it all right in two [x3] RIGHT IN TWO! Right in two...

Da BEARS!

I was sitting on my arse watching the tube one day a few weeks ago, (right before our trip) the lead story was a young Utah boy pulled from his tent and mauled by a black bear, right thru his sleeping bag/pad and all. Now when your sitting in the comfort of your air conditioning smack dab in the middle of Iowa you think "yeah, poor kid, I hope everything turns out ok", and life goes on just like before. HO HUM. When your actually IN YOUR TENT IN BLACK BEAR COUNTRY UTAH, this thought crosses your mind in a much different way, more like "Oh shit, ya know some kid got drug out of his tent right about HERE!" which is why my LOADED rifle was with me during our little excursion, not that it would have made much difference, and really offered NO comfort as Mrs. Brakeville and I tried to get to sleep that first night, and the previous campers had left a veritable BEAR schmorgasborg of foodstuffs laying all over the place, why not eat the corn fed Iowan's? Like a big green cream filled turnover, we went to sleep in our tent. (shhhhh! did you hear THAT?)growl/snort!!! The observation above came after a few of lifes little reminders that a person really has the ILLUSION of control at any given time, case in point; When your river guide tells you "hey you know you can jump out of the boat and do these next class III rapids in your life vest"... He's right! you can, however hitting a 7 foot high wall of water tends to knock the air from your lungs, and the next time you see daylight could be downstream quite a ways, my advice? Stay in the boat, you paid for a RAFTING trip, not FLOATING... Before ANY thought of Bears entered my mind, we decided that being in the MAZE during the 106 degree days was a death wish, (the locals confirmed this), so we headed up to the La Sal Mountains instead, 15 miles to the turn off, and 14 miles of 4X4 ONLY "road" would get us to "DARK CANYON LAKE", the 4x4 road took over two hours of climbing in low range locked in, with roughly 6,000 ft of elevation gained, once at our campsite my truck decided it would not shift into any forward (or reverse for that matter) gear. Crap. Stuck in park- 30+ miles from ANYWHERE, 11,500 feet high, no tow truck in sight. what to do? well you take your bike and head downhill, 40 mph at some points on texas sized gravel to get a cell phone signal, after 10 miles or so, i was finally able to make the call, only to have my phone DIE. OK. Well we're descending toward the town of La Sal Utah (pop. 15) might as well keep going. Off we went, I'm riding ahead (kinda enjoying the massive downhill) until I feel the warm stans-no-tubes solution washing over me from my front tire, no ordinary punture, I've torn the tire big time, I whittle a piece of pine into a tire plug and we're able to close the wound with 10 lbs of air remaining, almost enough to make it to La Sal without destoying my rim...long story short, got a ride back up from a nice local rancher, fixed my truck, ( I had jammed the steering column and key switch enroute UP the "road") and we commenced camping. Oh it rained THREE times that evening, had I not been able to move my truck, it would have been sitting in axle deep water...it had not rained there for a couple of weeks, and we camped without the bear fearing campfire going, burn ban don't you know? I rode the slickrock trail. sweet.

2,663 miles later

On Holiday!!!!!

Headed out this friday towards the Canyonlands in Utah! I'm going to miss a couple of cross country races but OH WELL! We'll be loaded with film and video, but I won't be able to post up until we get back. Slickrock Trail, Rafting the Colorado, Desert Camping, Climbing and Cayoneering I need more frickin hobbies...

DANGER WILL ROBINSON...DANGER

The "railroad track loop" of Dehn's took a BEATING from all the rain we had this weekend! I'm guessing by the waterline it was about six feet deep over the new steel bridge, the creek couldn't move it, so it dug a new 1 1/2' deep channel on the far end...the 30 foot long ladder bridge at the other end of the trail??? GONE!...well not gone gone, its laying about 10 feet up the bank on the opposite side of the creek. I have an idea where to put it the next time because the flood also removed what was left of the little piece of land it was attached to. The water must have been rushing through there pretty fast cause it pulled up the 10' long pillings I drove in the creek bed to anchor it!!! If anyone wants to give a hand on the re-build gimmie a call!! The rest of the trails look OK just alot of sticks and such again.

THE MAZE

This will be our vacation destination, first rafting the Colorado river in Moab, then...THE MAZE According to the Park Service this is the most REMOTE spot in the lower 48 states, accessible only by high clearance 4X4, better bring the kitchen sink in supplies cause the nearest town to the entrance is 45 miles away. The Mrs. and I will be biking un-charted slickrock, hiking the slot canyons, and poopin in a "honey pot" (no turds left behind) When someone tells you to get lost, THIS is where to go...

Farmdale!

I rode more single track yesterday than I did ALL of the month of MAY!! The "Farmdale Frenzy" gets better every year. Trail conditions and the weather were perfect and this years race course was superb. Going down "Whistler" I registered 31.2 MPH!!! and hitting the high banked 180 at the bottom was like a 8G rollout in a F-18. PAMBA puts on a great race. I ripped off these photo's from Aaron, I should have given him my front wheel and at least had an idea what riding in the front feels like. I hate cramps ow ow OW!!! Oh, who ever designed the log pile-to-log pile gap jump desreves an "A+", that is so smooth at speed you don't even realize how far it is between them, i hit it kinda hard on the first lap hoping I'd clear it OK and damn near hit the trees on the other side. I may have to copy that thing here locally! Me likey alot!!

Wednesday Night ride

WINDY AS HELL going home!!

ROCK "THE FARM"

Throw down at the "Farm", the trails here are sweet twisty single track and the PAMBA folks put on a great race. HOWIE, you WILL race this weekend!!! You gotta beat those young punks down! Farmdale Reservoir Recreation Area Bittersweet Rd. Washington, IL About This Event PAMBA's Farmdale Frenzy I-74 XC & BigHit DH and MTX consists of: June 9th - The first of two Downhill and Mountain Cross races for 2007, and...June 10th - Frenzy Cross Country MTB Race, Race #2 in the I-74 Homegrown Race Series. DH/MTNX Categories June 9th - Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Downhill Race has been CANCELLED! Mudslides and standing water from spring rains have closed access for shuttle and emergency vehicles. We are sorry for any inconvenience. This situation should be resolved before the Sept. race. MTX is still a go!! There will be novice and advanced categories. Practice runs will begin at 3 p.m. and will be single elimination style tournament until the top three remain. XC CATEGORIES June 10th - Frenzy Cross Country MTB Race. No divisions or age groups for First Timer's Race. Novice and Sport Age Groups in both Male and Female Categories: 19 and under, 20-29, 30-39, 40 and up. Expert will only be divided by gender- NO age groups. This race can be used as a qualifier for inclusion in the I-74 Homegrown Race Series. You must attend/complete 4 of the 6 scheduled races for 2007 to be considered for Series contention. For 2007, you're finishing position against ALL racers in your class determines your points for that race. DH/MTNX Awards Medals will be awarded to the top three finishers in each category in each event. Gift Certificates, to local bike shops, will also be awarded to top three finishers. XC AWARDS Expert: Cash payout for top three finishers in both Male and Female categories. Sport: Medals and Bike Shop Gift Certificates to top three finishers in all age groups by gender division. Novice: Medals for top three finishers in all age groups by gender division. First Timers: some good swag.

Tuesday Nights..

Tuesday night roadie/racer/wannabee ride map for shits and giggles :) Pretty cool website