Horse "Deep" Bench, SNOW RIDE!

You don't see this lot empty much anymore. We figured it was because we were the MOST hardcore folks in GJ, or that maybe we were the dumbest. I tore apart this snow berm twisting the throttle on my big bad Trek Remedy. BRAP!This was our first ride with Nate and Sarah. What's a snow ride without a snow angel?

On the North slopes the snow was deep. We were busting through what looked like two other guys tracks. The wash was pretty open as were rock outcroppings on south slopes.

Do anything FUN this year?

A year in review, with pictures! Mary and I have had a lot of fun this year. Thanks to all the friends who were along for the rides. I planned to use only TWO photo's from each month of the year. I failed in February, which was our trip to New Zealand. It was a tough call on some months as we had a plethora of adventure pictures to choose from. I hope 2009 brings just as much fun. There were so many of our friends who were injured this year or struggled with sickness. I hope that 2009 is the year we share the trail WAY more.

January,

Mark Landblom throws some mud on about the only ride we got that month.

Sovereign Trail, We all stare out toward the snowy La Sal Mtns.

February,

Mt. Aspiring Nat. Park, New Zealand. The other side of the world!

Glacier, Mt Aspiring Nat. Park

Milford Sound, NZ

March,

This is a Greg Luck sequence shot of me racing the first Thursday Night Throwdown of the year.

My 1970 Schwinn Le Tour, Fixed Gear on the "Fixie Friday" night ride.

April,

A drop on the Flat Top Mesa Loop down near Olathe CO.

Mary on Zion Curtain with Laura Bowen trailing. We met Laura in NZ.

May,

This shot of me was on the first of quite a few epic rides Greg and I did this year, a ride we call "The Book Cliff Traverse." This one was about 8 hours.

Yes, that's me too, have I got style or what? Down Town Bike Festival trials competition. I lost to Andy Adamson who was able to pull off the same moves as I, only he had a WHOLE bike.

June,

Greg/Landon Epic # two. Another sequence shot of me on Wags Way, a "route" near Moab.

Mom and Dad came out from Missouri and saw our house and bike shop for the first time.

July,

Sun Valley Idaho, Imperial Gulch Trail. Mary and I spent a week in the Sawtooth Mtns staying with our friends Kira and Chris Gray.

Epic # three. Ants Basin/Fourth of July/Fisher Creek. Little Travis V, Chris Gray, my self, and Mary Mo. Snow in July!

August,

We finally got a ride in the high country of Durango CO. Weather had conspired to thwart all attempts in the past few years. We sure missed Des Garmin on this ride. It was with her we were weathered out the year before. Trail is Dutch Creek to Hermosa Creek.

Toward the end of the month, Mr. C. Boss Brown sent us to Wisconsin for the Trek Dealer Show. I rode with one of my hero's Andrew Shandrow and stood next to Lance Armstrongs race bikes.

September,

We had another Throwdown race, this time down Holy Cross trail.

In June we set a record at the bike shop and our reward was Boss took all of us to Crested Butte for a weekend. Picture below of Mary smiling on Deer Creek trail.

October,

The leaves were changin and I headed out one morning to ride Kannah Creek from the edge of town, shuttle up with friends, ride down the trail, and then ride back to town. A big day!

Later in the month I guided the "Guides," (Escape Adventures Mountain Bike Guides) on some sweet Rabbit Valley trails. Below is Dave Gove on Western Rim Trail.

November,

Greg and I guided the Trek Moab Fall Demo, in Moab. Three days of shredding, riding with fast dudes. On the last day I took a digger and cracked some ribs. Image below on Slick Rock bike trail.

With painful rib's, I had to do some walking for the first time this year. I explored the arches of Rattle Snake Canyon, just Gus and I.

December,

Three weeks healing, then two weeks of sickness brought Mary and I to the cold of December, and on Main Street, Grand Junction that means ICE SKATING! Only Chris Brown could think of this and then make it happen.

This is a pic from the last ride I did before the snow fell. A moto ride near Bangs Canyon. Bitterly COLD!

Its been a great year, thanks to Greg Luck for letting me poach his pictures. Check out more of his work at http://www.bikeabout.net/.

Blue Heeler Or Red Heeler

Fun with photo editing. Oh man, the snow has flown, I am bored!

From Redneck to Rider

Its been a little tough at work lately. Mostly crazy people coming in the door. But, every now and then certain people make me realize why I sell bikes, why I sell this sport. A tall, lumbering guy came in the other night. He looked like a construction worker. He told me he was thinking of doing a triathlon and might want a road bike. As we talked I found out that a year or so ago he took up running. He had weighed 300lbs but now looked fit and athletic, still a big guy but by no means fat. However there was no hiding that he was not long off the hillbilly boat. We talked more and he told me story's of getting in shape, and how at one point a cop had stopped him and interrogated him as to "who" he was running from. The cop didn't believe his story of training for a marathon. He mentioned how he used to honk and scream at bikers on the Monument, but that now his whole view has changed. He bought a new Trek 1.2 Road bike yesterday. Welcome to the club.

This February will be my 9th year on the bike. I started on a 24 inch wheeled Walmart Next. I pulled the seat post out until only an inch was still in the seat-tube, trying like crazy to give my legs some extension. I put on a "comfortable" gel seat from Walmart. I pushed it more than I pedaled it. It rode me more than I rode it. But I kept riding. I lost weight. I gained perspective. One is not bound to a motor.

That bike still hangs in my parents barn back in Missouri. I thought of it this winter as Mary and I were riding in New Zealand. It was a perfect spring day. I was riding through a cow pasture, it was green, it was warm. Just like those first days on the bike. Riding because you love it. So cheers! to my little yellow walmart bike. You lasted just long enough to change my life.

Dusty Trails to Nowhere...

More rehab for the cracked ribs. Gus and I took a trip to..... can you guess? Moab? Monument Valley? Nope, just good ole Gateway Colorado, only 45 min from home. I did manage to stray into Utah for just a bit though.

Only in Utah can a state line sign be nothing more than a metal pole with words welded to it.

Some pictures of rocks. I really like taking pictures of rocks.

Gustifson was digging the day out. Sixty degrees and sunny, not bad for November.

I followed a road which turned into a jeep road which turned into an ATV trail which turned into a motorcycle trail which turned into a hiking trail. I got the truck as far as the motorcycle trail and Gus and I hoofed it from there. I was sure it was going to a mine or a stellar view, but we just hiked up to a dead end of scrub brush and cactus.

And then as I turned around to go back I got my reward. We had climbed high enough to see above the plateau and get a peek at the back side of the La Sal Mountains. It was worth it after all.

Rattle Snake Canyon

I've lived in GJ for three years and until today had never been to Rattle Snake Canyon, the highest concentration of arches out-side of Arches Nat. Park.

There is good reason why not a lot of folks go there. It's quite long and hard to get to. The jeep road in is perfect for weeding out the wanna-be's in Hummers.

The hike in takes a while also, its kind of a boring hike through Juniper scrub along a big escarpment of rock. Its the kind of trail that makes me want my bike, so I can cover it quickly.

But once you round the edge of the rock wall you enter another world, full of red rock and towering arches. And not a parking-lot in sight! Had Arches Nat Park been left like this place it would still be.... well, a REAL National Park, instead of a National Parking Lot.

Despite being a Tuesday I still met one couple on the trail and two guys were somewhere behind me. Lots of people these days, I guess I'm one of them too.

The above arch is the last one you come to on the trail. I was dreading the walk back and looking for a place to scale the walls and get up to the level above. Gustifson is a good climber but he isn't a spiderdog. If we could get up and through this arch it would save us about a 3 mile hike. It was about this time that the two guys caught up with us and, can you believe it, they had a rope!

I tied Gus's collar on really tight and I tugged on the rope while one of the other guys pushed. About that time Gus's collar came off and Gus lunged upward seemingly not to need our help at all. Apparently he is a spiderdog, or it was the guys thumb that was just too close to Gus's bum hole that made him jump up so fast. What ever happened is between Gus and that dude, but he made it up the vertical 4 ft slickrock wall.

Once on top we quickly found the upper trail and easily hiked back to our trucks with views like this of the Grand Valley to the East.

This was my first day of "rehab" since I bruised my ribs. It sure is hard work taking it easy!

LTM