Haypress Trail Video

Check out a little video Greg put together of Keith and I rippin Turkey Flats and Haypress trail.
http://www.bikeabout.net/ZExtra/BikeaboutSite/Video/index.html

Grand Mesa Moto Epic

How epic can a ride be when you got an engine? Well, if you let me read the map there is a good possiblity that the day can run long. After installing (welding) passenger footpegs to my moto frame Mary and I headed off for the high country of Grand Mesa. It was quite warm when we started so we decided to only wear long sleeve jerseys and to forgo our jackets. Hello? At 10,000 ft, even in the sun its chilly! Mary, being smarter than me, had worn two jerseys and since I was catching all the wind she let me wear one of hers undernieth mine. Kind of tight?

The problem with riding double on really techinical trails is that you can't stand up, so your butt and back take all the abuse. We were wearing out by the time we reached the "blue" trail on the map that meant "jeep road." The "jeep road" was going to be an easy cruise back to the truck right? Well of course not, it was harder than the trail we had been on with nasty rocky climbs and one seat deep creek crossing. It was exhausting and the sun was getting low in the sky and my summer gloves were letting my hands get cold.

It was about this time that we met some hunters who waved us down. There 73 yr old friend had been missing since 10 am and they were wondering if we had seen him. It was only a few hours from dark. I hope they found Jack, if not and if not ever, then I hope I get to expire in a place as awesome as the remote country of Grand Mesa. Jack, I hope your sipping on some hot coffe back at camp laughing at your buddies for getting so worried.

We found the truck after about 60 miles, we sampled Colbrans little "Chillin Cafe" and headed for home tired, and well fed. So pretty much it was just another normal weekday for Mary and I.

Nissan Tests new Sedan on the Kokopelli Trails

I was out riding the Koko trails today and at the furtherst point away from the hwy I came upon a strange sight. A family Sedan sitting at the end of Lyons loop! It looks like they had plenty of "energy drink" to keep the driver at peak performance. Nissan learned that skid plates may need to be an option on newer models.

New Zealand Trip Photo's

If you never saw the photo's from our NZ trip check them out here.

http://www.beansoup.org/gallery/main.php
They are under the heading "The Monhollands go to NZ"

"Little" Travis goes to Paris

My friend Travis Van den Broeke is only 19 and is already WAY better traveled than I. Here is a copy of the email he sent me and some of his sweet pics. This kid ROCKS! LTM

I'm going to do a little trip report here, like Landon does.

My trip to Paris was sweet. I traveled for 2 days (including the time change) and had to sleep in the SLC airport and had a 7 hour layover in Detroit. But finally, I made it to Paris, my uncle Jacques and tante Nicole came to pick me up, it had been so long they didn't even recognize me, my mom had told them to to look for a kid with a big green backpack, that's the only way they found me. They have a freakin sweet place just outside Paris in St. Germain en Lay, its only a 20 min RER (subway) ride to downtown. They ended up giving me the driving tour and showed me what I should look at for the next couple days. I proceeded to do all the classic tourist stuff the couple days, the Eiffel tower, the louvre, sacre' cour, the grand and petit palais, etc.

I was supposed to immediately leave for Lyon and from there the french alps, but scheduling conflicts and weather only allowed me a couple days riding in Lyon, with my buddy Bill who I met in Whistler. He let me use his sweet specialized enduro though, and we rode some good trails. I rode the TGV (really fast train) from Paris to Lyon, its over 500k and took less than 2 hours! I have found out that the transportation system in the USA sucks majorly. After my to short excursion to Lyon, I went back to Paris, I went with my uncle, mom and brother (they came too but after I did, because my trip had to be shorter) to Brugges, to visit grandma and various other relatives. I spent a couple days there checking out the city and catching up with people who hadn't seen me since I was a little kid, luckily there was no cheek pinching, but in Europe they do the 3 kiss thing, left cheek, right cheek, back to left cheek. You don't really kiss though, you just touch cheeks and make the kissy sound. That's where I lift my mom and brother, I had to go back to Paris to catch my plane the next day.

My trip was WWWWWWAAAAAAYYYYYYY too short. I am already planning for next year. I am going to go for 5 weeks and ride at least 4 of them. Another buddy of mine, who some of you might know, Andy the ticket scalper, spent 4 weeks riding around the alps with bill, then got hurt doing a megavalanche race. So he flew back early, his trip was going to be 6 weeks. So now I'm just dreaming and saving money so I can go back and ride next year. Later, Travis

Dwayne the Destroyer Wins Holy Cross Hellion!

A rainy Wednesday left our dry, parched trails in primo condition. The sun had been out just long enough to make "hero dirt," as Jerrod called it, for our racing pleasure. Greg was their for this event with helmet cams, and manning his trusty camera. Unfortunately neither video cam worked, leaving us with only two photo's of the race.

Below are a list of times, thanks to all who came out to play, it was great fun. I'm smelling a re-match in the future as I am sure Ryan, Brad, and Troy will want a crack at Dwaynes time!

Keep Rippin,

Landon

PS Thanks to Matt who chucked his race time to pick up all of Jerrods yard sale items that were flying out of his camelbak. No thanks to Greg for leaving it open!

Dwayne the Destroyer 12:11

No Flats this Time Noah 13:41

I'm having a yard sale Jerrod 13:46

No Commandon Landon 14:41

Matt the Sweep (no time)

Kokopelli Solo Ride

I spent Saturday night preparing the moto bike for a solo Kokopelli trail adventure. I strapped on my sleeping pad, tube, tools, and xtra gas. My pack had three meals in it, an ultra light (worthless) sleeping bag, and all the usual provisions. This would be the bikes first trip with new handlebars, oil change, suspension set-up, and exhuast and air-box un-corking.

I started the trip riding Zion Curtain, not a good choice. The trail is hacked, one big ditch with loose rocks everywhere. Some poor soul on a mtnbike had ridden it before me and by the looks of their tracks it was a struggle. Towards the end I bobbled on a climb and fell over. For some reason, my un-breakable Nalgene gas bottle cracked. I lost about 1/4 of the bottle before I found the leak and then poured the rest in the tank.

From there I found the Koko trail for a short bit before finding the West Water singletrack. This should be a fun mtn bike ride, but it was hard on the moto as I no longer have moto boots. The weight of the pack and the deep whoops were killing my feet. I got off the single track as soon as I could and took the rest of the Koko to the Westwater pavement. By this time it was almost dark. I re-packed so I could use my headlight. I road about 10 miles in the dark looking for a camp site.

I ended up just shutting down in a sandy spot and camping right in the middle of the trail. When your 70 miles from no-where what are the chances of getting run over in the night? I ate dinner and read the Mountain Gazette by moonlight. I stayed up until about 11:30 and watched the half moon sink below the horizon. I awoke about 3:30 shivering. The wind had come up and my 40degree bag was telling me it was about that cold. I shivered until morning, waking periodicly to 'run' in my sleeping bag to get my heart rate up.

The sun was glorious at 7am. I began to pack up, this time putting the sleeping bag on the rear fender to keep the weight off of my back.

I had also found some singletrack off to the left and was itching to ride it. I got going and about a mile in on the singletrack, at near full speed, the motor just stopped and skidded to a stop. Oh yea, the sleeping bag was wound around the rear wheel! Good thing I hated it anyway. It survived with some holes and some good chain marks. A little more exploring and my tripometer said 40 miles, so I turned around and came back. A good tail rack system would make this kind of trip more enjoyable, allowing more weight on the motorcycle than on me. Pretty fun though.

Landon