Dana Rides!

Nineteen years ago Dana was paralyzed from the neck down in a fall.....

A couple years ago, while sitting in her wheelchair, Dana says to Mary and I. "I'm gonna ride my bike from here to South America." "Want to go with me?" "Sure! Lets do it." We said. It wasn't that I didn't believe that Dana could do it, its that I didn't think it would be very soon. Well, we better get the house rented and save some money, its not gonna be long before Dana rides up to me and says.... LETS GO!

Dana you are unsinkable, we are proud of you!

Happy Birthday to Me...

Mary and I left early Sunday morning for Cortez CO. We went by way of Gateway which led us through Moab like canyons along the Dolores River. The eastern slope of the La Sal Mtns are visible making it a very beautiful drive.

We met my friend Tim from Moab met us in the Walmart parking lot in Cortez. Driving from there we used the incredibly inaccurate directions from some chucklehead on MTBR.com to find the trail-head for Phil's World. The directions should go like this--go east toward Durango, take a left turn across from the fairgrounds, you're there! How can you mess that up????

I had just a little hope that the trails would be good at Phil's World, a few friends had ridden there and said it was good. However, the trails turned out to be GREAT! I have not had that much fun on my bike in a while. The trails are built for mtbkr's and are directional. You never run into anyone and they flow like Kessel Run all day long. There were sections that were like Upper Porcupine Singletrack, and some Lunch Loop ledges thrown in as well. I highly recommend a trip down there. We put in a good 16 miles and saw a loop that would have added 5 more, plus there seems to be more on the south side of the hwy too.

The trail system sits at about 6000 ft so its a little cooler than here at home, and I would bet an evening ride would be just perfect. It was getting a little toasty towards the end, but it was mid day.

After our ride, our plan was to go to Mesa Verde Nat. Park. I had been preparing my-self for the normal onslaught of "tourons" that you normally meet in a national park. I have avoided Mesa Verde just for that reason for years. However, it wasn't bad at all, aside from the tour through Cliff Palace, where the poor ranger has to spend more time than anything talking about how to survive a 1/4 mile hike, it was an amazing experience.

Cliff Palace is the biggest "ruin" in the park. It has 23 ceremonial Kiva's which are stone circles below ground that would have had stucko roofs 800 years ago.

Spruce Tree House, pictured below, was my favorite. It had a restored Kiva which we climbed down in. Spruce Tree house had the most in tact windows. In the picture below, you can see a pictograph inside one of the rooms. It is thought to have been a lunar calendar. There would have been a floor, so the pictograph would have been able to have been painted easily.After coming down from Mesa Verde we set out to find a good camping spot. We found one near the Phil's World trail system and cooked dinner. Just at sunset, we decided that a quick ride on the smoother trails would make Mary and Gus pretty happy. Due to her hands, Mary hasn't ridden a real trail since Tucson in February and since October before that. She was ecstatic to be flowing on a sweet ribbon of singletrack. We only went about a mile, but it sure was good to be on the trail again with my girl. After our ride we decided our camp was to close to the hwy and had too many bugs, so we headed for a camping spot that we found on our honeymoon, in the mtns near Durango.We camped at 9000 ft, it was a perfect cool night, the crescent moon coming up over the San Juan Mtns at around 3 am on my actual birthday. Not too shabby!After breakfast we headed into Durango, the plan being to finally ride Animas Mtn trail, a trail i've heard a lot about, and one that pro Trek rider Travis Brown calls his favorite trail. Well, the trail pictured above and below are NOT Animas Mtn, it was an off shoot not shown on the map. However, it was sweet, fun riding through the woods. Once I realized I wasn't on Animas I turned around to find it. I found it all right, a long arduous climb with sketchy loose rocks and a barely climbable grade. From 6500ft to 8100ft I slogged in the hot sun. It wasn't what I expected, but then I remembered that I was healthy, and on my bike in the mtns, and from that point on everything was OK.Pictured below--The actual Animas Mtn trail, Durango CO.I finally reached the top. The view was worth it, looking northward toward Silverton and even our home in GJ even farther away. Time to ripp back down!Well....the descent wasn't so great. I pinched a tubeless tire on the many loose rocks, which sealed up enough to keep going, although slowly. Then I burped most of the rest of the air out of it on a switchback slowing me even further. Long climb followed by slow crappy descent. SUCK! I'm not gonna recommend Animas Mtn, but I will say I still had a heck of good day out in the world. Then Mary bought me a big fat burger back in town and my birthday was completely perfect!

Dwayne the Destroyer Makes First Run UNDER 12 Parsecs!

Soooo, I made this sign, but Des said it might be a felony to impersonate a federal agency so opted not to put it up. Doesn't it look official?

THROWDOWN # 5

Dwayne the Destroyer Beats Han Solo's record time of 12 parsecs for the Kessel Run!

This is the first recorded run to dip lower than 12 parsecs.

(according to a minutes to parsecs conversion table)

Rumor has it that Dwayne was even slowed near the finish by a "tourist"

Time of 6:59

Second Place goes to Double Pinch Flat Noah! Noah killed it on his hometown course and did it without the use of gears or rear suspension!

(WINNER of the SS class)

Time of 7:10

Third Place is an amazing 4 way tie.

(in alphabetical order)

All have a time of 7:14

Blake

Brad

Eric

Landon

Fourth place is Robbie

(sharing photo with Timani)

(crashed twice and still put up a good time)

Time is 7:35

Fifth place is Killer Keith

Time is 7:39

(he's smilin' in every picture!)

Sixth place is Donal

Time is 7:42

Seventh is a tie

Time is 7:46

Alex

(this one hurts doesn't it?)

Doug

WINNER! of the Bike Shop Owner Class

(Troy, you have been called out!)

Eighth

Greg L.

Time is 7:48

(no cheesy photo this time)

Ninth

Chris B

Time is 8:05

Winner of the Female Class!

(Tenth overall)

Jesse K.

Time is 8:06

Eleventh

Dogger

Time is 8:11

Twelfth

Timani

Time is 8:20

This was the best turnout yet, thanks to all who came out to ride and especially to my official timers, Mary and Des!

Round Four, Gunny Loop Throwdown

THROWDOWN NUMBER FOUR IS IN THE BOOKS!

FLYIN' RYAN TAKES CONTROL OF THE SERIES WITH 3 OUT OF 4 WINS THUS FAR. RYAN NOT ONLY WON, BUT HE SHAVED 17 SECONDS OFF HIS LAST WEEKS TIME.

RYAN C.--7:49

LANDON M.--8:05 (17 seconds better too!)

MASON K.--8:37 (42 seconds better)

(Greg is sorry he cut off your head)

Daral--8:46 (first Throwdown ever, Nice Run)

Blake--8:52 (First Throwdown, Nice Ridin' "cousin")

Keith L.--9:15 (first race run down the Gunny)

Greg L.--9:23 (Single Speed Hardtail, and finishes fast enough to take great photo's while out of breath!)

Nancy--9:47 (Winner, female category)

Trina L.--11:04 (Winner of the female over 40 category, which she made a new category for this race)

Chris B.--11:10 (Winner of the bike store owner category, much smack was talked towards Doug!)

Double Pinch Flat NOAH!--DNF--(Winner of the most flat tires ever had in one series!)

(Pic of Noah assuming the normal posistion on The Flight Of Icarus)