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Mid Season Thaw

Another awesome night at "Airport." Glow in the dark discs, and a satellite or two light it up. Click to enlarge.

The hump of the ski season upon us and spring is coming. Punxsutawny Phil thinks otherwise, after seeing his shadow he declared there to be six more weeks of winter– but apparently Staten Island Chuck (who? read here) says Phil’s got it all wrong. After Christy and I opted to stay in bed this morning, rather than brave the negative double digit wind chill on our planned skin up Aspen Mountain, I thought I’d post some pics from warmer days, from our White Rim trip last fall.

Day 2- heading from Airport to White Crack, the Washerwoman Tower is in the background.

As has been the case for years now, Jared and Diana secured the coveted permit required for the trip into Canyonlands National Park, but this year’s loop around the White Rim wasn’t always sure to happen. The recent addition of second baby girl to their family left the trip up in the air– Di was going to sit this one out and Jared couldn’t decide if planning the trip this year was maybe a bit more than he wanted to take on.

Enter Jeremy Barbin, who kindly offered up his assistance to Jared in organizing the trip. What a nice guy to help you say? Well, as a result of Jeremy’s swift and silent hijack of the permit for the annual desert retreat, the group this year was not the typical set of couples, friends and family but was instead a raucous lineup of 16 guys. And despite a collective ‘roll of the eyes’ by all of the spouses/girlfriends when the roster of trouble making weekend participants was made public, I think Jeremy still insists, at least to his wife Lisa, that it really was just a mellow mountain bike weekend for the guys. read more>>>

Out there (sort of), in the Maze

mazemap

Our loop through the maze, thanks to Google Earth, another technical advantage of the day. Good, bad? I bet even crustiest old desert-rat would enjoy cruising the Utah canyon country this way. I love it.

Put mildly, the Maze is out there. So remote and inaccessible is this corner of Canyonlands National Park that it takes nearly 8 hours to drive to some of its namesake camps from the closest gas stations in Green River– leaving you with barely enough fuel to return. As a testament to it’s remoteness and accessibility, along the way you pass Robbers Roost, the infamous locale old west bank robbers and gunslingers frequented as a hideout from authorities.  So brutal is this section of Utah desert that temps can be in the 110-120 degree range certain times of year with no available water which together can result in true survival epics.

After all I had read about the Maze was later confirmed by some friends who had actually ‘epic-ed’ out there, I put it on my must-do list of desert trips. (Click here for the National Park Service Info Site)

It took ten years before I could actually get out there, and in that time, one minor thing has changed the Maze in a big way. All the aforementioned hard stats on access, water, etc. still held true but now different was the small fact read more>>>

Shots From the Dam

dampano

The scene at the dam

The Leadville 100 mountain bike race was on Saturday.

Always preceding the 100 mile run by a week, and with Christy and I registered for that race, I thought the best thing I can do in the time remaining is rest. So I headed over to Twin Lakes for the morning to watch the field come through. Being close to town there is always a strong local showing and even though a dozen or so friends do this race every year, I had never seen it before. And if somehow you haven’t heard, Lance Armstrong won the race and set a new course record.

Here are some pics: read more>>>

The White Rim 2008

“I’d like to see the guy who can ride up that!” said the rude guy from California as he arrived to the top of Murphy’s Hogback, walking his bike. When it was revealed that not only did most of our group ride the steep hill but Jared managed to do it with his daughter, Maia, in [...]