Sat Aug 07, 2010
I had a great date last night. I doubled with Jason, and we used his season tickets to Rodgers Memorial Theatre to see The Music Man. They did a fantastic job, and the musical was tons of fun. After that we went to Chili's to get some dinner, and talk. After dinner we went our separate ways, and I went back to the theatre to take my date back to her car (blind date, so I'm always fine with that as they don't know if I'm psycho or not. Mon Aug 02, 2010
Tonight was mountain biking Monday. Eric was able to get off work early, so we loaded up quick, and went down to Corner Canyon. I was a little worried as my left calf was killing me. We started up the central trail on our way to Clark's. My leg ended up doing pretty good. We pushed kinda hard, and made it up to the top after about 45 minutes of riding. Of course that doesn't include the stopping time. That probably added up to another 45 minutes. Then the descent. Jason wanted us to branch off to lower Ghost Falls. Ok, no problem. So we started first down Brock's, then over and down Canyon Hollow. It was much easier to descent with sunlight! No problems, so we continued down the Lower Ghost Falls trail. At one point I almost ate it, when my bike started going out from under me. I recovered though and continued on. Towards the bottom there was a few small rock gardens. Enough that you had to watch your pedals. Apparently Jason had stopped going through there first, and Eric did the same. Eric got out of it just as I got there. I was ready to ride over it, but I had scrubbed off too much speed waiting for it to be clear. I stalled half way through it. In a flash I went down on my right side, still clipped into the bike. Bike on top of me, I layed there on my back. I took a few seconds, unclipped, then got up and we finished the trail. No damage to my arms, but my right leg has some road rash from where it scrapped over one of the rocks. Only one way to finish up an epic ride... Food! We went over to Del Taco where I got 5 chicken soft taco's. Mmmm... After getting home, I started getting cleaned up to truly evaluate the damage. Not to bad to the leg. But not so good was I've developed a blister on my left foot. Crap! That was the least of it though... I sweat far to much up there and developed a rash. Sat Jul 31, 2010
Yesterday I took the day off, and first thing I needed to do was get my motorcycle inspected. So I took it over to Quality at about 10 am to get that done. I hung out with Eric for a while, and grabbed some lunch at Caruso's. At about 11:30 I left to get home and ready for Timpanogos. Jason came by and picked me up at about 2:00 and we cruised down to Alpine, and up to the cave. The hike. It was long. My shirt didn't breathe well, and the pants I was wearing were far to hot. But at least I looked good. After the tour was over began the descent. This is where things really started going bad for me. It started in the toes of my left foot. Sharp pain with each step. I took the descent slowly. On the way down, at about 6 pm, we passed a thermometer. I took a picture. 100 degrees. On the way back home we stopped at Cabella's as Jason was craving a buffalo burger. So we ate dinner there and Jason picked up a few things. They dropped me off at home, and I crashed. Thu Jul 29, 2010
Ughhh.... Must... Play.... Starcraft... Sat Jul 24, 2010
Yesterday I was on my way home from work on my motorcycle, when things didn't go according to plan.. I got off at 6200, and came up to the light to a stop. The road was clear, so I began my right turn. My back tire started sliding completely out from under me. I was going down. I probably shouldn't have, but I put my right foot down to try to catch myself. I barely did before going over. I leaned it back to vertical and continued home. There has been stuff on that off ramp for months, and it keeps getting more and more slippery. As soon as I got home I sent a nasty note off to UDOT to fix that stuff before someone gets hurt or worse. After I got home I chilled a bit, then at about 7:30 I slapped on my new Road ID, and took off on the road bike. Tonight I was headed up Little Cottonwood. I did the 1.5 to the canyon itself feeling really good. Then the uphill got steep. I rode. And rode. Eventually getting to where the grade goes really steep for a hundred meters or so. Worked my way past it. New personal best. I kept going, and eventually reached my goal for the night, gate B. 4.00 miles from home according to my computer, about 2.5 miles up the canyon itself. Turned around and had a leisurely ride back down. The rest of the night was pretty mellow. Chatted with Jason as I watched some of the Tour over a plate of nachos. Yum! This morning I got up early and loaded up the bikes. I drove down to Steve's house to pick up him and Max. We drove over to Germania park to take the kids riding on the Jordan River Parkway, and try them out on the Germania trail. It was a difficult thing. The trail was so narrow it made riding Jason's bike with the trail-a-bike very difficult. Max's wheels are small, so they don't just roll over stuff. There is a bit of a hill on the way out, and after I got to the top I slowed to a stop. As I stopped my front wheel went into a hole, and my brake locked. This threw the back end up into the air. I was already pretty much off the bike, but the bike endoed. I picked it up and noticed my back brake lever was bent. In that little thing! How LAME! I bent it pretty much back into place, and we finished the loop. After that we rode on the parkway itself until about 9:30 when we loaded up and went home. Mon Jul 19, 2010
As I was getting ready to leave work I got the word from Jason that Eric would be working very late tonight. That meant he wouldn't be making the ride. So Jason and I discussed what to do. He decided to try to call his mom and Natalie to see if either of them could watch Amber. His mom couldn't, and he wasn't able to get a hold of Natalie. So we decided to call it this week. However I still wanted to ride. I went to an optometrist appointment right after work, then cruised home. It was hot. Very hot. I didn't want to ride right then, so I chilled. At about 6 I decided to eat dinner. It would probably be better I thought if I ate earlier, rather than after my ride. I had buns that would be going bad soon, so I cooked up some hot dogs. Added some chipotle mayo, yummy. I chilled, drank a bunch of water, and watched le Tour. About 7:15 I started getting ready, and by 7:30 I was on the road. The temperature was now perfect, if perhaps a little warm. I wanted yet another new ride, so I went south. Down into Dimple Dell. Where the road turns west there is a road that T's off to the south, I turned up it. This road is a climb. It's about a 1/2 mile long and goes straight up to Wasatch Blvd. I had done it many times in the past, but this was the first time this year. I was doing pretty good. I went up it far faster than I ever had in the past. With about 30 meters to go there is a circle off to the right. I've done many laps of that circle to keep the legs spinning, and today was no different. After just two laps though I was ready to make the final push to Wasatch. After getting to Wasatch I decided that rather than turning left and heading home I would go right. I rode along Wasatch for a few miles until I got to the entrance to the Bonneville Shoreline trail. From there the road went down sharply, and I didn't want to climb back up it, so I turned around and followed Wasatch back. When I got back to 94th I decided that rather than take the usual left I would go right and head up towards the canyon. This is where I started regretting those hot dogs. I started burping up hot dog, and my stomach was screaming. I contemplated riding up to the crest above La Caille as my legs had it in them, but decided I better turn around at the start of the canyon. After that it was a quick cruise home. 9 miles. I slammed a Gatorade recovery drink, which seems to help my legs feel better later. After cleaning up I started up le Tour again. I watched for a while, then decided to finish Lego Harry Potter. After looking through some strategy guides I realized that the last two gold bricks I needed to unlock Voldemort were the ones I got from rescuing the last two Students in Peril. I found the last two, then finally finished the game unlocking Voldemort. Of course now that it's done I wonder if I'll ever play it again. Once that was done, it was back to le Tour to finish this stage I'm on. I'm only 5 behind! Sun Jul 18, 2010
A week ago Eric and I were talking about how we hadn't gone on any good motorcycle cruises yet this year. So we decided that we would ride the Mirror Lake highway yesterday. We started inviting other riders to join us, but in the end it was just Eric and I. We started from his house and first went along Wasatch Blvd towards Draper. Then it was up and over Traverse Mountain to drop down into Alpine. We stopped in Highland for me to gas up as I didn't start with a full tank. We grabbed a bite to eat in the Iceberg that was built into the gas station. Then it was up and over the Alpine Loop. The Alpine Loop was pretty uneventfull. I did scrape a peg on one turn going down, but otherwise I kept everything very smooth. At the end of the loop we turned and went up Provo Canyon to Heber. We went straight through then made the right to head over to Francis. On the road up I felt my phone ringing so we stopped at the Jordanelle overlook for me to check who called and call them back. We discussed how we were feeling before going on. It seemed like we may have chosen a long ride and our butts weren't in shape for it. We decided to continue on. Then came the event. As we were going along the road to Francis, we passed a couple cars that were just going very slow along that road. Then once I got in front, suddenly there was a black shape in the corner of my eye. Before I knew it, it hit me right in front of my left eye! A bird had just hit the visor of my helmet at 60 MPH! If I did not have my helmet on, and my visor down, I would have crashed. The adrenaline immediately surged. I couldn't believe what had just happened. I was shaking my head as I went back over it in my mind. When we stopped in Kamas I relayed the story to Eric. He didn't see a thing. I added some gas to my bike since I have a smaller tank, to make sure I would make it to the next gas station. Then it was over Mirror Lake Highway. We just cruised along the road. We stopped shortly after Provo River falls overlook, but it didn't last long as we were immediately swarmed by mosquitos. As we got going again the turns were perfect. We had just accelerated up to 50MPH, and it was a perfect speed to lean into those turns. Right, left, right, left. Perfect. The road started to have longer straights which ended those as we headed to the summit of Bald Mountain pass. From there it was all downhill. Past Mirror Lake. Past the boy scout camps. Then to the long straight. The last 35 miles or so to Evanston were long, straight, and flat. My butt was killing me, and I was eagerly waiting arriving at Evanston to stop for gas and dinner. Finally we got to town. First off we filled up the gas tanks. Had I not filled up in Kamas I would have made it to Evanston, but it would have been close. We drove along the business loop, then stopped at an italian resturant for dinner. I had Chicken Marsalla, which had a very strong marsalla flavor. You could definitely tell we weren't in Utah. Eric ordered Chicken Parmesan. Now normally you expect a piece of chicken the size of a boneless skinless breast you can get in any store. This piece on Eric's plate was literally the size of four of them in one! It must have been a 20-24oz. piece of chicken. I have never seen anything like it! Eric finished it, and we got back on the road. We were ready to just get home so we stuck to I-80 for the entire ride back. My left leg had a bit of cramping, so we stopped for 10 minutes at Jeremy Ranch, then continued all the way home. My butt was completely killing me. I pretty much had the techincal motorcycle medical condition referred to as monkey butt. You can figure it out... Fri Jul 16, 2010
Yesterday after work I ran home, and got ready to go mountain biking with Eric. As soon as I got home I called first to see if I had jury duty (still not scheduled and that was the last day to call, yay!), then called Eric. No answer. Ok, well at least I'll get changed, then I just have to throw my bike on the car to go. Time went on, no call back. I called two more times... nothing. So I just kept playing Lego Harry Potter. At about 6:45 Eric called. He was home, and on his way to pick up his bike. I loaded up the bike, and headed over there. When I got there Eric was just finishing getting ready. We loaded up and headed to Corner Canyon to ride Clarks. We started at about 7:30. I was feeling pretty good, and it sounded like Eric was too. I'm wanting to say we only stopped twice on the way up to the trail junction area. That is about one mile up, and Eric was starting to feel it then. After catching our breaths we continued on up the singletrack of awesomeness that is Clarks. The breaks were coming more and more frequent, as the sun was getting lower and lower. I kept urging Eric on as we were getting so close. The sun set as we had about a half mile to go. I put my sunglasses in the back pocket, and we kept going. Finally we reached the top. We didn't want to stay too long as we were seriously running out of light. We started down the Canyon Hollow trail well after 9 PM. There was still enough sunlight that you could see decent in clear areas, but in the tree covered areas it would suddenly get very dark. Because of this we were going very slowly. We couldn't see if there were holes, roots, or the lips of the jumps. We went down as quickly as we dared in these conditions. Eventually we made it back to the car, at 9:45. We just made it before completely losing the light. As we got to the parking lot there was a pair of guys heading up using full niterider setups. After that descent, and feeling the temperature I can definitely see how that might be a lot of fun. We stopped at Del Taco and got some dinner, then after taking Eric home I went home myself. First thing I did was mount the handlebar light I had sitting on my desk... Tue Jul 13, 2010
Yesterday was Mountain Biking Monday™. As such I cruised home from work, got ready, loaded up my bike and headed to Eric's. He got off a little late, so rather than go up to Dog Lake, we drove down to Corner Canyon where we would have more daylight. We unloaded and started up the trail. I was feeling pretty good despite the recent ride on Saturday. I was in the lead and decided after about 1/4 mile to pull off to the side to see if everyone was doing ok in the heat. Jason was feeling fine, so he went on. We had talked earlier about him doing two laps, and meeting us on his second one. As Eric stopped he explained how his chain was having problems. It kept trying to jump between gears. I recommended he adjust cable tension to get it to go on the correct gear. After resting for a bit we started going again. After another 1/4 mile I stopped again and waited for Eric. He never came. After a few minutes I turned around and headed back down. He was just a bit down the trail. He had found the problem. The chain had twisted. It was the oddest thing. There was no possible way for him to continue, so he turned around and headed back down. I continued up the trail for just a bit. I went up to the main clearing where all the trails break off. I waited for about 10 minutes to see if Jason would be coming down either trail after Eric called him. With not seeing him I turned around and headed back down, taking the singletrack trail off to the west side of the descent. As I was coming down my front end went into a bit of a hole, this caused the front disc to lock up and my fork compressed. I was about to endo! I quickly let off the front brake, and shifted more weight back. Whew kept from endoing! Of course now I was about to ride off a cliff. I tried to get control of the bike as I rode along the edge of the trail, inches from a long and painfull fall. I finally rode it out, and was able to get completely under control. All this happened in the space of about 5 seconds. I made my way back down, and met up with Eric. About 10 minutes later Jason called to say he was at the top. He then began his descent. A few minutes later Eric and I started loading up. That's when we discovered Eric had sat in blue gum. All over his shorts, and now on the side of my car. Oh well. We examined the chain closely and I at first I only say one twisted link, later I saw two others. The chain is definitely toast. I dropped them back off at Eric's house, then went home, ate some dinner, and played some Lego Harry Potter. Eric was disappointed he wasn't abe to ride more, and vowed to do it again. The plan is for Thursday. Sun Jul 11, 2010
Yesterday at about noon I got into my cycling gear, jumped on my road bike, and started heading up Little Cottonwood Canyon. Legs felt pretty good, but I ran out of water far too quickly. I got just about to where I turned around last time. So as soon as I finished it off I turned around and headed home. After cleaning up I texted Jason to ask if he was doing anything. I jumped on the moto and cruised up there. I supervised as he remove the battery from his Raptor to find out the replacement was too big. Then we loaded up and went down to Wingers where I enjoyed a nice sticky finger salad. A little cool, a little spicy. I did have to augment it with additional sticky fingers. Tue Jul 06, 2010
Tonight was a simple night. After work I ran to the bike shop to get some brushes, then came home to load up my bike. Grabbed it and headed down to Eric's house for bike cleaning after our epic ride yesterday. We all cleaned our bikes up, and figured out what was wrong with Jason's bike. After that just came home and started watching the carnage of stage 3 of the Tour. Mon Jul 05, 2010
I woke up pretty early for me (at least for a weekend). Got my bike and gear all loaded up and headed down to Eric's. We loaded up their stuff and were on our way by 9. We drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon towards Guardsmens Pass to ride the epic Wasatch Crest trail. We left Jason's 4Runner at the Mill D North parking lot, and drove up to the trailhead in my car. Then the ride began. They call it puke hill for a reason. It's long. It's hot. It's at almost 10,000 feet, so there is very little oxygen. We took plenty of rests, and made it to the clearing before turning left and starting the grind. First switchback. Second switchback. Now straight up. I made it to about the tree line before I got off and walked. Jason was first up there, then me, then Eric. We all relaxed to let our hearts stop trying to jump out of our chests, and attempt to get some oxygen in our blood. That is the worst part of the ride. After we recouperated we began the rest of it. The fun part! Lots of flowing single track. After one more climb, and several other stops to catch our breath we got to the spine. Saw a couple people ride down the side of it. Much easier than going over the top. Then came the descent to Desolation Lake. I didn't remember it being so rocky, but there were several sections that were just a crazy rock garden. Right at the top of it Eric got a pinch flat. So they changed the tube, while I went down further and found a fun spot for pictures. After Desolation Lake we went down the rest pretty quickly. I'm happy to say I rode all the techincal sections, so that confidence is coming along nicely. By the end though my legs and arms were wasted. Mostly from the descent. Just under 10 miles in about 4 hours. Pictures in the gallery. We were ready for some lunch, so after the ride we drove down and got lunch at Astro Burger. Hit the spot. Then it was off to home for me. I got home and cleaned up. After resting for a bit I jumped on my motorcycle and headed up to Kimball Junction to get some clothes. Picked up some shirts and some pants. Then turned around and headed back to Salt Lake. Rather than going home I went to Eric's to see if Jason and he were still hanging. Eric was pretty wiped out. We just sat around and watched The Iron Giant. Then I headed home to relax for the night and just finished watching todays stage of the Tour de France. Bed time now. Sun Jul 04, 2010
My weekend ended up being pretty lazy. Originally the plan was to take a little motorcycle cruise with Eric & Natalie, but Eric got stuck at work. So I pretty much chilled at home. Watched the Tour de France. Played some games. Went to the store for some shopping. Sunday was also pretty mellow. All the family came over for dinner for my birthday, so we had some kabobs, then cake. Pretty low key and mellow. After all that was done I cruised over to Eric's house to talk about our plan for biking in the morning. But tomorrow will be good! Sat Jul 03, 2010
Yesterday I finally got my new tires on. I picked them up right after work and as soon as I got home I started the process to remount the wheels. The rear went on with no problem, but the front fought me tooth and nail. But eventually I got them both on and took them out for a test ride. It's amazing the difference. It really shows how bad my old tires were. I cleaned up, jumped on the bike, and rode up to Jason's house to chill for the evening. We just relaxed and watched Hellboy II, which is always a good movie. That ended about 11, and we called it a night, and I headed home. Wed Jun 30, 2010
Got home, used the new tool. Had the wheel off in 5 minutes. Of course after I got the wheel off I started thinking... do I really want to replace this? This tires still has quite a bit of tread left. But I'm definitely replacing the rear! Yesterday after work I had one thing to accomplish that night. Pull my motorcycle tires. I failed. First I removed my rear tire. One of the bolts got on there pretty good, so it took a bit to remove. But I got it off. Then there was the front. I haven't removed the front yet, so I went to the manual and the web. Ok, loosen a pinch bolt, and remove the axle while being very careful of the ceramic speed sensor. So I loosened the pinch bolt and got to the axle. Hrmm... looked for the right size of allen head... kept looking... CRAP! I don't have it! So I jumped in my car at 8:45 and ran down to Checker. They didn't have it. Hurried to K-Mart since they carry Craftsmen. Not nearly enough selection to find it. So then I drove to Sears, hoping they were still open, no luck. They closed at 9:00, and it was 9:20. So I hung my head and drove home. So today at lunch I went first to Sears. They were out of the socket I needed... Mon Jun 28, 2010
After work today I got my bike ready, and headed to Eric's house, arriving at 6:15. Jason pulled up at the same time. Eric however, wasn't going to make it on time. We called to see if he would for sure be off by 7, which sounded doubtful. So Jason and I were the only ones riding today. We loaded up my car and headed to Corner Canyon. After stretching we began the climb. It seemed much shorter to the flat where all the trails merge. I guess that is a good thing. Sat Jun 26, 2010
Friday after work I first went over to Ryan Reimann's house to clean a virus off his computer. While doing that he mentioned that Eric would be home alone as his family all went up to a cabin. As soon as I was done with the computer I rode over to Eric's place. First off we jumped on our motos and cruised up Big Cottonwood Canyon. I scraped my floorboards more on that ride than I ever have before. At Doughnut Falls we turned around and headed back down. We went to Eric's grandparents to help his dad move some furniture around for them. After that we rode over to get some dinner at Iggy's, and followed it up with going to see Prince of Persia. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. It's definitely one I'll be buying. When I got home I started work on my moms car. The battery was dead. They had removed it from the car, and since it didn't have standard terminals, just screw type, I cleaned all the terminals well and put it back in then on a battery charger. Today I got up about 11, and first off watched two episodes of Stargate Atlantis. Then I checked on the car. The batter still wasn't charged. As I removed it I noticed it was leaking acid. Nice, the battery it toast. Then it was time to meet up with Jason and Amber. I drove up to the Century 16 on 33rd, where we saw Toy Story 3 in 3D. I really enjoyed it, but wow the end made me cry. After that I headed home and and watched the last two episodes. Finally finished with all of the original Stargate shows... now for the new one, Stargate Universe. It looks to be very different from SG-1 and Atlantis, so I don't know if I'll enjoy it like them. By the time I finished, Eric was back from the truck races at Miller. I loaded up the battery and drove over there. As the tire was bought through Quality he was going to help me warranty it. But all the Napa stores closed about 2 minutes after I got there. Doh! Oh well. We went out anyway to grab some dinner at Golden Corral. My first time going there since they came back to the state. Then we went over to Best Buy where I was going to buy the new Lego Harry Potter, but were foiled as it doesn't come up until next week! Doh! So we went back to Eric's place and played some Risk until Natalie and the girls got home. After our game was done I called it a night and came home. Fri Jun 25, 2010
After work I rushed over to Eric's work and picked him and his bike up. We then cruised up to Jason's place, where the plan was to ride up Mueller Park. Little did I know they were about to change the plan. As we got ready, loading our camelbaks, Jason proposed we go up North Canyon, and then possibly down Mueller. He described it as a little climb around the corner, then a little downhill before the trail actually started. The little climb was about half a mile at 20%! I was feeling it far too early... When we got to the top of the road climb I changed a tube really quick as the one I had was leaking. Then we hit the downhill, to find we had more road climbing before getting to the start of the trail. Ughh... We got to the start of the trail, and after another break started heading up. It was very loose and rocky. As I would climb my back wheel would start sliding, and slide about a foot. I almost went down several times, but was barely able to hang on. Going was slow, with lots of stopping to rest. Eventually we got to the top of the road, and only had single track ahead of us. Jason was losing a tire, so stopped to pump it up. I started up the single track, and eventually stopped to wait for Eric. He never came. I started yelling down, and faintly heard that he had turned around. I saw what looked to be some jumps, so I did a bit more climbing. Once you got on the single track, I was loving it. I went up through a few switchback before turning around. I descended quickly to where Jason was swapping out a tube. After the tire was fixed it was time for the downhill. Remember how I was describing the looseness of the road.... yeah. There were many times where the trail was too loose to brake, so I just had to sit back and hold on. It was a crazy fast descent. I almost went down a couple times, but managed to hold on, eventually getting to the bottom. We rode back down the road, and to Jason's house. After we got to Jason's house we were ready to eat. So we threw some brats on the grill, which really filled that hunger. Then to ease our muscles more we relaxed the the hot tub, until about 10:30 when we headed home. Wed Jun 23, 2010
Yesterday after work I booked home and got my mountain bike all together. Hurried and changed, then headed down to pick up Eric's bike & gear. Then I cruised up to Red Butte to meet up with Jason and Eric and ride. Jason warned me that parking sucked that night. I made my way up there to the regular parking lot to see Chicago was playing there that night. Due to the concert traffic was being told to park in all sorts of other areas. So I parked not far from Jason, then we waited for Eric to come. After Eric arrived and got ready we all got on our bikes and headed up Red Butte Canyon road. We rode casually up the the gate where it's closed off, then turned around and jumped on the trails on the north side of the canyon. It wraps around as part of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. So we rode that to Dry Gulch, on the north side of the Huntsman Cancer center. Turned around and rode on the trails back to the car. Not too long, just about 3.5 miles, but a fun ride! |