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Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
We rolled in to San Diego monday morning after 22 days of pedaling down the Pacific Coast we finally made it. The last few days had included a swarm of new riders. It was so nice to have some fresh legs to ride with. In Cambria, CA Sherry and Ayla McConkey joined the group along with Tal and there super babysitter Jen! The Canadians also arrived after 3 days of driving from Toronto in an RV that will be arriving back to Canada in rough shape.
Tom Dozel was also in rough shape after partying all the way down from Toronto. He along with Sherry and Tal joined the crew for a quick 50 mile ride from Cambria to Pismo Beach. It was so nice to finally have a tailwind!
Later on that night Carston, Shane, Suz and her brother joined the group for our ride to Santa Barbara. Carston killed it on his custom made tall bike!
The ride to Malibu was a rough day. It started off flat and mellow winding through Ventura and a few other towns that I can’t seem to recall at the moment. I was in the last group taking our time when all of a sudden everything went wrong. Poor Shane hit a bump in the road and was flown off his bike onto his head. When we called Alex to come help us with the support truck he was dealing with his own emergency. A tire on the support truck had just blown! Perfect timing! Oh and did I mention I blew a tire, not just a tube. Well long story short Shane was picked up by super babysitter Jen and taken to the hospital for staples. Pep decided to break off from our group and try to finish the 30 mile ride to Malibu. That boy hauled!
Ahh Malibu! The second to last day of the trip. We flew this day. It was a pretty flat ride and surprisingly the group was feeling pretty good. We made a few tourists stops in Venice and Manhattan Beach. Tom Dozel tried to breakout his Borat thong in Venice. According to him he was shut down the second he walked out of the restroom. Wait a shame.
Newport Beach to San Diego!!!! Our very last day….
The group got even bigger today. A friend of Tom’s joined us from Newport. I’m not really sure where he broke off from the group. Then we picked up Greg Strokes, Tess and a few others from Oakley who were lucky enough to get the day off. And further on down the road we met up with Derek Taylor from Powder. It was so nice to have a big group. Sherry and I worked our butts off to stay in the pack, once we got in the draft it was so nice. When we would fall off it was panic time to catch back up. Honestly I couldn’t believe how strong my legs still where. Although the long hills still killed me. I think I’m more of a sprinter, ha! Well 70 something miles later we finally made it to San Diego! I can’t believe it’s all done. It’s been a week now and I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I actually miss my bike. I recommend this ride to anyone that has a bike. It was an amazing experience and I can’t wait to get out and do something like this again.
Thanks also goes out to Max Kuszaj for organizing such a great event. Donations can still be made at www.cycleforacause.com
I’ve been on the road since October 3rd now. We’ve had two rest days and are now in Santa Cruz. The group is starting to really feel it. It seems the 40 and 50 mile days that were posted on the original schedule have all disappeared. Now the average seems to be between 70 an 90 miles a day. And to make things even better the days turn to be ten miles longer than we had planned in the morning. It’s ok though, the boys are hanging in there. Today we rode from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. It was the first time I had to bail in CA. After receiving my first flat of the trip and battling the headwinds alone I decided to call it quits 20 miles in. I’m kind of bummed. I really wanted to do all of California. I’ve been able to fight through my aches and pains most of the way but today was not my day. There’s something about always playing catch up to the boys that gets to you after a bit. After talking to the boys it sounds like today was the best day to take a little break. Even though there was no major climbing it was still the toughest day of the trip. Tomorrow we plan to head to Big Sur, hopefully the winds have died down…
I’ve been in the middle of nowhere for a few days now. We rode from Trinidad, CA to Redcrest CA on monday. There was talk of a giant storm coming into the area so we decided to try and wait it out. MAybe take our first rest day and hope for sun on wednesday. Well wednesday came and the sun did not. We had decided to make the move in the rain. It was a warm rain so the majority of the ride wasn’t too bad. I think the only time I was ready to go in was after Dave had recieved his second flat of the day. We hung out under a bridge where three hobos were hiding out from the rain. After that brief stop I was starting to get cold and miserable. We took a side rode that turned into a dirt road, only adding to my discomfort. After a half hour I got over it and stuck it out for the rest of the day. We made it to Leggett CA. Apparently we have the biggest hill of the trip coming up today! Yeah, 6 miles up hill, then a killer downhill. I think it’s an 80 mile day today, so I’m about to get ready.
Go to www.cycleforacause.com to check out some pictures of the ride so far.
We’ve been on the road for 7 days now and have made it all the way to Southern Oregon. The coastline here is amazing! I’m starting to feel like I’m getting in the groove. Atleast I really hope I am. The first two days were brutal for me personally. I was constantly asking myself what I had gotten into. I was not fully prepared for this. I had just received my sisters road bike from Texas the day before and that was my training, none at all.
By day 3 we had made it to Oregon! I was starting to feel a little bit more confident about this trip. I was tired and sore but making progress. The only thing that really killed me was the 4.1 mile bridge from WA, to Astoria. The longest bridge of my life! I felt so bad because Pep was stuck behind me while I crawled over this massive bridge. It was so narrow and congested with traffic with just made matters worse. When we made it to Astoria Riley Poor’s parents had met us there for lunch.
Lincoln City
Day four rolled around and I finally got a camera. Go Pro had donated cameras for the trip! This is awesome especially since my camera no longer works for some reason. And, no it’s not the batteries. I left about a half hour earlier than the guys this day. I wanted to get as far ahead of them as possible. As much as I hate to admit it they are faster. The section of the road from Seaside to Tillamook was much hillier than the rest of the trip so far. I have no idea how those guys never caught up to me. Although it was tough going the views were just amazing. Every climb was rewarded with amazing views. Just like Jesse Hall I was motivated to get to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. I was determined not to stop until I had arrived there! When I finally made it, it was the best site of the day. The big green grassy yard to lay on while I waited for the boys felt amazing! We stopped for lunch and a tour of the factory then moved onto Sandlake.
101 South of Lincoln City
By day 5 I was so tired and sore. I had no idea how I was going to make it ten miles never mind 50. We stopped in Lincoln City for lunch and I just wanted to pass out. We still had another 20 miles or so till we made it to Beverly Beach State Park. Dreading the ride I set out ahead of the guys again. Somehow I got another wind and was feeling so good. I think it was the amazing views that motivated me. I just wanted to see what was around every corner.
Day 6 was a big day for me. 85 miles, I believe that is a personal record for myself. The morning was a bit off a rough start for myself. It was foggy and the road was rough. I struggled for a bit but after a few hours I was starting to feel better. We met up with Dave Stiener about 20 miles from Florence. After a big mexican lunch fiesta, which was a bad idea, we headed onto Winchester Bay. About 15 miles from the bay I started to notice some pain in my left knee, no good. Just before sunset we strolled into the Surfside RV Park and enjoyed a hobo dinner.
Today was not a good day. We headed into the town of Winchester Bay for some coffee. We stopped at a great little spot where I had the best bear claw ever! Dave got behind the counter and made Lattes for the group. Apparently the store had recently opened and they had not yet mastered the espresso machine. After our little coffee break we headed out towards the town of Port Orford, about 70 miles away. I made it 5 miles and had to stop because my knee pain was increasing. I hope by tomorrow I’ll be ok…
It’s Day three of Cycle for a Cause. We have ridden from Seattle WA, and just made our way into Oregon today! It’s been three long days, but we have been blessed with great weather. Sunny in the PNW! Who would of guessed. About an hour into the trip my camera died! So that means no pictures for the time being. Soon though. I think we have a 65 or 90 mile day ahead of us. Depends on how motivated we feel. For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about you can go to www.cycleforacause.com to check it out! And if any of you cyclists out there have a few days to kill you are more than welcome to meet up! It’s open to anybody. I also want to thank unofficialsquaw.com for helping with the cause! I’ll be updating as much as possible while on the road.
So it’s monday and I’m still not out skiing. It was so windy only the surface lifts are running. At this point I just can’t wait to get on with the next leg of my trip. Tomorrow Tim Dutton, Ralph Backstrom, Tim Konrad my fellow unofficialsquaw.com team mates and I will be heading to Wanaka New Zealand for the World Heli Challenge. I can’t wait! It’s three days of contests, a big mountain, freeride and Chinese downhill day. I’ve got word that they just recieved 30-40cm of snow and the snow pack is finally stable. It will be my first trip to New Zealand and I’m pretty excited.
I flew into Argentina the other day to get some training in before I head to New Zealand for the World Helli Challenge. I’ve never been to South America before so I was pretty excited to get down there. I had heard it had been snowing and was looking forward to some August pow turns.
It had been a long journey. I left Salt Lake City at 1:30pm on the 14th of August. Tim Dutton met me in SLC and we traveled together to Buenos Aires where we had planned on meeting up with two other guys from unofficialsquaw.com. We found Patrick and waited around for a half hour looking for Greg. We had to take a shuttle to a domestic airport to continue the rest of our trip. It was 9am on the 15th and Greg was no where to be found. We had to run because our flight took off at 10:10am and we had atleast a half hour ride to the next airport. I had very little faith that we were going to make this next flight.
We arrived around 9:40am at the Buenos Aires domestic airport. It was crazy, I’ve never seen anything like it. You couldn’t tell where the line began and people were almost out the door. So we stood around like lost tourists wasting more time and almost accepting the fact that
We arrived at the gate at 10:05am only to find that it had been delayed. Two hours later we boarded the plane and embarked on the sketchiest flights ever. The landings on our way in to San Rafael and some other small town I fail to remember the name of where so sketchy.
We finally arrived in the town of Las Lenas Argentina about 30 hours later. I was so ready to eat then pass out for hours.
AHHH, Las Lenas! This place looks amazing. I couldn’t wait to ski some lines. The bottom of the mountain was nothing to brag about but the upper part is amazing, or so I hear. The Marte is what makes this place a resort to ski. We didn’t expect it to open our first day, it had just stormed the day before so the locals thought maybe it would open in a few days. Ha ha ha….
Tim and Scott waiting for the Marte to open
It was our third day skiing and the word was that the Marte was supposed to open in an hour. We headed up to wait for the opening, checking out lines while we waited. It looked like so much fun.
After a few minutes we got word that it would not open today. We then looked up the lift only to notice that one of the concrete avi barriers had fallen into a lift tower. Not, good. We had been told that it happens often, usually its a quick fix and sometimes a season ender.
I have two more skiing days left at Las Lenas. The majority of my days here have looked like this…
We all hope the Marte will open before we leave, but for those of us going on to New Zealand on tuesday we fear we wont get to ski the Marte. I hope we are wrong.
I moved to Park City after the winter. I wanted a change of scenery. The first month and a half it felt like I was living back home in Maine. It rained nearly everyday. Cody and I decided to travel south to get away from the rain. We found ourselves in Moab Utah! It was so nice to get away and enjoy the warm sun. We camped outside of the Canyonlands National Park at a little campground called coyboy camp. It was a nice change from the overcrowded sights in the park.
Our sunset from camp
The following day we went into the Cayonlands to check it out. That place is amazing. I think the pictures tell a better story than I do…
Our first view of the park
We decided to go on a hike down into the canyon. It was the hottest hike I think I’ve ever been on. We probably could of used a few more bottles of water. The sights made it all worth it though.
Looking down at the Green River
We made it out of the Cayonlands safe and somewhat dehydrated. After some dinner in Moab we headed into Arches National park for the the sunset.
