Saturday 1/26/08 Boise Snowplowing

Daniel L. and I met at the Camelsback Parking lot at 7:50am to brave the 19 deg temps. Actually there was -0- wind and it was pretty warm with the layers. I did most of the ride without the windbreaker. Shortly after starting I realize I am stuck in low gear (on the 34 tooth) with a seized up rear der. I played with it a little but no dice. So, I faux dingle speeded (swiching between the small and middle front rings) the 9miles up the Freeway to the top of Hulls and back down. Slippery slidery out there too. I think the total number of miles "pedaled" would've been close to 12 had the bike computer be linked to the rear tire since traction was at a minimum. I even let the air down to about 15 on the Maxxis High Roller 2.35 in the rear to get whatever traction I could get. Saw about 6 other mtb'ers out there, mostly on the way back. Tons of walkers/runners and doggies. Gotta love this weather.

Home by 10am-ish, just in time for more coffee and Leggo Waffles. WORD.

Friday powder ride 1/25/08

UrbanSkillz Tony and I got out for a little snowplowing this afternoon. Took 3 soilers on my arse and Tony didn't crash once. Now that's a first folks!

IT'S GLOBAL WARMING, YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Idaho Velo Park - Take 1

After getting a solo 20 miles on the road in today, Daryl came over and we drove up to check out the progress on the Idaho Velo Park in Eagle, and were blown away by what we saw. The 3 freeride/dh courses and the 4X look like they are going to be amazing.



Judd and Randy (Spangler) chatted with us for 10 minutes about the dirt courses and were really cool guys. They talked about the pump track and other coming attractions. WOW. I am pretty excited about this. Stay tuned for more!

Sat Morning 20mi Spin w/Justin

20 miles on the road bike this morning with Justin S, good times. We headed down S. Cloverdale Rd to Kuna Mora Rd., headed West past the 1800's school turned auto wreckage yard (not open for business by the looks of it either), past a number of dairy farms on the way back up Eagle Rd. (as far south as it currently runs) and then around to Hubbard and back up Cloverdale. Stopped in for many cups o' joe from the Smiths' new coffee maker. YUM. Headed back to the doublewide trailer and called it good. Too warm (~37 deg F) to ride the trails. Maybe the skillzparker will be ok to ride. I think I am going to take the boys down to the Greenbelt to ride.

Have a great day!

A REAL backyard skillzone

All I can say is.....if I can persuade Rachel to let me use more of the backyard for my park, I want it to be something like this

Sat 1/5/08 Morning Fun

As I sit here typing with my freshly brewed joe, David Crowder Band's "Remedy" cd playing on the stereo, the kids playing online games on Rachel's laptop, Rachel is out trimming back bushes in the backyard after we just took the Christmas lights down before a big storm that is supposed to blast us. Meme (my grandma) just called from Reno/Sparks a moment ago. What a snow they got last night - like 8 inches. Hopefully we get that same here in Boise this weekend.

This morning I got up at 7am to check for snow - none. I am pretty confident if my career in sales peters out, I'd have a good shot at being one of the local tv meteorologists. My forecasts would have to be as accurate as theirs are, I mean come on people. I read the forecast everyday and they're seldom right or even close to what the weather will be like. I had hoped to ride dirt this morning with Bryan B. but the trails would be way to soft since it was many degrees above freezing.

So, what a great opportunity to get out on the used roadie I bought from Justin S. last year! I just got some dedicated Crank Bros pedals for it finally (had been swapping my others from my trail bike back and forth) and a new rear tire cheap off Pricepoint.com so at 7:30am I ventured out. Now, if you've ridden the road with me before you know it's more of a "mtb'er meets roadie meets Mad Max" based on my interesting selection of gear, outerwear, and basically ghetto approach that cares nothing about style or bling or conformance. I wear the winter riding tights/pants (black), light technical shell jacket (baby blue), glasses with clear lenses (orange), mtb lid (either grey or silver), Pearl Izumi Lobster claw gloves to keep the fingers from freezing, my mtb shoes with black booties (thanks to Terry F. for the freebies!), Camelbak (yeah!), and today my homebrew ghetto light sets. We're talking both the bar-mount and the helmet-mounted lights. The helmet light batteries have a long enough wireset to be put into the Camelbak. The bar-mount battery pack is in a water bottle and the toggle-switch (high and low capabilities) straps to the downtube with velcro straps. Yeah baby, Mad Max Road Warrior style. Got out on S. Cloverdale road for a quick 10.75 miles. Nice and easy spinning - felt great. Got home before the family woke, feeling good that I didn't spend waking moments away from my favorite peeps. Looking forward to a good weekend, hanging with the fam, church tomorrow at the new Pursuit building

HAVE AN AWESOME WEEKEND PEOPLE!!