I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride it where I like

As promised, here are a few more of the highlights and lowlights of the trip I took through Canyonlands.

Highlights:

- One guy was telling us about how he'd been divorced for three years.  "I guess at some point I need to stop talking about it to everyone and just move on."  The husband of the girl who invited me said, "It's alright.  It happens to the best of us."  I don't know if I've ever seen someone's head whip around as fast as his wife's did at that moment.

- I got to know some work colleagues much better than before, and met some really cool people who were friends with them.  You can't beat spending time with people who all get along and have the same interests.  Too bad the coolest (and perhaps cutest) girl lives in South Carolina.

- On the third day I rode in a tank top to see if I could do something about the terrible farmer's tan I have.  It didn't work.  Instead I just got really dirty, and looked really trashy (thus earning me the nickname Trail Trash).  That same day, two of the girls from camp ended up talking to some people in the camp next to us.  Apparently they described me to two girls there, and they expressed interest in meeting me because I seemed like their kind of guy.  That kind of stuff never happens when I'm camping.  It's good to have wing-women.

- The scenery itself was so incredibly gorgeous.  The pictures don't do it justice (do they ever?).  I wish I could go back.

- Dunking my head in the river just a mile or so before we began our final ascent out of the canyon felt sooooooo soooooo good.  Sometimes, that's the best thing you can do after three days without a shower.

Lowlights:

- The wind.  It was so bad for two and a half straight days.  One of my friends was living in Louisiana when Katrina hit, and she said they were worse than that at times.  If fighting it on the bikes wasn't bad enough, having sand blow across your face all night wasn't much fun either.  It blew so hard for so long that even though it finally died down on the evening of the third day, I still felt like wind was blowing on me the first night I was home in my own bed.  I woke up five times because of the "ghost wind" that night.  It was the weirdest sensation.

- When we were setting up camp the first night, we couldn't get the propane stove to work.  Some of the guys starting manipulating it, and ended up catching a propane can on fire.  The manliest man of the bunch reached in and twisted it off bare-handed, but for a few seconds there I was sure someone was going to lose an eye or a finger or something.  Fortunately, they finally figured out how to get it working.  The lesson?  When you buy a new stove, take it out of the box and set it up before embarking on a four day trip away from civilization.

- Apparently the last people to go to bed on the first night didn't put the fire all the way out.  When the winds really kicked up about 2 a.m., it blew some hot embers into my sleeping bag and caught it on fire.  Not the best way to start out a trip.  Luckily I didn't get burned myself.  That could've ended much, much worse.

- At the very beginning of the trip, like, as soon as I took my bike off the rack, I noticed a hole in the side of my front tire that my inner tube was bubbling out through.  I thought I was screwed from the beginning and wasn't going to get to ride.  One of the girls had some duct tape though, and we were able to reinforce it with that.  Luckily, it held up the entire 100 miles.  Who'd have thought?

- It took three days and many many Q-tips to finally get all the sand out of my ears.  Disgusting.

I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting about.  That's what happens when I wait a week to give you updates.  Oh well.

The sun it don't mean to hurt I guess

You know what I love most about my life?  When someone tells me on Wednesday that I should join them on a trip that lasts Thursday through Sunday, I can go ahead and do it if I want.

One of the other post-docs told me about a mountain biking trip she and some others had planned.  "You should come," she said.

"It sounds like a lot of fun.  Maybe I should."

"Oh, you're coming."

It was settled right then and there.  So, I packed my stuff that night, showed up at her house at 7:30 the next morning, and then we were off.  We drove about four hours to Canyonlands where we picked up the permits she and her husband had applied for a year ago, and then we were on the trail.  Six mountain bikes, two Jeeps loaded up with camping gear, food, etc., and a guy on a motorcycle.  Off on a four day ride along the White Rim Trail.

As you can see, the scenery was fantastic!

On average, we rode 25 miles a day.  We had two and a half days of very strong winds.  Some of the girls were actually blown off of their bikes.  Multiple times.  Luckily, the wind died down on the third day so we didn't have to fight it on the last climb out of the canyon (about 1200 feet in elevation over the course of about a mile and a half).  

At the onset, I wasn't sure I'd be able to ride the entire way, but I knew I had to give it a try.  I made it.  I can't believe I did, but I feel pretty awesome about it.  Of course, then I found out that there are people who do the whole thing in one day, then I didn't feel quite as bad ass.  Whatever.

I didn't tell my boss I was going.  I just told him when I got back.  His response?  "Good.  It sounds like fun."  He's awesome!

I might have some more stories to tell from the trip over the next couple of days.  Stay tuned.

Take the ride as far as anyone can go

Well hello there. Did you miss me? Thought so. If you're curious, here's what I've been up to while I've been neglecting my blog:

- Took my kids to Slide Rock State Park in Sedona.





- Started a new job, teaching part time at a small college here in town.

- Saw Cracker play at Wasted Space at the Hard Rock. Good concert. They played for two straight hours. And that's not even counting the opening band, which was . . . one of the members of Cracker.

- Defended my dissertation. And passed. But you already knew that.

- Spent a few days biking in the mountains of Utah, and spent the evenings soaking in a hot tub on the deck of the cabin. There were some beautiful fall colors.






- Visited my grandparents.

- Had a paper accepted into a good scientific journal with minor revisions.

- Went flyfishing.

Standin' at the foot of eternity

How was your weekend? Mine was alright.










Jealous? You should be.

Hey Pretty, don't you wanna take a ride with me?

Friend: You've got to get a rear suspension bike. It's so much better.

Me: I'd like one, but can't afford it right now.

Friend: It makes such a big difference when you're riding though. You'd go down parts of the trail that you don't dare do now without even thinking twice about it.

Me: I don't know about that, but I'm sure it makes a difference.

Friend: Seriously, it's like the difference between getting your first hand job and getting your first blow job.



I have got to get myself a rear suspension bike.

A man who will fight for your honor

A friend and I went mountain biking today, and while we were on the trail, came up with a fantastic movie idea. Here's the storyline in bullet form.

- A recently divorced man from Philadelphia moves to Boulder City, Nevada to start a new life.

- The man used to be heavily into skating, but since moving away from the city has taken up mountain biking as a hobby.

- None of the local mountain bikers like him because a) he's from the big city, and b) his biking style reflects his skating technique and therefore is quite different from their own.

- There is one exception to the locals not liking him: The most popular girl in town takes a liking to him because hey, fresh meat. They quickly become a couple. Her parents disapprove.

- One day on the trail, some of the local riders try to pick a fight. They chase the guy on their bikes. He finally gets away by taking a huge jump and landing it successfully. The leader of the pack behind him isn't able to, wipes out, and causes a huge mountain bike pile up as all his buddies crash into him. Our hero gets away.

- As a result of the crash (on unforgiving terrain), tensions build between our hero and the local mountain biking gang.

- Tensions also build between our hero and his girl's parents. After trying unsuccessfully to convince their daughter to dump our hero, they decide to take matters into their own hands and go to the police with trumped up charges of theft of some very expensive family heirlooms.

- A warrant is issued for our hero's arrest. Eventually the police chase him, but he rides his bike straight down the side of a mountain, leaving the police empty handed and frustrated (at the site where the red arrow is pointing).



- In his escape ride, our hero's mountain bike breaks, rendering it unusable for the big race coming up at the end of the week.

- Angry at the false charges brought against him, and sure that the popular girl was somehow involved despite her assurance that she wasn't, he breaks up with her.

- Forced into hiding, and unable to compete in the big race, our hero ponders moving back to Philadelphia.

- The morning of the big race, the popular girl shows up at his hide-out with a brand new, top of the line, full suspension professional racing bike (a significant upgrade from the one that broke as he fled the police).

- Also, the popular girl threatened to change her name and never speak to her parents again if they didn't come clean about the false charges they had filed. Since she was an only child, and they didn't want to lose her completely, this forced them to admit that they had lied to the cops.

- Armed with a new mountain bike, and with his name cleared, our hero is able to ride in the big race after all. Of course, with his new style, he smokes the rest of the competition. This wins the locals over, and they carry him (and his bike) away from the finish line on their shoulders.

- With the new approval of his new peers, and popular girl's parents, any thoughts of moving back to Philly disappear completely. Our hero and popular girl settle down and open up a bike shop. He then trains everyone in town to ride using the 'new style' of mountain biking.


(With any luck, the soundtrack will be performed by Phil Collins.)

I know it's hard sometimes for you to tell where you end and where the world begins

Yes, I'm still alive. I've just been too busy being without internet access for the past four days to have posted anything. But, it was having no internet access in a good way, meaning that I was in the mountains, in an awesome cabin, with a big group of friends. Oh, and I bought a mountain bike.

For the past three years, a friend that I don't see very often has organized a "mountain biking" weekend at Brian Head, a ski resort town in southern Utah. I haven't owned a mountain bike for several years, so the first year we did this I just went for the fun of being away from it all, but one of my friends crashed and hurt his knee, so I was able to use his bike the following day. The second year another of my friends was going, but was facing a highly stressful event otherwise known as his comprehensive exam, so he basically studied the entire weekend (just in a different environment). Since he wasn't going to be able to ride at all, he let me use his bike in exchange for storing it for him for a couple of months while he was in the process of moving. This year, I didn't have any such options, so I decided I'd rent one, or maybe buy one if I could find something I liked for a good price. As luck would have it, the bike shop just down the street from our cabin had a Trek 4500 (a decent starter bike) for sale for $285, and it was the right size. It sounds like a lot of money, sure, but it was marked down about $150, and was less than half the price of the bike I'd almost talked myself into buying. Since it rained all day long on the day I bought the bike, I had to wait until yesterday to take it out.

It felt pretty good, except for the four times that I wiped out (three of my crashes sent me flying over the handle bars - stupid tree roots - I really need to get better at this mountain biking thing).

In addition to the mountain biking, I also went to Bryce Canyon and hiked a little. I also drove through Zion National Park and hiked Angel's Landing on the way back to Vegas. It was a good weekend.

I took some more pics, but left my camera at home, so I'll have to update this later to include some of those.

------------------------------------UPDATE------------------------------------

Bryce Canyon:

Me on the new bike:

The trail to Angel's Landing (yes, we walked along that ridge):

The View from Angel's Landing: