June Bug

Is that a Revelate top tube bag? If so, much larger than my current Gas Tank. ETA: just checked the Revelate web site and they have the Mag-Tank 2000.

Did you do the Zia Big Ride South Boundary event?

Awesome job! He got the belt buckle and wears it well!

A friend took a fall downslope while hiking and broke both wrists. He and his wife had to take their relationship to a whole new level. Don't break both wrists!

I was worried it was an alien probe dealio and nobody wants to be probed by an alien.

Bike parts are gender neutral. Perhaps you meant lady bits?

Yup, it's almost that time of year. Camp Eagle Classic Mountain Bike Festival August 30 - Sept 2, 2019 Race details and pre-ride dates here.

Speaking of hot, the long-range forecast for next week isn't. High of 87 on Tuesday (July 22) with a low of 71 followed by a few days of highs in the 90-ish range, with some rain (or not).

True confession: There's a little up and down Shady Springs side loop at Walnut Creek. It starts flat, then drops down off a little ledge which leads right into a sharp downhill left turn. *Riders* started going around on the right of a cedar tree to get a slightly wider angle to approach the turn and avoid the little ledge. I blocked off that line multiple times; it got unblocked multiple times. I think the cedar tree finally crossed the arborial rainbow bridge and now it's just a wide spot. Time and use has made the actual turn easier; it's worn into a natural berm.

I'll just lay it out here that people who like to ride mellower stuff, like me these days, be the ones who lay out and design the B lines, instead of the people who have created a need for B lines in the first place. B lines -- I'd prefer the term intermediate or mellow intermediate -- should be incredibly interesting and flowy with fun but doable challenges and obstacles at a lower amplitude than a black diamond trail. If you'd like to ride an insanely well designed and super fun intermediate trail, head to Dead Horse Point State Park above Moab and ride the newer part of the Intrepid Trail system east of the park entrance road. Stop trying to determine for everyone that there can only be one path in mountain biking -- advancing to and mastering increasingly more difficult challenges. Which is totally and completely legit for for some, maybe many, riders. However, I've been on more than one monthly ARR ride where a large group of riders just wanted to enjoy a fun, mellow ride, on mellow trails, away from traffic. They were super not interested in their ride resulting in a visit to the ER. Fun but interesting trails are good. The reason Walnut is so insanely popular is its high ride-ability quotient. Also, something I've seen in play more than once -- throwing in something ridiculous that can be, let's face it, ridden only by a few super technically accomplished riders -- because the trail builders thought the trail was boring or too easy. Alternate lines will arise on trails that are erratic in their technical demands. If you're going to be building a black diamond trail full of technical challenge, fine. If you're going to be building intermediate trails, then do that with consistency. If you want to combine both, then have alternate lines and be done with it, because, as we've all seen over and over, riders WILL vote with their tires, then everybody clutches their pearls and takes to their fainting couch over the sheer awfulness of it all. IMBA recommends stacked trails, with specifically black diamond trails further into the trail system, often as loops off a main route.

I didn't see that coming. I could say there are worse places to be but there aren't. Glad you survived and are hopefully back home in much cooler conditions -- in your house...in the AC.

The temperature is too damn high! *said in "The Rent is too Damn High Guy" voice. Rode home from Hyde Park Gym via Shoal Creek, paved Gnarnia, Pickle Research Center, Domain, Kramer and neighborhood roads to home. Didn't feel super hot until riding through Pickle Research Center, which doesn't have a lot of shade. By the time I got home at 2:30 I was feeling a few of those weird little chills that actually herald over heating. Temp on the shaded front porch was 99; the outside sensor on the thermostat, which is in the shade at this time of day, read 101. A water bottle with SKRATCH helped big time during the ride.

Not a destination, but online tools to suss out what might be waiting at your destination; especially useful for contemplating bikepacking routes. I'm using a place I'm interested in (Red Canyon in SE Utah) as an example. I stumbled across this awesome web site called TopoZone.com. It has free access to USGS topographic maps and there is a print option as well. You can zoom in for details (for example, what's the elevation of this contour line?) or pull back for the big picture. And yes, view on a full size monitor. Cell phones and tablets wouldn't work well. One can order custom maps from TopoZone for a charge. Combined with Google maps 3d view, it's an excellent way to preview topography and get a better understanding of terrain and perhaps locate roads and trails. . This particular TopoZone link is to the South Fork Red Canyon, San Juan County, Utah, which has caught my attention for bike packing potential out to Lake Powell (water!) and back. If you scroll down, this specific information is provided: elevation, coordinates, the USGS topo map for this particular landform, links to nearby similar land forms (in this case valleys) and the related USGS topo map where that particular land form occurs. For example, the south fork of Red Canyon is found on the USGS Chocolate Drop topo map. It was fun spending an hour or two toggling back and forth between googlemaps 3D view and the topo map. I may be the last person to realize this, but Google maps will respond to queries for landform names if given enough info. I used "Red Canyon, San Juan County, Utah" as the address query. The result showed one red marker ("Red Canyon") in the middle of Lake Powell, because the mouth of Red Canyon is now in the middle of the damn lake. The second red marker, North Fork Red Canyon, marks the confluence of the north and south forks of Red Canyon. Then click on satellite view and zoom in. These areas in SE Utah have zip for vegetation, so what you see is what you get. I don't know how well this would work for forested areas. Anyway, if you're thinking about going somewhere new and route planning, combining Google Maps 3d view and TopoZone are a great combination.

Not in the cat family, but coatamundi (coati, ringtail cat) are related to raccoons. My first interaction with one was camping in the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness in Arizona. We set our packs down to eat a snack, without realizing that within less than two minutes, one of the rascals would chew a hole in my pack to get to food. When we went to bed that night (no tent), they were rummaging through our camp within minutes of crawling into sleeping bags. That looks like a big fat happy fox at Walnut. There are lots of bunnies at WC that would make a tasty treat for Mr. Fox, who probably also forages for cat food and what not in the houses adjacent to the park. Foxes are crazy successful in urban and suburban environments.

We'll be volunteering down in Ilium Valley, near the end of lap 1. Be sure and wave. With the major change in the route, Lap 1 should be much much easier without Black Bear Pass, so there's that. If ya can't ride the T-40, you can sign up on Tobin's volunteer list on facebook.