Three days without rain, three rides. Life is Good.

I got out today for a nice ride with Chad, Jesse, Ian and John. We were at Sycamore Rocks and hit a bunch of stuff on the front side that I haven’t ridden in a while. Temps were perfect, the ground was wet and tacky and everyone had a good time. What could be better than that? Well, you could finish off with some tacos and beer at Mary’s, which Chad and I did.

Chad rolling into the downhill near Set Free Ledge

 

Ian starting to roll down Set Free Ledge

 

Reed starting the downhill section

 

The view from the trails with the snowy San Bernardino mountains in the background.

The ride was great. I got home and Amber and I decided to take a walk with Levi to the local coffee shop. It was about a 3 mile trek meandering on the sidestreets to avoid the main thoroughfares. We finally got to the coffee shop and it was closed. It was 3:30pm on a Sunday afternoon. What is wrong with this place?

Winter Riding

It’s a bit harder to get out and ride in the winter. Not that I should complain, since friends live in much colder places and get out consistently and probably more than I do. But between work, watching Levi and helping out at home I have a harder time getting my rides in during the week.

Today I got out with Chad for the first ride in a week or so. It’s been raining a lot here. In fact all the local school districts were closed today due to massive flooding, making the ride/walk/commute to school too dangerous for some of the students. So Chad and I took advantage of the day off and a lull in the rain and got a nice ride in. The soil was in great shape, there was snow on the hills around us, the dry washes had water in them and we were glad to be outside on our bikes.

Chad warming up with snow on the hills behind him.

 

Chad working a technical switchback.

 

Nice slab and waterfall near the Slab City area.

 

Normally we ride up this. Not today.

 

I also got out last weekend with Pat. We did a nice long ride. Well, we probably went 10 or 11 miles, but it took about 3 hours and we weren’t fooling around. The technical riding at Sycamore Rocks is amazing. You work so hard and only travel a few miles. It’s almost comical but that’s the way it is. We both had a great ride and the conditions were tops.

Pat cruising through God's Country

Enjoying a little drop in Slab City

Levi continues to explore everything. He loves to be outside and I can’t wait to get him out on the trails. During this rainy week though it’s been a lot of indoor playing.

Riding while the ankle is recovering

In October I broke my ankle.  The Dr. had me in a walking cast type brace for 6 weeks and didn’t want me to put any weight on it. Mid November I got the go ahead to start walking on it. I assumed that also meant that I should start riding, even though he didn’t say that and I didn’t ask. Sometimes it’s safer to just assume, if you know what I mean.

It’s been getting better every ride, so that I don’t notice it much now on rides. Initially I felt it on rough stuff. Then I felt it on G-outs. Then doing little manuals. Now I can do little jumps (very little) and not really feel it. I can also get out of the saddle and take a few good cranks without any real problem. I don’t think I’m ready for the singlespeed yet, but I’m very happy with where it’s at in the recovery program.

I started with some easy rides with almost no technical challenges. These pics are around Bell Mountain in Apple Valley. It’s about 8 miles and is very fun and pretty non-technical. My parents also live near the trailhead so they watched the baby while my wife and I got a family ride in – her first since we had the baby 8 and a half months ago.

One of the next rides was with Andy and Candace and Bob. I was supposed to take it easy and while I did do some technical stuff I did some spectating too. Here Andy nails one of the fun technical downhill sections on his hardtail singlespeed.

I also did a couple of rides in Honda Valley. One was a group ride with Chad and some others. The other ride I was on my own and was trying to suss out the time trial course so I would know where it goes. These trails are fairly non-technical but offer some very fun singletrack with nice swoopy turns, good scenery and not too much climbing. Here you can see the trail in the foreground and the pretty red plants that all over out there.

The first weekend in December I did the most technical ride yet since I broke my ankle. This was all out at Sycamore Rocks in Apple Valley and hit one of my two favorite trails out there. But first we had to do some riding to get there.

Jesse on a short climb on the way out to God’s Country.

Once we got to the start of the trail we had to find it. The trails here are sometimes pretty circuitous and can be hard to find and since they are on rock there aren’t always good tracks to follow.

Chad showing us where the trail is.

Jesse on another windy rocky section. There have only been a few rocks piled here and there to make it work and it’s still not easy.

It was about this time that we ran into George. He rides out in the area all the time, but usually by himself. He’s an OC transplant and has ridden plenty of technical stuff. We weren’t sure about his skills until he followed us down this slab at speed and without hesitation. Clearly we didn’t have to worry about him.

The next technical section had some more slabs and some ledges to drop off between slabs. Here Jesse makes his way down.

The next section was a little longer and perhaps more technical but not as intimidating.

Before too long we were on our way back to the cars on some fun rolling singletrack. I rode a steep boulder climb and George decided to give it a try too. He pulled it off within a couple of tries. The other guys opted to watch.

My ankle continues to improve. The Dr. gave me the go ahead to stop using the brace all the time and just wanted me to keep doing my exercises. I’ve been riding harder and harder, adding some good downhill stuff and some jumps as well. So far so good and I’m pretty happy with how it’s going.

Merry Christmas everyone. Or whatever holiday you choose to celebrate this time of year.

~R

3rd Ride

Today I got my third ride in since the Dr. approved me for walking. I actually feel better riding than walking, so I’m sure it’s good for me. Today’s ride was a little over 15 miles and my ankle felt good. I was able to stand up going over rough spots and through little g-outs without any pain. Yay! I still don’t feel very comfortable getting out of the saddle, but I did feel better. I’m super happy with my progress and am confident it will continue to improve.

We had a pretty good grop of about 10 riders. So I not only got to test out my ankle and get some good riding in, I also met some other High Desert riders. Besides Chad and myself there was also Eddie, Derrick, Dave, Jim and a few other names I don’t remember. Sorry guys.

Last weekend it was Bob, Andy, Candace and myself at Sycamore Rocks. We got about 13 miles in and plenty of rough stuff as well as some fun twisty singletrack. I didn’t get too many pictures, but Andy was feeling good on the technical stuff on his Black Cat and that was great to see.

Bob was without his beloved El Mariachi but did just fine on my Vulture. He said the Vulture was heavier, but the easy gear made it ride just fine. Thanks, Jerk.

It’s good to be back on the bike. More to come I hope as I get better and get back into more technical stuff.

~R

Back on the tracks

I rode my bike today. Normally that’s not really that interesting and unless it was something special I certainly wouldn’t bother posting about it. But, this was my first ride in about 5 weeks, since I busted my ankle.

Yesterday the Dr. said I could stop using the crutches and start walking. He gave me a nice lace-up ankle brace with Velcro reinforcement. It’s pretty bomber and my ankle certainly feels more secure with it on. Today I stuffed my foot and the ankle brace into my cycling shoe. It barely fit and I think I only got one or two clicks with the buckle. That’s okay, that was enough to let me ride.

I didn’t go far, but it was the best ride and I was grinning from ear to ear. I stood up over a few rough spots and I could tell that my ankle isn’t ready for too much rough stuff yet. That’s okay, I’m sure it won’t be that long and for the time being I’m happy riding my bike.

I think my bike’s happy too. Here’s a shot near the start of the main singletrack.

Derailed

Well, just as I was starting to think that I was finding some fitness and some motivation for more training I came off the track. Or more specifically, I came off the rock. At high speed in a wild twisting way. I was bouldering at a little local area on the one really good boulder there. I was with a friend and we were having a good day. We were there a few days prior and seeing as we were both starting to climb somewhat regularly again we were seeing some progress. Very cool.

We made our way around the boulder and got to an easier problem. Easier, yes, but also the only problem on the boulder that I knew anyone had gotten hurt on. My buddy Josh took a fall off the problem a number of years ago on Christmas Eve and broke his wrist. Pat climbed it first and before he got back to spot me I started up. It felt good and I was feeling good. After the crux you do a rockover move and kind of tapyour other foot up the rock as you try to stand up. I was doing this while pressing one hand down across my body with the other hand pulling on a good edge. Suddenly my hand popped off the good edge and Iwent flying. My hand pressing across mybody sent me spinning wildly away from the rock. Pat got there as I started to fly, but he was in no position to really do anything. As I started to land I tried to get my foot under me. I managed to get it down, but I think it hit the edge of the pad and the edge of a boulder slab underneath the pad.

I felt my ankle turn and thought it was broken. Then as I laid in a dusty and creosote covered pile I looked at my ankle and thought “maybe I didn’t break it.” Pat was super helpful and I was doing my best not to be helped, which is stupid, but so it goes. I tried to hobble on the foot and I could bear a little weight as long as I leaned in and not out. I got to my bag and sat down while Pat went and got his truck. He helped me get to his truck and set up in it and then he grabbed the rest of the stuff.

Once we got to my car I wanted to try to get it home. Pat’s truck is an automatic, so he let me drive his with my left foot and he drove my car. Once I got home Amber started to help too and between Pat and Amber I was soon at the hospital. After a short wait thanks to Pat’s connections I was in a room and waiting to get X-rays. Turns out that I have an avulsion fracture, but they can’t be sure that it’s a new fracture. There doesn’t appear to be any other bone damage, but my soft tissue is definitely messed up. My foot is very swollen there is a lot of black and blue and I have been told not to move it or put weight on it.

Apparently a swollen injury can hide fractures, so they want me to get more X-rays tomorrow and then I have a Dr’s appt. on Wednesday to talk to the podiatrist. Until then I am laying low and Amber is doing more than her share around the house. Thanks Babe. But somethings I still need to take care of myself.

I need to start doing some upper body training so I can try to keep some sort of fitness during this time. It just turns out that it’s kind of a hassle and I can’t move the weights around very easily, so I have to use them where they are sitting currently. So it goes.

~R

Climbing, Riding and even some P90.

I’m slowly getting adjusted in the new home and the old hometown. Slowly the house is getting fixed and I am finding and making more time for exercise. Not to say that there haven’t been some hiccups. There have. First I pulled some muscle in my side and it was very painful to do some things, although easy riding was alright. Then I got sick for about 5 days and that slowed me down too.

But, I haven’t gotten out climbing a couple of times and I can tell that my fitness is slowly returning. I did a few problems on Saturday that I couldn’t do 3 weeks before, so that was a positive sign. Now if I can just be consistent and then up my other exercise and watch my diet a bit I could see more improvement.

I’ve also gotten out to ride a few more times. I can tell that I’m getting more fit, but I’m not riding enough to see the kinds of gains I would like. But, my 43 days of training will be finished here in a few weeks, so I might have to just go try to complete my challenge anyway.

We took a quick trip to the beach and camped with my parents and some other friends. I got to do a little surfing and we all had a great time. Then I got sick, which made the last day at the beach less than perfectly enjoyable.

Update

Well, things have really been moving (some literaly, some figuratively) sinc e the last time I wrote something here. I started my new job teaching in Victorville and moved into the house in Apple Valley that I spent a large part of the summer working on with my dad. It was hectic, and it’s certainly not finished, but the biggest hurdles have been jumped. My fitness is crap, since I only rode a handful of times all summer and did nothing else for exercise apart from construction related things.

I turned 43 a few weeks ago and tried a Birthday Challenge. My plan was to do 43 things on the house during the week, ride my mountain bike 43 miles on Saturday and climb 43 boulder problems on Sunday. Here’s a brief report I sent to a couple of friends:

I failed misably on all fronts. Well, I almost got the 43 things done on the house and I will definitely finish that one.

 

While tuning up the Full Squish bike on Friday night I broke a bolt that’s part of the suspension, so I had no choice but to ride the single speed. It was probably better for some of the stuff planned, but for the whole 43 miles it was going to be a bit rough.

 

I started the mountain biking at Sycamore Rocks, which has lots of technical trails with some hike-a-bike as well. It’s really good riding, but it’s the kind of place where you can ride for 2 hours and have only gone 8 miles. We were there for 3 hours and did 13 miles. By the end of the time there I was at a point where I couldn’t ride up easy inclines and had little energy. I had brought an ice chest and sat down to have aTecate with Chad. At that point my energy ebbed even lower. I didn’t figure I could do the challenge without really killing myself, and maybe not even then without just riding dirt roads or something boring like that. So, I packed it in, went home and did stuff for the house.

 

Sunday I planned on trying to do 43 boulder problems. I completely overestimated my climbing fitness, thinking that I would be able to do some stuff relatively easy, even though I haven’t climbed in a year or two and haven’t climbed with any regularity for years. I started with an easy problem and couldn’t really start it. Doh! I tried it several times, quickly losing some skin and never completing the problem. I tried to do a different variation of it and failed on that too, losing more skin in the process. I then tried a different problem on the same boulder and got a little stymied by it too. As I walked back to the car I had completed zero problems and already had lost some skin. Bad sign.

 

I drove to the next area, where there are some easy problems that Josh did back when he lived here. I was able to do 3 problems there, but for 1of them I had to cut a traverse short. Still i did 7 moves on the traverse, so I figured it counted as a boulder problem.

 

I then drove to Horseman’s Center which is where the Napkin is. I have climbed on this boulder for over 20 years and established many of the problems on it. I did the 7 easiest problems on the boulder and got spit off another one that I always thought was easy. By this time my toes were starting to scream and my skin was sore and my muscles were tired. I called it good and went home to do more house stuff. But, first I drove by Kate’s Boulder, the big boulder there with The Next Big Thing on it. Bob did the FA on this I think and I think Todd Daniels has also done it. Surprisingly there was chalk on it, but it looked pretty old.

 

My forearms were tight and sore for the rest of the day and they are still tight now. I am going to try to go bouldering at least once a week and hopefully find some of the strength I used to have. I think that Ben Banks might be right about bouldering being good when you have kids. You can get a pretty good workout in a short period which is key when the wife is at home and wants you to get back so you can go do more stuff with her.

Steve suggested that with 43 days of training I could complete the challenge, so that’s the new plan.

In other news, Levi is doing great and seems to like the High Desert. He enjoys being outside and likes the evening breezes. He even got to enjoy a fireworks display and loved that too.

Levi and Papa listening to some music and waiting for night fall and the fireworks show.

~R

Recharged

I feel like I have been working on the house much longer than the 3 weeks on the calendar indicates. There are so many small things to do when working on a renovation that it seems like days can go by where nothing obvious gets done. It’s also exhausting. Today I had a dentist appt. so it was a day off. This evening I went for a mountain bike ride with my good friend Andy. That was the best ride I’ve done in some time. Great company, good trails and lots of smiles and laughs. I’m more tired than when I started, but I feel better.

 

Levi has gotten a lot more energetic and is working on being mobile. He can roll over now from both his back to his belly and from his belly to his back. With that and some scooting he can move a decent little distance. Our job or creating a safe space around him has already gotten harder and will continue to get harder as his mobility increases.

We put him to sleep on his belly, but in the morning we sometimes find him on his belly.  We are amazed by how high he lifts his neck up when he is lying on his belly and looking around to see what’s up. He’s very inquisitive and wants to see everything that is going on.

~R

Working on the new place

I haven’t posted in quite a while. We took a road trip around California, visiting Tom’s Place near Mammoth, South Lake Tahoe, Sacramento area, Napa, the Big Sur Coast, Morro Bay, Santa Barbara and home. It was a good trip, but needed to be short so I could get home in order to help my dad work on the house in Apple Valley that we’ll be moving into within a month or so.

We are almost completely redoing it and it should be real nice when we finish. Right now it’s an empty shell, but one with fresh paint that will soon have new tile. The new cabinets come in soon and that will be followed up with new countertops. There’s a bunch of other little things, but those are the main things. It’s fun working on everything, but it’s also exhausting and the drive up and back is about an hour each way which is not time well spent.

Bob's Cabin at Tom's Place

 

Bob and I hiking to the Sand Canyon Trail. It was a great ride and the canyon lived up to its name.

 

The views were amazing and the logs provided play opportunities.

 

Bob on the rocks of the Lower Rock Creek Trail.

 

Amber and Levi at the Carmel River State park beach. He loved it.

The house is in good shape, but it has a few things that need to be fixed. The first was the guest bathroom. It had tacky wood paneling that reminded us of a sauna. We pulled that off and found even worse wall paper. The wall paper was a nightmare to remove and now we have wallboard that is pockmarked with nail holes. We aren’t sure what we will have to do next to get it to look good.

Bad wood paneling was hiding even worse wall paper. Yikes!

 

The old cabinets, countertops and linoleum.

The closet doors in two bedroom looked like this.

 

I’ll post some more stuff soon so you can get some idea of before and after, but hopefully it will present itself much better in a few weeks.

~R