Our fireroads are more charred than your's.

Time for some bloggin!

My mountain bike race/announce calender is complete for the summer. No more roll ups, award ceremonies, or epic dual slalom qualifier's. Nor will I enjoy prerace portapotty sessions, hyperinhaled micro dirt particles or the post race afterburn of "Icouldabeenfaster." IT is now THAT glorius time of year.... 3 hour ride's are soft pedaled and savored and one finds the distance traveled to be insignifigant. Alittle bit of Penny Pines Trail... Seasonal weather as things cool off some but winter in still flying north of the jet stream . This has been a busy week with Jimmy Buffet, PioneerTown and Halloween. Pioneer town is a must do ride with Pappy and Harriets your icb hangout after 25 miles of fast and happy fireroad descent.

...and the view from Cougar Crest.

Hal Helbock, 40 yearold family man, pro rider, celebrates the biggest win of his career at state finals.

This map at the entrance station at Cottonwood only served as a reminder for how far I still had to go. My ride crossed the 10 freeway and might of turned around in "Mecca" had i been willing to gamble...on my ability to find water. Meet Ruben, on a 10 month sabbitical from his regular life as a physical education teacher. This guy rolled by me in the campground loaded down like he was riding to South America and my first comment to him was, "You look serious". I took him a beer and found out he IS riding to South America. He hails from Belgium and has always dreamed of doing a ride like this. Starting in LA he was only 300 miles into it. From JTree he is heading thru Lake Havasu, east on Route 66 to the Grand Canyon, north to Vegas,north to Death Valley before turning south. Checkout out his journey ... www.rubenmaakteenreisje.bloggen.be
He's taking pictures every 100k and will use english for highlights.Living large in "Belle" camp.
Ruben was riding a Decathalon with every thing he envisioned needing. His gear with plenty of water was 30 plus kilos....
My view of an endless stream of semis into and out of socal. From here it's about 40 miles and a whole bunch of climbing to get back to my ice chest.

Work hard. Relax harder. JTree.

Sebastian's store, served as the finish line for the Volvo Best Buddies Challenge. the charity fun ride featured tours of 100, 62 and 15 miles and was hosted by Maria Shriver. (she rode 15)















Hearst Castle sits high on the ridge. UN fortunetly the weather sucked...Even the century riders rode in wearing every thing they brought. The sun never burned off the heavy cloud cover...so these shots are from our ride down the coast in April 05.

Big Bear did recieve some precip this weekend and riding conditions are fast and improved. Stopped into BV Bikes and rode w/ a guy from Fruita who happened to be in so cal on business. He was jonesing to get out on a bike and got lucky when we happened apon each other. Needless to say, he'll never figure out where any of the secret trails are but he did get to roll about a six pack of them...It'll be nice to have him guide us around there, in a few weeks.

The slow way to recovery...

and the only way to keep warm.

Every second does count. Got pimped at the line by Steve K. after suddenly discovering a blossoming affection for my brake levers descending lower fall line. That "voice"... just kept getting louder....with memorys of flat tire finishes, I was just abit too conservative. Still a solid effort with another podium (5th) and a time only about 2 minutes out. Racing with home course advantage is a bonus.

A cutoff low circulates off the coast with a chance for weather...even a 7000' snow-level. Moderate rain or a dusting of snow will consolidate the dirt and make the riding superb so bring it on!!

DON COUSINS The legend..

DAN HANEBRINK xc&dh national champion/designed,built and raced a fully suspended bike in 86

....and I thought it would be easy to throw up a few post's on a regular basis.

Our get together to celebrate 20 years of mountain biking was held last wednesday. Roughly 30 folks showed for a reunion ride followed by some beers and a walk down memory lane. Several members of the "80's" dirt peleton broke out old school rides...Spiegal on a GF procaliber, George Stevens rode a vintage Salsa and I managed to get my 86' Stumpjumper a back brake that stopped the bike and rode it. Toe clips and flat pedals were a death wish on lower fall line and bio-pace chain rings limited my sprint to beer but it sure was fun getting every body out. There hasn't been a group ride of that magnitude in a long, long time.

Those who chose not to ride were already enjoying nacho's and beer at the very happy hour in La Montana (thanks Rook) and the PARTY got started. Videos played on the big screen of ROCKHOPPER SOUTH and DOWNHILL MANIA, hundreds of photos were shared and story's reminiced. Tom's speech opened with full credit given to mtb hall of famer, Pat Follett, who started it all and closed with an official stars and stripes national championship jersey presented to "THE LEGEND", Don Cousins, who won a couple of xc crowns back in the 80's racing as a vet/master. Even our local paper sent a reporter to document this gathering...As the evening wound down, pressure, a serious calling out of many in attendance, was put on to come out and race (or throw a leg over a toptube and ride) the legends catagory in FC#21.

For me, twenty years of biking in the dirt and its still all about getting some exercise in the national forest. Enjoying a comradery like no other and feeling a HUGE sense of appreciation for each and every moment that this sport, "aahh dude, its more than just a sport, its a way of life," has brought.

Every day should end like this... THE LAKE on Friday evening.

1eo1 as you blaze the first single track. It is supriseingly sweet right now despite the lack of rain and a long summer of use.We are celebrating 20 years of Fall Classic Mtn Bike racing this Sunday with opening ceremonies taking place at La Montana this evening. Hopefully the legends (anyone who raced in 86') will turn out for a short spin followed by a few beers. I'm trying to get the stumpjumper to bear valley bikes for a new back brake cable so i can sport a rigid ride. To fully appreciate the magnitude of 2 decades of mtb racing check this out. WWW.mbaction.com
Captain of TrekVW mtb team, Mike Lee, is on his way up the hill to preride so i best get into my chammy and pump some tires.

There are people for whom urban reality would be a suffocating existance. I am one of them.

Twenty something years ago I packed the bags and simply skied away from life as i assumed it would play out. Slow rides in VW bus's, on long trips to far away mountains took the place of hectic early morning train rides to an office in a city. The next winter storm and snow levels and probability of precipitation mattered more than the dow jones or the latest interest rates.

Aproxximately 2700 days in ski boots and 5000 bike rides later I share my journey as i live my dream...in pursuit of endless singletrack or first chair on a blustery day.

Yesterdays, ride # 5001, was only a few hours long but it was any bit as good as the first. As the calender changed to October so too did our weather and trails at 7800 feet were tinged with bright autumn yellows and reds. Climbing Polique Canyon brought sweat to the brough but fast descending towards LittleBear Springs was chilly. Stu was in town with friends from road and track so the pace was easy. Those guys with quads the size of gorillas who only go left on banked surfaces struggled some, but kept the complaining to a minimum.