Moab - Porcupine 10/21

Sunday we decided to shuttle porcupine again since it had been so much fun the last time we were here. Unfortunately we didn't get the early shuttle and would pay for that on the drive home. We also forgot to bring the camera so no photos at all for this one.

But as usual the riding was awesome, we got off at LPS even though the shuttle was going up to Kokepelli. This was because there was already snow everywhere at the LPS drop and it was cold there. The riding was still great and the snow had very little effect and would have been gone by the afternoon.

The sad part of the weekend was the drive home. Once we got to Vail pass the roads were crap and they actually closed Vail Pass for a while due to the number of accidents. Eisenhower was even worse with cars and suv's stuck sitting unable to get any traction at all in the snow.

Moab - Amasa Back 10/20

We headed back to Moab this week.

But I was out of town in Chicago for work for the last part of the week leading into the weekend and didn't land back in Denver until Friday night. We were still super motivated to head to Moab again so we got up early Saturday morning and drove to Moab. The original plan was just to drive to Fruita and ride there but as we often do once we were that close we just kept driving and ended up in Moab instead.

Saturday afternoon we headed over to Amasa back as it looked like there was weather coming in and Amasa is very forgiving in that you can just turn around whenever you want. We also had a pretty slow start as I had sent my Mojo for a full strip down to the frame overall and at the same time pulled the Coil shock of the frame to send it to Push for their factory system upgrade.

I also needed to put back on my maveric speedball seatpost after taking it of the bike for the prior weekend so that I could drop the seat as low as possible for the training camp.

I had a few kinks to work out as the RP23 I put back on hadn't been ridden in over 9months and boy did it feel different. The entry to amasa just felt terrible - it turns out it was because I hadn't checked the rebound on the shock and it was in super slow rebound for some reason and the shock packed up near instantly in that rocky starting area. Once I tuned it properly it felt like I remembered and all was good.


The ride up amasa felt the best I can ever remember I cleaned everything except the rocky section out of the creek and I felt strong and energetic - Amber didn't as she had a cold.


As usual the views on Amasa were very nice, particularly with the storm front coming in.


Amber working on a steeper section near the two step up play sections.


Near the top of the climb. You can see the clouds moving in. It was really starting to coming in a noticeable temperature drop encouraged us to turn around at the top of the climb.


But we headed up a small side jeep road to get the views on top of the ridge.


Getting photos on the way down amasa is never easy as you don't want to stop. This is Amber as we are heading back down from the top of the climb.


Storm clouds add nice colors to the desert.




Just as we got back to the car the temperature really dropped and the winds started. It was a windy night but both Amber and I slept well since we were both so tired. (her from being sick and me from traveling the week prior).

Learning to Mountain Bike. Nathrop 10/13-14

So this weekend was something completely different. I have been very interested in getting some coaching and it so happens that the guy that wrote the book Mountain Biking Skills happens to live in Boulder and was having a training camp on the weekend of 10/13, 10/14.

The book is simply a must read for anyone who loves mountain biking and that wants to improve their skills but I wasn't sure what it would be like to get coaching on riding a bike so had never looked seriously into it.

But this weekend Amber had work commitments so we couldn't go out of town so I signed up for the camp. It seemed a bargain to get 2 days of coaching for only $200.

So when you go to a tennis coach they tend to tear you down and show you how terrible your basics are. Well with Lee it was a little bit like that except that with the tennis example a new grip just doesn't feel right for quite a while after. With the stuff Lee was showing us it just felt right and more importantly it felt better immediately!

We were taken through the basics from how to "ride" on the bike, to braking, to cornering, to pumping and even to dirt jumping.

Simply the best $200 I have ever spent in mountain biking and I will certainly be spending more time with Lee in the new year as he has a great coaching program where a few people can share the costs.


Here is Lee part way through a rhythm section showing us how to pump both sides of the bump. It was great being shown something, trying it and then getting instant feedback on how to improve or even get shown again in a more exaggerated manner if it seemed hard to really feel what he was teaching us.


The other cool thing about the camp was the mixture of skill levels of the participants and even with that everyone was getting stuff out of the coaching and you could see improvement in everyone.


One of the fun challenges on the first day for the more experienced guys was to try and just pump the rhythm section here into a table and to clear the table without any peddle strokes for extra speed.

The end of the first day left me really sore and tired as it felt like I was learning to ride all over again and was using muscles that I have never used riding before. But the day was really great and the number of new things I got to learn still amazes me as I think back.


Saturday night I decided that sleeping on the summit of a nearby (easily accessible) peak might be fun. So I drove up to Cottonwood pass which is just over 12,000' and hiked up a hill on the south side of the road. The views from the top were incredible but it was to dark to take any photos. This is a shot from the parking lot.


There was snow predicted over night so it was not a surprise when I woke up to a couple of inches of the white stuff all around me. I camped in a rock shelter on the summit with my Bivy Sack and sleeping bag and slept really well except for when I had to get up during the night to pee - it was really cold out of my bed.


Walking back down the slope the next morning was not as easy as the night before as there was enough snow around to make things sketchy but not enough to actually be able to kick steps.


Looking back up the mountain. This was at about 8.00am Sunday morning.


The road actually was pretty crappy to drive back down as the surface was unplowed and untreated. Add the fact that the tires on our FJ Cruiser were pretty worn since they had 30K miles on them and you have a potential recipe for disaster. I actually went into a full skid on one of the corners and banged into a guard rail. Luckily there was no oncoming traffic and the bumper of the vehicle took the impact. Could have been a lot worse and we have since put new tires on the FJ.


Sunday didn't look as promising as it was raining instead of snow, but ever the motivating coach Lee got all our slow moving asses into action and Day 2 was even more fun than Day 1.


We spent a lot of time on cornering and turning and it was another one of those "how have I not known this before" skills sessions. So much of what Lee taught us was stuff that you look at and think that riding any other way just seems so much harder.


Here is a short video of the rhythm section into the tabletop on Day 1.

Overall it was a great weekend, the people were fun to ride with and Lee's coaching is simply world class. If you are thinking about racing or you are racing and haven't spent time with Lee I can only recommend that you give it serious consideration - it will be money well spent.