On the road to Road 18...

Some strategic shift trades at my night job and Christine and I were off on an impromptu adventure.  I never get weekend nights off, but a co-worker wanted to trade some shifts around for a few months so I jumped on it.  Christine and I have been waiting for a good opportunity to check out the mountain biking in Fruita, Colorado.  Unfortunately, a few days prior to the trip I took a good bike wreck near Snowbasin and busted up my left thumb.  I was determined to recover in time.  I am a seasoned veteran on the injury recovery tactics at this point of my adventuring career.  I employed some rapid healing techniques I have mastered.  In three days time I was back in game shape enough to take the chance.  The shift trades, weather, opportunity, timely healing, and motivation all came together to grace us with this mini epic into the Fruita desert.

  

^Highway 6 out of Price, Utah is a vast expanse of desert views and gas station frappuccinos.  We were running late getting out of town.  Christine and I both realized some last minute business to attend to while on our way out of the area.  We are both adjusting to mobile work life balances that have recently evolved for us.  Now we are becoming very transient and trying to hone in an ability to work from anywhere at anytime.  

^Road 18 in Fruita was the destination.  We had never been there.  Exploration was the name of the game.  We had no expectations, only good reviews from our friends Mike Gambee and Jeff Reda.  The BLM campground is way out there, and not super obvious.  We drove for miles on a dirt road that felt miles from town to begin with.  What we found was a mini Mecca of mountain bike trails and camping spots.  The area uniquely brings both of those worlds together.  

^The campground is right next to the trailhead.  It has legit sites with tables, fire pits, and scattered open pit bathrooms.  No running water, but welcome to the desert.  We settled for a stir fry dinner, and Pabst Blue Ribbon.  Then we called it a night.  We didn't have much time so we wanted to get an early start.

^Morning brought us to the standard car-camp breakfast and roll back up scenario.  We got it all together pretty quickly.  Christine and I are getting good at these road warrior skills together.   

^Then we were off.  As I said, the camping is right near the Road 18 trailhead so we were on trail in no time.  If we had longer to stay I would love the base camp ability of the area.  It is a really nice system of trails all throughout.  The campsites are right at the bottom in the middle of the whole system.  You could set up a base camp to ride in and out of there for days on end without repeating the same rides.  

^Oh, and it is gorgeous too.

^It was all buffed out dirt that undulated throughout the desert terrain.  It was up and down throughout the climb.  Here is Christine soldiering up on one such climb.  This one is an especially steep set of switchbacks.  You can barely see her nearing the top of the last push.  I was cheering for her from across the canyon.  My wife is downright nasty strong.  She climbed it better then me.    

^We rode a loop that brought us down a sweet ripper single track called Zippity Do Da.  It rolled along desert spines and into tight wash canyons all the way down.  The trail had great flow, and kept that flow going from top to bottom.

^Spine climber.

^Right at the end of the ride my chain started skipping.  When we rolled up to the Jeep, I discovered why.  Thank goodness it didn't pop on me out there in that big dry desert.  That would have ruined my day.  Probably would have made it a bit longer too.  Lucky.

^We had to rally out of there right away because we only had a little bit of time to explore.  We kind of snuck it in to begin with so we weren't too upset that it had to be such a short trip.  We were both stoked with what we had seen.  I wrapped some ice on my sore thumb, and we hit the road.  As we drove out of town we declared our intent to return.  We are looking forward to digging deeper into what Fruita has to offer.

^We drove highway 191 and 40 back to pick up our dog in Wanship.  The Ashley National Forrest is really scenic and remote.  A few ranches and oil rigs littered the desolate roadway, but not much else.

^Just outside of Heber City in the Uinta National Forrest I scouted some huge aspen groves that I want to try to come back to this winter.  I absolutely love skiing in aspens.  It is like the enchanted forrest inside of an aspen grove.  This spot was popping mellow slopes of aspen groves up all over the place.  It is pretty high in elevation and there where short mellow glades everywhere I looked. 

^Aspen glades everywhere.  I am looking forward to doing some more due diligence on this area as well as the biking in Fruita.  Sometimes you just need to get out on the journey and good things will line up out in front of you like the white lines of the open road.  Onward.

rockin-n-rollin, rocking, and rolling...

Busy, busy, busy is the name of the game right now.  Things are going hot and heavy at Telemark Skier as we roll out our first digital issue to the world, release the new movie, start the fall movie tour, and open the doors to the new shop in Salt Lake City.  The momentum is exciting.  We are all just going for it, and holding on for the ride.  I am also working nights at Delta, remodeling home spaces, and trying to spend a few minutes with my lovely wife.  

  

^I put together a little overnight trip to Boise, Idaho to see "Trampled By Turtles".  These guys are progressive bluegrass rippers, and I had a blast.  My wife and I flew up there with some friends of ours from the airline.  It is a nice perk.  It was also super quick, and I didn't really miss a beat with my obligations.  It was a good moment of relief from the onslaught of work I was amidst.  Between the crazy momentum at Telemark Skier, and all the various other deadlines of my hustler lifestyle, I was swamped.  One such deadline was a fireplace remodel for a friend of mine that I work with at Delta.  The job turned out great, and he was so happy with the work that he over paid on the bill with many thanks. 

^Before...

^...and after.  

^Once I finished up the fireplace, I immediately cruised up north to ride my mountain bike in my beloved Ogden.  I have been working so much that I hadn't ridden in a while.  I was pleasantly surprised to see fall starting to show itself up in the higher elevations.  I was feeling good on a rock amongst the colors with a sense of accomplishment of a remodel job well done, and things going well at Telemark Skier.  We have been working very hard, and it is exciting to see it all coming together for us.  On that note, I will settle down like this photo below of the setting sun.  I've got to try to get some moments of rest to keep my head right because their is so much more work to come with the next sunrise.

24-hour crushing push...

It is a very busy time of year for me, and I struggle to keep a place for getting out under the big blue sky to keep my priorities in perspective. Slow is smooth, smooth is efficient, and efficient is fast.  Making time to get out into the great wide open spaces keeps the balance that makes all aspects of my world thrive.  It all feeds itself.  In a busy schedule sometimes you need to be creative to make the time.  My pro ski career and vast adventures also require that I am in top physical condition, which doesn't happen without putting in the time.  That means finding that time to put in as well.   My latest push included some gritty creativity.  I had a lot of work to do in the morning on this particular day.  However, I had scheduled a rendezvous with Willard Bay in the northern Wasatch at three o'clock in the afternoon so I had to get everything done on time.  I was all over the show in south Salt Lake City, but managed to wrap everything up down there in time to sprint north to make it to Willard by three o'clock.  Once I arrived, my good friends, Ben Geiger and Rob Harris were right behind me, and it had begun.  We were about to make a 24-hour push that would leave me torn up from head to toe.    

^After making it to Willard right on time, we were in business.  Ben Geiger is in the water, and ready for his first roll in the wake of his big retro beauty, Brown Sugar.  The large old boat sits deep in the water and throws up a rather nice wave at roughly eight miles per hour.  It is a slow deep wake that rises up out of the lake to give just enough push to surf the wave.  

^Ben is making a little cutback in this photo.  Wakesurfing is a surprisingly incredible workout in balance and smooth dynamics.  Ben makes it look easy, but I can assure you it harder then it appears.  It also works me out in a big way.  Check out this video I shot from my iPhone of just how easy he makes it look.  Looks like a lot of fun too, doesn't it.  It is.

^We put the wraps on the surfing session near sunset.  After a drink on Ben's front porch I was back home in bed with my wife by eleven o'clock at night.  I flopped all around trying to force myself to sleep because I had an early rise the next morning to complete the 24-hour circuit.  The same crew had a seven-thirty rendezvous at Rob's house near North Fork Park.  We were going to finish off our weary bodies with a mountain bike rip through the park.  

^While slightly behind schedule, and a lot more sore from the surfing then I thought I would be, I made it up to North Fork.  The good thing about the northern Wasatch is that there is no one else around so it doesn't matter what time you start.  We met up at Rob's house and finished our coffee in the morning with Rob and his lovely wife and family.  He has a gorgeous home nestled in the woods overlooking the park.  We parked at his house, and rode out into the great wide open of North Fork Park.  

^We all did get some sleep in between, but it certainly did not feel that way.  The climbs were steep, and we were putting the last of ourselves into it.  We had a pretty grand ride ahead, and we were determined to finish strong.  

^The shady loops at elevation helped keep the temperatures down.  That was a blessing.  We were all digging deep to find the strength to push through.  Our final loop is a rigorous trail that our friend, Paul Wright, had built in the park a few years back.  It is a smooth and steep ascent that flows up the hillside very well.  Each one of us were laboring through the steep climb, but none of us were willing to get off the saddle and have to report to Paul that we had to jump out of our pedals on his trail.    

^We sent this photo to Paul to thank him for the great trail, and probably prove to ourselves the milestone we had put ourselves through as well.  The downhill was the icing on the cake.  We rallied back down through the park.  The downhill had great flow and smooth transitions throughout the finish.  Which was nice because I did not have much left in me to be able to rattle through anything loose and rocky.  I was starting to loose my legs.  The forested terrain offered smooth buffed out ground to wrap up the ride.  I have to train hard to make it through all the wild adventures I encounter, and this 24-hour push was no exception.  The natural spaces are inspirational, and the laboring efforts are the training I need to keep on top of my game.  It was quite the adventure of it's own when I put the whole event all together.  It makes it all more fun when the training becomes an adventure all of it's own.  A cold beer at Rob's house at about three o'clock completed the 24-hour crush session in proper fashion.  I'd like to thank Rob's wife for sacrificing her last three beers in the fridge for us.  They were a delicious way to put my body to rest because it was officially toast.  Rest and stretching were all that would be on my training schedule for the next couple days.  With the timing of the session though I did not really miss a beat in all of my other work.  Also the nature of the push replicates my wild winter life at times rather well.  Sometimes I have to push through long periods of time with little sleep or rest.  I often find myself traveling through the night and pushing a sunrise shoot or rushing around for some sort of nature induced session of trying to get it done while the conditions are lining up.  I love every minute of it, and ripping out an epic  like this with Ben and Rob is all part of it.  I've got to be able to perform, even when I've got nothing left.    

Northerly sprint... part three... Bozeman and a buddy...

Christine and I headed out of the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park through to quant little town called Gardiner, Montana.  My old friend, Spencer Porter, was meeting us at the local grocery store.  We spotted him from the road.  He was tooling around behind his truck in his trailered drift boat.  We were to float down a section of the Yellowstone River for the afternoon.  We were stoked to see him, and to get to experience a bit of his backyard.  In Montana, the backyard is vast. 

^Porter slings a fly rod on the Yellowstone River.  Nice day, nice cast, good company all the way around.  Porter is the best fisherman I have ever seen.  I was stoked for Christine to get to see a great fly fisherman doing his thing while inside of his element.  I can try to explain it, but it does no justice to getting to see someone who is great at it in person.      

^A nest, and our local buddy.

^Christine took a go at it.  I think she's a natural.

^An awesome day on the river, and we were tired out.  Porter's dog, Jaya, expressed my sentiments exactly.  Some grub on the town with Porter, and we called it in pretty early.  It was a great day.

^The next morning, Porter had a group to guide down the river, and we had a trail near Big Sky Resort to find.  We wanted to check out the area, and then find a good trail to ride in the afternoon.  The fellas down at Gallatin Alpine Sports were a huge help.  They gladly sold me some guide maps, and gave me a really great run down of everything the area had to offer.  I was so stoked by their welcoming nature and fantastic advice.  That is customer service, old school style, like when people used to help each other out.  It is not dead, at least not at G.A.S.  In the photo above, Christine is laboring up the North Ridge Road trail.  

^The wildflowers were in full bloom in the damp terrain.  The trail climbed a ridge, and then dropped down steeply into the canyon.  The down was loaded with steep switchbacks and breakouts into vast meadows littered with wildflowers.

^Sickness.

^See... vast, scenic, steep, beautiful, and breath taking.

^The damp canyon bottom was a rocky and rolling ride along the trickling creek.  We crossed over it a few different times, which offered good chances to take a break to enjoy the calm waters of the cold creek.

^Then jump back on and rip.  

^Christine is crossing the creek one last time near the out of the trail.  We rolled out to the trailhead, and quickly packed up our gear to rush back to Bozeman.  We were meeting Porter for dinner, and also packing up the rig to hit the road at three o'clock in the morning that night.  Dinner was a good send off along with the public shooting in downtown Bozeman during our after dinner drinks.  It was surely the talk of the small city for a while I am sure.  The streets were buzzing on our walk back to Porter's place.  After the excitement of a regular wild west scene settled down we said good night and good-bye to Porter.  We caught a few hours sleep, and then hit the road dark and early.  

^I pulled a road warrior shift and we made it back to Utah in great time.  Christine did a lot of this on the way, but I was happy to see it.  I took her out on a pretty ambitious journey, and she handled it like a soldier.  I am really proud of her for ripping like a dude, and spending a whole week camping and couch surfing.  She definitely got a taste of what it is like to be an adventurer on the move.  My life is a crazy one.  I am pleased to have found a women who can not only keep up, but truly love the experiences.  Amazing things happen when you put yourself out there in wild places and opportunities.  We had an epic trip in some of the most beautiful natural terrain on the planet.  We are building a life together that embraces the best of what each of us has to offer.  I was stoked to take Christine on the kind of adventure that I have built my life around.  I think she enjoyed herself, and experienced some things she might never have imagined she ever would have.  I am so blessed in so many ways.