Desert Rampage bike race

Sunday I posted about a bike race we did in January. This post is about one in March.  After this I will be all caught up on bike trip documentation. My form of spring cleaning.

March 1 was Red Rock Desert Rampage bike race in Saint George, Utah.  Team tradition is to rent a huge house and fill it with teammates. Hang out, eat together, ride together, and, oh, yeah, do the race.  Well, at least for some.  Drew raced but I just went down to hang out and ride a lot.

Because of his work schedule, Drew drove up from Vegas.  I rode down with friend Monique.  The weather was not looking bike-friendly at Cedar City on the way down.

But went we arrived it was perfect, so we got out and rode Barrel Roll.

Crazy beautiful scenery.

Even crazier with the saturation bumped up.

Monique and Drew

The next day, Friday, there were more friends around and some wanted to pre-ride the race course so we all went out together.  Some of us split off to a different way out to Sidewinder, etc. We went up some parts of Cove Wash. 

Most of the part of Cove Wash we rode was through the Upper Triassic Shinarump Conglomerate, a coarse grained sandstone commonly stained by iron-manganese oxides and containing poorly preserved petrified wood, a piece of which Ellen found while scrambling.  This rock was deposited in braided steams around 200 million years ago, when dinosaurs were first wandering about.

Cool erosion and that iron staining.

Some parts were rideable; some were not.

After the wash section, we found lots of real single track.

Yum

On the way back, we dropped into the wash sooner than we should have and ended up walking a lot

Drew is fascinated by the rock.  Good husband.

We eventually got cliffed out to where we had to scramble up the steep sides of the canyon, not easy in bike cleats and dragging bikes, but a great adventure nonetheless!

The end of the trail for bikes.  Had to scramble out from here.

We made it back to the house just as the rain started again. 

Everybike was stuck inside for a while.

Saturday was race day.  More than half the 25 people at the flop house raced, including Drew.  Monique and I and some others chose to ride the City Creek trails, which were new to me and quite enjoyable. 

Back at the house, everyone rejoined to tell tails of racing and riding. Post race at the flop house is every kind of party.

No post race shower necessary: there is a hot tub! Is this what you would want your renters to be doing if you owned this house?

Always competitive, Erica, Sally and I held swimming races in the pool.  I lost horribly but that was the fun part.

More things you don't want to happen if you own a rental.

Unofficial team photo.  All but one of these people were staying at this house!

On Sunday the tradition of riding Jem-Goulds-Hurricane loop continued.  Monique and I tried to keep up with the fast kids but ended up not. 

That's fine by me. More time for fun photos.

Take a closer look at that funny sign.

Saint George has some excellent riding, especially in March!

6 Hours of Temecula

Since it is spring and I either want to be riding my bike or working in my yard but it is too cold and wet outside, I will reminisce about biking times past.  Here is a report on a trip we did to Temecula, California in January.

Seven Team Revolution Racers made the journey to Temecula to ride or race the 6 Hours of Temecula. Drew drove his car from Las Vegas.  I flew on stand-by to Orange County and Drew picked me up and we drove the last couple of hours.  Our teammates all drove the 12 hours from SLC.  That is how bad they wanted out of Utah winter. 

Temecula is in southern California. It was January. No coincidence.

Evidence of the severe drought.  Very dry trails and landscapes.

Pre ride fun-ness.

Sunshine and dirt beats air pollution and snow.

 

The Utah contingent hooks up with the director of the So Cal High School MTB League for dinner.

My goal in the 6 hour race was really just to ride as long as I could and not damage my out-of-shape getting-old body.  I started slow, like in the back, but passed people as I kept plugging along.  I felt really good until the end of lap 4, at which point I was tired, my back hurt, and I wanted a beer, but in the interest of my original goal, I didn't want to give up when there was still time for me to complete another lap before the 6 hour time cut, so I went out for a 5th.  I finished my race with 4 hours 58 minutes of racing.  The last lap had taken me more than 1:02 so I knew I couldn't get another in, which gave me time to take pictures of my teammates and, of course, have that beer.

Drew finishing 6 laps.

Bob finishing 7? laps

Doug, Drew, Karl and Sally. All done.

Part of the reason to travel to races is this:

Chilling out after the race with otherwise off-a-healthy-diet goodies and beer.

When Bob checked the results board, Drew and I were both flabbergasted that we were in the top 4 in our respective categories!

Drew on the podium in 2nd place in Clydesdale (200+ lbs)!!

Sally in 2nd and me in 4th out of 19 racers in the women 35+ age group.

 In addition to our medals, Drew also won some goodies in the raffle.

Drew with his winnings.

All in all, a fun race and a good time.

Covers for our air condensor units

In this post I told about how we installed a French drain and rebuilt the retaining wall on our side yard.  Here is a picture of last spring's work.

the side year in 2013

 This winter, Drew got busy and made some covers for those mini split (air conditioner) units you can see in the picture.  They needed covers because icicles could fall on them and replacement would be a big pain. Protect your investment.

Drew is quite handy!

Springtime in Moab

 

Drew had vacation in late April so we went down to do some work on the vacation condo in Moab. 

The weather was chilly and there was a lot of work to do, so we didn’t ride the first day. 

The next day Drew went out for a looooong road bike ride on the La Sal Mtn loop since I had forgotten to pick up his bike from the shop.

It was cold on top of the La Sals

Castle Valley is amazing

Meanwhile, I checked on a monitoring well installed by the Utah Geo Survey.  I helped design this well a few years ago and it was time to collect some data from it.

Details of the well can be found in this publication.  The well flows just a little bit, even though we have tried to seal it between checkups.

That quick check took longer than I thought so I barely had time to get out for a quick ride.

The dessert is especially pretty in bloom.

Happy Christmas

Going with the holiday theme here, I'm going to post a few pictures from Christmastime, even though it is seriously spring now.

It's my blog, I can do that.

The Christmas season started out kind of rough with a leaky washing machine that we had to run out on the porch for a day.

Red neck laundry room.

 There was enough snow to make the LDS Temple light display one of the best I have seen.  And Drew even got to see them as it was his birthday so I took him to dinner downtown.

The figures are white but they look even cooler surrounded by a blanket of snow.

Had some fun at the friend Christmas party with white elephant gifts.

Max had some fun with Christmas gift wrapping.

 And then it was time for a trip to frigid ND.

The rampers at the airport have a very tough job!

But it was only cold the day I arrived and then it warmed up enough that I could go outside in a regular coat and take this pictures around the farm.

But the main point of visiting relatives really is this:

Sister lazing on the couch.

Doing puzzles.

Visiting and relaxing.

Having a glass of wine while visiting and relaxing.

Talking to my other sister who was in Australia.

Relatives!

Aunt and mom

Sisters and mom

For Christmas dinner we went to sister Jane's

She has cute grandkids!

And cute neices

And costumed neices

and cold cows

Family times

Bro and niece. Love.

 After gaining at least 4 pounds due to fudge, I flew directly to Las Vegas to meet Drew and friends for some exercise!

 Now that Christmas is over, we can start spring!