MOAB

     While I was at MOAB Bikes picking up Shannon's new bike, I also grabbed some new gear. It started with a new pair of road shoes and ended with a kit. I needed a new set of race shoes and Jeremy Chambers hooked me up with a great deal on a pair of Specialized Torch 3.0s, in black of course. Jeremy actually talked me out of the S-Works as it is more shoe than I really need. That's what I like about Jeremy. He steers me toward what I really need, not toward which one he needs to sell. I trust him as he has never once looked at anything other than what is best for what I will do with whatever I'm buying.

     After him hooking me up yet again, I felt like I should be in a MOAB kit. I was sponsored by MOAB when I raced for the SyMed/MOAB team back in 2003 and 2004. I loved racing for Mark Dement who runs the whole MOAB operation. Back then he had one shop in Murfreesboro. While Murfreesboro is still the main shop, they now have another one in Franklin. Jeremy runs the show down there. He's been a good friend of mine since he moved here to Tennessee and we raced together in Pro. Dude has hooked me up in a major way over the past two years. With my sweet S-Works Epic last year in addition to lots of discounts on parts and labor. They are very busy and getting something fixed typically requires dropping it off, but they always take core of mine while I wait if possible. They know I drive a long way to get to their shop and so they go out of their way to make sure I don't have to make that drive again in a few days. Jeremy has also given deals to my family. My Dad, Mom and sister have all bought mountain bikes from him since I bought my Epic. Now he has helped my wife. I feel like I am sponsored, but it has never been official. I told him I wanted to buy a jersey to support the shop. He handed me a jersey AND a pair of bibs for free. It is a high-quality Pearl Izumi kit so I know it wasn't cheap, but he said he will get his money back by having me racing in the kit. So we are making it official. I'm now sponsored by and fully supporting MOAB Bikes out of Franklin, TN. If you are in middle Tennessee and you're not going to MOAB, give them a try. You won't regret it. Jeremy is awesome and so are the rest of the staff. Not to mention they have one of the best bike mechanics this world has ever seen in Rick Harmon. There's nobody I trust more to build my wheels. I thank Mark a lot for this opportunity as well, as I know he approved all the discounts we have gotten on bikes. He has actually hinted at getting me back on the shop team for several years and we just never really put it together until now.

http://moabbikes.com/

     My first race in the new kit was at the Lock 4 Six Hour Challenge in Gallatin, TN at Lock 4 Park. This is a race I have done several times. I tend to have more bad races than good ones here, but I did manage to finally win my class last year. I was leading the overall solo group before a flat and another mechanical issue put me back in the pack. This year I wanted to go for the overall and be top solo rider on the day.

     We had a really nice day for the race. It was warm, but not hot and the trail was dry and fast. I was alone at the race so I had to set up multiple feed poles for bottles and a table with a spread of food for later in the race when I might need something special to bring me back to life. Like last year, I had a box of Little Debbie snacks just in case I needed some hardcore sugar.

     The start was a loop on wet grass from the morning dew before we hit the singletrack for a 9.75-mile lap of the Lock 4 woods. We started from the main parking lot in the model airplane field. The start was insane as about three pedal strokes into the race Scott Marx's frame broke in multiple places. I have never seen anything like it. His brand new Ellsworth frame failed in a big way and he somehow kept it upright. He was on my left and thankfully he got a better jump off the line than me and didn't take me out trying to save it.

Scott's bike after his start incident. Hope that's under warranty!

Can't remember where this photo came from. Sorry! Thanks to whoever took it.

     I got into the woods near the front and was the first solo rider in the group. The teams immediately began battling and I just rode wheels trying to keep pace with them. My strategy was to go with them for as long as I could, then just try to hold onto the lead. I needed to make seven laps, but would have loved to do eight. You have to be fast for six full hours to do eight laps. Only laps completed by the six hour mark count in this race. 

     I got hooked up with the Joe Grubbs vs. Jeff Kauppi battle up front and just hung with them the first lap. Scott was on a duo team with Craig Evans. Luckily, Craig was ready to ride when Scott's bike blew up and he was able to jump in at the back of the pack. He went through the entire group on lap 1 and was up with our lead group as we completed the first lap.

    The teams made their swaps and I had three new people to ride with. Scott borrowed a bike from someone and was able to take over from Craig. Joe's teammate was James Buckingham, while Jeff traded off with R.L. Hesson. Scott's pace split the group. I was the only one able to hold his wheel for lap 2 and we came in about 45 second ahead of Buckingham. The second place solo rider at this point was 3:23 behind us. Our lap time was the same as lap 1 to the second.

     Craig picked me back up on lap 3 and we just rode together setting a steady tempo. Craig has won this race before and new exactly my tactic and how I needed to pace myself. He and Scott were the perfect pair for me to work with.  I felt good on lap 3, but we dropped about a minute on our lap time. We lost five seconds to Joe and 27 seconds to Jeff, but were still out of sight and cruising. I had no idea where the next solo rider was, but I was expecting it to be Chris Cooper and I was always watching out for him. What I didn't know is that he was doing the three-hour race and not the six. I was running from a ghost the second half of the race.

     I started to feel the effort on lap 4, but we were still smooth and fast. My bum finger was also starting to ache. It ached the rest of the day, but never got any worse. Scott's pace was still good on this lap and we continued to stay ahead of everyone else. I let a little gap go when I stopped for food and fresh bottles at the end of the lap. I got back across the Craig as he was waiting for me and we set out on another lap together. I was good until we hit the peninsula road and then I began to fade. He was still waiting on me for a several minutes before I realized I wasn't getting back to his wheel. He finally realized it too and went back to his normal pace. I started to bonk despite eating like I had planned so far. It  just wasn't enough calories going in the pipe at this pace. I ate enough to get to the end of the lap when I stopped for a root beer and some Little Debbie goodies. It was desperation time for sure as that intake shows. I dropped over five and half minutes on that lap time as compared to lap 4. I still had no idea where the next solo rider was, but after looking at the lap times, everyone faded and I actually extended my lead even more.

     The Duo teams passed me by on lap 6 as I still felt bad and faded more, dropping another two minutes on my lap time. This time I did lose time to second place, as Dustin Wright cut 2:15 off my lead. I also saw someone cut the course on this lap. At first I thought it was someone ahead of me having an issue and had pulled off the trail into the leaves, but then I realized that person had been behind me a mile before and was actually cutting off a loop. They knew they were busted when I came by and they dropped way back, probably giving up the little bit of time gained for the shortcut. I won't say who it was, but I will call you out on it if I ever see it happen again. Cutting the course is CHEATING and pretty low down in my opinion. If you have to cheat to place better in a local mountain bike race, you have some serious issues. And you are a loser.

     I started to feel better the last mile of lap 6 and was ready to go on lap 7. The bonk was over and I gradually got faster over the course of what would be my final lap. I picked that two minutes back up on my lap time, but still lost time to Wright behind me, who cut off another 1:50. He was closing, but I had a good lead and was still able to win the Solo Open class by 4:59 and finally be the top overall solo rider at this race! This may have been the first time I have ever made it through this race without some type of problem during the race. Thanks go out to Scott and Craig for helping me all day. I couldn't have done it without their help. They won the Duo Class and were the top riders overall, the only ones to complete eight laps today.

Solo Open Men's podium

Thanks Scott Marx for getting the pic for me on my phone.

     Halloween was just after Lock 4. The Halloween season was just fun this year. The local ice cream joint, Golly G's, had Reaper Ice Cream for the week of Halloween. It had a bit of Carolina Reaper pepper in it which caught my attention. And it was black which was just awesome! Shannon's clinic dressed up for their work day. They were the characters in Charlie Brown with Shannon dressing as Lucy.

Even the spiders were festive. We found this orange guy outside.

Reaper ice cream from Golly G's

Shannon's work crew as the characters of Charlie Brown

     Halloween night was great. We had plenty of decorations this year. We are finally getting into the swing of actually having our own place that we can decorate. We went out and bought a few things this year and had a few things given to us. Dina bought us a giant flying skeleton with glowing red eyes. I built a bleeding candle skull. The candle is red inside and when it melts it appears like blood running down onto the skull base. Creepy, but cool! Our new additions didn't scare away the kids. After being ready to hand out candy for the past six years and not having a single trick-or-treater, we finally had our first ones this year! While I prefer the traditional Halloween costumes that have at least a little scary theme to them, like zombies, mummies and the classic werewolf, I'll give the cat and the panda a pass. They were, after all, two little girls and they were our first ever trick-or-treaters ever so I won't complain. Our neighbor also brought her two kids over to bring our total up to four for the night.

Our house actually had a few decorations this year.

The flying skeleton Dina got me.

The bleeding candle in action.

Glowing skeleton vase.

Shannon's carved pumpkin

Skeledog Snoop was on hand to supervise the candy distribution.

Our first ever trick-or-treaters!

Grady and Charli Beth from up the street.

photo by Belinda Knight

     After handing out our little bit of candy, we started a fire and roasted some 'dogs. We stayed out next to the fire until we almost fell asleep before calling it a night. The only thing that would have made the night better was a midnight ride through the woods on the mountain bike.

I loved this picture of everyone roasting their hotdogs.

      I did forget to check on my candle as it burned down. I thought it would have enough space to melt through the hole in the skull, but it didn't. It melted the whole skull and all that was left was a little puddle of plastic on top of the wooden base.

No more skull candle. Maybe I'll try that again next year.

     October ended with great weather and I was out to enjoy it as much as possible. I was up early a lot of mornings to enjoy the sunrise and to pick peppers. We picked a lot this year. My biggest buyer makes his own rub with our peppers and I managed to get my hands on two of his newest mixes. Uncle Paul's Pepper Powder is made with peppers we grow. It's cool to see products that we helped to create. If you want to give some of the rub a try, let me know and I can get you in touch with Uncle Paul himself. The farm continues to do unbelievably well and we feel very blessed that our small business is starting to look more like a business.

Sunrise over a field of soybeans near our house

What our peppers become: Uncle Paul's Pepper Powder. 

     I'll talk about November and cross season in the next post as we add a new steed to the stable. Thanks for reading!

Well Deserved

     Getting through all the posts from our trip out west is a relief! I know I am still six months behind on my posts, but I actually feel like catching up is possible now. Next up is the fall mountain bike season and a little bit of cyclocross to usher in what was a tough winter in more ways than one.

     My first race back after our trip was at Land Between the Lakes at Race to the Canal. This is always one of my favorite races. I really like the point-to-point course and the longer distance. I had not been able to ride, but once since we came back from our trip, so I didn't know what kind of legs I would have on race day. I had spent most of my week picking peppers and catching up on the garden from our time away. Some of the reason for time off the bike was that my finger was still aching. It hadn't hurt a lot, but it was still swollen and sore. I was a little worried about if my finger could take 34 miles of mountain biking right now. The day before the race I was able to get in a little over an hour and only had some slight aching, so I figured it would likely be able to stand the race. i never did go to the doctor and have it looked at . I don't think there was much they could do for it and I really didn't want to go in just to get an x-ray that I would have had to pay for.

     Like last year at Race to the Canal, registration was slow and everybody got to their start points late. The start was delayed for nearly 20 minutes before we finally got underway. Rain was threatening and the dark clouds loomed as we sat on the start line. It looked like we were riding into sure rain.

    I didn't feel great in my warm-up and didn't want to lead everyone like last year, so I took it easy on the start and went into the woods in sixth out of seven starters for the Pro/Cat. 1 Open class. We started off fast and things began to split up on the first climb. I was not ready for the effort of that first climb and let the group go for a few miles. I just rode smoothly and caught up in the corners and on the descents. Zach Wilkins fell out with a flat, moving me up to fifth. Then Bobby Jones fell off the pace and I moved into fourth.

Jaron Wood with the Pro/Cat. 1 Open holeshot.

Me hitting the trail in sixth.

Kevin Bohanon and Gib Morehead were the only two riders in Cat. 1 40+. Gib was having a good time.

Cat. 1/2/3 Open Class

     Once I got back to the front group, I sat on the back just trying to save myself for later in the race. My legs seemed to be getting better by the time we got to Sugar Bay about 14 miles into the race. This is where the North-South Trail is closed and the race has to detour around the closed portion with a long gravel and dirt road section. You definitely want to be on a wheel here as you can gain a lot from the draft. There is a big climb just after you start the gravel road portion. It is so steep that they paved it so trucks hauling boats and campers can climb up it. Grant Wilson put in a few small attacks on the climbs, but couldn't get a gap. Our front group of four were still together at the Feed Zone as we turned from the gravel road onto the dirt road. The group was Grant, Jaron Wood, Dustin Burkeen and myself.

Me leading at the Feed Zone.

     Burkeen came to the front on the next long climb along this dirt road. It put us all on notice that he meant business. I struggled to hang on the back. It seemed like my legs were now going away instead of getting better. It hurt me to stay with them until we reached the singletrack and I got a break on the next descent. The trail then gradually climbs up to Duncan Bay. Burkeen kept the pace high and I fell off the back, losing about 10 seconds by the Duncan Bay gravel road crossing with 18 miles to go.

     I lost sight of the leaders for a while, then saw Jaron ahead. He had been dropped by Burkeen and Grant too. I worked hard to pull him back, but he got out of sight again just before the Birmingham Ferry road crossing where we took another feed. My finger started to hurt about an hour into the race, but after 30 minutes the aching stopped and it was fine the rest of the day.

Grant now leading Burkeen at Birmingham Ferry.

Grant had his game face on today.

Jaron chasing in third.

Me in fourth at Birmingham Ferry.

     I pushed hard to Pisgah Bay, but didn't make up any time at all on any of the three ahead. I didn't feel that tired, just lacking in the speed department. I still kept pushing to try to catch Jaron, but I was losing time. Grant ended up leading into a sprint finish with Burkeen and held him off for the win. Jaron held on for third over five minutes back, while I was 11:06 back by the finish in fourth. Grant and Dustin were really rolling at the end! Other than a few sprinkles in the closing miles, the rain held off for the whole race.

     The week after Race to the Canal, I was doing my riding on the mountain bike early in the mornings and then boxing up peppers in the afternoons. Our super hot Ghost and Trinidad Scorpion peppers were finally ready to be picked and boxed up. We sold them all quickly and continue to grow our little farm business. We are also steadily selling all kinds of veggies from our roadside stand. Things have been going well at the farm lately.

Morning trail time by the pond.

Refelections

Carrots did ok this year considering how hard our dirt is.

Trays of Habaneros for the stand.

Trinidad Scorpion peppers

Ripe red Ghosts and Scorpions

Boxes of peppers ready to be delivered

Can't believe we can grow this many peppers, let alone sell them all.

     I have been wanting to get Shannon a nice bike for a long time now. She doesn't have her own bike. She rides on my old road bike and my Dad's old mountain bike. It took a long time to find the right bike for her, but the new Specialized Women's Epic finally looked to be the one. We tried to get one before our trip out west as they were scheduled to be available in September. But the release date kept getting pushed back so they still weren't available when we left. Jeremy Chambers from MOAB Bikes called me while we were hiking up Mount Olympus and said they were now available for order. So we ordered her a mint green and black Epic Comp Carbon and it finally came in this week. They built it up for her and we were able to go pick it up. She loved the color and was pretty happy to finally have her own bike. She more than deserves it. We even got home from the shop in time to take it for a test run on our backyard trail that same day. Thanks Jeremy for again taking care of my family and helping us to ride awesome bikes! The bike features a full carbon frame, the new Rockshox Brain rear shock and Reba RL fork with 100mm of travel. The drivetrain is SRAM GX 11-speed with a single-ring up front mounted on a Race Face crank and a 10-42 cassette. The wheels are Roval Control 29 alloy rims with Specialized hubs and DT Swiss spokes. Specialized aluminum bars, stem and seatpost round out the cockpit and SRAM Level TL hydraulic disc brakes provide the stopping power. It's a nicely spec'd bike for the money.

Shannon with her new bike just after leaving MOAB Bikes.

Fist ride on it at home.

     Next race on the calendar was the Lock 4 Six Hour Challenge. More on that in the next post as I got a bit of a surprise before the race.

House on Fire

     Our original plan for our final morning in Utah was to head north toward Moab with a stop on the way at Newspaper Rock. I was hoping to squeeze in a ride at Moab before we hopped on I-70 and headed east through Colorado. The weather forecast showed a winter storm arriving in the Denver area around 7-8 pm. We needed to be through there by then. I decided to forego the Moab ride in hopes of finally finding South Mule Canyon. We struck out the day before, but there was still time to get back there and actually doing it in the morning would be better. The main ruin on the trail is known as "House on Fire." The rocks above the dwelling are full of ridges. When lit up by the morning sun, the ridges appear orange and look like flames coming out of the house. It sounded awesome!

     During our search for the exact trailhead location, we came across a few other features located very near us in Blanding. We stopped by both on the way out of town. First up was the Nations Natural Bridge, a small rock bridge extending across the edge of a wash. Very nearby were the Blanding Ruins.

Nations Natural Bridge. You have to look hard to see the gap on the backside of this rock bridge.

Blanding Ruins tucked into the rock wall

Moon above the ruins

     After our quick stop, we were back over to Hwy 95 and right back out to Mule Canyon. Some hiking notes we discovered through our internet searches said to go farther down one of the dirt roads we looked at yesterday. It said it was just 0.2 miles to the trailhead, but yet again we didn't see it. I drove almost two miles down the dirt road and as usual for southern Utah, the dirt road deteriorated quickly. We again traversed some things that pushed the limits of a Chevy Impala before we turned around and navigated them again on our way back out. There were other people looking for the trailhead too and we noticed one of them had parked along the edge of the road in a small bottom. The road was wider here so I pulled over thinking maybe it was wider for parking. Then we saw a signpost in what I thought was the ditch. Sure enough, there was the trailhead. If you ever want to do this hike, start your directions from the Mule Canyon Ruins. Drive east on Hwy 95 from those ruins and turn left on the first dirt road. Go to the bottom of the first downhill and park where the road is slightly wider. The trail goes in on the left. You can barely see the marker even if you know where it is. It is now labeled in the accurate location on Google Maps, but is titled "Mule Canyon Trailhead" rather than "South Mule Canyon Trailhead." The Mule Canyon Ruins and South Mule Canyon Trailhead seemed to be confusing to most internet maps so just be aware if visiting.

Heading up South Mule Canyon

Old benchmark near the trailhead.

     We made it to the first ruin after 1.3 miles of hiking. The first one was the best one, the House on Fire. It was still a little shady when we arrived, but we stayed long enough for the morning sun to get into the canyon and light up the rocks. There was another couple there when we first arrived, but they left after a few minutes and we had the ruin to ourselves to take photos as the orange color came upon the rocks. It was definitely the best ruin I have ever seen and a highlight of the trip for sure.

Coming up to the House on Fire ruin

Shannon grabbing pictures

House on Fire when the morning sun lights it up.

     We continued hiking for another mile, looking for other ruins that were supposed to be deeper into the canyon. A paper I found obout the trail said there were eight ruins in four miles and gave mileage markers for each one, but we only found one more out of the first five. We finally had to turn back as the clock was ticking on us making it through Denver before the storm. We ended up hiking 4.5 miles total. We finally completed our mission of finding the House on Fire!

Another ruin up in the rocks

Water pocket in South Mule Canyon

     The trip to search for South Mule Canyon took us in the opposite direction for heading home, so we had to go back to Blanding and then continue north on Hwy 191. That took us through Monticello, UT, where we stopped to check out the Monticello Utah LDS Temple. There were some good fall colors that were extra bright on a sunny day.

Momticello Utah Temple

Bright colors in the back

     The next stop was Newspaper Rock State Historical Monument near Canyonlands National Park. We have been into Canyonlands before, but only on the north side of the park, which only connects to the south side with 4x4 roads. You have to drive all the way around Moab and nearly all the way south to Monticello to come into the south side on a paved road. Newspaper Rock is another petroglyph viewpoint, this panel being more protected by the weather. The pictures and carvings are much more preserved and more easily read. They also cover the largest time period of any single set of petroglyphs known. The earliest carvings date back about 2,000 years ago. The later ones being by European settlers.

Rock along Hwy 191. It had a hole in the side big enough to drive a car through. Wonder what's inside...

Newspaper Rock

Not sure what that guy is at the top or what he is doing.

First flying squirrel I have seen

Double suns attract lizards.

     We made one more stop before reaching Moab. We stopped by Wilson Arch, which is right along the highway. We dropped off our Farmington Rocks rock we found the day before at Sand Island. Hopefully, it is found soon and moved along to somewhere else. Outerbike was going on in Moab this weekend so there were even more bikes in the area than usual. I wanted to ride so bad, but it was already after lunch and we had to get moving now to get through the mountains before the winter storm.

Wilson Arch

     The drive home on I-70 was the first time I have ever been into Colorado. We made just one stop for dinner at the Eagle Diner in Eagle, CO. I wanted a bison burger before we headed home where bison is hard to find. Otherwise it was hammer-down to get through Denver before the storm. The gorges and mountains were beautiful in the afternoon sun.

Gorges along I-70 in Colorado

One of several long tunnels on I-70 in Colorado

          We got to Vail before the rain began. As we climbed over the mountain passes, the rain turned to snow and quickly started to pile up on the road. But the road crews were out and plowing the roads well. We had a few sketchy moments descending, mostly from the traffic rather than the actual conditions. It was a mix of sleet and snow as we passed through Denver right at 9pm, then heavy rainfall for about 30 more miles east. The wind was insane for the rest of Colorado and into Kansas. There were literally hundreds of tumbleweeds blowing across the road. It was so cool!

     We drove all night to cross Kansas, stopping for breakfast in Kansas City just after dawn. The trip home was a smooth one until we stopped for gas in the middle of Missouri and I got my finger jacked by a door. I was trying to go into the bathroom. The door had a looped handle that pulled open from my side. Right as I reached my first two fingers around the handle, a guy came bursting out of the door. I don't know what he did in there, but he was definitely fleeing the scene. My fingers got bent around the handle into a really awkward position and I could feel some cracking in my proximal phalange, which is the longer of the three bones that make up your finger. It hurt so bad I could barely relax enough to pee even though I was about pee on myself as I got out of the car. It was already swelling by the time I got back to the car. I told Shannon what happened and that I was pretty sure it was fractured. There was no point in stopping by a hospital though. All you do for a broken finger is splint it. We just kept driving and I tried not to use it. It looked straight so I wasn't that concerned with it. Mainly I was just thinking about whether it would effect my braking on the mountain bike as it was only a few days until Race to the Canal at LBL.

     It was a weird way to end the trip, but it in no way put any sort of damper on this vacation. It was awesome from start to finish. The weather got us a few times while at Gma's, but considering it was October, I think we lucked out for the most part. This was one trip I will never forget. I never thought the desert could be so fun!