Bike Race Season

Summer of the Bike (or Bikes)
April through September 2008

This summer I haven't gotten as much backcountry in as I normally do, mostly because I've devoted it to racing bicycles. I've always done some mountain bike (MTB) racing, but this year I added some road races (CAT 5). Gannett Peak Sports here in Lander, offered to sponsor a few of us to race. It was deal I couldn't refuse. Anyhoo... below is a list of races I did this year. They are links to most of the race websites, so you can click on them for more info.

Triple Valley Stage Race

My first road/ stage race. Pretty fun. Did alright. Turned in a good TT.

Bear Lake Classic

Just a 50 mile road race around a lake. Pretty good early season ride. Fun! I might have done really well had I not missed the 90 degree turn at the finish.

High Uintas Classic

Really neat and well organized Road/ stage race. Hard to find many in Wyoming anymore. The road race is 80 miles over 10,000 ft. Bald Mt. Pass. Good stuff! I placed fifth over all in CAT 5 for this race. I thought that was okay, considering I was blown away in the Crit.

Dead Dog Classic

Another classic Wyoming road race. Just a few Wyomingnites show up the race though. Lander had one of the biggest showings. Most folks are from Colorado. They seem a bit stronger than the Utah folks. I had to race with Cat 4s at this race. I hung in there, but didn't do as well as I maybe could've. It's a great race though!

WYDAHO Mountain Bike Race

Finally an MTB race! This one was WAY fun. Wanted to try it now for a few years- finally made it this year. It's an absolutely beautiful 7 mile single track loop in the Tetons. For the race you ride three laps. I did alright, but it's kind of a short fast deal, and I really am geared to do longer more enduring rides. I don't train to sprint as much as I should, something I need to work on.

Silver Rush Mountain Bike Race

I've done this race three year in a row now. It's awesome. A fifty mile up and back. Starts in Leadville at 10,000 ft and climbs two 12 to 13K mountains and passes twice. I turned in my best time yet for this race- a 5:18! Chuck and Karla set a course record on their tandem (under 6 hours). Awesome!

Teton Pass Hill Climb

This race was fun- pretty low key. Maybe 60 riders or so for the road race, less for the MTB. They are both short (distance wise) hill climbs. Teton Pass is hard. I rode it in 37:30. Came in probably bottom of top third. The MTB race is mostly paved. Smart guys have specialized super light hard tail hill climb bikes or even cycle cross bikes. The top mile or so is single track worthy of a real MTB- but that's about it. The ride down Black Canyon after the race is all for MTB dualies! Great fun!

Making the climb up Teton Pass

Nearing the dirt on the MTB climb

Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race

The big daddy! This one is really what I ride and train for all year. It's epic! I did it for the first time last year. 100 miles, 10,000 vertical feet plus of climbing- all above 10,000 ft. Folks that do this year race are wired a bit different. There's usually a 1000 of them, including some famous folks. Last year Floyd Landis did it. This year Lance Armstrong gave it a whirl. Dave Wiens defended his title claiming victories over both Floyd and Lance while setting course records. Awesome!

The race heads out, paced until they get out of town.

Lance up front as they head out of town- he's in the black and yellow.

My sister to a short video clip of the 1000 rider mass start.

Looking down on the tail end of the start as the riders head out.

Lance hustles across a water crossing.


45 minutes or so later I make it across the same water crossing. Ha!

Pulling into the Dam Aid Station, just below the killer climb in the course- 1.5 hrs of climbing up Columbine Mt. where the turn around point is.

Charge!

Lance blazing through the aid station on his return from Columbine- a good 1.5 hrs ahead of me at this point.

Pulling in for another pit stop after conquering Columbine. Only another mountain and forty more or so miles to go!


Headed up towards the infamous Powerline route up Sugarloaf Mt. The last big climb!


Going for a creek crossing.


Tried to ride it this time.

Survived the last climb! Coming off Sugarloaf on the Turquoise Lake Rd. Almost home!

More than an hour later, I rolled into the finish!


Weehoo. My best time yet- 9:28 (closer to 29)! Next year I'm shooting for sub 9! I think I can do it now.


Seamus take a ride on dad after the race!

I have a couple of more races left this year that I'd like to try (before the guns and skis come out):

The 24 Hours of Grand Targhee Mountain Bike Race

Whew! What a race. The turnout was kind of small, I bet there were more than 40 or so riders on the course at one time. It's a fun course, almost all single track- very similar to the WyDAHO Course. Very fun riding!

I finished the race with 15 laps. I rode about 13hrs, racking up almost 112 miles. I pretty much rode from noon to 10:00pm, slept then started riding again around 7am. I made it a 16 hour race. The winner got 27 laps in- just under 200 miles. Yikes! That's gotta hurt. I slept eight hours during the race too though, otherwise I probably could have neared 20 laps or or more.

Waiting around for the start.



Video of the start, and me running past my bike.

Going out for another lap.

Zoom. Zoom!

Finishing up my last lap.



We stopped in Jackson on the way back so Tally could chase some geese. Nothing beats a wild goose chase!

Dakota Five-O

Did this for the first time last year with Chuck. It's way fun! Hoping I can cut some time off my last year's run.

Actually, I did end up cutting time- 18 minutes- under 5 hrs! I rode 4:49 this year. I ended up 24th/ 97 riders in my class- close to 280 over all. It was a great race- very fun, very hot this year. Perhaps the hottest days I've spent anywhere all year. Lots of awesome Blackhills single track though- most of it in the trees. Chuck and Karla rode the race in under 6 hours, setting another course tandem record. Dino even rode it completing his first ever 50 mile MTB race. Last race of the season for me. A great way to end the season. Let it snow!

Good stuff!

East Angle Avi: The Rest of the Story

East Angle Avalanche
East Angle Mountain, Togwotee Pass- Absaroka Range
December 8th, 2007

The following pictures are from my camera on the day that Chuck and I triggered and got caught in the avalanche on East Angle Mountain. Jeramie Prine took a hike in the area this summer and recovered my camera, board and gloves- all of the items that were lost and buried as I went for a ride down the mountain. Thanks Jeramie!

Amazingly enough the camera still worked. I went back over my rather hasty, but sincere, account of the incident and tried to cut and paste parts of the story to match the photos. Kind of eerie considering we're pretty lucky to have survived it all. They could've been the last pictures there ever were of us. Yikes! Glad they weren't.

East Angle Mt early in the morning on December 8th, 2007.

Looking at East Angle from where we parked.

"Chuck hadn't been skiing yet this year and it'd been a couple of weeks for me- so we decided we'd better get out. It snowed pretty heavy in Lander the night before and the roads to Togwotee weren't that good. We decided rather than bring snow machines for this trip, that we'd just take my Subaru and go somewhere off the road. Skies were clearing when we went over Togwotee. It was cold, but quickly turning blue bird. We decided we'd better take a stab at East Angle Mountain again."

Our route up.

"Last year in January we triggered a good avalanche on East angle, while skinning up. Due to our route selection though, we came out of that one unscathed. Today the snow pack was very different. For one, it really wasn't that deep. Two or three feet in the deep spots- one a foot in some places. There were some skiers ahead of us, folks from Riverton and Jackson, I knew the guys from Riverton. We followed their skin track in for a while. When we reached the bottom of the big slide path, conditions were looking good, so we decided to pursue our own route more directly up the mountain- next to the slide path. Since we were thinking about skiing it, I thought it'd make more sense to go up next to it, so we could assess it on the way up."

A look up the slide path and potential decent lines on our way up.

We proceeded to go up in the trees on the looker's right.

"Skinning up went fine. Occasionally in pockets, or where the snow was shallow, we'd get some light woomping and cracking. Some of the skiers ahead of us reported some heavier woomfing on the other side of the gully. We dismissed their warning though, especially after following their skin track to where they crossed the slide path gully in a terrible risky place. We continued up. All along the way I did pole tests and hasty pits. There was a week layer near the ground, but it didn't seem to do much- especially in deeper snow."

Chuck making his way up.

"Once near the summit we boot packed up the side of the gully/ slide path that was more exposed to the wind. I felt pretty safe on that side, since it really didn't have much snow on it. When we reached the summit, we discussed digging a pit, but really the snow up top wasn't anything like most of what we'd be boarding on. We did notice a smaller recent avi on a similar aspect- just a pocket though. Dismissed it. Why? Dunno. Dumb. I decided to board up and try some other quick tests on our way down."

Getting close to the top.

Chuck on the summit, making the switch to ride down.

Super thankful this wasn't my last summit.

"After dropping to the start of big loading zone and what looked like awesome snow, I pulled up. I assessed the slope and bounced it a little. Nothing happened. I figured I'd try a ski cut. I looked for a safe spot on the other side of the gully and then went for it. I hucked off a three or four foot cornice on the slope with thud and then slid across the gully. Nothing. I figured it was pretty solid if my thud didn't bust anything loose. So, after that, I went for it. I carved in a bunch of really nice turns. Things were feeling solid, so I pulled up at the base of the top part of wind loaded zone and told Chuck to go for it. This was probably my biggest mistake. I should have found a safer spot and/or continued down while Chuck could spot me."

Chuck rides. If you click on photos you can enlarge them. You can see our boot track- far lookers right. You can also see my line. You can see where I launched off the cornice and landed hard. In retrospect now, I can see where Chuck went down the most loaded aspect of the slope. Something my huck and cut didn't do much to test.

Great snow and great turns, while they lasted!

One of the last things I remember seeing before hearing the dreaded "Woompf". It's really difficult to determine, but if you click on the photo- you may be able to make out the faint cracks that became the crown. This photo was taken literally seconds before we were caught.

"Chuck made some great turns down to me, and then threw in a big stop. Seconds later... KAWOOMPF! The whole mountain was going. Chuck said, "Oh shit!". I thought the same thing."

To read the rest of my account of the avalanche, follow the link back to December 2007 on the blog- East Angle Avi Story

This was actually the first photo that was on my camera. I took it the night before we left. Glad we made it!

FWWE

Fort Washakie Wilderness Expedition
Wind River Indian Reservation Roadless Area
June 11th - 18th, 2008

Day One: Washakie Park

Eastern Shoshone Recreation cabin at Washakie Park.

This is the second year I've worked with NOLS to provide our high school students a wilderness experience in their own wilderness. The Wind River Indian Reservation is home to some of the most pristine wilderness in the country. It's a treasure, and an honor to visit it with students whom someday will be responsible for it.

We started at Washakie Park. This year the snow pack was much deeper. We weren't sure what the weather would do, or how much snow we'd encounter. We brought snow shoes just incase. The first night out was right at the trail head. We spent most of the first day prepping at NOLS. We arrived at Washakie Park around 3pm or so. Just enough time left in the day to set up camp in cold, windy weather.

Day Two: The Trek to Twin Lakes

The view from Washakie Park.

It snowed the first night, this is how the second day started.

A look across a meadow I camped in last year. This year things were looking a bit more like winter still.

My 65 pound monkey.

Back to work!

I did this trip with eight other folks- five students and three NOLS instructors- all female. They were awesome! Stronger than many of the guys I went with last year.

After hours of post holing and bush wacking we get our first peek a Twin Lakes.

The monkey rests above some neat falls.

The sun even creeped out.

After nearly an eight hour day of hiking, we finally reached and crossed the bridge over twin lakes. This would be home for the night.

Day 3: Twin Lakes To Raft Lake

Twin Lake

The weather took a huge turn for the better- nothing but blue skies!

Making our way up a canyon towards Raft Lake.

The canyon was very narrow in places.

Almost there!

Our first look at Raft Lake. It was still frozen!

Raft Lake

Day Four: Hangin' at Raft Lake

My condo above Raft Lake.

This day was a layover day. While the NOLS Instructors taught a variety of courses for our students, I had a chance to do a little exploring.

A view of Raft Lake from the shore. Beautiful country!

Beach bum.

Raft Lake beach.

Up higher looking down on Raft Lake, Wykee Peak in the background.

Wykee Peak and Raft lake.

Kickin' back with a view!

Quite a view!

Day 5: Raft Lake to St. Lawrence Basin

The girls hit the beach!

On the way by, I dropped my pack and tried to catch a wave or two. Yea... it was cold.

The view from my favorite campsite, near 10,000 ft, not far from the pass that would take us down into St. Lawrence Basin.

A look down on camp. Can you find the tents?

Did some more exploring around this area too- Wykee Peak still dominating the background.

St. Lawrence Basin- the upper/ alpine part of it.

A glacier.

Another panoramic of the area.

Day 6: Antigo Peak and Snowshoeing 101

Hard to beat a view like this for breakfast!

Wishin' I had skis.

We dropped our packs near the pass and decided to take stab at climbing Antigo peak- mostly since it was close and had a name.

On the summit of 11,000 ft. plus Antigo Peak.

Panoramic view from the summit.

After the peak ascent, we saddled up, and headed over the pass.

Got into lots of deep snow on the other side of the pass. Finally had to break out the snow shoes.

Snowshoeing our way down into The Meadows, where we planned to camp for the night.

Day Seven: Heading for the Low Country

It was pretty challenging to find dry ground around The Meadows, but there was some.

A look out across The Meadow towards the country we came from. Probably the last look I'd get for a while.

Packin' up camp. Our plan was to descend a few more miles and get ready for an early pick-up the next day at the St. Lawrence Basin trailhead.

More snowshoeing.

In the company of carnivores.

Out of the snow, blazin' down open trail.

Day Eight: Coming Out

A nifty, early morning hike down to trailhead wrapped up our final day. Most of the rest of the day would be spent checking in gear, debriefing and getting used to people again. Rats!

One last look back as we drove out.

The Route (click to enlarge). Red flags signify campsites.

The profile.

All in all, the trip was great! We had some cold weather to start with, but after the second day things quickly warmed up and weather became stellar for the rest of the trip. Can't compalin about that. Snow was not really as much of an issue as I thought it might be. It did keep us from going as far as we had hoped, it slowed us, but it was all pretty manageable. Absolutley NO bugs either- that was awesome. I'm sure that's not the case now. Another wonderful experience in some of Wyoming's most wild wilderness. Gotta love it!