Anatomy of a Mountain Biker

The world of mountain biking is a strange and beautiful place.  Everything from the gear a rider uses, to the media updates world wide to the constant advances in the technology used-riders find inspiration and quench their thirst everywhere, at all hours of the day.  Being relatively new to this world means I can still remember some of my initial impressions of this sport- the stigmas, the quirks and the fascinations of what people do in the world of mountain biking.
Lets talk about the gear for a second.  It can either look like you are setting out to let it all hang out, particularly if you are wearing the cushy butt shorts that are a littlllleee tooo small for you...or you can look like you're gearing up for combat against a tiger.  In my time on the trails, I have seen a couple of sets of women's specific mountain biking shorts that did not make you look like you were hiding more than just a cushy butt pad in your shorts and as a result my full support for padding has been a long, hard resistance.
As a rider, you have the nifty little padded gloves, because it seems the response to anything mountain biking clothing related is to add more padding (which is a positive thing in hind sight...) You will need a backpack to carry the 2+ liters of water along with you because you never know what you might encounter out there or how lost you might become.  You'll carry a light, even though you are going out for an 8:00 am ride, your patch kit, pump, rape whistle and phone (for Strava and emergencies).  Your chapstick and sunglasses are at the bottom and will likely both be needed approximately a quarter mile into the ride.  For those who suffer from bad bad cases of hanger it is wisest to carry a 2 day supply of clif bars and bloks in your cute little bike-specific backpack's top pocket.  Make sure it is easy to access in loo of the hanger attack, so as to prevent you from lashing out irrationally at your biking partner, innocent passerby, small woodland creature, etc.  This puts your pack load weighing in at about 47.5 lbs. (approx 21.5kg)
While riding, especially if you are not in the greatest shape, not unlike yours truly, you start to sweat.  A lot.  Who am I kidding, even if you're in good shape, dare I say great shape, you sweat a lot.  There are moments of discomfort because you are sweating so much.  Mostly because you are not in the tropics, it is not that humid and there is no excuse for your body to be releasing this much water without you surely dying at any moment.  You sweat in places you didn't know you could sweat- like your forearms and your calves.  You sweat down below where you really wish  you weren't sweating because you have a big cushy butt pad on that is only making it worse.  However there are ways to combat the sweat: headbands that mop up the sweat off your brow to keep it from running into your eyes and "vapor wicking" materials that will let the sweat drift right off of your body as you glide beneath the trees (keep in mind you need speed for something like this to occur...hard pressed when you're going up a hill).  All of these different articles costing approximately $150 give or take.
Once you arrive back at your start point having lost three pounds of water weight, you notice the tingling in your toes from pushing on pedals for the last 2 hours.  After the tingling, the weird walk rears its ugly face as your body remembers how to stand up again and finally the sensation of taking off your helmet, or being born again as a friendly fellow rider once put it. With the ride behind you, the next task of paramount importance is to find food.
That being said, the nutrition options will surely overwhelm you.  The second you decide to give your body exactly what it needs to be the best hill climbing machine the world has ever seen, you realize there are about 2 million options to put in your mouth.  There is a lot to be said about the choices people are making when it comes to the fuels they are putting into their bodies-both on trail and off.  I have recently noticed, having to severely minimize my sugar intake, that most of the nutritional options have an incredible range of things in them to "make you go fast."  Some stick to the easy ingredient of sugar.  Others have random ingredients that you are pretty sure belong under the kitchen sink in the cleaning supplies area.  While others have the most specific ingredients known to mankind, like chia seeds harvested off of Mama Sonilli's quarter acre farm in Nicaragua- organically grown and harvested only on a quarter moon.  I remember, or at least I think I remember, when the only fuel options for bars were power bar and clif bar.  Now there are goo packets, bars, bloks, more goo packets, drinks, powders, boosting mixes, recovery formulas and pastes.  My personal favorite is anything non-cherry flavored and dripping with the speed of a thousand wild mustangs- I need all the help I can get.
One truly amazing thing about this sport is it exhibits a miraculous display of camaraderie, that is of course assuming you are staying out of everyone's way and not messing with their abilities to PR.  I joke, but honestly, I have actually experienced next to nothing in the negative when it comes to meeting strangers on the trail.  Mountain bikers seem to be pretty happy people.  Maybe it's because they are physically working so hard to be where they are that they don't have spare energy to be a jerk or perhaps they realize, especially when they see someone like me huffing and puffing my way up a hill, that they were at that point at one time too and appreciated the smile they experienced from a passerby at one time also.  The words of encouragement and feeling of community I have experienced from both female and male riders have made me love the sport even more.
Just like anything, there are absolutely catty people out there too who are the greatest riders ever and will be the first to tell you.  They'll give you unsolicited beta and generally be the fun-sucker of the day, so ride quickly or slowly depending and do everyone a solid and don't be one of those people.
Mountain bikers are constantly fighting battles for rights to trails.  Unfortunately, like everything there are always two sides to a battle and in this case, getting anything resolved, like proper trail access is often sluggish to come to pass. It takes just a few people to give an entire group a bad reputation for the damage caused by riding at certain times of the year, and unfortunately the more times it happens the harder it is for people to be willing to compromise.  This battle continues here in Santa Cruz and has strong parties on both sides fighting for what they believe is right.

All any of us can really do is ride respectfully.  When I say respectfully I think of not running over the menacing little dog trying to bite your tires or elbow checking the two ladies power walking with purpose who pretend to not hear you or rutting out the trail when you know you should give it another day.  The beauty of the places we are lucky enough to ride is they are there to be shared and enjoyed by more than just bikers. It's a coexistence situation and as far as I'm concerned, we're existing and doing so in an incredible fashion.

Helmets are sexy,
M.

Ride as much or as little, or as long or as short as you feel.  But ride. ~Eddy Merckx

"Oh the places you'll go" ~Dr. Seuss

Journeys from Home

What do you write about when you aren't anywhere but home for a while?
It seems ridiculous seeing as I was originally able to write a ton about random things like going to a farmers market or going swimming as it was in a place so foreign to me at the time (Hawaii) or to write about climbing in a different state as I hadn't been there before (Colorado), but now that I have cooled my jets a little bit for the "winter" season, I am finding it hard to grasp the motivation needed to write.
That being said, I realized I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world- the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains in California.  Many people spend their whole lives without ever setting sights on these beautiful giant trees or experiencing the freezing waters of the central coastline of the United States.  The southern sea otters and gray whales migrating leave you with an incredible connection to the world around you, no matter how many times you've seen them.  There is something to be said about breathing in the eucalyptus and redwood scent as you ride a trail or step out onto your front porch.  I hear the blue jays and chickadees and sparrows calling in the morning instead of parrots and Japanese pheasants.  There are three fluffy cats living next door who come over to hang out in the morning and watch the birds in the bird bath.  There's the raccoons walking through the brush at night outside the window and the deer eyeing the garden from the other side of the fence.
There are trails just up the road leading into several different state parks or into the backside of the university's upper campus.  Mountain lions, bobcats and deer frequent these pathways as they are the routes less traveled and quiet for most of the year.  The nights are cold here for the most part with more stars than you could ever hope to see if the night is clear.  The mornings are quiet and cool with blankets up to my ears not wanting to get out of bed.
There are so many beautiful places here and yet because I call it home I feel like I need to adventure away from it to have a new experience, when in fact there is so much here still left unexplored.  I am learning more and more there does not need to be a big trip planned in order to have new experiences and enjoy new sites.  There are plenty of new opportunities close to home often overlooked or forgotten that can keep a mind and body occupied and inspired.
I met a woman the other day who came into the shop to rent a board to go paddling for her first time.  She said she had lived here for 35 years and had never been out on the water.  Not once.  I asked her what her change of heart was and she said she saw a whale spout in the distance.  In my mind, I'm thinking, "just one little spout?  Geez..."  I imagine it was probably a couple of miles off shore and nothing more than a little puff of air, but it had inspired her to come and get a board and do something she had never done before (keep in mind she wasn't going by herself, but had a friend along for the journey with their own board).  This got me thinking about how this woman had lived here over a decade longer than my whole lifespan and had never ventured out into the water.  To many of you, myself included, this seems ridiculous, as most of us have a special place in our hearts and lives for the water, but for some it is a boundary, a no pass zone.  Her story gave me a new bit of inspiration to explore places I haven't been before here in the Santa Cruz mountains and along the coastline.  It isn't far from home and I can get there easily enough, but when you think of something as a boundary zone, we no longer see it as an option for exploration and growth.  Basically, kudos to a woman over twice my age who is going out to do something new- you're inspiring.
Now that the rain has shown up, even if for a brief moment, the trails are delicate and need some time away from my bike tires, but I'm confident the exploration will continue once the storm passes.
To all of my friends near and far- thank you for thinking of me on my corner life day.  I am grateful for all of you as you are what make my life so special and peppered with amazing experiences and adventures.  Travel safely, the roads are wet now (finally!).

-M.

~We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. -Jawaharial Nehru

Well guess who found themselves in Maui…?

The best father in the world happened to have a very important birthday in the middle of November, so as a celebration we all flew out to the little rock next to the big rock to thaw out in some tropical waters for a few days.

It was a magical trip with some of the most hilarious and loving people in my life.

With some much needed swimming in the Big Blue, snorkeling with the fishes, hammocking, mai tai drinking and pupu eating, sunset and sunrise watching, Molokini Cratering and glowing bocce ball playing, we definitely made the most of our days away from the mainland. 

What a special treat.

Aloha nui loa,

M.

"Live every week like it's shark week." - unknown

(side note: we did see a tiger shark while we were on our way out to SNORKEL around Molokini Crater...ftw)

Look who I found floating in the abyss....

And who set up his own hammock with the million dollar view

We decided to rent some mountain bikes and head down the backside of Haleakala just the pair of us...the full-face helmets seemed a little excessive....although it was like biking on the moon minus the whole lack of gravity part....there was plenty of that. 

Look closely...this is the full moon setting with the SHADOW of Haleakala sitting underneath it 

(this is not a cloud)  this is a rare happening apparently

It felt like dinosaurs should be walking around the crater

Sunrise on a mountain top...check! (note Mauna Kea on the Big Island on the right side of the picture)

We were a little cold and ill-equipped for a mountain top morning, but still happy!!!

One of the most beautiful paintings I've seen in Hawaii- all the best colors.

The dinner crew! 

Our first sunset in Maui with Kaho'olawe (pronouced ka-ho-o-lav-eh) and the Molokini Crater in the foreground.

Nik befriended all the sea turtles...naturally.

Our last sunset on island with my new friends Jason and Moose swimming out to sea.

Back Back to Cali Cali

Long overdue, but a lot has been happening….

Here’s some facts about our trip:

We spent a total of 39 days on the road.

Approximately 3,951 miles driven from door-to-door (Murphys, CA being our starting and ending point)

We averaged 24.4 miles per gallon (yes we kept track)

We listened to every playlist I have on my iPod, including my workout mixes- poor guy…

Neither one of us ditched one another in an abandoned, one-horse-town in Nevada out of annoyance, nor considered it…I don’t think…

We spent about 3 ½ of those 5 ½ weeks sleeping in the truck (and no it was not uncomfortable, nor did we freeze to death) (we did wake up to snow and frozen windows a couple of times though)

We visited 5 National Parks despite the government shut down in the middle of our trip (Zion, Rocky Mountain, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Mesa Verde and Arches).

I only made Nik get up once to chase away a critter in the middle of the night who had found our food bin and thought he was clever enough to open it- Rocky Raccoon in Moab.

We only had to repair one bike, once, thankfully- my rear shock blew out in Moab and was repaired in Boulder at Dirt Labs which I highly recommend.

We paid for showers twice otherwise we charmed people into letting us into their homes to use their showers or were living in the condo in Breckenridge.  We stayed very clean thank you very much.

We drank local beers most of the trip.

No flash floods. Y-E-S.

No injuries except my pride at trying to bike at altitude.

No bears.

I finished one book on the trip.

We discovered a cast iron is an awesome piece of gear to take car camping and suggest it to all.

Sometimes you have to flop around like a fish to stay warm.

There is always time for champagne.

You can never take too many pictures.

Beaver, Utah does exist.

Speaking of, we finally saw beavers building a dam outside our window in Breckenridge

No moose…meese….mooses….moose-i to speak of.

I know now the plural is moose.

You’re welcome.

We learned if I do not eat for hours at a time, other than when I am sleeping, I turn into the Grinch and all I want to do is steal Christmas from everyone.  Hanger is a real thing.

My favorite chai was in Moab.

It’s best if you always have the following handy: chapstick, flip flops, headlamps, puffy jackets, spare keys and sippy top water bottles.  Life is easier that way.  Trust us.

Prepare yourself for Halloween no matter where you are, you never know what can happen.

When in doubt, bike it out, you’ll feel better.  J

All in all, what an incredible trip to places just a few hours east of here… ok, more than a few, but you get what I’m saying.

The adventures continue in Santa Cruz for a while longer and then who knows what will be next.

Until next time,

M.

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”- Ernest Hemingway

Please Note: Pictures should be viewed from bottom to top....upload error....

just outside of Moab- Nik sacrificed a lot to get this photo as it was raining on us and freezing.

Arches National Park- Ham Rock or Balancing Rock....one of those

The infamous Delicate Arch

The landscape through Nik's glasses

Indian Creek- where we woke up

Mesa Verde National Park

BEAVER in Breckenridge!!!!!!! 

Colorado Continued

Climb time. Bike time. Hike time. Climb time. Bike time.  Hike time. It's a beautiful thing!

That being said. today is a rest day for me and so I have retired to a cozy sofa to catch you up on what's been happening on the CO side of things.

We have been so lucky and have had some amazing weather over the past few weeks.  We have been snowed on once so far (now that I'm typing this we are going to have nothing but snow for days now I can feel it).  We have gotten to climb in some amazing places that I didn't even know existed (Boulder Canyon is endless and the Flatirons are in a category all their own).

We've camped out at nearly 9,500ft elevation and woken up to a dusting of snow over everything.  We've been fortunate enough to hike around a small lake in Rocky Mountain National Park now that it is open and soak up the mountain air into our bodies over the past week and a half.  Colorado is quite a gem.

We are now in Breckenridge for a week in the "high country" (it all seems high to me still- we're staying at 10,300ft) and then heading down to the southwestern corner of the state for some hiking and hopefully climbing and biking.  We've been hiking, gotten some snow and today went out to find some frozen waterfalls with some new friends.  Such a treat.

We've made some great friends out here who have taken us under their wing and shown us some incredible areas full of some of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen.  Instead of talking about it, please enjoy the photos below...

It is already mid-October.  We've been on this adventure for 3 weeks already.  Time continues to fly by no matter what you're up to apparently.  We are starting our "boomerang" back toward California at this point in time with Gunnison, Durango, Indian Creek, Moab, Salt Lake City and finally Tahoe still to go.

Until next time,
M.

~"There is nothing better than making new friends...except making new friends who have chocolate."
-anonymous

Our camp out and breakfast in Nederland- doing it right. 

Secret overlook somewhere outside of Ned and Estes Park

The locals at Rocky Mountain National Park

Nik made a friend

A blurry, but beautiful start to the day as the moon sets over Mt. Quandary

Mt. Quandary (the 14er outside our window in Breckenridge) at sunset

A lot of frozen water

Guess who tried his hand at ice climbing and rocked it

And yes we did finally traverse across the river for a lil climb time

Official photographer hard at work

Climbing in the aspens aspens aspens outside Frisco

Lenticular clouds!!! 

Colorado Part 2

With the generosity of a new friend, we have retired from the truck nook for the past 5 days and have been staying in Westminster… in a house!  

We drove in through a place called Clearwater Canyon into the little town of Golden, Colorado.  As we drove through we were greeted by a meandering creek on the right hand side, steep canyon walls on both sides and trails that lead straight up.  As we continued our way through we see climbers popping up everywhere, people driving creek boats up to a put in, mountain bikers heading up the steep cliffs and countless hikers….we’re IN Colorado now.  This is what we both thought it was going to be like- outdoorsy people everywhere.  It took some self control on the driver’s part to not pull the car over and dash for his bike immediately.  J

After a bike ride we thought was going to be much mellower than it actually was and a pint of local beer later, we’re at Radical Reels in Golden, CO to see this year’s international tour of outdoor films from around the world.  It didn’t disappoint. And yes we planned that.

We found a place to have my bike repaired, yussss, and while we waited climbed our first route in Colorado- a place called Castle Rock, kind of funny and ironic, coming from Santa Cruz.  Up in Boulder Canyon (having just opened up the day prior to us climbing due to horrible flood damage) we found about 1500 routes on these beautiful granite spires and cliff sides strewn all the way up at about 6,500ft elevation- beautiful.  In some spots it’s necessary to cross over a river to reach the base of these cliffs, so being the adventurous folks that Coloradans are, there are fixed pully lines in some spots where people  traverse across (we haven’t done this yet, but I’m sure sometime soon).

We ended up doing some more biking in Nederland, which is just like the little Colorado town I pictured in my mind.  It had a main little street, people walking everywhere and saying hello to one another and a little corner market where people bought fresh produce…you know, the “Murphys of Colorado.”

With adventure on the mind and the beautiful rock formations outside of Boulder taunting us, we wound up climbing one the classic Flatirons that line the “foothills” of the Eastern Rockies.  Beautiful rocks with incredible formations and holds all the way up.  Run out (thankful I wasn’t leading), chicken heads galore, perfect little pockets and some of the grippiest rock I’ve ever climbed on.  It also happened to be my longest climb yet- 7 pitches, 1000ft followed by some awesome rappels off the back to our hike out about 1/3 of the way down.  It was incredible to see out into flatness as we looked due east from the top.  (see the video below of our summit point...I was remembering I was a little afraid of heights at the time...)

I topped the week off with a leisurely mountain bike ride to Red Rocks Amphitheatre and back.  What an amazing venue.  They were mid-set up for a Saturday night show so I didn’t stay long, but long enough to relish in the memories of listening to John Butler Trio and Mumford and Sons performing live at this very spot...online…

We’re having fun, making new friends, living in the moment and trying not to spend every penny we’ve got on Italian Deli sandwiches and guide books…trying.

The adventure continues with friends coming into town, some climbing and some camping up in the mountains.

Be well wherever you are. 

-M.

~Today was good.  Today was fun.  Tomorrow is another one.  -Dr. Seuss

Over Vail Pass

Dusting of snow

Breckenridge...we'll be back for you

Unknown snowy place

Signage posted everywhere

Second pitch of the Flatirons, just hanging out

Nik rappeling our final rappel off the back of the Flatiron

Red Rocks!

 

Photographic Evidence

Here's some photos from the trip so far:

The Narrows of Pine Creek- my first canyon

Nik rappelling 

Me starting the 100ft rappel in the Narrows

Subway Canyon Selfie

Submerging in cold cold water

Driver!!!

Hiking through Subway Canyon

Dinner done right

Dinosaur tracks in our hike out of Subway- preserved for millions of years!!! Wow!!

First mountain bike ride in Moab and this is what we find! 

Nik in Fruita. 

Gemini bridges, Utah

Tailgate Kitchen