No, I haven't given up riding

The blog posts are few and far between these days. What do you expect during the off season? I'm only getting to ride a couple of times per month right now. Now if I had made the Specialized Trail Crew, things would be a little different right now....
I have been busy starting a new job and taking car of family needs. I did get out and ride this morning with my friend Brad and my new boss Mike. We rode despite the rain because none of us had seen the trail in too many days. Despite the intermitant sprinkles and a few showers, we did just fine. I was even able to clear a few wet technial sections.
So my new boss Mike is a rider. We were introduced at the trailhead one day last summer by Gary Vernon, a mutual friend. I ended up cleaning windows at Mike's house, and he later informed me of an open position with the company he works for. Now I work with a fellow mountain biker! I am sure this will mean many stories are soon to follow.

Cold and Alone...

The title describes my 63oam ride today. Since the time change last weekend, my riding buddies have decided to revive our morning rides. The sun is coming up around 630 now. However, between sick wives and children, none of us have had perfect attendance this week.

I was the only one that showed this morning. Though the group had planned to ride the new trails, which I agree are fun because they include challenging climbs and sweet jumps and banks, I decided to detour back to the Ridge trails, Razorback and Rocky. I enjoy the good push up the hills, cruising around on top, and the dive back down to the bottom. I feel that our new trails only give you the option of going up or down, not much in between. Don't get me wrong, I like the new trails and will continue to ride them. However, it seems that they have become the destination. I see them as part of the ride, and not the entire ride. I need diversity!

Winter isn't far away

This is why we don't go to Moab in March anymore. At least it shows our dedication to the sport however. Bring on the winter, we will still RIDE.

Results from the Specialized Trail Crew Contest

The phone call came last Friday from Tan at Specialized. Sounds like I made the top 8, but they only chose 6. Pretty sad to be that close and miss a huge sponsorship like that. I discussed possible job opportunities with Tan, and he gave me a person to contact in HR. Could this be the beginning of a career? I've thought that before.

I consider myself pretty upbeat after the rejection. Long live mountain biking. Specialized is going to send me something anyway, I believe.

Beautiful Fall Day!...flash flood watch tomorrow.

Put in some good miles today. I have to say I miss that 2.5 Werewolf tire I used to have on the back. I don't think it's affecting my ride, but it may be affecting my head.

Anyway, I took this picture of the guys working on a new section of trail that is amidst the other new sections of trail we've been riding lately. This section is going to be more BMX and possibly Freeride like. The banks are huge, and there are going to be some jumps as well, I was told today. This trail building crew is amazing!

Also, I got word that there are some new trails going in behind my girls' school. I'm hearing great things, and I am sure I'll be out there soon helping with construction.

SPERRYs ONLY ride @ Indian Creek

My sister Suzanne won a nice Felt Mt. Bike in a drawing at the Tour of Missouri bike race. Over the weekend, Jon and I took our sister out for her first ride on her new bike. We went to Indian Creek Reservoir, which is the closest trail to our parents house. Thanks to Doug Long for completing this trail around the lake. I still haven't had a chance to see the whole thing, but what I have seen is a fabulous ride. It's alot of up and down, which you would expect around a lake. There are some great climbs and very fun drops. Suzanne went for a little way, and after a while decided to head back while Jon and I went a little further to see some of the trail we hadn't seen yet. On the way back, Jon had to repair a flat, and we found that Suzanne had broken her chain. I'm ready to go back and see the whole thing!

The ride with the bike shop guy

It took a day longer than I thought to get a call back from Specialized telling me who I was going to go ride with for their Trail Crew contest. Tan called me back and said I needed to get in touch with Jonathan at High Roller in Fayetteville. I called him within minutes, and told him that I was ready to ride with him any time in the next 24 hours. Jonathan said "how about next week?" I begged him to come up and ride the next morning and he did, despite his getting ready to race over the weekend.

Regardless of the race, we rode pretty solid for 2 hours. Jonathan knows how to ride a hardtail. He stayed right with me on the downhill sections. He said he expected a little more from me on that, but he did have an appreciation for my climbing abilities.

Jonathan then had to talk to the guys at Specialized and discuss our meeting and ride. I don't know what he said, but hopefully, it was good enough to put me on the Trail Crew.