Rabbit Valley -at another camping stop

April 7
Still in Rabbit Valley. Some good trails to be found here. Yesterday I rode a 10 mile loop in the morning and a sweet 20 mile loop in the afternoon. The long one was called “ The Western Rim”. Lot’s of cool edge of the canyon stuff, and even on an old stage coach road. I was smoked after that. The SS is treating me well. ( Thank ’s Mike!) It’s a Moto area also so the trails are'nt buff and it’s noisy. This afternoon we’re headed to Fruita to stay at the state park on the Colorado river. Fruita is a cool town..

Rabbit Valley-Utah

Well we’re in Rabbit Valley in Utah ,which is about 23 miles west of Fruita, Co. Camping for free overlooking a cliff with a huge view. Today Otto, Louis and I did an 11 mile ride on the Overlook/ West water mesa trail. Still riding the SS. Really cool edge of the cliff stuff. The kid’s were riding well and seem to be enjoying the technical trails. It’s cool seeing Rabbits and lizards running across the trail in front of me. Tomorrow I’m hoping to go into Fruita and ride a trail or 2 and go to the store. Maybe even find some free WI FI. Of course I’ll visit OTE sports and maybe I could get the inside line on some good camping.
MOAB IS COMING !!

Zion National Park

Bootleg Canyon Day 28

Boulder City, NV - Home of Bootleg canyon. Crazy rocky trails. I had a great time on the xc trails on my SS hardtail. We were early for shuttles to the DH bike stayed tied up. Otto (our 8 y/o) rode quite a bit of the trails and did well. My Wife crashed really hard and has like 11 bruises on one leg. Ouch! We were excited to camp for free right near the trail head. Cool trails so we left a donation. I would have liked to spend some more time there but had to keep moving. No time to write more.

Arizona

Rode a bit at some park or something out side of Phoenix. Really loose and rough. My Wife crashed so that was bad. I did ok but it was like straight up or straight down. The next day i rode some EXPERT only race course and had a lot more fun. We had the cool $5 camp site behind a rodeo arena. Good time.

Day 21 Noble Canyon, Ca

I've been looking forward to this for while. Guy's from back home ( Casey and Rob) had been saying this was a must and Pac Man ( my contact in the San Diego area) has been running his mouth about how awesome this trail was. Well.........time to give it a go! and it was go from the get go. (?) Doug was fashionably late when he picked me up on the hwy. Actually he said " The trail head is only 100 feet up the hwy you may as well ride." So i rode the 1.12 mile up the hwy and got ready to hit it. Jeremy was giving his bike a tune up at the trail head and after that we started up the short climb. A really beautiful area for sure. It looked like a fire raged through in the recent past. It was a bit wet in spots from recent rain but not bad at all. Just like home actually. What's up with this So Cal weather. Fog and rain. Anyway.....i was riding my Enduro and it was in it's element for once. There was a lot of flowing sandy singletrack and when it got rocky it was seriously rocky. I was thinking that Terry would really be stoked on this stuff. We had a great time and headed back up for another run. I was feeling strong for some reason and climbed the stuff i wussed out on the first run. And when the rocks started i was feeling good. We happened on some guys the had a flat and didn't have a wrench to take off the bolt on wheel. So i gave 'em mine and said " catch up and you can give it back" We kept going and somewhere Jeremy crashed but was ok fortunately. The guy eventually caught up but i was stopped so it doesn't count. He had the Fox 40 so i figured i should chase him on my litle xc bike. i was right behind him all the way until i blew it on a super tech switchback right before the famed "Stairway to hell" i got back on the saddle and rode the hell section. Not the most stylish but clean. I was stoked. We talked to some cool riders after that and then headed down to finish the ride. Doug dropped me off at the top and i rode a cool 5 mile trail back to camp for dinner. I was out of water but that how it goes sometimes. What a great trail back to camp. Beautiful! A perfect day. More day's like this please.

Fallbrook, Ca Day 18

Rode today with Doug (pac man) on his local trails in Fallbrook. Fun stuff. Some really tech rock sections, and lot’s o’ climbing. I rode the Bianchi and had a loose headset by the end of the ride. It was a challenge riding the SS on the rock sections. It’s hard to keep the momentum. I made a few of the climbs but Doug has turned into a climbing fool.I guess it’s the spin classes. He was riding the rock sections smooth too. It was cool and breezy so once again it felt like home. Without the trees. Great ride and it was good to ride with Doug again.

One more ride with the Simi guys. And pump track too.

March 17 Day 15

Keith picked me up at 7:30 this morning and we headed for the coast. Really foggy all the way there. The trail was called Sycamore Canyon I think. Really great view ’s of the ocean Keith was saying but all I saw was FOG. We met up with Gene again an another guy Steve. Steve had Cannondale like Jamie. Really old. We dropped in the singletrack and ended up on a paved path which we raced down to more singletrack. Great stuff. The climb’s were getting me but not as bad as the day before. I think the fog reminded me of home. The dh sections were super fun. Lot’s of rocks, switchbacks and cool turns. I’m not sure I’ve ever ridden in such thick fog. It was a fun and hard ride. Later in the day Keith and his wife Kristy had us over for dinner. Wow . What a kind gesture. Especially since we have 5 kid’s. The boy’s eat a lot and they don’t stop. Keith had Foosball and the pump track so that was a lot of fun. Gene’s wife and kid’s were there also but Gene was called into work . Too bad. What great people.

March 16 - Day 14

Rolled into Simi Valley about 10 am more or less. It was a great drive from Ojai. Very scenic. Keith P. called about then and said he’d pick me up at 1:00 for the ride. He did and it was good to see him again. We drove to some trail head and met his buddy Gene. I remember him from Moab. Last year he showed me how to use one of the features on my camera. Fun ride. Some dbl track and some singletrack . The descents were really good. Loose, sandy ,rocky and rutted. I stayed upright so it was good. After one decent we ended up on some nationhood road. I was thinking “ We must be close” then we road awhile and climbed up past some big homes and Keith stopped and sat down under a tree. We got out our snacks and kicked back. I thought for a second that “ Maybe Keith or Gene live right around here and we’ll drive back to the trail head. My mind is weird when I’m tired. Then I looked up and we were sitting across from a trail entrance. O well…back to reality. More climbing and a couple of cool decent‘s. A fun ride to be sure. Keith and Gene are great riders and did'nt hassle me when I had to push up some of the steep climbs.

Santa Cruz Day 8

Went down to Santa Cruz today and met up with Paul M. and about 4 others. John from San Ramon went also. I really put my head on the chopping block today. And they chopped. Over and over and over. The single track was some of the best I've seen. Redwood trees, Sandy sections, riding across rail road trestles and even some tech hwy crossings. Paul M. is a machine and the other riders were really riding well. It's all fuzzy right now, but one memorable decent was super steep, kinda dh race style with med drops and a cool step up. The climb out up the road hurt. The final decent was really fun. Rocky and lot's of flow. Thanks to Paul for letting me tag along and to John for the ride (half way) I'll be back here for sure