The Chubby Mexican

Around the World

And I thought my commute to work was long.  Check out this Guy.

This dude is one lucky man

I can't imagine the stuff that was going thru his mind.

 

Avalanche Skier POV Helmet Cam Burial & Rescue in Haines, Alaska from Chappy on Vimeo.

NCT Field Trip 2009

Somehow we finally got the NOSS group together for a little mountain biking weekend.  Everyone except for brother Wayne and (everyone else's brother) Jay.  Man we had a blast!  Everything from the weather to the lack of ANY mechanicals made out for a perfect weekend.

The majority of the group couldn't make it out until Saturday morning so Biz and I ended up driving up Friday afternoon and we're able to get a ride in.  Since it would be late in the day I decided that we should hit the Baxter Bridge section since the best part of the ride is the first 5 miles or so (on an out-and-back).  As soon as we pull into the lot we are greeted by a couple of pu$$ies.  Damn they were cute.  To bad I'm allergic to 'em. 

 

The first couple of mile of singletrack are, I think, some of the most "technical" the NCT has to offer.  They are super tight bench cut with some steep sections, with just the right amount of roots and rocks thrown in.  After that section is the monster climb up to the top and to the lookout platforms.  Not a bad view for Michigan.

 

There was also a couple of hike-a-bikes in this section.  It's hard to ride up 6 inches of sand...on an uphill.

Saturday night Biz and I ended up camping at a nice, semi-new campsite located on the Hodenpyl Pond.  The guy at the office said that we definitely couldn't stay an extra night because some sororities were coming in for the weekend.  You can imagine the thoughts that ran through my head about some wild, crazy stuff going on.  Too bad we had to go :-(.  I will revisit the sorority thing in a latter twist.

 

We met up with the guys the next morning at the Marilla trailhead.  The next 16 miles of this out (-and-back) are the best singletrack in Michigan.  It is mostly off-camber and tight and either heading up or down.  Not to many flat sections to bore you..unless you are the Biz and hate anything that isn't flat.  The coolest part of the ride was listening to C-Dub say "God this is amazing" over and over again.  It's nice to have someone that gets as into the experience as much as you do. 

After the ride we sat in the parking lot and threw down a couple of cold ones and had some nice laughs.  While we were relaxing a guy that we had met on the trail earlier appeared.  After talking to the guy for a while we come to find out that he is the guy that is pictured on the cover of the Glacier Gazette.  Further inspection of the bike revealed that it looked like it was the same model, however full verification couldn't be made because the picture was taken from above and only showed his back.  After the autograph session we also ended up finding out that he was camping at the same campground that Biz and I had camped it.  And that he was chaperoning a bunch of sorority girls.  Biz and I both had to hold back on any sexual comments..trust me...it was very hard.

After the 32 mile ride we headed into Cadillac and ended up staying at the Holiday Inn.  For a Holiday Inn I can say that it was actually quite clean and nice.  The mexican place a couple blocks north isn't that bad either.  Unless there is a big party in front of you and you have to wait 1.5 hrs for your food... this does give you ample time to seriously load up on the free chips.  The only thing I could think of at dinner is I don't want to breath the air in a room inhabited by 5 mountain bikers after inhaling massive amounts of mexican food. 

 

 The next day I took the group out the NCT just west of Baldwin.  No one else had ridden this section so it was cool.  I love showing people some new trails.  We ended up taking it out to the Freesoil trailhead for a total of 40 miles.  Biz cut it short due to a migraine.  He did make it back alive so we were happy.

 
There was talk of making this a mandatory yearly fall trip.  I hope we can make it happen because there is no better way of spending a weekend than riding the NCT.

 

Hapenings

A summer adventure race.  A nice trip with the guys.  And a bunch of work filling in the rest of the space.

More to come...

A good day to restart

Way to many people been on my A$$ to continue what I started...death threats are scary.  A birthday is a good way to start things over again.

Doing my part

Spent Saturday morning at Addison Oaks with the NOSS boys doing some trail work.  I was able to get my backpack mounted blower out there which made the job of clearing the trail of debris relatively easy...if you call lugging a 25lb pack on the trail for 4 hours easy.  I'm also finally starting to get my hearing back.

After the trail work I had planned on getting a brick in.  I had all my gear sitting in the car but the motivation was somewhere on the trail.  I sat there with the hatch of my car open trying to talk myself into pulling the bike out.  I was able to come up with some pretty good excuses why I should just go home.  I fought the excuses and somehow found the willpower to get that damn thing out.  I was able to hit the paved loop a couple times along with some of the singletrack that I know was fairly dry. 

My feet literally felt like bricks as I was riding.  That 4 hours carrying that pack really did a number on my legs.  After putting in a good 15 miles I headed back to the car and was able to get my bike back in.  I then proceeded to sit and stair at my running shoes.  I laced them on and headed for the trail before I changed my mind.  I was able to run 4 miles of trail.  All 4 hurt really bad. 

Catching Up

I went through some of my posts and realized that I had not published them.  Oops...

Different Race....Same Story

Well I've finally gotten over the shock of my poor finish at the March Madness enough to be able to write about it.  I was 12th out of over 80 in a 6 hour race so I guess I didn't totally mess up, but I was expecting a lot more.  I've spent a lot of time thinking about what the HELL went wrong and how I can improve.  It's the same as always...stop making stupid, rookie mistakes. 

What went right was easy to figure out.  This race was done in a Rogaine format which means everything goes.  You can run the whole thing or you can use your bike.  It's all up to you.  I opted to run the whole thing.  I can happily say that I was able to mostly run a total of 6 hours.  I would of never been able to do that last year.  Now onto planning for the Spring Fury which is only a couple weeks away.

Bricks are my friend

So the Spring Fury race is going to be a true adventure race compared to the March Madness race which means that there will be canoeing, biking, and orienteering.  In order to prepare for this I'm trying to do at least one brick per week..preferably 2.  The first two were on the shorter side which was about an hour ride followed by a 30 minute run.   Another one I stepped it up and did a 15 mile ride followed by a 1hr 30 minute run.  A run in which I was attacked by 6 BIG dogs and actually bitten by one of them. 

Tonight I ended up with a nice 18 mile ride up the Polly Ann and into Leonard.  Upon making it home I realized that I was tired as hell from lack of sleep but I still felt like getting a run in.  When I left the house it was already dark.  Thought I would head up to the top of Drahner and back.  As I crested the hill I realized that I felt great and I would be doing a 4 corners loop.  It was surreal when I got out to the golf course.  The sky was lit up by a semi-full moon and the frogs were going nuts in the swamps.  I love the sounds of spring.

Over the last week I was also able to get a couple of good hikes in.  In both of them I carried little Angela in the pack.  On one of the hikes we hit the Lakeshore loop around the big lake at Holly Recreation Area.  That trail is sweet.  At some points you are on top of the water and others you are 50 feet above it.  The loop would be a sweet trail to run.  I definitely plan on hitting it this spring.  Maybe doing a brick where I ride the wilderness loop several times then run a loop of the Lakeshore trail.

Was that a moth?!?

With the temps near 60 yesterday how could you not want to go for a ride.  As Biz pulls up to my house he has nothing but nice things to say about the road conditions.  "They are jacked.  Let's ride subdivisions."  The discussion/therapy session continues as I try to convince him to be happy with the conditions and just ride.  And ride we did.  We ended up with 40 miles.   Some of the roads were definitely trashed and others were perfect.  Apparently the temps were warm enough that the moths were actually out.  Weird.  Where were they last week when it was -10°F...apparently not dead.  But it was all good because mid-ride we enjoyed a beautiful sunset over northern Oakland County.  Biz is a softy for pretty sunsets.

 

Am I hot or what?