Lots of riding lately

Been riding like crazy lately. My endurance is certainly at an all time high. I've been able to ride the last 6 days, today being my first day off. Tuesday I rode my longest trail ride so far, just a tad over 22 miles with roughly 8 miles of climbing. Yesterday rode in Park City to escape the heat in the valley, it's so nice having that option of almost 10deg cooler with only 20min of driving. Been doing lots of exercising at home in the evenings and I must say for little time I spend working out it's so worth it. I spend anywhere from 20-30min doing simple exercises for my upper body and the results are showing after just two weeks. I really wish I could encourage more people to take the time in the evening while watching tv to do a simple workout. After one week you'll feel so much better everything becomes easier and more enjoyable. Finish up with some good stretching and have a small protein drink (8oz of water is plenty with whatever you take, I use some yummy strawberry flavored protein mix from the grocery store).
Here is a pic from a hillside on my ride two days ago:

Moab 2010

If you don't want to read about it here are the pics:
http://quinnphoto.smugmug.com/MTB-Pics/Moab-2010/12545712_reG7z
Vids are on youtube under my username: iambquinn
I believe they will come up as latest first.

I'll try not to get into too much detail here.
Arrived Friday around 5pm. Rode Posion Spider Mesa to Portal. PSM pretty much sucked. The Portal on the other hand, WOW, what fun. I forgot my camera, but you can watch this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erk4BR2GNPo of the trail from another rider. This is considered an Expert Only trail and they mean it. Three riders have died on this trail, yes I said DIED on this trail because for a good amount you are riding on a narrow ledge that is about 600ft up a straight vertical rock wall. No joke here people, this is serious. If you fall to the left you will die guarenteed! Unfortunately videos never do a trail justice. When you see a small drop those are typically more than just a little drop, more like 1.5ft to flat, and plenty of those lined up in a row which is harder then it sounds when crawling through them slowly. Anyways, the Portal trail was by far right up there as one of the most fun technical trails EVER!

Next day we were supposed to ride the Porcupine Rim shuttle but rain cancelled it out so we head over to Amasa Back trail. What can I say other than 100% pure FUN. This trail has so many options to hit off to the side and we hit them all! Probably took up twice as long as normal to ride this trails because of all the times we stopped to play. Rollers (steep rock declines you go down that take a good amount of technical ability so that you don't flipped over the handlebars) and drops were the name of the game and we took it into overtime! At the top we went over to Rockstacker which is another very technical trail with two descents that were surely +5 rated (meaning it can't get much harder or it wouldn't be rideable). Very tricky stuff but really fun too. Shortly after Rockstacker we got poured on, BAD! Blowing, cold, hail mixture, lightning, thunder (all around us and super close) and nowhere to take cover. Finally we made it to some rock where we could get under a ledge and it quit raining. 5min later and the sun came out, but by then we were soaked to the bone and really cold. The rest of the ride in was fun but also a little miserable with cold hands and feet that stung on every bump. Did I mention we were riding super bumpy rock trails and were about 7 miles from the trail head? Yeah!

Sunday we finally got to do the Porcupine Rim shuttle although not the full Enchilada due to rain up high in the mountains. Got to ride from UPS down (still about 15miles). I had 2 specific challenges in mind that I wanted to try, one being the "Notch". For those who don't know about the "Notch", it's a short, steep, slippery, basically extremely difficult section that not many people make it down. I would guess of all the riders on this trail, only 10% try the Notch, and of those maybe 10% succeed. If fact it's so difficult there is another trail option that completely bipasses the Notch. It took me 5 tries, but finally I made it through clean and very happy. Here is the link to that video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dowgTYVfcY
The rest of the trail was fun. The 2nd section I was looking to tackle was down at the bottom and I was able to clean it up on the 2nd try. First try was really just a stupid mistake at the top, should've never happened, oh well. Here is that vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd22J2MXYzA
Believe me when I say these are SO MUCH harder than they look! Trust me!

Here are a couple of my favorite pics of the trip. Still waiting on the pics from my riding buddy Andrew. Once I get those might post some up.

First hike of the year today

Super nice today, almost 90deg and sunny so I headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon to the Mill D North trail that leads to Dogwood and Desolation Lake. I didn't want to push my knees so I only went to Dogwood which is 2.5mile in.

Saw a deer:

The trail in one area was still covered in snow:

The small lake with some ice still on it:

The view coming back:

I got this prescription gel for my knees that supposedly has great success rate with hikers out here. It's called Voltaren Gel...so give it a shot if you have joint issues.

Tonight we had a storm roll in and what do ya know, a rainbow! Nice way to end a nice day.

Killed it today!

It's funny the slang terms and how they differ from region to region in this country of ours. Out west the adventure type use words like "sick" and "killed" all the time. So if you make a nice run down the ski slope your buddy would say "you killed it man, that was sick!". So today you could say I killed it on my ride. That broken down means I road just shy of 25 miles, 11 of that was uphill with a total climb of around 3000 vertical ft. Max speed coming back down the bottom of the canyon road was 43mph! Good exersize ride for sure.

Here is a pic when I reached snow on the road:

Here is a pic down the canyon about 7 miles or so:

Never know what you're gonna see

Just driving down the highway and saw this vehicle...never know what you'll run into and that's why I like to carry my camera with me. WOW!

Lots of exercise last two days! Some vids too.

Yesterday I rode 15.2 miles on the Enduro, about 7 of that all uphill. Remember when we climb out here you are also gaining elevation which makes it harder and harder as you go. Last night Toby and I went to Park City for circuit training at ~7,500ft. One hour of non-stop full body exercises...uhhggg!
Today Colby and I went down to Sundance Ski Resort and did some lift assisted downhilling for about 3.5 hours then headed up to Bountiful to do some more downhilling. All in all prob around 6hrs of riding today! Should sleep good tonight. The bottom of Bruce's Trail in Bountiful has a nice little rock section. Took a couple vids of me going through it. Trust me when I say this is steep and slippery...I just made it look easy : ) Remember to watch in 720p...at the bottom right of the video box you'll see "360p", click on the little arrow and select 720p
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_14yEBPr-k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg2kamUIUfY

Been doing some riding...

Been able to get out a few times for some riding lately. Weather has been on-off since I got here. My roomate Colby has a slightly different background when it comes to riding so he's been teaching me about downhill and jumping. I've always wanted to get into some more extreme riding, but never had the bike nor the guts. This year that will change! I got myself some good pads (it's only a matter of time before I eat it bad) and a bigger bike that can handle most everything I plan on throwing at it. Last night we heading up to the Bobsled trail which is down in a ditch up on the mountain side. There are some cool banked corners and some fairly decent jumps that go over some old cars that have apparently been in there for a long time. I had only rode this trail once last year so this was just a "lets see if this stuff is within reach for me" ride. Unfortunately there were some others down on the trail and I don't do well with others and going big for the first time...just in case I do fall and make a fool out of myself I want to be alone or with friends ONLY. Anyways, here is a link to a short video of Colby jumping one of the cars. Next time out I WILL jump it myself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3jSmgFioyI

First ride in Utah!

Well Toby, Colby and I went down to Draper (suburb of SLC to the south) and road some fun little trails today. First time on the VP Free doing stuff it was meant for. Got to do some jumps and hit some nasty rocks. It's so nice on a big bike that can handle the knarly terrain. On our way back to SLC, Colby took Toby and I up to a downhill trail. Right as we got there it started raining and to say the least it was a tad bit muddy. The trail was super fun even though we were getting soaked and mud was flinging all over us (including our faces/mouths..etc). Here is a pic of our bikes after the ride. I think it took about 2hrs to get them completely clean again.

Update

Well things haven't gone exactly as planned with my departure. I was hoping to leave around April 8th or so, then my bike got damaged which set me back a few days, then my Grandma passed away shortly after. Eventually I made the decision that it would be stupid to head out for a week and drive back for Ian's birthday party and another load of stuff. Now I'm just waiting to hear that I have a place to move into once I arrive in SLC. So far the right house hasn't come up yet, so the waiting game continues. I may drive out, dump all my non-mountain biking gear in a storage unit and hit the road to southern Utah for a couple weeks of riding in St. George and Moab as it's getting warmer there by the week. Many people don't realize how hot it gets in Utah, especially central and southern Utah. Moab, which is more central, sees 90's in May, 100's in June through Sept. Take the fact that the ground is solid rock with little shade and those numbers feel 10deg higher than actual.
Anyways, hoping to hear good news about a house soon. Earliest departure would now be next Monday the 3rd.

Ian's Birthday Party pics/vids

These kids are growing up so fast. It seems like a year ago Ian was just turning 5, now he is 7! This was a big year because he got his first real gun (redneck children here). A nice little Rossi .22/4.10 combo, perfect for learning how to shoot and hunt small game.
The kids:


Ian with his gun:

Trying it out for the first time:

Vids on youtube of him shooting it (total of 5). Link to first one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC6wTIPs3aA&feature=related