Hills and Home

Not bad looking.
November weather in Colorado.
A Saturday walk along the snowy slopes.
Home with my Mom and Dad.
About half the Fons Family.

Home

I am coming home tonight. I hope to see lots of friends and family.

The Sun comes up in the East

Our apartment has sucked some energy out of our lives. Black mold twice, two broken water pipes, and phone calls to idiots running the place. This water was on out floor for three days. It was horrible. Stacey signing the visitor book at a hut in the hills. You can hike out and sleep in this hut.
Ted has massive arms from building steep lips.

The Fons family.

This Year Flew By

Neal Wood and I while at Robbie's wedding. It is crazy to not see the people I used to see at BMX races. It is like 12 years of your connections just end. Done going to the middle of nowhere, sleeping in the pick up truck, and working for nothing for a career.
Dan did a 4 month road trip and stopped in. I think he is still on the trip just not on the road.
I went to 4 weddings this year. Tomas's was really fun and pretty.
Stacey and I went rafting with Matt a few times. Now it is over possibly forever because Matt is going to fight forest fires.

On one of my past work trips I saw the good guys. I was much cooler than I expected. It is huge, detailed and in a beautiful area.
My sister came to visit a year ago. Her year has even been faster and crazier than ever expected.
I helped Stacey cross the river while her Dad visited. My Parents visited but I can't find the photo.
Stacey now has a large piece of carbon on her hand. She is amazing.
The trip to Lake Powell was possible the best trip I have ever been on. Well, it was the best beer drinking, boat riding, and eating good trip.

It has almost been two years in CO. This girl and I have good times.
We went snow shoeing last winter. This was the view from the top.
Ted came here more than a year ago, he was figuring out the meaning of life and where he should live his.
I rode Pipe Dream once last year. It was too wet this day but still beautiful. Built with vision, shovels, dirt, trees and time. Beeler is on the bridge and I wish I was riding it right now.

I am sure this year will go even faster. My goal is to enjoy each day just like last year.

Love the Dirt

Billy blasting the bigger line.

The Third landing was looking nice in July. The V is running good. I haven't taken as many photos as I should have but here are a few. After riding the art Ted and Bret created back at 248, I am stoked to be riding the fall in CO. The radiation from the sun has let up and the dirt is holding more moisture. A few of us rode the other night for about 30 min. while the full moon was rising over the Air Force base. I was a very nice session. I am heading out there today and will take photos.

Good Labor Day

I decided to do a mountain bike race on Labor Day weekend. I never raced Dual Salom but thought it looked fun. I raced pro and did ok. I raced the #1 qualifier in the second round.
This is the second round verus the #1 qualifier. I was winning but then I slid in the flat turn pictured above. He beat me. It was pretty fun though.
Matt came to check out the action. Then we went to his house to go rafting/beer drinking down the Colorado River.
Matt decided to check out this cliff jump. It was too big for me. I was supposed to video tape him while Stacey took a picture.
Stacey got the perfect picture but I skrewed up the video beacuse I was not ready for this. I thought he was going to die. He did 1 and 1/4 flip and hit his back pretty good. That dude is wild. What a sick picture.

August Rains Don't Spoil Beauty

It was the most beautiful area I have seen in Colorado. Heading North out of Durango toward Silverton.
The iron horse will always be a nice time, rain or shine. This is a pull over looking down on the town of Ouray. This road was insane and the views far more amazing.
My rain suit really brings out the red and green. Ouray, CO.
For the moment we were not wearing our rain suits. We would put them on and get slammed with rain and then 10 minutes later we were sweating. Matt's bike just broke down here and the view was nice. We learned to check the battery terminals when you have electrical problems on a bike.
The town of Silverton is a place where I should have a house. It is 9,500 ft. above the sea and unique. It has a guided only ski resort and lots of silver to be mined. The rain was coming down and Matt's bike was barely working. I will return to go down the mountains on a board.

Our first stop of the trip was this. We rode about 250 miles on Friday night through some down pouring rain. It was the kind or rain were the a hilly road is a river. We tried to camp without paying but we got busted five minutes before we were about to leave. $28 for a camp site is ridiculous. I would pay $1000 to see this though. 800 ft. sand dunes surrounded by 12,000ft. peaks. Only one place in the world like this.
Piss break just outside of Carbondale. We just finished ripping over a pass with a smile on our face.
Our bikes took a beating on this trip. We definitely aren't the type of biker's that polish our shit. If it doesn't have some scratches and dirt then you didn't go for a 700 mile ride in the August rain.
I didn't mean to add this picture but it is nice. A quaint park in Silveton,
The second night was spent in the hills just outside Durango. Only $16 this time. We were drinking some beer and sitting by our fire when a we notice a new guy had moved a tin piece of shit trailer in a spot near by. He had his lights pointing at the trailer while he unloaded his car wearing a full red jump suit. He was carrying all sorts of weird shit and then a young kid started spinning a bow staff. It looked like a helicopter blade was attached to his hand. He was unreal good. We just watched the ninja for a while when we notice that the old red jump suit sensai was placing mirrors all around him. The old jump suit sensai was handing the ninja a new staff every few minutes too. He must of had 15 staffs. It was so weird. I am glad we made it out.

Top Five on My List

Stacey and her best friend Kate.
This is how it looks all over.
Our boat crew minus me.
Camp site.
Not the average house boat.

Rainbow Arch, biggest in the world.
4,600 ft to the Colorado River at the Grand Canyon.
The water used to be so much higher at Lake Powell that you could drive a boat under this. Now it is a 1 mile hike.
200 hundred foot cliff with 300 feet of water below us.

Lake Powell is one of the top five places I have ever visited. We stayed on a 60ft. house boat with granite counter tops, cruised the lake in a 1000 horse power boat at 80 mph, and did not pay a dime for the $500 in gas each day. It was basicaly a free trip due to the wealth of a cool guy named Arron. The lake is just amazing and the vibe was perfect. Lots of good food and beer made things even better. It was about 105 everyday but that wasn't too bad because you just jump off the top of the house boat. We drove the boat about 5 hours each day and we didn't see even half of the lake. It is 190 miles long but also has hundreds of canyons filled with water along the main channel. The world's largest natural arch is there and the Grand Canyon was only 1.5 hours away. I can only hope to do it again in the same fashion.