Mountains!

Golden, Colorado















Ahhhh, the ticks are dead and the mosquito bites itch no more. It's amazing what a shower and a clean bed can do for a guy. By the way, that crap view above is taken at the top of the climb on the Matthew Winters Trail.

I almost puked several times on the way up... Here I am below, pretending it doesn't hurt.

What do you mean smile? I am smiling... god I'm out of shape.















This one is taken a couple of feet down the trail just before the fun.















One of the most fun trails I've ridden in a long time. It rolled along for a while longer, heading up and down, before it shot strait down for more than a mile with a really tech line. There were huge boulders everywhere. So much fun.

Then the trail crossed over and came back up the other side of the road. There was another steep climb followed by a long, but this time flowy, wide open decent. The kind of wide open, not too steep, completely run out of gear decent that gets you going so fast your eyes water.

Didn't take too many pics because it was just to much fun to stop and take out the camera... except for on the climbs that is:

How much further is it anyway?



















You mean we have to go all the way up there?















Sounds like a good time to stop and take a picture then... Here I am!



















There is one other shot I wish I would have gotten.

One of the few switch backs on the trail back down to the parking lot had a flat faced, upright boulder about 6ft tall and 8ft wide sitting right in the apex of the corner, with just a hint of slant to it. The line into the corner was absolutely perfectly set up to throw in a little bunny hop and ride this rock wall. The exit to the wall was a smooth little bermy thing. The move absolutely rocked my socks off.

Unfortunately no one was there, waiting with camera in hand, to get a picture of it. And I wasn't about to stop and ruin the flow. Oh well, I guess I've got a reason to make a trip back there some day.

Kansas Days 6-7, or... Kansas has had enough of me

I hope it doesn't sound like I'm down on Kansas. I'm not. The parts we visited were beautiful, we really enjoyed them. I for one will probably visit again some day.

But, on this trip, there was definitely an unseen force trying to move us along. Remember yesterday I mentioned ticks and mosquitoes but only told you a tick story? Well, today, you're going to get a mosquito story...

But first.. We meet up with Jason on his private land. Today this trip officially starts to pay off in good riding.

Jason is one of the Kansas City Freeride crew and he's a ripper. He's built a little freeride oasis in the middle of a shimmering field of corn. There isn't much else around these parts.

As you can see here in this picture of my truck in "the parking lot"...















Let the games begin...















Here is Jason's giant wall ride...














and his even bigger step-up, step-down move...














From what I understand only a handful of people have ever hit it. I declined... as I was still feeling light headed from my run in with the army of ticks. Hey, that's my story and I'm sticking to it...

Jason on the other hand made it look easy.



















Here are some highlights of the line, in sequence:








































































The skinny stuff he was working on was very fun. I love stunts like this.



















But I think I rode it backwards.















While us men were busy risking life and limb Kristi was busy photographing all sorts of little critters.


































My guess is that this little guy is a pretty successful hunter. Hellooooo there....















A few hours of shred and a couple of bails later we were spent. There's alot of pedaling in order to hit those stunts... kind of reminded me of Florida in that way. But that's about the only way.

We were so stoked that we got to hook up with Jason and ride his trail. He's very passionate about riding and building and it shows.

So, how do you cap off the best day of riding you've had thus far on an epic journey that you're just starting to settle into? Three words:

Guns...














and fire...














And perhaps some sort of a ritualistic fire dance... Aw shucks, I bet you do this for all the tourists.















That night we decided to sleep under the stars. It was warm and there was no chance of rain. So why put up a tent, when a sleeping bag will do, right?

Wrong. Kansas has large aggressive mosquito's that aren't put off by the smoke and heat of a pretty impressive fire.

No problem, I'll just wrap myself up "a-la burrito style" in my sleeping bag.

What's that?

Oh, these things will bite your ass right through a down sleeping bag. Exellent.

Plus I drank a fair amount of beer that night and it was pretty warm outside so every couple of minutes the sleeping bag needed to be opened up for some, ahem, "fresh air". That's when the mosquito's would pounce.

Add a high dew point to the equation and you get night of restless sleep in a wet sleeping bag full of angry mosquito's and a wet pillow.

Well, at least we were already on our way to breakfast when the rash broke out on my face...

Some pictures of my stop sign stop-sign-red, braille textured face and the baseball sized welts that covered most of my upper body would have really tied this post together but once again... at the time I did not find any of it funny.

Days 2-5 or Kansas is Crazy

Kansas is like a relative time warp, the relativity being to Florida where there are so few open spaces and large rolling fields of grass in which to lay.















Kansas seems to have plenty of places to just hang around...















It also has beautiful wooded lands that aren't slated to be developed into condos next month, friendly strangers, lakes with open access and, yes, long flowing mountain bike trails carved into hills of tightly packed trees and vines.

The trail we rode had just the right amount of elevation change for us two Floridians... which is to say not all that much. The terrain was technical and rockier than expected but still "flow-able". The trail climbed, twisted and wound it's way around the lake with plenty of opportunities to gaze.

And, unlike in Florida, the trail builders seemed familiar with the concept of momentum. That's to say that the down hill sections flowed well, encouraging you to stay off the brakes and enjoy the speed. Sometimes it seems a common held belief among Florida trail builders that any steep downhill should be followed immediately by a 90 degree (or sharper) turn or some loose sand in order to discourage any sort of fun or thrill seeking.

Here's a couple of examples of typical terrain around Clinton Lake. This creation looked like it was a living trail feature, not just a pile of deadfall. there were little buds sprouting up on the limbs:



















There were also a bunch of easy features sprinkled throughout the trail. Easy, but definitely fun


































And sometimes skinny...



















While we were camping at Clinton Lake it was warm but not too hot. Humid but not stifling. Sunny but not intense. Breezy but not windy. It was just... comfortable. Comfortable to the point that it almost felt like you are nowhere-erehwon. I would describe Kansas as the womb of the United States.

And if the comfort and the general friendliness of everyone we met were the reasons we stayed for so long, then the tick infestation and baseball sized mosquitoes (that could lance you straight through a down sleeping bag) were the reason that the time between when we decided to leave and when the car was packed and ready to go was so short.

We left Clinton Lake State Park after four days of easy living at a beautiful campsite. We were compelled to leave because of the thousands of barely-visible-to-the-naked-eye ticks that made us there home after we rode through their nest.

They were too small to get off with tweezers, which didn't matter anyway because there were way to many to try. We had to scrub them off... with a nylon bristled brush's in open air showers. Guess how much fun that was?

In retrospect, I should have snapped a few pictures, but I didn't find it funny at the time. Looking back, my tick speckled legs, butt, chest, back, neck and arms would have made a great addition to this post.

Next stop? Jason's private land... Home to the KSFreeriders.

Day 3, or... Day 1 of the Kansas bazaar

Where were we? Oh right, we're still in the car...

You'll notice that becoming a dominant theme of this trip, if you haven't already.

We spent last night in the city of the silver arch. But we were back on the road first thing in the morning because all either of us could both talk about was how much we both wanted to make it out west. Which makes it all the more strange... and later on ironic... that we spent a entire week... 7 full days... in Kansas.

By the end of it I think Kansas herself was tired of us. But I'm getting ahead of myself. There are tales to tell between now and our exodus from.. errr.. umm.. I mean our exit from the state.

Duncan, how are you enjoying the drive boy? That much huh...














Wanna go for a ride?














He he.. just kidding we have another 100 miles to go. Go back to sleep.

We stopped in Kansas City which is really in Missouri but we figured it counted anyway. After grabbing some food out of the cooler and taking the dog for a walk we found the River Market Cyclery.














Very cool shop. They let me "borrow" their internet for a while so I could find us a place to camp for the night.

I might have explained my trip planning philosophy already but it's worth repeating. It goes like this. Over planning is like a signal that jams your "adventure radar". If you've already decided on everything you want to do your not really open to the possibility of possibilities. You know what I mean?

With a couple of key exceptions, planning for this trip basically consisted of writing down the name, phone # and address of a bike shop or two in each city I thought we might visit. In my experience you can get pretty much everything you need at bike shops... directions to the best trails, where to camp, great places to eat and drink.

Hell, half the time you can even work your way into a one or two night stay riding someones couch in return for buying them a case of Pabst after the ride. I once stayed in a strangers house in Asheville, NC for a whole week and all it cost me was an opened bottle of rum I was going to throw away.

So, as far as I'm concerned, all you really need to know is approximately where you want to ride and the names and phone #'s of some good local shops and odds are you're going to have a kick ass trip.

Some might call that reckless for a trip of this length and duration, but I like to think of it as just more adventurous. My experience (without exception) is that over planning can kill any any trip. No matter how potentially amazing the idea is, too much planning can turn it into a boring, homogeneous and safe affair. Nothing ventured, nothing gained ...

Like a trip to the supermarket, you know exactly where you're going, you know what you're going there for, and you're 99% sure they're going to have it. And if they don't have it someone will probably apologize to you and give you a coupon for the next time you come back.

That's not life, that's preservation... like in formaldehyde.

Nope, not what I'm looking for on a road trip. Especially not this one. I wanted the sort of real experiences that you can't plan. I wanted to interact with life on a primal level. I wanted to achieve travel greatness.

That said, not having plans has its draw backs...

For instance, rolling into Kansas City at 4pm and not knowing where you're going to sleep after having spent between 24-26 hours in the car in the last two days... and it's 95 degrees, sucks.

So I was very happy when one of the shop guys asked what I was "searching the net for". Turns out him and his friends were headed out to Clinton Lake State Park outside Lawrence, KS in just about an hour.

Great trails, even better camping, less than an hour away. Ahhh... bike shop to the rescue again.

Tomorrow we ride...

Day 2 - Lots of Driving

We left Carter's Lake in the morning because a) Georgia is fun but it's no Pacific Northwest, and that's where I want to be. And b) because the sound those enormous Cicada's made at night could be measured in decibels... lots of decibels.

It was almost impossible to sleep. And I'm pretty sure there was a cougar stalking our campsite. We didn't want to spend another night and find out. Instead we decided to see lots of country today.

First... Nashville, TN is a shithole... I'm just sayin'.

I'm pretty sure they still have segregated restrooms there. Also, black people and white people did not appear too happy to see each other in "their" respective parts of town.

We definitely got off at the wrong exit here. We aborted our attempted lunch stop and didn't wait around to take any pictures.

Blech... that's one city I can cross off my list of places to visit. But the rest of the drive was inspiring. America's Heartland is very pretty.

We stopped in Paducah, KS for a late lunch a few hours later.














Nice little town that looks a little like it never left the 1950's. God knows what you would do there on the weekends though.

Although, parts of it seemed to be undergoing some sort of a gentrified artistic revival. This particular abode was on sale for the low low price of $690,000... I have no idea whether or not that included the Giraffe.



















Apparently Paducah has a problem with flooding during the rainy season too. This wall, plus the height of the embankment it sits on top of, towers close to 60ft over the rivers edge and the town STILL gets flooded every couple of years.














Why not just move to a place that just didn't have massive floods. While you were at it you could make it a place that also had things to do.



















Anyway, lunch was good and our walk around Paducah was educational and much needed.

OK, moving right along then. Oooh look, a pretty arch...














We camped out in St. Louis for the night and got an early start the next morning. Oh, and by camped out I mean we pulled into the first hotel we laid eyes on. Neither of us wanted to put our tents up in the dark after 12 hours in the car.

Stay tuned for more action packed days in the car. I promise we do actually get on our bikes at some point.

Day 1 - Georgia

We decided not to stop anywhere in Florida because, basically, I couldn't wait to get the hell out of Florida. So the cross country express drove a straight 10 hour shot to Carter's Lake the first day.

Carter's lake has good camping, a great trail and an even better shuttle-able downhill trail.

So, now that we're a solid 550 miles from home back in Florida let's take a quick inventory to make sure we've got everything we need for a successful camping trip:

Dog and dog's backpack, so he can carry his own food and water... Check















Tents... Check















Gigantic horror movie sized Cicada's being eaten alive by equally large and frightening bee's... Check

OK then, as long as we have everything. Let's ride...



















Kristi has an eye for the wildlife shots. She can spot little critters from a mile away. Hello Mr. Lizard. Are we disturbing you? He was guarding the entrance to the trail.















After we sucked our way through a lap on the cross country trail we headed over to the downhill trail. Yes, we're both very out of shape and quite pitiful. We're both hoping to fix that on this trip.

Props to the builders. They did a great job on this trail. It's short but there is so much packed into every turn. There's a jump, drop, rock garden, S-turn, or just generally different feature every couple of feet. Fast and fun all around, there isn't much wasted space in this trail. We didn't stop for too many pics. Just these two...

... the drop that starts things off.















... and the jump that wraps it up. Yes, I'm all Stiffie McGriffie with a complete lack of style. I just drove for 10 hours. Cut me some slack. It gets better later on.



















Ahhh good ride. And there's just enough daylight left to take in some scenery and eat some cold bean burritos for dinner.

:Click:


I took my dog for a walk today and was nearly asphyxiated by a malevolent cloud of gnats. For those of you who don’t know, gnat season in South Florida is SICK. They swarm like an army of Lilliputian locusts whose goal is not to ravage an entire crop of corn, but rather, to fill every orifice and semi-orifice they can find. Up your nose, in your eyes and ears and mouth. There’s nothing you can do to stop them short of wrapping your head in packing tape.

The air is stagnating and heavy, it knocks you down and sits on you like that fat kid used to in 2^nd grade. It’s so humid that the tiny little gnat wings stick to any exposed skin. The whole thing is really pretty disgusting and made 10 times worse when you roll through fast and sweaty on a bike. Not that this is a problem for me since we don't have trails anymore. It's an hour and a half drive in any direction to hit dirt.. ahem, i mean sand.

I really don’t want to live in Florida any more.

So “Click” is the sound of me pulling the trigger on a major life change. I walked into my
bosses office the other day and hander her my resignation. She said she wanted me to
stay but she understood that I had to go.

Now I'm off to Bellingham Washington. I've don't have a job yet or a place to stay. I have
a couple of acquaintances in the area but no real friends... you could say I'm a little nervous.
But I'm also excited and that's why I'm doing it. My life has felt like a dream for the last
year or two. Never good never bad just sort of dull and drifting. Mentally I have been on
power saver mode. I haven't been excited about anything in a long time and I need to
recapture that feeling.

An old college English professor told me once that "saying it makes it so". I think that
means that order to bring an idea into reality you've got to make a declaration of it. It
makes you accountable, makes it real. I think it has something to do with the whole Schroediner's Cat/observer thing from physics. All these possibilities exist with an idea
and it only becomes a reality once it is observed or in a less scientific way, shared by
multiple people.

So I'm saying it here for anyone to read. I'm leaving Florida and this site is going to be my account of the trip. Driving across country is the biggest road trip I've ever taken. I'm unprepared but that's the way I like it