Intro

Decided to keep a blog to track my various MTB adventures.  I love mountain biking and I typically enter a few endurance events each year to challenge myself, but I have no illusions of being any type of competitive racer.  I just like to ride a lot.

2011 started with a back injury and pulling out of Vision Quest, but I decided to focus on riding for fun and had a great year.  Trips to Hurkey Creek, Gooseberry Mesa, a Rim Tours trip to Bryce Zion (Virgin Rim Trail and Thunder Mountain) and the Kernville Fat Tire Fest were highlights.

Here's a video of Thunder Mountain

Without training for any events, I still ended up logging 125 rides for over 2300 miles and 360K ft of elevation gain, mostly on the mountain bike.  Towards the end of the year, I was getting the urge to do some events again, so I did the November 12 Hours of Temecula on a 2-person team with my friend and training partner Susan Gibson, which was fun, but got real wet and messy and was stopped after about 8 hours.

Unfortunately, I ended the year injuring my back again, though this time not as bad.  Was off the bike for 2 weeks and have been ramping back up slowly. doing everything I can to get the back healthy so I can ride.  I'm still optimistic about a good 2012, and I'm already signed up for Vision Quest, the Whiskey Off Road 50, and the Leadville 100 lottery.  I'll find out if I get into Leadville in a couple of weeks.