Epic Designs

This morning I got my new gas tank bag from Eric. If you're looking for custom bags, look no further than Epic Designs Alaska. Eric was a pleasure to work with. I sent him the loot and told him what I was looking for. He told me about how far out he was and he was spot on. The bag showed up as discussed. He really turns out nice stuff.

I'll use this bag to hold bars, GU, and the kind of stuff I need to access quickly. It'll be nice to get that weight off my back as it adds up quickly. I'm a bit worried to see what the final pack out weight of the bike is going to be but I think it's a good trade off as food is a really important part of my strategy this year.

While I'm down in the Springs having another tooth drilled out, I'll stop in to a few shops and see what they have in the way of 29er UST tires and see if I can't get those. If I can find something that looks like it'll fit the bill, then I'll probably start building up the bike this weekend. Super excited to get it done and get in some overnighters. I woke up last night at one point from tooth pain and started to question my sleeping setup. Within an hour I had totally changed it again but I don't wanna make any kneejerk decisions until I can get some solid testing time in so that's on the agenda for next week.

In other news, the Denver Waterboard made an announcement yesterday where they said that Waterton Canyon will close on August 2 for a 13 month (I think) period. I don't really care how long it's closed for but the fact that it's gonna be closed the morning of the race is a bit of an iussue. So now the debate is on as to how to deal with this. We could start a day earlier on Sunday but I imagine that parking will be a big issue if everyone knows it's getting shut down the next day. The best option in my mind is to start from the Indian Creek Trailhead which is off highway 67. This goes for 6 or so miles before intersecting the CT. My biggest worry with this is that it's singletrack straight away and traffic is gonna be a big issue. The 6 miles of fire road in Waterton Canyon is perfect for getting things strung out and not having the start be such a clusterfluck. We'll see how Stefan wants to run things.

I got out for a nice ride on a portion of the Ring the Peak Trail today with a full CTR load. I haven't checked out the info from the GPS yet but...who cares. It was fun to get out on a beautiful day. As a bonus...my tooth was not hurting although I was up most of the night in pain.

Short powerline section.

I don't know that I've ever seen this area so green. It was so nice that I decided to sit here and eat the Rice Krispy Treat for a snack.

I swear I was NOT pooping in this pic but it kinda looks like I am.

More sweet trail.

Tomorrow I'm going in for another root canal. Should be fun.

Sweet sights

This is Catamount Reservoir. I rode by it today on my little outing (more on that later).

These are some of the delicious snacks that accompanied me on my little outing. You know it's serious when the king size Rice Krispies start showing up.

I got home to find these babies on the front porch. Ohhhhhh Mamasita!!!!!

Critters

So I'm watching tv last night and think I here a critter. I've got powerhouse ears too except for when Heather's calling me. The last time I thought I heard a critter it turned out to be 4 bears in the driveway trying to get into the van. I check the front deck and find nothing so I go back to watching tv. Then I hear it again and tell Heather to mute the tv. Then I definitely hear something that's a tad askew. I head down the stairs and it's something in the laundry room. So we round up the dogs and put them in separate rooms and then head down to check it out. There was something in the dryer tube. I was able to lift it up real gently and feel a small critter inside scurrying around. In hindsight, I should have crushed him in my powerful grip but I can't stand to see suffering, let alone inflict it, so I was trying to come up with another game plan. Whatever it was it went back into the tube that goes into the wall and then leads to the outside vent. I checked the vent and the screen is in tact so it came in from somewhere else. The dryer tube was in tact. Unfortunately, I was never able to get the little thing back into the dryer tube so that I could carry out my plan to relocate the animal. Much to my disapproval, Heather ran the dryer for about 50 minutes on the extreme setting last night in the hopes that it would kill whatever was making a Habitrail out of the tube.

More fun at the dentist

I just got back from having my temporary crown installed. I love my new dentist. The good news is that she is tender and gentle with me. The bad news is that she did some x-rays and found that I'm in need of yet another root canal. That would explain the pain I've been in on the other side of my mouth for the last two weeks. I haven't been able to chew gum on the left side. So now I have to figure out how in the hell I'm gonna pay for this one as the insurance ran out from the last one. I don't have that much time either b/c I need to get the root canal done and probably get a temporary crown on it before I leave so that I don't have to take extreme measures like Chuck did in Castaway.

I wonder if I should have gone for the gold crown?

Ride the Divide

When we got home from our trip back to St. Louis, my DVD was waiting for me. I've already seen it 3 times now. Super inspirational.

Eric Lobeck now looks to be about 6 miles behind Matthew. Both of them are flying and will be in Lincoln very soon. Diesel Marshal is in 13th spot right now! Super proud of him.

Tour Divide

This race is unfolding as we speak. My friend Marshal is taking on the beast. He checked into Whitefish with a time of 2 days, 9 hours and 59 minutes. He's covered right at 318 miles of the course so far. In 200 miles he should check in to Lincoln. He looks to have his head on a pillow in Columbia Falls right now. You can check his progress here as well as the others.

Eric Lobeck hails from Steamboat Springs and he's putting on a really good show right now. He's trailing the cagey veteran Matt Lee by hours. I'm glued to the SPOT dots. Hang tough boys.