Brainard Lake

Last weekend. Nice weather, great trail, no assholes. Yesterday I literally had a run-in with somebody who MUST have been having a terrible day. At least I hope he was having a terrible day because this guy was acting like a total *^%$. While I was descending a new section of single-track I met with another rider who was climbing; he looked like an experienced rider so I slowed down, said 'hello' and got over to the right of the trail. There was plenty of room for us to pass but this guy was incensed (apparently) that I had the audacity to not completely stop and get off the trail to let him by. Anyway, his response to this terrible slight was to purposely shoulder-check me right off the trail as he rode straight into me without even acknowledging my jovial greeting!

NOTE: (Technically, descenders yield to climbers. In practice however, most riders assess the situation and act accordingly. In fact, I generally yield to people descending and consider it a sign of respect and skill when riders slow and pass without forcing the another rider to stop. Slowing and pulling over to the right counts as yielding in my book)

It didn't stop there. This idiot then engaged me in a yelling match over trail etiquette, "Don't you know the rules!? Get off the trail!! I knew you weren't going to stop so I did that on Purpose! You got a problem with that?!" Jeez... I told him that I didn't have a problem with the rules, just him. I also told him to relax; "it's a nice evening, just enjoy the ride!" I rode away from him while he was still fuming. I could tell it would have made his day to get into a fight right then and there. In classic cheap-shot bully form, he even yelled after me, "Yeah! Keep riding P@$$&!"

I just laughed, but that totally ruined the ride... I never really understand what causes some people to just be jerks.

~t

leaf peep.

~t

fall strawberries...

I brought my potted plants inside last week since it started frosting at night... the herbs are just kind of doing their thing, but the strawberry plant I've got in a pot was a bit shocked by the relatively warm clime of our living room. A few days ago I noticed a flower bud, and this morning there are two flowers on it... maybe I'll get a christmas strawberry!



~t

new vid

this was just a little clip from the crested butte trip this summer... me doing a coaster-wheelie at the bottom of the 401. Too bad I was in front the whole way down the actual trail... I don't have any good clips from the actual ride.

~t

La Sals overlooking Moab

I went for a ride up in the La Sal mountains near Moab last weekend... it was absolutely freezing up there (frozen ground and snow in the creek valleys) but beautiful. I bundled up and rode for a little while along the Trans-LaSal trail, ultimately eating lunch during a break in the clouds and then heading back to the shelter of my car. I snapped this along the way, and messed around with it a bit in photoshop... anyway, the view of the trail, overlooking Moab valley below. Of course my bike had to make it in the pic.

~t

Moab - 08

~t

Geo field trips

Last weekend I helped my advisor lead a field trip for structural field geology. The trip was into the needles and grabens of canyonlands national park, in Utah. 20 people and 5 jeeps was a bit of a logistical nightmare, but nobody flipped a jeep off a cliff or anything, so that was good. This is why I like geology... field-expeditions into remote areas and exceptional structures like perfect full-grabens, relay-ramps and fault controlled sink holes.

learning to Pan

I got stopped on the bike path the other morning by a man who asked to take my picture. He explained that he was taking a photo-techniques class and was learning about "panning" (where the photographer manually follows a moving subject with the lens while shooting, accentuating the sense of motion). I humored this and did a few passes for him while pulling wheelies and what-not. This version is a little modified from the raw file they gave me, but the effect is the same. Had I been shooting, I would have been closer to my subject, shot with wide-angle and used a flash as I over-panned (panned faster than the subject) in order to freeze frame the image but retain trails extending backward from the subject. anyway....



~t