AREA MAN POSTS ANOTHER DARN MOUNTAIN BIKE VIDEO

I've been dying to use the song "Knights of Cydonia" by Muse for a video so I cobbled together footage from last summer and last week from Galbraith, Chuckanut and Devils Gulch-Mission Ridge near Wenatchee. Riders are Mellow Johnny (seen above), the Titanium Cowboy, and Matt Rose. Find the vid on YouTube here. Please enjoy.

A TRUE MTB EPIC

Team Unattacked linked up the big three on Thursday. That'd be Chuckanut and Blanchard Mountains as well as the Pine and Cedar Lakes area--43 miles with 5,800 feet elevation gain. Truly killer truly fun. Above, Scott Titanium Cowboy Young and Mellow Johnny Clark take a moment to place bets on what they think will break first--Mike's (me) chain or a spoke on his back wheel. Turns out it was my chain. (See John fixing it below.)  

Incredible day; incredible ride. Plus, we think we saw a bobcat! Click here for a YouTube video from today's ride. My fall early on in the video, is from my chain breaking on one of the steep pitches I tried to muscle up on the British Army Trail on Blanchard. Later, I stop in the midst of a killer descent from Pine and Cedar when a rear spoke breaks. 

Our route: Interurban to Larrabee State Park, Fragrance Lake Road to Lost Lake Trail to So Easy to various unnamed dirt roads (including some backtracking after we took a wrong turn) for British Army Trail (crazy steep and where I broke my chain) to Lizard Lake to Alternate Incline Trail to Road B-1000 to various dirt roads until we ended up near Pine and Cedar Lakes to Hemlock Trail to Arroyo Park and back home. 

Three huge climbs each followed by a rollicking descent: Fragrance-Lost lakes (long and arduous) followed by So Easy; British Army (ridiculously steep pitches) followed by Alternate Incline; and Pine and Cedar climb (annoyingly long and arduous) followed by Hemlock.  

CHUCKANUT DRIVE STORY HITS NEWSTANDS

Check out my story in today's Seattle Times about Chuckanut Drive. It's right here.

MTB-ROAD BIKE WEEKEND

Sunday--which was actually Monday b/c of the three-day weekend; in other words, yesterday--Mellow Johnny and I got out for three hours on the sleek elegant road bikes. First time since ... wow, can't even remember the last time. Super duper fun. Out to Birch Bay and back.

Funny thing on a flat road ride like that--you've got to pedal the whole time! (I'd forgotten about that.) Not like on mountain bikes where we climb, climb, climb, then climb some more but are rewarded with swerving curving descents where we turn the pedals only if we want to but we don't necessarily have to. (That's simplifying things but you get the idea.)

Had what felt like a stiff easterly headwind on the way back (in reality, it was probably 3 m.p.h.) but again, that's something we're not used to on the mountain bikes. As long as the wind isn't so bad that it's pushing trees over on top of us, when we're mountain biking, wind isn't that much of an issue. So we took turns drafting on the way back in and had a killer time-trial (ish) workout. (Photo above, by the way, is the morning fog over Bellingham Bay with Chuckanut Mountain in the background.)

Saturday--which really was Saturday--we MTB'd the Lost Lake Loop with Professor Steve and the Titanium Cowboy. Lotsa mud, lotsa fun, lotsa pain for me trying to outsprint the Cowboy on some of the climbs, all of it culminating with us scoring the outside fireplace table at the Boulevard Park Woods Cafe! It was a good day.

Watching lots of Olympics with the family--our favorite story so far: Alexandre Bilodeau!

AREA MAN UPDATES LIST OF TOP iPOD TUNES

For a while now, absolutely no one has been dying to know which iPod tunes currently pump me up the most when I'm treadmill or bike trainer. So, here they are:

Everlong, Foo Fighters
Knights of Cydonia, Muse
Map of the Problematique, Muse
Bandoliers, Them Crooked Vultures
Sex on Fire, Kings of Leon
Use Somebody, Kings of Leon
No One Knows, Queens of the Stone Age
The Funeral, Band of Horses
I Will Possess Your Heart, Deathcab for Cutie
and of course, ...
Enter Sandman, Metallica

GALBRAITH SATURDAY

'Nother great weekend of riding. Whilst the East Coast got pounded with some 25-30 inches of snow we enjoyed a beautiful Saturday in B'ham. Above, Dr. Steve Professor dude (Steve Vanderstaay) and the Titanium Cowboy (Scott Young) discuss something heavy near the Towers at the top of Galbraith Mountain. Mount Baker, just behind, appears to be listening in.

Below, Glenn Gervais and nice guy Richard (sorry, I don't know his last name)--each with their spiffy new 29ers--catch their collective breaths after the climb to the top. Don't care how many times I've done it, that climb's never easy. Below, Scott and I, who called each other earlier to find out what the other was wearing, about to begin the fun, rollicking descent. (Mellow Johnny was with us too but, pulling his typical diva behavior, refused to be in any of the photos.)

Funny thing, the way it worked out. Scott is coming back from a broken hand so we're trying to baby him by looking for non-technical trails. But somehow we found ourselves over on the north side of the mountain and the desire for fun takes over and we end up riding SST and that new one at the end of that (Bonanza Connector?) which has some seriously silly drops and berms. But we all lived and I think even thrived.

Sunday, Mellow Johnny and I got out for another two-and-a-half hours. Great, great fun!