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I was up with the birds today and was met with beautiful sunshine and inviting trails.

I headed over to Bear Mountain today for a bit of a change to ride Lorax. The climb on my Rune isn’t too bad with my single ring set-up and the descent is hair-raising if you try to stay off the brakes.

The view at the top before dropping into Lorax

Lorax is one of those trails that is a blast to ride regardless of how fast or slow you ride.  The more you push it, the more you scare the crap out of yourself narrowly buzzing trees and railing the thousand or so sculpted turns.

The next trail was Smoke n Bobo which is always a absolute hoot. So much so that I headed back up the road to hit it a second time.

It was a short ride today but oh so much fun. The climb showed me how poor of shape I am in, but I loved every second I spent on my bike today.

As soon as I decided to ride today I started a clock.

3:15pm – “I’m going riding”.  I quickly changed into my riding clothes, loaded my bike gear into my car and set off for The Woodlot.

3:30pm – I start riding.  I climbed up to Tsuga and started my descent from there.  When my schedule clears in a few weeks I plan on attacking all the trails that have been logged in recent months.  I should be able to organize a few trail days with some volunteers of the FVMBA to get the trails (Krazy Karpenter, Toad Stool, Tsuga and John’s Trail) back in good running order; cleared of all the logging slash.

So it was down Tsuga and into Snakes and Ladders which was a hoot as usual and then I finished my ride on Shotgun @ 4:50pm.

5:00pm - I was home, unloading my bike and gear.

The bike I rode today was my Giant Trance; a bike with 4.2″ of rear travel and 5″ on the front.  It is a bike that always makes me rethink the idea that a bigger bike is better.  Sure I might not plow over the big rocks and gnarly bits of trail, but I have an absolute blast riding this bike.  Bigger might not equal Better.

Here is a video that might make you rethink the capabilities and fun factor of a little bike.

Simmons and Vanderham on pinkbike.com

10 years ago today my youngest brother’s life was taken in a car accident.

Every year since on this date I’ve gone for a ride to remember his free spirit and adventurous soul.

Today, while riding on Burke, the howling winds were causing trees to crash to the ground in the forest around me. On some unexplainable level I knew he was there with me keeping me out of harms way.

I miss you Nick.

Brother Nick.....Sending it!!!!

Well, I was rear ended yesterday while sitting at a stop light.  My car is totaled, my bike rack is a mangled piece of metal pushed into the cabin of my car and my neck and back hurt.

Looks like I won`t be riding for a while.

Could be better, could be worse but I just hope I don`t have  along term nagging injury.

This morning I was supposed to meet Dave bright and early and ride Burke at 7am.  However Dave decided that he is a bit more of a fair weather rider and bowed out on the ride when he looked outside and saw rain.  Rather than calling it quits I still went for my ride up Burke.

I parked at the corner on Harper and pedaled up to the Triple Crown where I started my descent.  The trails I rode were Triple Crown, Red R, Slayer, Dawg and Hustler.

The ride wasn’t all that wet but it was oh so fun!  Dawg and Hustler have seen some recent trail work by Bryan, Karaleen and Vic.  These trails are simply amazing right now and I can’t wait to get back there for another ride.

This is a compilation of the footage I caught with my ContourHD chest-cam.  It was so dark and dreary in the forest that most of the footage was useless, but this is what I could put together of the ride I had today.

Early September sunrise.

This morning I was up with the rising sun at The Woodlot and spotted a rarely seen deer  on the climb.

A stare-down with a deer.

I rode my Trance today and pedaled to Cabin Trail where I tested version 2 of my chest camera mount for the ContourHD and also my XC helmet mount for the ContourHD.  Both seemed to work really well especially given the small travel bike and the roughness of the trails  that I decided to test them on (Cabin Trail, Snakes and Ladders and Shotgun).With my early start and minimal delays finished my ride and was home by 9am and able to spend the rest of the day with my kids.