Enough of this Tour de France silliness. I have a lot of photo shoots rattling around in my head and I need to get back to shooting. I was going to drive somewhere and scope out a shoot that I’ve been thinking about for a long time. Then I found that my car battery is dead, again. So I went to the park by my house and tried to make due with what I had to work with. This is what I came up with. I used 3 SB-26 flashes Strobist style. I’ve been more or less keeping up with my homework during Lighting 102 that is going on. I’m getting ready to do my first assignment ‘Cooking With Light’.
I met up with a crew and did a pretty epic 7 hour Ned ride on Sunday. I didn’t even remember that it was the last day of the Tour. I guess that means that I’m over it. Here is Jason concentrating hard on a very high old tressel.
I got a Canon 15mm f2.8 Fisheye lens last Thursday. So I busted out the full-frame Canon 5D so I could have some extreme wide angle fun at Cruiser Night. I was also riding the “V-Swing” swing bike. Wow, swing bikes are just so much fun. Riding slowly in a straight line is even fun. I also rode the V-swing on the Denver cruise on Saturday, although I didn’t take any pictures. I have too many pictures to edit and I had to draw the line!
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bDFNofZrrg[/video]
I question the legitimacy of a few, but this is entertaining.
* A shrimp’s heart is in its head.
* The “sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
* Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants.
* Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
* If the government has no knowledge of aliens, then why does Title 14,Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, implemented on July 16 1969, make it illegal for U.S. citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or their vehicles?
* In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
* A duck’s quack doesn’t echo, and no one knows why.
* 23% of all photocopier faults world-wide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their butts.
* If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall. (more…)
This is a pretty cool story and invention. John Kanzius is working on a machine that produces radio waves in hopes of curing cancer, which is is afflicted with. He accidentally discovered that the machine will burn salt water!
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGg0ATfoBgo[/video]
Now keep in mind that the news media is a bunch of sensationalist crap. They of course neglect to mention that the machine used to create the radio waves consumes more energy than is released from the salt water. Apparently they are currently at 76% of the theoretical maximum as discussed HERE. Nevertheless, it is a very cool invention and hopefully it will inspire others to develop power production methods that don’t rely on fossil fuels.
One of the mistakes I’ve made in the past as a newly self employed individual was working through holidays. Life is too short to work on holidays, and I find that it makes me cranky anyway. So for the 4th of July our crew of 29ers headed out to Golden Gate Canyon State Park to check out the trails.
The night before I did my homework and read some online reviews of the trails. For mountain biking there are basically two loops. We parked at Kriley Pond and rode the western loop, which is best ridden counterclockwise. It consists of Blue Grouse to Mule Deer to Raccoon to Elk and back down Blue Grouse. According to the maps this loop is around 10 miles. The eastern loop is the Mountain Lion loop, and is a more advanced trail. Unfortunately the trails that connect the two loops are reportedly not too mountain bike friendly. So our plan was to ride the first loop, then assess whether we wanted to go for the second loop.
Blue Grouse is a very nice switchback climb with a few rocky technical sections. The Mule Deer trail varies between super technical rocky single track, loose rocky fire road, and loamy pine forest. It offered some challenging climbing on the single speed, but shouldn’t be all that difficult on geared bike. It is mostly all uphill, with one fast rocky road descent in the middle. Mule Deer tops out at one of the main park roads where it meets the Raccoon Trail. We took the longer stretch of Raccoon which provided us with a super fun twisty and fast descent. Raccoon then follows a smooth and wide track that climbs back up to the road. The final descent was on Elk. Elk starts out super fast through the woods. Watch out for the hard right hander before the bridge! I barely braked in time to make the corner, while both Rob and Ryan blasted straight off the trail. Unfortunately Ryan taco-ed his rear wheel, and had to hike to the road and wait to be picked up. He missed out on a beautuful singletrack descent through open fields and wildflowers that reminded me a bit of Crested Butte. This part of the descent was fast and smooth and not very technical. There is a small amount of climbing left before the final quick descent back to the car on Blue Grouse.
So overall this is a great ride and is highly recommended. I would estimate that it is about 70% singletrack. The longish drive to get there and the $5 park fee will probably keep it from becoming a regular ride, but it is definitely worth checking out. The best part of this ride was the lack of crowds, even on a holiday. We were on the trail for over two hours and we didn’t see a single other mountain biker! There were probably 6 or 7 groups of hikers. Luckily we had Ryan’s mechanical to use as an excuse not to ride the longer (13 miles) and more technical Mountain Lion Loop. I’ll be checking that one out for sure very soon!
Sunday was a big day. After the Ned Ride we headed up to Ft. Collins in search of the Poudre. The Poudre was flowing, but apparently it had dried up significantly since the week before. No one likes a dry Poudre! I thought the Poudre up there was easy, but it actually turned out to be quite a workout. I’m sore today from all the stroking and pumping involved with an adventure to which I’m not accustomed. Now I know that seeking out the Poudre is not something to be taken lightly; one needs to be prepared for the potential consequences. You might come out unscathed, or you might get scratched and bruised. You just never know. Fortunately we all had a great time on the Poudre. And the best part was we didn’t have to take turns; we all got to ride at the same time because Justin was prepared with enough inflatables for us all. He’s talking about talking Clear Creek next. I don’t know about that one, it looks intense!
Wingnut and I hit the 10:10 bus to Ned on Saturday. Getting up in time to get downtown that early is always a bit of a stretch for my non-morning person type self. So I forgot my camera. And it was a shame, the wildflowers in the foothills are the best that I have seen after our wet spring.
We rode North up the Peak to Peak Highway to the Swiss Miss. I’m not sure if this locals name is actually the trail name, or the name of the loop, or what. We dropped off the highway and down to a sweet technical singletrack along a small stream, then climb up a burly old fire road to some local trails just south of Gold Hill Road. We switched to the north side of that road, up a climb, through the Aspens, and pop out on the Switzerland Trail. Then we dropped down to Wall Street in what looks like what is called Todd Gulch on the topo. That trail is a steep rocky forearm pump. It was a bit hot for 9000 feet, but we had a really nice ride. These trails are all legal as far as I know, and little known gems.
After a long slow coast on the singles down to 4 mile Canyon, we decided to check out what is up with the Church Trail. We came to some fresh, professionally done (read: expensive) no trespassing signs. “No bikes, hikers are welcome” was the message on the sign. Well that really burns me up. It would be one thing if the homeowner there was doing the standard possessive territorial thing. But discrimination really gets my goat. I hear the trails on Lower Arkansas are closed as well. Hopefully we can get some sustainable legal trails within riding distance of town up there.
Speaking of new trails, has anyone ridden Little Raven since the new work? I see they are still planning to build more bog-traversing bridges, but is it ready to ride now?
Josh Bender is a pretty infamous guy in the mountain bike freeriding world. I got to room with him in Moab at the Ellsworth Retreat last October. He is a really good guy, despite all the shit people like to talk about him. I *almost* went down to his home turf to shoot with him but it didn’t quite work out. I believe he is up at Keystone working on their DH park. They are aiming to make it the American Whistler, which is a lofty goal. I should get up there this summer and shoot and ride.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODxtkz1OAw8[/video]
