Somebody braver than I on a downhill trail at Northstar.

Last weekend I stayed at Northstar Resort in Truckee, CA. I took the dogs for a hike on Saturday, and went biking on Sunday. They were having a race on Sunday, so that was pretty cool to see. I wanted to compare Northstar to the other places I had biked on this trip. Their website said they stopped running the bikes on the chair lift on September 1, so I was pessimistic that it would still be going. It was still going – I was really thrilled to get to enjoy Northstar this summer. I had been up two years ago and the jumps and technical ‘features’ had scared me out of my gourd – I stuck to the fire roads. This year, since Tamarack had shown me the way of the fun, I totally hit every type of trail I could find – Northstar has a plethora of choices. It was really fun, but a bit more rocky than Tamarack. I definitely understand the need for the extra suspension you get from a downhill bike – am I going to buy one? No. But I will rent one this weekend at Tamarack and see what it’s like!

It came out just about what I had wanted to budget for time – 10 weeks. Although the gas could have been cheaper, it was overall a really great trip. I didn’t get to see a couple of things, because the urge to come back was a bit overpowering (tired of driving a huge beast mainly). I didn’t see Bryce Canyon National Monument, Canyonlands National Park, or do the long loop of Slick Rock Mountain Biking Trail. I’ll definitely have to go back and visit southern Utah again and catch some of the sights I missed. Maybe I’ll combine that with a trip to Roswell, NM in the spring when it is a bit cooler.

Nine States and 4,416 Miles in 10 Weeks. It would have been 10 states if I had gone to Four Corners, but that was 16 miles out of my way!

Final Mileage tallies from Road Trip 2008:

Week 10 Mileage 337
Week 9 Mileage: 767
Week 8 Mileage: 261
Week 7 Mileage: 692
Week 6 Mileage: 324
Week 5 Mileage: 438
Week 4 Mileage: 328
Week 3 Mileage: 122
Week 2 Mileage: 275
Week 1 Mileage: 872
Current Total Mileage: 4416 (approx)

Final Week’s leg of travel:

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Rough Sketch of Entire Trip:

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Beat X-ing and the Beat Police. The giant orange cone which is built upon a golf cart frame, is an art car that Loopy, Douglass, and I and several other camp mates created for Burning Man 2007.

Since the Man burnt at Burning Man last night, I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on it.

I chose not to go to Burning Man this year. I decided to go on this road trip and see some things on my list of things to see and to work on myself and work on some projects that I had wanted to start. For various reasons, it took this road trip to get clarity and motivation and space and time to work on those projects, this blog being one of them. Who knew blogging took so much time?

I think I’ve realized what Burning Man means to me and so many other people. Its taken distance and a different perspective and a lot of reflection to understand what I look forward to and what I miss this year about Burning Man.

• Art: The location of a dry lake bed provides a canvas or gallery to showcase art that might be too big to show in other places. There are also many interactive arts and crafts camps and activities throughout the week as well.
• People: The diversity of the hippies and yippies that attend is pretty cool. Some of the most creative people I know attend and are inspired by the event.
• Food: I actually think I eat better there than I do the rest of the year. Part of the reason is that in our camp for the last several years, a couple of people would take turns fixing a meal for the evening, so we’d only have to be responsible for one night’s meal. I think we all enjoy making our special food or dish for the group.
• Biking: One of the things I get a lot out of is biking around the event. I enjoy riding bikes and its a quick way to cover the event quickly. Last year the city was several miles in diameter.
• Scenery: It is really fun to get away from where you live and be somewhere that you wouldn’t want to live year round. It is a magnificent location, but it is a very harsh environment.

So what is Burning Man? It is a summer camp for adults. It has all the ingredients of what summer camp was for me. Getting away from things for a week. Meeting new people that you may never see again, and also meeting people you want to see as much as possible. Being artistic and creative, and seeing the beauty in the location where camp is held. That is what a summer camp is for most kids and what it was for me.

The view from the center of Center Camp Cafe in 2004.
Click on image for closer view.

I like having a desert summer camp, but this year I needed a wet and mountainous summer camp, which is very much like the camp I went to when I was growing up. It was called Holston Camp, and was located near Banner Elk, North Carolina. I had a lot of fun meeting new people, canoeing, hiking, and getting away from my parents for a week!

On this trip, I’ve been rafting, hiking, mountain biking, and met some really cool people along the way. I’ve seen some amazing views, and camped in some amazing places… and I’m not done yet!

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Click on the picture above for a closer look. (and see if you can find what I think is a ready-made golf course)

Or you could drive up. I didn’t have a car and didn’t want to drive the motorhome up since I had no idea what the road was like.

I took my dogs with me, which happens to be the longest trip for them. 20 miles total! They did really good, although I think they might be mad at me.

When we got to the top, we all laid down and took a nap. Izze of course wanted to have her belly rubbed too. So demanding!

This was my highest climb in a mountain bike yet at 3500′. So we took our time and took pictures and Izze chased some squirrels along the way. This photo is at the moment the squirrel and Izze saw each other. In the next moment, both were running and scurrying as fast as they could.

There weren’t any roses, but there were plenty of wildflowers!

I’m heading into Yellowstone today, so probably no updates for a week or so. Until next time!

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The Wood Rivers Trail is pretty sweet. It is a converted railroad track into a bike and hiking trail. Its over 20 miles of paved trail with a very moderate grade. I rode up 7 miles and back and then took the dogs to the river… and boy did they have fun!

Click on the picture for a closer look.

Izze is having fun and doesn’t care to let you know.

Dusty finds a stick!

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• The sun was shining.
• The sky was clear.
• The temperature was not to hot and not to cold.
• I had a great friend to ride with.
• I had my photoshoot for the cover of Bike Magazine.

Perfect!

Then I go and ask one of the lifties if there was more runs on the other side of the chair lift…. “Oh yeah, there is one run. The terrain is different than on this side. Do you like ‘Super G’ (which is a blue run)? Its like that only it has a couple of drops.”

The run was called ‘Smoke Jumper’ and was a double black diamond trail for ‘experts only’. There were many more obstacles and boulders to navigate than any other run I had seen so far.

I think the magazine cover will probably be more like this:

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