A Week in the Spring

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Urban biking with Weez along the lakes on Monday.

City skyline.

A trail off the paved route. Did a nice loop of about 15 miles.

How about a Thursday noon baseball game? Outdoors at the brand new Target Field.

Got to the ball game early and the first thing, gotta have a hot dog.

Soakin' up the afternoon sun in the left field bleachers, 3 rows up from the fence. The boys brought their baseball gloves along. The Indians hit 1 home run just a bit to the side of us.

Kirby...yeah!! Tyler and Tanner strike a pose.

Starting the Spring landscaping season with the new trailer. Bought it Friday, I added the wood sides. Painted em black on Friday night and bolted them in Saturday night. Sunday the trailer starts to earn its keep with 2000 pounds of mulch, 76 bags.

Funny thing happened on the way to the job sight, bought a 250 KLX Kawasaki enduro. This is why a guy needs a 3/4 ton pick-up and trailer...to haul stuff. Ya never know.

Colorado Tonight / All Night 1000 Mile Drive / Storming

Weez and I are leaving this afternoon for Colorado. Taking the sleds and snowboards to ride up Buffalo Pass and check it out. Then we will meet a couple friends on Wednesday evening to do some backcountry hiking and boarding near Copper Mountain area. It looks like it is a pretty good storm system has moved into the northern Colorado area ( check out the link to "National Weather Map" ). We are driving 1000 miles tonight so I slept in till 1:00 PM today. We will be driving into the storm so if we have to stop and sleep in the truck we will. We'll have the sleeping bags up front with us.

Larry and I slept in the truck the first morning last week because we arrived in Centennial, Wyoming at 3:00AM, on these trips you just do what you have to do. No reservations, get a place wherever we end up. Depends on the weather, we want snow, so just lock the truck into 4-wheel drive and keep moving. The great thing about the trailer, "Floe 14 ft. Double Axle Enclosed Trailer" is that the sleds and our gear is protected from the elements and the trailer tracks very good on snowy roads and when we arrive I can get dressed in it, yeah.

Have a good week, let it snow, GOOD TIMES!!

Finished the Fred Flintstone / St. Paul Landscape Project

This is part 2 of the September 4 Post

Click on picture to enlarge.

The creating part of the landscape jobs are done, now the fall clean-up is in full swing. It is snowing/raining today and we cleaned up one yard and checked out another job that is a yard clean-up on a big house. These are good jobs before the winter season starts.

Fred Flintstone Month <> I Get'ta Play with Rocks From the Quarry

This is a job we are on right now. 10,000 pounds of flagstone for the garden border.

This is where the truck earns it's keep in the summer. It is on the job 4-5 days a week hauling whatever needs hauling, plants, trees, yard waste and mulch. The trailer follows me 80% of the time for the jobs, load after load.

It took a couple loads, this load was about 4000 pounds total in the truck and trailer.

We did about 10 yards of black dirt fill before the stone.

The wall making it's way to the new Maple Tree.

Then along comes the River Rock. I've done 3.5 yards, 3 trailers in the last 2 days. It takes 1.75 hours to unload a trailer load of River Rock. Everything has to be wheelbarrowed into the backyard. The flagstone, dirt, River Rock and plants.

Don't need no health club. This will get us in shape for the snowboarding, snowshoeing and mountain snowmobile season. Just add some good mountain biking this fall for endurance and reflexes for riding through the trees.

The stone wall was complete as it circled the tree.

Everything is coming together and put into place.

Back for 2 more loads of rock tomorrow, and some more next week to finish the garden. Then the plan is to seed the black dirt and start the watering and let the yard start to grow.

It isn't as exciting as surviving a deer <> motorcycle collision. The dang deer never try to take on the 3/4 ton pick-up. I'm working outdoors so it is all, GOOD TIMES!!

I feel very lucky and I want to extend a my good wishes and good luck toward a friend of mine, MIKE KELLY who I worked with for 30 years and is going through a very tough time right now after falling off a ladder last week and fracturing his skull. Mike is a tough guy and I am willing him to pull through this. He has a great family to support him. Don't take life for granted because sh!t happens so damn fast and we don't get a redo. BE READY!

4700 Miles in 2 Weeks, Chasing Snow in Colorado & Wyoming

THAT'S IT, THAT'S ALL

Well, I just picked up a snowboard video "THAT'S IT, THAT'S ALL". It's put out by Quiksilver, it features Travis Rice with a few other big names in the snowboard backcountry scene. Terje Haakonsen, Nicolis Muller, Scotty Lago and in my opinion the Best Big Mountain Rider in the world - snowboarder or skier- Jeremy Jones. The scenery itself is amazing, from New Zealand to Jackson Hole backcountry to Alaska. There is some big air park stuff, but the backcountry footage is the main theme. It is great to see all the snowmobile access that they do.




That's what gets me jazzed up about the mountains in the winter. When I see the deep powder, I know how tough it can be to get to those remote areas. Plus just the whole sled thing, it is a process from dragging the trailer halfway across the country. The unloading and loading, fueling up every night. The gear you need to be safe and caring all the food and liquid you might need. You are on your own as soon as you leave the trailhead. That's what makes sledboarding such an adventure. The whole remote feeling, about how big the mountains are and how you have to respect nature and it's challenges. Then the snowboarding in the powder and through the trees, that is actually just a part of the whole picture, the end result. The goal, Good Times!!

Snowin'

It is once again upon us. The time of the season to start tracking the weather in the mountains. The snow has been falling out west. The temps are down in the teens up high, enabling the new snow to build. Another month and the powder turns begin, both on the sleds and the boards.

A few snow pics to set the mood and to check out the new sled. A 2008 700 Dragon, and also a few pics of the 800 RMK which has been replaced.

New 08 Dragon.

08 700 Dragon and 08 700 RMK both 155 tracks. All tucked away.

Now for some snow pics.

These pics motivate me to get my work-outs going in the gym and I'm getting out on the mountain bike as often as I can. Ya got to be ready for action when the season starts.

Mt. Hood: July 08' #3

Another view of the Mt. Hood, in the clouds.

We had to go to the bandanna route with the intense sun on the snow. Our faces got sun burnt the first day on the snowboards.

The youngster boardin with the masters, Weez and I. Isaac in the white.

Carving down the mountain in July, yeah!!

The board room at Timberline Mountain Lodge. We stayed in one of the bunk rooms.

The last day in the mountains, Friday. Mountain biking and 4-wheeling on mountain jeep trails and hiking some great hiking trails. We accessed a mountain ridge east of Mt. Hood . We parked the truck on a cliff ledge and mountain biked to some switch-back hiking trails. Weez and I checked out the mountain flowers along the way. The last bike ride was climbing up a jeep trail that followed a cliff band. Then descended back down to the truck. Good times!!

There was still some snow in the deep forest, some we could ride through and some we had to hike-a-bike through.

That was it from Mt. Hood. This was our 3rd trip out here and it is always a thrill. It is the ultimate summer Adventure. With snowboarding, mountain biking, hiking and 4-wheeling on some great mountain terrain, every day was 18 hours of Good Times!!