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.
Last run of the day on my 166 Burton Malolo. This is one awesome board, I rode it at Copper Mountain for 3 days and then in the backcountry for 2 days on this trip. It just rips in the untracked powder. I used it on a couple of sledboarding trips last year up on Buffalo Pass and in Montana it floats up on top of cold powder.
Weez hiking up with the 156 Burton Fish, powder board. This board rocks in deep cold pow.
Colorado
Powder morning at a 10th Mountain Hut in Colorado.
Wyoming
Just needed this little powder fix. It's been snowing out west, still early, but time to start tracking the weather.Avalanche Skier POV Helmet Cam Burial & Rescue in Haines, Alaska from Chappy on Vimeo.
This a video from a helmet cam on a guy in Alaska. I found this on the Wildsnow blog site. He was dug out in less than 5 minutes. When the guide and the rest of the group started their search they found one of the buried skiers gloves on top of the snow which helped speed up the search. Notice the Tracker Avalanche Beacon hanging from the rescuers chest. This why you should have avalanche rescue training.
I have taken Avalanche I and II courses and did a refresher course 2 years ago, I learned new information each class. In the winter I receive 4 emails a day with the daily avalanche reports from Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming. It keeps me up to speed on conditions in the different areas that I travel to in the winter snowmobiling and snowboarding. You can also get daily reports on many different areas just by checking the avalanche links on my blog. Click on the Avalanche Links. For up-to date weather reports click on the National Weather Map link on my page.
Crossing Whitefish Lake on Thursday with a 24 foot pontoon and 90 HP motor. 40 MPH winds, raining to beat the band, temp at 40 degrees, my kind of weather. Didn't see any other boats on the lake. Felt like we were on the Bering Sea when the waves washed up over the deck when we were cutting into the swells. GOOD TIMES!!
These pictures were all taken after we got into the shelter of a bay. Winds were coming out of the east, south-east this day.
Gotta have the good rain gear, ya! Marmot jacket and North Face rain pants.
Exploring the forest roads up north ,ya.
The deer flies were thick.
Found some good back-roads to rally around on.
Tossed to the ground, yeah! Weaving through the trees and caught a root with the front tire. Smacked the helmet on the trail and received a sweet bruise on the thigh. Laid on the trail and wondered what the hell just happened...?
A view from the saddle.
Jr. enjoying the mountain bike.
Mountain biking in the fall on twisty single track is great reflex training for the western mountain snowmobiling and backcountry snowboarding. Also the endurance aspect is huge. Just need to keep up with the upper body strength from the landscape jobs.
Gets dark in the woods early in the fall.
The 3 Amigos of the early 90s'. Jeff Hall was winning the Short and Fat, Scott Hebel was placing 2nd behind Greg LeMond in the 40 and I was chasing these 2 jokers with top 50 finishes in the 40 miler. We all raced for the Diamond Back Team, Scott was one of their national riders and Jeff and I were DB regional riders. We had good times all over the Midwest and raced with Scott out in Colorado.
The Man of the hour, Gary Crandall, the man in the middle with the beard. The head Chequamegon honcho. He and his crew have put together the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival every September for the past 27 years. I heard about it back in 1984 and raced it for the first time in 1985.
Starting, staging area.
The front pack of 1900 riders after 3 miles of pavement, reaching speeds of 35 MPH.
After this corner they ride into an open field (Rosie's Field) and it is all off-road and dirt trails for a total of 41 miles(1 mile longer this year I heard).
This at about mile 11 into the race, still a very large group of riders. Jeff is just popping over the little rise and I will hand up a water bottle to him. I will see the leaders 7 times in the race.
Yours truly at OO trail crossing, about 17 or 18 miles into the race.
The lead group has whittled down to a select fast group. Jeff is in this group.
Jeff at the finish, 9th place on the day. time of 2:04. Last year he finished 2nd at 2:08, the riders and the course were very fast this year. The old course record was 2:07.
Gotta like the dust on this day, 41 miles in 2:04, 19.7 MPH average.
Finishing area.
