Memorial Weekend

2 different shoes pretty much sums up our ride...guess I need to pay more attention to what I grab! At least they were two different feet!

Becerra is back!

Start at 7:00-ish. End at 9:30ish...total distance—5 or so miles. Still had fun!

One of Johnoss Lambrettas...

"See that hill Prosser? I dropped you back there..." 

Johnoss schoolin' me on East Bay mtn biking and such. Lake Chabot in foreground.

Pretty interesting weekend. Sum it up quick-like;

Friday got Rich Becerra back on trails after like 7 years with a very interesting day/night ride in Angwin. 

How should I put it? Not everyone had lights, there was new folks (to biking) in our group, the usual maladay's occurred. It was a short, ride, a long time out there (mechanicals and such) and something I look forward to doing on Fridays now...

Saturday was Pizza ride in AM, got rained on a little. Next up I messed (again) with my Intense Spider's pivot bolt and despite breaking it before (while using a torque wrench to proper setting), I freakin' couldn't leave well-enough alone and proceeded to break it again — the day before a race/ride in Marin! Thankfully my "local" Intense dealer (CVC-Johnoss) is only a short 120 mile round trip away. Headed to east bay, got part and had Johnoss drag my sorry ass around Lake Chabot and up a lot of hills (on a new FSR none-the-less...those bikes ARE fast). Good times in the East Bay, I miss my Johnoss time, to bad Grady wasn't around too.

Sunday was Tamarancho Mtn Bike Race. Suckered Rich Becerra into his first race in 7 years. Met Otto out there. Rough climb (for Rich especially) to race start-essentially a 2-3 mile road ride/hill climb to start/registration. Did sport class, felt pretty good out there. Was too lackidasical on start, let most of my class go ahead on launch. Too bad it ended up a long single track climb! Stuck behind people slower than me (amazing but true). Able to pass about 5 folks and motor along pretty well. Finished 2 laps in 1:03. Mark Weir finished 3 laps in less time. I am no pro. Had fun. Beat Otto by 30 minutes (he had 2 flats) and Rich by 1 hour. It was a fun time!

Sunday evening was BBQ at Michael and Christina's house. Good eats and friends. Rode over on bikes with Curtis and Mitzi. Got to watch Curtis and Andrew install new SRAM RED bits on Michaels' bike--isn't that what BBQ's are for?

Monday was time with Jake (finally). We hung out after a good egg and bacon b-fast. Built some legos, read some books and messed around in yard. Jake's been schooled abit morethan I expected by Cari on what is going down, hard for me to really accept-but he seems to be taking it relatively well. He and I saddled up on the Kestrel and Tag-a-long to ride to Pap and Yaya's house for BBQ. Rocked the whole new bike path in Napa, pretty cool to ride without worrying about cars--look forward to it being all over town. Nice to hang at parent's house and see other family members, although it was a bit uncomfortable with Cari there and all. Gotta get more used to the situation, something that is not coming easy to me —especially given all that is going on and her relationship. Anyway, in time I guess...

Back on bike with Jake and onto more work on Stonebridge yearbook until 1AM...

What can I say? Stay busy. Try not to focus on bad/negative (I am about 65% successful right now in this endeavour). Give Jake all the loving and attention I can. Ride my brains out. Repeat.

Not too many pics, camera was here and there.

Grasshopper #5-Lake Sonoma

"Back at Car"...Stick communication was key...

Saturday was the final Grasshopper and again, we gathered up the lucky souls who would head out to race/ride the event. Things were going to be interesting for sure as the temps were slated to be around 100 degrees, the course called for lots of climbing and, well, it sounded hard. It was.

The omens were out there early for Otto, my friend I talked into going on his first Grasshopper. He called me at 8PM Friday to say he just remembered, as as he was eating dinner, that his bike which he was going to pick up earlier was indeed at the shop, and the shop had closed at 6:30.

 Nice.

I convinced him to ride his old bike, which he hadn't been on in a year. He agreed. Sucker.

His next call, as he was 30 minutes from my house, was to inform me that he had shoes, but no pedals. Jeezus! Luckily, I had a pair of crank brothers pedals on my fixed gear (I use TIME on other bikes), so no sweat, he could borrow my pedals.

He then gets to my house and has no camelbak and only one water bottle. Did I mention it was calling for temps above 100? I know I had told him that. Luckily, Curtis gave him an extra Camelbak he had. Very nice and Thanks Curtis.

Morning of we head out a bit late and end up getting to the event about 5 minutes before start. 5 naked guys in the Lake Sonoma lot surprised some families, but somehow we made it to the start in time to find all of the maps (maps are CRUCIAL for these events) were handed out. Uh oh...

LIke the blind leading the blind we headed out onto a long road climb before the dirt. I scored a map laying on the side of the road and told Otto we had a map. Too bad he didn't stay with me.

Once in the dirt, I was too excited/scared/nervous to ride too slow and proceeded to keep moving. I saw another map laying in the dirt and hoped Otto had the sense to pick it it (he didn't).

The course called for 25 miles or so with something over 5000' feet of climbing. The trails were incredible, I would say 90% singletrack for the race and really fun. There was a lot of climbing. Also a lot of folks flatting out there. I somehow came upon Curtis, Kathleen and the Crizzler™—they were helping Kathleen fix a broken chain. I pedaled on...

As I rode for about ten minutes, a fantasy came into my head where I finished ahead of Curtis. That bubble was busted about 3 minutes later as he caught me and pedaled on.

My next delusion was that I would finish in front of Kathleen, Curtis' nemesis. That bubble burst about 10 minutes later.

I resolved to at least finish before the Crizzle (he was on a SS by the way, so my feat wasn't exactly equal).

As the race moved on, the temps went up and it became evident that Otto, without a map, was gonna be screwed if he didn't follow someone. Even with my map, I still checked in at a couple of junctions with other riders to make sure we were heading the right way.

On top of the heat, the largest thing looming over my head was the long, steep climb to the finish on a road aptly named "Bummer Hill". I could not shake the thought of it and when I realized 2X that I was farther out and hotter than expected, the race which was always a ride for me, turned in just hoping to survive to the finish.

It was crazy to see how many people were f' ed up by the heat. One really fast woman I came upon had been sitting in a creek for 40 minutes-totally suffering from heat stroke. The crew around her nursed he along to the finish. Me, myself-I settled into a real slow pace and dreaded every descent (as I knew it only meant that much more climbing). Well I came upon ol' Bummer Hill and set to walking. Walking slowly. VERY slowly. I wasn't cramping, I was HOT and done. I had drained 1-70 ounce Camelback and 4 water bottles up to this point. It was a welcome sight to see folks milling around at the finish. I made it in 4:15. curtis smoked me by 20 minutes. Andrew was in the top 10. Jeff was up there too. 

Where was Otto?

2 more water bottles downed at the finish and 30 minutes of waiting and no Otto. Now I was getting worried. There is NO access out there. And it's out there. We heard of a guy in a skeleton jersey sitting on Bummer Hill saying this is "Dangerous". Otto had a skeleton jersey. Curtis and I began the ride back DOWN Bummer only to find it was a different guy. He hadn't seen Otto. Neither had the Helmet-less Euro guy on the Moots walking up the trail in socks (his cleat was stuck in his pedal-we helped him out of it and sent his delirious-ass on the way up).

Farther down Bummer we went when we encountered Heather. She was having a rough day and said she was "last". She had not seen Otto. 

Oh shit. It's now like 1.5 hours since I finished. I'm freaking out inside. I leave broken sticks in the shape of an arrow hoping Otto will see them and head to the finish. Curtis tells me we need to go notify a ranger, as there is nothing we can do. He also says, " I bet Otto went back to the car". I hope he did.

Another walk up Bummer and we see Jefé and Otto! Hot damn! I am so glad he is alright. He had returned to the car after only 5 miles of the race. Thank God he was alright.

To say we were cracked was an understatement. The trip top the post-race BBQ and pool party was kinda a bust as the catered food was gone. The pool felt great though. We decided to head back to Napa and get dinner at Azzurro. A call in about 10 minutes out to have food ready saved the day. We inhaled 4 pizzas and order of Pasta, 2 salads and were gifted with a new chocolate polenta cake Michael was testing and 4 bowls of ice cream. A. Men...

Easily the toughest G-Hopper to date-primarily because of the temps. I am glad to have actually completed the 5 race series though...met a bunch of great folks and found out a little more of what I am capable of... can't wait until next year.

A few pics on Flickr (too hot to shoot on the ride)...

Pay up sucka

...In an interview with the Politico website on Tuesday George W. Bush said he made the decision because of the war and added that "I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf." 

"I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."

A true inspiration. How about not sending them to your war in the first place?

Don't forget to spend that "Stimulus Check" on something real important like a TV or SUV.

Now

Happy places

Isn't it crazy where you can end up in life? 

So much of my "plan" is out the door and it's amazing how it all just keeps moving forward...

of course there is time to mourn, to be reflective, to think, "What if?"

...but time is the constant ... so quickly and without fully realizing it-days turn into nights and then weeks and pretty soon you can hardly remember who you were and what it is you thought was "right" before...

There is so much unknown right now, so much "new", so much to learn...about a boy, about myself, about life. So much more to be thankful for than I realize in the mire of the day. 

Well no more...

I see. 

Thanks...

Music Influences the early years...

So Jake and I were sitting around tonight and I happened to be playing Pink Floyd's "The Final Cut" and it got me to really thinking how music is such a large part of my life—one I used to be a lot more into...

The thing about me is that I am happy to learn and get into new music from those around me and with whom I meet. It has completely expanded my horizons in terms of styles and artists and for everyone I have ever borrowed from-Thank You.

You see in my early days, middle school and high school, I was just a wandering soul, not really focused on any one band or style. I can easily remember liking Tom Petty, Styx (Domo Origato), Devo (Whip It) and Prince. It was 9th grade when I was introduced to a few folks-Mr. Doug E. Fresh, Busy Bee, MC Shy D and the Fat Boys. 

The world changed. 

My entire high school career was spent collecting hip hop-everything from the East Coast classics-BDP, PE, Run DMC, LL, Stetsasonic, Shy D, Fresh Prince, Steady B, Cool C...

Big on my list were 3X Dope, Kwame, Larry Larr, Run DMC, Poor Righteous Teachers, Tribe Called Quest, Slick Rick...it was all east coast for a while until we were introduced to the West Coast.

 We had some early bits, Too Short of course, but the thing that took it to the next level was hearing Boys in the Hood for the first time. I missed who they were on the radio announcement and set about asking friends if they knew...nobody totally did, so me an the rest of the white boy crew (my brother, Jay Wooten) hunted it down. Hilltop Mall was the place to go and we found it all-including the NWA and The Posse tape with Boys in the Hood. From there it was pretty much all west coast all the time (threw in some X-Clan, more PE and some 2-Live)...we were hooked on Compton. King Tee, Breeze, Toddy Tee and the Rhyme Syndicate with THE man ICE-T. To this day, I can still remember almost word for word the entire Rhyme Pays album. Of course NWA was not to be messed with, but the Cube went solo! That led into all kinds of extra bits-DJ Quik, AMG, 2nd II None, Hi-C, CPO, MC Eiht...oh damn Sir Mix A Lot (Swass), Kid Sensation---almost forgot!

Then we caught onto The Click. Nobody could compare with E40, B-Legit, D-Shot, Little Bruce, Celly Cell...of course we shared allegiance with the north side too-Mac Dre, Mac Mall, Ray Luv...but the "Hillside" was where it was at for a long time...Tossed in some Spice 1, Ant Banks, MC Pooh, 4Tay, RBL, Cougnut and IMP and that was all you'd find in my CD case (you know the 100 disc cases we'd lug around)...Oh yeah and Boots and The Coup, Digital Underground...

Got back to the east coast, I was really into Biggie Smalls, but not Puffy. Way into Wu-Tang (CREAM), ODB and especially Method Man. It wasn't until later that my tastes switched to the RZA and GZA...De La was back in there after a hiatus on my discs...

College brought me into a new world, one where I faded away from hip-hop a little. I'm still into it, although I have to say the stuff out there today is pretty weak. Now I'll sound old, but the songs are nothing but weak hooks, recycled beats and too much BS...I would have to say the saving grace for me now is all the back-pack style stuff. Def Jux brought me around, EL-P, Aesop Rock, Vast Aire and Rob Sonic are saviours. Same goes for Outkast, Kanye, Jurassic, Illogic,  MURS, MF Doom, Modill, Atmosphere, Eminem, Mr. Lif, Pharoah Monch, Kool Keith, Mos Def,  Zion I...

what the hell is this post all about? Not much, mostly me rambling about music I like and how it shapes me...This little bit was the early years, Hip-Hop...I still have so far to go... college was a trip (literally) and opened my eyes to so much more...I'll tell you about it soon...

Ketchup

Jake and the Bearded Dragon at Reptile Club...we're stoked to be leading a snake hike in August!

Jake rocking Alston in the field of dreams...

Took some pics of Curtis Brazing a frame...

Super combo post...Little text. Go to my Flickr for pics.

Thanks M. Welby for the Hula song, totally reminded me of my old boss at Tesser who was always playing the ukelele joints. 

In my own music flash back, I spent last night scooping up some old Steady B and MC Ant, followed it up by blasting PE "Yo Bum Rush the Show" today...ahhh yes, my roots are in hip-hop, but now there is so much more...

Grasshopper-Kings Ridge

Pre-race with Lemurian Class Winner A. Brooks...

Grasshopper#4 was a blast! Good ol' Levi Leipheimer showed up again as did a BMC pro Scott Needham...of course Levi won.

The week proceeding was filled with all sorts of nerves..how much climbing would we be doing? Could I do this? All further  frenzied by A. Brooks incendiary emails and warnings to bring our "A" game. "A" game? C'mon now, I'm like a Category 8 rider. I'm heavy. I can't climb well. "A" game! Anyway, I mistakenly looked up the course profile before the event and freaked a bit more, but then settled in to whatever mode. If it gets too hard, I can always walk. I bought Bicycle Works out of processed food stuffs, tubes, CO2's and new brake pads. Ate at Azzurro the night before and even had breakfast the day of. I was ready as I was ever gonna be.

Crazy ride, really cool with tons of climbing and virtually no cars. Was involved in my first crash. Coming back down the road (missed turn) with two friends, I was leading and started to slow to ask directions from riders heading other direction, just in time to hear my friend Chris (behind me and much bigger than me) yell, "Ken!" He hit me from behind/back side (I stayed upright somehow) and went flying off the road onto his back and then bushes. Then my friend Michael hit Chris' rear wheel and flipped into dirt on side of road. While Chris was in the air his rear tire exploded, scared the hell out of everyone. Luckily no one was really hurt although Chris' jersey was shredded on the back and his helmet was destroyed. Michael's chi-chi R-Sys wheel snapped a spoke too. Chris is super human, he brushed it off, fixed his flat and was asking who else was going to join him back "on route" for the 7 mile dirt descent! I stayed with Michael and his broken Mavic-we had to cock it a bit in the drop out so it wouldn't rub on the fork. Bear in mind we were about 40 miles into an 80 mile ride!

Michael nursed the Mavic through some seriously screaming downhills (18% signed grade on road) onto Jenner. I convinced him that we only had 10 or so miles to go and he went along. Funny thing though the remaining 10 miles were mostly a dirt road climb! He flatted 2X with his Michelin Prorace 3's (I had swapped to heavier Conti's in anticipation of dirt).

Anyway, we finished the ride which was really cool and had a blast in doing it. Didn't end up being the total crusher I feared, we skipped two sections (dirt descent and a serious steep climb), but still got 70 miles with 7,500' or so feet of climbing. And spent Sunday pretty slow with Jake-mo as I was much more sore than I imagined!

And yes, we didn't "officially" do the entire ride...I did notify them of fact at finish...guess I was assuming that given the circumstances of the day (crash and all), my general ranking (somewhere near the bottom of the event) and the fact we at least made it back without hitching a ride-all qualified my fat ass as at least nearly last and not DNF.

Here's a comparison of my ride and my friend Peter's ride (way to go Peter you and Andrew were the only ones of our group to finish the entire ride correctly)...

My MotionBased suck-etude

Peter's MotionBased

Of course, I am fully willing to take my punishment—how about I race the final G-Hopper and then Tamarancho? Maybe even do Tamarancho on my SS...

Pics? Yep, lots of them, go to my Flickr page.

Thanks again everyone who organized the Grasshopper, they are truly outstanding events with great courses, and really fun folks.