On Vacation

Sorry, I didn't have a chance to tell you guys before I left. I did make sure our wonderful moderators knew, though. Looks like they've been taking care of things.

So, I'm posting from a motel room in Richfield, UT. Never heard of it? I didn't expect you had. I'm in between Zion, where I was taking pictures of this year's Red Bull Rampage. Now I'm on my way to Moab for some mountain biking of my own.

I took this photo during the Red Bull Rampage practice, yesterday morning. It's Cedric Gracia going huge in a Captain America costume. Yesterday was Halloween - remember! Anyway, Cedric didn't quite clean this one and went to the hospital with a broken shoulder. It sure looked sweet before he ate it, though. Thanks for the photo and get well soon, Cedric!

I saw MotionBoy already posted one of Brian, but I set it up so I'm posting it, damnit! Or very own mtbbrian, with his fat new lens.

And I got to meet MotionBoy, too. That was cool.

Alan and I in the Gooseberry Mesa parking lot, after finishing a sweet ride. Gooseberry is just south of Zion National Park.

Great shot on that first one PJ. SO that's mtbbrian. How does that Disney song go again "It's a small world, after all, it's a small world after all...." ;)

Here's a photo of the trail I rode today. It's about 15 miles from Zion National Park. There's no one in the photo because I rode it by myself. I'm not sure what that mountain range in the background is, but the river is the San Juan.

I'm documenting my whole trip with my camera phone. After I'm home I'll be posting some sort of story with all those photos. I'm actually finding the camera phone sort of liberating. Oh yeah - in case anyone was confused - none of these photos were taken with the camera phone :D

PJ and The Dog House at Rebull Rampage...word

LOL!!
Thanks for the pic John, although I Josh's pic is a little better..
I hope you make it up this way!
It was good to see you again Alan!
Brian

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lionheart

SO that's mtbbrian...." ;)

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Yep! That's me!
I should be getting my film back from the Rampage today!
It is a great event!
Brian

I've been in Moab for the past few days. No Internet connection in my motel here. But there's some epic riding and it's beautiful right now. This photo was taken on the Amasa Back trail. The snowy mountains in the background are the La Salles.

I really love Utah and I love cottonwood trees. This scene is so perfect.

Looks like some pretty sweet riding. I might get enough money to come check it out if i ever stop buying cameras and or bikes. Thanks for posting.

-pete

What a life...it truly brings a tear to my eye...How you MUST struggle.
;)

Glad I can live vicariously thru all you guys that have awesome jobs you love...

sweeeet pics....

MORE MORE

Photo John, It was great to meet you at the rampage. If you make it to the front range let me know.

Great pix, I had my fingers crossed that Cedric would go down riders right when he had that costume on but he didn't so all I ended up seeing was him waving to the croud :)

very nice. looks like a great time.

man I miss the west. the S word is starting to creep into the forcasts here. =(

I might be out in Cali sooner that later, i'm slated to go to UCLA. If I make it to Fremont or Santa B I'll let you know.

I'm back in the office, back to reality, today. It was a great trip, and now I'm going to wrap up this post with a bunch more photos.

These three were taken on one of the classic Moab trails, Porcupine Rim. The rider in the first two is Kyle. He runs Acme Shuttles and was kind enough to hang out and ride with me, since I was traveling alone. If you ever want to go mountain biking in Moab, make sure to give him some business.

The last photo is of my bike, on a cliff, overlooking the Colorado River. It's very hard to show the kind of exposure on these trails, but I felt I had to try. Plus, the light was wonderful. The trail where my bike is lying was next to a sheer cliff that went pretty much straight down into a side canyon. If you blew it, I'd guess you might fall 800+ feet straight down. Makes the back of my knees feel funny thinking about it :eek:

It was good to see you again.
Did you get up to SLC?
Too bad we didn't get a pic of you, me, Alan and Josh!
Brian

These two photos are from a spot, north of Moab, that only a couple of people know about and probably hardly anyone would be able to ride. The photos don't even come close to showing how scary and huge this place is. Nate, the rider in the first one, is truly incredible. I was scared walking around on these rocks. When we first got there, he cimbed way up, got on his bike, and pinned it straight down into this bowl. He probably dropped in about 80+ feet, hitting five or six 10 foot drops on the way down. Then he shoots up the other wall, like a halfpipe. That's what you see in the first photo. The second photo is pretty and an attempt to give some kind of perspective on the size of these canyons.

It was good to see you, too. And you're right, it is too bad we didn't get a photo of the three of us together. I guess we were all tired - of shooting :rolleyes:

I did make it to Salt Lake, on Monday night. I stayed at Joe's. We were going to go to the dirt jumps on Tuesday afternoon. But since it was raining, I just went to Go Ride to get some Addidas, and then hit the road. Stay tuned for a few photos from a ride I did near Elko, NV!

That first image is among the best images I have seen from you John.
It is just a great bike image, such a great quality of light. Great shadows too!
I don't know where Joe is exactly, but I believe he is close to Go Ride, which is pretty close to me.
Brian

good god! that's sweet!

This trip keeps getting better and better.

I made it as far as Grand Junction, Colorado, on this trip. Just fifteen miles west of Grand Junction is a little town called, Fruita. Fruita is right next to the Colorado River and has lots of great trails, built especially for mountain bikes. I stayed in Grand Junction and rode in Fruita for two days.

I love Fruita. which trails did you ride?

This was the end of the road for me, anyway. This lonely cottonwood along the Colorado River was photographed on Monday, right before I turned around and headed home. Winter was on the way, anyhow.

Most people have nothing nice to say about Nevada, unless it involves Las Vegas. I'm not one of those people. I love Nevada. It's one of the few truly wild and lonely places left in the US. And the northern Basin and Range area is especially empty. It takes a good 6 hours to drive across Nevada on Interstate 80.

So after leaving Salt Lake City early, due to rain, I arrived in Elko at 3:30 PM and decided to call it a day. Plus, there were signs on the freeway that said something about a recreating area. The land around Elko all looks pretty sage-brushy with big, rolling ridges. But there wasn't anything that looked really interesting for the last 60 miles of my drive. But I asked the woman at the motel desk about the "recreating area" and mountain biking anyhow. It's always nice to stretch the legs and get a little spin in.

I followed her directions and as I drove over the ridge just south of Elko, low and behold, one hell of a rugged and snowy mountain range appeared - the Ruby Mountains. I've driven through Elko tons of times and never knew those mountains were there. So I drove out to Lamoille Canyon, as directed. In the first mile or so of my drive up the canyon I encountered a whole herd of Dahl Sheep on the road. Things are looking really good now! I parked on a dirt road, got out my singlespeed, changed into some reasonably warm gear, put the camera in the pack, and started pedaling toward the snowy peaks.

I won't say much more except I soon reached snow, and I felt very, very alone. I started to think about how many large predators might be thinking of me as a good pre-winter dinner. The trail I was on was very skinny, rugged, wet, and unused. And the mountains were very forbidding. I'll let these two pictures attempt to tell you the rest.

Here are two final photos from my trip. The first is sort of a spiritual, photographic reply to my photo of the grim cottonwood next to the Colorado River. Even though winter has already made it's entrance in this photo, it speaks to hope for the future and a new season.

The last photo was made as I left Lamoille Canyon. These mountains are to the west of Elko and the Ruby Mountains. I don't know the name of the range. But I was in love with them and the sunset that surrounded them. I love Northern Nevada. And there's beauty everywhere. It's all around us, all the time. We just need to be aware and know how to see it.