Bike MS: Harmons Best Dam Bike Ride 2010!

Joe and I just registered for a two-day 150 mile bike ride to benefit MS. I am so excited to finally commit to this ride and also to have Joe as a team mate. I have wanted to participate in the ride on The Canyons Team for the past 3 years but couldn't make myself commit mostly because I hate fundraising, it always feels like I am asking people to give ME money.

This year turned out the be The Year for numerous reasons. First and foremost Anastasia's shocking diagnosis this fall at the age of 27. Second, needing to get motivated to get in shape. The ride is in late June here in Utah so Joe and I have plenty of time to get our butts into shape. My mom has graciously agreed to watch Charlie while Joe and I punish ourselves by riding 75 miles each day.

It's Spring again...

We've had a few tastes of warm weather and we're done with snow for now. I got 42 days of skiing in this year and a few of them were epic. I may have had more if the season were a better one. But I'm still not complaining. My brother, Jay visited for a few days in early March and had some fantastic snow. A few weeks later, Sarah's college roommate Meredith visited with her husband Brian and they seemed to enjoy themselves. We recently took a trip to Melbourne, Florida for Mike Spalluto's and Lucy Boyd's wedding. That was a beautiful affair. We had gorgeous weather and a great hotel on the beach. You can see pictures of all this stuff in our latest gallery.

This past weekend, we visited Moab for the second time this spring. I headed down early with our neighbor Nicole, who used to work with me at ASC, along with her two-year-old daughter, Zoe. On Friday, Nicole dropped me off at the trailhead of the world-famous Slickrock Trail. Many trails in Moab consist of this unique beige sandstone surface nicknamed "Slickrock", but this trail made Moab famous in the Mountain Biking community. I truly remember reading about Moab, and Slickrock in Mountain Bike Magazine when I was in middle school in Maine. Since then, I've dreamed of riding it, but feared what it might do to my marriage if I should drag my wife on it. The Sandflats state park (home of the slickrock trail) offers a 2-mile practice loop that is designed to give you a taste of the full 11-mile trail. It certainly offers a significant sample, but it can't prepare you for the grind of the full-trail. I'll admit, it kicked my ass, but it was well worth it.

Sarah arrived on Friday night with along with our friends Kristin and Cory from Park City. Saturday included a trip to Karen's K9 Campground for the dogs while Sarah, Nicole and I biked a beautiful trail called "Baby Steps" which is adjacent to the Klondike Bluffs Trail, leading into Arches National Park. The trail was a tight and winding singletrack, and you could tell that it had not yet been ridden much. Saturday night was interesting to say the least. We had a few margaritas around the camp fire and Sarah made some of her killer tacos with our camp stove. So we went to bed happy and full in our luxurious 4-person tent. Of course we have smaller tents, but when camping with the dogs, we enjoy the extra width and height. Then the wind came. As the breeze kicked up, Sarah removed the rain fly from our tent to reduce the noise. Almost on queue, it started pouring rain. So we hopped out of the tent in our underwear to put the fly back on, which was difficult since the wind was howling. When we finally secured the outer layer, it got caught in the wind and started acting as a sail. Before we could hop back in the tent, it started flying away from us. In fact the only thing weighing it down at this point was Blü. Roxie had long since abandoned ship. So Blü took a little ride in the tent eastward, toward Kansas. But we made a lunging effort to grab the tent AND the dog, and dove back inside. But it was too late. The tent's structural integrity had been compromised, the contents soaked, and we were afraid it might only get worse. Our large tent was destined for destruction, while the other smaller tents in our camp site which laid lower to the ground were mostly undistrubed. So we decided to head for the security of the car. We broke down the tent in the pouring rain and howling wind (still in our underwear mind you) and stuffed it under the car. The dogs agreeably hopped in the back and we arranged ourselves in our soaking layers into the front of the car in our now soaked sleeping bags. As we wrestled into any kind of position resembling comfort, the rain and wind eased almost magically. Birds begain to chirp and the sun began to rise. Through the steam on our windows, we watched our campsite neighbors emerge from their tents, rested and serene. They stretched and yawned as they greeted the day, almost completely unaware of the carnage that occured in their calm slumber. Their tents were somewhat damp, but had been mostly blown dry. Ours was crumpled in a puddle of mud and irony under the car. We laid, sweaty, frustrated and unrested in our trusty Subaru.

Following the incident, as we all awoke, we realized our misfortune was mostly self-induced. And we began to laugh about it as we did our best to collect and shake-dry our belongings. It was, after all Easter morning. Nicole and her husband Petie had prepared an Easter egg hunt for their daughter Zoe, which is certainly a cheerful diversion in the wet desert sand. We followed that up with a big breakfast of eggs, sausage and bagels, then casual 3-4 mile hike from the campsite to a large set of sandstone buttes named Monitor and Merimack after civil war ships. The hike was enough to put it all in perspective. Overall, just another day in the desert.

Rough Morning

This morning Sarah and I left a little early for her meeting at Deer Valley. Sarah dropped me off across the street from my office. She was stressed because we were running late. I had my little silly BMX bike in the back so I hopped out with my coffee in a travel mug and grabbed my bike. For some reason it wasn't enough to simply push my bike across the street, I had to prove I could ride it. So I rode across the street into the parking garage where two old tourists were meandering about. I swerved slightly to avoid them with my coffee in hand and awkwardly hit a bump that laid me flat out on the floor. My bike' s headset loosened up on the bump and the handlbar bent forward. I skidded on my face into the parking garage trying to save my coffee while my legs doubled over my back from the momentum. Now I had half a cup of coffee, a busted bike, cuts on my hands and elbows, and filthy greasy skidmarks all down my shirt and splatters of coffee on the back. As I started to get up, the woman said, "Well I guess that'll teach you to steal your little brother's bike". She has no idea how close she came to death. If this day gets any worse it's because I was hit by lightning. Twice.

Utah Rocks (continued)

Well, It's finally over. 2 months, 6 dental visits, 3 ER trips, 6 stitches in the lip and a few in the gums, 4 sets of temporary teeth, and about 2-dozen needles later, I am now the proud owner of a new porcelin smile. After I destroyed my front teeth, Dr. Paul Innis of Park City fabricated a beautiful and convincing replacement set. He ground down the adjacent teeth to use as support posts and inserted an all porcelin, custom set of permanent replacements. Now, they're better than they ever were. Can't wait to show them to you.

Utah Rocks

Utah rocks hurt. I know, I know it didn't take very long. But I was mountain biking today in park city and I clipped my right pedal on a rock (never saw it), which tossed me face-first into another rock (about 10 inches in diameter). I got up thinking I was fine, until blood started gushing everywhere. I looked down and I saw my front tooth—well part of it anyway— in the kevlar reinforced palm of my glove. I checked my sunglasses. They were in tact. I noticed that the rock with which I had just made out was about 4-5 feet out of place. I could tell because it left a deep trail as my face plowed it from it's previous resting spot.

Then sarah caught up. She started urking a little. I'll spare you her description. So I handed her the tooth. We headed back toward the closest road and despite the dripping blood and the wind strangely whislting through the fresh gap in my grimace, I still managed to catch some air on the way out. The riding out here is that gnarly. We asked around and finally found a hospital that was open. (apparently in Park City you're supposed to schedule your emergencies in advance.) They stitched up my bottom lip, although at first the doctor thought he was about to write me a referral to a plastic surgeon.

6 stitches and a tetnus shot later, it was time to find an all-night dentist. We lucked out in that regard. We were able to find one on call in the area. He took one look at me and laughed. He said "I thought you said on the phone that you 'chipped' it." Apparently "chipping a tooth" is something that occurs when you accidentally catch the edge of a fork while biting down too aggressively. Nevertheless he went on to explain that it was shattered and the best thing to do was drill out the nerve and start over. I said "that's great doc. I was thinking of having them all replaced so this will get the ball rolling." He hovered over me like a mad scientist. No assistant. No secretary. Not sure where all the tools were kept. Not particularly sensitive to the welling of mystery fluids in my mouth. Where's that mini shop-vac anyway? But with the ingenuity of Hawkeye Pierce he was able to construct a convincing chicklet before the clock struck twelve and he turned back into a pumpkin.

Anyway, I should have a pretty sweet new smile for the wedding.