Up in Mammoth Lakes CA, mountain biking. The trails up at the top of the mountain (11,000+') still have a lot of snow on them, but the lower levels are wide open and a lot of fun. I probably ended up with about 20-25 miles of singletrack trail riding, and not much in the way climbing. The way it works is you buy a trail pass for the day, and the fee includes a shuttle bus service to the main lodge and gondola service to the top. So, you shuttle up, bomb down, and repeat until you've had enough. Even though it is mostly downhill, it is a surprisingly fatiguing endeavor for me as I am mainly of a road bike rider. Roots, rocks, drops, trees, and other associated obstacles really kept me working to stay upright, but then again I'm not too good at this sort of thing. A ton of fun, though, and the views were pretty nice.

A few pics:

At the base, close to where we're staying:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...thevillage.jpg

Tram service to the main lodge, with Mammoth Mtn in the background:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...20mtb/tram.jpg

Miscellaneous views from the trails:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...winlakes-1.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...wensvalley.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...%20mtb/mtb.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ertwinlake.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t.../twinlakes.jpg

My sled (pic taken in the hills local to my home) a 2009 Marin Mt. Vision that I bought at an end-of-year rental bike blowout:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...20mtb/bike.jpg

nice bike and pictures man, what is that above the chain?

damn that was a ****ty ride. rain, a wet pair of balls, large amounts of bugs, discovery of what rock gardens are like when wet (not even worth doing), and a snagged brand new day old $100 derailleur that now skips. $&*#$*&&#$*(WY#*)U#R{QEFI:OBFJKKL
WEGS:H BWKN"EGNB"ODKFDLMV<AF
GOHBF:"S<DVFGNRW
pogWIHGOU
IRNLKSBF

wow. i hate that feeling, then again ive never had it...

wow. i would hate that feeling.

hopefully it can be adjusted even though the barrel adjuster didnt seem to do much in either direction on the trail, it got scraped but doesnt look visibly messed up. deep breaths. food. bazow!

FRI
http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/7...pikefest07.jpg

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/5...pikefest16.jpg

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/403...pikefest17.jpg

SAT
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/9...pikefest30.jpg

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/4...pikefest35.jpg

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/5...pikefest37.jpg

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/5...pikefest47.jpg

^^Awesome! I'm getting burned out, but something tells me, if I lived there, I wouldn't.

Chain stay.

Rode Panorama Resort (Invermere, BC) a couple of weeks ago...here are a few of the shots:

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._4910897_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._2933597_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._6973435_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._4437858_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._3236672_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._7963401_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._4783107_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._6302187_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._6448392_n.jpg

NOICE!!!



I got out for a night ride for a bit this evening. Tested the new 1100 Lumen Hex light on my helmet with the single micro on the bars. Good setup.


It's odd...there's so much more "nature" on the trail at night. My lights reflect off spider's eyes like crazy. There's like 50 spiders per sq yd on the more humid nights. Insane! I noticed one night that the trail was beautiful. Sparkles everywhere along the side, all across the middle of the tall grass...I thought it was lightning bugs to begin with, but realized that they weren't flashing. The blue and green reflections were actually reflections of my LED's. I walked toward the sparkles and noticed that every single one of the thousands of sparkles was a spider's multi-faceted eyes. All those freakin' pretty glimmering jewels were nasty little spiders.

Bugs in general are worse at night in the middle of summer. If you ride slowly...all they wanna do is head straight into your lights. When riding at a moderate or faster pace, it's not an issue, but some of the smooth climbs...I kick my lights down to low or even off if the moon is full.

Frogs / toads are plentyful...I can't go 150 feet w/o seeing another lil jumper gettin his hop on. One of them tonight jumped Kamikaze out of a tree from about 10 feet up...smacked a tree trunk and landed on the trail right in front of me. Crazy-little-TravisPastrana-meets-Kermit kinda krap.

And finally the copperheads. I occasionally see them on the trail...not too often. Tonight I saw one that was probably 18"-24" long. Not big at all...kinda cute little guy with his cute little viper-shaped head...housing the little miniature fangs, ready to give me a little toxic-lovin' if I mess with him. He was crawling away from me somewhat slowly...and all the sudden, some debris landed in front of him and he took off like a bat outta hell straight toward my feet.:lol: Hopped on my pedals and got on my merry little way.

Was a fun little solo with nature.

what a great day, got the bike shifting perfectly, found a new awesome trail that had the perfect amount of flow, challenge, speed, uphillism and downhillism, with a ****load of rocks at the same time, took all my day's anger of dealing with useless gov't & corporate BS, swore my ass off, sucked one of those damn horse flies down my throat and hacked it out with a vengeance killing it in the process, and ended with repeatedly saying in amazement, god damn that was ****ing good, that was ****ing awesome, **** yeah that was so ****ing good!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH

Here is the helmet cam view of the above photo. Jumps and drops don't look like much on the helmet cam (unless you're really close behind someone) but flat out singletrack looks awesome. My run on Rio Escondito in Kamloops when I'm in the lead looks awesome (until I get a mud spot right in the middle of the screen). When I get the footage from my buddy's HD, I'll get some stuff from our BC road trip on here (including a jacked up dminor off of a wall ride).

More mountain bike antics at Mammoth Mountain, from the top at over 11,00' to the base at 8'000, with repeats. :)

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...202/valley.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...%202/trail.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...ter-banner.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...r-banner-2.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...itterrange.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...b%202/mtns.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...202/mtns-2.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...202/mtns-1.jpg

pretty.

Been riding more than usual, but nothing to post like on this page. I need to take a road trip, BAD!

Went to 6 mile run on tuesday
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...7&id=825587541
And washington valley revisor today
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...7&id=825587541

i had to much fun riding i didn't get a chance to take allot of pics

Nice pics and nice bike. Here in Wenzhou, China, we do not have this kind of view, but I happened to get some good pics to share.
Attachment 160988

Some Trumbull the other day.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1..._1877625_n.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...mbull7-207.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...mbull7-205.jpg

Huntington.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...Hunt7-2211.jpg

What happens when you leave the car windows open in the garage.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...y/IMG_7576.jpg

13,215'
 

Beautiful pictures above, where is it?

Fun 14 mile ride this morning. OVERCAST, I have decided that clouds are my friend. FUNNY sight, a guy was coming down the trail so I pulled over. A Jack Russel was leading the descent. The dog kept looking back as if asking the rider if he was going to fast. I wish I was quick with my camera.

^ Climbed up to Jones Pass, pushed/rode a few miles across Continental Divide Trail, then dropped to Herman Lake TH, followed by some more stuff above Georgetown/Silver Plume.

That's the kind of high up stuff I miss from living out there. Nice. The consolation prize to not being there any more is having way better technical terrain. OTOH, even if things are less techy out there, it sorta evens things out when you're speeding along at mach ********.

This makes me actually want to come and visit Cali! Beautiful pic's, kickin' ride...awesome post, man!

Thanks

I got in a couple of typical rides the last two days. I'll probably ride tonight and then pack the bike up for a lil trip to CO.

I know exactly what ya mean - You & I traded locations around the same time. I learned riding on the rocky, rooty stuff of PA/VA/NC/GA.
I almost forgot what to do when I encountered a fallen tree after rarely encountering tech on the trails when I 1st got out here.

Oh yeah, Bergen Peak last night. My buddy, who weighs about 15# more than half me, snapped his carbon bar heading up.....keep an eye on yer crabon everyone!!

Not really mountain biking because I was on local dirt, gravel, & roughly paved roads..but this is some of the scenery I get just half a mile from my house. Can't afford to drive to the local trails anymore so I've been road riding out of desperation. Weather is hot & humid at 96 degrees Fahrenheit with a heat index of 103, but it was well worth it. Started at 4 miles on Monday with the road riding desperation, & hoping to get to 10 by the end of the week. With any luck, I'll be able to ride to & from the local trails (30 mile round trip) with some trail riding in between by the end of the Georgia Summer (late October-ish).