Arroyo Honking and Such in Santa Fe

A couple of Fridays back I had to drop the old car off for service down in the way other end of Santa Fe. I took the opportunity to bring the pugs to do some arroyo honking back up to town and have some fun while they replaced the fuse box on the Golf.

in the wild intersitials of Santa Fe

I used to ride the arroyo a bunch before Aida was born. Elena would drop me off in south santa fe hell while she did some errands and I would ride up the arroyo to the bike trails and head downtown for some coffee and such and then she would pick me up on the way back home. Lots has changes since then. The Lamy trail between Siringo and downtown is completely paved now. The Rail Runner, passenger rail from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, was added in the last few years. As such, all the interesting stuff and single track on the trail is gone. Including Hunter and the Zia Caboose, for those of you who were long time readers. The path is really well used now, which is good, but the old path was good too. For old times sake, check out old ride reports Santa Feans with mad sand skills, Lack of Big Rides, Caboose Home, Return to the Zia Caboose, Return of the son of the Zia Caboose, Boring Same old Folding Bike Santa Fe Post.
Anyone know what became of the Zia Caboose and Hunter? I think he was set up along the tracks diagonal across second from the Brew Pub for a while, but no sign of the caboose or even where the hell it would go.

Wheeled Detritus! my favorite thing to find.

Anyhow, when I have ridden the arroyo before, it was mostly hiking and riding, only really riding during monsoon season when the sand was a bit more packed. It is rough going on a normal MTB, and virtually unridable on the picnica. On the Pugsley, it was completely feasible. Just like the snow, lower the pressure until you can ride. Between the Santa Fe auto maul and Rodeo drive, it is pretty soft slow going, above Rodeo all the way to Siringo, it was pretty ridable. Hard work going up arroyo into the wind that day, but pretty easy coming back down. It was dry enough that I am pretty sure it was more or less unridable on a normal MTB. It was pretty smooth on the pugsley. I fell over in the deeper sand a couple times, but for the most part the section from Siringo to Rodeo was completely ridable and eerily clean of crap. There must have been a big arroyo clean up day. Good job peoples, the arroyo looked grand in this section.

Cruising down arroyo

There was still good stuff here and there to see. It was hot and smokey from the big fire down in the Gila, so I did not take quite as many photos as usual of the sights. But there was some wheeled detritus and other good things along the way.

Land Cruiser and pick up with engine in it parked at the Second Street Brew Pub

Once I hit the Lamy trail and went through the railyard, I got lots of comments on the pugsley. Mostly of the "look at those tires" variety, the winning comment of the day was from a slightly inebriated looking fellow fixing a car in a parking lot. He ran up toward me yelling "does it float?". I did get the chance to talk to Santa Fe fixture Ray for a bit. We chatted about bikes and some other stuff. He graciously let me take a pic of him and his service dog and his Worksman Trike. He loves the wheels as they don't need truing. The wheels did sport some damage was from someone backing into him in the Trader Joes Parking lot.

Ray and his rig

I stopped in the other Second Street brewery Railyard edition for some lunch and a beer. It was pretty fun to watch all the cyclists pass through the railyard on the way to wherever on a fine Friday afternoon. I picked up a growler to deliver to the fellers at Mellow Velo. It sort of fit in my musette, but I used another bag to kind of tie it in there.

Pugsley, Raleigh International, fully loaded Surly LHT. A great rackful of bikes.

When I got over to Mellow Velo, I delivered said growler checked out David's latest acquisition, a Schwinn Hollywood, to go with the coveted Schwinn Flying Star. Dammit, covet, dammit. I was also able to watch the shop van get painted in its new Wonderbread/Mondrian livery.

A side

flip side

So anyone want to give me their Flying Star or Holywood?

After chatting a bit at the shop, I took a nice easier ride back from whence I came and picked up the car. Total riding was probably about 16 miles or so, maybe 6 or 7 in the arroyo. It was a good day.

I picked up 700 billion goatheads getting out of the Arroyo back at the automaul. Fortunately I had slimed the tires that morning. Fortunately surly thought to put removable cores in their fatbike tubes. I am not really sure if any of the goatheads actually made it through the tires, they are pretty thick, but I will probably spend some time with a pocket knife prying out thorns before winter. While I was removing thorns in front of the service area, most of the mechanics came out to check out the Pugs. I probably should have let them ride it, but I was worried that the tires were going to go completely flat due to all the thorns. They are still holding air two weeks later, so maybe next time fellers.

A small fraction of the 700 billion goatheads

I drove back through town stopping at Trader Joes for supplies and was delighted when a previously unknown to me blog reader stopped me and introduced himself. Whats up Rick? This has happened to a few times and it always makes me really happy. It is hard to find the time to blog about stuff anymore, and I always wonder if it is just me, my ma, the seven of you who comment regularly and random google searches providing all my traffic. Stuff like this tends to spur me to slightly greater blogging heights. Anyhow, if you see me and know me through the blog, please say hello, then I can take your photo and have something to blog about. I will even hook you up with some Tarik Saleh Bike Club stuff if I have some with me.

Me and loyal(?) reader Rick in Trader Joes

After I loaded up with frozen pizzas and coconut oil infused dessert products, I headed home to the family. I grabbed Aida and plopped her in the trailer and rode downtown for the Red Elvises show at the duck pond. Aida really liked it.

Aida, Me, Red Elvi

Dancing with Mila and Clay

Like I said, good day.

Big Dummy on the Roof of a Hatchback

One way to carry the big dummy when it must be carried on a small car.

Going criss cross over multilple roof racks was much more sturdy than I originally thought.

I was almost able to lay it straight with the tire on the roof of the car and strap the chainstays to the rack, but it did not seem to be that sturdy.

This way let me drive from my house to the ski area parking lot, 7 miles and 2000 vertical each way. This was to haul a bunch of camping supplies, water and tools up into the Santa Fe National Forest for a trail maintenance party a few years back. I was just discussing how to haul the big dummy on a car with a pal, and thought I should share...

UPDATE,5/15/12:
From the comments, check out Big Dummy Daddy's solution More permanent like...

Yeah ya moms

Happy Mothers Day Not shown, sack of breakfast burritos on the backside.

Cat in Bag

Wink 256 does his part to keep Moscaline on mission.

Weirdlinger Burrito Run

I was shuffling about last Friday slowly getting myself in gear to hook the trailer to the reborn Black Sheep Weirdlinger and take the infink downtown to secure some breakfast burritos. As I sort of halfheartedly organized the biking apparatus and waited for the big girl infink, opinionated and sure, to grace myself with her presence, I noted that it was 10:50. Alas, 10 minutes to get the 2.1 miles from the house to chiliworks and get the burritos before breakfast would be unserved. I resigned myself to no burritos, but a minute or two later, there had been no movement on the daughter front, I decided for an all out last minute solo dash to get the burritos. I hopped on the Weirdlinger and noted 10:53 on the cell and tore off in pursuit of the green chili goal.
Black Sheep Weirdlinger, she rolls
I sprinted hard around the neighborhood, through the school, across the big street, got caught at the light, hammered up past the theater, over past the pond, caught at the other big street for a bit, waiting to cross saw the 10:59 on the clock. Sprinted the final block, cornered hard into the parking lot right at 11:00.0000. Half skidded, half laid it down, half cyclocrossed off the bike to the tune of my pedals scraping across the sidewalk and right through the door of the burrito place. All the workers there look up as I burst through the open door and casually say, still serving breakfast?
Guy behind the counter says, sure, you are usually good until 11:30 buddy, 11:15 at worst. So I sheepishly get my burritos, pack em in the saddlebag, meander home and eat some green smeary goodness.

Gogo is in!

You can be too.
tariksaleh.com/tsbc

Now with decals:

Snowy Spring Conditions

Got a little sticky last night on the commute home:



Yearly photo of Apricot flowers covered in snow:


Safety glasses to keep the snow from sticking to your eyeballs


This is why I usually keep the studded tires on the bike until mid april. Alas, I took them off a few days ago. Fortunately the pugsley is incapable of being rendered useless in snow and will ride me to work this still snowing morning.

Apricots and the Spectral Child

The apricots are in full bloom again, Started 3/26



We usually have at least one hard freeze and a snowstorm when the apricot flowers are in bloom, small chance of snow on sunday, so we shall see if we can set the fruit before the flowers are destroyed.

The apricots flowers make nice cuttings and attract the spectral child, haunting the realm of the shutter lag.

Bane

of my NM based existence.




Two weeks ago these tiny cones were not open. But they were damn near vibrating they were so ready to pop.



Today, they are most definitely open and spreading demon Juniper seed into the air, afflicting me with the dreaded spring seasonal allergies. Dammit.




Seen while on a hike at Tsankawi, part of Bandelier National Monument,





More photos from that day here

A payment of sort

The mule deer left a nice antler in the yard for us. Sort of makes up for them taking out the aspen, eating all the fruit trees, the grapes, the tomatoes, pooping everywhere, etc. etc.

I have tolerated the mule deer as they are too big to do anything about short of shooting them or building a really tall expensive fence. I am no longer contemplating taking up bow hunting. For the time being.

A normal summer morning in our yard:

Cats don't get coffee

I spent much of last weekend cleaning and regasketing the Pavoni espresso machine. The shots were not coming out at all for the last month, I just did not have time to trouble shoot it. I found many issues that were contraindicated to good espresso. They are all fixed. Due to the clean and well functioning machine, I had to rejust my grind to finer and I am back pulling beautiful shots. Apparently I need to clean it more than once every 3.5 years. Noted!

Big thanks to Christopher Cara from Thomas Cara Ltd. for some phone advice for the fixing some issues.

Finally, I am disappointed that the cats don't even notice good espresso. It was a really good shot. For shame Winky. For shame

Alley Loop 2012 race report

Last thursday the family and I drove up to Crested Butte for the Alley Loop nordic ski race. This is the fifth year I have done this race. In 2010 I did the full 42k marathon, all the other years I have raced the 21k half marathon.

2008: 1:46 skate 21k, snowy conditions 2008 report
2009: 1:30 skate 21k, really cold clear report
2010: 3:04:08, skate 42k cold, new snow, badly waxed, good race nonetheless.
2011: 1:24:31 skate 21k, cold, new snow. I was fit and fast and well waxed, 8th male, 11th overall.
2012: 1:21:32 you are reading the report.

It has been a poor snow year thus far in Colorado, Crewted Butte got 30" of snow in the last few weeks before the race which allowed the race to continue as normal. We did hit some nasty weather on the drive up, but there was not too much fresh snow in Crested Butte when we got up there Thursday night.

Friday morning, Clay and I went out for a warm up skate. There was about 2" of new snow on the ungroomed trails. We got fresh fun tracks on Mikes Mile. It was like 2" of ball bearings on well groomed trails. I shot some video. CB is a really beautiful place.



I brought the Pugsley along for some riding on the snow packed roads. They also groom the main street and some of the alleys for the race, so I got to do some fun riding on the corduroy as well. Verdict? It was good. Left mild tracks on warm groomed trails that normal bikes had left deep tracks in, and left barely any mark on frozen trail.
Snow packed riding:


Night ride on the frozen groomed trails in town:



Race morning dawned cold and clear, but warming ever so slowly. By far the nicest morning for the race in the last five year. I got ready and warmed up while they started the earlier races. They had a bit of a snafu with the 42k classic where the racers were coming through the start-finish area on their first lap right when the 21k race was starting. So they announced that they would start us a few minutes early. I would guess a 1/4 of the field missed the start as a result. I happened to be passing though the area thinking I had a few more minutes for warmup, but I was sort of ready and away we went.

Pre race team Southwest Nordic Beer Drinking and Ski Club:


Course starts straight up Elk Avenue and up a hill out of town. I sort of had the plan NOT to be in the top 10 going up the hill, but as usual I was probably in the top 5 midway up before starting to blow up a bit. As we were starting the 42k classic skiers were heading downstream our race. Fortunately there were no major issues, but the timing was pretty poor.

Post Race traditional sweatcicle:


I got into my rhythm as I dropped down in places. The course was insanely fast with frozen corduroy. I did not feel great and took one spill in the early going and then struggled with my internal do not want to race demons for most of the first lap.

My favorite piece of snow removal equipment removing the snow off Elk Avenue post race:


The 42k skaters started earlier than us and did the same course with an extra loop, so where the two races come back together there usually are really fast 42kers moving through the 21k field. This year something weird happened. As they first wave passes me, I got a second wind and caught them and on the long climb into town I was able to keep pace. I was feeling pretty good finally as we wended down through town and the alleys. As we got out of town into the flats again, I was able to pass a ton of skiers and start closing in on groups ahead. The gaps were pretty huge, but I was actually able to close, catch and pass people through the second lap.

Sad yet picturesque use of a Schwinn Cycletruck


I turned on the speed on some of the little sharp rollers and was able to drop a big group save one guy who was pacing off me. I was starting to feel pretty peaked, but still poured it on. This was by far the best and fastest I have ever felt in any XC ski race. As we made it up the long last climb again, I was starting to bonk pretty badly, but knowing the finish was near I held on.

Aida is on her way to nordic mastery:


We hit the last tricky descent and I went wide around a lapped 10k skier, while the guy behind me took the quick inside line passing me easily. The descent has a really fast curve and I got further waylayed by a guy in a Gorilla costume. He sort of did not make the turn at all, and I slowed way down to avoid hitting him. I did talk to Gorilla man after the race, turns out he rented the gorilla suit to spectate in at the tour of colorado, but the rental company would not take it back after a couple of days of him running up mountains alongside the peleton, so he had to buy it, for $80 bucks. Seems like a great deal to me, no hard feelings Gorilla Fella. I was unable to catch the one guy from my race in the last ski through the alley, but I finished up stron in 1:21:32, a 3 minute PR at this race for me. Again, mostly due to conditions. I think if I went out a touch slower and did not crash hard in the first lap it might have been a sub 1:20 day, alas...

Excellent camera ad in the bathroom at the post race meal:


Hilariously the guy who drafted off me most of the last lap came up to me afterwards and congratulated me on being really fast for a big guy. He went on to add that I was climbing really fast for such a big guy. If it wern't so true I would be upset. I probably should get skinnier if I am going to keep doing all this racing, but it never seems to happen anymore.

Picture perfect sunny and 1F, classic ski the morning after the race


Somehow they boogered up the results and had me as the 1st place in the 30-39 age group, I got a pintglass with some other goodies inside a nice awards ceremony at the Montanyo Rum Distillery. They have since amended the results showing me as 2nd in the group and 14th overall male. Sorry otherguy, I owe you a pintglass, some lipbalm a sticker and a scraper. I think I have missed out on one or two awards at this race due to the ceremony being too crowded before, so I will grudgingly accept my ill gotten gains.

Ice Dino in Alamosa on the way back home.


I had a nice very cold classic ski the next morning and then we packed up and had an uneventful drive home on roads completely empty of traffic due to the superbowl.

Major media ski sensation and other activities

I made it on the front page of the ABQ journal a few weeks ago with my allegedly excellent ski form:



In an article promoting the Chama Chile Classic:



Which I completely did not go to this year as I was so tired. Instead I rested after a very fun yet exhausting trip to knoxville for work. I crammed in two rides among working and other shenanigans. I need to go back without working as I did not see quite everyone I wanted to and working really interupted my having fun time.

Riding in the slop with Gary:


Excellent evidence of a good ride:




I have been skiing a fair bit since I have been back, perhaps races will happen again. The snow is in reasonably good shape and the trails have been well groomed. I did a great little back country ski trip from the ski hill parking lot over and down to the Caldera with my friend zach, more pics here scoping out a guided tour that Zach is organizing. Among the highlights were hopping fences in skis:


Snow biking has been excellent too. Even where the snow is aflame:


Finally the infink is now action little girl. It is good.

'sup? Update!

Update 1/16/12, improved by pal Charlie


Can you get nightmares from a picture of yourself?