Last month on our 2 week west coast swing road trip we took a ton of pics...I've been meaning to post some. Here ya go, included with a small caption of the moment. The view from the drivers seat..we took back roads pretty much all the way to the Grand Canyon. Absolutely NOTHING for hundreds of miles. Anyone who says the world is overpopulated just needs to head west on some not so popular roads. Prior to the Canyon we spent a day in Flagstaff hitting up the Mt. Elden trail system and pretty much DIED after coming from 0 altitude to 7000ft and trying to hop right out of the car and hit it hard. For those who don't know, including myself till we got there, this is one of mtn biking best kept secret and according to the locals, they want to keep it that way. Not quite sure the exact mileage of this system but it's for sure an entire days worth of single track.

After spending a few days at the "HOLE", then Durango, then Fruita/Grand Junction(see prior post on those adventures) we headed back east to Golden, Co home of the "bestlitebeerifyouhavetodrinklitebeerbutwhohastoreallydrinklitebeersowhynotdrinkanewbelgiumbutthatsjustmewhatever," Coors Brewing Co. and our good friends Tyler and Renee Clark. Thanks for the floor space Clarks and the kayak rodeo, much appreciated.

It always amazes me when you hit up a local shop and ask for beta on the local spots and they tell you that, "this one is great, chill ride, not steep", that it is in fact a great ride, a little chill but a whole lot steep. We've just gotten spoiled living in Mobtown that we've forgotten about the word "mountain", in the term mountain biking. We climbed and we climbed for over an hour, then went down a little and climbed for another hour...tired/heavy legs to soon follow. Luckily on the whole trip we only had one little hiccup, a sliced tire headed back down to the car....thank god for Park Tool Emergency Tire Boots.

Dear Mr. Boot,

After a long road trip out west where i encountered countless tire splitting rocks, and my tire finally caved. It couldn't take it anymore, and i don't blame him. I just want to tell you that you are a life saver. You saved me even when Stan's couldn't, and that's gotta be one big hole. Mr. Boot without your service to the rescue I would have been walking in extremely stiff carbon soled shoes for over 3 miles down hill in steep and rocky terrain. But no. You saved me. For that I'm forever grateful. I will never again ride without you or toss you aside in the bottom of my bike bag in a dark, dirty, little corner. You will forever ride up front, with a good view and with wind in your hair. You held fast even when my large carcass railed you into a turn just moments from the car...your a true American hero. Godspeed Mr. Boot, Godspeed.

Forever grateful,

BLEE

I give up...

...I'm not a good blogger. What more do you want from me!? I'm sorry Betz, I'll try better next time!!! Seriously, we have been crazy busy since we arrived in Gville, moving, painting, entertaining in laws, riding, job-hunting, riding, organizing, riding, and riding. All that coupled with this weird east coast time zone thing makes for a long day and a really good nights sleep.

We finally got settled in the house and I'm slowly getting more time in at the new shop(http://www.carolinatriathlon.com/) as well as trying to get in as much training/riding as possible. There is definitely no shortage of rides/riders in the area so there really is no one to blame. For those following back home in good ole' Mobile there is a ride that leaves here on Tuesday nights that has over 300+riders....a WEEKLY ride!!! It divides up into an A1, A2, B1, B2 and several C groups. The A, B groups have police escorts!! Amazing the things that can happen when all shops/riders work together!!!! Some day, oh someday....

I've met several dudes up here who mtn bike, and one who I've been riding quite a bit with who is also doing the Leadville 100 in august. It's been so nice having your own personal guide of the Pisgah trail systems. For those that don't know the area, Pisgah is a national park just over the border in NC(40 minutes from here) that has over 150 miles of single track/fire road trails in it with absolutely ALL the climbing a man could want in a day. The map below shows some of the trails....too me, it's all a maze. One day I'll have it all figured out like Jeff, but for now, I'll just settle for riding his wheel.

Got the opportunity to hit up the Isaqueena trails in Clemson last week....another trail system less than an hour away that has roughly 100+ miles of single track in it. Fantastic trail system that hosts a SERC race every year. I couldn't help but notice on the trail though several bridges that we crossed and they all had the sign below on either side....it was too perfect, had to get a pic by it.

Definitely the nearest to the casa is Paris Mtn...only 9 miles to the trail head or a quick 45 minute ride on your nicest single speed. Really like this trail, tons of climbing up groomed trail with some really fast sweeping downhill sections...just about as close to Oak Mtn in Bham as one could get. Other than the trail claiming two tires and a rim in two rides as well as a few ounces of Blee flesh, our relationship is fine. Not a good first couple of rides out there. Oh and did i mention there are bees? Ya, stung twice on too separate rides...really makes it hard when your ripping down some trails and horizontal on a wall ride. Difficult.

I've got several other little post floating around the cabeza at the moment. I'll try and put "pen to pad" in the next few days and share some of those. Till then: do some homework and Google this dude...Dejay Birtch, and I'll tell you next time just how cool it was toeing the line with him. Till then...

Why is he so much smaller than me?? Must be the beard.