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| High Summer in the Garden |
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| The Echinacea this year is as tall as Rose. |
FST 1: West Fork Rock Creek Trail in Red Lodge
With some family in town, I skipped a bike ride or two, but we did go on a great hike. It was a blazing hot day, so we headed up in the mountains to a tight little valley. It was a great hike, the only place to be when it's 100 degrees down below on the plains.
HUGE Week
Some pivotal events this week in the Johnson Clan.
1st, tomorrow Yokie has her interview in Helena. She's been practicing for weeks, and she's ready now, and I've gotten all the paperwork ready. It's going to be a crazy day tomorrow!
Then we get to hit the hot springs on the way back, so that's always a highlight or us. After a day or two here I'm off to Maah Daah Hey 100, my 100 mile singletrack race through the North Dakota Badlands. I went on one of my last training rides last night. This one was particularly focused on the bike setup for NoDak racing. I'm going to post a bike setup breakdown soon, so more on that later, but as for what goes into a pack for a 100 mile ST race, it looks something like this:
Some things are missing:
* I've got a long sleeve white shirt coming so stay out of the sun as much as possible.
* The tomato isn't coming with; it's a stand in for my phone, which is also my camera.
* The Absaroka Beartooth map was for last night, I'll take a map of the Maah Daah Hey if I can get one.
* Bear spray and bug spray is for the Beartooths; for NoDak it'll be sunscreen.
* There is a bag of dog treats and food. Instead of that I'll have some of our new Cowbot food treats.
* For most of the day I won't need the lighting system.
* After riding last night, I need a new shirt too. Sometimes it feels so great to put on a dry one.
Some things are really unusual for most bikers:
* The Exogear sound system weighs a couple of pounds, and the backup battery system a pound or two again, but it's so worth it. On long rides there is nothing like music to keep you going.
* The cassette cleaning tool is so useful for noisy drivetrains, and it weighs very little: always worth bringing.
* It may be a bit Eurotrash or Cowboy (strange how those two totally different styles agree on this one thing) but I'm bringing a bandana. For 100 degree heat all day long, I think keeping as much skin as possible out of the sun is going to be critical. Tried it last night and it worked great.
Other than that, it's a pretty straight forward set up. I'm super stoked & can't wait to get out there!!!
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| Is that a Mountain Goat? He is scary on the cliffs. |
Absarokee Days Parade
It was Absarokee Days this weekend, and for the first time Rose was in the parade, not on the sidelines. I guess we're really locals now!
Some pivotal events this week in the Johnson Clan.
1st, tomorrow Yokie has her interview in Helena. She's been practicing for weeks, and she's ready now, and I've gotten all the paperwork ready. It's going to be a crazy day tomorrow!
Then we get to hit the hot springs on the way back, so that's always a highlight or us. After a day or two here I'm off to Maah Daah Hey 100, my 100 mile singletrack race through the North Dakota Badlands. I went on one of my last training rides last night. This one was particularly focused on the bike setup for NoDak racing. I'm going to post a bike setup breakdown soon, so more on that later, but as for what goes into a pack for a 100 mile ST race, it looks something like this:
* I've got a long sleeve white shirt coming so stay out of the sun as much as possible.
* The tomato isn't coming with; it's a stand in for my phone, which is also my camera.
* The Absaroka Beartooth map was for last night, I'll take a map of the Maah Daah Hey if I can get one.
* Bear spray and bug spray is for the Beartooths; for NoDak it'll be sunscreen.
* There is a bag of dog treats and food. Instead of that I'll have some of our new Cowbot food treats.
* For most of the day I won't need the lighting system.
* After riding last night, I need a new shirt too. Sometimes it feels so great to put on a dry one.
Some things are really unusual for most bikers:
* The Exogear sound system weighs a couple of pounds, and the backup battery system a pound or two again, but it's so worth it. On long rides there is nothing like music to keep you going.
* The cassette cleaning tool is so useful for noisy drivetrains, and it weighs very little: always worth bringing.
* It may be a bit Eurotrash or Cowboy (strange how those two totally different styles agree on this one thing) but I'm bringing a bandana. For 100 degree heat all day long, I think keeping as much skin as possible out of the sun is going to be critical. Tried it last night and it worked great.
Other than that, it's a pretty straight forward set up. I'm super stoked & can't wait to get out there!!!