Nationals at Mt Snow, Vermont 2008

We had a great time at Mount Snow this past weekend. Shey flew up with Jansen on Thursday for a pre-ride and Everett and I followed on Friday.

It's hard to tell, but Brad is looking off into the distance and doing his best to look philosophical. We got to share the tent with the downhill guys. It kept things interesting.

Jansen, third at nationals.

This car was rolling back into the road and the boys held it as the hilarious little man ran out screaming.
Seth passing the field in jr ex. Cycle Youth had an excellent showing. 1st jr ex xc, 1st jr ex super D, 7th jr ex xc, 5th jr ex super D, 1st jr ex downhill, 3rd jr 1-14, etc. Lots of fun for the guys.

Brad tearing it up in semi-pro.

The three amigos. Tallest in the center.

Chris Herndon helped the guys out so much at camp, so it was really cool to cheer him on during his races.
Little Ethan makes it big on the downhill course! Huge congrats man!

Jansen had a fast field. The day before the race, the powers that be decided to change it to one lap, making this an all out sprint, instead of the sport type events these guys were used to racing. Then, they lined them up behind several categories of beginners, but they were faster than them all and had to weave through tons of racers throughout the race. Let's hope the promoters realize what a mistake that was and improve the category, next year.

Andy has tons of support from the Cycle Youth guys. Andy won his expert masters class and look cool as a cucumber crossing the line.
Krista, grinning through 4 laps in the pro field.


Tristan and Jansen waiting for the awards. Tristan had a great U23 race and is in top form this year...again! Natasha held her own in the pro women's field, as well. Very cool, girlie.

The roomates. Very cool group of guys. Uh, lots of dirty clothes on the floor and bikes...bikes...bikes everywhere. We spent lots of time watching Ninja Warriors on TV.

Catching some zzzzzs when we can.
Hiking in Massachusetts.

Dinner at Friendly's. Black raspberry ice cream...yum!

Super cool organic grocery store/deli in the village on the mountain.

Keep Forgetting the Camera

The trails at Pinhoti and Bear Creek are gorgeous and I hate it when I forget my camera when we are riding in that area. No cool pictures to show.

So, we start our warm up on Bear Creek, then continue to warm up on a climbing section of Pinhoti. The boys pull away and I get into my groove, turn on the ipod and listen to some great Mason Jennings, then Everclear pops into my ear next, then zpppppt.......it dies. Nothing, nada, no music. My little ipod shuffle is tired of getting all sweaty, muddy and rained on. He says goodbye and coughs a bit and he goes up to the electronic haven in the sky. This is the same place where my phone went after being dropped in too many puddles. It still had the black mud, from a national race in TX, in between the number pads.

Normally, I don't need or even like music when I am riding on the dirt. The scenery and sounds of mother nature are ten times better than my favorite bands. However, on a humid day, when there is a good bit of climbing to be done the music keeps me from thinking things like....hmmm, when was the last time I did hill repeats? Is that me wheezing or is there a bug flying around me? Wow, I didn't know I could sweat this much. Georgia is very humid. Is this the season that the bears are angry and hungry, or that only in the spring? Is there more climbing around that turn? I have an itch that I can't reach through the slats in my helmet.



The four of us hit Pinhoti/Bear Creek/Potato Patch/Mountain Town and had a blast. Shey and Jansen finished up just before the storm hit. Everett and I took a shorter route, then put the hammock up by the creek and caught up on all the teenage goings on.....and maybe we napped a bit, but we won't tell the other guys! We sat in the freezing creek water after hitting the climbs. Mucho good for the thighs.

As Shey finished soaking in the creek, Jansen headed that way, when a huge flash of lightening and a vibrating crash sent him sailing back to the car. Hmm....creek in a storm, not so good.

Here is a Lindner in a creek at Sugar Mt.





Sunday, was the Sorella Cycling photo shoot. That is a great group of ladies. Huge variety of ages, personalities, physical abilities, careers and talents. Anne did a great job of getting everyone together for the shoot and Theresa drove all the way from South Carolina to be in the pictures. Very cool! (I forgot my camera for that one, too) They said about 60 ladies were there. I can't imagine if all 180 members showed up!! Yikes.

Hot Dogs (and a pumpkin)

We take the dogs hiking a couple times each week. Now is the time of year, that it is so hot and humid, that it doesn't take them long to be worn out for the day.

We have grown pumpkin plants for several years, without ever getting a full sized, ripe pumpkin. We hope this is the year for us. Everett is our pumpkin specialist and this is his little squash dude. We have no idea when it will start to turn orange, but it looks pretty cool, so far.

Sending Kelly Off

Yesterday, we ran the Kelly over to Andy's so he could take it to Vermont for us. Andy is meeting a bunch of the juniors in New York for a national series race, before heading to Nationals at Mt. Snow.

Jansen hopes to fly up there on Thursday to meet up with the bike and get a bit of a pre-ride in before race day. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

Jansen's luck or not.....

So, he calls on Monday and blew out his tire, then his spare tube, at Pisgah.

Tuesday he calls and had issues with the derailleur, derailleur hanger and, after turning the Salsa into a single speed, had a bent frame. Their local bike shop fixes him up with a little help from our credit card and the counselors.

The guys and counselors are awesome again this year and no matter how much mechanical trouble he has, he still doesn't sound too bummed.

So, he ends up having a blast, again, at camp and hitches a ride home with Zach. One of our favorite, and extremely cool mtb friends, who is finishing his double major at college right now. (good luck with your classes, man)

We meet up at Heritage and those two guys pull up in the cherokee with kayaks on top, bikes on the back, loads of gear, tans and grins. Very happy young men, for sure. The middle aged guys in the parking lot were drooling.

Andy Johnston, the head of Cycle Youth, does an excellent job with these mtb camps for the juniors. They get in a ton of riding and information, while having a great time in the mountains.

We got home and started to take the Salsa apart to build up the Kelly for nationals.....uh, very quickly.

Guess what we found?

Yep, it was cracked about 75% of the way around. It was basically held together with tape as he rode Pisgah and Dupont for the week. Of course we all thought this was really cool and walked around with crazy grins just thinking of the carnage to the frame.....I know, mtbers are a weird bunch.

So, the day after Jansen gets home the three guys head off to the shops to get things together to build the Kelly. They also take along the cracked Salsa frame to show everyone....well.....because........that is the excitement in our lives.........yes, weird again.

Two days to get this really cool bike built up and it's a great fit. Now, he has one day to ride it before it heads to nationals, ahead of the racer.

A Day for Wine

Had a really great ride with Kindle yesterday. We stopped and got a boxed lunch at Indian Springs and had a picnic at Dauset, after a marvelous mtb ride. So much fun! That is such a great trail.

Today was a bit of a bummer. A hawk got one of the smaller chickens. Then I got a phone call that my dad is in the hospital with chest pains.

I have extremely cool parents and all I can say is that he had better get over this whole heart attack thing quickly, because we still plan to meet them in Oregon in October for some really good times! Mom and Dad are flying up from Texas and the boys and I will meet them. Then the guys take off to fish and do guy stuff, while my mom, aunt and I rent a house on the beach and consume wine and chocolate. (Aunt Alyce is not backing out of that tatoo this time!)

Dad is one of those guys that does everything he can for anyone he knows....or doesn't know. He is always fixing things for people, taking veggies from his garden to his neighbors and visiting and taking care of his relatives. We have a little gardener competition going on. It's pretty funny actually because we're so cool about it....like, So, do you have any tomatoes, yet? Oh, I've got hundreds of green ones. What about you? Oh, thousands....I'm practically feeding a third world country.

He's just an amazing guy and I've been one lucky girl to have him around in my life. Love ya Dad. Get better asap, because it's all about Oregon.