New Year, New Goals

     Despite major set backs last year I was able to accomplish much of the goals I had set for my self last year. I traveled over 1100 miles last year all under human power, whether it was by bike, foot, or even kayak. This year I again want to travel at least 1000 miles but I want to do it in half the time. The minimum thousand miles a year goal will probably always stick with me, I feel it is something I should always be able to accomplish. The main mileage goal for this year is a little bit more complex though. For 2014 my goal is that combined with the mileage of Celisse we can match the miles we put on our car. Living in a rural town and being in the Marine reserves makes this a difficult task. We have been known to put up to 10,000 miles on our vehicle in recent years and with all our other responsibilities that becomes a big chunk of miles to match, even for two people. The first part of this goal then is to ride, run, hike and paddle a ton of miles, but the second part of this goal is to drastically bring down the mileage put on our car.
 
     Why am I doing this? The main reason is that I love to ride my bike and I hate buying fuel. The bottom line is that it is good for our wallet. We can save and spend more money for the important things instead of throwing it at gasoline, auto repairs, and tires. It's also good for our mental and physical health, staying active improves our mood and makes our home a happier place to live. As little effect as my driving habits probably have on the environment it is always something to consider. If doing my part to take care of the environment also takes care of me, then it's not a political stance; it's just common sense.

     I was able to ride many of the trails that I set out to do in 2013 and some I hadn't known about. My favorite are probably the trails near Show Low but I have a special place in my heart for the trails I ride most often around Clay Springs. I hope to finish riding all the official trails in the White Mountain area this year. I still need to ride Los Burros, Land of the Pioneer and a few others. Even though I took a small hike on it this year I also want to ride a good portion of the Highline this summer.

 

 The trails I most want to ride are in Oregon. I've ridden some of the trails around Cultus lake but there are still much more to do in that area. In addition to Cultus I would like to ride the Sunriver to Bend trail, and portions of the Umpqua and Mckenzie River trails. Celisse will hopefully be game to come along as we just got her a new mountain bike which will be more suited to actual mountain bike riding. The bike itself is actually a 2004 Cannondale Jekyll but the PO did lots of upgrades. It has a Deore XT crank, Sram X9 shifting, Mavic 819 UST rims, Shimano Hydraulic brakes, and Sun Ringle hubs. I added her saddle from her old Giant, a Kona two bolt seat post and a Bontrager Race Lite handle bar. We also through in some snazzy green pedals. It has some things yet to do. I just rebuilt the rear shock and we will be replacing the front suspension fork (a bent Manitou Black) with a Rock Shox Reba. Once everything is finished she'll have a better mountain bike than I do for less money. Am I jealous? A little, but I love my Superfly.

     I've put over 600 miles on my Superfly since I got it with probably 90% of those miles being unpaved. I converted it to tubeless using the Stan's tape and Bontrager sealant. They were a bear to get set up but have performed pretty much flawlessly since. Tubeless is definitely the only way to go up in this country unless you want to run a stiff an narrow hard case tire. We ran hard cases for awhile and loved them, but as the performance of our bikes have gone up we've opted for more performance oriented tires to match them. I was fairly satisfied with my tubeless system and for the most part still am, but then I had to mount tires on Celisse's Mavic UST rims. UST is the full on tubeless, not just tubeless ready. Instead of sealing the spoke holes with tape or other device the rims just come standard with sealed rim beds, no spoke holes on the inside. In addition to that the bead interface is designed for tubeless and as I found out it works much better. My rims took lots of trial and error with an air compressor to mount. Celisse's older tire took a small shot from the compressor to seat up while the newer Specialized tire took nothing more than a floor pump. When the tire does run out of air (I've found while deflating them) they stay glued to the rim so that all you have to do is patch the hole (flats are rare with tubeless however) and fill it up with a mini pump. My rims do not hold the bead when flat so I am required to use either an expensive CO2 can (which might not work) or throw a tube in it until I get home. Both situations are undesirable. This experience has prompted me to start saving my pennies, because the first upgrade I'm making to my bike is new Mavic 819 (or 821) UST rims.

  Finally a fun shot from my and Celisse's 3 year wedding anniversary. We rode our bikes up to a local trail and had a picnic. Sparkling Cider and picnics go great together and apparently they go great with mountain bikes too.

Well, that's my goals and outlook for 2014. Hopefully my next post will be an actual adventure report!