Thursday, April 24, 2008

Husband of the Year - St. George

In my last post I mentioned that I was with my family in San Diego for Spring Break. What I failed to mention was that on the way home from our trip, I had Rachelle drop me off in St. George to meet up with some of the DNA boys for some mountain biking. This meant that Rachelle would keep the kids and drive the last 4 hours home while I got to play for the rest of the weekend. Please submit your nominations for Husband of the Year by April 30th.

The exchange took place at the local McDonalds. I said my goodbyes over a sausage McMuffin with Cheese and a Diet Coke. I met up with Jamie, Tony, Adam, Steve, Justin, Trent and headed for Gooseberry (sorry no pics, it's too fun of a ride to pack a camera). After a couple of hours on Gooseberry, we headed into town to get some Mexican food. Finding a place to eat on a Sunday in St. George is not easy. The only Mexican place open was empty and it felt creepy eating there. We were all craving chips & salsa so we took our chances and the food was actually really good.

After some lunch we headed back to the house we had rented (5 bedroom 4.5 bath, complete with pool, hot tub, pool table, big screen TV with DVR) and relaxed while Steve, Adam, Justin and Trent got cleaned up and hit the road. They had come down a day early to ride. The rest of us (Jamie, Tony and me) stayed.

The 2nd ride of the day was Barrel Roll. It's a great loop that can be knocked out in 30-40 min. Most of it is mellow with great views. But there are a few technical moves. (check out how Jamie managed to get almost the exact same shot of me and Tony)


















































After riding Barrel Roll, Jamie still wasn't satisfied so we rode a section of the Black Brush trail which is a bit more uphill and technical. We only had about 30 min of daylight left and I had to force Jamie to turn around before we got caught riding technical single track in the dark.
Pizza and a movie later that night.
The next day, we rode the Jem, Rim, Goulds loop but we started from the Jem trail in Virgin. It is the best way to ride this loop because you end on the downhill.



















About half way through the ride, Jamie crushed his pedal and was no longer able to clip in. We took the velcro strap used to secure my tube to my seat and set him up with a "power strap". Tony and I grinned because we thought this would help keep the pace slower for the rest of the ride. But Jamie had other plans. Even with a velcro strap, he was able to put the hammer down and ride hard.















The weather was great. Mid 70's and sunny. A great way to log some dirt miles before RAWROD this weekend. Yep, I got the hall pass for yet another weekend of MTBing. Like I said, Husband of the Year.
Don't worry, I'm already working on a trip for Rachelle as payback.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

i think you've got the fixins for a patent infringement suit there.

Anonymous said...

That's gonna have to be some trip to make up for two weekends in a row. Nice TR.

KanyonKris said...

I think what you meant to say was "wife of the year award". :-)

fatguyonalittlebike said...

Was Jamie wearing a shirt that said "CUTTERS" by chance?

seth

Rick Sunderlage said...

fatguyonalittlebike - that was my first thought when I took that pic. It totally reminded me of that movie. funny.