Back at It.

After two weeks off of the bike due to illness and christmas vacation up north to see my family, I was itching to get back on my bike.  I had ordered some new cranks from Chain Reaction Cycles since they were cheaper then my discount through the shop.  I also ordered a bottom bracket to allow me to get free shipping.  So on Monday morning I headed over to the shop to install them.

From Bike Repair

The trails were to wet to try them out so I decided to head out on a road ride with my new christmas present.  I used the gorilla pod that Sarah's parents gave me to attach to the bike and it seemed to do the trick but I dont know if it will be able to handle off road activities.  With the help of my Mac it was easy to do some video editing.

Biking Lake Martin from Eli Ellsworth on Vimeo.

Lake Martin

From Blogger Pictures

After being sick all week and stuck in the house I decided to call up my friend Ashley to see if I could borrow his kayak to go paddle around Lake Martin.  I ride my bike by this lake almost every weekend but this was my first time on it.  Its a small lake with lots of cypress trees and spanish moss giving you that Louisiana swamp feeling.  I figured that I would only be out there a few hours but decided to pack a lunch and find someplace to eat out there.  I was hardly the only person out there as tons of fisherman were out on there bass boats trying there luck.  It was nice to check it out and hopefully next time I will bring Sarah out here.

Paddling Lake Martin from Eli Ellsworth on Vimeo.

Comite Classic

From South East Mountain Biking

This Saturday I competed in the Comite Classic in Baton Rouge on the Comite Trail system.  I had originally planned on heading to North Carolina for some primo mountain biking but due to Sarah's illness I thought I would stay home and help her out.  I talked the Breaux brothers into joining me for their first XC race.  James rode in the beginner category and Philip rode with me in sport. 

From South East Mountain Biking

The pictures dont really show it but the trail was pretty slick in spots due to all the snow, yes snow here in Louisiana.  I took a few spills in the first lap as my small block 8's werent the best tire choice for the conditions.  I lost quite a few places with my falls but I'm pretty sure I wasnt the only one having traction problems.  On my 3rd lap I had my rear wheel come out of the dropouts, as one of my falls had opened the quick release.  Im really disliking the Ellsworth qr skewers as they seem to have a problem staying shut.  I dont know what placed I finished as it wasnt near the podium and as of yet they have yet to post the results online.

Comite Classic

Almost Done.......

From Buoy

Well this week I completed a big step in the road for my Engineering Degree and that was done by completing my Senior Design Project which has lasted two semesters.  My teams design was for a data collection buoy that would transmit data collected in the Gulf of Mexico to a satellite that our University has deployed.  I was in charge of the communications and mechanical aspects of the design.

From Buoy

We presented our design in front of all the faculty and a few industry folks while answering questions and defending our design.  I felt out of the two other projects that were from our design group we had the best presentation and answered all questions cleanly.  This felt like a huge weight had been lifted off our shoulders but was short lived as we had a test to study for the next day and finals to worry about.

CAPE Buoy

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: satellite communications)

Capitol Cyclery

Today I headed out to Lake Kincaid with a couple guys (James and Peter) from Capitol Cyclery  as Peter had gotten his new bike in so he was itching to ride.  He had to be back at 1 though as he was working at the shop.  I rode the Rig while James was on his 69'er and since the ride was going to be a quick one I would bolt ahead of the guys to snap photos.  

From South East Mountain Biking

It has been cold this week (~40-50 degrees F) so I decided to try out an Under Armour undershirt to wear under the jersey to cut the wind some.  After two rides with it it has done a good job preventing me from getting frozen while no causing me to overheat any.  I never thought I would wear any of the Under Armour stuff but I have read how much these compression shirts help out with the heat and the cold for cycling that I thought it wouldn't hurt to try.  James has been wearing one of the winter blend shirts but he says that it causes him to overheat to quickly so I purchased one of the summer blend shirts.

From South East Mountain Biking

24 Hours of Clear Springs

This was really my first 24 solo as the one I had done previously (The Mangler) had been cut short by a bear attack so I was pumped to see how far I could push myself.  The previous week via email a lot of predictions / smack talk had been made by me to beat out my 2 other riding buddies (Mo-fo and Fa-real) with the winner receiving a 6-pack of there choice.  I had been riding strong the last few weeks and felt good with my fitness level coming into the race.

From 24 HOCS (2008)

I originally planned on driving out to Clear Springs the Friday before the race but decided against it so as to get a good night sleep in my bed and leave at 7:00 am Saturday morning.  I arrived at Clear Springs at 10:00 with plenty of time to setup my pit area and get dressed.  Unlike most 24 hour races there is no Le Mans start (running start) at Clear Springs as the director lets the team riders go first then us soloist's next. 

From 24 HOCS (2008)

I started off pretty fast, faster then I should of finishing my first lap right at an hour for the 10 mile course.  I was feeling good and didn't pit but for 2 seconds to swap out water bottles and take off on my second lap.  I was using the same plan that I had used in The Mangler by just doing a lap with a bottle of Cytomax and my tools in my seat pack.  On the third lap I snapped my chain allowing Mo-Fo to take the lead.  While fixing the chain I was passed by another rider Charley Rome who I knew was going to eventually pass me as he's a much stronger and experienced rider then I, and at this point while kneeling by my bike I felt the onset of some cramping happening.  As I finished my 4th lap Iwent to switch out water bottles and grab some endurolytes  when Fa-real came into the pits also, so we decided to start riding together.  We rode for 3 laps together with 1.5 of them being in the dark.  After my 6th lap my stomach starting giving me big problems and I felt like I was going to puke any second, eventually doing so behind my truck.  I decided to lay down at that point after sitting around the fire for an hour.  I woke back up still feeling nauseous but decided to head out and do 2 more laps before calling it quits.  I ended up with 8 laps or 80 miles.  It was disappointing but I was glad to see both my friends podium with 1st, 3rd and 4th.  Hopefully I will be back next year to redeem myself.

Gary Fisher Rig.

I took the plunge on another bike, to add to my growing stable of bikes.  I really wanted to go the singlespeed route as I was hoping to gain some more strength for some of my longer races and also wanted to try out a 29'er.  Since the shop I work at is a Trek/Gary Fisher dealer I could get a good deal on a 2008 Gary Fisher Rig.  I also just received another scholarship from school that gave me the money to purchase it.

From South East Mountain Biking

I have changed a few things from the original parts, as it came with a 70mm stem which when combined with the bars made for cramped ride.  I swapped out the stem for a 100mm but its still a little cramped as the sweep on the bars is fairly significant.  I also put a WTB  Rocket V seat on it and some new grips.

From South East Mountain Biking

After a couple of good rides (37 mile and a 26 mile) I have to say singlespeeding is much different and my upper body was feeling the effects at the end of the ride.  The 29'er is fantastic it just rolls over stuff and does a great job in the sand at Kincaid.  I was a little worried about going back to a hardtail but the 29'er seems to give you a little suspension.

Movies in the Park

This weekend Sarah and I rode the bikes downtown to Parc International to catch a movie.  Its only about a 2 mile ride to downtown Lafayette from our place so I packed some sushi and lemon orzo for dinner that we picked up earlier in the day at Fresh Market.  It was my first time using my osprey talon and it easily packed up a down blanket, bike lock, dinner for the two of us and sweaters.  It should workout for my thru-ride of the ouachita trail.

From Me & The Old Lady

From Me & The Old Lady

We had our dinner on one of the benches over looking the stage where they had the inflatable screen.  Luckily we had brought the down blanket because it got quite chilly while watching Beetlejuice and the bench got less and less comfortable as the night wore on.  It was still a great time for only $2 per person and asked ourselves why we never ride our bikes downtown when we go out for our rides. 

Gustav's Damage

Due to Gustav our roof developed quite a nice new water feature inside our apartment.  The only problem with this is we needed the pots used to collect the water for cooking.  Luckily there was another empty apartment in our complex just in a separate building.  So the last few weeks with the help of the bob trailer has gone to moving.

We also purchased Sarah a new bike that was paid for with a little off the clock work at the shop.  We took it around campus last night for a ride.

From Me & The Old Lady

From Me & The Old Lady

Petra Davis - Bear Attack

I was in a 24 hour race in Alaska that was stopped due to an grizzly bear attack on one of the racers.  This is an interview just done with her about the attack.  Im glad to see she is going to keep riding.

Gustav

From Gustav

From Gustav

Well it hasn't been much of a labor day weekend for me as Hurricane Gustav has put a damper on everything.  I was tempted to head on up to Arkansas for some riding  but with Sarah not having a job and just spending 3 days in my truck a week ago I just felt like staying put.  Sarah wanted to evacuate as it was originally predicted to be a category 5 hurricane and I wanted to go because of the thought of being without power for a few days would be unbearable.  We waited it out though and only had brief flickers in power and lost our cable/internet for half a day.

From Gustav

I did however get a road ride in Saturday with the race team for a fast ride.  Its good to be riding in a group again I missed the speed of those rides and had a little trouble keeping up when they ramped up the speed to 28 mph.  The Sunday ride was not happening due to the hurricane so today I decided to get on the trainer and do a Spinerval DVD.  The iso squats were killing me at the end and I had problems finishing the last set.  Now I just have to get back into school mode and start doing my homework.

Hurricane Gustav

Bienvenue en Louisiana

Well Sarah and I left San Diego at 6:00 AM Wed. morning to make it back to Louisiana by Friday, giving us the weekend to get settled before I would head back to school.  The first night I planned on stopping in Las Cruces, NM which was about a 10 hour drive and then head from there the next day and check out Austin, TX.  We arrived in Las Cruces about 5 pm and checked into our hotel which wasnt too bad.  For our night in Las Cruces we thought we would try some mexican food as Las Cruces is the chilli pepper capitol.  The mexican food was decent but we notice a weird drink that was served in New Mexico called chelada.  Didnt look appetizing to me.

After getting back to the hotel we checked the weather and it called for thunderstorms in Austin so we decided to change plans and head to Houston which would give us a short drive on Friday of only 4 hours.  We got on the road at about 8 and started the long drive again as the day progressed we decided to skip Houston and make it all the Lafayette that day.  This would give us a 16 hour day of driving.  I thought it was worth it to sleep in our own bed and save the money that would be spent on a hotel.  We made it into Lafayette around 1 am and didnt even unpack.

  

Its good to get back and finish up my last year of college though as much as I don't want college to end.  These last two semesters shouldn't be too bad.

San Onofre

Today I decided to do an out and back up to San Onofre which I thought would be around 50 to 60 miles.  As the link from Swamis said 22 miles one way but my starting point would be a little further.  So I packed up some fresh banana bread and a couple of water bottles for the ride.  I was hoping the construction would be done that had stopped me the last few times.

As I approached the same place that stopped me last time I saw the same construction signs allowing no access.  I decided to find another way around and followed the detour signs which brought me out to the Oceanside Harbor Exit where I went and entered the base from.  The ride isn't very hilly but its like a total different world going through the base.  You have huge Hummers passing you by on the road and tanks parked off on the side.  They had some cool obstacle courses located throughout the base that I was tempted to go try but didn't.  

I made it all the way SONGS where I decided to turn around with almost 40 miles on my odometer at this point.  I stopped at San Onofre to eat my banana bread and saw I only had a half of a water bottle left.  This worried me as I wasnt carrying any cash to refill, but knew there was a McDonalds on base that I could stop at and refill my water.  I ended up with 75 miles which was good after all the eating we have been doing for these tastings.

Photos

Encinitas, CA

I arrived from my flight from Anchorage on Saturday afternoon and was dead tired from the red eye.  I lucked out with my luggage as I wasn't charged the $125 for my bike instead they charged me the now normal $25 for 2 pieces of luggage.  The guy checking me in didn't notice it was oversized until after he had ran my credit card for the $25 so he let me go without paying the $125.  

When I finally got back to the house I tried taking a nap but couldn't as I'm not much of a napper.  The rest of the day was pretty much wasted though as I was too tired to do anything and couldn't fall asleep.  The next day after 12 hours of sleep that night was spent unpacking everything but my bike and doing errands.  

Tuesday I decided to head out on a little road ride to get a feel for my legs.  They were a little tired but not too bad so that night I decided to put my mountain bike together.  I gave it a shakedown today at La Costa putting in only 5 miles as we had a tasting at the French Gourmet.  Everything went fine except for a little play in my rear wheel.  Which I haven't had time to fully inspect yet.

Resurrection Trail

Today I went to pick up my bike from Eric as he was doing measurements for my new bike bags for a trip Im planning early next year.  After picking my bike up and checking out all his gear he uses for his crazy adventures I then headed down to Hope to hit up the Resurrection trail.  I wasn't in the mood for a big ride just wanted to take it easy and take in the sights.

I arrived at the trail around noon and started the uphill grind.  The trail has a slight incline with a few breaks but for the most part your climbing for 19 miles I suppose.  I stopped only 8 miles in at a creek to eat one of my sandwiches and just enjoy being in the mountains.  

I started back up after 45 minutes and started climbing again until about 2:30 when I decided to stop again for 30 minutes and then head back home for dinner.  The ride down was a blast and I actually spooked a black bear that was on the trail as I was coming down.  As soon as he saw me he bolted for the woods.

All in all it was a great day and probably my last mountain bike ride in Alaska this summer.  Hopefully I can make it back with my bike at some point and ride some of the trails that I didnt get to finish or do.

Photos

Lost Lake Trail

I headed down to Seward, AK on the train this morning at 6:30 am to make into Seward at about 11 am to ride the Lost Lake trail / Primrose trail.  It was voted on in the local forums here in Alaska as the best singletrack ride in Alaska.  The train was a little more expensive then driving but well worth the forgoing the hassle of driving plus it only dropped me off 5 miles from the trailhead.  I was a little worried making my ride back as boarding began at 5 and the train left at 6 that left me with about 5 hours to finish the 15 miles of singletrack and the 22 miles of pavement that I would have to ride to the trailhead and back to the train station.  

The gravel road to the trailhead was a nice precursor to what I would be doing for the next few miles on the trail.  Within the first 100 yards of trail I was quickly stopped due to a flat in my rear tire which was no problem as I always pack 2 tubes in my backpack.  After fixing my flat I steadily climbed up to the top of the lake where I wasnt afforded much of a view due to the clouds that were hanging out.  The trail was also fairly wet making some of the climbs a little trickier due to the wet rocks.  It also had a few stream crossing but nothing that would cause you to get your feet soaked.  There were also quite a few backpackers on the trail as its a fairly popular backpacking trail.

After splitting off the Lost Lake trail to descend down the Primrose trail I was stopped by my second flat.  I was getting a little worried as this was my last tube and I hadn't packed a patch kit.  The descent down Primrose was fantastic, everything I could of hoped for.  Half way down the descent though I got my third and final flat as I had nothing to fix it.  I stopped some backpackers and tried using a light to melt the tube as to seal the tube but had no luck.  I started my 3 mile hike out of the trail hoping to hitch-hike a ride so as to catch my train. 

At this point it was 4 pm and I had two hours to walk 17 miles to the train station.  When I got out to the Seward Highway I tried flagging people down but had 10 cars pass me with no signs of stopping.  Luckily I saw a highway trooper going in the opposite direction and waved him down.  He ran my license and then was nice enough to give me a ride back into Seward even though he was headed home.  I made it time to catch the train where I ended up sleeping most of the way.

Photos. 

Eagle River Yurt

This weekend my family and I had reserved the rapids yurt from the Eagle River Nature Center.  Its really a great place for $65 you get this great yurt on the side of a cliff overlooking the Chugach Mountains and the Eagle River.  It has a set of bunk beds, a table, a bench, two chairs, and a wood stove inside.  Outside it has a huge deck, a fire pit, and a bunch of chopped wood to heat the yurt.  Its only a 1.75 mile hike to the yurt so you can bring some of the finer things in life too.  We had brought some kabobs, beer, smores, and cheese and crackers to snack on while we were there.  We also packed one of our favorite games clue to pass the time at night.

The next day after we hiked out my Dad and I went to Rabbit Slough which is part of Wasilla Creek.  It usually gets a nice run on coho's so we were going to try our luck.  The river is only open for fishing on the weekends from 6 to 6 so we only had an hour and a half to bring back some fresh fish.  We brought the canoe to paddle upstream a little to get further away from the crowds of people that usually sit along the bank.  Paddling upstream you can see the waters turning from all the salmon in it,  it actually looks like the water is boiling there are so many of them.  Once we got to our spot it wasnt long until my dad hooked one.  It ended up snapping his pole though, but it didnt matter as it was an illegal hook anyways.  A few minutes later though we ended up catching a nice coho 15 minutes before the fishing shutdown.

Alaska Salmon Fishing

Johnson's Pass

With one of my classes done for summer I thought I would celebrate by heading down to the Kenai and bike Johnson's Pass which is located at about the 64 mile marker on the Seward Highway.  The trail is a 21 mile point to point trail that drops you off 40 miles further down on the Seward Highway.  I arrived at the trailhead around 11 am and was planning on riding there and back giving me about 42 miles of riding.  

My legs weren't feeling great probably from my lack of time on the bike and the 55 mile ride I did 2 days previously.  The trail started out great though on beautiful singletrack with a slight incline perfect for getting the legs warmed up.  I passed a backpacker and a runner and made my first few creek crossings that were no deeper then a few inches.  Further along the trail as the creeks got bigger bridges have been constructed to help you cross.  You will still end up getting your feet wet as a few creeks dont have bridges and on some parts of the trail the creek was actually flowing down the trail.  A few miles into the trail it quickly became overgrown with devil's club and cow parsnip that made the going that much tougher.  Cow parsnip is known to give people small blisters so I was little worried with all the bushwhacking I was doing.  It was also getting harder to see my front wheel and the mud was thickening in spots.  

At mile 9 I stopped to get lunch as there was a great spot right before one of the bridges that 

had a beautiful view of a waterfall.  At mile 10 you come to a Lake and not too much further the cow parsnip retreats and the trail becomes a little wider as you start your descent.  The downhill isn't very technical with just a few small rocks to navigate around.  I soon became too complacent and next thing you know I was over the bars smacking my head into some downed trees.  My neck was a little sore also from the fall and as I went to inspect my helmet I noticed that I put a nice crack in it.

After regrouping from the fall I started my descent, taking it much more cautiously.  At mile 18.5 I came to a small stream that had about a dozen sockeye salmon in it.  I didnt like biking near it due to bears so I decided to turn around and start heading back.  I was walking my bike at this point since my legs were feeling pretty tired.  

As I came up on the Lake again I heard a rubbing coming from my back tire and looked back to see my tire was rubbing against my rear seat stay.  Upon my inspection I noticed that the bolt connecting the seat stay and chain stay and fallen out deeming my bike useless.  This is the exact same thing that happened to me with the other rear triangle.  I felt so stupid for not checking those as soon as I got a few rides in on the new rear triangle.  

On the 10 mile hike back to the car though I had a black bear run right out in front of me and stop 20 yards of the side of the trail and just stare at me.  I was a little unnerved as the bear was unphased by my hollering.  From then on every minute I was hollering Hey Bear, on my hike out.  I finally made it out at 10 exhausted from the days events.

Photos

Eklutna Lake - The Return

I decided to leave early enough today to make it to Eklutna Glacier from my parents house.  This would be an approximately 55 mile mountain bike ride.  So i packed up some lunch and headed out my usual way through the powerline trails to the Eklutna River which I crossed then start the long climb up Eklutna Lake Road.  

I wasnt feeling very spunky today as I havent been mountain biking as much the last few weeks due to all the studying I have been doing for my two summer classes.  So once I saw wind of a trail off the long climb I stopped for a breather and to check it out.  Luckily I did because just 20 yards off the road you got out to the edge of a cliff that opened up to a huge gorge that the river had cut out.

At about mile 12.4 of the trail around the lake it ends and you have to dismount as the trail is not passable with a bike.  This trail follows along the Eklutna River and the river is really flowing at this point which also causes the temp's to drop a little.  I was hoping this would lead me out to the glacier but to reach the glacier you would of had to been a mountain goat.  You would of also had to cross the river and at this point its probably a class III river that is as cold as ice.  So I decided to eat my lunch and head on back home.

Photos

Eklutna Lake

Even though I had written previously that I wouldn't be riding this weekend because of all the rain and my Organic Chemistry test on Monday, the weather turned out to be really nice on Saturday giving me the itch.  So today (Sunday) when the weather turned out to be good again I thought why not go ride as I was diligent in my study's all weekend.  I mentioned the idea about riding up to Eklutna Lake from our house to my dad and he said the road leading up to the lake was a 10 mile climb.  I thought since I haven't been on my bike as much as I would of liked and with the trail only being 12 miles and flat it would be a good way to put in some extra miles, 10 mile climb be damned.  

The ride started like the last few starting on the powerline trails that are behind my parents house but this time instead of crossing the Eklutna River I had to wade upstream a bit to get across the Glenn Highway where the road up to the Lake started.  While wading through the river though I got to see a few king salmon swimming which made braving the freezing waters that much more bearable. When I got to the road it was slow going as it climbed from 200 feet to 1400 feet in 3 miles and then leveling up for the last few miles.  After 10 miles on the road I finally reached the entrance to the Lake.

The trail following the lake was all doubletrack and relatively flat.  What it lacked in technical stuff it made up for in beauty.  If it had been anymore technical it would of been easy to wipe out while staring at the mountains and lake.  I was hoping to make it all the way to the Glacier but it was getting late and I had to be back for supper.  So I turned around at the 10.5 mile mark to head home.

On the way back the skys opened up and I put the hammer down trying to make it back around 7:30 for dinner.  Once I got cell phone service I called my parents to come pick me up at the end of the road so that I wouldnt have to wade through the freezing Eklutna River again.  I had miscalculated though and only made it have way down the downhill when I saw my dad in his vehicle.  I was glad to get in the car though as the effects of the rain and the long downhill had chilled me down to the bone.  Hopefully I will try this trip again and make it all the way to the glacier.

Photos