St. George bike trip- Day 2

Shawn Peck joined us Friday night for a huge ride on Saturday. We started the JEM Trail outside La Verkin. This is me and Agent Peck standing over the Virgin River.

This is me and Tim Shaw riding the cliff over the Virgin River.

Mike and Tim at the beginning of the ride.

Our beautiful scenery.

Scenery.

More scenery.

Overlooking La Verkin. This wasn’t even halfway on our 27 mile ride.

We took the Hurrican Rim cutoff and rode passed this La Verkin lookout to the parking lot where Shawn, Bevan, Evan, Kevin and I stopped last year. It was a challenging climb, but the downhill to the parking lot was worth it. We crossed Highway 59 and climbed the fireroad for qyite a while before taking the cutoff to Gould’s Rim. We rode that part for several miles on Gould’s Rim when Shawn got a flat tire. We fixed that and stopped to rest at Highway 59 when we noticed he had torn the sidewall on his tire. My friend Rob Brown told me you can stick a dollar bill over a tire hole until you get off the trail. We were about to do that when Mike suggested we try using the Cliff Gel wrappers. We didn’t have any other problems with the tires. We flew down from Highway 59 passed the Hurrican Rim cutoff and continued to the car. The trail was in great shape and I let go of the apprehension I had from Friday. That section is probably my favorite section of trail. It was a great trip and we put down some good miles. No one got hurt and the mechanical problems were minimal. And we learned a lot about Tim and Mike’s moms.

St. George bike trip- Day 1

Mike Both, Tim Shaw and I went to St. George on Friday for a mountain bike road trip. We rode for several hours on the Bearclaw Poppy trail, then rode part of the Zen trail. This is Tim and Mike on Bearclaw Poppy.

Tim on a double jump on Bearclaw Poppy.
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This is me on the Bearclaw double. I was really nervous about crashing and hurting my shoulder. It’s been 10 months, but I have to get passed one year for it to be totally healed.
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Mike on the third Finger of Death. I missed his landing. I suck.
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We followed the riverbed to try and get out to the Zen Trail. That sucked. We had to bike/hike quite a bit, but we caught the trail and started our climb above Bearclaw Poppy. This picture is the Three Fingers of Death from the Zen Trail.

Close up of the Three Fingers of Death from the Zen Trail.

The riverbed approaching the Three Fingers of Death.

This is me and Mike overlooking the Three Fingers of Death from the Zen Trail. We lost the trail and come down too soon, so we went to our Trendwest timeshare to get more water. We hit several jumps on the way back to the car and felt pleased with what we had done.

Defensive Handgun

Today I did the Defensive Handgun class with the Counterterrorism Institute of America. We practiced speed reloading, tactical reloading, clearing jams, advancing and retreating, shooting from cover, and shooting from three prone positions. We had a shooting contest on steel targets from about 20-25 yards. I won. It was well worth the time and money, and was a great way to learn and practice new skills.

Chuck Norris

Today is Chuck Norris’ birthday. It should be a world holiday. I saw him a few years ago in Las Vegas and he is in great shape. Most people in their 30’s are not in shape like him, and he is 69 today. Say what you will about Walker, Texas Ranger, but he is a great martial artist, and he counted to infinity twice. And he can believe it’s not butter.