2009 Review

Um, yeah, a bit late. I'll start with my plans for 2009:

  • Get Mark to Moab - It took 2 years but last September was Mark's first Moab. We rode Slickrock, Sovereign, Klondike Bluffs and Slickrock again. And I had my best recorded crash on Sovereign.
  • Ride with Alex - I had a great time riding Guacamole with Alex and his friends Cory, Rick and Colin. 4 weeks later I did another ride with Alex, the JEM/Hurricane Rim/Goulds loop. It was my first time riding both of these trails so that made it even better. Later in the year I did a few Park City rides with Alex.
  • Little Creek - The day after Guacamole, we (Jolene and I) rode Little Creek with Alex and his friends. I've had Little Creek on my list for years and it did not disappoint.
  • More Park City - So many good trails in Park City, and many I haven't done. Five enjoyable rides in 2009: 1 2 3 4 5
  • RAWROD (White Rim) - This year I rode a hard tail, seemed like a good idea, and in general it worked OK. What a fantastic ride.
  • LIVESTRONG Challenge - Thanks to generous contributors I was able to raise $682 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation in support of Team Fatty. I raised most of that with my LEGSHAVE Challenge.
  • Complete a Triathlon - Third time's the charm. The other two triathlons were rained out, this one I finally got to do all three events.
  • Do some road riding - Not a good year for the road bike. The annual Salt Lake Century was fun. A few Alpine Loop rides. Fantastic solo ride of the LaSal Loop near Moab. I still like the road, but I like mountain biking more.
  • Have fun riding - No major complaints, 2009 was a good year for me.
Other 2009 highlights:
  • Steamboat Springs - For our anniversary, Jolene and I went out to Steamboat Springs. The mountain biking was fantastic and we enjoyed all 1, 2, 3, 4 days.
  • Jackson Hole - The sweet single-track in the mountains south of town was one of my favorite rides of 2009.
  • 3rd trip to Arizona - Last February I escaped with Mark to Phoenix again for a few days of riding.
  • Crest Loop - The Wasatch Crest / MidMountain loop has to be one of the best rides in the state, and riding it with Mark last year was a good time.
  • Blackhawk Loop - Another best-in-state loop ride, with Jesse and Patty.
  • Hard tail 29er - I bought a 2005 Gary Fisher X-Caliber last January and rode it almost exclusively in 2009. I love the big wheels and the hard tail has been a fun throw-back. The bike has been great for almost all the local trails and for short rides.
  • 24 Hours of Moab - Jolene raced it with a team, I just hung out at the awesome Mad Dog compound. I rode the course before the race started and rode a night lap with Jolene. A fun event.
  • Hell-O-Ween - This costume ride was a riot. Thanks for making it happen, Rick.
  • Fall Fruita - 2.5 days of riding with great guys and amazing cyclists with such a good vibe.
I also cleaned up the sidebar. I removed the blog list since I use the Blog Buzz for keeping up with the blogs I read. I also removed the Fighting Like Susan section because that fund raising year is over. I'm a lousy fund raiser so I'm not sure if I'll do it again this year, but I will donate for the fight against cancer.

Reviewing all the fun I had in 2009 has inspired me to make the most of 2010, even though this winter is driving me nuts. I'll post about my 2010 plans soon.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

2009 does seem like a good year for you! Wow - you got a lot of riding in at a lot of great spots.

Just a suggestion, but if you liked Steamboat, you have to try out Crested Butte (particularly in mid July to mid August when the wildflowers are in bloom or late September for the aspens). In my humble and biased opinion, it has some of the best riding (and scenery) in the world.

mtb w

KanyonKris said...

mtb w - Thanks for the suggestion. I've heard others rave about Crested Butte so I'll for sure check it out.