Fall into...winter?

   A snowy day. Wood stove blazing, lamb stew in the crock pot. Enjoying a bit of calm before the chaos of moving back to Kings Beach begins in less than 2 weeks, and back to full time work a few days after that. Kit is happily back working for his old boss as a plumber, and I'm excited to start my new job at Tahoe Mountain Sports learning all about shipping and retail, working with rad people at a successful locally owned business. In addition, planning to continue making wooden spoons and other small items for Roundwood to keep creating fun artsy things. The process of selling and buying houses, for once, is feeling like it's going smoothly. Hopefully this is the last real estate adventure we'll have for a very long time, and I do mean it!
   My body (and mental state) is finally returning to a normal state; my left knee doesn't quite bend all the way but is getting a lot closer with stretching and physical therapy. At least it's no longer half the size of my right leg--that was pretty scary. Rock climbing has gotten much more fun being able to do all but the most crazy of high-steps, and things are feeling quite good on the bike although I don't go very fast uphill yet. I even ventured out on a dirt bike ride around our local trails, having so much fun that we went out again the next day. So tired and sore afterward but SO much fun!
   The weekend before was my first big mountain bike ride since sometime in April when I became a basket case for most of the summer. Our friends suggested a rather long ride with copious amounts of pedaling and pushing bikes; a shuttle to hike up the back side of Armstrong Pass to a section of the Tahoe Rim Trail up to Freel Pass, then down to Star Lake and Cold Creek trail and finally pedaling back to their house. Debating the wisdom of jumping into a 15-mile ride so soon, I agreed after much peer pressure... after all, it is mostly downhill. The very first hike up the short steep backside trail to Armstrong was quite honestly the worst part, wherein I considered feigning knee pain to bail on the rest of the ride and head down the Armstrong Pass trail to Connector-Corral and back home. Popping an unexpectedly good wheelie and downing a snack at the top improved my outlook a whole lot and I decided to push onward hiking and pedaling up to chilly Freel Pass.
   It was such an epic, soul-reviving experience, despite wearing my horribly out-of-shape body down to exhaustion by the end. Rocky, sandy, un-groomed singletrack above Star Lake led to slightly smoother, newer trails below, and into Cold Creek's infamous boulder-bashing rock sections and fast flowy turns at the bottom. I LOVE BIKE RIDING!!!!

Starting in on the delicious 3,000 foot descent down from Freel Pass

   The flip side of having all of this fun? Well, it just happens to be creating an enormous bike dilemma for me. Spending the majority of the season with an Ibis Ripley collecting dust in the shed until recently means I never got a chance to really appreciate the bike to its fullest potential and decide if I really thought it was all that and a bag of potato chips... until now, conveniently, when I'm already late on handing it back over (sorry!!) Until this particular day I was all ready to get back on board with my buddy at Lichen Bikes, the polar opposite to this flashy carbon fiber beast. Solidly built from lightweight steel and stable at high speeds, his creation rides like an exceptionally pedal-able downhill bike. Also fun, no doubt, and Kit loves his Lichen Bike. Whereas the Ripley feels like a BMX bike with suspension, so easy to pop over obstacles, flick through tight trees, and throw in a few decent manuals. Most noticeable, though, was the amount of energy that I saved having such a stinking light bike that feels like it practically pedals itself. I was able to coast many times where everyone else pedaled, and I'm pretty sure the bike was the only reason I wasn't too terribly far behind everyone on the climb up. Yes, I feel like I've now drank the carbon 29er kool-aid... Eeks! And no, I'm not worried about racing enduro on it. I used to race super-Ds on a hardtail, and my first DH season was on a ridiculous excuse for a bike, so that's right up my alley.
   First-world problems, indeed. Can't I just have both bikes and enjoy each of them for what they are? Budgetarily, no. I shouldn't even be thinking of buying a dang fancy carbon bike right now, but with selling a couple of houses and starting a steady job I'm feeling pretty good about things. So everyone (especially Devin of Lichen Bikes), please forgive me, I think I'm about to indulge myself in a carbon "dream bike" at least for one more season. And I think that Lichen could build one heck of a DH bike, which I might also be looking for soon. No carbon wanted in that department!!
   When the dust settles and life is as back to normal as it will ever be, hopefully some fun weekend adventures will commence. Perhaps, even of the snowy sort... it's still too early for me to believe we will actually have a real winter here in Tahoe but we all hope that it happens!