ceann eile

carving even a soft wood like whatever the piece below is really makes me realize just how heavenly it is to carve cottonwood bark. and you'll likely never catch me trying to carve ironwood again with hand tools like i did in mexico... i remember at one point down there waking up with my fingers locked in a clench.

i intended for this to be a full body, but it just didn't happen.





my legs are really sore from yesterdays hike, and there's a bottom bracket issue with the new bike, so not much in the way of exercise today. excuses excuses...

náire, náire, tá a fhios agam d'ainm....

chain reaction cycles, out of northern ireland, tends to have stupidly good deals for us yanks, and especially for alaskans. assuming you spend more than @$250, a number that, of course, fluctuates a few dollars hither and yon with the exchange rate. once you've met that requirement, shipping is free, which is especially nice in alaska, since most places in the lower 48 charge about $5,000,000 dollars for shipping an axle nut up here. so i headed on down to the post office this morning with my little notice to pick up my package from the afformentioned bane of the bike shop.

the contents of the package were a mix of stuff i need(want) now and stuff that i'm likely to need at some point later on, which were added on to the order to meet the free shipping requirement. a rear hydro disk(formula oro k18), a 183 mm adapter to try to get my front hope moto v2 out of the spokes, a bashring, four spare sets of pads for the formula, and a kenda klaw rear tire. i definitely did not need the kenda, but it was cheap and appears to be a good mud performer. so i'll add it to my collection.

all of these shiny bits, and the contents of several other packages i've recieved over the past month are the components of my new bike. an access xcl9, built up as a 5sp, front suspended bike. 5sp because it means i can use a ss hub and get rid of the gears as soon as they get on my nerves too much to be useful, suspension because the roots up here are annoying as all hell on a rigid fork. why a new bike? aside from why not? the katate monkey has seen alot of life, and been through hell and back. i don't know how much longer it's going to put up with my abuse. that, and the new frame was only $80. i think all totalled, the bike cost me about... holy crap, i just added it all up in my head... probably around $1600. ick. anyway, here's a photo.



all the components are bomber and high quality, so they'll all be able to migrate to whatever i end up on once the $80 frame has outlived itself.

i used to work in a bike shop, and i was always a strong advocate of supporting your local bike shop. and i still am. i've also always understood though, that there's often times no way that a bike shop can match online prices, and that in many cases, it would be foolish of someone with mechanical know-how to not buy the item online for less. even still, i think in the 8 years before moving up here, i only mail ordered three or four individual items, and all were because they were below shop cost, or unavailable through the shop's distributors.

this new bike though, is entirely, 100% mail order. and as justifiable as it is, and even if they understand and really don't care, i'm still going to feel like a jerk the next time i bring it into one of the two lbs' i like up here. those being speedway cycles in anchorage, and backcountry bikes here in palmer.

leithsciuil

there are mountain peaks all around me. dozens of them. some even have trails going up them. i hadn't been to the top of a single one of them. until today. the most accessible and well used of the local ones is Lazy Mtn here in Palmer. it's relatively small, going from a little bit above sea level up to only about 3,6xx feet. the kicker is that it ascends all those 3,600 vertical feet in about 2.5 miles via the old trail. they recently began work on a new trail that bypasses the absurd steepness of the existing one with a bunch of slightly less absurdly steep switchbacks, which are half-bench cut into the hill.

lazy is the closest hill in the photo. sort of to the left of center. your left, not the photo's.


so, i dog-napped Kim's black lab Chet and headed off. the goal was to find the new switchbacks and use them. that wasn't as easy as it should have been. can't really blame anyone though, stuff just grows so much here in the summer that less travelled trails have a tendency to disappear.

chet wasted no time finding a toy and showing me his wood-carving skills.


i eventually got on it though and the going was easy enough, but too steep to be rideable. good thing i was on foot. it's kind of unique to northern mountainous climates, we have all the vegetation zones of a big mountain state, but in a shorter span. you can reach high alpine terrain here below 4,000 feet. all the beauty with no risk of altitude ailments. only catch is a shorter accessibility window. you start at 71 feet of elevation in a completely green forest, and quickly make your way up into sparser vegetation. the trees get smaller, the colors brighter and fall colors and wildflower flourish the higher you go.











eventually, you break out above the trees, above the brush, and reach the gravelly stuff.









after a bunch of false summits, you finally see the peak. i had really underestimated just how out of shape i've gotten with my lethargy of late. i've been doing waaay too much interwebbing and sitting on my ass, and i felt it going up. fequent breaks, drenched with sweat by the time i got to the peak.







baaaa-a-a-a-a-a-a-aaa-a-a


rest stop.


after the top, it was just a matter of following Chet down via the main trail, which is so unbelievably steep and slippery. my feet are meatballs after trying to walk down it. i should have run. it probably would have been easier...







all in all, it was a blast, totally worth it, and i can't wait to get out and collect some more alpine terrain.

gorm dorcha

my cousin mohammed. http://msn.foxsports.com/boxing/story/10008818

agus glan anois

cleaned em up and added a few features last night after that last post.

it's raining now and amazingly, i have the motivation to ride. i'm gonna go play around at crev mo i think.


edit: ok, now it's raining harder. think i might be losing that motivation.....





and another made today.



riding will commence tomorrow....