Dizzle's Diary: Westbound

I awoke to the spectacular views of the Grand Tetons Wednesday morning, broke camp and headed into town (Jackson, WY).

Campsite 1, Jackson, WY

I fueled the car and ran a couple errands in the morning and stopped into a few local bike shops to find out where the biking was good. Pretty much everyone said to stick to Jackson and ride the trails covering Snow King ski area. So I did. This was my first taste of true mountain biking. By that I mean the trail started off low in elevation, climbed feverishly for several miles followed by a downhill run. The climbs were like nothing witnessed in Missouri, where climbs are generally moderate and the end typically in sight; in the mountains, the end is never in site and climbs are often technically challenging :( I spent the majority of the morning climbing until I reached the mountain summit (3 hrs later). At this time I was completely spent so I looked for the most direct route down, which was a network of service roads and singletack that meandered down a ski run. To add to the excitement, upon my summit the freewheel on my bike froze up and would not spin freely making my 1x9 essentially a fixie. I remedied this on the spot by just taking off my chain and cruising to the bottom chainless. By the time I got to the bottom I had fried both my front and rear brakes with the front pads being completely gone. Once again, not something I'm use to in Missouri.

View of the Tetons from the bike ride.

Looking back at Snow King and the trail used to descend.

After the bike ride, I stopped by Mile High Pizza Pie in Jackson to refuel and refresh then I headed west again to Craters of the Moon National Monument in south central Idaho. Craters of the moon is a landscape formed by volcanic activity many years ago, but instead of there being a violent eruption from a mountain (like St. Helens) the earth just opened up and oozed liquid hot magma forming impressive lava fields, obvious cones and a maze of lava tubes. This was a no brainer stop for a geotech nerd.

Pitching the hammock proved difficult at Craters due to the lack of trees, I was able to make something work with a tree, picnic table, car and bbq grill. Half the fun of tarp camping is coming up with the crazy configurations unique to every site.

Campsite 2, Craters of the Moon NM, ID

While pitching the tarp a friendly camper in a neighboring site came over and offered up some cool beer, a much welcomed offering. Andy, the friendly camper, was returning from Yellowstone to the Bay Area where he had spent the last 12 weeks working on a grizzly bear study. The evening was spent enjoying more beers and listening to some of Andy's great stories.

The next day I spent the morning exploring the lava fields and lava tubes with Andy. We climbed in some pretty dark tunnels and saw some pretty neat, un-Earthly structures before departing from Craters of the Moon NM.

Crazy Lava tube.

I continued west to Boise, ID where I stopped at a local Radio Shack to pick up a new phone, I was using my Mom's phone because I had lost mine the night before I left. Mom's phone ran out of battery and instead of buying a car charger I just decided to use buy a whole new phone instead since it was time for me to upgrade anyway. I got a Blackberry Pearl with the full data package and have really enjoyed it.

I pushed on all the way to Bend, OR which is just east of central Oregon. Bend is home to the eastern most reaches of the Cascades. I fueled the car (or the attendant fueled the car because it's illegal to pump your own gas in OR) then headed out of town to find a campsite. Bend is pretty much surrounded by national forest where camping and use of the land is free to the public. I headed down county roads for a while until I settle on a spot. There was a meteor shower going on that night so I enjoyed the night gazing into the abyss at the numerous shooting stars.

Campsite 3, near Bend, OR

Saturday morning I hiked around a little then loaded up the car for the final push, a due south movement straight to Grass Valley. I detoured slightly to scope out Crater Lake in Southern Oregon. Crater Lake was more beautiful that I had ever imagined. I only had time to drive around and snap a few pictures, but I definitely look forward to going back in the future.

Crater Lake...to be continued

That's the extend of my road trip to California, it really was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable trips of my life. I have one week of work under my belt now and I think I'm really going to like it here. The folks of Grass Valley are very nice and welcoming for the most part. Work is very relaxed with an interesting workforce that shares many of the same interests and views as I. Mountain biking is a big deal here and that's what I've been occupying most of my free time with. There are plenty of epic trails within an hour of Grass Valley with plenty of people willing show me around. I'll start posting on those soon.

Here are some other pics I snapped from the windshield: