Wednesday, April 29, 2009
posted by Grizzly Adam at 6:29 AM | Permalink |
White Rim: Sweet Relief
Results | Wasatch | Bike | Sponsors | Best Of | Ski
Grandeur Peak, Mount Olympus, and others from Ensign Peak, SLC, Utah
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”
Albion Basin, Alta, Summer 2006
Up. And up. As long as the eye can see, wrapping around the next ridge, the next hill, and on into eternity. The endless climb. Burning legs, lungs at capacity, the rocks on the dirt slowly passing underneath feet and wheels. Gravity tugging gently at jersey pockets.
Suddenly the world opens up. Everywhere the earth stretches out, on and on, and on. The air is cool and crisp. Thin. The trees start to spread out. Meadows are full of flowers. In the shade snow lingers. Elevation.
And still, up and up. Fatigue creeps from within, evident in salty stains. The chain groans under the pressure, dry and dusty. Above, so close, the summit. But ahead an innumerable path of switchbacks. Onward.
And then, finally, the top. The wind is blowing. Far below a glimpse of city streets tangled beneath a dirty haze. No trees. Just boulders. And a few resilient flowers. A deep breath is shallow and short. Thin air fills the lungs, lightheaded ecstasy. Altitude.
Sacred elevation. Sacred mountain top. A place where few have been. And fewer will ever go. To difficult. To painful. No time for nature. Watch it on television. Vicarious adventure. What shallow ambition!
No chair lifts here. Just muscle and gritted teeth. The high country. The endless climb.
Keith climbs Frank's Meadow on the Great Western Trail
The long wet spring that we have had this year, has given rise to flowers that I do not remember ever seeing along the Timp Foothill Trails before. In years past it simply has gotten to hot, too quickly for these to fully bloom. This year however, they are not only blooming, but are thriving. The trails at times are nearly overgrown with the vegetation, adding a mix of color in an area that is so often by July a dirty brown and pale yellow.
The Wasatch Penstemon
Get a bicycle. You will certainly not regret it, if you live.
Slowly the high country is melting. The snow is dripping away filing streams and rivers and lakes. The air is warmer, brighter. The mountains greener, friendlier. Summer is at long last breaking the shackles of an over stayed winter. The Rockies are waking up.
Trails are opening up. Some because of snow melt, others because they are evolving from faint deer paths to legitimate singletrack. And so the options are increasing, multiplying. From singletrack to singletrack, ridge to ridge and canyon to canyon, the world is being linked together. Ripe for the exploring.
As I wandered about the race course on Saturday shooting and rooting, I noticed things that while speeding through the dust on a bike I would have never seen. Some days there is nothing better than hammering until you can't see, can't think, can't hear.
Other days, it is nice to simply stand and watch.
Monday, October 13, 2008
posted by Grizzly Adam at 11:51 AM | Permalink |
Delicate, Arches
There are several ways of looking at Delicate Arch. Depending on your preconceptions you may see the eroded remnants of a sandstone fin, a giant engagement ring cemented in rock, a bow-legged pair of petrified cowboy chaps, a triumphal arch for a procession of angels, an illogical freak, a happening.... If Delicate Arch has any significance it lies, I will venture, in the power of the odd and unexpected to startle the senses and surprise the mind out of their ruts of habit, to compel us into a reawakened awareness of the wonderful-that which is full of wonder.
~Ed Abbey
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
posted by Grizzly Adam at 10:24 AM | Permalink |
USGS Photo Library
The USGS has recently scanned over 40,000 (and adding more) archival images. All available to view and download at no cost - and at very high resolutions. I can see myself spending a lot of time browsing through the photos, many dating back over 100 years.
These photos tell a rich, detailed story about the evolution of the American West. A history that is not really all that old. It has only been 200 years since Lewis and Clark explored the West. And still today the wild and mysterious places remain. Despite the many years of survey and mapping and discovering, there are still blank spots on the maps of the mountains.
In addition to many early photos of the West, there are pictures from all over the country. Again, becoming a fantastic pictorial history of the United States.
Aerial view south of Salem showing pre-Lake Bonneville alluvial fan at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains cut by shoreline terraces of Lake Bonneville. Utah County, Utah. Circa 1940. Figure 24, in U.S.Geological Survey Professional paper 257. 1963.
Mount Timpanogos, at head of basin 10, showing approximately horizontal strata, elevation of summit is 11,750 feet. Utah County, Utah. circa 1905, plate 11-B in U.S. Geological Survey. Professional paper 61. 1909.
J. F. Hunter and his outfit used in studying the pre-Cambrian area of Gunnison Canyon. Colorado. November 30, 1911. F-stop 8, 1/50 seconds.
Marshall Pass, viewed from the hills on the south. This pass was discovered in 1873, by Lt. William L. Marshall. Its striking feature is the lack of ruggedness that characterizes many of the other passes through the Rocky Mountains. Saguache County, Colorado. July 23, 1905. Plate 69-A in U.S. Geological Survey. Bulletin 707.
These photos tell a rich, detailed story about the evolution of the American West. A history that is not really all that old. It has only been 200 years since Lewis and Clark explored the West. And still today the wild and mysterious places remain. Despite the many years of survey and mapping and discovering, there are still blank spots on the maps of the mountains.
In addition to many early photos of the West, there are pictures from all over the country. Again, becoming a fantastic pictorial history of the United States.
Labels: photos
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
posted by Grizzly Adam at 5:17 AM | Permalink |
Desolation Lake
Labels: photos, wasatch classic
Thursday, July 10, 2008
posted by Grizzly Adam at 12:13 PM | Permalink |
Wasatch Grandeur
Grandeur Peak, Mount Olympus, and others from Ensign Peak, SLC, Utah
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”
~John Muir.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
posted by Grizzly Adam at 12:55 PM | Permalink |
That Endless Climb
Up. And up. As long as the eye can see, wrapping around the next ridge, the next hill, and on into eternity. The endless climb. Burning legs, lungs at capacity, the rocks on the dirt slowly passing underneath feet and wheels. Gravity tugging gently at jersey pockets.
Suddenly the world opens up. Everywhere the earth stretches out, on and on, and on. The air is cool and crisp. Thin. The trees start to spread out. Meadows are full of flowers. In the shade snow lingers. Elevation.
And still, up and up. Fatigue creeps from within, evident in salty stains. The chain groans under the pressure, dry and dusty. Above, so close, the summit. But ahead an innumerable path of switchbacks. Onward.
And then, finally, the top. The wind is blowing. Far below a glimpse of city streets tangled beneath a dirty haze. No trees. Just boulders. And a few resilient flowers. A deep breath is shallow and short. Thin air fills the lungs, lightheaded ecstasy. Altitude.
Sacred elevation. Sacred mountain top. A place where few have been. And fewer will ever go. To difficult. To painful. No time for nature. Watch it on television. Vicarious adventure. What shallow ambition!
No chair lifts here. Just muscle and gritted teeth. The high country. The endless climb.
Labels: mountain bike, photos, Wasatch
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
posted by Grizzly Adam at 5:24 AM | Permalink |
Stop and Smell the Flowers
The long wet spring that we have had this year, has given rise to flowers that I do not remember ever seeing along the Timp Foothill Trails before. In years past it simply has gotten to hot, too quickly for these to fully bloom. This year however, they are not only blooming, but are thriving. The trails at times are nearly overgrown with the vegetation, adding a mix of color in an area that is so often by July a dirty brown and pale yellow.
Labels: photos, Wasatch, wildflowers
Monday, June 30, 2008
posted by Grizzly Adam at 5:50 AM | Permalink |
Ride the Line
Tim rides the pipeline over the rock drops, Dry Canyon Trail.
Get a bicycle. You will certainly not regret it, if you live.
~Mark Twain
Labels: mountain bike, photos, Wasatch
Monday, June 02, 2008
posted by Grizzly Adam at 1:33 PM | Permalink |
Picture. Spin.
Two of my favorite things are bikes, and pictures. I have combined the two a lot here at this blog. But ultimately this space is for writing. I have created a photoblog where I will post cycling (mostly) related pictures as often as possible. Don't worry however, there will still be lots of photos posted here!
Visit PictureSpin
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
posted by Grizzly Adam at 11:39 AM | Permalink |
Altitude
Each spring blooms with lofty intentions. I want to explore that, ride this, and see there. Sometimes I am able to make good on those intentions. Other years, they remain stagnant members of the "to do" list. But the renewing of these intentions is a comforting annual occurrence that serves as a reminder that the call of the wild is alive and well.
And while duties at home will shorten the leash this summer, I can still know that there will be days when I raise my head and open my eyes to the vision of snaking singletrack stretching out before me as I glide atop a high ridge or through the deep pines. Those days, and even more accurately, the very prospect of those days are what keep the fires burning though long winters, and this year, long spring thaws.
I live for the high country. And while the desert is an old friend, it is the timberline that moves me most. It is feeling cold on a July day, the frigid flow of summer melt, the quaking aspens quietly swaying over head.
This year one of those intentions is to spend just a little more time listening. A little more time watching. A little more time simply being. The window for these trails is short lived, but I intend on extending that gap as long as I can.
Because just like every year, it closes to fast.
Labels: photos, singletrack, Wasatch
Monday, May 12, 2008
posted by Grizzly Adam at 10:29 AM | Permalink |
Linked
Trans-Earth anyone?
Labels: photos, ride, singletrack
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
posted by Grizzly Adam at 1:57 PM | Permalink |
Details
As I wandered about the race course on Saturday shooting and rooting, I noticed things that while speeding through the dust on a bike I would have never seen. Some days there is nothing better than hammering until you can't see, can't think, can't hear.
Other days, it is nice to simply stand and watch.
