SUM(mer of 3)1

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It's like SUM 41 the band. But it's summer, and I'm 31, not 41. Again, a poor play on words and text, but I'm trying here... In a bit of a 180 compared to the Debby-Downer of the last post (which was all written a month or two before I actually got around to finish it up), time to tell you all about what had been going on in life as things started to turn around for the time being.

Unfortunately, since it took me a while to get all emotional and introspective with my last post, I've got a ways to go back and recap. Last we left off, I'd just survived my bout of COVID-19 and was able to return to the real world. Truth be told, I am really lucky with my case of COVID. It only involved fairly minimal symptoms, and I have no lasting effects. I am absolutely an exception to the rule, as everyone reacts and handles it differently. But man I got lucky with how quickly my case came and went.

From that though, with a new lease on life, here's what I dove into.

Bike Disaster turns to Bike Fix

Thankfully, the whole trauma of finding a crack in my frame came to a semi-sweet ending. I was able to find a frame with the part I needed and got it shipped to me from Great Britain. The whole frame came in pretty rough shape, but the chainstay was in one piece with no cracks, and was therefore a successful transplant candidate. The rest of the frame was dirty, dented, and overall in poor shape, but thankfully I had what I needed.

Part in hand, it was time for surgery. Thankfully, the operation was a complete success. And boy howdy was I relived, as I was (and still am) worried that I might be left out to dry with no bike to ride.

The reason I am worried is A) because the frame I got was kinda trashed, so I can only imagine how much longer the replacement chainstay may have before it shits the bed, and B) my bike has been thrown through the seven levels of hell and come out swinging every time, but it's only a matter of time until that changes. So although she's back up and running, greased, oiled, and ready to rip, I'm worried how much life she's still got left.

As a quick reunion, I took her out and got muddy at the trails here in Karlsruhe. It was a wet day on the first ride back, but my Patrol loves a little mud. After the relief of knowing and feeling that my bike is still ready to rip, I took her home and gave her a nice bath as a little thank you for all the fun rides, crashes, jumps, berms, and everything.

As a little aside of how asinine and bullshit Brexit is, here you go. Since the frame I got for replacement parts came from the UK, and the UK is no longer part of the EU, the shipment was counted as an international import. Well fuck Brexit, because the cost of the import was a full 30% of the cost of the damn frame. How fucking bullshit is that?

Some More Biking

Next up I headed back down to Freiburg to get some riding on their incredible trails. Sucks that the Freiburg trails aren't just out the door from my home, but a quick drive south and a beautiful day to boot, that makes it well worth the trip for some great riding! That and I got to take my new kicks out for a first spin!

Männertag - 2021

Not to leave my Kona all alone, Christoph and I (unfortunately Mischa wasn't able to join) put in a little tour around Karlsruhe and paired it up with the wonderful holiday of Männertag (Man Day, aka Fathers Day aka Himmelfahrt). True to the meaning of the holiday, we combined bikes and beer and made use of the day off, and used this as a bit of a warmup for things to come!

The day turned out to be a bit wet, but we made our way over to Durlach as a first stop and popped a couple brews below the tower and watched the weather roll in and out. The Durlach Tower has a really cool perch above the Rhein Valley, so it was cool to monitor the rain clouds and the valley as the day rolled by as the world jumped between rain and sun and clouds and a general lack of sureness.

Still young in the day, we eventually jumped back on our bikes and whizzed down the hill back to Durlach, before hanging a louie and heading south towards Ettlingen. Quite the cool little town, Ettlingen, and Christoph shared with me one if it's most treasured secrets.

We rolled in and parked our bikes near the river, then walked down a tiny alley, to what I'd learn to be probably the best ice cream in the area. Literally just a hole in the wall in an alley, but their chocolate ice cream might be the best chocolate ice cream I've ever had. Paired with strawberry and mango?!? Dayum. That shit is delicious...

We took our time with the deeeeeelicious ice cream and hung out next to the Alb (tiny river through Ettlingen and Karlsruhe) while that sweet sugary goodness tickled our taste buds. Eventually though, it was back on the trail and slowly making our way back to Karlsruhe.

Not ready to call it a night, we both got showered up from the biking and rain showers, then met at my place for some spaghetti, salad, and Borussia Dortmund Fußball! They had the DFB-Pokal Final against Leipzig, and we got to watch the weirdest looking dude alive play, and I think score. They ended up winning quite handedly, and was a pretty good game to watch. Not a bad way to rock out on Man Day.

A Birthday of sorts

After spending that weekend with the Hollowells (and kicking their asses in Catan), that next week was a test workshop that we had planned back down in Immendingen. Conveniently enough, that means I had to leave on my Birthday to head to the Bodensee. Normally not exactly a bad sentence, but the weather was shit, and having to leave for work on my birthday turned out to be real shit.

In Germany, the whole birthday and celebration setup works a little differently. In the US, when you have a birthday, everyone else usually provides the goodies and celebration of sorts. Well, in Germany, that gets flipped on its head. Here, everyone else expects you to provide the goodies and celebration to celebrate your own birthday. In my opinion, that's completely bass ackwards, but even I'm not stubborn enough to try and break that level of cultural norm.

Forced to play along, I made it work for me. A few days before, I called down to a bakery near the test track and had a couple Schwarzwaldkirschtorten (Black Forest Cherry Cake) ready and waiting for me to pick up. I brought them in to the test building to little excitement but fuck it, my birthday, my cake, I was gonna enjoy it. And boy howdy did I. I think in the three days I was there, the cake lasted throughout, and I had at least one, if not two pieces, per day. That shit was deeeeeelicious.

That night we boogied on down to Radolfzell (the old stomping grounds of Sam and Chelsea and a small crew from our CBYX Year!) for the night. Well, as soon as we left the test track I got a surprise call from Christoph and Mischa! Turns out, I knew it was a bad thing to be gone on my birthday. As they called, they were at my doorstep with a case of beer and a little extra surprise to celebrate my birthday. Goddamn work and everything. I was unbelievably bummed that I missed out on such an awesome idea and gesture from him and Misca!!!

Seriously, I was (and still am) salty and super bummed that I missed out on a good night with two great friends. But, although I was severly disappointed, I was out of town. Damn.

We got into town and checked into the hotel, and because COVID was still present, things were a good bit weird. All the restaurants required tests to get in, and since tests were in high demand at that point, no one had one. Since I was recovered from it I could've gotten in, but my colleagues would've been high and dry.

Because of the weird setup, and being around a good size group of coworkers, it was kind of a mess. Eventually we meandered to the main part of town to get some food to-go, and then took it down to the water. Good food, but since there weren't any park tables, I used my lap as a table and ended up getting take-out oil stained on my jeans. Eventually got it out later, but that kinda soured my mood a little more.

Thankfully, the view was wonderful, and I can see why Sam and Chelsea must've enjoyed their time there. A little water, some hills and mountains nearby, it's quite the beautiful corner of Germany down there.

But, all that summed up, I'm officially 31. Not the birthday plan I would've chosen, but kinda had to go with it because of work. But yeah, another year in the books, and time ain't slowing down any time soon. Kinda crazy to think how quickly life has been blowing by, even amidst this frustrating pandemic.

FINALLY Back to Backpacking

Nature has ben one thing that's been missing (at least to the degree I'm used to) in my life the last year and a half. Living further away from mountains is, honestly, really hard. That's where I'm at though, and that's been contributing to the difficulty of being over here amidst COVID.

In the interest of scratching that itch, breathing that air, and celebrating my birthday all in one fell swoop, it was time to change that! And in order to do so, I packed up the car, hit the road, and pointed Rupert straight in the direction of the Alps (on the German side, as border crossing was still not a given).

After looking at maps and seeing where I could possibly be able to get away from infrastructure and people and buildings in nature, and get away with illegally wild-camping, I set my sights on Füssen, the home of Schloss Neuschwanstein. In hindsight, that was kinda a dumb idea, as it was busy as all get-out, and required me to audible in terms of parking, but that was my goal. A slight motivation to this was the thought of trying to find my name carved into a tree from way back in 2012...

Well, the parking lots at the foot of Neuschwanstein weren't full, but they were time limited. No overnight parking. Sheeeeeet. That threw quite the wrench into plans. And as it turned out, all parking lots in the area were that way. That wasn't going to help my plans.

I ended up driving to a nearby spot that supposedly had a hiking trailhead and (fingers crossed) a standard parking lot. Got there, nope. Same thing - cars had to be out of there by 23:00. What the hell was I going to do?

As I was putting my boots on and getting ready to just risk it, there was a dude working on some kinda project in a barn/building right next to the parking lot. Exploring my options, I went over and talked to him to get his confirmation that there's no overnight parking. Confirmed. But that didn't end the conversation. He was working on a private property that belonged to some kind of health retreat right next to the place. Private property was not governed by the no overnight parking thing.

I asked Mr. Josef, and he was slightly hesitant, as he wasn't the proprietor, but he gave me the ok to park on their lot. There were a couple cars already there, so I could fit in a bit, but he said if anyone asked, just say Josef gave me the ok.

Hot damn!!! I was in business! Wasn't expecting parking to be a potential roadblock to even getting overnight in the mountains, but thankfully a soltion found its way into the picture! So I threw my boots on, got my pack strapped on, and I was off!

Well, kinda. I got about a half mile up the trail then remembered I had a sandwich sitting in the front seat. Not wanting the smell of rotten cheese and meat to ruminate overnight, I started once again at Rupert, now with sandwich in tow, and I was off!

Up up and up, just how it's (kinda) supposed to be. Slowly started getting myself up the hill and got some sights of the valley below leading up to these grand Alps. Not just views of the valley, but views of the mountains to the side as well. Quite the beautiful spot.

The majority of the way up at the start was pretty heavily tree-d outside of a few view spots, so I just did my usual thing of put my head down, stick it in a low gear, and start chugging along. Before I knew it, I'd made it up to the first hut and there was a bit of activity with the sunlight and good weather. Can't blame anyone for that!

Just after the hut, things kinda cleared up a bit. Mostly because the trail followed up what I assume to be a ski run. Not bad, as the sunlight and bright blue sky felt great! I slowly made my way up to the bowl at the foot of the peak. Cool spot. But from there it got a slight bit dicey, as the remaining stretch was mostly snow and slush and a bit of ice. Steep and sketchy, but me and my trusty boots made it up all in one piece.

The quasi-peak after the stretch of snow and stuff was the top station of the gondola that comes up from the valley. There were a few groups of folks lounging around in the sun on the patio enjoying the new-found ability to enjoy beer gardens and such, but in the interest of more nature, I kept chugging along and took the offshoot to head up to the peak.

The top part of the peak climb was filled with a bit of snow, but there was a lot of fun rocky scrambling to get to the tip top. I love a little interactive hiking! Nothing too crazy, and soon enough I was at the top of Branderschrofen to enjoy the views in all directions! Sitting around, it was a real breath of fresh air to be immersed in some mountains once again! And don't worry Mommy, someone got a picture of me while I was there. :-)

I kept hanging out at the top to take it all in. Slowly more clouds rolled in, but the beauty remained, and I was doing my best to soak it all in.

Once I filled up my tank at the peak, time to continue motoring along. Back down the rocky scramble and to the hut, from the junction I took a left to wander into the mountains. Now to highlight a cherry-picked difference in the nature as referenced here, there was a sign at the junction warning people that the trail became an Alpine Hiking Trail. Now after having hiked that trail, it was essentially analogous to anything I'd've found on Mt. Hood. But, since this type of nature is so rare in Germany (my personal opinion), and due to a number of other things, this what I would consider 'normal' mountain hiking trail had to be noted and warned that it could be dangerous. Stupidly I didn't take a picture of it, but you'll have to take my word for it.

But, now entering the alpine hiking section, let the fun begin! The trail started out a little flat until it got kinda behind the first main ridge and opened up more into the core of the Alps. As you'd imagine, great views the whole way through!

As I was winding my way down a bit of a hill, I looked up and spotted some new friends! Not sure how they didn't just all jump as soon as they heard me, but there was a whole group of ibex just hanging out, eating, and meandering through their stomping grounds. I did my best to be quiet but move a little closer, and got to enjoy some Neature. At some point they got skiddish and headed up the hill as I headed down.

I kept on grooving, but the weather decided to stop the good music. Slowly a bit of rain came, and it built to a good-sized drizzle. Not that I wasn't prepared for it, but I just wasn't all about it. That, and it was starting to get later in the evening, I was hungry, and had to still kill some time before it got more dark before I could set up my tent. Definitely a weird way to have to go about it.

Discovered there was a shed nearby, so I headed that way. Downside was, it looks to have collapsed a good 10 years ago and the remains were just left there. But thankfully there was still a semblance of a bench under the small amount of roof that was still standing, so I parked my butt down, got the cooker out, and made dinner while trying to stay warm with a bit of rain coming down. Dreary, but honestly, nice to be in nature.

Sitting around, as you could imagine, got me a bit chilly, even after the warmth of the food pouch sitting in my jacket. But I wrapped up, put everything back in my pack, and hit the trail again. This time with a target of finding a place to pitch a tent.

The whole setup of not legally being able to camp out is weird. The mindset changes and it makes the whole process a little more dodgy. But here I was, about an hour before sundown, and I needed to find a place to sleep. So I hiked down a bit to try and find some flat-ish ground. After a bit of searching and rooting around, I found a spot that was flat-ish, somewhat big enough for my tent, didn't have too many roots under it, and was tucked under a tree. Bonuses on all points. So I got in, pitched my trusty shelter, and after a while of sitting and enjoying the smells and sounds, hit the sack.

I heard some pitter-pattering overnight, but thankfully for the most part slept like a rock. Nice and cozy in my trusty sleeping bag. Eventually I rolled around enough to warrant waking up and getting a move on. As soon as I got dressed and popped my head out of the tent, I was a little surprised by a big batch of snow!

Needless to say, I wasn't expecting a hefty bit of snow overnight at the end of May. But thankfully, I was prepared and ready to go with warm clothes and a plan to move and shake. Not wanting to stay stationary for too long, I nixed breakfast at camp in preference to start moving. Good call.

I started hiking up and out of that valley, but eventually got hungry and warm, so decided on a break. As no one was there, I did the uncommon and undesired thing of just posting up in the middle of the trail to adjust my clothing and make some oatmeal for sustenance. Good place to stop and a good way to "start" the morning.

Fueled and ready to go, time to keep motoring. The trail kept going up til I got to the ridge. From there (pre-snow), I was planning on traversing the valley to get to a different ridge line. But, where the saddle was, that was not in the cards. It was an exposed face covered with fresh snow. I didn't have cramp-ons or snowshoes, and was not equipped to chance it. Being alone with no cell reception, I wasn't feeling adventurous enough to take that chance, so I dawdled and enjoyed the view before moving on.

Since my initial plan was cut drastically short, I needed to find a way to make my route a little longer with the bit of trail that was accessible to me. Thankfully, there was a little peak out-and-back, so I wandered over to that and headed up. It was snowy, but beautiful, and after a short time I found my way to the top with a few crows hanging out near the cross. I dropped my pack and enjoyed the foggy and hidden but gorgeous view.

From there, it was back down to the trail to essentially take me out of there. But to get there was a good bit of snow-hiking. And it was slow but quite enjoyable. Everything was white, quiet, at peace, it's such a beautiful environment to hike in!

Soon enough, I'd meandered my way back to the place I broke off the night before. From there out, it was a wet but straightforward hike back to the big hut. As I got closer, the sun slowly started to every now and then peak its head out and show some blue skies, and the day just got more and more beautiful with the mixture of cloud/cover and sun/sky.

At the hut, it was essentially all downhill from there. Parts of the trail were steeper than others, but it slowly worked its way down the hill. It went by fairly quickly, and once things opened up, I stopped for a couple pictures of Schloss Neuschwanstein. Not a bad view from across the valley!

Coming back down the hill, I was happily surprised to see that Rupert was still there! Hot damn! Things do sometimes workout like you want. Happy to see Rupert, I was sad to see another friend go. My Hiking Boots had been slowly ripping at the sole, and after a day of hiking in the snow and wet, that rip both affected my ankle a bit, and prevented my feet from staying dry. It was, as expected, a very sad day to see these trusty walkers retire. They have served me incredibly well all across the world in mountains and trails big and small. But as with everyting, nothing lasts forever...

Successful hike and backpack in the books, I changed and packed, and got the heck out of dodge. Not to jet home too quick though, I meandered around the valley to get a few more shots of the beautiful landscape down in the German Alps.

All wrapped up and ready, I pointed Rupert Northwest, hit the Autobahn, and headed home. Absolutely fantastically refreshing to get a little dose of The Mountains in me.

Keeping it Rolling

Refreshed from the mountains and alpine trails and hiking and backpacking, it was back to work for the week. Wompwomp. But that next weekend I got some more doses of nature in me. First up was biking at Sasbachwalden. The climb there is an absolute beeeetch, but I got a couple laps in on a beautifully sunny day in the Black Forest.

After the ride, while packing up my bike and Rupert, I got to chatting with a gal standing around in the parking lot. Turns out she injured her wrist and couldn't ride, but was being the shuttle driver for her husband. Long-story short, she gave me the tip of riding up at Stromberg, about a 2 hour drive from Karlsruhe, so I marked that down as a future riding location.

The following day, I had a hike in mind, and was ready to hit it. I drove down to Bad Peterstal for a little jaunt in the Schwarzwald. It wasn't going to be as isolated, nature-full, and mountainy as the weekend before, but I was geared and ready to hit the trail.

I started in the little town and worked my way out of it. As mentioned in my last post about nature though, I was never really all that far away from some kind of infrastructure or whatever. Despite that, still turned out to be a good hike to get me going.

Rather than go through every nook and trail and turn of the hike, here's a bunch of pictures. In summary, I got to see a pretty cool rocky waterfall, enjoy some beautiful trees and hillside, chill for a while by a pretty lake, hike past a huge mudslide area, and climb up an old tower to get some views of the nearby valleys. It was quite the long day of hiking, but a very enjoyable day to say the least!

A Broken Bike, Yet Again

Germany and its oodles of holidays struck again, and I had that following Thursday off. Hot dayum!!! Rather than waste it, I took heed of the advice from the gal at Sasbachwalden and hit the road with my bike headed towards Stromberg. New Trail Network day!!! Always a good day.

It was a longer-than-usual drive to get there, but I got in, parked, and pedaled up. Unfortunately there were only two built trails here. Fortunately, they were both absolutely incredible! Well built, fun features, and just a great day for riding really left a good impression of Stromberg, and a place I'd love to go back to!

After a lunch break at the car and making some other riders jealous of the camp chair I whipped out, I pedaled back up the hill to the top of the trail. Time to let loose! Good ride to start, and then all of a sudden I had a light wash-out on a berm. Front wheel lost grip and I went down. Nothing that hasn't happened before, so I got up and started riding again. Well that wasn't going to fly, as I had no more front brake!!!

I Fred-Flintstone'd to a stop to discover that my left brake lever was no longer fully connected and merely hanging by a thread. WhatTheFu... It was a simple, easy, honestly quite light crash. How the hell did this happen?!? And not just the brake lever, discovered that I scratched the hell out of my stanchion in the process. You've got to be KIDDING me!!!

Well, with no front brake, there was no way I was going to be able to ride how I wanted to for the rest of the day. Huge bummer, but I had to call it. Not how I expected the day to go, but I wasn't going to chance it with only half of my brakes in a functional state.

When I got home, I diagnosed it. The bend of the lever mount was a simple-enough fix. Just had to bend that back into line and it was ready to go. The screw stuck in the bearing that fell out, alse pretty straight forward. Unfortunately, the other screw was stuck in the break lever, and it was not going away quietly. It took me a good long while, and a few extra tools, to get that stripped threaded rod out of there. But soon enough, the brakes were back to being functional. Thankfully.

The last fix was not-so-easy. Scratches on a fork stanchion are almost a death-spell. But I was not ready or willing to drop a few hundred bucks and wait a few long months to have a replacement fork ready to go. No siree. A little googling, and I found a few home-style remedies to try and smooth out any stanchion scratches.

After a few attempts, I found a nail hardener that stuck to the stanchion itself, and was able to sand things down after letting the hardener harden. It unfortunately took a few tries, but things seem to have worked out. We'll see how the long-term reliability holds out...

Speyer or Bust

That following weekend, with my Patrol down for repairs, I'm not sure how, but Christoph invited me to join on a long ride up to Speyer for a beer. Nothing like a good three-ish hour ride with a beer waiting at the end of it! Since Speyer is a good, long ways off, the idea was to bike to Speyer, drink a beer, then bike to Germersheim and take the S-Bahn back to Karlsruhe from there.

Unfortunately, the day started off quite wet, but we started off regardless. The first part was a straight shot out of town on the bike path, so we pointed north and hit the path.

Despite the wetness, we were chugging along at a pretty good pace. And before you knew it, we'd made it all the way up to the Rhein Ferry outside of Eggenstein. It was a bit of a wait to get on the ferry, but the wait gave us the chance to see some expert boat maneuvering by the ferry captain as he expertly weaved the boat around a freighter speedily headed down stream.

Once on the Rheinland-Pfalz side, we had some more orderly trails to enjoy. Not sure how the Baden-Württemberg side is so discombobulated with bike trails and such, but there's a clear difference from one Bundesland to the other. Either way, we kept on cruising along as the trail weaved next to fields, the Rhein, and a bunch of other stuff. Soon enough, we were in the home stretch, and made it all the way up to Speyer. Time for a celebration beer and some killer Pflammkuchen (flat pizza with a cream cheese base). Deeeeeeeeeeeelicious.

We ended up chilling at the beach bar for a good while, taking in the slowly-disappearing rain clouds, the sand, and the great spot next to the river. A good place to relax, and I'll definitely have to give it another go on a sunnier day. But from there, it was time to head back south to Germersheim and take the train home. Or so I thought.

Just as we were rolling up on Germersheim, Christoph yells back and says:

"Hey, let's just go the whole way"

Well, 40-ish miles into what I though was a 45 mile tour was not the best place to learn that 45 miles was going to turn into 70 miles. But, that's where it happened. Needless to say, I was NOT mentally prepared for it, but had no choice other than to grit it out and keep on pedaling. Here we go.

Long story short - we powered through and made it back to Karlsruhe. My ass sure as hell hurt because of it, but we made it. Wouldn't have expected anything else, but so long in a bike seat is not fun. Not bad for my longest ride to date though!

Return up North - A Lutz Reunion!

My summer was chocked full before it even began, but thanks to some foresight, planning, and a great buddy up north, I took off early one Thursday night from the South and took Rupert up to the North towards Rothenburg an der Wümme to see my old roommate!

With just a touch of traffic, I cruised up the Autobahn all the way up north and got into Rothenburg just around sundown, perfect timing to meet up with Lutz and have a long night of discussion and catching up. A great way to arrive and see how my buddy is doing!

Friday we had nothing but biking and relaxation ahead of us. After a super relaxed German-style breakfast, we finally got the wheels-a-turnin' and headed out on a little bike tour with a goal in mind. Cruising along the flat roads and paths of Northern Germany we enjoyed the beautiful breeze and blue skies that decided to show up.

With beautiful paths and smooth bikes to ride, we slowly meandered our way over to the Otterstedter See for a little water relaxation. As we rolled in though, Lutz noticed some guys moving around some huge wooden slabs from a shed into a trailer. Doing the nice thing, we stopped to help hoist the many slabs up into the trailer, pretty much to the point of overloading. Thankfully the dudes didn't have too far to travel, so we got them to a stable point and made our way down to the water.

A good deed achieved, we headed over to the water to find a spot and post up. Nothing but chill, we took the meaning of relaxation to heart and started to unwind. A little bit of swimming and jumping in the cool water, a good mix of sitting in the sun to dry off and get a bit of a tan, some time reading in my journal to tie into my mental dump and re-evaluation of me, and tons of time just relaxing and laying around. It was such an enjoyable and laid-back time near the water on a beautiful day.

After a good few hours of our lazy-day lakeside chillout, we got in one last swim, listened to some dudes on the bongos nearby, and slowly got our bones in gear to motor on back home. It took a while, but we eventually jumped back on the bikes and started rolling back towards Rothenburg.

Not to let a good opportunity pass us by though, we made a nice, convenient pit-stop at a farm along the way. What better way to finish off a little bike tour than self-picking a little bushel of strawberries! Turns out they weren't the most flavorful strawberries ever, but the self-picking and straight-to-mouth aspect was, as always, a big plus!

We were up long enough to make some delicious pizza, and then hit the sack after that. It wasn't a lot of riding, but a lot of sunlight, lake swimming, and laying around can really take it out of you.

Another laid-back morning followed a night of slumber as we slowly jumped into Saturday. Plans for Saturday were similar to Sunday, but this time with a car involved. First stop was out to a beautiful little pond and forest to hang out, but on the way we stopped off at one of Lutz's friends' house to check out her artwork.

This visit was prefaced by a wooden statue of Lutz with bright red high heels. Super interesting and hard-to-miss, the statue was scuplted for him by his friend Ragna. And our tour for the day took us past Ragna's place, so we popped in to say hi!

She hasn't been sculpting for all too long, but armed with a tiny chainsaw and some raw wood, she's become extremely adept and artistic with her work and her signature - the bright red high heels.

She was nice enough to chat with us for a good while, and showed us a ton of her work around her property. Really cool stuff. Cool to see the range of things she sculpts, from her ideas to commissioned work, and from large works, all the way down to the tips of toothpicks!

After a while we bid adieu to Ragna and headed over to a nice little pond/forest nearby for a little neature. Parked in the trees and walked through the farm courtyard (where we think people live, but it was dead quiet...) over to the forest paths. We weren't up for walking too far, so we just kinda plopped down on a downed log, sat, and chatted.

Before long we were back and moving, and meandered to the big field back on the other side of the farm. Not ready to leave quite yet, but not feeling up for a long walk, we plopped down on the field and played some backgammon. Unfortunately, neither of us quite remembered the piece setup for the game, but we figured something out, got a few rounds in, and then headed back to Rupert to continue on through the day.

The centerpiece for the day was a planned shindig at a local lake for a big event - Lutz's birthday! He had a number of folks coming from all around to hang out by the lake, eat, drink, and just chill. It was another warm day, so the plan was perfect.

We gathered up some drinks and other things for the party, and slowly made our way through the countryside over to the Bullensee to find a spot for the little picnic. We found a good spot on some quasi-grass tucked away in the shade, got things a little settled, then headed out into the water. The cool water was not-so-cool at the shore due to the super short depth, but slowly wading out towards the middle, it was cool to feel the temperature difference from toes to head.

After wading around in the water a bit, I headed back in to the party and got to see Lutz's sister Ute again, with her new family! Great to see and catch up with her and see how she's doing. Then a number of other friends rolled in to hang out, eat, chat, and cool down. It was a nice long evening by the lake and a really relaxing way to spend the day.

After packing up, saying Tchüss to all the friends that joined, and heading out from the Bullensee, we made it back to Lutz's apartment to hang out, drink some wine, and chat the evening away. Another chance for some great discussions about what's going on with both of our lives, and a good time to get some honest feedback, support, and reflection from a close friend.

There was one thing on the agenda that night though, and it was an ode to a similar, low-key evening we'd shared in Hamburg back in 2014. The source for my journaling is unknown, but one night when we were both hanging out at our apartment in Hamburg, I was journaling at the kitchen table while he was cooking, but while he was cooking, he was adamant that he draw me in my journal. So, that happened.

Now, fast forward to 2021, he wanted to do a follow-up, and see how this version would turn out. So, with wine flowing, and me reading some of my old journal, he sat across the table with tuned lighting to take a second crack at art-ifying my face. Here's what turned out, with 2021 on the left, and 2014 on the right!

Bedtime followed shortly thereafter. Sunday was a low-key start to the day, as I had to hit the road back home, and Lutz had to go check out a place he was looking to start working at. So we had a nice, laid-back breakfast, hung out a bit more, and then said adios. It was great to spend a weekend (short, but sweet and relaxing!) with my old roommate, and hear how things are going for him.

From the road, I pointed south, but slightly west, with a plan to stop by another friend along the way. A quick three hours later and I was back in my old stomping grounds - Köln.

I rolled up through town to the Stadium to meet up with my buddy Foxi and his girlfriend Karli as they were wrapping up with frisbee practice. They'd just wrapped up, and we meandered through the little flea market in front of the stadium before heading over to their place for some coffee and cake.

Despite the quick visit, it was great to see them, catch up, and see how they're doing. Foxi's always been a great guy to meet up with all around the world, and it was refreshing to see what he and Karli have planned and coming up in their lives! But after some delicious cake, great conversation, and nice time hanging out, I jumped back in Rupert, pointed south, and shortly thereafter made it home after a wonderful weekend!

It Happened

A truly monumental occasion. I finished a Costco-sized JIF peanut butter jar. No idea how long it took, but what an occasion.

The Second Annual Tour de Vogel

As a way to shake up the pandemic last year, my buddies Christoph, Mischa, and I took advantage of a little known secret offering from the local Vogelbräu brewery where if you hit up all three locations on the same day, the third beer at the third spot is free! Well, since we all like bikes and beers and beers, it was time to make it a tradition. Commence Tour De Vogel 2 - Electric Boogaloo!!!

To start us off, rather than chowing on some brötchen in the park, I had the boys over for a good 'ole American-Style breakfast before hitting the trail. On the menu - chorizo breakfast hash, english muffins with peanut butter, some fruit, and beermosas. Needless to say, it was fucking delicious. Christoph and Mischa weren't totally convinced on the beermosas to start, but I think they warmed up to the them after a few sips.

Satiated and stuffed, we hit the trail! This year, we planned a bit of a different route compared to last. A little longer, but with a few different beer breaks in between breweries, and still a good time abound. We jumped on our bikes, loosened up the legs, and headed north to Eggenstein to hit up Andreasbräu.

The morning was still pretty grey and muted as we rolled in, and the breakfast crowd was still enjoying themselves. But we got in, parked our steeds, and found a nice table on the patio. This place was recommended to us a while back, so we were glad to give it a go. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite as spectactular as we expected, but we got a good beer or two (can't remember) as slowly the clouds burned off before getting back out there and continuing the journey.

From there we pointed south and paralleled the Rhein as we were headed for the Rheinkiosk, a staple for relaxing along the river with a good drink. The ride down was quite delightful - the sun found its way to the sky, the nature was hanging with us along the way, and we rode past the power plant (my first time). That place is HUGE, and once we got there, that signified that the hardest/longest stretches of the day were complete. Always a good thing.

But we skirted our way along the river under the sunlight and stopped off at a little boat ramp before we eventually rolled up to the Rheinkiosk.

The place was a-buzzin' on such a nice day. But despite the bustling spot, we snagged a table right along the river. 'Bout that time I was getting hungry, so I threw in a little snack to go with my brew - Fischbrötchen. Just had to be being next to the water!

We snacked on our bottle of bread and some snacks and continued our good conversations (we always have some pretty exciting ones). I think we dove into a technical discussion of why/how the Rhein was flowing faster than normal. The water level was pretty high, and so we noticed how much faster the water was moving, but wanted to know why and how that was the case. Back to Fluid Dynamics and brushing off the rust to remember something from my most-hated college course. Not sure how that conversation ended, but the water was moving really fast.

Satiated both in our tummies and minds for the time being, we were back on the road! This time, we pointed east and hit the trail. Next stop - Ettlingen. Was a pretty straightforward hop, skip, and jump over there, and we enjoyed the nice day as we made our way over.

In Ettlingen we had a few priorities. One of which was our first of the three Vogelbräu establishments, but first we had a pressing matter that could no longer wait. We rolled into town and went straight to the best ice cream stand around.

Christoph got me onto this place and it is so damn good. Tiny little hole in the wall (literally), but their chocolate is the dark-chocolateiest ice cream I've ever had, and that paired with the raspberry - deadly combo. We all got our sugary delights and walked to the river right next door and had a nice little seat on the embankment to enjoy the tiny, delightful town and the colors with some good chats.

Seriously. That ice cream is incredible.

With our sugar intake achieved, we headed to the first official stop on the tour - Vogelbräu Ettlingen. Thankfully, there was still a table outside, so we snagged it and got situated.

Not long after, our first beer showed up to officially kick off our tour. And because we were doing this shit right, we had some delicious Mettbrötchen to pair with the hops, and damn it was good.

Slowly enjoying our yummy liquid and solid vittles, the shade clouds were a welcome visitor. But we eventually licked our plates clean and got the last drop of golden elixir, got our verification of the first beer to take to Durlach, then headed north towards official stop #2!

The route between Ettlingen and Durlach is pretty. A little built up, a good path weaving through farm fields, under the Autobahn, and gradually getting us into the east-most city section of Karlsruhe, we made our way suprisingly map-less and successfully to Vogelbräu Durlach.

This place was popping, as it was a hot weekend afternoon with a Euro Cup game on the TV, but we snagged a spot in the beer garden and got our stop #2 verified and confirmed as we sipped on another good beer with some good people and soccer watching on the docket.

We had a nice long time on the patio, but slowly moved on and headed west back towards Karlsruhe and our eventual tour finish line. But first, a stopover at Schloss Gottsaue near the Alter Schlachthof to empty out/finish off some snacks Christoph had brought along. I initially wanted nothing to do with them, as it was some kinda weird looking liverwurst or fatty meat mixture. But after trying them out, they turned out to not be as bad as they looked. Silver linings.

Successful snackage, we had just a short pedal to get to the last and final delicious stop on our tour - Vogelbräu Karlsruhe! With the Euro Cup going on, it was busy as a bee hive in there, but surprisingly and thankfully enough, we found a spot to squeeze into the beer garden to finish off our adventure.

We'd been thinking about it all day, but we had our eyes set on a free beer and the Farmer's Plate, and those are exactly what we got! Unfortunately I regretted my call on the Farmer's Plate and should've gotten the tried and true Leberkäse, but regardless it was a deliciously successful dinner and free beer!!!

Beer, greasy foods, football, and good friends - a perfect way to cap off a fantastic day! We'd officially made it through all three Vogelbräu's with a good bit of extra credit on top, and we were all pretty happy with but exhausted from the day. After finishing off our vittles we jumped back on our bikes, made our way back across town, and then bid each other adieu to head to bed and sleep off the good time.

Covid Saga Continues - In a Good Way

Even though I had and recovered (thankfully!) from COVID, I was still chomping at the bit to get vaccinated as an extra layer of protection. Well, sometime in June Germany had lifted the prioritization of vaccination groups and, in theory, anybody could get the shot if they wanted. Great news!!!

Well, in the words of the great Lee Corso - NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND!!! Here I was getting sucker punched on two fronts:

1. Germany has/had a rule in place that if you were recovered from COVID, you had to wait a minimum of 6 months before you could get your first COVID shot. No other nation that I know of had such a rule in place. Total bullshit and not based in science, but based on a lack of vaccine doses.
2. Germany's incompetency in the digital world showed its head in full force with the appointment registration system for the vaccine. Each Bundesland used different systems, and the one that Baden-Württemberg was using never changed the setting that a prioritization was no longer in effect.

In essence, what these two items meant, is that I was locked out of getting a shot. With an upcoming trip to the US to FINALLY go visit home after a year and half slowly approaching on the calendar, this was pissing me off. I didn't want to have to quarantine when I got home, but due to Germany's incompetency, I might be forced to.

With a little luck and help, a few stars fell into alignment that changed my fortune! At some point, the US was no longer listed as a high-risk area, so that removed the worry about having to quarantine. Huge relief there. Then, at some point the appointment system in Baden-Württemberg got fixed! My boss was the one that told me things were working, as apparently he'd been trying the whole time to help me out here, which is incredibly awesome of him. But he showed me that the system was now working for your Average Joe. Hot damn, because I was able to book myself an appointment for that next day!!!

I had to clear something up though, as when I booked the appointment you booked your second dose at the same time. And unfortunately with the timing, that second dose would take place while I was going to be in the US. Can't make that happen...

To check on this I phoned up the Oregon Health Authority and explained my situation. Like a beautiful ocean breeze, I got a taste of actual customer service. As soon as I clarified my situation, the lady was nothing but helpful and eased my worries by saying it'd be no problem to get my second dose in the US, as long as I got the same vaccine type. Hot damn!!! Now only that first point above was left to worry about that. I'll save that for the vaccine center.

The next day came and I was off to get my shot. I rolled up to the Karlsruhe Convention Center and got all checked in. Not going to lie, it felt eery and awesome at the same time getting registered, watching (part of) the little video, and filling out the form. Here's where I took care of Point #1. A simple checkmark. ;-)

After I filled out my form, I walked to the area I was told to walk to, and was walked right into the makeshift doctor's office. To lighten up this whole experience, I was greeted to a doctor in flip-flops who waltzed right in super non-chalantly. Definitely wouldn't have guessed that was possible in Germany, flip-flops in a medical context, but desperate times call for desperate measures, right?

No beating around the bush, before I knew it he poked me in the arm and I was inoculated. That went quick, and I was ushered out and on to the waiting area to first get my paperwork (!!!) and then sit around to make sure I don't kip over. All my documents squared away (with the help of a German soldier behind the desk), I found a spot and hung around for not too long. But I was finally vaccinated! Hell yeah!!!

Luckily enough, I had no side effects other than a tender arm for a couple of days. I guess that's due to already having been infected, but either way, one step closer to the maximum possible protection. Yay!!!

Time Away at Portes du Soleil

A few days after getting my first COVID shot, I had a week of vacation on the books! Rewinding a bit to last summer, I'd made my way down to Lac Blanc Bike Park and had a chance encounter with some lovely folks. As I was waiting in the lift line I heard an Australian guy chatting right behind me so I quipped in and long story short, got to ride and connect with Paul and Patrick out of Freiburg and get in with their crew!

Every year, their crew takes a week and heads down to Châtel in France to take full advantage of the incredible network of lifts and trails at Portes du Soleil. Luckily enough, they invited me along for the 2021 edition and there was no way I could say no!!!

Thankfully, by the time it was up to leave, COVID had simmered down enough to make just a test requirement the only necessary thing to get into France. With that in hand, as well as the required two cases of beer and whatever bike stuff I needed, I headed down to Freiburg on a Saturday morning to meet up with the crew and caravan down to Châtel! We're off!!!

I was in with the lively Paul for the ride down to the Alps. We had a nice time catching up and getting to hear about what's going on in his life as we skirted through into Switzerland and eventually meeting up for the midway point at a lookout along the freeway at Lake Geneva. It was a bit of a cloudy day, but the view was still quite gorgeous.

From there, our journey popped us into the Alps in Switzerland and we zig-zagged our way up the mountains to Morzine before popping into France and the delightful village of Châtel. It was a cloudy/wet/drizzly day, but it was still gorgeous to finally be back in the mountains. From the village, after paying for the vacation home with Paul, we took the short drive up the valley to our chalet for the week. A quick unpack and we were almost all squared away for the week in our mini-palace just a stones throw from the lifts! Hell yeah!

We rolled in roughly mid-afternoon, and there were a few folks headed to the grocery store to load up on breakfast stuff, some snacks, and get a few more things for dinner that evening. Always ready to explore the local flair, I jumped along to see what's what in the French Alps and get some stuff to snarf for the week. Turned out to be a great call, and include a reason or two to go back before the trip was over. The biggest one:

Grocery-getting accomplished, it was time to hang out and get stoked for a helluva week ahead. We all got in and got settled, and I slowly started to memorize all the names of the folks that were along for the ride. We ate, drank, chilled in the hot tub, and eventually hit the sack to get ready for the first day of riding.

Day 1 - Wet in Châtel

First day and super-stoke Nial was so ready to ride!!! As my riding crew back home knows from me, I get super pumped before awesome ride days. This was the case in Whistler, the case before most rides in Portland, and just the case in general. I'm an excited and excitable dude.

This was the case for the first morning. New day, new trails, new area, and so much dirt to shred!!! Well, it was still a little wet (as would be the case almost all week), but we geared and suited up and headed up to the lifts.

One of the sweetest things about our setup was that our little chalet was only like a 5 minute pedal up to the lifts! So dope. So we get in our uphill pedal of the day out of the way, got some lift passes, and we were ready to ride!

Sidenote: One incredible thing about Portes du Soleil is the sheer size of the place. There's a good 6-10 ski resorts throughout a couple of valleys where its at. And rather than them all being separate, they've combined together for both ski (winter) and bike (summer) so your one single pass can get you up and down all these places across a number of mountains. It's ridiculously awesome, and big, and varied. Just the ticket for a great week of shredding!

Pass in hand, we jumped on the lift and up we went! Needless to say, I was stoked. Despite the wet weather and muddy trails, we worked our way throughout the network from Châtel to Les Lindarets, Avoriaz, and over to Super Morzine. That's what I mean with the crazy part and size of this place. Each lift goes up and over a mountain, then you go down, then the next lift goes up and over, and so on and so forth. We got in a good amount of trails in, but over a pretty spread-out region on the mountain(s).

As I said, it was slick and muddy. With all the roots and rocks on the trails, we were sliding around a good bit. And with how muddy it was, it wasn't too long before were were brown from the head down. But no matter, the riding was still great!

As I learned throughout the week of riding there, there is nothing but berms and packed trails. Huge bummer that there were puddles and mud throughout, but the parts that were nice and rideable showed how intent this whole region is on smooth, built, bermy trails. Pretty intense.

We got our good share of riding in in the morning, and eventually traversed with the lifts and trails back over to Les Lindarets for lunch. Apparently this was one of the better food options on the mountain, so it'd become a regular place for the group to stop off and grub up.

The traverse trail was muddy as all hell, so we got even more soaked and mud-covered on the way over, but got in, put our bikes on the rack, and got comfy. Beers and burgers eventually started flowing, and unfortunately, so did some much heavier rain. Thankfully, we were sitting outdoors under some cover, but we still had some riding to do.

Before we got all packed up and headed out, the chef brought us out a little specialty. I can't remember the name of it, but it was some local/homemade liqueor that he wanted to share with us. Again, can't remember what it was, but it was quite delicious, and a perfect little bit of extra warmth to jump back out in the weather!

Unfortunately, with the increase in rain and muddiness, we decided to call it a day from there in the early afternoon. We still had a good few days to ride and didn't want to a) get too soaked to start off and b) hoped that the rain would stop and the trails would dry up a bit overnight. With that, back down to the chalet to clean up and hang out.

Rather than just sit around and drink the afternoon away (not a bad option though), I tagged along with Patrick, Thekla, and Andy to head down to another local haunt they've been going to for a while. Once again, I forgot what everyone else called it, but La Cave á Sosse is the local winery/butchery/cheese store/general dealer of deliciousness. Definitely the right call.

Before you even enter the store there's a potpourri of homemade sausages in baskets and baskets for you to pick and choose what variety you wanted. I didn't realize this til after I was in, so I went out and had to load up, and did with a good sample of some of the more unique varieties at hand.

Back inside, Andy got to sweet-talking the guy running the show, so we were able to try some of the local Genepí, some kind of local liquor. Quite the taste, and quite yummy to say the least. The dude was super nice and gave us a little top-off to go with some delightful conversation. With that, we grabbed some killer cheeses, and then were off to our second stop of the outing.

On the little road back to the chalet there's a hostel, a kind of skier/boarder hideaway on the slopes. Patrick had stayed there a while back and tipped us off that they've got a nice little bar/cafe to boot. Naturally, continuing the theme of sampling the local flair, we stopped in for a drink.

To my delightful suprise (forgetting that I was now out of the land of the Reinheitsgebot), there was craft beer on tap!!! Actual craft beer!!! HOORAY!!!!! Finally able to experience some variety, I got some kind of something and we wandered out to the patio to enjoy and chat.

After some good conversation, some Tour de France on the TV, and a weird interaction with a few alcoholic Germans in town just to drink and hopefully not fall off their bikes, we headed back to the chalet to enjoy the fruits of our adventures. Cheese and Sausage sampling was in our future, and hot damn was it delicious.

Surprisingly enough, the clouds parted every now and then through the afternoon, and we eventually got started on dinner - grilled everything. Burners lit, grillmaster Michi at the helm, and we soon enough had a full palate of deliciousness ready to go. Eating, drinking, and then after all of that time for some sleeping.

Day 2 - Les Gets

To our fortune, thankfully it had been pretty dry overnight, and we were itching to experience a little less mud and a little more great trails. So we eventually all got enough of a move on to get our stuff in gear and get to the lifts. On the docket for the day was a bit more of an adventure than the day before. And luckily enough, it wasn't raining, AND it was a clear day to boot!

The first game plan was to get up to Les Lindarets and then head down a higher trail to try and get to the lift for Les Crosets. So that's what we did. It took a little checking the map and traversing, and before we could get to the lift, we had a beautiful and gigantic waterfall off to the side. Thankfully this wasn't a time where everyone was go-go-go, so we made a nice little stop out of it to enjoy and goof around at the waterfall. Beautiful spot I tell ya.

Well, bummer news, because the lift up to Les Crosets was closed due to wind. Damnit. That was a bummer, but we had to change plans. Rather than hanging around Les Lindarets and Châtel the whole day, we started a different adventure that took us down to Morzine.

It took a bit of traversing, but we eventually all met up in the village. The rest of the group was hungry but I was just itching to ride. So while they stopped for some food, I took the lift up Morzine a coupla times to get some laps in there. Great ride spot.

From the picture above, this was taken at the top of Morzine. For a point of reference, we'd come down the ridge/hill in the center-left of the picture, and our chalet was two ridges behind that cliff in the center-right of the picture.

Once I stole a few french fries and leftovers from the others' lunches, we all ganged up and headed up Morzine with an eye on another traverse over to Les Gets. This was one place that was on my MTB Bucket List in Europe, and I was super pumped this was our target!

The traverse was pretty easy, and soon enough we were right in the middle of Les Gets with their signs and jump lines and all that stuff right in front. We rode down to the lift to go up to the upper section, but man, only a short taste and already some sweet trails. I mean, look at that shaped and packed awesomeness!

The sight you see here above is the track that was used for the Les Gets World Cup Downhill run that took place three days before we were there. Looked like one helluva track, but we didn't make it to that side of the valley to check it out.

The laps at Les Gets were absolutely awesome. Really well built stuff, some amazing berms and a whole ton of 'em, and just some great stuff. As a fun little surprise, after either our first or second lap, we roll into the lift line and are greeted by a furry traffic jam! No idea where they came from, but there was a whole herd of goats that decided to take up the lift line, and a couple were friendly enough to say hi!

After a couple laps there, we were all a bit pooped after a great morning of riding. Unfortunately, because Les Gets was the furthest lift area from where we were staying, we also had a bit of a journey to get back before the lifts closed. So to tank up before the return, we stopped at the cafe at the top of Les Gets for some coffee and a break.

Instead of coffee, I snagged one of my clif bars and headed over to the hill to just take in the scenery. Nothing like mountains to make me happy and feel at home.

Coffee'd and rested up, we hit the trail back to Morzine, then the gondola up to Super Morzine, the sweet, fun connector back to the other lift there, the rutty muddy connector back to Les Lindarets, and then the fun runs down Châtel to get back to the chalet. Once back, our bikes caked in mud, we took full advantage of the hose to get the extra pounds of dirt off our bikes to get ready for the morrow.

For those MTBers out there, check out those tire stripes. As I said, this place knows berms, and there are nothing but good ones to rip through!!!

That evening we did our typical routine filled with eating, drinking, hot-tubeing, and hanging out. Incredible day of riding.

Day 3 - Morgins

After such a great day of riding the day before, I was super pumped for day three, as we were hitting up everyone's favorite trail network - Morgins. Unfortunately, this place was somewhere we had to drive to, but was still included in Portes du Soleil. With that in mind, we were on a mission.

Now for this day, everyone had hyped up this place, and someone the night before had set (and I thought also communicated) a realistic time to leave. Well, either not everyone got it or most people didn't give a shit about that memo, so there were a ton of stragglers that took for goddamn ever to get ready. I was not a happy camper throughout, as we didn't leave the Chalet until an hour and a half after when the word was we'd orignally leave. Not Happy.

Eventually the crew packed their shit in cars and we traversed the valleys over to Morgins. Got out, got ready (painstakingly slowly, as I was jumpy as fuck just wanting to ride!!!), and headed up the slopes.

What pissed me off even more, was that the morning was purrrrrfect. Clear, blue skies, sunlight, and as we'd see, dry trails to shred. I hate it when people waste my time, and when its the inefficiency, apathy, or sheer sloth of people that keep me from shredding some of the best trails around, I am NOT a happy camper.

In what felt like forever, we'd finally all made it up the top of the lift and were greeted with an incredible view of Chablais. Seriously, what a difference clear skies makes in such a BEAUTIFUL area!!! Despite my readiness to ride, I couldn't not take in the incredible mountains that were deciding to show-face. Just beautiful stuff.

And Finally. TIME TO SHRED. True to their word, this was definitely the best place to ride out of the whole Portes du Soleil. Unfortunately, it's not connected to any of the other areas, but this place had everything. Tons of good jumps and bermy goodness. But also had a good bit of technical, steep, rooty and rocky sections. Weirdly enough, that aspect of riding (technical) was really hard and essentially non-existent throughout the rest of the area. That was a huge bummer. But here, it was out in full force, and I was loving it!!!

We got in a couple of laps together, and then I wanted to try the black line, La Noir, the super technical trail of the hill. Needless to say, I was stoked, and I got a few people to tag along for the ride. Hands-down, it was the most technical and steep trail (outside of the World Cup DH that I'd ride a few days later) in the whole area. It was AWESOME!!! Super proud of myself too, as I hit almost every feature along it, and didn't crash. Thanks to you Phil, but I'm a converted Tech Freak.

Unfortunately, as the morning went on, it got a little darker and cloudier, and eventually started to drizzle. Bummer to have, especially with how perfect the morning was, but that's how it goes. After a second run of La Noir with Felix, going back up the lift it just started dumping rain. Buckets of water everywhere. Huge bummer (and made me even more mad that people were lolly-gagging all damn morning and wasting good riding weather).

At the top, I had to get in another run of La Noir. Despite the extra wetness on the trail, it was such a blast. Steep, rooty, nothing like something to push your skills and throw in some weather to keep you on your toes.

By the time I'd slid/made my way down the trail, it was just pouring, so I got down to the lift building and just hung out out of the rain waiting for everyone else to show up. Turns out no one was all about riding the best trail network there in a total downpour, so we all packed into the cars and headed back to the chalet. Bummer the best spot was cut short due to weather, but what an awesome group of trails!!!

Not ready to call it a full day at that point, once we got back to the chalet I pulled my bike off the rack and rode back up to Châtel for a little extra riding. Well, turns out, the rain wasn't just in Morgins, but also made its way over to Châtel. I wanted to go for a while, but was more tired than I anticipated, and the trails were way wetter than I anticipated. Only got in a couple runs before heading back to the chalet to clean up and hang out for the evening.

Day 4 - Super Morzine

The next day we headed back over to Super Morzine to session those wicked trails for a while. Paul ended up having a buddy show up, who was out with his wife and dog on a little road trip, so our crew grew in size a bit to boot!

Despite it raining the majority of the previous day, someone apparently came out with a hair drier on the trails. I was worried it'd be another slippery, muddy mess, but we got hit with some total hero dirt and amazing trails for the day! Nothing like a little bit of amazingness like that to make me pumped and even more stoked to go ride.

Somehow over the last day or so I'd worked my way up to the front of the riding pack. This was pretty weird for me, as I'm used to riding with Andy, Joel, John, and the like, who are way better riders than me. I'm always tailing behind, doing my best to keep up, and seeing what they're doing differently out ahead to try and improve my skills and speed and such. So having that aspect change, it kinda weirded me out. I was still loving the riding, as the trails were going great, but again, it was just weird to be the one out in front of the group, as I've never taken myself to be that good/fast at riding.

At some point we'd traversed over to Super Morzine and the fun really begain. Paul's buddy showed up, and since we were all hanging out at that lift for a while, we kinda split off and sessioned our own jam. I was chomping at the bit to get some riding in, so I think I pulled my impatient/stubborn move and just jumped off on my own train to session a few of the fun trails. I think it was the right call, cause I had a fucking blast.

Not sure when I did what, but I switched between a couple of the bigger trails, and was slammed with tons of tall and long berms and a good few jumps. I have no way to prove it other than my word, but I got a few good laps in clearing the gap shown below, as well as the two doubles in the second picture.

I was happy as a clam and working myself to exhaustion pumping into each and (almost) every berm and jump that came on my path. It was so much fun. I was seriously like a kid in a candy store just trying to eat as much dirt as I possibly could!

Eventually, and sadly, I realized I was getting way too tired to keep going, and by that time the rest of the crew was posted up at the little restaurant/cafe at the top of the lift. I pedaled over and hung out to snack on a clif bar and enjoy the clouds and company.

At that point we bid adieu for the time being to Paul's buddy, and made the traverse back to Les Lindarets for lunch. Similar to lunchtime in Morzine two days before, I wasn't hungry and wanted to keep riding. So I did. The other dudes grabbed lunch and I headed back up to do another run.

Opting for another challenge, I jumped on the red/black line coming back down to Les Lindarets and was having a good old time. It was slicker than snot and the trail was covered in rocks and roots, so I was doing my best to stay up and enjoy the trail. I went down a couple times, but nothing crazy or serious, and the first time was back up and going with no problem.

The second time I got up with no issues. Unfortunately, that couldn't be said for my bike. Going down, it was a low-speed crash and as the bike hit the ground I heard a very distinct sound. Unusual for sure, but as I went to pedal to keep going, my rear wheel would not turn. What the heck...

Long story short, that pop was the sound of a rock drilling right into my brake disc, bending it to such an acute degree that the disc could not physically pass through the rotor with how sharp of a bend was now in it. NOT what I wanted to see, hear, experience, or have to deal with.

Not wanting to carry my bike all the way down the hill, I did my best to bend the hell out of that brake disc to try and get it at least to a spinnable state. It kinda worked, but I was struggling with it to get it down the hill. Eventually I rolled up to the lunch spot, tried futzing with it a bit more, and kinda got it to a workable state.

Thankfully, by then the rest of the crew was ready to head down and I was too, considering I didn't have a fully usable rear wheel. I knew I had some work cut out for me, and might have to go to a bike shop for a new disc.

As luck would have it, having 9 people with all their bike park gear in tow, one of them came to save the day. Pascal had an extra rotor for me, and I was able to do a direct swap! What a clutch setup! I was super thankful to him for the extra part, and was able to swap rotors with no issue. Thankful to Pascal for his johnny-on-the-spot support, and I was back in action! Also, take a look at that bend. Don't forget, that's AFTER I bent it back just to allow the wheel to spin...

As you probably guessed, after wrenching around to get my Patrol back to a trail-ready state, we hung out that night with some more pasta and beer and general relaxation.

Day 5 - Rest Day

Unfortunately, it was looking like the Thursday weather was going to take a notable turn for the worst. And unfortunately that's exactly what it did. So rather than riding around in some even more mud and muck and stuff, I along with a number of others decided to hang around the chalet for the day.

Sweet thing about that was I had a 6-day Non-Consecutive pass, so even with a break day, my pass was still good to go for the rest of the week!

The day consisted of a ton of chilling, but also with a little work. Amidst all the hanging around, I at some point went back down to the grocery store to get some stuff to take home and go to the post office (as it was only open weekdays from 9-12) to drop off some postcards. They were easy errands, but enjoyable and nice to get out a little and see the town in a glimpse.

The rest of the day was filled with some food, some naps, Raclette (OMNOMNOM) and some general tomfoolery. Nothing like just taking it easy with some fun people.

Day 6 - Châmpery / Les Crosets

Unlike the previous day, the weather looked to take a turn for the better on Friday, and the plan was to take full advantage of it! Since we weren't able to do the peak-chair on Day 2, Andy, Manuel and I decided to venture up to the highest peak at Portes du Soleil, and have a go at Les Crosets on the other side.

The start was pretty clear and nice, but as soon as we jumped on the seemingly 20-minute long solo chair lift up to the peak, it got foggy and a bit eerie. And of course with that, no more views to enjoy.

From the peak down, we hit quite a sweet trail swooping down the valley. Once we got out of the fog and the clouds, the valley opened up and the trail stayed a ton of fun. Weaving in and around some farmer plots, we eventually got to a roadway and pedaled over to the Swiss National Comp Trail. That was an absolute blast. Fun, quick, tight, a really great little speed demon to get us down to the Les Crosets lift.

From there we jumped on the other lift and up the other side of that valley. The Les Crosets trail was something Andy had talked up a good bit, so I was pumped and ready to give it a try. And once again, true to his word, the trail did NOT disappoint!

Long story short, I was in absolute hog heaven. It was a fairly short trail (maybe 1.5-2 min), but full of awesomeness. Tons of berms a few rocky sections, smooth jumps, and just generally awesome. So much fun. Me and Andy blazed down it twice, then I had to get in one more at full excitement to keep enjoying the ride. Just like a rollercoaster, it was windy and fun as hell.

Awesomely enough, our excursion was not yet over. A quick pedal over from the top of the Les Crosets lift, and we were at the top of Châmpery. Why so cool? Well, in 2011, there was a World Cup Downhill race here, and thankfully, that World Cup Downhill trail is still there!!! And you guessed it, we were headed straight for it. :-)

Might be the highlight of the whole trip, but the ride down the Coupe du Monde EWS (Enduro World Series) trail was absolutely unbelievable. I was grinning like a child the whole thrilling way down!!! It was steep, rooty, droppy, full of absolutely insane features, and an unbelievable ride. I went down a couple of times on some insanely slick and steep rocky slabs where you're somehow expected to stay on and turn. That wasn't happening, but what wicked stuff!!!

As I said, I was grinning like a little kid the whole way. It was such an insane and fun and challenging trail, I would love to go back and ride it again! But, as most trails do, this one eventually got to the bottom and we rolled through the town of Châmpery to get to the gondola and wait for Manuel.

As we were waiting, I was so totally high on life and mountain biking. Smile as wide as can be, sun out showing the mountains and valley, and just could not be more happy and stoked with what an incredible day. Seriously, unbelievable!!!

Once Manuel rolled in and the group was reunited, we headed over and waited for the giant gondola to get us back up to the top. Eventually we made our way up, pedaled back up to Les Crosets, and got one more incredible lap on that rollercoaster of a trail before taking the big lift back up to the peak.

Unfortunately, at the peak and going the direction of Châtel, there wasn't a really well defined trail, aka we had to pedal a good bit to get there. Bummer, but that's what legs are for. It was a beautiful ride to get back over, and after a while we'd eventually made it back to our known stomping grounds.

Once we got back down to Les Lindarets, we luckily timed it up well to meet up with the rest of the gang! Some food, some beer, some time sitting and regaining some energy, and it was a well-needed break to keep us going for the rest of the day.

From the excitement of years past, a few of the guys talked about how Fridays the Châtel lift(s) were open late, til around 19:00. Well, they asked around that morning, and that was the case for the last full day on the mountain as well! There were a few guys in it for the long haul, and how could I say no to that!?

The late-lift action only applied to the Châtel area. But, absolutely no worries there, as the weather was nice and had dried a good bit up, and there was plenty of action and fun to keep us busy! We ended up getting a few laps up on the upper lift before it shut down, and in those laps I got to hit a few new features that I'd been eyeing, including a big drop, a huge table, and a nice little road gap, all thanks to being towed in by Patrick and the gang.

Eventually the upper lift closed, and we focused on the lower section of Châtel. In echoing my times at Whistler, I broke off for a run on Serpentine to try and get a speed lap in. Let me tell you, this trail lives up to its name - it's nuts, because it was purely gigantic berms from top to bottom with a few little jumps thrown in between.

It reminded me a ton of Earth Circus and Blueberry Bathtub at Whistler. And just like on those two trails, I was in full race mode to make the most out of it. I pumped everything and stayed up til my legs shook to get the full rollercoaster experience on that crazy trail.

Pooped but always still ready for more, I met up with the remaining group to join them on some of their jump sessions. Sitting with them off and on on the lift, we got to eyeing one particularly big feature that was a focus of theirs - the River Gap.

From the quasi-mid-section on the trail, going into the river gap was a speed-buildup, berm, creek jump to berm, double, and then the river gap. It was a bit of a combo, but these guys were working on it, so of course I had to too! First go was no dice. I kinda chickened out on the creek jump and then cased the double, and had no chance of getting the river gap so I diverted and thought about what I did wrong.

Next go, we got someone to video tape the run, so I was ready to do better and join the train jumping the river. Well, I got the creek gap and did well on the double, but chickened out on the gap. Bummer, pretty disappointed, but that's how it goes.

Thankfully, we still had a bit of time til the lift closed, so there were a few more runs yet. And, on the next go, glorious:

I jumped that gap a couple more times after that and had an awesome time doing it. So fucking cool when you hit a new feature, it goes well, and you get a few more successful runs in. Such a good feeling. After a few jumps on that, my body was feeeeeeling it. After a long, incredible, awesome day shredding, it was time to call it on a really high note.

That night it was more of the same, but mixed with a bit of cleaning as we had to pack up and head out the next day. Not a bad thing to try and finish what we could of the rest of the beer, but soon enough, it was time to hit the sack.

Day 7 - Morgins and Home

Morning came and we got everything squared away to get out of our chalet. The checkout process was pretty straightforward, and soon enough we were on the road home.

The day, however, was absolutely gorgeous. Bright sunny blue skies, and I was not feeling ready to completely call it a wrap. Confusingly, I was the only one. Thankfully though, Paul was cool with driving through Morgins and letting me get a few laps in to wrap up the incredible week, so that's what I did!!!

Again, just an unbelievably gorgeous day! Unfortunately, my riding didn't match the amazing weather. I was not feeling great, riding a little loose and sloppy, and just not in top form. Despite that, I got a run of everything in, and enjoyed what I could out of all of it. Bummer when your riding sucks, but any time being out on the trails is a good time!

Despite the subpar riding, it was an incredible day with incredible weather on incredible trails and some incredible views to boot. One helluva way to wrap up an incredible week!!! After my few runs, I headed back to the parking lot, got squared away, jumped into the car with Paul, and we were headed back to Germany and home after an amazing week of riding!

Up Next

Well, it's a bit weird writing what's next for a phase that's a few months behind as I'm already a couple steps ahead of where this post is at!

From the end of the biking trip, I had a couple weeks of work before I got back to my first big trip since moving to Germany - 4.5 weeks back home in the USA!!! As I type this out, I'm sitting in the Atlanta Airport on the way back from that trip, but a few weeks of family, friends, work, and being back in my home stomping grounds to refill the tank and take care of a little residual homesickness has done me some real good. Just a shame it all happened so fast. Stay tuned for the deets on that trip, but no guarantee that that post will show up very soon.

Then, from the timeline of me typing this out, it's only a matter of hours now til I'm back in Germany, and from there only a matter of hours (hopefully) until I jump right into the next trip. That one you'll have to wait for though. Hopefully not too long, but I'm looking forward to three weeks on the road for another nice, long, open adventure heading north!!!

Original Publish Date: August 25th, 2021