Daily ramblings and interesting things I find.

Monday, December 31, 2012

2012 Highlights

I usually don't write about an entire year like this, but 2012 turned out to be such an unusual year. So many things happened that spanned the entire spectrum, from incredible, exciting adventures, to really scary and life threatening events. So with that, here are my 2012 highlights, fun stuff first:

10th Anniversary in Belize
The year started off with a bang when my wife and I took off for a 10 day Ultimate Kayaking Adventure in Belize for our 10 year anniversary. It was an extremely adventurous trip for my wife… swimming through an ancient Mayan cave, kayaking for miles around remote islands, dropping in on 15 foot waterfalls in a raft, and sitting in the front seat of an airplane… but for me, my highlights were catching a bat with a butterfly net, back-flipping off of 15 foot waterfalls, opening a coconut with a machete, and spearing a lion fish! Basically, stuff you don’t get to do while working behind a desk every day.

Downhill Mountain Bike Racing
I’ve been riding mountain bikes for many years now, but I made my first attempt at downhill racing by entering the Fontana race series in the beginner class and did surprisingly well! I ended up taking 1st place at the Fontana City Nationals. Cool, huh?

Paddle Boarding in Mammoth
Besides getting our camper out of storage only to find it full of black widow spiders, we had our usual fun in Mammoth this year! Our local friends let us borrow their paddle board over at June Lake, our favorite spot. Not a huge deal, but it was our first time paddle boarding.

Wake Boarding in Havasu
Another first for me was wake boarding. The first day I had the hardest time standing up. So that night I hunkered down, did some research and found some good tips on YouTube. The next day was a success! I’d really like to try this again, but would need a good solid weekend to master it. I have no photos, but you're not missing anything... it wasn't very impressive. The rest of the weekend was filled with tubing and jet skiing.

Bagging Mt. Whitney
I’ve wanted to do this for many years, and the opportunity came up when some guys from church organized it. I signed up right away, of course, and opted for the two day version, only because I didn’t know how my body would react above 14,000 feet. In the months preceding, I also did some killer training hikes like Santiago Peak (5,689'), Bonanza Peak in Nevada (10,397'), San Gorgonio (11,501'), and finally the highest summit of the contiguous United States, Mt. Whitney (14,505').

Spinning on my Head… Again!
So, the best opening line to this story is that I was flown into Cleveland to breakdance at the House of Blues. And it’s true! The Progressive Arts Alliance put together a show to honor my old break dancing crew, Project 5 with Grandmaster Flash as the headliner. They also put together an amazing documentary about us, and I just found out it was accepted to show in the Cleveland International Film Festival which will take place in April 2013. So I practiced for a couple months, re-learning the headspin because that was my specialty back when I was 13. I took Tricia with me and showed her the old stomping grounds, and she got to witness me break dancing on stage in front of hundreds of people at the House of Blues. Even the mayor of Cleveland declared August 11, 2012 "Project 5 Day!" Out of all of things I did this year, this was probably the best experience, mainly because it was a once in a lifetime type of event. It was especially great seeing and reuniting with my bros who I haven’t seen in almost 30 years. I just can’t get over the fact that I’m 42 and still able to spin on my head! How crazy is that?

9th Annual Tour de Corona
Every year I host a big mountain bike ride here in Corona and this year, for some reason, was the best one yet. We had a great turnout, a really fun ride, some good UFC fights and decent game of Texas Hold’em, which is also new for me this year. I can’t wait to see what next year brings, because no matter how challenging I make the ride, my crazy friends still show up every year!

Skin Cancer
That’s right, I had a little scare in the beginning of the year with some basal cell carcinoma in my right ear. I’ve always been pretty good about putting sun block on my ears, but never thought about putting it on the inner portions. That’s where it got me, on the inner-upper part, that is in fact in direct line of sight for the sun. So, they scooped it out and graphed me with some synthetic cow skin, and now I’m known as Mr. Sunblock!

Toni’s Survival
Even scarier, my sister Toni has been battling cancer that is much more severe, Ewings Sarcoma. On one of her last chemotherapy treatments, a nurse made a mistake and connected the wrong bag to her port. Toni actually went into cardiac arrest for about 5 minutes before they brought her back to life (CPR saves lives!) She’s still slowly recuperating from that and by God’s grace getting stronger every day. She is my true inspiration.

Work
This year has been pretty exciting at work too. For the last 2 1/2 years, I've been working on a huge website redesign project and this year some of it started to roll out. You can see some of the new pages, including the home page, at Chase.com.

Here's to another adventurous year!

Saturday, December 08, 2012

Tour de Corona 2012 (aka The Adventure Ride)

Wow, I predicted an adventure, and boy did we get one. What an awesome day... probably the best Tour de Corona of all.

For the 9th annual Tour, we rode from my house, took Temescal Canyon all the way to the trailhead of Indian Truck Trail (ITT). Up ITT to the Main Divide, and took a right. Most of the group continued up ITT, but a few of us hiked up Upper Holy Jim. We headed down Coldwater, then double backed on Temescal Canyon back home for a BBQ, some tasty beverages, the UFC fights, and a quick round of Texas Holdem. I've now managed to cram my favorite things all into one day!


We started with 15...

Dave (Me)
Kevin B
John
Steve
Dara
Derik
Big Ethan
Skippy
Larry
Adrian
Bob
Joe
Rich
Dean
Tom

...and finished with 10. To be fair, Kevin did 95% of it and Rich did about 85%, but both had to bail due to time constraints. And Big Ethan rode about the same amount of miles because he kept riding ahead, then coming back to check on everyone, then eventually went back with his parents.

For a large group of 15, we managed to stay pretty close together. Rich was pushing ahead due to his time constraint, but overall, the pace was pretty casual. I managed to be in the very back during the climbs, but in the very front on the descends, which is par for the course.

Considering the amount of riders, mechanicals and crashes were minimal unlike in 2004 when we had a flat-fest while riding ITT to Santiago Peak.

14 riders, including myself, had a 10am start time at my house, but didn't hit the road until 10:30, which is pretty normal. The plan was to pick up Rich, who parked near the ITT trailhead. Riding along the road is always interesting, especially when you're on a mountain bike, and especially with a large group. People in cars gave us the right away and even let up blow through stop signs while they waited.

Near Dos Lagos, we saw Kevin's wife and kids driving in their minivan. Kevin was stoked because his son thought it was a race, and of course, Kevin was in front! He scored some big Daddy points with that, and we agreed to go along with it if ever asked.

Continuing on Temescal Canyon Road, we pass a couple bars (tempting!) and Tom's Farm. We make our way over to the new neighborhood at the bottom of ITT, and Rich meets up with us there. The road portion was 9.1 miles.


Heading up ITT was pretty uneventful. We spreaded out a little as we made our way up this pretty easy climb. It was a little warm in some exposed areas, then a little cool in the foresty parts. Overall, it was perfect, early December riding weather; around 70 degrees and clear skies.

We take a break about 2 miles short of the Main Divide. We knew this because Rich and Big Ethan road up together, and Big Ethan road back down to tell us. He managed to do this several times, acting as our communication link between the front and back of the pack because we didn't have much for cell service. Just before this point, John's tire was attacked by a goathead and he had a little trouble finding someone with a 29" tube. He and some other 29er riders had 26" spares for some strange reason.

We lost Dara, Derik and Big Ethan due to time contraints, then continued up the Main Divide. We split off where Adrian, Kevin and I decided to hike up Upper Holy Jim, while the other 9 continued riding up the fire road. we regrouped at the top of Coldwater, and that's where the fun began!

Coldwater started off fast and flowy along the side of the mountain, then tucked into some forest tunnels. I wanted to stop and take pictures, but I was having way too much fun. I seriously couldn't stop. This has to be THE best single track around Corona, and it surprises me why it's not so popular... until you get to the steep stuff. This part explains it all. The end is super steep, loose in some sections, and drops you off in a barbed wired open-pit quary.

At this point we were starting to get concerned about daylight. Rich was ahead of us and totally thought we were trapped in, but after we regrouped we found a gate and pryed our way out.


We continued through the neighborhood and back down Temescal Canyon Road. Rich went back to his truck parked at Vons, and Kevin had his wife pick him up at Tom's Farm. By the time the rest of us got back to my house the sun was totally down.

A few others joined us for the BBQ and UFC fights, and a small group stuck around for a quick Texas Holdem Tournament.

What a great day... I really don't know how I'm going to top this one. But I'll think of something. Afterall, next year will be the 10th anniversary, so it HAS to be awesome! Until then...

Here are the Stats...
Distance: 33-35 miles (shorter for the Upper Holy Jim hikers)
Lowest Point: 889' (my house)
Highest Point: 4643' (top of Coldwater trail)
Total Elevation Gain: 4581'
Ride Time: 5 hours, 25 minutes
Total Time: 6 hours, 42 minutes
Flat Tires: 1 via goathead (John)
Crashes: 3, 4 if you count Skippy's fall while hiking up hill! (plus a few slide outs)
Mechanicals: Broken front derailleur cable (Kevin)

View more photos here.