Bootleg Canyon

Today we visited Bootleg Canyon in Boulder City, Nevada. Bootleg Canyon is famous for its extremely fast and wild downhill mountain bike trails. Even world champion downhillers have said that their trails are one of the hardest trails in the world to ride.
However, to avoid being one of the blood donors to Bootleg Canyon, we skipped the downhill trails and instead rode the thin singletrack cross-country bike trails that snaked alongside the canyon.

These trails were designed well, looked like they made an effort not to cut too much into the mountain to make trails, but followed the contours of the ridges and canyon walls. This is a fun area to ride, with lots of trails to choose from.

This trail had everything, ups and downs and loose gravel and rocks, and the constant fear of falling down the canyon side.

Dad took these pictures of the plants that often dotted Bootleg Canyon amongst the usual desert shrubbery.

Sometimes, riding a section of singletrack was out of the question.

Race pictures

My first Xterra of the season went better than expected! It was fun to get out there and race again, all went great! I was feeling much stronger coming off the bike on this race than at Lavaman 4 weeks ago.Dad and I before the race start. Dad was doing his own race too, a duathlon that was about half of the length of my race, but with another run instead of a swim.

Dad took off about 30 minutes before my race started.

I was in the 2nd wave start consisting of men's age groups 15 thru 49.

This is me coming out of the water. The start was a little hectic at first, but everything went good.
Coming out of the water and on to the bike.

Dad coming off his 9 mile bike after a 1.8 mile run.

Dad back on to his next run. 3.1 miles.

Dad finishing strong! He got 2nd place overall in the Duathlon.

Me after my 2nd lap of the 18.6 mile bike course consisting of two 9 mile loops.

Off the bike and on to the 6.2 mile run and feeling great!

This is the first race that was not a sprint that I have finished feeling strong and I was really happy with that.

From left: Mom, Melanie McQuaid (2nd place women's overall), me and Conrad Stoltz.

Mom and I talking to Shonny Vanlandingham, the women's overall winner. She's a really cool person!I'm qualified to race in the Xterra World Championship in Maui because I finished first in my age group. I know there wasn't any other kids, but first is still first! Top overall pros. Conrad Stoltz and Shonny Vanlandingham. Conrad destroyed the race today!

Race day tomorrow!

I pre-rode the bike course today one more time just to give it a good look over. Everything was looking good, couple of gnarly descents but good otherwise. I also felt strong on my run after the bike. I'm feeling prepared and ready to race!

My front tire blew out on one of the nasty descents behind me because of too low of air pressure. I just found out that my pump gauge wasn't accurate.

Conrad gave me a pre race pep talk and it helped a lot! He's had many years of experience and racing and any advice of his is to be valued.

He's ready to race too, as you can see he's rockin' his sweet Avia sponsored outfit.

Photo Shoot

Today I pre-rode the bike course for the Xterra Las Vegas race on Sunday to familiarize myself with the terrain. Its quite the Xterra type course, there are a few steep hills that you have to walk, also some rough patches that I did not expect on the downhills and I have the scrapes to prove it! So my plan for the race, since I'm a better climber than a downhiller right now, is to climb fast and hard, then go easy on the descents. 2 days till race day!

I also had a photo shoot with photo editor of Triathlete magazine Nils Nilsen to go with the interview I did with them for the July off-road issue. Nils is a cool and fun guy to work with. I enjoyed doing this photo shoot.

Our campsite!

Here's a look at our campsite at Boulder Beach on Lake Mead! We're parked here till after the Xterra Las Vegas race, so we're officially camping...

I'm sleeping in the tent because its so warm here and I take the tent cover off at night. It doesn't rain much here and that way I can see the stars and feel the breezes.

This is our beautiful view of the lake and the mountains right from our RV door.

This was a picture we took entirely by accident, from riding through the tunnels on our way to Hoover Dam. We thought it was cool so we decided to share it. Don't worry, when the real thing happens I'm definately heading for the light...bike or not!

Swim in Lake Mead

I swam in Lake Mead today for the 2nd time and this time we took pictures. The water is very nice, a little less muddy than the lakes back in Alaska. The water temperature is still around 57 degrees so a wetsuit was necessary to get a good workout in. I'm feelin' pretty good even though the water was choppy because of the high wind that just picked up here. With the race just less than a week away I'm in my taper week now and I'm just now feeling stronger! Its gonna be interesting to see what I create on race day.

Hoover Dam

Today I only had a leisure recovery ride to do. So my parents and I went cruisin' around Lake Mead, over a little hill, through several tunnels, then down another hill to pay the Hoover Dam a visit. This thing is just simply huge, 726.4 feet tall, the base is 660 feet thick and tapers to 45 feet thick at the top. In 1931 5,000 men started working on building up this structure to tame the Colorado river (which also runs through the Grand Canyon) and turn it into a lake. It took them 5 years to complete.

Death Valley Adventure

We drove into Death Valley yesterday morning! Its a cool place, still plenty of tourists going through before the summer, because it can hit over 120 degrees F there. We got as low as about 200 feet below sea level and the temperature was 95 degrees F in the shade and 105 degrees F in the sun. It didn't cool down much at night either, the inside of our RV was 84 degrees F at 10 p.m.

While we drove into Death Valley we took a picture of this tree standing as a lone sentry out on the desert.

The Mesquite sand dunes, a very cool sight.

It was so hot and dry when we went out running that the sweat evaporated right off my skin and I was as dry as paper afterwards. The Badwater Ultramarathon is a race where runners and other endurance machines run 135 miles nonstop from Badwater at 285 feet below sea level to Mt. Whitney at 8360 feet above sea level...in July! The temperature can hit 130 F during the race. People have said that I'm crazy for doing what I'm doing, but those guys are tough and nuts.

29 inch wheels ride great in the sand!

Who said that we need a Jeep? We've got this.

Interesting history fact: This wagon train was called the 20 Mule Team Wagon Train. In 1885 when they were mining Borax in Death Valley, 20 mules would haul 36 1/2 tons worth of water and Borax from Death Valley to the Mojave. They would cover 165 miles in 10 days.