The 508: a tour of the worst roads in the desert

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Goat here, filling in for our intrepid hero, Matt, aka Desert Locust,
aka Dessert Locust. My first ever blog post, quite exciting. I imagine
I'll ruin Matt's sincere and consistent prose style, oh well.

I've always read horror stories of the 'thermonuclear headwinds' that
are said to rip through Death Valley at night. In my four years of
involvement with the 508, however, they've never materialized. The
glorious northbound tailwinds have always dissipated by the time night
has fallen, leaving fairly smooth conditions for the southerly route
through the valley itself.

Things were looking good this year. Matt's in excellent shape, and has
a lot of 508 experience now. He completed the first 200 miles in just
over 9 hours, and just outside of the top ten riders. The time, in
part, was aided by the aforementioned tailwinds.

Unfortunately, this year, the winds were here to stay. After a
refreshing break at Furnace Creek, there ensued eight hours of
gruelling slog against intense, gusty headwinds. To make matters
worse, one our crew. Had chronic, vomit-inducing car sickness. Matt
hung out in the van for a couple of rest breaks, but soldiered on
regardless. The winds eased by the time he hit the Salisbury and
Jubilee passes climb, and there was light in the sky.

Somehow in the overnight chaos I also managed to misplace one (of my
two) shoes. Oups. Should liven up the rest of the trip.

So now, here we are leapfrogging Matt across the (in my opinion)
toughest section of the 508, Shoshone to Baker.
Here, the rider has essentially thirty or forty featureless,
approximately flat miles, on a shoulderless road populated by
thundering RVs. It's a painful and lengthy trek before you reach the
quiet beauty and grandeur of the Mojave National Preserve just past
Baker, with the Kelso dunes and the Providence and Granite ranges.

To quote the closing passage from Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus":
"…we must imagine Sisyphus, happy" .

2009 Furnace Creek 508 Solo

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Webcast
with reports, photos and progress through the weekend.

Well, here we go again. The Furnace Creek 508 starts tomorrow at 7am. A 508-mile race from Santa Clarita through Death Valley and Mojave to near Joshua Tree. I wrote extensively about it here (read this!), I have a 508 tab and National Geographic Adventure covered it when they called it one of the top ten toughest races in the world.


Is it October already? Despite taking part in this race the previous four years, 2005 (crew for Morgan), 2006 (fixed gear team), 2007 (hang out), 2008 (solo), it always excites. Despite a last-minute crew switch from one race veteran to another and finding tiny cracks in my Dura Ace wheels yesterday, preparation is going well. Chris and Morgan are back for another year of crewing and Max is joining us for his 5th(!) time on the course. I couldn’t be more fortunate! I have phenomenal support in these guys and in all of my friends who have helped me out leading into this weekend. Like Jack lending me his ridiculous wheels without any hesitation. Thank you all so much, I couldn’t do this without you.

You pick an animal totem that is yours for life. I’m Desert Locust:

With a minor change for this year:


Take yourself seriously, but not too seriously, right? And yes, those desserts are vegan. Though I still love dessert, I’ve managed to get my weight down 15 pounds from last year. I’m weighing in at 170, a number I haven’t seen since high school. A full 30 pounds lighter than winter Matt!

I’m looking forward to a weekend of adventure, mindfulness, solitude, beauty, struggle, fun, high highs and low lows. The desert nearly defeated me last year somewhere between Baker and Kelso, but after our training ride out there this summer and some Edward Abbey studying, I am more prepared and approaching with an open heart and mind:

“I am convinced now that the desert has no heart, that it presents a riddle that has no answer, and that the riddle itself is an illusion created by some limitation or exaggeration of the displaced human consciousness.” -Edward Abbey

He also said this, which nothing to do with bike racing, but is worth passing on:

‘Hierarchical institutions are like giant bulldozers —
obedient to the whim of any fool who takes the controls.’

I’ll do my best to send updates from the road, but cell service is limited. Thanks to everyone who has already sent kind words or vegan desserts!

Listened to 36 Chambers the whole way through this morning for Swarm!ing motivation:

http://www.youtube.com/v/_GDPZpRmTg0&hl=en&fs=1&




Crucial Vegan Friendship Picnic

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Little late on this…but for y’all here in LA check this out Sunday:

Crucial Vegan Friendship Picnic
12-5pm, Elysian Park, on Solano Drive, North of Academy
If you have a facebook, there’s an event page.

Join us for a vegan BBQ and Picnic in Elysian Park! Enjoy great food,
a beautiful park and old, new and future friends with us this Sunday
from Noon to 5. Bring something (vegan) to grill or make your best
dish or dessert (prizes awarded!). We’d also be super-duper stoked if
you could bring your own reusable plate and utensil so we can be all
environmental-ish. The park is easily accessible by bike or foot and
even automobile. Please pass this on to other interested folks!

This photo from Ulldepeix’s flckr is totally unrelated, except that it sums up my excitement and overall outlook on life.

Mt Shasta CORPScamp

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In late July I made the journey to Northern California for CORPScamp Shasta, 5 days of cycling and yoga, hosted by AdventureCORPS. Chris and Elizabeth were fantastic hosts: each night after riding and doing yoga there was either a group meal with delicious vegan options or a film.

Mt Shasta hanging out in the clouds above 14,000 ft.

Each morning we’d meet up, do some stretching and head out for a 50-90 mile ride. My goal was to swim every day. On Thursday’s ride I submerged myself in some cold snow run-off:

On the way back from McCloud there was a bonus climb on an unmaintained road above Mt. Shasta city:

On Friday we rode up to Mumbo summit, which is on the Mt Shasta super century that we’d ride on Sunday. The bonus climb this day went up to Castle Lake:

I jumped into water that was slightly warmer than the day before and swam about 500 yards out to a big rock in the middle. Exhilarating! A rock in the middle of a lake in the mountains is a great place to reflect (what’s important to you? Being in open water in the summer ranks high on my list!).

Sunday was the Mt Shasta Super Century, which I posted about previously, but I only mentioned the food 🙂

I’m fortunate to have these opportunities in my life and the health and capacity to take advantage of them. Are you?

Park[ing] and Race[ing]

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Yo social weekend here in Los Angeles! Friday was Park[ing] Day, a day-long event where communities transform parking spaces into parks. It’s brilliant because of all the problems of automobile dependency, often overlooked is the amount of space it requires to not only move them, but to park them. In Los Angeles the bike community is especially involved, which included a 40-mile bike tour of the parks with the editor from LA Streetsblog. Photos, including the one below, stats and reports here. Dan Koeppel also covered a Dept of DIY Park[ing] Day event.

I can’t think of a better use of a trailer than 100’s of vegan cupcakes

I spent the day using the ‘parks’ as meeting spots with friends between work and other obligations. In Heliotrope Village the neighborhood council took over 5 spots and had a dj and a swimming pool. That evening I met up with some friends at Echo Park where the Echo Park Film Center was screening Les Triplettes de Belleville.

Saturday, this was worth my time:


A 3-lap race in Griffith Park, up and down climbs I’ve done hundreds of times, only 2 miles from my house. How could I not? I rolled over with my housemate and of the 50 people hanging about, I knew two: the organizer and his sister. Is old man status fully achieved?

Had to represent Feel My Legs (photo from Kelly’s Flckr)

It was fixed gear only so it definitely attracted a lot of the LAfixed.com crowd, but I was surprised at the half dozen or so kids in kits.

40+ of us did a rolling start through the parking lot before hitting the top section of the two-mile climb up Fern Dell Dr/Western Canyon. There was some talk re gearing on the message board the week before and kids were talking running 47-16…..which seems way too big for me for the city, let alone a hill race. I palped my city gearing: 44×16 which worked well. Of course, I was totally spun out down Vermont Canyon, but wasn’t everyone?

photo from Dev204. I love Griffith Park!!

Anyway, there was this guy way off in front that I just couldn’t catch. Sean did a terrific job organizing this, but in his excitement he (and everyone hanging out at the start/finish apparently) lost count of our laps. So the two of us went out for a fourth lap before they figured out how to count. Hilarious. Ends up the dude who beat me is a Cat-1 roadie. Equally hilarious. At least he rode his bike to the race, unlike a bunch of the racers (only in LA people would drive to an alleycat?).

Sean hooked up an after party and I got so many prizes I couldn’t carry them home. Gave lots of stuff away, but not the front light, which I happened to need. Score! Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen and who braved a tough climb three (or four) times.

Do like the Europeans: Death Valley in the summer

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After the slaycation (Mike had to be back at work Saturday evening), I met Morgan in Lone Pine and swapped my stuff from the adventure van to his rental car to head to Death Valley and beyond for some 508 training.


I got out of the car in the Panamint Valley to do the 11-mile climb up Towne Pass. The sky was ominous and the air quality low due to the fires in LA 200 miles away.

It was super fun to do the descent into Death Valley in the daylight. Though seeing my computer read 62.6 MPH did scare me a little more than I thought it would. I knew I was going fast, but seeing it register over 60 triggers your mind to display the potential dangers…Each time I would hit 60 (It’s a loooong descent) I’d sit up to slow down to a safer 50 MPH. In Stovepipe Wells this thermometer greeted us:


We camped in Furnace Creek after poaching the pool and seriously considering driving to Las Vegas to party with some friends. Up at dawn (the best time to see Death Valley, in my opinion) to drive to Shoshone so I could ride the sections that were miserable for me last year: the long, false-flat to Baker and the 23.5 mile climb out of Baker (see the entire route here).


Morgan was more than happy to do support for me, which I can’t thank him enough for. The desert and black metal? He was content to spend the day handing me cold bottles of liquid. In the 6 hours it took me to ride the 85 miles of the route in 100 degree plus weather I drank 2 gallons of liquid. Didn’t even think that was possible!

Morgan put up more of his photos here.

We drove the remainder of the route and made it to Loma Linda in time to score a giant can of my favorite vegan hot dogs for our upcoming picnic/bbq:


And with these back-to-back trips my ‘summer’ drew to a close. Yes, I live in Southern CA and am underemployed, but September in my mind always brings a new situation and a new outlook. After a slightly disappointing summer, I’m amped on making the most of Fall.

ideas that involve act

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In my previous post I alluded to being some sort of activist, but it’s unfortunately true that my participation in ‘activist’ activities (action?!) is irregular. Though in the last month or so I’ve been keeping up more with sites like LA Streetsblog and Infrastructurist.com and am seeing more potential in the overlap between their ideas and my own. I’m trained in counseling through my nutrition schooling and one of the main foci is that knowledge is not enough to produce change in individuals. Regardless of the targeted change, there are a plethora of social and environmental factors working against us. Techniques to overcome these barriers as they appear are crucial in any behavior-change plan. My approach has been to be a quiet (okay, not always that quiet!) example and to be a resource for those with a thirst for bicycles, veganism, etc. So before I’m off for this weekend’s adventures I wanted to share what I’ve spent time this week reading.

You should check out this event tonight:
Portland City Repair’s Mark Lakeman will be speaking Friday September 11th at 7:30pm at the Eco-Village and then Saturday from 10am to 6pm he’ll be leading an intersection repair project. more info

Would $5 Gallon Gas Cause Commuters to Change Their Ways?
This is very curious to me. As cheap as I am, I forget how driven by cost so many people are. $5/gallon gas could totally transform our cities.

Did anyone look closely at this controversial interview and research out of Toronto?
Professor Chris Cavacuiti on how to stay safe on the roads

Here’s a criticism from http://www.cyclelicio.us:
http://www.cyclelicio.us/2009/08/study-claims-cyclists-at-fault-in-only.html

Have you talked to your work about this?
Bicycle Commuter Tax Provision: Frequently Asked Questions

The Bike League worked hard to get that passed, but local cyclist, trouble-maker and mathematician Dr. Alex Thompson is rightfully unhappy about the bronze-level distinction they awarded Santa Monica with ZERO input from local cyclists: an open letter to the League of American Bicyclists. Props to him for articulating an idea I’ve had about drivers for a long time: murderously entitled.

Have a safe, adventurous weekend and thanks for reading. Lastly, here’s what’s been in my head while I worked this morning:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3U3R3b1dOg&hl=en&fs=1&]