Ring of Fire 2023
A quick administrative note: I’ve migrated this site to a different host and there have been some changes to the theme and page structure. If you received this post by email, you were previously a subscriber and I hope you’ll…
Category Mountain Biking
White Rim in a Day
Over the last few years I became increasingly interested in the White Rim route as a day effort. This 4×4 road loop in Canyonlands national park is typically done as a multi-day trip with a vehicle sag-wagon, with decadence akin…
San Rafael Swell Night Out
We’re bad Utahns. We don’t follow the usual patterns of a Salt Lake adventure-bro. The adventure-bro is more migratory, in part because he has to justify owning an $80k van with an environmentalism sticker on it. He moves constantly between…
Western Uintas Bikepacking
This past Spring, I joined the hipsters and bought a gravel bike, and it has led to no end of trouble. Obscure riding routes, kitschy and expensive bike bags, solitude in nature, and bonified adventure on poorly described trails. Wanting…
Early Season Scrounging
What a hiatus it has been for the Mountain Lessons blog. There have been a lot of changes in the last 6 months… new house, new state, new job, new stressors and responsibilities. While I’ve not been out and about…
South Sister Ski Descent
I ran into my new landlord at 6:30 am this morning as I was unloading my Uhaul trailer in the rain. “Damn”, he muttered, “I was hoping you’d be lazier and I would have time to take photos of the…
The Plains of Abraham
It has been hard to break the silence on Mountain lessons ever since Taylor and I returned from our epic two-month road trip through the American West and British Columbia. After weeks upon weeks of world-class adventures on America’s best…
Shake Your Etch-A-Sketch
You know the feeling when you alarm goes off and it hits you just the wrong way? You startle awake, and, for a few seconds, you don’t remember where you are, what’s happening, or how you got there? Now, imagine…
How to Ride a Mountain Bike
[divider_line] Prepare At home, pay attention to your bike. Or don’t. Groom it well: Inspect and smooth its sore joints and strong stanchions. It has many ailments, always one thing after another, but that’s the price of admission. They’re strange beasts,…