Roller Coaster Line - Hick Park - Hickory NC
The Yeti, Pisgah legend. Schooled me in street skills.
Huge drop at WCU
J-Hop-Man at the cafeteria at WCU (start to umm, finish)
Norton Dirt Jumps - WCU
Ryan Dunn
Yeti
Ryan Dunn
Monday, February 16, 2015
Old School Bikin'
Looking at some of these old mountain biking photos, I need to get these out here!
Roller Coaster Line - Hick Park - Hickory NC
Benton Bender - WCU
First no-hander - WCU
The Yeti, Pisgah legend. Schooled me in street skills.
Huge drop at WCU
J-Hop-Man at the cafeteria at WCU (start to umm, finish)
Norton Dirt Jumps - WCU
Roller Coaster Line - Hick Park - Hickory NC
The Yeti, Pisgah legend. Schooled me in street skills.
Huge drop at WCU
J-Hop-Man at the cafeteria at WCU (start to umm, finish)
Norton Dirt Jumps - WCU
First One
Black Clouds and Restless Wind - two of my favorite jams. This is my first blog post but I want to clarify that this is not a music blog! I tend to be a music snob on a regular basis but I'm more of a mountain snob than anything. Adventuring in the mountains is what I do best - and that's what this blog is going to be all about. When I read stories and look at pictures of my friends in the paradise of nature I feel like I am actually there with them for a few brief seconds and you should try to do that too for a quick escape! Also, this is totally selfish too. I will only be writing these blogs when I am completely unable to be out living the dream outside and this will give me a chance to relive some of the moments I have had out there. I will update this thing after notable adventures, but am going to spend a lot of my time telling about trips I've made out there in the past. This will keep me busy, and I won't be able to tell them all, but other mountain snobs should get a kick out of this.
Those two songs that form the title of my blog are both String Cheese Incident songs. That's the jam I'm trying to hear when I've got my gear loaded up and am heading to the mountains or sometimes even when I'm out there. Black Clouds makes me think about the ever hovering dangers of a high risk exciting lifestyle, and literally speaking something that I contend with in the summer time when hikin', mountain bikin', and especially stand-up paddlin'. But then when the summer haze blows out after a good autumn hurricane and that wind picks up Restless Wind comes to mind, and that carries over into the winter when I am feeling it hard on a high ridgeline in the Smokies.
A few other pieces of info:
I am a born again Christian and go to church in my community of Swannanoa outside of Asheville. Like most Ashevillians, I put nature on a pedestal, but I want to make it clear that in my beliefs God gets all the glory. I don't worship nature, but I do worship the Creator who put it there and put me so close to it.
I own a home in Swannanoa and share it with my wife Hailey and two dogs. Roxy, a golden-retriever dachshund mix (I know it's crazy, but it came with the wife) and Cheoah, my border collie pup born 12-2-14. My wife Hailey is really good for the world. She is a teacher and makes a contribution to our world with what she does. Go Hailey!
From early 2012 to early 2014 a majority of my time was spent inside a huge pharmaceutical manufacturing facility with 6-day-a-week work. I am a chemist (masters in chemistry from Western Carolina) and now a lab supervisor and at work am driven by production of a variety of life saving medical solutions. I love my job and it is a total blessing, but during that time it absorbed a large amount of my time. I am happy to say now that things have changed. My schedule changed up with my promotion to supervisor and now I am on 12-hour shifts. This means I have an abundance of time off! It's awesome!
I am from Morganton, NC and love my folks. We are very close. I grew up at a state fish hatchery with hundreds of acres to roam freely on that bordered Linville Gorge Wilderness. That's part of the reason I am so into the outdoors. My dad got me into mountain biking at a young age and am still doing it today, although I have been through alot there.
I used to roll on a HUGE Specialized Big Hit mountain bike, made for big jumps and chunky downhills. I got hurt severely in 2005 when I was a senior in high school sending a jump I shouldn't have been on in Hickory, NC. I had two knee surgeries in '05 (LCL, ACL, PCL) and an ankle operation in summer '06 because I damaged nerves in my leg during the crash. Still on the bike in 2007 I did it all again on my other leg (patellar tendon), this time sending a large dirt jump on campus at WCU on an Azonic singlespeed (a can-can gone horribly wrong). Finally in 2009, right after I got healed up, I reinjured the patellar tendon again when I came off the bouldering wall on the wrong foot. I am happy to say now, after all that, I am still at it. Just very carefully. I no longer hit really big moves on the bike, and ALWAYS climb on belay!
Nowadays I am riding a Rocky Mountain Altitude (on 26 inch purple I-9's, to those in the know). I shred in Pisgah, but spend a good amount of time in the Montreat/Old Fort area on half-day rides on the escarpment. I'm a decent rock climber, and can clean 5.8's on lead no problem - but have a ways to go and am learning a lot. I'm hoping I can lead 5.10 by next fall ... we'll see. Last summer, for our first anniversary, my wife and I splurged and picked up two stand up paddleboards - and they made summer 2014 one of the best I've ever had. Some people think I hike alot, but I don't feel like I do. When I go, I always come home blabbing about how awesome it was and posting pictures.
Enjoy reading these stories about getting real in the woods.
Those two songs that form the title of my blog are both String Cheese Incident songs. That's the jam I'm trying to hear when I've got my gear loaded up and am heading to the mountains or sometimes even when I'm out there. Black Clouds makes me think about the ever hovering dangers of a high risk exciting lifestyle, and literally speaking something that I contend with in the summer time when hikin', mountain bikin', and especially stand-up paddlin'. But then when the summer haze blows out after a good autumn hurricane and that wind picks up Restless Wind comes to mind, and that carries over into the winter when I am feeling it hard on a high ridgeline in the Smokies.
A few other pieces of info:
I am a born again Christian and go to church in my community of Swannanoa outside of Asheville. Like most Ashevillians, I put nature on a pedestal, but I want to make it clear that in my beliefs God gets all the glory. I don't worship nature, but I do worship the Creator who put it there and put me so close to it.
I own a home in Swannanoa and share it with my wife Hailey and two dogs. Roxy, a golden-retriever dachshund mix (I know it's crazy, but it came with the wife) and Cheoah, my border collie pup born 12-2-14. My wife Hailey is really good for the world. She is a teacher and makes a contribution to our world with what she does. Go Hailey!
Cheoah
From early 2012 to early 2014 a majority of my time was spent inside a huge pharmaceutical manufacturing facility with 6-day-a-week work. I am a chemist (masters in chemistry from Western Carolina) and now a lab supervisor and at work am driven by production of a variety of life saving medical solutions. I love my job and it is a total blessing, but during that time it absorbed a large amount of my time. I am happy to say now that things have changed. My schedule changed up with my promotion to supervisor and now I am on 12-hour shifts. This means I have an abundance of time off! It's awesome!
I am from Morganton, NC and love my folks. We are very close. I grew up at a state fish hatchery with hundreds of acres to roam freely on that bordered Linville Gorge Wilderness. That's part of the reason I am so into the outdoors. My dad got me into mountain biking at a young age and am still doing it today, although I have been through alot there.
I used to roll on a HUGE Specialized Big Hit mountain bike, made for big jumps and chunky downhills. I got hurt severely in 2005 when I was a senior in high school sending a jump I shouldn't have been on in Hickory, NC. I had two knee surgeries in '05 (LCL, ACL, PCL) and an ankle operation in summer '06 because I damaged nerves in my leg during the crash. Still on the bike in 2007 I did it all again on my other leg (patellar tendon), this time sending a large dirt jump on campus at WCU on an Azonic singlespeed (a can-can gone horribly wrong). Finally in 2009, right after I got healed up, I reinjured the patellar tendon again when I came off the bouldering wall on the wrong foot. I am happy to say now, after all that, I am still at it. Just very carefully. I no longer hit really big moves on the bike, and ALWAYS climb on belay!
Big Hit
This is funny... pre-Big Hit. Kona Kahuna. BTW yes the head tube cracked
Belay Cave at the top of the first pitch of Fruit Loops, 5.7+ Rumbling Bald
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