Winter blues already?

Due to a combination of weather, family responsibilities, work schedule, etc. it has been two weeks since I've managed any outdoor workouts. Two straight weeks of computrainer. It doesn't sound like much, really. Especially when you consider there is still at least two months of winter training to go, but gag, it gets old fast.

Tonight as I built the CV system by spinning on the computrainer, I simultaneously enriched the brain to the company of "Natcho Libre". Sorry for sharing -- I don't mean to encourage envy.

Gotta get out the skiis, or run, or something...anything. Maybe Bob will come. Maybe he will buy two split boards and I can ride one. Yes, I have a snowboard. A Burton M5 (or M6?). I thought I would post a picture of it, but I can't find one. Here is a pic of the first model I had, except mine had a swallow-tail and black bindings. Also, mine had the center fin, but I don't think it had the side ones. I noticed one sold on ebay for $200. I sold mine for less over 15 years ago. Mike Jacoby, who went on to become famous in the snowboard world, went to my high-school. I think he was one year older than me. At the time he was kind of wierd dude...sports like snowboarding, mountain biking (any cycling), wind-surfing in a parking lot etc. just weren't quite in yet.

I remember being embarrased to tell people I liked mountain biking. First I'd explain what it was. Then they'd say something like, "Oh, it is just a bicycle? No engine?" And then the shorts issue. And helmets were still so uncool. I didn't shave my legs, so that never came up. At the time, in Idaho, it would have been a real issue. We didn't even have swimmers there. If you wanted to be cool, you played football or wrestled, chewed tabacco, and walked around with your shoulders back, chest out, arms hanging out away from the sides. If you were more academic but wanted to do sports you did track, or cross-country. Unfortunately, I never did that.

On the good side, you could ride pretty much any where you wanted. Nothing was closed to bikes. They were just an oddity, and there weren't really any hikers to worry about. The horses were all scared of the bikes, but I never quite got kicked. Of course, no ride in Idaho was really possible without cow-pies all over your bottles, etc. If you don't believe it, ride Lava-Rama.

The racing series in the early 1990's included Whiteknob in Mackay, a race in Idaho City, one near St. Anthony, Galena Grinder near Ketchum, Big Hole Challenge near Driggs during the balloon festival, and after a few years Kelly Canyon and Lava Rama got added in there. Ron Dillon was doing races pretty early on, and even rode in a bunch for a while. I think it was 1989 when there was a race in Arco...a pretty good series for such a small area...What happened?

Dan Daigh and Todd Smith were a couple of the fast riders in the area. I think
Dan Daigh won the masters MTB nationals in about 1990. A couple years later a kid named Eric Macbeth got really fast. He eventually went to race for a college and then who knows. Zach Shriver was even younger and raced with my brothers before moving on to Fort Lewis or somewhere. Many guys here in Salt Lake knew Alan Butler, who started at the ill-fated Crossroads cycles in Idaho Falls. He eventually came down here, got really fast, and was killed in an unfortunate accident a year or two ago in Vegas.

So there you go, the history of MTB in Idaho Falls.