Columbus Winter 2012

It's hard knowing that back home in sunny So Cal it's in the low 80's today...in January. To be fair, the last week here in Columbus has actually been the nicest lead-in to Winter we have had in the past four years. It's slated to be mid 40's again today, and the sun is out. Saturday was actually in the mid fifties, and I had Luka out at the Metro Parks all day playing in what seemed to be early Fall bliss in a week that usually invloves at least an hour of shoveling white stuff every day.




**Luka strolling across the ponds at the Audubon Metro Park in Columbus Saturday.**

My road bike was placed in the trainer a week and a half ago, and amazingly enough it was quite premature. I have been rocking the hardtail with Kenda Kozmik Lite II's for the past two weeks now as a road bike replacement since I refuse to take off that son of a bitch trainer tire.




**Luckily, the mid-40's temps were just enough to melt the ice on the exposed bridges along the Olentangy Trail Thursday.**

People here in the Capitol City have been all atwitter with daylight and walkable sidewalks, and the ability to ride outdoors without seventeen layers of clothes on. The historic North Market(typically a ghost town in January) was jam-packed with humanity Saturday.

There wasn't a dog owner in town who wasn't out walking their animal. Seeing Vegas Bob's pics of the Ortega Mountains during his monster ride Saturday was great, but certainly doesn't help my abject grief over the featureless terrain of the
area here. Timari Pruis posted a nice shot from the Backbone Trail looking west out to Catalina Island, and the photos coming in from Dorothy Wong of the So Cal 'Cross Series show little in the area of icy bridges on bike paths.



**Ara rocking "The Stouche" at the So Cal Cross races.**

It's coming...slowly but surely the steely grey gloom of old man Winter is encroaching like a fast moving glacier on me. The thought of turning mindless crank revolutions on the indoor mag trainer in the low ceiling of the basement makes me want to gouge out my eyes.

I am resolving myself to slip into my AmFib tights and shoe covers every chance I get until the roads are too frozen to ride. I'll be out this afternoon again thanks to a day off, then our indoor group BYOT class Wednesday..which is only slightly less disgusting than a basement workout and ONLY because friends come to suffer too. It helps that beers follow at 9p.m.



**Burm #1 after dropping in to the top of Backbone Trail in Sycamore Canyon S.P.**

The trainer sessions typically involve me closing my eyes and dreaming of blasting down that scrabbly-tight section of Backbone Trail inside Sycamore Canyon State Park after ascending Guadalasca Peak Trail. Having the bike wide open, hands nowhere near the brake levers as you plummet down that baby-head strewn sliver of dust is all that keeps me alive at times. I ride it in my dreams, along with other favorites like San Juan Trail, SART, JPL and Thunder Mountain Trail.

Old helmet cam footage from a decade ago doesn't hurt, either. I only wish I had some footage of the Rock Store road loop starting at Malibu Creek State Park and heading out to Leo Carrillo State Beach, or two hours of reels from riding the mind-blowingly scenic singletrack run from Tunnel 1 on Kanan Dume Road in Malibu across the mountain top into Malibu Canyon. Poor Abel Vaca has suffered many a near-fatal crash on the savage descent back into the canyon.

It's those now-twenty-two year old and newer memories of riding and racing with people like the Klawitter brothers back in the old Conejo Bikes days,


**The ol' Conejo AP/5 ready for NORBA's**

and the great group at Checkered Flag Racing (that would eventually become most of Backbone Adventure Cycling) that keep me motivated to ride when the mercury hits the single digits here. Camp-N-Rides in the Big Laguna mountains, races in Brian Head, the team condo in Big Bear..all of it I try to recall as often as possible this time of year.


**Val and Karl Kleinbach arrive with baby Cody to the Camp-N-Ride in ventura County, 2007.**

It helps to have rider-submitted reports from home to keep me going, and Facebook posted pictures of sunny and dry singletrack make me end my indoor workouts with one-leg drills instead of stopping early to watch T.V.

Please keep them coming for the next three months....my psyche will thank you for it.