Bring on the fall

I love the fall. I love how the landscape around you changes, the colors, the temperature, the mood. Let's get this straight, I hate the summer. I don't like how hot it is outside and how cold people keep it inside. I don't like feeling draggy all the time from how hot it is. I'm not really a fan of the sun because of my complexion. I don't like sweating all the time. But I love the fall. I love the way that the mountains look when the trees are yellow, orange and red. I love the smell of morning chill and frost and fires burning. I like pulling out all my sweaters and jeans and bundling up with a cup of cider. I like the smell of pumpkin and apple. The best part of the fall is that it means we are closer to winter. We get to go skiing and play in the snow and all that fun stuff. I have so much more fun in the winter than in the summer. I spend more time outside during the winter months than I do during the summer months. So I'm ready for the changing of the seasons, it's a time to refresh, reprioritize, renew, and rethink.

LOTOJA - 5317

Translation? LOgan TO JAckson. Yes, riding a bike from Logan, Utah to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It's 206 miles in one long day. 5317 was Fogg's racing number.

Three friends raced the LOTOJA on Saturday, September 6. They started in Logan at 6:58, which meant getting up at about 4:30 to leave to drive up there and get ready. The three riders were Michael Hart, Andrew Branaum and Mike Fogg. Here they are at the start


As you can see, it was early in the morning and they were sort of bundled up, it was pretty chilly as they got ready in front of the port-o-potty.

There were two feed zones before we saw them again. The temperature was just about right, sort of sunny with a slight breeze to keep the heat off. The first FZ was in Preston Idaho, 34 miles in. One of our support guys, the mechanic, went to that FZ to check in. The rest of us skipped to the third FZ. The second FZ was called a neutral feed zone, meaning that outside support was not allowed to go there. So we saw them at FZ3, in Montpelier Idaho, 80 miles in and after one major mountain pass.

This is Michael Hart coming into FZ3.

Andrew looking a bit grumpy at FZ3.

Fogg is eating a PB&J at FZ3.

Then they were off again for two more mountain passes. FZ4 was another neutral, so we saw them again on the road climbing up the last mountain pass.

This is Andrew climbing up the last mountain pass.

Andrew cresting the final climb!

Fogg topping out!

We caught up with them again at FZ5, in Afton Wyoming, 125 miles in with 81 miles to go. They were all feeling pretty good but also pretty tired. We took off again and caught up with Michael Hart at FZ6 in Alpine, Wyoming. Michael had for fitted his attempt at the finish there in Alpine because he neglected to put his sunglasses on and actually sunburned his corneas. He couldn't see a thing and felt that it was unsafe to continue to the finish. By the time we got there, he was a couple of beers in and was feeling fine. We motivated Andrew and Fogg cause they had only 47 miles to go and had already completed 159 miles.

Fogg and Michael at FZ6.

Andrew getting stocked up in the pockets by Greer at FZ6.

Andrew, Michael and Fogg at FZ6 watching more riders come in.

If I do say so myself, the beautiful support crew. Greer (Andrew's girlfriend), me, and Patti (Michael's girlfriend). We had a lot of fun supporting and watching.

The boys had one more neutral feed zone before the finish. We skipped all the way to Teton Village (the official finish and where we were staying). We quickly checking into our beautiful hotel only steps from the finish line, got some warm clothes for both ourselves and the boys, stocked up with snacks and beer then headed to the finish. We waited about 30 minutes before they showed up to the finish.

We headed back to our sweet three bedroom suite at Teton Mountain Lodge (thanks to Greer's amazing negotiating skills) and ordered in room service for dinner. We got to just hang out and tell good stories the rest of the evening.

This is the kitchen in the condo, Fogg is making coffee on Sunday morning.

View of the living room from the loft bedroom.

This is the view from the living room in our condo. Not too shabby!

I'll let Fogg post his thoughts, I can't speak for his part of the experience. I'm very proud of all three of them, it was much harder than it even looks. It is a huge accomplishment to finish LOTOJA!

Here are a few more pics from the trip!

This is Fogg prepping his feed zone bags ahead of time. See London in the back "helping"? Fogg was starting to get nervous about Wednesday night before the race, the day he started doing his prep.

Here is Fogg at the start. Pretty dark at 6:30 in the morning.

Patti and Greer waiting for the riders to reach FZ3.

This is Mimi (Greer's sister) and Greer at the top of the last mountain pass. Mimi did a relay for the race, she rode the first 80 miles and the last 47. Both Mimi and Greer are all but signed up to do the full race next year!

This is John Thomas, a coworker for all of us at backcountry.com.

City of Rocks

Well, we didn't make it to Moab this year but we did go up to the City of Rocks in southern Idaho. It's on the border between Idaho and Utah basically and it's a quick 2 1/2 hour drive up there. We met up with a few old friends and a few new friends. We stayed in the best campsite in the park. The "city", as it is commonly referred, is basically a rock version of New York (of course on a much smaller scale). It's just a big field full of rocks that resemble a city. Really cool place, a rock climbers paradise. It is outside the city of Almo, a tiny little place with one tiny grocery store, two (yes, two) restaurants and a visitor's center. In recent years, they have built up a hot spring to be a great place to hang out in it's pool like atmosphere (and incredibly hot springs, 111 is what one of the pools is).

We drove up on Saturday morning because Mike needed to ride his bike to prepare for LOTOJA (explanation of this in a previous post). We also got called out for search and rescue at about 9 on Friday night, resulting in a quick and successful evacuation of an ill hiker by a Lifeflight helicopter. We got there around noon and hung out, took a nap, then did a quick climb before meeting up with everyone at the pizza joint. We had a great time at the hot spring then back to the campsite for some yummy S'mores and fellowship with friends. Sunday morning yielded a nice sunny outlook and a little bit of sleeping in. After breakfast, the crew of 8 headed up to Swiss Cheese and String Cheese, two climbs next to each other with a great place to hang out. Mike lead up both of the climbs to set top ropes for everyone else to have fun on. Right as the last people are finishing up the climbs, the weather dropped about 20 degrees very very quickly and within about 10 minutes we were feeling rain drops. We quickly packed up and headed off to the campsite so that we were not in danger of lightening while on the rock. We ate a quick lunch then headed to town to hang out inside during the rain storm. We killed some time eating pie, visiting the visitor's center, exploring a few touristy places around the city then headed back to camp. Since it was still quite cold and the weather forecast looking even more grim for Monday, Mike and I decided to head home after a few hours hanging out around the campfire. We made our quick trip home Sunday night to arrive to our house which the power had gone out on. No worries, cause we just crashed.

Part of the group watching the climbers, from left to right, Brent, Amanda, Michelle and Emmy.

London, the crazy climber dog. He loved the city, he could just wander and climb rocks. Apparently, he is really into rock climbing, he loved it!

Fogg is belaying James, the climber. Thought this was a cool shot.

This is Scotty, a new friend.

We spent today just bumming around, sleeping in, watching TV and generally just relaxing on Labor Day. Mike did some work around the yard after the rain stopped.

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend as well, wish it could be just a few days longer...