From the McFee Library...

I recently finished up a few books that I enjoyed for different reasons. First off was Rob Schultheis's "Fool's Gold:...." This book is of the Ed Abbey ilk, telling tales of Telluride and the Four Corners area from his arrival there in 1973. Crazed miners, drug trafficking and a still pristine landscape are all related in great detail. This is a quick and light read. As a Four Corners resident it was neat to read about the places I myself love. Ed Abbey comparison aside, Schultheis has his own, entertaining and meaningful style that's hard not to enjoy.




Next up was "Natural Capitalism: Creating the next Industrial Revolution". This book had many themes. Among them were: sustainable production, energy efficiency and above all, calling into question classic economic theory. In particular, how classic economics/accounting does not account for the side effects of removing a forest, destroying a watershed, exhausting a resource or polluting the air. It's an interesting theory - would we still call a coal fired power plant "n profitable" if we took into account the degradation in air quality and quantified that? Probably not. Also, why do we tax production and not waste?

This is not some hippie, enviro book. It takes a very scientific look at how we WASTE....and how we waste is not sustainable. What I liked most about this book was that it provided examples, however small, where progressive thinking has lead to efficiency and conservation without sacrifice. It's easy to point out the problems...as many books do. The author at least tries to illustrate real world solutions that may well work on a larger scale.

Mr. Mom

Michael Keaton: "You wanna talk about the beard? OK, let's talk about the beard. The beard is in its transitional stage...when it comes in it's gonna look great. It's gonna look like that actor.....mmmm....."

Terri Garr: "Orson Wells?"

Michael Keaton: "No, not Orson Wells......ohhhh....hahaha......I see, a fat joke."

So there you go you jackals....a picture of my redneck face sweater. I swear it's me, not Sean Connery.

Jonesin' for a pedal and Chef Matt

So here we are wrapping up January. It's once again snowing outside and I just spent several hours raking the roof with my fancy (not really fancy at all) new snow roof rake. Two hours and about 10% of the snow removed. Flippin' hard work. Most of the time is spent with this 20+ foot pole suspended over my head trying to pull snow down like I'm grating cheese. Something tells me I shoulda bought one of these in December and actually kept up with the raking instead of trying to dig into white cement mid-winter.

ANYWHO, this is exactly what I need to avoid right now. I have cabin fever bad. I've been discussing a roadtrip to Tucksun soon. I could use some semi-warm desert pedaling. I've actually stayed on top of my fitness pretty well this winter: hit the trainer a few times a week, XC skate ski, dips/pull-ups/push-ups/crunches and a lot of backcountry splitboarding. Ready to pedal soon me thinks.

In other news, I've been practicing cooking for the guide company. I've been playing around with quite a few grille recipes and so far they're turning out fairly well. My favorites thus far have been Caorlina-style, Pulled BBQ Chicken and tonight's was Rosemary Tri Tip....sliced onto toasted French Bread. The meat was amazing (or at least the rosemary marinade), but I think foccacia bread would be better than the toasted french bread. In sandwich form it was too much on the bread, but as more of a side bread it was great. I was thinking of a nice tasty foccacia bread, as more of a side, would be perfect and then i could cut the tri tip differently as well. Wow, look at the moves on this kid.

Do NOT tell my wife I'm enjoying cooking please!!!

Your moment of Zen:

Save Singletrack

Found this on MTBR:

http://www.savehermosa.org

Quick and easy way to voice your opinion (via automatic fax) on retaining MTB access on the Colorado Trail and several others including Corral Draw Trail.

Dear Magazine Industry,

I have a bone to pick with you.....actually two.

1. Would one of you break ranks and NOT format your magazine so that I must turn 50 pages to read the rest of the story? "Turn to page 156 to continue..." - thanks for putting that needle in a haystack of 30 other UN-NUMBERED pages. I can only assume this is done so that we will look at your ads. If we, the readers of your magazines, promise to look at your ads will you knock this shit off? Magazines are LIFESTYLE periodicals....we probably LIKE looking at the ads in most cases. It's like saying, "If you want to watch the rest of this TV show you must run to your neighbors house. It's the tiny house in the giant billboard district." Come on...dare to be different.

2. "Blow In's". I think that's the industry name for those thick, paper subscription cards sprinkled throughout most magazines. Yes, they are annoying as hell for page turning, etc, but that's not the problem. How many "Green Issues" can you publish with these things littered throughout and still sleep at night? I'd love to see a stat on the number of trees that are used to produce all these for just ONE issue; preferrably your green issue. Backpacker.....Outside.......BIKE...........come on!!! Practice what you preach.

The ball is in your court.

More backcountry fun..

After hearing so much about it, I finally hit up the Deer Creek area for some backcountry splitboarding. The Deer Creek area is popular for various reasons. First and foremost is that it's relatively safe in terms of avy danger. There's no such thing as foolproof, but it's a fairly safe area tucked in a thick stand of trees. Secondly, it's reasonably accessible from the 550 between Coal Bank and Molas Passes. Here we are skinning up...



The skin up from the road wasn't too bad and soon we were up on the ridge that divides the Deer Creek drainage from the 550. We got switched over to "down mode" and plunged into the steep and deep. My god it's heaven. Here's your truly draggin' a hand through the white rain:

We did two runs through this tree stand into Deer Creek and then skinned back up for our final descent to the car. There's a few ways to exit, but most people exit to the north....thereby leaving themselves a hitch hike or walk back to the cars. We elected to go the direct route.....a straight, steep run to the car. It was pretty thickly treed, so we felt the avy danger would be fairly low.

The top was very steep with a slight sun crust on it....not a big deal on a board. The middle section was a lot of creative traversing through the trees, but it was still a hoot. Finally, we broke out onto the steep, bare slope where we could see the car. Wow.....I was nose to the mountain, dragging a hand and just losing myself in the turns. Just never want it to end.

Save Hermosa trails!!!!

The last time we see this? (MTBs on the CO Trail within the proposed area)

The San Juan Forest Service and BLM have released their draft management plan. The Plan includes a proposal for Wilderness Designation for over 50,000 acres of the Hermosa Roadless Area. While the Hermosa Creek Trail itself will be unaffected, this WILL close a 20 mile section of the Colorado Trail to MTB's as well as several other great trails in the drainage including the MTB favorite, Corral Draw Trail.

Here are the public comment times/locations, link to the plan and fax/address for sending your comments (I've also included some facts you may want to drop in your letter):

Public comments about the plan will be taken for the next 90 days, and these public meetings will be held at 6:30 p.m.:

• Cortez - Jan. 16, Cortez Conference Center, 2121 East Main.

• Durango - Jan. 23, Durango Community Recreation Center, 2700 Main Ave.

• Pagosa Springs - Jan. 29, Pagosa Springs Community Center, 451 Hot Springs Blvd.

• Silverton - Jan. 31, Silverton Town Hall, 1360 Greene St.

• Rico - Feb. 6, Rico Town Hall, 2 North Commercial St.



The documents are available at ocs.fortlewis.edu/forestplan or on compact discs by contacting Laura Stransky at 385-1216 or lstransky@fs.fed.us.

Comments will be accepted until March 12 by fax at (916) 456-6724, or by mail to San Juan Plan Revision, P.O. Box 162909, Sacramento, CA 95816-2909.

A few facts you might include in your comment letter:

- The San Juan Mountains already have (4) very large Wilderness Areas: Weminuche, South San Juan, Piedra and Lizard head

- The Weminuche is the largest Wilderness area in Colorado at 500,000 acres....plenty

- Countless studies have listed mountain biking as a much less impactful activity that horseback riding, which is currently allowed in Wilderness areas.

- Mountain Biking wasn't even invented when Congress slapped the blanket "non-mechanized" on Wilderness

- The historical use of this Hermosa area is dominated by mountain bikers. Corral Draw Trail, Big Bend Trail, Salt Creek Trail.....and of course the 20 mile section of the CO Trail. It will be impossible to manage as Wilderness.

- The above stated, this area sees relatively light usage. This area does not need protected status. Wilderness would merely mean exclusion of a passive user group, mountain bikers.- Managing it as "primitive; non-motorized" is a terrific option, but do not exclude mountain biking.

- The Colorado Trail segment from Molas Pass to Durango is one of the premier, contiguous, backcountry trail options for mountain bikers. This should be intact.

- The Forest Service has been quoted as saying, "Other areas of the Colorado Trail are closed to MTB's because of Wilderness." This argument holds NO water. Just because the Colorado Trail has historically been routed through Wilderness areas does not make any case for adding this 20 mile section. Zero logic.

Off the Grid!!!

WHEW!!! Welcome back to civilization, Matt!! No power and no phones since Saturday. Normally I would say "that's great...nice and quiet", but since the launch of my new business venture I've felt like I'm responsible for a newborn. I had 20 mini-anxiety attacks throughout the outage. A little strange. Anyway, here are some pix from the carnage:

Under the weather....

...both figuratively and literally. I have a little cold, so no playing in this:

Hoping to rally tomorrow.

Starting the New Year off right!

This is my 3rd winter in Colorado and that's all it has taken for me to become a snow snob. I won't pay for groomed crap. To quote the Cat Ski Co. owner today: "Cordurouy is something you wear." Hmmm...well said. I don't even mind self-propelled (see: skinning) backcountry splitboarding in order to get good fresh powder.

Anyway, today Katri and I got a last minute deal on a few seats for the day with the San Juan Ski Co. The owner is Bob Rule....a guy I do a lot of trailwork with in the spring, summer and fall. He trounced me 70 hours volunteered to 61 hours volunteered. :)



Anyway, this was our first SnowCat-assisted skiing/boarding trip and I gotta say it's just as good as it gets. It combines the best of everything: powder, backcountry, warm trips in the Cat back up and no lift lines. I gotta budget a few more trips each year. Good times.

They really take care of you. They load your skis or board, do a great job of guiding you to the best snow SAFELY and we even had lunch in a little yurt....including a stoked wood stove. If you like snow and you like treating yourself......this is the way.



My beautiful Katri (above and below) happy as a pig in s.......snow!!