Black Hills Bike Tour

This past fall break I spent four of the most beautiful days in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It was my second trip there this year and I saw one of the most amazing sunrises in the Badlands...

Here we are at a trail head with the Lucky Chicken that has become a Bike Tour Tradition. He goes with us everywhere so that we don't experience any bad wrecks or problems with our bikes.


Here we are on the side of the road checking out good ole George Washington's Profile....
On the way to Mount Rushmore we get a glimps of the beauty the Black Hills hold.
Here we are riding on the outskirts of the Badlands right next to a HUGE Prairie Dog Town.Yes, The chicken rides along with the Riders not the Support Vehicle.



Watch out for Dale he likes to go FAST... like upwards of 40 MPH fast!!!!

Here I am with Dale the Lead Mechanic at Outdoor Adventures in the process of getting the bikes ready to be loaded.

Gotta tear em' down so they all fit!Ya I got it pretty hard when it comes to working... haha the views tend to be extraordinary!

Market to Market

From the Historic Old Market in Omaha a course takes 86 miles to the Haymarket in Lincoln and was the setting for the inaugural Market to Market Relay... In the first year 150 teams of 6 to 8 runners exchanged the baton 23 times and made the epic journey from Omaha to Lincoln in just a single day... An early start would be needed and a post race shindig would be at hand. With beautiful weather to accompany each team they would experience an amazing journey and view the landscape of Nebraska firsthand and as we all know wind would be their biggest enemy on this day...

Well I wish I could say I ran the 10 miles each participant would have to finish I chose to grab a bike and be a medic at the back of the race to make sure no one got lost or hurt while participating. I spent over 5 hours on my bike trekking my 40 some miles at the back of the pack. Gladly and under Gods watchful eye no one had major injuries or setbacks.

The Lincoln Journal Star sent out a Photographer and here is something they put together...

http://media.journalstar.com/comments/?mid=M48f1c61776b2b

Also here are some of the post race comments by participants!

I am still profounding dumbfounded, you and your staff are absolutely amazing!! That event I participated in yesterday was by far the absolutely most organized and well put on event I've ever participated in my 11 years of running.

I've run small 5k races that were completely screwed up and a fiasco. I've been to Boston Marathon, Chicago, Honolulu, Carlsbad and many other places...what you guys pulled off yesterday was without a doubt equal if not more incredible to what these top notch races pull off.

An 86 mile race from Omaha to Lincoln...unbelieveable, a well mark course the entire way! Volunteers at every single checkpoint for 86 miles! I am speechless! ;)
-Gary Dougherty - Team Ndorfnz Nebraska Orthopaedichttp://www.ndorfnz.com

Great job on the race. Great volunteers, great route, great organization.
-Bob Glissmann
Team World-Herald

Hi, I just wanted to thank the two of you, the rest of the organizers and all the volunteers for a GREAT job. For a first time event, this was very well organized. We had a great time.
-Mike McKain

I just had to take a moment to send a thank you to you and all of your "staff". Yesterday was one of the funnest days I've had in quite awhile. There were moments (during the middle of my runs) when I thought I would die and cursed myself for getting into this, but the moment I saw the group of people waiting at the exchange point, it all went away. Your volunteers did an outstanding job directing traffic and runners. The directions were great and the ending was just right. Again, thank you and all of your volunteers for taking on this momentous effort and giving us a day we will not soon forget.
-Judy Sather

It really was a great event and an honor to be part of such a well organized event especially in its first year. It will be very interesting to see it grow in the next few years... who knows I may even take part even though I am no runner, it would be a great experience.

Shelf Road

Well each fall and spring most of the climbers from Lincoln head out to one of the Sport Climbing capitals of the U.S. and do exactly that CLIMB... Here are a few pictures from our escape....

Here I am Leading Raven (5.9+) Its a very classic route at Shelf and is bolted that way as well... Classic bolting style means that for the first couple clips they are spaced reasonable then as you get higher up the bolts get further and further apart. This makes it a little bit scarier and also can lead to some big falls onto your rope. It also means that the grade says its a lot easier than it really is.

Yes thats me... Hair chopped off and all!!!!

Just doing some Top Rope on Shelf Pride.

Vedauwoo Wyoming

Here is the Nebraska Crew that made the journey! Steph is in front of me and Al is to my left both of whom I really enjoy making climbing trips with.
Here I am leading my first Trad Route ever! Trad Routes are ones that dont already have the bolts or protection in the rock... So you have to carry up Cams, Nuts, and Hexes up with you to put in just incase you do fall. It is a LOT harder to do that Sport climbing. I really enjoy it because it is more of a mind game than a physical skill game. This is at the Blair II Wall.

Next is a series of pictures from my favorite boulder problem. Roasted Possum Vinegar Pie (V5) at Coyote Rocks



Now just to get up over the "beak"

And Down with total frustration and exhaustion!!!!

Here is the first day at Vedauwoo at the "School Yard"

Boulder Canyon Colorado

During the 4th of July celebrations I made a spur of the moment trip to Colorado with some climbing friends.... It was my first time climbing on real rock and the experience was amazing. We climbed for 3 days and had an amazing time. I lead my first outdoor route and was blown away by the rush...


Leading is a whole different kind of climbing. What you do is take the rope and quick draws up the route with you. So when you come to a bolt you attach a draw and then put the rope through the draw to protect yourself from a fall. This takes a lot more strength than just climbing because you have to find a good hold and use your other hand to make the clips. It tends to be more of a mind game as well because one slip makes for a larger fall than when on Top Rope, where the rope is already at the top of the route.

Well here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip... Only a few of the 350 we ended up taking!Just hanging out and chalkin' up for the next couple moves on the "Mosquito Burrito."

Here I was on rappel. Which is what you do to "clean" a route. You do this when everyone is done climbing the route so that you can retrieve all of your draws.


This is Lon he lives in Boulder Colorado and went to the University of Nebraska- Lincoln for college. He was our host for the weekend and let us camp out on his porch. Which was extremely generous because it was only 15 minutes from Boulder Canyon and also helped us save some cash on camping sites. He came out climbing with us on the 4th and showed us around his stomping grounds.

Elkhorn River Trip

The past two weekends have been spent in a canoe! It was a ton of fun and had some extremely exciting times too.


On the first weekend one of our canoes got turned over by a tree. (The river was about 5 feet higher than it normally is) Also the campsite where we were planning on staying was closed due to flooding. So after some quick on-site decisions we found a campground close by and set up base camp the only problem was that it was also about 150 yards from a train track.

The second weekend turned out to be amazing and almost everything went as planned. The camp ground opened up and other than TONS of mosquitoes it was great. The river went back down and was extremely relaxing to just float down the river.

Bouldering League

We just started a bouldering league at the climbing wall at the Rec. Center here at UNL. It was a lot of fun to see people try our routes. Here are some pictures....



To set a route you get to find the artificial holds that get bolted onto the wall then put them up so people have to go from one point (marked with a V) to the end point (also marked with a V). Then you have to "tape it off" which consists of using different colored tape to mark the holds in which they can use. We spent 4 hours the day before setting routes and had a blast doing it.

Since I helped set the routes I couldnt climb this week :( b/c it would give my team an unfair advantage. But it was still lots of fun to watch everyone climb and comment on each of the routes.

P.S. There should be a new post in a couple of weeks b/c the next two weekends include canoe trips that I have to lead for work! So check back regularly!

Black Hills SD

To all who have been looking I am SO sorry about my inability to find time to update.
My last semester was a tough one but good news... It turned out to be my best one in 2 years!!!!

I started working at Outdoor Adventures here at UNL. We lead trips for other students and are in charge of the 38ft. climbing wall in the Rec. Center as well as the bike shop and Gear Rental. It has been tons of fun and have met some amazing people as well as starting a new addiction.... Climbing.
I cant seam to get enough of it, and hopefully after my summer course ends in July will have some get-away time with some good friends to hit up some real rock climbing and get away from the fake stuff.

This past weekend was tons of fun as we headed to the Black Hills of South Dakota and had a scouting trip for our Adventure Trips Program. We rode some of the 15 new touring bikes that the Gear Rental just purchased at around 1200$ a piece. It was smooth riding the whole way. We Started out on the Mickelson Trail, which runs from Deadwood to around Hotsprings it is a 114mile trail that follows the old BNSF rails and features 100+ bridges and 4 tunnels. We ended up spending one day on that trail and rode 30 miles along with great scenery we saw Crazy Horse.

On the second day we decided that we had seen enough of the Mickelson so we headed from the crushed limestone trail to the asphalt of the Blackhills. We rode from Hill City SD to Mount Rushmore to enjoy the site and then headed to Iron Mountain and its famous pigtail bridges... From there we rode into Custer Park all the way to Silvain Lake. After these intense 32miles and sore butts we headed back toward Hill City to grab some much needed sleep and relaxation. We then went to the Badlands the next day.

One of my favorite places! Its almost like entering a new windswept planet. With a 30 mph tail wind we headed downhill at breakneck speeds of 45mph or even faster. This made for an extremely fast 23 miles in only 3 hours! We learned how to ride in a pack and block for each other from our head bike mechanic Dale and WOW did it make a difference and just in time. I felt like my quads were about to explode from the 3 days of intense riding. From here we parted back for Lincoln.

All of the photos are from my Nikon D40x which is my baby and made every single mile of the trip... We have been talking to the Local newspaper and we are getting a big story about our trip and... I may have a couple of my pictures published in the article and when that happens don't worry I will be sure to update with a link!!!

Till my next exciting trip....

Semper Fi~

Spring Break 08'

Well its finally Spring Break... A very needed break and I just started my new Job at the Campus Rec. at the Outdoor Adventures. Its pretty awesome! This last Tuesday I took my first belaying class so I could start working at the climbing wall and it turns out that I LOVE CLIMBING!!!!

The plans for Spring Break this year is to go back to Rapid City SD. We are going to Snowboard and ski this time though which I am SUPER pumped about. I should have some really sweet pictures when I get back we are leaving around 10 AM tomorrow. So I should probably start packing...

Powerlifting...

Well Jordan's knee was up to the task of the Power Lifting meet this past weekend! He did really well and achieved his goal of winning his weight division! Here are some pics....




One last one of him spotting his lifting buddy Tucker...

Group Photos...

Well I finally found a perfect seat to take some group photos of the 14 Karat Gold Singers. I have looked through all of them and these are the best full group photos that I found. What do ya think? Can you find Jordan in each of them?

Jordan....

Now its Jordan's turn to get blogged as I have spent the last 3 Saturdays running to show choir competitions... Which he did when he was younger all the time so I don't feel too bad and well it gives me a great opportunity to bust out the camera.... They have done amazing and have made the finals in each of their completions. Here are the highlights from over 250 pictures taken during just the first 2. Lincoln Southwest was their last one yesterday and I will put many many more on once I get a chance to run through those pictures... Might be a week though because I took around 300!!!!