Thought I’d start reporting stuff from the Pacific Northwest…a la Pork Report style! Who wouldn’t write about the cool shit up here, right? And whatever happened to the Pork Reports?

Some background…

This story starts with Sandie getting a job at Boeing (as a geeky engineer) in Seattle during the summer of 2011. She left Raytheon in 2010, got another job in Dallas, became a ‘woman of leisure’, and finally got an offer from Boeing in a location that we thought would be cool to move to. We’d been together for a few years and were living together in sin, so we discussed it and then jumped at the opportunity.

Is the grass always greener…?

I left my job at Raytheon to move to Seattle. Been there over 10 years, was a comfy well-paying job (as a cool engineer though), and thought living in plain-old Plano was great. Had awesome friends, lots of trails to ride, became a Big Pig member (yeah man!) and got involved with some DORBA stuff. But Sandie and I had an opportunity to live in a place where cool outdoor adventures awaited. Plus the record-setting heat wave in Dallas over the summer was too oppressive for me. Actually I didn’t ‘leave’ leave Raytheon. Just took a short leave-of-absence and then inked a deal to work remotely part-time. Sandie said this would be cool with her…rock on!

Road trip(s)…

I drove with Sandie from Texas to Seattle in June. Over 2400 miles. Boeing paid for her to relocate, so all our shit got moved. Road trips are cool right? We left Dallas and headed north to Montana – destination: Yellowstone (pics here). All I can say is that driving through Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas sucks bad. Long trip, but we made it and saw some great scenery. I flew back to Texas since I had some things to finish up.

I didn’t get enough of the first road trip, so I planned another one for my move to Seattle. I decided to create a website to document our adventures (jnsadventures.com), with the first adventure being this road trip. I finally had time to do some cool shit, so of course I looked for mountain biking destinations along the way. Got my Jeep loaded up (redneck style) – first stop: Colorado!

Endurance driving + endurance racing = ???

I was hooked on 24-hour solo mountain bike racing. Found a race to do in Colorado that happened to be on my route and perfectly timed. Took about 18 hours to get there. Wow…that was rough. And then I raced. And didn’t commit. Lots of driving didn’t help. Oh, and I was a flat-lander trying to race at elevation with lots of climbing. But I had a good time and saved some energy for my road trip.

Fucking hills!!!

And fucking altitude! And heat! I ended up riding some more in Colorado after racing, and stopped to ride in Utah. I left Texas to get out of the heat, and here I am on my road trip up in the mountains and it’s damn near same temperatures as it was in Dallas. How am I supposed to enjoy my mountain biking road trip with the heat, hills, and altitude? I wish there was a forum I could post my complaints on. Cobes saved my ass in Park City…I’m a loser newb on the trails out there.

Sheep, but no pigs…

Stopped in Idaho for 5 days for a little relaxation (and more biking of course). Encountered something I never saw before…sheep being herded on a highway. WTF…this isn’t Big Sheep Racing! McCall is awesome though. This is where I began my love affair with microbrews. Not sure why I started drinkin beer now. I guess the cheap mass-produced beers didn’t do anything for me before.

My Jeep hates me…

…for loading her up and making her drive through the mountains. But she stayed committed and hung in there like a champ! Finally made it to Seattle after some cool adventures.

More ‘man-of-leisure’ time…

Got to spend a week in Seattle with Sandie before heading to Oregon. We’re living in West Seattle. Near a beach. With mountains close by. And no Wal-Mart! Or Red Lobster, Olive Garden, etc in West Seattle. We’re about 5 miles from downtown Seattle and have a great view of the city. This place is so bike-friendly too. Such a culture change from Dallas. During this week I got to ride a lot with Sandie…we rode two IMBA ‘epic’ trails on consecutive days – Plains of Abraham and Skookum Flats (Sandie’s favorite trail, other than Erwin Park of course).

Getting burned out…

Thinking I would never get enough 24-hour racing, I signed up for the 24 Hours of Bend race before leaving Texas. I even convinced Sandie and our friend Karen (from Dallas) to do the race on a 2-person female team. Altitude, hills, dust, and heat killed me again. Have to admit that I burned myself out. But this year of racing has been a good learning experience.

Beer and bikes!

I headed to hippy-town old-town Portland to go take courses at United Bicycle Institute after the race in Bend. Always wanted to do this since I worked in bike shops while going to college. One thing I noticed driving further north and west away from Texas is that there’s more and more microbreweries. Or maybe I just don’t know about the ones in Texas. Portland knows how to blend bikes and beer together for sure! I even popped my cyclocross cherry and did my first race out there. Big Pig himself had me pick up and ship a Slick Daddy cruiser he bought off Craigslist. I had an awesome time in Portland and want to go back.

Back to reality…

I guess it had to end at some point. Play time is over…or is it? I headed back to Seattle to be with Sandie and go on more adventures. And to start working part-time from home. How awesome is that though?

Trail work…

I got involved with the Evergreen mountain biking organization. Actually all I did was pay for a membership and help one day with trail work on Tiger Mountain. There’s trail work almost every day at various locations. But the guys out here actually get paid to do trail work! And they use some heavy equipment. Similar issues out here as there are around Dallas…land access is limited and most of the existing trail systems are for hiking only. Kinda sucks because there’s hundreds of miles of trails around. Tiger Mountain is one example – over a hundred miles of trail, but only 6 allowed for mountain biking. And it’s closed during the winter for logging.

Vaya = GO!

The weather has been pretty decent here in Seattle for the last month or so. The mountains are covered in snow though, and trails have been wet and muddy. Not that we can’t ride muddy trails out here…it’s just not that enjoyable. So I got some Salsa Vaya’s for myself and Sandie to go do some ‘adventure’ road riding (and hopefully touring later). These bikes are so awesome to get around Seattle. We use them for getting groceries too. The trail systems out here are never-ending.

Establishing a base…

Finally have a routine down in Seattle. This Strava thing is pretty cool, now that I have a Garmin Edge 500 with heart rate monitor and ‘premium’ account. After my abysmal performances at the last two 24-hr races, I’m motivated to do some training again. So I started running again and joined a gym. Might get into skiing (and skinning) since everybody loves the snow out here. There is an endurance race series that starts in May out here, and I’m planning to not make a fool of myself.

But the grass is greener…

And there’s fall colors on the trees. Seattle is pretty rad. But I miss some things about Dallas…like the Big Pigs! Good thing I can keep up with some of the drama on here and the DORBA forums. The Washington forums are kinda boring…nobody complains about roots or trees being cut down or how hard the race courses are. I miss biking on flat ground. My calves are gonna be huge with all the hills we have out here!

I think that’s enough for the first PNW report. Hopefully we’ll survive the winter out here.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!