Blue Öyster Cult!

Tonight! Santa Cruz! Be there!

Here's a pair of photos of Justin Wendlandt out at the Gilroy park, taken by Joe K.

Footjam whip.
Footjam.

Mike Krnaich wanted me to post this: Free Flow tour is 21 and under on Sunday, August 17th. Sign-ups are at noon, and its only $10 to ride. Icer Air is going to be at the end of October with a bigger course, bigger purse, less security hassles, and more free water and snacks. I know the gas prices suck, so we at Ramp Rats are trying to help you out. Carpool Specials: Anyone who shows Monday to Friday with three people, the third guy gets half off. Show up with four people and the driver rides for free. The set up is the sickest yet, and flows like trails with all your good park stuff.

Tony Campos is having his 21st birthday/Gettin' Awesome Festival at his place on September 7th. I'll post the details later, but from what Tony's already told me, Gettin' Awesome may in fact be an understatement.

I was just looking around for photos of the new skatepark being built at Roosevelt Park in downtown San Jose (which, of course, riders weren't invited to the meetings for), and have discovered that the bowl there has pool coping. Thanks, Wormhoudt! Also, the bike-friendly skatepark at Mayfair Park across is finished, but has been covered with sand until the community center next to it opens.

And here's the photos and simplified story from the trip I was on up until two weeks ago. I would've had more, but the camera I was using was extremely shitty. Oh well.

The first place I was at was the Bird Creek area in the Schell Creek range, about thirty minutes northeast of Ely, Nevada. We were there for three weeks, and I was in a two-person map group with another guy, Aaron. On our first mapping day, we had insanely shitty weather... a thunderstorm that put about two feet of snow on the ground in a thirty minute period, right after we'd hiked about a mile from the group that dropped us off, resulting in us having to hike cross-country to where we supposed to be picked up. Thank God for waterproof boots. Coincidentally, Ely had the lowest temperature in the lower forty-eight states that day, and we were about a thousand feet higher up.

The field area, with the most difficult hikes highlighted. Blue means snow.
Me, right after the beginning of the snowstorm. Jeans and snow are not a good combination.
Good luck spotting them, but there's a pair of deer in here somewhere...

After that was over with, we spent a week in the Snake Range looking at fault rocks, right near the Utah border; to get into our first field area, Hendry's Creek, we actually had to cross in and out of Utah on a dirt road. On said dirt road, I hit a ninety-degree turn in a fully-loaded 2WD Suburban at about, oh, fifty miles per hour. Powerslides rule. On the last day, we went up to the top of Wheeler Peak, which is the tallest mountain in Nevada.

Conjugate shear fractures and tension gashes in Hendry's Creek.
Faulted up schist and quartzite.
"The Marble Ledge," in Old Man's Canyon.
From another angle...
Me, Ashley, Ryan, and the other Chris at the top of Wheeler Peak.
Me standing at the true summit. All the ranges behind me are in Utah.
Wheeler Peak on the right, and Jefferson Davis on the left.
A big glacial cirque, viewed from the peak.
Ripples in quartzite, found on the peak.

After that, we spent two weeks in Toiyabe National Forest east of Yosemite; my group worked around Dunderberg Peak, Mount Olsen, and the valley between them. We also took a day off to go into Mammoth and see Devil's Postpile and Rainbow Falls.

The field area.
Me and my trusty sherpa, Ryan McKee, at the top of Dunderberg Peak. Full homo intended.
Me, Ryan, and Heather at the top of the unnamed peak west of Mount Olsen.
This water is very, very cold. Periglacial lake just to the north of Dunderberg Peak.
Same lake, but viewed from the top.
Moat Lake.
Virginia Lake.
Blue Lake.
Dunderberg Peak, viewed from the road.
Some really fucked up fault rock at the top of the mountain.
Devil's Postpile.
Rainbow Falls. Note the rainbow in the mist.