Same Same, but Different

Sunday was more of the same.....moto, but a little mellower and with a different crew of riders. I hooked up with Joe who works at the alternative high school and Matt who works at the high school for a ride that started at Joe's house in Victor, ID and ended up 5 hours later back there. We rode a sweet mix of double track, single track, and at some points, river bottom!

Joe, at the start of the ride before things got interesting.

Joe leading and Matt following about ready to descend into the headwaters of the South Fork of Rainey Creek in the BigHole Mountains.

After a epic journey on some nice single track, we got into the crux of the ride which consisted of countless technical stream crossings, each one with a drop in elevation getting bigger and deeper.

Joe, powering through one of the first crossings.

Matt got the all star award for the day. He hadn't really ever ridden anything "techy" before, had what were essentially street tires on his bike, and still managed to get after it. He took one pretty good digger that only resulted in a broken tail-light and is now officially "hooked."

Joe riding out the trail of gold.

Pretty sure Matt had dry feet up until this crossing.

Four hours later, out Rainey Creek Canyon we emerged and back to civilization......., well, Swan Valley, population 84. The beauty of our bikes is they are dirt bikes that are street legal, so, instead of having to battle back up the gnarly trail we just rode out, we just jumped on the highway, hammered back 25 miles to Victor and had celebratory beers.

I HEART MOTO!!

I am afraid this might have been the last ride of the year, its now snowy and cold here in Jackson. Ohh well, that just means sledding season is just around the corner.

Riding dirty in Idaho

All my buddies give me shit about being the "activities director." Guilty as charged yesterday! Managed to get in a sweet moto ride up in the BigHole Mountains just outside of Victor, ID and a round of golf in too. Anytime it's in the 50's and a few days away from November in Jackson, one has to take advantage!

The Bigholes had some unreal single track. Drew, heading north along the Big Hole Crest trail.

Bikes cooling down after a big climb with the Teton Valley and the Teton's in the background.

Drew scoping the view toward the Swan Valley.

Pretty sweet. Nothing but buffed single track as far as the eye can see.

Looking back toward ground already covered.

I spent most of the day trying in vain to at least keep Drew in ear shot. He is a badass rider and I am not, so, of course, I had some battle wounds from trying to keep up.

Steel toed moto boots against a rock, the rock won.

Went from the mountains down to the valley for some golf to round out the day.

The moto is pointing right toward the golf course down in the valley here.

Give me the weekend

This week seemed extra long.....what better to do to celebrate the weekend that have two full days of moto planned. The bike, loaded and ready for tomorrow.

Bittersweet day today. Helped Case and Jess pack up their lives after another awesome summer hanging with those guys. They are headed back to their year round home in Denver. Going to miss you guys and lil' Bucky. Plenty of rivers and campgrounds to meet up in down the road guys. See you at the Beav!

Katbreath Update...

Chelsea and the Golden Stallion at the Beach House in Santa Barbara last April.

This classic shot is just one of many new ones on our good friend "Kat-Breath" Katharine Lange's blog. She doesn't update much, but when she does, it's always fun to see what she has been up to.

We better see you at the Beav Breath.

Good to the Last Oar Dip

More South Fork shots. Cody, searching hard for late night snacks.

The boys discussing world peace, how to be better people, and what volunteer opportunities they will be seeking out next.

Apparently all the "do-good" conversation made Connor "all tuckered out." He managed to grab a two-hour cat nap by the warmth of the fire!

Still discussing the finer points of world activism.

Des, taking a momentary break to get us some fuel for the fire. Yes, although dangerous, splitting wood at night is a lot of fun.

Woke up to a chilly, foggy, sunny, and beautiful day.

Fish eye Cody.

Active fish, warm weather, fall colors, doesn't get any better.

Can't get enough.....

If the weather is awesome, why not go floating and fishing? Yet another S. Fork overnight trip this past weekend yielded sunburns, decent fish, and a lotta smiles.

Releasing my best fish of the weekend to be caught another day.


We rolled with two boats and 6 dudes. It was hard to believe the calendar is creeping toward November with awesome, sunny, warm days.

The new boat in all her glory!

One of the cooler aspects of going to the S. Fork in the fall is the flows out of the dam are so small that the river drops 4 to 5 feet from its usual summer flows. This exposes sand bars, ledges, and habitat that normally is under water. And......, you can actually wade some parts of the river.

Cody's dog, Colter, standing guard in the river watching us haul in brown trout.

Always bummed to think this might have been the last night of the summer/fall that I sleep in a sleeping bag, but......., if it happended to be, it was a solid camping and fishing trip to wrap up the summer season with.

The crew, bs'ing over cold beers.

Des, with a nice brown right in front of our campsite.

Travis Pastrana I Am Not!

Yep, I know, super gross! Riding moto is like nothing else. It requires a ton of stamina, strength, and agility! I wasn't sure what to expect getting a dirtbike this summer. Suffice to say, I am hooked. However fun it might be, nobody would argue "diggers" are not part of the learning process.

Footage of the crash. Ooops.

Bear Lake Rendezvous

This weekend with Marco and Anna in our vicinity (Park City) we decided to head back to Bear Lake to meet up with them and Shannon and Matt and Jess and Case.

This was our 3 RV gathering . This is what we call luxury camping.

Me and Little Buck chilling in Rex.

Case and Trev with golf clubs on the back of their bikes, off to squeeze in a round of golf.

Case cruising the greens.

Meanwhile, me cruising around the campground on "Scoot Scoot"

Here is what the real moto-ers were riding....Shannon showing the boys how it's done.

Trev, Case and Matt mid-moto stop to pose in front of the fall colors

A crafty afternoon...tie-dye by the fire!

Beautiful Bear Lake. This is what it looked like when I took off to go kayaking...ten minutes later it was white-capping over the sides of the boat, extreme kayaking!

Good times! Our camping crew, minus Jess, Case and Baby Wyatt who had to leave early.

That was fun!

Sending the South Fork

My bud Des and I managed to squeeze in an overnight mission over to the S. Fork of the Snake last Sunday and Monday. It was typical October on the S. Fork, no crowds and good fishing.

Me, with a nice lil 'bow.

And yea, that is the old Squaw Valley USA beauty pageant staff issue. Jealous?

Right abut when you think you are doing something sweet, you normally get one upped... Well, just when floating down the S. Fork on a sunny day in October was floating our boat, then a pack of Cessna's came charging down the river buzzing the tower really low.

It's a rapalla, no, its a............"fish of the trip." Des with an absolute monster.

The "P. Slayer II" looking like the fine craft that she is. Sure a lot of you remember the "P.Slayer I", may she R.I.P of blog fame from years gone by. Well.....she sank to the bottom of the Grand Ronde River this summer out in Oregon. Luckily, I have a ton of really cool buds who were on that trip and helped to contribute to the purchase of the "P. Slayer II." So, to all you guys, big, big thanks, and come out to JH to take a float on your fractional ownership with me guiding!

We got into a pretty thick Blue Winged Olive hatch.

No competition for campsites when it is getting down to the low 20's at night.

Foggy river shots are cool.


Des, with a close second to the aforementioned........"fish of the trip."