Of flatting bike tires...

Utah has too many goatheads! Let me explain. I don’t mean actual heads of actual goats, but in fact a thorny little plant that is bent on letting the air out of your bike tires. I picked up one yesterday while riding my touring bike, and it left two tiny little pinholes, which I was only able to locate by putting the tube in the tub and watching for bubbles. After patching those, I plucked the goathead thorns out of my touring tire (which advertises a Kevlar weave built in for puncture resistance- a load), and went out mountain biking, since it was a beautiful fall day. I road the Mueller Park trail, as I often do now being as it’s so close to the new apartment. I had a really good climb, making it to the top in a very respectable time, and then sitting for awhile to enjoy the view of the mountains and the Great Salt Lake. I then took my descent back down somewhat slower than normal, since, like I said, it was a beautiful fall day, there were a whole lot of people using the trail and I didn’t want to grease a hiker. However, there are a few places on the way down where it is simply irresistible to go fast and get some air under your tires. In one such jump, I heard the huge bang associated with a blown tube right as I lifted off the ground. Front tire from the direction of the bang. So, this gave me a some undetermined amount of time (time moves slowly when your flying through the air on a bike) to think about how if my front tire was flat, I would have next to no directional control upon reconnecting with the ground, because flat tires like to roll sideways on rims. Wisely, I had told a friend where I was going to ride, because I don’t like to be out in the mountains without someone knowing. If something like, say, a bike crash happens and you are solo, it’s no good to be on your own. So I was covered, but it was still going to hurt. So the landing finally came after all the slowed down thinking time in the air….and no crash. No flat! My tire was fine, except I’d ripped off a whole tread knob on the rock I had jumped off, and the huge bang was exactly that. Nice. I rode the rest of the way down happy that I had not crashed, and that I didn’t have to patch another stupid flat. But when I got home, I did indeed have to patch another stupid flat. Apparently I didn’t get all the goathead thorns out of my gimmick super puncture resistant touring tire, and it was flat again! One more time in the tub and third patch now has it holding air again. Enough. No more flats for a while I hope…

Boy, I must be mistaken in my ways...

A friend of mine just told me of an article he was recommended to read that explained how enviornmentally concerned individuals come out being harder on the environment than people who are not. Brace yourself, someone's digging deep here. :) You see, the article states that environmentally concerned people are often times outdoor sport enthusiasts, and thus are typically more in shape physically than other individuals. Therefore, they tend to live longer due to good fitness, and in the extra time they spend on the earth, they use up more natural resources than someone who would already be deceased. Like I said, someone's diggin' deep. :) I guess I should hurry up and stop living to help out the planet. Or at least feel very guilty about riding my bike while countless SUV's pass me on the road, containing one person only, while burning gallons and gallons of gas for the sake of convienience. Whoops, I stand corrected....

quote of the day...

My wife, after framing our wedding pictures and hanging them in our living room:

"Look how good I like it!"

I love you babe.... :)

Xtracycle

Every once in a while I catch up to something that has been out for a long time, but is new and cool to my eyes. The Xtracycle is the latest example. Can't believe the amount of stuff people are putting on their bikes, making cars almost unneeded for local errands. Pretty swell. I was referred to them by the Surly bikes website, as they've created a new frame to work specifically with Xtracycle's creation, without any converting of parts. I was particularly amazed to see that people are mounting things such as kayaks or lumber on their bikes! They have pictures and videos for those interested...

Zero Emissions SUV...

Well unfortunately, UT is way to0 rough on singlespeeders, and I've gone and sold my 1x1. No more Surly in the herd, but I wisely replaced it with a sweet commuter/touring machine, a Trek 520. It's cool enough to ease the pain of parting with my custom 1x1 flatland commuting workhorse. This is a shot of my latest trip on the new steed, to the local recycling drop off. I don't have rack trunk yet, so some cardboard and twine held the load down. It was a wonderfully awkward ride. People looked at me with that "this is what happens when people don't go to college" look. :) Little do they know I have an degree from an aerospace college. Anyhow, it's a great mountain country commuter, and some day it's going to be ridden accross the country (yes, by me.) Edward has already said he's interested in a trip of the sort, and we've just got to figure out when it's going to happen. I sure have the time right now, but the whole money thing is the current tour-block. Careers.

Wasatch Rainy Day

Well, I spent the entire morning attempting to get things done regarding renewing my flight instructor certificate and figuring out how I'm going to go about the process of getting a new airmen medical certificate, all the while running into the endless tormenting roadblocks involved in any amount of aviation related paperwork. So, after enjoying enough of that, I decided that a rainy hike in the mountains was in order to bring things back into the not-super-frustrated category. Works every time. I returned to Donut Falls in the Mill D South Fork of Big Cottonwood Canyon- this time with Ty. And this time, we decided to scramble up the rock face to the side of the falls and travel cross country to a parallel trail for our return. We also eyed up Kessler Peak, which loomed over our whole route, discussing how it needs to be climbed at some point. Apparently the local USGS topo maps cover a couple good routes up it, so we'll have to check them out. Anyhow...

Moab is now a weekend venture!

Since Al wasn't starting her new (yes second new) flight instructing job until Monday, and I'm still trying to be patient and not crazy waiting to hear back on my interview, we decided we should get our mind off jobs and go to Moab for the weekend. Four hours later, this was the panorama around our wonderful Nissan. This particular shot was taken in Arches National Park. Notice how our bikes are no longer laying down in the truck bed as in times of old- I used some of my time off to build a very sweet bike mounting system in the truck bed, and it works very very well. Four bike capacity; anything from road bikes to mountain bikes with 2.5 inch tires. Not bad.



This shot is of Alison and I riding Potash Road, which follows the Colorado river just outside of Moab. It's the only place you can ride 33 miles on in the area without really big climbs along the way, so it was a great weekend relaxing scenic ride. Not to belittle the distance though, it was Al's biggest ride yet- congrats babe! And thanks to Ty for taking the picture...











And in case you all are still wondering if you should visit us and our beautiful new state, I'll leave you with this shot of Double Arch. It's just sittin' out here for you to come look at, and it's pretty sweet...Come visit! :)

Pix of our new area...

Well I’ve got some more UT pix for all to enjoy.

First up is the view out our balcony window. It’s much improved from our last balcony view, which of course did not exist.

The second couple shots of another ride up Emigration Canyon, this time with Alison and Julie. Julie was kind enough to take pictures of the Jensens mid-climb, and then at the top. In the climbing shot, it appears that Alison is turning to attempt to climb directly up the embankment, but I’m pretty sure she’s just swerving to miss a rock. :)

Third, we have a shot of our backyard hiking playground, Mueller Park. Also included in the picture is Alison’s very cool present from her wonderful husband, a Gregory Iris ultralight daypack. Nice. This is also an excellent mountain bike ride for those equipped with fat tires.

Fourth, you may be interested to see some sweet fall fringe weather hiking in Big Cottonwood Canyon near Donut Falls in the Mill D South Fork.

To finish off, we haven’t had many good Mullet pictures lately, so I’ve included a couple for all to catch up to the fact that he is still not very smart. J He is first attempting to drink water from my glass, almost getting his head stuck, and second battling with an non-living item, his nemesis, our hand vacuum, “The Shark”. It was not running at the time of the battle. Mullet thought he might be able to kill it in it’s sleep…

Bye bye for now...

We have internet!

We have internet access at our place now, so I shouldn't be so slow at update this blog. A lot has gone on in the past few weeks, and I haven't written about much of it, but in time I'll try to get everybody caught up. For now, you get to enjoy a little piece of our new area in this picture of a recent road ride up Emigration Canyon, located right by the University of Utah. A lot of the rides out here consist of climbing, climbing, climbing, climbing, and then a really fast trip back down. :) I dig it. The views during these rides are paying me back for years of pedaling past endless rows of corn and soybeans while dodging crop duster spray in the summer, and slogging through piles of snow and darkness in sub-zero temps in the winter. I like UT. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike ND, just Grand Forks.
On another note, I had an interview that went very very well last friday, and I'm in the waiting process to see if the company will bring me on or not. It's a small charter company that is looking for someone to mainly manage, but also fly right seat a bit, so it's perfect for me. The guy that interviewed me said he'd love to hire me, but the position hasn't been officially created yet, so I'm waiting for now on that job while I still keep me eyes peeled elsewear just in case. I'm also going to try to work at Wasatch Touring, a local bike shop that a friend of mine works at. It would be fun part time work, and would provide discounts on gear I use all the time down here. Anyhow, more later, but enjoy the picture of sweet sweet UT...

Young Jensen Frenzy...

Yikes, it's been 10 days since last bloggin' session! Must have been busy. Yes, in fact I was. Alison and I have learned a lot about stress lately with our move, as it takes some time to get settled in a completely new place. Her new job is ripping her off quite a bit, and I still don't have one of my own, so it makes things rather hectic to say the least. We love UT, and as soon as our careers ever take off we'll love it even more. Good news is we have met some great people here in addition to the Paasch's and Ty, and have been going to a church that we are sure liking so far. Our sunday school class has been covering apologetics, with issues discussed such as "why bad things happen when there is a God", "science and religion", and "the issue of historical (and modern day) Christians doing horrible things in the name of God", to name a few. It's all motivated me to dust of my C.S. Lewis books. :) Anyhow...
So I still have no pictures for you all to view, and that needs to change. We're still looking for the software for Al's new camera to upload the pix to my laptop. Soon, I hope. The view out our apartement balcony was worth moving here. Instead of ugly brick UND apartment buildings, we see the Wasatch mountain range. Yes, that is good. There is a (state I think) park called Mueler Park a couple miles from our door, and I hear the hiking, mountain biking and road riding is excellent. I'll be up there soon. Anyhow, I need to get back to unpacking and figuring out where all the details of our lives are. :) More later, hopefully before another ten days passes...