Adventure for a cause

The Bubba Ride 2013 started off as a slow and intimidating endeavor.  2000 feet of climbing over 2.25 miles just to use a trail to get to the Bay Ridge Trail initiated us to the challenge that laid ahead of us.  However, difficult the climbing, technicality of the trail or steepness of the the decent, we realized that it paled in comparison to what Bubba has been dealing with for the last 8 months.
I couldn't have imagined to have taken on this challenge with someone so passionate about people and life as Sergio.  He displayed his versatility with a wide range of skill sets that allowed us to be as successful as possible on this adventure.
The Bay Ridge Trail provided a beautiful backdrop to our event.  The diversity of individuals we interacted with, different biomes, and wide range of weather.  Certainly we had some interesting camping situations based on the previous factors.
I would like to thank my wife and family for providing the opportunity to complete this adventure.  Our thoughts were with Bubba throughout this event.  The recognition of what happened to John Dunbar certainly had an impact on us.   Rest in Peace Mike Pace and thank you for sharing some fun times with me.

BubbaRide 2013 completed, first post

Sorry for the long delay in telling everyone how the event turned out.  I may break this up into a few posts.

This first post I will give some basic details an overview, then future posts will be a little more detail for each day.

First of all, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! To everyone that supported, sponsored, donated and rode with me!  Infinit Nutrition, AsMasters, Livestrong, Rays Bike Lights and the Local Bike Shops that support us on all these endeavors.

OK so some details:
We raised $1880.00 so far, there is a little more being collected from the Auction but we will likely be at $1930 +/-  AWESOME!

We rode 315 +/- miles
Climbed 34,140 feet
slept under redwoods, on a futon, on the side of the road, in a homeless encampment and in a nice hotel
some of the other data is hard to read, because I'm sure we didn't hit 93 mph like it says, and we may have forgotten to stop and start recording a few times.  If you zoom in on the loop, you can see the many wrong turns, dead ends etc, and if you look very carefully you might even notice where we might have had to jump a fence or two...
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/344933645#.Uel_Nyqng5A.email

Some photos were posted on my facebook page Livestrong Album and I believe Robert will have several on his pages as well.

More to come.

• Thanks to Tom "Bubba" Ray Bryan for allowing us to use his name as an excuse to do something like this, he's doing so well, the pancreatic cancer is shrinking, the hernia is repaired and he is in Leadville supporting all of our friends for the Trail races. 
• I'd like to send a shout out to Glenn Knight and his family, he's recovering in a hospital after his cancer has been operated, another trooper that will make it through like a champ.  
• I'd like to send some love to Shelley, be strong, your mom will be fine and will be in the ranks of all these survivors.  
• Robert Tuma, thanks for being there with me on this ride, you too are one incredibly strong survivor!  
• On a slightly sad note, during our ride, we lost an inspiration of a man, John Dunbar, however, that man went out like a champ ALS did not win, he outran it to the last second...you will be missed but you will be an inspiration to many.
• Thanks to my lovely wife Liz for always supporting these crazy ideas.

Peace

Livestrong Fundraiser and recent news

So several things have happened recently, all very cool.  Infinit Nutrition came on board to support us as our nutrition sponsor and 6 bags of nutrition 1 bag of Mud, a coffee infused with protein mixes arrived

.  I called a light manufacturer to get some info on new advances in lights, when I was contacted by a gentleman who was assisting them while they were short handed.  This turned into a great conversation and next thing you know we have his product AsMasters

protecting our bottoms for the ride.  Next I contacted Livestrong and Amy Fletcher at the Grassroots Fundraising leg of the foundation, she was so helpful throughout the whole process and in the end came through with 4 Jerseys for is to wear 

All in all what great progress.

On July 2nd I had a fundraiser at the Humboldt Bay Tourism Center, where we decided all profits that night would go to this cause.  Local merchants, Adventures Edge, Fire & Light, Aqua Rodeo Oyster Farm, Humboldt Adventurewear, Cypress Grove, the Jogg and Shoppe, Allout SUP Paddleboarding and The Local Beer Bar donated awesome gifts for a silent auction.  We were able between the two to get nearly $700 dollars which will be collected and donated soon.  Friends spent good money at the bar, auction and http://laf.livestrong.org/site/TR/Grassroots/Grassroots?px=6243739&pg=personal&fr_id=1530

on the donation web page.  Robert and I continue to try all resources.

Silent Auction donations

The list of Auction donations:

Adventures Edge

Revolution Bicycles

Jog and Shop

Fire and Light

Cypress Grove

Humboldt Adventurewear

Aqua Rodeo Farms

The Local Beer Bar 

Hosted by 

The Humboldt Bay Tourism Center, bar profits will be donated to Livestrong. 

Please come join us 5-9ish at 205 G street in Eureka

Thanks Sergio

Recon ride NORCAL

Today I spent a lot of my day working with the US Coast Guard so I decided that it would be quite late and long to drive home.  So maybe it was a perfect opportunity to start some recon of some of the northern sections of the Bay Ridge Trail.  The northern area is the part that seems to have the biggest gaps of non-dedicated or non existent trails.  It's also going to be the tail end of our ride since we decided to go counter clockwise starting near Novato, CA Marin county.

I decided to traverse from Helen Putnam County park in Petaluma on the West Entrance and go through Petaluma and up Sonoma Mountain to the easy to figure out the connector to Jack London State park.  

This was a nice ride, Helen Putnam was super dry the wheat grass was waving in the wind, golden and crispy sounding under my wheels.

  The trails were very dry clay and signs of previous water runoff left filled small rideable ruts in the clay.  The views east or west were beautiful Petaluma has some of my favorite hill country anywhere.

 As I descended into a neighborhood on the east side of the park I asked people if there were trail options into Petaluma but no one could offer an option.  The ride into Petaluma was so nice, old historic neighborhoods leading to the quaint downtown where I stopped at Bici bike shop.  Standing there I saw at least 6 young people all wearing NorCal High School MTB league shirts, reminder the first guy to do what I'm calling the Bubba Ride is the Director of the NICA High School MTB league, so it was cool to see.  These guys helped me find city trails Lynch Creek trail,

to get across town to Sonoma Mountain.  No one offered legal ideas for getting from the base of Sonoma Mountain over to Jack London park so I took some ideas and hit the road.

After Lynch Creek I reached the East side of Petaluma

, there I took Sonoma Mountain road, a road people said was a hellish climb but rideable road

.  This was NO JOKE, the climb was very scenic but I found myself zig zagging in parts

.  I did clean the whole climb though.  Once at the top the road ended quite close to the park

, separated by private property and "ideas" furnished by locals.  At that point my time had run out, if I rode longer I wouldn't get back on time to get my car out of the park lot.

All in all a great bit of recon and connection of trails, locals were great and weather was awesome!

More to come

Serge

What a great day for Bubba Ride

So today I reconnected with a previous sponsor Infinit Nutrition.  If you don't know this product or have wondered whether your nutrition is correct, these guys have a solution for you with Cistom Blends to meet your specific body weight, sweat loss, mineral needs and event specificity.

I spoke briefly with the "Chief powder maker" Michael Folan and mentioned that while on the mend i had not asked for their support while I was nursing my knee.  Now that I'm feeling better and taking on the Bubba Ride, Michael didn't even bat an eye and continued his support of my events.  I've been an Infinit fan and user of their product for almost 5 years now.

So Infinit is our official Nutritional sponsor for this awesome endeavor and I am super grateful!!  I feel less worried now in the world of self supported ultra endurance sports with their products.

Thanks INFINIT NUTRITION

22 days?

22 days to ride until Sergio and I begin our epic adventure and our ride for "Bubba" on the Bayride Trail in San Francisco area.  For my remaining time until then in the midwest I will be completing the Chequamegon 100 off-road race in Wisconsin.  It has been a nasty beatdown for me in the Chequamegon National Forest the last three years.  The following weekend I am completing the Lutsen 99er on the North Shore of Lake Superior with some climbs matching those to the mountain races (- elevation).  I haven't done this race before, but that is what I've been told.   
I finish my racing with a road ride on the 4th.  That one is a quick 50 miles with a lot less climbing then the previous endeavors.  
Considering how out of shape and tired I am after recently finishing the school-year, I should have my hands full the next few weeks.  
The "Bubba-ride 2013" on the Bayridge Trail in California will be a new and epic adventure.   Hundreds of miles unsupported on a landscape that I'm unfamiliar with is what I'll be dealing with.  Thankfully Sergio will be hopefully not too far ahead.  He is well-versed with endurance athletics, survival, electronics, and several other random skills that will come in handy during such a grueling adventure.  I'm just hoping not to slow him down too much.  
Well... enough bantering,  time to ride 50 miles of beautiful Minnesota gravel.