Summer Road Trip

July 4th marked my first anniversary of living in San Francisco, so I thought I’d celebrate with a big road trip to the two other places I have lived in my life: Boulder, CO, and Bozeman, MT. Mostly this trip was to go visit my parents in Boulder, but it seemed a shame to go all that way without some stops along the way.

As I wrote about in the last blog post, my first stop was Nevada City for a bike campout with You Bet!  and Chico pals. After that I loaded my bike on my truck and headed across Highway 50, “The Loneliest Road in America”. Often my road trip MO is to beeline it as fast as possible to the next destination, but with 18 hours of road time ahead of me I decided to split it up into three days. That turned out to be a great decision.

Highway 50 threads several mountain ranges as you drop in from Reno – the Toiyabe, Shoshone, and Diamond mountains, just to name a few. They stand over the expansive desert and you can’t help but feel inspired by the wide-openness. I watched the mountains turn pink as the sun set and I pulled off the highway to drive three or four miles down a washboard BLM road towards a remote hot spring. I parked in a flat spot and as I stepped out of the car heard a crazy noise that turned out to be packs of donkeys hee-hawing in the distance. I wandered around and eventually found the spring, guided by some friendly voices having a chat in the tub. Nothing like a good soak before bed. The stars were crazy out there. In the morning, I hopped in one more time before getting back on the highway.

I made it to Ely a little before lunch. I had been hearing about Ely for years and the trail building and bike-related things going on there, so I took the opportunity to go for a little ride. The Cave Lake Trail was flowy and fun and the decomposed granite reminded me of my early trail riding days in Boulder. At the bottom I was treated to a nice creek to dip in. Four swim days in a row; that’s living!

That night I made it to Fruita, CO, a spot most mountain bikers have probably heard of. I camped at the Rabbit Valley area, a spot I have spent many fun spring breaks camping and riding. In the morning I got coffee at Bestslope Coffee and it was super good. I would definitely recommend that spot if you are in the neighborhood. 

Eventually I made it to Boulder. I got to ride with my parents on the trails near where I grew up and that is always fun. Boulder has got some nice townie trails going on. In between family time, I snuck in a few other activities. I joined my friends at Treehouse Cyclery for a group ride to the farmers market (more on that soon), a hot dog ride with Yeehaw Giddyup, and a couple more rides in the town of Nederland that sits above Boulder. Nederland is really the spot that hooked me on mountain biking as a kid. It was really cool to take the Tall Tale here. I think sometimes I worry that my geometry might shine too much in one type of terrain, or is possibly informed too much by the place I am riding to have universal appeal, but this bike is so dang fun and it felt like a bit of a full-circle moment to be riding my production trail bike on the trails that I learned to mountain bike on. That bike really is the culmination of all the hardtail mountain bikes I have made and I think it is super fun. I got to ride with my new friend Will on a few of these rides and he is also on a Pumpkin Pie Tall Tale. It was really fun to see him enjoying that bike.

Boulder is a sweet town. As much as it has changed in the 15 years since I lived there, it is a really nice place. I found myself wanting to stick around and I’m sure I will be spending more time there soon. Anyhow, the clock was ticking, so I pushed up to Bozeman for my first real visit since I moved away. The week before 4th of July was always my favorite week up there. The hills are still green, wildflowers popping out, still a little snow on the mountains, and no wildfire smoke yet. It is a beautiful, idyllic time and I don’t think I’ve experienced anywhere quite that pleasant.

I rolled up to Roly Poly Coffee just in time to see a solo set by one of my favorite song writers, Chris Acker. Listen to his music here, it’s great.

Over the week I got to ride lots of my old favorite rides with some of my favorite pals. It was a really nice time and I was glad to see that community doing well. There are some nice things going on in Bozeman.

I wrapped up the trip with a couple days at my friend Hubert’s family ranch. Hubert is a great friend and also one of my favorite frame builders. He just moved his shop up to Montana. I am excited to be getting a frame from him eventually. We spent our time tubing the Ruby River and cooking meals out on the fire. With no service out there, it was pleasant to unplug and relax and hang with friends. Hubert is building some MTB trails out on the property and I am excited to check them out next time.

Anyway, I made it back to San Francisco and it feels good to be home. I love it there and I love it here and I love that I took a trip. I hadn’t had one like that since I made the move two years ago and it turns out I really needed it. There is a lot going on at Sklar Bikes these days, and to be honest, it is pretty consuming. I feel like I keep saying this but I do mean it when I say, I have never been as excited about where things are going as I am now. With the PBJ frames on the water (!!!) we are closer than ever to where things have been heading for the last 5 years. Having Nick here is opening up opportunities for even more fun projects and cool bike parts that I think people will really like. Going on trips like this and riding and meeting bike people around the country is really affirming. Sitting by the creek in Boulder with my new Treehouse friends, it was really apparent that I’m making bikes for people like me – and there are a lot of people out there who the larger industry ignores. People who want to use the bike to connect with themselves, connect with friends, and connect with the place that they live. Bikes are a great connector and I am always grateful on a trip like this for bikes to connect me with so many people and places.