I had a chance to meet up with JayP shortly after getting home from the Iditarod Trail Invitational. He and Jacob had a wonderfully successful race/adventure – and actually wound up getting 3rd and 4th overall… But I’ll save that for another video :). While it was still fresh on his mind, Jay took me through every single piece of clothing and kit that he took on the 350 winter bikepacking expedition. This was his 12th time doing the ITI, and he is an absolute treasure trove of knowledge. Some stuff worked, some didn’t… so sit back and geek out with me. Cheers!
We’re growing! Slowly but surely, we are gaining momentum and reaching more unsuspecting folks with “selfless giving”. Hopefully these monthly updates might encourage you to become a “Trail Angel”. If you know of anybody that might be interested in joining the family, please let them know… the more patrons we get, the more we can GIVE!
March 2021 Totals: 12 people gifted, monetary value of $305
Total since inception (Feb 2021): 16 people gifted, monetary value of $465
Here’s a little info about our Trail Magic recipients in March:
David Barber – Norwich, UK (Dave Bloom) £40.00 gift certificate (approx. $57) to his local bike shop, Pedal Revolution. David is just an all-around good guy and cycling ambassador, that never says no to a bike ride.
Carl Anderson – Boise, ID (Dan Kelly) $40 gift certificate to his local bike shop, Joyride Cycles. Carl is always in good spirits, ready to ride and loves being on two wheels (particularly SS).
Joe Tonsager – Denver, CO (Anonymous) $50 gift certificate to Cheesecake Factory. Joe owns JPaks bikepacking bags and is a stellar all-around guy. He had open-heart surgery on March 25th, and had to shut the shop down for a bit. There’s a Cheesecake Factory 3 miles from his shop, so hopefully he can enjoy some good grub after he recovers 🙂
Crystal Yates – Mammoth Lakes, CA (Anonymous) $30 gift card to Wave Rave (local snowboarding shop). Crystal is a hard-working mom and wife, and owner of Joyous Organics (awesome lip balm, deodorants, body butter, etc) that is always putting everybody above herself and giving everything she has.
Sam Johnstone – Julian, CA (Meg Knobel) $25 gift card to Subway. Sam is always smiling and infects others with positivity. He’ll be doing the Stagecoach 400 Race in April and was one of four that Meg, the “informal” race director nominated to stoke out with some resupply love for the ride.
Carrie Kresser – Perris, CA (Meg Knobel) $25 gift card to Subway. She’ll be doing the Stagecoach 400 in April with her dad, Herm. She recently lost her brother to an epileptic seizure, and has been processing that tragic loss.
Herm Kresser – Valley Center, CA (Meg Knobel) $25 gift card to Subway. He’s a motorcycle mechanic/mountain biker who did the Stagecoach 400 in 2019 as a bucket list item. Soon after, he lost his epileptic son to a seizure. The healing process has been arduous, and he skipped the 2019 SC400. He’ll be back this year- rolling out with his daughter, Carrie, in April.
Gregory Ruben – Palmdale, CA (Meg Knobel) $25 gift card to Subway. Gregory is an Army veteran who makes bikepacking bags, and posts videos of his experiences on YouTube. He also does advocacy work for representation of black people in cycling. He’ll be doing the Stagecoach 400 in April.
David G – Green Valley, AZ / Hadan P – Little Rock, AR / Chris H – Salt Lake City, UT / John K – Richland, WA. I tried something new, and gave out four bottles of Nuun Electrolyte Tablets on my YouTube community page to the first five people that responded. The fifth responded, but still hasn’t given a mailing address. Anyhoo… it was fun, and I’ll do something like this again to help stoke out my Youtube subscribers. But it cost over $4 each to ship the Nuun tablets… and the bottles only cost $7… so, in hindsight, I’ll have to rethink the prizes so as not to “waste” so much money on shipping that could be utilized better. Anyhoo… they were all super stoked!
As always, if you have any ideas for giveaways, nominees, or want to be part of delivering some magic, etc – please hit me up!! This is 100% a collaborative effort!!
It’s been a really long time since I’ve posted a Ride 365 vlog. This one was actually filmed on April 21st, 2020. Sometimes it just feels good to talk and get things off my chest, and this is my way of journaling. This is more for my mental health than anything. But people have commented that they enjoy them and actually find motivation out of the 365 challenge… so I’ll keep posting them, even though they’re a bit embarrassing to look back on – anyhoo… hoot!!
I had a fun time shooting a “dueling” bike check video with Jay Petervary and 16 year-old Jacob Hora before they left on the Iditarod Trail Invitational Race. If you’re curious about the fat bike rigs, tips, and tricks necessary to take on the hardest winter-ultra in the world, give it a looksie 🙂
This may seem like a weird blog post. As part of #trailmagicmonday I decided to randomly give away FREE stuff to subscribers on my Youtube Channel. In order to do this, Youtube requires “Official Rules”. So here we go. I’ll be including a link to this page anytime I give something away via a Youtube post or video.
Official Rules:
Entries that don’t comply with Youtube’s Community Guidelines will be disqualified
#trailmagicmonday giveaways are compliant and consistent with the Youtube Terms of Service.
Youtube is not a sponsor of our giveaways. If you participate in the giveaway, you release Youtube from any liability related to the giveaway.
The Youtube channel has been growing faster than we ever imagined. We just reached our one year anniversary and shortly after, embraced our 5,000th subscriber! Angela and I have been trying to figure out a way to leverage our energy to do some good and give back as much as we can. One thing that bums me out about the “Youtuber” vibe is all the me, me, me and narcissism. For many, it’s all about “how can we monetize this” – including getting Patreon supporters to fund the channel.
Don’t get me wrong, being a dedicated Youtube creator is a full time job! Especially for those that make compelling and high-quality content. I got into this for fun and I’ve always been passionate about sharing bike adventures, tips, hacks, reviews, etc. I put more hours into it than I’m willing to admit.
So yeah… the point is: we want to transform our teenie weenie platform into an awesome giving machine… and we’ve found a way!
All the info and details can be found on our Patreon Page, and we’ve got a bunch of cool bonuses available to those who become Trail Angels. For now, a few bullet points:
For as little as $5/month (less than a Starbucks, come on!) you can contribute to Trail Magic Monday (#trailmagicmonday)
At least once a week, we bless unsuspecting individuals with simple acts of kindness. This can be giving a bike mechanic a fat tip, sending out gift cards for bike shops or restaurants, doing gear giveaway at trailheads, you name it…
Our patrons submit candidates through ashort google form, and we take it from there.
The more patrons we get, the more people we can stoke out! Simple.
We’ve got lofty goals for giving, and we are super passionate about this – so there’s no stopping us!
Nothing feels better for the soul than unadulterated gestures of personal kindness, without expecting or hoping for reciprocation.
Where does the time go? I still remember Lucy cruisin’ around the skate park on her scoot bike and when she first started pedaling. Can’t believe we’re riding stuff like this now. All I can do is look forward to more adventures with her and Molly as they get older! Soon, I’ll be eating their dust… hopefully not too soon 🙂
If you’ve read my blog or watched any videos on theYoutube channel, you might know I’ve done JayP’s Fat Pursuit a couple of times. I briefly met Jay at his events and other random encounters over the years… like at Brush Mountain Lodge during the Tour Divide, or the Around the Rock ride in the Tetons. A couple weeks ago, I again saw Jay at the Fat Bike Fondo in Stanley, ID – this time we got to chatting more, and turns out we have friends in common and he knew about the “Dirty Teeth” youtube channel. If you aren’t familiar with Jay Petervary or his ultra-endurance pedigree, I suggest you google him…
Anyhoo… he was knee deep in final gear prep, getting ready to leave to Alaska with his “prote-J”, 15-year old Jacob Hora (he actually turned 16 a couple days after we filmed). They’ll be doing the Iditarod Trail Invitational 350 fat bike race – which is one of the toughest bike races on earth. Jay invited me along on their last overnight shakedown ride in Victor, ID before leaving on their adventure. The goal was to go over a few more things with Jacob – practice with the stove, fiddle with some new lights, use the mini-saw for gathering firewood, etc. We had a blast riding bikes, camping in the snow, and basically just nerding out over gear options. This video came out of it. Enjoy!
Oh yeah, the 2021 ITI starts on Feb 28th, so don’t forget to follow their blue dots on trackleaders!
This year, Fat Bike World Champs took place in the small town of Pinedale, Wyoming. It’s about 70 miles south of Jackson, lingering near the Continental Divide. It’s a town I’ve been wanting to visit since quickly passing through on the Tour Divide. I knew it would be a good chance to ride bikes and drink beer with like-minded folks, so it was a no-brainer. The family was on board, so we made a weekend adventure out of it. Ice bar, check. Cornhole, check. Free beer, check. Impeccable groomed fat bike trails on snow, check.
Didn’t hurt that our good friends, KC and Hunter made the trek out from California and met us there. The video below doesn’t do the scenery justice… but my drone tried very hard 🙂 Enjoy!
*Note: We now upload videos to our Youtube Channel every week. Everything from adventures and ride reports to tips, tricks, and hacks for mountain biking, bikepacking, etc. Please subscribeto us on Youtube and stay up to date!
Wow, I seriously can’t believe it’s already been a year since I committed to riding my bike every day. The challenge began on Feb. 7th, 2020. First, let me say this – since I’m a stickler for details and transparency. There were a few days that I did not ride my bike. So, you could technically say I didn’t complete this challenge. However, those few instances were because I was working in the Wilderness and could not bring my bike along. On those days, I hiked, with loaded backpack and camera equipment, way more than my requisite 5 miles. Even though I didn’t “ride my bike”, I still did the mileage on my own power, hiking for 8+ hours a day, with lots of altitude gain, at high elevations in Sun Valley, ID and Moab, UT. Trust me, this was much harder than riding 5 miles in 25 minutes on the bike path.
So take it or leave it, I rode about 361 days, and hiked big mountains with camera gear chasing people on a survivalist TV show the days I couldn’t ride. I need to put food on my family’s table, so work had to come first on those days.
Interpret it how you want, but I still feel as if the challenge was a success!
With that said, I checked the stats from Strava. It’s mostly accurate, but I did have some “Strava fails” (forgot to record, didn’t have my phone, etc). That’s expected over 365 days. But in a nutshell, I rode around 600 hours and 5,500 miles during the challenge, with over 90% on dirt or snow. No trainer rides, no road bike. I also climbed about 450,000′. I rode my fat bike and full supspension mountain bike in pretty much equal proportion to my “gravelish” drop bar mountain bike. The only reason I mention this, is as we all know, putting in requisite mileage riding tarmac is way easier than off-road cycling. Sometimes my 5 mile fat bike rides were tougher than 20 mile gravel rides 🙂
I started the challenge right at the beginning of the Covid era, and I’m proud of being able to keep it up and push through sickness and injury to git ‘er done. Ironically enough, the night before day 365, I got violently sick – abdominal pain, vomiting, etc. I powered through the ride and spent the next day in the hospital getting a string of tests. As I write this, I’m still recovering but hope to get back on the bike tomorrow.
Anyhoo, looking back, here are a few standout efforts from the challenge:
Good question! It’s been great for me. The discipline it takes to get on your bike day after day through any weather, ailments, moods, etc has become habit, and it’s a great habit to have. I get invigorated daily, and always feel better after a ride. So, even though I’ve now taken two days off due to sickness, I’m going to continue riding every day, and committing to that “mantra”. But with the initial challenge done, I won’t be a stickler if I’m not feeling well, or my body needs rest, or logistics get in the way. Oftentimes, our bodies need rest, plain and simple. But, in general, I will continue to ride my bike “almost” 365. I want to do whatever I can to stack the odds in my favor, that one day, hopefully a long time from now, when I die, there’s a good chance I snuck one last ride in before kicking the bucket 🙂
That being said, I’ve got a bunch of challenging rides planned for 2021 and potentially a personal challenge to see how much climbing I can do in one week… all singletrack, all dirt, all different trails… so kinda like the exact opposite of Everesting where you do the same climb over and over… hmmm… I’m gonna iron it out, but that’ll be fun one… stay tuned 🙂
Thanks for the support and tagging along on this journey!
GIVE BACK. PAY IT FORWARD. #trailmagicmonday
More importantly, Angela and I are starting an initiative with our Patreon family. I’ll be dedicating a blog to it shortly. We’re leveraging our Youtube supporters’ contributions to bless unexpecting individuals with acts of kindness. If you want to learn more or join in the giving, check out our Patreon page. It’s good for the soul!!
Until next time. Ride bikes. Give back. Pay it forward!
