Community Forest Trail #19

Was inspired by an old friends new album, so I took a break and went out to shoot some video in the local Community Forest. There's not a ton of riding there, but some very beautiful and flowy single track that I can't complain about. I mean, who can complain when there's riding right outside your door? Not me.



Thanks Travis from Leave Let Be for letting me use "Cold House" for the soundtrack and for James for letting me borrow the Sony Cam. Sorry, I'll get it back to you soon.

2011 Ridge Trail Festival Coming Soon

Back for the second year the Ridge Trail Festival mountain bike event will prove to be another awesome event. Both a collegiate points race and an open community race, the Festival will offer a grueling XC route, a fast flowy Super D route, a stomach churning short track route, and even a full on Downhill event. Photos from last year can be seen and purchased here. I'm still undecided on whether I'll race the XC again, but I'll definitely be photographing all other events I'm not racing.

Check out information about the 2011 Ridge Trail Festival here. The event will again be in the community forest in Redwood Park in Arcata on October 8-9. Direct your questions toward Kirk Cohune at kcohune AT gmail.com.

BMC Cascade Cycling Classic 2011

I had the chance for the second year in a row to head up to Bend during the Cascade Classic stage race. For race information please visit the race website here. Although it's a six day race (including prolouge), I only got to see Saturday's stage of the downtown Bend crit, which by all affairs is the best spectator stage of the race. The weather was perfect and the race was fast with the pro mens' pulling in about 2 minute lap times. I managed to pull the trigger a few hundred times on the nikon, so maybe that pro friend of yours who gave you a kick down on those zipp wheels could get an 8x10 for their birthday. To view the full gallery go here. A few teasers below.

Contemplating the sharp corner.

When blasting away and the madness a few lucky surprises find their way onto the card. I really liked this one.

The ol' grunt play.

It was hot enough for white skin suits. No water needed for this contest.

This guy apparently thought it was a triathlon.

All red, white, and blue for Garmin.

#9 laying it low.

This guy was actually racing to the WBMC.

My full criterium gallery can be viewed here.

Tour of Unknown Coast 2011

Another successful Tour of the Unknown Coast has came and went with hundreds of riders from all over the nation. An unfortunate hectic semester had tremendous impacts on my ability to train/ride so I opted out of a shorter ride for photographing the hammerheads on the century. At first I was feeling a touch sentimental when all the riders started lining up before 7am last Saturday, but by the time I hit "The Wall" and watched those who had been training suffer, I knew I was having just as much fun enjoying the beautiful day and documenting the masochism in front of me. It was much easier chasing them on the KLR.

It was a sea of green Adventure's Edge jerseys at the starting line for the 2001 TUC.

It was mostly tight packs of riders for the first 10 miles or so coming out of the start and heading into Rio Dell.

The Avenue of the Giants was still dark (as usual) at 8:26 am. I had to bust out the strobe to catch the quickly moving front pack. Unfortunately the flash mount I had on the KLR came off somewhere on the endless hills scaring a rider coming around a blind corner. Luckily Bruce of Ferndale was nice enough to find its owner (me), and my sincere apologies to the rider getting a scare. A free photo for you two if you hunt me down.

#326 from Bellingham, Washington was the speed demon for the day. He broke away from the lead group early on. Here he was starting the climb up Panther Gap solo.

This threesome road strong and consistent all day. Although they never caught the solo lead guy, they would all finish very strong at the end of the day.

Matt Deshazo was also riding strong all day. An unfortunate chain issue at the top of the endless hills determined his higher place finish. "It's unfortunate, but I know how I would have finished," was Matt's response. Very true.

Trying to change up the typical TUC photos (many people hang out all day at The Wall), I headed over the windy, twisting roads of the infamous Endless Hills. I was reminded of how it almost drove me to hysteria last year as it really did seem to be endless.

The sinuous roads climb endlessly away from the still visible coast.

A rider pedals along a ridge where a section of the route can be seen in the background.

Beyond the endless hills the fog rolled in thick as a rider squeezes out his last reserves of energy for the last 5 miles.

Select photographs of the event can be seen here at jmbarnesphoto.com. To purchase photos please visit my events gallery at jmbarnesphoto.com/events.

Google Bike Routes

Well it's been a long time coming but Google is finally adding bike routes to their mapping. Here is an article from Wired that talks a bit more about it.

Although this is a very good improvement from their auto-centric mapping system, I personally think it will be slow going at first. This type of routing is dependent on quality GIS files integrated with good planning and existing bike routes/lanes. Large cities such as Portland or Seattle, that have well established bike lanes or avenues, tend to have the resources that Google needs. Smaller towns that may or may not have bike lanes, but are without quality GIS capabilities will not be implemented for some time. This will take major effects on the local communities to get trails/lanes established and into a GIS.

This is exciting news regardless, but for now I'd keep that internal route map handy.

And a little something to motivate you...

Red Gate

Some shots from Jacoby Creek ride last week. Just like most of the single track around here, it was super wet and muddy. Still a great time with great folks. This forest is magical, filled with moss covered trees. Not a bad place to spend a wet afternoon.

Butler Valley Solo

Everyone seems to have left, has a real job, or is hiding out in their bat cave. The forecast called for completely sunny skies for today and the next couple days; I was skeptical. When I awoke today, got some oatmeal and coffee in my veins I realized there were sun rays and not rain drops falling from the sky. Motivating for a long solo ride is hard without dragging my feet, but once I got started I was stoked at my decision.

The Britt Ranch is always an exciting arrival. The steep 2 mile Korbel climb is over, and then you are surrounded by amazing idyllic overlooks. Today was no exception.


I've ridden the Butler Valley loop a half dozen times or so. Either I completely overlooked this every time, or someone recently had an experience that trumps anything I've had. This minivan seems to have been there for sometime though - cloaked in dated rust, bullet holes, and excessive signs of vandalism I can't imagine it showed up within the last month since I last rode butler valley.


I know I've already thrown in the typical self-camera-phone shot, but the mad river bridge is an amazing place. During the summer on this ride this is where we would hike down to the river and take a quick, cool splash. It's a good point to rest, take in some calories, and ponder the 8 mile climb ahead. At this point my legs were still feeling pretty good, but I still had a long way to go and I knew it. The best part about going solo is I have only myself to be competitive with rather than redlining while I watch the fast guys rapidly fade away.

New Photo Gallery Viewer

I've been tossing around the idea of putting photos into my own gallery viewer for awhile. It's been one of my many distractions from acadamia this past semester. Unfortunately I just haven't found any nice opensource viewers out there until now. I finally found one that works have way decent, has a good looking interface, and will store photos in a database. I must be picky or something though cause there are still many things about this viewer that I would also change. Franakly if I had the time, and the source code I just might do that. But for now I'm going to move forward with what I've got. I'm still now exactly sure how I want to organize them. I really should get my web page up and running, but I'd rather go pedal 50 miles than spend any more time behind this damn glowing screen. Click on the image above. To choose an album select choices in lower left-hand corner. Cheers.

Racing supports riding

It's been a couple months since I've really had time to clean my room. In an effort to maximize space I did a routine organizing which consists of grabbing things from the more central parts of the room and putting them as close to the walls as possible. This was mostly done so I could put my touring bike up on the trainer in hopes of getting to spin some miles soon. What I had realized at the time of my organizing tantrum was exactly what I titled this blog post. I had a rather large pile of swag, but even better than swag, useful things that actually enable me to get out and ride more. I've been running on a tight student budget for awhile now, been tromping with the same crankset on my mountain bike since 1999 (yup that's 10 years), a shamy that's three years old, and rims that are busting at the seams. Now I'm not one to rush out and get the lastest new hip bike gadgets, but I've definitely come to realize how upgrades can make my bike work a lot better, which only fuels my desire to go ride more. It's a sick cyclical cycle really. What I'm getting at is this, I have a pile of great stuff sitting here from a couple local bike races that I participated in which really helps an economically challenged dude like myself out. This is a BIG shout out to Vic at Team Bigfoot, Jennifer at Adventure's Edge, and all the folks up at Revolution for really making the cycling scene around here kick ass. Cheers.

Paradise Royale Video

Section from Paradise Royale trail.

Let's go for a bike ride - TDF 17

Overview of TDF stage 17 - Bourg-Saint-Maurice -> Le Grand-Bornand

First climb of stage 17 - Cormet de Roselend

Ascent up Col des Saisi

The last Cat 1 climb - Col de la Colombiere