Hard to believe last Thursday I was standing at the top of Alta, ready to plunge down a High Boy run in waist deep powder, then just 2 days later, I was packing up the KTM for a moto ride into the Utah west desert for an overnight camp-out. Darth and I rolled out of Park City late morning on Saturday, April 18, 2009, the first real trip of the spring. We rode highway through Salt Lake City, then west to Tooele. They say it’s only 30 miles from SLC, but it seems like a whole different world out there. After a windy mountain pass and some good dirt road cruising, we ended up at Simpson Springs, an original Pony Express stop with a replica carriage house and some BLM campsites. We have been through Simpson Springs on many dualsport rides, including the Trans-America Trail ride last spring, and Loop The Lake in the fall. This time, we had the whole place to ourselves, except for Darth’s parents and son who drove out to join us in their sweet camper van. With the van stocked up with food, drink, firewood, and frisbees for frisbee golf, we weren’t exactly roughing it. We set up camp in the afternoon, did some kite flying, exploring, cooking over a charcoal fire, and kicked back and watched the sun go down over the basin.

View of our campsite at Simpson Springs

View of the Simpson Springs Pony Express route, carriage house in the distance.

Flying Darth Nater’s kite in the campsite.

Campfire and Sunset.

Thanks to Facebook, I have reconnected  with a whole tribe of long lost souls I met back when I was racing bikes in college at the University of New Hampshire. Back then, the only people I knew who had email were computer science majors or research assistants. These were the early days where I was cutting my teeth on the New England scene, trying to see how far I could go on the bike. College racing was really early spring training for the full schedule of summer racing that would follow, but there were some studs back then who could turn a crank, even while taking full course loads. Of course, also thanks to Facebook, there have been the occasional “friend” requests from guys I rode with who I’d have to think twice to not ride into the curb if given the chance. One bloke I was lucky to know back then is Emanuel Betz. When I was a freshman at UNH and a shitshow Cat 4 on a purple Cannondale with pink Benotto bar tape, Manny was the pro-in-waiting who rode for the Richard Sachs team: powerful, intellectual, and not too self-absorbed to take me under his wing and help me clean up my act. I never would have gone on to race bikes in France if I hadn’t been inspired by Manny to do so. I am happy to announce that Manny will be writing some guest posts for IAATB, recounting tales from his experiences racing in Europe back when few Americans did. You had to be tough back then. We’re talking steel frame with downtube shifter tough type stories. We’re talking pack your duffle bag, fly to Belgium, and live upstairs from a smoky bar tough type stories. Those stories which I knew all to well from long training rides with Manny almost could have disappeared forever, but we’re going to do CPR and bring them back to life on the blogosphere. I for one, can’t wait for Manny’s first installment. I may be the only one, but WTF. It’s my blog.