Clouds are gathering above the Fourmile Fire, and solitary drops are falling in town. Hoping for the best.
These maps were posted about an hour ago.
 Overview of the fire area. Yeti racer Joey Schusler’s house is in there. Dude, I am really sorry. |
 It takes about 20 minutes to climb from my house (blue icon) to the eastern edge of the fire. That’s a bit close. |
Best wishes to everyone for safe families and homes.
Lee,
I hope you and your family are weathering the fire — how scary! I live in Littleton and can see the smoke from my house. Keep everybody safe and we’re happy to help in any way.
I participated in your skills clinic for the Colorado Mountain Bike coaches clinic in June. What an awesome event and I loved your information! I hoped to join Gil, Grant and Connor at the Colorado Springs event, but we had other events that day. If you have more skills clinic later this year or next year, we will definitely participate.
I saw this picture from Worlds race in Canada and I thought about you. What great position and technique Willow Koerber is portraying in this photo! She gives me inspiration.
Take care,
Erlinda
– The fire seems to be slowing down. Conditions today are good for fire fighting. Go Fireman Jeff! I know you’re out there, and I know you know the terrain because we’ve ridden it all on moto.
– I want to run up to the house, grab the digital proofs of Pro BMX Skills then ride down on the Stumpy, but that would be a disrespect to the firefighters. Next time I’ll be a member of the volunteer fire department. This time I’ll let the pros do their thing. Go Jeff!
– Thousands of people are displaced from their homes. Many have lost their homes. That really sucks. Right now the difference between watching the news and living the news is one gust of wind.
– There’s plenty of general info, lots of emotion and way too many real-time home destruction shots — but real, useful info is hard to get.
– Hey news crews: While you’re hovering over a burning home (it’s a home where people live, not a ‘structure’), can you please whip out a map and tell us where you are?
– Or better yet: Will someone fly around the perimeter of the fire, calling out streets as they go?
– I’ve been processing Pro BMX Skills orders, and I will try to bring Mastering Mountain Bike Skills 2nd Editions to the post office today.
– Sacha, Diane and their boy Amato came by for a swim and dinner last night. That was very kind.
So far our house looks OK. We are all healthy. We are blessed. The babies will appreciate today’s room upgrade. I hope everyone is OK, and that the fire lays down.
My wife, who came to Boulder after fleeing Hurricane Katrina, declares this “The best evacuation EVER!”
We are at the hotel this morning, pushing late checkout as late as possible, placating the babies, planning our next move. The mountains are shrouded in smoke. Last night I could see our house was safe. This morning, not so sure. Reports say the fire line hasn’t spread east. Good news for us (maybe), terrible news for others.
The printer for Pro BMX Skills just called. He needs the digital proofs returned so he can fire up 5,000 copies. DOH! I left them home. With the Stumpjumper. Oh Stumpy … how shall I live without thee?
The 200-acre fire is now over 3,000 acres. Homes are disappearing and the fire is still growing.
We got out safely. Oscar Dog is cowering at the shelter. Ian is hanging with a friend. Finley, Fiona, The Wife and I are spending money at the Marriott in downtown Boulder. The babies are going ape shit. From the hotel roof I can see smoke billowing, planes circling, flames spreading.
The ridge behind our house is burning. The valley glows red. I can see where we live. OK for now.
A wildfire is burning in the hills near my house.
We’re as ready as we can be: The kids and dog are ready. Mom is ready. Essential papers and laptop are in the van. The P.3, Tricross and Enduro are in the van (which bikes would you save?). The roof and rain gutters are clean. Combustibles are away from the house. I’m ready to grab this Mac.
The wind is shifting.
Now we wait.
Hi Lee,
I wrote a while back asking advice about hopping the dreaded bucking log. I’m still having some timing issues to get a solid bunny hop going, but after picking up MMBSii, I’ve realized there’s a ship load of pumping and cornering technique for me to master that are really improving my flow! I’ll conquer the log some day.
Anyway, I’m having a hard time with “V” shaped terrain: Steep 15′ or so down to a tiny creek with a few rocks and then back up the other steep side. The bottom of the “V” is narrow enough that my front tire starts going up the other side before my back tire is done going down.
I’m having a very hard time figuring out what to do with my body position and bike while making the transition at the bottom. In fact, I’m not really sure what I’m doing. As the rear tire hits the rocky bottom, I seem to have all 200+ lbs of my weight multiplied on it, making a rough transition that ends up with a pinch flat 1/3rd of the time (that’s better than a few years ago before practicing the heavy feet technique when the forks would bottom out and almost through me over the bars!).
I know you are a busy man with the family and your various bike-related events, but I would be stoked to learn the technique for this type of terrain!
As a side note – I have a hardtail 29er and keep my seat at XC height.
Thanks Lee!
– Eric
I did this email interview for Chris O’Brien writing for Examiner.com. Might as well post it here.
This was another busy but fruitful week. Highlights:
On Saturday I taught a bunch of Colorado high school kids and their coaches how to ride safer/better/faster. This was the first official event of the Colorado High School Cycling League.
Yes: We are teaching high school athletes how to rip on bikes. The revolution is on, baby, ON!
I want to get into any racing that includes bikes like 4x and dual slalom however there are absolutely no compettions in Ontario
I live near Toronto
any suggestions…cause it would really help
Jake