Alright, so I finally put a schedule together for the rest of the trip!! Once I actually put pen to paper it made me realize that it was time to get a move on!!  With over 3,500 miles on this leg of the trip I have some serious ground to cover.  Currently I'm on part C, and all I can say is The Tetons are awesome.

And if you see a pin near you, hit me up and we'll get some riding in, a cold beer, or both!!!

This summer I have been doing some trail reviews for mtbparks.com.  They have a complete list of all lift served bike parks in North America, over 100 and counting!!  I used their site to check operating hours and dates and based my schedule off of that.  I also have a mtbparks.com pass which gives you a free or discounted pass to over 30 parks from coast to coast.  The pass cost $129 bucks but It already paid for itself twice over. Check em out! 

Finally back on the road it was time to stretch the bike legs and the legs of new set up.  My first stop was Crested Butte where I spent a couple of days riding at Evolution Bike Park.  A free ticket with my MTBparks.com burning a hole in my pocket I was raring to go.
Evolution Bike Park offers 21 lift served trails with 12 of those designated for down hill only.  The breakdown of these gravity trails are 3 green, 2 blue, 6 black, and 1 double black.

Staying with the trend of many up and coming bike parks there are trails available for all abilities levels and styles of riding.  Ranging from flowing green trails, free-ride features, or super techy descents, Evolution is rocking it all.
There newest trail that went in this year was their double black line called Captain Jack.  This trail is what I would call an old school DH trail.  With flat corners, off camber roots, and a gnarly descent it will remind you more of a renegade trail than a bike park; definitely one of my favorites.
Two new trials from last season are also bringing the heat.  Crusader and Woods are riddled with free-ride features, g-pulling berms and a large jump line.  It takes a short pedal out from the main pack of trails and dumps you out on the North side of the resort.  Even so, it's worth a few strokes to hit these trails and the return to the resort is all down hill, plus there is no trail traffic to contend with.
There are still a bunch more trails on the front side.  Psycho Rocks is a visible from the lift(you'll know when you see it), Time Line, Time Table, and Avery are all super sick trails, again with a great variety of features.  The hardest part of the day at Evolution was picking which trail to ride.

For people that are camping there are tons of National Forest roads that lead right out of either the town of Crested Butte or farther up from the village.  The first night I drove right out the backside of the resort and found a great campsite that was about 15 minutes from the lift.  The second night I camped off a Forest road that was about 3 minutes from downtown.   There is also plenty of lodging on the mountain and many offer discounted lift tickets with their bookings.

The Secret Stash Pizzeria is the place to go in Crested Butte for pizza.  I actually ate there two nights in a row.  With hand tossed pizza, great drink specials and a chill vibe.  Even my bartender was a bike instructor at Evolution.  You can order off the menu, get pizza by the slice, or my favorite, their special with a Po'boy sandwich, a PBR, and a shot of tequila for $6 bucks!

After a couple awesome days in Crested Butte it was time to hit the road to Snowmass.

I decided to take the back roads from CB to Snowmass.  I plugged it into the GPS, 100 miles in 3 hours.  I hopped on County Road 112 which turned to gravel only a few mile outside of Crested Butte.  With no traffic and amazing views it was a good choice.  Ironically enough I still managed to come across construction, literally in the middle of no where.  Yes, that is a lone construction worker holding a stop sign, just for me.  A few more cars lined up behind me.  Everyone ended up getting out of their cars and we all stood around bullshitting until the road opened again.  Probably the best traffic jam I will ever experience.

I arrived early afternoon in Snowmass and with a little help from some local knowledge I found a  beautiful camp spot on the backside of the resort on some National Forest land.  It was one of the steeper roads The Betty had been on but it was worth it. 

I spent the next day riding the park.  Their premier downhill line is called Valhalla.  It was built a few years back by Gravity Logic Inc, and the professionalism of the trail is evident.  A fast, flowing trail, with perfectly spaced jump lines. I rode it all day, from dawn to dusk.
Currently Gravity logic has returned to Snowmass with two more trails in the works.  A new green flow trail and a blue progressive trail.  The idea behind these type of trails is to reach a broader spectrum of riders, allowing them to hone their skills on more moderate trails before jumping into the gravity spectrum.

Below is a short edit I put together. The majority of the riding takes place at Evolution but there are a couple clips from Snowmass also.

As the miles started to rack up on The Betty and the challenge of finding a camping or parking spot started to wear on me. I began to think about other RV options(taking some advice from my last posting).  With over 2000 miles covered and six weeks never touching a highway or hooking up to power.  Passing up forest service roads were beginning to be frustrating both for the fact of exploration and the opportunity for rustic camping.
While I was parked in my lot in Breckenridge The Betty was perfect.  Large enough to weather a record winter without being to cramped.  But as the "road" part of the trip started I felt like it was time for a smaller and more rugged rig.

Having a more off road capable rig has always been on my mind, I mean who doesn't dream of pulling up to Red Bull Rampage in a fully decked out EarthRoamer!   The majority of us don't have a cool quarter million laying around so I decided I would assemble my own.
Once the decision was made The Betty went up for sale on Ebay.  It was a tough decision, the RV had been trouble free and she had been my home for the last 8 months. 
It sold on Ebay while I was biking in Park City to a gentleman in Tulsa, OK.  We agreed to meet in Hays, KS to do the exchange.  I was heading back to Denver to start building The Betty II, so this was only a few hours past that.

Selling it was the easy part, figuring out were I'm going to live and what to do with all my stuff in the interim was the hard part.  I was going to need to lean on some of my Denver friends for this undertaking.
I didn't give myself much wiggle room on completing this task.  I had 3 days to get from Park City, UT to Denver, unload my entire life out of the RV, then get to the middle of nowhere Kansas for delivery.  I managed to find a 10x20 storage unit in Denver which at the time I though was way too much space.  They were having a special, the first month was only 22 bucks! By the time I had unloaded the RV the 200 square feet was full.

Now that she was empty it was time to head to Kansas for delivery.  It was another 4-5 hours to our meet up point from Denver so I got an early start.  I threw a few things in a backpack and hit the road.  The sale went off without a hitch and the buyer was more than happy.  She went to a good home, a fellow 7.3L enthusiast who will appreciate her prowess.
Once the deal was done, I grabbed my back pack, did one last "over the shoulder look back", and walked off.  I missed her more than I thought I would.  Maybe being in a tiny town in Kansas with nothing more than a backpack made it worse.

I think riding a Grey Hound bus is an experience everyone should undertake.  This was the mode of transportation I chose to get back to Denver.  Of course the bus was running about two hours late.  Once it arrived at the Golden Ox station it was nearly full with passengers already frustrated with the breakdown that caused the delay.  The driver wasted no time loading its fresh batch of patrons; we were finally Denver bound.  There was some interesting characters on the hound with "bus banter" to match.   It was about a 6 hour trip, arriving downtown at about 2 am.  I called a cab and heading to a friends to spend what was left of the night.

I'd had been shopping for the new truck once the RV went of for sale.  Once back in Denver I started calling on a handful of trucks that caught my eye.  Again, I was looking for a very specific truck.   I wanted the 7.3L diesel again, in the 95-98 year range.  After a couple showings and more than a few phone calls I pulled the trigger on the new stead.  A 1997 Ford F250 crew cab short bed with just under 225,000 miles on it.  The miles were high but the truck was mechanic owned and spent its life in Texas, I felt confident in the purchase.

Now that the power plant was purchased, it was time for the camper.  I had one already picked out, with money down, in Grand Junction.  It was a 2002 Palomino 8801, a simple camper coming in at just under 9 feet.   Once I picked up the camper in GJ, I turned around and headed back to Denver.  My hangout for the next week was going to be my storage unit, repacking and getting the new set up expedition ready.

On top of the whirlwind of switching homes and the urge to be on the road, I had managed to bang up my elbow.  It happened in Park City and It was a "shoulda got stitches" situation.  When I finally made the call to see a doctor they put me in a sling for a week.  Not the best timing but I made it work.
I set a timeline of 10 days from the sale of The Betty 1 to the maiden voyage of The Betty 2.  My friend Everett made the trip down from Breckenridge to help, thanks dude!  I had a list of things that I wanted to get done, mostly based on storage related projects.  First off, I needed a cargo box for the roof.  I managed to find one on craigslist for a steal.  It was the biggest one that Yakima made at 31 cubic feet of storage. I filled it to the brim. 

I was still scratching my head on how I was going to get all my stuff in the new rig.   I had quarantined some stuff for storage but it was still not enough.  Everett had the genius idea of taking out the back seat.  With the crew cab I had four full sized doors.  Problem solved!  Everett pulled out the back seat while I gave advice from the sidelines, my arm in a sling.  With the seat gone I could have almost just lived there!  I threw together some quick plans on a shelving system and got started.

The last step was loosing the cargo trailer.   It was handy, safe, and kept the bikes out of the weather, but I decided I didn't want to tow it.  Images of me jack knifed on some National Forest road kept popping into my head.  I loaded it with the stuff labeled for storage.  This also included leaving the road bike and dirt jumper behind.  Once the cargo trailer was packed it went into a storage unit on the front range.

We packed up the last things from the unit and I was nearly ready to hit the road.

There were a few mechanical items that I had also been working on with the pick up.  With the high mileage I expected it would need a few things.  So I replaced a few sensors and a couple rubber boots.  It also needed brakes.  I had done pads and rotors before but this truck turned out to be a huge pain in the ass.  Being a 3/4 ton truck made it much more difficult.  I had to disassemble the four wheel drive hubs just to remove the rotors.  This required a couple special tools and some you tube clips.  what should have taken a few hours took all day.  Even once I had reassembled everything I still had to take it to Ford to have the bolts on the rotors pressed in.
Thankfully I had the hospitably of some friends.  They helped out big time, not only with the brakes, but also with hot meals and the elusive hot shower.  Thanks Dave and Mary!

17 days into my 10 day schedule I was nearly ready.  The last big task was to paint her.  I wanted something that would blend both in an urban and natural setting.  I decided to go with a "grove" green.  A quick sanding and some rollers we had the thing painted and ready to go. 

With the trailer gone, bikes mounted like hood ornaments, and The Betty once again flying, I was back on the open road!