By Skittles
Following the Sea Otter Classic, we made our way north to find out what everyone at the race was talking about: the epic-ness of the Santa Cruz mountain bike trails. And OMG were they sick!
Most of the trails we rode started with long long long climbs to be followed by bomber downhills. After one epic ride, both David and I were wishing we had some plush full suspension bikes to cruise the trails on! Lucky for us, our friends Ryan and Val, let us demo some of their awesome Bionicon bikes that have a unique feature that let’s you adjust your geometry on the fly!
Our biking adventures in Santa Cruz wouldn’t be complete without some of the new friends that we were lucky enough to make. Troy, Haley, Johnny and Ashley all came into our lives after meeting some of their mutual friends while we were on the road. Thanks for showing us the goods in SC guys!
For anyone in the SC area, you need to check out these awesome trails: Magic Carpet at UCSC, Enchanted Forest in Nisene Marks and the Top of the World!
Wow, what a weekend! For those of you who have not yet had a chance to attend or race the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, CA - holy heck, what an event for both racers and spectators! First off, a huge shout out to, Skip, one of the coolest race directors we’ve come across. He hooked us up with a sweet booth spot for the weekend which literally made ALL the difference. Thanks for everything Skip!
Our time at the Laguna Seca State Raceway started on Wednesday night after a beautiful, but grueling drive up the PCH 1 from Santa Barbara. The Pacific Coast was a sight to see from our huge RV windows and we made a couple of touristy stops at the Hearst Castle and to see the elephant seals (who were beached to go thru their annual molting process - ewww gross!) along the way. However, after about an hour into the drive, the twisty, narrow roads got to us and we were so so glad to finally hit some freeway heading towards the race venue!
This was our first bike race of the trip and we were stoked to be able to get the word out about 
As for our booth….it was probably our most EPIC event yet! We handed out over 1500 samples of our
After two beautiful days of Sea Otter Expo WE SOLD OUT OF SUNSCREEN! Unfortunately, we had underestimated the number of folks at the race who would be looking for functional and organic ways to protect their skin - both our 
Following our epic times in Vegas, it was time to start the trek up the west coast! Since we didn’t get enough “play” time in while we were there in January, we decided to head back to JTree for a week to hone our crack climbing skills. Unfortunately, at about the same time, Mother Nature decided to throw in 50mph wind gusts to add to the challenge of climbing rocks in JTree. Have you ever tried to finish on classic JTree slab moves while the wind is pushing you sideways? Scary! Towards the end of the week, we were joined by Dave’s long time friend, Trevor, and his girlfriend Darcy. It was fun introducing them into the world of climbing and climbing in JTree!
After yet another humbling experience climbing at JTree, we headed towards San Diego to spend some more time with Trevor and Darcy. It was an opportunity for us to get some much needed “work” time in, as well as visit local retailers to carry our product line. But best of all, we finally got to take Torr to the beach! And he LOVED it! The first day at the beach, he was doing hot laps up and down the beach because there were FINALLY dogs to run with and there was water (although he said it was salty and tasted bad). A huge thanks to Trevor for the hospitality, hooking us up with a lifetime supply of GU and for giving us a sick original Gordon Smith surfboard!
Our time in SoCal seemed like a whirlwind of internetzing, visiting shops, spending time at doggie beaches, checking out local MTB trails and visiting with friends as we made our way north up the coast. Good times catching up with the Shepherds in Huntington Beach, then with Dave’s friend Skyler who now runs, 
Continuing north, we headed to Ventura to holla at our friends at 
We woke up the next morning to a nice sunny (but windy) day and were excited for our first rock climbing since Shelf Road back in Colorado! As we pulled up to the parking area, we could see that there were other climbers already up on the rock climbing in the sun, so we quickly grabbed our bags and started on the approach. According to the guidebook, there were two approaches - one which took you up by a waterfall, and the other that took you up what looked like a scree field on the map. After spending about 15 minutes looking for the trail by the waterfall we gave up and started to follow the second approach trail. What looked like a 10 minute approach from the road quickly turned into an hour of scouting around, climbing up and looking, and trying to find the path of least resistance up for us and Torrent. After several attempts at going up, we finally found a gully that was the least sketchy of all and we finally made it up.
Finally we could touch the rock!!! We figured that since this was our first time climbing at QCC and there were hardly any other climbers around, we could start on one of the four start moderates. The only other group there recommended that we start on a classic 5.9 and pointed it out to us from where we were standing. Dave was about halfway up route, when the lady who pointed it out to us came over and profusely apologized that we were mistakenly on (an equally as classic) 5.10d. Not quite the warm up we had in mind! Oh, well. It ended up being a pretty fun route, although hard for us to start on since we are climbing totally weak sauce as of late! We climbed another route there and then decided to call it a day seeing as how we now had the adventure of descending the crappy approach! I do have to say, Torrent is getting pretty good at these sketchy descents. He will walk out to the edge of the cliff, then wait for David to down climb and hoist him down. He’s even gotten so good as not to freak out and scratch David’s back while doing it!
Our second and final day at QCC was more of a scouting event than a climbing one. We FINALLY found the the main approach trail on one side of the waterfall. There was no way that we would have been able to make it up that way with the dog because of climbing the rebar ladder and super sketchy fourth class climbing! On our way back down to get the dog, we decided to mix it up a little bit and cross the waterfall to get to where the dog was. Since it had been raining the past couple of days and there was snow melting, the waterfall was raging and the ponds were huge. David easily jumped across a large wet boulder to reach the other side (so easy for people with long legs!). I was scared I was either going to fall down the waterfall (not good) or into the pond (also not good, but not as bad!). It took a couple of minutes of deliberation, but finally, I made the jump! We all made it down safely where we were greeted by the D-O-double-G!
By the time we left our adventures in SLC, it was hard to believe that we had spent a whole month there! As much as I had enjoyed our time playing in the mountains and bonding with our friend Clint, I was eagerly awaiting some play time in the sun. So promptly after our Sportsmans show, we “hit the road again” - headed due south. According to the directions via Google Maps in the iPhone, it had us driving thru Vegas en route to Phoenix. However, after waking up from a nap, I found we were minutes from Bryce Canyon! Ok, so maybe we weren’t going to hit Vegas after all - talk about last minute changes in direction! 
Torr had a great time too bounding into the snow fields chasing snowballs.
both decided that the only way we would want to see the Grand Canyon again is from the river below on a raft!
After picking up B from the airport and making a few important stops (dumping holding tanks…love that smell….and hitting up the liquor store for some booth essentials…whiskey and sweet tea vodka) we headed directly to the Salt Palace for booth set up. Sign-in and badge pick up: check. Unloading the RV: check. Finding our booth #32076: what the…. Long story short, what we failed to learn until we walked out on to the showroom floor was that our booth space was directly in front of the main door that leads to the loading dock. So unless we wanted to have our booth run down by forklifts moving crates and boxes into the showroom, we were not going to be able to set up until that door was permanently shut. Now the question was: when exactly would that be? Apparently that was going to be at 8pm the night before the show. Lucky for us we pack light and move efficiently! At 9:30pm our booth was finally set up. Now it was off to get some sleep!
