powered by enchilada sauce

I haven't figured out the best way to edit the video scenes I've shot, so while I have some gnarlier creek crossing footage and a great, extended segment of Steve hauling himself up a long, gradual climb, there's more than folks need to see.

So I settled for a short creek segment that will let you all know just how close to the ground you are on an arm-bike and maybe some sense of the additional friction that plowing through water also adds.



Here's a tip for all you backcountry bikers: if you wash your lube off doing creek crossings, you can always use high SPF sunscreen to avoid squeaking chain syndrome. The sunscreen needs to be nice and greasy to work well -- and I'm guessing that the higher the SPF rating, the more likely it is to be heavier and greasier. Steve improvised with a nice SPF 70 shortly after this little segment.

And for those of you wondering what kind of rock crawling you can do on an arm-bike, check this pic out. It took a couple of different runs to find the line, but it was impressive to watch Steve vault the orange beast over these boulders. I would have humiliated myself at this point, for sure.

One of the other great things about Flag is the food -- and I had a single request for Denise and Steve... Martan's... it's my equivalent of 'the forbidden donut'. Imagine 'chilaquiles' with a Homer Simpson accent.

While Meg and Denise went x-country skiing this afternoon, I retired to the Pay-N-Take for that fabulous combination of espresso, a gourmet beer selection to take-out, wireless internet, and NFL playoff football.

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On a different note, Jim at The Unholy Rouleur went dumpster-diving and found some funny, funny vintage photos. And added a few captions. And I laughed a lot.

And in case anyone else is worried about the state of vodka production in Mongolia after an especially poisonous New Year, Annie has the low-down. Just glad I got my Bolor before they started adding the methyl alchohol... although for some reason, it still won't freeze.