Some friends of ours stopped over the other day and they wanted to see the fall colors!

The first thing we did was to show them our back yard colors but the altitude and the wind had blown all the leaves off the trees and far off and up to our highest mountain peaks.



Next we hiked up and over the mountains to hopefully see more colors on the other side.

After 2 days of hiking, our luck prevaled and we were treated with magnificent colors of yellow, red and amber leaves mixed in with the green pines that littered the mountain side.

The farther we hiked down the more lucky we were treated with spectacular visions of gradeur.

Finally we took just one more shot of the red leaves of the Aspen tree as we were leaving. What a beautiful world we live in even though the trip through the mountains back home to an extra day and 2 nights.... it was definately worth it...

Trying to feel better!

Buddy found this HUGE hornets nest in our back yard but did not

know what it was so of course he ate it.

By the time Tomarra found him he was not feeling too well and we just

had to laugh because he should know better not to eat a hornet's nest

Once Tomarra and me started to give him love he suddenly

started turning around and feeling better.

Once I gave him the majical kiss, it was all over and he was running around in no time.

Tender love is always the key to success with anyone....

It's nice to be home today!

In order to get back in shape, my local bike shop built me a new hybrid bike... It is so cool and today would have been my first time out. Unfortunately, when I say it is so cool, I mean cool....

Everything was frozen when I woke up and so it was time to lay down and relax for the day.

I tried to seperate the wheels and using a hand blow dryer to get the ice off but no dice.

Again, I went back to bed to get my body in better shape for tomorrow's efforts.

Neither wheel would work!

How Turning Green brings out your friends!

Woke up this morning and decided to incorporate the "green" process

into my lawn to gain a few more friends?

The process was long and tedious but after 4 hours of mowing and then another 8 hours of raking my results turned out better then expected. Maybe this concept of green works.

My results were spectacular but I plan on doing it each week from now on

so that I can cut the hours down from 15-16 to about 5-6.

As soon as the lawn was green, all my friends started coming out again...... it was so cool!

EPO and Steroids Make all the difference!

I did a little test to really see if steroids and EPO really help in performance..... So, I loaded a normal ant with the vamped up juice and kazamm, this guy kicked my ass on my bike while he just ran along. Now I know how the guys in the tour do it!!!

WHEN IN PAIN GET OUTSIDE!

I was up all night with a huge neck spasm and started to fell sorry for myself....

So, around 4:30am I got out of bed went outside to watch the stars disappear as the sun started to rise.I always carry my camera with me now and when I turned the corner of my house there was a clan of about 15 deer.

This is the only shot I could muster when they smelled my scent and ran away.

NEVER GIVE UP!

I don't want to sound repetitive but, just because you are over 50, you don't have to slow down.
Matter of fact this is the best time to get going because you can involve your entire family doing things they can appreciate: especially as a family!!!

With this in mind Tomarra and I took another ATV ride on the weekend just to see what families were doing???

We stumbled upon a women coming out of a Post Office (the smallest in the world) with a map in hand on where she and her family could spend the rest of the weekend hiking, biking, fishing and going on rides with their atv's

The map proved to valuable and the first family we saw in the moutnains even made the cows feel comfortable...this family was going to be hanging out for more than a week.

Then we saw the coolest kid on his atv leading his grand parents through the demanding ATV trails. Like I have said before, living beyond 50 is just a start of your creative and luxoreous life in the world of the outdoors and the world of being with your entire family.

After a day filled with marvelous beauty and meeting tons of folks over 50 we found this gentlement in his early 60's spending the early evening fishing but most of all enjoying the peacefullness of life in its most pleasent form.

By the time we got home we found our best friend ever "Buddy" curled up with his best friend "Tiny". In dog years, Buddy is in his early 80's but loves life as much as ever before... Every day we cannot wait to wake up and spend time together with him.

Normally, I spend time helping people out but today Tomarra and I were just traveling the mountains around our home and speaking and spending time with folks over 50. It was the best.... so while I did not podium, it felt like I had a great race today.... (2 for 3)

LIFE BEYOND BEING SELFISH

When I used to ride and race, I would train 4-7 hours each day not including stretching and recovery time. That left me little to no time for my family. Looking back I am not certain that selfishness was worth it....
So this past weekend, I took the boys from Europe for another ATV ride searching for wildlife up in the mountains...It was a strenuous, difficult and scary task being in the mountains all alone looking for the big bad monsters of the wilderness...

We armed the boys with binoculars, small guns (blank bullets) and a lot of other survivor stuff to stay warm if we ended up in the mountains when it got too dark or cold. Their first task was to cut wood for the brightly lit star night ahead.

They decided they wanted to be remembered forever so they carved their initials into a dead Aspen tree so as not to harm anything that was alive in the beautiful forest in the Rockies.

Then out of nowhere they stumbled on a wild bear that was at least 3-5 times of them... I have never seen little guys run so fast.... eventually the bear went on his merry way and life was good.

Then suddenly out of nowwhere the bear showed up again and this time with his baby cub.... we knew it was time to leave...

As night time approached a deer decided to visit us near our campground. He was beautiful.

Our adventures ended early because monsoon clouds came in and we didn't want to freeze for the evening but the boys ended up having the time of their lives with memories that will last forever....
One final trophy was sitting at our house when we got home... an elk with the biggest rack of antlers any one of us had ever seen... Now the boys were happy because they had seen nature at its best in less than 24 hours... it is hard to express how happy they were....for this, I earned another podium spot so I am 3 for 3

SATISFACTION GUARANTEED!

Life Beyond 50 is all about helping others using the resources I have learned and gathered throughout my life in a manner that unselfishly helps others.

We had friends come in from Europe that needed fun and excitement along the way and to explore the beauty of Colorado.

Here are the 2 boys armed with equipment to play their first game of pool ever.

We decided it was time to arm them with bitch'n equipment to go high into the mountains on their first ATV ride and to explore the nature that colorado has to offer.

Their first glimpse was a flock of Elks with the biggest antlers we had ever seen!
Then we stumbled upon a lake where they went swimming and tried to catch fish with their hands. The water was too cold to swim and their hands to cold to catch any fish. But they loved it.


At the end of the day they were elated despite the mud and dirt on their facecs from trying to chase animals through the forest and trees.

After a long shower and a full belly of food, they were exhausted and it was time to take a quick nap before they started a whole new adventure the next day.

It is so cool to help others....

This adventure definately got me on the podium again so I am 2 for 2.

Try it sometime!!!

THE END OF AN ERA!!!

After 22 years of racing and countless injuries, I have reached a point where I can no longer ride a bike and barely work or work out again. I am saddened beyond belief but will continue in my struggles to work on my injuries to my brain, spine, arms and legs.

I will always have happy memories of a career filled with victories both personally and professionally.

In the background of these mountains visable from my backyard is me lying asleep on a career that is now over and dreaming of a new career to help those around me that were not so fortunate as me to be able to use my arms and legs again along with being able to think, talk and construct my thoughts again.

Next time you see me please be delighted that my inspiration is to help others in need of friendship, understanding and most of all the ability to smile again.....

After all when I look at my results, there is nothing left for me to prove other than helping others. Inner peace becomes your victory when you help others out... winning on that end is the BEST!!!

OVERALL ACHIEVEMENTS
Podiums 141
1st Place 81
2nd Place 34
3rd Place 15
4th Place 6
5th Place 5

Career Highlights Mountain
World Championships Cross Country – Silver Medalist
World Championships 24 Hour “Team Division” - Gold Medalist + Overall Fastest Lap Time
World Championship Mountain Bike Team USA (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)
Norba National Champion Marathon
Norba National Series Champion Marathon
Norba National Gold Medalist Cross Country
Norba National Gold Medalist Marathon
California State Champion Cross Country
Amateur Cup Series Cross Country Champion
Sea Otter Classic Cross Country Champion
AMBC Cross Country Gold Medalist
Rim Nordic Series Cross Country Champion
Southridge Winter Series Cross Country Champion

Career Highlights Road
World Championships Road
National Time Trial Champion
National Time Trial Bronze Medalist
California State Time Trial Champion
California State Road Racing Champion
California State Climbing Champion
Sea Otter Classic Champion
Pomona Valley Stage Race Champion
Pomona Valley Overall Mountain Classification Champion
Pomona Valley Stage Race Silver Medalist
Valencia Stage Race Champion

Helping first person in a wheel chair out in Lowes find everything he needed and pushed a cart around so he could get everything he wanted then helped him out to his tricked out van... He and I felt so cool (victory number 1)

A BRAND NEW DAY

Just found out I have to have another surgery so the idea of getting back on my bike and training to get ready for the big races is over till the following year.... I have to make the best of it so I try to walk every morning.... today I turned the corner of my house and look what I founed.... tons of elk.... this place is heaven...

Gas and Fire don't mix!

The doctors have me on a new HIGH FIBER diet!

I forgot to tell them I am alergic to Fiber!

At our first Barbeque I had to let one rip!

People stay away from me now!

Is there Gold in them there hills???

Part of my therapy is coming up with new adventures
that have strong eye hand coordination....

I guess this one just didn't work for me!

Finally off my feet again!

What is this guy looking at???
Even Buddy is puzzled at this new Site???

When Tomarra saw me she turned Blue and almost passed out!

Well Here I am getting ready for my first ride on my bicycle since the accident and my 2nd operation! It hurt like hell but I did 12 minutes day one and 22 minutes day two!!!

Let's hope I can keep up the pace.....

My RPM's were only 40 but I don't care.....

I am on the road to recovery???

It's all Good!

I entered my first race this past weekend just to feel the juice flowing through my veins and the nerves making me restless in my sleep etc.......I dropped out after the start but its all good!

See if you can find me.... it took Tomarra 30 seconds!