…that after this got posted the days of winter MTBing would soon end. Snowed a couple days ago and then this is from the afternoon today (those are my melting tire print coming into the garage). Since it looked like the riding would be tabled for the time being I scurried out for one last ride, in a couple inches of fresh, cold powder. Worth the effort even if the trails were really sketchy, anything off-camber was left unrideable by the snow. Looks like the skis might get some love after all.

Zac D’s shop out on Seattle is up and running, a total top-drawer establishment. If you’re going to drop a ton of $ on a bike it makes sense to have a guy like this make certain that the bike is perfect.

K and I took a day on the Hub and hit this spot in the North End. Heart attack in a box, but damn….

The portfolio quest has devoured a lot of the past week, running around getting everything printed, trimmed, etc. It’s the one downside of living up here, the lack of readily available supplies, services that a city could afford. Have a column coming out tomorrow, I think, right here. Fun to do some writing, I’ve gotten out of the habit a bit. It should be a bi-monthly gig with them, a little something to keep the writing chops in tune. I have a couple writing assignments coming up so staying sharp (ish) is important.

Not to beat a dead horse, but the winter riding has been just incredible. Have a little 60 minute singletrack loop dialed in. I’ve been playing roulette a bit, riding alone with no spare or pump or chain tool. So far so good.

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Gotta love the selective focus as it pertains to shooting sports. Sager said it looked like a little model of someone running on a scale model background. This guy is the master of the format, though he uses massive 8×10 field cameras to achieve it.

Just replaced the drivetrain on the MTB and got a new rear shock for it as well. The high today is 50 and tomorrow it’s supposed to be south of 20. You know what that means: winter MTBing….

This was out in Cali, but with the winter we’re having it might as well be back here. We had some nice cold weather over the weekend and the winter MTBing was incredible. Found some new trails, new to me anyway, over at Oak Hill and feasted on them in the ensuing days. Then I blew the shock on my bike, giving me a forced day off. Which..

..forced me to work on my portfolio. I’ve skated by to this point with a series of electronic portfolios, but an art director finally called my “book” in. So now it’s full throttle to get it done and out the door. My man Kris is helping me construct a nice packet and it should all be done and dusted by next week. See sawing on Tour of California.

That was on Monday, on Tunnel Road, a familiar climb to anyone who’s ridden in the East Bay for any length of time. It was all very last minute but the shoot added a road bike element at the very, very last possible stage. Luckily we were able to round up some talent from my boys at Clif Bar who are just about the coolest people involved in cycling. Serious bacon savers. So of course as I was packing up to head out I heard that the maverick’s surf contest off Half Moon Bay was on the for the day I was leaving. Figures.Travel back was super easy and the ensuing few days have been straight drilling at the keyboard..

It’s finally winter - or winter-like in any event - with some seasonal cold freezing things up. So with almost no snow, cold temps, and a past month of big rains it can mean only one thing: primo winter mountain biking. Headed out with jamie yesterday and it was fun, but really hard - just a bit too much remnant snow to ride through. Then today I went over to the Oak Hill Nordic Trails. Perfection. Some snow, a ton of ice flows, and even some dirt. Excellent. Too bad it’s supposed to snow Sunday…

What an awesome day. Aside from a rather grim welcome sign, the shooting out near Point Reyes today was unbelievable. Not a cloud in the sky, perfect weather and just some of the most beautiful beaches on earth. It was a long day - sun up to sun set - but well worth it. One more day of shooting tomorrow then back home, finally, to see the chicas.

Shot up on Mt Tam yesterday for the final day of a shoot that got postponed last weekend because of rain. We get up there and it was beautiful, above the fog we could see down into Bolinas and to the fog enshrouded SF. But it didn’t last. Shot a few frames and felt a cold wet chill go down my back. Turned around and a massive fog bank was storming over the hills. That’s how it went all day: periods of sun punctuated by thick fog. It was crazy. We got all we could, but Mother Nature  certainly let us know who was in charge. Screwed around a little with the 45/2.8 TS I rented for my shoot on Sunday and Monday. The selective focus (used in this shot) is pretty wicked.

The rain has stopped in Berkeley, nice day for a ride….

As promised, here’s another image from the Bluxome Alley. Amazing. It jumps right off the building.

The weather broke yesterday and I managed as nice 2 hr ride in nearly 60 degree temps. Kind of a shock to the system. Also, there’s a ton of climbing on almost every ride you do out here, yet another shock to the system.

I may be adding a couple more days of shooting to this West Coast swing, which would notch the trip up towards the 2-week mark. I like to keep the trips down towards the 7-day window, but if the work is good enough then an exception is made. I should know today or tomorrow what the next week holds in store…

Also, being away from NH during the winter in warmer climes makes returning a pretty big adjustment, though it must be said we’re having as mild a winter as I can remember.