Crap, I can’t believe Gloucester was already two weeks ago, the past 14 days have been a total blur. I’ve had three shoots in the interim, all of them great, and traveled out to PDX for one of them. Got to race Cross Crusade last Sunday with the awesome PNW HUPsters. I was super slow in the singlespeed race, but not really training for five weeks will do that to you. Seriously, I’ve ridden my road bike once in the past five weeks due to illness and travel. Shot this in Portland at the Ace Hotel as a test frame. That’s just how hip PDX is, no matter where you point the lens a hipster or two will wander into the frame. Wallace said there was no possible way this wasn’t a posed shot, but it wasn’t. I had no earthly idea who the subjects were, just liked the composition of the shot. Monday I’m off to WV for the week to shoot an edit assignment on MTBing in the state. Banjo time anyone?

Two days down in Gloucester for New England Worlds. All in all a great weekend. But, man, it’s just not right having crystal clear skies and sunny, warm days for cyclocross. My racing was predictably pathetic and uncomfortable. Not training for going on 3 weeks is not the best prep for back-to-back days on drilling it in Gloucester. So I took the drilling and I still feel sick. It was weird because they kept the course the same for both days, which really made the shooting not so great (in addition to the sun). On the upside, HUPsters abounded and we had a great time of it at HUP House, talking smack, eatin, and drinking Belgian beer. I love this shot of Tim Johnson chasing back on Saturday. Check out the guy in the background screaming is guts out to give TJ some more speed. Tim could run for mayor of Gloucester and win I think.

New England Worlds this weekend and I’m not so sure how that’s going to go. Still sick. But busting out the studio lighting for the Sunday races, stay tuned for the outcome. HUP is rolling out the Noir kit in force, but I’m bringing the Blanco just in case. Same for next weekend in PDX where I’m attacking the Cross Crusade.

Forecast is for rain the rest of the week. Awesome. In Octobers past I’ve hated extended rainy periods, but it’s been so dry and warm that a bit of misery cannot be a bad thing….except for photo shoots. I have two end-of-week shoots dependent on it NOT raining. Including with Smutok down in SoNH. So you win some and you lose some. The illness may be dissipating enough for me to race this weekend, but the lost training will not help.

Between Chelsea and Tunbridge, VT, the remnants of an abandoned country appliance shop. It’s been sitting there for something over 15 years, this is what you end up with. Gloucester coming up and the forecast is for cooler temps and even rain. Excellent. Now if I can kick the post-Interbike illness we could be in business. In any event I’m going big with shooting the racing, just wait.

I make no secret of the fact that I am petrified of heights, always have been. So when we got to the Portal Trail in Moab I was sketched out beyond belief. We had a great post-Interbike trip up to Utah and Portal was the end of an incredible first day of riding. For those who haven’t done it, Portal is a knife’s edge singletrack that runs along the rim of a cliff. Like a really really steep cliff. There’s even a sign imploring you to walk sections as three riders have died trying to ride it! Got that on your local singletrack? Me neither. The next day was even better and the trip was just flat out fun. Getting back into the swing of things, have a few travels planned, some good shoots, and some CX racing. Finished re-doing the CX blinglespeed and it’s ready to roll for my PDX trip in a couple weeks. But New England Worlds are next weekend, so…..