Amgen Tour of California

The Tour of California rolled into town today - Sacramento was the finish of the first stage of the race. My friend John and I had what we thought was the perfect spot for watching and photographing the riders as they made a turn around mid-town. All was well until just before the riders arrived, when a couple of chaps with big red flags showed up and stood right in front of us waving the flags to point out the very obvious fact that their was a turn - of course there was a turn - there was a barrier and a crowd of people where else where they going to go.

Anyway the lads with flags thwarted my attempts to take any decent pictures.


Here are a couple of HTC folks - one of them couldn't be Mark Cavendish - the cheeky chap from the Isle of Man who won the sprint to take the stage? They all look the same to me.


Here is the peloton going round the corner at high speed - how do they manage to stay upright? Of course the answer to that is - they don't - poor old Tom Boonen and George Hincapie both had accidents shortly after this photo.

Utah Off Road Trip - April 2010

I did my second annual off road trip in Southern Utah at the end of April - the same people as last year, more or less, the same vehicles, more or less (except this time we were not encumbered by Land Rovers, we were all in Toyotas and all bar one was a Toyota Land Cruiser).

It was another fine trip to this spectacular part of the country. I am really taken by this remote part of the US and I can't get enough of it. It is probably viciously hot in the middle of summer but in the spring it is just absolutely wonderful.

I am also quite taken by this mode of transportation. I didn't actually ever expect to be doing this kind of trip, committed environmentalist as I am (was), but in my defense, I must say that we were all quite respectful of the environment, we packed out everything that we packed in, and these vehicles do allow you to see places that you wouldn't normally get to see with more environmentally conscious means of transportation. Of course, to top it all, it was a whole lot of fun. I notice that on my return I keep scanning the Land Cruiser for sale ads on Craigslist but so far it is just scanning.

San Rafael Swell

We started off in an area called the San Rafael Swell. The first day's trail was something called the Devil's Racetrack.

Day two was in the same San Rafael Swell area where we ended up on the Behind the Reef trail and spent a few hours rebuilding the road by hand so that we could squeeze by.

On day 3 we drove up to the Bears Ears (9000 ft elevation) where the heavy Land Cruisers bogged down in the snow forcing a retreat to more temperate climes. We finished the day on the Arch Trail which required some 59 (yes we counted them) stream crossings (some more eventful than others) to our campsite at the end of the canyon.

The Arch Trail

Day 4 we exited the canyon with another 59 stream crossings followed by a roadside radiator repair for a few hours before retreating to a hotel in Moab.

The Doll's House

On the fifth day we entered Canyonlands National Park and passing by an area called The Maze to the most beautiful of campsites you can imagine at a place called the Doll's House.

The Maze Overlook

Day 6 was in the same area Canyonlands area and a campsite at The Maze Overlook. Each night the campsites kept getting better and better.

The Maze Overlook Campsite

The switchbacks on the way out

Photographs are up on my Smugmug site - there are two galleries - the highlights and, for those with more time, patience and/or interest all the photos.