Moose Cross 2011

Last weekend I went to Victor, Idaho for Moose Cross. It was a great event with an awesome course, including stairs, barriers, berms, woopdy-doos, and single track. On the first day I was second in Juniors, and on the second day I raced in Cat 4 for the first time. The course was reversed and modified on Sunday, making it slightly harder. I somehow manged to hit my knee on the spoke of my back wheel twice when dismounting for the same infamous set of barriers. I think I finished dead last in Cat 4 but it was a good experience nonetheless.

I'm getting bored of including 'cyclocross' in the title

On Saturday, a good friend of mine began his season, which I had mixed feels about. Based on last season's experiences I preparing to be dropped, lapped, and then smeared in the sand pit by his rear tire. I was luckily able to stay with him for the entire race, which was this time in Bozeman. The course included two sand sections, a set of barriers, and numerous twisty, winding areas. I was within thirty seconds of hopefully sprinting out from behind and taking the victory when I crashed on the second sand section, a 250-300 foot beach. My friend managed to get away, and I settled for 2nd.

On the second day of the race, the course was reversed and a fly over with stairs up and a steep ramp down was added. I wasn't as close to my friend/now rival, but still finished 33 seconds back for another 2nd.

KickCarveCrank 60 Second Gear Review: Rossi Trifecta

   

The Rossi Trifecta is a great gun for younger hunters. It combines three guns into one with .22, 20 gauge and .243 barrels, all interchangeable within thirty seconds. It works great for hunters who have a tendency to flinch, because you can hone your rifle skills with the .22, a gun with an unnoticeable recoil. Then go hunting with the .243, and because of the considerable adrenaline from the hunt, you won't notice at all!

There is of course the single-shot drawback, but the break action makes it fairly easy to reload. The iron sights on the .22 and .243 are not at all what you'd want for hunting, and so I recommend mounting a scope. The shell ejector for the shot gun can be problematic, but I've only experienced it once, and the issue was resolved without a trip to the gun smith. The break action on the shot gun can also jam up. One trick I've learned is to put downward pressure on the barrel and then break it, although this doesn't excuse the problem. I'm shown at left and below with the 20 gauge barrel.
At a reasonable price of around $300.00, the Rossi Trifecta is a great gun for beginner and young hunters. http://www.rossiusa.com/
 

Cyclocross/Belt Test Gallery

 

 Top: Right before my attack on lap 1. There's someone right on my wheel, you just can't see them in this pic.

Top: The sand pit.
Left: Coming out of the feed zone/pit.

 Top: Barriers. I'm the short one on the first obstacle.
Left: It was a challenging course with no time for rest.

Right: The finish line.
Bottom: VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!

 Left: Middle punch.
Top Right: Hook kick.
Bottom Right: Down Block

 Top: The Board Break
Left: I was tired.
Bottom Right: This kick broke the board, although the picture was taken a split second too early.
Bottom Left: Snap Kick.

Belt Test and 2nd C-X Win

On Saturday I took a belt test for my 2nd black stripe. I suffered a horrible, awful piece of bloody gnar (a.k.a. a pulled groin muscle) on a school backpacking trip last week, and didn't think I would be able to test. However, once I had warmed up and stretched it, I felt able to complete the test. I felt some pain on a few kicks, especially retreating kicks like badchagi and reverse narabon. The 360 spinning hook kick board break at the end was difficult but I got it on my fourth attempt. I'll hopefully be able to get a vid that a friend shot up here soon.

Today I did the season's second cyclocross event in Butte. I got a decent start, with the kid who wound up in second drafting off me on the asphalt path at the start, through the winding section and over the barriers. On the second asphalt section, I attacked and got a gap, which I built on for the rest of the race. After the secondary asphalt, a technical descent gave way to a relatively lengthy yet rideable run up. After another technical section, a sand pit was the only thing that stood in between me and the next lap. In practice, I flipped over my handlebars going into it. I didn't realize the damage to my bike until twenty minutes before the race. My front deraileur was stubbornly not allowing me to get off my big chain ring. A friend's dad did some quick repairs, and managed to force the chain to stay on the middle ring. It worked for the time being and I rode my semi-singlespeed bike to victory! There are so many photos of both events that I am including them in another post also going out tonight!

CX Win & Grouse Hunt

This morning I went to Helena for the first cyclocross race of the season. The course started out on asphalt, with a brief climb at the beginning. It then turned on to a gravel road followed by a run up leading to an asphalt descent, which doubled back on itself to lead into singletrack. Afterword, it came to yet another descent on the road, leading into a technical section of singletrack, which gave way to  barriers and a rideable run up.

I was luckily able to start on the first row and went off fast in a low gear, which gave me momentum for the first climb and allowed me to open a small gap on the run up. I then flew through the course until the technical single track which I hit in too high a gear and had to slow up. Two other kids from a Helena team tried to chase me down halfway through the race but I held on and got the win!

After the race we drove to an undisclosed hunting location to try for Blue and Ruffed Grouse. We flushed one into a thicket and went down to try and scare it out. we went down to the thicket and it flushed towards me, but disappeared into some trees so the shot was withheld. We later heard a shot and discovered that other hunters had shot the same bird.

Hunting

This year I am old enough to hunt and will be taking hunter safety next week. Today I shot a few clay pigeons with my new Rossi Trifecta (.22, .243, 20, http://www.rossiusa.com/), and accompanied my dad on a grouse hunt, coming along to prepare for when I'm eligible after next week, on which we shot one grouse in a clearing after flushing one other which was not shot at. I'll have a 60 Second Gear Review about my new gun out soon and am looking forward to hunting season.