Category: Family

The Kindness of Strangers

This is all amazing to me. When I was first contacted about this I had no idea the efforts this group would wind up going to for this. The guys from Believers on Mountain Bikes and offered to put up a cross in memory of Sylvia’s passing on the Porcupine Rim trail. I thought the idea was extremely kind I have been exchanging emails with a representative talking about the event for months. Well they finally did the ride on the 5th of May and it exceeded my expectations in every way. Here are some of the comments from of the event:

We had almost no mechanicals and only one wreck in the group of THIRTY riders that come down with me. There were more BOMB riders that came down that day, not sure the total though. A lot of people asked questions (just other riders and hikers on the trail) about what the cross was for too – everyone asked me to forward on their hearfelt sypmathies to your family.

So without any further comments here are the pictures from the ride:

Raising a Cross for Sylvia Raising a Cross for Sylvia Porcupine Rim Trail Raising a Cross for Sylvia

Memorial Ride for Sylvia

Well yesterday would have been Sylvia’s 16th birthday. We spent the some time thinking about her and went out to sushi which I know she would have loved. Char cooked Sylvia’s favorite desert, a great Kaluha Fudge Cake.

On a related note, someone from Colorado Springs contacted me and has volunteered to do a Memorial Ride for Sylvia on the Porcupine Rim trail. He said he would put up a small cross for her and his group would stop and remember her when they passed the place where she died. I told him I thought is was a great idea. As it turns out he scheduled the ride on May 5th, Char’s birthday. Anyhow, here is a link from his site where they scheduled the ride. The group is Colorado Springs Believers on Mountain Bikes. I haven’t asked but I get the impression that they would welcome anyone who wanted to join the ride (This is confirmed see comments below).
Char and I have discussed attending the ride but I’m not sure I could return and revisit those memories yet.

Vacation

I am going on vacation over the next month and there will be a lot of traveling so I’m not sure how much posting I will be able to do on the site. Certainly there will be a lot of pictures taken and I will try to get some video’s taken as well but how quickly they will wind up here is unclear.

While I gone I plan on returning to Moab and Fruita and will certainly find many other places to ride on our trip. Other destinations at this time include South Dakota, Yellowstone National Park, Sun Valley in Idaho and lot’s of other places.

2004 Summer Vacation (AKA 15th Anniversary Tour)

Update: Lots of Pictures posted, I have them broken down mostly by day. I am still sorting and annotating them though. Also for the Mountain Biking fans out there you can check out the Iron Horse Trail photo’s I have up.

I’m getting an early start on getting the pictures up from our vacation by getting them up while we’re still on vacation. All family pictures so for (no riding) but there will be plenty of trail pictures later.
The first batch of pictures we are just outside of Portland spending a couple days with Martin and Elizabeth. Click here to check them out.

Bear Valley

Had a great ride a couple of weeks ago with the trogs at Bear Valley. We had a point to point ride planned and we were planning on going twice but somehow we got mixed up and wound up way off course and had an unexpected 5 miles of climbing so we called it a day after one run. Even with the unexpected climbing and 1 1/2 miles of hike-a-bike it was a great ride, there was some incredible buffed singletrack, lots of fun downhill, great rock gardens and a unique slickrock section.

Bryan Bruce Baker

This morning at about 1:00 AM Kansas time my father, Bryan Bruce Baker, died of a heart attack in bed. Right now I am pretty floored, it’s 4 O’Clock in the morning and I haven’t been able to get any sleep at all. It’s all there, the self doubt, the regrets, the blame, but most of all just an overwhelming hole in my life. I put together a page with some of my own thoughts and feelings about my dad and I will be putting some pictures and other things up later as well as anything that anyone else in the family decides to put up as well.