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Maui Honeymoon

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Matt Goyer

Just got back from eight great days on Maui! The best decision we made was bumping up our flight from Monday to Saturday. I don’t know what we were thinking flying out on Monday. Foolish :).

Since we’ve been to Maui twice before this trip was focused on lounging by the pool, sunning at the beach and eating, a lot. Though we did go offroading to “shipwreck beach” on an offshore island… We tried to go night diving but it was too murky and kiteboarding but it wasn’t windy enough then likely too windy. Oh well!

Accommodations

We started off our stay at Makena Beach & Golf Resort and then moved to the Fairmont for our last three days.

Makena Beach: We thoroughly enjoyed out time at Makena Beach. It is definitely one of the smaller Wai Lea hotels but that’s nice because it makes it way more relaxed.

I was bummed you couldn’t see the ocean from the pool area, but on the plus side, the pool had decent service, okay drinks, was never crowded and you could get a little cabana thing for free. I quickly grew tired of the background music though. They need to cut that out.

The beach was nice because it too was uncrowded, easy to get chairs, though you had to pay for an umbrella and the snorkeling was really good. Makena Beach is the beach that a lot of the boats stop at to go snorkeling.

For the first part of our stay we had a “premium oceanview room” which was okay. For the second half we had an “oceanfront room”. We highly recommend the oceanfront room! You can even hear the ocean from bed, at night, with the doors closed.

Other pluses, free wifi, free bikes and free valet.

Fairmont

The rooms at the Fairmont are definitely way larger, way nicer, and the grounds at the resort are huge. But I wasn’t as blown away by the service as I was hoping. Even though we only visited the Four Seasons, they did a better job remembering our names than the Fairmont.

It was nice that you could get an umbrella on the beach for free. And apparently you could drink on this beach, but not Makena. However, the pool side service was slooow…

Other negatives, $15 wifi, $25 valet.

Food

Molikini Grill Sunday Buffet: We started off our trip with this breakfast buffet. And wow, what a great way to start! Ahi Poke, crab legs, scallops and more. In hindsight, this was a great deal at $40/person. Highly recommend.

Coconut Fish Cafe: One of our more affordable dinners, it was still very good. $12 for two monstrous fish tacos. Worth the line and the wait if you’re looking for something low key.

Cuatro: Bring your own wine! (And there’s a grocery store next door if you run out.) And some of the best seafood we had too. Too bad it is in a Kihei strip mall but fortunately it won’t totally break the bank. Some of the best service we had all trip too. We highly recommend.

Monkeypod: We went here twice so that should say something. Their food is sourced as locally as possible. Best Mai Tai too. And likely one of the best burgers we’ve ever had anywhere. Don’t worry we had plenty of seafood for appetizers :).

Kimo: This is a reasonably rated, reasonably priced Lahania restaurant. The best part wasn’t the food but that it is right on the water with a great view of the sunset.

Duo at the Four Seasons: The raw bar (available Thursday, Friday and Saturday) isn’t cheap at $69 a person but it is all you can eat freshly shucked oysters, lobster tail, crab, ahi and more. If you love seafood you’ll love this. Just don’t go back for a third plate. Two is plenty :).

Nick’s Fishmarket: Chelsea’s friend Amy got married at the Fairmont and the reception dinner was at Nick’s. I was seafooded out at this point and got the filet and it was great!

Activities

Haleakala: We woke up at 3:15 AM to drive for an hour and half, climb 10,000 feet (by car) and still didn’t make it up in time to get into the upper parking lot! We were one car shy of making it in and had to settle for the lower lot :(. None-the-less, I’ve probably seen too many spectacular sunrises while backcountry skiing for this to be the moving experience that everyone describes it as. Also, be sure to bundle up. It really is cold up there! Perhaps we just didn’t catch a good morning, but my recommendation would be to skip sunrise and catch a sunset instead.

Lanai: Lanai, an island that is a 45 minute ferry ride from Maui, seemed like a cool day adventure. There’s supposedly dolphins often in the bay, and 4wd is required to get to many of the island sights. Unfortunately it is a $60/person ferry ride (roundtrip) and renting a Jeep isn’t cheap ($159/day + gas is $5.80/gallon!) I enjoyed our time there but the off roading proved dusty and bumpy. And there were no dolphins :(. But the snorkeling was good. However, in our rush to not miss the ferry we lost a snorkel.

Scuba Diving: We did a two tank dive with Pro Diver, who we’ve been out with before. Hit up Molikini and Red Hill. Saw a shark, some turtles… After diving at Maui a number of times I think it is time we branched out to some other diving locations. Do note, that we recommend Pro Diver, they only take six divers on their boat so it isn’t nearly as crowded as the competition.

Photos

My photos
Chelsea’s photos coming soon

Posted in Travel | Leave a comment

Points North Heli Alaska – aka ManCamp

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Matt Goyer

This post is like two years late. Oh well… Here it is!

Most of it was written before one of our guides, Kip Garre tragically passed away this spring.

Kip, thanks for showing us Alaska.

Before reading this go check out Brian Nevin’s photos of our trip. Brian’s a Redbull photographer that we lucked into riding with and captured better than words can, the awesomeness of the Chugach Mountains in Alaska.

Back?

A few years ago we got hooked on heli-skiing. At the time we vowed to go on one heli-ski adventure a year. Oddly, the next year, 2009, we didn’t carry through with our promise. For 2010 we hit up Silverton. For 2011, our third adventure, there was no question, it was time to go to Alaska, the home of extreme skiing powered by helicopters. In the lower-48 there are six operations. In Alaska there’s over 20.

So how was it?

FUCKING AWESOME!

Here’s a photo of me on top of Humble Pie, one of the taller peaks in the Chugach range. I was scared shitless! Notice I’m wearing a climbing harness. That’s in case I fell in a crevasse or bergschrund and needed to get pulled out.

It was fucking awesome, even though it hadn’t snowed in six weeks. Wait? How is that possible!? :)

For starters, Alaska is just absolutely beautiful. Flying up from Seattle I was glued to the window watching the endless mountain ranges. Touching down in first Anchorage, then Cordova, it felt like we were in a black & white ski movie. Standing on top of one of the highest peaks in the Chugach on a blue bird day you could see forever.

Day 1, Saturday, “Travel”

Flew from Seattle to Anchorage to Cordova.

Day 2, Sunday, “Skied”

Skied.

Day 3, Monday, “Skied”

Skied.

Day 4, Tuesday, “The Beach”

Beach.

Day 5, Wednesday, “Tried to Ski”

Tried to ski. Visited Cordova.

Day 6, Thursday, “Glacier”

Hiked around the Sheridan Glacier.

Day 7, Friday, “Skied”

Skied.

Day 8, Saturday, “Travel day”

Cordova to Yuakata, to xyz, to Seattle.

FAQ

For those of you thinking about going heli skiing in Alaska and are considering Points North here’s all the details!

On the conditions

What could be bad about a week of clear skis? Well, if it is week six of no snowing and there was a major windstorm the week before you have some seriously dicey conditions.

I think it is safe to say that for everyone in our group these were the worst conditions we’d ever skied in. The conditions were “firm”, which was code for extremely hard packed and covered in sastrugi. For the most part you couldn’t see your tracks. There really was no snow for our skis to dig into it. Occasionally we found brief patches of breakable crust snow (dubbed creme brulee) that was skiable for five turns.

In terms of temps, one day someone in another group skied in her bikini. Another day our guide was wearing two large puffy jackets.

In terms of wind, sometimes we encountered some wind, sometimes not. We did have one day where they flew us out to the zone, we skied one run, and then they pulled the plug because it was too gusty for safe heli operation.

On why we picked Points North

The default option was to go with Silverton’s heli trip as that is what first lured us to Alaska. Our other option was Points North as JJ had a friend who had gone with them and recommended them.

Silverton appealed to us because we had ridden with Aaron and his guides before and loved it. They were also a little cheaper. However, their dates were likely to conflict with the Whistler Telus Festival.

Points North appealed to us because of their private heli option (which we didn’t end up doing) and potentially nicer lodging and better food.

We ended up picking Points North, primarily because of the cost of their private heli option. But once we had settled on them we then decided not to go the private route based on a few phone calls with them.

On private or not

Turns out that private really only makes sense if you are a group of crazy good skiers. Likely only pro skiers need to go the private option.

On when we decided to go

We tried to put some thought into when to go but ultimately I think it boiled down to when all our schedules aligned. In chatting with the guides it sounds like any week could be a good one (or a bad one). In chatting with someone who had been coming to PNH for nine or so years he said he favored their first four weeks. That said, one advantage of going later in the season is that the days are longer. While we were there they were gaining 7 minutes of daylight a day!

On the food

Awesome!

On the lodging

Kinda of reminded me of summer camp.

Misc

“Just don’t fall.”

Hasn’t snowed in 6 weeks. Last week they had a major windstorm come through and it is very hard pack. If you have skinny/race skis you should definitely bring em since the forecast for this week has no snow in it. What made us feel better about getting 6 very hard pack runs in today was that the folks on week 1 and week 2 only got 2 days in each and it looks like we’ll be skiing all week unless another wind storm comes in. Our guide said that the skiing we did today was the best skiing he’s done in the last 2 weeks and I considered the conditions to be some of the worst I’ve skied in. That said, the mountains here are huge, the terrain is beautiful, helicopters are fun and the food is great!

- A few groups here are pulling out early. They skied Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and then are flying out today. So that’s an option for you guys if you want to plan ahead for that. We’re not going to. Yesterday they offered us the option of going to “the beach” instead of skiing. This is apparently a pretty rare excursion and I highly recommend it if you are offered it. We’re going to ski today and then maybe pay up for another day. Otherwise there’s the local ski hill or hiking around a glacier.
- AT&T has really spotty service here.
- The wifi is very slow and sometimes down for long stretches
- Bring warm clothes!
- We’ve been introduced to a dice game. If you like gambling, bring some one dollar bills.
- You don’t need to buy too much beer in Cordova as they’ve been providing a keg a day and we’ve been drinking a lot of that.
- You’ll have lots of time to hone your ping pong and foosball skills
- There’s a TV w/DVD player in the lounge if you want to bring movies
- It is really sunny on the mountains. Bring good googles.
- The guides are very optimistic and all smiles which helps keep us going in this no-powder situation.
- The food is great! You may want to pick up some light snacks but not really necessary.
- If you lose something skiing you owe the group a bottle of gin
- No one has gone swimming yet but there has been talk of it

Posted in Skiing | 1 Comment

Gold Hills Ski Cabin Adventure

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Matt Goyer

Emails like this get my attention and an auto-reply of yes.

Hey, if you are interested, a buddy of mine has the Gold Hill Ski Cabin reserved this weekend. A friend and I are going to drive down to Crystal Saturday morning, skin over the ridge to the cabin, and ski the rest of Saturday and Sunday morning. The cabin can sleep a bunch. I think we’ve got one open seat in our car.

Wait, there’s a Gold Hills Ski Cabin? It is near Crystal? It is one of those lost ski areas? You can stay there? How do you stay there?

So many questions. But I was in!

Saturday morning we started off from Crystal Mountain where I learned that for $20 you can get a single ride lift up the Quicksilver chair. Oddly, we said no to the free shuttle ride from lot B, but yes to the $20. From the top of Quicksilver we had been aiming for Bear Gap but were seduced but someone else’s skin track. It took us by Hen Skin Lake and then up to ridge and required booting for the last 200 vertical feet. While the forecast was calling for partly sunny, it was far from that, near whiteout conditions, crazy winds, and even a light amount of snow! On the plus side, the snow was dry and deep and we only encountered three other parties.

At the ridge we dug a pit on the south side, confirming conditions were firm, and then made our way to the cabin. Unfortunately the south side conditions were firm (wind blown and previously sun baked). After stashing our gear at the cabin we skinned up to Pickhandle Gap. The skiing through the trees was “ok”. A little less sun and wind affected. But we quickly found ourselves skiing into the drainage that leads to Morse creek and we had to be very careful not to end up soaking wet or worse.

The cabin, an old miner’s cabin, was super cool. Big fireplace, wood stove, generator for lights, indoor outhouse, lots of dry wood. Turns out it is owned by the super small, and I’m guessing, very exclusive, Gold Hills Ski Club of which one of our party is a member. Downside is the mice… Fortunately there were traps.

After learning all about wood stoves and cooking dinner, we entertained ourselves playing Rummikub. Very boring initially but fun once we figured it out.

Sunday we skinned back up to Bear Gap and then did a couple laps on the northwest face of Pickhandle Point. The snow was great! Finally able to put my new DPS skis to good work! To ski back to the parking lot (from Bear Gap) we put in a hard skiers left traverse which eventually put us on “Boondoggle”. I would like to know if there is a better way down from Pickhandle…

Thanks to Angela for driving, Quinn for the invite, and Nate for the cabin connection!

All my photos.

P.S. Should you want to stay at the cabin you will need to be friend a member. It isn’t rentable, members only and seems to be a tradition passed down through many generations of only a few member families. And it turns out there is a second cabin back there! Further up the way from the Gold Hills one. Apparently not as “luxurious” though. Unclear how you can arrange a stay there. Likely a similar situation.

Posted in Backcountry Skiing | 1 Comment

Buying Used Backcountry Touring Gear in Seattle

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Matt Goyer

A few buddies have asked me recently about getting into backcountry skiing/touring and wondering how to gear up. Since the the price for new gear is a little steep:

Here are my tips for trying to save some money…

Online – Used

Turns All Year – Personal Yard Sale – Pacific North West forum for backcountry skiers. Less for sale than TGR, but fewer buyers than TGR so stuff doesn’t sell as fast.
TGR Gear Swap – Probably the most popular forums for skiers. Lots of stuff gets listed for sale but gets grabbed fast. You’ll need to check it multiple times per day and be ready to pounce.
eBay – Occasionally you’ll find some good deals here. Be wary of the bad deals though!
Craigslist – Sporting Goods – Craigslist is your friend. Get the cPro+ iPhone app so you can search multiple ski towns at once. You’d be surprised how many people are willing to ship. My list is: Vancouver, Salt Lake City, Butte, Seattle-Tacoma, Wyoming, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Bellingham, Wenatchee, Denver, Bend, Portland, Reno/Tahoe, Kalispell, Billings, Bozeman, Missoula
Cascade Climbers Yard Sale – More of a forums for PNW mountaineers, you will find some ski stuff here occasionally

Online – New

Amazon: usually can’t be beat on prices, gotta pay tax though
Backcountry: not the cheapest, but has a no questions asked unlimited return policy like REI. No tax. Free shipping.
REI: get the REI Visa so that with your Visa and dividend you’ll save 15% on full price items. Of course, the twice yearly 20% coupon is a life saver. Note that while it says you can usually it only once, you can in fact use it many many times as long as you do separate orders. I also really like REI because backcountry gear takes a beating and it is easy to return something if it fails.
Smaller shops with online presences like Pro Guiding, Tahoe Mountain Sports, Bent Gate Mountaineering, etc.

Seattle Area Stores

Pro Ski North Bend – My favorite! Tip: sign up for the mailing list. A few times a year they have 20% off sales.
Pro Ski Service (Aurora) – When I’m too lazy to drive to North Bend
Second Ascent – Has used gear too
Marmot
Feathered Friends
Evo

Other tips

Friends with pro deals. Enough said.
Don’t cheap out on boots or beacon. Get shitty skis to start and then upgrade them once you’re going on longer outings and know what you want. As for beacons, get a triple antenna digital. Say no to analog.
Don’t try on boots at a store then buy them somewhere else online
Get Dynafit bindings not Marker
If the used item you’re looking at hasn’t sold yet negotiate or ask for free shipping
For used skis, buy the skis you want, but if they don’t have the bindings you want, take them off and re-sell them. I got a pair of $1,300 skis for $800 by buying skis+bindings used for 5 days for $1,000 then selling the bindings for $200
Good skis to consider for a one ski quiver: Dynafit Manaslu, K2 Coomback, K2 Coomba, K2 Hardside, Black Diamond Revert, G3 Tonic
If you don’t see what you want for sale try posting a “WTB” that is a “want to buy”. You might be surprised what you can shake loose.
If you liked this post you’ll probably also be interested in my ski mountaineering gear recommendations

Posted in Backcountry Skiing | Leave a comment

The Spearhead’s Fissile on NYE

Posted on January 5, 2013 by Matt Goyer

After a night of sabering champagne and hanging out in a -25′c vodka tasting room it seemed like a great idea to go on a 20 mile ski tour and take down Fissile (pictured below on the left).

Rewinding a little bit, a few days earlier I had connected with a friend of a friend who wanted to go get after it. Fissile was on his tick list, I had already hit, but none of the other guys had so we opted for a guide. His usual guide was busy so we went out with Guillaume of Coast Mountain Guides. In all the run around trying to find a guide, my buddies bailed but Eric was still game and Guillaume had another client interested. So all-in-all three clients and surprisingly three guides! Guillaume had two guides in training in two. One of which was a splitboarder! (In the skiing off season he’s a multi-time North American rally champion.)

We met at a coffee shop in the Village at 8 am (felt like an alpine start after all our drinking the night before). Once the paperwork was sorted we headed up to the top of Whistler via Fitzsimmons then Garbanzo then Emerald then Peak.) We then skied off the peak to Symphony and up Symphony chair. Lots of chairs!

At the Symphony gate we headed out the “Musical Bumps”. To conserve time we skied the descents with our skins on and then contoured around Cowboy Ridge instead of skiing it.

To get up Fissile we attacked it from the south side. Toured as high as we could then booted up. I’m glad Guillaume supplied us with ice axes (I hadn’t brought mine to Whistler). Made the ascent less sketchy. And it was certainly less sketchy then when I booted up with Forest. That time there was no snow and it was a scree field. We got to the top of the NW face around 1:30.

We didn’t drop in directly from the top, dropped in a little lower. Snow was a little wind affected. Not super amazing powder but got better as we ripped down it.

To get back to the resort there are two options. Either back up Musical Bumps and down the Burnt Stew trail or out the Singing Pass. We opted for the Singing Pass (note: only an option if the split boarders with you are goofy). The Singing Pass takes forever! And the splitboarder with us ended up busting a binding and a pole so it took a little longer. We ended up skiing out with our headlamps on. Which ended up being cool. We got to rip down groomers into the village in the dark :).

Posted in Backcountry Skiing | Leave a comment

Mammut Pro RAS 35L Airbag Review (versus the Mammut RAS 30L)

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Matt Goyer

Just pulled the trigger on a Mammut Pro RAS 35L Airbag!

After much debate about the Mammut Ride RAS 30L versus the Mammut Pro RAS 35L I opted for the Pro 35L for a few reasons:

Two ice axe loops versus zero. Given that I live in the Pacific Northwest and do a lot of ski mountaineering in the spring seemed short sighted not to get a pack with at least one ice axe loop
I’m not a weight nazi and like an extra layer or two. Figured the extra 5L would come in handy
Full zip access to the back
Nalgene pockets on the sides of the pack (or shove your skins in em

I’d definitely recommend reading through the TGR thread on the packs or either of the Wildsnow reviews, Mammut Ride RAS 30L Airbag Pack — First Look Review and Mammut Ride RAS 30 Airbag Pack Review.

Why Mammut RAS? I really like how easy it should be to transfer the airbag between a day back and an overnight pack.

Why the Mammut over the BCA Float? The Mammut appears to have a much higher build quality and is lighter.

Why the Mammut over the North Face Patrol 24 ABS? The Mammut, while expensive, is cheaper.

Why the Mammut over the ABS System? I don’t like the look of how packs zip onto the ABS basepack system. Plus the Mammut is lighter and cheaper. (My friend picked one up for really cheap on Steep and Cheap though.)

Now these bags can be hard to track down, especially online. I picked mine up from my “local” ski shop, Pro Guiding / Pro Ski in North Bend.

In terms of setting it up, I found watching this video helpful:

Posted in Backcountry Skiing | Leave a comment

Lost: Single K2 Darkside 181

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Matt Goyer

Since it worked for my bike thought I’d give blogging about my lost ski in the hopes that someone finds it and Googles “lost K2 Darkside Stevens Pass backside” :).

Back in February on our way heli skiing I lost one of my K2 Darksides (181 in length) in a small tumble.

I have desperately tried to find it:

1. Dug for an hour
2. Enlisted help of friends
3. Went back up later and met with ski patrol to show them where I lost the ski so they might try and find it with Recco
4. We went backcountry skiing once the resort closed and most of the snow melted
5. In the summer we hiked up with almost all the snow gone

It is skier’s right of the Jupiter chair. You can see the chair from where I lost it. However, without snow the area where I lost it is pretty steep and rocky.

I had a GPS on when I last went hiking to find it:

And since not finding the ski I’m giving up on it! But not entirely! So if anyone finds a K2 Dark Side at Stevens Pass I will gladly buy you a bottle of whatever your favorite drink is.

Posted in Skiing | Leave a comment

Recovered My Second Stolen Bike!

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Matt Goyer

Holy shit! I’ve just recovered my second stolen bike. I can’t believe it!

This morning I was shocked to get an email with the subject, “stolen commencal”:

Hi, I believe I have found your bike?! sadly it is not all in one piece as shown in your blog photo (missing wheels and seat). I will check the seat post tube for a crack when I get home today! Please respond so I can verify it is yours. Would love to get it back to its owner!

After an email back and forth I called the guy tonight and heard that a month ago he saw it locked up (but missing wheels and seat) on a bike rack on Westlake. After driving by it for a few weeks he called the police since as a biker he knew it was a sweet bike. After getting nowhere with the police he recovered the bike with a friend. A quick google search later he found me!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

Posted in Biking | Leave a comment

Will I Get Sued For Taking My Bike Back?

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Matt Goyer

Holy cow!

After the Seattle PI picked up the story of my stolen bike, Seattle man steals back stolen bike as well as the Seattle Bike Blog and the Seattle Times, the story got picked up by KIRO radio, not once but twice! Then it got picked up by King 5, Seattle man steals his stolen bike back. Even Good Morning America called! (Without video footage of the retrieval they weren’t interested.)

With the attention came a flood of supportive tweets and Facebook comments. Also with the attention came the offer of a Kitsap deputy sheriff to dig into the case for me. After some digging he got in touch with the guy I took the bike from, David. He learned that David bought the bike from Justin who bought it from a pawn shop. He explained to David that I was within the law to retrieve my bike. However, he indicated that David, distraught about the theft of what he thought was his bike, had called 911 and filed a case against me. That case will likely go nowhere, which explains why I’m hearing that David is trying to put together a civil suit against me.

The next twist in the story is that David’s boss, Garry, posted to the Seattle Bike Blog:

Weird the individual works for me and after this incident, I have seen reciepts for his purchase and the purchase of the upgrades. It is nice to have a blog that does zero fact checks on anything posted.

My response is that I’d love to see the receipts.

In the mid-2000s the Ellsworth Moment was sold as a frame only bike. Meaning that you had to buy both the frame and all the components and then either assemble it yourself, or have it assembled. I bought the 2005 medium sized frame from Gords in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where I grew up. A Gord’s decal is still on the bike. As is the Gord’s embossed stem cap. I then ordered a ton of parts from Jenson USA and Price Point. Once I had everything together I had the bike assembled by Velo Bike Shop. After assembling the bike I blogged about how much I liked it.

Don’t believe me? Here’s what I put on the bike and where it came from:

Frame: 2005 Ellsworth Moment (medium) [Gord's]
Fork: Fox [Gord's]
Wheels: XSD [Gord's]
Tire front: Kenda Neval [PricePoint]
Tire rear: Racing Ralph [borrowed from Big Tree Bikes]
Seatpost: Easton [Gord's]
Seat: SDG [taken off my Rocky Blizzard]
Pedals: Shimano SPD [taken off my Rocky Blizzard]
Cranks: Raceface Evolve XC [PricePoint]
Drivetrain: XT [PricePoint]
Grips: Lizard lock-on [JensonUSA]
Stem: RaceFace Deus XC [JensonUSA]
Bar: Easton EC70 MonkeyLite [JensonUSA]

Here’s some of the receipts:

And if that doesn’t convince you here’s a photo of me on the bike at Whistler:

This wasn’t some generic Trek mountain bike sold by the tens of thousands. This was a custom built mountain bike that truly was one of a kind. The chance that David happened to put together the same bike is zero.

Posted in Biking | 16 Comments

How I Recovered My Stolen Bike a Year Later

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Matt Goyer

Almost exactly a year go my mountain and downhill bikes were stolen. I was devastated! But remarkably just this past weekend I recovered one of my bikes all by myself. Here’s how it went down.

June 30th around midnight I was surfing Craigslist looking for replacement bikes when I typed in Ellsworth and up comes an ad for my bike!

How could I be sure it was my bike? Easy, before my bike was stolen I had swapped the rear Kenda tire for a Racing Ralph loaned to me by Big Tree Bikes. Plus those XSD wheels from Gords are super unique. You can’t buy them in the US. And that seat? The SDG saddle came off my Rocky Mountain Blizzard.

Okay now what?

It is midnight on a Saturday and I wanted my goddamn bike back so I called the police. They told me to call back during the week. Monday to Friday. 9-5. So frustrating!!! Being an impatient person, I pinged the Facebook and the advice rolled in.

That Monday I figured I should get the police involved so I talked to the Seattle Police Department (SPD). They advised me to arrange a meetup and then call them 30 minutes ahead of time and they’d assist in getting my bike back. Unfortunately, my bike was in Bremerton, an hour ferry ride west of Seattle. So I dragged my feet hoping my bike would magically make its way to Seattle. It didn’t.

Once my schedule got less crazy I called the Bremerton police. They basically said the same thing but that since I had filed a police report in Seattle that I really should involve the Seattle police. So I called the Seattle police back who confirmed that “they don’t do appointments” and that I should call them 15 to 30 minutes before the meet, ideally during the morning and ideally on a Sunday morning. That’s when they’re the least busy. Sounded easy enough.

But wait. They also wanted to know if I had my serial number which I didn’t. My friends suggested they head over to get the serial number for me on a test drive. I didn’t want to hassle them with two hours of riding ferries so I assembled all the info I could to document my bike ownership. Fortunately I had a picture of me on the bike at Whistler (I actually have shockingly few photos of me with the bike), a few blog posts about it, and while I couldn’t find the emails documenting my purchasing of the frame I was able to log into the sites I had bought all the parts from. I assembled a little dossier and called it good.

Next step was to arrange a meet. I created a fake email (matt_ski_mtnr) and emailed the seller.

Me: Hi David, Is your Ellsworth still for sale? When would be a good time to see it? I assume you never come to Seattle? :) Thanks! Matt

David: Sometimes I come to Seattle. Yes it is still for sale. I might be able to ride it over on the ferry. Unless you wanted to come take a look at it? In that case I could meet you at the ferry. Any time is good for me in the evenings.

Me: Cool. I don’t get to Bremerton much :). Would there be a good time to meet you at the Seattle ferry dock sometime soonish?

David: I guess I could ride it over Sunday. Late morning

Me: Hey David, bike still available? Want to meetup tomorrow?

David: Yeah I just need to look at the Ferry schedule. Would you rather have the platform pedals or SPD clip-less.

Me: SPD please! :)

David: I will be taking the 945 ferry so I should be there around 1045. If you like it please bring cash. I would be a little nervious with giving the bike up with a check.

Me: Sounds good. I’m driving so can we meet at the parking lot at 1st and Columbia? My number is…

Sure enough he texts me in the morning that he didn’t make the ferry. I head out for breakfast assuming this is all going to fall apart. However, when in line at Starbucks I get a text that he is on the 11:10 ferry. Sweet!

I race home and Chels and I hop in the car and head down to Western and Columbia. We’re about forty minutes early so I call the SPD who says they’ll dispatch a car to help me out. With about 20 minutes to go Chelsea heads over to the ferry terminal to let me know when the ferry arrives and to ID the guy. I call the police again who say that they’re busy and haven’t sent anyone! The guy then starts texting me saying he’s close to meeting up. I start to stall him saying I’m getting in my car and heading over.

Chelsea spots the ferry, then the guy. Still no sign of the police. I call again only to find out that they’re still busy and haven’t dispatched anyone. So much for Sunday mornings being their quiet time! I drag my feet a little more then head over to 1st and Columbia on foot to meet him.

I meet the guy who is 6’4″ according to his ad for the bike (surprise, my medium frame didn’t fit him!), in the navy and christian (according to his Facebook page). He actually seems like a nice, decent guy. Almost right off the bat he suggests I take it for a quick spin which I do. We then chat and I ask him a bunch of questions he doesn’t have good answers for like, “what year is the bike?”, “what size frame is it?”, “did you build it yourself?” What I do learn is that he allegedly bought it off his buddy a couple months ago for $2k and that it doesn’t really fit him. He figures the bike is worth $5-$7k.

After stalling for as long as I could I check my phone again. Still no word from the cops. So I suggest another test ride, he agrees, I hop on, and never look back!

I duck down to Western and pedal furiously to Western and Lenora, call Chelsea and arrange a rendezvous at 1st and Virginia. I load the bike up and hop in drenched in sweat.

My phone rings.

I don’t answer.

I’m actually surprised how long it took him to wonder where I went. So I text him.

No response!

As we’re driving home the police call wondering where I am. I reply that I don’t need their help. “Did you get your bike back?” Yes. “How?” I just took it. “So you don’t need our help?” Nope.

As I’m hanging up the phone we drive by three cop cars dealing with a homeless man outside of the Cheesecake Factory. Thanks for the help SPD!

Now I didn’t want to steal my bike back and was feeling kinda bummed out about the whole thing when I got home. That is until my buddy called and wanted all the details. Then I was pumped. I had my bike back. Fucking badass!

(I know that the chances of recovering my downhill bike that was stolen at the same time are now totally zero :)).

Posted in Biking | 40 Comments

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Lost: Single K2 Darkside 181

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Will I Get Sued For Taking My Bike Back?

How I Recovered My Stolen Bike a Year Later

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