Mountain Bike Ultimate… Whatchoo Talkin’ About Willis?!?

I usually reserve Sunday afternoons in the autumn for Mountain Bike Ultimate. For what you ask?!?! Mountain Bike Ultimate (MBU) … it’s as simple as it sounds… Ultimate Frisbee played on Mountain Bikes. Check it out:

Games are typically 3-on-3, and there are a bunch of rules designed to keep people and bikes safe from harm. The object of the game is to pass the disc through a goal (marked by two cones) and have it caught by your team mate on the other side. There are many similarities to Ultimate Frisbee… some of the rules that make it interesting and challenging are:

• Whereas in Ultimate Frisbee you can’t run with the disc, in MBU you can’t peddle with the disc, nor can your feet touch the ground when you have the disc.
• In Ultimate, a person with the disc has 10 seconds to pass it. In MBU, a person can hold the disc before passing it for as long as their momentum will allow them to coast before they have to peddle or put their feet down (both of which would result in a turnover if the player did not throw the disc first).
• If a player misses a pass, it’s a turnover and the other team gets to pick the disc off the ground to take possession. However, keep in mind that a player can not have their feet on the ground with the disc, nor can they be peddling with the disc, so that means that a player must “scoop” the disc from the ground while coasting on their bike, and then continue coasting until they have completed a pass. Try it! It only takes a few tries to figure that move out! (Assuming you can ride a mountain bike.)
• It’s a non-contact sport… same as Ultimate. That goes for personal contact and bike contact, although just like ultimate, there is always some “incidental” contact.
• Unlike Ultimate, the game is played with one end-zone and a clear line… if there is a goal or a turnover, the team that gets possession (or still has it in the case of a goal) must clear the disc before attempting to score (more like half-court basketball than Ultimate).

More info can be found here, at the sport’s lame web site.

So why am I telling you this? Because after today’s game I drove around the corner and up the hill and had a cheeseburger for dinner at the top of Willis Hill! Yum!

Krusty Bunz

Greyrock Mountain, CO (6/21/08)

Note from Krusty Bunz: Unorthodox Brew finally remembered to pack a cheeseburger for one of her hikes, although it took her a couple of months to send in the details. Then it took me a couple of more months to publish it (I just found this in my drafts and realized it wasn’t published, sorry!), but here’s what she had to say about that hike:

peak:Greyrock

state:CO

summit:7550′ (or 7448′, depending on what source you want to believe)

when:june 21

who:unorthodox brew, John, and dogs Logan and Jazmine:

Note that John is not in the picture. Sure, he’s behind the camera taking the photo, but what I really mean is… he’s no longer in the picture. Follow? That’s why I was reluctant to dig up memories of this trip to submit this posting. But Jazmine is there, because after all she was the only other one to have a cheeseburger on Greyrock on this day… John was going to join the Cheeseburger Summit but Jazmine ate his entire cheeseburger! Apparently she knew the rules and realized that neither one of them would qualify if John just gave Jazmine a bite of his, so she scarfed the whole thing out of his hand! (Good girl!)

length of trail (one way): Meadow Loop – 4.47 mi (7.2 km), Summit Loop – 3.16 mi (5.1 km)

Key details: We took the summit trail up and the meadow trail back down. Views are much better from the meadow trail…

… and the meadow itself is a great place for a killer game of ultimate. The meadow trail is also more difficult, since you drop lower than the trailhead at the meadow, and so you have further to climb.
The bugs at the summit were ravenous… I fended them off my cheeseburger and ate quickly (it’s possible that I ate bit more protein than I carried up with me), and we got off the summit as fast as we could.

Unorthodox Brew

Tasty Hedgehog Cheeseburgers (10/18/08)

Another fine autumn Saturday in New England and another drive up to the White Mountains for a cheeseburger.

This time I picked up Meg (aka: Saucy Red Meat, from Cambridge MA) to experience her first summit cheeseburger. (Why didn’t I meet her before she hiked Kilimanjaro this summer?!?! What a feat that could have been for the mission!)

We browsed the trail map on the drive north and selected Hedgehog Mountain… a relatively short (4.8 miles) and easy (1450 ft elevation gain) loop, which fit well with our late departure time and plans to get to the Moat Mountain Smokehouse and Brewing Company for dinner. (Moat Mountain is 3 summits for next summer.)

From the summit, we enjoyed the view and ate our McDonald’s cheeseburgers.

1 summit, 2 cheeseburgers

KrustyBunz and Saucy Red Meat

(the race is on!)

The Quarry: Quarry Peak

On a gorgeous, sunny Saturday morning we took a short family hike through Red Butte Botanical Gardens to feed the ducks and check out the “secret” garden. Looming over us was the rocky summit of Quarry Peak. I had hiked up Quarry Peak before but donated my Cheeseburger to a hungry dog (Baxter) and so was shutout in the Summitcheese department. We talked about a possible hike up it. On Sunday morning, after preparing a batch of Cheeseburgers, the entire family headed up to the Salt Lake foothills for another stab at Quarry Peak.

At the beginning of the hike we were rerouted for the construction of the new Utah Museum of Natural History building. We eventually found our way up the western slope of Quarry Peak to the Red Butte Ridge. We scrambled up to a jumble of rocks that mark the summit of Quarry Peak and enjoyed the views of Red Butte Canyon and the Salt Lake Valley.

After dispatching the required Cheeseburgers, we proceeded along the ridge to the “Living Room” – an assemblage of stone chairs at an abandoned sandstone quarry (hence Quarry Peak?). The boys enjoyed scrambling over the rocks on the ridge. At the living room we took a break for marshmallows and when well rested, finished the loop back to the car via the George’s Gulch trail.

Quarry Peak, UT – dinoboy, BarBarJinks, MadeMarion, sirloinofbeef

The Tram(poline) to Mt. Baldy

A 100 degree day in Salt Lake – friends visiting from Ohio – what do you do? Find relief from the heat on a high summit in the Wasatch Mountains! In a repeat of a previous hike we decided to bag Mt. Baldy, using the Tram at Snowbird Resort to help us with the first 2,900 feet of a 2,968 foot ascent.

We caught the first Tram ride of the day and started out towards Mt. Baldy. Dinoboy, who had hiked this peak before, led the way and the rest of us followed along dutifully. The high altitude barely dented the enthusiasm of our lowland visitors. Everyone made it to the top in fine form.

As we assembled Cheeseburgers at the summit another pair of hikers were ascending Mt. Baldy from the east. They looked hungry so we offered them our extra Cheeseburgers and explained the Summit Cheeseburger mission. Welcome, Eagle Powers and Seven Peaks of Champaign, IL!

Instead of returning by Tram, or hiking all the way down, we descended by the Gad Valley chairlift. Since you’re facing away from the mountain, it provides a great view the whole way down. At the resort we further entertained ourselves with the Bouncy House, the Alpine Slide and the Trampoline.

Mt. Baldy, Wasatch Mountains, UT – MadeMarion, GreyFeather, Misty, Hotdog Man, Mar-Mar, Care Bear, Eagle Powers, Seven Peaks

Geyser Hill-a faithful journey September 27, 2008

Perhaps the most famous and most photographed Geyser in Yellowstone National Park is the Old Faithful Geyser. When tourist go to visit Old Faithful, they normally wait on the benches surrounding the cone geyser until Old Faithful lives up to it’s name and erupts every ninety minutes or so. Oddly for a Geyser named Old Faithful, the interval between eruptions has increased over the past decades. This is supposedly linked to earthquake activity. Now when Old Faithful is visited by SummitCheese Tourists, there is a critical difference in their behavior. After watching the eruption, we chose to make the trek along the boardwalk to the top of Geyser Hill. Geyser Hill is populated with over 40 geysers including Giantess and Beehive which are two of the largest geysers in Yellowstone. Another intriguing factoid about Geysers is the tremendous amount of life that populates the geysers. As a group of scientists we were all aware of the discovery in 1969 of a new species of thermophilic bacterium called Thermus aquaticus. Eventually the DNA polymerase was isolated from this bacterium and was discovered to have some very useful applications in amplifying DNA. Well the rest is history and we all felt a bit nostalgic as we were bathed in sulphur laced clouds of steam. After reaching the brutal summit of Geyser Hill we broke out the requisite Cheeseburgers and began to enjoy our meal. Sadly, Splasher came into contact with one of the other plentiful wildlife around Yellowstone Geysers and got a nasty Wasp sting on her back. After such a nasty sting, even a Cheeseburger did not sound appetizing so Splasher abstained from our Summit Meal.

Summits: Splasher, DinoBoy, BarBarJinks, MadeMarion, EsterLinkage, SirloinOfBeef and Wimpy

Cheeseburgers-DinoBoy, BarBarJinks, MadeMarion, EsterLinkage, SirloinOfBeef and Wimpy.

Laurel Summit

One truely never knows where insperation will come from or when.  While driving to a family reunion, we happen to stumble upon a summit not listed on the Summit Cheese site, so we did what any normal red blooded cheeseburgerite would do, we purchased some cheeseburgers and ate us some on the summit.

Now Grey Feather and Care-Bear thought that they could provide a cheeseburger worthy of this type of adventure.  They struggled against all odds to get this “twoallbeefpattyspecialsaucelettucecheeseonionpicklesonasesameseedbun” to the summit but they just couldn’t get it to fit through the door.

 

 

So we did what the next guy would do and purchased all of us a cheeseburger.  Many thanks to Roaring Raven, Pocahontas, KaseFleishBrot, Mar-Mar, The HotDog Man and Care-Bear for helping out with this great adventure.  I can’t wait till our next family reunion adventure.

“Remember if the women don’t find you handsome, they should at find you handy.”

Grey Feather

Pilot Knob: A Minnesota First

My Goal: The Summit of Pilot Knob

Inspiration: Sam’s Summit of Electric Peak

As I was browsing my Google Reader I stumbled upon a shared post by one of our MORBID members that now lives in Montana. I thought the concept was awesome, eating a cheeseburger on top of a mountain. But, I lived in MN and we really don’t have much elevation above 2000 feet. I dug around the Summit Cheeseburger site and saw a list of summits, then I saw the link to MN. I thought of Eagle Mountain and started thinking about how I could get up there and get a picture. Then I saw that there were lots of different Counties listed. Hennepin and Dakota both listed 2 summits. I clicked on Hennepin, both were obtainable, though one is kinda a ghetto location. I then clicked Dakota, Buck Hill, the popular ski hill in Burnsville and then I saw it. Pilot Knob.

All I had known about Pilot Knob was that was a road that ran through Eagan. But I learned a lot while researching my summit attempt. Read more about Pilot Knob here. Apparently I have been nearly summiting Pilot Knob for years and had no idea how close I was to this monumental accomplishment. Earlier in the week I ran attempted a summit up the Eastern face on my ride home with out the extra weight of the cheeseburger and to scout the location. As it was right on my ride home, like the summit is about 300 meters off my route, it made for an easy side trip.

After scouting the location I found that the Eastern face would be my best bet to summit. I decided I had to do it this week, but when. Tuesday I had the weather against me, downpours and wind, killed that attempt. Wednesday I worked from home since my puppy was getting fixed. Thursday would have to be the day. As I packed up the night before I made sure to have my camera and also to figure out the best location to get a cheeseburger.

Thursday AM I had plans to get breakfast at Seward Cafe with some friends and then head into work. I must say, the French toast is awesome there. The perfect breakfast to attempt a summit of this magnitude. After breakfast I worked my way toward the river, escorted by Scott, and then down the Mississippi River towards Eagan, and Pilot Knob. As I passed near Pilot Knob I knew today was going to be my day. I was at work and showering before I knew it and the day was ticking by. I couldn’t wait to start my ascent of Pilot Knob.

The work day was nearly over and I needed to figure out the best way to transport my cheeseburger. The cafeteria burger would have been good but I really had no way to get it there. So I settled on going to Starks and picking up a burger. By the time I reached Starks on this Thursday night I realized that I was in trouble. I was in my Gore jacket and tights. There had to have been 40 bikes out front and I am talking about the motor kind. Not good for a kitted up commuter to go in and get harassed about. I blew by Starks defeated.

I hung my head low and slowly paced down Hwy 55 into the wind. I was nearly a mile away from my turn off of Hwy 55 when inspiration struck. Super America. The gas station. They usually have a cheeseburger, and they usually aren’t half bad. I decided to check it out. I went in and saw it. There were 3 left. I grabbed one and paid the $1.89. Back on the bike!

The cheeseburger gave me a 2nd wind and I was off. Feeling good about summiting the Knob. And that is what I did. I wound through the rolling foothills of Eagan and Mendota Heights towards my turn. I turned my bike left on Acadia and headed up the slope towards the top. I saw the Cemetery in the distance and knew I was close. I approached my final summit and gunned it. My Surly gave it all it had and we did it! Reaching the top of Pilot Knob with cheeseburger in tow. Only one part left. Eat the cheeseburger.

Om nom nom nom… Okay the cheeseburger wasn’t the tastiest thing I have had but I can’t complain too bad. I was sitting on top of Pilot Knob, a sacred place for the Native Americans in the area, in the middle of Acadia Cemetery, eating a cheeseburger on a beautiful fall day in Minnesota watching the airplanes land at MSP airport across the Minnesota River Valley.

Here are a few more pictures of my summit and ride home. Enjoy.

Summit Cheeseburger Set.

Labels: Oktoberfest, summit cheeseburger, Surly

A little competition is okay, right?

Dear FlyingElvis,

I’ll race you to 50.

KrustyBunz

Summitcheese is Going to the Birds

Inspired by OldBull and ColdFusion’s dramatic ascent of Signal Mountain we decided to do the same. However; instead of driving to the summit we opted for a hike on a trail. Starting from the Coulter Bay campground we started on the trail up. Sirloinofbeef had glanced at a map beforehand and estimated a hike of “about a mile” each way. Not too hard for a crew containing a 5, 6, and 7-year old.

About half a mile into the hike we came upon a trail junction with the option of following the Ponds trail or the Ridge trail. Curiously, both trails were 2.5 miles to the summit of Signal Mountain. Huh? Did sirloinofbeef miscalculate the distance? Why, of course, would you expect anything different?

We chose the so-called Ponds trail, but only saw one pond on the way up. Most of the trail looks to the east but periodically we got glimpses of the Tetons to the west. After 3+ miles of hiking we found the top and pulled out the Cheeseburgers.

Six Cheeseburgers, six hikers – that should be enough. BarBarJinks held out a burger for the money shot and just after the photo was taken a bird swooped down and grabbed the top bun of the burger and knocked the rest to the ground. If the bird had gotten the whole burger it would have been the first avian Cheeseburger Summiteer. So close!

The remaining Cheeseburgers were quickly dispatched (to avoid the dive-bombing birds) and sirloinofbeef was elected to run down the trail to retrieve the car and pick up the tired hikers from the summit. Nice views, great hike, pesky birds.

Signal Mountain, WY – DinoBoy, Splasher, BarBarJinks, MadeMarion, EsterLinkage, and a bird (almost)