Greetings from Reno: a road trip
posted 1/15/07

The Bay Area offers quite a bit in the way of riding, even with the land access issues we all have to deal with. However, head a few hours north, east, or to the south, and you'll find there is a lot more out there. When an opportunity came to scope out a taste of Nevada under the guise of attending the BMX Nationals in Reno, we jumped at the chance to see what the smallest city in the world had to offer in the way of riding. Some snowfall almost wrecked our plans, but we ended up getting a decent amount of riding in anyway.

The plan: rendezvous at the bike shop and caravan over to the East Bay to meet up with the third member of our party, Yeti sponsored rider Mikey Haderer. Our friend Theo from AllOut Productions was also planning to come with, but ended up having to bail out the last minute. With his new video about to go into production, he was sweating the details.

It ended up working out well for me. We piled our gear into Mikey's minivan and I had the single bench seat to myself in the back, where I was able to spend a good amount of the drive halfway passed out. After while on the road, we stopped to fuel up where I made an excellent discovery: Rockstar now makes a drink with alcohal in it: Rockstar 21. Oh yes.. Did you know that it is legal to have an open container of alcohal in the backseat in Nevada? I do now, and took advantage of that fact for the rest of the trip. (Unfortunately for me, I don't ride bikes very well in lush mode. On the plus side, not riding gave me more time to experiment with my new flash setup behind the lens.)

We were caught a bit unprepared by a bout of bad weather on the pass and were forced to stop and pick up chains at the last minute in order to get through the road block. At this point, it was already past 10pm and the prospect of actually finding a place still open with chains was looking bleak. Fortunately, we came upon a gas station that had some, although they were marked up pretty high.

One sketchy drive later, and we arrived at our destination, the biggest little city in the world, Reno.

Quite a bit of snow ended up getting kicked up on the bikes on the drive..

We were a bit dismayed to find snow on the streets in town, and the streets deserted. It was a cold winter night- so much for going street riding. After checking in at our Hotel, we unloaded our gear in the rooms before heading out for a night on the town. Or in our case, getting a case (of beer) and walking around the casios drinking.

the view of the strip, as seen from our hotel room

The next morning (Friday) we headed down the location of the Bmx nationals to check the scene out. It turns out we could have spent more time in bed crashed out, as practice wasn't scheduled to start until later in the afternoon. After a bit we headed back to the strip to find a buffet and refuel.

After our late breakfast, we went back to the track to see about getting a bit of time on the track. Neither Drew or myself had planned to race, but we definitely were into riding the National Course. It was extremely cold outside, and doing some riding in the covered arena sounded like a great idea. At this point Mikey was still entertaining thoughts of competing, so we headed over and hustled some practice stickers for our bikes.

BMX practice

After our practice time was over I decided it was time to pull out my camera gear and shoot some pics. I recently acquirred a second speedlite and have been looking for opportunities to experiment with various settings.

After practice was finished, we headed over to Open Ground, the local indoor park. It wasn't a packed session, but it was busy, and I personally had a number of close calls. The park itself was a lot of fun. We had a good time playing on the half pipe and spine. Check out the park site for more info.

After our riding session, we headed back to the hotel for showers to chill for a bit before heading out to the casinos for another night out and about.

The next morning(ish) after another brunch buffettt we headed back down to the site of the Bmx nationals, where we met up with Jim "Hacksaw" Severt and Mike Flaterly from Atomlab. We were in for a treat, as Hacksaw took us on a personal tour of his local trails.

Hacksaw preps the trails by brooming off the top layer of snow

This is what BMX trails are supposed to be like. It was amazing to see it. Unlike many Bmx jumps, these were actual trails. Jump after jump, berms, rollers, step downs and step ups, there were jumps as far as the eye could see.

After a bit, the guys started sessioning this rather trippy line- a step down into a gully into a huge step up.

they refer to this jump as "Carl Lewis" because its a looong jump

view of the step up from the step down

The guys were loving the step up line. With the clouds and the evening light, I was loving the lighting.

It was awesome to see that there is a strong scene in Nevada- having miles of open space and access to plenty of land must be nice. A harsh contrast from what we're used to here in the Bay Area.

Riding the trails was definitely the highlight of the trip. I felt privileged to be led to this killer spot, and for a taste of the sick riding going on just a few hours to the east. Next time I hope to get more time on my bike- my time was cut short by re-occuring injuries. Hacksaw mentions some sick dh trails as well, which I can't wait to check out.

Enjoy the photos.

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