100 Voices from the Little Bighorn Deluxe CD-ROM Bundle Edition by Bruce Brown

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Day #: 243 Ride #: 154 Day's verts: 1500 Total vertical feet climbed: 283,500
Daily Deal: Big group ride
Ride Journal: Galbraith Mt., WA
Bruce Brown, Mark Belles, Steve Hindman,
Tom DeBari, Jim Zippy Lane, & Jason Ploskunak
8/30/2000

bike_081100.jpg (24257 bytes)
An old cruiser bike hung on a barn near the Great Western mill near Everson, WA.

Rode Galbraith with a large contingent of folks. We started out from Whatcom Falls Park, climbed the Ridge Trail, and then immediately plunged down Bob's Trail.

Mark was in the lead and I was second since there was no jumping forward of willing recruits. I followed Mark all the way to the Grave Yard of the Giants, riding everything (the nasty stair step corner, all the log drops, the Big Drop). When he came to the shattered log ramp in the Grave Yard, Mark went into a track stand, scoped his line, and then successfully rode it. I followed him into the track stand, but then I fell into confusion about the line, and fell over.

I think maybe Jason, who rode #3 behind me, was the fastest in the group. I could hear his brake squealing right behind me most of the way, except for the section right after the big log rollovers and the Big Drop. Turns out he had ridden his bike in from Glacier that morning!

I had to leave after we rode Nick and Pete to go pick up Laurel and Shanna from school in Bellingham, where they have already started. Laurel is attending Bellingham High as we hoped, and Shanna is at Whatcom Middle School, as we hoped. We don't move into our new house on Humboldt St. until Sept. 15, but so far so good...

Approximately 1500 verts.

Vert Quest -- excerpts from Mongo's World Record Journal by Bruce Brown
Days: 365 Rides: 220 Total vertical feet climbed: 404,900
January 2000 - "South Pass Mist" by Bruce Brown
January
February 2000 - "Bo" by Mongo
February
March 2000 - "The Big East" by Mongo
March
April 2000 - "Mark on Dan's Trail" by Mongo
April
May 2000 - "Flowers by the Back Porch" by Bruce Brown
May
June 2000 - "Herb at the Big Gnarly" by Mongo
June
July 2000 - "Woof" by Mongo
July
August 2000 - "Lake Samish" by Mongo
August
September 2000 - "Babe" by Mongo
September
October 2000 - "Still Life with Helmet" by Bruce Brown
October
November 2000 - "Mongo on the Family Fun Center" by Mark Adriance
November
December 2000 - "Guano on the Coast" by Mongo
December
* Click here for the full list of Bruce Brown's Vert Quest journal entries.

Vert Quest chronicles "The Man Known As Mongo's" pursuit of the World Record for climbing on a mountain bike, 404,000 vertical feet, or the vertical equivalent of 13 sea-level-to-summit ascents of Mt. Everest during a 12 month period. Mongo's mountain bike climbing tricks are distilled in Mongo's Over-the-top Guide to Climbing.

Mongo's Guide to Climbing by Bruce Brown


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