Well, the trip is over. Not much to relate from the last couple of days on the road. Monday was a three state, 10 hour drive from eastern Wyoming to Winnemucca, NV and then Tuesday we started early and were home before 3pm. Matt was back to the bed he's missed so much, and Bill back to the arms of his darling wife.

It was a great trip, lots of fun activities ans serious riding. Matt has raised more than $4,000 to date for Alpha-1 research and will continue to accept donations for the next month or so. If you haven't already done so please consider donating at: http://www.firstgiving.com/matt4alpha1cure

Thanks for all the support we have received in this endeavour, it has been a great father-son experience and lots of fun too.

Bill & Matt

On the way back from Nationals we chose to head north and swing around through Wyoming. By chance we hit Cheyenne at the start of the 10 day event, Cheyenne Frontiers Days, the largest outdoor Rodeo in the world. the event includes a western exhibition, stores, fair and evening concerts. We generally are not great fans on rodeos but felt it was an experience not to miss and on this occasion we felt the animals definitely were ahead of the humans! Very few cowboys were able to stay on the bulls.

There were three sisters who did some pretty amazing horse riding tricks.
We were able to go on a tour after the rodeo of the day which included a "behind the chutes" tourand of course we got to see all the animals behind the stands.All in all it was another very interesting, fortuitous addition to our trip.

After packing up camp on Saturday we headed out of Granby and into Rocky Mountain National Park to head over to Estes Park. Five minutes into the park and we saw out first moose! A mother and a baby out in the meadow. Pictures were not very good but then a couple more miles down the rode we saw a young male moose by the isde of a stream.

The scenery was spectacular, we took lots of pictures, here are just a sampling.

The evening ended in Estes Park with a dinner started off with Rocky Mountain Oysters (if you don't know, don't ask!). They were delicious.

Friday is race day! Before the race it was time for 30 minutes on the stationary trainer to warm up those legs.

The announcer (named Cheese!) made a great announcement about Matt raising money for Alpha-1 (from my script!), and proceeded to read it out at least three times, several people commented on it to us!

Then it was time to line up at the start with 55 other 15 to 18 year olds from all over the nation. Nervous? I should say so, especially with that enormous hill ahead of me.

There they go!

After Dad handed him more water on the second lap, the only picture he could get was of his back!

and then finally, just over two hours later, one weary rider approached the finish line.

and afterwards it was all Matt could do to stand by his bike for a photo
48 kids of the 55 starters finished, Matt was 34th - what a great accomplishment!

Tuesday afternoon we decided to try our hands at Disc Golf. There was a course set up on the ski run area and there is a thriving local league. A stop at the Sports Authority secured us a set of discs (you have to have a driver, mid range and putting disc!) and we headed for the course. Having floundered through the first couple of holes, almost loosing a disc and not being able to find hole 4 in the woods we were saved by a local, Derek, who was out for an afternoon game with his dog. The course was very challenging, both skill wise and climbing and hiking more than two miles across the course at 8,000 feet. Matt got a birdie at one hole with a 75 foot ”putt” (we measured it), our local guide said it was the best shot he’d seen all season. Other than that we one or two shots over par on every hole but had a great time, we plan to play when we get home.
Wednesday morning Matt rode early while Bill cleared out the condo and we were on the road to SolVista, the site of the US National Mountain Biking Championships by 10:30. We got to Sol Vista by noon and secured a great spot in the camping area, right next to a part of the cross country course. Matt went out on a pre-ride of the course and Bill set up camp complete with kitchen area, portable shower and a banner for Alpha 1, the cause that Matt is riding for. It wasn’t exactly Alex Leman’s kitchen but it’s very comfortable.

Matt joined up with Ernie Houk, a fellow NorCal rider, whose dad, Tick, is riding in a men’s category. Matt and Ernie rode off together.

The course is very technical with several very tricky sections. There are steep rocky uphills and it will be very interesting to see how they play out in the race.

Thursday morning it was time to get back out on the course for more practice.

Bill got the Team Alpha materials set up at the lodge. The organizers were good enough to allow us to set up part of a table in the main registration area where all the riders were passing through.

Matt is riding Cross Country, two laps of a 9 mile course, but a lot of the kids here ride Downhill or Mountain Cross where they ride up the mountain in the chair lift and fly down an intricate course of jumps and bends. The bottom of the downhill course is clearly visible from the lodge.

Some of the kids get some serious air!

Matt got a chance to relax and watch the other riders.

Next stop Steamboat Springs where we stayed two nights in a condo at the foot of the main ski run. This is the view from the balcony of the room.

There was a great thunderstorm, flashes of lightening but Matt again went out to ride having got great advice from the local bike store and went up into the hills above town on a 15 mile ride. Getting much more acclimatized to the altitude as each day passes. At night there was a beautiful sunset and the lightening storm continued in the distance well into the night.

Next morning, out on a ride again, this time on the other side of town up into the hills across magnificent meadows of flowers, through woods and it was all great single track mountain biking terrain. The base elevation for the start was about 7,500 feet and I got up to nearly 9,000 feet to overlook the whole area.

On the way through Utah we skipped seeing Dinosaur National Monument but did catch sight of a pink dinosaur in the nearest town Vernal.