In Santa Cruz: Are wild turkeys wilder at Wilder Ranch?

We’ve never met a park ranger we didn’t think the world of, and this one sounds no different. Hope he recovers, they find his assailant, and order is restored in Moab Utah. The latest on the search here.

IMBA announced its big Annual Fund drive. Donate today and you get a free 2011 IMBA calendar, which our wall sports several past versions of. [They need to do an app for the calendar, the pix are always sensational and make great Macbook/iPad/iPhone wallpaper.]

Things should pick up after Labor Day. In the meantime, some holiday season links:

One of our favorite bike writers, Zap, hearkens back to the day when.

Another favorite bike writer, Jacquie Phelan, blogs the here and now with the back-then-ers.

Fellow blogger BikingBis reiterates, there’s always hope for the future too!

As part of Issaquah’s push to become a cycling hotbed, there’s a new club forming.

BikeRadar with a great interview of Mark Weir.

Help the city count Seattle’s burgeoning bike commuter population.

You read something like this and have to wonder: What kind of bike was it?

There’s a cross-country tandem cyclist who rides shotgun, letting the stoker sit in front. Why, you ask? Gene Bisbee explains.

Seattle’s Jill Kintner wasn’t the dominating force at this year’s Crankworx that she was last year, but she did take top honors in the Pump Track competition. You have to be super strong to do pump track right. Jill’s progression toward World Cup downhill success continues apace. Check her blog for the full scoop.

Cam McCaul injury update.

Dan Atherton injury update.

Crankworx partial injury rundown: “Brandon Semenuk suffered a neck/collar bone with back flip on last drop. Darren Berrecloth suffered an arm/wrist injury on last jump 360. Yannick went to hospital after a crash on an odd landing.”

Every time Seattle proposes a road diet to reduce speeding cars, traffic congestion, hazardous conditions for cyclists and pedestrians and other ills of contemporary transportation management, a few people get scared.

Check SingleTrack.com for “near real-time” coverage of the Leadville 100 this Saturday.

Beware potential con men on bikes!

The burning, er, pressing, um, well, how about musical question of the day: Should I buy my son a jockstrap for mountain biking? is ably answered by BikeExchangePDX.

The Cedar River Trail east of Renton is closing from August 16th to September 3rd. More details from BikingBis.

Robb asks, “Does mountain biking require the mountain?” All you have to do is read our Sun Valley series on “Real Mountain Biking, in Real Mountains” to know we wholeheartedly agree. [And yes, Joe Breeze and Gary Fisher rode Mt. Tamalpais and Pine Mountain back in the day — and still do!]

Meanwhile, EcoVelo mulls the iPad’s use as a mobile blogging device.

Cyclists win one for a change!

And lose some as per usual.

And here’s a new wrinkle on Rider Down. Say you’re just riding along and a car comes at you but somehow fails to hit you. You might think, hey, it’s my lucky day! But wait … there’s always the passenger-leaning-out-the-window-to-push-you-over maneuver to worry about.

Yet another update on mountain biking in Marin, this time focusing on the Novato mtboomlet…see comments for the predictable NorCal perspective.

Gratifying news on the mountain biking in national parks front. IMBA re-ups amid good vibes.

The Bike Library is back up and rolling!

On designing “bicycle cities” …

BikingBis: Bicycle Sundays return May 2 to Seattle’s Lake Washington Boulevard.

SF Streetsblog continues to document the SFPD’s brutal and insensitive treatment of cyclists.

SeattleLikesBikes: C’mon out to the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board meeting on Wednesday.

Of all the varied and clever April Fool’s Day cycling spoofs, Cascade Bicycle Club’s “Drive to Work Day” was our favorite.

The state of mountain biking in north central Washington. More on this later, but a good overview for starters.

IMBA’s cheap accident insurance to members seems like a good deal, but YMMV depending on what your plan comprises already. Check it out via Adventure Advocates.

Among all the many helpful responses in this Yahoo! forum regarding what to do about a cat peeing on your mountain biking shoes, not one of the many helpful respondents suggested the obvious: Trade in the cat for a dog.

First the checklist:

Cash. Entrance fee is $10 and they don’t take cards or checks. Print out the coupon below to save yourself a couple of bucks.

Big shopping bag or, better yet, hugeass backpack (for hands-free sherpa-ing). Lots of stuff will be given out, and you may wind up buying more than you can carry.

Printout of exhibitor list, with must-sees highlighted. Yes you’ll get a program with a floor plan at the door, but it’s far more efficient to map out a game plan ahead of time. Here’s the exhibitor link, now go!

Camera and/or iPhone. It’s always fun to take photos or video at Expo. Plus you’ll undoubtedly run into friends and want to commemorate the occasion for Twitter or Facebook.

Bike Intelligencer’s shopping guide. We provide some hopefully useful tips and suggestions for working the floor.

Don’t forget it’s a new venue, at Smith Cove under the Magnolia Bridge. Directions here.

Now for a roundup of what folks are saying about this year’s Expo.

Host Cascade Bicycle Club’s blog has lots of updates and goodies.

BikingBis has some thoughts on riding to Expo.

Totcycle is leading Kidical Mass to the show.

BikeHugger will be hosting a blogger’s lounge and after-hours par-tay!

SLOG has a predictably snarky take. Ignore the bit about mowing down cyclists who happen to be exercising their right to a lane. Also the ref to cyclists as “self-satisfied turds.” The writer just happened to need their diaper changed at the time.

Crosscut has all the right links.

Biking for the homeless: “Now, Nelson plans to set off from his home in Asheville, North Carolina, on March 19 on a new quest — to raise funds for the homeless and homeless veterans and to raise awareness about solutions for the problems of homelessness…”

Adam Craig out for 4 months with shredded ACL, we wish him a speedy recovery.

I kept my Schwinn Continental for 40 years before giving it to a youth bike program. But hey, it wasn’t rideable. This guy takes the cake.

After years of study and aeons of debate, it is still impossible to say definitively that helmets save lives. But that doesn’t stop us all from trying. Aside: Some of my worst bell-ringers have come in fairly innocuous tumbles, e.g., losing balance in a slow section and going over backwards. If you hit your head, it’s gonna hurt, helmet or not. So why take the chance on going lid-less?

Fat Cyclist, newly anointed Hall of Fame blogger, is a big fat cyclist. Actually he’s not. Just his ego. Not even that either. It’s impossible not to like Fat Cyclist, no matter how easy he tries to make it.

We’ve said it before, you can’t be DUI on a bike. You can, however, be RUI.

Trial starts tomorrow of woman accused of mowing down cyclists while on her cell phone.

Lance says he thinks he can win the Tour de France again. “I might be a fool,” he acknowledges. While we chuckle at the thought Lance might be a fool, and especially at the notion he might really think that, we also know he has almost no chance to win another Tour. But as we’ve said, till someone else with a scintilla of charisma steps forward to lead the sport, Lance might as well chat up his chances.

Early Zoic (circa 2004) clothing was trend-setting and cool. Then the parent company lost interest and Zoic got expensive and precious. Now Eric Swenson and Paul Wyandt have bought Zoic, and we’re expecting great things.

BikePortland has report on a clever bike safety sticker.

Mike Bikes! to press conference

You have to love this: Newly elected Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn riding his bike to a press conference. Thanks to BikeHugger for the pix. When we wondered last August whether Seattle could get a mayor “who actually rides,” we were expressing more hope than expectation. Now it’s breakthrough reality. Images like this do wonders to advance the cause. Our full mayoral-bike thread here.

Toll avoidance maneuver: “Bicycle enthusiasts and certain tourists who use the Ohio Turnpike are paying up to 75 percent more in tolls thanks to a change in vehicle classification that took effect toward the end of last year.” As I tweeted to BikingBis, here’s the drill: “Arrive toll booth, get out of car, get bike down, ride past toll booth, back to car, drive thru, put bike back on rack, drive on.”

Pedal Pusher Club's Bicycle Safe Vehicle

The Freeride Revolution continues apace. Up on Galbraith Mountain, not content with the region’s bestination (south of the border), they’re taking Galby to new heights with work on Luge, Upper Mullet and other hot spots. Thanks to WHIMPS, EB, Fanatik Bikes and everyone for giving us a 2010 season to top them all!

Kudos to Cascade Bicycle Club in Seattle for birddogging the bikes-on-bus at any stop in downtown free ride area.

Downieville Classic will be July 9 through 11. Note the reference to “mental hardship”…there was talk of abandoning Downieville because of hassles from locals and the Forest Service. Sounds like nerves are still a bit frayed but at least The Big Dawg is on!!

Momentum: New Bicycle Safe Stickers from Pedal Pushers Club now available!

Speaking of hate: That deranged L.A. physician who doorstopped a group of cyclists with his car last summer has received a five-year sentence. As BikingBis notes, the judge characterized the case as a “wake-up call” to motorists and cyclists. The judge urged more bike lanes, but that (as the Facebook hate page shows) hardly guarantees progress toward equal rights for cycling. Still, there’s something going on with officialdom recognizing the need for more shall we say “infrastructure.” Full historiography of the case at LA Streetsblog.

The full and authorized version of the 2009 Portland bike count has been released, confirming an unexpected drop in ridership. No surprises in the speculative reasons why: Lower gas prices got cyclists back into their cars, and a “saturation” of Portland’s cycling infrastructure. The argument being that Portland has maxed out the number of folks who will ride bikes without more “infrastructure,” e.g., bike lanes, paths and services. BikePortland.org, as usual, has the full discussion.

“Life Cycles” is the name of a forthcoming mountain biking freeride DVD that promises to be something different. One line from producer I liked: “We decided to spend a lot of time instead of a lot of money.” Freeride DVDs have gotten awfully formulaic. How many more gap jumps and back flips can we take, anyway. We’ll see if these guys can truly break the mold.

BikeHacks ran across a bike-n-ski setup that’s a real hoot.

The fact that new Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn’s pick for the city’s new transportation director, Peter Hahn, doesn’t have an obvious City Hall connection, hold a dogmatic agenda or met any obvious litmus test bothers some folks. To me it’s a plus. A big plus.

Nominations for the 10th annual Bloggies close on Tuesday. Who gets my 3-slot? BikePortland.org, Cyclelicio.us and FatCyclist. BikePortland because Jonathan is relentlessly dedicated and productive, Cyclelicious because Yokota manages to find the interesting stuff and put it in a unique light, and FatCyclist because he endured the ultimate tragedy and then went out and raised a ton of money for a great cause. Best of luck to all, and dial in your votes now!