this blog is so 2007...

This blog represents my past life. One with a wife, home ownership, and a successful career in Nashville TN. Well, 08 brings many changes, no wife, renting a million dollar pad for 600 bucks and a new career path in Green Building in Asheville, NC. The team is no longer affiliated with RE/MAX and I have been asked to no longer use the work RE/MAX on any team gear, domain name, website and this here blog. So it is count down for this blog that once featured updates on the adventures of Jut Rut and his crew. I hope you will check in on my new adventures in Asheville NC over at http://whatupwithjutrut.blogspot.com/ and I will have links to the rest of the crew's adventures as well. All the best to the boys and girls back home and it's been a great ride.

Lifetime YAZOO Crew Member,

Jut Rut

The dust is starting to settle...

The boxes have been unpacked and it is starting to hit home that Asheville is now home base. The past week has been quite the surreal experience. I have been coming to Asheville since 1993, over the past few years I have made the trip countless times so it is only natural that past week has felt like yet another extended vacation. It does not help that my house feels like the kind of bad ass vacation property that I usually rent for a few days then head back to my "real" place. All is going well and yes there have been few good rides to speak of...

1.9.08 Bent Creek. Wednesday rocked and blue skies and temps in the 55 degree range made for a great solo mission to Bent Creek. Hit all the spots I love the best then started exploring and found some new great trails with some great technical single track. For those of you that have yet to check this place out Bent Creek is an amazing trail to have right outside of town. I am happy to announce it take less than twenty minute from my front door to the trail head. Oh yea...

1.12.08 The Grand Loop. Got out last Saturday with Bruce and Chris for 4+ hour grand loop of DuPont State Forest and found my new favorite trail, Ridge line, which is 1.5 miles of super fast flowing single track with a jump or berm every 20-30 feet.

1.14.08 Wilderness Route. Dropped of the car at Subarus R Us for a little love and decided to find the most exciting route possible back to the house from Swannanoa NC about 20 miles from the house. The adventure would take Bruce and I towards Black Mountain then over to Warren Wilson College out to the base of a mountain where the road ends and forest service road begins only for the forest service road to end and lead to a hikeabike up 1,600 ft to the Blue Ridge Parkway and then bomb into town. We got a late start but we were still up for the challenge so we pushed on only to find the trail disappear after riding up the FSR and hiking for a mile or two until the trail disappeared. We starting hiking straight up towards the ridge through snow dusted leaves and rhododendron groves. After bushwhacking with the bikes for another 30 we still had no idea if we were close to the BRP. It was 4:05 and the sun was going to set in an hour so we made the call to respect the Mountain considering we had an apple and two goo packs and a half a water bottle and it was already below freezing on the Mountain. So we turned around and back tracked and made it back to town and proceeded to hit the Blue Ridge for a 5 mile climb to Town Mtn Road proceeded my a 4 mile decent home completely frozen,nothing a few beers wouldn't fix...

Life is good and the Crow's Nest is now ready for visitors. Bring it on boys (and girls)...

Just so I don't piss everyone off with tales of nothing but good times. I have been doing a few things that may one day pay a bill. On a work note this week I jumped right into what I want to get started. There was a Green Home Open House Tour on Sunday with 20 or so homes / subdivisions all held open. I made lots of great contacts and talked with many like minded people who filled me in with what is happening in the "Green Scene" here in town. Went to a green building seminar yesterday and got a great overview of all aspects of what it means to go green and what our best options are in doing so for this area. Everyday I am learning something new, going somewhere new, and meeting a new person. It is exciting time for ole' Jut Rut and I am keeping my ears and eyes open at all times never knowing what is around the corner.

Jut

Ocho, Baby!

Well, I have been waiting for 07 to wrap up and it is offically behind me. Let the good times roll.

"Wow - it's been a couple of rainy and busy days here at SSWC08 headquarters and we've been swamped with all the emails that came in on New Year's Eve. The response was overwhelming and the event filled up as soon as it opened. That being said we are sending you this email to congratulate you cuz you are IN! "

This email came in today. Quite bittersweet though as none of the Yazoo Crew made the cut but myself. Big thanks to Pillsbury who stayed up till 3 am to sign me up while I was sleeping at my new pad in Asheville with no internet connection. He didn't make it into the race but hopefully he and a number of the crew will make the journey west as the race itself is just a part of a weekend of fun.

The past two weeks have been pretty crazy and I am looking forward to resting in one place for a few days. I moved to Asheville then packed up the car again to head back to Nashville only to get in another car and head to Georgia for the first Snake Creek Gap race. I felt rough but was to be expected after not riding more than a few times since the Swank 65. Even feeling like ass I was able to hold back the cramps long enough to pull off a sub 4 hour time and beat my best time from last year. Jamie kicked ass, Thad had a birthday and celebrated like a rock star the night before and still beat the 4 hour mark. All the crew had a great time and the trails were in perfect shape. The boys at the brewery took good care of us and the crew and our closest friends managed to drink all but 5 of the 94 bottles of Pale Ale given to us by our great sponsor. More to come later.

Bring on 08! Cheers,

Jut