breakin in CB

We headed to Crested Butte last weekend to celebrate Jessica's birthday. Looking for a loop that would satisfy, we put together a nice ride from town starting on some local singletrack. We dropped down and did a series of climbs up to the 403, over to gothic and up to schofield pass, to 401 and back to town. I liked this ride quite a bit and thought it was pleasant to end with the 401 even though you still have to climb a chunk of Gothic prior to starting the trail. It took a bit longer than I thought but it was a fun day in the saddle.


The climb up had us seeing funny things.


a lookout on 403


401

We were excited to eat at our favorite CB establishment, the Ginger Cafe. The food was good and the chocolate covered pretzels from the RMCF were a perfect desert.

We decided to take another local trail out of town on Sunday and work your way out to Teocalli ridge since Reno/Bear/Flag/Deadman's was destroyed this year by motos and it was recommended we not suffer through it. Well, Teocalli Ridge was fairly destroyed as well unfortunately.


We did find a couple nice sections that day including this section in the beginning of the ride. Tight rocky twisty trail through the aspens, what could be better?

Then it was ruts, ruts, and more ruts. It's a shame because Teocalli is so beautiful. Parts of the trial were gouged pretty deep and you find yourself just trying to hang on in a steep flume of loose rock in places.



The pain started on the way down. I came around a corner on a very steep section after a few motos had gone by us and there was a fresh sapling across the trail. No time to do anything but try to hold on as I knew this thing was going to spring back once I hit it. Needless to say, I ended up in a group of small trees upside down. Seems the trail was so steep here, moto riders jump off and throttle their bikes up along the trail and someone knocked the tree over in the process, thanks fellas! We were most of the way down so I jumped back on before the egg forming on my shin hatched.

10 mins later, I eat shit again through another rutted section but this time the rocks were a bit nastier. I could feel some damage to my foot but the plethora of bruises had spread my mental reception of pain throughout various places on my body so the foot was not so bad in the moment. Once we got back to town and I got my shoe off though, I realized it was worse than I thought.



yeah my feet are ugly and those blue spots don't help. Getting an xray tomorrow. I have some other pics to post as well from Jessica's camera so stay tuned and happy trails. Maybe I will clean and tune bikes for beer until my foot feels better, any takers?

Spilling cat food

Aside from a few rushing streams, the heavy rain and mountain snow from last weekend is already a distant memory. The rain was much needed (almost 3in here in two days) and the mtn snow in August was a rare treat. I was feeling a bit insane by Saturday though as I was on my 3rd day off the bike. I took a couple of rest days prior to the weekend so a 3rd day off after steady riding all summer, made for an anxious state at times. If I never see another olympic swimming event, I think I will be ok with that. It was one of those days.

Things broke Sunday and we walked down to the North Boulder Park Criterium since it is held 4 blocks from my house. We watched the pro women 1+2 and men masters 35+ before heading out on a ride of our own.



Mara Abbott showed up and breezed through the women's field to victory.



The chasers were served a healthy dose of pain.

Tuesday was a perfect day for a road ride so we headed up to Ward and enjoyed the wonderful weather on the way. Ward from Boulder is a classic road ride that offers about 4000ft of climbing before you reach the town at 9400ft. I love hitting peak to peak after this climb but time was tight so we turned around after we hit town.

The last mile or so before town is steep. Jessica on her way up the final pitch before the always welcome cold water source that runs 24/7.



A shot of whacko Ward from the moving bike with my cheap 4 megapixel 5 yr old pentax.



Toro the "never give up" pitbull and his brother Duc in the background. My 3 day dog and cat sitting party is coming to an end and the boys and I have had some fun times. That being said, I think I am content with my cat for now.

What about the BMX track at the Olympics or even BMX at the Olympics for that matter?!

Crested Butte this weekend

two fer tuesday

The 26in geared IF sold in about two hrs on craigslist yesterday. Good thing because as soon as I had put it up for sale I started thinking again about making it a 96er SS or a 650b or something else. It's going into good hands at least but shall be missed none the less.

At this point, most have no doubt read or checked out the entertaining Bike Snob NYC blog and read his frequently comical, yet highly critical posts. I personally enjoy his blog from time to time and have been amused at the current shadow boxing between him and the Opinionated Cyclist, oh the wasted time.

While commuting around town the past couple evenings, I have been enlightened as to just how quickly it gets dark. It seems we crested the peak of summer a while back but somehow rode right pass the sign. I am looking forward to some fall weather riding actually.

Don't click on this photo unless you want a graphic look at how this poor creature met his demise.


This guy did not make it across the bike path apparently. It had just happened and seemed a callous scene as the killer rode into the evening. We discussed a chalk outline but lacked the means. What, you didn't think we had rats here?

This was painted on the hood of a car I saw in the church parking lot we have to go through to get to the garden. I thought it was interesting.

While the big dogs prepare for such nasty epics as the Vapor125, I am trying to decide if I am up for the 12hrs of Snowmass. I plan on trying to hit a couple short events this month just to see how slow I really am but I would also like to try either the 12hrs of Snowmass or the ST8. I am also planning on the Double Boundary as well. That is a great event and if I can obtain a Garmin prior to the race, (and learn how to use it) I will be most happy. I think it is necessary to have it on this scandalous course but even some riders who had gps last year got lost. I ended up latching onto people who had Garmins after the field and friends quickly splintered into oblivion. Not a strategy I would have showed up with knowing what I know now but somehow it worked and I made it out with Lenny Goodell. I am excited for the 08 edition.

Have you seen the heavy metal monk who has been making the rounds? Pretty tight



Cheers

Dog days

We are finally getting some rain here after a hot and dry June and July. The rides have been enjoyable even though we got caught up high in a very cold thunderstorm storm yesterday. We thought we could make a trail junction and get down but mother nature apparently had other plans. Our PVC rain jackets were no match for the bone chilling hell the storm dealt so our hands and legs were numb and lifeless a quarter of the way down. We finally made to the car for some heat and hot chocolate. Of course it was about 20 degrees warmer down here...

Even more storms hit the mtns early today so we played it "safe" riding on the front range with the crowds and hikers. It was still a good time and I even spiced things up with a nice little washout heading down the trail. Luckily, I busted some of my Shaolin handwork as I was going down which proved 99% effective at avoiding a rather large group of healthy cactus.

I have also been busy this weekend preparing the old geared bike to be set free. My beautiful 26in IF steed will finally stop collecting dust and soon find herself between the legs of another, hopefully worthy, rider. This bike has sat idle for years and should have been sold a long time ago but memories of rides past have had the better of me. I originally purchased this frame from a neurotic bike shop employee who had ordered one size too big for himself. His loss was my gain and the pro deal price he paid, made it quite affordable.



I quickly moved up from a cracked aluminum hardtail that rode like rigor mortis, to a handbuilt steel singletrack railing extension of myself. I have fond memories of being melded to this wonderful creation while floating through the trees with deer like grace. The party ended quickly though as I had purchased a 1x1 around the same time. The IF became reserved for big rides that I thought required gears or after long SS rides that had me sore the next day. I soon realized that I preferred things gearfree and my two wheeled Cinderella has since sat patiently, suspended in some sad poetic tale of lost love while my SS bikes got all the attention.

If you know anybody who wants a sweet 26in Indyfab, give a shout.

Great trails and good times

Fate-n. the supposed force or power that determines events. I have been reading accounts of the K2 accident that happened this weekend. Although I am not personally keen on such epic climbing adventures, I can respect the passion and unwavering determination of those who actually take it to that level. Raise your glass or give a silent nod to the mountaineers who died pursuing their passion.

On to brighter skies and lighter trails. Jessica and I headed down to Salida this past weekend to visit friends and ride some of the beautiful CO trails. We were lucky enough to have our friends Brandi and Eric open their house to us and tolerate a couple of dirty mtn bikers taking over a room in their remodeled Salida abode. They have several wonderful 4 legged family members who kept us quite entertained and even though they were both very busy all weekend, we were able have dinner and share in some fun and interesting conversation Sunday night. All I need to do now is find the funds to buy Eric's incredible home brewing equipment.

Tim and his family also met us there along with a solid motley Santa Fe crew of the two wheeled variety. The first day was set aside for the Monarch Crest trail which of course, did not let us down. Even though this high alpine beauty had us loopier than a prom date on wine coolers at some points, we all had a stellar time mashing to the top high above tree line. The snow fields had just finished melting out the week before so our timing was perfect.




Tim on top of the world



The crew strung out above tree line

I was still feeling a bit sluggish from the weekend before but came around towards the end. For some reason, I figured I would ride the schwalbe tire on the rear with a tube since it was already on there and switch my tire out on Saturday night. I thought it would last at least one ride without flatting but I was proved wrong and got another flat. I quickly applied the 3 strike rule soon after the ride. That tire is bound for it's new destiny as part of a sculpture.

After the flat, we hit a few fun sections right before we dropped into the the Rainbow trail.



Sometimes the trail turns into a stream



Mark stays off the beaten path



Taking a short break before Rainbow trail



Mark, Stefan, and Tim sense that danger could be coming our way



Having fun is what it is all about

On Sunday, we decided to ride Bear Creek from town to a different section of the Rainbow trail and back down to town. The climb up was about what I remembered and the first 2/3 were mighty warm indeed.

We had debated driving up north to hit part of the CO trail to avoid the heat which caused us to miss the rest of the crew who all started the same ride earlier. TT, Jessica, and I met a woman from Breckenridge towards the top of the climb who rode the rest of the way with us. I already forgot her name but she hung in there even though she was not planning on riding the route we took her on. I think she enjoyed it despite a hard slam halfway down.



We even saw MJ out there out there on the trail. Those brakes are baller






This is my bike, there are many others like it but this one is mine

We did this same ride last year but with all the rain they had been getting, we were railing high speed corners and off camber descents like we knew what we were doing on what Tim calls hero dirt. This year, it has been much drier so you had to be on your game or you could find your front wheel quickly taking you on journey downtown.



Tim showing some guts

We had a great time in Salida and hope to hit it again one day soon. It's a fun little town and a perfect midway meeting point between here and NM. What better way to spend the weekend than riding epics with friends.

One quick very worthy side note, while we were drinking beer and riding with friends in Salida over the weekend, the Bach team represented up at the 24 hr nationals in WI. Fran took 3rd in the SS solo class, Dax and Dean won the national title for Duo class beating geared riders on their SS rigs, and Josh took an amazing 2nd to legend Chris Eatough in mens PRO solo forcing the champion to go out on another lap which in his words has never happened before, amazing ride! Great job to everyone who went up there and represented.