Monday, August 31, 2009

deer creek fifo

alarm goes off at 4:15 am yuk! But it woud be a waste to miss seeing the sunrise from high atop deer creek!





Quick descent to the bottom and off to work, smiling the whole drive in just knowing i was lucky this morning! Thanks for coming down my way guys!

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Lost Creek




major storm rolled through the buff creek area earlier in the week and left some hellacious sand traps and washed out areas! So the bottom of gashouse/baldy was a mess.

Got a 30 min late start as we were waitin on a few to show up, and nobody at 6:35 so we rolled out. Leaving a trail of arrows and notes along the way. Spike was out on an earlier ride and left his own trail of breadcrumbs for us. Eventually we met up with spike and moved on. It was getting dark at nearly 8:00 and we had alot of riding to do yet. We heard some coyotes in the distance and as we strayed apart on the climb up the Colorado Trail the group in back encountered some aggressive coyotes howling and chasing them. They howled more and louder Jay (pictured above) was armed with his slew of cold beers but just as he was drawing them out the coyotes appeared in the form of a mountain goat(jeremy) and bad andy with grins on their faces. Jay said he thought he was going to get eatin so turns out he was going to drink the beer not defend himself! ;)
Took a break at wellington lake road enjoying the load we were carrying. Then on to the rolling creek trail. haven't been on this before other than with cody and we didn't make it too far. He was on a 1x7 back then and didnt want to climb out of there. So all new trail at night is even better! Lush and green a few creek crossings and then the wilderness boundry and no bikes so we take another rest and chat enjoying the calm night and bright stars with an occasional vew of the half moon.


Got to the top of the gashouse/baldy intersection and we are laying on our backs looking upward taking in the quiet i pulled 1 last cold pbr out of my pack and cracked it and the pressure release got the attention of the other 3 riders. OF course id share it with all. We regrouped and headed to charlies cut off. Jasons light went out, i knew we were pushing the 3 hr. limit on our batteries. I had mostly used the bar light and only the spot on the descents so i felt pretty good mine would last and they did. Sandy wash was a washed out rutted mess! It made for some interesting maneuvers to stay upright and i took it easy and rode them all out, no crashes!

Got back to the truck at a little bit after 12:00 am. That is a long ride from starting at 6:30 lots of stops and breaks but a good ride! I was feeling it. some 32 miles and +3600'

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

cowboy up

Hit some new local stuff yesterday, cowboy up is the first section that heads south off of East West trail. Which will eventually connect cherry creek and chatfield. Everything in green is new. you can click on the pic to get a larger view.
Did a good job on all the signs warning of tight turns which there are plenty of. Nothing technical at all pretty much buff dirt but has a lot of whoops to keep the speed down. Imagine one long pump trail is basically what it is so its pretty fun. Just enough uphill to keep the legs going! I pretty much hit everything twice and looks to be about 5 mi. or so of new trail.






ran across a pretty fresh pile of scat that looked to be bear, full of hair and scrub oak and berries so that is all i can imagine it was from. Prob. from earlier that morning. This is a trail that is only open to hr residents, and on weekends im sure they will be checking cards for a while. Not a bad little loop from the house came up with about 23 mi. and about +1600 for the morning. No rattlers but definately their enviroment! Saw a few options for some good downhill only trails if they are open for suggestion.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

friday night at bc



We are just so lucky to have all this within a 40 min. drive from home. Even though home used to be about 15 min away. Spike makin quick work of lower sandy.
Not sure if that was the score of my wheelie that ended oh so wrong or Jerry just happy to not be riding the leadville 100! Way to get that 4th buckle my friend.
Brenda is happy to have a new Karate Monkey frame! Just don't break this one!
Cary joined us and officially kicked ass on his new yeti! And miss maddie wonderin why we are stopped again!

Cut our original plan a little short due to a few things but that is mtn. biking and made a group descision to try again next week. Hit the new reroute section and found some more bc goodness. There is so much terrain that makes for perfect trail building and routing options that just make sense! Can't wait to hit that again. Got up past the creek crossing and we all just kind of stopped and started looking up at the stars and probably a full minute passed without anybody saying anything. Just enjoying the clear night and stars as bright and vast as you could see! This is what it is all about not how long a ride or how much we climbed but just bein out and doin what we love! Hangin with you guys and of course the Dales at the end wasnt all that bad either! Headin back up for round two next friday!

Monday, August 17, 2009

plans change

lack of pictures but no lack of fun! It may be me or the camera not sure. Met up with Jeremy at 6:00 on the alameda side of GM and took lower loop over to catch Bad Andy who overslept tried to pull a kevin and bail. But Jeremy had none of that! I was still a bit sore from shleping boxes the previous day, not really but sort of.

Took dakota ridge down to the road and on into morrison after a rather lengthy flat change by me. What 2 in two years of riding and these guys are all over me to go tubless, im on it. Stans or ghetto set up real soon!

Worked our way over to mt. falcon and began the grind. Some guy walking on the highway up mentioned we were crazy that it was freezing out. ?? GUess he doesn't know we ride in Jan. when it actually is freezing out! Been a while since ive climbed falcon and it hasn't gotten any less steep! Just a little less rocky near the top, booo! We did a quick parmalee loop and old ute then headed back to the ruins where jeremy broke off and i decided to stay out a little longer. Andy and i hit pence down to lair o' the bear where it was some slow going as it was getting busy at the bottom. Then out to the highway and a descent into morrison with some path back up to gm around and back to the truck. somwhere near 38.5 mi and +4820' good ride! Gotta do this a little more often. Planned on headin to bc on sun. to build some trail but didn't happen. Thanks to all those who went up and worked!


Worth watching!

Friday, August 14, 2009

Bergen peak


Rick, Chris , Jay and myself made up the t.i.t.s. group this evineing. headin to bergen peak form bergen park. Got to our singletrack connector and it was closed off. So we hit the wide gravel path up to the goods. Perfect temps but still hot on the climbs. A high school cross country team leapfrogged us as we climbed bergen peak trail. Here is jay showin how its done.

Rick thinkin that pbr tastes pretty damn good. I made him haul it himself, not carrying 7 pbrs to the top of this mtn.!!



Was a short ride only 13 or so miles but some good climbing and i stayed upright through a section that had me over the bars lastime up here so i was happy about that! Toyed with hitting GM on the way home but the wind had me thinkin about an early evening and callin it good.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Rides and Meetings

Thursday night ride consisted of attending the OSAC meeting in golden. Hit up GCB for a cold ipa beforehand. Gotta remember they fill growlers there! Meeting went pretty good. A little long but at least all parties got their say in the matter and suggestions for user conflicts and solutions at Apex Park. More here. Then Andy, Jason, Mike and i headed for Ironworks to park and ride up to green mountain. Loop i had in mind worked out good timewise. On the summit loop trail i rode within a foot of a skunk scurrying under the blast of light from my amoebas! I stood up and pedaled as hard as i could without getting sprayed. I stopped and waited to warn the others! That would have been a night out on the deck for sure!

I missed Mountaingoats ride on sat. to go up and help rebuild a deck in bailey with some help we got what we had planned done for the day. Was good to get outside and work on something other than painting. Carpentry is not one of my better skils but managed just fine and had alot of fun.





Eric, black n white and i headed up to buffalo creek early on sun. morning. Ridin by 6:45 thanks to eric for accomidating my short time frame to ride. I know that is hard to do on such a beautiful day! And it would have been real easy to just keep riding if not for codys hockey game.
Nice and mellow climb up gashouse and these two day a week rides well, thurs. was short. But would be nice to get out a little more. Once we hit the green mountain climb my legs felt pretty good and was hanging with eric, just glad he was out for a stroll because it was nice to stay with him for once. Black n White is always fun to ride with!


Just about 3hrs. even 22.5 miles or so and 2500' of climbing. Back home in time for the game.

t.i.t.s. ride this week should be good- bergen peak!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

They're off!



The Colorado Trail Race started this morning at 6:00 am. You can follow the leader board here.

i headed up to waterton early to get up to lennys before the racers went by saw this guy waiting for the sun to come up to warm him. He was very slow, prairie rattler near as i could tell.
First singlespeed up to lennys, Doug passed by and hollered at me, but he was too fast to get a picture.
Nick on the left and ? Rode with nick up at bc a couple weeks ago on a t.i.t.s. ride. Here is Dave nice poppin out of the sun rays crankin the fixie.

passed off a little care package full of snickers minis. Your due dave!

Rode the rest of the roxy loop takin it easy as its still hard to hang on to the bars with a sore thumb but wasn't gonna let that deter me from a ride. Just a short one and home by 8:30.