jackpot

It was far too hard to get motivated today, but after a really late, albeit short night ride yesterday, and a really early morning sat class, i was seriously wanting some couch time. but such was not the case.


I think that in this past week, I've exceeded my recommended annual dosage of upper fourmile road by 10000%. yeesh, it kinda stinks that its the only way to get to some really sweet riding, but alas, not everything is perfect.


Headed up the opposite side of the potato route from last week with intentions of visiting the Pennsylvania region. but got sidetracked by a small ribbon of trail that dropped off the side.



Ended up on a trail that had clearly seen little to no human use in the past half century or so. straight down bouncing off the babyheads trying to avoid the larger fallen trees and the new ones growing right in the middle of the trail(perfect height to grab your handlebars and flip you over onto your back, by the way) I took another spur that traversed through the dense shrubbery and ended up on some random-ass forest service road which, in turn led back to the Swiss Motor Speedway. due to some time constraints, I had to cut the adventure a bit short, but potential has been located. mmm yes, yes indeed.

mmm... potatoes

two helpings of potatoes in the last two days. hard riding, trying to clear the bad out of my legs. up the switzerland yesterday. alone in the clouds, halfway up I hit the real moisture. pin pricks on the skin as up in to the grey fog i followed a sole other pair of tire tracks. exited early in favor of the most excellent route back down. chilly descent that made me glad I had thrown in the lobster mitts and an extra jacket. out to marshall mesa after that for a good 50+ mile day.


same route today, but in exchange for clouds and rain were bright sun and high temps. I have to say, I much preferred the rain. certainly not the same views, but theres less things to worry about when you're climbing in the fog. no big world out there, just the thirty feet around you. not as hot, not as loud, not as distracting, maybe you cant see very far, but you dont need to. everything is revealed just when you need it. popping out of the mist just long enough to register it's presence, and then it disappears behind you. Its also cool and fresh not to be suffering in the heat.

Battle the Bear

Spent the majority of yesterday in the vicinity of bear lake state park yesterday for the race there. the race is not super fun, but thanks to a change in course, there was a fun section of twisty singletrack through the cottonwoods along the river. finally had the legs to punch it for most of the race, and right now it feels like the training might be paying off a bit. finished second. Even though some of the faster kids are in cali for the norba, I was still pleased with it. hopefully there'll be more of that to come.

hide and seek

When i go riding and look out over all of it. all of that which surrounds us, something tells me there must be something more. some other treasure to dig up... so sick of riding the same five trails again and agian, i set off today on a quest to uncover something with some real value.


Armed with a small scribbled map from some ye olde topo bits, i went up the arroyo to find something. poked around and found one of the routes scoped on the aforementioned map. but rather than some nice trail as promised, its a pair of tire tracks labled as a "wildfire evacuation route" or some bullshit like that. sweet. after you pass right underneath the 10 million dollar house's private tennis court, you pop near a cool area of sunshine. tried to follow another trail there, but it think that was more of a couple deer tracks. have to keep looking. I think they're hiding from me.


rode around a lot more, trying to get to the emancipation mine, but no such luck, I got to like 200 vertical feet below it, and right as I was taking this picture I got a bit freaked and moved out. I'm usually pretty good when I ride by myself, but I think my imagination got away from me.



So I was stopped here to take a picture of this huge hole in the middle of nowhere, listening to my ipod, and all of a sudden I hear something behind me. not like a rustle or anything, but do you know what it sounds like when you've got music going and somebody tries to talk to you and you hear them but not very well and don't know what they said? well it was a lot like that. I coulda sworn somebody said something right behind me. scary? yes. dangerous? probably not. I didn't wait to find out.
Well that was far too long to write about a ride that wasn't that exciting. but it was nice to explore in the cool cloudy weather. very nice indeed.

time to let the legs rest this week, another super walker last saturday, and some nice rainy weather of late. keeps it cool and tacky and clean, thats how i like to ride. unfortunately it seems as though the higher hills have accumulated several inches of white. prolonging reasonable bicycle adventures in the high country for another week or so.

A Pot of Gold

first super-walker of the season yesterday. definitely one of the better rides so far. It was a kind of warm rainy day that I spent cooped up with an ap calc test, and we haven't had real precip in quite some time. No that it was a lot yesterday, it just made everything clean and not dusty. which was nice. Even though walker is not a spectacular trail in many aspects, just having some variation was so nice, a small bit of unpredictability is always good.




The weather looked really threatening over near pinecliff, but nothing materialized except for a nice shower on the switchbacks and a bit o' thunder on the way out. Managed to see no one on the trail other than mike headed in the opposite direction (and a ton of post work folks in the parking lot) but it was nice to be able to just ride.

Chalk Creek Stampede

Just got back from msc numero dos in Nathrop, CO. As far as a weekend goes, I could think of worse ways to spend it, maybe. lots of time in the dust and the sand and the sun. Spent lots of time suffering and attempting to replenish depleted glycogen stores on a flat dusty course. Those folks down there could definitely use some moisture. Off the gun you couldn't see anything but a small swatch of color hovering in the haze a bike length ahead of you. Not that fun when it's a big-ring fire road. I guess some of my riding has been paying off as I broke top ten. still not great, but its loads better than fruita, and its getting better.