I think winter may have left us permanently... Its a bit sad, and its making terrible spring fever.

Compared to last week, these past few days have been moving slower than a snail on horse tranquilizers. Time flies when you're having fun right? well then it makes sense that school has the innate ability to make it slow to a crawl. No skiing as of late. from stories I hear, the mountains are in pummel mode, but out here... well you could say the weather is balmy at worst. It does make for nice riding though. Wanker trails on tuesday with the devo crew, played around on mike's spot in hopes of an idea of what a new 29er may bring. rode up the link trail today with brae and mike. nothing notable to speak of. so let the pictures talk.

Isn't it Wonderful?

How sweet life is when you can escape everything, go to Fountain Hills Arizona, ride fantastic trails for a week, with awesome friends, enjoy the weather and most importantly, not go to school. Ahhh...
I would say that Fountain Hills (Home of the world's tallest fountain)is not were you would expect to find sick riding. definitely more of the kind of place where every single person is over sixty, loaded, and driving around in a brand new shiny car. The most popular activities include socializing, golfing, shopping, or, if one is feeling particularly active, strolling. The above photo was our backyard. yes indeed, it was posh.

Asides from the overpowering displays of wealth, there was rad riding to be had. We put in some good miles all over the place, McDowell Park, South Mountain, Trail 100, good stuff. The trails were well built and went from fruita-esque rolling flowy singletrack to steep, loose, rocky techy stuff. and all surrounded by lush albeit poky foilage.

The weather was awesome too. 65-75 degrees the whole time, partly sunny, and no WIND.


Went with the devo crew, Ann, Alec, Brae(pictured), Ellen, lydia, matt, jill, nick and myself


Also, fruit grows on trees down there(I know!) and since most of the houses are second or third homes... you could say that life hands you lemons (and oranges and grapefruits) mmmm.

So, we leave the place where the trails flow like lemonade, and us warm weather riders flock like old people to fountain hills. but it was fine, truly fine.

not a lot of writing lately, I've been busy with school and such, lots of work to get finished this week. It kind of sucks, usually we dont get this kind of work load until the end of the semester yet its only february. I've also been sick, so not a ton of activities to write about. been drinking echinacea tea and popping chi-restoring pills every chance i get. trying, unsuccessfully, not to let my throat feel like it got a twice over from a belt sander.
two days of skiing and four riding this past week, remarkably warm weather down here, just a lot of fucking WIND, while eldora has a killer base. yesterday we double pulled up this fairly steep and long hill, three times. my triceps feel like they're about to fall off. today, rode the wanker trail for a good hour. any north facing aspects are getting enough sun to melt the snow just enough to turn it into the consistency of peanut butter, not melt it off. Other than that, and the WIND, it was such a nice day, blue skies, warm, far better than homework. the WIND, i only mention in capital letters due to the fact that i have put in a hundred some odd miles this season, and with not a single WIND-less ride. And i'm starting to get sick of it.

A moderately epic dog walk

Now most people, including myself, would scoff at the mere though of the words "epic" and "dog-walking" being used in the same sentence. But after this evening, I believe that changed. It started with a simple jog up to the top of the hill. no big deal. just a little half hour jaunt. I'll take the pooch, get a workout, be home before dark. yea... right.
It began benignly enough, the snow made the trail slower, but the light was still good. I let Eoulus(the dog, whose name is pronounced yo-lus) off the leash seeing no harm in it, because no one was out to bother, and he runs better anyways. By and by we made our way up, and upon reaching the top, i looked at my watch. apparently I'm more out of shape than I thought, the climb took a good fifteen minutes longer than normal, and It was now mostly dark. looking around, I noticed that eoulus was a quarter mile down the ridge, right on the heels of a bunch of deer that were bedded down behind the rocks. After a lot of whistling and yelling, i got him back. At this point I realized, oh shit. its almost completely dark, and I've got a good ways to go down with almost a thousand vertical feet of drop.
Rather than take the trail, which weaves all over, i opted for the most direct route, down. whilst on our way, I began to think of the stories of mountain lions and such. not good. so i picked up a rock the size of a baseball cap and started talking to the cat. "Okey doke big kitty, you don't want to eat us, we're just a couple of scrawny runners, nope we won't taste very good at all." Hmmm... no bueno. but, we made it, safe and cat-attack free. so while it wasn't that exciting and you're probably telling yourself "wow, that was a really bad story" I can tell you that it had potential to be very, very epic.

January Thaw

So thanks to the lack of precipitation and warm temperatures (relatively) in the 80304, we have been able to enjoy the luxury of participating in two wonderful sports at the same time.I dont know why but it seems like every time we get into the middle of winter, somebody flips the switch, and we get several weeks of sun and above freezing temps. thus there has been skiing up at eldora after school almost every day, and lots of riding. Its not actually that much riding, but considering the fact that last year I didn't touch my bike till april, it feels like a lot. Most of the rides are boring, road rides with serious WIND. Got the green machine some new rubber, a 21 in back, and cables/housing, so its impressively functional albeit slow on the flats. Went out to hall earlier today, trails were clear and dry up to the loop, where we turned around and came down. a two litre of coke at the lyons store, and a long, very boring spin back on 36. Thank god there were lots of roadies to ring our bells at.
Skiing at loveland

Mike's new belt drive

trying out oakley's new high-coverage riding glasses.

Nordic Log: last week~65km, season to date~361km

A good classic yesterday up at eldora. Zarlengos and porqupine with some petersons and roller coaster thrown in. felt completely thrashed, which is wierd, cuz it wasn't a particularly tough week. It was still really nice out there.

A day up at loveland today. extremely varied I would say. went from man-eating-bullet-proof-sestrugi to creamy trackless pow in seconds.

And finally, the day ended with some antics, crazy punk stuff, like buttering somersaults and headstands.

Nordic Log: Saturday~12km, Season to date~296km

two days of tough nordiking with the team this week. Classic intervals out on beavers and mill iron. Skate speed work on wednesday. pretty frickin chilly at hell-dora. good for some start green. not ch7. looking at the leadville loppet and the cb alley loop for this year. maybe.

Rode the wanker trail yesterday. Not all bad, considering its the first ride all season, i couldn't find my riding shoes. Definitely felt very rusty. and a good wake up that low profile cross tires and steep, ice covered descents do not mix very well. only one dab though.

got to try a brand-spankin-new spot 29er belt driven singly. as far as i can tell, it preforms very well on hardpacked dirt roads. word.

Perfection

perfect ski.
perfect route.
perfect glide.
perfect kick.
perfect tracks.
perfect snow.
perfect light.
perfect weather.
perfect music.
perfect zarlengo, antelope, and jenny.
perfect.

Today~17km, Season to date~264km.

as a continued testament to why loveland ski area should NOT try to be hip. check this. (warning: while this subject matter may be conducive to laughter, experts have noted that severe side effects, including nausea and a burning sensation of the eyes, have been observed. Proceed with caution.)

I was not aware that a completely flat box was able to make an utter fool out of this many people. Some of the boarders aren't that bad, but if any skier looks like they're pulling something sweet, I guarantee you that the photographer just closed the shutter at an opportune moment in the flailing mess.(except the guy with the libtech skis.) So, whats the moral of this story? Do not come to loveland with the intention of displaying your jibbing, steeze-ness, park riding capabilities, or any other manner of new school riding. chances are, you'll just get made fun of.