Lyons Fat Tire Festival Saturday Ride

Saturday was the big day of the Lyons Fat Tire Festival. Dave planned a ride that would take us from Estes Park to Johnny Park near Big Elk Meadows.

The drop off point in Estes Park. There were over 40 people on the ride!

The train of cars shuttling for the end of the ride.

Eight Dudes in a minivan headed back up to the top.

The chaos back at the top. Did I mention there were more than 40 people on the ride??!!


The first big uphill grind.


A break to wait for the rest of the bike gang.


The view looking back towards Estes Park.


Sometimes you just can't ride up it.



We were on Forest Service roads most of the day


Is there a storm moving in?


Rolling through. The start of a nice decent.


Carnage from Dave's last Fat Tire Festival Ride?


A short cut through a nice stinky mud bog.


Mud and more mud. What's a ride if you don't get dirty?


Meeker up close and personal. The weather held for us all day.

Many of the riders opted to cut down Johnny Park to the cars. 15 of us decided to ride out via Coulson Gulch.


Ripping down some nice single track.



This guy ran into our group half way through the day. Notice how he isn't wearing a helmet. "I guess I'm just too hard headed..." Idiot.


A gnarly and steep section.


A great overlook of North Sheep Mountain.


Ron taking it in.



Dave and the "Fixie".



Sweet single track.




With more on the way...


After paralleling the river for a ways we crossed this bridge.


Over the Mighty St. Vrain River.


Looking back on the climb out of Coulson Gulch.



Finally, back at the car and the new Turner is well broken in.


Cold Dale's tastes so good after a long ride!



The Coulson crew reminiscing about the epic ride.

What an awesome ride! We rode over 28 miles with 4000+ ft. of climbing. I can't wait for next year! Check out mtbr.com and here for great pics of the ride.

The Green Hornet is Pissed!

I picked up my new bike from Dave at Redstone today. I can't believe all of the levers and buttons on the Turner. It's going to take me a while to figure everything out. I rode the short track by my house a few times to get the feel of everything. There's no excuse other than fitness level now when I go on rides with the other guys...

The Green Hornet meets the yet to be named Turner Flux. Notice how the pedals have been pulled from the Hornet.

The first ride on the short track. SWEET! I can't wait to take it over to Hall Ranch to really see what it can do!

Walker Ranch Tuesday

I met a bunch of people up at Walker Ranch for the Tuesday ride. A few of the guys decided to ride "Super Walker" where you ride up Flagstaff and then do the Walker Ranch loop. Fitness wise, I'm just not quite there yet. The weather was perfect, overcast and 45 degrees. No mud from the heavy storms a day before; just nice tacky dirt. Unfortunately my pictures turned out like complete shite but I've attached a couple anyway.

The Green Hornet is about on it's last leg. The rear derailleur is bent and the chain is toast. For much of the ride I was dealing with some major chain suck and gear slippage. Not fun when your trying to ride over obstacles. Dave let me know before the ride that my new bike would likely be done by the weekend. I'm not in a big hurry as I'm out of town most of the next two weeks. However, I will be in town for the Lyons Fat Tire Fest Memorial Day weekend. It would be nice to have a ride under my belt before the epic planned on Saturday.

I forgot how hard the climbs are at Walker Ranch (or maybe I'm just out of shape!). The last time I rode Walker was when I lived in Boulder with Snack-Size and our neighbor was Dirty Steve. There's some nice single track descents that I had also forgot about (it's really pathetic that I stopped mountain biking for three years). I'll be coming to this trail again sooner than later. Hopefully Dave and the crew will be planning some Tuesday rides near Pinewood soon. I'm itching to learn the trails up there....

How the World will Most Likely End...

I found this link on Drunkcyclist.com and it brightened my day in a very dark way. You'll understand when you check it out....

http://www.endofworld.net/

Mother's Day weekend

Saturday Wilson and I rode Heil Ranch. The weather was perfect and the trail was in good shape but I don't think I'll be riding this trail any time soon. It wasn't that the trail was busy but the kind of people on the trail. There were lots of folks without any trail etiquette; either bombing down the hill and not stopping for the people going up or riding your back tire until you let them by. It had been a while since Wilson and I had rode together. Sometimes it's nice to take it easy and shoot the shit while you ride.

Everything is incredibly green in Colorado right now. I really wish it would stay that way but I know it's going to turn brown and ugly by July. We rode one loop to the left and made our way down. The rocky trail made me wish I had full suspension with more than 60mm of travel that I currently have on the fork of the Green Hornet. The top of Heil has a nice view of Hall Ranch. We took a break to take in the view. I'm sure that Hall Ranch was a complete nightmare with the parking lot overflowing with weekend warriors.

After the ride, I headed over to Redstone Cyclery to talk to Dave about the new Turner Flux he's putting together for me. That's right, I made a decision and pulled the trigger. The frame comes in on Monday and should be put together by next weekend. Just in time for me to take off for a sales meeting and not enjoy it right away. Really, it's OK as I have been lolly gagging about on which bike would be best for me and fretting on the decision. Completely my fault. Anyway, I'm as excited as I was when I ordered the Green Hornet. Pictures of the new steed (to be named) when I get it.

Ab's dad came in on Saturday night. He will be finishing the bathroom that I demolitioned a couple weeks ago. I'm excited to have Roger working on the bathroom as he and Karen will be using it more than anyone when they come out to CO to visit. Roger will make sure that the bathroom is remodeled right; I couldn't be able to say that if I did it myself.

On Sunday Ab ran the Title Nine Mother's Day 9K race at the Boulder reservoir while the boys and I stayed home. Everything was going great until Arjen hit Sage in the head with his shovel in the sandbox. It was totally an accident but definitely made a nice "Tom and Jerry" waaaaaaaaaaaaang noise when it happened. YIKES!!! Fortunately Sage only had a small scratch under his lip from the incident. Ab "happily" reminded me that this is a reoccurring event on Mother's Day for me because Arjen fell out of a wagon I was pulling him in the year before. He also had a scratch on his face. All is well.

After we put the kids down for nap I went exploring around our property. Since the day we moved into our house I have been talking about making a mountain bike / hiking trail around the property. Today I finally jumped on my bike to see if I could make a viable route. After about an hour and a half I made a loop back to the house with two flat tires from prickly pear cactus. Some of my route was existing trail, but a lot of it was potential passable trail. It may take me 10 years to build it but someday it's going to be a killer mountain bike course!

My parents, bro and his girlfriend came up for dinner. We cooked some steaks, drank some beer and hung out. It was good to have everyone up at the house to relax a little before the busy week ahead.

Left Hand Canyon Ride

I was able to partake in this week's Tuesday night shop ride. This week the plan was to meet in Left Hand Canyon for some sick climbing and steep down hill descents. The ride did not disappoint on either aspect. Once again I was the only guy in the group with a hard tail bike and conventional v-brakes. Everyone else (8 other guys) had full suspension bikes with disc brakes. "Wow, you're going to LOVE the down hill..." All I could say was "What else am I going to ride, it's all I really know any way."

We started the climb out of the parking lot and went up, up and then more up. It was a heinous uphill super climb. I held my own but was consistently at the back of the pack. At some points I had to get off and push the Green Hornet up the hill. It didn't bother me; I was outside and away from work.

After about an hour of climbing, we finally reach top and had a great view of Boulder in the distance. I caught my breath as the others looked for potential single track lines that they hadn't seen before. No luck. Now for the fun part -- Down Hill. The rest of the gang took off like bullets down the jeep road riding over big rocks that the Green Hornet just couldn't take as easily. But no worries, I wasn't there to race.

I caught up a short distance later as Chris L hit a sink hole and ate it pretty good. Half of his face was covered in mud. Luckily he was not injured and could continue the ride. A single track veered off the jeep road and the REAL fun started for me. The single track started smooth but quickly got super steep with baby head sized boulders all over the place. It takes a lot of finesse to ride a hard tail through something like that! Just as I thought I had adapted to my new trail (the other riders no doubt at the bottom already), the trail turned into a seasonal creek. Perfect. Baby head boulders and now water too!! I felt like a turtle. Slowly but surely I'll make it down. And I did after a couple good wipe outs in the cold water.

When I got to the group again, I think a lot of them were surprised to see that I was still alive. I did get maximum props from a few guys and that helped me up the final hill of the ride. This hill ended up being more of a hike than a ride. But the single track down to the cars was well worth the hike. I'm definitely going to need new brake pads after this ride; I pretty sure I burned them right down to the metal.

At the parking lot Dave asked me if I'd ever go on a Left Hand ride again. I have to admit, it was one of the most difficult rides I'd ever been on but I answered "Without a doubt. I'm already looking forward to the next time." I think one of the most fun things about riding with this group of guys is the fact that I really have to push myself to keep up. It's really good motivation to keep riding and get better at it. Six of us met back in Lyons at Oscar Blue's for some beers and food. All in all, its a great midweek break.

Dbaser took some great pics of the ride on the redstone cyclery underground blog (I'm the hard tail guy).

The Mountain Bike Gods Shine...

On Thursday I planned to go for a ride at Hall Ranch. As I neared the foothills on my drive after work the sky was dark and threatening. I assumed that my ride was not going to happen but continued to the trail head as rain drops the size of VW buses started falling from the sky. When I reached Hall Ranch I could see that the sky was getting brighter to West; a really good sign. I put my gear on and started to ride as the rain was still falling. The dirt was nice and tacky but not muddy. At the first technical section of the ride, the sun poked out and the sky turned from dark and gray to bright blue. There was not a soul on the trail. Hall Ranch was mine!!

I rode two Nelson loops at the top and didn't see another Mountain Biker until I started the first down hill section on Bitterbrush. It seems as though a lot of people were frightened away earlier by the dark sky but all came out at the same time when the sky cleared. I'm still a bit timid on the second down hill section as it's a lot more technical. I can't be breaking any bones right now, there's a lot of people counting on me at home and work.

It's supposed to rain all weekend. Tuesday will probably be my next opportunity to ride.

Denver Nuggets Fan Discussion

I was invited to a Nuggets fan discussion on Tuesday night. The discussion group consisted of 10 season ticket holders, a moderator (Marc) and note taker. Marc's goal was to get our feelings on the Nuggets and the arena. Overall, I think the Nuggets do a great job. There are some little things that would make the experience a bit better for me:

1. If the ball is in play and you haven't made it to your seat, you should have to wait until the next dead ball. Too many times I have missed great plays while someone has been trying to find their seat.

2. The Nuggets need a better Hustle board. The current board is weak and only lists overall rebounds, assists and blocks for each team. It should have the stats by player and include offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, assists, blocks, charges taken, etc. Much like the Rose Garden does for the Portland Trail Blazers.

3. Cull back on the three ring circus antics. The Nuggets have way too much going on during dead balls: Nuggets Dancers, Rocky the mascot, cheerleaders, The Mod Squad, The Golden Nuggets, The Mini Mod Squad, Party Patrol, etc, etc, etc. It's too much. I'm there to see an NBA game not a circus.

The funny thing is that many of the other fans in the panel had the same thoughts as me. Other great ideas from the other fans:

- More support from the ushers to get rid of unruly fans and keep the aisles clear.
- Have a better fan appreciation night. We got a poster at the Nuggets game. The Mavericks gave out open ended airline tickets to everyone in the arena. Not that the Nuggets have to give plane tickets, but something more than a poster!!!
- Open more practices to season ticket holders.
- More contact with the players for season ticket holders. i.e. meet the player events.
- Something other than "Bam Sticks" for the playoffs.
- Turn down the house lights during the game so people focus more on the game. It's really bright in the arena

There were some dumb ideas too:
- No booing of any sort. (Really??!!)
- Turn down the music. (You're clearly getting too old.)
- Less skimpy clothing on the Dancers. (Come on. Really, Really??!!)

All in all it was a good discussion. It was fun to be around people who are as passionate about the Nuggz as my family is. I assumed that because the group was small that we would get something cool for participating, i.e. a Carmelo Anthony signed jersey. They gave us Nuggets key chains. Wow, what a bunch of cheap bastards! I drove an hour down to Denver for an 8:00 pm meeting that got out at 9:45 and then had an hour drive back home. The least they could have done is pay for my beer at the next home game. Oh well. With any luck, maybe some of the changes will be made for next season...