One last ride for the year. I went back over to Hall and tried the Antelope side. It was snow packed but very rideable. The sky was clear but there was a sturdy wind which made the 25 degree temp a whole lot colder.
Nice and cold in the shade.
I made it up to Nelson loop but the wind had created nice snow drifts and made the trail not passable on a bike.
Wind at Nelson Loop.
Just about to the Antelope trail connection.
The trail was in great shape and very smooth with the snow packed down.
Dave enjoying the unexpected good conditions at Hall.
It was a good ride, we probably could have rode the whole loop...maybe I'll try that tomorrow. More pics here. When I got home, the dogs had to get out. So we went for another hike. Crosstraining two days in a row!
<-------------------Check out the new tunes.
I rode from my house up into Pinewood and rode up and down some hills. It was Sunny but windy as hell and with the temperature hovering around 20 degrees, it was cold. The blowing snow against my face felt like a nasty subzero sand blaster. 
But, it was good to be back on the bike. I rode about 6 miles with 1800 feet of climbing, not a long distance but it definitely kicked my ass! If I do this more often I'll be in great shape when spring rolls around! 
When I got back, the dogs were looking at me with a "What have you done for me lately?" look on their faces. So, I put the bike away and took the dogs for a snowy hike. The dogs appreciated getting out: 
Blazing Trail.
Tasty snow.
Can you say Blustery?Well, I'm back in good ole CO. Unfortunately, the fam is still there and it looks like a storm is rolling through so they might not get back until Sunday. We'll be driving it next year. I'll have a post of pics and vids from the trip out there soon.
Since I'm a bachelor for the next few days, I'll be able to catch up with some friends. I got out with Jason last night for the Nuggets - Kings game. The Nuggz absolutely pummeled the Kings. Camby had a triple double and Carmelo had his 4th straight double-double. It was good to go to another game before Jason moves to Japan. It'll be a long time before we get to anything like this again:
Jason and I working our way out of BlueJohn Canyon out in Robbers Roost, UT.
I promise to get out to Japan and visit you as soon as I can! I'm going to miss you buddy!
Traveling home for the holidays and we got to go (actually rerouted)through the black hole of travel, Chicago O'Hare. Of course our bags didn't make it with us:
Not Chicago but how we feel none the less. Hopefully we'll get them soon...
Finally got some pics posted of the Barrington Levy show:
The opening band(s?) was Pee Pee and the Pink Hawks. Yep, your read it right. I'm pretty sure they played together but it was really tough figuring out what the hell they were doing. I think you'll get the picture when you view their myspace pages here and here. If the music doesn't drive you crazy, the pink hawks page surely will!
Here's the opening act (Pink Hawks?) doing an avant guard tribute performance in costume to as far as I can tell early Emerson, Lake and Palmer albumn crossed with GWAR. "Tarkus" anyone?? The climax included the club wielding triceratops cutting the head off a camel alien creature. You should have been there!!
The Second act (Pee Pee?) jamming with 15 "musicians" doing their own thing all at once.
The happy group patiently waiting for Barrington Levy to show up.Christmas came early for me...
Good times. Got out with the Redstone crew on a Tuesday night ride. There was a great turn out for tonight's ride (9+ riders). It was also a going away ride for one of the regulars, Cynthia, who will be moving to AK. None of the trails are ridable but plenty of good ghetto snow packed trail around Lyons. I finally met Dave Nice, whiskey distiller extrodinare. He rode the bus up from Denver to Boulder and rode his bike to Lyons to join us. We were lucky enough to try some Port Barrel aged Stranahan's Whiskey that Dave brought along on the ride. It warmed me right up on a 20 degree night!!! I'm not sure why I take pictures of the night rides....
....they just don't come out that well. But at least you get the idea of what we're doing!
After riding around we ended up at Oskar Blue's for some food and beers (where else?!). It was good to get out. Almost forgot to mention that I rode my new single speed Redline Flight Monocog 29er. It's FRIGGIN' AWESOME!!!! I'll have pics soon.
Also notice that my blog layout is changing.... I'm working on refining it! Stay tuned!!
A whole gang of us are going down to the Oriental Theater in Denver on Friday night to see reggae legend Barryington Levy:
This should be saweeeet!!!
So I'm in my office checking voice mails after being out of town and this is one of them:
---Took out the player cuz it wasn't workin'---stupid technology!
Strange considering my voice mail recording has my voice stating my name and that I'm out of the office. I wonder if Jack and Lynn are OK....
Colorado got more snow while I was away. Looks like I get to plow again when I get home. A little Led Zeppelin may be in order for night plowing...
Ab and I met Wilson and Maya out in Longmonty last night at Tortuga's. It won't be long and they'll be in Japan for a LONG time. We'll be hangin' out a couple times before they leave. The drive back home was interesting...it snowed a lot more than Marty Coniglio said it would. I got to plow again this morning instead of going straight down to the cross race in Lyons.
The snow on the trees was absolutely beautiful:
After plowing out, we were able to get down to the race. It was cold (15 degrees) but there were a ton of people there. A few of the Redstone guys decided to race. See more pics here and here.
The course looked fun! Hopefully Lyons will get another race next year.
After cooking up a batch of my famous waffles, I got out on the "Super Rhino" (What it's now called after all of the off season modification) for the first plowing of the winter. I'm a bit rusty and had to work with the blade settings a bit in order to not scrape everything (rocks, gravel, mud) off the driveway. I also got to try out the new stereo system in it. Nothing like rockin' out to some classics (Thin Lizzy, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and some others) while your pushing snow around! Not bad for the first effort of the season.
After I plowed. We got the kids out for a little sledding action. Most of the terrain here is more geared for "Extreme Sledding". I'll have to explore that option later. We took it easy around the house. I think 6 more inches of snow would have helped.
I forgot to mention in my last post that I received my DVD copy of "The Long Way Down", Ewan and Charley's 2nd epic motorcycle trip. This time they rode from jolly old England to South Africa. I can't wait to watch it!!
In honor of our beautiful snowy weather, here's some reggae from our neighbors to the north:
Work has been keeping me off the streets lately so I haven't been doing anything "blogworthy" lately. Its been a couple weeks since I've gone Mountain Biking and it doesn't look good for this weekend:
Even with the incoming snow, Lyons is hosting the Colorado Cyclocross State Championships. It should be a really wet and cold good time. The wet and cold has also got me thinking about a bike that I can ride more easily year round: A single speed. Namely the Redline Monocog Flight 29er....
That is of course if I get to actually ride bikes anytime soon. Maybe Santa will bring me one that I can enjoy in cold cold January when everything slows down...
Speaking of cold good times. A friend of mine sent me this today:
It's quite unbelievable that snowboarders are still not allowed at 4 ski resorts in the US. Snowboarding saved skiing for all of us. Over half the people sliding on the snow now are snowboarders. Poach, but poach responsibly and respectfully!!
The video also inspired me to want to get back up on the hill. I gotta get a day in before Christmas.
Anyway, here are some pics from the previous weeks craziness:
We had a retirement party for my folks with the Montana Mafia. What an AWESOME group of people!!!
This is what happens when you leave a neurotic dog (that isn't yours) alone in a dog pen. She raised some hell in my shed. Damage: Several bags of pellets destroyed, One bag of bug killer destroyed, Screen for window destroyed, smoker + cover destroyed, gate to pen (not pictured) destroyed. Needless to say, we won't ever take care of this dog again.
Ah, an activity that is surely going to become an annual event: Visiting Santa's House with the kids. Maybe next year they'll want to sit on Santa's lap. I thought he looked a bit suspicious too!!
Hey kid!! Get out of the street. A nice cold evening watching the annual light parade in Lyons.
Nothing beats a relaxing hike at the end of the weekend.
