Here we are at the end of another week. Time flys. I've been meaning to post about the last Tuesday ride but have been a) busy and b) somewhat hurt from the ride. I was psyched to get out for a long ride and did pretty well until I went into a turn a little too HOT (I guess a little over confident too) and performed a high speed endo ejecting me over my bars. One of the guys behind me said I did two complete flips before sliding to a stop head first on my back beside the trail. My right leg is pretty banged up, to the point where I actually went to the doc to get it ex-rayed to make sure nothing was broke. Luckily it's just a deep bruise on my shin. I also broke my helmet (needed a new one anyway). The good news is that the bike suffered no damage! It's crazy how rocky our local trails are compared to what I was riding in Montana; back to rocky reality!
Dave climbing Sourdough trail. 12 riders strong.
A view of the Indian Peaks
You gotta love a ride that requires lights even though it's one of the longest days of the year. Check the Redstone blog for some other pics of the ride (the turn after the long singletrack straightaway is where I crashed). I'll be staying off the bike for a few days.... until Tuesday max. A bruise isn't going to keep me away from the weekly ride. Plus we'll be riding Buchanan Pass, a really great ride.
This weekend Lyons Good Old Days are happening this weekend again. Time for Ab to get her 5K run on and the boys and I to check out the amusement rides put together by seedy biker dudes.
The lights in the pic above remind me how some friends are going to Vegas for the weekend in celebration Robert's 40th b-day. Happy b-day bro. This one's for you:
Another end to the week. Yes, it's FRIDAY! Sure would mean a lot more if I wasn't on the road seeing customers still. But I really can't complain. It's not everyday that you see spectacular views like this:
Flathead Lake looking south towards Polson
I took the Flathead Lake shot while driving up to Kalispell to visit the new Sportsman Ski Haus store. This store is quite possibly the finest outdoor store in the Rocky Mountains. Trust me, I've been in a lot of stores and this one takes the cake...probably the pie, milkshake and banana split too.
While I was in the store, I asked one of the bike guys where I should go for a ride that evening. "Dude, I'm more of a Freeride specialist. You need to talk to Alex." says the bro-bra behind the counter. Alex then comes over and explains how to get to "The Pig Farm". Pig Farm eh? I had visions of:
Wow. Can you imagine that thing coming after you!? Anyway, the trail is bit down the way from a pig farm and as far as I can tell they just call it that for direction purposes. Alex also added while describing the trail that its like a big plate of loopy spaghetti. "There are trails that go all over the place and it's easy to get turned around. Don't get lost!" Yeah, sure, gotcha, I won't get lost... The trail(s) was spectacular. A lot like the ride in Missoula with flowing tight singletrack.
I rode for about three hours looping all over the forest, going through meadows, past lakes and then I thought..."Don't get lost". Holy shit, am I lost?! Which direction was the trailhead anyway? It was East, definitely East or was it? It was difficult to get to a vantage point where I could see distant mountains. The trail(s) was completely immersed in thick tree cover. I decided to head East using the moss on the North side of the trees as a guide. (I'd like to give a big shout out to Survivor Man for cluing me into the moss thing. Les Stroud is the man!) Unfortunately, with the loopyness of the trails I seemed to be consistently heading away from where I wanted to go. A couple times I ran into private property and had to turn around. Eventually I ran into some trail that I recognized and successfully navigated my way out of the spaghetti maze.
I was relieved to see my car. It would have been interesting to ride with someone who actually knew where to go. While I was driving back down to Missoula, Alex gave me a call to invite me to a shop ride in the same area. I'm sure he was checking to make sure I made it out alive. "I didn't want to mention it while you were in the shop but one of the mechanics here got lost there last week and ended up spending the night out there. I'm really glad you had a good time and got out of there." Wow, is that what you tell everyone you send there? I gotta say that I had a great time even though I was mildly lost for part of the ride.
It's really green here in Montana. The views on the way back down to Missoula were excellent:
The Mission Mountain Range
Back in Missoula, I got back together with my work partners in crime. Denny called me this morning at 5:45 to get me out for another ride. At this point you're probably thinking to yourself "Tree, are you actually working up there?" Yes, yes I am. The days are wicked long (as they would say in the East -- Hi Brian!). You can easily get a ride in before or after the work day, I just choose to tell you about the good stuff in my day! Where was I, ah yes the ride with Denny. He woke me from a dead sleep to go back up to Rattlesnake wilderness area. I'm glad I did. This time we ended up doing about 4 times the climbing we did the time before and got another 3 hours of riding in. A perfect way to wake up in my book!
I'm pretty sure I could live in Montana. Big Mountains, good mountain biking, good fishing, shoot it's an outdoor paradise! I have a couple more days up here and then I gotta get back to CO. Have a good weekend everybody!
I'm on the road this week in Montana. I visited some cousins in Bozeman last weekend and then moved on to Missoula for work on Sunday morning. It's been a while since I've been up here and it feels good to get out and see family, customers and friends that I haven't seen in a while.
Another good thing is that I brought my bike with me (yep, mixing some pleasure with business!). One of our customers gave us a recommendation on a trail we should ride; Rattlesnake National Rec Area. Itching to get out, Denny and I got up early this morning to enjoy:
The trails are a lot different than Colorado. Nice tacky smooth dirt without a lot of rocks.
The snow just stopped falling in Montana last week, so the forest was green and lush with moisture. Looking back at some trail we climbed up.
Looking down at Missoula
I had a hard time not taking more pictures of all of the great single track trails.
Denny bombing through a lush meadow. The grass was about knee high and was covered with dew. In the pic above, Denny went over his bars about 20 yards earlier. After flying over his bars, he slid like a slip and slide on his butt through the grass. Good times!
I'm up in Kalispell for the next couple days. I have a ride planned with a few guys from the Sportsman's Ski Haus for tomorrow afternoon (after work) at the "Pig Farm". Not sure what that is going to entail...
Driving for hours in my car, I've been listening to a lot of my XM radio. On the way up to Montana, I listened to XM's coverage of the 2008 Bonaroo music festival. The best acts I heard were Willie Nelson, My Morning Jacket, The Raconteurs and Metallica. That's right, Metallica. I'm not a big Metallica fan, and I usually end up changing the station if I hear it. But man, they effin' ROCKED! I'm still not going to listen to them reguarly though. I also have the following tune stuck in my head:
This video from Argentina was the best version of "a song" by Pablo Moses I could find. I'll try to get a cleaner version posted soon. I do like how he shouts out how "some of the best footballers in the world come from Argentina". Solid. Real Solid.
Great Gogelely Mogeley! What an awesome morning ride at Hall! I know that after 140+ posts on the blog that at least 80 of them are about Hall Ranch but I couldn't resist showing off some pics from my ride this morning. I went up Antelope and rode three loops at the top (clockwise, counter-clockwise, clockwise) on the Blue Beast. I didn't see a soul up there until I was about halfway down Antelope.
Riding on the North side of the Nelson Loop. Green Glow. This photo of Longs and Meeker is getting a bit cliche but damn I couldn't resist! It's ULTRA GREEN up there right now and morning light almost makes it glow. God, I love it when nobody's up there but me!Looking East towards Longmont.
The Blue Beast was the perfect weapon of choice this morning.
Some fuzzy antlered friends on the way through Apple Valley.
Not a bad substitute for the Tuesday night ride as I'll be out of town for work tonight. The ride does sound like it will be fun though. Yeah, there's a couple of pics of me on that link riding with Dave and Scott up in near Johnny Park. It's only June! There's plenty of good Mountain Biking to come!!
On Saturday, Ab and I got out to work on the new Picture Rock trail that is going to connect Heil Valley Ranch to Lyons. 225 volunteers helped build over 8400 feet of trail! Big props to Dale and Oskar Blues for putting on a BBQ and supplying 4 kegs of beer. Here's some pics of the day's events:
Walking in from Lyons. "L" mountain is on the left side of this pic. Walking to section 15. Notice how there isn't a trail yet. Still walking in. Bush whacking to get to our section. Looking back towards Lyons.
Some completed trail.
Walking back to Lyons via the new trail!
Abby walking back to Lyons, looking forward to the ice cold Dale's Pale Ale.
There are going to be some nice fast sections in this trail
A crew working on a nice bench cut in the side of the hill.
Check out a lot more photos here and here. Boulder Daily Camera story here and here. It was really fun to be a part of such a big event!
Last weekend was a good time. Ab ran a 1/2 marathon in Steamboat (where she kicked some ass!) while the boys and I stayed home to enjoy the Lyons Outdoor Games and Redstone Cyclery's Re-Grand Opening in his new location. It was great to have a weekend with just me and the boys...nobody got hurt and everyone got fed! Check out some youtube footage of some of the L.O.G.:
Yes, it's good to live near Lyons these days.
On Monday I got lucky and was able to ride Coulson Gulch with a friend from work. We had originally planned to ride Hall Ranch before dinner with a customer at Oskar Blues but they cancelled on us last minute. Since I had the hall pass from Abby, what was I to do??? Get a bigger ride in, that's what!!
To make it even better, I followed it up with the Tuesday night ride the following day. Six of us met in Jamestown for some Tuesday night punishment. I don't know how many feet we climbed but it felt like several thousand! Check out the picks:
It was a nice rounded ride with two "nut deep" ice cold stream crossings. A beautiful sunset at the "top" of the climb (there was a lot more climbing after these two shots).More climbing...
When we finally reached the down hill section, it was a mix of nice tight single track and technical steep rocky sections. I was toast after the ride and looking forward to some Oskar Blues goodness. Unfortunately, I got a call from Ab that one of our dogs was missing and she couldn't find him anywhere. I asked if she had looked in all of the usual hiding places, including the car. She said that she did, so I ended up going home to search. After an hour hiking through the woods up and down the hillside, I couldn't walk anymore. Totally exhausted, I just went to bed and skipped dinner (Probably better for my body anyway foregoing my 3 beer and fatty burger intake).
The next day there was still no sign of the dog. Ab sent out several emails, made some calls and made a fist full of fliers. She had my mom come up to watch the kids while she posted the fliers and did some more searching. As she was getting into the mini van to start the search and rescue expedition, guess who greeted her in the car. Yep, the dog. My question is this: How does a 100 pound dog hide in a minivan?! Ab said she checked twice. Right. I'm sooooooo going to use this situation to my advantage.... I see an extra ride coming my way soon!
Dave climbing Sourdough trail.
12 riders strong.
"There are trails that go all over the place and it's easy to get turned around. Don't get lost!" Yeah, sure, gotcha, I won't get lost...
The Mission Mountain Range
Looking East towards Longmont.
