Hump day

Nearly halfway through Wednesday. I'm still tired from the Rockygrass festival and I'm a bit sore from the ride last night. Thanks Dave for taking some great pics. I've been really lacking on posting pics of my rides lately. Coulson Gulch is one of my favorite rides, I'm definitely going to have to get up there a couple more times before the end of summer.

"Gut Feeling" by Devo has been stuck in my head since I heard it between segments on NPR Monday morning.

It was playing on my in-head soundtrack last night. It went great with the swoopy singletrack we were riding. I'm really itching to get back out again soon. Check out that album art. Those dudes are so nerdy they're cool!

The golf ball reminds me. We're headed up to the high country this weekend with Ab's sister Michelle and her husband Dave. Sounds like we're going to chase the ole white ball around a green field. Golf isn't one of my stronger activities. But as long as there's a lot of beer involved, I'll be in good shape. I'm really looking forward to hanging out with them and getting away from the heat down here. With any luck, I'll be able to get a ride in too.

On a totally unrelated note. Beau and I had lunch at Tacos El Fogoncito on North Main in Longmont. One word describes the tacos: Spectacular. If you want authentic mexican tacos in a clean restaurant, look no further. Tacos El Fogoncito will definitely be added to our lunch spot rotation!

Friday Hallucinations

TGIF my friends. It's been freakishly HOT and work has been rather craptacular to say the least. But Friday always seems to be the light at the end of the deep dark outhouse of a tunnel.

Check it, my drive to work takes me about 30 minutes or so. I used to stop at the Stone Cup to grab a cup of coffee on the way in but found myself pounding three more cups of coffee once I got to work (probably not the most healthy of habits but I'll elaborate more later). I usually listen to NPR and take it easy on the commute. Today was no different, I was jamming to Steve Inskeep and Renee Montagne subtly express their support for Obama, passed the big cowboy on 66, checked the how much power ball was on the gas station sign ($68 Million), and then it got interesting. As I turned onto County line road I saw a glider doing acrobatic maneuvers over Union reservoir. I didn't think much of it other than it was pretty cool. But then I thought I saw the following:

Yep. That's Airwolf my webtacular friends. I saw this helicopter doing Airwolf like maneuvers over a field very close to the glider. As I got closer, it turns out that it was just giving the corn crop healthy dose of chemical spray. I attribute this hallucination on not having any caffine in my system at that point. It sure would have been much cooler to see an explosion with a helicopter flying upside down.

When I got to work, I drank like gallon of coffee and checked out the news on MSNBC.com and ESPN.com. Did you know that the birdman is coming back to the Nuggets?? With news like this, I had to share it with Beau, Jevan and Robert. Things like this generally turn into a giant string of emails usually resulting in some sort of obscure call out to something related. This string ended up mentioning how Marcus Camby was totally screwed by the Nuggets, how Kareem Abdul Jabar probably still has game and finally how Arvydas Sabonis was probably one of the best all around centers. That's right, Sabonis kicked some serious Lithuanian ass! Don't take my word for it, check out the highlight reel complete with music by Van Halen!

I wish I had passing skills like that. Anyway, it's always good to talk about sports, especially basketball.

I'm cutting out of work a bit early today to get over to Planet Bluegrass for the big festivus. I have tickets for all three days. It should be a good time. The first act I'm seeing is Bela Fleck:

It will probably be a whole lot more bluegrassy than this but cool none the less.

Have a good week y'all.

Been getting some riding in lately...

I've hit the last three Tuesday rides and feel like I'm getting stronger. Jamestown last week was really fun. Check out the pics here and here. This last weekend a few of us got a nice ride up in Peaceful Valley after a family camping trip. Both were really good. More to come...

Summer Gets Busy

Man it's been busy the last few weeks! We went out to South Dakota for a family reunion at my aunt and uncle's ranch. What a cool place. It had been 3 years since the last reunion and instead of only one child (ours) at the event, there were 5. Wow, time goes fast. Here are some quick highlights of the trip:

My uncle Randy has his own runway and and plane that he built himself. Notice how the plane says "Experimental".
Randy took me up in the plane and showed me the sights. Not too many people get to see Mt. Rushmore from this vantage.
Back at the ranch, I was able to get my brother Beau and Abby out for a mountain bike ride. I think this is the second time Abby's been on dirt. She did great. Hopefully I can get her out again soon...
Beau rode my Turner and rode the Blue Beast. I think Beau's convinced he needs a new bike.
Beau riding across a bridge near a weird church camp near by. The downhill to the river was pretty loose and rocky. He didn't walk the bike once.
We took the kids to see Mt. Rushmore one day. Very touristy but worth checking out. Notice how there are people on Teddy's head. On the 3rd of July they have a spectacular fireworks show that takes them a week to clean up from. We visited on the 4th... I'd say that's SUPER AMERICAN!
On the way back to the ranch we had quite possibly the worst lunch ever at the Bumpin' Baffalo Saloon in Hill City. Highly recommend eating anything but what this place serves. Our burgers were burnt through and the french fries even sucked. Typical tourist town.

On the way out of town we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some supplies. I stayed in the truck with the overtired, sweaty, cranky boys while Ab ran in. I was able to get a pic of this guy waiting for his lady...where's your bike dude?
Once back on the Ranch I was able to cut out and go for another ride while the rest of the family went for a walk up to Randy's hangar. I had done some research and found a map of a trail called Loop 15 from a Acme Bike shop in Rapid City. The map seemed easy enough to follow and I showed it to Randy who grew up in the area. He said that it was right across the road and I could cut into the middle of it via a forest access road and not have to drive the trail head. Perfect! So I headed out at 2:30 in the heat of the afternoon with a stomach full of nasty Bumpin Buffalo food.

I found the forest access road easily and stumbled upon the single track crossing it within 5 minutes. "Wow", I thought to myself, "this is almost too easy!". Foreshadowing anyone?? The trail was sweet and I was able to follow the map pretty easily until I got sucked into the wonderful singletrack and stopped checking the map to see where I was. There were open meadows:

and tight windy tree sections throughout the ride.
I went through a couple rivers, mud bogs, over log bridges and flew on tacky black windy dirt trail until I realized that I was lost. Not, hopelessly lost but mildly lost. I had come to another intersection with a four-wheeler trail and lost the singletrack. The thing about the Black Hills is that it all looks the same and there is almost no point of reference to help you find direction like the snow capped mountains on the front range of Colorado.

So what do you do? I say, WWBGD? (That's What Would Bear Grylls Do?). Remembering an episode where Bear gets dropped in the woods somewhere and follows a river down to civilization, I decided to use the same tactic. I followed a trickle of a stream to a creek and finally more of a rushing river. I could feel that it was taking me in the complete wrong direction but I didn't want to bushwhack in the forest and risk getting even more lost. The good thing is that I ended up on a pretty heavily traveled dirt road and talked to a couple guys on four wheelers who pointed me in the right direction. The bad part was that I ended up riding an extra 10 miles or so on top of what I had already ridden (20?) and was nearly out of water. I made it back to the Ranch almost 4 hours after I started and got roaring applause from everyone (15+ family members). It turns out that Ab was starting to form a search and rescue party to go out and find me. Needless to say, she was not happy but glad to see I was OK..... I'd so do that ride again!!

Because there were so many people at the Ranch, a lot of us stayed in tents. This is the mega tent we stayed in for the 4 days:
The boys did great in the tent. So good, that we ended up planning another camping trip with a bunch of Lyons families a few weeks later....

Scraps is the Real Deal!

2-Year-Old Donkey Called Up To Pro Donkey Basketball League

Back to South Saint Vrain

I took a complete week off the bike and the leg is feeling a lot better. The good news is that it hurts only when I walk, not when I ride. This allowed me to get out on the Tuesday ride which Intense Bicycles had their demo van at. I was excited to try out a Spider 29er in XL but alas, no love for the big man. Jeff only had Mediums and Larges in the truck. Probably just as well, I really don't need a new bike....but wants usually out weigh needs!

The ride was up near Peaceful Valley again but instead of the near epic into the dark, we rode the middle section of the ride. The exact part of the ride I wiped out the week before. Needless to say, I was a bit more timid on the downhill portion. Here are some pics of the ride:





Good views and no major wipeouts. Tuesdays are good.