Labor Day Weekend

Wow. A Labor Day Weekend without having to work a ski sale. It was weird, but I managed to have a good time anyway! The family, Beau and I all went up to the Vail valley for the weekend. I had been itching to ride Two Elk trail for most of the summer and was finally able to ride it with my bro on Saturday:



Beau starting up Bowman's Shortcut on his brand new Tuner 5-Spot. Bowman's Shortcut is a brutal climb but knowing you'll be going down hill all the way to Minturn later makes up for it.


At the end of Bowman's Shortcut is "The Top of the World". Fantastic 360 views. Does that green shirt make me look fat??

More views....

Looking at I-70 climbing to Vail pass.

Single track leading off the top of the world and into Vail's back bowls:
The trail below the back bowls was smooth, fast and beautiful. There were plenty of flowers still in bloom. Unfortunately this is where the battery went dead in my camera. It's sucks too because there was a lot of cool technical single track in the gully leading to Minturn. Beau took a few big falls and has a grapefruit bump on his shin and a bum thumb to show off. Here are the stats for the ride:
Of course we didn't just ride on this trip to the mountains. Ab got a good road ride and swim in on Sunday while I hung out with the boys. That afternoon the skies opened up and it rained cats and dogs. Perfect for an afternoon concert at Copper Mountain. Beau got us back stage passes to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band show. And it was good thing too because we had covered seating:
The show rocked and the kids had a good time. After the show Jimmy the drummer invited us back to have some food with the band. Well now I can cross a couple things off my list:
go back stage during a concert..... check
hang out with the band and eat good food.... check

On Monday Beau and I were able to get out again. This time we went back to Minturn and hit Meadow Mountain. The first 4.5 miles are a grueling 2200 foot climb. This bit was the worst of it:

After cresting this hill we got to the top of the climb and took a break at this homestead:
This cabin is in great condition and still has the beds and stove inside. The single track started to the right of the cabin. That's where the fun started:
Past a pond and down into a forest of pine and aspen trees.

The trail was nice, narrow, winding single track.

Beau rocking through Aspens even with a bum hand and leg!
I think I took about 100 photos of this trail! It was beautiful all the way down.

Through an open meadow and down into Eagle Vail:

The trail actually ends on the golf course. There were some angry golfers that were not happy to see us cross the course. So we back tracked and found a way to the road between a couple houses.

I liked this ride better than Two-Elk and would sure like to ride it again before the snow flies. Here are the stats on this ride.

But it gets better! On Tuesday I made the Redstone ride. It was a lights mandatory ride and 5 of us rode for a couple hours in the forest before heading down to Oskars for some beers. Three rides in 4 days! What's not to like about that!!