Snowblind

It's been warm lately.
So warm, most all the trails down here are dry & some of those up higher are getting better.
Got out a few times week - it was both full of pain & joy at the same time. Got in 4 rides: 3 Sisters/Evergreen, C. Cone, Bergen Peak, & 3 Sis /Evergreen again.
Was pleased to get my out-back time at the Cone down to 2:25 Tuesday afternoon, racer boy styley.
Hit up Bergen w/e, spike & avion.nomad, who all proceeded to punish me & put me back in my place as the Omega rider. Only 2nd time riding there. I hit it up once just after moving here & got so beaten up that I avoided it like the plague since then. The Bergen climb was tough, but in the end I liked it much much more than Mt Falcon. Being in the trees rather than in the blazing sun makes a huge difference. Even with the new squishy bike, coming down was also a workout. I have to admit I even got off & walked through 2 sketchy sections - Say what you will.
The next night, joined up for the T/I.T.S. ride at Dedisse/3 Sisters/Evergreen Mt. Started out w/7 - 4 of whom were east coasters. Felt the after effects of the previous days' rides as we hit the climbs. However, once we started rolling down of Evergreem Mt, all that was a thing of the past. Fun & fast descent!! As we were about head down the techy section of Sister's trail, Funrover came rolling up, as he had arrived late & got in some solo miles.

Took a shot at the FATS trail today. Left Gtown & headed over to Silver Plume & had to roll the path since the conductor was making it difficult to hit the singletrack over there. Headed up to Pavilion Pt & made it there quicker than I expected. Couldn't quite remember the entrance to FATS & put in an extra mile or so turning around, before realizing I had to go further.

Did the hike-a-bike for a bit until I succumbed to the cold, white nasty stuff. Didn't know exactly the layout of the trail & didn't want to get off course, so I gave up & headed back down.

The next section of singletrack was hidden to my eyes. Could be b/c I'd only ridden it once & followed the Goat, or b/c of all the construction going on. Barriers erected beside the road, so I had no idea where to turn off & ended up rolling G Pass Rd the whole way back into town, and continued to the east end of town to hit the Silver Creek? trail. I love this section of trail: a slight grade on the way out with fun tech the entire way.

Turned out to be a lovely CO day - too bad I didn't get all the dirt I was hoping for.


.....next time.

Directives

Yes, sir!
I shall obey.

Traffic Jams outside of Golden?

Aye aye, sir!
Your word is my command, Sheldon.








This week, I went back to hit some faves that I ain't been on for months.
PBRMe! moved this week's T.I.T.S. ride to Tuesday since he had to leave for Vancouver Thursday morn, so the Rig has it's 1st taste of 3 Sisters & Evergreen Mt that night. 
We met at Nate & Rachel's place to roll through Dedisse to do the normal route around 3 Sis & up the Mt. GotDirt tried out Nate's WFO for the ride & was quite pleased.
I finally had the chance to unlock the Fox fork & truly give this suspension fad a try while descending Evergreen Mt. Oh yeah! The difference was amazing - normally the Monkey is clanging & banging through the rocks, while the Rig was as  silent as a ninja slipping in through the window. Only thing I heard was the rubber rolling the whole way down.
Terry enjoyed the descent as well - the grin on his face had to compare to mine as we were both enjoying the cushion for the 1st time in a long while.


Work got cancelled for Friday, so I decided to get back to one of my favorite weekday morning ride - Centennial Cone. I wonder if the Monkey got jealous, cuz when I went to load up I found the rear tire on the Rig was dead. 
No problem, CC ain't got nothing that needs cush, just fast rolling fun. 
When I arrived, I was astounded at the great work on the new parking area, as well as a much better entrance to Mayhem Gulch trail.

The new Mayhem lot. None of those cars, 'cept mine, were there 2 1/2 hrs ago!






CC was just as fun as the last time I was here. No monstrous lung-buster climbs, nothing too techy, just a nice 21.7 miles of ST that gives you a good workout & keeps ya honest. The sun & heat have done some work b/c it was Dry as a Bone today.

Out yonder is the 1/2-way point.








Thought I was gonna luck out & be all alone at the cone. Didn't see one soul the whole way out to the north parking area. But, by the time I got back over the rocky high-point, the others started to show up. Ended up seeing 11 riders & 4 hikers....weekdays at the cone are allgood. 

And now for something completely different!

Met up w/canyonrat, PBRme!, s.s. spike & av boy to head west outta the 543 lot.

Nice weather, so already at 9am the lot was starting to get filled.

Yep, the rumor's true.
Today my bike was cleaner than Jerry's!
However, that should be the only time we'll let that happen.

Wait a minute! Who's bike is that?









C'est le mien.
I shocked everyone with my new toy today.
As I hinted at in previous posts, I've sold out & gone front squish on a major-brand bike.

Never fear, it ain't got no shifting pieces. You probably won't see any of that on one of my bikes for a long time to come.
Been comparing bikes over the past year, trying to come up with what I would roll next. Schemed up lotsa options, tweaks & ideas, & the Rig ended up being the best value only a bit above my price range.

As for today's pedal, Spike led us around some lesser-known routes, eventually working our way out to the wilderness boundary.



Coming back from there, we ran into nomit, who was making his attempt at mountaingoat's spiderweb ITT. 4h40m into it & he was looking good. After what seemed like eternal climbing (spike was leading, so whatdya figure?), I was finally able to unlock the bouncy thing up front & see what happened. It took some time to get over the thought that I was running on a flat tire, and when I did: WOW! Those FOX things are hella fun. Ran out of water just before reaching the CT-tip top of Shinglemill, so I was dragging ass to the bottom on our final sweet descent, but still smiling.

lubes is pleased! A nice break-in ride of just over 40miles at BC.


PS - It's an Al frame, so, who is in for setting up a pool on when I break it? You know it's gonna happen, but how soon?.

Sold Out

Gang Green used to rock. Their tunes from 'This is Boston, Not LA' are their best (which I've mentioned several times as being THE BEST hardcore compilation).
This 1984 7", 'Sold Out' is still on the better side of their stuff, before they changed their sound to the more stadium-oriented rock shit that they went to later in the 80s.


From KFTH:
"Two great hardcore songs on the first side, similar to the Boston Not L.A. tracks but with a little better recording quality. Chris Doherty's vocals are fuckin great. Side two is a dub version of "Sold Out," kind of interesting...                                                                                                        -CHRIS"


From FlexDiscography:
"Their debut 7” remains their best release, along with the tracks on Boston not LA. Ultrafast Boston hardcore, excellent drumming, good production, wild and powerful. A hardcore classic, except for the ultra short playing time. [9]"


It's ripped from green vinyl, it's gotta be good, right?!

Download here.
Speaking of selling out, you just wait........

Extreme enough for ya?

Right you are, Ken.

As for bike riding:

The Front Range 50 at BCLP was last Saturday, so Steve & I pedaled over w/supplies to enjoy the day by watching others suffer.

We found a nice vantage point to cheer on contenders & non-contenders alike over some breakfast beers.........started out hi-class, then immediately dropped to the bottom of the barrel.

'Twas a nice day to sit back & watch, rather than punish ourselves like so many others did. Saw some whom we recognized (avboy, nomit, besoft, kerkove, looney & yuki), along with some other happy riders we befriended by heckling/cheering on. Fortunately, Oskar Blues had some kegs lined up, so we continued our day by the start/finish zone, as the coimbined effects of the sun & beers started to kick in stronger.

After seeing the results, Steve headed up north to meet his family for a younguns party (w/adult bevvies which he tried to use to coerce me into attending), but I wanted to save some energy for the next day's ride - on dirt, where it counts.

I decided to punish myself the following day, by linking up BCLP, Mt Falcon & Lair o' the Bear. Did most of the trails at BCLP, then surprised myself (just a little) by walking a bit less than the last time going up Mt Falcon. Still walked a bit, but pushed my old, fat body a little further this time. The entire time, I was asking myself what I did wrong to ask for such a punishment - I hate that hill more than any other I've ridden!

As always, going down Lo'B was a Bl'ast! By the time I got there, it was getting a bit crowded so lots of stopping occurred. (which couldn't be said for the Turner guy I kept catching, who almost took out a few riders more than once. Finally decided to chill out for a few & give him some room so I wouldn't run up his ass so quickly.) Ran outta water as I was back in BCLP on the way home, and the sun was bearing down on me.

After enjoying 5h10m of Sunday's beautiful weather, I rolled back into the garage feeling quite spent - which is good seeing the crappy weather Mother Nature has in store for us starting in a few hours.

Ready for something else extreme?

Stay tuned.........