24 June 2010

Celebrity Sighting

Spike had feeling back in his legs, so we did a laid-back cruise of BC w/Brian Tuesday morning. He also had his broked up Ground Up resurrected by Chris (Podium29ers). It looked real nice, with a bead blast & clear coat by Precision. (which helped me to decide on the upcoming Xvelo paint scheme). Spike was quite pleased to be back on his familiar steed.

CDR is on & racers are rolling through our way. I figured te one place I could get in a pedal & catch any of them would be to roll Como-Breck. So Wednesday morning saw me getting outta bed early & cruising to the mountains again. I saw that Matthew Lee had passed through Tuesday evening, but I thought I might have a chance to encounter either Blaine or Erik on Boreas Pass Rd. Unloaded in Como & dragged ass up Gold Dust, feeling the past week of riding in my legs, & the lower content of oxygen in my blood.





Spikefest 2010, here we come! Real nice dirt for the most part, with some little puddles in the flumey middle section, then a few more sections of running water on the top 1/3. 







Popped out on the road & chilled on top for a few minutes looking at my map to figure out what I wanted to hit on the other side. Decided on just popping into Baker's Tank & following it down to the lower parking, then taking the easy back, grinding up the road. Had my plan, so started the 4 mile coast to the tank. Just a bit before I got there, I saw a loaded down rider & knew it was a CDR-er, so I turned it around & rolled back to find it was Erik Lobeck. Chatted with him as we headed back up to the pass. He had both derailleurs blow & 1 other mechanical that cost him a lot of time, else he would still be rolling with M. Lee way out front. He was enjoying the weather in CO after dealing with nasty conditions in MO & WY, & hoping he wouldn't hit any monsoons in NM.




A Pixburgher wheels his way north-south.












I wished him good luck & turned around just before the pass & rolled back down again & popped into Baker's Tank trail.





















Great fun & great conditions! At the bottom trailhead, I met a group that had about 25 bikes hanging out - found out they had a hockey camp going on & were taking the kids on a bike ride up the road to the pass. Nice cross-training!! Left them & did the grind back up, really feeling the weight in my legs this time.




Used this spot as a good excuse to stop & snap a pic of Goose Pasture Tarn.










Took another needed breather at the pass before bombing Gold Dust - which was soooo much fun now that I had an enormous 80mm of front-end cush. The high-country trails are ready & willing!!

After a nice lunch & searching flights in order to get mom a long w/end out here (Yeah!), I hopped on the beater to meet up w/Steve & attend the MileHigh All Colorado Tasting event @ Lucky Strikes lanes. All the usual suspects were there - GCB, Wynkoop, Upslope, Avery - as well as some others I hadn't seen. Guy Drew Vineyards & Garfield Estates both had some tasty reds...and since they were on super sale at the store, I swung by to grab a few bottles on the way home. Making some stuffed manicotti tonight, so one of those will go well with dinner.

20 June 2010

Summer's here.....

The Mercury is rising, & so am I.
At least in elevation, we got above Idaho Springs last week, led by the Goat up a loooong dirt road, then down the gnarly Warren Gulch trail in the dark.


We rode up above that waterfall & it was cool.






Good stuff!
After reading of the road up Waterton Canyon closing soon, I felt compelled to hit up that & some Indian Creek Friday afternoon. Did the 'long loop' around & was spent afterwards.



Saturday brought me to BC, as the Bailey Hundo was in effect - no chance of me riding it myself, just went to support/cheer on spike, as well as others I recognized (The Chad, Nate, Looney). Spike came through Aid #3 looking/feeling good.






Go spike, do a wheelie!!








He took off, so Bryan & I put in a quickie pedal around GM, down Tramway then back up Gashouse & followed the course markings along Millers, Charlie's & Sandy Wash. A nice easy pedal felt good after feeling like Hell the previous night.


Sunday, I had an urge to get really high, so I headed to Kenosha to see if I was able to make it to GA Pass or not. Recent reports & weather had me thinking it would be all clear.






No surprises yet......









Above treeline & looking good. Only 3 drifts just before this, which were easily passed.








Almost there........the breaks were becoming much more frequent.














Mandatory cheeseball pose.....





2 SS dudes I ran into near lunch rock, who smoked me on the way up there. They had a Father's Day kitchen pass & rolled Kenosha-Breck. Heard reports of 1/2 mile of drifts close ahead, but they decided to go for it. Hope ya made it, gents!!








Horribly slow time up & back, but glad that I made it up so early in the year. Everything on the north side will be definitely be gone by the time Spikefest rolls around....no slogging over a dozen 5' drifts this year!!

01 June 2010

Win with Jets

Coulda used some sugar-coated goodness yesterday.......the pedal & heat whooped me up but good.