Bad Feet

Last week's 'group' evening ride had me on the Ridgeline Trail in Castle Rock for the 1st time. Fun, fast & flowy, especially fast if you were in the lead group, which I definitely wasn't.

Jaydude's mechanical issue

I tried to hang for ht 1st lap around, and was glad to just keep them in sight. We stopped to re-hydrate, then headed back out in the opposite direction. Never saw the fast group after they left the parking lot - the 3 of us in group 2 had no idea of which turns to make. Supposedly all rights, except for the several rights you had to avoid. Due to our casual pace, we were able to turn on our lights for about 15 minutes & finish in the dark.



Rolled out to Bailey on Saturday to volunteer for the Hundo. PBRMe!, slow & I rode sweep for the single-track portion of the ride - starting at west end of CT & eventually (only 2 of the group) ending at the Platte River.

All smiles

Slow & Dangerous

About 16 miles in, I felt something strange on my left shoe

While rolling over a root on Charlie's Cutoff, I felt something weird & thought my left foot had unclipped. I checked it out & found that the sole of my new left shoe had cracked. It was still usable, but was pushing against my foot the entire time - not painful, just very annoying. 


We kept on moving, & on our way up 543, we came across this strange sight.

This bird was skewered through the neck. Our CSI skills concluded that it must have been swooping down on a snack & misjudged, taking itself out in the process.


We then passed the Meadows campground are & headed CCW on Green Mt. While climbing a relatively smooth surface, I felt an eerily familiar feeling on my right foot. I looked down to see this.

Feeling left out, my right shoe gave out at mile 33

This time, the entire cleat surface had given out, making it impossible to clip in again. I was just able to keep my foot balanced on the pedal, but any bumps sent my foot flailing into the air, plus the cleat was being pushed straight up into my foot - on the verge of being painful this time. 


Fortunately, we ran into The Chad a bit after. He was parked at the 543 lot, so I limped my way to his truck to get a lift back to the finish line. While waiting for him to finish his ride, the sky opened up - big time! It dumped rain, hail & brought heavy lightning down on the area. It was brief, but violent & had me worried about my fellow sweepers, who should have been around the Burn area, or across 126 completely exposed to the elements.


Rolled back to Bailey & saw a slew of finishers come through, congrats to all!! Tried again to reach my compadres, but still no luck.

Sean rocks it for the 3rd yr!

About 90 minutes later, I was relieved to finally get a call from Kevin telling me they had made it to the Platte, narrowly avoiding being struck down by Zeus, but unable to avoid the hailstorm. 


It was a great ride, until my wardrobe malfunctions, and I ended up with a good feeling of helping out all those who suffered all day in the Buffalo Creek area.