OhSo Happy Land

two days, two ride days (on top of fridays date ride), pix below. holy cow, hope you have a bit of time ;-)

SATURDAY 5.24.08
In the spirit of continuing to re-name all of the trails on the front range, our ride included the following trails:
Year of the Ox to
Red Roll to
Fore to
Sleazy to
Secret Old Stuff to
Pinball
and then home, repeating Fore, Red Roll, Year of the Ox

Start of our Sat ride, just before Year Of The Ox

snow like this on evans -- at the end of MAY!?!? out on Secret Old Stuff

last time we were here, it was christmas day

fun stuff, straight from the house!!!
going up on Pinball

ed clearing the fun stuff!

ed clearing more of the fun stuff

that previous section lead to this section, still going up on Pinball

which ed also cleared, darling!

Pinball, going down

SUNDAY 2.26.08
Well, Sunday maxed out at 47 some odd miles, and 6,500' of climbing. it was a STELLAR day, even if it did take me 1/2 the ride to find my climbing mojo again.... i have words for the internal worlds i reached on this ride .... but not right now. they'll have to wait ;-)

two things, tho:
1.) any pic w/ me in it, is credited to ED
2.) all other pix, which are all out of focus, are credited to me ;-)

Our route:
Day Dream to
The Road to
Organic Cane Juice to
Bristle Meadow Downs to
Recharge Hill to
Haunted Valley to
Pine Cone Valley to
the Zoo to
Forbidden Fruit to
No Mans Land to
This Mans Land onto
Icing and down to
The Road and
back up Day Dream

one note: except for the first and last pictures, these pix are completely out of order

starting out in STYLE!! ed surprised US -- me -- with Susan's jerseys!!! we rode in a trio of matching jerseys this fine, LONG day ;-)

Team Nutcase + Mateo (who took the picture, and who must have forgotten his pink jersey)

mateo goin' up

a ghost lives here. it was playing with my camera, but it wouldn't show up in the picture. but it did tell me that ... i should keep smiling like i was.

one of many high points

you're only allowed access to Forbidden Fruit if you can find your way (+your bike) through this puzzle, after climbing up here. you'll have to trust me when i say it's slightly more difficult than it looks. the Way is easy, accomplishing that task w/out flatting is another ;-)
and YES, this is the gate to Forbidden Fruit....
and NO, i don't have any pix of Forbidden Fruit. Ask Ed for them

ed, gettin' his ROLL on!

moi!! ... way back on Bristle Meadow Downs

i have so many perfect explanations of this picture it's slightly absurd. for now:
steve: 'it's RIGHT over there, I swear'
mateo: 'but the map.... it says... something different. where are you at, dude?'
ed: 'i'm too sexy for my shorts! (and i know right where i'm at)'

just one of the countless breathless views that treated our day

'darling, i see you taking pictures ... no, i'm not really paying attention to what steve is yammering about'

rollin' invisible and Haunted

Haunted Valley in all it's brilliance. what a treat!

top of Pine Cone Valley, looking down at the boys

one resting point in an otherwise perfectly pitched, blissed out climb on Organic Cane Juice

pony resting

jeny resting, waiting, sitting, diggin' the EARTH and Everything around

stevie thinkin' he can

ed showing stevie how it's done, really

way back at the beginning of Day Dream

steevie

jeny, blowing ed a kiss --- believe it or not. yes, she can multi-task like that ;-)

mateo, zooming in his flying ninja style!

mateo, re-living the Forbidden Fruit ninja blaze!

ed, feelin' grrooovvyyyyy!

this part kinda hurt. i was still smiling, tho!

one of my favorite shots from the day --- this was ed's shot ;-)

somehow, on the climb back up Day Dream, i caught an inner blaze of fire, and it was all i could do to get myself to STOP and take pictures. but the light was SO brilliant....... i was moving sooooo happily, and i failed to really get anything in focus....doh!

another attempt at stopping fast to take fast picture and continue the climbing rhythm...

yes, it was pretty darn close to dark when we returned to the car.....

the back is feeling better ;-) knock on wood.

jj