gettin' fresh

today, ed and i continued our 'tradition' in consistently finding and riding 'new' trails. today was a treat on so many levels, the least of which was finding 'new' trail for BOTH of us ;-) .... thank you, ed, for another brilliant day under the sun, on the ponies, smiling in another Grand Adventure ;-) GO SEE ED's PICTURES!!! They're brilliant!!!

how wonderful can it be to Be exactly in the middle of nowhere, on the bike, high in the mountains, with your partner in crime, and a pal of the most sincere heart ........ and with exactly NO other people around? damn fresh, that's how wonderful.

today we started in the valley and climbed to the top of the Sheep. we then descended and frolicked in the woods and waterfalls and mud and found ourselves aside a pristine alpine lake ... supreme in it's silence and solitude. the trees throughout, the foliage in general, the FLOWERS extraordinary ----- today was a FRESH day. such a deeply fresh and lovely day.

for the pix of the day, go look at the slide show. for the story of the day, see the verbal montage below the slide show below.



ok, so i'm going to try to keep this short and sweet... even tho the day was long and luscious ;-)

steevie, ed and i headed out for one hell of an intention towards Adventure. and adventure we did find --- ;-) along with hours of laughter, hootin', suffern', and FLOWERRRSSS!

we parked the car in COMPLETE isolation. no ONE. not a soul. throughout the entire day we saw ONE truck with a man whose smile was as big as the valley ... and that was IT for the entire 8.5 hours of our riding day!! yes. i'm dead serious!!

we started from the car. we climbed up some beautifully INSANE hill....... seriously. go look at the pix. we summited. we laughed. we descended into a graciously wide valley ---- and determined that the goal was the 'hard part' first. so up we went... again! up the 4x road... which was steeper than the first climb. up the brilliant atv track... yeah, it was lovely. up the alpine track ... and catapulted ourselves above tree line.......

it's been a LONG time since i've done anything at/above tree line on a bike, and today felt deeply satisfying. i had many, many mini-goals of things to RIDE --- and i succeeded -- better than i thought!!

the trail up above tree line was as loose and deep and sharp as any trail i've ever been on. think 14er... only, carry and/or ride your bike. we've officially named this part of the trail: Jiffy Pop ;-) total air-gasping bliss!!! the flowers were SO tender -- so vulnerable up there amidst the rock and the tundra -- so precious and tiny along side the monstrous Mountain.

up was fun. snow angels on top. going down was super -- SUPER tricky and a real kick in the pants! what a blast!

back on the valley floor --- we decided our second goal was to go find this lake --- and we had a mud fest of a good time finding it!!! GLORY BE TO THE HIGH-COUNTRY. finding the lake, sitting along side of it ------- total silence.

back down the mud-fest at a sick-fun pace. found goal 3 of the day behind a gate --- and grinned in all brilliance for miles, careening through the meadows, the streams, the FLOWERS, the aspens, the rocks --- ALL those brilliant iris..... today didn't suck.

found goal three. returned up the climb, and down the Hill Of Insanity to the car... completely SPENT. and, in the process, found at LEAST 3 new places to explore NEXT time ;-)

all in all -- well, you know how it goes ;-)

perfection.

jj