6/30/08

thank you sir... may i have another

simply put, the Fly Boyz dragged us around and kicked our asses all over their home-town web of super sweet single track. yup. that is pretty much how it went ;-)

yes, boyz, that was a FINE time ... and i'd love to do it again if you're willing to WAIT for me some more!!!

i have absolutely NO pictures. all i have is a wonderful set of memories of 48 some odd miles and 6300' of climbing... of countless massive mountain views, stream drainages, aspens groves, 4x tracks, and super-ghosty trails. i consider myself one lucky woman to have latched onto the Fly Boyz grand loop adventure.


Paul, Eric, Ryan, Kieth, Fred, and of course, Tom: thank you very, very much.

jj

6/26/08

6.26.08

today i rode up Switch and down Choss. see pictures below for some pretty sections. Yes, I actually stopped to take pictures this time.



cleaned a lot of things to surprise myself today ... and then completely flailed on some of the easier stuff. funny day. sweaty day, for some reason.

anyone have a cure for Extreme Sleepiness Syndrome!?!? GAH! This is just WRONG.

again, i'm looking forward to waking up tomorrow morning and feeling the looming excitement of a FRIDAY MORNING (with a bonus of coffee) ....... heading into a weekend with really deeply wonderfully exciting potential for a really long exploration of brand new-to-us trail with awesome, awesome people....

yehaw!

jj

6/25/08

what to do



barreling down the Year of the Ox today, I came across an elk ... an enormous female elk, standing on the side of the road, eating. I stopped and looked at her, because she looked to be standing rather oddly... and sure enough ... one of her back legs was broken. She just looked at me, and I just looked at her ... and I cried. I wanted to help her SO badly .... What am I to do?!?!? How can I help? Who do I call!?!? Oh my goodness. My heart just broke.

and... there you have it.

jj

6/22/08

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

6/20/08

dirty pony

tonight i rode the DogLoop alone. Ed was busy commuting late, and i needed to spin around in the woods. of COURSE, the day i decide to NOT bring the camera, i get to ride through a whole herd of elk, little baby elks included. damn. did you know that baby elklings jump and frolic and buck and play? yeah. gah. they were CUTE.

so. the delima is this: my bike (Pony) is worked. she feels worked. she feels sluggish -- (i'm chock-full of lethargic energy .... but i think Pony is having sympathy lethargy or something). she feels squeaky and creaky and it sounds like she's maybe even groaning a bit. both front and rear brakes are kinda ... noisy. she made some noise today i've never heard as i banked into a turn at high speed .... that was kinda scary. i think the chain, while really quite new, it all gross and gooey.

truth is, i'm a terrible bike mechanic and i usually end up hurting both myself and the bike when i choose to work on her. sigh.

anyway. since i failed to take pictures of the new-born-spotted-playful-elkies, you'll have to do with pictures of my REALLY, REALLY DIRTY PONY. (and i wonder why she's whining? aren't bikes supposed to be able to work through this kind of ... state of being?)

pix here:

hope everyone is having a super yummy friday night! tomorrow is sunshine, ALL day long! a trail is calling you somewhere, i'm sure of it ;-)

jj

6/19/08

UpIt from home

i have a wonderland to ride within straight from home. how cool is that? that is so cool.

today i rode 'five-to-the-first-woods-four-to-the-tease-skeet-and-shoot'. wonderful little loop, i tell ya. juuuuuust wonderful. i got a pinch flat today! knew that was going to happen. just knew it.

i didn't stop too much for pix... but you can go look at what i did get here:


and, i bet my wonderful partner got some super sweet pix of the clouds and sunset tonight! go check ed's site!

really, really looking forward to that friday-end-of-the-week feeling tomorrow morning when i wake up! and THEN, i'm REALLY looking forward to another ride in wonderland after work. ahhhhyeah.... and THHHEEENNNNN... i'm really looking forward to a loooonnnnggg ride on Saturday with the Freak Show.

right now, a glass of wine is in order. CHEERS!

hope everyone is doing FANTASTIC!

jj

6/9/08

CATCHING UP!!

HOLY TIME-AWAY-FROM-BLOGGERLAND-BATKIDS!!!

so, below you fill find short write-ups for the last couple of weeks, and links to the photo albums for each. seems bloggertools are ffing up and i can't upload my pix! ARGH!!!!! (seriously, if you just want to see pix, go to the two albums below). otherwise, read on!

6.08.2008 -- Colorado Trail Maintenance Weekend:

truth be told, i have no pix of this particularly scrumptious friday evening ride through the forest and the fields with ed, superfreak. and, i have no pictures of the super stellar, saturday big climb, full day of trail work, with the big lovely descent. aaahhhhhhh that was a satisfying day. (i think my better half has pix of both of those days. go look. we were dirty!)

nope. all i have are scenery pix from a super mellow, totally exploratory recon-hike on sunday.... the pictures are here:
06.08.2008


6.15.2008 -- WEDDING WEEKEND!!

my best friend (jen) married her partner in crime (aaron) this last weekend. it was, hands down, a most complete, satisfying, full, deep and precious 4 days of riding, smiling, celebrating and honoring. they did it up RIGHT and deep like. i am so happy for them!

Wednesday we high-tailed it out of Evergreen at an ok-ish hour pm. Drove to Salida for yummy eats with Andrew -- and Tom was completely MIA... dude, where ARE YOU!?!? Wednesday night we stayed with our brilliant and super awesome special friends Gary and Patti in Del Norte. I love them!! We love them. We love their dog. You want to see pix? Go see Ed's site, as i was too lazy to break out the camera. Slacker Jeny.

Thursday we drove to Durango. Dropped off the thousand lbs of beer and checked into the Strater! Yehaw!!!!! we had red velvety wall paper!! we ditched the baggage and headed out for one of the best rides of the season! we hit some colorado trail, and just about blissed out on a nice 30 miler in the grace of the sun and dirty-fun trail. ed has pix of this ride!! omg, it was my absolute most best-energy ride this year so far...... i didn't want it to end!!! we were late for the sushi dinner with jen and aaron and all the family... and jen thought it was perfect! YES! I have pictures of sushi dinner and drunkken maddness! you will have to go see the album below.

Friday we futzed around in the morning then met up with jen and aaron and aarons brother jeremy ... and jens dad and step-mama. we dialed in a super sweet exploratory ride that dumped us back onto the colorado trail again, and jen, ed, aaron, myself and jeremy made a nice, phat loop out of it back into town. yeah, that didn't suck at all. no, i don't have pix. but ed does! Friday night ended in a really, really lovely fiesta above town in an open-air stone space above durango. jen and aaron really know how to do it up right! i have only a few pix from the fiesta. ed has pix of the ride. i am a lazy photographer. it's clear to me now.

OK, the real story: saturday i was up at 530 am. showered and dressed and in jens room by 6 in order to primp and prime and caffinate jen until she was good and right and ready: then we descended the stater stairs into the lobby, where jen and aaron held one another in their perfection ... and then we all walked through town to the train station. many pictures were taken. go see ed's blog (again). we all jumped on the train and enjoyed a casual, brilliant 3.5 hour train ride up into the glory of the rocky mountains. i have no words for this place ... it is beyond words. once in sliverton, we went and grabbed a quick ice cream!!! i do have to say that jen had rocky-road ice cream... in a creamy-white dress........ style, i tell you. then, the ceremony took place off the back of the train ... off the caboose!!!! ed ... has pictures, of course. we all jumped back onto the train for the 3.5 hour descent back into durango, delicious food and drinks and conversations filling up and overflowing with depth and ease and perfection. cake back at the strater. dinner at ken and sues. the sleep of the gods. i only have pix of the train ride home ;-) ed has pix of the whole adventure up, the ceremony, the down ... and then some.

please, please, go see the photo album... the best pix are at the end:


sunday. well, let's just say that sunday ed and i took the LONG way home and drove into new territory -- where we plan on doing some major exploring in the near future. 10-hours worth of scenic driving has pretty much put me over the edge and i'm now going to spend the rest of the week recovering and trying to get my head back on straight enough to endure sitting in an office looking at a computer screen!

and. so. i'm tired and off to bed.

nighty-night!

jj

6/4/08

taos!

west rim - south boundary - ojo caliente - ojitos to south boundary

my dear friend jen wanted to do the femme pre-wedding celebration-thing by bike -- in taos. who am i to refuse a bride-to-be her wish!?!?

hell YEAH! bring it on! we had the time of our lives riding our bikes and spending time out in the middle of nowhere.

i cannot say that these are the best pix i've ever taken. sorry, jen.... but here's the 4-day weekend anyway:

Friday: drive to taos (jen from santa Fe, me from evergreen). meet up, and hit a nice flat 20-dirt-miler on the west rim ride. did i mention it was flat? it was gorgeous, and just what the body wanted to start the weekend right.

ah, taos

jen, just starting to unwind and get into the groove

the end of the trail -- where we went a few steps further. we sat out on the rocks and chatted while the sun set into a pristine friday evening sky

on the way back to the TH -- only in Taos ...


ok, here's the real gem of this story: we rented a 100% decked out air stream for the weekend!! it was parked in the middle of absolute nowhere in complete isolation (and yet close to all the trails). it had everything we could have wanted. including a hot tub ;-) yes, we accidentally locked ourselves in on monday morning! doh!

Saturday: we decided that time was high to hit the south boundary trail from the bottom -- to the top -- and back. what a way to spend a day!! 100% pure pedalin' - sun-shinin' - groove makin' BLISS. we had the time of our lives riding up that delicious hill -- and then back down-up-down-down-down it. i have to say that the tech stuff at the end was SUPER fab and i LOVE to ride this trail. i want to do it again. now. please!?!?

the beginning of the day!

jen, early in the climb

jen, burning new trail through the trees!

zzooommmm!! swwooosshhhh!!

jen still climbing

rest spot -- the ponies needed a break!

one of very few pix i stopped for on the way back down. looking north.


another of the very few on the way back down. looking north.
yours truly on a really, really fun little section (thanks, jen for the shots!)

it was so much fun, and had so many different options, i had to play on more than one line!!!

ending our day, on our way back to the luxury casita!

silly hot tub pic #1

silly hot tub pic # 2 -- jeny + jen

SUNDAY: we went to Ojo Caliente -- sat in mineral pools and indulged in massages. not a bad day at all.... the mud pool was the absolute best.

MONDAY: monday we had a nice breakfast out, and then headed to Ojitos to South Boundary. We wanted to see how different the Ojitos climb was up to a section to the S.B. Then, we got to descend the fun stuff again!! WOOHOOO!!!
it was so much fun that really, this was the only pic i took -- taken even before we took the ponies off the car ;-)

the drive home

it was the perfect weekend. truly.

thank you jen!!!

jj