2/7/09

Celebration!

It's February 7th, 2009. Usually this time of year, here in CO, the ground is covered in snow, I don't leave the house without my down coat on, and MtbBliss -- all good and DirtyProper-like -- is a faint mirage on the horizon of March.

(Click any pic to get a full spectrum of the whole day).

But this year ... today... we rode dirt trail, in shorts, and got to rock and roll as if it were mid-spring.


Trails usually covered in snow and burdened with the wind were bare, and beautiful.

And, as if that weren't enough, it is MICHELLEs BIRTHDAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

So what did we do?


Picking up right where we left off not 2 months ago ...

We went out and blew the Bliss out of the front range trails. That is what we did ;-)

First, we hit the lower part of Apex, and ponied our way up Pickn's. We contoured around the top on Grubstake, topped out and descended on Sleux.

We had some birthday-fun playing on a rocky-switch that M had to tick off her list:

Goin' In


Flowin' thru all smooth and skilled ;-)

Jeny, too!




We finished playing in the Apex park by just descending the icy gulley, and made our way up and over Heritage and ponied our way up Dakota Ridge.


One of my favorite spots and views

Somewhere in that transitional jaunt from Apex to Dakota, M said something ridiculous, like "I want to see you clear that set of steps on Zorro." To which I replied: "HUH!?!!?"

So, it being a day of celebration, we dropped onto the top part of Zorro to check out the steps:

Steps from the bottom. The goal for today was to ride DOWN them ... which, I believe, is a far-cry easier than riding up them.

So the challenge with these steps is not just descending a set of steps. For some weird reason, these steps are remarkably randomly spaced, there are 3 drops in the middle that are relatively large, and really, really poorly spaced, so you're sort of going over 2 or 3 at a time. So, for me that is a challenge because it ends up being rather steep, and the odd spacing creates nice holes for the wheel to get stuck in, sorta. Anyway, it was a bit on the exciting side for me ;-)

So what is one to do?

Clean it, of course!!! (Click the pix for shot-by-shot action photos ;-)

Bada-Bing! Can you tell I'm screaming at the top of my lungs?

Then, of course, the next thing to do is lure the men (who were streaming through, lots of them) to do the same. Only ONE taker!!! GO JORDY!!!

In the middle


YES, we were ALL hootin' and hollerin' to an absurd degree. Jordy was screamin' too!

It was so much fun, and so adrenaline creating I had to do it again!


Fun and games had, we opted to not descend all of Zorro, and instead went back up to the ridge and continued on our merry, screamin' way ;-) We bunny-hopped with a number of DH biker boiis, and found ourselves down at the base of Matthews Winters. Such a LOVELY place, really.



We had so much fun getting to this point that I didn't bother taking any more pix.

We played around on the Big Roller Rock that Michelle has been dying to show me, and that was sent with flying colors and without a second look by all jockeys ponies involved ;-)

We were getting cold, so we headed home thru the rest of MW, up and under the highway, then hit the Dragons Back for good measure and more dirt.

I do believe that Michelle had an excellent birthday ride, and I was hyper-grateful for the opportunity ride with such an amazing person, yet again.

Yeeehaawwwww!!!!!! Yea for dirt in February!

Ohwait -- one more thing. I met this puppy on the way up Apex. I wanted to take him home with me!!!!!


Jj

10 comments:

Dave Harris said...

Nice pics of...

Hey, where do you live and haven't you seen the calendar?!?

JenyJo said...

HA -- you mean, it's Feb and we shouldn't even be able to be on trails like this, right?!??! ;-)

Or, am I missing something? I usually miss something...

;-)

Hope you are doing well!

Jj

Gary B. said...

What impressed me is that you not only cleaned the switchback, but you put your knee warmers on in the middle of riding it. That is impressive! :-)

We're in mud season here, lot's of road riding and riding the cross bike on dirt roads. It's a no man's land on the trails, you wouldn't even wanna hike 'em. I wish we had a 'front range'.

When are we gonna see you two?

JenyJo said...

GARY! LOL!! I wondered how long it was going to take for someone to catch that;-)

Since we were hanging out there playing around for a little while, it got warm and I decided to take the knee warmers off and blind Michelle with my blue-white skin! We obviously took pix from 2 different places, and, well... that is what ya get!

How about you to come up here the next 'warm/dry' spell we have and we can go play on the ponies all over the place! you know we would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have you here!!!!

Or ... Moab?
jj

ScottM said...

I love coming here and seeing posts about riding challenging stuff and pushing limits. Few people do it (why try to improve when you can just walk it, like all those guys did on the stairs), and even fewer write about it.

It took me a minute to recall, but I know those stairs, and they aren't easy! Nice work.

Anonymous said...

Apex, DR, and Zorro - that's a Rock-trifecta! Great pix.

Kim said...

Impressive work on those rock steps! I have no idea where they are so you'll have to show me one day :)

Dave said...

You, girlfriend, are a "rock" star! While I do love the snow bike, I am jealous of the shorts in Feb.

Sandblogger said...

Once again, you have managed to make me feel like a big weenie. I hate the ramp on Bergen and those stairs! You cruise 'em both. Nice Job!

Matt

JenyJo said...

Matt -- you can do both of those things ;-) The stairs really aren't more than getting your MIND over the first few steps and through the middle. It more commitment than skills, I swear.... and that ramp on bergen... well... don't pay attention to the drop off to the side and it becomes less of a challenge. We'll go play one day this summer -- and hit both!!!

Jj