slosh-fest-bliss!

sticky-slushy-snow... and super tacky trail!



and super sweet company to boot. scotts smile the WHOLE ride says it all (you can see it even through the trees), and then some.

thanks for the awesome ride SS and EM!

;-)

jj

heavy dose of heaven

Heaven ... before us and within us

Skipped out of office all together for Friday, headed to Fruita on Thursday night! Spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday thoroughly burning my hide and soaking in all the Vitamin D and dirt I could possibly handle... and then some.

Friday we hit the Loma Play Ground for a thorough mess of fun. Ran into Mike Curiak and Pete B. (almost literally ;-) on Rustlers ... played around with Mary, chased a Horsethief, took Steves Cutoff, then doubled back for a backwards Mary, hit the new (and therefore must be explored Wrangler), and finally some odd bits that dropped us onto the base of Moore Fun and back to the buggy. I didn't take a single picture, but Ed did ;-) We kept it simple and mellow in anticipation of a nice big ride on Saturday. It was scrumptious and I fell yet deeper in love with riding, desert, sun ... everything.


Ed's pic, of course

Saturday we just rode our butts off. Yeah, we had 2 cameras ... and 2 flats... and therefore kept a pace slightly slower than perhaps either one of us expected... but we still had an all day adventure that pretty much left us both satisfied and worked ... in all those good ways one wants to be worked and played and dreamy-eyed by the end of the day.

We started at Wrabbits Valley -- and I still don't know the names of everything we hit. It included: the desert on the N. side of the highway, some whoopdies and some soft-sucking-sand, the burn (one of my favorite places to be - and ride - on this earth) and number of big climbs on the South side of the highway, a lot of really, really exposed sunshine, a kick-ass downhill that I will likely never tire of, some messed up hill of a climb, a huge ride along the upper most rim in the area, then some far-out loop that we've been eyeing to ride for 2 years (holy heavens that was a FUN loop!!!), then finally down onto the floor of the valley (sort of), and ended up riding Western Rim back North and finished up back where we started without double-backing at all. One nice big counter-clockwise 45 mile loop. Lots of soft sand. Lots and lots of sun. I do believe that both of us had smiles plastered across our faces the whole big beautiful day (flat time not included ;-)).

Yes, I took pix... but be forewarned: they all have big white spot in the middle of them (sorry).

Click for all my pix:


I'm sure that Ed will post his pix at some point!

I have a couple thoughts that popped into my over-busy mind:

• Sometimes, when we're really rollin' and finding our way through a mess of a trail, I think I hear Ed shifting gears. We all know, of course, that Ed's pony don't have no gears.
• I did not feel tired once. Not once -- my legs and my body felt full and present and capable the entire day.... However, my FEAR of feeling tired got my head all warped-up a couple of times, and it was all I could do to fend off that fear from actually seeping in and making me tired. On a really personal note I just find this really, really interesting.
• Sometimes, when looking out into the grandest of spaces ... I can't help but feel like jumping out into it and soaring over it and through it like a bird. It makes me need to be so quiet -- and yet it makes me dance.

Here's to my man, may he not have pinch-flats ever-ever-ever again for no stupid reason:


Sunday, we explored an area where there are no bikes allowed. Ed took the best pix of this area, and mine stink.... We had a nice 3-hour, mellow hike to recover from the nice rough-and-tumble ride from Saturday.

Here's to all the lovely people we know out there who are so thoroughly gettin' their SPRING riding season ... ON!!!


jj

phew.

Ride.

As often as possible.

Especially if you're grumpy or pissy.



jj

add on

Idea that's been bouncing around in the back of my mind: hit all the front range parks and trails from home... in one shot.

Today, start with 4:

• Bergen Peak (and vicinity) -- across the trail at the base, up the TooLong climb, summit trail, down Bergen descent
• Didesse
• Alderfer 3 Sisters/Ranch
• Evergreen Mountain

Check. Two relatively big peaks in there with a lot of little and not-so-little stuff in between ... and I wussed out and voted to take the West/shorter and prettier climb up Evergreen Mountain -- it being one of my absolute favorite spaces to ride through.

Ed, at the top of the last big hill - Evergreen Mountain -- out at the apex of our route. In fact, this is the only place I took pictures at all. We were too 'in-flow' to stop and take pix anywhere else. Ah-well. Click the picture for the rest of the pix... all 4 of them ;-)

We did not hit as many trails as I would have liked in the 3 Sisters area. We did, however, add mileage by riding a bunch of back roads to get home, and picked up some wicked-yummy soup to bring home for dinner. Can't beat that.

Oddly, it only turned out to be like 35 miles... WTF!!! (I thought it would be so much more. It FEELS like it was so much more)! It did end up tallying a solid 5,300' vertical, tho. That would explain why I'm so ... uhm, worked?

We did manage to sneak in new singletrack, a exploratory-fire-4x way to other relatively untravelled singletrack in the Ranch area (almost fell in the river there), and thus slyly missed one nasty little climb I was not particularly looking forward to.

Our route (or, I'm sure that Ed has/will post the route on his blog):

So, the continuance of my idea goes something like this: next time -- over the next number of add-on-game-days, hit all the trails/parks mentioned above, and add one or two parks at a time:

• LOTB
• Falcon
• MatthewsWinters/Dakota
• Apex

And, of course, somewhere along the lines, these will have to be added to the add-on game as well:

• Green Mountain (ickyyawn)
• White Ranch
• There are others than can be added to the list from this vicinity, but I don't even really want to talk about that.

Damn good day. I'm so glad it warmed up and we got to ride in shorts and short-sleeves for most of the day. The breeze coming in from the East was pretty darn cold tho -- but I think we only really felt that going downhill ;o)

A few observations:

• Singlespeeders get FITTER, FASTER. Period.
• Further on that thought, Ed is moving up steep hills like a loco-motive. Note the 'loco' part.
• Geared bikes have an advantage when riding on ice and snow at pitch. I'm just sayin'.
• My mind is way too busy when on the pony these days. Bad juju. Searching for my ZenJen.
• Further on that thought, I talk to myself a lot. I wonder if anyone else hears this.
• In my mind, I can just pack up my pack, jump on the pony, and ride forever. In reality ... well.
• I finished strong, standing, climbing up the last hill to our house. That felt good.

Tomorrow is another day -- another sunshiny day no-less!!!

Thanks for the adventure today, Ed.

Jj

there he goes...

there goes my date! blasting off like a rocket-ship, out into the wide-open meadow and sunset.


the afternoon light has just been scrumptious, all week long!

happy friday!

jj

happyhappyhappy

aaaahhhhhh.... splash!


so glad the lunch rides have turned into after-work rides ... on dirt ... from home ;-)


nice to see the locals out on the town


it's been a good week thus far, making the most of the afternoon light more than once. hope everyone is getting out, having fun, and smiling a heap-ton while riding ponies on dirt.

yeehaawww!!

Jj

notes from the head

Is it odd that this video clip from the movie The Man From Snowy River is what goes through my mind when out riding?

I think about the play and speed and energy of the ponies ... I swear, this is exactly the energy!

It's a long video -- but catch the long middle part with the horses running... then the big jump down the steep hill! I bet I'm not the only one who feels this?



Mind-you, it's just the horse scene -- the big horse chase scene... and not so much the 'story line' of it ... but the energy of it. When out on my pony, this is what it feels like, with my friends and their ponies.

I know. I know. Ed of course says: "Well, honey, they're going much faster than we are."
LOL!! yeah, SOOOO -- it still feels like this!

No, I have no pix from the 34-mile, 3,480'vert, 3 hour and 34 minute ride today. I know -- wtf?

It sounds like everyone was out and lovin' the trail riding today! That is FANTASTIC!!! Just know that I was thinking of all of you as if we were all out on a big pony chase ... with music.

;-)

Jj

aaahhhhh...

thank goodness for truly warm air today! felt much better to breathe a bit of heat instead of the cold wind and air that's been forcing it's way into every day of riding in weeks (and into my sinus'!!).

while ed opted for a large dirt and back road (and connector trail) loop, i opted for strictly singletrack (minus the ride to/from the singletrack that necessitates a bit of concrete) adventure for the day.

i am happy with the state of the trails right now ;-)

thanks SO much michelle and aj, and dave and anthony ... for the wonderful day in the dirt. i think we all needed that ;-)

Click the Picture for More Pictures!


hope everyone is OUT in the sunshine and warmth, soakin' it allll in (before the snow flies again... because you know it will).

jj