this is all i've got...

... to show from my little weekend riding and playing in aspen:



really love riding the trails in and around aspen and snowmass...

really love JeanandEbbers --thanks for the lovely weekend ;-) Now go eat more pie ;-)

jj

Slackin'!!! But not really ....

I have failed to write about and share pictures of the whole last weeks worth of adventures and rides and thoughts.

How about I just post picture shows!!!

Saturday
Well, no picture show. Ed and I awoke late-ish, threw everything necessary in the vehicle and high-tailed it to Salida!!! Ed had to get one of the Ponies worked on, so we went straight to Absolute to see Our People. In the process, we serendipitously crossed paths with Aaron and Jen (friends from Santa Fe on their way to Summit). I dropped Ed and his pony off at the shop, while Aaron, Jen and I drove up the dirt road that eventually takes you to Blanks Cabin.

Rode the Dirt Approach Road for a few miles, then hit the Colorado Trail heading North.

I have found my Heaven Trail. I would like to ride this every day. Please.

3 hours, 20 miles and 3,000' later, back at the car, back into Salida, out to dinner with Scottay, his cutie-patootie and their good friends. What a heavenly day!

While Ed and I were hangin' in Salida, playing pony and blissing in the Salida Sun, my dear friend Eszter completely crushed the Breck100!!!! We raised our glasses in her honor! Good job, Ez!!!

Sunday
Ed and I opted for a nice long adventure and exploration ride!!! We found about 50 miles worth of a loop, with about 5,400' feet of attitude adjustment along the way. We hit 2 sections of the VT125, and I have to say: whoa!!!

We spent 6.5 hours riding and roaming about ... in bliss!

Here are some pix (Joel, these pictures are for you):


Monday
What better way to ignore what a Monday at the office does to the brain than to get home in the afternoon and go for another ride!

Jen is in town, and so I had myself a rockin' little Recess Date!!!!
Thanks, Jen!

Pix:


And, now it's Tuesday! What next!?!

Jj

we will hit that (not so) dusty trail...

Nothin' beats spending an entire day on solidly satisfying, well varied and chunky-yet-smooth trail.

Except being able to spend the whole time with my partner in crime...

I think Ed has a new name for me.

Thanks M and AJ and Mr.Mystery, for the all-soil, super sweet, totally succulent, practically solitary, sorely needed, almost solely singletrack day. Sorry we didn't bring the camera for any action pictures. Riding with you guys ROCKS -- pun thoroughly intended.

In other news, BooBoo has a new name. We're calling him........ DoubleStuff.


jj

it's gettin' HOT IN HERE!!!

Today was the First Real Hot Day.

And, it was slightly surprising. None of us expected the heat to 'truly' cook us up here in the mountains and the woods. And none of us expected it to be what they call 'humid'. Hehehe.... We've been a bit spoiled this year with the temperatures, I think.

So, we rolled somewhat early (kinda - sorta - not really). It was immediately Hot. But, I think my riding pals were giddy at the thought of riding new (to them) trails. Everyone saddled up and got ready to ride rather quickly; and we were off on a little adventure. I think I really enjoy playing Ride Hostess for some reason. Never knew I had that in me.

Within the first 2 miles of this loop we cross a river. Mr.M was the first to the river, and as the girls and I approached, we noticed he was soaking wet. Hum..... He was giggly and putting himself back together when we all had the simultaneous thought: We're SOOOOO jumping in that river on the way back!

And so we trotted up the hill and down the hill, up some other hills and down more rocks, we blew through meadows and sprinted up more climbs. We hung out on the top; but not for very long. We blasted down more hills, climbed more mellow hills. We played around on the most challenging set of rocks and switchbacks that I know exist within a 20 mile range. We fixed one flat. We re-attached one pedal (permanently). And we BOMBED back down to the river... 3 hot hours later.

And what do you think that was like?


It was RIGHTEOUS!!!!

AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

THANK GOD for COLD WATER!!!!


No, we did not kill him. He wanted to do that. So we all did it too!

I HATE getting my head under water -- but it HAD to be done. Simple as that.

Well, Cyn thought better of the whole thing, but I am pretty certain that sitting there with her feet and legs in the water made her day. I am also quite certain that she thinks we're all crazy.


And, we have another smart one here... we did all go out to eat about 20 minutes after jumping in the river, after all:


And how did we all feel afterwards!?!?

Yet more happy to be alive and out in the wide-world blissing our MtbSelves silly.


Hahahahahaha..... you crack me up, woman! Is this the preparation pose and proper breathing practices for True Mountain River Submersion!?!? I bet you learned this in Yoga class ;-)

THANK YOU ALL for the wonderful pony ride!!

And, meanwhile... Tonka and Ed were at home pounding out a big thing for work. I think that Ed put Tonka to a little too much work. This is what Tonka looked like this afternoon recovering from his workday:

(and to be honest, I looked kinda like that shortly after I got home, too).

jj

recess date #2

Cyn and Jess wanted another session, for sessions sake....

Fine by me! Time to Play Bikes in the woods!

Below, you will see pix from the ride, should anyone still be interested in seeing pix of chicks riding bikes over rocks and stix.

(Cyn put up a good post about the night ;-) ... with more pictures....

lalalaaaaa



I will say that Cyn completely nailed 2 of the hardest switches -- ones she didn't make last week -- one of which she even ateIT on last week... BOOYYYAAAHHHH!!! Good job CynnyBunn!!

Thanks for the Recess Date!

jj

playing bikes ...

... and finding Joy playing in the dirt and on the rocks ...

Thanks, E, for the lovely recess date!! Here are all kinds of rockin' pix of you ;-)


E says: oh, that was easy!


E says: ooooooo!!!! this is a fun one!!!



E says: see, I can dance on top of a mountain, too!!!



we love our ponies, and our ponies love us!

jj

Heavenly

Sunday. Ed and I took an 8 hour walk and found ...

An oasis on top of a giant stack of rocks, 100' up. Hummmmmm....


We wandered around relatively unfamiliar territory and created another wonderful adventure for ourselves. In as few words as possible: heavenly.

Do you see what I see?


Remnants of one sort...


Remnants of another sort. I think we wandered thru a BigKitty feeding ground. This is the second of 3 piles of carcass we found:


Spine is one of my favorite things:


One of many summits for the day; the apex of our wandering found the clouds ripping apart and floating like massive ghosts... allowing the sun to drench the land with honey-light and feathery clouds:

It was a sight to behold, and I feel lucky to have been there!

Let's try this again: Do you see what I see this time?

heheheheh.

We could all use a little of this color in our lives, I think:


For the full set of my pix from the day, click HERE.

For the REAL pix of the day, head on over to EDs blog... he's got quite the set!!!

jj

happy honey

dirt makes happy
empty trails make happy
dirty, working bikes make happy
honies make really, really happy!!



thank you, my darling, for a lovely long day out in the woods on the ponies, dodging storms and exploring new trails ...

jj

RECESS!!

Today's Recess found me as the Hostess in my own back-yard playground! (Yes, I was actually LATE in showing up for my own darn party ;-) But it didn't seem to matter ... too much.)

Cyn and I had nailed this Recess Date down a week ago, and we had ONE intention for the day: go play on switchbacks and rocks. Easy enough by me! So we invited Tracy (time for you to get a blog, yo) and Kim to join us for the evening's light-ride and hyper-fun play time.

I've taken a whole world of pictures. You can see them all by clicking HERE, (yes, there are lots and lots more) and you can see a few highlight-pictures below:


Cyn, all bad-ass and smoove!


TRace all super-fly and buffbunny!


Kim clearin' one of the FUN ones!


Cyn -- showin' us the stylee moves


Kim, playing a fine balancing act


TRace on the same switch, different angel


Cyn, Powering around the bend


TRace in the process of NAILING IT!!!


NNNIIIIIICCEEE!!


Check out Cyn's WHEELIE ACTION!


Nice place to ride. The views suck...


... and the trails suck, too


TRace didn't have any fun at all...


... neither did Kim


AAAhhhhhh.... RecessBliss!!!


... of course we went out to dinner afterwards... dduuuuhhhhh!!!!!

And that was Tuesdays Recess.

Alright, back to playing Dress-up and Office.

It's still sunshiny out!!!

Jj