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

Weekends Are For Forgetting That They're Only 2 Days Long

Little Blue Cloud
Ed and I have a lovely summer-time blanket that belongs on a bed. For some reason, I dug it out of the closet the other day and placed it on the couch -- I think so that I would remember to wash it.

Tonka moved into and onto the blanket 3.5 seconds after I placed it on the couch. This was well over 3 weeks ago. He rarely leaves it. We call this Tonka's Little Blue Cloud. When he is not outside being harassed by Magpie and Deer, he is usually passed-out cold and floating around on his Little Blue Cloud.

For instance, Tonka In Languid:
See what I'm saying?

Today is Monday. Last night, Sunday night, late in the evening, it finally dawned on me that it was no longer Saturday ... and that somehow I had 'missed' the 'days' of the weekend. It was a rather sad few seconds there ... until I realized that I had been SO engaged, so engrossed, so full of fun and laughter and happiness, and so lovingly Present in my MtbBliss Activities this weekend, that I was blissfully unaware that 'time' and 'days' like 'Saturday' and 'Sunday' even existed. A rather sad moment there, realizing that 'Saturdays' don't last forever.

Of course, while I was re-centering in my new Sunday Evening mind-set, Tonka was cruisin' on his Little Blue Cloud, also completely unaware of his otherwise practical surrounds. Tonka, apparently, lives in a perpetual state of Saturdays. Lucky Little Kitty.

So, what was I doing this weekend to be so wide-eyed in the universe of fun?

Saturday
Saturday morning I had breakfast #1 while Ed slept in like Tonka. I ate, loaded the car and headed straight to Boulder to meet Tracy and Jason for breakfast #2 at the Walnut. After stuffing our faces and bellies, we toured our way up to Brainard and parked the truck.

We then descended Sourdough, in all sorts of twisted, jumbled fury!

Tracy, actually climbing a bit of it...

I'm really bored with the following words: rocky, technical, challenging... all those we all typically use to describe a trail that requires more from us than just holding on for dear life. Bah. I'm bored!

That said, I will say that the Sourdough, Wapiti, SSV, Buchanan, and all the other awesome and less-traveled trails up in this area... WORK a person, don't they!?!?

These are my favorite trails in Colorado (next to one other piece of the CO Trail mentioned a few posts ago). Sincerely, I adore riding these trails for so many reasons; so many reasons that I no longer have adequate words for.

And, I didn't really take pictures to show it off, either. I DID take a ton of pictures of Tracy. And, since she's so hot and such a skilled and talented mtbPrincess... I'll show you pix of her (and her hubby Jason, and their Friend Sam. Oh, and the PennyPuppy!!).


Pretty Penny in the Puppy Spa!


TRace flyin' thru the trees


See what I mean!


Jason !!!!


Sam!


UPIT!


Ahhh, the higher country


ZoomZoomZoom!


Ahhhh, HEAVEN


Ahhh, more playtime!


The Happy Family!!

So Saturday's ride really exhausted me. I suppose it was the first time I had ridden those trails on a Hard Tail -- well, the first time on a HT since maybe 1996. But that is a topic for another post.

Regardless, of course you know the pix don't do the 'rocks' and the 'technical' aspects of this world of MtbBliss justice. We only traveled 25 miles or so, and spent pretty much all day doing it. It's nice to make something so GOOD ... LAST!

OH, and I MUST share this: Normally, people park down at Camp D, ride up some combination of Sourdough, Wapiti, other unnamed things, up to Brainard, take other unnamed things back down, do some cross-overs and end up back down at Camp D.

Saturday, however... we started UP at Brainard... descended like monkeys down Sourdough, up/down Wapiti, down more Sourdough, over some road, down some other connector trail... all the way down to Camp D. We then did the 8 mile Rock Loop on Buchannan... is that the name of that? Whatever. You know it's fun when you are more worked from going down hill than when you go up hill.

Only thing was ... we had to climb back up ... all the way up... to Brainard... at the END of the day. I must say: the climb from Camp D up Sourdough is one of my FAVORITE on this planet.... Doing it NOT FRESH ... still made me swoon with Bliss.... And, I made everything but 2 moves. THAT felt good... even tho I kinda wanted to die at this point ;-)

Oh -- and Camp D had a lot of this action:


Oh, and 3, yes... THREE of these:

BUUURRR!! And yes, we all made it!


EXTRA BUURRR -- and no, none of us made this one.... This one tried to take the pony away mid-stream and I had to carry the pony thru.

Phew!

And that was just SATURDAY! (For all of SATs PIX, go HERE!)

Sunday
Sunday Ed and I loaded up the Buggy and hauled out butts up to Breckenridge to ride with Ez and Chris! Ez wanted to pre-ride the FireCracker50 course, and she wanted to drag us all around the loop just once (she wanted to drag us all around the loop "just once" after completely and utterly stompin' it and placing 2nd at a WinterPark race the day before.... Yes, she races with the Big Girls -- and yes, she kicked ASS!!)

Anyway. We didn't have a fast pace ;-) But we did have more fun than people even mean to have on a Sunday afternoon in the High Country of Colorado. I mean, really.

These are all the pix I got:

The place! More Heaven!


The people!! All angels -- all droppin' my sorry ass!! Gooo team!

And, just to make the weekend even more synchronized and perfect... we ran into Cyn on the loop!!

See that rockstar!!!

We took our merry time to rip the trails the way we felt like it. We didn't feel a single drop of rain, and really, the trail is in FINE shape ;-)

Afterwards ... BEER and BURGERS!! And Cyn joined us!

Ahhhh... such is a Saturday and Sunday. And, while work was work on a Monday ... Ed and I are enjoying the delightful company of two... yes 2 little baby Fawns and their mother!!! It is such a sweet scene outside tonight....

And, Tonka is about to go float around on his Little Blue Cloud. I think I might join him.

Jj