Camping!

We went camping at Grand Lake last weekend. I had a race in Winter Park and we packed up the kids and camping gear and left the hot front range. It was beautiful. We camped just below the Continental Divide.

Does this tent look familiar? This is our family tent that is approaching 20 years old. The bags for the tent and in shambles, but the tent is still perfect. Thanks Mom & Dad for buying a nice tent when you did! Check out the scenery!

We had a not-so-close encounter with a moose. He was about 15 yards away from us (we were by the pine trees in the picture). He growled (loudly exhaled) and we left him alone. I waiting until we were away to snap a bigfoot-like quality photo. I guess they hate dogs, since wolves are their natural predators. We weren't going to stick around to settle the feud.

Sunset. The winding river in front of our site led to the lake. Pretty.

Job Well Done.

As we were leaving, we said "goodbye" to Beauregard, but he wasn't too keen on staying alone... Of course we took him with us. Although...

Bike of the Day

My cyclocross bike. I like it. Seven Mudhoney Ti. Easton EC90SLX Fork. Sram Force. Hugi/Open Pro Wheels. Bontrager bits and pieces. She's a beauty. If I actually take racing seriously, I'll do her up with some real wheels. Something blingy.

Good ridin'

I hate posts with no pictures, but whatever. I had some good mountain bike rides this week. Wednesday, we hit up Apex after work. To avoid the clusterpoop, we rode to the base of Chimney Gulch and up Apex. There were no less than 6 teammate for the ride. You would almost think that we were a mountain bike team. I like it that way. Yesterday, we did the White Ranch-Golden Gate Superloop. Man, I love that ride. The decent from Golden Gate is unreal. 4 miles or so of crazy descending with rocks, roots, mud, tons of hike-a-bikes. It's unlike anything out here. Plus, you get to climb up the back road to White Ranch from Golden Gate, which is 12-15% for a few miles. And dirt. I was pretty please to throw my chain in the spokes at almost the very top. As it turns out, it's helpful to check the suspension bolts on a new bike. Duh. It'll only cost me a derailleur hanger. And a chain, just to be safe. I was wrenching on it pretty hard, since shimano put those LOVELY tabs on the back of their new cassettes to prevent this from happening in the first place. They REALLY get jammed in there now. I had to pop a pin out of the chain to get it out. Ouch. But, what a great ride. This was a pseudo-off week. I don't have anything in the ole leg and it seems like every week is an off week. Oh well. I enjoy riding. Hopefully, I'll get some commuting miles in this week.

Until next time, check out this crazy cloud from a few weeks back...

Seriously...

Bike of the day.

Joe at primusmootry.com does such a fantastic job. I absolutely love this bike. Very little carbon on it. Sram Force. Chris King/Open Pro wheels. Yummy.

I have worms.

Seriously. Who doesn't love moldy apples?

Yes. We have worm compost bin.

The Cheese

Fruita in April

So, instead of racing in Fruita, I decided a 5+ hour ride on the Kokopelli would be much better. I took out the trusty new steed, and by new, I had really never ridden it before. Seriously.

This trail was unreal. It runs between Loma (Mary's Loop et al.) and Rabbit Valley. Check out this trail...

And if you ever take the Amtrak west out of Denver, this is part of the view... The trail passed under the tracks. You can see it winding around the other side, on the ridge.

Lots of amazing hike as much as you ride singletrack. Even on the new 5" travel bike...

And back home (or 10 miles of fire road back to the car)

Don't be fooled...

Look at the dates of the others. They are recent. I am going to post lots of random, short things for my entertainment and yours!
For example, my eldest child: