Winter, briefly again

I've been spending a lot of time in the lab lately, watching mineral grains dancing frenetically down a tiny chute, succumbing to the romantic offerings of a giant electromagnet, and separating themselves out in accordance with how attractive they find said magnet. It's a slow and boring process that is part of an even slower sample preparation process. Isolating cosmogenic nuclides may be a pain in the butt to process, but they tell hold many secrets. Last night a few of these nuclides told me that Burns Cave, one of the highest alpine caves in Colorado, is at least a million years old. And that's just the first part of the story...

So after getting annoyed at the slow workings of the magnet on Friday, I went home after lunch, grabbed a bike, and headed up to my favorite trail system. By the time I got there, it was snowing. I rode around on the singletrack in the snow for 90 minutes before I was soaked, tired of almost crashing on the incredibly slippery snot rocks, and could no longer see any dirt around anywhere. Then yesterday I rode at Heil with Dan. Half way into the ride, it started snowing, and the trail turned slick. It continued through then night, and I awoke to 7" of wet cement-like snow.

What do you do on a day like this? Dust off the cross bikes, slap on some pedals, and head off to a race that suits the mudders. I may not have any top end speed right now, but I'd like to think I can make up for some of that in mucky conditions. And mucky conditions they were . . .

Still clean on lap 2

Slippery footing

Trusty Michelin Mud2 tires worked like a charm

A sad mud/ice-encrusted bike

The aftermath. I crossed the line in ~10th, and was promptly interviewed by none other than Eddie Clark, who I last saw in a spectacular thunderstorm near Cochetopa Pass during the Tour Divide after he spent the morning following me and taking some great photos.

I might be slow right now, but man, what a great race. My knee still isn't feeling great, but it didn't complain too much. Thanks to Alex and Alexis for the great photos, and Alex for helping out in the pit.

White Rim and more

Headed off to the desert with Alex for the weekend...White Rim had been on my list of rides to do for a while, and this weekend seemed like as good a time as any. We started at 5:45 from Mineral Bottom and climbed up to find the sun. We pushed a mellow pace all day, stuffed our faces with pizza, burritos, and Oreo cookies, and had a great time. It was still light when we made it back to our campsite, and I managed to finish the day completely hydrated. That's enough of an accomplishment for me.











On Sunday we were greeted by another spectacular day. We headed up Amasa Back and came down Rockstacker and Jackson. Going up was fun. Coming down was a blast, especially on Rockstacker. I felt a little underequipped with a 4" bike and no armor, but the Lenz handled everything I could convince myself to drop the front wheel over without any complaints. And strangely, the only place I ate it was within the first 100' of Amasa. I still have Jeep tire rubber between the scabs on my knee from that digger. This is one of the only photos from the day, because my camera gave up the ghost. Now it's in about 30 pieces on my desk. Damn.

Winter, briefly

A few more photos...

Built an awesome new work bench,

and then an awesome new bike...

and then we got 20" of snow. Nuts.

Better make the best of it by heading up into the hills

Pristine wind-sculpted snow

Above treeline, 40 mph winds were trying to sculpt my face

Such a gorgeous landscape

Finally I caught a glimpse of my goal, the peak on the left first, then a traverse to the one on the right

But as soon as I got up near the first summit, these clouds blew in, driven by 60+ mph winds. So much for the snowy traverse. No axe or crampons in that wind and zero visibility wasn't to my liking, so I backed down. 3 hours later I was back at the car, dead tired.

Now off to the desert for a big ride tomorrow and some chunky fun on Sunday.

October, come and gone

Well, apparently it's been a month since I posted anything new. I guess that suggests I've been too busy to keep up with this, which is probably a good thing. Indeed, I have been busy. A knee problem stemming from back in June during the Tour Divide is preventing me from training hard and racing 'cross right now, so I've been spending more time doing non-cycling activities: research, fun with hydrofluoric acid in the cosmo lab, running, and pretending to have carpentry skills. Here's the highlights of all that, in photos:

Dan and I had a list of places to ride this fall. Snow has not cooperated.

I love the trails up here...never see anyone except for a few friendly motos

A few weeks ago I drove out to Ft. Lupton and picked up a new frame from Devin Lenz - a Leviathan 29er with 4" travel. Here it is being put through the paces on my favorite trials on its first ride. It was fantastic.

The veiw from these trails is tough to top

Alex about to negotiate some not-so-friendly roots. Alex will fail. I always fail.


And my sister got married! She brought our box turtle
to the wedding. Turtle was excited.

Henry, on the other hand, looked a bit worried.


And I raced a little 'cross. My knee didn't approve. And
too many of the courses around here are incredibly boring.

Photos from this weekend's adventures to come later. Today I found myself on snowshoes in the alpine, getting to the top of the first thing I've climbed in a long time. Now my legs hurt.

Mountain escape

I decided to head to higher ground this weekend. The forecast was great, I had a hankering to ride in one particular area, and there was a 'cross race out that way to boot. So I loaded up before the sun dared to show its face yesterday morning. 1 bike with fat knobbies, two with skinny knobbies, some camping gear, and my groggy self.

3 hours later I unloaded the bike, threw on the pack, and started climbing. The first part of the ride was a long dirt road climb. The 4WD-enabled leaf peepers were out in force already, but before too long I turned off on some singletrack that got me away from them. But not just any singletrack...frozen singletrack! 3" of snow, frozen mud, and frozen puddles made the last 1000' of climbing a bit of a challenge. Before too long I hit my turn and aimed the bikes down a step, rutted, rocky, slippery descent. I found it on a topo map the night before marked as a pack trail. Pack trails are hit or miss for riding, with probably 90% falling into the latter category. Much to my enjoyment, this particular one was splendid, and I enjoyed it's rooty, rocky, pumpy, stream-crossing-laden goodness for the entire 3000' descent. Then I climbed back up, bumping into a few Great Dividians along the way. Two from Holland, one from Washington, and one who didn't want to chat. They were full of stories, enjoying themselves, and put a grin on my face that lasted for a while. At the top of the climb, I turned off onto singletrack once again and spent the last 15 miles snaking my way back down to my car. The sun set toward the end, and the evening glow set the perfect tone for the end of a great ride. 10 hours, 65 miles, 8000' vert. Not bad.










Somewhere in the afternoon, I realized that I was just having too much fun on the mountain bike to want to go do a cross race the next day. When I loaded the bike back on the car, I hopped in and headed south instead of north. Once back in cell tower country, I made a phone call and soon had alternate plans, thanks to Gary. He and his wife Patty are gracious enough to open their home to anyone riding the Great Divide route, give them a bed, shower, great food, and good conversation. They sure helped me out earlier this summer (and today Gary saved my butt with spare set of brake pads!).


Soon my weary body was falling asleep in a field surrounded by cattle and coyotes under a cloudless sky. The stars were brilliant, and the final thing I saw before falling asleep was a meteor. Again, not bad.

And then I awoke to this view:


Today I met a small group of guys in the heart of one of my favorite parts of the state. They took me out on some trails (and some "trails") that I never would have found on my own, weaving our way through a deserted volcanic landscape of brown cliffs, yellow grass, and golden aspen under bright blue skies. We couldn't have asked for anything better.







That's the kind of weekend I could get used to...

Fall has arrived.

Too much going on to devote any time to blogging as of late. Snuck in some good rides the past couple weekends. Train for 'cross during the week and take the fat knobbies out on weekends? Sounds like fun to me, but soon it'll be time to get down to serious business and do some racing on skinny knobbies.

Some photos from recent endeavors.

Dan and I headed up high for some alpine riding, or as he puts it, to shred some gnar:

Gnarly descents

Gnarly climbs

Dan talks tire tread design

Finally over the top

The calm before the storm. Some rolling alpine singletrack before the 3000' descent.

A week later, it was time to head out to the desert playground for some desert fun.

This ride started early. Photo taken an hour in, still in the dark.

Desert sunrises are splendid

I hate scrub oak. But the singletrack was great, as long as you don't mind shitty singletrack.

Uh, this wasn't where we were supposed to be.

After climbing all day, the 5000' descent began. Back down with just a bit of daylight to spare. Awesome descent, but a little rough when your fork's rebound damping fails.


The day's ride. ~14 hours. Oof.

Quick spin on some slickrock the next day. Well, not really a spin.

This little steep pitch got the better of Alex.

That's all for now. More mountain riding this weekend . . .

Finally, Rollins goes

Yesterday I finally made it to Rollins Pass. It was attempt #5 for me, after previously being turned around last year because of (1) very deep snow in June, (2) thunderstorms less than 2 miles from the pass in July, (3) realized it was 4 pm in November, I was 0.5 mile from the pass, and didn't bring lights, and (4) a Christmas day attempt without a snow bike (but at least with snowshoes). Those first 3 attempts were all from Boulder. Starting from Ned, Alex and I headed up the Jenny Creek trail and made it to the pass by shortly after noon. What an easy ride when you start way up there late in the summer!

\And strangely, my knee felt almost fine. The IT band problem seems to only really be aggravated when I ride my Dos Niner, what I rode in the Divide. Something is subtly different about the fit, and my knee just can't deal with it. Perhaps Q-factor differences are to blame? Hopefully I'll know more soon, but in the mean time, it was great to get out for a decent ride on a beautiful late summer day.