I Found my Mojo...Then I went Boom!

Welcome back Goat...its been a while.

Last night was our weekly TiTs ride hosted by PBR, congregated locally by MTBR.

Everyone else must of been stuffed turkey's from all the thanks given as the Goat led 90 % of the ride. I know, how the hell did that happen? The Alfine must be feeling the pressure as I recently went out and bought a Surly Cog and have been threatening for the past week that I will be selling the 1500 gram anchor. More on that later....

The ride started at Ironworks, our favorite little Lakewood Brewery and ladie's 80's hair bar. As per usual PBR and Lubes took to the front but by the time we hit Green Mtn and the Hayden trail, the goat made a pass while those two were suckin wind. For the rest of the evening I pulled the night train...6 riders pulling on the goat's tail all evening long....Till the Vista Trail.

Vista Trail starts with some painful rolling climbs and then becomes a mostly sidehill style downhill with a few rollers mixed in....My Captain Control was way out of control as I came around a curve and all the sudden I looked to my right and rear of my bike was in front of the front of my bike....just before I could have my oh shit! moment I was flying....I felt like super man for all of 2.5 milliseconds and then I hit the ground with a great resounding BOOM! Yardselling my camera and a few other items I tumbled to a stop where I laid there chewing on the tall grass as Bad Andy! and the rest of the crew came pullin up..

Later...2am in the morning...

I wake up silent screaming and hobble around the house for 15 minutes as a cramp in my left thigh takes hold and throws me into the bowels of agony....the goat's final paid fee for being the night's leader.

To be Thankful

I could not have asked for a better Thanksgiving.

I met Bad Andy at 7am for a ride on Dakota Ridge, Matthew Winters and Zorro. Laughed at each other falling off the side of the ridge, got off trail for a bit and did a little bushwacking to discover nothing other then the fact that we just like to explore.



I got home and took the wee ones for a walk to the park, played on the playground, and back home to have a great Thanksgiving dinner prepared by Mrs. Goat for us along with a few friends and my sister.

I hope yours was as great as mine.

Powder Floppin in BC

BC Failed us. The micro climate that hung above BC for so long has cracked and that left for 6-8 inches or more of powdery fluff to play in. That though, did not deter 16 riders from coming out to play.

PBR


Avion Nomad


My Ride


Spike on Skinny....spikes


PBR is Fast


the two track was good


Lower Sandy Was was good for laps


Somewhere in the middle of it all I threw a powdery snow ball at Bad Andy.

Bad Andy said, "What, you wanna go?!"



Throwing down my bike I took to Bad Andy Like Velcro....At the end of it though, the Old Codger slammed the Goat like a bag of dry goods....next time old man!

That Time of Year, I reckon

This year I failed. Not in life, but in goals.

Goal #1 drop back to my healthy bike weight of 185 lbs.

Failed!

Started the year off as usual, a great bear...208 lbs...actually got to 198 lbs...then new job hit and I poofed back to 208 lbs.

Goal # 2 Crested Butte Classic

So many new changes this year. Job, Ayla in school, another move. Lack of commitment to the bike and I am fat, slow, and unmotivated. Being this race...ummmm ride starts in Crested Butte and is 3 approx 33 mile loops from town with beer and pizza in between it all you figure I woulda went.

Failed.

I am a weak pathetic soul on the bike at the moment, the flu that hit early October sealed that fate. No self pity talkin there, just plain facts. I was never the fastest homey of the bunch but the way I've been laggin of late...speaks volumes.

And the winter cometh again...I scheme in my head of starting early morning runs, cutting all the crap food from my diet, late evening workouts but the slumbering bear inside wishes to sleep.

Maybe next year, till then...just call me fatty

Go Eat your Cheerios Elsewhere

Friday, we rode
All Voodoo style
It was Friday the 13th, night time
Erie sounds and cat eyes
Crystal Lake laid still near by
while a light snow fell
Spunky fellas kicked my ass on the hills
and I chased a Jackalope about
Railin the descents

Later the weekend came
15 powdery inches fell
claimin all the trails
Took the oldest sleddin
a few wipeouts and laughs and cries abound

Dakota and White Fence Farm

I actually pulled off what Missus Goat said could never. To be on time. Threw down a quick bad ass ride of Zorro, Dakota Ridge, Red Rocks, Matthew Winters, Dakota Ridge, Zorro in a hour and a half, making total the total time of 2 hours from time of leaving the house to arriving back at the house.

Once again, it was bad ass even if it was a bit like Disney Land with all the Hikers and riders.



The Stairway to Heaven



The yum yum of Dakota

So after gettin back home from my quickie bad ass ride I convinced Missus Goat to get out the hacienda for a while and go check out the Red Rocks Amphitheater.





Later in the night we hit the local Family fav



Good Ol Southern Style lovin right in the heart of Colorado...

BC still rocks the night

Of special note: Oscar Blues Tenfidy becomes a frosty beverage treat at 30 degrees F, Kinda like a root beer float but in a very Tenfidy sort of way...meaning it still rocks 10.5 APV like no other.

I won no climbing contest this night...though the descents were all mine.

FS 543 has some icy spots to toss you about



Sandy and Charlie's were fun as ever...I whooped and cackled like a mad man....a very speedy mad man.

The trails were so much fun tonight. Kinda had the whole Tokyo Drift thing going on and felt in control. Yes, BC is everything I say it is......and More.

Bikes Belong In the Wilderness

To be fair, I'm not against wilderness and I'm all about protecting our natural resources. I've enjoyed and recreated in some beautiful pristine areas that I would never want to see molested or developed but an outright ban on bikes from Wilderness areas...I believe takes it to far.

My own words on the subject get too jumbled in my own self diagnosed ADD to provide any cohesive enlightenment, so maybe the below statement from Wilderness Bicycling will provide some insight into what those of us who think bikes belong, think.

Bicycles belong in Wilderness.

That statement arouses passion in some people. If you are a dedicated, long-term Wilderness advocate, it may bring feelings of motorcycles invading your precious hiking places. If you are an avid, backcountry mountain biker who wants to get away from cars and roads, it can summon feelings of persecution or unfair discrimination.

The problem with this passion is that it divides us, and the wilderness of planet Earth needs all the friends it can get. Both hikers and cyclists are "environmentalists." We all love pristine, unsullied, natural, wild places and want to see them protected from development. Why must bicycles, which harm the natural environment no more than feet, be banned in order to protect wild places?

The statement here is presented differently than on the front page. We have left out the word "some" to provoke. Up front, we said, "Bicycles belong on some trails in some Wilderness areas." The idea is that we can have plenty of hiking-only, or hiking+horse-only trails and still allow bicycling on some trails within designated Wilderness. But what we have now in Wilderness is a complete, system-wide ban on bicycling, which is not supported by environmental, legal, historical, or political arguments, and therefore is unjustly discriminatory.

Our discussion begins with an essay by Jim Hasenauer, former President of International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA), about the big Why Bikes Belong. Gary Sprung, former Senior National Policy Advisor to IMBA, offers thoughts on the legal and policy words of the Wilderness Act that some think lead to the bike ban. He also offers a refutation of other arguments used against wilderness bicycling.

Later we plan to expand this section. Many debates occur and we can bring you the specifics. We hope to offer some history lessons, too. Perhaps we can offer space to our opponents.

Whether you support, oppose, or are just curious about our header statement that "bikes belong," please bear in mind the need for a big and growing movement of people working together to protect the planet.

Pueblo

Denver arguably has one of the oddest micro climates in the country. Part Prairie, Part Desert and sitting at just over a mile above sea level with flat lands to the East and the foothills of the Rockies to the West, I've seen everything from snowing lighting storms in the spring to multiple tornado touchdowns in the summer to days on end of sunshiny warm weather in the winter. So just before Halloween when 27 inches of snow fell at my house in a freak Upslope storm, I was not surprised.

A couple of co-workers talked about going to snowboard A-Basin this past weekend but as enticing as that was a couple of things held me back. One I longed for single track and two wheels cutting across the dirt and A-Basin only has 2 runs open which meant long lift lines and most likely shitty snow by Sunday. Call me spoiled after just a year in Colorado but I prefer fresh, untouched powder as my waves of choice.

Sunday I got in touch with Lubes at 7am for a jaunt to the Fruita of the Colorado Southeast. Pueblo, lies just 2 hours south of Denver and while Denver had that whooping 27 inches, Pueblo only saw 4 inches which quickly melted away after Friday and Saturday's sunshine and temps in the high 60's.

Lubes and I made it to Pueblo just after 9am with temps already in the 60's and a beautiful cloudless blue oasis hanging above our heads. I figure we hit somewhere between 25-30 miles of sweet singletrack that makes you continue to churn your legs no matter if your riding the flats, going uphill or down. No rest for the weary in this desert playground exspecially when I was busy chasing Lubes...keeping him just in my sights but never close enough to get any good shots..Sometimes its just about the ride.