So I come to you to whine and bitch.
In 72 hours I will be lining up on the streets of Gunnison for the Gunnison Growler. A 64 mile marathon race in Hartman Rocks. For months I've been preparing and now the day is upon me and I have a devil cold threatening. Heavy chest, nasal dams, the fuggin works. My wife, the lovely Missus Goat who is a preacher of all things eastern and a part time medicine woman of the Aruvedic clan has me jazzed up on all kinds of herbs and steams along with chants and smokewaving.
I have to admit, this morning I feel better but I'm still only at 75 % capacity. I wanted this to be a rest week but dealing with being sick is just about as taxing as riding full bore every day and I am weary.
Nevertheless, things are looking up. I am feeling better, the sun is shining and I'm looking forward to getting my ass kicked as well as kicking some ass. If not, maybe I'll just hawk a loogie on them. Lets get our race on!
The Growler Cometh
Another Day in the Saddle
Section 2 of the Colorado Trail
Through desolation and destruction appears beauty
Through desolation and destruction appears beauty
The Bailey Hundo
On June 19th, 2010 the Bailey Hundo will be starting off its inaugural year of whats to be an annual event of mountain bike racing. With this being the 1st year of the event, the Bailey Hundo crew will be giving out 150 invitations of which one that I recieved.
The racing format will be about 40 percent buff singletrack including sections of the Colorado Trail and the Buffalo Creek Trail System along with about 60 percent fire road and jeep trails.
Sponsored by four Colorado State Senators; Scheffel, Romer, Brophy, and Kopp, the event will be raising money for enhancing the trail system around Bailey as well as promote mountain biking for at risk youth and High School students by supporting Trips for Kids Denver/Boulder and the newly-founded Colorado High School Cycling League (CHSCL).
This is where I need your help. The Bailey Hundo is a pledge based event where each rider commits to raise at least $100 and more if possible. I've commited $500 knowing between my friends, family, and loyal reader base that we can reach this goal and more if possible. But I need you to react quickly since the race is so close to happening.
Two ways to pledge are:
Make a check to "Advance Colorado", the non profit established to run the race, be sure to put my name in the "For" line
and send it to:
Bailey Hundo Bike Race
PO Box 181028
Denver, CO 80218White Ranch to Golden Gate and back
White Ranch to Golden Gate has been bugging me for over a year now. To bad I had to cut it short due a failed rear brake. That's the Mountain Lion, Maverick and Belcher Hill descents with a front brake only, sketchy, I'd say so.
No pictures of the climb up White Ranch, its a well known fact on the Front Range, it hurts but the top could not be resisted.
Drew Hill Road, The connector between White Ranch and Golden Gate...I was hurting to keep it in the middle ring climbing back up this 20% plus beast.
Mountain Lion Trail in Golden Gate Canyon...looks to be some recent underbrush fire clearing
I just had to see City of Lights Ridge...it was pretty much a hike a bike to the top
Least the view was worth and the descent
The old homestead
The climb up Mountain Lion
and the snowy descent off the backside
It went on for a bit which meant some cold creek crossings and postholing up to my knees through rotten snow
But eventually the snow ended and whats life without a little adventure?
I stopped to get some learning before Drew Hill Road took its best shot of me
Where the Ranches had barns nicer then most folks homes
and I ended my day thinking I need to bleed
Moments in the Rain
There are those magical moments in rain where everything seems etheral
You've choosen the right trail to make it all come together
and the smiles it brought are the priceless memories during tomorrow's day of work
Left Hand OHV and saying goodbye to the Alfine
Yesterday I made a mad dash to just north of Boulder to hook up with the Redstone Crew to ride the Left Hand OHV area. I didn't take into account for Boulder traffic or the tiny road sign I missed so I blew the meeting by 30 minutes and found a parking lot full of empty cars. It was already 6:30pm and I had no clue where I was so I just took off up the steep gravel road hoping to catch them to no avail. I got to a section I later learned was called the 5 points and weighed my options. A steepish gravel road to the right beckoned and it soon became this...
MMM....so many fond memories...seriously..this is classic east coast style and I was loving every minute of it until I found out I had brought my light battery but not the light itself. Doh!
It was 7:20pm now and I knew it'd be getting dark soon so I scouted out another steep dirt road and found trail # 841. It appeared to be heading the direction I wanted to go so I jumped on it and railed the tight, sketchy singletrack back to the trailhead.
Next time Redstone!
On to the Alfine. With this year's plans of epic rides and epic races I decided I needed a granny gear again for those moments when I'm feeling the Rocky Mountain High at 13,000 + feet. So the Falcon has gone to a 2x9 as most of you already know and the Alfine is being sold to fund the squishy fork I now have on the front.
$300 gets you a Shimano Alfine newly laced within the last 2 months to a 29er/700c DT Swiss TK7.1D including a Shimano XT Centerlock Rotor, non turn washers for horizontal or vertical drops, Alfine Trigger Shifter and the cassette joint. Everything you need to go internal geared.
Give me a shout at goatshell at hotmail dot com if your interested.
The Buffalo Spiderweb
The life and times of a wannabe endurance mountain biker. That was this past weekend after 66 miles and 8,945 feet of accumulated climbing and the best part, 98% singletrack baby! I've been thinking about a spiderweb route of Buffalo Creek for a few months now. At 1st I was gonna attempt this on my own but at the last minute I put the challenge out on MTBR, and got a huge response on the forum to it.
Saturday morning came and I found AV Boy's truck already in the BC parking lot and AV, no where to be found. To top it off, my truck read 18 degrees F. Fugging cold mate! Steadyflow shows up just minutes before I'm ready to take off and we make our pleasantries before starting the ride.
5 hours into the ride and I'm sitting right at 42 miles...setting myself up for a good 8.5 mph average pace. I lost Steadyflow behind me miles back and I've made up 20 minutes on AV Boy learning that he had started at 5:50am while me and Steadflow had left the parking lot at 6:10am. I'm starting to crack though. My body is refusing any kind of solid food and all that it will allow me to eat is gummy bears and my Accelerade sports drink. My original plan was to ride out to Lost Creek Wilderness but I know I don't have it in me so I take the turn off to Redskin, willing AV Boy a good ride and hopefully the win. If you didn't read it on the Challenge placed on MTBR, this is a good ol fashioned time trial, winner takes the braggin rights.
Climbing Gashouse I'm suffering and I've accepted the fact I've lost the TT for today and with that I should of just continued down Sandy Wash to my truck. But sitting there on the trail at the entrance to the new Sandy Connector at the end of Charlie's cutoff, I look at the time. 2pm. 51 miles into the ride I start thinking about the Strawberry Jack descent and the more I do, the more I loath myself because it means I'm climbing Buck Gulch to get back to where I am now.
An hour and a half later and most of Buck Gulch hike a biked and I'm descending Sandy Wash at possibly the slowest I've ever descended it, my bonk complete, my motor skills thoroughly scoured. I've survived my ride, but it has not been the highlight of my career of being the wannabe endurance mountain biker.
This was done all in preparation for the Gunnison Growler. The great thing is I now know I can handle sixty some odd miles of singletrack with some serious elevation gain this early in the season. Colorado season's for riding tends to start a little later in the year due to weather, especially for those of us who ride only mountain bikes. The bad, I have no idea how the Growler's singletrack stacks up to Buffalo Creek. I later learned that AV Boy had made it to the Wilderness Boundary but bailed on FR 543 to get back giving him around 65 miles and 8500 ft of climbing and Steadyflow bailed and ended up with 50 miles.
Photo by : PBR, me on the Colorado Trail about 30 miles into the Buffalo Spiderweb
With the Growler only 4 weeks away, my next couple of weekend's are pretty shot for continuous long distance training. Next weekend is Mother's day, the next we'll be in San Fransisco visiting family which leaves the weekend just before the Growler for the one last big training weekend.
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