I give you the Cherry Juice. So many mixed feelings about building this bike but its a ride.....to be honest I like the way it rides but its red you see and red just fucks with my mojo. Such a hostile little color...Red.
I decided to go with moto braking this time....yes sir that is my front brake in my right hand....better to say brrr---appppt...brrr---apppt as I moto down the hill
Endo you say? Never I say....nose wheelies all the way
So it all leads up to where to go next?
Dark Steel in large is on order. December is said to be the delivery date. Hmmm...patience little one...
Wait...wait...my frame has to wait till December and all your worried about oh Dark Lord of Sordid Wonder is forks and what to name them
....ummm....wait....again...
that's right...I'm broke...I need to save and scavenge for pennies if I'm gonna make this purchase. Don't you worry your pretty little head bout it though, I'll have your doe when the time comes.
Cherry Juice
Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day
Then the day goes all to the chickens. Really though, this is Nate. Works at the Golden Bike Shop, cool guy....just wears a chicken suit for kicks....whatever gets your rocks off brother. Wear that to the Pint to Pint and I'll wear my ballerina Viking costume, it'll make a good ol time even that much cooler in a riding a bike kind of way.
Saturday was National Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day and in all things great about our local mountain bike club, COMBA...they held a spectacular event just for the wee ones. More then 60 kids participated and the trails at Bear Creek Lake Park held just the right amount of mellowness and spice to keep em interested but also enjoying themselves.
So the morning started off with a variety of skills workshops where Ayla kept begging to just go ride, Self diagnosed ADD runs in the family and daughter like father, she just has a hard time sitting around and watching someone else do something while we get to twiddle our thumbs.
Kids helmets are so cool. I wish my melon was smaller so I could have flames and flowers....well, the flowers would have to be skulls and crossbones or some other version of uber cool, for a guy that is. Chicks can pull off the flowers so well.
So we joined the small girls group of 4-6 year olds but I had Ayla on the trail a bike since she is still learning the world of two wheels where we ran laps around a doubletrack circuit and we got to cheer on the other little girls riding downhill and making a small steep climb. We rode till about 11:30 and stopped for a well timed lunch of pizza and hoogies from Woody's out of Golden, Colorado.
After lunch Ayla decided she wanted some singletrack and being one not to deny my daughter of the simple pleasures in life I was more then happy to oblige. We rode a few miles with many giggles and smiles and made our way back over to the Pavilion where we found everyone packing up except for one other trail a bike. This was Scott and daughter Sienna. Ayla talked Sienna into riding some singletrack with us which made her father really happy since he couldn't quite say the words to convince his girl that singletrack and mountainbiking are as synomonous to eachother as an icecream sundae is to the cherry that tops it off. Understand, I was going to make that a reference to beer and its head but I was applying the analogy to that of one four year old speaking to another.
Whoot! Whoot! Sienna on her 1st singletrack...I think she is hooked
Not even a mile in the singletrack, Sienna's trail a bike had a flat. Her father didn't even have a tool on him much less a pump or patch kit. Being the always prepared, pack more then I ought to mountain biker that I am, I fetched my tools out of my 20 + pound Wingnut and had them set up in just a few minutes...even had the 15 mm wrench to take the wheel off Sienna's trail a bike.
Ayla is really still having a good time..She is concerned that Binky, the stick in her hand may fall and suffer the fate of all other sticks, being just a random stick on the trail.
15 minutes later and Sienna's father who I still want to call Scott but I honestly forgot had a flat on his Salsa. Goatheads run rampant on the Front Range and tubed tires such as the ones Scott was running suffer the wrath of the prickly little buggers. Using the tools out of my always prepared pack we got him up and running again and we back on the trail with our girls giggling and smiling all the way.
Scott and Sienna pulled off on our next lap and Ayla decided she wanted to keep riding. Happy to continue on singletrack we took off towards Mount Carbon and just as we were about to make the climb up, Ayla decided she had enough. It was 2:30pm and we had been at the park and riding for most the while since 9:30am. More then impressed with my girl for the day of riding we turned around and passed two other riders on the way back to the car where Ayla proclaimed," We won, we won, we were so much faster then them, Daddy!"
Save Apex
Tonight hundreds of mountain bikers showed to the Jefferson County OSAC meeting to show their opposition to the proposed plan for Apex Park and to demonstrate an overwhelming willingness to put forth the effort to create new trails and offer alternative ideas to create better shared trail user experiences.
Lets hope the political rocks of Jeffco, Ralph Schell and the Board listened well in the fact that we will not stand idly by and let them take away what is rightfully ours along with any other user group.
Strangely enough we are fighting for a park that has only 8 miles worth of trails with the Grand Pom Ba being the Enchanted Forest Trail. Even odder you may think, I've only ridden the park half a dozen times. Why? To many users for to small a trail system. Usually if I'm gonna ride Apex its from 5am to 8am when I know the trails will be almost completely people free.
We're fighting for Apex though because its still a great trail system that's open to bikes and if we allow them to take this away, what Jeffco Park will go next. What Jeffco has to get through their heads is that 126 total miles of trails for a population of over 2,000,000 when you include Metro Denver isn't spreading out the trail users near enough to provide a satisfactory trail experience. The only solution is more trails, not limiting trail users to specific trails where they are going to create even more issues of trail congestion.
Hmmm..wonder how much more arm twistin it would take to convince Missus Goat that one of them pretty mountain towns just a little further west is the way to go....Course there's always Idaho.
COMBA/APEX press release ** Meet Thursday 5pm Apex **
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT KYLE HENLEY; info@COMBA.org
GOLDEN, Colorado (September 28, 2009) – After meeting with Jefferson County Open Space leaders and other stakeholders, the Colorado Mountain Bike Association board of directors has decided to oppose the county’s current proposed plan for managing Apex Park.
COMBA is asking concerned trail users to meet at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 1, at the lower Apex Park parking lot to demonstrate their opposition to the plan. Bikers will then ride over to the Jefferson County Open Space Administrative Office, 700 Jefferson County Parkway, Suite 100, Golden, Colo., where the county’s Open Space Advisory Committee is scheduled to consider the Apex Park management plan at 7 p.m.
“We are encouraging folks to bring their bikes and ride to the OSAC meeting in solidarity to ask the members of OSAC to reject the current proposal,” COMBA President Terry Breheny said. “Although this plan is touted a ‘compromise’ position for Jefferson County and is less restrictive than the county’s initial proposal, it remains inherently biased against a single user group, in this case mountain bikers.
“In addition to setting dangerous precedent for bike-exclusionary policy, this plan does not address the real issue – the need within JCOS for trails designed and managed for mountain bikers, which would, in fact, also help mitigate the ‘speed differential’ at crowded multi-use parks. COMBA believes the revised Apex management plan, in its current state, is akin to prescribing aspirin for someone with a broken leg.”
The proposed plan limits the direction of travel for mountain bikers on popular trails within Apex Park—where cyclists comprise the majority usage—on an alternating-day schedule. The plan places no travel restrictions on other user groups.
“We are asking the mountain bike community to voice their dissent as soon as possible,” Breheny said. “It’s crucial that OSAC members have a clear understanding of this plan and the broad opposition to it before making a decision. Again, this plan, which unfairly discriminates against the cycling community, will not solve the underlying problem.”
COMBA came to this position following a meeting on Friday, Sept. 25, 2009, between members of the COMBA board of directors, biker representatives from the Trails Use Task Force and Ralph Schell, director of Jefferson County Open Space. The purpose of the meeting, which also included other JCOS managers, was to discuss the county’s management proposal for Apex Park ("Revised - Compromised Actions - 9/21/09").
The 90-minute discussion was informative and included prepared comments from JCOS regarding Open Space values and perspectives. Dialogue covered the immediate matter of Apex and also included broader aspects of shared-use policy, user-group needs and other long-term issues. In addition, COMBA presented a counter proposal to Jefferson County that promoted targeted education and outreach – the most requested management tactic during the June public comment period.
“We are disappointed that our counter-proposal for Apex was rejected,” COMBA Vice President Jason Bertolacci said. “The COMBA proposal was based on management strategies which have proven successful in parks across the country. The current proposed policy should not be evaluated as just ‘lines on a map’ by folks who may have never recreated at Apex Park. They need to understand the real world consequences and ramifications for cyclists should this plan get approved.”
Breheny concluded, “Regardless of the outcome for Apex, we will move forward with proposals for bike-specific trails or parks with hopes of demonstrating to county officials the value this approach provides to the user-experience of all park users.”
Sometimes there's a shitter in the woods
PBR demonstrating how my riding was yesterday
Plainly said, it was like shit. I met up with PBR and Mark yesterday for a friendly spin in the Canyon. Weather was awesome, trails were awesome and I thought I was gonna be riding awesome. 1st six miles went by so fast...I guess a 3% percent uphill grade for 6 miles on a smooth as a baby's bottom dirt road would make anyone feel like a super hero on a bike.
Soon as we hit the trails PBR was off like a shot..I was feelin ok....chest a little heavy but still feelin pretty good. Soon as I reached Lenny's Rest though..my energy level went down the drain.
Literally I was ready to fall asleep where I was standing, my eyes became watery and super heavy and I felt drunk on my feet. We were only a little over 8 miles from the trailhead and I was ready to go home. Mark was complaining pretty loudly about his vajaja hurting though, guy has been off the bike for a while so I kept my mouth shut to keep the whining down.
We headed over to Indian Creek and hit the hike-a-bike..Mark decided to call it when PBR left us again but I pushed ahead only to just about eat it on the 1st descent. OK, Its time for me to go home to but I pushed on to let PBR know and hit the 1st Stephen's Gulch turnoff.
I caught up with PBR to let him know to go ahead but the guy wouldn't hear of it and joked about beer and a game to watch waitin at home so he'd join me for the Stephen's descent. I know he was just nicely sayin he wanted to make sure I got out of the woods ok because lookin at the pics he took, I looked like death was about to hit any moment.
I let PBR take point and lead me down Stephen's...I was laggin and almost hoping to be eatin by the mountain lions that take refuge in the area but alas I survived to make it back to Waterton Canyon where a boy no more then 8 years old schooled me down the 3% grade, smooth as a baby's butt dirt road.
Least these guys let me take their photo
Finally made it back to the car for a can of PBR's favorite beer and a quick drive home. I laid down at 7:30pm and didn't get up till 7am this morning. This fuggin devil cold is kicking my arse.
Crested Butte...I so wanted to race you
My co-workers all laughed at me this morning. I thought to cry but I laughed instead.
No, I did not show up in my birthday suit, nor with toilet paper hanging out the rear of my pants or even with my underwear on the outside of my pants.
I woke up at 7:30am groggy from a night of unrest and wondering why my alarm didn't go off. Usually I'm already within the herd of composites and steel ...slowly making my way towards the dark towers on 6th Avenue by this time.
Somehow I still made it in by 8am but then I realized I didn't have any work for the day. Oh yeah, just another kick in the ol' mountain oysters...for I took today off to go to Crested Butte for the race that was meant to be...just not for me...not this year. No racin...no money makin...Fugg me.
On a brighter note...amid all the hacking, coughing, and vomiting...I put on a pretty good show at the local brew in ride. I was feeling worse for wear as everyone and I mean everyone left me on the paved climb up to the Big Green Hill. Once there though, I held a good mid pack performance. I was even given chance to chase one of the leaders for a while in 2nd position...couldn't hold it though and quickly fell back to mid pack. Back to Ironworks Brewery for an Oatmeal Stout and a bit of Karaoke...gotta love that little brewery...Mullets and 80's ladies hair make for most of the flair.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
