A rather large bull elk in the back meadow staring at me.
I've taken down hundreds of yards of old rusted barbed wire fence from the new property. That, along with all the other old wire fencing, I feel like I've partially given this movement corridor/drainage back to the wildlife. They used it before, but were more funneled by the mass of historic barbed trip-lines and fences that blocked their movement. I hope I've helped them get around easier with the work I've been doing. But I still have a LONG way to go. It's amazing to think about how much freakin barbed wire there is out there in the West for the purpose of keeping cattle (for the most part). It's really insane the lengths humans go to eat beef, absurd really.
Friday and today I rode the re-built Hunter. I've been riding the 69er mostly these days and the Hunter stayed unbuilt in the garage. It's a single now with a new front end. The new fork has a custom mini-pannier for my future overnight trips, and bent blades with more offset than my previous fork. The ride is better as the "trail" is in the more normal range than before. I asked Rick to make my bike with different geometry to test out my ideas. Most of them worked, but the fork needed some tweaking and Rick was happy to oblige. I also was drooling over his CDR (Continental Divide Race) rig last year, as you may know, which had the same front mini-pannier rack. Above is a pic of the new fork out on my Friday AM commute. The pannier's at home, but you can see the bolts on the side of the blade. I like the 69er, but I have to say that a rigid steel 29er is my bike of choice for most rides. It just ROLLS!

Today's ride took me over to see some terrain I've neglected for a few years. Orange square to Blue-square trail then to Buddha rock for some spiritual enlightenment. I caught a wanna-be Buddha hiding from me behind a tree thinking i didn't see him or her...so i just played along and left. You see, this is the trail system of a local "awareness center"... and although I wasn't trespassing, I kinda felt like I was.

Next stop...Singletrack MountainThis is my favorite local stash of singletrack. Desolate of people with amazing views of the divide and running water. "Stickman" still lives here, as Bob would exclaim as he raised his arms in comedic frustration. Most other stashes have been over-run with riders and the sticks that once hid the ingress/egress of the trails now line the trail. That's the way of the trail here in Ned though...so i guess it's only a matter of time before this stash gets found (and overused) like the others.

The dry spell ends

We're in a pretty severe drought this summer, i can't remember the last time it rained. Of course the dry spell ended on my first "real" ride after work ride in a few months. I think "it" knew I was feeling Norcal today, so the weather followed. I actually like riding in the rain, something about it that's hard to explain...you just have to go with it, soak it up.
Left work early to sell my truck. Didn't feel like riding the 6 miles back to work to be there an hour before heading right back to the bus station so I loaded up on the 4:40 bus up to Ned. Up the canyon, thank Bob for the ride, and cruised the tarmac to Very Male. Half-way up it started to sprinkle, then rain. No lightning though so I kept going. This wet and round granite sticks out of the trail making jumps but also knocking you all around. I flatted less than 300 yards into the trail. Damn 26" non-tubeless wheel. This trail is amazing in the wet weather - part norcal and part Vermont...hmm, i guess that's full Colorado when it rains. Wet aspens lighten the darker woods as the narrow singletrack drops nearly 800 ft in 8 tenths of a mile.

Then onto the sacrifice zone, 1st time this year. Not a soul in sight with the rain coming down....the the way I like it. The trails here have gotten kinda trashed...loved to death. Spurs going every which way the eye turns.

The view from the new front deck. What an awesome night! After the rains the light hitting the trees was just stunning. All the critters come back out, seemingly enjoying the new moisture. Looks like the 3-legged coyote paired up with the 4-legged one we've been seeing and had some young, as just before dark we heard a family of coyotes howling in the back meadow.

Bad internet

The new pad's internet connection stinks. Uploading pictures to this site is a total pain, unless i happen to stumble upon a fast connection for a minute or two. Can't expect that much being in the hills here, but seeing that it's satellite network, i kinda expect more!

The ranch is coming along, stuff is getting done, the horses are getting comfortable, the dogs are probably missing their old yard but good things come to those that wait. Patience, pups, it's in the works.

Not much time to ride this year but sneaking in a singletrack here and there. Here are a couple of pics from my sunday around the neighborhood. Did a supply run to Flatrock for some allergy meds for Bear as he's itching his ears off. Poor guy's allergic to everything! The drugstore closed up in Ned for some reason so down the hill I go again. It felt like a work day, but instead of racing to get to work on time, I was racing to get the 10am bus back up to Ned. Bear's had a rough spring...TPLO (knee) surgery which led somehow to seizures. So far he's had 6 seizures in the last week, 3 in the last 24 hours...pretty sad, scary and creepy to witness. It appears the surgery and medication he was on lowered his seizure threshold and now he's an epileptic dog. The drama continues, it's never a dull moment at DVR!

4th of July weekend

Photo by DV8. I love this picture.

If only every weekend was a 3 day weekend. Then I'd want a 4-day weekend I guess.

Lots of time to make up for here so sorry for the picture heavy blog.
I learned this week to not hang your bike up by the front wheel on a hook if you have a shock...the oil drains in the secondary chamber and my favorite feature of the fork (the lockout) doesn't work for awhile! I'm so off the back on bikes these days.

Friday headed up to North Forks Lakes Bowl with DV8, MikeV (not the skater, but I'll still call him MikeV the 15yr old badass since he got second on a singlespeed to TBrown at a recent 60+ mile mtb race in Gunnison!), and Dubba! Dubba made his first spring ski appearance all year...first skiing for him since our Clark Peak Yurt trip back in March. Nothing like your first day back and skiing a 40 degree couloirish bowl!
Nothing quite like going to the 4th of July trailhead on the 4th of July...duh. Once again, we wish we had a sign with the first person in the group saying "Yes, there's snow up there. Yes, we skied. Yes, it was fun." It's great everyone's so friendly, but after the 20th time answering the same questions it gets old!Saturday I got out on a shortish ride around the hood. Too hot for my tastes at 82 degrees (Swede blood) but really nice to scope the new area. I rode out back to the overlook to see if Radiobeacon Couloir was still skiable...but couldn't make out if I was looking at the right one...but called DV8 and we made plans for the next day to scope out Forest Lakes Bowl and the sweet couloirs within.

Woke up to a cooler day and some light clouds covering the sun. No worries about snowmelt today it seemed as we drove up to the lake on Rollins Pass road talking about how the one downside of sking is how you have to drive everywhere to go ski. Ideas about how to fashion a Bob trailer or Xtracycle for skis and pack were tossed around. Maybe next year we'll have a carless option for longer approaches by bike...? It'd be a great goal for local stashes, but not always realistic for getting some places with long drives in severe winter weather (i.e., Summit County is a 1.5 hour drive)! But for some spring approaches...could be cool.

I'm borrowing a pair of demo Ski Trab Stelvio's from CosmicPete. I like the idea of these skis...they feel like the Rivendell of skis? The Karhu Guides feel like that too, in a different way.

Sunday was the day for some steep couloir skiing and climbing. I just had that urge to climb up something steep and attempt to ski down it. For some reason, I had a hankering for Radiobeacon's northeast Couloir. I had no idea if it was melted out or not but we decided to make a push for it. We got up to Forest Lakes at around 8am and saw the bottom 1/3rd of the couloir was melted out and ended in a pretty big 100+ foot cliff band. Hmm.... I wondered where the couloir actually was before it melted out!? The only way to climb up and then go down was to climb up the lower more easterly couloir that leads up to Radiobeacon snowfield, then traverse over and down to the northeast couloir that we wanted to ski. Kinda round-about but a sweet approach if you ask me! Here's a pic:

We decided NOT to ski this steep thing because of the consequences if one fell and couldn't stop right away....that 100ft cliff terrain trap thing. If we only had base-jumping packs!! Um, yeah.
Instead, we traversed the CDT north to a more southerly aspect couloir with the remains of a huge broken off cornice at the top. It's the 1st one on DV8's right in this below pic.

After dropping into this sweet narrow (for me at least!) steep walled cooler, we just had to get the shakes out of our system and do a more mellow run so headed up to Radiobeacon proper.

It's funny how the transition from skiing 40 deg chutes to 35 deg slopes can be so odd feeling...it's only 5 degrees!


Here's a movie of DV8 skiing these things.
http://www.dropshots.com/meriwether#date/2008-07-06/18:03:29
Music by Treepeople covering Morrisey's "Bigmouth stikes again."

On our last run we noticed the clouds starting to consolidate over the divide...it was gonna thunderstorm. It's hard to tell what the weather's going to do when you're 2000ft down from the divide. We packed up quick and booked it back to the truck just in time for some sprinkles and loud thunder. No strikes nearby, but we knew it was coming. Of course we then see a cyclist with earphones headed up the pass with no worries. It always amazes me how many idiots DON'T get hit by lightning a year.
Here's Missus Guppie scared shitless of the thunder when I got home: