Happy Festivas!

Smrp and the Guppies looking west

Dog days of winter

peeping smrp

The first official day of Winter. It's going to be hard to leave the snow, where we can snowshoe from the front door and right into the woods.  The dogs seem to love powder days as much as the people standing in the lift line at the mountain an hour before the lift starts.  I honestly don't miss those days of waiting for the lift to open while freezing my balls off.  I'm so glad I found Jesus (the Backcountry...with a capital "B").  This includes our backyard, as the Backcountry is everywhere there aren't lifts and lift-lines.  Just GO...and you shall find it.

Jesse Guppie can barely control her excitement for all the powder!

Crazy-dogging in the belly deep powder.  She ran around up and down dragging me along with her.  We keep her on a long 25ft leash because...well...without it? She'd be gone.  Deer, squirrels, elk, coyotes, foxes, you name it...she'd suddenly chase something and look up and be 10 miles away.  Not worth the risk.

More pouncing.  She's like a half bunny half kangaroo in the snow!

Jesse Guppie at Sunset only somewhat tired from the big hike in the deep snow. 

Solstice ride and SNOW!

I think the Mayan's world ended yesterday but i can't be sure. But up in the Nederlands, all was well last night after preparing the ranch for the upcoming big storm.  Everything (pony poop, for example) that you don't pick up will be buried for a long long time if you don't take care of it now!  They were calling for 8-16" and we woke up to just around 14-16" depending on settlement.  Hayride, Powers and I got out on what may be the last small-tire (not a fatbike) MTB ride on westMag for awhile.  Left and headed up Pungee at around 5:45pm and returned an hour an a half later having done a lil lollipop loop.

 Hayride was sporting the snowmobile pogies and that's all i could see of him. They're HUGE! And toasty.

 

 A pitstop at the usual place although there was no scenery to be seen (it was dark).  It was the start of the storm and just dumping.

The beer of the night was some solsticey Norwegian smoked barleywine which was...interesting. Can't say that I'll get it again but glad we tried it. We chased it with some hot tea and a slug of whiskey before heading down the trail.  Even if you hike more when snowbiking, it's SO much f'ing fun going down!

December 15th snowride

 Studded Nokian tire on the front and just some rather low tire pressure in back I headed out for a local loop to see what was rideable.  Lots more than I thought! With temps in the mid-30's and no wind (yep, none!) it was stellar outside.  The dog walkers, runners, snowshoer's, and XC skiers have packed down many of the closer-to-town trails so that even on a regular MTB tire you can ride most of them.  I did see KB's trax out there though and it made me have tire-envy.  Wow...those Endomorph's are freaking huge!

I just love this view of the old surveyline

Crisp and clear view of the Divide from the Lookout trail.

 The snowfall up high is lacking but at least the wind has been silently absent (so far).  Unfortunately for this area, with snow comes wind, so you can't have it both ways (no wind and lots of snow to ski).  So in the meantime, I'm happy to keep riding my bike.

Another loss...

me and Mariah, 2006

It's continued to be a rough year. It's been about a month already since we lost Mariah, our 25 year old Morgan. She was my girl's real first horse and she was such a funny personality.  Her sudden colic and death took us all by surprise.  Everybody knows colic is common in horses...but it doesn't make it any easier when it happens to one of your crew.  It's pretty awful to experience to find them writhing on the ground in pain, soaked in sweat from rolling around due to the pain from their stomach.

For you that don't know, colic is a generic term for a blockage in the intestines of a horse.  They can't pass the food through and it is extremely painful.  If not operated on and removed, they either eventually pass it...or die trying.  After 8 hours, Mariah wasn't getting any better with drugs on board and fluids, so we asked our vet to let her go as peacefully as possible.

Mariah was a total sweetheart with a tougher than nails personality on the outside.  We called her the Viper because she would 'viper' at Tango (who she loved and this was a sign of affection).  She got the funniest look on her face when you'd scritch her withers...but she hated to admit she loved human contact.  She was tough and sweet at the same time.  We will greatly miss her.

Our family has shrunk by 3 in 2 months. We still have 6 horses and 3 dogs that keep us busy and happy, but wow...what a Fall.

First ski tour of the season

 

Today's tour was...how do i say this nicely...challenging.  We've received almost 2 feet in the past several days so we thought it was about time to put on the planks and head up to the Portal.  Well, we need more snow. 

This looks really serene but we were hitting rocks just a foot under the snow almost every step here.

 Hayride, JHK and I headed up and did our best to stay positive on what was some of the most "interesting" conditions we've experienced.  The recent windstorm had knocked down a ton of trees here too and with only 2 feet of snow...not many trees were buried yet.  It was like trying to find your way through a corn maze that hadn't been cut yet.  There was no *good* way through, it all pretty much sucked.  Just keep bushwhacking and you'll eventually get to the top.  Hayride brought up how a recent article in Backcountry Mag stated that the ideal skin track is right around 12 degrees.  Yeah. That ain't gonna happen.  We were heading up to Squirrel Huck Gully and if we stuck to that rule, we'd have skied to winter park and back before getting to the top.

Who needs 12 degrees? Let's BOOTPACK! If anyone followed our skin track they died out there (self-inflicted).

 Once at the top, we were surprised at the calmness of air (no wind).  That made me pretty happy (shocked) since it was hovering around 0 degrees F.

View over to Crater Lakes

JHK at the 'top' - Marmot Poop Rock.

 

The best 10 turns of the day right here...and they WERE good!  Never-mind it took 3 hours to do the 3 miles to get here.

Hayride lower down for another 5 turns.

Can this be counted as training for the Olympics...?

Hayride getting his carve on

 All in all, we got back to the car almost at dark.  Our ski bases didn't look quite as bad as I thought they should have.  Maybe the cold temps helped protect our bases (hardening)?  A shot of whiskey to warm our insides helped, but we were pretty whooped.  My body hasn't felt like that since...well, the last time I was at the Portal.  Winter backcountry season is here!  But I think we're going to wait a bit longer for more snow to fall before heading up to Squirrel Huck Gully again.

Snow "ride" and the winter shut down

 It started out like this...dry as a bone, but with some icy patches. That tree on the right was broken off midway up from that crazy windstorm a couple weeks ago.  It just snapped tons of trees off like that or ripped them out of the ground exposing their root system. 

Then i got a bit higher and the packed snow and ice showed up.  Only because people hike here is this even rideable! Only foot tracks for some reason, no other bike tracks. 

As I got higher the deeper snow started. Two moto tracks on Bus n' Shack bummed me out not only because it's designated as a non-motorized trail but because trying to ride in a frozen snow rut the width of a moto tire is...challenging.  It's much better to break trail than try to stay in someone else's rut!

I neglected to take any photos of the rest of the ride, which is saying something, since i was mostly hiking up snowy singletrack and trying to stay upright on the downhills.  A fun, if challenging, 3 hour "ride" that made me realize for this type of bike at least...mtb season is over up there. (A fatbike is now in the queue.) A big storm is coming in tonight, forecasted to drop 5-9" and another storm is on it's way for Saturday. I think it's time to get the skis and skins out of the garage and begin riding the planks!

Fire in the sky

view from the deck this morning...unreal!

Freshies

MC#6. My bikes are so balanced, they stand up on their own!

Friday afternoon forecast called for a high of 41 and a 20% chance of rain/snow.  It was dumping by 4pm. It's pretty common for the 20%'s to dump and the 70%'s to be clear here.  Funny since NOAA is in Boulder and there are likely more weather forecasters here than any other 20 mile radius in the US! Anyway, it snowed just over an inch and although bluebird skies, it didn't go about 30 degrees all day.

 

Hayride corners

 We met at doubleAranch where a surprise guest rider, SupaDupaTupa, had arrived a half-hour early since Hayride and myself thought we were riding alone! But good to have company to get fresh tracks out on the trails. We did almost the same ride as on Tofurkey Day but with the addition of Lost World.  Well...nobody but elk hike there so we walked much of that 5 miles.  Not a car to be seen all day, it was like the eastern Mongolia area was devoid of all human life...strange...i knew I wasn't going to be called up during the Rapture but wasn't that supposed to be months ago...?

Tupa climbs with Eldora and the Indian Peaks in the background.

 Once we finally got our way over to the other side of the road, the trails were just stellar with that inch of snow over dirt or packed snow.  Super tacky and soft, it felt like we were floating most of the day. I almost ate it several times from those icy puddles with snow on top but didn't hit the floor thankfully.  I've shed enough blood this year already.

Steel*Wooler tracking up some trail

 Even though we didn't leave doubleAranch until 11:15am or so, we got fresh tracks almost the entire ride! Except for a coyote, bobcat and some elk...but they don't count.  None of these trails are even secret, they're all on the map! Even at a popular trailhead for the locals, the trails were devoid of any bike or even foot tracks! It's strange to me how many put their bikes away at the first sign of cold weather and snow.  This is my favorite time to ride!

 We did two laps up at the rainbow dots just to track it up real nice, followed by a sip of whiskey of course to warm the inners. 

Back on Black Coffee, we headed over to the ridge for a quick loop and then back to the ranch to warm up.  I hate to sound like one of those stupid surf movies where they interview all the surfers and they're telling you how cool surfing is but they can't explain it because "there's nothing like it"...but riding on snowy singletrack is kinda like that...sorry.

Thanksgiving day ride

 Got out on a Thanksgiving day ride with Hayride, and a new face to the Steel*Wool crew - highD.  We went for a ride on the local trails a short ride from our houses.  It's amazing that on Thanksgiving day we could ride some dry singletrack! Most Thanksgivings it seems like I get out to ride trail but it's not usually over 60 degrees at 8500ft! Crazy, I tell you.  The hikers had packed down the snow on most of the east-side trails so it was mostly easy going and really fun riding.  My favorite time to ride these trails is in spring and fall and winter since it seems like it's a whole different place.

Hayride on boot. That's not dirt, it's pine needles that blew down to thee packed down snow.

My artsy shot of the day

highD carefully choosing her line. If you go off the 8" wide packed down section of the trail, you stop dead in the softer snow and usually let out some kind of... UMPH! There was some slipping and sliding, safety was definitely 3rd.

Lots of sawing logs today...followed by some trailside "recovery" drinks.

5 rather large trees were still across the trail from the huge windstorm a couple weeks ago.  Hayride was able to clear most by himself a day or two ago, but the others were too big without the saw.  Trail is clear now though! Except for a major double-spruce down that would make a great lil bridge in the spring if nobody can bring a chainsaw in to cut it.

The crux...no way we could cut this one today.

and yes, as with all S*W rides...another shot of whiskey!

Tour de Dewey

For Dubba's 40th birthday his wife revived an historical event in the Boulder area - the Tour de Dewey.  The TDD started in 1997 with a handful of friends at Dubba's Dewey street house.  It somehow arose one fall from the end-of-race-season-burnt-out-on-racing-and-traveling-mindset while under the influence while riding cruisers. 

The first year was a humble beginning, and somehow it soon grew into a few hundred people by 2004 when it was decided best to stop the event altogether...it was just TOO big and rowdy.  Costumes, cruiser races - including a shotgun prologue, Individual Time Trial, Circuit Race, and Hillclimb - were all part of the TDD.  It was a moving event with nobody knowing where they were going exactly before the 'race' -- each stage was at a different undisclosed location until the night of the event.  With the TDD, the IGSSC (Intergalactic Singlespeed Championships) grew (and died) as well, for the same reason.  But it appears for now that the TDD lives again and will re-appear at (random) times. 

For this year's event I created a Time Trial "Chalice" of sorts out of scrap metal i had in the shop.  I welded and brazed it together one afternoon and added some hammered rattlecan paint to finish it up.  It was easily packed because it unscrewed at two locations for easy stashing. It held the beer that riders would race out to, drink, then spin around the chalice three times before hopping back on the TT bike (14"-wheeled kids bike) and heading to the finish line.

that's a 32 and an 18t ring...perfect ratio for the single

Dubba drinks from the chalice at the pre-party at Upslope Brewery

It was another classic TDD, lots of great costumes, lots of people I hadn't seen in a long time - some since the last TDD, lots of PBR, lots of fun, oh...and lots of near misses on the bikes (with one major exception).  I ended up with 16 stitches in my chin from a rather large collision with a buddy in the circuit race.  Ouch for both of us!

I've created a photo album of all the pictures I have available.  Many or most of these are from friend's cameras and not my own. Enjoy the show.

Tahoe Rim Trail - Brockway summit to the lake

Bigass trees and tons of moss just on the north sides of the bark.

Frame #5 at Watson Lake.

Wednesday October 25th.
I heard a huge winter storm was headed into Colorado for Thursday...nice! But in Truckee it was forecasted to be 60ish degrees with a 20% chance of rain.  Sounded pretty nice so we planned for a day outdoors.  In the morning, we did a hour or so hike up around the Martis Peak area with the pups. We didn't see a soul except for a lot of bear scat (our dog bear loves bear poop so he pointed each pile out to use as he tried to grab a bite to eat).

After our hike, I got a 'shuttle' up to Brockway Summit from Truckee since the ride I was going to do was a point to point. It's a short drive over Hwy 267 before it drops into the lake from Truckee.  I was going to ride over there from the Martis Peak area but just didn't have the time to get it all done before the sun set...i'm hating the shorter day length!  Two days previous, on my Dirty Harry ride, I got kinda turned around and barely made it back in time before it was totally dark.  With my fitness (or lack thereof) and poor navigation skills (even with map and GPS) I thought it best if I left earlier and didn't try for such a huge ride.  Ok...it was Mrs. Meriwether's idea...fine.  I now carry an emergency blanket in my bike pack...it's light and you just never know.

The Tahoe Rim Trail from Brockway Summit going south to the lake (Tahoe) is around 20 miles.  It's not a huge ride but I hadn't done it before and there are lots of old logging roads to get you confused along the way.  It does have more down than up, but not by much - there's 2,450 ft of elevation gain and 3,200ft of drop. It starts out off Highway 267 and climbs back up towards the summit of the road heading west. The trail is smooth a lot of the way but has the classic grey granite of Tahoe all over the place and does have some technical spots but really not too many.  It's so smooth in spots i could ride with my camera out taking video. It stays smooth, curvy and rolly trading off between up and down pretty consistently.

more tree porn

Past Watson Lake, the trail climbs to the high point of the ride at around 7,800 ft. where the trail takes a downturn to the south.  Right as you start descending, you see the best view of Lake Tahoe so far.  This is the best lunch spot, with rocks to sit on and stare out over the water (pic below).

Two things that were ideal to have this day - steel and wool.

Not too far after Watson Lake, it started to snow.  Luckily I usually carry WAY too many things in my pack at all times. I always have my rain jacket but also had a spare wool short-sleeve jersey, a wool hat, warmer gloves, arm warmers, and a recently stashed headlamp and a few extra batteries for my GPS and such. I used them all except for the headlamp.

...and then it started to snow! So rad.

After a good descent from the high point, you traverse on an old road that has grown over mostly into a singletrack.  It's pretty fast if you're pedaling. After a road crossing, there's a great climb up some smooth windy singletrack to "Painted Rock" which is the start of the section of trail that parallels Truckee River from far above.  The overlook here is awesome, looking at the backside of Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley and at the Granite Chief Wilderness Area.  The trail curves south and then southeast, following the edge of "Thunder Cliff's for awhile before finally descending into Tahoe City. This section of trail is more rocky but fine on a hardtail.  All day I saw three people, two hikers at Brockway and one rider in the middle.  Surprising for being so close to the lake.

Out of the snow and about to drop into Tahoe City

the trail follows the cliff's edge overlooking the Truckee River.

Lake Tahoe before the sun set...unlike my ride 2 days previous.

A short movie of the ride to Fugazi. 
Not too exciting footage for the music, but it's a cool song.