Last night's regular steel*wool Thursday night ride was partially apportioned in my favor since we are leaving the state for norcal pretty soon. ( Not as soon as previously planned, but still -- I'm only going to get one party!) It was good excuse to get some of these family guys up the hill to ride some Ned singletrack anyways! Thanks to Heyride, The Powers, Big Daddy, and KPOW for all the extra work and $ that went into the night. I'm lucky to have you as friends!
We did a short ride on the local stuff north of town and ended with some fun no brakes curvy singletrack before shooting down to the Reservoir on a trail I've somehow never done before. Funny how that goes. I've been here HOW long and still find new stuff that has been there for years? Nuts. So anyways, here's some photos from the night.
Dubba in full Pilot regalia and Heyride donning the steel & wool leading the group out of Ned.
Heading up Peekibou Rd.
Dubba down RBV...
...followed by MT!
Clear Lake pit stop. Beverages were served.
They shall be un-named to protect the guilty...er, i mean...innocent.
Crazy fast riders drinking beer on rides is so refreshing to see.
Catching up with G-daddy who made the trip up from the Springs! That's me on the left with a sweet going away jersey...just AWESOME! I'm looking more like my grandfather every year...
I've never ridden this trail before either, even though I live here. WTF?! It's just so obvious!
Upon return, the skies opened up in a lightening storm. Luckily we were inside with pints and tapas.
BigDaddy pouring pints in his new establishment.
The fake-fire pit keeping us cozy outside.
Thanks y'all for showing up for the ride and after-party...it meant a lot to me and Mrs. Meriwether!
Tin Shed Sports and Salto coffee works opened a couple of weeks ago in Nederland. It's BigDaddy & KPOW's awesome creation of cranks and beans....oh, and great food, beer, wine and spacious atmosphere. Serious espresso, Modus Hoperandi and Stone IPA on tap, clocktower, rad west-facing outside 'plaza', bike stands to tune-up your own damn bike (or get Heyride to do it inside)...the list goes on and on. Heyride's managing the bike shop and I don't think has taken a day off since they opened.
It's pretty crazy to see a full-service bike shop in Ned with anything you need to go ride - including spanking new bikes. I hear winter gear is also on tap. The coffee and food at Salto is awesome and they have plans to soon roast their own in house. This place by FAR has the biggest space to kick back and relax in Ned. It's a bummer we're moving so we can't enjoy more of this place. Go check it out if you're in town and support this rad local business!
Izzy fetching a stick. That's about as far in as she'd go.
A hike near the new house on our trip out last week in between painting, moving stuff and so on. This area is popular in the summer but right now there's not a soul since the campgrounds are closed for the winter and haven't opened yet. Just a boating fisherman and we had the place to ourselves. But apparently we have to watch out for an attack river otter...no joke. It went after a person here last year...!?
Jesse, on the other hand, couldn't swim enough. They are going to love it here.
Izzy just doesn't like getting in the water! But peer pressure...
Not sure what to write about this little terror but she's settling into her new home nicely and learning to kind of 'play' with the Guppies. She's so much more rambunctious than them though, she scares them. She still won't get IN water unless there's a rock she wants to grab in there or a stick, yep, she likes to chase rocks and sticks not balls or toys. It's really odd.
Spring is in full force at the ranch, hummingbirds are back, came in last week sometime. The Larkspur's are flowering on the back hill, and some of the Pasque's are already seeing out. Lots of wildlife almost every day - moose yesterday, two coyotes today, fox almost every day, deer passing through every other day, it's a great wildlife viewing property for sure.
The north-sides look like this...awesome crust if you get there early enough.
The south-facing slopes look like this. Same elevation or even higher as the previous picture.
Brail trail ala crust!
Roots buried down there somewhere. Pick your line!
Superman #2. Some times the front wheel would just hit a soft spot...
So, from now on, I'm going to try to keep my bike stuff over at my Meriwether Cycles blog since I'm basically always 'testing' my own bikes to some degree. I'll leave this blog for my family and skiing and other random rants unrelated to cycling in all likelihood.
A beautiful day yesterday up in the high country. This weather is unsettlingly nice. Hopefully we'll be in the new house in another state before the fire season really hits Ned! The Gups, Izzy, Mrs. M and I went up to Monkey Hill and around on a big morning hike to soak it all in. We didn't find my perfect sitting rock but came close. Great views to the south, no snow in sight anywhere. The trails are pretty much dry on the east side of the big road. It's hard not to be a hermit when this is outside your back door!
3" of wet snow over the last 24 hours! It'll likely melt by tomorrow afternoon but I got out just in time for a fatbike ride to do some errands in town.
Some shots of yesterday's ride in Lake Pueblo State Park, around a 3 hour drive south of Ned. Our mtn thermostats were taken a bit off guard when the temps rose over 80 degrees with hardly a breath of breeze to speak of...but it was fun to swirl around on narrow singletrack and try not to use your brakes around the corners.
The trails in Pueblo are pretty flat so you can do most the trails on the south side of the reservoir in 3 hours if you keep moving. And that's what gets you in the end, not taking the time to drink water, and just going as fast as you can on these swoopy trails!
I definitely felt that the trails were fun, but I did get a bit mentally tired at the end of the ride, not from concentration too much on avoiding the huge cacti on the sides of the trail, but it's not extremely technical terrain and it's VERY smooth for the most part. A rigid singlespeed would be the call here, with something like a 34x15 for gearing.
The Freeride trail was the highlight for me, had some techy sections as seen in the bridges above which weren't difficult but just unique. In all, we did: Southside, Waterfall, Pronghorn, Voodoo (clockwise) where we ran into the Brit. He and Toopa were down there camping for the weekend and getting some warm weather singletrack and road riding in. After Voodoo, we went back on Log Drop, up Rock Canyon to Roller Coaster, down Skull Canyon trail, to Southside and then back to the car for more water. Then after some rest in the shade, we headed out for another hour on Conduit over to The Duke, up to Roller Coaster, down Broken Hip, up Watertower (not recommended, road climb and steep), and then down Freeride to Southside and back to the car.
In all honesty, it's a great place to go once or twice a year in the early spring or late fall when it's not too hot. But The trails did leave something to be desired. It's similar in feel to Fruita but much less technical and flatter topography. The map on the website is also pretty poor quality. There's no topo or aerial background and just lines on a white background. It's not easy to get lost since the signage is pretty good out on the land, but the map was just bad. Maybe I'm picky since I make maps but I was wanting more!
This March makes you wonder where'd the snow go? It's been in the 50s and 60s and sunny and none of that stuff that blows stuff around (I shall not speak its name). I know that April is the new March, but seriously, this is scary.
Izzy on left, Jesse on right at Picnic Rock
The pack is playing nice together, which is great news. Izzy is learning the ropes and not pushing the limits of what the Guppies will take. She's definitely a little bit of a puppy terror at times, but she is super attentive and learns really fast.
I used to try and take Jesse out on hikes and runs by herself (away from her brother Bear). She is much more fit and excited to explore than Bear be she was having nothing of it. Sad, but I understood how bonded she was to her brother. She would get out less because of his lowered energy level but that was OK with her (he's epileptic and is on a ton of anti-seizure meds so that makes him more tired easily).
One of the reasons we got a younger dog was to get Jesse a playmate so when Bear stopped wanting to play, the younger dog would still be ready to play. This...didn't work out so well...until now. With a little bit of coercing (treats and 'peer pressure') I was able to go on a long hike/run with Izzy and Jesse withOUT Bear! Very cool. It'll make Jesse happier too now that she'll get to explore more of the area with the new puppy.
