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.
