Another Old flowers ride and this one should be fun.  The plan is to do the White Pine Loop which is always fun on the Yeti.   The plan is to do the ride with Paul and I figured I would post this to the Breakfast club site just for old time sake.   As luck would have it Brian checked in so, there would be at least 3 of us. I pick up Brian from his place and then we go and get Paul.  We make our way over to the Stove Prairie intersection, but  there isn’t any one else there, so it will just be the three of us.   That’s OK  by me as I do have time constraints and somehow more folks seem to pretty much mean more time.

So Brian is on his SS surly 29r and Paul is on his Carbon Specialized 29r and I am on the old trusty Yeti 575.  Hmm,  my bike is the heaviest in the bunch and I am the weakest rider and this can’t be good.  I must admit I was a bit tired from the previous weeks rides and was not totally recovered, but recovered enough to do the ride at a modest pace.

We take off and my thoughts/fears are realized.    Brian is really fast and Paul  has no problem keeping up with him.   I try and hold their pace, but it’s clear to me that’s not gonna happen today.   They pretty much walked away from we at will which means it’s going to be a long day of me following from afar.  In any case, that’s OK and I don’t really want to hold anyone back on my account.

Finally we make it to where the climb really begins.  The horse flies here are enormous and annoying.   Luckily only one bit me but it did smart.    I had to stop on this one to wait for some traffic but otherwise I was able to clean it. This was a good test of my legs and it only confirmed that they were a bit weary and that I should not push any more than I needed to.

The next climb is the one that I really always want to clean.  Brian and Paul are way up the trail.  I know that I must meter my energy, but on this one, it’s all I can do to make it up clean, which made me pretty happy.   The perceived effort was pretty high on this on and looking at the grade, I was very surprised that I didn’t have to dab, considering how I was feeling.   I know that some folks like to play with words and they say they are tired and then rip your legs off.  I however am not like that, and when I say I am tired, I am tired!

I catch up to Paul and Brian and we make the next climb.  This one is relatively easy, but I am still the laggard, despite Brian being on the SS and hadn’t been riding in earnest, but rather spending time in the climbing Gym with his family.

Time for the descent to Pingry park and while I am usually up to rip this one, I am really too tired to enjoy the entire thing.  I start out having fun, but my arms are tired and I just back it down and take it easy so as not to injure myself.  Brian is flying down this one, and I would have liked to have hung with him, I just wasn’t up for it.  Paul  who was back a tiny bit on this one, catches me and passes me  too.

I must say we haven’t taken too many breaks here and are actually moving pretty good.  I don’t’ have a speedo or HR monitor or any of that cause I just wanted to enjoy the day without the encumbrance of all that tech.  

The climb out of Pingry park really grated on me and I was thinking that I am going to be walking most of White Pine Later.  Brian and Paul were once again way up the trail.  I am really amazed at how strong Brian is on the SS.  Climbing stuff that would have snapped my legs in two.   He is a lot stronger than he knows,  and he is humble too, but I digress.

At last we are onto the big climb and I am not looking forward to it.  I am tired, my bike is heavy and I really want to be done now.   As we start it starts to sprinkle lightly!  thPaul and Brian are a bit ahead of me when Brian pulls over for some reason.   Paul keeps pedaling and I stop to chat with Brian.   Seconds later the rain gets harder and then within minutes it’s coming down pretty good.   Brian and I are trying to take shelter under some trees but they are pine trees, and they provide almost nothing and before long we are drenched.

We are thinking that Paul will be coming back down soon, but after about 15 minutes it’s pretty clear that he has checked out.  Hmmm,  there is no way I am going to climb this hill in the rain and risk the slippery rocks on the back side, so it’s decided that we will take the dirt road back tot the car when the rain settles down.   Brian was getting really cold and decides that we should go and seek some shelter from the locals.

We head down the road and approach a small cabin.  “Hello”,  “Hello”, calls Brian.  After a few seconds a scruffy old guy comes out and Brian asks if we can take shelter under one of the structures on the property.  The guy is agreeable and invites us to enter his place.   There are 3 other guys there and they were taking shelter as their Frisbee golf game was interrupted.   They seem friendly enough and life is good.

We make some small talk about the wind powered generator the guy has built.  The one he has is from otherpower.com 750 watts of clean energy from the wind.   He even has some solar stuff and it’s all working really well.  He’s got many modern devices, such as microwave,  Laptop, Fridge etc. all being powered by the wind  Turns out that he as been playing with wind power for over 20 years and spoke of building some of the early generators our of  old  Automobile Brake Drums and Hand winding the armatures.  

As we are chatting, they fellows were smoking something oddly familiar and they offered to partake with us.   We of course declined and our excuse was that we were riding, so as not to seem too un-cool!    After a few rounds of passing the pipe and light banter, the rain cleared up and the 3 other guys took off since it was too wet to finish their game.    Brian was still pretty cold so we ended up putting his jersey in the microwave to heat it up a bit.   Brian also fashioned a jersey out of an old trash bag which actually fit quite well.

Now we are good to go more or less and we want to get back to the car before Paul so we bid our host (Tom Hammond) adieu and off we go down the dirt road.    Ordinarily that road would have been fun, but it was cold and cloudy and I would get roosted by Brian’s bike every so often,.  It seemed like that road lasted for ever and I was so glad to get to the pavement and begin the climb  back to the car.

I had forgotten how long that road was up from the  Buckhorn, but I was glad to be warming up with some effort.  My legs were pretty tired, and I had to stand on the climbs to try and hold Brian’s pace.  Mile after mile pass and finally we are back to the car, but Paul is not there yet, so we get changed etc. and figure we will 4x4 it up old flowers to get him.

We didn’t get to far and he went screaming by us but didn’t notice it was us.  We followed him down  and we could see the look of surprise not to see a car at the bottom.   We roll up next to him and he seems plenty glad to see us.   We get him all packed in and head for home.

Long hard day, but an epic adventure.   I definitely need to get a faster bike to hang with some of these folks.  Maybe the 2.4’s are a bit much for the Yeti, but I like them and don’t plan on racing it.  In any case a good time was had by all.

 

Wow, I can't believe just how warm it is this December.  Ok,  well, it's 27 F but it's going to warm up later in the day.   Kinda a bummer that there is no snow on the ground as I am really looking forward to sliding around on the slow and having way less pedestrian traffic on the trails.

I am pretty tried or at least my legs are a bit stiff from that run on Friday.   Normally a run wouldn't be an issue, but when you only run once a week and you miss a couple of weeks, the legs seem to forget that you are going to ask them to run.   In any case it's a good chance to try out a different route with some more technical stuff.

Off and running and going it alone again.  I guess I should probably post a ride with some notice to give folks a chance to show up but I am liking this feeling of not having to commit to a ride if one is not really in that great of shape.

Once again we ride to the trails which makes for a pretty good warm up and definitely lets me know how the legs are doing.  It's really quite pleasant to be able to warm up at  your own pace.  Seems like for me most folks I have hooked up with are much faster than I am or al least they like to not warm-up... but I digress.

I make it to the trails and I am happy to be on the Yeti.  It's so plush and smooth, especially since the suspension has been tricked out by the guys at PUSH.  It's nice to cruise around Pineridge before the ascent up Maxwell.  The legs are feeling OK, but not a lot of snap in them.  They just feel like a nice steady moderate to easy effort and I am good with that . Nice not to be training for anything so I don't feel guilty about just having fun.  Now all of this may change if my  crazy brother decides to try Leadville next year, but I am sure that what ever it was that he was smoking is long out of his system and we won't be hearing any more crazy talk like that.   Oh, so why does this affect me, Well I promised him I would do it with him if he ever decided to do that crazy thing, me thinking that  Aliens were more likely to announce themselves to the planet before that happened....

Anyway the climb up Maxwell went well,  I clean the hill with the exception of a stop to let some runners come by me.   Since that went so well I decide that it's time to go and do the Foothills technical stuff on the East side of Centigram drive.  I don't do this one very often cause it's very technical both up and down.  It's bad enough going down, but going up is almost impossible, save those born on Krypton or some-such.

I finally make it over to the start of the technical stuff.  I drop the saddle a bit, put on some Knee and elbow armored get some food and down we go!  Oh my, this trail has changed a bit and I find myself having to do a do-over on a techy section that I didn't know the line on.   In any case it all went well up til that rocky switch back that  I couldn't clean, nor was I going to try.  

While i am checking out the corner I see a runner with a dog coming up so I figured I will wait until she passes until I go.  We exchange greeting, and she says something about me being "Hard Core" to be riding this trail.    I am amused but I quit that this is pretty challenging running too and that she must be pretty hard core herself.   We make another 45 seconds or so of small talk and we go our separate ways.     Back on the bike and life is good.  The yeti is performing well and I  clean most of the rest of it with the exception of this "Jump over the bars moment", but we went back to do it over and all was well.

The only bad thing about this descent is that I have to go back up.  Since the legs weren't feeling that good I planned on using the 34, but there were some shifting issues  and I could only use the 32.   Oh well, this didn't really matter as there was no way I was gonna attempt some of this stuff so I ended up just doing the "Hike a Bike" thing.  On the way up I ran into that woman runner again and we exchanged another 60 seconds of small talk about the terrain etc.   She looked really fit and I wouldn't have been surprised if she had the fitness to ride this stuff....     So, back on the bike, and more hiking etc.   Now, I remember why I don't do this trail to often, Much if it is rid-able on fresh eager legs but I was fresh out of those today.

Finally to the top and time to descend and do Michaud Lane.   I must say that these trails, have gotten so much rockier, and in the old days there were many sections that I would take to my "reckless abandonn" style of descending, but not any more.  

The climb back up was just as rocky etc. and although I have cleaned this climb many times in the past,  I wasn't able to today, nor was it a goal, but it did remind me how tough this trail was.  In any case I was glad to be done with the tough stuff....

Time to head for home.   I take as many trails as I can which meant doing that moderate section near the Dam on the West side of Centennial.  Nice descent, but that  drop off to the West gives me reason for caution some times.   It was fun though and much better than taking the pavement.   From there we take Shoreline and it's a pretty much uneventful ride.   I do stop and stare at that techy section that I don't ride any more, "Like I ever really did more than 3 times".  I see a line that I think I might try someday, but today is not that day.

To the top and Down Maxwell which was fun.  I think it's more fun going up due to all the ever incresing level of exposed rocks.  In any case I had to  dab once on the way down, but it's all good since no one went down! 

Now onto the roads and home.   The roads are so boring and slow on Fat tires, and I am so glad to finally be home.  A good time was had by all. 31 miles total, 4 + hours of fun.  Here's the SportsTrackerLink

 

Time to ride Bobcat ridge since Kent was nice enough to let me know he and Dave were going to be riding there.  For them it was  ride to shake down their bikes to make sure that they are ready for Moab in a few weeks.  For me it's a chance to ride the Yeti and a bit more conservatively than last year when I cracked a rib after pinch flatting the front tire due to fatigue... 

We make the easy loop for a warm-up and I am happy that the pace is mellow.  Usually Kent is on fire and I have to hold on for dear life.  In any case it's really warming up and it's time for the big climb.  We are surprised that we don't see any other bikes yet?

Dave sets the tempo on the climb and  Kent and I follow.  Kent's a bit weary from a lot of 12 hour days at the office and perhaps that Time Trial last week and doesn't want to keep Dave's pace.   I am more or less able to follow but my legs are complaining a bit.  My HR is not too bad but perhaps it's those 5 lbs I put on over the winter that are the real problem. 

We have lots of good fun trying to clean some of the sections.  The Ginny trail has gotten rockier and more technical since last time I did it.  After seeing some of the changes, I  am glad that we are doing an out and back and I am making note of anything that I think is sketchy.

Seems like it took us forever to get to the summit , and  it's strange that we haven't seen any other bikes or even hikers for that matter.  We continue on over to the fire road, and I am much happier that we are done with that climb.  Thinking back to a few years ago I find it crazy that have climbed this thing twice in a session....

We finally make it over to the fire road and and we see the ranger and let's just say that we had a nice chat with him.   At last we see some more bikes while we are waiting.  It's a young couple's first time at Bobcat and they seemed to be enjoying themselves.     Soon another couple arrives and they appear to be racers.  I recognize them from my ride last week, only they were on Single Speeds then and today  they are on their FS bikes.

After a bit of chat we head back the way we came.   It was a pretty uneventful ride with the exception of Dave doing and Endo.  He was OK, physically, but mentally he seemed a bit disappointed with himself for making that mistake.   At this point the  racer couple was just about upon us and I decided to let them go ahead, while Dave checked out up the trail.  I used the couple to motivate me to keep an honest pace which was probably better than trying to stay with Dave at this point.

Kent is a ways back so we regroup at the summit. We chat with the racers for a bit and then they are down the mountain.  After a bit of  Kent fixing his cleat we descend.  It is so pleasant to be using gravity again, but I still have last year's crash in the back of my head so I am not pushing it at all.  Having the  shin guards is a comfort especially they way the trail has changed.    I was definitely playing it safe and figured that it was better to walk some of the tight sections, especially since I was feeling a bit weary which is what got me into trouble last time. 

At last we are at the parking lot and I had planned to grab the Single Speed which was in the back of the truck, but it was  getting late and I didn't want to miss this rounds of AMA Supercross.     Anyway a good time was had by all, wish more folks would have come out to play but it's all good.