February 6, 2005

  • Sunday A.M and it's about time to step out the door.  The Cell
    rings and it's Ron.  He tells me to check the weather on my end,
    and to my dismay I see that it is starting to snow and the roads are
    getting a bit wet.     Ok, it's on to Plan B, take the MTB's out to PineRidge to have an offroad session.

    So I quickly fix the flat on the MTB and  swap out the spare tubes
    from the CamelBak and it's off to meet Ron.  Looks like he is the
    only one that will brave the inclement weather.  It's really not
    that bad, and it sure as heck beats sitting on the stiinking trainer
    watching old Tour videos..

    So I meet Ron on Horsetooth, Me going West and him coming East. 
    He has got his HardTail Trek 8900 or somesuch, and I am on my trusty
    1996 Y-22 FS bike.  Hmmmm, this is gonna mean some suffering for
    me on the climbs cause this thing is a pig.  I can't belive I
    every raced this thing..... but I digress.

    So we make it to PineRidge and the ground is hard with a light covering
    of snow. We take the 1st left after the bridge so that we can as much
    single trak as possible.   Ron is leading and when we get to
    that little climb, he walks away from me like I was riding a  lead
    single speed!  (Hope I  don't get beat up too bad ).  We
    make the descent on to more of the trails and life is good.

    The trails are a bit rough for a hardtail. and I am happy that my Y
    bike is making these trails really smooth.  At this point I am
    comfy following Ron, and I think that  FS bike is giving me a much
    smoother time of it.  We make our way over the lightly half cover
    snow trails and this is refreshing after so many weeks of road
    riding.   I must admit I really miss MTB'ing and will have to
    make a point of doing this more often.  It is a different kind of
    riding and one must be a bit more focused than on the road.  
    Also the climbs are tough and me only having a 28 cog in the rear while
    Ron was sporiting atleast a 32 was to make my day a bit more of a
    grind..... but I digress again.

    So we exit Pineridge and head for the stadium.  The climb up the
    stadium is tough and technical and I had (Choose) to dismount a few
    times rather than risk more than was fun.  Ron walked away from me
    again, but  not just from pure strength.  He's got some
    skills, all be they admittedly rusty.  Finally we make it to the top
    and we can see the Reservoir etc. There were some folks taking pics and
    stuff up there and we choose to do the same.  Don't know if they
    will come out cause the lens was all foggy from being in my rear
    pockets. Well it you see pics in this entry then that question will be
    answered.

    After a bit of food, we are off again.  We choose the high trail
    cause, well. we just did. It was nice to see the water and Fort Collins
    from up on high.  The Y bike was handling well and giving me a
    slight advantage over Ron when descending, that plus the fact that
    Ron's glasses were fogging up and well he had to take the off and
    couldn't see as well as he would have liked....  He said something
    about laying the bike down in a section where I was leading....
    something I would do a bunch of times before the ride was over.

    We made it to the trails above Michaud lane and these were a bit more
    rocky and technical.  I choose to walk some of these sections, the
    ones that Kent would have rode gleefully while hollering something to
    the affect of "Come to Papa"   In
    any case a man's got to know his limits and I have great respect for
    better riders, wet rocks and roots and  technical dropoffs!

    So Ron and I  Ride and Dab with the occasional dismount down the
    trail to Michaud.  I was separated from my bike in one of those
    switchbacks after hitting a  rock that stopped my front wheel
    cold, that I didn't see.  (I did see the rock on the return trip
    and yep I should have gone around that thing)...  Ron's is better
    than I am at switchbacks and some technical stuff, but my trusty Y bike
    makes up for it on the rocky rough descents making what is work on a
    Hardtail a fun experiance....

    Once at Michaud, Lane I take a few bites of powerbar and it' off to the
    climbing back up to Centinnial.  Now at this point we have about
    17 miles in our legs and I know that mine are starting to tire. 
    MTBing requires a lot more upperbody and bike control, not to mention
    power for some of these 14+ % grades which keep me at cadences of 30 or
    so and my legs are not used to it.   I had to walk more of
    the technical stuff than Ron, did and he gaped me pretty good up to the
    summit.

    On the return trip we took the lower trail next to the resovior and I
    must admit some of the sections where the road had been erroded gave me
    cause for concern.  Near the end of that trail I was unable to
    clean the switchback and power my way to the top,  where as Ron
    easily rode past me all the way to the stair step section that would
    have required some trials skills to clean...

    Finallly back to the top of the Stadiium and we had a good ol time
    descending it.  I did dismount for the one rocky section 
    cause I was getting a bit weary and I wasn't as sharp I  think
    this section of the trail required.

    After reaching the flats we made our way back to pineridge and the
    trails were beginning to soften a bit. Still not bad yet but we made a
    point of getting to the ridge double trak as quickly as
    possible.    It was a hard climb for me to be able to
    clean the trak to the ridge, whereas Ron of course made light work of
    it.

    We took the bike Spring Creek Trail back to Zeigler where I made the
    exit "Stage Left" to home and Ron continued down horsetooth. A good
    time was had by all. about 35 miles and 4 hours of outdoor time.
    I am one Whipped Puppy However and it will take a few days for the Legs to get over that Power Workout!