bambi is dead

Thankfully, Bambi was the only casualty this week. No other broken hands or bruised ribs.

Conditions were sweet, too. Thanks to the other restless souls for coming out for a little carnage! :)

Initially, there was enough snow that our options were limited. Everything fun due west of here had too much snow. Today's temps in the high 50s were bound to make mud and ice everywhere if we headed up the hill. Boulder Valley Ranch was very close to being given the nod as the go to spot, but it was so damned windy today, that something out in the open like BVR was out of the question. We decided to try out luck out going west. We also, in what seemed like a wise decision at the time, decided that SS would be the weapon of choice since conditions were bound to suck anyway.

Well, the wind quit blowing around 5:30 and folks started to show up. We took a vote and decided that, while BVR is fun on a SS, it's best saved when it's the absolute only place to go if everywhere else is snowed out. The BVR ride is not entirely boring but, yes, it's pretty much not exhilarating. Anyway, at the last minute, plans were changed and we decided to head south into the heinously steep terrain of Left Hand Canyon OHV. Sprits were mixed as we drove up LHC and saw nothing but piles of snow everywhere. The piles were getting deeper as we headed up the canyon. We found our parking spot and were set.

The spot had snow and frozen puddles all over the place. It was cold, too. Doubt began entering our minds regarding the logic of this decision. Pushing the doubt as far out of the way as possible, the crew headed up the hill and into the forest. The initial singletrack ascent was good but tricky. It demanded dismounts from all riders - the dirt was in prime condition, but the rocks were not! After the singletrack dumped into the main Jeep road, we climbed up the easy road to the first main intersection, at which point we found ourselves ready to climb even more.

We rode a little on singletrack and a little on jeep rd/double track. It was most excellent. After climbing a bit more, we descended Upper Carnage. Did someone come in and rehab/rework this area? There was fencing to keep the 4x4s under control and about half of the really chunky rock stuff was gone. It was still fun but not near as much death defying fun as it used to be. After that, we hiked up Fireman Hill for the last singletrack descent. A real breathtaker, it was, and it only took out 3 of the 8 riders. Extra fun.

Dinner and beers at Oskars were top notch as usual. And they had a few of the specials left :)

This last part I had to share. I started typing this post after getting home from the ride and Oskars. I fell asleep at the computer. Here's what I saw after getting back in to finish this post. heh heh:

'''th 4ht==th l=element has dogs]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]