A note of thanks for all advocates and volunteers

I'm tired. Tired in a good way, though. In just a week I went from riding about 1.5 times per week to getting 8 hours of riding in over the last 5 days. I cannot believe that it's been so super nice this early in February. Guess we'll have to ride this one out to see what happens.

My good streak started on Sunday. The shop closes relatively early and I sneak out of Redstone as close to 3pm as I can. Gotta maximize daylight, after all. And the days are getting longer, too. Anyway, Sunday was Superbowl Sunday, a date that has always mixed well with riding. It's a day when most folk are prepping for their Bowl party and no one is out on the trails. Antelope was my choice to climb. After riding up the rock garden for years and years, I still appreciate the variety that Antelope offers and I'm thankful for its construction I rode Hall Ranch completely solo that day.


I mean really solo. I didn't see another soul until I was down in the parking lot. I rode from home up Antelope, did one loop, and came back down thru the rock garden. It was great. I was even lucky enough to hook up with Keith in the parking lot to ride back thru town. Keith had to get straight home, but it wasn't quite dark yet. I opted to detour about 2 miles up into Picture Rock. Because I could. Again, more variety of local singletrack. Again, not a soul.

Just me and the deer out enjoying the bliss.
Monday was good, too. I decided to settle unfinished business so I headed from home again. This time to Picture Rock and Heil.



Rode up PR, right on Wild Turkey, Ponderosa Loop clockwise and back down Wild Turkey North and Picture Rock. Again, nary a soul. I did encounter 3 people, though. Guess it was kind of busy. Wild Turkey, especially the north section, is really good, too. I like the way that it is wearing in.
Have I mentioned lately how much I'm loving my Intense Tracer VP? I'll have an in depth review of it up shortly. I promise. Really.
For our weekly Tuesday nighter, we met up in South Boulder at the Marshall Mesa trailhead. GB Matty and I used to ride that all the time 10 years ago when all that was legal and open was Community Ditch and lower Doudy Draw. Now with more trail opened to bikes and more trails built recently, it's actually a pretty good network of trails.
We were thankful to need a map. None of us had ridden down there and we just had to doublecheck that we knew what we were doing. South Boulder has really blossomed into a great riding area. It's only going to get better, too.

Today I was able to sneak out for a quick lunch lap with OBs Chad and Jeremy. We left town heading up 36 for a quickie. Up Antelope and down the Rock Garden and back to town. As we rode out on 36, I couldn't help but recall how crappy that road used to be just a few years ago. It was narrow, no shoulder, and nowhere to go off the side of the road due to a close in cliff. Now we've got a wide on street bike path and a crusher fine trail right beside it. Much mo better now.
So what's all this have to do with Advocates and Volunteers? Without them, none of this wouldv'e been doable. Antelope Trail was a gift from the BLM that stipulated multi use recreation. BMA stepped in and helped get it built. Likewise with Picture Rock and Wild Turkey at Heil. You can thank BMA for those babies, too. Without their persistent lobbying and selfless trailwork dedication, we probably wouldn't have either of those trails in our local aresenal. Ditto that on South Boulder. Same with the bike path on 36. If Lyons pro trails folk had not lobbied for it's existence, CDOT never would've built the road bike friendly. So thanks all Advocates and Volunteers that had a hand in all of this. Mountain biking in Boulder County is alive and well. And flourishing.