good day today

This morning, we worked on new trail construction at the nearby Heil Ranch Open Space. Today was the first public workday for a new trail, about 3 miles long that creates a second loop in the park. It was great to see such an enthusiastic group of mountain bikers jump in to help. Mountain bikers were definitely the majority of the help out there today. Big thanks also to BMA and to everyone that sends letters and comments. This loop was never part of the original plan, but we rallied and came out 1 trail ahead. Great job! In another year or so, a connector trail will come off this new loop and roll into Lyons. Can't wait.








Dale from Oskars helped out with the necessary beer and food afterwards. We obliged. Then we rode. We drove up to Miller Rock for a little ride. It was snowing on and off the entire ride. The moisture was great, though - the dirt was about perfect. We stopped to scramble to the top of Miller Rock. The views from up there are sweet, but it was a little cloudy.




then we rode some more.








It was a great day, bikes, trails, beer. good stuff.

Yard Art

What do you do with a couple broken frames and a rainy day?

Buy a 12 pack and rebuild. Yard art was born.

May the chameleon and the IFT rest in peace.

"Change to allow bikes"

The Eldorado Mountain TSA is going to the Open Space Board of Trustees early next month - here's the Open Space's map of the area. All the current trails will be opened (solid red) , and many miles of new trails will be open to us (red & yellow trails), assuming it gets approved.

no glasses

You just don't need suntan lotion or tinted lenses mountain biking here. The canopy is so thick you rock the clear lenses on sunny days. But the trails are tight and the turns are tighter.
















This is a place called hartwood acres and is about 10 miles outside of the Burg'. Its a maze of trails but you can link up a good long ride there. But you better be prepared to hop about 50000 logs!

building trail is good

To quote Rockin' Ron from last Friday...

"Finally, the exciting news is that Saturday Sept. 16th the trail building for the new loop up in Heil will begin!!!!. The time for building will be from 9am to 1pm and volunteers will receive a free T-shirt and lunch provided by Oskar Blues. If you want to volunteer, call Mary Wiener at 303.678.6216. If you are reading this, you need to be there. Bring your work gloves, water, and snacks and ready to have some fun."

On top of that, Redstone will be giving 10% off normally priced stuff (everything, that includes special orders) to anyone that shows up for trail work. Heck, I'll even go to 20% off if you can make both days (Sept 16 and Oct 21). Yep, it's that important to show up.

Enough people bitch about the riding around here. Time to step up and do something productive. Hopefully, this will be incentive for some folks.

Tuesday Ride, 9/12

We'll be leaving the shop at 6pm pronto. Bring lights! We'll be driving from the shop to the trailhead. See you there!

Montana - Big Sky Country

We just got back from a doozy of a trip. The plan - head up through Tetons and Yellowstone en route to visit a peculiar Red Barn hidden deep in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana. Visit people and do some bike riding. Simple enough.

As on time as we ever are, we managed to get out of town around 8pm the Thurs before Labor Day. After driving all night (and I mean all night, we arrived at 4:20am) we finally arrived at our first destination - Jackson, Wyoming, just outside of Teton Nat'l Park. After 4 hours of sleep (nap?)I got up to sneak in a bike ride while the girls still slept. I'm glad I pried my eyes open that early, too. It was a fantastic ride. I hopped on the bike and meandered through town. It was early enough that the town was just starting to awaken. I rolled through downtown and up to the base of Snow King Mountain, the local ski hill that is literally in town in Jackson. The locals had recommended a ride on the other side of the mountain, but my watch was telling me that I would run short on time with that plan. I picked up a map at the base and decided to start climbing. The jeep road/double track to the top of the mountain was steep, but non technical and worth the climb. The views of town and the Tetons were outstanding.
The map showed a sliver of a trail going off the other side of the mountain. If I hit it right, the ridge trail looked to take me to within blocks of the hotel. Perfect. From the top, the narrow ridge trail slung me off the back side,
where I caught some smooth but uber steep riding that dumped me off almost at the front door of the hotel. It was all completely smooth and buff. Life was good that day. We got the car packed up and headed out after some tourist sight seeing in town. We banged out both Teton
and Yellowstone in one day via automobile. We toured like lazy Americans, I know, but we were on a schedule! Good thing, too, as the schedule got derailed in Ennis, MT at the local DQ. But that's another story entirely, purple hair and all. We finally got to our end destination shortly after midnight. Beers were consumed as we celebrated our arrival in the Bitterroot. It had been too long. Way too long. I was told I was in for a suprise for Saturday. Preparing for the worst, I nodded off on the sofa of Casa de Kirk.

The Jahoney rolled up at 9am pronto Saturday morning with none other than Chaybo behind the wheel. We hopped in and headed north to Missoula (the only liberal place in all of MT) for New Belgium Brewery's MT edition of Tour de Fat. Definitely Tour de Weirdness and Fun. Here's some random photos:




We wrapped up the day with the creation of more recycling. Throw everyone's wife and 5 kids into the mix and it was Bedlam. Serious fun, that is. It ended up being a late one. Everyone was tired but happy. We called it a night when we experienced the simultaneous meltdown of the abovementioned 5 kids.

Sunday was the real gem of the trip. Threat of afternoon thunderstorms wasn't a factor, so we lazily rolled out around noon on Sunday to ride. We rode all day on all types of terrain. I gotta say, especially after just returning from a trip to Crested Butte. The Butte has the views, no doubt, but the riding cannot even touch what we rode in SW Montana. It was awesome. The following shots were from the Sunday ride. We rode up and around that ridge and back. Big. Big Sky Country Big.


It wasn't entirely uphill.

Ok, there were some fantastic views. Especially this one with the Pintlars in the background.


We kicked back with the kids on Labor Day, acknowleding the thankless laboring of our wives, the great mothers that they are. Labor Day was their day so we hung back with the kids. We did go for a night ride, though :). It was great but there are no photos. I'd like to say that's because it was dark but it was really because I forgot the camera. Bdiddy and I snuck out for a quick lap around Lake Como. I wish we could've hit it during the day so we could amaze ourselves with beautiful views, but it was not too be. What was to be was dark, rocks, dust, rocks, and enough smoke from neighboring forest fires to choke Smokey Bear, and more rocks. Did I mention the rocks? Montana is rocky. Another late night it was. We got back to the car around 11:30. Just a few beers and we were lights out sleepy. Good thing Taco Hell was open late, too.

The local yocals had to work Tues so it was another lazy day hanging out Montana. The ladies went hiking and the kids and I played. We were still able to sneak in a quick after work ride since it was our last night there and all. The ride? Think about heading up to Lions Gulch at 7pm this time of year. Not necessarily the smartest of ideas, but adventure was definitely had. It was rocky there, too. And steep.
We made it up to Camas Lake in the daylight yet. Check out how clear the water is.

We didn't stick around, though. It was getting dark quick, so we turned around to back from whence we came. We had to ride by Braille going down. I only fell once and considered myself lucky. Bdiddy opted out of the gas fume smelling ride down in the Jahoney and busted out with his helmet light. Chad and I hopped in and took the creative way down the mountain. As rocky as the singletrack is up there, the jeep roads are in great shape. We picked Bdiddy up at the bottom and rolled back to town.

We arose the next day bright and early, packed up, and said our good byes. It was a long drive back but I miss it already. Thanks Chaybo and Bdiddy for showing me some kickass riding up there, and an all around fantastic time. Next time won't be so long coming, I promise!

Baby Boy Schuman

There is a new mountainbiker in Lyons as of Saturday Sept 9th. My wife gave birth to a baby boy and everyone is doing great. We haven't decided on a name yet, I've been pushing for Hammer or Diesel but had no takers. Yeti didn't work either. I'll report back later with a name.

Heil Loop

So I just got back from the fundraiser and today they had the signing of the Olson property. I guess it took 6.5 hours and a few changes. Wayne Anderson bought 5 of the acres from the Olsons for 280k with the house (what a friggin deal that is). There are 7 more acres that will be sold for two single family homes so the town will get back approximately 1M in the deal or something like that.

The trailhead is going to be in Bohn Park but instead of running behind the houses on Welch Drive, the trail will be routed on the opposite side and behind the current farmhouse where there is an easement. This will calm down all the residents that have been concerned about trail users directly behind their houses.

Finally, the exciting news is that Saturday Sept. 16th the trail building for the new loop up in Heil will begin!!!!. Thats right, it is going start in one week. The time for building will be from 9am to 1pm and volunteers will receive a free T-shirt and lunch provided by Oskar Blues. If you want to volunteer, call Mary Wiener at 303.678.6216. If you are reading this, you need to be there. Bring your work gloves, water, and snacks and ready to have some fun.

This is really great news for all riders in the area so please come out and help if you can make it.

Christmas came early folks.....

got some updating to do - CB therapy Vol II and III

I've got the Reader's Digest version of the final two days of last weekend's CB escapades finally. When last we left it, Friday's ride was short but top notch. Smiles all the way around, followed by the creation of much recycling as we relived the days events and discussed the riding yet to come. Well, here's what came:Foggy skies and intermittent rain. Still, we remained upbeat. Since we were at altitude amongst numerous big ass mountains, we realized that different valleys could hold different weather patterns. With that in mind, we loaded up the land yacht and sailed off to our destination. You guessed it - we arrived at the start of our planned ride only to find the weather so dispicably wet that we turned around and headed back to camp. We unloaded the bikes and the skies cleared up. Greg smiles as he drinks his coffee, despite knowing that we were about to fall prey to a suckerhole.That's right, a suckerhole. No definition needed. We rode up the dirt road under sunny skies, only to have that hole close back up. At the 30 minute mark, it was dumping enough rain that a few of our party turned back. Back to camp and then to the bar. Greg and I kept going. Up, up, up we climbed to stay warm. Temps were into the 50s and the rain continued to dump. We decided that our drivetrains weren't quite trashed enough, so we continued on up some boggy singletrack in the headwaters of Cement Creek. There was snow up in them thar hills, too. With that, we knew we had been bested so we turned around. The 20 minute road downhill wasn't exactly inspiring. Or warm. We cleaned up and headed off to meet up with our comrades at the bar, where we did find something inspiring. Townies!Take a close look at the brilliance here. The one in the back had a 20" rear and a 24" front. Crank arm lenght was something like 180mm. The only way to brake was to lean the bike over enough to scrape a pedal on the ground. Wonder what the CPSC has to say about that one? Anyway, we were at the bar by 6pm. Not much more to say about that, it doesn't take genious to connect the dots from there.
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Volume III

Sunday morning was a late one, hung over and worried about more rain as dark clouds continued to pass by. Thankfully, they were all dry so we opted off with our originally scheduled programming - Reno/Flag/Bear/Deadman's. It did not dissapoint, especially since we shuttled the land yacht up the long, long Reno Ridge road. The weekend was getting good again! We started the ride off with a bang, the fun swoopy descent down Flag. Despite the crisp but sunny skies and dry trails, we got soaked. The trail was very moto-ed out with whoops everywhere. Every single whoop had standing mud and water. Oh, well, at least it wasn't coming from the sky that day.




I stayed behind to get a shot of the crew rolling up Deadman's Gulch.

Of course, we had to celebrate at the top of Deadman's before the final descent.

Migz rode the log at the end.

And we got dirty. The end.

Well, sort of the end. There's a bonus track if you're still with us.
Since we still had a shuttle vehicle at the top, Chad and I tossed our bikes in to get another ride to the top when we went to retreive the shuttle. Just so we didn't end the day feeling like a couple of shuttle pansies, we rode up and out on Reno Ridge so we could come down Deadman's again. That made it all worthwhile. Not quite a deathmarch, but I was certainly tired! The end.

Drink beer Friday and support local transit and trails

Hey all, I just recieved an email from our hard working buddy Jason Vogel about a fundraiser going on at Oskar Blues this friday. I wanted to share it with the Redstone community to show our support for these projects. See you there...

Hey friends,

This Friday, there will be a great party in Lyons at
Oskar Blues from
5:30 to 7:00. It's a celebration of the county's
progress on a cool new
trail connection to Heil Ranch, and it's a fundraiser
for the county's
ballot initiative 1A to fund transit and trails
improvements. I'm
the campaign manager for the Transit and Trails Ballot
Initiative 1A, which will improve regional transit
service and help move some major regional trail
projects forward, like the Boulder Feeder Canal Trail
(Lyons to Boulder), the Boulder-Denver bikeway (along
US36) and the Longmont to Boulder trail. So please
come to the party, make a donation to the campaign and
drink free local beer! The party is hosted by the
Boulder Mountainbike Alliance. More info below...

...oh yeah, and check out the campaign website:

http://www.transitandtrails.org


Jason Vogel

Bocce, anyone?

Went camping with some decidedly non-biking friends this weekend (Dave manages to not ride his Bontrager Privateer much at all), at what just might be another candidate for the best car camping spot ever. Dave drought his bocce balls into the wild. I was soundly beaten in each and every game, but the views made up for it. Oh, and a bike ride on the Colorado Trail underneath Mt. Princeton, this time with no rear brake (which has since been remedied).

Tuesday Ride

I'm still in Montana but will no doubt get a tuesday ride in up here. :)

east coast singletrack

I am discovering more of my local trails in steel city. But whats amazing is what the locals have done with their limited space. In Boulder look at Heil Ranch which is 5000 acres with 8 miles of trails. Here in Pittsburgh these guys have built 15 miles of trails in a 500 acre park. And the trails are all quality. Oh but there are NO long climbs... so there are no long descents either...

Shenandoah Mountain 100

I headed back East for a few days and raced the Shenandoah Mountain 100 with my brother. A quick picture here along with the elevation profile. For anyone interested in 14,000 feet of climbing spread out over 100 miles of jeep roads and trail, I'd highly recommend it. If you're not into that sort of thing, it's still a heck of a party.

We finished in 10:55, beating our goal of 11 hours.

Funny thing about the picture - that's my bro in the front and me behind him. You can see him squinting his left eye to see. He got hit by a car a couple years ago on his road bike, and has some permanent vision damage...but he's still scary fast. I held him back the whole race.

Keystone Climax

I made it up to the final MSC race of the year at Keystone this weekend. I loaded the truck, grabbed some coffee & rocked Galactic for an hour & a half to snatch a piece of that all day lift pass that comes with the $20 Super D entry. A storm was sitting over the front range but once we hit Idaho Springs it was nothing but blue sky & sunshine. The Super D course was fantastic & the field was large. I took a pre-run on the course & eyeballed the run up to the bikes that had been lengthened to about 100 yards. I ran hard, I wanted no part of a group of bike riders running at max effort in carbon soled shoes on loose gravel & trading elbows at 12,000 ft(ouch). It proved to be a good move. I heard yelling, pushing & falling as I was first to the bike. To be honest, I just don't have the racing lungs to outrun the maverick boys for 20 minutes these days. Mike West & Ariel ended up passing me on flat/climbing portions of the course as we hauled ass down the mountain. I was able to bring home a 3rd place & a big smile for Redstone/Oskar Blues after hitting the lift a few more times. All in all it reminded my how fun & difficult the trails are at Keystone. That place has some serious riding for nearly every disipline, you better strap it on if you want to ride the entire mountain. Thanks to Redstone for helping me get the bike straight after last weekends Crested Butte trip & to Oskar Blues for the weekends beverages of choice.

strikes & spares - cm