Rocky Mountain High

The view of Quandry from 13,000.  Those little dots are people.

Just a little bit more on the 14'r hike if you don't mind.

Before the looooong hike down

These guys wouldn't get off the trail

Keystone Co.

The Kid wanted to do some downhill so The Lovely Wife and I went along with him to the Keystone ski area.  I had no idea what to expect but we were pleasantly surprised.  It's like it's own city, complete with shops and restaurants.

The view of Quandry from Keystone

After watching a rider endo and compound fracture his collar bone I was apprehensive while watching The Kid get on the lift.  After he made a lap down the mountain safely The Lovely Wife and I grabbed a seat at a restaurant call Kickapoo.  They had tables on a deck right next to a creek. You know a beer at lunch always tastes better, add clear blue sky, mountains, and no gnats, and you've got an almost perfect day.

We bought lift tickets and went to the top of the mountain to hike a 2 mile trail.  Riding up was definitely easier than what we did the day before.

The Kid all armored up after his first run

The Kid ended his day with a big grin.  He said I wouldn't like it, said it was too technical for me.  Whatever.

Anyhoo, we had a great day.

The next day we went on the slowest road ride I've ever gone on.  All bike path.  Not the most fun but still an experience.

Headed Home

So much to do out there, so beautiful, so far away from us.  So hard to look at these pictures and not yearn to be back there.  I guess that's why we go away.  I want to try other places, we've been to Breck twice now, I wonder if the rest of the west has got anything better?  I hope we get to find out.

We Might as Well Enjoy the Trip Down

We hung around on the summit for a while.  With all the people on the trail I was surprised how few were at the top.

Proof

It didn't get tricky going back down till we hit the snow field.  There was a path about 2' deep but the bottom was ice over rocks.  Probably no trouble for most of these folks but it kinda freaked me out. People were waiting at the bottom to get up so there was an audience.  The Lovely Wife did a little slide about half way down but recovered quick.

Going back down this was interesting.

I kept thinking tree line wasn't that far down.  But as the rocks kept going, I got a hate going.  My knees were sore, I was just plain tired, and I was ready to get off the mountain.  

Sometimes you just had to stop but that only seemed to make it worse when you got back up.

Finally the tree line and a path that wasn't full of rocks

The Kid comes back to check on us

You see all kinds of folks on the mountain

Of course in the end we made it back to the stinky rental car.  7 hours is a long time to hike above 11,000'.  Some of us were faster so we could have cut some time off, but why bother, the mountain doesn't care how long it takes you.  We were fortunate we had good weather, I'd hate to be trying to scramble down that in a thunderstorm.

We saw people running up and back down, then again, we saw quite a few folks turn back at 13'000'. Some people seemed well prepared, some looked like they were shell shocked.  We saw one girl coming through the snow field in sandals.  Lots of dogs and young kids, those guys are braver than I am.

Would we do it again?  Sure, maybe not that mountain but another 14'r.  I don't think The Kid wants to go with us anymore though.  He tends to worry about the old folks, says we scare him if he has to watch us.

We were so tired we almost didn't want to go out to eat.  Nobody stayed awake past 9 that night.  And yes, we were some other kind of sore for the next few days.  Still, the plan called for a trip to Keystone the next day.  I call these days freestyle days.  We just do whatever comes up.  The Kid wanted to do downhill so that's how we ended up in Keystone.  It was interesting.  More tomorrow.

Hey Colorado

The water tastes better when you're far from home, or is it only the thirsty that hunger to roam?  I know coffee on the porch tastes better when it's 41 and frosty outside in late July.

I had hired a MTB guide along with rented bikes for The Kid and I on Monday.  It was my first time doing something like this, plus it was a little expensive, so I had my doubts.  But it all turned out great. We rode single track from downtown Breckenridge and by the time we hit 3 hours my legs were done.  I did wish for magic legs, or 19 year old legs, because I would to have done it all over again.

Tuesday

We walked out to the car to find this guy eating the grass off the back deck.  We did not disturb him.

Today was 14'r day.  Mt. Quandary, just outside of Breck was the mountain.  We got to the trail head at 6:30 and the parking lot was already half full.  The hike below tree line was like a computer generated landscape.  I hummed all the John Denver songs I knew.

Once we got above tree line things got a little tougher.  All scree and talus, which to start with had a trail through it.  That soon disappeared.

They say there are no easy 14'rs.  I now believe them.

The hike started around 11,000', I started to get tired around 13,000.  We hit the snow patch at 13,500, and the summit at 14,265.

I have to say it was an awesome view.  Very windy and 50 degrees.  Then we started down.

I feel like the guy in Avatar who gets the alien body for the first time when I'm up here. 

It was 3.5 miles to the top according to Strava, we averaged 1 mph (The Kid would want it know that he had to wait on us all the time).  The trip down would prove to be twice as difficult as the trip up.

Funny, it doesn't look steep in this picture, but we were crawling here.

Tomorrow I'll tell you how the trip down went.

The West is the Best

It was an auspicious start.  As we taxied away from the gate at the Tallahassee Airport at 6:00 in the morning, the pilot came on the intercom, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a computer malfunction and will need to shut the plane down for a minute and see if it will come back up.  The emergency lights will be the only thing on, I apologize for the inconvenience."  You could hear a pin drop when he shut it down.  We all sat in silence until he restarted and told us it had worked, then everybody let out a collective sigh.  We would make our connection in Atlanta.  I was to be a challenging day of travel to Colorado.

On the flight to Denver the two young children behind me amused themselves by kicking the back of my seat and squealing intermittently the whole flight.

I had arranged for a rental car through Priceline with Advantage.  When we got to their pick up lot there was a long line and only two people working the desks.  After a 30 minute wait the clerk handed me the keys, he said "You don't mind a Corolla instead of a Kia do you?"  I shook my head and left to find our car.

The little Corolla was filthy with so many dents and scratches I couldn't take pictures of all of them. The inside was stained and smelled like old shoes.  We crammed the bags in the trunk and got in line to go out the gate.  Two cars in front of us an older couple must have gotten in the wrong car and the lady checking us out told them to back up, so they did, which caused the car in front of me to start backing up, so I put it in reverse and turned around to try and see out of the muddy rear window.  I hear a horn blow and felt a bump.  Yes I had backed into another car.  All manner of chaos ensued.

Fortunately no damage except to my families ears due to my sudden inability to control my temper. We got out of Denver only to sit in stalled traffic on I-70 for an hour.  Hey, at least the view was nice.

Stopping at a Mexican Restaurant I had a beer.  The temperature was 61 and windy.  I forgot about the trip out, almost.

Crews Rest, our home for the next few days

The view off the porch

Sunrise

The Giant Kid and the old Smurff

We made it to the cabin.  Monday was better.  Can I tell you about that later?

A Little Bit of that Ole Chomp Chomp

All he was doing was trying to get across the shady paved road, somewhere outside of Monticello Fl. He was minding his own business when along comes this group of Lycra clad devils on machines. "Gator!" someone hollers as they zip by.  "Damn" he must have thought, "This just ain't gonna be my day."

They all stop and gather around him.  They are not afraid, after all he can't be more than 3 feet long, what harm could he do?  "We should move him off the road" one of them says.  After all, they are all basically nice people.  All with good intentions.  Still, not many cars pass this way.  One of them approaches.

Out come the cameras as the bravest (or dumbest) one circles him, trying to grab his tail so he can fling him to safety.

His face is not shown to protect his children from embarrassment

Please notice how he is reaching across, exposing his arm to the little mouth full of very sharp teeth. Moments after this was taken he grabbed the tail, the little fellow grabbed his arm, he yelled, flinging the gator, not towards the road side but towards the circle of people gathered to watch.  Much screaming and jumping around ensued.  The group rolled away, leaving little gator to continue his march across the road, and with a new found taste for human flesh.

Tupelos

On our little crew road ride last Saturday we stopped in Monticello at a little pastry shop called Tupelos.  All of the items are homemade except the drinks.  I had a huge piece of lemon bar cake and a root beer.  We all sat outside and got a sugar buzz while watching Silk howl at his video of the incident described above.

The Kid and I sprinted for yellow signs, county line signs, and city limit signs.  I kept having to change the rules to keep up with him.  I just don't have that extra kick that his 19 year old legs have. Imagine that.

New Tire

I put a new tire on the front of my MTB.  New rubber is awesome.  I was feeling froggy last Sunday, rolling down the multi use at Tom Brown.  As I leaned into a corner I found the limit of my new tires traction.  Sand over clay is a hard surface to lean into.  No major damage except for a new lack of confidence in my brand new tire.

Hey Colorado

We leave this weekend.  Highs in the low 70's, lows in the 40's at night, 0% humidity.  It's gonna be tough to stand that type of weather.  I'm taking a jar of gnats, I'll stick it over my ear, just to make it feel more like home.

I have the whole week planned out, it's a weakness of mine.  Monday we have hired a guide and rented MTBs.  Last time out there we spent most of the morning trying to find the trails, then when we did, it started to rain so I hope this goes better.  I've never done any type of a guided trip before.

Tuesday is the day we try to summit a 14'r.  I have no misconceptions about how hard this will be. The Lovely Wife has been training for months but it's hard to train for lack of oxygen.  If she falters we'll just give her a can of bear spray and a whistle and pick her up on the way back.  Heck, I'm not sure I can make it.

Wednesday is a recovery day, The Kid wants to do some rafting but we'll see how we feel.  I have a couple of easy hikes mapped out just in case.  Most likely it will be a tourist day, eating and shopping.

Thursday I have planned another cycling day, this one self guided and much easier than Monday.

Friday we fly home.  I know, I would have liked to stay longer but all the flights headed east were red eye.  I hate flying.

PS: There are two song lyrics in this post.  The first is the title which is from a Molly Hatchet song, Gator Country.  The second is the subtitle of this paragraph.  It's from a Gram Parsons song.  I bet only Wrecking Ball knows who he was.

Anyhoo, I'll see ya'll on the next page.

Gator Cycling at the TDF

Holy Water

As cyclists, water is our life line.  In the middle of a Florida July it means the difference between enjoying the ride and just barely making it home.  This is the story of two such rides, the names have been changed to protect the weak.

Ride #1- Santos Saturday

The Santos MTB trail system near Ocala Fl. was our destination when we left the HG parking lot at 6 am.  In my mind a 6 hour round trip to ride different trails, and trails that I enjoy, is a small price to pay.  We were already sweating after loading Fred's (not his real name) bike in my truck.

We parked at the Land Bridge Trail Head, unloaded, and headed west on single track.  Fred started out behind me as he had never ridden the trail and I had a couple of trips under my belt.  I kept the pace easy, knowing we had planned to ride for 4 hours.  This arrangement lasted until Fred slipped around me when I missed a turn, I noticed the pace picked up slightly.

We got to the Ern and Burn section after about an hour.  This little piece of work has lime rock hills with short but punchy climbs.  It's tight and with no air moving around me I could feel the heat building.  I backed off hoping Fred would notice.  He just kept it pinned.  "Ok" I said to myself "It's going to be a long day if we keep this up."

Now please don't think that I was worried about my ability to finish the ride, and I wasn't mad a him for going a little faster.   I just knew Fred had had trouble measuring out his efforts in the past and didn't want him to not enjoy the rest of the ride. That's just the kind of person I am, always thinking of others.

The Santos trails are custom made for MTB and are so much fun to ride.  Plus, even though I-10 cuts right through it, it still seems like you're in the middle of a forest.  My kind of place.

Land Bridge Trail over I-10

We made it back to the truck just as our water ran out.  We had almost 3 hours in by that time but hadn't touched the trail system to the east.  I at least wanted to do Spider Kingdom before we headed home but Fred was having trouble getting up the energy to get back on the bike.  I downed a cold Coke and a bag of peanuts, and after laying around on a picnic table in the shade, I was ready to roll again.  Fred said he thought he could do a little more, so we rode east and managed to put in almost another hour.  By that time it was well into the upper 90's and afternoon thunderheads were building so we called it a ride and headed home.

When we stopped at a store to gas up Fred came back out carrying a grocery bag full of food and drinks.  He consumed two bags of chips and what must have been 4 bottles of Poweraide ("It was on sale, 2 for 1.") before we passed Live Oak.  As we unloaded I asked if he wanted to ride Sunday, he just gave me a funny look and said to let him know what I was doing.  I didn't call because he looked like he'd had enough for the weekend.  Besides, he doesn't do clay.

Ride #2- Sunday Clay

I really felt bad about dodging church, but it was going to get soooo hot in the afternoon I decided to ride in the morning.  Sam (not his real name), Silk, and The Kid were the only brave souls to show up for our little clay adventure.  We were doing the Flag Loop, Silk was going to go hard, the rest of us were not.

Dirty Proctor (a road) had just been graded, plus it was dry, so all the rocks were on top.  It made for a rough start.  Silk hit the gas and that was the last we saw of him.  The three of us kept the pace steady until we turned onto No Hope Church road where The Kid and I played king of the mountain (he always won) until I couldn't breath.  Sam got a horse fly in his helmet so he didn't play.

Did I mention it was hot?  But I still love riding those clay roads.

With water running low we stopped at a little white church nestled into the pines on one of the big plantations.  There didn't appear to be any services that day so we went around back to the well. That was the best water I have ever tasted.  And it was cold!  So cold that when Sam stuck his head under the hose he started shaking.  I could have sat down in the grass and let that water run all over me.  I settled for just sticking my head under the flow.  After that we refilled our bottles and resumed our journey.  Refreshed by holy water, can I get an AMEN!

On the last few hills I noticed Sam falling behind, which was unlike him.  He had stopped sweating and had this odd look on his face (odder than normal).  We split up on the pavement and he headed home.  Turns out he made it back, but it wasn't pretty.  Something about laying on the kitchen floor while his girlfriend brought him cold towels.

The Kid and I rolled into the HG parking lot with our bikes covered in orange dust and sweat.  The lot had been empty when we left that morning but was full of shoppers by the time we got back.  I always enjoy changing out of my kit with an audience.  We got smoothies and I drank mine so fast I had brain freeze.

I've had enough hot weather for now.  I am well aware of how fast time goes by at this age and I know I'll be wearing arm warmers before I know it.  Still, I'm ready to say uncle on this heat.  At least until next weekend.

Hanging Around

Nothing to do but frown, rainy days and Mondays always get me down.

Yea, sorry about that, it's just what came out.  The rain has been a pain but it always is this time of year in Fla.

Last Weekend 

Last Saturday Irish, Dr. S Works, and a couple whom I can't think up fake names for, rode road bikes from the Oak Valley Publix.  We skirted rain most of the route but had to ride through puddles to get back in.  Even though it was roads I ride on quite a bit I enjoyed the company.  My prep the night before was Chinese and wine, making the ride harder on me than it should have been.  Road riding is such a different animal fitness wise, I know I've said that before.  I still have some work to do.  Sigh.

With rain in the forecast for Sunday we decided to take MTBs and hit Munson.  It was flooding in Beautiful Downtown Havana when The Kid and I rolled out.  We met Ape Bike, Mrs. Ape Bike, and Dr. S Works at the trail head.  Silk for some reason known only to him was riding his CX bike from his house and meeting us there.

It was still raining when we unloaded, with a huge blob on the radar headed our way.  But miracle of miracles we never got a drop.  What I was sure was going to be a rain ride turned out to be dry as a bone.  It had been a while since I'd done a group MTB ride and it felt good.

This Week

Wrecking Ball and Little Wrecking Ball both play in rock bands.  Both are amazing musicians.  Both were playing in a bar in Tallahassee on the same night.  The  Lovely Wife had wanted to go to see the Rolling Stones, I told her this would have to do.  

The music was great, the environment, well, not so much.  Too much of my fellow man (and woman) pressed together in a basement, most drinking, almost all smoking.  I made it through all of LWB's set and 3 songs into WB's when I had to pull the ripcord.  I guess I'm just too old for that stuff anymore.

Holiday

The Lovely Wife gets the photo credit for this

I was surprised that there wasn't a special ride planned for the 4th of July.  Lucky for me Silk and the Kid wanted to do a CX ride around Tallahassee.  We hit roads through campus that I'd never been on.  Then onto the bike path down to Munson (yea again). After a lap of Munson we rolled up the east side and back to HG.

Today

The sweat falls off the front of my helmet, running down my nose and eventually flying off into the wind.  It's early on another muggy Sunday morning and I'm alone on Shady Rest Road.  I'm trying to get my 1.5 hours in before the rain starts at noon.  I can see the clouds building up in the west, piling up like soft serve ice cream cones. 


The zone 2 ride feels easy for some reason, maybe because we didn't go very hard yesterday.  I can even look around at the scenery instead of just staring at my Garmin or my front wheel.  As I descend into a hardwood bottom it gets at least 20 degrees cooler, feeling like a giant door has been left open into an unseen refrigerator.  I actually get goose bumps, but it doesn't last for long.  I pass calves grazing along the side of Lanier Road, they spook and run as I go by.

I consider trying to hit the Strava section but loose interest about half way through, my mind getting caught in a song that I can't get out of. It's the one at the beginning of this blog. It takes me back to 1974 and walking home from high school.  Then my mind jumps to a dirt road behind the lake house my family used to own.  I get lost in the memories.  

I make the right onto highway 12 and head for home, managing to beat the storm which rolls in at 12 just like clockwork.  I get cleaned up and plop down on the couch to watch The Tour.  

Funny but it seems that it's the only thing to do.  

I have no idea why the font changed half way through.  Remember, nobody reads blogs anymore.:)