Friday night/early Sat Morning right now...
Not sure if the two crows show up here or not... Fall Colors in Durango.
Did some riding Friday, and a lot of just looking. Fall colors are in full swing up high right now, the intensity of the golden aspens is nearly unreal, and just the mix of colors in eyewatering. Lovely stuff if you've never seen it. Lovely still if you have. The other looking we did today was at the trial itself. Oh - forgot to mention, we took a friend on his first official mountain bike ride today too.
Justin nails a nice ribbon of aspen-lined singletrack on his first day out.
Anyhow, we ended up on some trails on a mountain out here, and shuttled to the top. Sorta cheating, but... I'll be riding for the next 5 days straight, so I aint worried about my trail cred ;) One might question the wisdom of shuttling some fairly difficult trails for their first ride, however - he's an accomplished skier/snowboarder, rides a motorcycle.. so he has some idea of momentum/inertia/weght transfer/and speed to distance sort of stuff... and well, I dare you to show me any "beginner trails" in Durango anyhow. If you can learn to ride the stuff here, you can ride just about anywhere. Well, I'm digressing - pardon me... He ended up doing extremely well - surprised both me and Ben with his navigation and all, excersized the appropriate caution on sections that were over his head, and did his best to keep up on climbs. Plus, he managed to ride the whole day without slamming. Congrats man :thumbsup:. I think he's hooked - sweet, another one in to the fold... Now we just have to get him a bike.
Working for it...
Single. Track.
Another thing we looked at a lot today was the trail. And rather than just getting my ass handed to me like last week, I was a little more prudent today, and just viewed some pretty sick lines from the side as I walked/climbed around them. It sort of sucks having this stuff in my face like this, reminding me that I'm only a shadow of the rider I once was. But at the same time it is also a sort of impetus to push myself a little more, and realize that I can indeed become a better rider if I want. I don't think I'll be doing 15 foot drops any time soon, but there's some things out here - right now they just boggle my mind and I would pay to watch some people ride them (and photograph them too). But, I think that by next summer we'll be able to ride most of this stuff. A pressure suit, pads and maybe a full face helmet would help tremendously....
Well, this is a lot... "worse" than it looks. Wait 'till you see the other side....
Though it does look steep in the photo, it's still difficult to express the atmosphere of this image.
Unbelievably steep, narrow, loose, and sustained. That is, sure, you ride down this, drop off a
foot or so at the bottom, but then the trail does not let up. If you're not on your game here,
pain will ensue. Not sure if photos of me riding this will ever surface ;)
We also ended up getting rained on for good while, and the temps dropped probably down in to the 30's for a while there. Or, maybe because I was riding in the bed of pick up as we shuttled back up the mountain in the rain - it just felt colder, lol. Anyhow, it was blast... And its always cool to be on someones "first ride" too.
I ended up missing the Biden/Palin debate, but have heard a bunch of mumbo jumbo about it. blah blah... The only thin that bothers me is that the more she's in the public eye like that, the more credibiltiy she sort of gains. As long as she can manage not jamming her own foot in her mouth too badly, she'll become more accepted by the voting sheep - er, I mean public. Any minor foot in mouth stuff will just get spun off in the media. The scary thing is, even if McBane doesn't win, she is not going anywhere. Don't expect the Republicans prize anti-Hillary missile to just disappear. Like Arnold - she'll be back in four years to try again. And whether she's got the goods or not - two terms of this bush guy have totally proven that the pres is indeed just a figurehead/puppet with someone else pulling the strings... ugh. anyhow...
Red Bull Rampage is in effect now, out in Virgin Utah or close to that. If you get a chance, check out :devneetrith: - he'll be on the spot capturing all the action. I think I'm riding a place called Boggy-Draw tomorrow, and on Sunday we embark on a six day riding mission, including Moab, 5 Miles of Hell, and the Grand Junction/Fruita region. This will be... sweet.
Hope you all have a great week, thanks for looking! :peace:
The pay-off to the rain; a keen rainbow. Justin
and been takin' it home...
Not sure if the two crows show up here or not... Fall Colors in Durango.
Did some riding Friday, and a lot of just looking. Fall colors are in full swing up high right now, the intensity of the golden aspens is nearly unreal, and just the mix of colors in eyewatering. Lovely stuff if you've never seen it. Lovely still if you have. The other looking we did today was at the trial itself. Oh - forgot to mention, we took a friend on his first official mountain bike ride today too.
Justin nails a nice ribbon of aspen-lined singletrack on his first day out.
Anyhow, we ended up on some trails on a mountain out here, and shuttled to the top. Sorta cheating, but... I'll be riding for the next 5 days straight, so I aint worried about my trail cred ;) One might question the wisdom of shuttling some fairly difficult trails for their first ride, however - he's an accomplished skier/snowboarder, rides a motorcycle.. so he has some idea of momentum/inertia/weght transfer/and speed to distance sort of stuff... and well, I dare you to show me any "beginner trails" in Durango anyhow. If you can learn to ride the stuff here, you can ride just about anywhere. Well, I'm digressing - pardon me... He ended up doing extremely well - surprised both me and Ben with his navigation and all, excersized the appropriate caution on sections that were over his head, and did his best to keep up on climbs. Plus, he managed to ride the whole day without slamming. Congrats man :thumbsup:. I think he's hooked - sweet, another one in to the fold... Now we just have to get him a bike.
Working for it...
Single. Track.
Another thing we looked at a lot today was the trail. And rather than just getting my ass handed to me like last week, I was a little more prudent today, and just viewed some pretty sick lines from the side as I walked/climbed around them. It sort of sucks having this stuff in my face like this, reminding me that I'm only a shadow of the rider I once was. But at the same time it is also a sort of impetus to push myself a little more, and realize that I can indeed become a better rider if I want. I don't think I'll be doing 15 foot drops any time soon, but there's some things out here - right now they just boggle my mind and I would pay to watch some people ride them (and photograph them too). But, I think that by next summer we'll be able to ride most of this stuff. A pressure suit, pads and maybe a full face helmet would help tremendously....
Well, this is a lot... "worse" than it looks. Wait 'till you see the other side....
Though it does look steep in the photo, it's still difficult to express the atmosphere of this image.
Unbelievably steep, narrow, loose, and sustained. That is, sure, you ride down this, drop off a
foot or so at the bottom, but then the trail does not let up. If you're not on your game here,
pain will ensue. Not sure if photos of me riding this will ever surface ;)
We also ended up getting rained on for good while, and the temps dropped probably down in to the 30's for a while there. Or, maybe because I was riding in the bed of pick up as we shuttled back up the mountain in the rain - it just felt colder, lol. Anyhow, it was blast... And its always cool to be on someones "first ride" too.
I ended up missing the Biden/Palin debate, but have heard a bunch of mumbo jumbo about it. blah blah... The only thin that bothers me is that the more she's in the public eye like that, the more credibiltiy she sort of gains. As long as she can manage not jamming her own foot in her mouth too badly, she'll become more accepted by the voting sheep - er, I mean public. Any minor foot in mouth stuff will just get spun off in the media. The scary thing is, even if McBane doesn't win, she is not going anywhere. Don't expect the Republicans prize anti-Hillary missile to just disappear. Like Arnold - she'll be back in four years to try again. And whether she's got the goods or not - two terms of this bush guy have totally proven that the pres is indeed just a figurehead/puppet with someone else pulling the strings... ugh. anyhow...
Red Bull Rampage is in effect now, out in Virgin Utah or close to that. If you get a chance, check out :devneetrith: - he'll be on the spot capturing all the action. I think I'm riding a place called Boggy-Draw tomorrow, and on Sunday we embark on a six day riding mission, including Moab, 5 Miles of Hell, and the Grand Junction/Fruita region. This will be... sweet.
Hope you all have a great week, thanks for looking! :peace:
The pay-off to the rain; a keen rainbow. Justin
and been takin' it home...
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