Sad but True

I know it's sad, but I haven't been mountain biking since late October or early November. The project was coming to a close, then the Holiday season rolled around, I don't work right next to Palmer Park anymore, I have been travelling the last couple of weeks, yadda yadda. I know; excuses, excuses. But the reality is my poor bike has been sitting lonely for three months or so now. I have ridden my other bike to work and back, but no mountain biking. Wednesday, I called my friend and neighbor, Gil, and asked if we was ready for a bike ride this weekend. Yesterday, I took my bike into the bike shop to get some air in my shocks, and this morning, we rode.

I love being this close to the mountains, and there are innumerable trails in our area. Fortunately for me, Gil has ridden them all and knows where to go. He took me to one he calls the "super-secret trail". I think he calls it that because he nevers sees anyone else on the trail, but somebody uses it because it is not completely overgrown. It basically starts on the north side of the Academy and goes up and over the ridge to Dead Man's Creek. I was feeling yucky this morning and fortunately, so was Gil. He's an animal, especially on the uphill, and usually rides me into the ground. But today we took a nice pace because of the way we were feeling. My lungs were burning from the beginning. Like I said, I haven't ridden since fall.

The trail climbs straight up the mountain and offers some great views of the Academy and of the City. There were spots of the trail that were covered with snow and there was one stretch near the top that we had to hike-a-bike. Crazy Colorado, it was warmer at 8,000 and 9,000 feet than it was down in town. On the other side, the snow got pretty deep on the trail and we decided to turn around and head back. We took a slightly different route at the top and ran into a snow drift.

I didn't take my camera and I didn't think about taking pictures, but when we ran across this snow drift I remembered that my new phone had a camera and had to quickly learn how to use it. Gil took a picture with my phone with me in it, but I look funny because I am trying to stand in someone elses footprints at a funny angle to the camera. I am not trying to look dashing OR tough with that goofy pose.

The ride down was great. You ride 2 hours up and 20 minutes down. There were some scary moments, particularly on narrow spots with lots of snow and ice and a steep drop off right next to the trail. Then there was the spot near the bottom that I crashed.

The snow stays in the gully in the bottom of the trail and you ride on the dry ground up on the side. I started sliding sideways into the gully and corrected myself, started sliding sideways into the gully and corrected myself, started sliding sideways into the gully and corrected myself, started sliding sideways into the gully and fell over. I was eventaully able to get off the bike without even a scratch, but then I pictured what I must have looked like wobbling down the trail and had to stop and laugh before I could get back on my bike and ride the 2 minutes left to the truck.

I love living in a place that has warm Saturdays in the middle of winter enabling me to go riding in the mountains at 9,000 feet. And I'm not sure, but I think I heard my bike thank me.