June 6th - Crested Butte

After last weekend at Angel Fire we were motivated to compete in the Wild Flower Rush coming up in Crested Butte in a few weeks so we decided to head over to Crested Butte and start the mountain season. Things were not promising as we headed out with the reports saying that virtually no trails were ready because of the brutal and long winter we had this year.

We got there early on Friday so decided to see how conditions on Lower Loop were, it is a ride we had never ridden as it is just a short little loop that has a reputation for being popular.

Conditions were certainly not ideal with a lot of mud on the trails and plenty of snow still on the upper part of the loop. But the riding was fun and fast!


As always Crested Butte is just a nice place to ride mountain bikes. A late afternoon ride on single track is how everyone should be able to finish off a Friday work week.


There were a few other people on the trail but not many and as we came around a corner we surprised a porcupine. It was fun watching him climb up a tree to get out of the way, luckily I saw him before either of the dogs so I was able to grab Bishop and watch the prickly guy shuffle to safety.


It took a little gentle taps with a bike wheel on Bishops hind quarters but she quickly learned the ways of being a trail dog and when to get of trail and out of the way. She is incredibly fast and seemed happy to run forever!


The upper lower loop was still under quite a bit of snow. We had to walk across a couple of patches, but the riding in between was excellent.


Another snow patch.


Heading back to the car.

May 24th Memorial Day Weekend - Angel Fire NM

We made the big decision (for us) and head down to Angel Fire for the long weekend on Memorial and see what the Racing scene was like! This weekend was the Mountain States Cup Gravity kick-off and sounded really intimidating from a beginner racer perspective as the courses at Angel Fire all had the reputation for being the hardest (technically) on the MSC race calendar.

We figured that worst case it would be great to watch pro's racing and as the 4X and DH were national qualifiers for Worlds in August there should be some big names. It turns out that most of the big names for DH were at another race on the east coast but there was still an incrediable amount of people there racing (over 600 people registered for the downhill alone)

It was also our first road trip since we got our new dog Bishop.


The dogs were super excited to get going.


But quickly decided driving was boring and sleeping was good.

We have no photos of us riding as racing doesn't really lend itself to that. We arrived Thursday night and set up a tent in the parking lot with everyone else. Amber and I both registered for Super-D and I also registered for Downhill. The weather was pretty funky on the first day and it got really crappy as the day proceeded. Friday was a practice day and we (in hindsight wrongly) opted to start with Super-D track thinking it would be a good way to get some riding in.

Looking back what we should have done was started immediately on the Downhill practice even though the weather was dubious, that would have gotten us over the intimidation factor that haunted us all weekend.

The practice on the Super-D was excellent fun though as the course really was a perfect Super-D track. It had a couple of climbs that meant big bikes were not going to be an option and then a number of technical sections linked by high speed single track.

We practiced in some really wet conditions and decided to do one last run for the afternoon since Saturday was Race Day. The weather came in hard core as we were riding the lift up and we made the bad decision to try and ride down rather than stay on the lift and ride it back down. Conditions were full white out snow and Amber and I both got really, really cold - particularly our fingers.


Saturday was Super-D race day and both Amber and I entered and had a great time. The weather cleared up and it was beautiful and sunny, however the track was muddy and slippery which in race conditions I found to be really fun riding. I definitely had my lazy boots on and took it very easy on the climbs even taking the opportunity to watch the open Women go by me. I ended up in the rear of my classification while Amber ended up 6th in hers. She did a better time than me!


Our first race tags!

Later on Saturday was the 4X mountain cross UCI event where the winner (if they were a USA citizen) was automatically qualified to worlds. We had never seen a mountain cross event live before and it was a lot of fun!


Qualifying saw the riders race individually for seeding.


And the race proper had waves of 4 riders scrambling to get to the bottom first. This is Mike Kreger putting on a show. Mike works at The Fix Bike shop and has helped us out many a time so it was fun to see him at play - the guy can ride and is also a phenomenal announcer.


Cornering with other riders trying to take it as well seems like would be a whole different game than cornering out on the trails!


The winner was Petr Hanak, he lives and works in Sol Vista, CO but was not a USA citizen so the locals would have to wait until the 4X nationals event on Sunday.



We wimped out for the rest of the weekend having lots of good reasons but no valid ones to head home early instead of racing the Downhill. Amber had her last week of school and had a boatload of work to do, she worked all day Monday so it was a good thing we came back early. We were also exhausted from the riding we had done, but the real reason we came back is that the downhill race was simply intimidating! Looking back at the weekend I can only be reminded of times I wimped out from doing a big rock climb, it was really easy to find very valid reasons to do something else.

It was a great first race weekend, the scene was incredible and friendly, the race we did hard and challenging and we got our feet wet at racing!

New member of the family (dog) - Bishop

We had been thinking about getting another dog for a while now, Moab (our current dog) has been getting older and she really can't join us on longer or faster rides anymore now that she is nearly 9 years old.

So on Saturday we visited the Boulder Human Society and picked up a 1 year old female Australian Shepard (which on a side note we have no dogs called "Australian Shepard" in Australia - but she is a lot like working dogs down there). We named her Bishop after a small town on the Eastern Edge of the Sierra's in California.

In some ways it is easier having an slightly older dog than a puppy as potty training is easier, however in other ways it is harder. The two dogs are having some confidence issues with each other and we have some work ahead to get Bishop trained to play with Moab and to follow us on the trails as we ride.

She is really fast and super nimble so we have fun times ahead!

May 11th - Porcupine (from Kokopelli)

Ambers ankle was hurting her on the descent the previous day on Gold Bar so she opted to rest and I scored a free shuttle for Porcupine. She had a hard time standing in the descent sections so it seemed risky for her to aggravate it by the 16miles of fast and technical downhill riding that Porcupine has to offer.

I wasn't full of energy but I had a great time blasting Kokopelli into UPS then LPS and hitting all the ledges I could find (other than the Diving Board - that is still a little big for me mentally).

My life doesn't suck - 4 runs down Porcupine in the past month.

May 10th - Moab, Gold Bar Blue Dot

We headed over to Moab again this weekend thinking that it will likely be our last visit until the Fall arrives and temperatures cool down again. We will see, but it is certainly warming up in the Desert again with the highs getting into the mid 80's. While that is very ridable, particularly if you ride early and late in the day, it is less attractive to us as the mountains start to open up. Also our dog Moab is getting older now so we have to leave her behind in the vehicle while we ride if the distance is more than about 10 mile and that just doesn't work if the temperatures are that hot.

So since this might be our last trip over here for a while we went with a classic and one of our favorites in Gold Bar Blue Dot. I wanted to try it after the winter riding to see how I felt on the more technical sections and also see how my new wheels & tires felt on a familiar ride.


Spring has come a few weeks late in the desert, but it makes for pretty pictures.


Amber was full of energy and worked on a couple of technical up sections that previously she never really bothered trying. She has been riding technical downs (that don't involve air) all year now so progression on the technical ups was great news, particularly with our planned summer trip to Vancouver Island in July.


Steeper than it looks with a tough slow left turn on top.


If you haven't ridden the Gold Bar blue dot section up to the Rim, definitely add it to your list of must do rides. It is a fun little 4 mile section of great single track that joins into just as good single track across the Rim to the Portal trail (or Poison Spider).


I always enjoy this little move up near the Rim. I have to be fully committed otherwise I always step out somewhere mid-move.


This is a better sequence of shots of the steeper than it looks section that I got Amber on from a different angle the last time we rode this. It freaks me out because the first move is narrow and a (seemingly) bit of a tire grabber before you roll down to a couple of drops.


Amber rolling the first and just in front of her is the second. It is bigger again.


Scenic Rim Shot.

We turned around a few miles across the rim as the heat started to get to us and our lazy boots made their way to our feet. Once you turn around you have a fairly tough stretch back to where Gold Bar jeep trail first touches the rim and then you have a great 4 miles back down the single track to the start of Gold Bar (which is where we park).

May 4th - Porcupine

We had always planned on doing Porcupine on Sunday morning before driving back to Denver and riding UPS and Kokopelli on Saturday just motivated us even more to still do since they had been so much fun.

This time we parked the car in the Negro Bill parking lot at the end of the ride and then rode into town to find a shuttle to take us to the Kokopelli drop point on the La Sals Rd.

Hardly any photos as it is just to much fun to keep riding rather than stop for pictures.

Second time around Kokopelli and UPS were even more fun as we knew what was coming around the blind corners and as you dropped down the steep sections. This was also my 3rd time on Porcupine in the past month so had started to learn the lines I could hit at speed. So even though we were both tired from the previous day's jaunt we both had silly smiles on our faces all the way.


We were getting really tired by the time we got to the single track at the end of the ride so the camera started to come out finally.


Moab had good single track.


and pretty scenery


At the end of the ride we were totally wrecked and worn out. I was sore for a couple of days after but it was one of those weekends you dream about when it comes to mountain bike riding. A double dip of pretty much the best mountain biking that Moab has to offer!

May 3rd - Moab Kokopelli Down (into Porcupine)

Another Moab weekend and this was a particularly fun weekend which has come to mean not much in the way of photos due to a lack of desire to stop riding and take a picture.

We were a little bit undecided on what to do on Saturday as Sunday was planned to be a shuttle day on Porcupine. I read something on MTBR that piqued my interest a little and we decided that it might be fun to try it for a morning ride.

We opted to drive up to the LPS drop off point for Porcupine and then ride up UPS. I had heard UPS was good but we had never ridden it due to the questionable access to it. I figured that riding up it would be a great way to see the trail and see where it joined Kokopelli higher up, it would also give us a good argument of ignorance if the Rangers happened to be out on the trail (which they weren't).

Wow, this is an amazingly fun section of single track riding.


A rare picture of from the ride. You travel up along the rim much of the way with amazing views. There were a few sections of pushing the bike on the way up, but that just made the ride back even more fun.


I was surprised at how much slick rock was on the ride, this is one scenic section that was easy to take a break on and get another rare photo.


I really enjoyed the technical riding (in both directions) you had to pick your lines and keep momentum.

After UPS we continued up Kokopelli to the La Sals Rd. This is the condition of Hazard County at the moment, obviously not ready yet.

On the way up we crossed paths (in a friendly/fun way) with lot's of other riders who were enjoying the downhill frolic from the shuttle drop on La Sals Rd.

Once we reached the top we got to turn around and enjoy it as well. OMG what amazingly enjoyable riding. You have blast as fast as you can open riding on the Kokopelli section and then swooping single track mixed with steep rock section on UPS. We had just a great time!

We also opted for the "spoil Sean more" choice and Amber and our dog finished at the car while I raced down LPS into Porcupine and Amber picked me up at the bottom of Porcupine. No photos but many "I love my Bike, I love this Ride!" moments. I was pretty tired by the time I got to the bottom as the heat had arrived and after 22miles of technical riding fatigue was a big factor. Beer and Food summoned us and we relaxed the rest of the afternoon.