Out of order back from the mother land

While living the dream I sometime forget stuff. Before we went to Vermont I loaded Yampa and a bike into the truck and headed to New Mexico. I had a visit with the parents and a bike race on the agenda. The race was fun and it was good to ride where I grew up but I was still mid cold and felt pretty crappy so that was the only ride I did while I was there. My dad and I headed up to the old Los Alamos reservoir that was drained after the Cerro Grande fire to be used as a catchment for flood waters that came down the canyon. I used to go up there all the time when I was younger to fish and just hang out (not to mention some misbehaving in the high school years) do to it's close proximity to town. It is amazing how much more water is around that area compared to Flagstaff because everything else is so similar. Yampa had a good time swimming in the small pond that was still there while Sierra looked on to make sure everything was alright. My dad always seems to have dog treats in his pocket and can get the dog's attention pretty quick. There were tons of wild rose bushes along the road amongst tons of green, green vegetation. It was a good trip home. Oh I almost forgot that I clean some crap out of the shed and came across this Coors Classic cycling cap from the early 80's. We used to catch a couple of stages every year on our family trips to Colorado when I was a kid. Good stuff.

We're not in Arizona anymore Toto

Not many posts lately but we did just recently return from Vermont. We went for Anne's college reunion in Middlebury and vacationed for a few days after the reunion was over. We stayed near Stowe at the Lake Mansfield Trout Club which is like a country club for fishermen. While there we traveled to East Burke to ride the Kingdom Trails which recently received high praise in Bike magazine. We rented bikes and went out to do a review of our own. I will sum up my impression of the trail system by saying that although it was fun I am glad to live with the trail options in Flagstaff. I do have to say that the rental bike that I had was the best rental out of 5 bikes that I have rented in the past 2 years. The folks at East Burke Sports were really friendly and super helpful in planning a route through the system.

Rain, rain, and more rain

Well I have been back from Durango for a few days now and it has rained every day since returning. It is all good though because the trails are all in excellent shape and super tacky. The only downside to the trails being awesome is that I have a cold and it feels pretty miserable to put out a hard effort. It is really hard to dial it back until my head and chest are feeling like they are going to explode. I snapped a few photos with my phone in the Dry Lakes area after riding Upper Brookbank the other day. Enjoy.

The past week

Sunday I arrived back in town from a trip to Cortez for the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde which was a great race but a mediocre showing for me. I finished with 5 laps which equaled about 84 miles. I had plenty of time for more riding and even had the legs for it but what I was lacking was the ass and feet for more. I settled for some food, beer and socializing instead. This week I spent a fair amount of time riding due to the incredible weather here in Flagstaff. I took the Ibis out on a preride of the MBAA Flagstaff Frenzy course, then the Turner up Sunset and down Upper Brookbank where there is a pretty amazing little clearing with a nice view up to Agassiz. Anne and I took in a Jimmy Buffett concert down in the valley on Thursday night which didn't do anything for my beer avoidance attempts for midweek but was pretty fun. No riding yesterday but a well needed shopping spree at Trader Joes and some Chipotle burritos before heading back up the hill. Today I headed out for the race despite being up most of the night with foot pain and wound up pulling away from my closest rival on the climb up Wild and Wooly and holding him off to the end to finish first in the Novice SS class. I was fortunate to have won a free race entry for this race and to find a pair of gloves in the prize bin that had not been taken already. The gloves are an older version of some Fox gloves that I assume people thought were a bit too gross looking for them. I say perfect for me!

Some photos from yesterday

Just thought I would post a few photos from a pretty good mountain bike ride yesterday. I made it a little way up the Waterline Road until I deemed it silly to keep getting off the bike to climb over fallen trees. I then went a few random places before heading back home.

Back from the Mogollon Rim

Anne and I left on Friday morning for the Mogollon Rim to race in the Mogollon Masher mountain bike race. We loaded up Yampa and some camping stuff and headed out. Anne had decided that she was interested in trying a beginner women category race and I was going to race the novice singlespeed class again. The area on the rim between Woods Canyon Lake and Bear Canyon Lake was our destination. When we got there we were amazed at how beautiful the scenery was and the views looking south off the rim were endless. Anne got a bad start but began passing people right away. She then took a minor detour and lost a place but wound up with a great showing finishing third. The big smile on her face at the end tells me that she had a good time. I lined up a few hours later and had two simple tactics. The first was to make the initial turn onto the singletrack in as close to the lead as possible and the second was to go as hard as possible for as long as possible. Tactics are easier to come up with when the people in the race are people that you've race against recently. The Prescott race a few weeks ago had the same cast of characters partaking in it minus the guy who beat me. Knowing this I figured I had a good chance of taking the win so I came up with the two simple tactics. Some of the photos are a bit blurry but there the best we have. Yampa had a great time with what seemed like hundreds of other dogs and is pretty worn out today. She woke up this morning and ate breakfast, went outside to do her business, and then came back in and went into the bedroom to her bed and fell back asleep and remains there now.

Another broken piece of aluminum

I went out for a ride today on the Coconino and had a good day combining Rocky Ridge, Schultz Creek, Secret, Hot Shot and then home via Buffalo Park. Unfortunately on my way into Buffalo Park I felt a snap and that was all for my seat post. I rode home standing up with my seat and the remainder of the post in my hand. The post is not something that is very exciting to me to have to replace. As a matter of fact I can think of many other good uses for the money.