Pictures galore

Wow lots have been happening lately. Today will be mostly a pictorial with some explanations and hopefully some updating to my links and such.

As you can see in the above segment I have conveniently not mentioned how I've neglected my blog for a week and a half. I will continue this throughout the post and hope you all forgive me. I swear I'll be better, at least for a little while.

Let's work in reverse chronological order for now. Might have a new bike soon? Dave found an old Trek frame for my fixie conversion and it looks like the measurements are exactly the same as my orange Trek, sweet! Hopefully it's not too rusty and I might have a monster cross.My road bike is finally back in action. I haven't ridden anything but the singlespeed since Leadville except for KotR. Tonight after Marni and I's trip to Boulder I finished installing my new Dura Ace shifters and put on my new bar tape. White hot!
Seriously I just look at it and it thinks about getting dirty but they were out of pink and black was boring. I like it! Plus it's really sweet having STIs that actually work again and I forgot how fast road bikes are with gears and skinny tires. My 2.25 tires on the Monocog don't roll so well on the road.Gears, blasphemy I know. Don't worry, today Marni and I went to ride Betasso and the SS made the trip. Marni kicked lots of butt. Today she was much faster on the downhills than ever before even with the holiday hiker traffic. I took her to Betasso for her first real MTB ride shortly after we met. It didn't go so well but now at least she agrees it's a fun and easy trail. After Marni and I were done I took a flyer lap around. Came in a little under 17 minutes which isn't bad considering all the hikers I stopped for and the lack of rain. Betasso is way faster wet. Hmm maybe my legs are ready for some big miles now to prepare for Moab? They certainly feel good with just lots of SS riding lately.
This weekend prior to the holiday I was mostly out riding. Marni hosted a bacholorette party for our friend Michelle and therefore I was banished from the house. Not really a problem as I was happy to go bikepacking again (more on that later). Dave and I met up Saturday evening around 5pm.
Turbo was not too happy to see me leave. Sorry pup.
I was wearing my new Smartwool lightweight zip-t. Got it for $30 on Steep and Cheap. If you don't know what S&C is you have to check it out. They have a new deal (50-80% off) everyday until they sell out. The Smartwool shirts are usually $80 so I figured it was cheap enough to try out. The weather was a lot colder than on the Colorado Trail (keep reading) so I really liked the long sleeves and the wool was comfortable. I'm going to reserve my final opinion until I wear it again post wash but so far so good. After David and I met up we cruised out 72 towards Golden Gate Canyon state park. I saw some deer chase away a coyote which was pretty cool. The climbs up to the park were hard but all rideable for me. David did good pushing his 59" gear while I happily spun away in ~47 inches. The camping sites at the park were all full so after running out of places to stay we hid up above the road and found a nice place to bivy for the night. When we left you couldn't have known we were there so despite it not being technically allowed I don't feel too bad about it. Plus Dave had a sweet cave/rock shelter that I called the mountain lion den.This week I brought my sleeping bag along on the ride. While it's not really the lightest, it's all I've got for now and I strapped it to my handlebars with some sweet bungie cords. Dave brought his thermometer this time and it got down to 31 degrees. Burr! I was glad to have my 15deg down bag and I was nice and warm without wearing all my clothes or holeing up in my bivy. I even woke up at 2:30am ready to ride but I went back to bed until 5:30. I tried a new method of heating up my water for dinner and tea using half an esbit but I didn't like it. It seems better to burn the whole thing at once and then just blow it out after it boils to reuse next time.After we woke up on Sunday we were back riding by quarter to 7am. We cruised through Rollinsville and up to Ned for some coffee. It was warm by then and we made great time down Magnolia back to Boulder canyon. After stopping into Full Cycle for a minute we headed back to Westy via Marshall Mesa and I even cleared the stupid log steps on the SS for once. All in all I rode about 85 miles by the time we got home and Marni had some yummy donuts waiting. That evening Marni and I went to see Little Miss Sunshine which was hillarious. Finally a movie worth my $9.50.
Wednesday we had a sweet ride at Centennial Cone, a new JeffCo trail. It's a little further away so we tried to make good time down from Westminster to Golden. Along the way up 6 we saw Dave riding to meet us so I made a quick manuever to the side of the road to pick him up. That was Marni's favorite. haha. We got Dave loaded and made it up to the trail in plenty of time.Scott showing off his sweet sunglasses holder.We had a big group this week, everyone's names I can't quite remember. Luckily everyone kicked ass, especially Melissa who is Scott's new babe. She and Marni had a lot of fun riding together.With the sun setting earlier now we ran into a little trouble. It seems the sun sets at around 8pm instead of the 9pm we've been used to all summer. Made for a pretty sunset...
Too bad we were still 4 miles from the car. Dave had a light and Bill had his map and GPS so it wasn't too big a deal. Marni and Melissa survived along with the rest of us downhilling in the dark.
Plus Flounder was there to make his return to my bike after getting washed away.
After mostly riding and a little walking we saw the light from one of our cars. One of the riders went ahead and hit the headlights so we'd know we were almost home.That was a really good idea except his battery was weak. OOOOoops. We all had good cars to jump him with, but no jumper cable. Scott jumped in the Honda and got one from a gas station down the road and without waiting too long we were back in business. Plus we got to sit around in the camping chairs and I got to wear my new vest that showed up. Patagonia Micropuff vest was 5.82oz in a size small. Now to sew a hood one it, muahaha. Back to the story. After getting the Exploder jumped we still had time to hit up Woody's for dinner and then everyone took off for home. This week there will be no Wednesday ride due to Erik's bachlor party which will be strange. We haven't missed one hardly all summer.

Wow lots written, almost done and back to where I left the last blog, my trip on the Colorado Trail. Dave and I had an awesome time and I stole his pictures except for the ones of my stove. Getting tired now so I'll make this quick. We left Waterton around 5 pm and rode segment 1 of the Colorado trail. Just past the South Platte on segment 2 we made camp for the night. Got down to high 40s so my sleeping bagless setup was a little chilly but I still slept okay. My stove worked real good for my dinner and breakfast tea so I was happy about that. I found a way to make it even lighter this past week. Once we ate breakfast we tackled the big climb starting segment 2. On a singlespeed I had to walk a few things but overall it was totally rideable for the first 2 segments of the CT. I can't wait to ride more of it because it was so fun. The ride through the burn area of segment 2 were surreal especially in the constant rain and fog. After segment 2 we had to bail since I had to be home by the early afternoon. We rode out to 285 and then back to Morrison via S. Turkey Creek with a short stop at tiny town. What a weird place. Dave and I got into Morrison and Marni picked me up so I could get ready for her friend's party. Overall it was an awesome ride despite the frequent rain and cold. My sub 5lbs base weight was awesome and while I will still be making changes and tweeking my setup before next summer I'm confident I can survive with under 5 lbs of gear including safety items.










Okay time for bed. I leave you with a link to Bill's new blog. Check it out. More bikepacking and adventures in white bar tape to come. Really!