mullerb's musings

Fast and fun and feeling strong on the climb. This is a great loop with a good climb, a fun downhill bomb and a great stretch of rolling flats on 36 southbound.

Fast and fun but a bit of head wind coming around on 36 and Diagonal. Felt like Heidi was there with the pace we had. Feeling good on this romps now and able to pull the lead for big parts of it. But just Katherine and Kay and I. Last Thursday Katherine did Mt Evans from Golden in 7.5hrs, 97 miles, 8000ft gain just for the summit, not including all the ups and downs!

Between the threat of lightning, snakes, and those clipless pedals, this was one darn hazardous ride. I took at least 4 painful falls, 3 on the up, one on the down due to those darn clipless pedals. It is totally frustrating to be tilting over and not able to get your darn foot down. With foot cages, there is nothing too it. But the slow motion fall with torqued and trapped feet while gazing down at cactus, rocks and prickly weeds coming up at you, just plain sucks. Not sure if I'll keep these on if I keep doing this on single track. Otherwise a fine loop followed up with an excellent IPA at Oscar Blues with Dan.

After riding Flagstaff Road, my gushing over the flowers along the way got them motivated to do a hike up there. Nice an mellow, the girls enjoyed it.

This is it: the best early morning workout. Left at 6:30, got to Gross Dam overlook in 1hr10min. I think I can do much better and hope to do this one on a regular basis. Killer climbing between mile 4 and 5. A big loss and gain again on the backside from the high point to the end of the road by the overlook. Felt like I got stronger on the climb back to the high point. That is a great feeling after so much hard work.

An international escape from COMET for a nice little loop in the flower studded meadows of the Indian Peaks. Not as much snow left as the rangers were implying in my call earler in the week. But loads of roaring water in the creeks making for thundering water falls. It was tough to want to turn back and go to the office. But we did and we made it back by 1PM. Roger Deslandes, from Australia, Phil Chadwick, Garry Toth from Canada, and Dan Riter

Mellow spin with Kay and Heidi clockwise around. This has the best west-east stretch of road once you get on Nelson. Just a great cruiser through nice rural scenary.

Yucky hot and feeling tired from a lack of sleep and that really fast ride on Monday. This was the first ride where I realy felt like crap. Started out good: Jose, Heidi, Kay and Katherine were casual on the ride up to Lefthand Canyon. I guess to conserve for the hill climb. But darn as soon as the slope picked up a bit, they started turning it on. And on. And on. Katherine and I cut off at Old Stage, the rest continued to Lee Hill. I just was feeling too crummy to hold them back on the longer loop. Maybe next week.

Ugh. Being back in the office after a week on a river is just killer. Meetings all morning and more this PM. A hot and fast loop ride was just the ticket for quick escape and procrastination. That first 2 mile stretch on the slight uphill grade of Route 36 is a burn. But once it's over I can get back into the swing of things. Heidi has a bum knee and she still pushes me along. She came in 2nd in her age group in a 10K mountain run yesterday and yet she's still motivated for some fast riding. Total endorphine junkie.

Yampa River, Day 1 - June 14, 2005 Looking down on our first camp, Anderson Hole, from the north rim of the canyon. More pics are viewable here .

Nice week long family float on the Yampa through Dinosaur National Monument. Great weather with sun and clouds and moderate temps in the 80's, cool starry nights, a few wicked breezy times on the river. Awesome canyon geology with lush green flora from the unusually wet spring. Third time down this stretch of river, best of the three with a great group of folks: Al Bol (permit holder), Nan, Nate (7), Eva (5) Bol/Rosenbloom Tim Best, Susan, Nicole (5) - friends of Al's from Santa Cruz CA Gary Bolton, Elise, Gabe (4) - friends of Nan from Laramie WY Woody Wang - from COMET Lori Thomson - the RiverGoddess and friend of Woody's Lisa Dierauf - friend of Nan's and Rachel's bat volunteer coordinator our very own Rachel, Kelly (11), Leah (8) The Yampa was flowing between 6500-7500 cfs, at the upper end for Warm Springs Rapid. We walked the kids to be safe on that one. Wicked pushy entrance and a bad hole to hit if you mucked it up. The Green was running at a low 2400 cfs so

Had to get a ride in before heading out for the Yampa trip. Rachel took the girls to the pool for her session and I pumped up for Flagstaff Road from the house. Not as bad as I thought it would be. The cars were few and polite and the climb was actually more moderate than expected. Hot though by the time I got up. Great views of the Indian Peaks from the amphitheater. Next time up to the top of the climb at mile 5 and the Green Mountian trailhead.

Despite the really foul looking weather, Dan needed to put his new bike on the trail today. And just as we got the bikes out at the trailhead, the rain stopped for the afternoon. Nice and cool and sloppy with a great wheel spinning climb to the upper loop. Too bad I blew out the old rear tire (a knobby got sliced off). Had to use a hunk of the old tube to shore up the outer hole. A gentle ride down got me back to the van without walking.

Thought I would miss out on a ride today but was able to push meetings around to make it work. Heidi wanted a quick ride with a climb so we went up Old Stage out and back. But... on the way back down we decided to head up Lee Hill to check it out. We went all the way to the crest which is another 700' climb over a mile and half. What a great burn! And there are some killer houses and views up on Lee Hill. Pretty cool place to live being close in and yet feels like being up in the mountains. The meadow at the crest is awesome with flowers and horses grazing.

Shorter and slower than usual for the gals. Kay has a short track race tonight and a time trial on Saturday so is taking it easy. Beautiful day with blue skies and a gentle breeze. Nice short alternative loop.

A bit more humane today, riding with Tony up and back. We were actually able to talk to each other for the first third or so before the climb began in earnest. I have a much better handle on the stages of that hill now. I need to go back when Heidi and Jose are pushing me. The return flight downhill is *fast* and kind of scary with lots of hidden driveways and a stop sign near the bottom but still in the midst of the swoosh. The ride along Rt36 to Jay Rd is a hoot with just a slight 2% grade that lets you zoooooom. Fun!

Killer loop with a long climb about a quarter into it. Then a swooping downhill to Rt36. Jose and Heidi beat me to the top by a minute or so. Then they took off again on me along 36, which is a long 6 miles or so of slightly rolling but fast pavement. They were never out of sight but probably 1/4 mile ahead for a while. I caught them in the end at the light turning on to Jay Rd. Whew. A few more of these and I'll consider myself in shape.

Sunday morning jaunt just to make sure my legs will work on Monday for a ride with the big girls. They plan on taking me up over Old Stage for a climbing session. What a great morning! Coffee and the paper on the front porch in the sun, the girls hanging out with Cheeky reading the comics, relaxing. They got to hang out while I went for the quick loop. Felt good and strong though I didn't push too hard. Boy, it is a lot tougher to gage your pace alone. I definitely look forward to pack riding tomorrow.

The rain finally broke today around 2:30. After a morning of housework, it was awesome to go to the res and see the sky operning up and the snow topped Indian Peaks poking through the shredded clouds. Man the fields are so luch and green. Did the counterclockwise loop along then has an hour of catamaran sailing in a light breeze. Not a bad way to round out the day since the girls were all busy with b-day parties.

Nelson Road Loop - 1hr10min, 23 miles Ugh. My calfs feel like dead weight pulling me down from my desk chair right now. They need some serious stretching sessions and the hot tub tonight. 3 days in a row and tomorrow a mountain bike ride is on the schedule. Feeling good though! It's was a bit easier to keep up with Heidi and Kay. The posse grew by one as Kay's ski/bike/kayak pal, Katherine, joined up today. I actually was able to contribute with few sessions of pulling draft up front. They are all beasts though and in some wicked good shape for riding. It will no doubt take me a few weeks to get up to their form. Nelson Rd had a wicked cool stretch of gentle downhill dropping down from Rt36, just north of Table Mountain. We swished up to 56km/h at one point (Katherine's odometer was set to metric - 35mph). Fun to be passing each other, swapping draft. I think I can get into this.

Lookout Road southern loop - 1h15m, 20 miles Hooked up with Heidi and Kay for a lunch ride. Ugh these two are serious. They have a non-stop pushing pace. I could just keep up on the flats and slowly got left in the dust on the 3 Bitches of Lookout Rd. Kind the same ride as I took yesterday but looped around to the south off of Jay Rd to 75th and around on Valmont's twisty western end. Really neat stretch of road. Again, the views from the east county roads were eye-popping. The pace was thigh numbing.