mullerb's musings

Lots of fun exploring and lots of climbing on this one. Rachel is a trooper and getting really competent on rough terrain. Poked around on the east end of Ridge Rd to the views above Dream Canyon. Cool! Dropped down to Switzerland Park via an old unused county road, narrow and rough in places. Climbed up and up to Sugarloaf then to the Peak to Peak. Crossed the road to follow the old railroad grade even further. Explored more new terrain today than in a long while!! View Switzerland Trail and Ridge Rd Loops in a larger map

A Saturday ride with Ed Porrit. Left Boulder at 5:45 am to park at Copper Mnt. Clockwise circuit heading up towards Leadville, Minturn, Vail and back. 80 miles on the nose with 5900 feet of climbing. Great weather the whole way. Awesome downhill between Tennessee Pass and Minturn! Long climb up to vail Pass to top it off.

An early AM ride before work and the heat of the day. Rode from the house to the Marshal Mesa trail head, across 93 along the irrigation ditch to the upper loops, then over to Dowdy Draw, across the flats past the gravel pit and across 93 back to the trail head and home.

An 8-day trip to visit Joe and Yoly in the Hamptons, to stroll NYC, and to revisit the old Gunks haunt. Flew out early AM on Wed June 16 and returned late Wed eve June 23. Spent lots of time in the pool, riding, beach strolling and grilling in Quogue, Rach and I spent a whirl wind 24 hours in the City then drove up to the Gunks for a day and night and drove back via New London and the ferry to the North Fork. The girls got lots of R&R time and Uncle Joe time and had a half day in the City before we flew home on Wed. I love the City! We must have covered 8 miles of street walking and saw the WTC memorial, ate great food, perused the MET. Need to go back to see lots more!

A rainy but beautiful hike up and out of the park through verdant meadows and dripping mossy woods lined with boulders. Why nice!! Sat AM and only Rach and I on the trail in this weather.

Early morning pre-work ride to avoid the incoming rainy weather. Log legs: strong but not that fast. This loop is feeling shorter and shorter!

After work ride in the drizzle and sizzle of local thunderstorms. The new Stumpjumper is like butter on this rocky trail!

I've done a this a few times now in the last 2 weeks. Very nice to be on the water. Got that strong side roll going well in the old Crossfire. The off side? Not so good to not there at all...

The longest ride I've done in ages. I promised myself to get to century rides in this June and I'll count this as one of them (since there was so much climbing :-) Left the house at 6:15am when Rach left for work. 93 was clear of traffic and really there's only a short mile or so with no goo shoulder, just before you get to 72. 72 isn't exactly a biker's dream though with no shoulder at all most of the way up those 10 miles to Wondervu. got a flat at the canyon mouth then boogied up the climb at a mellow but consistent pace. It's 20 miles to Wondervu from the house. Nice views!! Got to Sugarloaf and decided to keep going. Got to Goldhill turn off and decided to keep going. Got to Ward and decided that this would be one of the two century rides. Onward from the crest of the Peak to Peak to Raymond and Lyons. Pit stop for Gatorade and a Snickers then the hot and never all that fun ride up and down 36 to Boulder.

Got the new bike up and down the technical climb at Hall. Can't say it was pretty though. Not the bike's fault, it's all on me for not spending enough time on doing technical rides these past two years. Smooth as butter on that rear suspension. Really smooth. And then an awesome coule of beers at Oskar Blues, their summer wheat with orange peels. Yum!

Warm and mostly sunny for a lunch ride stretching from flats to grinds to steeps. Averaged 21mph for the first half and 18.5 by the time it was over. Not sure how that compares to a few years ago when I was riding with the UCAR group. It was fun regardless. Lots of bison along Nelson; how cool is that!