We finished our puzzle-- a Bev Doolittle piece-- while I was healing up from my colonoscopy/endoscopy.  We had a good time doing it and might put together a few more this winter.  Meanwhile, we have plenty of other things to complete on our list and only 5 weeks left.  Time flies when you're having fun.  Billi

 

 

Well you may have noticed not much activity last week from the house.  Well, we decided to take our week off and then hit it hard again this week.  I took a strength test to figure out what and who I am.  To much of my surprise, it came out really good.  Billi says it is right on the mark.  Trish, my older sister, gave me the book and the test for a gift, and finally I got around to doing it.  She gave copies to several other people.  We emailed the test results to her, and then she sees if some of us are the same.  After talkin to her about it, we can see already we look at things differently. 

We have been going through a lot of miles and are getting ready for more riding in Crested Butte.  We are leaving Friday night and hopefully we will ride all weekend. 

Brad

To add to Brad's last email about good trails & maps.....

 

We traveled to Dolores last weekend and did some camping and mountain biking.  The local map was excellent and the trails were some of the best we have ever rolled the tires on.  The singletrack was well maintained, easy to follow even on our night ride, and offerred just about everything you might ask for.  The people of Cortez & Dolores have some nice singletrack and they want people to ride it-- how nice for us.  We rode Phil's World Saturday afternoon, Boggey Draw on Saturday night and finished it off on Sunday with Maverick Loop-Italian Canyon-Bean Canyon with a couple of other riders from Alamosa.  On the way home, we stopped by Steamworks Brewery in Durango and had a delicious and filling dinner.  It was a great weekend-- we posted a few pics.

 

Billi

 

 

We decided to go and ride South Boundary this weekend.  After talking to several people and finding a map, we were off.  As we were riding and trying to figure out how the trail and map work together, wich we never did, I started to think about trail maps.  It seems that most everywhere we go ride, hike, fish, climb, or sight -see, there are great trails and attractions.  What seems to be the big difference between having great trails and enjoying them?  I think it has to do with the community.  Most of the time, local shops and people get together and make maps for the people coming in.  South Boundary had a bad map and everybody always complains about how hard it is to follow the trail.  So what happens is that we had a great trail but a bad vibe all day.  The best places have really nice local maps that flow really well.  I think this helps with everything.  Maybe one day we can get some local maps around here.  Seems like some of us bikers still can't find some of our own trails. 

 

Brad.

I was sore and bruised this week.  I didn't ride to work and didn't go on the Thursday group ride-- I even missed out on Heather's 7-layer bars.  I can't say that the break from the daily commute wasn't nice-- the morning temps have dropped--- but I did miss riding my bike.  We had planned to ride South Boundary, a 40 mile mtn. bike ride between Taos and Angel Fire, this weekend but I had my doubts.  I was still pretty sore from my endos and while I was making some progress, I still had a ways to go to normal.  Finally Friday, I decided I would give it a go and the plans were made.  With the help of a couple of Aleve and some coffee, I got ready early Saturday AM and we headed off to Taos with our friend Heather.  We picked up trail map from a local bike shop in Taos-- they had left the map in their mailbox so we could pick it up before they opened.  How's that for service?

 

We got on the trail and started climbing right away.  I was twitchy and steering all over the place and my right rotater cuff muscles were feeling the movements.  I wasn't sure if it was because we lowered my handlebars or my sore muscles.  I thought it was going to be a really long and painful day.  We made it to the top of the climb, and I decided we needed to take my handlebars back up.  Brad set-up a mini-shop beside the trail and he went to work.  We also discovered my brakes were way too squishy-- maybe a contributing factor to me finding endo gear so easily.  What a difference!  I was able to steer again and not twitch all over the place and my rotator cuff muscles were able to relax a little.

 

It turned out to be a nice ride.  The sky was blue, the sun was shining at that nice fall angle, and the trail had quite a bit of nice single track.  I shied away from any rock drops, did not find endo gear and didn't re-bruise any bruises.  I added to my already existing soreness but I was glad we rode.  Hopefully all will be healed for our rides next weekend.  Sometimes you need to get sore to know what muscles you use.

 

Billi

We did go ridin as Billi points out and had a blast.  When we got home, I walked over to see are whining and excited dog.  WOW, he must have gained in the area of ten pounds and could barely waggle his tail.  So we had to put him on a diet.  A couple days later, he is looking back to normal.  I also had to repair some more of our bikes.  My bike is making a small squeek that I took apart the dogbone to correct.  On Billi's bike, I lowerd the handle bars and greased the headset.  The SS will come in the days following.  While out on our trip, Ben called me up and we did talk snowboards and that got us talking about winter.  Seems there is a little bit more riding to do, and I hope it only gets more epic.  We are getting our legs under us and should be ready for some long rides this fall.

 

"And that's when I was faster than my wife"  ---Some guy

Brad

We had a busy, busy week.  We decided to do our first camping/mtn. bike trip of the year.  So I took off Friday and started off by shopping for the grub and supplies for the trip.  After Brad got off of work, we loaded up and took 5 of our bikes to Salida for maintenance and repairs.  The Yeti was in the worst shape-- you could have had an aquarium inside the frame there was so much water.  Thanks to Anton and his 5 hours of work, the Yeti, Stumpy P, Louisa, Ruby and Thelma were ready to go.  Loiusa was stoked as she got Stumpy P's crank set-- she used to have a crank set with 175mm crank arms, which were way too long for my short legs.  Stumpy P got the royal treatment-- since her crankset went to Loiusa, she got a new crankset, new grips and some lube.  The Yeti was drained free of water and got lots and lots of lube-- thank goodness, no more squeeks.

 

So with the bikes tuned-up, a dog sitter lined up (Tucker is not a mtn. bike kinds of dog), and finally all of the camping gear loaded, we head out to Gunnison to ride Hartman Rocks and camp in the nearby KOA.  We got out of Monte about 15 miles and Brad pulled over.  It took him awhile, but on the way back to the house he admitted that he had forgotten the front wheels to Thelma and Loiusa.   Good thing we came back-- he also forgot the bike locks.  Oh well, trial run and time to think about anything else we might have forgotten.

 

We got into Gunnison, got some maps, got our base camp set up and took the SS out for our first ride at Hartman Rocks.  It took a little while to figure out the map and loops of single track, not to mention for me to warm-up to my SS, but once we did, we had a blast.  The next morning after some pancakes and sausage, we headed out again on the SS.  It rained a couple of times and got lots of mud on the tires but it cleared out to sunshine in between.  The trails were fun and challenging, with plenty of curves, sand, climbs and rock slabs.  After making our way through several trails, we headed back to the KOA just as the third bout of rain clouds opened up and poured for the rest of the night.  We had planned to go on a night ride but the rain kept coming down so headed for the tent instead.

 

The next morning we packed up base camp and headed towards Taylor Reservoir to ride a trail called Doctor's Park.  It was an awesome ride-- lots of climbing in the beginning, sweet flowing single track in the middle, and a tough descent at the end.  I had a tough go on the end and found endo gear not once, but twice.  Stumpy P had a badly bent rear rotor but otherwise was OK.  I fared a little worse but didn't neeed any doctor visits.  We stopped by the bike shop on the way home to get a rotor for Stumpy P, and I will take off a few days from the bikes.

 

I can't say that we labored much this weekend but we had fun.

 

Billi