Grrrreta says Turkey Day was grrrreat! Many thanks to Gurst, Cousin Jim, Chainsaw, the Polish Rocket and "the Tornado" for lively times as we repast-ed up in Chautaqua week past when the beer flowed like wine, the cheese was strange and tasty, the trails muddy, the dog underfoot and crafty and the "Just Guess" cut throat just like we like it! Friday saw Dub, the Crossbowmaker, Chainsaw and meeself dip into the soothing melodies of Hot Sulphur Springs where the water has some sort of medicinal mineral added to it...if I could only remember which one. Retreated to WP for drinking and home made nachos (how them jalapenos sitting now ladies?) and to prepare for the next day's blitzkrieg cross country assault which saw Matty A nattliy skating whilst the rest of us lumbered old school round St. Louis Creek. Good fun! Couple excellent hot laps the next day on Indian Peaks (great conditions!) completed the mountain trifecta (soak, xc, DH), and there was much rejoicing!

Greetings Cyclonauts! High up in the Foothills of Lore, where the voles burrow silently, creeping ever closer in their bloodlust and depravity to the succulent warmth of Das Chalet, Chainsaw and Highroller spent some quality shoveling time in the 2 degree weekend weather and are pleased to report that the deck and boardwalk, seemingly so elevated and easy to stumble from when drunk during the summer months are now below sea-level so to speak. Shoveling has reached the more difficult stage where we can no longer 'Zamboni' the snow off the edges but must now lift, carry and toss over the growing drifts...hurrah! Winter is here!

junior goes down 

Tele turns have been initiated, boards have carved and picks have been swung in anger but with the rapidly approaching arrival of Chainsaw's brand spankin' new Yeti take a brief moment for end 'o season bike lust over this pink lusciousness! Disc brakes on a single? ...one step forward one step back, but seems perfectly logical to me! $550 and she's mine! Bwah ha ha!

Photos of Ice!

A small gallery of images to remind (most of) you why you wisely refuse to engage in the "risk-taking", "death-defying", and mind-numbingly cold "sport" of ice climbing.
Take a look at http://homepage.mac.com/mchesaux/PhotoAlbum7.html if you dare.

Ice!

Cold and clear at Mt. Lincoln for Cheese-O, Big Ben and Highroller as we froze our digits waiting for the only other people there to snake our line up the Scottish Gully. Ben eventually lead it out up a wet/hollow bulge, stuck in a screw about 12' up and then ran it out another 130'. I followed, bypassed the anchor and strolled another 50' to a nice solid tree, brought up CHeese-O and promptly sent him up the challenging headwall where he put in our 2nd screw of the day. 2 pitches, 2 screws, welcome to ice climbing! Headwall had a nice steep corner for the first "well I gotta pull and swing one of these tools, not sure which one is really in solid, I'll try THIS one" moment of the season. Cheese-O and Ben took on a second route with a nice thin smear and then all retreated to Breck for burgers...good times!

Snow!

Cheseaux and I pulled of a couple of laps in Butler Gulch Saturday and got a few hundred feet of powder turns. Managed to avoid getting drilled by the posse of 50 year olds. The trick is to freeze so they think you are a tree. Love those first turns of the year.

Cyclocross racing in the Snow on Sunday saw perhaps the worst performance of any bIKEcLUB member in recorded history. Pete 2 was lapped on the second trip around. Hopefully, next summer is kinder to his training.

Eldora!

Chainsaw and I dropped in on three very very cold runs in the mist today, frosty with all the snow blowers going full blast but fun to make some turns again!

...and so the Week 'O Dash draws to a close with this flashback to Monarch Crest and some hotties, and Dash of course there in the middle. 

Ahhh, remember when this love affair began...Dash, predictably winning the flex-off, Dike Trail, CB '02 

Up and out of the Horse. 

All Dash, all the time! Going down on Mary's. 

Now we're talkin'

Good to see some folks getting into the act. Upcoming events this weekend will include Chainsaw and Highroller rising like moths to the flame of Eldora Saturday morn at the crack 'o ass for a few hot laps on the slopes before the masses and limited terrain repulse us, and Ben "Dead-Eye" Cook and Highroller heading up to swing some picks on Mt Lincoln, again at the crack, but this time on Sunday morn. If'n interested in one or the other contact Chalet staffers for the hook up!-M

Though counter-intuitive, D. "Giant Pussy" Ash, in addition to being smooth over the barriers is in like Flynn with the ladies, and ex-cons of course. The bastard! 

CrossDash.JPG

CrossDash.JPG
Originally uploaded by mchesaux.

Dash in action. Does it get any better than this?

PA290402

PA290402
Originally uploaded by mchesaux.

Sean, in a rare contemplative mode.

Bikeless but sadly not panty-less

Allrighty crew, I am off for the land of the Mouse and Whale not to return until next week. Do your best to hinder the BLTFFL in my absence and sign up and post away to this site. Not that hard really, no really! All requests for signed Shamu 8"x 10" glossies are hereby denied so stop asking!

Farva '04.... America! Fuck yeah! 

Cheese-O Partyapalooza '04 film debuts!

http://homepage.mac.com/mchesaux/iMovieTheater5.html

I coulda been a contender! 

Wilkommen fraulienski et Footsoljerski

Long, oh so long my brethren have you circled in the shadows just out of the campfire light, freewheel mufflingly clicking, blood dripping silently into the heath and gorse of the Foothills of Lore, patiently awaiting a signal from on high, hoisted perhaps from the very craggy maw of the steaming Muckery or mayhaps shot into the air from a giant bone trebuchet, flaming phosphourous rain forming a mysterious sigil high o'erhead. Well the time has come Cyclonauts, the grating creaking Wheel of Time has finally clicked over into the here and now and bIKE cLUB has begrudgingly been extruded into the modern world, much like a sharp-toothed unnaturally developed babe with extraneous limbs and/or eyes! Here it is, YOUR very own nest and refuge in a world gone mad with multiple gears, strict anti-nudity regulations and of course the ever prowling henchforces of the hated and despised BLTFFL. Befowl at will!