Hike in the Zirkel Wilderness

MR T got up and out of Dodge to start the holiday weekend off right with a hike into the Zirkel Wilnerness north of Steamboat

Super lush to start with beaver ponds and snakes! Haven't seen so many snakes in all my years along the FR

Up into the burn area from the Hinman fire of a couple years ago Chainsaw & Trout push the pace.

Wildflowers were still in abundance and huge aspen trees were everywhere.

Heading home, bye bye trees.

Mmmm, post-hike brewski!

Don't eat the brown acid!

Chainsaw tripped the light fantastic through this positively Ned-esque piney singletrack this morning after dropping the wee terror off at prison camp, er I mean daycare. No Blue Dots here though, no gun range, passive agressive FR 'fellow' bikers or anyone else for that matter.

Don't eat the red berries!

Biggest trail maintenance issue on Steamboat area trails that we've encountered so far is there are sometimes not enough riders to keep the trails from getting overgrown. Nice problem to have!

Chainsaw working the self-photo. Many many years ago Highroller first dabbled in cyclocross racing winning, yes, I said WINNING, the hotly contested Citizens B class cx race out at the gravel pits on 63rd, and though on many levels that can be rightly claimed as the nadir of his, er, my racing career, nonetheless the message fails to sink in and really stick so here we go once again! Brecktobercross, two weeks, in Breck, be there. Highroller will be racing, Chainsaw will be racing, there will be beer to drink, there will be cowbell! Despite working for Moots for over a year I will be racing the 'Bus' in homage to the many many spiritually damaging, embarrassing and life-span shortening years we have had together. Anyone know the fatigue life of cheap-ass Tiawanese aluminum? We're gonna find out!

Dawn Patrol in Steamboat

What can you say? It's hard to get out of bed and out into the chilly morning air but you end up with a whole mountain of sweet trails to yourself, partial moon overhead, sun rising over the ski area and sun frosted cumulus clouds scattered across an otherwise clear blue sky. Top it off with a bowl of fresh raspberries back at home and you've got the perfect start to Hump Day... What's in your wallet?

Boulder Roubaix

About 10am last Saturday, I rolled over to preview the Boulder Roubaix course and to see if the race was actually going to happen. It was a solid down pour that I'm pretty sure started coming down harder when I drove back to Louisville. Right about this time, the 35+ cat 4s were rolling out for their race and among the starters was our own Brad Buikema to battle these epic conditions. Less than 2 hours later, on a course that was mercifully shortened by one lap, Brad, no doubt inspired by the viewing of the movie "Road to Roubaix", finished a solid 16th place among the 36 starters.

I'm afraid I don't have any pictures of Brad, but my teammate forwarded this one from after the race. We were fortunate enough to race under mostly sunny skies and the course dried out, so our dress whites don't really show the effects of the course. My teamate ended up on the podium and I wasn't that far behind him, so we had a good race. It did take 3 hours the next day to get my bike back into running condition.

By the way, I'm not smiling in this picture either. Now, I've felt pretty bad after some races. Had to get an IV after a race in Grand Junction a few years back. Vomiting is a pretty regular occurrence in my post race repertoire. But nothing compares to how I felt after Saturday. I'm tired, sore, dehydrated, low on blood sugar, muddy and wet. I really want to get out of my clothes and into a warm shower. However, Mike needs to get his picture taken on the podium and we talked about getting some shots of the RMSS finishers after the race.

And we really didn't get that dirty.

August Powder!?

On the off chance that all that rain this weekend fell as snow elsewhere, I decided to visit the Isabelle Glacier.  Sure enough, the snow deepened (and got fluffier) as I got higher.

As a bonus, part of the Queen's Way route was still in and covered in new snow.  I made it to 12,600 ft. before beginning the descent.

I'm still having trouble believing I skied powder in August.  I'm sure September will be even better.  More pictures are here.

Highroller birthday hike

First of all we'll open some presents with the able assistance of TSA

Oh, well I guess this one is for you anyways...

Now let's hike! Red Dirt Trail 15 minutes out of town on the way to Clark. Not at all what I was expecting, cool trail and some true wilderness.

We found some bear scat, wild raspberries, moths and butterflies, caterpillars and wait, what's that rustling in the woods ahead?

Sweet Jesus! Forest cows!

Just back away slow, make yourself big and don't panic!

It's a jungle out there!

Dawn Patrol with the Moots factory crew deep into the jungle of Spring Creek burned some precious calories and left most of the hole needed to later fit in the 4 layer carrot/raisin/?/cream cheese birthday cake courtesy of co-worker Amy. Super tasty and my 2" thick slice weighed in at over a pound, easy. Thanks all! Rodeo tonight and hopefully Chainsaw can get out on a ride tomorrow with J. "Jen" Alford up from her sweet crib in Prospect up near Longtucky

Somebody call da po-lice!

Pop's nuts and Ma-ma-ma-Mom's gone batty
'parently I'sa gots me an Uncle named Matty
Doing jail time serving 18 hard
Damn prison won't let me out to the yard
Only relief I'sa gets 'sides rapping with the dog
Is my daily dose of facts straight from the blog

Whicky whicky wick, whicky wick!

Didn't I mention my ol' man's gone nutty
Claims a guy name Wino Sassfutch is his buddy
So I'm trolling and surfing getting the 411
But all I'm seeing's Pop's spew which straight ain't no fun

Whicky woo!

Popping and locking my way to one year old
But the damn blogs so crusty itsa covered with mold
Wat's happening with my dog pound Brad and Bryan?
Can't catch up with my shorty Loni though ya know I be tryin'

Whicky whaa, whicky whicky whaaa!

Peas out yo!

Highroller rap!

Yo Spring Creek baby, in the rain!
Wet fern to the face but I can't complain

Got the pod in kickin out the heavy metal,
rockin so hard I forgot the ProPedal



Hey, what's this lever do, ooh that's cool
Shoulda flipped it at the top yo, dang fool



Wait is that a dance move or a back spasm?
Now's prolly a good time to mention the chasm
I was riding along when I ran over a snake
Popped out so fast I didn't have time to brake
Whippy whippy woo
Whippy woo!

What the H.E. Double Hockey Sticks?

2nd place is first loser! What? Who? How? Sure, I know that without proper coaching Sean has the tactical sense of a ceiling tile but still, flat sprint, straightaway...Sean beefy and somewhat secure in his masculinity vs Tim, obviously built for climbing? What could have possibly given Tim the winning edge? Hmmmm...

TGIF

Next Dizzy Lizzy Location

When watching one play horseshoe, or better yet, when watching a bIKE cLUB member play, I would recommend staying pretty far back... Those thinks can get going pretty fast! Thanks to Drew who was the best host and who has some area reserved for some dizzy lizzys, maybe even some ramps.

Sort of like Pancho's

Partypalooza-ing...Steamboat Style

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Thank you Rose, Matt and Trout!
And to Drew for graciously leading this bunch of tourists.

Riding in Steamboat...better than a sharp stick in the eye, eh?

Getting trail ready and avoiding mosquitos

Trail Intersection off Buff Pass

Chaos Theory in action

Smiles all around before the long decent back to town

Apre Emerald at the Alfords

The guy rides a brand new $4000 Yeti with a free t-shirt he got three years ago..Go figure

Emerald Mountain