Weekend ride

I was supposed to do an overnighter this weekend but, at the last minute, I realized that the rat bastard thieves who broke into my car last weekend and grabbed my gear bag, also made out with my 1/8" closed cell foam pad that I sleep on as well as my knee warmers. My plan was to sleep at about 10,000' and it was supposed to be a low of 30 here at 8500' so I think it would have been pretty miserable and borderline dangerous since bailing to lower elevation in the middle of the night would not have been possible since they also stole my lights (I still have the charger asshole!!!!). At the last minute I decided to call an audible and do a long ride both days but sleep here at the house. So I left Saturday and was going to ride a chunk of the Ring the Peak trail. It started out really nice (but a bit cool) and then weather moved in and the temps dropped. I did not take pics during the last 3 hours of the ride because I was freezing. Ya know if I'm cold....it's cold.  

I rode the blue bike today with a full load of gear that I would use on a week long trip but I decided to leave the gearing at 32x20. This was a huge mistake and the ride was filled with a lot of doubt about whether or not I could ride this bike on long stuff like this or not. Up to that day, I had felt a lot stronger than last year (with only 3 weeks of training in) and I attribute that to riding so much on the singlespeed this year. It has completely transformed how I ride (how I brake, the lines I pick, how I climb, the way I pedal, etc.). It's amazing. For so long I have been amazed by singlespeeders like Chris Plesko, Eric Cutlip, The Dick, Dejay Birtch, and Jason Shelman.

Today I headed out towards Deckers with the intention of riding Section 2 of the Colorado Trail. I was still riding with a full load today but I did swap to 32x22 and it made all the difference in the world. I covered the same distance today that I rode with no load last week but 6 minutes faster and my heart rate never went over 162 (and the time that it was there was minimal). I was able to ride a lot more stuff than yesterday. Section 2 is in stellar shape so get out and ride it if you can. The wildflowers are off the hook and look even more amazing in that relatively barren area.

There were flowers of all colors (blue, purple, different shades of yellow, orange, red, and white). It was awesome and I wanted to photograph more but I was supposed to stick to the moving time this weekend so I cant share all that's out there with you.

This is near the end of Segment 2. This area is bouncing back remarkably well from the Buffalo Creek fire years ago. I was actually a bit stunned at how green it was near the end.

I continue to be impressed by this bike. I just love the way it rides. I have the plastic bike with gears ready to roll and sitting in the bullpen but, in the back of my head, I can't help but wonder if I could do a really long ride with this thing. I tend to re-think that when someone like Kurt Refsnider says that HE is blown away by others doing big stuff on one gear. Kurt can burn it up and if he wouldn't consider doing so then I probably have no business dreaming about it but it still crosses my mind a lot.

The worst thing I saw today was this. This is the bathroom at the start of Section 2. It appeared to just be trash. Sometimes people really disappoint me.