Johnny Socko

Saw this guy on my ride today. The little fella reminded me of that old song, I Like Cows. I believe it was from the album Bovaquarium. Makes it pretty tough to go home and throw beef on the grill. So...I had chicken.

Wedding bells

It's still pretty darn baffling to me that I actually found someone willing to put up with me...for life. Even more baffling is that even just 6 years ago, I detested the thought of marriage. That view stems from the fact that I didn't have the best teachers growing up, particularly when it came to displaying good morals with regard to marriage. I guess I just always looked at it like getting married was fulfilling the worlds expectation. So many marriages (like my own parents') end in divorce. I always felt that I didn't need a label to be trusting. A piece of jewelry is not what keeps two people together, faithful, and working as a team to enjoy life to its fullest.

However, the relocation to Colorado was extremely difficult for both of us and it really brought us closer. So...a while back I decided to make it official and I never felt more confident about that decision. After much preparation, we will finally tie the knot on June 21 of this year. I can't believe how excited I am about the ceremony. Even though some of the planning has been eye-gougingly painful, it sure was fun to do...together.

When it came time to look at wedding rings for me, I wanted to do something different. Part of me probably wanted to go against the grain a bit. The majority of me wanted something that couldn't be lost, stolen or removed for convenience. So I had Paulie come up with a really nice Celtic band. He did an excellent job. I also have a very nice white gold band that I will sometimes wear as well. The cool thing is that I wont have to worry about scratching a ring or losing it if I'm working on a car, or doing something else foolish. It really is the best of both worlds.

Took the day off

Getting work together for my students to do is usually more of a pain than taking a mental day is worth but today I did it. Normally I fly fish about 4-5 days a week but since I decided to do this race, my fishing has been put on the back burner. The rainbows and cutthroat are just beginning their annual spawn. It's always an amazing thing to see so I thought I'd check it out. Saw a small herd of elk on the way to the river.



Saw quite a few mule deer as I dropped down into Eleven Mile Village. Seeing wildlife never gets old for me. Also saw the usual cows, steers, and even the wild mules. Most people don't know but the mules were brought in by the miners back in the day. When the mines shut down, the mules were just let loose. I guess they thrive pretty well since I always see young ones. They're super friendly too and will walk right up to you.



This particular stretch of the river has quite a few old barns and, what appear to be old cabins that I suppose were used by early ranchers. This is also one of the things that drew me to the Colorado Trail Race. There is just so much cool history in these mountains. I can't help but wonder who stayed in these and what their life was like. If there was a time I could go back to it would be the old west. Sometimes when I ride my mountain bike through areas like this, I actually pretend I'm on a horse and back in time.



The cabins above are no more than 30' from a nice little bend on the river. I can't imagine having this view each morning. Usually...you can see the Continental Divide in the background.

Another old barn.

Tarryall Reservoir

This is the spillway and the start of Tarryall Creek. The creek is a blast to fish in the summer and it's quite productive. I've never fished the reservoir. I generally pass on the stillwater. It's gonna kill me to not have a fly rod for this ride because there is some super good water along the way.

Heather actually snapped a few pics of Tarryall because her and Dharma hung out there and waited for me while they watched a few folks ice fishing. That's the Divide in the distance.

That sure blew...

Mountain bikes are not allowed in any of the designated wilderness areas in Colorado. You can't even strap a bike to your back and portage it. If you're caught with a bike in those areas, you get a hefty fine. So...there are quite a few detours on this ride and the first one sucks. It's 16 miles to get through the Lost Creek Wilderness via the Colorado Trail but to get around it takes about 70 miles of forest service roads and paved roads. Today I started where the detour turns to pavement and heads north to 285 and the town of Jefferson. Colorado is pretty windy in general but this area always has hurricane force winds and they're ALWAYS right in your face. With gusts to 25mph and temps in the high 30's it made for a long ride. About 8 miles south of Jefferson the detour hits another fire road before it hooks back up with the trail and heads over the Continental Divide for the first time. Up that way it was snowing and there was way too much snow on the road so I turned around and started heading back. Unfortunately, I didn't take one picture today as I was just a bit fed up with the wind. I did see a really short and super stocky/muscular mule deer when I rounded a bend in the road. It was feeding on the shoulder. It's rear was HUGE. Turned out to be a Bighorn Sheep and that made much more sense.

On a bit of a sad note...

my dog has had a bump near her eye for a bit over a week now. Got that looked at today and it's very suspicious. Her breed is susceptible to skin issues and the Dr. said she's not sure what it is but that it could very well be the early stages of a cancerous tumor. So she's now scheduled for surgery. I hope it's nothing life-threatening. That damn dog changed my life. I thought long and hard about bringing her home from the time I picked her out at 5 weeks until I brought her home at 8 weeks. I knew that some day...I would have to deal with the hardest loss of my life. I get teary eyed just thinking about it. I suppose a more optimistic way of looking at it would be to consider whether all the joy she's brought to my life outweighs any pain/suffering in her absence. Certainly not easy to do. Even after 6 years together.

Polar CS200cad

I haven't ridden since I was in St. Louis because I still have a pain in the neck. Couple that with a few pains in the rear at work and I'm hatin' it. Not sure what's going on. I've used a heating pad every night, stretched lightly, used that wonderful smelling Ben-Gay, and taken things very easy but it still hurts. It's absolutely killing me to have the Alma downstairs and it's only seen a 30 minute ride so far. We're under a snow advisory for tonight and I guess tomorrow too so that's not helping any.



My friend Tim suggested that I might want to get another heart rate monitor just to make sure that I'm not drilling it for too long on this ride. I'm a bit of a data dork so he didn't have to talk for too long. I haven't used one of these things for 10 years but I bought this Polar. It's a pretty slick deal really. Wireless computer and monitor all in one and it calculates calories burned and cadence. I don't really care about cadence for the MTB but I can program the computer for 2 bikes so that will come in handy on my road bike.