WV dreamy tour Day 1

The dreamy tour started as a friday night camping trip along side the river at Seneca Rocks. Andy, Mike and myself arrived in a drizzle about 10:30 pm. Set up camp and waited for Joey to show up. He ended up being at a different spot and met up with us in the a.m. Dave joined up with us as well for a nice mellow 3 hour jaunt to the highest point in WV, Spruce Knob at 4863'.
A few pics from the top!
This is where the ride started getting sweet. Instantly the trail turned to rocks and roots and then switched to mostly rocks. Oh so sweet! Here's a little rock love along the way.
The vicious is stoked to be back on some WV terrain, it's been a while.
Chillin' with the group at the top of High Meadow, eating up the sweet trail side treats, blackberries.
Dropped down to the creek, wanted to swim but didn't want to be cold and wet. The scenery along the way is spectacular, to say the least!
Did a quick-ish hike-a-bike up to the Alleghany Trail then railed it with a big ole grin all the way to the bottom. An easy 7 mile spin back to Senaca Rocks and day 1 was done.
Absolutely beautiful! Ended up with a little over 50 miles of some killer WV bliss. Most of the climbing was on old country roads and the descending on amazing trail. This turned out to be the theme of the week.

There aren't a lot of action shots as the trails and riding were to good to stop and pull out the camera! Once you got into a groove you didn't want to lose it. Focus on the task at hand. That was the objective. To be continued for the next three days!

Here's a quick rundown of my drive to WV from CO, in reverse. Hung out with Jenny, Darin and Keira in Huntington. This little girl is a bundle of awesome. So good to hang out with my peeps.
Rode this afternoon with BoYes in Barboursville Park. I had forgotten what east coast humidity is like, shitty. I made comments about it and Mike was like, I didn't think it was that bad. CO has spoiled me, for sure.
Maddie came running down the trail, mouth covered in blood. I thought she had ripped her lower lip off, but as I cleaned up the wound with water I realized that it was only a hole in her tongue. It was actually quite nice, a hole completely through her tongue. She sucked it up and finished the ride without a complaint.
Hung out with one of my favorite people, Dr. Samples at his clinic all morning. Focus, the lesson of the day and my words of wisdom!
Do I need a bus? maybe, we'll see.
So there is a story with this pic. I was rolling through Kansas and happened to look out my rear view mirror only to see my wheel cruising across the highway and through the median. Scanned for a mile marker and found a turn around spot to start looking. Hiked up and down the highway in search of my wheel when a state trooper pulled up and asked what I was doing and I non-chalantly said "nothing, just hanging out," he then said "well, can I help you." So I told him the story and away he went. A mile later I finally find my wheel leaning up against the fence on the other side of the highway. I was stoked. I threw the wheel in the backseat and Maddie decided to hide behind it. She slept there for hours.

The ride from CO started out not so good and it continued all the way here. Headed up I-25 and missed the I-70 turn off. Slighlty retarded, I know. Only one real turn on my 1,400 mile trip and I miss it, 20 min from the house. silly. Then within the first hour I get a speeding ticket, 88 in a 75, lame. The speed limit should definitely be at least 90 mph through CO and KS. Stupid speed limits. Took me 25 hours to get to WV. Napped for a quick hour at midnight and then for two more hours right before sunrise. Quick and painless!

Plan on enjoying the next two weeks before I do it all again, in reverse.

Leave friday for the tour de WV!

peace

Single Speed Sunday

Went down to the springs for the single speed sunday ride. Left the house at 6 a.m. to make the 1 hr drive for the start of the ride. Had no idea what was in store, other than there was limited water to resupply and to bring lots of food. Nice mellow 2ish hour climb up rampart range road to start out the day that lead us up to this view of pikes peak. Started out with nine and dropped down to seven pretty quickly.
Then came the trail blazing. Do you see the trail? Me either! Rode around a bit looking for it,
pushed through some high meadows
and ran into this sweet little bit of goodness. The trail was nice and tight and had a bit of steep and loose techie goodness.
Joey pushing through a rock field.
Then came the hike a bike. Straight up the side of a scree field while bushwacking is no joke. A solid hour of carrying our bikes up and up!
Yeah, it was that steep
The high point gave us some killer views and the singletrack up above the scar was killer. Nice and tight ridge top riding that sees next to, if not any bikes other than ours. Good shit! Wasn't out for as long as I thought we would be, a little over prepared food wise. It still turned into 8 hrs on the bike. All in all, it was a good day.

Leaving in the am for the drive to WV and 2 weeks of riding goodness. Here's part of the plan for the tour of WV. It's gonna be rad!

BC trail building

killer trail dog
rides at dusk are the best!


it's crazy that BC is not only amazingly green, but the wildflowers are still going strong. Crazy!
purple lady bug? You ever seen one of these?

been riding when I get the chance, but with no real objectives. Headed out to BC friday evening for a dusk ride and then a camping session. Black-n-white and I got a fast paced 25miles in that ended in the dark. had a light, but forgot to charge it. Had the hammock set up and crashed for the eve. Saturday was a trail building day with COMBA and IMBA. Spent all day working on the new black diamond trail. All I have to say about it is, it's gonna be badass. Nothing crazy but oh so fun. Rock wall rides, drops, tight rocky areas, steep rollers. If you have the time to go out and work one of the building weekends, I highly recommend it. So much fun.

Went for a quick pedal after the work day and then camped that night as well. The weather was absolutely perfect. But fall is in the air, for sure. Maybe 35 degrees at night. So flippin' sweet.

One more week out here then headed to the WV for 2 weeks of riding. Can't wait for the tour de WV with BoYes, Carpong, Vonblowseph, A$$hole and anyone else who joins in. Should be killer.

Slackin'

So met with PBRme for an early morning bc jaunt. Riding by 6:45 after driving for 45 min is no joke. Felt like a big pile of doggie doo for the first hour or so. Legs were heavy with no get up and go, lack of focus and generally no desire to ride bikes. After we climbed up to green mtn, I finally felt a little bit of flow coming on. Just let it go and quit thinking. Ah, this is why I ride bikes. Good day of riding in absolutely perfect temperature. Can't wait to do it all again!
Maddie wondering why we're sitting still.
Mamma wondering why we are interrupting her morning walk.

Tried to go for a sunset ride yesterday. Had planned on a 35ish mile easy jaunt, with some techie goodness, to get the legs a turning. Made it part way up the first climb, maybe 2 miles, and decided I had no desire to ride my bicycle. Next thing I know, I'm just chilling in the grass with the wind blowing & enjoying the big green hill almost entirely to myself. Ended up riding almost 5 miles and thought it was the worst ride , EVER! Some days you just don't have it, and this was definitely one of those days.

Dropped my wheels off to get some lovin' from Steve, so should be ready to roll in a few days.

Monarch Crest Trail next saturday, anyone?!!!

It's Official!!!

Have just been doing little rides for the last week or so. Just kickin' it and working a lot. The CTR starts tomorrow and I decided not to do it this year. Have a full week of cutting trees and I got my official piece of paper the other day and decided I needed to stay in town. I'm super stoked about it.

So starting Thursday I will be treating patients at Happy Mantas Wellness Tree. So if you're in town, and want an acupuncture treatment, hit me up. It's about to get fun!

Riding the Peak

So I went down to the springs for the single speed sunday ride. I've known about these for awhile just never made it down. The plan for the day was the ride the peak trail. It is a trail network that circles around Pikes Peak. Lots of killer singletrack and one shitty ass, LONG! dirt road climb. Started the day with six strong riders from town.
Up to the first set of singletrack to see the sun come up. We started pedaling around 5 am and ended about 5 pm. It was a solid day of riding. There was quite a bit of hiking to be had today. However, every brutal climb was followed by some killer singletrack.




Getting some water from a spring along the way.


Did I mention we pushed our bikes a bit today?
Water filter break.
View at the top of the final climb.
We ended up with 12 hours of riding, 72 miles with approximately 10,000 feet of climbing. Killer ride in the springs!

Here's a well written little piece from Scott!