I've managed a ride in some form or another each day for the past four.
That's pretty good for a guy who works in an office most days and has a
toddler.
Thursday was a community race day at Hartman's. A weekly evening fun
race has been organized to raise money for maintenance at
Hartman's. This is the second race in the series I've done and it was
pretty fun. It was a time trial and I chose to ride the 1x1 (with it's
"new" Manitou Black Elite Air 80mm fork). We all started 30 Seconds
apart at the base area. During the race, I managed to catch a couple of
folks who had started ahead of me, but also got caught by a couple
behind me. I just rode a pace that was a little faster than comfortable,
but not a full-on all out pace that would leave me too tired for the
technical sections. There were several good technical sections that
apparently took their toll on some racers. One guy (a very strong roadie)
was on my brother's wheel when they entered Rattlesnake. After
Rattlesnake my bro had made 4 (!) minutes due to clean riding on his
part and multiple crashes on the other guy's part. I think I also gained
time on most people for the technical parts, and it was fun. In the end
I was in the latter half of the Sport class, but felt good about my
ride. The we had beer and pizza afterwards. All in all a good time. I'd
do it again.
Friday after work I took some beer to the bike shop. My family was away
and I was enjoying my lack of responsibility. Then my phone rings and
it's my brother. He _really_ wants to do a quick ride with me. He's a
hard guy to say no to, and I'd only had one beer so I thought "What the
hell?" and joined him for a quick couple of technical trails at
Hartman's on my Epic. He's a good technical rider, but could use a
little more improvement, especially with line choice. We had some fun
trying to pass each other by taking creative slickrock lines through a
couple of rocky trails. Then we had to confront a bull in one DH section
that had my bro kind of nervous. I rode up and said "I don't think he's
threatening." and rode forward yelling "Yah!" and he ran off. It was a
little favor returned from when he used to scare the monsters out of my
closet when we were kids. 🙂
Saturday I had the whole day to ride or do whatever I wanted (ride!). I
wanted to do a higher ride and I called all my usual collaborators.
Everyone had something else going on. My bro was doing a "brick"
training day, which is all (multi discipline) suffering and no fun. I
could hear the excitement in his voice when he thought I might be
convinced to join him, but that was all in his imagination. No thanks!
Steve was digging ditches for his sprinkler system, Rick is riding cost
to coast on a fixie (!), and Keith was out of town. I wound up doing
Doctor's Park solo, which was great. I got out
late (dead battery in the old car and a few other things to do in the
morning) and hit the climb for the heat of the day. That was hard for
the really steep part, but overall it was very pleasant. Even when I was
getting really hot on the granny gear section, any small summit or bend
would be met with a nice cool breeze. I stopped briefly at the top for a
snack and a rest and continued on, doing the whole thing with very few
stops. My new fork got a good workout on that DH, and it just seemed to
go on and on (much like the climb). I cleaned the whole thing and felt
great at the end. I often see big game around there but tis day they
must have all been napping or something. I did see a nice sized trout in
the creek while I was putting my shoes back on. There's something
slightly unnerving about being solo in the backcountry, but it's also
very peaceful and nice not to have to worry about anyone else. It's just
me, my gear, my abilities, and the natural world.
Yesterday was Father's day, but I gave the wife dibs because I got my
full day in on Saturday. Also, it seems fathering would be a good
activity for the day. MrsB went out with a friend in the morning and I
hung out with my boy. We did stuff around the house and mowed the lawn.
He's just thrilled to "help" with just about anything, so I know I'd
better enjoy that while it lasts and we had a nice morning together.
MrsB came home after lunch and the boy was just getting sleepy for the
post-lunch nap. Once he was asleep, I got my things together and went
out for a road ride. I headed up into Taylor Canyon, which is a pretty
nice spin, and then decided to change it up a little. After my
turn-around point (Harmell's Ranch) I decided to take the Jack's Cabin
Cutoff road which cuts over a big ridge from Taylor Canyon back to Hwy.
135 not far from the Roaring Judy fish hatchery. The notable detail
about Jack's Cabin Cutoff is not so much the hill, but that fact that
it's not paved. This made it a pretty hard climb on the Roubaix, and I
was working hard staying seated in my lower gears. Out of the saddle
didn't work very well because it's so easy to lose traction. The
downhill was pretty fun and trying to thread cleanly through the
washboard proved challenging and at times exciting. Then a spin back
home with a tailwind, which was very nice at that point.
Not a bad few days at all!
Matt