A) Introduce new people to mountain biking without killing them

B) Recover my confidence on a bike post crash(es)

C) Go fly fishing in a ditch when the water is exceedingly high

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A.

Chris's first mountain biking adventure

I have friends come to town from time to time and want to experience biking in Colorado.  Sometime to see me.  Or in this case one of my friends flew to visit her mother in Denver.  Obviously Katie and I rank far behind her mother, so we settled for an afternoon mountain bike ride and beer.  Now I like Chris.  She is fun, amusing, and only slightly annoying.  However she is not a bicyclist (she showed up wearing sandals, thankfully I had extra shoes) , opening the question where should I take her for the first attempt.  Marshall Mesa is obviously the answer, the trails are relatively flat, have minimal rocks/technical sections, and can be as short or long as you want.  We took Chris on the Marshall Valley, Cowdrey Draw, Community Ditch, and Coal Seam trails; that seams like a lot but in all it is only a few miles with virtually non-existent hills.  Why do I keep mentioning hills?  Well, out of towners generally are not used to the elevation and can really suffer.  Which while occasionally fun to watch, does not lead them to continue biking.  Usually.  My Trek Fuel EX 8 is definite overkill for the trail, alas.  However the Boulder Trek Store has great bikes for rent that are appropriate.

View from Coalton Trail

B.

I have been crashing on my Jamis Supernova cyclocross bike during races.  A lot.  Sometimes I just need a confidence booster.  Katie and I went out a few weeks back on one such ride.  As I mentioned above, Marshall Mesa can be extended to just about any distance you want.  We created a long loop (made longer by the 20 mile per hour in your face winds on the return half), starting on the Greenbelt Plateau, continuing on the Community Ditch and Cowdrey Draw trails.   After running into 66th, we took a right to a short trail before jumping on McCaslin Blvd.  Another right and a hill took us to the Coalton and High Plains trails, thus returning to the start.  Confused?  Check out this map.  The Coalton trail has a decent hill on it and when the wind is coming straight off the mountains, it hurts.  I didn’t fall, so overall it was a success.

Dan's Community Ditch Rainbow

C.

This has nothing to do with mountain bike.  Too bad.  Marshall Lake is private and maintained by a fishing club.  They stock a lot of trout.  And when the water gets high, the rainbows run up the Community Ditch to spawn.  I wrote about fly fishing in a ditch; it is an interesting experience.  Even more interesting when a club member comes and yells at you, even though you are on public property.  Alas, it was not my fault that the water runs high in the spring.

First Ride on Marshall Mesa

Marshall Mesa

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I have been fairly lazy, at least with my lunchtime workouts and bike commuting.  I probably averaged less than one ride to work a week.  I ran at lunch once.  I have been only mildly active on the weekends.  I put on 5 lbs in the month.  Bad news.  Seriously bad news.  I will have to do something to get in shape for speed skating season.

So what all did I do?  I went fly fishing with the snow falling and the wind biting at my face.  It was like steelhead fishing back in Wisconsin and Michigan, except I only caught one 8 inch rainbow instead of a 15 lbs silver bullet steelhead.

I only took my Trek Fuel EX 8 mountain bike out once.  Katie and I went out to Marshall Mesa for an easy ride.  Except we were battling 20 mile winds.  Which was awesome…  I will write more about that tomorrow.

I rode in three cyclocross races.  Technically only one of them was in October, but that is acceptable as I collectively performed miserably at all of them.  The first, at the Louisville Rec center as part of the Boulder Cyclocross series, I was actually doing fairly well (probably somewhere in the top 15-20) before I crashed on the downhill immediately following the sandpit.  I went down hard on the turn and bent my derailleur hanger, of course I didn’t notice until my chain sucked behind my cassette and refused to be freed.  Alas.  The next race was the Valmont Bike Park Fest race where I continued my trend of falling.  Not only did I fall, but I fell three times.  And by falling I do not mean poor mounts, though I had plenty of those as well.  I went down twice in the loose dirt after the run-up and then once again when some guy bumped me into the tape.   I think I somehow managed to be the last person not to be lapped.  Finally I competed in the Boulder Cup.  I did not manage to avoid getting lapped; apparently I have a lot to learn about cyclocross, like that it helps to train…  At least my Jamis Supernova is performing well.

In pre-winter news, we had three different ski houses fall through.  If you know of anyone who needs two more (and a bulldog), let us know!

Oh, and it snowed 23 inches in two days; forty-eight later it was all but melted.  We’ll see what November brings.

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Katie at the top of Cheyenne Rim

Go North Young Man.

Wait a second…

This morning Katie and I wanted to ride somewhere new – most of the mountain bike trails in Boulder county have been ridden too many times to county.  To find some new trails we looked north, to the Soapstone Prairie Natural Area above Fort Collins.  After an hour and a half drive, we arrived at the park gate and asked the ranger for an 8-10 mile loop recommendation.  The ranger told us to try the Cheyenne Rim trail, a 15 mile round trip out and back.   While not at all what we asked for, the colors were supposedly gorgeous so we agreed to try the trail.

Aside from the fighting the painfully strong winds, I really liked the trail. Of course with all the cacti it probably would be wise to have a selection of spare tubes. There were almost no people – across fifteen miles we saw only six other humans.  The trail was a mixture double track and single track (really wide single track) and extremely smooth.  So smooth that I could have easily taken my Jamis Supernova instead of my Trek Fuel EX 8.  The trail had a long gradual climb on the undulating hills in the wide open expanse of plains (bring lots of water and sunblock).  The park is a great place to take a new rider, as long as they have the endurance or you the will to turn around.

If you want a technical challenge, this trail is not for you.  If you want epic climbs, this trail is not for you.  So why did I like this trail?  It was beautiful and beautifully relaxing.  I spent the entire ride (downhill included) just cruising, looking at the scenery.

Cheyenne Rim Panaramic 1

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View at Hosking Farm

It has been almost half a year since Katie and I returned from our New Zealand honeymoon and in remembrance celebration I am posting the last piece of our four part adventure. After the painfully long flight into Auckland we met an old friend for a tour of the city. The next morning, still confounded from the flight over, we headed to Ahipara for a week of surfing.  Returning to Auckland, we took our time to casual tour the city and the harbour. While we certainly enjoyed exploring a new city and learning a new sport, our excitement for the trip was highest heading into Rotorua to try our hand at mountain biking.

Killer Black Swan

Katie had asked if we could stay on a farm while we were in New Zealand; uncertain with the low quality of websites advertising a farmstay I opted for the one with pictures of massive brown trout, the bed and breakfast at Hoskings Farm just outside of Ngongotaha.  I cannot say that all B&B’s near Rotorua are run by one of the uniquely pleasant and heppy ladies I have ever met, have a beautiful house surrounded by meticulously kept gardens, and fields of curious cattle and sheep; the 120 acres at Hoskings Farm certainly did. Oh, and I forgot to mention the really big trout.  Really big.

Our host, Trish Hoskings, was a vibrant lady who dotted over her gardens and her guests.  Always full of suggestions and eager to offer food from her garden, Trish made our stay truly delightful.  Trish introduced us to her massive country garden, and assortment of chickens, lambs, and cattle; her pride in the land was evident.  On our first tour of the grounds we met the amusing young cattle as they would follow us to the gates between fields, hoping to get a free trip to the fresh grasses.  We amassed some impressive views, though the pool of massive trout under the bridge was edged out by the epic sunsets.

Rotorua Mountain Biking

As difficult as it was, we left the farm and ventured into Rotorua to hire (that means rent in “American”) mountain bikes for three days.  At Bike Vegas ran into a shop guy from Eugene, OR and scored a pair of modified Haro Mary XC 29ers; the front derailleur was removed, leaving us with the middle ring.  The shop guy assured us we would not need any more gears for redwood forest where we would be riding; he proved correct.  We loaded the bikes and headed over to the Whakarewarewa Forest trails with a quick visit to the New Zealand of Walmart to buy some cheap shoes. And no, I have no idea how you pronounce Whakarewarewa…

The locals claimed the Whakarewarewa Forest has some of the best riding in New Zealand; having nothing to compare and with our epic experience, I cannot doubt the claim.  The forest contains more than 70 km of trails interconnected by fire roads (that means even more available riding distance beyond the 43.5 miles of trails).  The trails were primarily flowy single track through densely treed woods; better yet they were all one way so you never had to hold back in fear of a crash.   Maps were scattered through the area, the trails were well marked off the fire road, and a smattering of water stations were available.  The was not major amounts of climbing (at least compared to our Colorado trails), but if you wish to get in more riding with less fire road climbing you can take a shuttle.

View from Riding Down Split Enz

While we did ride during the week, we very rarely met into other riders on the trails.  Those we did meet, primarily Australians whom were quite pleased that nothing in the forest was going to kill them, all exposed the same excitement as was on our faces.  The trails were phenomenal and I hope to have a chance to return and properly chronicle all of them; our last ride took us down Split Enz, continuing on the Pondy trails, and finishing on Old Chevy.  The fire road climb was long and we passed a few groups of Australians before finally reaching the trailhead for Split Enz.  The trail is tightly built with fast flowy curves swooping through huge trees.  As difficult as it was to stop, it was well worth it to see the gorgeous views.  Upon being dumped out to the Pondy system we had some slower, gentler grades of curves with moments of downhill speed.  We came out on Old Chevy, an up and down trail with more fast curves.   All combined, these trails were the single favorite ride of my life.

Fly Fishing a Spring Creek Near Rotorua

On a ski trip in the Colorado mountains shortly before we left for New Zealand I fell ill and spent a day perusing the fly shops in Summit county.  At the time, the only travel fly rod I possessed was a Fenwick 5 piece 5-weight that my father had built in the 1970s; I needed a better rod.  I picked up a fast action Sage FLi in an 8’6″ 4 piece 5-weight with a Sage 1850 reel for $200 on clearance.  Like most fast action rods the FLi can really punch out a lot of line, however I was more interested in the backbone to handle large New Zealand browns.

The country is fiercely proud of their fisheries and go to great lengths to protect them by restricting what gear you can bring into the country – I took the rod, reel, hemostats, leaders, and tippet material figuring I could buy everything else in-country.  I picked up about two dozen flies, some floatant, and some split shot before heading into the water. From the top of the steep banks I spied a plethora of browns and rainbows, ranging in sizes from around 12 inches to the largest trout I have ever seen in my life.  Along with the impressive size, I have never encountered such a concentration of large fish – it felt like walking along a fish hatchery. The New Zealand trout however were a lot smarter than their counterparts raised in American hatcheries.  My first challenge was hot to approach the fish; with the high banks I could not easily drop in behind them and spooked quite a few trout in my attempts to do so.  Eventually I made my way in and started working upstream.  Notice I have mentioned nothing about waders; I had none.  The spring creek was cold.  Very.  Cold.  Of course after a few minutes my feet and legs had gone completely numb so it no longer mattered.

The first day I spotted a few feeding fish but was unable to get them to take.  The next day, after a brief consultation with the fly shop, I purchased some 7x tippet and headed back into the water.  With the smaller tippet I was able to coax a mid-sized rainbow into taking a midge on the surface.  Unfortunately I discovered another flaw in my system – I had no net and the steep banks offered nothing to work the fish onto shore.  After a solid fight, the rainbow broke off as I unsuccessfully attempted to land him. I continued the trend with a few other small fish, breaking them all off before I can land them. Then it happened; I hooked a massive brown easily approaching 30 inches. The fish pulled me up and down the stream for well near 10 minutes before beginning to slow. The first time I got her close enough to touch the fish took off for another minute of sheer running; the second time I started to get my hand under her when she sprinted again and broke the line. I will definitely need to return for a rematch.

New Zealand Café

So what about the town and food? On our way into town we stopped for a bite of lunch – we ended up at a quaint, garden covered café.  The food matched the gardens in quality – fantastic!  In Rotorua each day we would eat a late lunch and pick up some bread and brie (with Trish’s garden vegetables) for evening snacking.  Given my love for lamb chops, I was amazed that it was the end of the trip before I finally had a rack of lamb.  With the outdoor activities, food was an afterthought though everyone we spoke to in town raved about the culinary options.  The town itself was very attractive – it was definitely a touristy/outdoorsy town but with the friendly New Zealand atmosphere.  Hot springs were on the edge of town and afforded a pleasantly casual stroll.  The lake bordering Rotorua was gorgeous but apparently the black swans are killers…  We heard that there were tons of outdoorsy activities to do but limited by our time and endurance,  we stuck with mountain biking and fly fishing.

Unfortunately our trip had to end and after two weeks in country we began our journey home.  On our way back to Auckland we stopped in the minuscule town of Tirua; they have the quintessential tourist trap in form of a massive corrugated metal sheep. We initially pulled over for the i-SITE visitors center but wondered into the Big Sheep Wool Gallery. One of my goals for the trip had been to acquire a new fly fishing hat, while I had successfully found a suit and a cycling jersey it appeared no hat was to be had. But then I was saved by the metal sheep! I found a great and airy Selke hat, just what I was looking for; Katie acquired a warm lumberjacks hat.  With our heads covered, we boarded another Air New Zealand flight for home (and failed attempts by three different flight attendants to get my entertainment system to work).

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Abandonment at Picture Rock Trail (Lyons, CO)

Over the past four weekends Katie and I have been neglecting our mountain bikes; I spent a long weekend fly-fishing, we fled our mold-infested apartment (part of the wall in the bathroom literally fell down), and we have been preparing for Katie’s Alaska backpacking adventure with a backcountry trip in Rocky Mountain National Park.  I cannot remember what happened with the fourth weekend, but it was undoubtedly equally awesome…  We woke up to a brisk morning in the high 50s, which could be considered brisk given the normal summer temperatures in Boulder, and decided it was time to resume mountain biking.  Unfortunately, after such a long break and moving, it took over an hour to find and load my truck with all of our bikes and gear.  Eventually we said bye to our bulldog for the morning and headed north to the Picture Rock trail in Lyons, CO.

The trailhead parking lot was only about half full – rather surprising for a weekend however we suspect a lot of people were either at SPAN the Rockies or the Muddy Buddy.  We unloaded our bikes, my Trek Fuel EX 8 and Katie’s Specialized Epic, and headed up.  The trail was pretty awesome (assuming you are not in need of bombing the downhill and have healthy respect for blind turns), particularly after a break from riding.  The beginning section is flowy, placid singletrack through high mountain prairie grasses.  There are a number of rocky turns mixed in; just enough to keep you from staring off too much at the cliffs and mountains in the background.  After you have ridden a few miles and started wishing you were riding a cyclocross bike, the trail reminds you why suspension and fat tires are quite desirable.  The second part of the ride can be defined by tight turns and lots of rocks.  A few sections are somewhat technical, and require some momentum, but nothing is remotely comparable to the rock garden at Hall Ranch.  Like the lower section there are a number of blind turns that ensure you are paying attention to avoid oncoming riders; thankfully there were very few people who passed us on their way down.  After topping out and feeling nowhere near tired, Katie and I tacked on the Wild Turkey loop.  Quite a bit smoother than the latter section of Picture Rock with a significantly lower grade, we flew through the trees on the trail.  There were a few switchbacks mixed in, but nothing too tight as to lose all your speed.

Katie Mocking Me On Her Descent

After returning to the top of Picture Rock we ran into a guy with a pretty new titanium Moots YBB resting on the trail sign; I am still uncertain if he was just showing it off or actually riding.  The bike had been converted into a single speed rig, though the gentleman had an internal rear hub in at the time.  It looked so smooth, simple, and shiny – I drooled a little.  We chatted briefly; apparently two weeks ago he broke his handlebar and subsequently smashed his crank, frame, and massive amounts of skin.  Without a bike and the SingleSpeed World Championships rapidly approaching, he bought the YBB as an emergency replacement.  Unsurprisingly his wife was incredulous when he told her the price; I am uncertain if that is good or bad.

After leaving the Moots guy, Katie and I headed back down where we quickly learned all of our handling skills had evaporated; it was possibly one of the slowest descents I have ever made.  I would like to blame it on my legs being exhausted from speedskating on Saturday but I suspect that was not the case.  Thankfully everyone who was headed down on our climb appeared to have turned around for another lap, allowing us to pull off frequently; however it gave pause to consider our drastic decrease in skill as the riders passed, again.  Maybe next week’s awesomeness will involve less falling.

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I spent the part of the evening prepping my mountain bike (a 2006 Trek Fuel EX 8) for the Fruita Fat Tire Festival with some upgrades. More specifically, new grips and tires.

Ergon GX1 Grips

I have finally given in and bought a set of tubeless tires, Hutchinson Piranha XC Marathon MRC Tubeless. I have had tubeless comparable wheels since 2003, but have always feared flats (yes, I know you can just put a tube in) while on a ride. Undoubtedly if you have ever put in tubeless tires before, you can guess how smoothly this went. The first tire took almost an hour to get on. Assuming correctly I overexerted myself installing the first tire, I took to the internet and discovered that it is easier when you push the bead to the center of the rim. The second tire went on in about five minutes. Amazing… Of course, I did not have any sealant so I will just be hoping everything holds.

Now all I need is for the snow to melt so I can ride!

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