Today is the first crystal-clear day we’ve seen around here in ages. Suzee’s out on her bike, the boys are still asleep and I’m wondering what I should do for training to finish the week. I’m already sitting on nearly 15 hours of pretty good quality riding. If I’m not careful, I could blast right over the 20 hour week mark, which I have only done a handful of times ever. Certainly don’t need that. Highlights of the week now passing:
I’ve been the lead on our local parks and rec kids mountain biking class this summer and it’s been a hoot. This week we finished up the 6-9 year-olds but our last session got nuked by cold rain after just 15 minutes.
The six to nine year-olds and my assistant, Coop, just as it started to rain. Next week it's the ten and up crew.
It’s great fun working with kids. Gunnison is lacking a great kids MTB club. Durango and Summit County, for example, have really strong, well-established programs. We have the kids and the parents are keen, we just need someone to skipper the boat.
Then on Wednesday, I got a call that the Giant boys, Adam Craig and Carl Decker, were in town between races and needed a tour of Hartman Rocks. I met up with them and we headed out to check out our local fare. Of course, those guys can ride, no surprise there. Adam had said he was keen on about a three-hour ride and at his pace that’s almost every trail out there. Carl was concerned about the short track race coming up on Friday so he headed back to town after just a couple of trails. Adam was concerned about Worlds and World Cup Finals in September so he wanted more.
This is as close as I could get to Adam for a photo. No time to fumble around for the camera when you're just trying to keep up!
I know Adam is an amazing descender but getting to see it up close, at least the first bit of each descent, was really cool. He’d never seen any of the trails and they’re reasonably technical. He played the trails like they were the ones he knows by heart on his home turf in Bend, Oregon. Adam is one of those riders who has the vision, the mind and the skills to be in the air half the time. It’s never rough when you’re flying!
He took it easy on me and I was doing okay ’til I cracked like an old china vase. “Hey man, you got any food on ya?” I blurted out on top of Joshos trail as he waited for me. I devoured the tiny gels as fast as he poured them into my hand. I was weak as a kitten on the next climb and when I got up to him at a gate, he was digging in his pack, looking for more food for me, but I’d already eaten everything he had.
Remember in “Return of the Jedi” when C3PO got his legs torn off and Chewy had to carry him in a backpack? That’s how we had to finish the ride: we just left my bike out there and Adam stuffed me into his pack with my torn off legs sticking out, one on each side. Hey man, thanks for the ride!
This is as good as I could find.
And then yesterday, Susan was at work and I needed to get way back into Hartmans and staple a sign to a troublesome gate reminding trail users to keep it closed as cows were currently grazing in the area. We really have a solid relationship with the ranchers that hold the BLM grazing permit for that area and anything we can do to keep that intact helps. I decided to load up the boys and all of our mountain bikes and do a loop with them that would include this gate.
The towing device: a dog leash refilled with bungee cord and four zip ties. The loop is held under a finger or two so it can be dumped in an instant.
Bean’r (Dan Crean) had just finished building up one of Willow Koerber’s old team bikes that I had acquired from the RLX days and Cooper was finally big enough to ride it. A pretty sweet ride for an eleven-year old! Ben and Sam both have K2 Zed 20’s, heavy and not geared so well for climbing, but sturdy, and we headed out. I had installed the towing device left over from my long-gone days as an adventure racer but that only saw use on one section of steep trail. It will allow me to take Coop on some epics up in CB this summer.
Just a couple of diggers, only one resulting in a bit of skin loss on Benno’s lip, some fun trails and big views were the themes of the ride. Time to start working on getting the twins on 24″ wheels to tie them over for a couple of years until they are prime for Willow bikes; yeah, we have two!
Later that day, I still needed to get out for a training ride but my spark was low. Storms were all about and I had decided on a road ride where I’d head out about 10 miles in each of three different directions, turn around and come back. The road riding from Gunnison is all of the out and back variety. We do have one fully-paved loop but I think it’d be close to 200 miles. So three 20ish mile out and backs would give me the opportunity to dodge or come in from potential storms and I could get about three hours in if all went well.
Suzee joined me for the first leg, which would be east on Highway 50 to Parlin. Once in route, I remembered we were heading for one of our “dirty tadpole loops.” We have two of these fairly close and they are just short, gravel road connectors that allow us a small loop at the end of an out and back. The one we were headed for is about a four or five mile county road that connects highway 50 with Quartz Creek road. Suzee was up for it and then I started to consider combining it with the other one, Jacks Cabin Cutoff. It connects the Taylor River road with highway 135, the road to Crested Butte.
The Quartz Creek cutoff where it splits off from Highway 50. Four or five miles of really smooth dirt road.
Now I was more motivated as I had never combined them in the same ride. Sometimes that’s all you need to get fired up; just a slight variation on something familiar.
Suzee went home after that portion to make sure the boys hadn’t burned the house down or anything. We tell them that they can call us on our cell phones if the house is on fire, but that they need to get out first and do it from the neighbor’s phone.
I headed out of town north on county road 10 then 135 to the Taylor Canyon road. Weather was still all around but nothing seemed too threatening. Jacks Cabin cutoff was much rougher and filled with washboards but still great fun. I love my old ‘cross bike with the 700×32’s for this stuff. And that was that: a nice three and a half hour ride and nary a drop of rain fell near me. Now, if I can just figure out what to do today….
After a five-year rest from World Cup (or any) action, Willow's old ride is once again seeing dirt.
Looking north up the Quartz Creek valley toward the megalopolises of Ohio City and Pitkin.
The beginning of the dirt on Jacks Cabin cutoff.
The view down Jacks from the summit.
North toward Crested Butte from the summit.
