A few demons conquered

Dan and I had another date night at Hall tonight and I conquered many many demons that have haunted me on that trail. I made it up everything that has ever stopped me, not always on the first try but I made it a point to try everything until I got it. The only spot that I had to do over several times was the steep rock face but after 3 tries....I had it! And I got it 4 times after that! After that point I was in the zone and cleared everything except the rocky sharp right hand turn before the climb up to the bench. Dan actually made that section for the first time!

We both killed it!

Here's the proof...I'm so stoked!







These two are out of sequence but this is from another successful attempt where I cleaned the next sections



Now all I have to do is clear the whole trail without any dabs! How cool would that be!!!

We also saw a bunch of our friends out there as well....

Our friend Brian, he was a witness to my first successful attempt at the rock face


Jen & Jesper


Jason & Tracy...I thought I snapped a pic of them but I guess I didn't.

Maybe we all need to have a group Friday night date night at Hall...next time Cynthia & Dave will have to come out.

-Kim

What a weekend!

Dan and I both had Friday off so we slept in, ran a few errands and rode Apex and then met Cynthia, Dave, Jen & Jesper for dinner a Proto's.

Saturday was Redstone Dave's Death March and BBQ.

Sunday was Cynthia's Death March at Indian Creek.

Monday we slept in and woke up to rain, which was a good thing because my body needed some rest after riding it into the ground the last 3 days. Then it was Jen & Jesper's Memorial Day party.

I can't think of a better way to enjoy a 4 day holiday weekend. Riding and hanging out with new friends!

I really doubt the Tuesday Night Girls ride will be happening since it's raining again today but I brought my bike just in case. It's been raining for 2 days straight here in Colorado but I think Mother Nature did this on purpose to give all of us a good excuse to rest for a couple days....

See pics and posts below for details on the whirlwind weekend.

-Kim

Death March Part 2

Cynthia had her own ideas of what a death march should be today, she took Sasha, Dan and myself on a 4 1/2 hr ride out at Indian Creek. Dan and I have ridden out there but just an out and back on the Colorado Trail and never on the Indian Creek Loop...we were in for a sweet surprise. The climbs in the beginning were pretty steep and I'm not too proud to admit that I had to push a few, that's the trade off of riding a 30lb bike...Dan of course didn't have any problems.

After the steep climbing we were treated to awesome single track descents with a few spots to session on and one long twisty descent in the tree's towards the end. I loved Cynthia's comment when we stopped in the middle of the descent, "don't stop, this is an awesome downhill!" Point taken!

Afterwards we headed out to the Rio for some margarita's and agave martini's and awesome Mexican food. I can't think of anything better than riding with friends until you can't pedal anymore and great Mexican food!

Sasha climbing


Cynthia handling some rocks


Our first sessions section with some tricky rocks




Dan boostin'


Cynthia rollin' with Sasha right behind


Skinny crossing


Our 2nd session section, the step up is a lot steeper than it looks, it took me about 5 tries to get the whole section. The step up is followed by a steep rocky climb.


Dan making the step up look easy


What you had to negotiate after the step up


The last techy descent




I took the same line as Sasha and Cynthia took at first but Cynthia promptly told me that there was a steeper line....so I tried it


I wonder if this guy lost the fight?


-Kim

Redstone Dave's Death March "B" Ride

We opted for the 16 mile version as opposed to the 36 mile version of the ride. Our ride was supposed to take 4-5hrs and the 36 mile ride was supposed to take around 8hrs, our actual ride time was about 3 hrs but I think we could have probably done it in about 2 hrs without all the stopping. Regardless, I'm tired. Lots of climbing and gnarly descending equals a tired girl...I'm sure Dan's just as tired. I think the A group's actual ride time was just around 5 hrs, I kinda wish we opted for the A ride just to get in a little more saddle time. Both groups rode the same trails around Estes but the A group added more dirt roads and ended the ride up with about 6miles of road. Lions Gulch was a crazy technical descent with lots of loose rocks, lots of rocks and more rocks. Fun but I had my fair share of "oh shit" moments. Dan cleaned all of Lions Gulch which is a pretty amazing feat and Cynthia rode awesome on her hardtail, even though she said "the mojo" wasn't with her.

Dan on one of the first steep dirt road climbs, Cynthia's right behind him


Cynthia at the 1st water crossing


Yeah, this is rideable...at least that's what Dan said


1st crash of the day


Scott's first ride on his new bike. He said he was riding an aluminum hardtail and couldn't believe how amazing his new full suspension bike rode. Needless to say, he had a perma grin the entire ride!


Anyway, a couple of Dale's later and major food withdrawals....I'm dead meat watching the Red Wings. Now we need to recuperate for a 4-5 hr ride up at Indian Creek with Cynthia tomorrow.

No we didn't shuttle it

We actually rode Apex on Friday! I was excited to get out there when we knew it wouldn't be really crowded. Unfortunately, when I got on my bike and started climbing I realized my body didn't want to be riding. I was tired, my legs hurt and I had issues picking lines. We rode Apex up to Enchanted Forest and on the 2nd to the last roller I crashed....bummer. After crashing we headed back down Apex to Sluice Box, climbed that up to Pick-N-Sledge and rode that back down to Apex. Luckily after crashing it kinda woke me and my body up and I felt better and remembered how to ride a bike. Literally as soon as we go back onto Apex, the wind picked up so strong we actually thought a tornado was headed our way.




After that, we headed home and installed the new doggie door we got for Patch. I'm so excited that I can do stuff after work without having to rush home to let him out!

We met Jen & Jesper and Cynthia & Dave for pizza at Proto's.

Got home early so we could all prepare for Dave's Death March on Saturday. Cynthia, Dan and me are all doing the B route and Jesper and Jen are doing the full Death March.

Tuesday Night Girls Ride

This is what's cool about living in Colorado.....

17 girls showing up for a ride! Next week it's Hall Ranch....rock garden heaven :)

More info about the Tuesday Night Girls Ride.

-Kim

Good day @ Buff Creek

Another successful ride on the 6.6 at Buffalo Creek today. I knew this would be a great test to see how it handled long climbs and nice flowy singletrack. With the front end dropped down to 100mm on the climbs and the maximum pro pedal on, it climbed like a champ and in the nice flowy singletrack the bike maneuvered with ease.

It was an awesome 4 1/2 hr ride with Cynthia and her friends Mark & Tom, all good strong riders....they hurt me but in a good way. Cynthia was on her singlespeed climbing like a champ and we were all on our geared bikes.

Cynthia descending


Mark


Tom


Beetle



Poor Deer


Thanks for an awesome day Cynthia & Co!

-Kim

Inagural Ride

Dan got his Slopestyle built up early this morning while I took the dog to the vet so we were both able to have our first rides on the new bikes. Dan built his up with a single chainring up front with a 38 tooth, I noticed him struggling a little but he still climbed everthing no problem. All in all, he loves the new bike. He said at high speed the bike handles really smooth which is great.



The 6.6 rode awesome as well. It handled the climb up Belcher better than my 5.5 since I can drop the front fork down and in maximum pro pedal mode, the bike was smooth without out sucking up my energy. I was very impressed and was able to climb up Belcher without stopping...well, my tire slipped out on some loose rocks once but I never had to stop because I was dying.

We rode up Belcher to Mustang and the bike handled the technical sections on Mustang like butter. We then headed back up Belcher to Maverick and rode that to Long Horn, Long Horn has some technical rock sections and some steep rocky climbs and I had no problems with them. I even launched off some rocks only to land in other rocks but the bike soaked it all up.

To sum it up, for a 30lb freeride bike it climbs like a champ, not what you would expect from a bike that that and it takes the hits like my big bike...a girl couldn't ask for anything more! What I really love is being able to drop the front fork down for climbing as well as being able to easily swith it to max pro pedal on the fly. Dan later told me that the shock that I have isn't even available yet, it's a '09 pre-production Fox DH5 Air with 2 position pro pedal settings....all I know is I like it! Guess it's time to take the Demo Bike stickers off :)

The only pic I took today was of our friend Chuck who was recovering from being sicker than a dog all week, he was a trooper for coming out with us.


Tomorrow I'm headed out to Buffalo Creek with Cynthia and one of her friends for a 30-40 mile day. This will be a good test to see how the 6.6 handles a long ride with lots of long climbs.

-Kim

Pearl Jam - Alive

This song still kicks ass! I'm not a huge Pearl Jam fan anymore but I was back in the day. Eddie Vedder was mesmerizing with that voice and all that hair and I was in love with the guitarist Stone Gossard, I just absolutely loved the way he pulled his hair back and how he looked groovin' and playin' onstage....mmmmmmm.



I remember seeing them for the first time when I was around 21 or 22 at St. Andrew's Hall in Detroit. It was a super hot Michigan summer evening, the place was at capacity and then some, the walls were sweating, Eddie was climbing up speakers to get to the second balcony level where we were rockin' out....we actually helped try and pull him up but the bouncers grabbed him to pull him back down to stage.

What an awesome memory!

I learned later from Dan that he was actually at that show! It's funny how many times our paths crossed in the past at races and such. It's a wonder that we didn't meet earlier in life, maybe if we did we wouldn't have connected so well, maybe we would have and my life would be completely different right now.....

-Kim

The new bikes are here!

Yup...2 shiny new bikes are here! One for me and one for Dan!

Okay, my bike isn't exactly "new" but it "almost" new. It was a demo bike that was only used a handful of times and I'm getting a smokin' deal for the frame, fork and parts kit. And after the Demo sticker comes off, no one will know!




Dan's frame is brand spankin' new and it's going to look pretty tough when it's all built up.






I know I was set to get the Gary Fisher HiFi 29er but after riding in Moab a month ago I realized that that bike just isn't my style. I don't want a bike that is going to climb good, I want a bike that's going to descend and take the rocks like a champ. I can't wait to ride it this weekend, good thing it's supposed to be in the 80's all weekend!


-Kim

May 12th - Dan's Bday, the big 33!

After sleeping in, having coffee and breakfast and Dan opening his present....we reluctantly packed up and checked out. It was cool and cloudy out with it looking like it could rain but we headed out to ride Moore Fun again anyway.

This time we were going to ride it the way I like it, counter clockwise. The climbs are steep but short and you're not actually climbing to the top as long as riding the trail clockwise and the descent is much longer riding it counter clockwise.

We basically rode what we rode yesterday backwards. We headed out to Mary's Loop and headed up Moore Fun. My mojo was back and I felt strong.

Starting Moore Fun with some dark clouds


Dan climbing


Finally at the top


One last steep climb before we're done


Fun stuff



A great ride on Dan's birthday to cap off an awesome weekend riding and meeting a new friend.

There was even a cake when we got home...


Happy bday sweetie! I hope you enjoyed your weekend!

Pics of the whole weekend are here.

-Kim