We're finally home and a little settled. We're still at our parents house but have our furniture moved into our friends house, who is letting us stay at her house while she's working out of state....she's absolutely amazing for letting us stay!
We've been riding everyday, I'm trying to get my legs back into singlespeed shape. Before we left 4 years ago I was running 1 below 2:1 and now I'm one above and struggling. I can't sustain fast speeds for long and I don't have strength on long climbs...but it'll come back, hopefully sooner than later!
Today we're headed out to Poto, which is a special trail for me....always has been. We may even stop in a little special section and carve our names into a tree :)
It's so good to be back.....I'm finally happy again. It feels so good to be back on the trails and I'm absolutely in love with riding again!
First race for Dan is in a coupe weeks and we've got a DH trip planned in October, I've secured an Iceman entry for Dan and I'm waiting for another one to come available so I can snatch it up! Last big race of the year and it's always a HUGE party!!
We headed out to WP for some playtime with Jen & Jesper (who are ripping it up their first season on DH bikes), Carey & Craig (who rip it up everytime) and Josh (tri guy's very first time on a DH bike who kicked butt and had way too much fun).
Dan on ballucanb drop to gap.
Dan on ballucanb step up
Josh on Boot Camp wall ride
Only 2 weeks left here and hopefully we'll get back to WP at least once more before we leave. Dan's last day of work is Friday and he's going to start packing up the trailer....I'm hoping to get out a week early as well so we can get everything loaded, our place cleaned and our butts back to Michigan for some epic fall riding!
Our house in the mountains fell through, we actually found some stuff out about the well during inspection time that we didn't like and didn't really have the resources to fix it since the house was at the top of our budget so we walked away from it. This truly put things in perspective for us. As we went through the whole house buying process, our fears and yearning to be home really sunk in. I think, in hindsight, the whole house buying thing was our attempt to make Colorado feel like home and as we got closer and closer to the final decision on it we knew in our hearts that unfortunately Colorado will never be home to us.
How can we walk away from such a magical place to live? How can we walk away from some of the best riding in the world? Don't know...but something here just isn't right. I don't desire to be on my bike here and that's a seriously messed up thing and I just don't get it.
I do desire to be on the fast, tight and tree lined trails that the midwest and east coast has to offer. I do desire to hammer on my singlespeed well into the night and I desire to wake up every morning on a lake and sit around the bonfire with a beer and friends in the evening. I want to grow old on a lake......
So, come September 20th we'll be packed up and on our way back home....this time for good. I'm beside myself with excitement! I'm beside myself to be able to hang out with all our friends that we have missed so much! I can't wait to be on my singlespeed hammering out fast laps....I can't wait to ride the east coast DH trails, I can't wait to be riding wet roots and rocks again and I can't wait to ride the best DH trails in Canada again. Bring on the big stuff.
Which brings me to what we've been doing lately, riding our DH bikes as much as we can. My main goal this year was to get more comfortable in the air and going off drops. I know that a lot of the parks out east have lots and lots of stuff to hit and drop off of and I wanted to make sure I could do it before we left Colorado.
Last weekend, I accomplished my goal and hit my first 4 footer to transition and then immediately I hit my first 8 footer to transition! I was so happy and freaked out at how easy they both were. All these years of Dan and all the boys telling me that these drops are so easy...just do it and you'll find out...well I did it and I now know!
Here's my first go at the 4 footer. I followed Dan off of it so I could gauge my speed.
After hitting this twice and noticing where I was landing, I knew I could hit the big one. So again, I followed Dan off of it to gauge my speed.
My rear wheel hit a little shy of the transition but who the F cares! I did it!!! And the weird thing is you don't even notice how high up you are and you don't notice how long you're in the air for! We hit it again later in the afternoon, without hesitation.
Another one of my goals was to nail a couple tricky switchbacks that have been hounding me for a few years. And I can happily say...they've been nailed!
Here's Dan last year on the first tricky switchback, it's on Helter and it's right at the entrance of the trail and it's so STEEP that walking down it is actually way harder than riding it.
The other switchback was on Wild Thing and it was the tight left hand switchback with rock that you have to ride over. No pics but it's been dogging me ever since we started riding there and I finally nailed it.
So weird how my DH riding has progressed so much this year and we're leaving :( Oh well, we've got places to ride in Michigan....we just have to travel a little further. I'm actually thinking of racing some DH races next year!
Goal for next year, learning to jump better and conquer big doubles, small ones don't bother me but the big ones with feet in between them scare the heck out of me and the chance of 50/50ing the jump is too much for me to handle right now. But I WILL conquer my fear! And I'm sure I will eat a lot of dirt trying :(
Woot! Here's to change and whatever the future holds!!
First, here's a video of Dan and his brother Joe on Keystone's corkscrew. Joe is first and that's Dan's squeaky break protesting :)
Man, I really like these short little video's...way more fun than pictures!
