Picture Rock should be called Enough with the Rocks Already!

We finally got to ride Picture Rock yesterday, we rode Heil to Wild Turkey to Picture Rock, turned around before the parking lot in Lyons and rode back up Picture Rock to Wild Turkey, finished the rest of Wild Turkey and headed back down.




My brain hurt from hitting the inside of my skull and my hands could barely hold onto my bars anymore. Heil is a bumpy ride and on the HT it's way worse. The first part of Picture Rock off of Wild Turkey is more of the same but once you pass the Silo's it's smooth singletrack. The climb back up Picture Rock is a nice climb consistent climb with small moves up and over rocks that got the heart pumping and by the end of the ride I was pretty much toast. We finished off the ride in the freezing rain.

So glad we got out before the weather turned sour later that night.

Sunday is going to be a lazy day with just a long hike with the dog and MAYBE a short run if we get completely bored out of our minds.

-Kim

Employment! Finally!

Dan is now employed at this shop in Boulder, less than 2 miles away from where we live!

Congrats and I'm sure he's so excited to have something other than chores and errands to do with his day :)

Fingers crossed that he gets weekends off!!!

-Kim

Rockin' the Rocks

Soooo...did I mention before that I love my new 29er?

My nemises conquered!!!


Absolutely and totally the best bike I've ridden in a long time...go figure. I still can't believe I actually like riding a hardtail!!! Granted, I can't descend the rocks as fast but I can still do it....actually better than on my 6.6!!!

I'm so excited about the riding season this year that I can barely contain myself!!!

Let the games begin!! Well, we still have some months of winter to get thru but I just can't wait!!!

More pics here
>

Jeny you were so right about a 29er hardtail being the best bike to ever ride!! I can't wait to get out there with you!!!

-Kim

January and riding in shorts!

Yep! That's right, it's January and we were riding in shorts yesterday! We chose Devil's Backbone because it's usually the driest during the winter and it was. It was my 2nd ride on the 29er and she didn't disappoint me. We started at the Coyote Ridge trailhead and rode the Blue Sky/Coyote Ridge area, the Coyote Ridge trail starts with a loose rocky climb that dumps into a ledgy descent...the 29er handled the ledges with no problemo.

The rest of the trail was smooth and fast and fun but we still had the ledges to get back up....and the 29er kicked butt on them! I was shocked and amazed that I actually was able to get the bike up and over them....absolutely shocked! Sorry, no pics...I think it would make Dan melt if he actually took some pictures ;)

Yeeehaaaw! It's going to be a good year!


A few more pics here


-Kim

Lazy Saturday with many activities thrown in

Saturday morning found us lounging around, drinking coffee and eating breakfast burrito's. We didn't have a clue what we wanted to do that day and we didn't really feel like doing anything.

After a while, the boy started getting annoying so we decided to take him out for a hike. It was so nice outside that the short 1/2 hour hike turned into an over an hour hike with a very tired doggie dog!

While we were out walking we decided to go on a run and then get Dan's new fixie out for a spin. Yay! It's still in the "final touch" stage but it's going to be a pretty kick butt theme bike! While we were running, Dan mentioned how all he had to do to turn my bike into a fixie is switch the rear hub around...oh dear! I agreed but I really nervous!

Getting on the bike with moving cranks was pretty weird and then accidentally trying to coast when you can't is also a weird feeling but I was pretty amazed at how in control you are of your speed. I didn't once panic and use my brakes (we haven't taken them off yet but I'm sure they'll be off after a week or so of riding it). First lesson was skid stopping, at first I was clueless and thought I'd never get it but after trying it a few times and getting comfortable getting my weight totally over me bars and getting my legs completely up against the bars it was pretty easy to lock your legs and force the rear wheel to skid. I was so STOKED!!!!

Then we hit the hills and I found that it's really easy to control your speed by back pedaling....it was actually really cool being able to slow down that way!

Now I need to learn to track stand. Not there yet, as soon as I stop my first instinct is to put my foot down instead of trying to balance my pedals out. It's pretty tricky making sure your pedals are parallel to the ground and it's a weird feeling pushing back and forth on your pedals while trying to balance....it'll take a long time to get it.

I'm going to keep it a fixie this week and see how I like it. I'm fearing my legs being incredibly sore come next Friday!

Later that night we went to a little shin dig bday party for a friend :)


More pics of the bday event here:


Sunday Sunday Sunday......we're riding!!!! Yay! And them barbecuing some brats!!!! Gotta love the 60 degree weather we're having in January!!!

Friday Happy Hour

We had happy hour at our friends Chuck & Niina's house...they actually cooked dinner! Pretty Fancy :)

And we tried a new to us stout from Oskar Blues....the Ten FIDY


It poured much like motor oil!

Here's the write up about it from the Oskar Blues website:
Ten FIDY Imperial Stout - Now (11-21-07) available in cans, our winter seasonal beer is immensely viscous and loaded with neck-deep flavors of chocolate, malt, coffee, cocoa and oats.

It's the beer equivalent of decadently rich milkshake made with malted-milk balls and Heaven’s best chocolate ice cream. Ten FIDY is about 10% ABV and is made with enormous amounts of two-row malts, chocolate malts, roasted barley, flaked oats and hops. Its huge-but-comforting flavors hide a whopping 98 IBUs that are deftly tucked underneath the beer’s mountains of malty goodness.

Ten FIDY is the ultimate Rocky Mountain winter warmer, and further proof of the creative muscle of our beloved brewing staff. Look for fourpacks of Ten FIDY in select beer stores in Colorado. Out of state? We hope to send a few cases to a few of our other states in early '08.

Here's a sampling of the mighty praise heaped on Ten FIDY:

* "The Beer of the Year" – The Denver Post
* "100 Rating" – Ratebeer.com
* "A-Rating" – Beeradvocate.com
* "This one puts the ‘A’ in ‘Holy Crap!’" -- Beer Advocate Magazine
* "The biggest, baddest, boldest beer in a can." -- Celebrator Beer News
* "A freaking gentle-giant masterpiece and the world's richest canned beer." - Us

-Kim

Another Jeep!

Dan sold our '99 Volvo last Friday and we were going to only have 1 car for a while and see how it worked out. I still commute to work everyday and so will he once he starts working again and it would force me to ride in even when the weather sucks.

Dan showed up at my work on Wednesday with a surprise for me....




He bought a '95 Jeep Cherokee Unlimited. It's a pretty sweet car and he got an amazing deal on it. He bought it from some girl who just wanted to unload it, it didn't start but from what she told Dan, he knew it was the alternator. So, the day after looking at it the first time he went and bought an alternator and replaced it and the thing started right up! Kicker is he talked the girl down from $1200 to $800 and when the girls neighbor saw Dan working on it, he came outside and told him that he'd give him $50 if he bought it because he was so sick of having the thing sitting out in front of his house! So, he bought the Jeep for $800, put $100 into with the alternator and got $50 from the neighbor...total money spent on the Jeep was $850!

Not bad for a 2nd beater car with AWD!

Pretty good score if you ask me :)

Oh and the girl had 4 wheels sitting in her garage that he ex-boyfriend bought and never put on. She wanted them out of her garage too so she just gave them to us! Dan said they're probably worth about $350 each!