2 a days

Good times today.  This am pedaled up Goldcamp to High drive and then went down jacks.  I was surprised at how well the Schwalbe Big Apples handled loose sandy soil descending jacks, especially since some spots still had a little snow and were fairly steep.  After that ride, went home grabbed the wife and the toddler and went out for another 15ish miles on the greenways with mandatory stop at America the Beautiful park.  Jessica was talking about wanting to ride a century and do an xterra triathalon this year...this makes me smile.

One hell of a January

What a month so far.
Incredible weather, trails, people, city
I have pedaled probably 80ish miles with Christopher in the trailer already this year
Meet some damn fine like minded people with a similar obsession to bicycles
Jessica has had her farthest ride on the bike so far and later that day she wants to add another 10 miles to it.
Great job with people I enjoy working with
My body seems to remember how to pedal again, did a very hard 3 hour ride (climbed for 2.5hrs) and felt pretty good. Next I want to do my first century of the year within the week, and then do one every month for the rest of the year.
I can see Pikes Peak everywhere I go in this city
Jessica is behind me on the idea of training to do the Colorado Trail Race this year if fitness comes together like I hope.
It is amazing how much fun you can have being completely broke, especially when you do not have to go into work for an entire month. Sad it has to end in Feb but there are still plenty of good times to come, just not as concentrated as this month has been.
Found a dollar at the park today with Christopher as well, the optimist inside decided to use it to buy a lottery ticket, here's to hoping the unlimited time with family does not have to be spoiled by that work stuff.

The Chutes cargo bike style

Pedaled up gold camp over to the chutes on the xtracycle then past the shop to get an idea on how long this will make the commute.  It is amazing how well the xtra shreds fast flowy decents, i am even getting the hang of sending it of jumps, just takes pushing forward on the bars more than usual.  Good times

Riding loaded

First time I have been sore from 20 miles of pedaling other than during Pisgah death marches.  Jessica decided today she wanted to finally break 20 miles on the bike, which I was unaware of until partway through the ride.  I chose to put 60lbs of kettle bell and toddler paraphernalia in the bags on the Xtracycle while towing the trailer with Christopher in it, my guess was just shy of 100 lbs of extra crap.  Bike handled it great but that weight mixed with some killer wind defintally took its toll, was also wishing I threw on some bike shorts.

Jessica impressed me though, I gave her a few chances to bail when she was hurting but even once she started cramping she chose to keep going and get to 20 miles...but I miss-calculated and she actually ended up with 21.5.

Good times were had, went to check out the movie "Gasland" which was fantastic btw and almost lost my bike to some shady people.  If it was not for me locking the rear wheel to the frame behind the freeloaders the bike would have been gone, they cut the main lock around the frame/bike rack and stole my gloves, jacket (which was inside the building) head lamp and multi tool.  I plan on getting a chain that is on par to the fahgetaboutit from kryptonite once I have the cash.  Which brings me to the point, if you ever walk into a bike shop and ask the sales guy if the lock is really made of kryptonite, I promise he is fighting the urge to slap you...or at least not to laugh hysterically in your face.

Route scouting

Found a good route to work that will take roughly 2 hours and have some pretty killer single track for my morning commute.  It also involves about a 30-45 minute climb which should be good "training" for the overly optimistic side of me that wants to do CTR.

The xtracycle handled the flowy single track like a champ as well, is there anything that bike can't handle?  I guess the answer to that is a fast road ride but other than that I continue to be blown away at how great the xtracycle is.  Tomorrow it gets a workout as a kid hauler because Jessica is wanting to ride and that is something you just don't say no too.

Since I was too lazy to take any pics today, here is one of the rare sightings of a cop with a sense of humor.

Took this pic from guzzer.com

Eleven Mile Reservoir

Went to explore Eleven Mile Reservoir on fat bikes so two firsts for me and two things I have wanted to do for quite a while.  It was my first time to ride a fat bike (actually rode 3 different ones, Mukluk, Pugsly, and Moonlander) and it was my first time getting to explore islands in the middle of a lake by bike.  There was quite a lot of snow on the ice so traction was not a big deal and the fat bikes handled the snow well, although the crusty stuff was hard going.  I think everyone felt like a child again, I have never had so much fun ridding on a completely flat surface, this actually is one of the cooler rides I have done in quite some time so big thanks to Allen, Al, and Tim for coming out and putting it together.  Also a big thanks to The Hub for letting us take out their fat bikes, I think they even took one of their new ones and turned it into a demo for this ride so that was very cool of them.

Tim wrote this up:  http://www.pikespeaksports.us/video/the-men-of-ice-take-to-eleven-mile-reservoir

These pics all come from Allen Beauchamp

Homemade studded tire test ride

Tomorrow is the real test, we are exploring the frozen waters of Eleven Mile Reservoir with a group of people I have not met yet.  Should be fun to meet some more riders in the area who are also strange enough to find riding a bicycle on frozen water a good time.

Homemade studded tires

Snow Biking

Guess I should have realized how much more snow they can get at 9k feet.  Today me and Nate we to ride the trails around Rampart Reservoir expecting some snow but not nearly what we found part way into the trail system.  It was one of those rides where it felt like you were snow shoeing...but without the snow shoes and your snow packed bike on your back.  There was lots and lots of 4-6in crusty snow that forced us to walk probably 2ish miles total with our bikes on our back.  We even crossed a few sections of frozen water to save some time, probably not the safest plan but we have had a good big of frigid temps in the springs so 3k feet higher I am sure there was a deep freeze going on.

Rampart Range Road climb

Pedaled a good ways up rampart range, past the water towers, past the shooting ranges and about a mile past the sign that says "road not maintained, travel not advised"  From what I can tell on maps I made it to about 9k ft of elevation starting at 6200, so a good sized climb.  Basically pedaled to the start of the road from my door and then up for about 2 hrs from there.  Good times indeed but I certainly felt it.

America the beautiful park

Hauled Christopher to America the Beautiful park, where oddly enough I heard the most beautiful words come from Jessica's mouth when we reached our usual turn around point to head to the park "can we go farther?"  It does not get better than that.

Gotta love Xtracycle