Thru Endurance We Conquer!

  Meet Sasha and George!  We adopted two kittens before we left for Moab - Sasha and George. We had originally planned on waiting until after the trip, but... We were going to Walmart to get some things and there was a lady standing on the corner with a big sign "Kittens." Nick asked me if I wanted to look, knowing that I still really missed Isis, but also wanted to start looking for the new family members. I said yes, so after we finished in Walmart, we walked over. She had four kittens left, a light grey female with faint strips and three longer haired black kittens. I immediately fell for the grey girl and pulled her out of the cage to play with her a little. And right behind her came bouncing out the little runt of the group. And little was right - about half the size of the grey one! We were planning on getting two kittens, so they would have each other to play with and so DumDum wouldn't be as mean. (We didn't know how he would react at all.) Well, Ni...

Our last adventure of the trip was at Hartman Rocks in Gunnison. It was sunny out, but a stiff wind made it very chilly. There was some snow on the north facing slopes, but the trails were in good shape. We started out easy this time, riding the first half of the 24 Hours in the Sage course. Then time for some differnet trails. The meandering climb up and down Josies, with a few rock gardens thrown in for fun. The steady climbs of Buddy Bear and then meadering Dirty Sock. I could tell I was getting really tired from the weeks adventures - I wasn't even coming close to keeping up with Nick on steady climbs. Despite the fatigue, I was able to ride a few things that the last time we'd been out there for fun I'd tried a few times, then given up on. So that was a little victory. Onto the road for a while, then up Broken Shovel to Skyline. I popped on Skyline, and proceeded to continue along my slow, steady tempo while Nick climbed away. We reached the junction of Broken Shovel a...

Of course, the day we left Moab was the best day of the entire week! Brilliant blue skies, warm sunshine - perfect weather for riding. But we were finished in Moab and it was time to head home. Not finished riding though - the goal for this ride was to check out the Kokopellie trail area and Mary's loop outside Fruita. I'd ridden there twice - but hadn't gone far, so was looking forward to riding some more new trails. We parked in the middle parking lot and quickly got ready to ride. No heavy coat, no warm gloves, no booties! I love riding with Nick - I really do. But sometimes, I don't want to do the hardest trail in the entire area right off the bat! A little warm up would be nice... We immediately headed up Moore Fun trail (which was labeled on the map as the most technical and challenging trail). And while it was a really fun trail, I was also walking and pushing my bike quite a bit. There were some things that I just couldn't get or was too much of a wimp to ...

The weather front that had been threatening all week moved down Sunday morning. Like every other morning, the clouds were low on the red rock valley walls surrounding Moab. This morning, they kept lowering and finally developed into a moderate but cold rain. Not the weather anyone really wanted to be out riding in! Sow we had a quiet morning of reading and catching up with friends. As Dan and Leslie prepared to head back to CO (they both had to work on Monday) Nick and I decided to try a short hike/run up off Porcupine Rim. I wasn't sure about running since my quad was still really painful walking up and down stairs, but figured a hike would be good. We drove up Sand Flats rd, passed the empty parking lot for Slick Rock and continued east. There were plenty of campgrounds and the 4x4 trails criss crossed the road several times. Finally, we reached the main Porcupine Rim trail parking lot. The ground was damp, but not muddy. Nick was a little disappointed - if we'd know that i...

With the arrival of Dan and Leslie late Friday night, we had some big plans for riding. Slick Rock was primary on the list, so that was the first place we headed Saturday after the clouds started lifting. It still wasn't really warm (about 38-40) and very grey out but we all had the clothes and the motivation to ride. We loaded up the Subi with the big bikes on the roof and my bike in the car and headed up Sand Flats road. The parking lot was quiet when we got there and we were off and riding. And it was truly a different riding - nothing but miles of sandstone with white dashes. The tires stuck like glue to the sandstone and as long as you stayed close to the white dashes, it was a make your own fun affair. I followed Dan's lines for most of the ride - he's been out there a lot and knew what I would feel comfortable riding. Some of the climbs were bloody steep and the only way I was able to get up them was by switch backing up the side of the solid dunes. Coming down the o...

Our Friday ride plans were for two rides - Sovereign trail in the morning and then Slick Rock in the afternoon. We left Fruita at a decent time - I got some compression pads and ace wrap for my leg so I would be able to ride. We survived the boring drive from Fruita to Moab - Nick drove and I studied the map. Nick was planning on riding a loop on the Sovereign trail he'd ridden a few years ago, so we were planning parking at the north trail head off Dalton Wells Road. We got changed, hoped on the bikes and headed north. I saw a small sign that said "Sovereign Singletrack" Singletrack is aways better the road, so off we went, following the blue dashes on the rocks. The trail dived into a small canyon, then the diverged. One set of blue dashes when up, the other stayed in the canyon. I was having fun in the canyon - so I followed that set of blue dashes. And that set of blue dashes quickly turned south and headed down. We took a pretty technical descent down into a grey s...

This was a planned escape from Colorado Springs with no agenda except ride a lot, ride some new trails and run in some different places. Day one of the trip was spent in Fruita, where we got two rides in on two different single track systems. Awesome fun and a good day of riding! And hint of the fun that was awaiting us in Moab. In the morning, we bundled up and headed north on 18 Road to the North Fruita Desert trail systems. The sun was out, but it was still chilly with the dew frozen on the roads and grasses. We were both pretty warmly dressed, and only a few layers would come off as the sun grew warmer. The trails there were fast and smooth, meandering through wheel high grass. I was waiting for the antelope to come jumping out of the grass! We also found some fun technical trails with steep, challenging climbs and well built switchbacks into and out of the gullies and canyons. The best trail that we rode (and we didn't come close to riding all of them) was Kessler's Run....

Isis was such a character. She had a huge personality and was the boss of the house. Kept DumDum in line and always made sure we didn' forget to feed her. Over ten and a half years of provides plenty of memories and I want to share a few of the best ones. *The day I brought her home, I had her locked in my bathroom to keep her away from Mom's other cat. And she kept whining and crying till I eventually opened the door to the bathroom. I shut my bed room door first so she couldn't get into the rest of the house. But she didn't want to go far. Just to my bed where she curled up and started purring. *A march day in Denver coming home from PT class. Isis met me at the door of the apartment with plaintive mew. She kept pacing between the kitchen and the door. I found out why A line of ants was marching from a tiny hole in the floor across the entrance to the kitchen and straight to her food bowl. The entire bowl was writhing like the food had come alive. Not a good th...

This has been a good recovery week - worked a bunch, got some chores done around the house and slept in nearly every day. Also took way to many photos of the new kittens, but I'll talk about them later! After our slightly mucky single speed ride in Palmer Park yesterday, Nick and I when to Ascent Cycling to get some stuff. Clay mentioned that he and a few of the guys were planning on heading to Lake Pueblo today, I was all in. There were some new trails I wanted to take Nick down and having more then an hour to play sounded good. So to heck with another recovery day! The sun was shining, there wasn't much wind and it was a perfect day to ride some rocks. We met up with the gang at the Arkansas Point parking lot and headed out. Started out with the climb up Rodeo, then dropped Rattlesnake - no wildlife sighting this ride! Up Skull Canyon then along Roller Coaster to one of the new trails - Sidewinder (another snake name - sensing a theme here...) I've only ridden Sidewinde...

This post is a little late - got distracted with other events. It's not uncommon to see all kinds of critters while out training. Usually it is nothing more interesting then a coyote or fox but this was a busy week. On the 11th I watched a coyote stalking some leashed ankle biters. I am not sure the owner noticed how intently her dogs were being followed. During my morning run on the 13th there was quite the herd of bucks in Bear Creek. I noticed that two of them were fighting - National Geographic style. And they were getting into it - aantlers locked, the whole bit. All for the affection of the does on the other side of the trail... I did not head back that way when I finished the run. Then after work I took the single speed to Lake Pueblo. Near the end of the ride, after cruising Outer Limits, I was finishing my ride by coming down Waterfall. With a loud scream a bundle of feathers exploded from the rocks in front of me. In the fading evening light I had flushed a large golden...