Holiday schwag

My friend Don, an occasional subject in the blog, presented me with an awesome gift today. It's a chest-mount for my new helmet-cam!

(http://www.goprocamera.com/index.php?area=2&productid=16)

 Now I will have yet another vantage point from which to film our escapades. Yay! Thanks, Don!

Finally a warm day

After a week of storms and cold weather, we finally got a day above freezing. I opted for a mountain bike ride on the Santa Fe trail and then around the Air Force Academy. Still testing out the new helmet-cam and it's wide-angleness. So far, I really like it. Can't wait to actually ride some single-track with it. In the mean-time, here is another video:

Santa Fe Trail/AFA bike ride 12/12/09 from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Manitou Incline Video

Got busy with the new Helmet-Hero Wide today. Hiked the incline with it strapped to my head! It was around 15-20 degreees and snowing. Makes me feel lucky to live in Colorado Springs.

Hiking Manitou Incline and down Barr Trail from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Oh, and the new batch of beer has some reviews coming in.
Don: "Excellent".
Matt D.: "I want to start a blog telling everyone how good it is!".
Me: "Mmmmmm, good".

A cold day in....

Colorado Springs, of course. I felt like I had better ride today because the next few days aren't looking so good. I decided to ride to work (Colorado Cyclist) and pick up a new Helmet-cam since my old one expired. My plan of attack was to find some Geocaches (http://www.geocaching.com/) on the way back. I don't think it ever made it to 40 degrees today and when the sun went away, it became clear that I had better keep moving. My first cache was pretty easy but I had to hike through some seriously thorny trees to get to it:

Snowy and thorny.

I moved on to the next one but couldn't find it. Found the next one and gave up looking for the last one as the weather was telling me to get home.

After I got home, I immediately tore into the new cam's packaging. It is almost identical to my old one except it has a wide-angle lens. Here is a test video:

Testing the new Helmet Hero wide from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Now I have to think of some interesting ways to use this cam!

Pics from Pueblo

Since I didn't have a camera last week, I decided to bring one today and take some pics. We rode similar trails only the opposite direction. My friend Mike was our guide on the trails up and down the bluffs (i.e. "edge", "roller coaster", "free-ride", "skull canyon" and a few others. Thanks Mike!

Mike on "Free-Ride"

Don finishing up "Outer Limits" on his new Giant 29'er

Matt and Mike taking a break on "Voodoo"

Another great ride in the books and here comes another winter storm...

Could be a while until we are down here again.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am returning to a past Thanksgiving Day tradition: bike ride then pig out. Last year I rode the Falcon Trail and it was cold but completely snow-free. This year it is warm but not snow-free...

Time constraints kept me from completing the entire Falcon Trail loop so I had some fun on the lower sections before heading home via the Santa Fe Trail.

Now it's time to eat!

Finally tried the Incline!

Today I decided to meet my friends Dave and Derek and hike the Mount Manitou Incline. I'm sure you've heard all of the stories about how steep it is so I won't be redundant.

Here is the view from the very bottom.

Derek and Dave getting started.

Dave on a snow-packed portion.

Those steps get pretty tall on the steep parts.

Derek on the final push to the top. Just below

him, the steps were slick and you could see

many hikers slipping. Derek said he

slipped back about 5 steps there!

Yeah, Dave!

It turned out to be a great workout especially for a cyclist. Going down is much harder for me than going up. The people are all pretty friendly, too. One guy blasted the last few steps and stopped his watch at 23 minutes. The funny thing is that is really fast for one mile and 2300' of elevation gain!