Riding with the "Hit Man"

Last Saturday was the last ride for my Kermit Green Niner. It was developing some hairline cracks at the seat tube/seat stay junction. Of course Niner warranteed it but only after proof that the old one was destroyed. Talk about adding insult to injury:

Since I work at a bike shop, all it took was a quick call to our Giant Bikes rep and presto, my new bike appeared! It's a  2010 Giant Trance X2. Of course, I have modified it to fit my needs:

Now I am re-learning how to ride 26" wheels and on top of that, learning how to ride with 5" of suspension travel front and rear. Ummmm, yeah. It's cool.

That brings us to yesterday's ride. The Bagel was down and out so I called the one other guy who was ready to ride anywhere at the drop of a hat. Don "The Hitman" Hull:

Why is Don called the "Hit Man"? Well, when he first started coming into the shop, nobody knew exactly where he got the money to buy all those fancy bike parts so someone suggested he was a hit man. Later, we found out he may be in the import/export business which fits the hit man profile. He imports bullets into people and exports them into the ground! All unfounded rumors....or are they?

I have been wanting to ride the Ring the Peak trail from the Catamount Reservoir to Horsethief Park all year and with the forecast in the Springs being around 90 degreees, the time to head up to 10,000' is NOW.

Don and I parked at the Edlowe Road trailhead and immediately jumped on some sweet single-track. We then joined the Ring the Peak trail and headed South. My planned turn-around point was Horsethief Park at the remains of an old cabin:

                                       

Any time of day is a good time to eat:

On the way back to Catamount, we veered off of the Ring the Peak trail and rode a little known section of trail called "Magic Carpet Ride". I'd tell you where it is but then Don may have to come see you...

You won't believe it but I actually had my GoPro camera and made yet another video. Weird, huh?

This will give you an idea of how awesome the trails are wayyyy up in hills of Colorado:

Mountain bike trails around Pikes Peak from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Riding after work with Matt "The Bagel"

Since we are both working on the southeast side of town, Matt and I like to meet at Cheyenne Mountain State Park after work for the occasional mountain bike ride. Yesterday was a typical 90 degree summer day but I happened to have my GoPro Helmet-cam....

I took a lot of video footage on our ride but for some reason, this particular trail stood above the rest for capturing the essence of why we enjoy the park. Maybe it was the late-afternoon sun. Maybe it's because I kept it on two wheels at a pretty decent clip. You decide (crank the volume and think: 80's):


Boulder Run in Cheyenne Mountain State Park from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Tour of the Lakes w/trail maintenance

Matt "The Bagel" and I are both coming off of four or five weeks of not riding very much so we decided to do the legendary "Tour of the Lakes".

Prepping for the ride...

We haven't been at 9000' on a bike for a while and we strangely had to stop early for some bonk prevention.

Early pig-out.

We arrived at the "Rock" trail and Matt decided, after watching me slam my rear wheel on a rock obstacle, to fill in the gap with some old deadfall.

The start of the trail labor...

At the bottom of the "Rock" section, we always had to hike-a-bike up a steep little hill. I saw a way to make it rideable with a little (a lot!) of work.

Matt, doing some hard labor in the middle of a hard ride.

After we both bonked while using the hand-saw, we finally cut the old dead tree. Matt had the honor of the first test-ride of our new section:

Bottom of the Rock from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

There's still plenty of trailwork to be done up there, but at least we got started...

Now I have to recover from roughly 1/4 of the Leadville 100 at the elevation of 9000' instead of 10000' to 12000'. Glad I wasn't entered in that one.

 

The Copper Triangle

This weekend, The Colorado Cyclist sponsored a ride called "The Copper Triangle". It is a fully supported bike ride starting at the Copper Mountain ski area, climbing up Fremont pass down to Leadville, towards Minturn over Tennesee Pass to Vail and back over Vail Pass to Copper.

   Many of the employees of The Colorado Cyclist were there to help make it a good time for all. There were four mechanics, myself, Scott, Dave and Brandon. Scott and I were assigned to the top of Fremont pass from 6am to 11 am. Last year, there were four mechanics and it was super busy so I was a little bit worried that with only two of us it would be crazy. Although it did get pretty hectic at times, we took care of as many bikers as we could and sent them on their way.

  I brought my new HD video cam and took a bit of video. Here are the clips (I had to compress the file so the resolution is not the greatest):

Regression...

Riding less and less lately. Who's to blame? Work? Monsoon season? Not sure.

I did get a chance to try out my new Kodak Playsport ZX3 video camera. It's the size of a cell-phone and can film 1-1/2 hours of 1080p HD video on an 8GB SD card. And it can film under water which is important at the moment. Ain't technology grand?

I did some filming in Palmer Park between rain showers and then got some stills from the video. Not the greatest clarity in the stills but the HD video is outstanding.

Dropping into "Little Moab"

Off of the big slab at the bottom of "Little Moab"

Fun descent above the dog park.

...then right back up.

The fitness is fading and the weight is creeping up. The next long ride is going to hurt!

Chicago

No biking this past weekend as Cindy and I did a turbo trip to Chicago to attend the wedding of Cindy's nephew. Here are some pics:

The bride and groom took us on a trolley ride around Chicago.

I got some cool shots while hanging out of the trolley window.

This is my award winner. The old lady looks unfazed by the city. The young people walking away and the long shadows have meaning open to interpretation.

Had a lot of movie flashbacks. The Blues Brothers sent the cops to this address.

We jumped off the trolley for this shot. Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline.

We bumped into the groom at the top of the Willis (Sears) Tower. He was wearing this.

That's our hotel with the pointy antenna as viewed from the top of Willis Tower.

Another movie flashback. Emulating Ferris Bueller from the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

Sitting on the 6" glass Skydeck 1353' above Wacker Drive.

Don't look down.

This is Erik looking a little wobbly. Game over, man. Haha.

Seriously, Erik and Ali are a perfect match and I believe they will be married to each other for the rest of their lives. The wedding was pretty unreal for a Colorado boy and I'm glad Cindy and I got to be there to enjoy it.

Fourth of July hike

Haven't been feelin' it on the bike lately. Got sick after my last blog post and haven't fully recovered for some reason. As my hard-earned cycling fitness circles the drain, I figure I'd better get off the Laz-e-boy and do something resembling excercise so I brought Cindy over to the site of my last adventure to do some more investigating.

Didn't have to set the "F" stop for this one.

Technically we aren't supposed to be here so I photo-shopped Cindy hiking up the road to the old quarry above Queens Canyon.

Dawson Trotman was the founder of The Navigators and is now buried in a pretty choice locale.

General Palmer picked the coolest location in the Springs to build a house. If he were alive today, I'm pretty sure he'd be a mountain biker.

Of course I brought my GoPro camera and of course I made a video. Please give me 2 minutes of your life....

Glen Eyrie hike on July 4th from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.