Spring has sprung on Towers Road. (aka: SB66 Demo)

Hello.  

I have a shit-ton of stuff to say about today's ride.  But I drank a six pack with Matt II and now I'm just not motivated to blog.  Fuck it.  Here's the quick and dirty and I'll let the photos tell the story.  I took out the shop's SB66 for a test run.  My technical review of this bike is as follows:  

Yeti's new SB66 has "pep".  You know, "get up and go".  You get the picture.  End of review.

Great, great ride.  If you wanna know the route, it was a modified "Dos-and-a-Half Montañas".  Super fun.  Went like this:

Soderberg-Towers-Spring Creek-Carey Springs-Sawmill-Towers (to the actual towers)-No Name connector-Westridge-Wathan-Spring Creek-Stout-Towers-Carey Springs-Sawmill.

The reason I spelled it out for you is that it is a really really fun loop.  Try it.  I have to say this though; in my opinion you should never, NEVER turn onto Westridge from Towers road.  Ever.  If you want to ride Westridge to Wathan, stay on Towers Road until you get to the actual radio towers and take the no-name connector through the saddle to Westridge.  It has stunning views of the valley and it is a wonderful trail.  Have fun.  Thanks to Betz.  It was real, friend!

Today's drive to the park was with Jeffery Tambor

Blue on Black

Sexy Betzy loves brutal climbs

XL man on a L frame.  Looks weird but still shreds.  Jack that seat

Top of Towers and Betz hasn't even broke a sweat, yet

SB66  did great through the tech

Betz headin to the Towers

Beautiful day. Pick a trail.

This spot on the trail offered a view of the west face of Horsetooth Rock (far left) and a shot of Long's Peak (far right) in the same picture.  Amazing.

Horsetooth Rock

Long's Peak

And they didn't mind me at all

Todd the God's hot new GRILL.  Fresh out tha dentist office.

My GPS died before I was done, but you get the idea

Bye.
Zness

Buford Blowout

Jason from Subculture cycles and Sky from 34 keyed me in on a group road ride up to Wyoming and back.  We met at the coffee shop in old town at 7AM, and rolled back into FC around 9pm.  It was a long day in the saddle!  It was mostly dirt roads with the occasional stop so I could catch up.  Interesting fact: we rode against the wind in all directions.  Wild stuff. Here's a couple photos of the day.

7am Breakfast Whiskey

Rollin out

Takin the dirt road

Long Haul Truckin' on I-80

Lunch @ the Monument

Last big climb of the day.

We ended up ridin back to FC in the dark on HWY 287.  Thanks to Chris for lending me a light.  Safety first!

Keep rippin,
Zness

Spring Break Salida 2012

I spent last week (CSU Spring Break), camping by the Arkansas river and biking the local trails in Salida.  I tried riding in Golden, but there was still 2 feet of snow at White Ranch, so I busted up to Salida and found great riding.  All of the Arkansas trail system was completely ride able and some of Little Rainbow.  I happened across a driftwood filled campsite right on the river and was able to start a fire with little effort.  The weather was warm enough that I was able to swim in the river and get a sunburn.  I coincidentally ran into old friends in the bike shop, the bar, and even on trail.  Truly a home away from home.  Thanks to Scotty for cookin all the delicious food, and thanks to Jason and Wade at SubCulture Bike Shop for the t-shirt and simply just givin me a place to hang.  As usual, amazing town, amazing people, amazing trip.  Git up there and rip!

Local trails.  Good for a couple days of ridin.  Love the jumps at the bottom.

View of Denver from White Ranch in Golden

Salida from Front Side

View of Salida from the top

Annie and Pals always rip

Sweet-ass campsite

Scotty gettin ready to broil up a delicious fish  dinner.  Epic.

Pack up your game, and head out west.
-Zness

Powerline Road - Ginny Loop

Wow.  60 degrees and sunny today.  Time to put the fixie in the quiver and pull out the 575.  It was such a nice peaceful day.  Wonderful stuff.

Well I thought I'd take the opportunity to finish blogging this ride since it was so nice.  By finally blogging this loop, I feel like I've completed some task that needed to be done.  Really, no task actually existed, but now that this one is in the books, I don't think I'll ever carry a camera or gps up to Bobcat Ridge again for a long, long time.  Sick.

As I said before, the best way to ride Ginny Trail is as an out and back.  It's faster, funner, and easier.  If you decide to loop this ride by going up Powerline Road, through Mahoney Basin, and down Ginny, it's a bit longer and the climb is more difficult.  That being said, the traverse across from the top of Powerline to the top of Ginny through the Mahoney Basin is a really scenic, fun, and relaxing rip.  Pretty much all the hard stuff is done at the top of the Powerline and everything back to the parking lot is a fuckin blast.  If anyone can clean this Powerline climb, I'll buy em a bottle of top-shelf bourbon.  It's insane.  

Todays Ride: Aziz Ansari and Kathleen Madigan.

Photos of the gnarly climb...

1st climb I can't clean

2nd climb I can't clean

Third climb I can't clean.  That was a tough 1000 feet.  Go try it!

Mahoney Basin...

Once you get to this signpost its all gravy from here on out..

The trail meanders through a bunch of cool boulder fields

The west face of Horsetooth rock in the distance

Still snowy on the North facing climb out of the basin

Last night I was bored and grabbed my copy of the Watchmen off my bookshelf and got sucked into that world again for the following 5 hours.  It is one of the best books I've ever read.  I decided to stop at the rock outcropping above and bust it out and sit at the top of this mountain with a beautiful view and read one of my favorite books of all time.  I even caught a tan.  So cathartic.  So necessary.

The Death of a Comedian (or is it just ketchup?)

Maps n stuff...

Trax

Elevation profile

So there we have it.  The last two posts pretty much cover this kick-ass place to mountain bike.  You'll love it up there.  Keep killin it!  Thanks for tunin' in.

Zness