A week in the office; a week in the woods [9/16-9/24]

I've been happily unemployed and homeless since June... and luckily still have some savings left in the bank account. Floating around amongst a few friends' couches in Denver has been nice but it's getting boring/lazy... Fortunately(?) my old employers needed a substitute dispatcher for 6 days, so I'm back into the workforce as a productive member of society or something like that. I'd be working in the courier office in Boulder, and what better place to live than the National Forest outside of Nederland for the week?

I found a fantastic campsite a few hundred yards off singletrack not far from town and settled in for the week. It's a great life- wake up to the sunrise every morning, ride about 25minutes of trails on my way into town for a coffee at Happy Trails (my fave coffeeshop in the world) and catching the bus down to Boulder for office duties. After work it's back up the canyon on the bus for about an hour of trail riding, returning to camp with the aid of bike lights. The daylight is short nowadays, so my riding is pretty limited but still super fun.

sunrise from camp

September in the Rockies is my favorite time of year here: the air is crisp, the temps moderate, the aspens and oaks burning with vibrant fall colors. Every year I get a spur of motivation to make the most of the last few delicious days in the hills- and living in the midst of it in a tent for a week is just perfect.

my new neighbors

an aside: Tour Divide beginneth

Before anything else about me, I want to give a shout-out and big "go get 'em!" to my old friend & mountain bike buddy, former co-worker, and super-duper insane ultra distance competitive cyclist Eszther Horanyi, who begins the Tour Divide today. This is a 2800mi, solo, 100% self-supported mountain bike race all the way from Canada to Mexico via the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail. There's something in the neighborhood of 265,000 vertical feet of climbing, grizzly bears, snow, rain and heat. Racers are allowed no outside support aside from services they find along the way. This is longer than the Tour De France, almost all off road, and the winners generally finish in fewer days than the Tour.

Eszter's out to destroy the women's record this year, here's wishing her a safe and fruitful trek!

Follow her progress on via Spot Tracker here.
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sunset mountain biking Nederland; 1700ft gained

I was covering dispatching duties in the Boulder office again today; brought the mountain bike along and hopped on the bus up to Nederland after work. I squeezed in about 2.5hrs of trails in the convenient West Magnolia / High School trail system. Actually found some new trails I'd not explored before, which was fun.

The high country aspens are just beginning to send out their buds:

And eventually I found some leftover snow around 8700ft:

Rolled back through the town of Ned around 8pm with plenty of daylight left. Bombed down Boulder Canyon under the full "Super Moon" and treated myself to a post ride dinner of burger n beers at the Mountain Sun brew pub. What a way to spend a Friday night, yes?!?

mountain biking Golden

The warm winter brought many sweet road rides this year... but I finally fixed up the mountain bike and headed out with my old friend Brian. We lugged along for 18mi into a strong headwind along the Clear Creek Bike Path to reach the bottom of Chimney Gulch trail and began the long climb up to the top of Lookout Mountain. I've climbed the paved road plenty of times and seen this trail along the way; it was rewarding to finally do this climb on the dirt.

After a long slog we topped out Lookout, had a lunch and prepared to bomb right back down our ascent. This trail is surprisingly tight and fun for being so close to town! We ripped it and then soft-pedaled with the wind at our backs to his place in Wheatridge. Post-ride beers and catching up ensued. It was a fantastic Saturday and felt great to be back on the fat tires for the first time since October.

Georgia Pass via mountain bike

We got one (potentially) last really warm weekend on October before the snows start to sock in the high country. April had prior plans in the city so I packed up the car solo with my mountain bike for one last camping/biking weekend for the season. Headed up to Kenosha Pass southwest of Denver and set up in the dispersed car-camping area east of the pass. So nice and peaceful; this area is packed most of the summer but now in October it was pretty desolate, yet convenient. On Saturday afternoon I rode the Colorado Trail about 6 miles east until it enters the Lost Creek Wilderness area (no bikes allowed in Wilderness Areas.)

After a relaxing evening alone reading next my campfire, on Sunday I rode northwest up to the Continental Divide at Georgia Pass. This was my Big Ride of the season, so happy to get up to the divide via my legs this year. It's been a long summer of recovery, and a huge trophy to regain the continent.

very last of the autumn colors at 10,500ft. Sawatch Range beyond

crossroads of the Colorado Trail and the Continental Divide Scenic Trail

at Georgia Pass on the Continental Divide at 11,600ft... looking west towards Breckenridge

Instead of backtracking, I opted for the Jefferson Creek trail to loop me back down. Plenty of snow on this north facing slope; below tree line I ended up slogging through 2 miles of 8" snowy switchbacks while dropping down into the sweet flowing creekside singletrack along Jefferson Creek. Totally worth the hassle!

 

About 25miles and 5,000ft of climbing today.... wish this was every day of my life!

Mountain biking outside Boulder

My dispatcher had a couple of days off, which meant that I was on office duty up in Boulder. It being my favorite time of year in the Foothills and emboldened by my recent return to mt. biking, I brought the fatty tire bike up both days and took advantage of being next to some great riding.

On Thursday, I cut out of the office a bit early to catch the 4:40pm bus up to Nederland and got in 2hrs of really fun trails in the West Magnolia zone. My most recent trail day up here ended up with me in the hospital, so it was a victory of sorts to revisit my old trail haunt that I've ridden so many times since moving to Boulder--- 8 years ago. Sadly I forgot to pack the camera, and that's especially sad because it was perhaps the most electric and vibrant neon aspen colors that I've ever seen in my life! Sections of these trails duck through full canopies of young aspens, and it felt like a Disneyland ride to pedal through a fully encompassing tunnel of screaming neon yellow.

Friday I pedaled out from the office up to the Batasso Loop just a couple miles up Boulder Canyon, eager to check out the newly built Benjamin Loop addition. Got a late start, rode slow, and found the new spur to be longer than I'd expected. Luckily I had packed my lights and ended up pedaling the last hour in the darkness. This was my first proper singletrack in pitch black with only a headlight, and it was kinda fun. Kinda nerve wracking as well....


Started off well enough with a nice sunset ride outside of town....

But the last hour turned into this....  (Boulder city lights way down below in the distance!)
Made it home safe and sound, very very carefully.... ~4mi in the pitch black, a mile or two on technical singletrack.

back to the mountain bike!!

April and I packed up the car and took off for some rustic car-camping outside Buena Vista along the Collegiate Peaks in the Sawatch Range of the Rockies. We found a nice quiet campsite near the dead end of a dirt road in the National Forest and had a fun night by the campfire.

My elbow's feeling stronger and more stable so I brought my mountain bike along to have my first go at riding trails since my accident in June. The Colorado Trail passes through this area just a few hundred yards from our campsite and on Sunday I rode south for a couple of hours to Sand Creek before turning around and heading back to camp. Autumn foliage was spectacular and the aspens were peaking! A really beautiful weekend and a major hurdle cleared in getting back into the woods on my bike. I'm not at 100% by any means, but felt pretty solid once I got into the groove of mountain biking. I can't wait to get back to the trails soon!

Sunday afternoon, April hiked the Colorado Trail north a few miles to Mt. Princeton Hot Springs, and I finished up my bike ride and met her over there with the car. A relaxing soak until dusk came upon us, then stopped off in Leadville for our favorite bargain dinner of filet mignon at Quincy's.

Revised summer plans

Earlier this spring I was pondering what kind of solo bicycle adventure to undertake this year. For the most part I've satisfied my curiosities of southern Utah road touring in 2009 and 2010. I mulled some ideas... Denver to the West Coast? Vancouver to San Diego? Tour the northern Rockies? But I'm sick of riding on roads, around cars... I do that every day at work.

Then it hit me solidly: mountain bike the entire Colorado Trail, solo and self supported- 475miles from Denver to Durango, almost all off-pavement and a vast majority on singletrack in the remote Rockies. 63,000ft of elevation gain (more climbing than going from sealevel to Mt Everest's summit twice) with a highpoint at 13,334ft. A very tough ride, I arranged for 3 weeks off work in August and tailored my training to this goal. I'd already been lifting weights and swimming since last autumn, then expanded to also include running, strength circuit training, and long road and mountain bike rides. At the time of my elbow mishap I was training 6 days per week, in addition to riding for work. And still I was nervous I wouldn't be in good enough shape come August to complete the CT without major suffering.

Clearly I won't be attempting the CT this summer. Instead of pushing myself to new personal levels of physical endurance and strength, my world is now going to focus on pushing myself back to what I once took for granted. The CT will be there for me next summer and I intend to tackle it then, in better fitness than I could have achieved this summer and with my bike and equipment situations better thought out. Maybe it's an ok delay. It's a different approach to my summer for sure, but an interesting one all the same.

This week I came up with a rather arbitrary, somewhat haphazard timeline of goals for my elbow rehab. Weekly goals of what I hope to accomplish, more or less. Some are probably overly ambitious, others maybe sandbagging a bit. I basically listed all the things I like to do, ordered with some respect to how difficult they might be given my injury recovery. (goals are cumulative)

Surgery is Wednesday, June 15th. I hope I'll be getting the sutures removed and starting physical therapy about a week later.

6/15     Wk #0     surgery
6/22     Wk #1     "Colorado Bike to Work Day" and sutures removed
6/25                     hit the gym- strength work on legs, abs, lower back, core muscles
6/27                     return to light bike duty at work
7/2       Wk #2     hiking in the mountains and running 3+ miles in the city
7/9       Wk #3     switch from riding mountain bike at work to my Bianchi cyclocross bike (faster, more efficient)
7/16      Wk #4    swimming at the gym, freestyle if possible
7/23      Wk #5    road bike ride on flat terrain, 20+ miles
7/30      Wk #6    ride my track bike for work
8/2        Wk #7    lift weights for chest and shoulders
8/9        Wk #8    start practicing my upright bass
8/16      Wk #9    road bike ride with climbs - ride Lookout Mountain
8/23      Wk #10  do pull-ups
8/30      Wk #11  do push-ups, triceps lifts
9/3        Wk #12  re-join my chamber orchestra for fall session on upright bass
9/10      Wk #13  easy mountain bike ride
9/17      Wk #14  strength circuit training
9/24      Wk #15  moderate mountain bike ride
10/1      Wk #16  road ride up to the Peak-to-Peak Highway
10/8      Wk #17  vigorous mountain bike ride
10/15    Wk #18  ride the Kokopelli Trail (142mi) and/or White Rim Trail (100mi) on my mountain bike
10/22    Wk #19  full free-weight lifting regimen
10/29    Wk #20  back to 'normal' !?

8/4/2012              ride the Colorado Trail !

I'll keep this list updated with my accomplishments and setbacks!

Bliss, followed by Disaster

Made my first trek of the season up to my beloved Nederland mountain bike trails on Saturday. 7am bus from Denver to Boulder, then the 8am bus up to Ned. I couldn't believe my eyes when I spied my old friend, former co-worker, bike racer extraordinaire, current Crested Butte resident and all around amazing girl Eszter also waiting for the Ned bus. She and (equally great) Chris were back on the Front Range for the weekend, and she was heading up to handily dominate the Single Speed USA event. She went off to race, I went off to ride, but we crossed paths a few times throughout the day and I eventually made my way to the race finish to say congrats and interlope with the lovely, wacky world of single-speed mt. bikers. Good times, great riding, wonderful folks. I was finally getting my mountain skills back, riding well both up and down and having a blast. 4hrs, 4000 vert ft climbing.

Then the disaster- back down in Boulder, riding back to catch the bus home via the bikepath. Distractedly looking over my shoulder, a momentary bit of carelessness, and  WHAM!!  I was picking myself up off the ground before I'd even realized that my handlebar had clipped a handrail and made my intimate acquaintance with the concrete path. What I quickly realized next was that my left elbow was not what it had been a few seconds earlier. Immediate swelling, a really funky feeling when bending it, and no strength to support myself with it. Not good.

Pedaled myself to the Boulder Emergency Room for evaluation and x-rays. My heart sunk when the nurse eventually walked back in with a right-to-the-point, "You need surgery." I'd broken the end of the olecranon, which is the "cup" part of the ball-and-socket joint.

broken and displaced 2cm:  fracture is visible directly above "20.0mm (P)"  (click photo to enlarge)

They put me in a splint and released me to follow up with my Kaiser Permanente insurance provider. I rode back to catch the bus to Denver, rode from the bus home. Pain was never bad, just felt like a bad bruise even without painkillers. Maybe that's a good sign?

Dad taught me to ride without training wheels when I was only 3 years old... I've spent the following 29 years riding year round, my primary hobby and my passion. For the past 11 years I've earned a meager but comfortable living as a bike messenger, making deliveries day in, day out, in any and every weather condition imaginable. 29 years, countless crashes- some pretty scary and severe, most mild and dumb. Today was only the third time I've ever needed medical attention from a bike wreck (the first, coincidentally, was for stitches on my right elbow when I was about 13.)

So now it's time to wait for an appointment at my Orthopedic Fracture Clinic in Denver.....

Memorial Day weekend rides

Long 3 day weekend and perfect weather made for a couple of good rides this weekend. I forgot my camera both times though.

Saturday I checked out White Ranch Open Space just outside of Golden. I'd been out there once before- about 7 years ago, not long after moving to Boulder. I was then just getting into actual mountains on my mountain bike, and we amateurs were discouraged by the loose, rocky initial climb up the the trail network. So I was determined (and confident) to get the best of it this time around. The climb was fine, although the trails are overused and poorly laid out amongst the terrain. Not bad for being so close to the city, but that's just the problem. Still, 3hrs on the mountain bike is no reason to complain.

Sunday was a road bike day, and it turned epic. Denver > Golden Gate Canyon > Peak to Peak Highway > Coal Creek Canyon > Denver. Perfect weather, long 17mi climb up to 9200ft on the P-to-P, great views, clear air, some more climbing on Coal Creek, and back home in time for dinner. Totals: 88mi, 7000 vertical ft of climbing in under 7hrs. Nice!

The extremely gusty winds came in Monday morning- couldn't have planned a better rest day!