Utah bike tour preparations

Getting my trusty Bianchi cross bike set up for this year's Utah tour. Going with full panniers this time after using a B.o.b. trailer on last year's tour. Planning to start near Capitol Reef Natl Park, head through Escalante Staircase, Bryce Canyon, Zion, and back around. 8-10 solo days on the road, can't wait!

Learned a lot during last year's Utah tour so I'm setting up the bike with easier gearing, as well as ditching the clunky trailer. Now I've got a 32-12T cassette, and swapped on my mountain bike triple cranks (44-32-22T) so I can lumber up the steep inclines at a snail's pace, but still make it up. Also a handlebar bag this time around. For panniers I went with the Ortlieb roll-tops in the rear for their full waterproofness, and some larger Axiom's in the front for their many zipper pockets & compartments.

prepping the tour bike

And enjoying some fantastic meals from the garden before I hit the road!

September -- garden harvest taking off

It's been a good growing season, and the bounty is starting to pour in. April's hard work is paying off!

sunflowers bigga than yar head!

our Mitchell Community Garden

just one day's loot

homegrown dinner: stuffed summer squash, kale, beets & beans, fresh salsa.

Road trip!

The weekend started with free tickets to the Beatles tribute band at Red Rocks on Saturday night before camping under the stars at Kenosha Pass.

good morning along the Colorado Trail

Followed by a quick swing through the original South Park

Next stop, Florissant Fossil Beds Natl Monument:

petrified trees

We stumbled into a Veterans' Biker Rally in Cripple Creek

And capped it off with a visit to the vintage arcade in Manitou Springs

August 14-15, 2010 -- backpacking to Woodland Lake

Backpacked about 6 miles up into Indian Peaks Wilderness to camp a night at Woodland Lake, 11,00ft.

This has been a bountiful year for wild mushrooms, and we harvested a few edible boletus (porcini) mushrooms to try to cook up at home.

sunrise from the campsite

Lance sighting in Denver

I happened to catch Lance at the Capitol announcing 'his' Quizno's Pro Challenge stage race, slated for Colorado in summer 2011. Love him or not, I'm super stoked to see some real deal pro road teams racing in our mountains.

I swear that's him at the podium

And then the masses lined up to 'ride' with Lance... but I had to go back to work. Easily a thousand bikers found time for a Wednesday morning group ride, by way of twitter.

July 10-11, 2010 -- backpacking near the Big Thompson River

A mellow 3.5mi hike in along the north fork of the Big Thompson River, through Dunraven Glades area northwest of Loveland. Really nice trek, the weather held and we enjoyed a beautifully silent night in the woods. April's first ever overnight backpack trip... and she loved it.

cozy campsite on Natl Forest land

After hiking out Sunday, we popped into Rocky Mt Natl Park for an afternoon hike up to The Loch, a beautiful lake at 10,200ft. Some blustery storms were swirling and spitting, but luckily no lightning or heavy rain.

The Loch

Homebrew project

My buddy Ian is helping me learn to brew my own beer. 3 weeks later, we'll have about 5 gallons. $40 for ingredients, and a heck of a fun afternoon that devolved to playing RockBand at midnight. Can't make beer without drinking some beer, right?

the yeast colony is setting up shop

a couple of work pics

A few curious sights encountered during work lately...

Denver cops rollin' a Vette !?!

there are likely better ways to walk your dog

the city gave me a bike lane on my street. Yay!

Community garden work day

The growing season is getting rolling so we brought everyone out for the second group work day. April & I are the 'garden leaders' this year, so we're stepping it up to keep everyone motivated & involved. It's working. This is our third year at Mitchell Garden, and previously a majority of gardeners lost interest or gave up midway through the growing season. An abandoned garden is a sad sight, and we're hoping to reverse the trend of ambition turning to apathy.

Frisco BBQ Fest !!!

I'd heard of the annual Frisco BBQ Fest before, so this year on a whim we jumped in the car after work on Friday and went to see for ourselves. Simply amazing, if you like a good BBQ. We sure do, and were fat & happy. Festival folks take to makin Q with a serious fierceness, and most of it was absolutely delicious.

You can buy small tasting size servings for a buck or two to try what each booth has to offer. Some were out of this world, others not terribly impressive, but all very tasty regardless.

This booth was Biggins' BBQ.   whooda quessed?

Not a bad way to enjoy a warm Friday sunset. I'll be back next year!

June 11-13, 2010 --- Strawberry Park Hotsprings

April's getting old, so we packed up and hit our favorite hotsprings retreat to celebrate her birthday! Chilly, rainy weather made for a super cozy weekend. A steady diet of decadent yet simple food on the grill and tasty wine makes for general good livin' in these parts.

We tried to drive home over Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mt. Natl. Park, but the same storm that brought rain to the hotsprings had also brought snow to the high country and the road was closed higher up due to ice. However, we drove in partway, and were able to hike towards the headwaters of the Colorado River.

Colorado River

A few miles further up, the river is barely a creek and you can straddle the mighty Colorado. I'll have to make it up to the actual headwaters someday, but today we got chased back to the car by an approaching t-storm.

'Old Testament' ---- my photos prior to SkinnyTraffic blog

In the olden days, I kept up a lazy flickr.com account.... which amounted a trickle of content, usually covering fun outdoor trips & adventures. See this link for the history:

www.flickr.com/photos.com/billyelliott

This includes my first ever solo bicycle tour - in the southeastern Utah desert. And a few vacations, various mountain jaunts, some work stuff and a bit of domesticity. So check it out if you're curious, and I'll try to keep this here blog updated and at least mildly interesting.