Well, today was a wee bit nippy – maybe we’ll rest. BUT – we can go for breakfast! So, we decide to go back to Izzy’s for a pancake – we each try to order one, but they would really rather we just order one and split it. We know how big they are, and I’d kinda like to take half home for tomorrow, but we go ahead and go with their suggestion. Then they mention that the wait for food is up to 45 minutes – we’re fine – what else are we going to do today? Well, it actually takes one whole hour, but worth the wait. Here is my half of the pancake, and yes, it’s over an inch thick:

It’s more pancake than a full stack at IHOP, and it’s gooooood! Best pancake I’ve EVER had!

It’s supposed to freeze tonight, so I have to make sure all the water is out of the trailer – drain the water heater, and make sure all the lines drain out. Never warms quite enough to go do the ski lift thing, so we’re sad for that.

Early afternoon, Jimmy asks if we want to do Wagonwheel – sure! Why not? He says it’s easy, so we give it a go. Well, we’re pretty tired, and The Bear does her best to keep up, but she’s just slow today. She can ride, she’s just slow. So it’s like this – I wait for The Bear to catch up, and Jimmy waits for us both … repeatedly. But Jimmy’s a good sport, and takes it all in stride. He knew what he was getting into when he asked us to go ride, and that’s just one of the things I like about the guy. I wish more good riders were that understanding, and that willing to work with people of lesser skill/ability. Anyway, here’s a shot from the trail:

It’s single-track trail and road (as in asphalt and wide dirt), and by the time we’re done, we’ve gone 16 plus miles. But it’s a good ride, even though it takes us over two hours. We get back and showered, and Jimmy mentions that there’s going to be a bonfire tonight … hmmm … interesting. Turns out it’s a Solstice Celebration of some sort – truly pagan ritual, which sounds  … interesting. We go for dinner, and see this on the way. It’s GOT to be the biggest tricycle I’ve ever seen, or heard of:

and it’s part of the shindig tonight. When we leave the restaurant, the celebration is about to start. We stick around, there’s dancing, and a sort of play, and the decision is made to burn The Grump. Here he is, pre-barbeque:

I did mention the dancing:

Sorry for the crappy photos – phone and night don’t mix well. Anyway, here was the final outcome:

Poor Grump got all burned up!

That’s it, I’m beat, and going for some long, long sleep!

Alright! Got to ride again today! I was pretty tired, but it’s supposed to thunderstorm on Sunday, so we’ll rest then. So today, kind of easy, we take a concrete trail that goes up to Mount Crested Butte, but just before we get there, we’ll turn off to the left to hit the Lupine Trail, which will meet up with the one we rode yesterday. NO – we will not try going up to Gunsight Pass.

The easy ride out of town is harder than it should be – we’re tired – but we find the trail, and head on out. It’s a bit tougher than the Lower Trail, but the views are spectacular. Here’s Crested Butte from the start of the trail:

And it just gets better from here!

Here’s a pano of that same shot. We ride on, climbing more than we want, but hey, it’s how you get in shape! A bit further on, the trail reminds me of the Womble Trail in Arkansas, where you have mountain on one side, a foot-wide trail with maybe half a foot of shoulder on each side, and then a steep drop-off on the other side. It’s a bit tough for me (I  H-A-T-E  heights), but I know it’s not for very far, so I go on. Here’s a pano from there:

The reason you see nothing in front of me for maybe 300 or more feet? BECAUSE THERE’S NOTHING THERE! But it is beautiful, I’ll give it that! Would I ride it again? Yes, I would.

Toward the end of the ride, you can see the bridge across the river, that takes you to Gunsight Pass Road:

Yeah, beautiful! The ride back is uneventful, but just as much fun as yesterday, except the big hill that is bigger than I remember, and I go anaerobic close to the top. Don’t EVER go anaerobic when you’re at altitude! It hurts! And it feels like you’re never going to catch your breath – very scary. But I survived. On the ride back, saw a really cool bike stand, made from cask staves:

Cool!

After the ride, we needed to get some more stuff for the trailer, so we had to go in to Gunnison (there’s not much in Crested Butte besides restaurants, banks, realtors and doctors – including dentists). First, of course – the local bike shop!

Super nice and very helpful guy there (Phil, I think), so we buy a book, get some free mags, and he throws in a couple of stickers – Great! Pick up most of what I need, see something you never see in Dallas (thank god!):

though it will see plenty of use here very soon, and it’s time to eat! Phil recommended The Gunnisack, so we go there and have some pretty awesome panko-crusted fried catfish:

And it was nice to know that I made them very happy:

I’ll let you figure out which it was … oh, ok, it wasn’t because I left!

After that, drive home. Tomorrow we ride some more, but it will be pretty easy. We will ride the concrete trail to Mount Crested Butte, but the rest of the riding will be up on the ski lift, then down on the bike. Several times, I hope!

Today was … SUNNY! Yay! Spend some time working, then spend some time riding, yeah!

But first – breakfast! Gotta go mail something, so we walk to the post office, get our package and envelope mailed ouit, and go around the corner to Izzy’s:

Little hole in the wall? Yuppers! Good food? Double yuppers! I had a Mexican style Latke with two fried eggs on top – If I come back and have another, I’ll have to tease the waitress and say “I didn’t order hashbrowns, I ordered a Latke!”. But I’ll probably come back for the pancake. Yes, singular, and it’s $7.00. WHAT?? Yeah, that’s what I thought, but check out what you get for your $7.00:

Yes, that is one BIG pancake! The guy is looking at it as if he doesn’t quite know what to do with it, and I can sympathize! Except I’d eat it, not look at it! Yes, it’s bigger than your head!

On the way back, took a picture of this, which is on the way in to town:

Pretty cool!

Returned home, The Bear washed the bikes while I worked on the trailer wiring a little bit, then it was time to ride! We went on an easy ride, because I’ve been having trouble adjusting to the altitude, and got some shots:

Of course, when we got done, The Bear had not had enough, so we did a HARD climb towards Gunsight Pass. Yes, it’s a road, if you can call it that, but it’s a rough one, and after about a dozen switchbacks, we ran out of time to keep climbing, so we headed for home. We’d set ourselves a turnaround time of 5:30, and were evidently still two or three miles from the top, and it gets steeper the closer it gets to the top! We made it 1.75 miles before we turned around, so I feel pretty good about it. Total ride was 14 miles. And I did fine – it was a good day!

Burger for dinner, and off to bed!

Ah! A clear day today! Slept on a great bed with a Memory Foam mattress – that was different – and got … up … slowly … god! I hurt! EVERYTHING hurts. Well, today is definitely a rest day, so my body has one day to heal.

We go into town to look for some stuff we need – I need to get something notarized and then mail it off. Where to find a notary? A bank! Yes! Go to Bank of the West, and it’s “Oh, sure! Of course we can do that! Oh, wait – are you a customer? No? Sorry, you’ll have to go elsewhere”. Really. I’m standing there thinking he’s going to say $5, or $10, if you’re not a customer, but NO, if you’re not an existing customer, you get NOTHING from us! Go to a public notary, Jack, just go away. I did, and I knew at that point that I will NEVER be their customer. Went to the Chamber of Commerce, who were not much more help, though they did say “Try the realtor across the street”. I did, a very nice lady at Coldwell Banker Realtors, who did it FOR FREE, even though they do not offer Notary services to the public. THAT is service! I know she heard in my voice that I was very unhappy with my previous experiences, and she did not have to do it, and I would have understood from her, BUT SHE DID IT ANYWAY – If you need a realtor in Crested Butte, CO, go see those folks, they are VERY helpful!

So what now? LUNCH! I wanted Pizza, so we went to The Brick Oven – yeah, how did they come up with that name for a pizza place? Weird! We ordered a small Supreme, with added jalapeños, in a thick crust:

They INSTANTLY slid into the number two spot, tied with the Slippery Otter, but still not quite up to Fatty’z. Nevertheless, EXCELLENT pizza. We get done eating, start to leave … what is that pitter patter? Is it rain? Yes … no … hail no. It’s HAIL! Several people tell us it’s the biggest hail they’ve seen in Crested Butte:

Doesn’t look that big to me, but since more than one person said it, I’ll believe it! Great. No riding today, even if we wanted to. I did look to my right and saw a funny sign across the street – well, only funny because it was hailing:

Yes, the vertical streaks on the car window are hail – “Watch Out For Falling Ice”, indeed!

We head back to the house, and it does not stop raining. Great. I get my MacBook Pro upgraded to 10.8.5, so there IS that, but I’d rather be doing something else. Still raining, maybe I’ll upgrade my iPhone to iOS 7 that came out today. Got nothing else to do!

Monday. Lately, I love Mondays. Took a long time to get here, but if you aren’t working for long enough … you get here. I love them because the trails are not crowded, especially now that most folks are done with vacation, since they had to take the kids back to school.

Anyway, loved yesterday, although I had places hurt that have not hurt in a long time – hell, most of them still hurt today! I wondered why my ribs hurt on the right side – probably from all the bike lifting yesterday – we walked a BUNCH. Especially that big entry and exit at Horsethief. But it was fun!

Today was another fun day. Got up, and no rain! Ate breakfast and headed out to Fruita, out to the 18 Road trails. No, it’s not 18 trails on a road, although there are a bunch, that’s the name of the road. No, really! See?

Yup, the corner of 18 Road and N 3/10 Road. Now here is the kicker – that N 3/10 Road … does that mean North 3/10 Road? Probably not. Why do I say that? Because of this nearby intersection:

Yeah, 17-1/2 Road and K-3/4 Road. We were camped near B-1/2 Road. Gotta love it!

Anyway – we went to ride, met a nice guy who gave us a lot of good information on the local trails, verifying what we’d heard, so we rode three trails, one of them  twice. You come out of the parking lot at the trailhead and go up Prime Cut – a fairly easy uphill-only trail – here’s the top of it:

From here, you can take PBR (Pumps, Bumps, and Rollers), or go back to 18 Road to catch more trails, or Chutes and Ladders. We’d heard about C&L – lots of hard climbs and tall tables (a flat area you drop off of) so that one was out. We were told PBR was the one to do first – it takes you back close to the trailhead, meeting with Prime Cut close to its start, so that’s what we did. The Bumps I had figured out, it’s a bumpy mountain bike trail. Ditto the Rollers, it just means the trail rolls up and down, little dips that give you enough oomph to coast to the top of the following climb – a lot of fun, especially because it takes so little effort – consider it payback for the climb at the beginning. But the pumps were new to me. These are little ramps along the trail that can help you catch air (jump), or can help you pick up speed. Not sure how that works, and I did not want to catch air, so all they did was slow me down and took some of the fun out of it. Meh.

Back close to the start, we took Prime Cut back up so we could take the connector to 18 Road from the intersection where we’d been. We had a plan! Another really good trail is Kessler Run, which starts at 18 Road and goes back close to the trailhead where we were parked, though of course, on the other side of 18 Road. WHAT. A. BLAST! Almost as fun as Upper Drain back at Bear Basin outside McCall, ID, though not quite. If I’d felt better, I’d have done it again! Yeah, my chest still hurt, and for some reason my right knee decided to really start hurting … then it quit hurting, but why chance it? We’d put in 12 miles, so it was a good day. And nothing could have beat Kessler Run.

Back in town, caught a photo of the Co-Op silo in Fruita:

Kind of gives you an indication that Fruita is all about mountain biking! Ok, and dinosaurs, there’s a dinosaur painted on the other side, to let you know they have a dinosaur museum.

That was it! All the riding we’ll do here this trip. We have GOT to come back. Next year’s trip is shaping up better and better! Tomorrow we go to Crested Butte, and no camping!

Ah, the sun! Finally! Today we ride! Really! After breakfast we head for Loma, about 22 miles away. Well, ok, we’re not going INTO Loma, the trails are about five miles outside of town, and today, we’re doing Kokopelli. It’s famous. Hell, it was famous twenty years ago when we were first mountain biking, and The Bear has wanted to ride it ever since. Needless to say, when we got here  she was royally pissed, and rightfully so, what with all the rain – it was iffy if she was going to get to ride it this time. Anyway, here’s the trailhead:

Yeah, I cut off the right side – I took it as I was leaving, and I was TIRED. Deal with it!

First loop we did was Rustler’s Loop, an easy one. Here are some shots:

We were riding atop this … ridge … mesa … thing … river waaaay down there.

This is looking the other direction from the last shot, and up close to the edge so you can see the river. The things I go through for my readers …

After Rustler’s Loop, we thought we’d do Mary’s Loop, this one an intermediate. Yeah. Here’s a shot of a guy climbing the very beginning of the trail, and it goes up a lot further than you can see.

He’s just left of center in the middle of the photo. I made sure I held the phone level for this, did not want to exaggerate the slope. Below the trail is a line of rocks, and that is steeper than the trail, which gives the illusion the trail is steeper than it is – trust me, it’s steep enough as it is! Here’s a photo of later in the trail:

Why. yes, it does overlook the same mountains! Mary’s Loop is just beside the land that had Rustler’s Loop. While up there, what do we see? RAIN CLOUDS. Damn!

The Bear gives them a one-finger salute, and at least for a while they don’t pour rain on us. I took another shot at this same location:

It’s clear that direction, the dark clouds are to my right – my bike has not moved from the last shot. It’s on the far left in this shot. I cross my fingers that the rain stays away. For good measure, here’s a pano of the area Mary’s overlooks:

It was weird, click on the pano to see it larger – on the left, rain clouds, and VERY dark, on the right, full sun!

In the middle of Mary’s Loop, there’s a trail that drops off to the left, that gives you access to another trail – Horsethief Loop. The connector is not impossible to ride, but I’ll bet only one in a thousand can ride it, or is crazy enough to ride it. I didn’t get a shot of it while on it, unfortunately, but I did get some shots of it from below:

See that line of rocks that goes from lower left to upper right, the really big ones? Yeah, THAT is the lower half of the climb (or descent, depending). Here’s another as I got closer:

You approach on the trail, go left, that’s easy to ride, and you end up where the top of that bush is on the left. Then you climb to the right, along the big boulders. Yes, it’s hard, yes, it’s dangerous – not TOO much so, but it’s easy to fall on the trail or twist an ankle. You would not fall far, but you would hit hard and probably break something. It’s only about 80 feet, bottom to top along the trail, but it’s a hard one that takes a few minutes. That was NOT the fun part. The rest of it had its moments, and we had to walk quite a bit, but the rideable parts were fun. I would do it again. While on it, of course the sky started to spit on us, the pitter-patter of rain. Damn! The Bear gives the clouds another single-finger salute, and in a few minutes, the spitting stops. How does she DO that? I don’t fear her, I respect her. Ok, maybe a little bit of fear.

Anyway, when we got to the top, we’d had enough and decided to go back down Mary’s Loop the way we came. We parked at the entrance to the Kokopelli area, and there will be a massive climb out of the valley to get back to the truck. And the part that really sucks, is that after you climb out of the valley, you drop about half the distance to get back to the truck. Yes, up, then down again. They couldn’t just go straight across? Maybe a tunnel? Oh, well. It is what it is.

Ok, on the way back, I shoot a pano from Mary’s Loop, of the land that has Rustler’s Loop on it:

Click on it to see the trail, then click on it again to zoom in. Cool! At the top of the massive climb, before descending, I get a shot of Junior:

Yes, it’s that far out and that far down. Here’s a close up:

That was it – we were done for the day. On the way home, though, I saw some really cool clouds just before we pulled into the KOA, so I pulled out the good camera and took some shots, unfortunately, there are wires and poles in the way, but all of you should know, you have to shoot when you have the light, because the light does not wait!

Yes, very cool!

Wake up this morning to rain. Not a surprise, it rained all night. It stops after breakfast, but the trails will probably still be too wet to ride. Argh! Ok, let’s hit some bike shops, there’s one here in Grand Junction, and another in Fruita, so we’ll hit them both. We go to the first place:

Bicycle Outfitters, and we meet a very helpful guy – sorry, didn’t get the name – and he tells us about all kinds of local trails, sells us a map, and gives us another. We also get some gels, and decide to take him up on a suggestion – get to Fruita through the Colorado National Monument. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that, as it’s still VERY cloudy – what kind of photos can I get? Well, rare ones. It doesn’t rain much here, so photos with clouds are rare ones. We’re off!

Ok, I’ve punched all of these up a bit, or else I should have just desaturated them to black and white. It’s dreary out there, but when the light pokes through, this is what it looks like.

Then there’s this:

Great shot of Grand Junction in the distance.

Big valley down there.

I love the geology out here. I get a kick out of how these layers stack.

And here, a little sun! We finally get to Fruita, and take another suggestion from the guy at the bike shop – the best pizza in the valley is at the Hot Tomato, so that’s where we go. We opt for the Kokopelli, with added jalapeños:

It’s pretty awesome! Not quite up to Fatty’z in Mountain Home, but close. After lunch, it’s off to the bike shop, just down the street. This one is Over the Edge Sports, and we are met by a very energetic fellow named Max. Also very helpful, he gives trial and food advice. We can’t try out the food just yet, we have to get back to GJ, but we do take his suggestion to go to The Tap, a microbrewery just down the street, where he suggests we try the Oatmeal Stout. Good suggestion!

Soon enough, we’ve had our brew, and it’s time to get back home, because we’re going through the park again, and it’s slow going, but the light should be better, lower in the sky. I’m right:

Yes! Sunlight AND a rainbow!

A bit later, it’s darker and cloudier, but there’s also a double rainbow – that’s two within a week!

Not sure which of those shows it better, so there they both are.

A little later, sun lower in the sky, and the rainbow changes direction, so I get a shot of it. Beautiful! What’s not so beautiful is the forecast – rain tomorrow. Argh!

Alright! New day! Let’s go ride! What do I hear pitter-pattering on the canvas? Yeah – it’s rain. GAHH! And it rains most of the morning.

We decide to go to the Utah State Fair, which is made really easy to do by the fact that the KOA is next door to the fairgrounds! It’s kinda sunny around noon, and we have a pretty good time of it. We’ll spend a couple of hours looking around, then we’ll see about riding the trails. After hour two, we go into the photo contest exhibit to look around, and when we come out … it’s raining. Again. We’re just not going to get to ride this trip. We decide to get info for the next trip, and visit a couple of bike shops. Interesting outing. For one, there’s hardly any free parking, and that kind of bothers me. And no parking meters – most parking spots are numbered, and every so often there’s a machine where you can pay, using a credit or debit card, or cash, or you can use an app on your phone. Interesting concept, but at two bucks an hour, it’s kind of steep! I said “no thanks” and either avoided places where parking was charged for, or found free parking and went at it that way.

Anyway – bike shops. Went to two, and both were pretty disappointing. Oh, they had a lot of stuff, but not much information about any trails in the area. Interesting concept – sell mountain bikes, but don’t have any information about where folks can use these new $1,000 to $5,000 bikes they just bought. They tell you to go to a website, but the website really only works for locals. If you don’t know the areas they’re talking about, it’s really pretty useless. Would it really kill you to put in a map? Maps are good.

On a totally separate note (or, as some of my all-time favorite folks would have said: “and now, for something completely different”), I saw Twinkies are back on the shelf! No, not old Twinkies, NEW Twinkies! They’re back! The joke was that they had a shelf life measured in decades. Well, that’s not true, but I DID find something with a shelf life of ONE MILLENNIUM. No, really! I have pictures!

This is the product. Ok, it’s not spelled exactly right, it’s supposed to be a “c with a squiggle” instead of a “c”, but … here’s the expiration date on the back:

See? October 3013! Over ONE MILLENNIUM! Woohoo! I don’t think I’ll be around to sue if it makes me sick. Actually, I won’t even be around to eat it!

BUT – Speaking of eating – went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner – the Red Iguana, not too far from the KOA, and had a GREAT dinner. I had a seafood stew, and Barri had Shrimp Sonora, garlic shrimp. WONDERFUL food. And when we left, we were greeted by this awesome sight:

Yup! A double rainbow! I think it’s the first one I’ve ever photographed, so here it is. You’re welcome.

It’s almost midnight, and the weather’s looking better! Rain is supposed to stay away until after noon, and we’ll be long gone by then! Keep your fingers crossed!