Resting...

From the spring..

I'm a little under the weather today, body saying rest me please, so I am. Though I'm enjoying a lovely day at home, the fella is fishing, good for his soul, and I'm doing some art among other things that I've really been wanting to do but have not made the time for. In my shuffling about the house I came upon a quote I wrote down while I was reading a book titled "This Is Not The Story You Think It Is" by Laura Munson.
She is speaking here of riding her horse. "When I am on my horse, the rest of the world falls away except for the exact place where his feet touch the ground. It's the most religious practice I've known; it's where the prayers don't beg. They surrender and receive. It's that place of true nature I've been seeking all my life. Freedom."
"Where prayers don't beg. They surrender and receive." I love those words and can relate to it when I'm out riding my bike, a horse with rubber shoes.

SSV Rocks!

Craig and I headed out Sunday morning for a bit of rocky, rawdy goodness that is the South St. Vrain trail system. We rode up Sourdough from beyond the Tahona boyscout camp east of Peak to Peak, up and up and up over rocks and roots and more rocks till we hit the jeep road which went more up to the Little Raven trail. Little Raven is fun, mostly down and has some nice skinnies and some technical rocky goodness toward the end. It drops you out at the Brainard lake parking lot hell that is the front range and then you ride up the road to Mitchell Lake and this, this in my opinion is where the real, adrenal pumping, physically and skill demanding ride begins.

Taking a breather after some rocky up before we continue with more up. Lovely day.

Riding the SSV from Mitchell Lake all the way back to the boy scout camp is 5 or so miles of down, but it's the closet thing on the front range in my opinion to a DH run at a bike park, just much longer and you're worked at the end. I've been riding this trail for years and it always demands focus and attention or else you could really get hurt. There are many jumbley rock gardens to skillfully pick your way through, there are steep, rooty, droppy, rocky, switchy sections to pick your line through, just enough controlled speed to allow passage but slow enough so you can understand/see your next move. This kind of riding inspires the hell out of me, I can't explain the stoke I get from riding this kind of madness except "Hell Yeah"! I've ridden for many years and I know where my weaknesses and strengths lie with my riding and I'm pretty good at the technical dh stuff, I don't know why, it seems to come naturally and there's a confidence inside of me, I see the line and I just go for it, I can move my bike around under me and it all comes together and the stoke is like a high, it's quite exciting, though I wouldn't want to ride this type of trail every day, it would mentally and physically wear me down. I don't mean to sound all up on myself, I'm not perfect, I crash and burn often enough, but at times I seem to transcend my every day existence, my every day ride that I show up for, and I ride with a fearlessness and accuracy that comes through me. This happens in life, in physical activities, in creative activities.
At any rate, there are so many different types of terrain to ride and styles of riding, everyone has their favorite. I tend to get bored with non-technical riding, I lose my fire if that's all I ride for too long. I need rocks and roots and drops and steeps. Fast and flowy is good too but I'm not as good at that as slower and rowdy technical, it's my strength. With that said, what is your favorite style of riding and what type of riding do you seem to be best at naturally?

It's a Man's World?

Which one's your favorite?

I too hate it when a man drags me up a mountain just to show off his new jumper!

Look at this guy's outfit!

No wonder I've got a headache.

WTF!

HAH!

Catching some Air

In the summer, you sometimes have to go big and by big I mean high, where you shoulder your bike and head up where even trees aren't silly enough to try and grow.

And this is what we did, to catch summer in the alpine before she turns heel and heads south.
High enough that catching air means trying to breath as you pedal ever further up. I feel a noticeable shift in my ability to acclimate above 12,000'. I become much slower and labored in my breathing and headaches are not uncommon for me. Craig doesn't seem to have any problems at all, he does quite well at higher altitudes and it doesn't slow him down that much.

Yankee Doodle Bowl.
Yes, winter stills lingers here and it doesn't help that Eddie is already thinking and talking about snowboarding.

But for now there are many lovely flowers basking in the sun. It's good to go high, the higher you go the simpler it gets. Breath as much as you can, watch out for storms and enjoy the remote solitude. Who else would be kookie enough to come up here with their bike, ME!

Winter lurking, trees baring their beat up legs to the sun.

We had excellent timing which never happens. We made it to Guinn Mtn. Hut as an afternoon storm opened up and rain and hail came down. Much better than hunkering down under a tree which is our normal routine. This hut gets a lot of use in the winter.

And it's really quite nice inside, cozy. Plenty of room to sleep many and a resident guitar to pass the time with. Eddie provided the tunes.

Craig watching the rain come down. Lovely red door, lovely fella, terrible blurry picture.

Can you see the rain and hail?

The bikes took a rest in the wood shed and stayed nice and dry.

Heading back out after the rain storm.

The McBlurries hanging out at the hut. Another delightful summer adventure.

Full On...

Somewhere in BoCo. on a Thursday evening taken by Jimijames.

Summer is hurtling by with all it's loveliness. The long, warm days and the cool nights. Riding a lot, legs are tired some days, take a break, let things rest, refresh, but it's hard, I know winter isn't that far off, it's quietly making it's way, slowly but steady. Don't think about it, I'm such a freak! Though those thoughts make it hard for me to not want to enjoy every moment of summer in the mountains, up high trails are open, the wild flowers going off, the aspens in their bright green and white best, the mountain streams waiting for me to dunk in. Summer rules supreme for me in the mountains of Colorado, it must be savored. At our home things are bursting with life, quickly, the birds, critters and bugs all know it won't last. We have three separate bird nests around the house, the chickadees and fly catchers out back and the house wrens on the front porch, it's quite the nursery, so much fun to watch. Today is the 4th of July, we woke early to a magnificent thunder storm and then dense clouds and fog. We rode any way and it was bliss, a perfect day, not to be missed.
I'm terrible with pictures lately, what's a blog with out pictures anyway? I'll try to be better but please don't hold your breath, I'm trying to let things be organic in my life and if that means I forget the camera, then oh well.
I'm really enjoying my experiments in the kitchen and with my diet, adding a lot of raw foods and recipes and it's wonderful and really tasty. I'm going to post a recipe I concocted that is based on two or three other recipes that I've seen, it's a uncooked and raw strawberry/blueberry cobbler that is to DIE for, really, full of the life force of the plants and foods, no picture, sorry, I ate it all already, oops. Life's sweet right now, and it demands my full attention, enjoy it deeply as this will pass soon enough.

Really Freakin' Good Strawberry Blueberry Cobbler
(raw or mostly raw, DF, SF and GF)
Crust:

• 1 cup almond flour/meal
• 6 large dates (pitted)
• dash of salt
  
• Place ingredients in a food processor and blend until the dough is sticky enough to hold together when pressed between your fingers. Add some almond milk or what have you or water if necessary to get it to the consistency you need. At this point, I pressed the dough into a glass container, this is the crust.

Filling:

• 1.5 cup fresh or frozen strawberries. More or less. Reserve some fresh strawberries to mix in later.
• handful of blueberries
  
• 1 Tbsp Chia seeds
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 6 or so pitted dates
• 1 Tbsp agave
• Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor except for some fresh, cut strawberries and blueberries. Blend for a minute until you have syrupy consistency, the chia will make everything congeal together. Pour over the crust and throw in remaining strawberries and blueberries and then place in the fridge to chill for an hour or as long as you can wait. Serve and try to share it with others, it's hard, enjoy this summery goodness.