So the registration line was fairly short. But it was still painful. Everybody was huddled and wondering what they were doing trying to ride in the cold conditions. There was snow and ice everywhere. I saw guys trying to ride in the parking area. It wasn’t pretty. They were sliding everywhere. No traction to be had.

Luckily, I had been watching the forecast and reading the web site. They had said that ice studs or screws were going to be allowed. So I had done a bit of research and was sporting about 550 half inch screws in the knobbies of my tires. Traction was decent enough to ride. Yes, you were going to be on a bike sliding a bit, but it was controllable.

There was some confusion at the start as to which row I was supposed to be on. So I started off almost a minute after the row had started. Oh well, it’s a two hour race.

After stalling a couple of times I got into a rhythm, sorta. The deep snow was giving me fits. But before long we were off into the wooded sections. Here was a mix of everything. Frozen dirt, snow, icy, berms, hills, etc. I was getting faster as the race went along.

The screws were doing very well for traction in most of the course. I was being careful to not spin the back end much. I didn’t want to tear them up and have no traction at all. By the second lap I was lapping guys from the classes who didn’t stud their tires. I really pitied them. It really was a slippery course.

On lap 4, I got blocked going up a rocky hill. Right in the steep rocky section. By now I’ve already beaten up the earth with my body a couple of times. I’m hurting and tired. The screws are starting to round off or be ripped out. Sadly, the hill did them in for the most part.

After the hill, I was basically in survival mode with little traction. Once I crossed the finish line, I called it a day. I could have tried to go for another lap, but I was tired, dehydrated (my camelbak line froze solid on my back … no fluids for me for the race). 4 laps is my total … I think. By the end I was getting a bit hazy.

I pulled in and quickly loaded the bike in the back of the truck. Then I sat in the truck and started it for warmth. Eventually, I changed out of my sweaty clothes and was ready for the 2 hour trip home.

The ending temperature for the day — a balmy 16 degrees. Same 20 – 35 mph winds blowing. Amazingly enough, I wasn’t really cold when I was riding. I was moving and working enough that I was actually sweating. I never overheated despite wearing a t-shirt, long-sleeved riding shirt, sweatshirt, and regular jacket. Usually, I just wear a t-shirt and riding shirt. 6 hours later and I’m still hurting from this ride. It took a lot out of me.

Side Notes:

Tire Screws – Cheap and readily available at your local hardware store. I spent about $25 for 600 of them. Great for traction … for a while. Don’t spin your tires and they’ll last longer!!!

Foot and Hand Heating Pads – Available in WalMart in the hunting area. The foot ones kept my feet perfectly warm all day long. The hand ones were decent as well, just not quite as good as the foot ones. I’ve ridden in cold events before. Usually, your feet get pretty chilly despite the activity. This time my feet were perfectly warm the whole time. Good stuff!!!

Camelbak – Evidently, on cold events you need to keep it inside of a layer of clothing or jacket to keep it warm enough to flow. Lesson learned.

The Pace – I tried to ride well within my normal pace given the lack of traction. When I tried to get too frisky is when I did the gumby tumble. Both shoulders are now reminding me this is not good.

Fun riding, but not the easiest stuff.

Drew Marcum & I decide to hit the trails near Breckenridge around French Gulch / Wellington Road (it connects through the mountains to the Tiger Road trails we have been riding on about 10 miles away by highway).

We start out hammering up the trails at  a good pace (I am seriously lagging at first until I get back in a rhythm).  We start trying to find new trails by going up semi-used ones.  We are going under leaning trees and fallen logs until the trails end.  We finally give up and go looking for the single track trails and find some nice ones off of Tiger Road.  We hit probably a 4-5 mile single track and play on that.

Eventually we end up back at Tiger Road.  It’s a bit early so we decide to ride for a bit more.  We try the North Fork trails.  They are nice trails, nothing too difficult.  We run to the end of the North Fork in a meadow.  Then, being geniuses, we see a “single track” trail…more of a goat trail…and follow it.  We are following it down the mountain until it to dies out.

We are in a valley and know we are going back above the trail we came in on.  So we light out downhill.  At first it’s just a steep hill with relatively loose soil and rocks.  We have to jump a couple of logs. It’s starting to get fairly difficult quickly.  Do we turn back?  Nooooooo.  Not us.  We keep going, riding over and around fallen trees and lifting the bikes when necessary. After about 45 minutes of this we finally make it back down to the trail.  We are whipped and done.  Back home we go to start the sad process of packing our gear to go home.

Not long after we get back to the condo, the others start filtering in to pack as well.  The trailer is brought up, new tires installed, and the bikes are loaded, toolkits, gear, etc.  This takes a few hours.  After that it’s shower and pack travel bags, dinner, and generally decompress from a truly awesome vacation.

Riders today:

Drew Marcum
Steve Keener

If you ever get the chance to do this sort of a trip…jump at it.  We rode every single day, saw amazing sights, trails few people will ever want to travel by motorcycle, and generally forgot about the stress of our everyday lives to enjoy nature and test ourselves.  I guesstimated we did about 350 miles on our dirtbikes  (street, climbing mountains, dirt roads, single track trails, rocks, and unfortunately crossing logs!).

Awake early yet again, And go out for a quick breakfast with Steve Harris, Mary Seidel,
Joe Wooten, and Drew Marcum.

Joe, Drew, and I load up Drew’s truck with our bikes and hit the road.  We are going to meet up with a friend of Joe’s and ride some trails that he knows.  They are in the Arapaho Forrest near Granby, Colorado.  It’s nearly a 2 hour trip.

We meet up with Eric & Kevin Jurin and have lunch on the way.

We finally hit the trails around 1 pm.  A very late start for us.  The trails quickly go from 2 track (4 wheel capable) to single track and all over the place.

Eric & Joe lead the way.  Drew and I are running together with me taking video with my Oregon Scientific helmet-mounted camera.  We are both picking up the pace and soon running an amazing pace for us.  We are in the zone and totally focused for the next couple of hours.  We end up doing about 29 miles out into the forest.  We hit the end of that trail and start back.  I am starting to really fatigue at this point.

We make it back to a juncture with the dirt road that paces the trails and exit onto that.  We’ve done  around 38-ish miles.  I’m done physically at this point and out of pedialite.

Our eventual total mileage is 55 for the whole outing.  About 5 hours with breaks.  And We have over 2 hours of video of the event!!!

Riders today:

Joe Wooten
Drew Marcum
Steve Keener

Started the morning trip a bit later today.  About 1o:30 we went about 10 miles out to the Tiger Road area and looked for some less well known single track trails.  A single track trail is generally 12-18 inches wide and usually requires a higher skill level to ride (steep inclines/declines, weaving between trees, and a heck of a lot of work to ride).

After a few miscues, we finally found the area.  Our first attempt up some single track was aborted when Joe Wooten made it about 15 feet in and fell on a very steep technical incline.  I’d guess it was greater then 45 degrees, 12 inches wide in a rut, and filled with loose soil and rocks.  The others looked at it and said no way.  So we backtrackd and found other trails to the top of the mountain.  Once up there we rode around as a group for a while.  Eventually the hard core (read that nutjobs in the group) decided to go find the single track again.

We were going to meet upn an hour…but of course got lost.  No GPS with us so we just kept riding around on some awesome technical trails.  After a few hours we found ourselves being dumped out on a dirt road.  In the distance we could see the ski slopes of Breckenridge.  So we followed the road back to town and had lunch at the condo.  We had driven out to the trails over about 10 miles of straight highway/paved roads in 20 minutes.  It had taken us nearly three hours to meander our way back.  My rough milage for the trip was about 28 miles total.

Ride 2 started around 4 pm.  We were going to go abck to the Crystal Lake area (the back side of peak 10).  Unfortunately we were going a different route and our normal guide Seve Harris wasn’t along.  We got lost.  During that short ride, I killed yet another tire.  Yes, my 4th.  Since it was close by, I just went back to the condo to prepare for Friday’s 70+ mile ride with Joe Wooten and Drew Marcum.

Of course I killed yet another tube while working on the front end.  I switched the low profile tire with a higher profile new Maxxis in an attempt to prevent yet another flat.  I’ll have to go buy a bunch of heavy duty inner tubes to replace the supply I am quickly using up.  I’ve tried softening up the front end suspension, running 16 psi, etc.  But it seems that when I really start going faster I’m causing the impacts on rocks to pinch the inner tube between the rock and the rim and ripping holes.  Oh well, I wanted to get better/faster.

And yes, I am the only person in the group with this problem.  AHHHHHH!

Working on the helmet camera’s video setup on the new helmet.  Should be able to get some video Friday & Saturday.

Riders today:

Joe Wooten
Steve Harris
Drew Marcum
Steve Clark
Rich Sturges
Steve Keener
Mary Seidel
Brian Summers
Adina Rossi
Bernie Conatser

We started around 8 am. Rich Sturges, Drew Marcum, Bernie Conatser, Jow Wooten, and I were planning a short early ride up peak 10 just outside Breckenridge.  Little did we know it was going to be a 3 hour ugly affair on rocky switchbacks.  I made it to the weather station about 150 feet shy of the summit.  The others hiked from the weather station up to the peak.  I went down a bit and relaxed out of the wind enjoying the sun and listening to my ipod.

Ride 2 of the day was a longer affair.  We used highways to get out to some dirt road town (M-something, I’ll fill in later.)  Easy ride to start.  Large group of us with Brian Summers and his girlfriend Adina Rossi on the back of the bike!  We started up into the mountain ranges and the hardcore riders separated from those just looking for a nice easy ride.

We figured we had a long ride ahead as it was nearly an hour ride to where we started into the mountains from Breckenridge.  We were moving fast along the ridgeline. (Joe Wooten, Steve Harris, Bernie Conatser, Drew M., and myself)

We saw some spectacular views and some mountain goats/sheep out in the cliffs.  I’ll fill in with great pictures later.

Our trip back included the North Fork from the Tiger Rd area and a couple of different Gulches.  On one of the descents I finally dropped the bike.  Literally…on it’s side.  It was so steep when I went to put my foot down for balance…I met air.  DOH!  No damage, a little dust is all.  Oh well.

We had a descent of about 3 miles at one point.  Rocky, loose sandy soil, a heavily running creek, and 5 tired guys at the bottom. Very fun ride!!!

Ride 3 of the day was about an hour long.  Close to where we are staying. Dual track, rocks, into the Moonscape of heavy rocks on the other side of Peak 10.  Yes, rocks bigger than your average bowling ball bag.  And yes….we rode on then.  Great stuff!!!

Riders today:

Joe Wooten
Steve Harris
Drew Marcum
Steve Clark
Rich Sturges
Steve Keener
Mary Seidel
Brian Summers
Adina Rossi
Bernie Conatser

Today we went to Mount Bross.  It’s one of the mountains that goes over 14,000 feet in the area.  It’s about a 30 minute ride to the town of Alma at the base of the mountain.  Alma is around 10,600 feet.  We start the ride up.  It’s initially not too bad.  Once we clear the treeline we are riding on mostly rocks and loose sandy soil.  Traction isn’t great.  I got to see my first mountain goat…or ram.  It was white, had curly horns and was hopping around with no problems.

So after a couple of hours of riding, several of us are on a plateau between Mt Bross and Mt Lincoln.  We try to ride over to the summit of Mt Lincoln but have to turn back due to snow.  We probably could have made it.  But if we had slipped it would have meant having to try and either retrieve a bike down the loose rocky slope quite a ways….or riding it all the way down.  No hero stuff before the end of the week!  We turned back to Bross.

Meeting up with Steve Harris again, we decided to hit the summit of Mt Bross.  Not a bad climb.  All rocks with gusty winds.  So we rode around the top for a while, took pictures, made phone calls, and then went back down.  Not everybody was riding today and some want to hit the summit again. So we might be going back later this week.  We are thinking of doing some races up on the top for grins. 

Riders today:

Joe Wooten
Steve Harris
Mary Seidel
Drew Marcum
Steve Clark
Rich Sturges
Steve Keener
Bernie Conatser  (First time dirtriding and he makes it up a 14K mountain!!!)