Weekend MTB Rides

[limewave]

We camped at a park South West of us and had ample opportunity to mountain bike Saturday and Sunday. These trails are well maintained and have some fun technical sections There is one section of big whoop-de-doos that I had forgotten about--selective memory I guess. They are very 'rideable' but I'm not used to them and my heart managed to lodge itself in my throat during that section!

I did most of my mountain biking with the kids. The trails at this park have lots of loops so you can easily add sections or take short cuts. There's a nice 1-mile section rated "difficult" that is relatively flat other than the whoop-de-doos that has some log piles and other small technical features. The kids LOVE riding this section--they call it the roller-coasters. We'd ride it over and over and over again. The funny thing is how great these kids are at the technical stuff but they just don't have the strength and endurance to ride other sections that are "easier" but have more climbing.

I was also able to introduce my 8 year old niece to trail riding. She told me that this was her Second Favorite trip of all time and that mountain biking is her new FAVORITE sport! Mission accomplished!

Oh, and we all stayed up very late to watch the meteor shower Saturday night. We saw quite a few small ones and one that was absolutely brilliant!

[Catrin]

Sounds like fun Limewave!

[Artista]

Dang, Limewave. Wish I was there. Sounds like fun.

I'm really intrigued by yours and Catrin's stories of camping and mtb'ing. I love the idea of camping but I'm not so sure that I love the actual camping part.

[Catrin]

Dang, Limewave. Wish I was there. Sounds like fun.

I'm really intrigued by yours and Catrin's stories of camping and mtb'ing. I love the idea of camping but I'm not so sure that I love the actual camping part.

I seriously that that at my age I would hate it. However, last year I really wanted to attend a couple of events and I couldn't afford a hotel room...but could score free camping. Some good friends loaned me camping equipment so I could try it out, and thankfully the owners of the tent were also camping that weekend so they pitched it and took it down.

I hate sleeping on the ground, but I have a cot which changes the equation, the camping part is nice and relaxing, I am very glad I started doing it!

[Artista]

It's not the sleeping on the ground part that bothers me. It's the peeing in my shoes part, being eaten by a bear in my sleep part, and not having any camping gear part that bothers me.

I assume that most "civilized" camp grounds have outhouses these days so that takes care of the peeing in the shoes thing. We camped a lot when we were kids and never even saw a bear so the risk of being eaten is probably pretty small. I don't know anyone to borrow camping gear from so we'd have to spend a fair amount of money on gear just to take one camping trip to see if we like camping as adults.

Still, it sounds glorious to get up in the morning, cook breakfast on a camp stove, head out to the trail, come back to camp for lunch, ride again, return to camp for dinner, admire the stars, sleep in the pines, and then rinse and repeat. Maybe we'll try it next summer. Then again, we may just spend a few weekends in a hotel in Fruita instead. We're planning a Fruita mtb trip this fall. I'm soooo excited.

[Giulianna23]

Did around 10 miles Saturday with my son. Discovered other interesting routes at the trail. It was Fun!..

[Becky]

I rode 16 miles after work on Friday with my friend K. This is the first time that she and I have been able to ride together, and we had a blast! She's not particularly fast, but man, she has skills! I aim to ride like that someday.

Sunday's ride was a fairly short but intense ride. DH, K, and I went to a Niner Bikes demo. I got to ride a Jet 9 RDO and a RIP 9 on a ~5 mile loop. No computer on my demos, but I'm guessing that I did somewhere around 8 miles. The Jet made me hammer...it wouldn't let me ride slow.

I am now hopelessly in love with the Jet 9 RDO...and desperately wondering how I can come up with that much coin. Even the alloy version would require that I sell body parts. (Anyone want to buy a 4" FS bike with 26" wheels?)

Fantastic weekend

[Catrin]

Had a great time this weekend! Rode my favorite trails, just focused on having fun and stopping to smell the flowers...metaphorically speaking as there weren't any flowers Camping with 100 other mountain bikers is always a great experience - but this time we were sharing the campground with a LOT of boy scouts - neither group were aware the other was coming.

I've decided to just focus on having fun on the trails, and have given myself permission to stop when I want and to go as slow - or as fast - as my body feels like that day. I don't HAVE to continually push myself to increase my technical skills - with my new approach I will certainly improve but it might take a little longer. I am fine with that

It is a balance between my tendency to keep pushing myself too hard and the reality of not being able to take another hit to my neck like I took last fall. Doesn't mean I won't ever fall again, of course, and that was a freak fall to begin with. Just trying to balance things out so I can keep having fun on the mountain bike trails. My neck just isn't the same and I need to keep that in my equation.

All of that being said, I was able ride my favorite trail entirely in the middle ring the other day - only the second time I've been able to do that!

[Artista]

We've rediscovered a 2nd favorite place to ride. I used to ride these trails years ago on my hybrid but the horses have caused so much damage that the trails can really only be ridden on a good quality mountain bike now. There's a loop on top of one of the mesas that was closed when we rode that area years ago. It's reopen now and it's a great place to practice skills such as wheel lifts, staying upright in the deep sand, and bike-body separation. The views from the top of the mesa are spectacular!

We were ravenous after our ride so decided to try new-to-us coffee house in a tiny town a few miles up the road from the trail. We perused the menu with mouths watering as we waited to be seated. Come to find out, the coffee house had stopped serving food 10 minutes before we arrived They were kind enough to make us a couple of lattes while they closed up shop. We'll definitely try this place again next week.

[eofelis]

I don't get out on my mtb very much, but I did go today with a local hike-n-bike group. We went out to the 18 Road Trails in Fruita, CO. I hadn't been out there in a year or so. I wanted to do the slow easy trails. I'm not a very good mtn biker. I rode with a couple other people and did Vegetarian and Down Uppity. I got a flat (goatheads). Then we rode up the rest of 18 Rd and came down the Kessel Run, that was pretty fun! Now I'm pretty tired, even though I didn't feel like I rode a lot.

[Anelia]

Quite muddy autumn ride:
.
Info on Sportstracker.
I was with my husband's bike. It's heavier than mine and with DH tires so it was hard for me to get to the trails: about 15 miles in one direction on the road.
I also fell because of traction on the mud and now I have bruises on the nose and under the eye. I can mask it with makeup. I broke a little piece of my helmet.