9.19.09 The Map

Here is a map of our trip. A top ten of sorts to follow.

9.18.09 Breckenridge Coffee

This is Johanna. She served us coffee at Clint's Coffee in Breckenridge. She was a fan of our blogging (or at least she faked it for the picture). She has been interviewed a number of times over the last several months by t.v. news people and local newspapers about the so-so economy. She was contemplating running a marathon next week.

9.18.09 On our way...

Well we hit the road from the Vail area and headed out to Colorado Springs about 2.5 hours east. We stopped at the Vail mountain area and then the Copper Mountain area and couldn't find any places open for breakfast. We finally found breakfast at Frisco and after we checked out the Frisco Museum as a random stop. We decided to stop by Breckenridge for some coffee and a blog break before heading out. Great scenic views on the way to Colorado Springs with lots of cattle and horse ranches set in a huge valley before the mountains. Arrived back in the Springs not very excited to have ended our vacation but it was great to see my sister, Tom and Zoey. I'm sure my sister would like me to note that while babysitting Zoey for a short time while she stepped out, I put her diaper on backwards! Good times. We disassembled the bikes (very depressing) and cleaned out the wonder marshmellow and packed up our things.

9.17.09 Mtn Bike Road 18

Road 18 its called. On the north side of the mountain base opposite to Mary's Loop. Got there to avoid heat similar to day before. We're a bit tired and only set out to do about 10 miles of terrain. Climb the Prime Cut Trail and kick it down the Kessel Run then back up 18 Road to the top ride along Frontside Trail to Zippity Do Da down. The Zippity was actually crazy in the sense that it ran the ridge up and down with steep drops on both sides...usually our long rides have the steep drops on one side only. It was a little wet here and the trail gets nasty in a hurry because its basically a clay type base. But it looks cool. A brief stop halfway through the ride to replace Chad's break pads. You'll see in one of the pictures that the pad was worn down to the metal plate. For you structural engineers, the plate appears to be 16GA non-composite galv. No WWF required. Skipped the showers and replenished our calories on some healthy Wendy's. As a side note there are more Wendy's out here than Dunkin Donuts in Massachusetts. Headed out west towards Vail for camping but stopped briefly in Glenwood Springs for potty and blogging. Set up shop in the Glenwood Springs Public Library minding our own business when a young man sat down next to us and asked the specs of our computer and then started downloaded pirated music and sucked up all the bandwidth. I left the library in search of better wi-fi and noticed a biker dude surfing copious pornography on my way out. Ahhh Glenwood Springs. Finally made it to Vail where we set up camp on the side of a county road up on a nice fall foliaged Aspen tree road. Lots of Rummy 500 and beers by the fire. Sleep.

9.16.09 An homage to Mary

After a few re-enactments of the CPI2009 (Coleman Propane Incident of 2009) in the morning we drive down the road 20 minutes to the Mary's Loop Trailhead. We got an early start because of the pending desert heat. This area for riding is in a word; vast. Once high up you can almost see all the trails which is hard to do at most locations. The trail is on the edge of the Colorado River and is set on both sides and on top of a sprawling mesa. We were having a great ride we decided to do other loops including Mack Ridge which offers great views and then Moore Fun Trail which was just more really difficult climbing. This was a great ride all in all that went by fast. We were surprised when we check the time and realized we'd spent 6 hours and did 20 miles over challenging terrain in the desert. By the end there were a lot of riders out there. The downhills were less fast but what they lacked in speed they more than made up for it in techy decents with tight switchbacks. Good times. We hit 'downtown' Fruita for some food and then a Grand Junction Barnes and Noble for some blog time. Giddeup.

9.16.09 Campground Hosts

This is a picture of our campground hosts at Highline State Park Campground in Fruita, CO. Contrary to the laundry lady, this woman just returned from her vacation during which she blogged daily. Although hard to tell from the photo, the gentleman wanted nothing to do with taking his picture.

9.15.09 "Coleman Propane Can Incident of 2009"

This is a can of Coleman Propane after the funniest event that occurred on this trip, and perhaps one of the funniest things I've witnessed in a while. The kind of gasping for air you're laughing so hard in silence kind of event. You'll notice the propane can is all frosted up in the picture and that appears to be the after effects of a rouge dispersion of propane into the atmosphere on par with the space shuttles external rockets on the launch pad...

Its about 11pm and Chad and I are sitting back on some chairs next to the campfire having just enjoyed some campfire food and a few cold ones. The campsite is very quiet as most patrons are are enjoying some early fall rest in the confines of their tents or campers. And its dark...really dark. The only light is front Chads headlamp. All you can hear is the crackle of the fire. Well I guess its time to clean up and head to our respective tents. As Mike remains perched in his campfire chair looking up at the unbelievable stars, Chad elects to disassemble the Coleman stove burner which is nothing more than a burner screwed to the top of the propane canister. eee...eeee...eee...as the top comes off the canister. HIIISSSSSS! and then a huge plume of vaporous propane ejects from the canister at an extreme rate of speed. The sound was loud enough to be heard in 3 counties and Mike is left speechless as Chad makes multiple executive decisions about the fate of the canister in a matter of 24 seconds...most adjusted by the proximity of the propane vapor and the burning fire! The Chad shimmy shake with the glow of his headlamp like a unguided rocket going every which way except at an intended target...screw cap back on, no hide it behind the tents (the fire will never see the propane!), no hold it under the picnic table, no run across the street and let it empty! Oh shit a car is coming should we tell the driver there is a roadside bomb ahead??!! nah...

9.15.09 Tell you about Telluride

Its official. I'm moving to Telluride, CO. What a great place. The best little town we've been through so far with a main street that has all you need or want. Plus there are no chains or gaudy Targets, etc...great stuff. We were just passing through on our way to Fruita but we did learn they have great rock climbing, skiing, and mountain biking. A definite future trip needs to be planned. On our way to Telluride we stopped at Alta lakes and took some good pics. Nice lakes up on top of a mountain and past an old cattle ranch that was burned down two weeks prior. They were offering a $500.00 award for any information leading to the capture of the arsonists. We did not have any information.

We walked around the town and visited a number of the shops, mostly for t-shirts. The town itself is up just under 9000ft. Talking to the shop owners we found that they are definitely hurting because of the economy but they were all super friendly and helpful. I was asked while being rung up for a single t-shirt if I wanted to buy a kayak. I politely declined. Then if I wanted to buy a coffee mug. I bought the mug. Ate lunch at a local establishment where the owner called us 'partner' 46 times. A nice man he was.

Hitting the road north to Fruita. Oh by the way the kayak store person called Fruita a 'sprawling piece of poo'. Nice. So the ride north really was a perfect demonstration of the different terrain and weather one hits out here. We hit mountains, vistas, valleys, highway, county roads with no winter maintenance, rain, fog, blazing sun, hot and cold in the span of about 20 minutes. The big white puffy clouds with blue backdrops float by and then coalesce into dark ones and then back again constantly throughout the afternoon hours. At one point just north of Ridgeway we were on US550 with the Rockies to our right and the Uncompaghre Plateau to our left and the clouds were doing their best M.C. Esher impression. Cool stuff.