After over a month, I finally brought myself to ride on some of my favorite roads. Steep roads that used to be lined with fresh pine trees, mountain views, and a spotting of nice houses. I can’t put into words what I saw. I do know that 4 mile and Sunshine Canyon are places I have ridden countless times, and are a permanent chapter of training memories in Boulder.
Seeing this area, charred from the 4 Mile Canyon Fire, was definitely startling. The thing that made my jaw drop was the houses… or ruins of the houses. I had a visceral reaction. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like.
If I can’t ride singletrack, I try to stick to dirt roads.
Here are some photos:
There are times where things blow up in your face.
There are times where you start to rebuild.
Time for new growth.
It was interesting to see how one house would burn down, but the one right next to it was still standing in perfectly fine condition.
Gold Hill was spared, thank goodness.
I took the whole weekend off the bike. I was on a rest week anyway, and between Veloswap all day Saturday and how I felt Sunday morning, rest was in order. I’m finally starting to get rid of this stupid cold I’ve had for over a week.
The weather is drastically changing…I’m just trying to enjoy the last fleeting moments of fall before all the trees are skeletons and the grass turns from green to brown.
It’s exciting and scary to think I leave for Brazil in about 2 weeks. AHHH!
A.D.I.D.A.S
A ll
D ay
I
D ream
A bout
S ingletrack
I had some business to take care of up in Fort Collins, and also some accounting to be done. I think I met the best accountant ever! Bill Rister is da man in charge, and he’s a cyclist.
First, I met up with the boys – Jeff and Jim Fu to enjoy some singletrack. When I can’t get out on alpine trails, I do enjoy the mountain biking in Fort Collins!
Popout
Fall Freeride from ergon on Vimeo.
Here is a video Jeff made of our ride.
2.5 hours later, I was refreshed. If I could never ride singletrack or dirt, I can honestly say I’m not sure I would ride all the much. Is that, errr…. wrong?
The colors were great. I love when the grass gets tall, and blonde!
Fu Dawg. He said something very profound that stuck with me today. “If it was easy, you wouldn’t be interested in it.” Bravo, Jim. I think that’s me in a nutshell.
Hi Kerkove!
I’m rocking the 2.4 Continental Mountain Kings(this links to the new and improved 2011 tire) for training. They are beefy and delicious. They are also really heavy… like .85 lbs more of rotational weight. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is!
The next few days will all be spent bleeding out my eyes on the cross bike, and maybe barfing in a trash can, and hopefully not getting lapped by Katie Compton!
