More Mountain Biking, and Other Stuff

Two Fridays ago, Brad and I took a little jaunt up to Breckenridge in order to meet up with Chris Johnson, whom we have known for several years as Pondero, on his blog. Chris was in Breck for business, and stayed an extra day in order to enjoy a little recreation time in the mountains. he invited us up, to finally meet in person, and maybe cruise around on bikes a little.

So, Brad and I loaded up his Rambler and his MB-3, along with my Funk, and headed uphill. Once in Breckenridge, we found Chris and set about having a really nice day.

After lunch, we decided to take a bike ride. Thinking that Chris, from roughly 800 feet above sea level, would only feel like a casual cruise, neither Brad nor i had brought helmets, or serious mountain bikes. Of course, Chris wanted to explore some local singletrack, while it was available to him.

Who can blame him?

So, uphill we rode, past the ski area to The Peak Trail, which connects Breck to Frisco, by way of a rocky, rooty singletrack. The last time I had ridden this trail was roughly 15 years ago, with Shawn Bohrer, while we in Frisco to work the Campus Cycles support tent for The Courage Classic (I think) bike ride.

Chris has a really nice write-up, here.

 Brad and Chris on Ski Hill Road, heading up to the trail...

...and on the trail (along with my Funk) 

Chris mentioned, in his blog post, that the conversation between Brad and me was pretty much nonstop. He had just met us, so he didn't know that we are gabby bastards, and the constant chatter is pretty normal.

One of the things we talked about was the preoccupation cyclists tend to have with finding the optimum tire for certain conditions. I pointed out that Chris was on old-school 26" Continental Town and Country tires, Brad was on 650b Bruce Gordon Rock and Roads, and I was 700x35 Schwalbe CX Pros, inflated to 80 psi, and we were all having a ball on the trail. Sometimes, it's best to just stop thinking about it and ride.

It was a fun ride, and the second mtb ride for me within 7 days. I felt pretty good about that.

We ended up hanging with Chris until almost midnight, before heading back to Denver.

The next night, I played with Skull Full Of Blues at Herman's Hideaway. Then, on Sunday, I played a 3-hour solo gig at Fermaentra. By Monday, I was a little relieved to go back to work, so that I could get a little rest!

 My setup at Fermaentra: I played my 4-string cigar box guitar for slide, and my 1966 Harmony H-72 for the standard-tuning songs, both through a Peavey Classic 20 tube amp.

On Monday afternoon, I came home and mowed my front yard, then my jungle-like back yard. After I got through mowing, I wheel-barrowed the 48 bags of soil I had brought home from work, the previous Thursday, back to my collapsed well, and tossed them in.

The 2000 pounds of rock and soil filled the hole about 3/5 of the way to the top:

After the busy weekend, and all of the physical labor on Monday, I was bushed.

Bushed, I say.

 

But, on Thursday, I decided that I wanted to go ahead and clean up the 12 years of accumulated broken bike frames and rusty wheels that I had piled up around my property. So, I called a roll-off dumpster company, and had a 20 cubic yard (22'x8'x4') dumpster delivered on Friday.

By Sunday evening, I had cleaned up all of the derelict bikes, trimmed my trees, torn down the old dog pen and removed a pile of lumber that I had gotten 12 years ago, when I moved into the house. I loaded all of that up, with some help from Carol, in two and a half days.

I thought that I was bushed, last Monday...

I am whipped, today!

But, the yard looks a lot better, the back porch is usable, again, and I have a pile of yard-sale merchandise to sell.

I had originally planned to have a yard sale, this coming weekend, but I don't think i can get my ducks in a row by then. So, I think I will have it Friday after next ... then play at Fermaentra on that Saturday for a bottling release ... before I jump on the motorcycle on Sunday and ride to Yellowstone...

Have I mentioned that August looks a bit busy?

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