Rain, rain, go away (please?)

Yes, moisture is good. Yes, the plants will be happy. Yes, we will miss it when it's blazing hot and we're sucking in dust at short track. But every weekend? I'm seriously considering asking if I can swap work days and take Tuesday and Wednesday off, but I doubt reverse psychology works with weather systems. No riding, no planting, no house painting - sounds like a few days of baking and soup-making to me.

Weekend Getaway

Suffering, but happy

Thanks to a last-minute invite from Red Coat, a small chunk of the Waltworks crew headed south, away from the impending and inevitable weekend rain at home and hit both Buffalo Creek and a race in Pueblo. I was in it for a chance at Buffalo Creek, a little early season camping and some good company. Saturday's ride nearly did me in, but, behind the grimace, I was still having a really great time. Thanks to Eszter, RC and Chris for waiting patiently for me at every fork in the trail and not letting me get lost in the eerie, post-fire landscape. Can't wait to get back there with functioning front suspension, which is unfortunately missing on my bike right now.

As for the race, I was happy to pull support duty, carting excess clothing (yay for southern sunshine!) and snapping pictures from the side of the end of the course. Seems I missed out on lots of fun turns and encounters with local spiny flora, but I'll save them for another day. My race season doesn't start till I feel like something outside of the land mollusk family - maybe late May, early June?

Still smiling...

even after...thirty miles.

It was a happy reminder of what summer is for and I think one of the initial planning emails said it best...let's ride bikes!

Reasons to like this Tuesday

1. It's seventy-something degrees
2. The air smells nice
3. It's free cone day at Ben and Jerry's
4. It's $1 slice day at Cosmo's
5. VG Burgers has magically reappeared at the corner of Broadway and Arapahoe
6. Coasting east on Nelson as the sun sinks ever lower
7. Tons of larks, one beaver/muskrat and many rehydrated peeper frogs on the way home
   

Hooky

Me = Honorary Sun Employee?

So, by Saturday afternoon I was feeling sick (of work) and already dreading Monday morning. I was also checking the weather reports and looking longingly at the predicted snowfall for certain nearby resorts. I've only taken out my board for the yurt trip and Crested Butte this year, but that's two times more than last year, and I was reminded both times how much I love my snowboard. It's that great feeling of flying and floating at the same time, and the only similarity I've found is smooth, rolling singletrack.

I gave up buying season passes years ago when I got sick of the crawl in the car on 70 and single day passes on site are outrageously expensive, but I'm a chairlift addict and have no backcountry skills, so I needed to find a more reasonable way to get back to the slopes one last time. Fortunately, as the ski season winds down, there are plenty of folks out there with spare lift tickets to unload. Thanks to Craig's List and a nice Sun employee in Erie, I was able to have the ticket in hand in about thirty minutes and for $30 less than the window price. Yay for impetuous decisions and the internet!

Well, the promised storm fizzled out Sunday afternoon, but I was more than happy to deal with spring conditions (heavy powder to puddles, depending on the hour and the trail). I had a millisecond of guilt as I called in this morning, but I'm over it. I got to hang out by the Pioneer lift in the morning, enjoying the quiet, untracked trails after the slogging it took to get over there, and then worked my way over to the Mary Jane side for the rest of the day. Mary Jane has always been a turn-off for me due to my dislike of bumps and tight trees, but the bowl at the top is worth the effort and they've moved enough trees apart (really, I hope they didn't do that) for tired people like me to come back down. It was cool to look down from the lifts at all the animal tracks from the night before - sure looked like big cats to me.

After the day was done, I resolved to look into new boots for the next season. That's a good sign because I've had my black patent leather boots for ten years and if I'm looking to upgrade, that must mean I'm ready to participate in winter with a little more consistency. For now, though, I'm ready to let it go. After all, if a butterfly floats by your table while you're having lunch at a ski resort, mountain bike season can't be far behind, right?

OK, where are the bike trails?

Snow day

Winter gave us a going-away present today...12+ inches of kind of sloppy snow and sporadic driving winds. Time for the snow bike. Actually, there was a lot of walking involved on the way home after the office was closed at ten. Too many skittish drivers on the road and untouched drifts on the sidewalks. Still, the creek was peaceful.


I was offered a ride home by some nice folks who had just pulled into their driveway, but by then I really was almost there. Nice gesture, though. I must have looked pretty bad by then: snow matted into my hair, jacket soaked, fishtailing in the tire tracks. Just few more blocks and then a warm, dry place to shed all the damp stuff. Forgot I'd have to shovel my way in.

Spring Mini-Break '09

As an undergraduate, I never traveled anywhere for spring break, except for my junior year abroad when I happened to be conveniently located in Europe. This year I decided to take a quick trip to Crested Butte to see what it looks like when it's not covered with wildflowers. The annual CB Nordic Center fundraiser, the Progressive Bonfire Dinner, was in March this year and I've always wanted to drive five hours to ski to my dinner as the sun sets (really, I have). Plus, with the vernal equinox on Friday, I wanted to have one last/first look at winter.

Where they've been hiding the snow

Unfortunately, one drawback to spring in CB is the thaw on Elk Avenue. Seems like most residents own at least one cruiser bike and one dog and all the winter doggie deposits resurface with a vengeance as the snow melts. I guess, just like we get used to the Greeley cow smell here, they don't notice it after a while. You do have to watch where you step.

I took my skis out to the Rec trail near the hostel Friday night while I waited for the hostel employee to show up and the Texas Baptist high schoolers to clear out. There are doggie bombs on the ski trails, too. Felt kind of bad since my turning ability's not great and the skis were rentals.

Hey, you try to get in your own picture in ten seconds..

This was just day number two on the skinny skis and I managed to pick out a trail that faded from green to black as it crawled up towards the resort. Maybe this wasn't the wisest idea, especially when the 7-8% grade ended abruptly in pavement.

I was fortunate to be out when the trails were empty and everything was quiet and still.

Even more fortunate was the groomer who came up behind me, erasing any signs of my "accidents" and leaving only nice, fresh corduroy.

The next day I hesitated to shell out $64 for a half-day ticket on the mountain when I realized how warm the valley was, but convinced myself it would be worth it if I stayed on my board from 12:30 till last run. Boy, am I glad I did. I'd forgotten how much I love my snow board. It's been a few years since I spent any time on the slopes due to my distaste for I-70, but it all came back after the first warm-up run on the greens. Next were sun-softened, blue cruisers. Not a significant challenge, but they were so much fun. A local pointed me in the direction of the new Prospect side of the mountain and it was like having my own private slope. I'm not sure if the economy or the sudden warmth was to blame, but it seemed like a large part of the mountain was deserted.

Wheeeeeee!!!

I even found a 2+ mile run from top to bottom that was in great shape in the late afternoon. I was actually disappointed when I was pointed towards the base around four. Usually I'd be dead-tired and sloppy after three hours, but I just wanted one more run! Sad eyes didn't work, so I headed back into town to get ready for dinner and more xc skiing.

Badger on the bus

Native CB fauna

I felt a little out of place at a small town fundraiser, but CB folks are friendly and there were plenty of people to talk to as we shuffled, skated and tromped from one course to the next. I was worried that there wouldn't be veggie options, but my fears were silly - it was veggie all over. And there was so much food.The dessert course was put together by all the Nordic Center parents and the table was overflowing with every kind of bar-shaped chocolate snack I could think of.

Most unusual dinner guest - an African sheep

We tried toasting the marshmallows that were sitting by the fondue pot, but the bamboo skewers were a little short and the heat from the upturned car hood the fire was built on discouraged more toasting attempts.

The next morning, I woke up at the Super 8 in Gunnison, ready for the drive home. But first...waffles. Best hotel breakfast bar anywhere!


Why didn't I try this spring break thing earlier?

Signs of spring

At this juncture of the foothills and plains, the winter that hardly was is quickly being pushed out by the spring that is anxious to be. While not exactly green and lush (a month with next to no moisture will do that), the spring crowd is moving in. We have new deer...


new growth in the burn area north of my neighborhood...


new ducks in the pond (American Wigeons, who've started a sporadic, aquatic turf war with the Mallards)...


the return of my favorite spring flower, Viola odorata, or super-good-smelling violet, which makes an excellent addition to the blah water in my water bottle...


and tons of other signs that warm is on the way. On a walk through the burn area, I saw two mountain bluebirds (no photo, those guys are fast), and the juniper bush near the office was stripped bare of its fruit by a gang of noisy robins and some waxwings last week. A lacewing just landed on my window and the garlic from the fall is starting to shoot up where I can see it.

This is often our snowiest month and I guess I should feel a little guilty this week considering that my friends and family out east are currently buried under a foot of new snow with temps in the zeros. Maybe we'll get ours and we could seriously use the water out here, but, in the meantime, did I mention it's about 70 and I'm wearing shorts and sandals?