I’ve waited a while to post these pictures to make it seem as if I’m out riding my mountain bike. Those folks who just glance at the pictures will think, “Wow Steve Z has such an amazing rock star life, shooting photos and all kinds of great rides in the mountains!” But all you 3 people who actually read the posts will know that this is just the 2nd day that I rode 2 weekends ago in Keystone! Ah well, someday I’ll get back in the regular schedule, I hope. In the meantime, this was the final section of the Colorado Trail from Keystone to Breckenridge that I haven’t ridden yet.

This last little piece was a random little spur of barely there trail on the way back to Keystone Ranch. Tilt-shift epic-ness!

Here are some more photos from my Keystone tilt-shift mountain bike adventure. The Blair Witch Trail connects the Swan River section of the Colorado Trail to Keystone Ranch. It’s a super sweet section of trail. This time of year it switches from bright, sunny and pretty Colorado wildflowers to pine beetle death and destruction.

I did it.  I broke the seal.  I finally got my ass out of the office and up into the mountains for some snow sliding!  I almost didn’t think I was going to make it before the new year.  But I did.  It was a Christmas Eve solo mission.  With complete confidence in my abilities, I brought a D700, 14-24, and the 45 tilt shift.  But with a complete underestimation of my eroding fitness, that backpack put a hurtin’ on the ol’ quads.  Note to myself: “you really need to get out of the office chair more, Dude.”

The mountain was pleasantly uncrowded.  I was finding stashes of powder in the trees on every run from the previous day’s snowfall.  Despite this I took a $5 snowcat ride out to the top of Wapiti Peak and South Bowl.  It really isn’t that long of a hike, but I did mention my lack of fitness, right?  Right. Here you go, five dollars, Mr. Snowcat Man.   I followed the skiers about out to the Tele Trees.  Those are the runs of Breckenridge in the distance.

I made the most of my high altitude location and took some scenery shots.  I didn’t have a model so the Burton Fish would have to do.   In the top photo you can see a run off of North Peak.  The crown of the bowl in the lower photo is the top of the Outback lift, where the snowcat departs.

I spent around 20 minutes climbing around the rocks, getting wind blasted, and generally freezing my hands.  OK, enough work, time to play!  I rode the top portion of the bowl down to the trees shooting the 14 mm in my left hand for some action self portraits.  Oh yeah, lift served backcountry runs . . . my FAVORITE!

This was the last shot I got before I completely snowed the front of the lens with snow!

It was a really sweet run.  Light and fluffy powder goodness.  I stopped in the trees to clean the snow out of the lens, and was really taken by the still beauty of the forest.

I’ve really been loving the 14mm lens.  The tilt shift didn’t get too much use since is such a PIA to use, manual focusing and all.  So I snapped a picture on the lift ride back up.  I like the two different colors of the trees, in the sun and in the shade.   Overall, it was a great day, a good reminder that I need to get in shape and start hittin’ it more!

While most of you were enjoying a three day weekend, I was working my butt off and shooting two weddings!  Lucky for me I like shooting weddings . . . ;>) . . .  and even luckier still the second one was up in Keystone.  So I splurged on a resort hotel room for myself and my lovely girlfriend and made a weekend out of it!  Part of the deal was that on Monday I would get to do an epic mountain bike ride in the mountains . . . my only high altitude ride of the year so far!

I rode the Swan River section of the Colorado Trail section between Breckenridge and Georgia Pass.  Last year we rode up to Georgia Pass from the Kenosha Pass side.  That was part of a whole mountain bike weekend and I made a photo slideshow and blogged about it HERE.

But this time I was on a solo mission so I took way less photos.  Portrait of my mountain bike by itself?  Check.  Self-portrait on the trail?  Check.  Accidental mis-timed action shot?  Check.

But this time I was on a solo mission so I took way less photos.  Portrait of my mountain bike by itself?  Check.  Self-portrait on the trail?  Check.  Accidental mis-timed action shot?  Check.

What an amazingly sweet ride.  Super smooth and fast.  There was one pretty tough section that had me pushing at times, but I was conserving my energy because I wanted to do a pretty big ride.  I thought I was saving my energy, but man, I was so ill-prepared for 3 and a half hours of riding between 10 and 12,000 feet.  On the Swan River section of trail I blew up like I haven’t blown up in a really really long time.  I could barely even pedal in my smallest ring.  But, it was worth it.  No downhill lasts as long as one when you are bonked and wishing you were done!  And when it’s some of the sweetest trail on the planet, that’s actually a good thing.  On the last stretch of climb I had to get off and collapse because I thought I was going to puke.  This is what it looked like.